Fallout: Equestria - Utopia

by dystopia8

First published 11th of May, 2019

A fallout Equestria side story: After chasing after a group of cyber ponies, Amber finds herself in the ruins of Manehattan

Stable 25 was the testing ground for a new Stable-Tec invention called the A.A.S.S. which was created to keep ponies alive without the need for food. But when it gets stolen from the Stable by a group of Cyber Ponies, Amber Aura and her fellow Stable dweller Brisk Spark are thrust out of their relatively safe Stable and into the middle of the Manehattan ruins.

Pulling together a ragtag gang of unlikely heroes, they must learn to survive in their newfound home, the horrifying nightmare that is the Equestrian Wasteland! Hot on the cyber ponies tails, they begin to uncover an old prewar secret that may once again play a role in Equestria's fate.

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(Warning, may contain spoilers for Fallout Equestria and small spoilers for Project Horizons.)

Fallout: Equestria was created by Kkat, and can be found here.
Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons was created by Somber, and can be found here.

Prologue

War, War never changes.

Equestria could have been considered a Utopia once. There was a time in Equestria's history where the ponies that inhabited it didn't give into vices such as greed or violence. There was a point where ponies biggest concerns were nothing more than insignificant friendship problems and tea parties. Those chapters of history however, were not to last. Soon the pages of joy would burn away with the rest of the world. Such things as parties would soon become consumers of resources, and resources would become a catalyst for hatred and selfishness. The whole world took up arms and charged head first into the inevitable darkness that soon would consume them. Civilization and the great pony dream of achieving a land of Utopia was crushed under the weight of bullets and blood as much of the beautiful land of Equestria was marred by the oncoming holocaust. And on that fateful day, when balefire rained down from the sky to extinguish the crumbling remains of pony kind, all hope of reaching Utopia again was lost...

...But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Rather the loss of Utopia gave way to the rise of a new society. A society or raiders and ghouls. A horrific world of pure madness would grow from within the ruins of Equestria. However, there are small places throughout the Equestrian wasteland that still hold out hope of seeing such a world again. In the final days, many ponies managed to survive the horrific cataclysm in underground bunkers known as Stables. Many emerged from their Stables with only the wasteland to greet them, but some remain closed off to the outside world, hoping beyond hope that one day they can return to Utopia.

Author's Notes:

The world of Fallout Equestria was created by and belongs to the amazing kkat.
I would highly recommend reading Fallout Equestria before this story to fully understand everything that is happening and not get spoilers for the original! Actually, I'd recommend reading Fallout Equestria regardless, it truly is a masterpiece!

I don't have any editors helping me with this story, so expect some small spelling and grammatical fixes to be done over time.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback you have about the story and hope you enjoy this and what is to come!

Chapter I: The Dull Walls of Stable 25

“War, War never changes”

Cutie Marks.

It was my tenth birthday when I got mine, which was much later than most foals my age. I suppose that was when I should have realized that I was doomed to fail at everything I did. Would you believe I got my cutie mark by fixing a malfunction in my Stables generator? I had rushed towards the problem as soon as I saw it and began connecting and disconnecting all the different malfunctioning cables. Then there was a blinding flash of light and my dumb cutie mark just popped into existence.

I can remember my father's reaction pretty well too. I had burst into his office, grinning like an idiot and waving my ass around in his face like I had just found the cure for pony pox. His face had lit up brighter than mine at first, but then his face changed. His broad grin stretched a little, and the bags under his eyes seemed to deepen just ever so slightly. There was that subtle twitch in his tail that only ever happened when he was disappointed in me.

My whole family has been direct descendant of the first Overmare of Stable 25 since ponies first moved into the Stable. Unlike any other pony I had ever met or heard of, my family had a hereditary cutie mark. Every single pony in my family had had an Overmare or Overstallion cutie mark, everyone until me that is. Somehow I decided to fix a generator and get a disgusting red screwdriver imprinted on my butt for the rest of my life.

Life in Stable 25 only got harder for me from there. Up until that point everypony had treated me with respect, knowing full well that I would one day take over my father's place. No one wanted to be on my bad side once I was running the Stable. Then they didn’t know if I would take over, then they were certain that I never would, then they decided to take out all their built up anger and disdain towards my father and I out on me. After countless beatings I began spending less and less time with the other ponies in the Stable, but rather spent every second I had maintaining our generators and A.A.S.S program. Which was fine by me, they needed to be taken care of and frankly, I enjoyed the company of machines far more than ponies.

The Atmospheric Administering Sustenance System, or A.A.S.S for short is something else I should probably mention. Back before the megaspells ravaged Equestria, Stable-Tec installed Stable 25 with a one of a kind nutrition administering device called the A.A.S.S. The purpose of the device was to ensure that a Stable would never run out of food, nor would its inhabitants ever die of starvation. Three times a day, the device emits large amounts of vapors into the venting system, filled with all the nutrients needed for a pony to survive. Water is still required for survival of course, but it effectively removed the need for any other form of digestible substance.

As head Stable maintenance pony, I was assigned to ensure that the A.A.S.S stayed completely operational at all times. That was the job I was tasked to carry out for the rest of my meaningless life, away from the rest of the ponies in Stable 25. Here I would stay, here I would work, and here I would most likely die.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The automated alarm on my pipbuck began chirping, aggressively rousing me from my sleep. Did work hours really need to be so early in the goddess damned morning? It’s not like the Stable-Tec Generator was going to be going anywhere any time soon. I’m sure no one would care if I slept a few more minutes.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Okay! Fine! I’m Getting up,” I huffed at my pipbuck, slowly pushed my slightly stained, dull grey sheets off of me. I climbed off the bed, only to find the blanket had somehow wrapped itself around my hoof, causing me to trip and land face first on the cold ground.

This morning was off to a great start, I could tell.

I walked across the cold floor of my room to where my pipbuck lay atop my desk. I hastily pushed the off button on the alarm. Peace and quiet at last. I glanced over at my bed, now an unkempt pile of grey blankets and pillows and wondered if I should just crawl back into bed and get another hour or so worth of sleep. Finally I sighed. “No, Amber. You need to get to work.”

This morning was just like every morning. Everything in Stable 25 was like everything. The slightly curved walls all had the same grey, metallic look. Everypony wore the exact same dull blue jumpsuit, and nothing ever happened that was out of the ordinary.

I lit my horn up and wrapped my Stable barding in a glowing Amber Aura. I groaned at the light being emitted from my horn as I levitated the ghastly attire over to me. Why my dad thought it was a good idea to name me after the colour of my magic was beyond me.

Quickly slipping into the Stable barding, I approached the small rectangular mirror above my mini bookshelf. Atop the shelf sat my latest read titled 'A non bias take on history' written and edited by the ministry of image. I loved books!

I squinted at my slightly wrapped reflection on the scratched and dusty surface of the mirror.

“Good morning Amber Aura,” I whispered to myself as I brushed my light pink and blue mane out of my face and did my best to look somewhat presentable. Not that anything really went well with a tight blue jumpsuit. My father always said I took after my mom, with the same pink coat and mane. My amber eyes and aura though I got from my dad, that much was certain.

I tiptoed over to the door and watched it slide open with a near silent squeak. I was greeted by the lavish hardwood walls of the Overstallions living area. The only room in the whole Stable that didn’t look like an underground bunker. The wall across from me held framed portraits of all the Overmares and Overstallions over the years. My fathers was the last on the list, depicting a younger version of him sporting his usual dark beige coat and curly red mane. His face distorted slightly by his dorky looking grin. I wished he still grinned like that. His photo had gone up long before he had become the Overstallion. I noted that my picture still didn’t hang on the wall. I suppose everyone was aware that I was doomed to forever be a maintenance pony I suppose. Probably for the best though, I don’t think I have the emotional capacity to be in charge of the safety of over seven hundred ponies.

I could hear my father snoring loudly behind the door to my left. How I ever managed to fall asleep to that noise is something I questioned every night. He usually slept into the morning far longer than the rest of the Stable. A part of me assumed he was just so tired from all his duties as Overstallion, though I knew it was just because he could. He was head of the Stable after all, who was going to put him in his place.

I levitated my saddlebags onto my back as I entered into the hallway of Stable 25. The hallway was dull, grey, bland, and did I mention dull.

"It’s only a few minute walk to the generator room, Amber," I reassured myself as I began trotting towards my work space. Only a few minutes, then I’ll be away from the rest of the ponies in this Stable for yet another day. A few ponies also clad in the usual Stable barding snickered as I walked past them. Though if they were snickering at me, or at something else entirely was unclear. I assumed the former.

Moments before the Stables intercom flared to life, I heard the clicking of the speakers preparing to bombard us with the usual nonsense that was Stable 25’s wake up routine and the small cough that always accompanied our current Stable announcer when he talked.

“Good morning Stable dwellers of Stable 25! I hope you are doing well this morning!” I winced as the sound pounded against my ears. I could see a few other ponies do the same as they emerged from their rooms. The speakers in Stable 25 were far louder than they should be, and it drove everypony up the wall. They had tried to fix the issue a few times, but to no avail. I had tried to fix it myself once, but I just ended up embarrassing myself and somehow amplifying the noise.

It also didn’t help that our announcers voice sounded like he had sucked on a canister of helium. “As per usual, here is your daily Stable update,” The announcer continued, clearing his throat and taking a dramatic pause. “Nothing new to be reported, all systems are running smoothly as ever,” I rolled my eyes. These announcements might as well be a recording. He always said the exact same thing, every day. Even his coughs tended to end up in the same spot. “And now for everyponies favorite part of the day! The daily Stable-Tec March!” and with a ear splitting crackle of the speakers, the sound of an upbeat jingle began to fill the halls of Stable 25.

Almost in unison, everypony in the hall groaned at the noise. The music had been nice at one point I’m sure, but when it’s literally the only song you have ever heard, it begins to get really annoying, really damn fast. How I wished we had some form of musician in our Stable, then perhaps the mornings might not be so bad.

I approached the steel door of the generator room. A large yellow signs read ‘Authorized personnel only’ in big, bold letters. I pulled out my pipbuck and activate the door with my access pass. Instantly the door swung open to the cramped, and dusty room that was my life. A flickering light bulb hung from the center of the ceiling, casting ominous shadows against the walls.

I walked into the tight space, letting the sliding door close silently behind me and checked the generator. Everything seemed to be in functioning order. As usual.

The door slid open behind me and my boss, Shade entered the room. She was a deep lavender earth pony with a fabulous white mane. Many of the dwellers joked that she looked like the old ministry mare Rarity with her mane and coat colours swapped.

“Mornin’ Amber,” Shade drawled, limping over to her chair against the far wall.

I nodded in greeting, not looking over my shoulder to see her.

“They need to get a new damn song,” Shade muttered, throwing herself down on the chair lazily. “We all hate it. It would be a goddess damned mercy if they didn’t play it for once,” she took a quick swig of the bottle of wild Pegasus she had carried in with her. She lifted the bottle to me. “You want some?”

I levitated the bottle the rest of the way and took a quick sip despite knowing full well I hated the taste. I coughed as the liquid burned it’s way down my throat.

Shade chuckled to herself as I quickly handed the bottle back. "You're adorable."

"No I'm not," I insisted, eyeing the glass bottle with disgust. "I could drink that whole thing if I really wanted to," Shade gestured for me to take the bottle again. I shook my head vigorously. "But I don't want to, so I wont."

"As I said... Adorable," I watching in awe as Shade gulped down half the bottle in one swig.

“You going to be here very long today?” I questioned, sitting down on the chair across the room from her. Shade usually didn’t stay very long. Her job was to make sure I did my job, as well as make sure every other pony on the maintenance level stayed in line. However, on the rare occasion when the Stable wasn’t as busy, she would stay by for a few extra hours in the generator room with me. I think she knew I got kinda lonely down here.

I didn’t mind her company either. I found Shade to be one of the more tolerable ponies, even if she was a bit vulgar at times.

“Nah,” She replied, whipping some of the whiskey off her lips. “Got other stuff planned. Just a quick check up on you as usual.”

I nodded casually and returned my attention to the humming piece of machinery that took up most of the small room. Shade let out a tired yawn and stretched her forelegs before hopping of the chair and strutting over to the door, which slid open for her with a clang.

“I’ll be around, call me on the intercom if you need anything,” She bluntly stated, pointing to the small white box with a steady green light next to the door as she stepped out into the hall.

I gave her a playful salute. “I know, this ain’t my first rodeo.”

She gave me an unamused stare as the door closed silently behind her, once again leaving me alone in the tiny space. I let out a low sigh and checked to make sure Shade was gone by pushing my ear up against the door. I could hear the soft patter of hoof steps slowly fade away as Shade grew further away from the room.

Once I was sure she wasn't coming back, I pulled a comic book out from under my desk where I had placed it the night before. The battered cover of the book faded, and dogeared, but still easy depicting the image of the power ponies on the front. Not my first choice in literature, but I’d take what I can get. What I'd really like is one of those Big Book of Sciences that my dad had, though the right to read that for me was revoked when I would refuse to put the book down to do my job. Did I mention I love books.

I flipped the comic open to where I had last stopped reading at and scanned the comics panels. This was practically all I did while on the job. Read, and pretend that I was working if Shade came knocked on the door to make sure everything was in order. Occasionally there would be a malfunction, sure. But those were rare and usually I could fix them in a couple of minutes. Nothing to unexpected though.

There was an unexpected shout from outside my room. I leaped to my hooves, expecting someone to come in and make sure I was working, but nothing happened. I waited a few minutes, then returned to reading my comic, only to be startled again as the sliding door slid open and a bright green unicorn with a windswept looking dark green mane shot into the room.

“Hey you! You gotta hid me!” The intruder demanded between heavy breaths. I nodded slowly in response, not quite sure what to make of the event. I was about to ask what was happening when he started scampering up the side of the generator and curling up inside of a small nook in the back of the room.

“Uh, you aren’t supposed to climb that,” I scolded dumbly, doing nothing to stop him as he quickly climbed up a little higher. The Stallion simply waved me off. I watched him climb, noting his cutie mark was some kind of multi coloured cone.

I heard more shouting from outside as what I assumed were a handful of Security ponies started checking through all the different rooms. “He has got to be in one of these!” I heard a gruff voice shout.

I turned towards the green unicorn. “Security is after you? What did you do?” I demanded, pointing my hoof at him lamely. “And how did you even get in here? You shouldn't have clearance for this room?”

The green unicorn just waved my questions aside with his hoof like he had before. “That doesn’t matter, what matters is that you make sure they don’t find me.”

I gave him a skeptical stare. “It matters to me if you get me in trouble for whatever you’ve gotten yourself into.”

The stallion looked me over for a few seconds before finally giving a sigh of defeat. “Alright, fine. I suppose if you are going to help you might as well know,” He paused and took another deep breath. “I stole the door override pass codes from the security section.”

My jaw dropped. “You did what!”

The Unicorn put a hoof to his lips. “Shhhhh, they’ll hear you,” I just continued to stare at him in bafflement, trying to process what he had just told me.

I shook my head in confusion. “What do you want with the security door override codes?” I questioned, lowering my tone a little. “And why-”

The rest of my question was cut off as four Security ponies burst into the room, each welding a shock baton and dressed in the usual security armour over top of their Stable barding. The lead Security mare, a purple unicorn with a small scar on the clip of her left eye stepped forward. “We are looking for a green unicorn named Brisk Spark. We believe he came this way. Have you seen him?” His voice was steady and monotone.

Without even thinking, I pointed up to where Brisk clung to the top of the generator. He glared down at me with an amused look. “Wow, thanks for your cooperation,” he deadpanned, trying to pull himself higher up on the machine.

The five of us just stared up at him. The Security ponies looked almost bored. Was this a regular occurrence with this guy? The lead Security ponie gave a low sigh. “Brisk, please come down from there before you hurt yourself,” Brisk stuck his tongue out in response. The Security ponies were starting to get very clearly impatient. “I’ll ask you one more time to get down Brisk.”

“I’ll get down once you let me out of this Stable,” Brisk retorted, swinging his front hooves around wildly. My jaw dropped for a second time. Leave the Stable? Was this guy insane? Who was I kidding, of course he was.

The lead Security mare gave a disappointed shake of her head and magically levitate her baton up to Brisk. I could see the sudden fear flicker across his face as he realized she was still fully capable of reaching him from down below. How he had forgotten she could use magic was any ponies guess.

“Damn it Brisk,” I knew that voice all to well. I turned my head to see my father standing in the doorway flanked by two more Security ponies. “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“Give me what I want would be a good place to start,” Brisk grinned back at him, lifting the floating baton away from his face with a hoof. “Also, it would be nice if you told the lovely Security ponies here to back off.”

No pony backed off. Brisk gave a low groan.

My father turned to the lead Security mare. “What did he do this time?”

“He downloaded all of the door override pass codes from the security section,” She explained, jabbing her baton at Brisk menacingly. Brisk tried to swat the baton aside again, but the Security mare had already pulled it out of his reach by the time his hoof came close.

My Father gave Brisk a flat stare. “Would you please come down? I don’t want this to be difficult.”

“Fuck you,” Brisk grinned down at him. “I’m not doing anything.”

My father gave a long, tedious sigh. He turned to the Security ponies. “Alright, get him down from there.”

All six Security ponies gave a wicked grin and raised their batons. Brisk gave a nervous chuckle as he was confronted by the six blunt, sparking clubs. Then he was being knocked to the floor and pummeled into the ground.

I averted my gaze as the six ponies circled him and continued to bash him against the ground, a sickening zap filling the air with every beating he received. The batons came down over and over again until he finally stopped moving entirely, save for the occasional twitch of his hind leg as an electrical charge pulsed through him.

I glanced over at my father, observing the scene stoically. The bags under his eyes just as prominent as ever. He cleared his throat, causing the six Security ponies to back off a bit. “Revoke his pipbuck, and get those files off,” he demanded sternly, turning away from the scene and exiting through the door. Before the door closed behind him he turned back to me. “And Amber,” I puffed out my chest and gave him a forced smile.

Look at me! I can be responsible!

My Father just shook his head. “Just get back to work.”

My ears drooped. I watched as the Security ponies detached Brisk’s pipbuck and hauled him off, out of the room and down the hall. I gave my head a good shake as the door closed behind them. That might have straight up been the oddest thing to ever happen to me.

I was about to go back to reading when I saw the red light on the intercom by the door flashing on and off. Someone was trying to contact me? I must not have noticed the light turn on during the chaos of Brisk’s interruption.

“Probably just Shade trying to find out what happened,” I muttered to myself, crossing the room and pushing the answer button.

"Hiya, this is Amber Aura," I said into the speaker.

“Hello, can I talk to the pony in charge of the Stable 25 generator please?” The voice on the other side of the intercom blurted. Okay, not Shade. This was a stallions voice. It was deep and gravelly, almost as if he had a terrible cold.

“Uh… that would be me,” I responded, leaning towards the intercom a little more as we spoke. “Can, uh… can I help you with something?”

There was silence on the other side for a few seconds. “Actually yes, there is something we need,” The voice replied, coughing slightly. “We need you to turn on the generator's emergency broadcaster. It doesn’t need to be on long, just a few moments will do.”

The emergency broadcaster? I had no idea what was going on at this point. “I’m sorry, who am I talking to?” I challenged, arching an eyebrow skeptically.

Once again there was silence form the far side. “Uh, this is Stable-Tec Headquarters,” he stated through the speaker nonchalantly.

Stable-Tec? This was starting to get real weird.

“Uh, would you like me to get the Overstallion?” I asked. “I’m sure he would be more helpful to you than I am.”

“Oh no, you will do just fine!” the voice blurted. “We won’t be needing him for this,” Red flags started popping up in my brain. There was no reason I could think of that Stable-Tec would want to talk to me and not my dad. “We just need you to turn the emergency broadcaster on for a second, that is all.”

“What for?” I continued to ask. I glanced over at the generator emergency broadcast switch that lay dusty in the crevice it had been built into. It very clearly hadn’t been touched in years.

“A Stable out in Ponyville lost connection with us a few days ago,” The voice replied calmly. Turns out that their generator malfunctioned and their emergency distress broadcast had broken down years ago. They all died without being able to call for help,” I gulped slowly. That didn’t sound like a fun way to go. “We are just doing a check up on all the Stables to make sure everything is operating at Stable-Tec standards.”

I glanced back and forth between the intercom and the switch. What could it hurt to pull it? The only thing that would happen is it would send a distress signal to Stable-Tec, and that wouldn’t cause any harm. Right?

“It doesn’t need to be on long,” The voice reassured me again. “Just a few seconds is all we need to make sure everything is in working order. Are you in the generator room? It should be right beside you.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I’m in the generator room. Just give me a quick sec,” I pulled myself away from the intercom and pulled the emergency switch a few steps away from me. A bright, red flashing light whirled to life above my head and a siren began to sound. I waited a few second and them pulled the switch again, deactivating the light and siren.

I re-approached the intercom and pushed the speaker. “Did you get that?” I waited a few seconds, but there was no reply. “Hello? Did you get the signal?” again, nothing.

Then there was a heavy knock on the Stable door. That must be Shade, I thought as I activated the door and let it slid open. That was when I realized my mistake. Shade had a pass to get into the generator room, she didn’t need my assistance. Shade also didn’t stand a few feet taller than me or dress in solid metal plating.

The large Stallion that stood before me looked like something out of a nightmare. He was tall, muscular, and covered head to hoof in solid metal that seemed to be wielded to his dark orange coat. At his sides he carried a pair of robotic wings seemingly made up of blades and two large Tesla canons the size of my body. Two glowing red eyes stared down at me from a metallic head wielding a jagged metal horn.

I gave a nervous chuckle as I stared up at the cyber alicorn in the doorway. “Uh, hiya… can… can I do something for you?” I stammered, taking a slow step back.

The cyber alicorn just glared down at me for a long moment. “I need access to your A.A.S.S device,” It demanded in a low, gruff tone. His voices sounded strained and rough, like sandpaper being dragged across my face. “Lead me to it.”

“Uh, um…” I continued to stammer, taking a few more steps back. “We uh… kinda need that to live you know… so uh… I can’t really give that to you.”

The cyber alicorn began to advance on me. Oh shit this was bad. “I don’t care about your needs, Hand over the device now before I need to force you,” this wasn't forcing me?

There was a slight shimmer in the air behind him as two more cyber ponies stepped out of seemingly nothing. They looked very similar in design to the first one, however they lacked both the metal wings and horn that the cyber alicorn had.

I shrank lower to the ground as a fourth appeared. My eyes darted around the room frantically, looking for a way to get out of this situation. How had they even gotten into the Stable? They couldn’t have opened the Stable door? Could they?

“I’m going to ask you one more time,” They cyber alicorn demanded again, this time the ends of his Tesla canons began to glow and threatening electric blue. “Give me the A.A.S.S or I will find it myself.”

I gave a shy squeak and pointed towards a black metal box that clung to the side of the far wall. Multiple pipes hooked up to it and carried it’s vapors into the Stable’s ventilation system. Both above and below the box was a yellow sign reading ‘Danger, do not remove’.

The cyber alicorn grunted and flicked his guns towards it. “Go get it,” he growled, glaring into me even more than before.

It took me a second to realize he was actually talking to me and not one of the other cyber ponies. I pointed at myself innocently. “Me?”

“Yes, you bitch!” The cyber alicorn huffed, taking another step towards me and causing me to shrink back even farther. “Go grab it or I’ll blast you into fucking ash!”

I scampered backwards and hastily raised my pipbuck to the black box, activating the lock mechanism. With a hiss and the front panel of the box flipped open, revealing the black, oblong device inside. A small tinted glass panel on the front of the device showed a multitude of gears moving inside it. The whole thing was only about the size of my hoof.

The sound of guards shouting could be heard coming down the hallway at a quick pace. No doubt to check out what was going on with the emergency broadcast. They needed to work on their reaction time apparently.

The cyber alicorn stomped his metal hoof heavily on the ground making the floors and walls vibrate ever so slightly. He gave a loud snort, exhaust erupting from his metallic nostrils as he did. “Bring it here bitch! Now!”

I pulled the device from the wall and looked it over, trying to decide if I could stall until the Security ponies arrived. The shouting was getting really close.

“The fuck are those things!?” I heard somepony shout from outside the room. So apparently they were already here. I heard a couple of bullets whiz down the hallway and bounce harmlessly off the cyber ponies metal exoskeletons, ricocheting into the steel walls.

The cyber alicorn groaned. “Damn it,” He gestured to the cyber pony to his right. “You secure the device, I’ll deal with these fucking pests,” With that he turned to the door and advanced upon the approaching Security ponies.

There was a massive crackle of energy that caused all of my hair to stand on end, followed by a massive explosion of blue light that send me sprawling to the floor. Holy shit I was glad I didn’t get hit by a bast of those Tesla canons.

The smaller cyber pony approached me. Though only two thirds the size of the cyber alicorn, he still stood a foot or two above me.

“The device, now!” He instructed, extending his metal hoof for me to place the device in. Through the few cracks in the metal plating, I could make out glimpses of scarlet fur.

I held the A.A.S.S device closer to my chest. “I can’t let you ponies have this! We’ll all starve.”

The cyber ponies eyes narrowed in anger. He lunged forward and slammed his hoof across my head. I was sent flying back, crashing into the generator with a clang.

Another explosion rocked the Stable, this time forcing me to fall face first into the ground. I could feel blood in my mouth, which I spat out in disgust. I attempted to curl my body around the A.A.S.S device only to discover it was no longer in my hooves.

I spotted it laying on the floor, halfway between me and the cyber pony. I began crawling towards it, ignoring the aching pain in my head. The cyber pony got to it first. He picked it up in his mouth and nodded to the other two cyber ponies watching him.

“Objective is secured!” one of the cyber ponies shouted, though as to which one I couldn’t be sure. There was a final explosion of blue energy, then a blinding light, then all four cyber ponies were gone.

I slowly pulled myself to my hooves, wobbling slightly as I stood both from pain and shock. I wiped the thin trickle of blood of my face and took a few shaky steps towards the door, only to collapse on my face. Again.

The Security ponies took that moment to rush into the room. They circled around me and looked around the room in confusion. I suppose that they must have been just as baffled as I was as to what had just happened. I noticed a majority of them were bruised and bloodied. One stallion’s front foreleg seemed to be broken. Shit, that cyber alicorn did a lot of damage in a really short amount of time!

“They took the A.A.S.S,” I muttered weakly, hoping one of them would hear me. From their many worried, wide eyed expressions, I could tell that they did.

The purple Security pony I had seen earlier stepped towards me and floated a healing potion down to my lips, which I gulped down gratefully. I could feel the itching sensation of my wounds slowly beginning to pull themselves back together as I chugged the fluid. Damn I loved healing potions.

I looked up at the mare above me with a thankful look across my face. I was met with a hard, cold stare. “You are to come with me immediately,” She demanded, and them marched out of the room. I pulled myself to my hooves for a second time and began to follow her.

“So let me get this straight… You were contacted by Stable-Tec, turned on the emergency broadcaster, and then were attacked by a group of robotic ponies that stole the A.A.S.S?” My father questioned, his eyebrows tightening as he tried to put everything together. I nodded slowly.

We were in the prison section of the Stable, which looked almost identical to the rest of the Stable to my displeasure, save for a couple of large holding cells against the far wall. No doubt I was in serious trouble for something. Probably for failing to keep the A.A.S.S safe, which was my one job. Granted they probably should have had some form of security on the device. Also granted they didn’t expect anyone to ever be able to get inside the Stable.

“And you didn’t tell me that Stable-Tec contacted you before you activated the signal because?” He demanded, leaning across the cold table.

“They said I didn’t need to,” I retorted, waving my hooves in the air frantically. "I didn’t think anything bad would happen if I turned the signal on for a few seconds!” I looked at his disapproving glare. If I thought he had been disappointed about my cutie mark, he was really really really disappointed now. A sudden realization washed over me. “You don’t think I was involved in this do you?” My father sighed and rest his head on a hoof. “Holy shit! You actually think I had something to do with this, don't you!”

“I don’t know Amber!” He snapped at me, dropping his hoof to the table. “I know you to well to think you were intentionally involved in this, but I’m pretty damn sure if you had used that head of yours a little more you could have avoided it!”

Ouch… thanks dad… I shifted my gaze away from him and stared at the floor. I couldn’t call him out on that, he was completely right. “What are we going to do now?” I stuttered, looking back up at him. “Do we leave the Stable to get it back or what?”

My father dropped his head into his hooves and let out a long breath of air. “I’m not sure yet Amber. We will need a bit of time to think this all though. We aren’t leaving the Stable though. It’s to dangerous outside,” He stood up and started walking toward the door. “You are to stay here until we figure this out more.”

I gawked at him. “Stay here? Why?”

“Because we aren’t sure what we're going to do next and honestly, half of the Stable thinks you did this, so it’s probably best for both of us that you stay here where it’s safe,” then he walked out of the room without even looking back at me. I could hear the click of the mechanical lock as the sliding door locked me in.

I looked over at the guard pony looking over at the different holding cells, a small key hung around his neck. I considered trying to steal it for a second, but thought better of it. Disobeying my father and putting myself in danger would get me nowhere.

Shifting my gaze from the guard, A scanned the holding cells until a green unicorn with a black eye waving me over with his hoof caught my eye.

“Brisk?” I asked, walking up to the cell and peering inside. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing in here idiot?” Brisk replied swiftly, gesturing to the cell around him with his hooves. “I tried to steal a bunch of super classified pass codes from Security and tried to escape the Stable… I’m on a bit of a time out at the moment.”

I huffed. “Well good, you deserve it for stealing those.”

Brisk pretended to act hurt, placing one hoof over his chest. “Please, I only wanted to get out of this damn place, it’s so boring in here.”

“It’s really not that bad,” I countered, looking back over at the guard. “I mean it’s got to be better than whatever is outside, right?”

Brisk rolled his eyes. “Please, if I were to walk outside and suddenly drop dead from radiation poisoning, I would be happier than I am caged up in here. I mean, have you heard that dumb song they play every morning? Like, get some more music guys, come on!”

I smirked at that a little. The music really did suck. “Well I guess you’re just going to have to live with it,” I mocked, grinning into the cage at him. “Because I don’t think you are going to be getting outside any time soon,” And he was grinning at me. Why was he grinning at me. He had lost a tooth at some point when the guards had beaten him, making his smile look far less flattering on him than it should have. I took a step back as a smug look began to cross his face. “What…” I deadpanned, dropping my head a little and flattening my ears against the side of my head.

“Oh I’m going to be getting out of here all right,” He grinned. “And you are going to help me do it.”

“I’m going to what!” I blurted, taking a second step back. “Why?”

Brisk reached out of the cell and placed a hoof over my lips. “Shhhh, we don’t need to draw any attention,” He sent a quick glance at the guard who still didn’t seem to be paying us any attention. He returned his gaze to me. “Look, I hate this place, and you need to get out of here to go retrieve that ass thing or whatever that you and your dad were talking about.”

“It’s A.A.S.S,” I corrected. “It stands for Atmospheric Administering Sustenance System.”

Brisk waved a hoof. “Yeah yeah whatever, I don’t care. That sound's like smarty, nerdy pony shit. The point is you need to go get it, ‘cause it didn’t sound like he had any plan on doing so and you need to prove to him that you aren’t a worthless waste of space.”

I stared at him flatly. “You really aren’t holding back any punches with those points, are you?” he shook his head. I groaned. “Besides, how did you even know tha-”

“That you feel the need to prove yourself to him? Oh come on, it’s obvious!” He chuckled.

I got flustered at that probably a lot more than I should have. “Wha- no it’s not!” I wanted to punch this guy.

“Uh, yeah… it is,” he responded factually. “The point is you need to save the Stable and prove you have potential or some shit, and I want freedom from this cesspool of a Stable. The only way either of us do that is if we work together and leave the Stable behind us.”

I rolled his words around in his head. He wasn’t wrong. Damn, I hated how he wasn’t wrong. But leaving the Stable seemed so extreme. I glanced over at the guard who was seemingly so lost in thought he still hadn’t managed to notice our conversation. That or he just didn’t care. Didn’t care just like everyone else in this place. I sighed.

“Alright, what do you need me to do?”

Brisk’s grin widened. “Well first we need to get me out of this cage,” he whispered. "I don't suppose you have any bobby pins do you? They took mine when they locked me up."

"Why would we need bobby pins?" I questioned. "And no, I don't have any."

"I was hoping we could use them to pick the lock on this cage."

I gawked at him. "I can't pick a lock, I've never even considered doing something like that."

"You haven't? What did you do all day down here?"

"Read," I stated proudly. "I like books."

Brisk slapped his hoof to his forehead. "Oh god, I'm stuck with a nerd."

"I can just leave you locked up in here."

His face showed signs of panic. "No no, I'm just joking. you're great," He stammered, giving me a forced grin. "Besides, you wouldn't need to pick the lock anyway, I would have. That said, it doesn't matter now," Brisk glancing back over at the guard across the room. “Alright, plan number two. I’ll cause a distraction while you sneak up behind the guard and whack him over the head with that shock baton over there,” He pointed to a baton lying on the table against the far wall of the room.

“What? No way! I can’t do that either!” I stammered, looking back and forth between the baton, the guard, and Brisk. “You honestly can’t expect me to atta-”

“To late, I’ve made up my mind, that’s the plan,” Brisk whispered with a chuckle. Then he fell to the floor and started screaming at the top of his little pony lungs. “Holy Shit! I can’t breath!”

I backpedaled away from him as the guard rushed towards the cell. I glanced over at the shock baton lying on the table. It was now or never I suppose.

I magically levitated the baton into the air and floated it above the guards head as he struggled to understand the issue. I shut my eyes tight and slammed the blunt club against the top of his head.

The guard shouted and stumbled, but goddess damn it! He didn’t fall! He slowly turned to me, readying himself to lunge when I slammed the baton against his head a dozen more times. At last he fell twitching to the floor, electrical pulses flowing out of him and into the ground.

I took a deep breath and pulled the key off of his neck and unlocked the cell door. Brisk stepped out looking happier than he had already been.

“I told you it would work,” He laughed, slowly pulling the Security armor off of the guard and strapping it on over his Stable barding.

“What are you doing?” I asked, watching him place the visor on the helmet over his face and strap the guards 10mm pistol to his side with his hooves.

“Protecting myself and getting a disguise,” He replied, half trotting, half dancing to the door. “Most of the Security know I’m supposed to be in holding, so I’ve gotta blend it,” Then he slammed face first into the door. He stumbled back and looked up at metal surface he had just run into. “These things are supposed to open right?”

I rolled my eyes. Great, not only was I breaking almost every rule in the Stable, but my companion was a complete idiot.

“It’s locked doofus,” I scolded, approaching the door myself. “It’s for keeping ponies in. How do you not know that?”

“Well can we unlock it?” He asked impatiently, tapping his hoof on the door. "There has got to be a manual release or something, right?”

I raised an eyebrow and levitated the guards pipbuck. The only thing Brisk hadn’t taken. Brisk gave me a shut up sort of look as I brought the pipbuck towards the door and watched in satisfaction as the door slid open as I clicked to door activation pass.

Brisk chuckled nervously. “Right… uh… after you.”

“What do we do next?” I asked, trotting past him and into the empty hallway. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I assumed most ponies were going to bed at this point. “Do we just head to the Stable door or what?”

“We are going to need the Stable door override code, or we aren’t going to be getting anywhere,” Brisk explained, walking up beside me. “I was hoping it would be in the door override pass codes I stole from the security section, but I couldn’t find it in the file. Besides, I don’t even know where they put my pipbuck.”

“I doubt the Security section would have the override for the Stable door. The only pony that I can think of that would have it would be-” I pulled myself up short as I realized what I was saying.

Brisk groaned. “Let me guess. The only pony that would have the override to the door is the Overstallion… your father…”

I nodded glumly. “It’s probably in his terminal in his office.”

“Alright then,” Brisk said, practically bouncing down the hall. I had no idea where this pony got his energy. “Let’s go get that override,” then he froze in his tracks.

I stopped and followed his gaze to the end of the hall where the scarred purple Security mare stood staring at us in shock. I gave her a nervous wave.

“Do you think she recognizes us?” Then she began to charge us, yelling for other security to join her. I let out another sigh. “Yup, she does.”

The two of us spun around and started galloping in the other direction as fast as we possibly could. I could hear more guards chasing after us as we raced along. I ran a few steps ahead of Brisk, seeing how I knew the way to the Overstallion’s office better than anypony, it only seemed fitting that I take the lead.

We were almost to the stairs leading to my father's office when a larger Security stallion stepped out in front of us. Without wasting time I jumped into S.A.T.S. (also known as the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, every pipbuck has it) I never imagined I would ever need to use mine to be honest. For a few seconds, I sat in the magical stillness that came with S.A.T.S. was I really going to do this? I looked at the Security pony that had jumped into my path. He was just doing his job, did I really have it in me to hurt him?

Damn it, I was in to deep already. I targeted two shots to his legs and released the S.A.T.S Spell. Instantly my shock baton slammed into his front legs. I heard the crunch of the bones in his leg snapping under the impact as we rushed past him and up the stairs that ascended to the Overstallion’s office.

We burst into the room and locked the door behind us. Only seconds after the door had closed and locked we heard the pounding of at least a dozen ponies outside trying to get into the room. To my relief, my father wasn’t in the room. I really didn’t want to explain all of this to him. He wouldn’t understand.

“Okay, now would be a good time to get that override!” Brisk shouted, pushing a table up against the door. I didn’t bother telling him that barricading the door would do nothing to prevent a sliding door from opening.

I rushed to my father's desk and turned on his terminal. Shit, it was locked! Probably shouldn’t have been surprised. I pulled up the computers data and began typing in a bunch of letters.

“Give me a second, I’m going to need to hack the terminal,” I shouted over the thundering noise of the ponies outside.

“We don’t have a sec-” Brisk began, but I cut him off.

“I’m in,” I declared, entering the correct password and pulling up all of my fathers files. Brisk just stared at me blankly.

“Already? How?”

I blushed and gave him a little shrug. “Machines are kinda my strong suit. Besides, dad’s password isn’t very good. Your password is Amber? really dad?”

Brisk coughed. “I get it, you’re amazing. Now get that override and lets get out of here before they drag both of our asses back to that cell!”

“Right,” I muttered, pulling up the file that was labeled ‘Stable door override code. I scanned the file for a second. “I got it! The override is sabsb3cmc!” I shouted, pulling myself away from the computer. Then I spotted a second file on the computer titled ‘Stable door Overmare access. I glanced around the room and pressed on the file.

There was a sudden hiss, followed by the grinding noise of gears as the Overstallion's desk started sliding across the room to reveal a set of stairs beneath it.

“Holy shit!” Brisk exclaimed, watching as the rest of the stairwell revealed itself. “How long as that been there?”

“Forever I guess,” I replied, taking a few steps down the stairs. “Now are you coming or not?” Brisk grinned and began racing down the steps after me.

As the desk began to slid back into place above us I heard the sound of the security ponies outside charging into the office. “Shit, they are heading to the Stable door!” I heard one of them shout. “Get to the door! Now!”

Brisk quickened his pace. “We gotta get moving,” he urged, pushing the top of his head against my rump and ushering me forwards. I yipped slightly and could feel my face go a deep red as he nudged his head against my ass. I doubled my speed as well and began charging down the tunnel.

We emerged into a large metal chamber with a long catwalk that extended out to a gigantic gear shaped metal door. Two security ponies stood guard beside the control panel for the door playing some sort of card game. They straightened up as soon as they spotted us.

“What are you two doing here, this is a restricted area,” The guard on the left said in a tough voice. He was just a little taller than I was, which wasn't hard as I stood a few inches shorter than most other ponies. He had a jet black coat and an ivory mane that spiked upwards.

“Sorry,” I muttered as I approached them, reaching for my baton with my telekinesis.

The second guard, a short earth pony with a light red coat and mane raised his eyebrow. “What was that?”

The first guard had no time to react as I jumped into S.A.T.S. and bashed him over the head with my baton. With a zap he crumpled limp to the ground.

The second guard recovered from the shock of being attacked quicker than I would have liked and raised his pistol towards me. I shut my eyes as the barrel came level with my head.

Shit! I was going to die before I even got out of the Stable!

Then Brisk threw his gun at the guards head, knocking him to the side. The guard tired to retaliate, but by the time he had looked back up, Brisk's hoof was pummeling him to the ground. Within the minute, both guards lay in a twitching pile at our feet.

“You are scarily good with that thing,” Brisk commented, pointing to my baton as he walking over to the controls and started typing in the override. “I would not want to be on your bad side.”

I swung my baton dangerously in a loop. “What makes you think you aren’t on my bad side?” I questioned smugly. Then I dropped the baton on my hoof, sending an electric shock shooting up my body. My whole body twitched and my mane stood on end.

Nope, I still sucked at everything.

Brisk pulled a small switch on the control board. A spinning orange light sprang to life above the Stable door, casting spiraling shadows to dance across the walls. A massive bolt swung down from the roof and inserted itself into the metal gear that separated Stable 25 from the world beyond. There was a hiss of steam, and the sound of metal on metal, then the humongous door began moving away from the entrance, giving us a look at the blackness that awaited us outside.

The clattering of hooves drew our attention away from the door and to the stampede of Security ponies rushing up behind us.

Crap! That was a lot of Security ponies!

“It’s now or never!” Brisk shouted, grabbing his dropped gun from the floor and jumping over the rail next to the controls before darting out into the darkness beyond Stable 25.

Holy shit, I was actually doing this.

I took one step forwards. Then another. Then I began galloping towards the exit. I could hear the guards yelling for me to stop, but I didn't turn back. I was determined to get out now, no turning back or giving up, nothing was going to make me change my mind. But something could make me stop dead in my tracks.

“Amber stop!”

Damn it! Damn it that was my father's voice.

I slowly turned to face him and the group of Security ponies that had gathered a few feet behind me, my hoof resting on the edge of the metal door.

“Come back Amber, you don’t need to do this,” his eyes looked sad. Damn him, his eyes actually looked sad.

“Yes I do dad, I’m going to bring the A.A.S.S back,” I sounded so certain. So strong in that moment, but I certainly didn’t feel it. I felt like I could crumble into a million pieces at the slightest breeze. “I’m going to set everything right!”

My father gave me a sad smile and a small shake of his head. “No Amber. You won't. All you will do out there is die.”

I took a step towards him. “But I have to try!” I insisted. “I have to try and fix all of this!”

“Think of the Stable before yourself for once Amber,” My father soothed. “If you leave here, I won’t be able to let you back in.”

I felt my heart sink.

He wouldn’t let me back in? Why not? To prove a point? To protect the Stable? I could feel a long suppressed anger slowly pushing its way to the surface. This whole thing wasn't my fault! He needed to stop treating me like it was. “Fuck you dad!” I shouted, pointing a hoof at him accusingly. “Fuck you!”

With that, I darted out of the Stable into the darkness, the large Stable door rolling shut behind me. A loud clang rang throughout the darkness as the solid wall of metal came to a stop, resealing the Stable from the outside.

Then I was alone in the darkness with nothing but regret. What had I said? Why had I said it? Damn it! Don’t let that be the last thing I ever say to my father.

The dull green light of my pipbuck lit up the tunnel around me, reviling a long metal tunnel coated in a thick layer of rust and grime. A small pool of foul brown sludge swirled around my hooves as I walked forward. A few feet ahead of me I could make out the slim silhouette of Brisk Spark attaching the Security ponies pipbuck to his left foreleg.

Brisk turned to look at me and gave me a reassuring smile, showing off his missing tooth. “Bold move, saying that to your dad.”

“Don’t remind me,” I groaned, walking past him and towards the small steel door at the end of the tunnel. Through the cracks around the side of the door I could see slivers of silver moonlight peeking through, giving the tunnel a ghostly appearance.

I pushed the door open, and instantly gagged at the rancid stench of the air outside. I shut my eyes as I was blinded by a light I couldn't see and took my first step into the Equestrian Wasteland.

Before me stood a large rusted billboard, now marred by bullet holes and graffiti, though the large letters were still perfectly legible.

Welcome to Manehattan!

Or as the graffiti put it…

Welcome to Hell!

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Swift learner -- +10% XP whenever XP is earned

Author's Notes:

I've got a long story ahead of me to write, so get ready for a crazy wasteland adventure!
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Please feel free to give your thoughts and feedback.

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira

Chapter II: Welcome to Manehattan

“Tis better to be alone, then of bad company”

Dead.

Dead was the only word I could think of to properly describe the desolate skyline that lay before us. Many words seemed fitting, such as horrid or decaying. Even Tartarus seemed like a logical description for what lay ahead, but dead was the only word that could perfectly encapsulated the foul view of the collapsing city of Manehattan.

Once grand and mighty skyscrapers now lay in crumbling ruins along the streets, many having completely collapsed in on themselves or against other structures. Muck and grime coated the concrete city walls and graffiti depicting graphic scenes and foul profanities seemed to cover most of the cities surfaces. A large elevated monorail ran throughout the city, though like most of the surrounding area, much of the monorail had begun to collapse. A ghastly green fog wafted around the bases of the crooked structures, making the whole city look like some form of nightmarish landscape from a horror story.

The Geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking furiously. I had never seen such high levels of radiation before. I thumped my hoof against my pipbuck to make sure that it wasn’t just broken. To my dismay, it continued to click ominously.

“We should probably get out of here, we are collecting rads faster than I’d like,” I declared, looking over to Brisk, who was staring up at the sky grinning like a maniac.

I followed his gave up above the broken building to… to nothing! Holy fucking shit there was nothing above me! I dropped to my haunches and tried to flatten myself against the ground as much as possible. They sky was so big and vast! I couldn’t even see the ceiling above the thick curtain of clouds that hung above the city. I shut my eyes tight, wishing for the safe walls of Stable 25 to return. I dared to let an eye sneak a glance back up. Yup, there was still no roof and I still felt like I was going to fall up into that oblivion.

Brisk glanced down at me pitifully. “What are you doing?” He asked, reaching a hoof down, and pulling me back up.

“Hoping the ceiling will come back,” I cried, making sure my eyes stayed fixed on the ground. “I don’t like how big the sky is.”

Brisk gave let out a wild whoop. “Well I love it!” He exclaimed, practically bouncing on the tips of his hooves. “It’s so free! I mean, just smell that air!”

I gave a quick sniff and instantly regretted it. The whole area smelled like a mix between sewage and rotting flesh. I wrinkled my snout. “It smells like shit.”

“It smells like air that isn’t being recycled!” He insisted, taking a large whiff of the air. He coughed a little at the radioactive fog filled his lungs. “Granted, it could smell a little nicer I suppose,” His eyes wandered to something else and he began darting forward. “And look at this!” he pointed to something small, and close to the ground.

I looked closely at the small object protruding from between the cracks in the concrete. It took me a solid minute to figure out exactly what I was looking at. “Is that… grass?”

It was. Dead grass, specifically. The wasteland wouldn’t allow for anything more. It only stood about a half inch tall. Had Brisk not pointed it out, it is doubtful I would have even noticed it.

“Exactly! Grass!” Brisk was practically whinnying with excitement. “Bet you never saw that inside the damned Stable!”

“I didn’t know you were so interested in flora,” I smirked, glad for the distraction from the vertigo inducing sky above me.

“Flora what?” Brisk asked, glancing from the singular blade of grass to me. “The fuck is a flora?”

I glared at him flatly. “Plant life idiot.”

Brisk looked back at the grass in interest. “Hmm, yeah. It’s kinda cool,” then to my surprise, he leaned in closer, opened his mouth and ate the grass in a single quick bite.

“Wha- why did you just do that?” I asked in bafflement as he chewed on the grass thoughtfully. “I thought you found it interesting?!”

Brisk swallowed slowly. “I found it interesting enough to eat,” He smacked his lips together in consideration. “It’s not bad actually.”

I shook my head. “You’re weird.”

“You’re the one that followed me out here,” Brisk countered, leaving the spot behind and walking down the road. I followed close behind him, glancing around nervously. I didn't like how quiet it was out here. Brisk scanned the broken down buildings that surrounded us. “So what do we do now that we have a whole world to explore? Where do we go? I’ve heard Canterlot is pretty cool!”

I punched his foreleg gently. “We have a mission to do remember?” I reminded him. “We need to find those cyber ponies that took the A.A.S.S and bring it back to the Stable.”

Brisk rolled his eyes and slouched a little. “Really? But there is so much other cool shit we can do.”

“I tell you what,” I said, finally falling in step with him. “We can go exploring this place as long as we keep finding the A.A.S.S as our main priority. Deal?”

Brisk scoffed at the suggestion, but still nodded in response. “Fine. Who knows, maybe this quest of yours will be exciting.”

“Hopefully it’s just easily,” I replied lamely. “Now I guess we just gotta figure out what way to start walking. I don’t want to get lost out here”

In the distance, the flickering light of a fire began illuminating the road. I could see the forms of five or so ponies sitting around the flame, their backs slouched and facing away from us. I excitedly pointed them out to Brisk, glad to see another living pony.

“Hey, maybe they saw the cyber ponies,” I suggested as I began walking faster towards them. “Excuse me!” I called out to the ponies around the fire. “I’m looking for some directions, can you help us?” I noticed Brisk had stopped dead in his tracks. I turned back to him. “Hey, are you coming or what?” I asked him, trying to figure out what he was doing. He had the strangest expression on his face, wide eyes and slack jaw. The colour in his face slowly draining to a pale white.

“Amber,” His voice was so shaky it didn’t even sound like his anymore. “I… I think we should get going…”

I arched my eyebrows and glanced back at the group of five ponies that were slowly approaching us. Now facing towards me, I could make out their features a lot better. They were all muscular, with scores of jagged scars shooting across their matted and blood soaked hide. They wore makeshift armor comprised of chains, slabs of metal, and to my stomachs displeasure, pony flesh.

I dared myself to glance down at the EFS on my pipbuck (the Eyes Forward Sparkle, which is another thing every pipbuck has that no one ever thought they would need). To my horror, I saw five red bars. I had only ever seen red bars on my EFS once, and that had been when there was a small Radroach infestation in the Stable a few years back. Red bars meant that whatever was approaching was hostile, and I really didn’t want to fight anypony looking as horrifying as that.

I took a step back, my nose finally picking up on the smell of rot and blood that accompanied the newcomers. I glanced at the weapons they carried. The Mare in the front, the only unicorn of the group, wielded a large serrated machete in her magic. The other four simply carried large knives.

“Well well well!” the lead raider cackled, her voice similar to that of a high pitched whine. She pointed the tip of her blade at my throat. “What do we have here?”

“Uh… we’re just looking for some ponies that might... uh, might have come through here,” I sputtered, my eyes transfixed on the rusted blade and bits of pony flesh hanging from their armor. “But… um, I think we will be going now.”

One of the raiders in the back curled back their lips and revealed their sharpened teeth, giving us a low hiss. Both Brisk and I jumped back slightly at the hostility.

“Oh you cunts won't be going anywhere,” The lead raider grinned, licking her lips slowly. She flicked her head at the raiders behind her, ordering them to advance. “Skin ‘em alive!”

I had never been in a fight before. Once I had gotten my cutie mark I had been beaten plenty of times sure, but I had never dared to fight back. I had always just laid there and taken my punches. Even while trying to escape Stable 25, I had only run away. The most I had ever done was break that one guards legs. But now, as five psychotic, blood soaked raiders charged me with drawn knives, I took up my baton and swung with all my might.

The heavy baton crashed against the first raiders head with a solid thwack! He toppled sideways, stumbling into the raider beside him. I didn’t have time to celebrate my successful hit as the third raider swung her large blade at my throat. I ducked low to the ground, doing my best to avoid decapitation. I targeted her legs in S.A.T.S and sent my baton crashing into her fetlock.

The raider dropped her knife with a howl of rage as the baton broke both of her front legs. I grabbed at the blade and stabbed it upwards, digging the rusted edge through her lower jaw and up into her brain.

Blood and viscera rained down onto me as the raiders body spasmed above me before falling limp and collapsed to their side.

Fuck, did I just… shit I just killed a pony!

I stared in horror at the bloody blade, bits of flesh and brain matter still clinging to the serrated edge. I let the blade fall to the ground and tried to pull my gaze away from the crumpled corpse that lay next to me.

A gunshot pulled me back to my senses. I glanced over to Brisk who was doing his best to avoid the swinging machete and knife of the two raiders that had chased after him. The barrel of his 10mm pistol was smoking after having just been fired, but it didn’t appear as if he had managed to hit either of the raiders. To my confusion he held his pistol in his mouth. Why wasn’t he just using magic?

I started charging towards the two raiders assaulting Brisk when one of the raiders I had previously knocked over slammed into my side, sending me sprawling across the ground. As I tried to rise, he pinned me to the ground with his hooves and aimed his dagger at me. His right eye was blood red where he had been struck by my baton.

“I’m gonna fuck the shit out of you!” The raider screeched. His words were muffled by the handle of the knife in his mouth, but still clearly audible.

I wrapped a field of telekinesis around his knife and yanked it from his mouth, slicing the skin around his lips into a gruesome smile. The raider lurched his head back and howled, trying to stop the blood with his hooves to no avail.

I targeted his head in S.A.T.S and rammed the end of my shock baton into his face. There was a loud crack, then the baton pushed it’s way straight through his head and came out the other side, causing his head to explode in a shower of brain and skull fragments.

I turned to my final attacker, who was grinning at me manically as she pulled herself to her feet. For the first time I noticed she had sharp claws strapped to the ends of her hooves. How did I miss something like that?

I gulped as she lunged at me, her long claw like weapon extending towards me in the hopes to cut me into ribbons. I rolled out of the way, whacking my head against a large rock that protruded from the ground as I did. I rubbed my head and groaned, trying to pull myself back to my hooves.

I backed up against one of the buildings as the raider advanced on me, her smile growing more menacing by the second. Her makeshift claws clicked against the asphalt as she walked.

I readied myself for her attack, crouching lower and raising my baton.

Her attack never came.

Before she could lunge a bullet lodged itself in her forehead with a ear splitting bang, coating my face in her blood. She wobbled for a second before falling limp to the ground, the blood from her wound reaching out and mingling with the slowly spreading blood of the previously fallen raiders.

I looked over to Brisk, his 10mm pistol still clamped tight in his mouth. The two raiders that had attacked him now lay dead at his hooves. The machete that the lead raider had wielded was now strapped across Brisk's back. I supposed that having a collection of weapons to change to in a fight could come in very handy.

Unlike me, the raiders had managed to get a large number of cuts in on Brisk. His front legs now resembled that of a zebra with deep gashes zigzagging across his flesh where the serrated machete had cut into him. The cuts were deep, he was lucky that his front legs hadn’t been cut off completely. Blood oozed from the wounds and pooled around his feet.

“I think I need help,” He muttered, looking down at his legs and trying to take a wobbly step forward, only to fall flat on his face. “I don’t think I can walk much like this.”

I rushed over to him and pushed up against his side, giving him something to lean on. Brisk was a lot bigger than I was, so I wasn’t able to give him that much support, but I could try and give him what little I had.

“We need to find some healing potions,” I muttered, looking down at the lesions on his legs. “Any suggestions?”

Brisk gave a slow shake of his head. “Let's just get somewhere safe. We’ll figure it out from there.”

I nodded. That seemed reasonable enough.

We began our slow descent down the road. Brisk held back a whimper with every step. We had only be in the wasteland for a few minutes and we were already on the verge of death. Perhaps my father hadn’t been wrong.

A small round sphere of metal on wings bobbed up and down across the street as we walked, playing some weird tuba heavy song.

Brisk chuckled a little as we cautiously drew near. “Fuck, even outside the Stable we get stuck with shitty music.”

The metallic sounding song was eerily similar to the Stable-Tec March we had heard every day while inside of Stable 25. Did the wasteland really need to be this cruel?

As the song slowly faded out, the smooth voice of a male pony began to speak. It didn’t have the mechanical tinny sound like the song before it.

“Ponies, friends. This world of our is desolate, and lonely. I understand your strife, but know that we can make all the pain in this world end - must make all the pain end. You’re contribution to the cause will grant us the ability to move mountains, to ascend to a better tomorrow, a better Equestria. We will be able to rebuild our great nation and become the utopia we were always meant to be. We will create a unity among our fellow friends, all pony kind. This I promise all of you.”

The voice cut out and the floating metal bug robot continued playing it’s annoying song and it drifted into the ruins. Brisk and I stared in shock at where the robot had gone.

“What the fuck?” Brisk blurted, echoing my very thoughts. “The hell was that? Create a unity among our fellow friends? What?”

I shrugged, adjusting my position on Brisk’s side. “Everything out here is weird.”

Bang!

A cloud of dust erupted in front of us as an unseen sniper took a shot at the ground in front of our hooves. The two of us stumbled backwards, ducking behind the wreckage of a large sky bandit to avoid getting shot. Really? Could we not walk a few feet without getting shot at please? Because that would be great if we could!

“That was a warning shot!” somepony called out, a male by the sounds of it. I was unable to pinpoint exactly were the voice was coming from.

Brisk and I raised both of our weapons as we waited for them to show themselves or shoot at us again.

“How many shots do you have left in that thing?” I asked, gesturing to Brisk’s gun.

He looked down at the 10mm pistol in his hooves. “No idea, I don’t even know how to reload this thing,” he explained as he started fiddling with the gun, trying his best to understand the intricacies of it.

“Come out with your weapons holstered and we won't kill you!” The voice shouted out again, slightly closer this time. We wont kill you? So there was more than one of them. Great!

“They don’t sound like raiders,” I whispered, peeking out from around the broken sky bandit. I could see two ponies slowly walking towards us. One held what appeared to be a sniper in their mouth. I couldn’t see what the other pony had.

Brisk winced and he put pressure on his front legs. “That doesn’t mean they won't kill us,” He reminded me, sitting hard on the ground and trying to remove his weight form his forelegs. “At best it just means they’ll keep our death quick and not hang us on the walls like paintings.”

“Do raiders do that?” I squealed nervously.

He glared at me with his usual stare. “Did you not see the bodies?”

I didn’t get time to answer as the two ponies rounded the corner of the sky bandit and aimed their weapons at us.

They were two earth pony stallions. Like the raiders, they were covered in a layer muck and their coats were marked up by a multitude of scars. Unlike the raiders however, these ponies were dressed in leather barding and were much less blood soaked. They didn’t look overly intimidating, or even look like they fully knew what they were doing. I suppose this was probably one of their first times raiding ponies.

The Stallion with the sniper had a dark brown coat with a bright purple mane. A long scar stretched from one side of his face to the other.

“Well look what we have here brother,” The brown stallion grinned, pointing the sniper at my head and looking over to the other pony. “Couple of Stable dwellers decided to come crawling out of their little hole in the ground.”

The earth pony beside him, a tall lanky looking stallion with a grey coat and a jet black mane chuckled. “Couldn’t have found ourselves a easier target for our first catch,” I guess that confirmed my first time raiding theory. I noticed that the grey pony only carried a clipboard at his side. The fuck was up with that?

The brown earth pony turned back to face us. “The two of us are going to be taking all of your stuff,” he grinned. “And if you don’t give it to us, we’re going to shoot you.”

All our stuff? We didn’t have anything except for a some flimsy Stable barding, a baton, and a pistol. Of course one of these ponies was planning to fight with a clipboard, so I supposed a gun and a baton were a pretty large improvement.

“Sure,” Brisk respond coldly, raising his pistol up with his mouth. “Have this.”

Blam!

Brisk fired, clearly catching the bandits off guard. Hell, he caught me off guard. His bullet ripped through the brown stallions leg and sent him crashing to the asphalt with a thud.

“You’re going to fucking pay for that!” The gray pony yelled, swinging his clipboard at Brisk’s head.

I brought my baton up and slammed it against his back, staggering him. Unfortunately for me, he was faster than I was and managed to recover and bash me across the face with the clipboard.

I reeled back in pain, my vision spinning from the impact. The fuck was that clipboard made of? Solid metal? Getting hit by it hurt like hell.

Brisk whacked the bandit across the face with his gun, knocking him down and forcing him to drop his clipboard. I quickly kicked the clipboard away from him, not wanting to be hit by it again.

The Brown stallion with the sniper slowly pushed himself of the ground. “You two are fucking dead!” he yelled around the mouthpiece of the gun.

I brought my shock baton flying at the sniper, knocking it from his mouth and sending it sliding across the road. There was a sickening ripping noise as the bandits teeth, which were clamped tightly around the gun, shattered from the impact and flew from his mouth like shrapnel from a grenade. Blood oozed over his lips as he suppressed a scream.

Brisk’s gun was aimed at him faster than I could have imagined. My green unicorn friend grinning as he placed the tip of his gun on the bandits forehead.

“Now I think we will be taking all of your stuff,” Brisk said, gesturing to the saddlebag that hung from the bandits side. “Then we will figure out what we are going to do with you two.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, waving my hooves at Brisk. “We don’t just go around robbing ponies!”

Brisk just kept grinning. "Oh, but we do Rob ponies," he replied evenly, not taking his gaze away from the brown stallion. "When we run across assholes like these, we do whatever the hell we want with them."

I grit my teeth. "Brisk, put the gun down and let them go," I demanded sternly. "We do not rob other ponies!"

Brisk whirled on me. “We do if they attack us first!” He shouted. “This is the wasteland Amber! Not a fucking Stable! I haven’t been out here long, but it’s becoming pretty damn clear that when somepony has something you want, you take it!”

I stared at him with a mix of shock and growing anger. “That’s not how this fucking works Brisk! It’s shitty enough out here, we don't need to make it any worse by becoming just as bad as them!” I gestured to the grey earth pony who was still struggling to pull himself to his hooves after the last hit.

“What do you think will happens if we go around trying to be nice to every pony we meet Amber?” Brisk shouted back, his face growing ever so slightly red. “You don’t save the wasteland, bandits and raiders aren’t going to give you a fucking gold star if you let them live! All that happens is you end up getting skinned alive by some psycho and the wasteland gets to claim another victim.”

I slapped him; I couldn’t help myself. His head snapped to the side from the sudden impact. I wasn’t very strong so it couldn’t have hurt that much, but it was enough to take him by surprise. “We! Are not! Raiders!” I shouted, waving my baton at him.

I spotted the brown earth pony now a few feet way raising his sniper in his bleeding mouth. I hadn’t seen him move for it while I was distracted by Brisk. Brisk must have seen me react to this however, because he spun around and fired at the bandit without a second thought.

Blam!

The brown stallion dropped dead, blood oozing from the bullet hole in his forehead. I stared at the broken body of the pony in horror. Damn it, we were killing so many ponies already. There was so much blood on our hooves.

"Just because we need to kill to survive, doesn't make us raiders," Brisk retorted coldly, as he shoved his way past me and slowly limped towards the grey pony. The Stallion tried to back away from him, but before he had time to properly react Brisk raised his pistol and sent a bullet through the ponies skull. “Grab their stuff, let’s get going,” Brisk’s voice was low and steady.

I looked at the dead ponies around me. I’m not going to say they didn’t deserve to die, but we could have at least tried to save them. I slowly retrieved the sniper from the ground and began combing through his saddlebag.

I found a couple of bobby pins and a grenade. I made sure not to be to aggressive with the grenade; being this close to an explosive made me nervous. There was something else at the bottom of the bag as well. I reached in and felt around, finding ten or so Sparkle-cola bottle caps. I guessed this guy liked Sparkle-cola or something.

Not finding any use for the caps, I tossed them aside and dumped the rest of his supplies into my saddle bag. I winced slightly as I remember the grenade and proceed to place the remainder of the stuff into my bag much more gently.

I marched over to Brisk who was lying flat on his stomach, clearly trying to reduce the amount of pain he was in.

“Are your legs okay?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

He gave me a quick, pained glance. “Oh yeah, I’ve never felt better,” He coughed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He raised his scarred forehoof and pointed at a building a few feet away from us. “I think I found a place for us to lay low for a bit though.”

I looked closely at the building. It did appear to be in much better condition than the rest of the toppling structures we had past, though that wasn’t saying much. The building was a tall narrow structure, shoved between two other less sturdy looking skyscrapers. Though much of the paint on the front of the building had corroded away over time, I could still make out bits of the white, orange and blue designs that once adorned the front of the structure.

Hanging on a now crooked and precariously dangling sign read the words ‘Carousel boutique: Manehattan branch’.

“The clothing shop?” I asked, glancing back down at Brisk.

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, looks more sturdy than anywhere else around here and it doesn’t look like there are any raiders inside.”

“How can you tell?” I asked, squinting my eyes at the building and trying to make out the finer details through the green haze.

Brisk looked up at me. “You really didn’t see all those bodies, did you?” I shook my head in response. Brisk gave out a low and pained sigh. “Let’s hope you never need to.”

He pushed himself off the ground and tried to take a step forward, stumbled and almost fell back to the ground. I rushed forwards and helped support his weight. I was really starting to wish I had some form of physical strength.

Brisk’s legs were getting worse. The more he walked, the more blood began to spill from the multitude of incisions. I really hoped there was some healing potions inside of that fashion store.

“So tell me about yourself,” I ask Brisk as we slowly made our way down the road to the boutique in the distance.

Brisk gave me a weird glance. “Why?” he skeptically answered between heavy breaths.

“Because,” I started. “It seems we are going to be sticking together out here, and I feel like I should know more about the pony I’m traveling with.”

Brisk nodded in agreement. “Well, what do you want to know?”

I thought for a moment. “Tell me about your cutie mark,” I asked, quickly glancing at the multi coloured cone on his butt. This time I could make out some black letters on it as well, though I couldn’t see exactly what they read. “Is it a party hat?”

He gave a low chuckle. “Sort of. Back when I was in school I was always a bit of a class clown.”

I snickered. “And you aren’t now?”

He rolled his eyes, but smiled all the same. “Well my teacher didn’t tend to find my jokes very funny, so it wasn’t uncommon for me to get in a lot of trouble,” Brisk sighed. “One day my teacher decided to be extra cruel and tossed me in the corner with a big ol' dunce cap on my head. Course before she knew it I was decorating it with crayons and stickers and making it a fun and exciting party hat. Then Kaboom, this little mark appeared on my butt.”

“Soooo,” I glanced at his cutie mark again. “Your cutie mark is a dunce cap?”

“A decorated dunce cap,” he quickly corrected with a slightly defensive tone. “But yeah, it's technically a dunce cap.”

I nodded slowly, but I had no idea what a decorated dunce cap cutie mark meant. Was it that he got in trouble a lot? That he couldn’t be discouraged? That he was simply really annoying? That last one seemed the most probable to me.

“So you’re teacher?” I continued. “Did you have Ms. Dry Chalk as well?”

Brisk grinned deviously. “No way! Dry was her first name?”

I nodded, not really knowing how to respond to that answer. “I’m guessing that’s a yes?”

“Fuck yeah I had Dry Chalk,” Brisk whinnied gleefully. “She had the most dry and uninteresting lectures! Am I right!” He laughed again. “Damn, thinking about pieces of work like her remind me why I’m so much happier out here.”

I chuckled nervously, not mentioning how Ms. Chalk had been my favorite teacher.

I glanced down at Brisk’s legs. “You are still happier out here? Even after being so badly hurt?”

“I told you back in the Stable, I’d be happier out here even if I dropped dead within seconds of leaving. I live for adventure Amber, and this is the greatest adventure there is,” He gave me a wink, making me blush. What the fuck? Why did I blush like that?

Before I could think more about why I had reacted to his wink the way that I did, Brisk turned the questioning around on me. “Alright, now it's your turn. How did you get your cutie mark?”

I folded back my ears at the question. “I fixed a generator… I don’t really like to talk about it?”

Brisk stopped limping and turned to me. “Oh come on now, I answered your questions. What’s the story behind it?”

I flushed. “I’m assuming you’ve heard about my families hereditary cutie mark, yes?” I asked, nodding towards the building and making him continue walking. Brisk nodded. I sighed. “Well, when I didn’t get the same cutie mark and my dad realized I wasn’t going to become the next Overmare he… well…”

“Became really disappointed?” Brisk offered in a monotone voice, though hints of sarcasm were still present.

I nodded. “That’s a rather blunt way of putting it, but yeah. He was disappointed in my existence. I’m sure he still loved me and all, he just wished I was somepony else and not the failure that I am.”

Brisk shrugged. “Well you managed to escape the Stable and survive a group of raiders and bandits, so I’d say that you can't be that big of a failure.”

I gave him a small smile. “Thanks, I appreciate the effort, but that just kinda makes me a bigger disappointment in dads eyes. He probably hates me more now for leaving the Stable the way that I did.”

We finally arrived at the ruins of Carousel boutique. It looked just about the same up close as it did from a distance, though now the blue and orange patterns on the wall were a little more visible. In the cracked and dusty window on the right I could see a mannequin dressed the tattered remains of what was once a beautiful dress.

I stiffened as I looked at the mannequin. It was probably just a coincidence, but it just so happened to be positioned in a way that made it’s hollow eyes stare straight at us. It was spooky.

We pushed open the half broken door and stumbled into the boutique, the top of the door hitting a rusted bell that made a pathetic clank as it opened. We half limped, half fell into the center of the room.

Brisk had been right, the building did appear to be in better condition than everywhere else. Unlike the rest of the building, the roof seemed almost perfectly intact with only a few small holes in it. A curved staircase lead up to a second floor and piles of stained and ripped clothing lay in large heaps on the floor.

There we also mannequins. Lots and lots of mannequins. The creepy, faceless, beige pony models were everywhere you looked. Some stood in normal spots, displaying clothes like you would expect to find in a boutique, but others stood in random places such as the middle of the floor or hanging from the ceiling.

“Wow, you couldn’t have picked a creepier spot, could you?” I scolded, picking myself up off the floor and looking closer at the mannequins.

“At least we are off the road where somepony might attack us,” Brisk reminded, sitting back on his haunches and keeping his front hooves off the ground.

There was a sudden crash of thunder and the beginnings of rain began to drizzle from the cloud layer above us. I stared at it in confusion for a second at the water droplets descending down, taking a few moments to understand what I was looking at. I had read about rain in books, but to see it in person was absolutely fascinating.

Brisk pointed towards the rain. “And we are out of whatever that is, so I’d say coming in here was a good idea, regardless of how creepy it is.”

“It’s called rain,” I informed him, still staring at the weather outside. “And it’s harmless.”

“Whatever, I didn’t listen to all that stuff in school,” Brisk replied. “I’m not even sure why they taught that in the Stable, you know, with the lack of sky and weather in there.”

There was a small thump upstairs, catching both of our attentions, shortly followed by a small yelp and another small thumping noise.

Really, this place couldn’t just be abandoned? It just had to have something in it, didn’t it?

Brisk and I exchanged a glance. He groaned. “No, we are not checking it out,” he complained, seeing the clear determination in my eyes.

“What if somepony is in trouble up there?” I questioned in a low whisper. “We can’t just leave them.”

“If we go up there then we might be in trouble as well,” Brisk retaliated, glancing up at the roof. “I say we sneak off into this rain thing that is apparently harmless and get out of here,” He turned towards the door and froze.

A hunched over figure stood twitching in the doorway. It appeared to be a pony, except it seemed wrong. Though hard to make out in the dim light, I could see large scars and blisters marking up wrinkled and rotting skin. Small tufts of greasy hair sprouted from the top of the pony creatures head and its eyes had a strange whitish glow to them.

Oddest of all, it didn’t appear to be looking at us, but rather sniffing the area around it as if trying to make sense of the situation.

I checked the EFS on my pipbuck. Red bar. Whatever this was, it wasn’t friendly. Then I spotted the green bars. Lots and lots and lots of green bars were all around us. I gulped and looked at the mannequins.

For Celestia’s sake, please tell me my EFS wasn’t picking up those mannequins.

Brisk quickly checked his pipbuck as well. “Not friendly,” He whispered to me. He glanced back down at the EFS on his pipbuck and his eyes widened in surprise as he spotted all the green bars as well. Brisk quickly glanced at the mannequins as I had just done mere moments before, the same thought I had just had no doubt running through his mind.

I nodded and pulled out the sniper rifle with my hooves, not wanting the light of my horn to catch the zombie ponies attention. I stared down the scope at the creature, making out more of its features with the magnified scope. I could clearly make out a set of razor sharp rotting teeth and large gashes that revealed bits of bone and muscle underneath the creatures already peeling skin.

The creature turned and looked down the barrel of my sniper, spotting the two of us for the first time. It curled back it’s lip and screamed.

Blam!

The sniper fired and put a bullet right between the zombie ponies eyes. It’s head exploded causing blood, brain matter, and bits of skull fragments flying everywhere.

Then the green bars on my EFS turned red.

Fuck, that was bad. Very bad.

I glanced around at the mannequins, expecting them to start moving. Instead, the piles of shredded dresses on the floor began to rise, revealing the small army of zombie ponies that had once been sleeping beneath them.

“Now would be a good time to get out of here!” Brisk yelped, forcing himself to his hooves and limping to the door as fast as his injured legs could carry him.

I prepared to follow him when three zombie ponies blocked the exit and began advancing. Brisk whirled around on his back legs and began rushing up the stairs as fast as he could, doing his best to ignore the pain.

“Where are you going!” I shouted, quickly chasing behind him as the zombie ponies pulled themselves to their hooves and began shuffling towards us.

I would have expected them to be slow due to their decrepit and beaten appearance, but shit they moved fast. A few lunged at me, grasping onto my back hoof and pulling me back down the stairs.

My baton was out in a flash, bashing them all over the head as they quickly sprang at me. Each hit of the baton bursting one of their head open or shattering one of their limbs. At least they didn’t seem very durable.

“Upstairs, hopefully there are less up there!” Brisk replied hastily, as he bolted towards the iron door at the top of the steps and forcefully yanked it open.

I kicked the final zombie pony off of me and scuttled after him into the room upstairs. I slammed the door behind me and bolted it shut with a rusty lock that had clearly seen better days. I could hear the zombie ponies scratching at the door behind me, but for the time being they seemed to be being held at bay, but who knew how long that would last.

I turned from the door and surveyed the room. And it looked as if I had just stepped out of one nightmare and into another.

Like the last room, this one was filled with mannequins. Some stood like they were supposed to, while others hung from the roof by sloppily tied nooses. In this room however, none of the mannequins wore any dresses.

In the center of the room was a petite looking zombie pony with the tangled remains of a light cyan mane. She wore a ripped sailor collar with a scarlet tie and the remains of a floppy hat cutie mark could still be seen on her decaying rump. Worst of all however was that she was tied down to a table with large chains held together by a rusted lock and had bits of fabric sewn onto her, creating a permanent makeshift dress. Bruises across her body showed the signs of multiple beatings. A multitude of sewing needles had been stabbed into her flesh as if she were a pincushion.

I glanced down at my EFS. Her bar was green. I guess not all zombie ponies aren’t out to eat you.

Her cyan eyes met mine, and for a second I wanted to rush over and unite her. Then I saw her lips move ever so slightly through her tight gag. I squinted to try and make out the words.

“Run,” She seemed to be trying to say.

My eyes started darting around the room. Run? From what? My eyes landed on a small door at the far end of the room. I checked my pipbuck. There was a red bar behind it. I saw the the door open a crack.

Shit! We didn’t need more things trying to kill us.

I pushed Brisk down to the floor behind a pile of mannequins just as the door fully opened to reveal a pale orchid zombie pony with a violet mane and a cutie mark of three buttons. I pulled out my sniper and tried to get a shot on her, but all the mannequins kept getting in my line of sight.

“Shut up out there!” The zombie pony yelled at the door where we had just come through. There were a few scratches, but almost instantly it died to almost nothing. The zombie pony gave a big false grin. “That’s much better. You are all so kind, m'kay.”

The orchid zombie pony slowly approached the tied up mare in the center of the room. The tied up mare squirmed, but seemed otherwise unable to break free of her bonds.

“Alright Coco, I do hope you are feeling alright today,” the zombie pony flared up her horn and pulled one of the needles out of Coco’s foreleg. Coco squirmed as the thin piece of metal was removed, but didn’t make much more than a small squeak of pain. “I’ve got a lovely dress idea that you are simply going to adore, 'kay? m'kay.”

I didn’t like how much this zombie pony said the word okay.

I slowly began creeping around the side of the mannequins, hoping to be able to line up a clear shot at the zombie ponies head. Before I got the chance however, Brisk quickly pulled me back behind the shelter.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” He whispered in a startled voice. “Do you want to get us killed?”

“I’m trying to save that poor pony,” I replied in an equally low whisper. “We can’t just leave her like that.”

Brisk pointed to an elevator only a few steps away from us. “Yes we can, lets just hop into that and get the fuck out of here before we get into any more trouble.”

“Oh, come on. There are two of us and only one of her,” I pointed out, trying to move back into a position where I could get a clear shot at the hostile zombie pony. “Let’s save that thing and then get to safety.”

Brisk just stared at me in awe. “You’re crazy,” He muttered.

I grinned. “Hey, you’re the one that decided to followed me on my quest or whatever.”

Brisk crossed his forelegs and snorted. “Don’t mock me.”

I looked back over the top of the mannequins. Holy fuck, the hostile zombie pony was literally sewing dresses onto Coco. I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from vomiting. That was horrifying.

I began moving closer to the ghastly scene. A floorboard creaked under my hoof, causing me to stop and check to make sure the zombie hadn’t noticed me. To my relief, the hostile zombie pony hadn’t seemed to hear anything. Coco on the other hand was staring at me with wide pleading eyes as a large piece of fabric was sewn onto her chest, the metal sewing needle piercing her flesh over and over again as it weaved between her and the soon to be dress.

Goddesses how long had she been like this?

“I’m coming to save you, don’t worry,” I mouthed to her as I slowly took a few steps closer. I raised the sniper and aimed it at the hostile zombie ponies head.

You got this Amber, don’t fuck up now.

I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

Blam!

A bullet burst from the barrel of the sniper with such force I was knocked onto my rump. The hostile zombie ponies ear exploded in a bloody burst of flesh and cartilage.

Fuck! How do I miss a perfectly lined up shot like that!? This is why I was a mechanic and not Stable security of anything else that would required me to be useful at something.

The zombie pony whirled around to face me, snarling at me with it’s rotten teeth. Shit.

I pulled the trigger on the sniper again.

Click.

It was empty. Of fucking course it was empty! Why would my luck allow for anything else?

“Looks like I found somepony new to help me make my dresses,” the zombie pony sneered, taking a few steps towards me. Radioactive blood dripped from the now bloody stump of her ear and down her face. “You are going to be perfect for my new line, m'kay.”

Then she lunged at me. Really damn fast. Why do these rotting ponies move so fucking fast!

I jumped out of the way as the zombie pony barreled past me and slammed into a cluster of mannequins I had been standing in front of, knocking most of them off their flimsy base and sending them toppling to the floor. She had hardly come to a halt when the zombie pony pulled itself back to its hooves and lunged at me again.

I tried to dodge to the side again, only to trip on my own hooves and fall flat on my face. The pale orchid zombie pony reared up in front of me, its sharp teeth glinting in the dim light of the room.

Blam!

A shot from Brisk’s pistol ripped through her leg, forcing the appendage to buckle at the joint. The zombie pony collapsed to her knees from the impact, hot blood spurting from the bullet wound. The creatures head snapped toward the pile of mannequins that Brisk cowered behind, her milky eyes locking onto Brisk’s.

I could see Brisk struggling with his gun. Shit, looked like he was out of ammo as well. Just our luck. He began slowly backing away as the zombie pony advanced on him.

I whipped out my shock baton and slammed it against the creatures back leg. There was a snap as the zombie ponies back leg broke. Somehow, the two broken limbs didn’t seem to slow it down much as it spun around and slashed at me with uncomfortably sharp hooves.

A searing pain shot across my face as her hoof struck me. I could feel blood trickle down my cheek as a small gash spread across the area the zombie pony had struck.

I raised my baton to protect myself as the crazed zombie pony went to strike again when Brisk leaped over the mannequins and stabbed his machete into the creatures side, his blade still clenched tightly in his mouth. The serrated blade piercing the squishy flesh and protruding from the other side of her body.

The zombie pony spun back around to him snarling, pulling itself from the metal blade “Would you both stop doing that? m'kay!” It howled at him, enraged. It lashed out at Brisk, knocking him off his already unsteady hooves and sending him sprawling across the floor.

It began limping towards him again, only for me to knock the zombie pony back down with a whack of my shock baton across its back. The zombie pony collapsed to the ground screaming.

Screaming that brought a lot of trouble with it.

The zombie ponies outside began banging and scratching on the door at the sound of the screaming, reminding me of their presents. The door began to shake violently as the rotting hoard threatened to rip it off its hinges.

We needed to get out of here quickly.

I swung my baton on the pale orchid zombie ponies head, hoping to finish her off before the other zombie ponies managed to break down to door, only for the zombie pony to swiftly knock the baton away with her two remaining good legs. The baton flew from my telekinesis and landed next to the tied up zombie pony.

The orchid zombie pony lashed out at me again, creating a slightly larger gash across my cheek in the other direction. This time however, Brisk’s machete flew forward to meet her outstretched hoof, slicing the decrepit limb right off.

The zombie pony howled in pain as she watched the severed stump of her foreleg fly from her body and land with a pathetic thump on the floor next to her. She growled at Brisk and lunged at him again, digging her teeth into the flesh of his neck. Brisk tied to stab at her with the machete, but found it impossible with the blade still in his mouth.

I screamed… something, I’m not exactly sure what, before lunging at the two of them myself. I grabbed onto the writhing pile of rotting flesh that was the zombie pony and began prying her off of Brisk. There was a disgusting popping sound as the creatures rotting teeth dislodged themselves from his neck.

Brisk fell backwards, applying pressure over his neck with his injured hooves to prevent the bleeding. He pushed against the floor with his hind legs to scoot away from the raging zombie pony who was struggling to escape my grasp. Finally it gave a rather large jerk and clamped its teeth around my forehoof. I loosened my grip both from shock and pain just long enough for it to wriggle free of my grasp.

I took a quick step back to avoid the creatures gnashing teeth and glanced over at my baton halfway across the room. Far to far away for me to get to. Brisk caught my glance and began limping towards my fallen weapon for me.

I jumped sideways as the zombie pony swiped at my neck in an attempt to rip open my throat, giving me enough time to pull out my empty sniper and use it as a shield as the creature regained its stance and lunged at me again.

I really wanted to know how it managed to move so fast with only three legs.

I pushed my sniper against its chest hard, staggering it for long enough to move a bit closer to where my baton lay before the creature pulled itself back to its feet and stumbled towards me.

I could see the door leading to the horde of zombie ponies outside the room was almost off its hinges, the flimsy lock on the door seemingly the only thing keeping it from completely breaking down.

I heard Brisk shout something and saw my baton sliding across the floor towards me out of the corner of my eye. I scooped it up with my magic and slammed it against the zombie ponies face, shattering a part of her skull and making the entire left side of her face go slack.

The zombie pony however continued advancing, though notably slower than before. I raised both my baton and sniper with my magic and began bashing the creature over and over with the blunt objects. With each hit some part of the zombie pony broke. First their still functioning legs, then their body, then their head. Finally I crushed the creatures neck between both of my weapons.

At last the rotting pale orchid zombie pony went slack and fell over dead.

I took a second to breath, relieved that I wasn’t under attack. Then the banging against the door grew louder. Right, small army of zombie ponies outside… I’m still under attack.

I rushed over to where Brisk was slowly bleeding out on the floor. “Are you alright?” I asked, quickly looking over the new bite wounds on his neck. Between his neck and legs, Brisk was losing a lot of blood. I was surprised he was still able to keep conscious.

Brisk glared at me dumbly. “What do you think Amber?” He asked sarcastically, pushing himself up off the ground and wadding over to the tied up zombie pony.

I followed him and began trying to pull the large chains that held her down off of her. The chains did little but shift position as if mocking me.

“You’re not just going to be able to pull them off,” Brisk stated, looking over the chains. “You'll need to pick that lock if you really want to get her out of there,” He pointed to the large lock connecting the chains together.

“I don’t know how to pick locks,” I responded, looking the lock over myself. “Can you pick it?”

Brisk looked at me in shock. “What? Pick it?” I raised my eyebrow at him skeptically. I remembered him saying something about picking locks back in the Stable. “I mean, sure I probably can, but not before those crazy zombie ponies outside get in. We are going to need to just leave her here and save ourselves,” I could see Coco’s eyes widen in horror at his words.

I stopped my hoof down hard. “No! We are not leaving her like this Brisk!” I shouted, pointing at the lock. “Now get picking, I’ll hold off the zombie ponies when they come in.”

Brisk narrowed his eyes at me, clearly disapproving of my choice and not liking my rather bossy attitude, but bent down and started picking the lock anyway. I approached the tied up zombie ponies head and pulled the gag off of her mouth, allowing her to gasp for air.

“Please, don’t leave me,” Coco pleaded, with a trembling voice.

I shook my head. “We aren’t going anywhere until you are out of these chains,” I declared sternly, giving the tied up pony a small reassuring smile.

Brisk grunted. “We might never be going anywhere if those freaks break down the door,” Brisk complained around the mouth of the bobby pin he had slid into the lock.

I gave him a quick warning stare before returning my attention to the scared zombie pony. “Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay… What is you name?” I asked, trying my best to calm her down. I was never very good dealing with ponies emotions, or my own emotions for that matter.

Thankfully, the conversation seemed to be helping. Her shaking was slowly decreasing. I wondered how long it had been since she had talked to someone that wasn’t trying to torture her. “Coco Pommel,” she replied quietly.

“How long have you been here?” I continued, trying to keep her calm.

Coco Pommel thought for a second, before finally shaking her head. “I don’t know, it’s hard to keep track of things after the bombs fell. I feel like I’m losing my memory more and more every day,” she replied. “A few years, I think.”

Since the bombs fell? She wasn’t talking about… there was no way that?

“200 years?!” I exclaimed, staring at her in shock. “You’ve been alive for over 200 years!”

The zombie ponies eyes widened. “Goddesses has it really been that long?” she sounded just as surprised as I was. She pointed over to the zombie pony we had just killed. “Suri Polomare was always talking about never having enough time to finish her fashion line… It couldn’t have been that long.”

I guessed Suri Polomare was the name of that monster we had just killed. Great, now there was a name to the body. As if I wasn’t going to have enough nightmares about all of this.

The zombie ponies outside bashed against the door even harder, causing the door to break off from its hinges at the top and dangle at a slant, allowing us to see the milky eyes of the numerous zombie ponies outside the door. To my surprise, the door somehow managed to hold them back a little longer and simply refused to collapse completely.

There was a click and the lock fell away, allowing Coco Pommel to slowly rise to her hooves. She swayed slightly for a second as if she we about to fall over before looking at the two of us.

“Thank you,” Coco said shakily, glancing at the door.

“Alright, great! We saved her!” Brisk bristled. "Can we get out of this deathtrap now!” He pointed to the elevator, urging me to hurry up.

I nodded quickly and gestured for Coco Pommel to follow. “Yeah, come on. I don’t think that door will last much longer.”

Coco Pommel glanced at the door as another wave of banging caused it to nearly fall in completely. “No, you two go. I’ll try and keep them from coming after you.”

“What?” I replied, dumbfounded. “We can’t just leave you here. Not after all of that!”

“It’s okay,” Coco Pommel replied, oddly calm. “They won't attack me. Besides, I’ll try and see if I can get this shop up and running again. Maybe try and make the wasteland a better place.”

I was going to argue, but Brisk grabbed my leg and began pulling me towards the elevator. “Be careful,” I shouted back at her as Brisk shoved me into the elevator.

Coco Pommel gave me a quick smile. “I will, thank you!”

The zombie ponies finally broke down the door and began flooding into the room. To my relief, Coco Pommel seemed to be right. Not a single one seemed to bother her other than a quick sniff.

With a squeal of metal on metal as the elevator began descending to the floors below. I was unsure exactly where it was going, as I thought there we only two floors to the boutique and we sure as hell weren’t going to go back to floor one.

I turned to express my concerns on the matter to Brisk when there was a loud crash and the elevator shook violently, then fell far past where the bottom floor should have been.

Everything was dark. I slowly pulled myself to my hooves and brushed the dust and rubble off of my coat. I looked around. Nothing, everything was just black. I reached down and turned on my pipbuck flashlight, expecting it to illuminate the room. Again nothing.

“What the fuck?” I muttered examining my pipbuck closer. I Brushed my hoof across the screen and wiped away a thick layer of dust that had obscured it. A bright green light burst from behind the dust and lit the room up.

It was a small room made out of a mix of broken concrete and rock. Most likely it wasn’t even supposed to exist and had simply been created due to a mix of balefire detonation and erosion. A rusted pipe hung from the roof slowly filling up the room with a gross sludgy brown fluid that I really really hoped was just water. The broken remains of the elevator lay in ruins halfway through the wall, separating me from a larger room beyond.

Something was missing from the room however. I glanced around to make sure I hadn’t just missed him lying still in one of the shadowy corners.

“Brisk?!” I shouted, looking about the room. “Brisk are you there?!”

There was a small sound of coughing from the far side of the elevator, but nothing more.

I Sighed. He was still alive. That was a relief. “Hold on Brisk,” I shouted, quickly approaching the crashed elevator and beginning to climb through it into the room beyond. “I’m coming for you.”

As I pulled my way through the wreckage I could begin to make out the faint flickering sound of music playing. Fuck, don’t tell me it was the damned Stable-Tec March song!

As I climbed into the dark room beyond I began make out slight differences in the song. Not the Stable-Tec March, but the song that dumb robot bug had been playing when we had first escaped the Stable. The light of my pipbuck landed on the broken remains of one of the metal robots, half buried under a pile of rocks.The song coming from the robot kept cutting in and out as the robot attempted to keep itself running. The bot was lying next to a long tunnel that looked like it had once been some form of sewage for the city before the war.

I glanced around the room and saw the pile of green fur below me, lying in a large pool of his own blood. I hopped off of the ruined elevator and looked over Brisk closely.

His front two legs had gotten stuck underneath the elevator. As if his legs weren’t broken enough. Most of his body was covered in large purple bruises and a few long scratches ran across his body. He did not look good.

He slowly tilted his head up towards me and caught my eye. “Hey,” his voice was so frail, so not like the Brisk I had met.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “Hi,” shit, I couldn’t let him die now. “We need to get you some medication,” I said, glancing down at his legs. “Can you walk?”

He looked at the broken limbs, now stuck underneath the elevator. He gave a grunt and shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he glanced over at the broken robot that continued to hum it’s annoying tune. “Damn, I ran away from that Fucking Stable, hoping to get away from that damn song,” He paused so that he could cough. Blood came out of his mouth. “Yet here I am, about to die listening to that goddess damned tune.”

“You aren’t going to die here,” I tried to reassure him. “I’ll think of something.”

Brisk tried to pull his legs out from the collapsed metal, only to find them very much stuck. “No offense Amber, but I’m pretty sure you won’t be getting me out of this one.”

The music coming out of the robot finally began to die down as the song came to a close. Both Brisk and I gave a sigh of relief as we welcomed the eerie silence of the room.

And then the song started up again, this time louder and more annoying than ever. Brisk finally snapped. “Shut up you stupid machine!”

Silence. The music shut off at his request. We both froze, staring at the broken robot lying on the ground. Could it hear us? Was it listening?

Slowly I approached it. “Um, can you hear us?” I asked, tapping my hoof against the cracked metal sphere.

There was a quick buzz of static, followed by a synthetic voice coming out of the robot. “Yes, I can hear you.”

I scuttled back from the robot with a small shriek. "Holy shit!" I took a second to calm down. I took a deep breath and looked closer at the robot. "Who are you? Why are you listening to us? Are you a robot? And what the fuck are you?"

“My name is Watcher,” the synthetic voice replied. “No I am not a robot, I’m somewhere else and am just speaking to you through this Sprite Bot, and you don’t need to know why I am listening to you,” any emotion that he might have had was obscured by the synthetic voice. Odd, hadn’t a real ponies voice come out of this robot before?

“What do you want,” Brisk grunted from behind me, still trying to dislodge his legs from below the wreckage.

“To help you,” Watcher replied, a small camera on the bottom of the Sprite Bot attempted to flare to life, but with a small shower of sparks, it shut out.

“How can you help us?” I asked, slowly approaching the Sprite Bot again.

Watcher was silent for a long time. For a second I began to wonder if he had left or if the Sprite Bot had finally shut down for good. Right when I was about to give up hope that he would return, his voice came back over the speakers. “Alright, down the hallway and to your left there should be an abandoned bunker originally planned as a possible escape for Rarity if she were to be in her boutique when the bombs fell. It should be clear of any ghouls, I can see no records of it ever being opened in the last 200 years,” Watcher said, another shower of sparks erupting from the Sprite Bot and making the voice flicker in and out for a second. “You should be able to find medical supplies in there.”

“Thank you Watcher,” I responded, looking down the hallway he had mentioned. Save for the light of my pipbuck, it was completely black, so I had no idea if the bunker he was talking about was actually down there. Watcher remained silent. I turned back to him and tapped on the Sprite Bot. “Hello? Watcher?” Nothing.

I glanced back nervously at Brisk who looked equally as confused. Hopefully Watcher was trustworthy, I didn’t really have any other choices. Without wasting any more time I began trotting down the dark tunnel. Hopefully I could get the medical supplies in time for Brisk, I didn’t want to know how much time he had left.

As Watcher had said, after only a minute of walking down the hallway I came across the metal bunker door with an access terminal beside it. Thank Celestia the door was locked with a computer and not a lock and key. I can hack a terminal and I think I've made it pretty clear that I can't pick a lock.

It only took me two minutes to hack the terminal, getting the pass code on my second attempt. Though honestly, ‘image’ wasn’t the hardest password to guess.

The door slid open with a screech. Almost instantly the Geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking furiously. Shit, that was a lot of radiation.

I took a step back from the door to avoid further radiation and peered into the room. There wasn’t much inside, just a small fold up bed, a sink and a shelf full of supplies against the far side of the room. I searched for medical supplies from the hallway, not wanting to be in that room any longer than I had to. The idea of radiation wasn’t a pleasant one to me.

At last I spotted the medical box sporting the image of three butterflies on the bottom shelf at the far end of the room. I took a deep breath. “Alright, here goes nothing,” And I dove head first into the room.

My Geiger counter exploded with clicking. I watched the rads I was taking in increase from 5 rads a second to 20 to 30. I could feel my skin slowly beginning to boil in the radioactive air.

I grabbed onto the medic pack and threw it into my saddlebags. No time to check on what is inside, I was just going to have to make do with whatever was within. I was about to dart out of the room when I saw it lying against the wall behind where the medic pack had once been.

A small statuette of Rarity. There was something about the small statuette that drew me to it, I simply had to have it. At the bottom of the statuette was a small inscription reading ‘Be Unwavering’. Without thinking, I picked it up in a field of telekinesis and threw it into my saddlebags. As soon as it was in my possession I felt better somehow, as if the whole world could be fixed with just the right touch of a creative mind. Maybe it could. Maybe I could.

I glanced down at my pipbuck. 70 rads a second, fuck! I bolted out of the room, accidentally slamming myself into the far wall of the tunnel. I hadn’t been inside of the bunker for half a minute and I was already well over 200 rads.

I pulled open the medic pack and looked inside. Two slightly glowing bags of RadAway looked up at me among an assortment of other medications. I quickly pulled the bags out and gulped down the vile fluid inside. I watched my rad levels slowly drop down to around 40 rads. Not completely rad free, but much better.

I pulled out the Rarity statuette and looked it over more closely. It was so lifelike, as if someone had shrunk the old ministry mare and placed her on a tiny stage. It felt nice to, having something that looked similar to Shade from my Stable, a small way to remember home. Turning it over, I found a small note pinned to the bottom reading, ‘If we never meet again Coco, Thank you’. I would have to make sure to give this to Coco Pommel if I ever saw her again.

I picked myself up of the ground and slowly made my way back to Brisk.

As I came to the wreckage of the elevator, I saw that Brisk had managed to finally pull his forelegs free of elevator and had pulled himself into the corner of the room as he attempted to stop the bleeding to no avail.

He looked up as I approached, eyeing the medic pack I held aloft in my magic. “I’m taking it that Watcher was telling the truth,” It wasn’t really a question.

I nodded as I pulled out three healing potions from the pack and levitated one of them to his lips. He quickly drank the liquid, the skin and muscle on his forelegs and neck slowly began patching their way back together. It took two healing potions for the skin around the wounds to fully heal over, leaving only a gross looking patch of hairless skin.

Unfortunately, while the wound itself healed, his broken legs remained broken. I handed him the final potion, but he raised a hoof and gestured for me to have it. I looked down at my body. I wasn’t doing to hot myself. Granted my legs weren’t broken, but I still hand numerous cuts and bruises form the fall in the elevator and the fight with Suri Polomare had left quite a few gashes on me, including a large bite mark on my forehoof.

I lifted the healing potion to my own mouth and took a long swig of the magical fluid. I could feel the itchy feeling of my flesh slowly beginning to mend itself back together as the potion took effect.

I don’t suppose you have something for broken limbs, do you?” Brisk asked, much of the life that had been in his voice had returned, though he still sounded tired.

I dug through the bag, looking for something that might do that. There were a few bandages and some gauze. I could probably make a makeshift cast, but then he wouldn’t be able to walk. Finally I found a jar of some yellowy orange coloured tablets. A label across the bottle read ‘Buck’ and below that in smaller lettering read ‘Isosteroprophenhol’.

I held up the jar of anabolic steroids for him to see. “These won't fix your legs, but I think they should make it easier to walk,” I floated the jar over and he popped a tablet into his mouth.

His eyes widened as the tablet hit his tongue. He chewed on it thoughtfully for a second, then to my surprise, stood up as if his legs were fine. They weren’t of course, the bruising and odd angle of the joints were a dead giveaway of that, but at least he was standing.

“Well aren’t those handy,” He grinned, spinning in a circle and almost laughing at his ability to walk again.

I winced as he carelessly twirled. “Careful, your legs are still broken. The Buck is just a way of ignoring the pain and being strong enough to continue carrying yourself,” I warned, turning from him and dumping the contents of the medic pack into my saddlebags. “Just make sure you have one of those when you feel it starting to run out until we can find an actual doctor or a medical brace of some form.”

Brisk just grinned like the idiot that he was and did another small twirl, this time falling flat on his rump. “You got it,” He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the tunnel. “Well I guess we are going to need to figure out where this tunnel goes,” I said, beginning to walk down the tunnel as Brisk pulled himself up and began to follow me. “There has got to be some way out of here.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Daddy's Girl -- +5 Science and +Medicine

Author's Notes:

And there is chapter 2, I hope you all enjoyed.

The word Isosteroprophenhol originates from Somber's Project Horizons (ch61), so I'm just going to credit Somber here for that and any other references to his fan fiction that may arise throughout this story. There will definitely be more PH references to come, so be ready for that.

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira

Chapter III: Xayah

“Ha! Now that’s what this Wasteland needs; More women with spunk! ...And explosives”

Pathetic.

I had been called pathetic many times throughout my life. You could say that it had practically become a second name to me. The first time somepony had dared to call me that was on the first day of school, just over 17 years ago. One of the more bold bullies in my class whom hadn't consider the repercussions of bullying the Overstallions daughter had said I was a ‘pathetic know it all that hid behind her daddy’. I’ll be honest, that had been so long ago that I don’t even remember the bullies name.

I can remember his face though. He had a brown coat with a turquoise mane and bright orange eyes. The colour palette had looked absolutely ridiculous on him, and I had reassured myself that anyone that looked as dumb as that surely had no right to be calling me pathetic and must clearly just be insecure about them self. Goddesses I was so naive back then.

Of course, once it got out that I would never become Overmare of the Stable, that word pathetic suddenly got thrown around a lot more. I was called pathetic for cowering behind my dad, pathetic for taking my punches instead of fighting back, pathetic for trying to stand up for myself on the off chance I tried to avoid a beating, pathetic for ruining my families legacy.

That last one was what always got to me the most. I could take being a coward, I could even take a beating or two, but I couldn’t stand knowing that I had failed so many others so badly. My father had never called me pathetic, but everypony in the Stable, including myself knew full well that that was exactly what he thought of me.

And now the bullies didn’t need to worry about the repercussions of picking on the Overstallions daughter, because the sad fact was that the Overstallion simply didn’t care.

I was slammed against the Stable wall with such force I nearly dropped the small stack of papers I had been carrying in my telekinesis. I had been thrown upwards slightly, my side smashing into the wall just high enough that my hooves couldn’t touch the ground. Almost as if in a cartoon, I slowly slid down the side of the wall and lay in an aching pile on the floor.

Two ponies stood over me. A dull grey earth pony stallion with a light green mane and a silver unicorn mare with an annoyingly cute, yet intolerably smug smile. I had thought they had both looked rather attractive when I had first spotted them; not anymore though, that was for sure.

The unicorn mare’s horn flared up in a small flash of green light and ripped the stack of papers from my magic; tossing the pages about the room and scattering all of my carefully organized generator schematics. I tried to reach for the falling pieces of paper, but before I could, the earth pony bucked my in the breast and sent my flopping back onto my back, my legs flailing above me like a flipped over Radroach.

The two ponies chuckled at my display of helplessness and turned from me, walking down the hallway in the direction they had been heading before they had decided to give me a beating. As they turned the unicorn mare’s tail flicked me across the face. It wasn’t painful, but it hurt my pride like crazy.

“Your daddy is a fucking cunt,” The mare said in a mocking tone, not bothering to look back at me as they two of them left.

I rubbed my face where the tail had hit me. I could have sworn that I still felt the soft hairs that had slapped me across the face only seconds before. I began sulking about the hallway, doing my best to pick up scattered papers. I could feel tears slowly forming in my eyes, though I was unsure if they were from pain or broken pride.

“Amber? What in Luna’s name happened to you?” I heard Shade say as she approached me from the direction the two ponies had just gone. “You look like you just got ploughed a few times the wrong way.”

I looked up at her, teary eyed. I caught her worried look and returned my gaze to the papers on the floor. “Nothing, I’m fine.”

“You could have fooled me,” Shade shook her head disapprovingly, her white mane bouncing atop her head as she did. She glanced down at a bottle of whiskey she had in her possession before raising it to me. “Here, I always have some whiskey when I’m feeling down.”

I eyed the bottle suspiciously. “Um, Shade… I’m like, 11 years old?” I informed her, pushing the bottle away from me with a hoof. “I’m pretty sure dad would kill me if he found out I was drinking whiskey.”

Shade made a weird spitting noise with her mouth. “Oh please, I drank plenty of times when I was your age. Your dad won’t even know.”

“Really?” As we talked I could hear the quiet vapors of the A.A.S.S. Seeping through the ventilation system and into the air as it gave the Stable its second daily dose of nutrition. Most ponies didn’t even notice the noise that it made, it was just something I had begun to notice more after having worked with the A.A.S.S. for so long.

Shade squished up her face. “Well, he probably won't know. I mean my dad didn’t run the place and have access to all the security cameras. So it was probably easier for me to get away with.”

I took a deep sigh and floated the bottle over to me, setting down the papers with my magic to allow myself to levitate the bottle more easily. I was still working on managing to levitate more than one thing at a time. I put my eye to the bottle and looked at the liquid inside.

“Amber, time to eat up,” Shade said with a grin, her voice slightly deeper than usual.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You mean drink up? Right?” Eat up? What does that even mean?

Shade looked confused. “Nope, this is definitely food,” wait a minute. That wasn’t Shade’s voice. It was Brisk’s!

I opened my eyes to see Brisk standing over me with a large grin on his face. Of course I wasn’t a filly back in Stable 25. Goddesses, dreams felt so real sometimes.

“Talking in your sleep huh?” Brisk commented, moving away from me and to a small fire he had made in the center of the tunnel. I was surprised he had been so successful setting up the fire with all of the sewage water on the floor.

I propped myself up and looked into the fire. To my surprise I saw two long stick with skewered pieces of meat on them. “What are you doing?” I asked, eyeing the meat.

Brisk picked the two sticks up with his mouth and gave one of them to me. “It’s food, to eat and stuff.”

I stared at him blankly. “Food?” What was he talking about? That stuff ponies used to eat back before the bombs fell? Besides, weren’t ponies vegetarian or something? My stomach seemed to growl at me as I thought about it, giving me a bit of a scare. I jumped a little as it made another menacing noise. “What the fuck! I think My stomach just growled!”

Brisk chuckled. “Yeah, mine too. I’m pretty sure it’s because we’re hungry.”

I gave him another funny look. “Hungry? But the A.A.S.S. should keep us from…” I trailed off as what he was implying hit me like a brick wall. We weren’t in the Stable anymore, and we didn’t have the A.A.S.S. keeping us alive! We were going to need to eat or we would starve and die! The thought of that scared me more than the endless vast expanse of sky that hung over Manehattan.

I grabbed the stick that Brisk had held out to me and began chewing on the weird lump of meat. It was oddly stringy, but not awful. I gnawed on the meat thoughtfully for a moment, trying to figure out exactly how to properly devour it. Do you swallow it like water? How long do I need to chew it before it is ready to be swallowed.

Brisk looked at me with mild amusement, as if I had just done something really weird. I weird feeling washed over me as I began to realize exactly what I had just taking a large bite out of.

It was a Radroach head. I had just bitten, chewed and swallowed a Radroach head. I tried to spit up the meat, but it was to late. Down my throat it went.

I stared up at Brisk in horror. “Oh goddesses, why did you make me eat that?” I gasped.

He chuckled. “I didn’t make you eat anything,” he cooed, looking down at his slab of Radroach meat in disdain. “And for what it’s worth, you probably would have had to eat that anyway, so perhaps getting some down before you knew what it was wasn't the worst thing.”

He was right, of course. I looked down at the charred insect head and gulped. Welp, here goes nothing. I bent my head down and took another bite. The taste hadn’t changed, but now knowing what it was I couldn’t help but gag.

Brisk turned his nose up in disgust and began eating his Radroach meat as well, though he seemed to be a little less disgusted by it than I was.

We ate in silence for a few moments, not really knowing what to say. At last, Brisk Spark spoke up. “So what were you dreaming about? You seemed to be grunting and moaning a lot, wasn’t anything to spicy was it?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

I blushed. “No! Of course not!” I snapped quickly, taking another bite of the mutated bug. “I just had a nightmare about some of the ponies that beat me back in Stable 25.”

“What? That’s all?” Brisk asked. I raised an eyebrow at him; he shrank back away from my gaze, clearly hiding something from me.

I quickly connected the mental dots and gave out a low sigh. “Tell me about it,” I said flatly, placing the small remainder of bug down beside me and looking at him closely.

Brisk looked both confused and nervous. “Tell… you? I… I don’t know what your talking about.”

I continued to give him my best suspicious face. “About your nightmare? I’m assuming you had one right?”

Brisk gulped. “Well, Uh…”

“Oh come on,” I demanded impatiently. “You can tell me. Was it about the zombie ponies? Raiders?”

Brisk glanced down at his forelegs. “It was about the fight we had yesterday,” his voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear him. I waved a hoof for him to continue. “The dream started off normal, I just re watched us arguing about if it was morally okay to rob ponies that attack us,” He continued. “But then, after I shot them and told you to grab their stuff, you just walked away. I tried to follow you, but I couldn’t move. Then you were gone and I was all alone out there.”

I stared at him blankly, not knowing how to take this. “So what? You’re scared of me leaving you out here?” I asked lamely.

Brisk’s usual smile returned, though this time the smile did look a little forced. He gave me a small, almost lazy shrug. “Who can say. For all I know, it was just a crazy dream. But yeah, it scared me a little I suppose.”

I gave him a small smile in return. “Just don’t do something stupid like that again and I promise I’ll stick around,” I reassured him, though I doubted I would leave him even if he did do something like that again. I don’t know what I would do in the wasteland if I was alone.

We returned to eating our roasted bug in silence, neither of us really knowing how to continue the conversation from there. Suddenly my face grew bright red as I realized something.

“Wait a second! What exactly did you mean by nothing to spicy?!” I demanded, lowering the stick and staring at him wide eyed.

He gave a small chuckle. “I just kinda assumed you were reliving some kinda sex thing you did back in the Stable, that’s all,” he raised his hooves innocently, trying to move the subject along.

“Sex thing I did back in the Stable? What?” I shouted in alarm, scooting back a little bit. “What kind of sex things do you think I did?!”

Brisk looked at me with a weird look. “Well I mean, I’m assuming you got a fair amount of action in the Stable or whatever.”

I blushed an even deeper shade of red. “What! Why the fuck would you think that! No one in the Stable even liked me with the exception of Shade! And she’s like… 20 years older than me!”

“Okay, okay, I get it! You never had any fun in the Stable,” Brisk replied smugly. “You’re just really cute and smart and shit, so I assumed that somepony would try and get a piece of that or something.”

I flattened my ears against the side of my head. “I am not cute,” I flushed. “And no pony wanted a piece of that, okay.”

“Noted,” Brisk grinned back at me. Who did this guy think he was anyway? Calling me cute like that.

I picked up my stick and quickly finished off the Radroach meat. We didn’t even try to start up a conversation after that train wreck. Once we were finished we grabbed our saddlebags, doused the fire and continued on down the tunnel.

The tunnel, we were quick to learn, was far longer than we had expected. The dark sludge like fluid that at one point had swirled around the bottom of our hooves had slowly risen until it reached just above out fetlock, slowing both of us down dramatically. The weight of the slime seemed to be effecting Brisk the most, making him struggle to pull his injured front legs forward. We had to take multiple rests down the tunnel to let him catch his breath. Within only a few minutes of walking we were already drenched, miserable and smelling like shit.

As if all that wasn’t enough, it was also pitch black in the tunnel. The only light that we had was the dim, flickering green light of my pipbuck. To my annoyance, Brisk’s pipbuck seemed to have gotten damaged somewhat in the elevator crash, and while most of its functions still worked perfectly, the flashlight was not among them.

Leave it to Stable-Tec to create a piece of technology that can survive being crushed under and elevator.

The eerie green light of the pipbuck cast unsettling shadows across the rounded, rust covered walls. I kept looking around to see what the shadows belonged to, but I was unable to spot whatever it was. I hated how the whole wasteland felt completely empty, yet for some reason you could never shake the feeling that you were being watched.

We walked in silence for a very long time, the only noise in the tunnel was the slashing of our hooves in the murky liquid and our ragged breath echoing off the walls. After a while, Brisk spoke up.

“So, tell me about those cyber ponies,” He said, staggering slightly to keep from falling. “What are they like? How many are there?”

I thought back, trying to recall the details from the Stable. “Well, there were four of them in the Stable,” I started. “Three cyber earth ponies and one cyber alicorn. They were… Well they were just really damn scary.”

“There was an alicorn cyber pony?” Brisk questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Like two wings and a horn sort of cyber pony?”

I nodded slowly. “Yup, and two really big Tesla canons attached to their side.”

“Are we sure we actually want to go and fight those things?” Brisk asked. “I mean, there might have only been four in the Stable, but who knows how many there will be out here.”

I shook my head. “We need to Brisk. If we don’t, everypony in the Stable will starve!” The thought horrified me. I picked up my pace, more determined to escape this tunnel. “We cannot let that happen.”

Brisk took a deep breath. I knew what he was about to say even before he said it. The same thoughts had been going through my head ever since I left the Stable. “But do we really need to? I mean, what has the Stable ever done for you?”

I sighed. I wasn’t even angry at him for suggesting that because in truth, the Stable hadn’t been kind to me. “Because this isn’t about me. It’s about doing what’s right,” I didn’t know where this heroic side of me was coming from, it just felt right.

“I suppose...” Brisk trailed off.

I slowed to a stop and turned to face him. “What is it?”

“Well, it’s just that,” He tried to figure out how to word what he was about to say. “Your dad isn’t just going to let everyone starve, right? They will figure out some way to eat, and if they don’t they would just be forced to open the Stable to get food. So they would have to be really stupid to starve out.”

I pondered what he said for a second. “True, but we are having a hard enough time trying to survive out here as it is. I don’t know how long they would be able to survive in the Manehattan ruins before some raider gang decided to go in and wipe them all out.”

Brisk simply nodded at my response, but he seemed unconvinced.

I turned to continue down the tunnel when I saw a shift in movement ahead of us. I glanced down at my EFS. Red bars. Shit!

I turned off my pipbuck flashlight and placed my hoof over Brisk’s mouth as he was about to speak. Unlike before, the tunnel didn’t go completely dark. Down the tunnel I could make out the soft flickering of firelight bouncing off of the metal walls.

It didn’t take Brisk long to spot the light and the red bars on his EFS as well. He very quickly kept his mouth shut on his own accord.

I motioned for us to move down the hallway towards the light as slowly and quietly as possible as to avoid detection. It was a lot harder than I expected to say the least. The sludge around us kept making splashing noises and I began to notice with creeping horror that the closer we got to the light, the larger our shadows became. Brisk turned out to be much sneakier than I was, not only moving a little faster and lower to the ground to prevent his shadow from showing, but the splashing sounds around his hooves almost sounded muffled. He even managed to pull out a tablet of Buck and place it in his mouth without making any noise.

As we grew closer we began to see that the light was coming from behind a corner in the tunnel. I gave a quiet sigh of relief. I wouldn’t need to worry about my shadow of the present moment.

We also began to make out the sounds of ponies talking. Raider ponies specifically.

“Cut out his tongue next!” We heard a raider exclaim joyously.

"Fuck you you bitch!" A second voice screamed, though the voice sounded pained.

I exchanged a quick look with Brisk before peeking my head around the corner of the tunnel.

The tunnel itself didn’t look much different from the tunnel we had just come from. What was different however was what was inside.

In the center of the tunnel was a large metal barrel spewing fire out the top. Around it, sat four large cages, each one almost a third submerged in the vile sludge on the tunnel floor. Multiple wooden platforms connected by plywood planks had been erected around the tunnel, supplying the seven raiders in the tunnel with a means of moving around without needing to be in the sludge.

Worst of all however were the bodies. I had been too shocked in my first encounter with raiders to notice them the first time, but now that I had time to process what I was seeing there was no hiding them from me.

Multiple mangled pony corpses hung from the roof of the tunnel by rusted looking meat hooks. A few of the corpses were missing limbs or had been cut open so that their innards would dangle from the ceiling like grotesque wind chimes. Multiple pony heads had been impaled on long pikes that nearly reached the top of the tunnel.

I had to cover my mouth to keep from vomiting.

In the cages were five or so ponies, three of which now lay in a puddle of filth as tortured and mutilated corpses. Only two of the prisoners remained alive, and even they seem like they weren't going to be alive for much longer. All of the raiders had their attention on the cages as the only female raider present slowly carved pieces of flesh off of a male prisoner whom she had aggressively tied to the cage.

Something about the female raider seemed wrong, but I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it.

“Cut out his tongue you say?” The female raider responded around the handle of her large knife, slowly sliding the blade along the prisoners cheek and leaving a thin cut from the bottom of his right eye to the corner of his lips.

The six raiders around her cheered and laughed as she drove the dagger into his mouth. The prisoner squirmed in protest, but he wasn’t going to be making noises again any time soon. blood poured from the ponies lips as the raider withdrew the knife.

"Much better," The female raider soothed, giving the prisoner a quick kiss on his bleeding lips. "Now that is the kind of mouth ya should be kissing your mother with."

I ducked back around the corner, not able to take anymore of the graphic sight. I found Brisk looking equally shaken and pale.

“Do we go back and try and find another way out?” Brisk whispered to me quietly.

I shook my head. “There isn’t another way out,” I responded. “This is the only tunnel,” I glanced back around the corner and spotted what we had been looking for. A crooked metal ladder ran up the side of the far wall to a circular opening in the roof. I quickly moved back behind the corner again. “And there is an exit on the wall behind there camp.”

Brisk groaned. “Of course it’s on the other side. Why can’t it just be on our side?” He gave a second groan and put his broken hoof to his face. “Damn it. Alright, here is the plan, we stay low to the ground and sneak past them. Hopefully we can use this brown sludge to our advantage,” He quickly started rubbing the sludge into his mane and over his face.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he began covering the rest of his body.

“Making camouflage,” He whispered. “Do the same.”

I wrinkled my nose at the thought and began copying him. It didn’t take long to be completely covered from head to hoof in foul smelling sludge.

“And what are we going to do about the prisoners?” I asked as the two of us began slowly inching around the corner.

Brisk stared at me in shock again. What? Had he expected me to just let them die? Finally he just sighed.

“I’m not risking my neck for those two,” A round of laughing and cheering from the raiders drew our attention. The prisoner that they had currently been torturing now lay in two halves on the ground. “I’m not risking my neck for a prisoner,” Brisk corrected himself. “I’m going to go for the exit. If you want to risk your life to save some pony that you don’t even know then help yourself, just make sure I’m out of the tunnel first.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but I understood. I don’t even know why I was risking my life for this pony.

I saw the female raider tapping her hoof on the edge of the cage, causing the prisoner inside to jump backwards in fright. “You’re next missy,” The raider said in a voice far more calming that I was comfortable with. The prisoner inside shrank farther back against the edge of the cage.

The female raider cackled and began dragging the remains of the prisoner she had just killed over to an empty meat hook that hung from the ceiling and began hanging him from the roof.

I gulped. I really did not want to get caught by these crazy ponies.

Brisk had almost completely submerged himself under the sludge and was moving fairly quickly across the tunnel. If I hadn’t known he was there, there is a good chance I wouldn’t have been able to spot him. Seemingly without difficulty, he managed to reach the ladder without any of the raiders spotting him.

Holy that pony was sneaky, I thought to myself. I supposed he must have been sneaky enough to steal all those passwords from security back in the Stable, so I guess it made sense.

I glanced back and forth between the ladder and the cage that held the remaining prisoner. It would be so easy to just leave her there and escape. If I were to die here, no pony would be able to get the A.A.S.S from the cyber ponies, and I doubted that Brisk would continue hunting them down if I were to die. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to everypony if I just cut my losses and left her?

But then who would I be? Not Amber Aura, that was for sure. I’d just be some cold husk of the pony I use to be. I couldn’t let the wasteland break me. Not so soon.

I began moving towards the cage, keeping as much of myself under the fluid as I could. None of the raiders seemed to spot me. Since the entertainment in the tunnel had shifted to a different location, all the raiders were currently busy looking at the mangled body being hung to the roof and had their backs to the cages.

That gave me time to get her out, but not long.

I pulled up to the cage and placed my hooves around the door. It was locked. Of course it was locked, it was a fucking prison cell, what had I expected. I examined the lock closely, it was just like the one that Brisk had picked when we freed Coco Pommel.

I gritted my teeth and pulled a bobby pin from my saddlebags. If Brisk could do it I could do it.

I was about to raise the bobby pin with my magic when I saw the pony inside staring at me and shaking her head quickly. Thankfully, what she was trying to tell my clicked instantly. My magic would produce both light and sound. I’d need to do this with my mouth.

Then I saw the pony inside, or at least what I had thought was a pony. She stood a little bit taller than me with dazzling green eyes and a beautiful, though understandably muddy white coat and mane. What really caught my attention however were the dark black strips that covered her body.

A zebra?

I almost dropped my bobby pin into the sludge in shock. I was risking my life for a zebra? I didn’t know very much about them outside of a small picture in my textbook I had seen years ago and how they had been Equestria's enemies in the war that had inevitably ended in balefire detonation.

Murderers, that’s what zebra were. Savages that believe in weird star gods and destroyed the beautiful land of Equestria. I had heard a story when I was younger that the war had begun because a zebra had released some form of bomb or something inside a school and killed everyone. I couldn’t remember the exact details, but just the thought made me a little queasy.

I glanced back at the cackling ponies as they hung their latest victim to the ceiling where they had displayed all of their other crude art.

Zebra’s weren’t evil just as ponies weren’t evil. But Zebra’s weren’t good either, just as ponies weren’t good. They are simply alive, and no living thing can be categorized with something as black and white as good and evil, because everything was a bit of both.

I could see fear reflected in the zebra’s eyes as she noticed my hesitation. No doubt other ponies had had the same thoughts about her that I had just had.

I gave her a reassuring smile and slid the bobby pin into the lock. She gave me a nervous smile in return and began pretending to not see me as to avoid suspicion.

Snap!

The bobby pin broke in my hoof. Seriously? Can’t I just not fail at something for once?

I glanced down at my bobby pins. I only had five left. Crap.

I placed another pin into the lock and began twisting it slowly. I heard a small tapping sound inside. Alright, that sounded like a good sign. I slowly began twisting the bobby pin back, copying what I had seen Brisk do the day before.

Snap!

Shit! I wanted to scream at the stupid lock. Just open damn it!

I spotted Brisk staring at me from the ladder. Our eyes met. We didn’t say anything, or even gesture for the other to do something, we both just knew.

Brisk sunk lower and began moving back towards the cage. I smiled a little. He wasn’t completely selfish.

I pulled out another bobby pin and my shock baton and waited for him to reach us. I might not be able to pick the lock, but I could defend him if the raiders spotted us. He quickly pulled himself up next to me and took the bobby pin from my mouth, sliding it into the lock and pulling out a red screwdriver that looked uncomfortably like my cutie mark.

I turned to face the raiders as he began picking the lock. They still didn't seem to notice us. This was going to well, something bad was bound to happen soon.

Ironically, that bad thing was actually Brisk successfully picking the lock and door of the cage open with a loud screech. The three of us froze and glanced over at the raiders. At the same moment the raiders froze and glanced over at us. All of our eyes locked for a solid five seconds.

“Make them bleed!” One of the raiders shouted, then everything went to hell.

The group of raiders charged us. Brisk leaped off of the wooden platform he had been standing on and dove into the murky water, obscuring himself from view. I glanced between the raiders and the zebra, trying to figure out what the best course of action would be.

The zebra sprang past me, slamming her hind hoof into the head of one of the oncoming raiders. Both of them fell flailing into the water. Okay, that left me and six raiders.

Great, just… great…

I dodged the swing of the first raiders machete, whacking my baton against one of his back legs, making him stumble. I didn’t however avoid the second raider who slammed a baseball bat over my head. The whole world whirled as the impact knocked me off my hooves and crashing into the water below.

My whole body was submerged, foul sludge pouring into my mouth and rushing into my lungs. I pushed up off the ground, pushing my head above water and trying to both get a breath of air and spit out large quantities of what I could now confirm as a mix between urine, shit and garbage.

Blam!

I bullet whizzed past me, splashing me with more sewage. I ducked back below the waves to avoid getting shot as I heard the muffled sound of gunfire above me.

Then a heavy force slammed into me from above, making me inhale more of the sludge. I rolled to the side and pushed upwards, knocking the raider who had jumped onto me onto his back.

The other raiders were beginning to jump down as well, pulling out their knives and lunging at me. I guess they realized it was hard to shoot a target that they couldn’t see very well.

The next raider to jump into the water was met with a powerful swing form Brisk’s machete as he jumped from the water and with one mighty stroke, severed the raiders head clean off. Blood spewing from the stump of his neck and covering both Brisk and I in gore.

Neither of us had time to celebrate however as the female raider swooped down at us with what looked like a tiny chainsaw. I did a double take as I took in her wings. That was why she had looked odd, she was a mother fucking Pegasus! Of fucking course she was!

I jumped to the side as the chainsaw came down at me, searing off a large chunk off the flesh on the side of my front leg. I screeched in pain and tried to swing my baton up at her, only for her to fly up above where I was able to reach.

“I hope you like the sight of your own blood!” the Pegasus screamed down at me as she flew back down for another swing at me. Really? Do these raiders just yell whatever screwed up thing they can think of?

I readied my baton as she approached. Instead of attacking my again however, the Pegasus lurched back upwards as soon as she got within my range.

“What the…” as I had readied for her attack, I hadn’t seen the unicorn raider with a knife charge up and stab at me. Shit, she had been distracting me!

The knife pierced my already skinned foreleg. Pain erupted throughout my body and I collapsed to the ground. I telekinetically ripped the knife from the unicorns grasp and jabbed it back at him and into his eye. Gross yellow fluid mixed with blood spurted from the damaged eye as the raider reeled back and tried to dislodge the blade.

“Sorry,” I muttered under my breath as I watched the unicorn struggle. I grabbed the handle of the knife with my magic again and shoved it further into the unicorns head, stabbing the blade into his brain. His body twitched uncontrollably as the bade dug into him before falling into the sludge and out of view.

I spotted Brisk clashing machetes with another raider and the zebra dodging a multitude of attacks from three other raiders on the far side of the fire. How she managed to hold off so many at a time was beyond me. I saw her strike out with her foreleg and strike a raider across the chest, knocking him to his side. It was hard to tell, but it looked like she broke a few of his ribs with the kick. Alright then, that just left me and the Pegasus.

I looked around, trying to spot the insane chainsaw wielding flyer. I could hear the chainsaw, I just couldn't see… the sound was coming from above me! Shit!

I dove beneath the sewage and rolled to my right. Only seconds afterwards I saw the chainsaw cut through the water where I had just been standing. I rolled back to my hooves and swung my baton at her, using my telekinesis to extend my reach.

Unfortunately she was fast. Really, really fast. My baton met air as she swooped up and came flying back at me again. I flung my baton in the way of the chainsaw, sparks went flying everywhere at the spinning chain continuously battered my baton. The spinning blade stopped only inches away from my face. I had to put all my strength into keeping the chainsaw from knocking my baton aside.

The Pegasus gave a powerful shove with the chainsaw and sent me sprawling onto all fours, once again completely submerging me in opaque water. I began rolling away as fast as I could as she began stabbing the chainsaw into the water.

Not being able to see me, I managed to roll behind her and leaped up with my baton, swinging it as fast as I could at her head. Once again she proved to be too fast and soared up above where I couldn't reach her.

I was never going to be able to beat her if I just kept swinging at her, she was clearly faster and stronger than I was. If I was going to win, I was going to need to think of something else.

She dove at me again, her chainsaw coming scarily close to cutting my front legs off. I leapt to the side, glancing around the room looking for something to use against her. My eyes landed on the large pikes standing straight out of the murky water. They were to big to fight with and there was no way I could trick her into impaling herself. I started thinking about a spell I had started learning a few years ago. I had mostly only ever used it on myself, but I had been able to use it on my Stable barding once. Granted I had almost gone unconscious from the effort and concentration required to make the spell work.

The Pegasus did a loop in the air and began diving at me again. Well, I guess it was now or never. I flared up my horn and concentrated. I imagined the Pegasus and in my head and then pictured the large pike.

The Pegasus and her chainsaw came less than an inch away from my face when they disappeared in a small flash of light. I glanced over at the pike to find the Pegasus now dangling from it, the large pointed shaft protruding through the center of her now broken body. Her legs flailed for a few moments before finally going limp, the chainsaw dropping from her grasp and landing in the sewage with a splash.

I placed my hoof on my head to try and stop the world from spinning. From the bash over my head with the baseball bat and the use of using teleportation my head felt like it might just split in two. Or at the very least I was going to pass out.

I looked over at Brisk and the zebra who had managed to kill their respective raiders. Brisk had evaded the fight with only a few scratches along his back, and surprisingly the zebra had managed to leave the fight practically unscathed despite taking on and taking out the most raiders out of all of us. It would appear that I had taken the most damage during the fight.

I stared down at my injuries. They weren’t nearly as bad as the wounds that Brisk had received the night before, but the Pegasus had taken a large chunk of skin off of my foreleg and the knife cut in the same leg was making it really hard to walk. Black spots had began swimming before my eyes. I wobbled slightly on my hurt leg as I tried to take a step forward and the pounding in my head threatened to send me into unconsciousness.

“Remind me not to get on her bad side,” The zebra said to Brisk with a small chuckle in a soothing and exotic, yet strangely methodical voice. “Lest save myself from being teleported into a pike as well.”

“My thoughts exactly when I first saw her fight,” Brisk commented, taking in the zebra for the first time. I was surprised at how casually he took her appearance. “Once saw her bash her baton straight through a ponies face.”

For a weird second I almost felt proud, like I was some sort of wasteland bad ass that could kick serious butt in a fight. Then I fell unconscious and landed face first into the large pool of literal shit.

When I awoke my leg felt itchy. I reached down to scratch it only for Brisk to reach forward and push my hoof away. I looked up at him and saw him shaking his head.

Shit! I shouldn’t have looked up at him. We were outside again, sitting in the middle of the street by the looks of it. And above us was once again the goddess damned sky. I averted my gaze to my leg to avoid the horrifying sight and dizzying vertigo .

The itching it turned out was due to a large amount of bloody gauze that had been wrapped tightly around my foreleg. It looked like my leg had stopped bleeding, but only recently as much of the blood on the off white fabric was still wet.

“We couldn’t find any healing potions, so we just did our best to patch it up ourselves,” Brisk said, looking down at my leg as well. “I found some of gauze in the medic pack you found yesterday. Thank the goddesses for that Watcher guy, right?”

I nodded solemnly. “What did I miss while I was out?” I asked, looking around us. A small metal ponyhole was a few feet away from us and it’s top sat a few feet away from that. I assumed it was the entrance to the sewers we had just left.

“Not much,” Brisk replied evenly. “After you passed out Xayah helped me pull you out of the sewers. It’s a lot harder to pull a pony up a half broken ladder than you would expect.”

“Xayah?” I questioned.

He gave me a silly look. “The zebra you rescued. Don’t tell me you forgot about that already?”

I shook my head and glanced around again. “Where is she?”

“Back in the sewer,” Brisk answered. “Looting the raider camp. Hopefully we can find some healing potions or ammo. I stayed up here to keep an eye on you.”

I nodded. So not only was I a failure, but now I was being an inconvenience to ponies.

Brisk was quiet for a moment, chewing quietly on his bottom lip as he clearly tried working up the courage to say something. “By the way, for what it is worth Amber. I think saving that zebra was the right thing to do.”

I gave him a smile. Maybe I wasn’t the biggest failure and inconvenience ever.

I looked up at Brisk’s horn atop his head. “Hey, is it okay if I ask you a question? I'm not sure if it is personal or not.”

He raised his eyebrow, but nodded.

“Why didn’t you just levitate me out of the sewer? I’ve noticed you don’t use magic.”

Brisk gave me a sheepish smile. “That’s ‘cause I can’t use magic.”

Before I could question him on that any more, Xayah climbed out of the sewer holding a knife and a small handful of bullets and Sparkle-Cola bottle caps in her hooves.

“There were no health potions I am afraid,” The zebra said, walking over to us and placing the ammunition down beside me before taking the knife for herself. “But perhaps these can aid you in other ways.”

Brisk grinned down at the 10mm ammunition and began loading it into his pistol. “Thank you, these will help a lot,” I glanced down at the small pile of bullets. I was able to count about nine. Hopefully that would be more than enough to keep us alive for the next bit.

“No, thank you two,” Xayah said, bowing her head slightly. “For without you both I would be dead right now.”

Brisk gave a small cough. “Don’t thank me, I was just going to leave you there.”

Xayah smirked at him. “Then you are smarter than your friend here,” She said in her soothing voice, giving me a quick wink. “But I am thankful you saved me all the same.”

I pointed a hoof at the small pile of ten bottle caps that Xayah had pulled out of the sewer with her. "Why the fuck did you grab those?" realizing I sounded a little rude and blushed. "Sorry, just interested."

Xayah chuckled. "New to the wasteland?" She said sarcastically.

"What gave us away?" Brisk smirked, looking over the caps himself.

"Mostly the stable barding," Xayah shrugged. "But your lack of understanding for caps was a pretty big giveaway as well. You see we use bottle caps as currency in the wasteland."

Had I been drinking something, I would have spit it out everywhere. "You use bottle caps as currency? Why?!"

"They are plentiful and yet not endless, giving it value," Xayah replied, scooping the caps up and placing them in a blood soaked saddlebag she had thrown over her back. I assumed she had taken it from the now dead raiders in the sewer as well. "Save for appearance, caps are no different from the bits used back in the olden days if you really think about it."

“How did those raiders catch you?” I asked, slowly pulling myself back to my hooves and gesturing to her newly acquired saddlebag. My leg hurt a little, but the pain was tolerable. Brisk offered me a Buck tablet, but I shook my head. I wanted to be able to focus and he still needed them a lot more than I did. His legs, though healed on the outside, didn’t seem to be improving much. If anything they were only getting worse.

Those raiders attacked me and my family by surprise on our way to Friendship City. They killed my family very quickly. They were not much for fighting,” Xayah said softly. “I managed to take one of them out before that Pegasus took me down. Then I woke up inside that cage, you know the rest from there.”

Brisk and I stared at her in shook. She had just described the recent slaughter of her family so casually. Fuck, she was handling the recent slaughter of her family so casually.

“How, um… How are you holding up?” Brisk asked in concern, taking a cautious step towards the zebra. “With your family, um… gone and all.”

Xayah gave him a sad smile. “I miss them, but my mother always told me not to fear death, for if we fear that, then what is the point is living? Living only makes you face that fear longer.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t exactly sure if I understood what that meant. “What are you going to do now?”

Xayah tapped her striped hoof on the bottom of her chin. “I am not exactly sure. Perhaps I will go to Friendship city, but without my family it seems a little foolish.”

“Well, you are always welcome to come with us,” I offered, extending my hoof to her. “We could always use some help.”

“She can?” Brisk gawked. I gave him a warning stare to make him back off.

Xayah glanced between the both of us for a few seconds. “If you two will have me, I will gladly accept your offer,” She replied, nodding her head thoughtfully. “Where are you two going?”

“Well, we aren’t exactly sure,” Brisk said bluntly, shrugging his shoulders.

“We are looking for a group of cyber ponies that invaded our Stable,” I followed up. “But we aren’t exactly sure where they’ve gone.”

Xayah thought for a moment. “Perhaps it would be wise to go to Friendship City anyway,” she said. “That or Tenpony Tower, but they are more exclusive and farther away I hear.”

“What is at Friendship city?” Brisk questioned, flicking a fly away with his tail.

“For you? Answers hopefully,” Xayah explained. “If you want to find somepony that might know where these cyber ponies are going, then a settlement is your best chance of finding one. At the very least it will give you a way to safely rest your head and stock up on better gear than what you currently have.”

That explanation made sense to me. “Alright, to Friendship City then,” I declared, pointing my injured hoof into the air. Of course that was when I realized I had no fucking idea where Friendship City even was. I turned back to Xayah and gave her a nervous grin. “Would you uh… lead the way? We’re kinda new to the wasteland.”

Xayah looked around at the towering remains of the Manehattan skyscrapers. “I would, though I fear I do not know the way myself,” Xayah responded. “My mother was the one who was leading us there, she had been there once before you see.”

Well shit, we still didn’t know where we were going. I looked up and down the road. It split into about four different direction in both directions and the height of all the ruins made it impossible to tell what was around each corner.

“Wonderful, now we just need somepony that knows where they’re going,” Brisk replied sarcastically, kicking a small rock with his hoof. “Any takers?”

As if answering his question, a sprite bot began bobbing up and down the street past us, playing it’s chipper tune. All of our ears perked up as we heard the noise.

“No way,” I uttered breathlessly, almost chuckling at our possible good fortune. I began running towards the Sprite bot, waving my injured foreleg frantically. “Watcher! Hey! Hey Watcher!”

From behind me I could hear Xayah turn to Brisk. “So this friend of yours, is she mad?” She asked softly. “She is aware that that is a sprite bot? Yes?”

I grabbed onto the floating bot and spun it around to face me. “Hey Watcher? You home?”

The music cut out. I grinned and tapped my hoof on the top of the bot. After a few seconds of waiting the synthetic voice I had heard before came from the speakers. “Hey… you. What do you want? Sorry, what was your name again, I don’t believe I caught it last time.”

I heard a small gasp of surprise escape Xayah's lips from somewhere behind me.

“Amber Aura,” I replied, quickly escalating the conversation forwards. “We are trying to find Friendship City, do you know where it is?”

“Friendship City? Yeah sure,” Watcher replied with his synthetic voice. “It’s not to far from here actually. If you just head north east for a bit you should be able to see the city. Giant statue of a pony, you can’t miss it.”

“Thank you Watcher,” I replied. I didn’t know who the hell his guy was, but damn I was thankful for him. Brisk and I hadn't been in the wasteland for two day and he had already saved us twice. A thought crossed my mind. “Hey Watcher, you haven’t seen any ponies made out of metal walking around have you?”

“What, like the Steel Rangers?” I just stared at him blankly. A metallic sigh escaped the machine. I wasn’t sure how you synthesize a sigh, but Watcher somehow managed to pull it off. “A group of ponies in a suit of metal power armor.”

I shook my head. “No, not ponies in a metal suit. We are looking for some cyber ponies. Ponies made out of metal.”

Watcher was silent for a moment, letting his sprite bot bob up and down in front of me. “None that I can think of. There are a few cyber ponies in Fillydelphia, and I can think of one causing trouble out in the Hoofington area, but nothing in Manehattan,” Watcher replied.

Damn, none of those sounded like they could be the cyber ponies we were looking for. “Well, thanks for your help anyways Watcher,” I said, preparing to turn back to Brisk and Xayah who were waiting patiently a few steps away from us.

“Any time Amber,” Watcher replied, his voice slightly obscured by a sudden buzz of static. Before I could turn away from him completely he spoke up again. “I see that you are already making friends in the wasteland. Not everypony is that lucky. Keep it up.”

“Keep it up?” I questioned, but the sprite bot was already floating away.

I turned back to my friends to see them low to the ground with scared expressions on their faces and gesturing for me to do the same. I looked at them in confusion. Understanding they probably saw something I didn’t I ducked down low and crawled over to them.

“What is it?” I hissed, keeping my voice low. Brisk pointed in the direction I had just come with a hoof. I turned back and saw what all the fuss was about. Not to far from where I had been standing only moments before were ponies. Lots and lots of ponies.

The fact that I hadn’t been spotted was a miracle that I simply could not explain.

They weren’t raiders. Or at least, I didn’t think they were. They were all dressed a little bit better. Instead of chains, leather straps and pony flesh, these ponies dressed in sturdy green combat armor and carried some pretty intense fire power, from machine guns to rocket launchers. A few carried large flag poles that held crimson flags depicting the image of a large eye.

I took a few steps back from the group. I was able to count about twenty ponies, all heavily armed. “Who are they?” I whispered, slowly pulling out my baton.

“Red Eye’s slavers,” Xayah replied, glancing down at my baton. “I would recommend we do not engaged in combat with them, I fear that would end out less than pleasant for the three of us.”

Brisk nodded vigorously in agreement. We began to creep away from the group when I saw it. Holy Celestia it was horrifying!

An alicorn stood amongst the Slavers. Tall and majestic with a flowing mane and huge elegant wings. Exactly how I had always imagined the princesses looked like. But this alicorn was not one of the royal sisters. It felt wrong and unholy. It’s hawk like eyes held slits instead of pupils and its coat was a dark shade of sickly green instead of the flawless white or beautiful blue I had been told that princess Celestia and Luna had had.

The alicorn slowly turned it’s head and stared directly at me. I froze, seemingly unable to move under the gaze of the creature. The two of us locked eyes and held our gaze for what felt like an eternity. Then, slowly the not goddess raised it’s hoof and pointed at us. The group of slavers all followed her hoof with their gaze until they spotted us as well.

“This is the part that we run, yes?” I heard Xayah whisper from behind me. I nodded in agreement. Then we were bolting down the road. Running, goddesses I hated running. My injured leg began seemingly screaming in protest as we charged as fast as we could down the street. I could hear the sounds of ponies shouting and hooves pounding on the cracked asphalt behind us.

Really? They couldn’t just let us go peacefully? Was two random ponies and a zebra that they didn’t even know really worth dropping everything and giving chase?

I glanced back to see the group of ponies galloping a few feet behind us. Yup, apparently we were worth the work… but wait? Where was the green alicorn? Then I spotted her flying above the rest of the group, closing in on us far faster than I would have liked. Damn it, I hated winged enemies! The ability to fly was so unfair!

I could see Brisk’s legs beginning to shake as we charged onwards. The buck must have been starting to wear off and there was no way that he could take another tablet while running for his life like this. My leg was also starting to hurt enough that I was beginning to wonder if I should have taken Brisk up on his offer and taken a buck earlier.

“How do we lose these guys!?” I shouted as we raced forwards and around a corner.

Xayah, who clearly didn’t seem to have very high endurance, simply panted as she struggled to keep pace with us. I turned to Brisk who looked just as concerned as I felt. “Same thing we did last time we needed to get somewhere safe?” Brisk suggested between pants.

“Right, because that worked out perfectly for us least time!” I replied. Xayah just looked confused. I would need to explain to her what had happened to us before we saved her at some point.

As we turned a second corner, Brisk slammed into my side, knocking both myself and Xayah into the doorway of a large nameless, faceless skyscraper. The three of us slammed the large double doors shut and ducked below all the windows just as the large group raced past. We took a moment, panting and out of breath.

I let out a slow deep breath and peeked over the edge of the window. It had been a miracle that the flying alicorn hadn’t seen us, however it was clear that the ponies had noticed something about our disappearance was wrong. They had all stopped in the middle of the street, looking around and peering into as many doors and windows as they could.

We had currently escaped them, but it was only a matter of time before they were on our trail again.

I turned back to my two friends. “Alright, we need to find a back door out of here or something.”

“Don’t think you can hide, little ponies,” I heard a sinister voice whisper in my ear. All three of us jumped as we heard the voice. “I know you couldn’t have gotten far. I will find you,” The voice was so calm, yet so very, very threatening. To my growing horror, I realized the sound was coming from within my own brain.

I glanced out the window to see the green alicorn standing in the center of the group of ponies, her horn ablaze with light and her eyes glowing an ominous white. The other slaves were scratching at their head, clearly hearing the spooky voice within their own brains as well.

Well this was just perfect, the alicorn had fucking telepathy. Because why wouldn’t it? Damn it, I hate the wasteland!

Brisk crept away from the front of the building. “Yeah, lets get as far away from that thing as fast as we can,” we all quickly nodded in agreement.

Turning to face the large room we had entered, I found myself staring into the huge face of Pinkie Pie plastered onto the wall, her mouth twisted into a playful and yet uncomfortably devious smile. ‘Pinkie Pie is Watching You!’ The large sign read. And above that, in smaller letters read. ‘Ministry of Morale Headquarters’.

I turned and scowled at Brisk. “Really? You couldn’t have chosen a building that is just a building? Why do you always need to pull us into creepy places,” Brisk just shrugged at me innocently. That was it, I was picking what building we entered next time.

There was no obvious back door to the building, because once again the wasteland was incapable of just letting us have the easy way out. We found ourselves slowly climbing the stairs to the floors above us. I wasn’t sure exactly what exit we were going to find upstairs, but I supposed if worst came to worst we could just hide up there until the alicorn and slavers decided to give up on chasing us.

The further into the building we went the more posters seemed to clutter the walls. As if the decrepit building wasn’t creepy enough, every poster just so happened to depict the exact same thing. A smiling picture of Pinkie Pie reminding us that she is always watching. I shivered every time my eyes made contact with the long dead, smiling ministry mare.

“Why do you think those slavers were so determined to catch us?” I asked as we finally hauled ourselves up the last bit of stairs and entered the third floor.

“I am unsure, as I am not a slaver,” Xayah replied. “Though I have heard rumors that unicorns are particularly useful to their cause.”

“Their cause?” Brisk asked, peering into the first room he saw before quickly moving onto the next. “What exactly is this cause of theirs?”

Xayah shrugged. Propping open the next door and entering it. Brisk and I swiftly followed her. “I do not know. I have not talked to very many slavers as it would be foolish of me to spend any time around such company.”

The room Xayah had lead us into held what appeared to be a large pile of labeled safes. A few crooked shelves lined the far wall covered in burned and water damaged folders. My eyes lingered on the multitude of safes scattered about the room.

“What is this place? A treasury?” I joked trying to knock a safe over with my hoof. To my embarrassment, it was far too heavy for me to move and refused to budge even and inch.

“Looks like a storage locker of some form,” Brisk replied, giving me a small grin and knocking over a safe. I narrowed my eyes at him. Damn, why did I have to be the weak one. “Though honestly, a treasury would be a lot cooler.”

“Not a treasury,” Xayah stated, scanning her green eyes over the safes. “This looks like some form of file and information room used to keep tabs on all of the ponies and zebras in Equestria.”

That was less funny.

Xayah walked over and looked at a very specific safe with a large dent in the side. The label, though mostly covered in dust, read ‘Zarina’.

“Zarina, I heard about her back when I was young,” Xayah said, tapping the door or the safe with a hoof. “She was a pre-war assassin, tried to kill the white ministry mare.”

“Rarity?” I offered, trying to picture the different ministry mares in my head. I remembered the statuette in my saddle bags and pulled it out. “Her?”

Xayah nodded. “Yes, that is the one. Zarina was apprehended by Rarity fairly early in the war. Her capture and alleged death saved many pony lives and cost many zebras theirs,” she tapped the safe with her hoof again. “It is a shame these are locked, I would find seeing what the Ministry of Morale had about her very interesting.”

Brisk grinned deviously. For a second I could have sworn his grin matched the picture of Pinkie Pie behind him. “Well it’s your lucky day,” The green unicorn declared. “Because picking locks that I probably shouldn’t be picking is my specialty.”

Before long the three of us had crowded around the safe and watched as Brisk began working his magic.

“Do you mind if you teach me how to do that?” I asked, looking over his shoulder as he worked.

“I am surprised you do not already know,” Xayah stated, watching Brisk with equal interest. “With your cutie mark being a red screwdriver and everything.”

I sighed. “Nope, never picked a lock before.”

Brisk looked up at me. “Yeah, sure I’ll teach you,” He said with a grin. “I mean, this is like, what? The fourth lock we have had to pick in the last two days? I’d say it’s about time you learned.”

I knelt down and watched carefully as he explained what he was doing.

“Alright, so step one is easy, just slide the bobby pin and the screwdriver into the lock,” Brisk started, his actions copying his words. “Once placed, just kinda wiggle the bobby pin around until you hear a click. That means it’s close to being in the right spot.”

I nodded and watched as he wiggled it around. He abruptly stopped and began rotating the bobby pin and screwdriver. I hadn’t heard a click, but he apparently had.

“Then just slowly turn the screwdriver counterclockwise. If you feel the lock starts to resist you, you know that while you were close, you were in the wrong spot,” sure enough, the lock began to shake a little. Brisk quickly stopped moving the bobby pin and slowly placed it in a slightly different position. “Then just try a slightly different spot and….” He twisted the bobby pin again, but this time the safe swung open. “Voila!”

Inside the safe sat only two things. A sheet of paper with a long list of names and a black cloak that the paper rested upon. I pulled out the piece of paper and scanned a bunch of the names.

“What are these names?” I asked as I held the page up to Xayah, assuming she would understand it’s contents best.

The zebra chuckled darkly. “A list of the ponies she had killed I assume.”

The paper slid out of my hoof and gently drifted towards the floor. Holy shit that was a lot of names.

Xayah reached into the safe and pulled out the cloak. “It is this that I am more interested in,” She said, holding the fabric between her hooves before draping the dark material over her body. She looked over it for a second before tapping a purple gem on the cloaks clasp and disappeared from view.

‘What the hell!” Brisk exclaimed, taking a step back in shock as our zebra companion vanished from sight. I wasn’t any less surprised.

A few seconds later, Xayah flickered back into view. “Zebra stealth cloak,” She explained. “Very useful for sneaking,” Now we just needed to find two more of those handy things.

Brisk handed me a bobby pin and the screwdriver. “How ‘bout you give one of those safes a shot? Get some practice while we aren’t being shot at.”

“That alicorn could still be looking for us,” I replied, but I took the lock picking tools from him anyway and moved over to a safe labeled ‘Silver Ace’ that had been shoved into the corner of the room.

“Maybe,” Brisk grunted. “But she hasn’t found us yet, so I think we should be fine.”

I knelt down in front of the safe and placed the bobby pin inside. I was about to move on to step two when I spotted an orange holotape resting on top of the safe.

It couldn’t hurt to have something to listen to while I embarrassed myself, right?

I inserted the holotape into my pipbuck and listened to it as I began to follow the steps Brisk had just told me.

“I don’t trust him!” A grumpy, yet bubbly voice said from the recording. “He is a bad bad pony, I’m telling you! He is up to no good!”

“Calm down Pinkie,” Another bubbly voice said. The voice was very similar to the first one, though clearly belonging to a stallion. “How do you know he is a baddy?”

“My pinkie scene goes crazy every time I see him!” Pinkie exclaimed, making an exasperated huff. “I haven’t been able to catch him at anything yet, but I will! Hear me! I’ll get him!” The mare broke into an unsettling psychotic laughter. An abrupt hiccup ended her chuckle.

“What do you need me to do?” The stallion said.

“I need you to use your cheesy sense on him,” Pinkie instructed. “He is already watching out for me, so whenever I’m around he has his guard up super high. But he doesn’t know you. You might be able to get something on him.”

There was silence between the two voices for a second, allowing me to pick up on the subtle sound of static in the background.

I was about to take out the holotape, thinking it was done when the stallion spoke up again. “Alright, I’ll use my cheesy sense, but where can I even find this no good pony?” my bobby pin snapped as I tried to open the safe. I groaned and pulled out another one. I noted that I only had three left. Better try not to break any more.

“He has been working with Fluttershy a lot lately,” Pinkie answered, her voice almost a low growl. “I don’t know what he has to do with the Ministry of Peace, but I know it can't be good.”

I began turning the bobby pin in the lock again. Once again I was met with resistance. I wanted to yell at the lock and storm away; how the hell did Brisk make it look so easy!?

“I don’t know Pink, the Ministry of Peace seems like one of the less suspicious places for him to be working in,” the stallion said.

I heard Pinkie huff and stomp her hoof on the ground. “No, Working with Twilight in the Ministry of Arcane Sciences would make sense! But with Fluttershy? What does the MoP want with a magic expert?!”

“There is actually a lot of magic involved with…” The stallion started, but Pinkie quickly cut him off.

“I don’t trust him! I don’t trust him! I don’t trust him! I don’t trust him!” Pinkie shrieked. I could hear her stomping up and down as if she was having a fit. “I don’t trust him and I want to catch him now!”

The recording cut out; at the perfect time too because as soon as it did, the lock clicked and the safe swung open. I stared at the open safe for a few minutes before giving a wild whoop with glee.

“Oh my goddesses! Did you two just see that!” I exclaimed, bouncing on the tip of my hooves. “I just picked a lock! The lock is open!”

Both Brisk and Xayah who were currently busy looking at a particular sinister poster of Pinkie Pie turned their heads and looked at me.

“Oh? Uh… congrats,” Brisk answered nonchalantly before turning back to the poster.

I turned back to the safe and looked over the contents excitedly. Like the last safe, this one only held two things. A piece of paper and a glowing orb. I stared at the orb, unsure exactly what it was.

“What is this thing?” I asked myself, reaching out with my magic to pick it up. The second my telekinesis enclosed around it the whole world swirled away into oblivion.

I was in some sort of jungle. Wait? What the fuck? How did I get here? And why do all the plants look so alive? I tired to express my wonders verbally, but found myself unable to speak. What the fuck was happening!

I turned my head to look at the group of four ponies that walked beside me. Except I didn’t turn my head, it just moved on it’s own accord. Celestia fuck me, I was freaking out!

My body felt weird as well. Slightly bigger and heavier. The space between my back legs also felt… what the fuck! Was I a stallion!

“I’m not exactly sure why you need my expertise?” I said, or rather the pony I was looking through the eyes of said to a light brown mare that was leading the group. He had a calm, soothing voice that made me feel more relaxed just listening to it. “You say you found some sort of temple?”

The brown mare nodded. “We found a large amount of magical runes, we thought that you might be able to give us some insight on them Silver.”

My host frowned, but continued walking forwards.

Ahead of us I could see a large clearing in the overgrowth. The trees parted for us and I found myself standing at the edge of a massive pit with multiple caves speckling its steep sides. Long bridges comprised of seemingly living roots connected many of the cave entrances together, while a few other entrances led to beautifully crafted wooden balconies. Two foaming waterfalls cascaded off the sides of the pit and pooled somewhere far below me beyond my sight.

“What is this place?” My host questioned. He sounded almost unimpressed, though clearly interested. I on the other hoof was having trouble even comprehending the beauty of what I was seeing. “Some sort of ancient zebra temple?”

“We aren’t exactly sure,” The brown mare responded. “And the zebra’s aren’t either. If they knew what this was, it is doubtful they wouldn’t have let us come to their homelands so easily. Especially not after what happened with the Wonderbolts last month.”

My hosts eyes scanned the walls of the temple until his eyes came to rest on a small stone by his hoof. Multiple glowing blue runes had been carved onto the stone. I couldn’t seem to make any sense of the strange shapes.

My host picked it up and turned it over. “These runes are old,” My host muttered, looking over the stone again. “Predating any pony or zebra language I’ve seen.”

I saw the group of ponies exchange a glance behind me. The brown mare turned back to me. “But can you read it?”

My host grunted. “Perhaps, if given time. Do we have permission from the zebra’s to take samples back to Equestria?” The brown mare shook her head at my hosts words. “Alright then, I guess we had better start deciphering these now then.”

I hadn’t even placed the stone back down when a large shadow flew over my head. A second later, the shadow was accompanied by an ear-piercing roar that shook the surrounding area.

The group of ponies stared up at the sky in horror as a massive red dragon flew above them and landed with a mighty crash on the path they had just come from. I could hear a scream of terror from one of my four companions, though I was unsure which one it was. Not that it mattered, I was more focused on the humongous monster that now towered above us.

The great dragon curled back it’s neck and I could see a burning gold light glinting from behind it’s scales as it prepared to breath fire down upon us.

“Scatter!” my host shouted, diving off of the trail and into the thick vegetation that surrounded us. I saw the brown mare and one of my other companions do the same right before the dragon let loose a blast of scalding fire. The two ponies that had frozen in fear at the sight of the dragon went up in a blaze of light, their flesh quickly burning away and leaving behind little more than two piles of charred bones.

The dragon approached closer, it’s heavy claws making the ground shake with every step. It brought it’s head closer to me, until it’s eye stared directly back into mine. My host started backing away, trying to get away from the beast.

The dragon opened its maw again, golden light shining from the back of its throat. My host shut his eyes, waiting for death.

A large javelin was sent flying through the air and impaled itself in the dragon's eye. The monster reeled back, trying to claw the large shaft out of its face.

A group of seven or so zebra, all wielding javelin’s of their own burst into the clearing and charged the dragon. Two more javelins were thrown, each one piercing the dragons muscular front legs.

Clearly taken by surprise, the dragon flapped its wings and took off from the ground. To my surprise, two of the zebras managed to leap vertically upwards high enough to grab onto the dragon and begin climbing their way up to its wings.

The dragon began spewing random bursts of fire from its maw as the two zebras straddled its back and began cutting at its wings with large daggers. The three creatures struggled against each other in the air for a long, suspenseful moment, then the dragons wings fell from its body, causing the dragon to begin free falling towards the ground.

The two zebras leaped from its back and landed softly on the tops of the trees.

The dragon spiraled downwards, until at last it crashed into the ground, its severed wings landing beside it. The dragon attempted to rise, slowly hauling itself back onto its feet.

The monster let loose a blast of fire that rocketed towards the group of zebra. One zebra got caught in the fire, meeting a very similar fate to my two deceased companions. The rest of the group managed to leap to the side, only suffering minor burns from the beast lethal attack.

A zebra clad in sturdy leather barding rushed at the dragon, a long, thin sword clutched tightly in his mouth. The dragon lashed at the oncoming zebra with his whip like tail, only for the zebra’s sword to slice through it and sever yet another one of the dragons limbs. Blood spewed from the stump that had once been the dragon’s tail.

The dragon roared, preparing for another blast of fire. The zebra too the opportunity and stabbed his sword through the dragon’s mouth and up into the creatures brain. The dragon lashed from side to side, hopelessly trying to dislodge the sword.

After struggling for a few moments, the dragon finally collapsed to the ground, it’s blood spilling from its body like a waterfall and staining the ground red.

My host watched in awe from the cover of the overgrowth. There was no denying it… zebras were awesome!

I found myself lying on the cold, dirty floor of the MoM building. The first thing I did upon returning to my body was reach my forelegs between my haunches and make sure everything was in order again.

I had a pussy again! Oh thank Celestia I had a pussy again! I don’t know how Stallions managed to walk around all day without any space between their legs. I'd have to ask Brisk about it... or wait, maybe I shouldn't do that.

I took a moment to enjoy the feeling before noticing that Xayah was standing over top of me and looking straight into my eyes with her stunning bright green ones. I blushed and gave her a small nervous chuckle as I slowly moved my hooves back to my sides. “Uh… hi?”

“Hello,” Xayah replied flatly, continuing to stare down at me.

My eyes darted around the room. “Um… why are you staring at me?”

Xayah was quiet for a moment. “Brisk got bored of waiting for you to wake up, so he told me to watch over you while he goes and explores the building.”

I nodded as I listened to her explanation. “Okay… you can um… you can stop staring at me now.”

Xayah averted her gaze and walked away, leaving me lying on the ground.

“What happened?” I asked, slowly pulling myself back to my hooves. “I saw this really weird thing with a dragon and some jungle temple…”

“You went into a memory orb,” Xayah explained, pointing to the glowing orb that now lay beside me with her striped hoof. “If you interact with those orbs with magic you will see the memories of a pony or zebra that has been placed inside of the orb.”

I picked the orb up and looked it over, careful not to use any magic on it. ”So I just experienced a memory from a pony before the megaspells?” I asked. Xayah gave me a quick nod. Interested in the piece of technology, I gently placed the glowing orb into my saddlebags.

Xayah walked towards the door. “Come, we should probably meet up with Brisk. That pony seems to get bored very quickly. It would be foolish to allow him wander off to far on his own. ”

Before I followed her out I grabbed the piece of paper that had been inside of the safe with the memory orb and scanned the page with my eyes. At the top of the page it read ‘Silver Ace’, the rest however was covered over in black ink.

Finding the page to be useless, I placed it back into the safe and joined Xayah outside the room. We walked through a handful of hallways in silence together, stopping only to check inside rooms to see if Brisk was within.

"So what did you see inside of that memory orb?" Xayah asked. "You said there was a dragon?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I was in the body of some Stallion called Silver Ace, I think. He was some kind of magic expert before the war," I said, checking inside the next room. The room was empty save for the large quantity of Pinkie Pie is watching you posters taped to the wall. "I was exploring some temple in the zebra homelands or something when a dragon attacked us. thankfully I was saved by a group of zebras."

"Yes, some zebra tribes had mastered the art of dragon slaying," Xayah commented. "I was told it was because of the zebras incredible ability to kill dragons so easily that the dragons chose to side with the zebras during the war, simply out of fear of death."

"Can you kill a dragon?" I asked, fairly surprised by my striped companions words.

"Me? No," Xayah said with a small smile. "The art of dragon slaying was not as well known by zebras as most of the dragons thought. Only a few zebras actually had the knowledge and skill to pull off such a feat. Furthermore, the art has been dead for almost two hundred years; I would be surprised if any zebras were still able to attack with such ferocity."

We ascended another set of stairs to find Brisk Spark trying to hack a terminal that was keeping him locked out of a room.

"Unlock damn it!" He grunted, slamming his hoof on the top of the terminal.

“Need a hoof?” I offered, moving up next to him and looking the glowing green screen over.

Brisk rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof and backed away to let me at the terminal. It wasn’t a hard terminal to crack, it’s password only being five letters; ‘Party’.

I pushed enter and the large door slid open, and to my growing anger at the wasteland, a zombie pony lunged at us from behind it.

Damn it! I need to remember to check my EFS more often.

Unlike the last zombie pony we had fought however, this one was dressed in mud stained yellow shirt and was wielding a large triple barrel shotgun in its mouth.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Brisk, Xayah, and I all dove different directions as the explosive shells burst form the gun and sprayed us all with shrapnel.

I pulled out my baton as the zombie pony began reloading and bashed him across the head. I was surprised to see the zombie pony had a high enough intelligence to reload the shotgun. So far I had seen two types of zombie ponies, ones that were crazy and tried to eat your face off, and intelligent ones like Coco pommel that might just as well have been ponies if not for their decaying skin. Unfortunately for us, this one must have been somewhere in between. Not quite mindless, but mindless enough to want us dead.

The zombie pony fell back as my shock baton came in contact with its head. As it climbed back to its hooves, I saw that the strike had left a large dent in the side of the zombie ponies head. It growled and began firing another three rounds from its triple barreled shotgun.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Once again, the three of us managed to dodge the violent barrage of fire. This time Brisk leaped forward, swinging his machete at the zombie ponies head. The zombie pony shivered for a second, then dodged the attack with uncanny speed and agility.

Brisk stumbled forward as his swipe missed, using all of his effort to keep himself from falling flat on his face. Xayah and I rushed past him, our own melee weapons drawn. Once again the zombie pony vibrated slightly before swiftly evading both of our attacks.

The creature lashed out with hits hoof, scrapping me across the side. I called out in pain as I twisted away to avoid any further injury.

Brisk finished stabilizing himself and joined me at my side. I glanced around the room as the zombie pony reloaded and approached us. Where had Xayah gone? She was here just a second ago.

I spotted a ripple in the air behind the zombie pony. Xayah popped back into view and stabbed at the creature with her knife. Before the blow to hit however, the zombie pony whipped around and bashed her in the face with the end of his shotgun.

Xayah stumbled back, grabbing at her nose to stop the blood that had begun to flow freely from it.

Brisk and I rushed forwards; swinging both the machete and the baton at the zombie pony. As I had expected, the zombie pony lurched out of the way, but this time I was one step ahead of it. I telekinetically slammed my baton against the barrel of its shotgun as the creature tried to move out of our reach, knocking it from its grasp and sending the weapon spinning across the floor.

The zombie pony dove for the weapon, but no amount of speed was faster than magic. I picked it up in my telekinetic grasp and spun it around to face the oncoming zombie pony. Clearly aware of what was coming, the zombie pony leapt into the air seconds before the shotgun fired. While the creature narrowly avoided death for the moment, it could not avoid injury.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

The shotgun fired three times, three shots made their mark. The front two legs and the back leg of the zombie pony were ripped from its rotting body and reduced to little more than bloody piles of flesh. The zombie pony shrieked and fell to the floor, attempting to lash at us with its remaining back hoof as it flopped around like a fish out of water.

Brisk approached it and quickly slid his machete across its throat, ending the tormented creatures suffering. There was a gurgling noise in the back of its mouth followed by a large amount of yellowish red blood spilling from its throat and pooling around the legless corpse.

I looked around at the group. Save for a bloody nose and a small gash on my side we had managed to get out of that fight pretty unharmed.

I admired the triple barreled shotgun that I held in my magic. It was a beautiful thing, with elaborate golden pattern down the three barrels. Along the side of the gauge read the word ‘Boneless’ in equally elegant writing to match the designs.

I approached the body of the zombie pony and searched through the pockets on it’s yellow shirt for ammunition. I found seven shells tucked neatly inside of the front, three of which I quickly loaded into the gun.

It wasn’t until after I had looted the body that I actually looked at the pony like creature that I had killed. It had once had a curly brown mane that looked like it had been falling out for quite some time and a small damaged name tag on the front of his shirt. I leaned forward and read the name. ‘Cheese Sandwich’.

‘I need you to use your cheesy sense,’ I remembered Pinkie saying in the audio recording. This must have been who she was talking to.

I looked over to see Brisk and Xayah eyeing me suspiciously. "What?” I asked turning to face them. I swear, if they had spotted another goddess damned thing that was about to attack us-

“It’s just that…” Brisk started, looking at the shotgun in my magic. “Are you planning on fighting with that gun?”

I looked down at the beautiful triple barrel shotgun. “Yeah, why? Do you want it or something?”

Brisk shook his head. “No, it’s just that… Never really imagined you as the kinda pony to fight with a shotgun.”

I blinked, not fully understanding. “What do you mean?” I asked in confusion, holding the gun up higher.

“Well, it’s just that you’re the small, smart one, so I assumed you would use something more precise or whatever,” Brisked tried to explain, stepping nervously back. “You know, like a pistol or a sniper or something.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What...”

“I think he is trying to say you are cute and that the shotgun is not very becoming of you,” Xayah bluntly stated, confirming my suspicion.

I snorted. “I’ll use whatever type of gun I want,” I replied with a huff. “Besides, I think this is a very elegant gun.”

Brisk shrugged, showing that I had made my point.

I approached the door that the Cheese Sandwich zombie pony had come from. The room beyond seemed to be some form of security control room. It was a large pentagon shaped room with three windows facing out in different directions. Metal owls lined the top of the room and multiple terminal covered desks lined the walls. A large monitor in front of the largest window displayed hundreds of static filled images of the Manehattan ruins. I quickly realized that I was looking at video camera footage from all over the area.

Yikes, I guess Pinkie really was always watching!

I turned to a window facing out the eastern wall of the building. Far in the distance I could see a large tower connected to the monorail that loomed over the city ruins. I pointed it out to my friends.

“What is that?” I asked, trying to make out the details.

Brisk and Xayah approached and stood on either side of me. “That is Tenpony Tower,” Xayah explained, nodding to the massive tower. “I hear it is one of the few habitable structures in the Manehattan area,” after all that had happened to me in the wasteland the last two days, I could believe it.

I turned and looked out a second window. Not to far away I saw a massive pony statue towering above the wrecked skyscrapers. Small wooden and metal houses seemed to have been built into the sides of the statue, primarily around the base.

“That must be Friendship City,” I commented, pointing the large statue out as well. “It’s not very far from here.”

I turned to the third and final window that overlooked the street we had entered from. Instantly my eyes connected with the slitted eyes of the green alicorn hovering behind the pane of glass.

“There you are,” The alicorns malicious voice pounded in our heads as the monstrosity drew closer to the window. "The Goddess is always pleased to invite more unicorns into unity with us.”

Shit.

There was a blinding flash from the alicorns horn. I felt Xayah push both Brisk and I to the ground as the window exploded, shards of shattered glass flew over our heads, many shards cutting long scratches into our backs. Xayah took the worst of it, many of the pieces lodging themselves into her striped hide.

The green alicorn gracefully glided into the room and landed before us. “Now tell me,” The alicorn mocked in her cruel and booming voice, a thin smile slowly carving its way across her face. “Will you join us in Unity willingly, or will I need to force you to join us myself?”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Black Widow -- You have been the other sex, +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters

Author's Notes:

This chapter took me longer than I expected. Originally I was worried it was going to be to short, but the farther into the chapter I got, the more I realized that it was way to long.

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira

I hope you enjoyed and have a better day then the characters in my story!

Chapter IV: Learning to Dance in the Rain

“Welcome to Friendship City, please wait while the bridge extends.”

Goddesses.

I had been told that thousands of moons ago, the magical land of Equestria had been ruled by two royal alicorn sisters named Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They had been powerful, wise, beautiful, and most importantly, fair to the ponies that lived under their rule. These goddesses had the power within them to raise and lower the sun and moon at the beginning and end of each day, never faltering in their duties.

I had always wanted to see the royal sisters, see if they were truly as magnificent as the stories had claimed.

The alicorn that now stood before us was not what I had imagined the goddesses to be like, and it wasn’t just because this one was green instead of the white and blue coats I had been told about. It was the malice in the creatures slitted eyes that proved it was no Celestia or Luna. It was a mockery of what they had once been. An insult.

An insult that I did not take very kindly to.

I slowly pulled myself to my hooves, raising my newly acquired shotgun and faced the not goddess. I wiped my hoof across my face to wipe away the blood that had begun to trickle out of the corner of my mouth. Brisk crawled back to his hooves beside me, helping Xayah up as well.

“Well?” The alicorn demanded, taking an intimidating step forward. “Will you join willingly?”

I growled. How dare she attack me and my friends. “How about fuck you?” I retorted, firing a shot from Boneless at the alicorn's head. It wasn't the wittiest insult, but I didn't care about that too much right now.

In an instant, a light green bubble shield appeared around the alicorn. The burst shells refracted off the surface of the shield, spraying me with small amounts of shrapnel. I took a step back and covered my eyes as I was assaulted by my own attack.

Really? A force field? So this thing could fly, shoot lasers, use telepathy, and make force fields!? I was calling it right here, alicorn’s sucked!

The alicorn grinned at us from behind its shield. “Fine,” it replied. “We will do this the fun way.”

The alicorns shield dropped just long enough for a beam of burning energy to flash from her horn and lash at us. The three of us scattered, doing our best to avoid the lasers as the alicorn began firing multiple rounds from her horn at a time.

My foreleg screamed in pain as I landed heavily on it to avoid having a hoof sized hole torn through my chest. I glanced down at it quickly. The gauze had peeled away to reveal a disgusting scab. Half of the scab had peeled off as well, oozing a weird orange slime.

“Sorry,” I muttered to my leg. “I’ll heal you up as soon as we get to Friendship City,” I dodged to the side again as another magical lance of energy flashed towards me.

Xayah had fallen onto all fours, revealing the bloody gashes across her back from the shattered window. Brisk stood over her protectively, his pistol clamped tightly in his mouth. He fired a shot at the alicorn. Once again, the creatures shield flared up and deflected the bullet before any harm could be done to her.

Bullets were useless against this thing unless we could find a way to get her shield down. If I was able to fight her up close, perhaps I would be able to get a hit in when she lowered her shield. I pulled out my shock baton with my mouth and raced towards the alicorn.

The alicorn shot a blast of energy towards me. I ducked under it and swung the baton at her head. Instantly her shield was up again, making my baton simply bounce off without harm.

Damn it, I hate alicorns!

Brisk had picked up on my train of thought and began sprinting towards the alicorn with his machete drawn.

The alicorn flapped its wings, shooting up towards the roof and moving out of reach of our close range weapons. This movement however, forced her to temporarily drop her shield.

Boneless swiveled around in the air to face her.

Blam!

Boneless fired, spraying the area above us in shrapnel. A bloody hole was ripped from the alicorns left wing. She flailed in the air for a second, before crashing back down towards the ground. Her shield flared back up as she came in contact with the ground, preventing her from breaking any limbs.

Brisk lunged at the fallen alicorn with his machete, only for a blast of energy from the alicorns horn to tear through his front leg and send him flying backwards five feet where he crashed against the wall next to Xayah.

The alicorn climbed back to its hooves and glared at me, murder in its eyes. “You will not get the pleasure of Unity,” The alicorn screamed into my brain. “I will rip you apart myself!”

Then she was lunging at me. I rolled to my side, just narrowly avoiding being impaled on her horn. As I recovered I felt a small tugging in my chest. I looked down to see a telekinetic glow around where my heart was. I realized with horror that the alicorn was trying to rip out my heart.

I grasped at my chest and gasped for breath as I felt the telekinetic grip tighten

I raised Boneless again and fired at the alicorn. Her shield flared to life again, deflecting the shot, but it forced her to release her grip on my heart.

Xayah had finally pulled herself to her hooves and rushed at the alicorn with surprising speed considering she had shards of glass sticking out of her back. As Xayah got closer to the looming alicorn she tapped the gem on her stealth cloak and vanished from view. The alicorn showed signs of surprise, quickly followed by anger as Xayah appeared atop the alicorns back and began trying to stab at it with her knife. With each strike of the knife, the alicorns horned flared up, creating a smaller shield to deflect the blows.

I swung my baton at the alicorn again, hoping Xayah would be a big enough distraction for the alicorn to not notice me. Unfortunately the alicorn noticed me anyway.

Still deflecting Xayah, the alicorn wrapped my baton in a field of telekinesis and flung my own weapon at my face. The impact sent me flying back and crashing into the large terminal against the wall, my back hitting a large red button as I landed.

The eyes of metal owls that lined the ceiling above us began glowing a crimson red and the mechanical birds began flying down from the ceiling.

Seriously? This building had security owl robot? Oh come on!

The Alicorn bucked Xayah off her back and put up a shield to avoid being disintegrated by the multitude of lasers that began raining down on us from the owls above.

Xayah, Brisk and I however did not have the luxury of magic shields. We began racing for the doorway, doing our best to dodge any and all robot bird lasers.

A handful of birds continued to fly in circles around the room, shooting at anything that moved, while the rest began flying out the door and into the rest of the building. I heard shouting coming from two floors below as the owls began attacking the slavers that were on their way up.

Shit, I had forgotten that the alicorn had dragged a small army of well armed ponies into the building with her. The owls had saved us some time, but I estimated that it would only take a few more minutes before the rest of the slavers pushed through the buildings defenses and made it to the fourth floor.

The three of us ducked behind the door frame as the alicorn began battling with the remaining metal owls.

“We need a plan,” I said quickly as I tossed two shotgun shells into my gun. “Any Ideas?”

My companions shrugged helplessly.

“We need to do something, just attacking it isn’t doing us any good,” I said in a panic. I had no idea how we were going to kill this thing. “That alicorn is to strong, none of our attacks can get through it’s shield.”

Xayah rolled something around inside of my saddlebag which rest on the floor beside me. “What if we attack it from inside of its shield?”

Before I had time to question what that meant, I heard the alicorn blast the last owl in the room to bits. “Alright my little ponies,” The alicorn screamed. I covered my ears to try and block out the noise in my head. I really didn’t like ponies talking inside of my brain. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”

Xayah just looked between Brisk and I. “Just distract her. I have a plan,” And with that she tapped the gem on her cloak and disappeared with my saddlebags.

I glanced over at Brisk. “You ready?”

He gave me a smug smile and pulled out his pistol. “There are worse ways to die.”

We jumped back around the door frame and into the room. The alicorn narrowed its eyes as it saw us, its horn began glowing with light.

Blam!

Boneless fired a shot. As I had expected, the alicorns shield flickered into view and deflected the shot. But I wasn’t trying to hit her now; now I was simply trying to distract her.

I telekinetically rammed the stock of my gun into the force field, making the alicorn rock to the side. At the same time, Brisk swung his machete in a large arch towards the alicorn. The heavy blade made contact with the shield, making the alicorn lose focus a little.

“Enough of this!” The alicorn yelled. The force field dropped and several rays of light lashed out from her horn. Brisk dropped to the ground, the beams of energy streaking over his head and singeing the ends of his tail.

I was less lucky. Multiple rays struck me, sending me flying backwards and knocking the breath out of me. I tried to pull myself back to my hooves to find my injured foreleg had finally given out and refused to hold my weight.

Damn it leg! Not now!

The alicorn took two steps towards us. “As if you three actually stood a chance against me!” The alicorn declared in triumph, a crazed tone in her voice. Then she stopped and glanced around. “Where is the zebra!”

A ripple in the air behind the alicorn gave her her answer. The alicorn swung around and blasted the invisible zebra with another laser before quickly bringing up her shield again. Xayah flashed back into view as she was hit by the burning laser. The blast struck her shoulder and knocked her backwards where she lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

The alicorn laughed. “Did you really think you could sneak up on me! Your plan has failed!” But our plan hadn’t failed. As I stared at the alicorn I finally understood what Xayah had meant by attacking her from inside her shield.

I grinned and pulled myself to my hooves. My leg gave out again and I tumbled back to the floor with a thud. “Oh yeah? Guess again,” I taunted, struggling to hold back a smug grin.

I pointed to the alicorns hooves where a small grenade lay trapped within the alicorns force field. The alicorn glanced down at her hooves with just enough time to see the explosive and drop her shield before the grenade went boom!

A cloud of dust erupted from around the alicorn as the grenade went off, obscuring our view of everything that wasn’t within a few inches of our face. Shrapnel rained down around us, forcing me to cover my eyes and take a step back.

I spotted the pale glow of light around the alicorns horn through the cloud of dust. Small and obscured, but still very clearly there.

You have got to be kidding me! How was she still not dead!?

I raised my shotgun to what I imagined to be the alicorns head level and advanced towards the flickering light. The dust settled as I approached, revealing the alicorn standing in a large pool of blood and flesh.

The alicorn had seen better days. Half of the creatures face had been torn off by flying shrapnel and she was missing her left eye. Both of her wings were filled with holes and her legs were a broken bloody mess. But shockingly, she was still standing.

As the alicorns horn glowed I watched in amazement as her muscle and skin tissue slowly weaved itself back together. Her eye began reforming in her socket and the holes in her wings began to patch themselves back together. The only proof of the wounds ever existing was a collection of silver scars all over her body.

“Oh come on!” I yelled at the alicorn. “Is flight, magic, and fucking force fields not enough! You have to have healing magic too! That’s just cheating!”

There are a lot of upsides to healing magic. The main reason of course being that you could heal most of the wounds you receive in battle with the exception of broken limbs. The downside however (and this applies mostly to dumb fucking alicorns that don't know when to die) is that while you are healing yourself, you aren’t able to use any other kind of magic due to the amount of concentration required to cast such a spell. Unable to use magic like a shield to be specific.

I targeted her head in SATS, raised boneless, and fired three shots point blank into the alicorns face. The first shot ripped away the remaining flesh, the second took out both of the alicorns eyes as well and pulverized the exposed muscle, and the third and final shot burst open the monsters skull and sent brain matter flying across the room in every direction.

The alicorn staggered slightly, managing to remain on all fours for a few seconds even after death. Then, the headless corpse of the alicorn fell to the floor.

Brisk and Xayah walked over and looked at the ruined body. “That could have gone much worse,” Xayah stated, her eyes lingering on the bloody remains of the alicorn. “I’ll be honest, I almost forgot to pull the pin. I have never used a grenade before.”

Before I could comprehend that Xayah simply forgetting the pin of the grenade could have killed us all, I heard a slaver shout. “They’re in here!” Crap, I had forgotten about them. Again.

A slaver in combat armor and a sniper rifle came charging around the corner of the door. I raised my shotgun to shoot him, but before I could do anything one of the mechanical owls flew from above him and sent a red laser straight through his chest. Almost instantly, the slaver turned into a fine red dust.

Instinctively, I swept up his saddlebag in my magic with one quick motion and dumped out the contents. Ten bullets for his sniper rifle dropped to the floor along with twenty or so caps. Perfect. I tossed the caps into my bag and loaded the bullets into my sniper before handing the gun over to Xayah. Now we all had guns.

Xayah took the gun in her hooves and gave me a quick nod.

“We need to get out of here,” I declared, spinning in a circle and trying to spot a way out. We couldn’t fight our way past twenty or so slavers, and while Xayah might have a stealth cloak, all three of us probably wouldn’t be able to sneak past them either.

Brisk stuck his head out the window the alicorn had destroyed. “Hey, let’s go out here!” he shouted, hauling himself onto and out of the window.

“Are you crazy!” I exclaimed, racing over to him. “This is the fourth floor!”

Brisk shook his head. “There is a thin ledge out here. We can scale the walls to the roof,” I glanced out the window. He was right. A thin ledge ran along the outside of the building at a steep slope. A few feet down the building I could make out what appeared to be another ledge that we could use to climb up to the floors above. Well that was oddly convenient.

“So we can get to the roof,” Xayah deadpanned. “What do we hope to do once we are up there?”

Brisk shrugged and continued to climb out the window. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there I suppose,” His back hooves touched the ledge and he began inching along the side of the skyscraper.

This is insane. I thought to myself; watching as Xayah began to follow Brisk out and onto the ledge. The sound of shouting as the Slavers closed in reminded me that there were worse things we could be doing.

“There are worse ways to die,” I muttered to myself, rephrasing what Brisk had said only moments before.

I began making my way over to the window and glanced down at the street below. Even only four floors up, it was a lengthy drop. Goddesses I hated heights.

As I was pulling myself onto the window sill, my eyes landed on I stack of five orange holotapes next to three empty tins of Party-time Mint-als. Out of simple curiosity, I swiped them up and tossed them into my saddlebags.

“There they are!” A slaver shouted as he burst into the room and spotted me half out of the window. He pulled out his machine gun and opened fired on me.

Shit, this was the part where I get the fuck out of there.

I dropped to the ledge as a barrage of bullets whizzed above me. Keeping low to the ledge I began inching my way towards the far side of the building.

The slaver poked his head out the window and watched with astonishment as we scaled the walls of the building. He sent a few shots our way before calling to the rest of the slavers.

“They are heading for the roof! Cut ‘em off!” as soon as he finished his command, he hopped out the window himself and began climbing towards us.

Fuck these assholes were persistent.

Brisk reached the far ledge and began pulling himself upwards with his forehooves. I could see his injured front legs start to shake as he hauled himself up. I supposed Buck can only do so much. As he made it to the second floor, he reached his hind hoof down to help Xayah up. As she seemed to be scaling the building better than the rest of us, I doubted she needed help, but she took his hoof anyway.

The slaver was closing in on me faster than I would have liked. I glanced behind me to see two more slavers climbing out the window with pistols.

Multiple shots flew past me as I raced for the far edge of the building. I reached up and grabbed onto Xayah's hoof, allowing her to pull me up. I grasped onto the second ledge and began to inch across again.

The second ledge was only about half the width of the first, making it much harder to climb. I spent less time trying to run forwards and more time trying to keep from falling.

The first slaver to climb out after us began firing at us with his machine gun again. I had to push myself as tight as I could against the wall to avoid being filled with lead. Holes were blown straight through the bottom of the ledge and I could feel it start to crumble away.

Clearly realizing that he might be able to make the ledge collapse, the slaver began focusing his weapon on the structure.

Yup, I definitely needed to get rid of this guy.

Reaching out with my magic, I wrapped his hind leg in a telekinetic field and gave it a good ol’ yank. As expected, the hoof was pulled out from under him and he was sent screaming towards the ground. A second later there was a horrifying thump and the screaming stopped.

I heard the two other slavers yell with surprise as they began tucking themselves closer to the side of the wall before I could do the same thing to them. At the same time, three more slavers pulled themselves out of the window. Holy shit, they just didn’t stop coming.

As we reached the end of the ledge we found a small flaw with our plan. The end of the ledge stopped only half way up the building with no obvious way to keep climbing up.

“Shit,” I heard Brisk mutter as he glanced down at the street below us.

I allowed myself to glance behind me to the two slavers. They had pulled themselves onto the second ledge and were approaching with alarming speed.

Xayah looked up the wall with a frown. She began trying to look up the wall at a strange angle, as if looking for something the rest of us couldn’t see.

“Either of you have a plan?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. We really needed to start thinking our plans through better. We tend to come up with a basic concept and then start winging it about halfway through.

Xayah nodded. “Yes, I think we can scale this wall here,” I looked over at the brick wall we were standing beside.

“How?” Brisk asked, trying to spot what the zebra could see.

Xayah put a hoof on a brick that stuck out an inch or so from the wall. “Just follow what I do, the bricks should be able to act like a ladder,” without saying more, Xayah began climbing up the side of the vertical wall.

“No you fucking don’t!” I heard one of the slavers yell. I turned around to see them only a few feet way, pistols drawn and ready to fire.

I raised Boneless and checked my ammo. Only one shot left, better make it count. I aimed my gun between the slavers. They saw me readying to fire and pushed themselves up against the wall as to save from plummeting to their doom. I grinned. Checkmate.

Boneless fired my final shell at the wall, showering them with dust, shrapnel, and tiny bits of debris. The slavers stumbled, rubbing their eyes with their hooves as their sight got obscured by dust and rubble.

I telekinetically swung my baton at their heads, knocking both of them over the side with one quick motion.

I glanced up the wall. Xayah and Brisk had already made it a few feet up. I placed my hooves on the wall and began to climb after them.

The three slavers had begun to pull themselves onto the second ledge, their weapons clamped tightly in their mouths. They had used a similar tactic to us, helping each other climb up. Needless to say, they were climbing really fast.

As I pulled myself upwards I came to stop next to a large window. I peered inside to see a terminal and the charred remains of what had once been a pony lying in the corner. Interested, I squinted my eyes at something I saw tucked up against the skeletons chest - A twilight Sparkle statuette, very similar to the Rarity one I had in my possession.

The statuette seemed to be calling out to me, as if it desperately wanted to connect with the tiny white pony in my saddlebag.

I reached out towards the window. Maybe I could just…

A volley of bullets peppered the wall beside be, nearly making me lose my grip on the bricks.

Okay fine wasteland! Have it your way!

I began climbing again, leaving the small statuette behind. Maybe I could come back for it some time. Though, if time in the wasteland continued the way it had been going, I doubted I would be coming back this way.

Xayah and Brisk pulled themselves onto the top of the building. Brisk turned back and lowered his hoof for me to grab on. Unable to let go of the bricks without falling, I reached up with my mouth and bit onto the bottom of his leg.

Brisk winced as my teeth enclosed around his broken hoof, but he didn’t complain. I supposed he probably felt he didn’t have the right to complain, as leaving the Stable was his idea.

Brisk pulled me up onto the roof of the MoM building. I flopped onto the floor and lay there panting for a few seconds.

I looked up to see Xayah barricading the door to the roof with a broken piece of piping.

“That will not hold the slavers for long,” Xayah said, returning to us. “Once they reach the top floor, I give us about two minutes before they break through,” I was unsure if she knew that because she had been in a similar situation before, or if she was simply good at guessing.

“So, what now?” I asked, glancing around the roof. I spotted a giant red scooter that had once been atop the building beside us, had since fallen and now become a fairly sturdy bridge to cross to the next building. Again, it was oddly convenient, but hey! I’m not complaining.

I pointed out the scooter to my friends, though they seemed to have already spotted it as well.

Pounding started coming from the door to the building, drawing our attention. The broken pipe was already struggling to hold against the weight of the slavers ramming into the door. Xayah might have said we had two minutes, but I only gave us one.

“Welp, no time like the present, am I right,” Brisk laughed as he charged across the bridge. I had no idea how he kept a cheerful attitude in times like this.

Xayah and I began to follow him across. The scooter rocked under our weight, but seemed to hold. As we ran, I could hear the door burst open as the remaining slavers rushed onto the roof. I could hear their yells of frustration as they fired round after round at us.

The wasteland is a funny thing. It's a very diverse place, where you really can’t predict what is about to happen. One minute you were talking to your mysterious robot friend, the next your fighting and alicorn, and shorty after that you get chased by a bunch of slavers across a giant scooter.

When a giant, winged lion scorpion thing lunged from the sky and began attacking the slavers, things had already gone so far out of left field that I wasn’t even surprised.

The slavers attention quickly turned from us and onto the oncoming beast as it ripped and gnawed its way through the slavers. There were screams of “Kill it! Kill it!” and “Manticor!” then only the sounds of ripping flesh and gunfire.

I didn’t bother checking behind me as we raced into and down the building across from us. We didn’t stop running until both the slavers, the MoM building, and whatever the fuck a Manticor was, were far behind us.

When we finally did stop, we just flopped onto our backs and caught our breath.

“That’s it, I hate the wasteland!” I declared, resting the back of my head against the ground.

Xayah chuckled. “Yes, it is a rather unpleasant place.”

I checked the map on my pipbuck. We were still heading in the general direction of Friendship City, but our run had put us off course a little. I guessed it would be a few hours walk at most. Which wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t keep running into stuff that wanted to kill us.

I groaned. “Well, let's get going. I really don’t want to be in the middle of Manehattan when it gets dark out,” Everyone thoroughly agreed.

“...And that's when we met Watcher for the first time,” Brisk explained. He had been retelling our adventure to Xayah as we walked. I walked a few paces ahead of the two of them, scouting out for danger and making sure we stay on track. “He told Amber where to find some medication. Then we just followed the tunnel until we found you.”

“An exciting tale,” Xayah applauded. “That is a rather harsh way to enter the wasteland. Though it is never a friendly place, you two seem to have gotten a particularly rough start.”

There was an awkward silence between the two of them.

“Soooooo,” Brisks voice piped up. “What do you do for fun out in the wasteland? Or is it always just a struggle to survive.”

“There are plenty of things to do in the wasteland,” Xayah replied. “My family often passed the time by telling stories or funny jokes. Though I suppose different groups do different things,” I thought I heard her voice catch at the mention of her family, but I wasn’t sure.

“Jokes!” I heard Brisk exclaim excitedly. “I love jokes. Oh! Here is one you might like! What is black and white and black and white and black and white and green?”

Xayah thought for a moment. “I am unsure,” She finally replied in a puzzled tone. “What is it?”

Brisk chuckled. “Three zebra’s fighting over a pickle!”

Both Xayah and I groaned at the joke.

“Oh Oh! I have another one!” Brisk declared, still clearly trying to stop himself from laughing. Xayah groaned again.

I pulled out the holotapes I had found and quickly put them into my pipbuck. I didn’t know what was on them, but anything was better than listening to Brisk’s jokes. I pushed play on the first recording and listened as the sound of static sprang to life.

“Happy Birthday Pinkie!” I heard the bubbly voice of Cheese Sandwich say. “You missed your party and I know that your busy with your ministry and all, so I thought I would send you an audio recording telling you how special you are! Tell her everypony!”

I could hear a few other ponies in the background yelling “Happy Birthday!”

“Did you get that present I sent you?” I heard Cheese Sandwich say. “I know you’ll just love it! You always do! Anyhow, I will get Derpy to send you this holotape as soon as I can. I’ll even save you a slice of cake or two, I know it’s your favorite! Triple chocolate and cherry!”

The audio recording cut out for a second, but after a short interval of static, Cheese Sandwich’s voice came back on. “...and so I hope everything goes well and that I can see you soon. It's been so long since we've thrown a party together, we really should do another one sometime. Oh, and make sure to say hi to you friends for me! I hope they are all having a super duper good time as well! And Happy Birthday!” there was a loud burst of static as the recording cut out.

I hit play on the next one and started listening to a slightly more somber sounding Cheese Sandwich. “I looked into that Silver Ace pony you kept telling me about Pinkie. I can’t find anything, but you’re right. That pony is up to no good. My Cheesy sense went crazy around him. Other than that though, he had his guard up at all times. I couldn’t find any way to get through to him. Have you tried talking to Fluttershy? She seems to be working with him a lot. I’ll update you on if I find anything, sorry I haven’t been the biggest, most super awesome help you wanted Pink,” once again, the recording shut out.

I looked at the pile of holotapes. Only three remained unplayed. I turned back to my friends a few feet behind me to see Brisk still in the middle of one of his jokes, Xayah’s expression was a mix of boredom and complete and utter despair.

Our eyes locked and Xayah’s gaze seemed to read ‘save me!’ I gave her a sympathetic smile that meant ‘I don’t want to be dragged into whatever that is.’ Xayah’s ears drooped in defeat.

Before I could hear the punchline of Brisks next joke, I loaded the next holotape and pushed play.

For a long time there was just silence, then I heard the faintest sound of breathing as what I assumed was Cheese Sandwich trying to figure out what to say next.

“I’m sorry to hear about Twilight,” Cheese Sandwich started. He hesitated as he said Twilight's name, as if he was afraid it was a landmine that could go off at any second. He sounded so sad, as if he were on the verge of tears himself. “I can go talk to her if you would like, but I don’t really know if that would be a good idea.”

There was another long silence. It was becoming very clear that Cheese Sandwich didn’t know what to say. “I hope to see you again soon Pinkie,” He finally said. “I can’t remember the last time the two of us spent time together,” and with a final buzz of static, the audio recording came to a close. the recordings were all short and awkward. I was getting the feeling that Cheese Sandwich was trying very hard to hold together a long broken friendship. I was beginning to feel really sorry for him.

Without bothering to see what my companions were up to, I inserted the second to last recording and pushed play. There was an echoing sound in the distance of the recording, almost like haunting drums. Aside from that however, it was eerily silent. There were no ponies talking in the background or the bustle of the busy Manehattan streets. Not even a bird called out. A silence had fallen over the land of Equestria.

There was a faint cough, to quiet to hear well, but loud enough to be heard. “Hey Pinkie, I got locked in this room when the bomb went off and I don’t think I’m going to be able to open it from the inside,” It was Cheese Sandwich’s voice again, though this time he sounded weak and in pain. “I think you're upstairs, so I doubt I will ever be able to give this to you, but I just wanted to let you know that…” He stopped just long enough to cough a few times. I could have sworn I heard the sound of blood dripping from his lips. “Let you know that you were right. About everything. Those crazy four star nuts… everypony…” He started coughing again, this time the coughing went on for a few minutes. “Not that it really matters anymore anyway. It’s all over now. I don’t even think that… that you’re even… goddesses! How did I not see this coming!”

I had to bite back my own tears as I heard the sound of Cheese Sandwich choking on something. I had been wrong, this was far worse than any of Brisk’s jokes.

The gagging ended and I heard Cheese Sandwich collapse to the ground. “You never did receive that party recording I made you, I still have it with me… I never found the right time…” He tried to laugh his bubbly, contagious laugh, only for it to be interrupted by a fit of coughing and sputtering. “I… I don’t know how long I have left… I’m taking in more radiation than any sane pony should… I’ll probably drop soon, it’s just a matter of time… not that that’s a bad thing. I could use a little sleep. It's been a long few months for all of us. Besides, the last thing I want is to be stuck in this ol’ room forever…” He choked back his own tears and made a strange noise in the back of his throat that sounded like a mix between a scream and a gargle. "What do you say Pinkie? Ready for one last party? Lets make it our best one yet..." He started coughing again and this time, he didn’t stop until the recording finally shut out.

As the audio file came to a close I found myself crying. I had managed to stay strong for so long in the wasteland. Inside of the Stable, crying had been no stranger to me. I had cried plenty of times. But the moment I had stepped past the giant steel door of Stable 25, I had changed. I was stronger, more emotionally stable. I had been attacked, I had killed ponies, I had been injured and chased and probably had more existential crises than I had my entire life. Yet somehow, I had pushed forward and held back my tears, because I knew that if I were to start crying… I probably wouldn’t be able to stop.

Not now though. Now I stood stopped in the middle of some desolate, long abandon street in the middle of the goddess damned wasteland and wept. I cried for myself, for Brisk, and for Xayah and her lost family. I cried for Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie and everypony else who's lives had been ended by the war for no fault of their own. Cheese Sandwich’s words had hit me harder than I could have imagined. What had I done!

I remembered the body of the zombie pony lying legless on the floor of the MoM Building. He had been a good pony once. A great pony. He had recorded a birthday party of Pinkie, just because she was busy…

And I had killed him…

“You alright Amber?” Brisk asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder, shaking me from my trance like weeping. I hadn’t heard him walk up, I had been to distracted with these jumbled emotions that had sprung on me out of seemingly nowhere. “What’s wrong?”

I turned to him, tears streaming down my face. I must have looked terrible, all red eyed like that. “I killed him Brisk,” I sobbed, pointing to the holotapes. “He was a good pony and I killed him!”

Brisk just looked confused. “Who are we talking about?”

“Cheese Sandwich!” I shouted, trying to hide my tears. “He’s dead because of me!” Brisk still looked just as confused as he had before, if not more so. I let out a slow shaky sigh. “The zombie pony at the Ministry of Morale building.”

Understanding crossed Brisk’s face, though he still looked a little confused. “But you didn’t kill him Amber… I did.”

I looked back up at him. “What?”

“I killed him remember?” I shook my head even though I did. I could clearly remember taking his gun, blowing off his legs, and then looting his body. I hadn’t even checked to see who it was I had just killed until after I had taken all of his stuff. Brisk might have dealt the final blow, but that didn’t make me any less of a murderer. If anything, it just meant that his blood was on both of our hooves.

“That ghoul had most likely been insane for two hundred years,” Xayah commented. I hadn’t seen her approach either. “Killing him was most likely a favor.”

I nodded slowly, fighting back my tears. I could keep going. I had to keep going.

Something about what Xayah had said didn’t seem right though. Cheese Sandwich had reloaded his gun, which told me there was still a bit of who he once was left in him. Who had actually attacked first? Was he still sane and simply trying to defend himself against us? That didn’t quite sound right either though.

I took a deep breath and looked towards where I was finally able to see Friendship City peeking over many of the toppled skyscrapers. I could do this…

“Alright… I’m okay now,” I lied, continuing my walk forward. I caught Brisk and Xayah exchange a quick concerned glance in the corner of my eye. I doubted they fully believed me.

We continued on our way. As we walked I looked at the final holotape. I shook my head and placed it back into my saddlebag, figuring that I probably wasn’t ready to listen to whatever content it held.

The ordeal about Cheese Sandwich had gotten me thinking about all the other ponies I had killed since I left the Stable. Had some of them been good ponies too? What had Suri been like before the bombs? Did the raiders have family and friends? Did the Slavers? They might have… I didn’t know anything about them besides they were lying dead at the base of the MoM building. What about the bandits that Brisk shot? They had only been trying to survive… If I had managed to save them, could they have become our friends?

I pushed the thoughts from my mind. If I kept thinking like this, I was going to drive myself insane. I had to keep going.

We walked in silence for around an hour. Brisk attempted to make conversation a few times, but after all that had happened, no pony could seem able to keep the conversation going.

At last we approached Friendship City. It was exactly as I had seen it from the MoM Building, though now that I was up close, I could make out a bunch of other details. The settlement was actually across a large body of water, with the only way across being a large, fairly well maintained bridge. A few smaller structures were set up on our side of the water. I assumed they were there as some form of security measure, though I wasn’t exactly sure how or why.

The wooden structures that I had seen from the MoM building I was now discovering to be more for defense than actual living area. All the housing itself seemed to be almost entirely inside of the statue.

A large sign beside the bridge read, ‘Welcome to Friendship City. Friendliest place in the wasteland!’

As the three of us approached the bridge, we were confronted by two guard ponies in matching security barding.

“Welcome to Friendship City,” The guard on the right said, rephrasing what the sign already stated. I was almost unsettled by how friendly they were. Regardless of if I was wandering the wasteland or back in the dull halls of Stable 25, no one had simply acted nice to me. I did notice a strange glance at Xayah though.

They were friendly, but not completely free of prejudice.

Xayah seemed to notice their glances as well and pulled up her hood in an attempt to conceal her face. I’d have told the guards to be more inviting to zebras, had I not been tempted to leave her in a cage for raiders when I first saw her.

Shit, I guess almost abandoning Xayah was another thing to add to the list of cruelties I had committed since leaving the Stable.

Thankfully, the guards didn’t argue as the three of us gave them small smiles and nods and began walking across the bridge, even if they did seem nervous about a zebra with a stealth cloak entering the city.

“This place seems friendly,” I commented once we were halfway across the bridge and well out of earshot of the guards.

Both Brisk and Xayah nodded in agreement. “Indeed, that is why my family and I intended to come here,” Xayah said. “We were told they try to be less prejudice towards zebra kin.”

The fact that they had let Xayah in proved that, though I did note that Xayah used the words ‘try to be’ instead of ‘are less’.

As we reached the end of the bridge, three more guards stood outside the entrance to the city. Two stood on either side of the door, while the third approached us with a smile.

“Greetings,” the guard said, as we stepped off of the bridge and onto the island that Friendship City was built into. “Names, Lantern. I’m afraid you will need to turn in your weapons before you enter the city. Friendship City is a friendly place after all, and we would like to keep it that way.”

I pulled out Boneless and my baton and levitated the weapons over. “We will get these back right?” I asked as Lantern took them and placed them in a large safe.

Lantern smiled. “Of course. All of your belongings will be returned on your way out. We just can’t afford to have ponies walking around the city waving guns around. We are having enough internal problems going around as it is, we wouldn’t want violence to get involved.”

I shared a glance with my friends. “What kind of internal problems?” Brisk asked as he relieved himself of his pistol and machete. “Anything interesting?”

Lantern shook their head. “Black Seas and Raspberry Tart are just havin’ a little spat about the politics of Friendship City. Nothing some newcomers like you need to worry about. You three just do your best to have a good time in the city,” Lantern turned to Xayah who quickly handed over her sniper and knife. Lantern hesitated for a moment before clearing their throat. “Um… We will need to take you’re stealth cloak as well, if you don't mind.”

I could see Xayah’s clear hesitation as she looked down at the black fabric she had draped over herself, clearly hoping to keep it to avoid too much attention. Finally she pulled of the gem on the front and handed it over to the guard.

Lantern pondered if that was enough for a second before nodding and letting us pass. Before we entered, I pulled Lantern aside for a quick second.

“So, What can you tell me about friendship City?” I asked. Brisk and Xayah motioned to me that they would be waiting inside when I was done. I gave them a quick smile in return.

Lantern nodded. “Well if you are looking for a place to rest your head, I’d recommend the Warm Smiles Inn. Great place. Course if you need something a little cheaper, there is always the Common room for free. Though I would steer clear of there, Raspberry Tart runs the area you see. Been told she runs it a little more dirty than the rest of us here in Friendship City would like,” They said. “If you're looking for a place to buy or barter, the market area has got pretty much everything you could want… Is there anything specific you are looking for?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m looking for some ponies that are traveling through the Manehattan area. I was hoping I could find somepony that might have information.”

Lantern thought for a second. “You might just be in luck actually. See there is this old buck named Tales that comes by every now and again. He makes it his business to know just a little bit about everything going on in Manehattan. Crazy old pony, but he knows his stuff when he can separate it from his conspiracies,” Lantern replied. “He ain’t hard to miss, tall frail buck with a black stetson, usually talking about what the institute plans to do next, or when the Enclave is going to finally decide to come down from the sky.”

“Thank you, this has been a lot of help,” I said, turning from lantern and entering the city.

Friendship City was massive. Concentric rings rose up the walls of the massive statue, each ring holding a collection of different stores and homes. A large spiral staircase ran up the center of the structure, with multiple walkways and platforms branching out from the steps to merge with the rings.

A majority of the structures were built from scavenged parts of ships that they had most likely pulled from the harbor, giving the city the feel of a boat cemetery. I noticed that a few of the shops were simply boats that had been disassembled, brought inside, and then reassembled to their entirety.

It wasn’t until I realized I was currently standing on the deck of a large barge that I realized how truly enormous the city actually was. From outside I could tell that the statue stood above most of the other structures in Manehattan, but I hadn’t quite realized how much bigger it was. For a pony that had spent her whole life inside of a Stable where the roof was only about a foot above your head, it was almost hard to comprehend.

Friendship City was also the largest gathering of ponies I had ever seen. Large groups of ponies moved about the city, going about their day to day lives in the makeshift buildings. There were ponies in almost every direction I looked, some walking across the catwalks while many others stood around talking or bartered with merchants at the many vendors.

Brisk stood in shock as well, his jaw slightly slack as he stared up at the enormous city. He might not have been as afraid of the sky as I was, but he was still awestruck by Friendship City.

I gave him a smirk and extended my hoof to give the bottom of his jaw a tap. “Keep your mouth closed there buddy, we aren’t even through the front gates yet.”

Finding this Tales fellow was harder than I expected. The marketplace that Lantern described wasn’t just one floor, but several. And if that didn’t make it hard enough to find him, the fact that there were more ponies than I had seen in my life was making it damn near impossible.

After almost half an hour of searching, we came to a stop in a large cafeteria area and sat at one of the empty tables.

“What does this Tales buck look like again?” Brisk asked, glancing around the crowd. As the sun outside began to set, many of the ponies had begun to return to their beds, making the place look a little less crowded. “He has a stetson? Not really much to go off of there.”

“He’s frail and probably spewing conspiracy theories,” I replied. “Lantern said he would be hard to miss. So we will probably know when we see him.”

“And yet he still remains unfound,” Xayah commented, joining us at the table with three Sparkle-colas and some weird looking meat on a stick. “A pony gave this to me for only 3 caps,” Xayah said as she handed us the food and beverage. “The ponies here are rather kind, and they do seem to be very negotiable.”

I took the meat skewer and eyed it suspiciously. “This isn’t Radroach is it?” I asked, hoping that fried insect wasn’t the main food choice out in the wasteland.

Xayah chuckled softly. “Oh no, most ponies come to places like Friendship City or Tenpony Tower simply to escape the need to eat such things,” Well that was a relief. “This is Radigator meat. It comes from a town called Arbu up by Bucklyn Cross.”

I didn’t know what Bucklyn Cross was, so that detail didn’t help much, but Radigator sounded more appetizing than Radroach, so I wasn’t going to complain.

The meat didn’t taste bad either. I was still wrapping my head around the idea that I had to digest food to survive and I would have much preferred to just be in a Stable being fed by the A.A.S.S. but if I had to eat, this would do fine.

“Friendship City seems a lot more exciting than the Stable, Aye,” Brisk said, looking up at the rings that we were still yet to explore. “You don’t get to see the sky either. Place is practically perfect for you.”

I followed his gaze and gave a sad smile. “Perhaps, but I still want to go home after all of this is done. No place in the wasteland can replace the Stable.”

Brisk frowned. “Can’t it though? I mean, you’d probably be happier out here…”

I shook my head. “Happy? In the wasteland? I don’t think the wasteland even knows what happy is,” Brisks face fell. I got the sinking suspicion that he was trying to convince me to stay out here with him when we final returned the A.A.S.S. I recalled the conversation we had had in the morning. He was probably afraid of being left alone. “But hey, I bet they don’t need to listen to that goddess damned music every morning.”

He perked up at the thought. “Fuck yeah! No more of that stupid tune!”

Xayah raised her eyebrows. “Why would they play it in the morning? We can listen to the music whenever we want?”

Brisk and I just stared at her. “Oh goddesses! Don’t tell me they play the fucking parasprites song in Friendship City too!” Brisk exclaimed in anguish. “If that song starts playing I am grabbing my gun and shooting every damn speaker in this city! To hell with the whole no guns policy!”

“The parasprite song? Oh Celestia no!” Xayah replied quickly, calming Brisk down. “I mean the radio… You have heard the radio, yes?”

Brisk and I exchanged another glance. “There is a radio in the wasteland?” I asked.

Xayah nodded. “I am surprised you haven’t listened to it yet, I assumed you can pick it up on the pipbuck of yours,” She reached forward and tapped my hoof.

I began quickly going through all of the radio signals on my pipbuck. Static, static, static, static, no wait! One of the radio channels was broadcasting something. I clicked it and out of my pipbuck came music.

I was no stranger to music, or so I had thought. I had heard it every morning of my life since long before I could remember. But this wasn’t anything like the Stable-tec march, or even the eerily similar tune of the Spritebots. This song was beautiful.

Melodies rose and fell, only to later mingle seamlessly with other flowing sounds. There was a pony singing too, her voice soft and sweet and full of more emotion that I though any one pony could convey. I couldn’t make out the words though, I had been hypnotized by the enchanting song from the second it reached my ears. The longer the song went, the harder it became to hold back tears.

At some point, I found the strength to turn my head and look at Brisk. He had frozen in place, his tear filled eyes locked onto my pipbuck.

He had left the Stable to try and live a life worth living. In his eyes, this music must have been proof that he had managed to do just that.

As the music slowly began to fade out I managed to form words. “Wha… what was that!”

As if answering my question, the smooth voice of a stallion came out of my pipbuck. “Ah, that was Sweetie Belle with ‘I’ll love you always’. That one always brings a smile t' my face.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Holy Fuck! There is a buck in my pipbuck!” Brisk looked equally started by my revelation.

Xayah giggled at our reaction. “No, you foolish ponies,” She chuckled. “That is DJ Pon3, he runs the radio.”

Well now I just felt stupid.

“Now listen up children, it’s time for the news… Today is a busy day it seems ponies, I got lots of things t' report. First and foremost I’d like to rephrase what I said earlier today. It seems Blackwing and her talons are still suck up in Horseshoe tower. Is no pony able t' help them? Or does no pony simply want t' after their last few stunts? hard t' say for sure, but I’m guessing the latter. In other news, it would seem that there are a bunch of Canterlot ghouls walking about Manehattan near Fetlock. What are they doin’ so far away from their mighty castle of pink cloud you ask? Once again, it’s hard to say, but I’d put my money on it being connected to all the shenanigans that have been going down in post apocalyptia these last few days.

“Is that all? I hear you yell. What else could possibly be happening in the goddess damned wasteland? Well let me tell you, and this one has me excited! See I have it under good authority that everypony's favorite Stable dweller has made her way t' Manehattan. Maybe I’ll finally be able t' share more than just her actions with you, but her thoughts as well. I think the wasteland could use a little more of what she has to say, don’t you? Until next time children, this is DJ Pon3, bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts…”

I turned off my pipbuck and looked between my two friends in shock. “How the fuck does he know who we are?” I blurted, waving my pipbuck in front of both of their faces.

“He must be working with those Red Eye slavers!” Brisk agreed, casting my pipbuck a dirty look. “They are the only ponies that have seen us and are still alive!”

Xayah looked almost alarmed. “Working with Red Eye? Whatever do you mean?”

“How else would DJ Pon3 know that we were walking around in Manehattan?” I demanded, almost angry at whoever this DJ was. “No one else even knows we are out here… except maybe Watcher…”

Xayah just stared at us for a long second, completely dumbfounded. Then, realizing what we were saying, slapped her striped hoof against her face. “He was talking about a different Stable dweller,” She said bluntly, removing her hoof from her face. “He has been talking about this heroine for just over a month now.”

Silence.

“Wow…” Brisk muttered, taking a bite of his Radigator. “We’re dumb,” I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

I looked at our food. “So, how many caps do we have left? We had 30, right?”

Xayah nodded. “The number of caps we have left to spend remains unchanged.”

Brisk glanced around. “I thought our meal was three caps?” He leaned in closer and whispered. “You didn’t steal this food, did you?” He was grinning while he said that last part. Part of me though he almost wanted our zebra friend to have committed theft.

Xayah shook her head. “No, the pony was simply foolish enough to forget to remove the caps on our Sparkle-colas.”

As we began laughing at our good fortune, I spotted a flash of metal amongst the ponies around us. I squinted in the direction of the metal until I spotted the cyber pony walking through the crowd.

He didn’t look like the cyber ponies that had invaded my Stable. Unlike the other cyber ponies, he was more flesh and blood than metal. He was a heavily scarred grey earth pony stallion with a jet black mane and matching tail. The only cybernetic part of him that I could see was a pair of metallic wings attached to his side. Each wing was a little bit larger than the average Pegasus wing and was comprised out of sharp blades where others would have feathers.

He was different enough to make me believe he wasn’t one of the same ones, but my eyes lingered on his blade like wings.

“They’re identical,” I muttered to myself, more impulsive than anything else.

Brisk raised his eyebrow. “What is?” He asked.

I pointed a hoof to the scarred cyber pony. “His wings… they look just like the ones the cyber alicorn in Stable 25 had.”

“What should we do then?” Brisk said, looking at the half metal pony. I ignored his question and began trotting over to the cyber pony. “Wait, Amber! What if it’s dangerous?”

“Amber seems to forget there are other ways to approach things other than head on I find,” I heard Xayah comment thoughtfully.

Brisk simply grunted. “I’ve noticed…”

I slowly approached the cyber pony. “Um… hello, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second?” I asked. The cyber pony turned and glared at my with steel coloured eyes, but remained silent. This was already getting uncomfortable.

You gotta do this Amber. I reminded myself. The whole Stable is counting on me.

I puffed my chest out and tried again. “I’m looking for some cyber ponies that have very similar wings to yours, do you know anything about them?” again, the cyber pony remained silent. Though I noticed he was looking a little annoyed.

I was about to try a different tactic when I heard a voice behind me. “Can I help you with something?”

I turned to see the fattest mare I had ever seen. Her form was almost comparable to that of a large blob instead of a pony. She had a pomegranate coat with a mustard yellow mane. She smiled at me with a charming grin that fit neither her appearance or her tone.

“Uh, no…” I replied cautiously. “I just need to talk to this cyber pony here…”

“Gizmo here is my bodyguard, so if you want to talk to him you will need to talk to me,” the mares voice practically dripped with a mix of honey and malicious sarcasm.

I paused. “Um… sorry, who are you,” Shit, that came out ruder than I had wanted. Before I could rephrase myself I saw the mare narrow her eyes.

“My name is Raspberry Tart,” She replied coldly. “You had better remember it.”

I shrunk back. “Sorry, I was just…”

Raspberry Tart flicked her tail in the direction of Gizmo. “Come now, we have things to do,” The cyber pony nodded and began following her towards the staircase in the center of the city.

I cursed under my breath. I was about to give chase to them when an old, eccentric voice piped up. “You lookin’ for a buncha cyber ponies?”

I turned to see an elderly brown buck rocking back and forth on an old rocking chair, which was most peculiar since he was in the middle of the room. He was frail, practically skeletal and his wrinkled hide was covered in dark black tattoos depicting a bunch of historical moments from Equestira’s history that I had learned about back in school. The left side of the bucks face had been burned away, revealing soft, pink fleshy skin and atop his head sat a black stetson.

“Tales?” I asked, slowly approaching the stallion. Tales gave me a slow nod. I gestured for Brisk and Xayah to join me as I approached him.

“Ya ever heard of the Institute?” The old stallion asked, waving his forehoof in the air. “Those maniacs are snatchin’ ponies all over the wasteland up. Probably using them for some sorta sick twisted experiments too! Enclave is doin’ the same! Those buggers are going to swoop down from the sky alright, but I assure you, it ain’t to help.”

I shook my head. “I’m looking for some cyber ponies that are somewhere in Manehattan,” I said, brushing off his question. Then I scratch the back of my head awkwardly. “Which you already knew…”

Tales grunted gruffly. “Ignore the signs all ya want, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya,” The older buck gave a small cough. “Let me tell you, there ain't many cyber ponies roamin’ the wasteland these days,” Tales said, leaning back in his rocking chair and putting a corncob pipe into his mouth. “Plenty down in Filly, but in Manehattan? Ya got Gizmo, but that’s ‘bout it.”

“Do you know where some might be going?” I asked. Brisk and Xayah finally pulled up next to me, looking the old stallion over.

Tales gave a low, shaky laugh. “Do I know where some might be goin’?” I chuckled to himself again. “I can do you one better, I’ll let them tell ya!” He reached down and picked up a clunky black contraption that had been resting beside his rocking chair.

It took me a second to identify what the contraption was. I had seen one in my Stable only once, and it had been behind a thick pane of glass.

Or Stable had what one might call a museum. It consisted of around twenty pre-war artifacts and a handful of audio files for your pipbuck that give you the ‘complete’ history of the great war. Among those artifacts, was the rusted remains of what had at one point in time been something called a camera.

Now the black box that Tales held in his hoof was a much sleeker design, and lacked the rust that the camera I had seen had been adorned with, but it was definitely the same kind of device.

Brisk however, definitely did not go to Stable 25’s infamous museum, and if he had I would imagine he probably spent more time trying to steal from it than listen to what the audio recordings had to say.

“What in the name of Luna is that supposed to be?” He asked pointedly. “A paper weight?”

Tales simply scowled at the young green unicorn. “I can assure you, this is not as effective of a paper weight as your thick skull.”

I grinned. I liked this pony.

“Give ‘em hell!” the cyber alicorn on the flickering projection commanded, pointing his metal hoof towards a group of blue and green alicorns. It startled me to see there was more than just the one alicorn we had fought in the MoM building. It out right horrified me that the four cyber ponies I was hunting were so willing to fight a group of such powerful adversaries. Worse, they seemed to be killing the alicorns with ease.

Tales had invited us over to his living quarters at Friendship City. It was a small room consisting of an old mattress that didn’t look like it had been cleaned in years and about twelve or so shelves that held weird trinkets he had collected from all over the wasteland.

Tales had grabbed us some tea and attached his camera to an old, dusty projector. Before long the four of us were watching the flickering video recording of the four cyber ponies that I had encountered only two days ago.

Brisk shuttered when he saw the large canons on the cyber ponies sides. Had I not seen them before, I would have shuttered too.

The four cyber ponies bast there way through alicorn after alicorn. Explosive blue blasts of energy lanced from their canons and blew holes right through the alicorns shields. One cyber pony even had the audacity to laugh maniacally as he continuously stomped on an alicorns head.

One by one, the alicorns fell until only one remained. It turned and tried to fly away, but the cyber alicorn was faster, rocketing towards it and lashing out at the creatures neck with its blade like wings. There was a snap and the alicorns head was severed from its neck with a single clean cut.

I winced as the alicorn fell and crashed into the ground. I had been right, those were the exact same wings as Gizmo.

The cyber ponies chuckled as they stepped over the broken carcass.

“Almost a shame we are meeting them at the halfway point,” The cyber pony who had been laughing in the middle of the fight soothed in his metallic voice. “I’d love to fight our whole way there.”

The two cyber ponies behind him chuckled in agreement. “It’s been too long since we were all able to fight alongside each other like this,” one of them said, this cyber pony carried two large flamers at its side. “I say when all of this is over, we go back to that Stable and blow it all to hell. Lot of ponies to use as target practice in there.”

Again, there was a round of laughter from the group as they nodded in agreed.

I froze. They wouldn’t! How could they even suggest wiping out the whole Stable… for fun? I could feel a strong anger rising inside of me. I couldn’t let them do that.

“Why do you think he wants this thing so badly anyway?” the cyber pony continued, pulling out the case that the A.A.S.S. rest in and tossing it into the air before catching it on the tip of his muzzle. “He not want to eat anymore or somethin’?”

The cyber alicorn turned and growled at him, finally breaking his silence. “Careful with that you moron!” He snarled, his eyes glowing a deep red. “I don’t care why he wants it, all I know is that he is paying all of us a lot of caps to get it to the Ponypalooza Hotel,” He glare at the cyber pony that had tossed the A.A.S.S. into the air darkened. “And only if we get it to him in one piece!”

The other cyber ponies all took a step back. The A.A.S.S. was very quickly returned to the cyber ponies side.

“Let’s get going,” The cyber alicorn grunted. “I fucking hate the wasteland.”

They began to walk away, but the cyber alicorn suddenly stopped. The other cyber ponies looked confused for a second, but they suddenly froze too.

After a suspenseful pause, they cyber alicorn spoke up. “There are a lot of advantages to being made out of wires and gears you know,” the cyber alicorn chilled in its deep, intimidating voice. He slowly turned his head to face the camera. I could almost feel Tales hold his breath in the recording. The cyber alicorn began to slowly approach us through the screen. “One of the greatest, among many other things, is that we have a built in EFS,” with that all four cyber ponies began bounding toward where Tales stood shaking.

Then Tales ran. And my Celestia, he could apparently run really damn fast. There was the sound of metallic shouting in the distance, followed by pounding metal hooves. Finally, the screen went blank.

Tales walked over to the projector and shut it off, darkening the room exponentially.

“How did you escape?” Brisk asked in awe as the flickering light shut off.

Tales chuckled. “Wasn’t easy; it's hard to hide from something that can pick up your life force through walls. But this ain’t my first rodeo I tell ya! Once had to hide from a whole army of raiders with pipbucks. Spent three days in a Radroach pit just so they couldn’t detect me on their EFS.”

“Where is the Ponypalooza Hotel?” I asked abruptly. The whole idea of the cyber ponies coming back to wipe out the rest of my Stable had left a bad taste in my mouth and left me in no mood for small talk.

“Just outside of Fetlock, I believe,” Xayah said. “Though I have never been there myself.”

Tales nodded, confirming our zebra friends statement. “Damn place is a death trap, more feral ghouls in there than I can shake a stick at, and I shake a lot of sticks!” he glanced down at my pipbuck. “Here, let me mark it on your map.”

The second I had the exact location of the hotel on my pipbuck I was racing out the door and towards the spiral staircase that lead out of Friendship City.

Brisk and Xayah raced out after me. “Amber wait? Where do you think you’re going?” Brisk demanded, taking a few steps down the stairs after me.

“The Ponypalooza Hotel!” I shouted back. “You heard those cyber ponies, once their done there going to go back to Stable 25. I can’t let that happen.”

“Amber, the sun is going to set soon. Besides, the three of us are so exhausted and battered from the last two days that I doubt we would be any use in the wasteland,” Brisk retorted. “ At least let us buy some medication for our legs and get some rest. We can go and kill those sons of bitches in the morning.”

My legs were shaking and I was more than aware of the burning pain in my foreleg where the raider had cut into my flesh with a chainsaw. No doubt medicine and a good night's rest would do us some good, but I scowled at Brisk anyway. “No! The longer we wait, the further away they get and the closer they get to turning around and killing everypony we have ever known!”

“It would be foolish to fight them in our current state,” Xayah commented calmly. “You saw how lethal they can be. You will need something to fight them with, and as far as I can remember, you are out of ammo.”

I instinctively reached for my new gun Boneless, only to remember they had taken it at the front gate of Friendship City. I sighed, of course they were right. They were always right.

“Alright, I’ll wait until tomorrow,” I grumbled, pulling myself back up the steps. "But no later than that."

Brisk nudged my shoulder with his muzzle. “We will leave as soon as we can in the morning. I promise.”

Caps… We had only thirty caps to spend. That was thirty caps to buy a room for the night, get enough ammo to get all the way to the Ponypalooza Hotel and kill the cyber ponies, and get medical help for both of Brisks front legs as well as my own.

“A room costs how much?” I asked in disbelief as I talked to pony in charge of the Warm Smiles Inn.

The gruff looking stallion gave me a sympathetic look. “Twenty five caps, no more no less,” He said sternly. “Sorry, I can’t lower the price for you any. You and your friends can always sleep in the common room if you like. That's free for all ponies,” He gave a quick glance at Xayah. “An uh… and zebras too.”

I nodded and walked away from the hotel. “We cant do twenty five caps,” I told my friends. “Not if we want to send money on other things as well.”

“We could always sleep in the common room as that pony said,” Xayah stated. “It seems foolish to pass up on a free place to sleep.”

I grimace. “I suppose, but I heard that Raspberry Tart runs that, and honestly, I don’t think I feel safe in anything involving her.”

Brisk looked at my quizzically. “Raspberry who?”

“Raspberry Tart,” I restated. “I ran into her already, not the friendliest face in Friendship City.”

“Well it seems to me that medicine and ammo seems to be the most important thing to get at the moment, so let's go buy that and see where that leaves us, sound good?” Brisk asked, turning and walking towards the market area on the ring below us.

Xayah and I agreed and followed closely behind him.

It turns out that where that left us was about twenty shotgun shells for Boneless, ten additional shots for both Brisk’s pistol and Xayah’s sniper, a medical brace for both of Brisk’s legs, three healing potions, and about two caps remaining.

I looked at the remaining two bottle caps in my hoof. Definitely not enough to get a nice place to sleep. Not that I had expected to have such luck.

“So… Common room it is then,” I said with a pout. “Couldn’t be that bad. Right? You two sure we can’t just skip sleeping and go straight to the Ponypalooza Hotel?”

Brisk gave me a death glare. “No, we are getting our rest. We aren’t saving anypony how we are now. We need a good night's sleep.”

“Compared to the wasteland, I am sure that the common room isn’t that bad,” Xayah assured me, walking up to my side. “You’ve killed an alicorn now, it would be foolish for anyone to attack you.”

“It’s not an attack you need to worry about,” A pale grey buck said from the shadows beside me. “It’s the backstabbing and manipulation that’ll get to you.”

We turned to face the buck. It was hard to make out his features in the dark, but I could see that he wore a dark black suit and and wide brimmed fedora atop his head.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” I asked, hoping the stallion would take a step forward. To my relief, he did.

He was tall, a decent amount taller than I was, but only a foot or so above Brisk. He had a dark pair of shades over his eyes and a bright silver tie. He reminded me a lot of a side hero in a ‘Power Ponies’ comic I read back in Stable 25 named the Silver Shroud.

“No, we haven’t been introduced before,” The buck started, extending his hoof to shake mine. I gave it a quick shake, not fully sure how to take this pony yet. “My name is Emissary.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I replied sheepishly. “My name is Amber Aura, and these are my friends, Brisk Spark and Xayah,” Each of my friends gave a small wave as I said their respective names. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ll get right to it,” Emissary said, giving me a charismatic smile. “I have a friend named Flask out in Fetlock and I need to get a package delivered to him,” Emissary pulled out a small metal box with his mouth and placed it on the floor in front of us. “I heard that you three were heading out to Ponypalooza Hotel tomorrow, just so happens that Fetlock is right along the way. I was hoping that you could deliver it when you are in the area, or once you are done your business and on your way back.”

I was about to agree to his request when Brisk put out a hoof. “And what do we get in exchange?” He asked with a curious looking grin.

Emissary chuckled. “Of course, don’t think I didn’t have something in mind for that,” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key. “I’ll be leaving Friendship City tonight for Tenpony Tower. I won’t be needing my room for a bit and I heard that you were looking for a place to sleep,” he passed Brisk the key. “Room is yours if you except my request.”

Free, private room in exchange for bringing a box to somepony out the direction we were already going? Seemed almost too good to be true. Perhaps the wasteland was finally giving us a break.

We all piled into Emissary’s room. It was a decent size, with one large bed in the corner and a small side room holding a small guest bed. The only other furniture in the room was a small desk pushed up against the corner adjacent to the master bed, leaving a large portion of the room empty. A round window on the far wall gave us a beautiful view of the harbor. It was clear that Emissary had hardly ever used the room.

I looked around the room. “So, who is going to sleep on which bed? I mean there are only two.”

Brisk bounced up and down and waved one of his brace enclosed hooves in the air. “I call the single bed to myself!” goddesses, he was practically a foal. His childishness did manage to put a small smile on my lips though, so I wasn’t complaining.

Xayah nudges me with her foreleg. “Guess we’re sharing then,” The zebra said before tossing herself down on the bed and sitting on her hindquarters.

Brisk raced over to the window and looked out at the water below us. He just stared for a long time, before finally turning back to face us. “You know, the wasteland doesn’t look to bad at night from up here. Kinda peaceful to be honest.”

I chuckled. “I think I’ll avoid the window, I can’t stand the sky as it is. The last thing I need is to see the ground from all the way up here.”

Brisk looked up at the sky and grinned. “I hope you can appreciate the sky one day, it's rather stunning I think.”

“I suppose you never saw the sky in the Sable, did you,” Xayah said, as if realizing that fact for the first time. “It is strange to think of a life that is confined to such a small area.”

“It ain’t all it's cracked up to be,” Brisk replied with a snort. “Just boring old grey walls with even more boring rules. The wasteland is where all the fun is at!”

“What did you ponies even do in the Stable?” Xayah asked. “I can’t imagine there was much to do.”

Brisk snorted again. “You got that right. Pretty much everything I did that was even remotely entertaining just got me thrown in a cell.”

“Well you two must have had hobbies?” Xayah insisted. “When you were bored, what did you do?” She turned to me for the last part.

I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. “I don’t know, I just spent the day taking care of the generator room and sleeping,” I replied slowly, realizing how lame that sounded. “I mean I read lots of books and stuff… though usually those were just about machines as well - Sorry, you guys kinda just ended up traveling with the most boring pony ever…”
Xayah shook her head. “I do not think you are boring. I have known you for less than a day, and you are already one of the more interesting ponies I have met.”

I blushed and looked down at my hooves, letting my light pink and blue mane hide my face. “Thank you, but I’m really not.”

“Well is there anything you ever wanted to do?” Xayah asked in interest. “I’ve always wanted to be a singer.”

“Oh? You can sing?” Brisk asked, looking away from the window.

Now it was Xayah’s turn to blush. “Oh no, not at all. I said I always wanted to. My singing sound like hellhound giving birth, trust me when I say you do not want to hear it.”

I didn’t know what a hellhound was, or what it sounded like while giving birth, but I didn’t think I wanted to find out. “Well, I’ve always wanted to do painting…” I said shyly.

Xayah’s eyes widened. “Oh? I love painting? Have you painted anything before?”

I shook my head. “Nope, never tired, but it sounds like fun,” I turned to Brisk. “What about you? What do you like doing?”

Brisk gave us a devious grin. “Causing trouble and having adventures,” He said with a smirk, trying to fold his forehooves above his head. His braces made the act impossible however so he just kept his hooves at his sides. "And jokes of course. want to hear another one!?"

Xayah shook her head furiously, her eyes pleading for him to do anything but another joke. Brisk ignored her obvious distaste for his humor and laughed. "Here it goes, what is black and white and black and white and black and white and green?"

"You already told me this one," Xayah complained, grabbing the pillow beside her and shoving her head under it.

"No no, it's different this time, I promise," Brisk declared with a grin. "Do you want to know what it is?"

Xayah shuttered. "No, but you're going to tell me anyway..."

"It's you!" He said joyously, pointing a hoof at her green eyes. Xayah and I groaned. I was beginning to think that Brisk was intentionally making his jokes bad, just to annoy us. though by the way he was laughing at his own joke, I doubted that was the case.

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, but what else did you enjoy? Tell us something we don’t know?”

Brisk looked around the room for a moment, as if making sure we were alone. “Well… there is one thing…”

Xayah and I leaned in in anticipation.

“I… I, um,” Brisk stumbled, now blushing as much as the rest of us. His eyes started darting around the room even faster. "I don't know, it's kinda stupid..."

I threw my hooves in the air. “Well? Out with it!”

“I like dancing,” He finally mumbled. Okay, not what I was expecting from him, but still cool.

Xayah grinned. “Can you show us a dance?”

Brisks already red face grew even redder. “Show you a dance? Uh… I don’t know about that. Besides, I’d need music to dance to.”

Xayah reached over and pushed a button on my pipbuck. Music from DJ Pon3’s radio station came from my pipbucks speaker and filled the room. Brisks ear flattened against his head.

“Fine, But y’all are dancing with me,” He groaned, pulling himself away from the window.

I grinned and approached him. “Sure, though you’ll need to teach me some of the moves.”

Brisk rolled his eyes and gave a groan. “Fine…” He looked over at Xayah whom was still lying on the master bed. “You too Xayah.”

The zebra shook her head with a laugh. “No, I think I will just sit back and watch for now. I am not a very good dancer.”

“Oh no you don’t,” I said with a giggle, grabbing Xayah's hoof and pulling her into the middle of the floor with me. She struggled a little, but didn’t seem overly put out when I pulled her next to me.

“Alright,” Brisk said as the next song started to play. “Just start walking and follow what I do, you should catch on pretty quick.”

To put it nicely, we didn’t catch on at all. We spent the next five minutes tripping on our hooves as Brisk tried to teach us how to do a pirouette. Xayah and I might have been terrible at dancing, but Brisk seemed to be a natural, gliding around the room like a Pegasus in the air. Before long however the three of us had simply devolved into simply throwing the idea of dance moves out the window and just moved our bodies to the music however we felt.

We spun and jumped and waved our hooves above our heads like a bunch of mad ponies. Brisk waltzed and Tangoed around the room gracefully, switching between dance styles every few minutes. I couldn’t imagine what the ponies in the rooms beside us thought, but I really didn’t care.

I found myself laughing despite myself. The threat looming over Stable 25 had me in a bad mood, but at least I could enjoy myself for the time being. For the first time the wasteland didn’t seem like such an awful, inhospitable place.

The song on the radio changed to a slower, more somber tune. I found myself swept up in Brisks hooves as we slow danced across the floor. We spun in slow circles, making our way slowly across the room and back. He raised his hoof outwards, I spun outwards. He brought his hoof back in and I spun back in.

I spotted Xayah by the bed watching us and reached out with my hoof for her to join us. She gave a sad smile and reached out as well, joining the rotating circle.

As the song inched towards its end, Brisk spun out of the circle before showing off his pirouette that we had so helplessly failed to do earlier. I stuck my tongue out at him playfully and continued to spin and sway with Xayah. I looked into Xayah's stunning green eyes, then looked over to Brisk, his green mane flailing like crazy around his head as he leaped around the room. My blush deepened. I had defiantly picked the right friends.

The zebra chuckled, took a step back and did an elaborate flip. It might not have been dancing exactly, but it was still more impressive than anything I could do.

Brisk and Xayah joined hooves and spun in a quick circle of their own. I sat back and watched them, the first real smile on my face in a long time. Suddenly I rushed forward and wrapped them both in a tight hug, drawing their dance up short.

“What’s this?” Brisk asked playfully, though he didn’t sound as sarcastic as usual.

I smiled. “I’m just glad that off all the ponies I could have gotten stuck with in the wasteland, I ended up with you two.”

They both gave me a smile and returned my hug. Perhaps the wasteland really wasn’t so bad after all. Watcher had been right, keep making friends. Keep making friends and maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to win.

As the song came to a close the soothing voice of DJ Pon3 came from my pipbuck. “And that children, is one of my favorites. This is DJ Pon3, wishing all of you out in the wasteland a good night.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Cherchez La Femme -- +10% damage against same sex, plus unique dialogue options.

Author's Notes:

Don't really have anything to say here. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and have a good day or night (whenever it is you read this).

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira

Chapter V: The residence of Four Star

“Hear me, and obey! Oh sorry, that’s that other radio station.”

Sleep.

I hadn’t realized how much I actually needed to have a good long sleep. Within seconds of my head touching the pillow, I had fallen completely unconscious. My whole body sighed with relief as I finally allowed myself to sink into the soft cushions next to Xayah. My legs hurt, my back hurt, my head hurt, but most of all my heart hurt.

But my heart was also feeling a lot less heavy as well, as if many of the weights that had been placed over it while traveling through the Wasteland had simply fallen away. For the first time since leaving the Stable, I didn’t feel like I was among strangers forced together to survive. I felt like I was among friends who genuinely wanted to be on this quest with me.

Watcher had told me to keep making friends, and after last night, I understood why. I wondered how many ponies he had watched wander the Wasteland alone, only to be slowly driven insane by the harsh worlds many vices and become monsters. With friends like these, I might be able to evade that fate. I had to keep going. I had to win.

When my amber eyes finally drifted open I felt better than I had since I had entered Manehattan. Everything was just a little less sore and the large scar on my leg had healed far more than I could have expected. I examined it a little closer, trying to figure out exactly how it had miraculously healed so much.

I swear, it felt like if you could slept long enough you can mend broken bones.

I pushed myself up and looked towards the window across the room that Brisk had looked out the night before. White light was streaming through the window and the sun peeked through the dull cloudlayer from somewhere above my line of sight. I glanced to the far side of the bed to find Xayah had already gotten up and was nowhere to be seen.

It was already morning, late in the morning by the looks of it. Shit! I slept it!

I pushed the blankets off of me and quickly scrambled to get out of bed. My hoof slipped and I ended up crashing into the ground face first. Again.

I groaned in a daze. I really needed to stop falling out of bed.

I heard Brisk chuckle and felt his hooves pull me up. I blushed as he helped me stand and my stomach started feeling all fluttery for some reason. I was probably just hungry or something.

“Morning Amber,” He said, walking away and returning to his favorite spot at the window. “Did you sleep well?”

I stretched my hooves and gave a loud yawn. “Better than I expected. I didn’t realize I was so tired.”

“Neither did I,” Brisk agreed. “Though we really shouldn’t be surprised, we probably did more in the last two days than we had our entire lives. Not to mention that all of those things were probably the most dangerous and stressful.”

Xayah chose that moment to walked into the room balancing a silver plate of cookies atop her head. The plate wobbled slightly, but she didn’t seem to be having any difficulty balancing it.

“I know you hope to go out after those cyber ponies as soon as you can,” Xayah started. “But I figured you would want a quick bite to eat first. It would be foolish to go into the wasteland without eating first if given the opportunity,” she lowered her head to offer me one of the cookies.

I gave her a smile and lifted one off the plate with my magic. Levitating it to my mouth I took a bite, and holy sweet mother of Celestia were they amazing! They tasted like what joy would taste like if joy was a physical thing you could consume.

I tried to remember a time I had tasted something that good. Definitely not the radroach meat, or even the Arbu Radigator. In the Stable? I hadn’t even eaten in there at all, so I probably wouldn’t have had something better then either.

My mouth watered as I took another bite. “These are amazing Xayah,” I commented quickly finishing the cookie I had grabbed before quickly snatching up another one. “Thank you! You made these?”

Xayah blushed and gave a small nod in response. “Oh, I do not know if they are amazing, but I do my best with what I am given.”

Brisk grabbed a cookie with his hoof and took a bite. His eyes lit up as the taste filled his mouth. “Holy shit… theses are good!” He declared, giving Xayah a grin. “It’s official, you’re making the food from now on in this group,” He quickly scooped up another with his hooves.

I watched him chew for a second before clearing my throat. “Soooo, when are you going to tell me what is up with you magic Brisk?” I questioned as he picked up a third cookie. “You havent explained to me why you can’t use magic yet.”

“Yes, I didn’t want to say anything, but I was quite curious myself,” Xayah added, putting down the tray and picking up one of her own cookies.

Brisk shrugged. “Never learned, it's that simple,” he chomped down on his cookie, a few crumbs sprinkled from his lips. "I was never one for learning or being told what to do. So I simply refused to be taught. guess I kinda shot myself in the hoof cause of that though."

“But can’t you do some magic? I mean, even fillies and foals without training can do basic magic,” I asked, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

Brisk shook his head. “My horn works, I just can't do any spells with it,” He flared up his horn and wrapped a small magic aura around a cookie. To my surprise, his aura was a pale white. He looked at me as he released the spell. “And that is it. Just a glow around my horn and a small object. But I can’t move anything with telekinesis or do any other fancy spells like the teleportation you used on the pegasus back in the sewer.”

“Have you ever tried to learn?” I questioned. It seemed almost surreal that a pony could go for so long without learning magic when it came so naturally to most.

“Oh I tried plenty of times,” Brisk grunted. “Never really worked out. Most I ever lifted was a Sparkle-Cola bottle and I even dropped that too. To be completely honest with you, I kinda wish my horn would just blow up and get off my head. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with the humiliation of being so useless.”

After a blunt statement like that, it was rather hard to pick up any conversation. We quickly ate a few more of the cookies, packed our bags and began our way to the front entrance of Friendship City. I found it hard not to dance on the tips of my hooves as we made our way down the spiralling steps to the bottom floor. We finally had a lead on the cyber ponies and we were finally going to confront them. This nightmare would be over soon.

Upon reaching the front gate, the guards on duty began pulling our weapons out of the safe and returning them to us. I watched with curiosity as Xayah placed her gem back onto her cloak and flicker in and out of view for a few seconds.

“Are you sure you want to come with us?” I asked, turning to my zebra friend. “I mean you have no business with these cyber ponies and you originally just wanted to come here…”

Xayah gave me a smile and a nod. “This adventure seems much more interesting than waiting around a city all day. Besides, Friendship City is only a terrible reminder that I am the only one to arrive here.”

She was acting so calm, but I knew that she must be hurting a lot inside. I reminded myself to pull her aside and make sure she was alright when the opportunity presented itself.

I looked down at my pipbuck map as we began crossing the bridge. Fetlock didn’t seem very far away. Only a day and a half walk if we were lucky. The Ponypalooza Hotel seemed even closer, maybe just a day if we could hustle our butts.

Spotting the signal on my pipbuck and having nothing better to do, I turned on DJ Pon3’s radio station. Instantly, the voice of DJ Pon3 came through the speakers. I must have just missed the song.

“Hello Wasteland! How is everypony doin’? Now I’ve got an exciting bit o' news for you children, listen t' this! That Stable Dweller heroine I keep prechin’ t' you about, she’s here. In Tenpony Tower! Now I haven’t gotten a good opportunity t' talk t' her yet, but believe me children, that report is comin' soon!

“But there is more t' tell my little ponies, so don’t go switching the channel yet. See I’ve heard a rumour that there are two other Stable dwellers runnin' around the Wasteland! I know, I know, I couldn’t make this stuff up! For all you ponies that like exploring the Manehattan ruins, consider dropping by that old boutique that’s been infested with ghouls for the last 200 years. See I hear these new Stable dwellers spread a bit of their own magic in there, now the place is up and running again as if the bombs never fell! Want some nice clothes for some reason? Well now you can get some! Until next time children, this is DJ pon3, and I’m here for you.”

DJ Pon3’s voice faded out and the sweet sound of music began humming from my pipbuck. My friends and I exchanged a glance.

“There, now she is talking about you,” Xayah said simply.

Great, I was on the news now. I just hoped that didn’t tip the cyber ponies off on us coming.

Manehattan was far bigger than I could have possibly imagined. Every time I thought I knew where we were, I found myself in a new part of the city I didn’t know about. If not for the map on my pipbuck and the rusted over street signs, I would have had no idea where we were.

The shattered remains of the Manehattan skyscrapers didn’t even stand half as tall as they had before the bombs fell and most were so damaged that even attempting to open the front door was impossible. Despite this however, the many looming buildings were still more than tall enough to obscure our view of where we were going and what might be around the next bend.

We spent more time watching our EFS and evading groups of enemies than actually walking. Manehattan might not be a functioning city anymore, but it was still filled with life. Granted that life usually wanted us dead.

Oddly enough, the radroaches proved to be the biggest difficulty, as there were so many of them that they clogged up our EFS’ and made it difficult to locate the actual threats. They were also difficult to hide from, seemingly popping up out of nowhere whenever we tried to take cover. Thankfully they weren’t hard to kill, and after an initial hesitation from Brisk and I, it became very easy to simply squish them under our hooves. No point wasting ammo on them if we didn’t have to.

We pulled up against the next corner of the road and checked our pipbucks. We were unsurprised to find the EFS once again filled with red bars.

“Radroaches?” I asked, trying to peek around the corner and see the creatures our EFS was picking up.

“Don’t know. Probably,” Brisk muttered, popping a buck tablet into his mouth. “You two wait here, I’ll check it out.”

“Wait, how about I-” I started, but Brisk cut me off.

“Nope, you checked it out the last two times. Leave some action for me, alright,” Then Brisk quickly ducked around the corner and began creeping towards the center of the street.

“Would it not be wise for me to scout ahead?” Xayah asked in a puzzled tone from behind me. “I mean, I do have a stealth cloak. It seems logical.”

I sighed. “Probably. You can scout the next one,” I glanced at the black and white zebra. Well, we were currently alone, now might be a good time to talk to her about-

“Your friend seems to be taking a lot of Buck,” Xayah deadpanned before I was able to bring up the topic of her family.

I glanced out at Brisk, still looking around for threats. “Yeah, so? He needs it for his leg to keep going.”

Xayah frowned. “But he has those braces now, he should be able to walk somewhat on his own without the chems,” She looked out at the street. “I fear he has become too dependent on them.”

I gave a small chuckle. “They’re just some chems, they can’t hurt him or anything,” I really didn’t understand what she seemed so worried about.

Xayah gave me a strange look. I felt like shrinking away from her gaze, but I wasn’t sure why. “They can hurt him if he becomes addicted or overdoses on Buck. Chems addiction can be incredibly severe if left untreated.”

“He will be fine,” I assured her. “He’s been taking them for a bit now, and they haven’t slowed him down yet. They’re practically the only reason he was able to make it to Friendship City in the first place.”

Xayah grunted, but seemed unconvinced.

The two of us stood in silence for a few moments. I considered bringing up the topic of her family, but it just seemed like a weird time to now. Finally after what felt like a lifetime, Brisk returned.

“Checked everywhere. Nothing in sight, so chances are there are just a bunch of Radroaches in the sewer beneath us,” Brisk informed us. “Just be careful incase there is something worse below our hooves,” In the Equestrian wasteland, something worse wouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

We began making our way down the street. As Brisk had said, there didn’t seem to be anything on the streets, but the constant movement of red bars on our EFS kept us on high alert. The area seemed to be in more ruins than most of Manehattan, with many of the buildings collapsed and lying across the street. The only two buildings that seemed even remotely intact was a large apartment building that connected to the massive monorail that ran above the city and a humble abandon theater that sat to the apartments right. Some sort of crashed machine lay in the center of the road. I didn’t need to know what the machine was to tell its purpose was to carry ponies.

“What is that exactly?” I asked Xayah as we neared the machine.

“It is an old sky wagon,” Xayah stated, peering into one of the many shattered windows. “It looks old, so probably not the property of the Enclave.”

“The Enclave? Isn’t that one of Tales’ conspiracies theories?” I asked, pulling open the back of the sky wagon and stepping inside. Almost instantly, my eyes landed on a yellow medic kit with a faded pink butterfly on it. I levitated it up to me and checked it’s contents. Two health potions and a handful of Buck. I was about to hand the buck to Brisk when I remembered what Xayah had told me about Chem abuse. Not sure what to do, I threw the chems into my saddle bag. I’d figure that out later.

Xayah entered behind me with Brisk. “It is possible that he has theories about the Enclave, but the Enclave themselves are very much real. Back when the bombs fell, the pegasi flew up above the clouds and created the cloud layer,” Xayah explained, looking around the sky wagon. “The Enclave is a fairly strong military force up there I hear, but they very rarely come below the clouds. If it wasn’t for the dashites, no pony would even know they exist. Well, them and the cloud cover that is.”

So that was why it was always so cloudy out. Weren’t the Enclave just a cheerful bunch.

I didn’t know what a dashite was, but before I asked my attention was drawn to the skeletal remains of a pony in the corner of the sky wagon, it’s hooves wrapped tightly around a mail bag.

“Well what have we here?” I asked myself, drawing the rest of my friends attention to the bag as well. I reached out with my magic and picked up the bag, or rather tired to pick up the bag. The second the bag came in contact with my magic the whole world swirled way.

I was in the body of a female.

Shit! There must have been a memory orb in that bag! That was the last time I picked something up with magic before I checked what was inside. I really didn’t have time for this!

On the bright side though, I wasn’t in a males body. So I could at least feel a little more at home.

My host flapped their wings and I found myself lifted off of the ground. I was in a pegasus! Damn it, I wasn’t going to feel at home after all.

I was in a large office with perhaps the most beautiful decor I had ever seen. Every piece of furniture in the room from the desk to the chairs to the curtains, all seemed to fit together as if they were designed to be a set of one. On the wall behind the main desk a large symbol of three diamonds had been engraved in an elegant blue between two large windows looking out at what appeared to be a pre war Canterlot.

The mare that sat before me was one I had seen before. She had a beautiful white coat and a perfectly styled purple mane. If she were to stand still, I might not have been able to tell the difference from the tiny statuette in my pocket.

“I’m sorry darling, what happened?” Rarity asked me, or rather my host. “Fluttershy did what?”

“She brought everypony back!” My host shouted. Her voice was raspy and clearly angry at whatever it was that Fluttershy had done. “We had won the fight, and Fluttershy had to go and bring everypony back with that crazy megaspell of hers!”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Rarity replied, holding up her hoof. She seemed relatively calm though, I could hear a slight edge in her voice. “You know Fluttershy. She was just trying to save as many ponies as she can.”

“I don’t think you get it!” Rainbow Dash was practically in hysterics, making a small loop in the air. Had I been able to, Xayahs cookies would have been vomited out of my mouth. “She didn’t just bring ponies back! She brought everypony back! That includes the Zebras! No pony should be using Necromancy on the battlefield like that! It’s to risky!”

Rarity was definitely looking uneasy now.

“And you do know who’s helping her right?” Rainbow Dash said flatly. It was more of a statement than a question.

Rarity was beginning to look pale. “Don’t tell me the OIA is getting involved in this,” Rarity said, visibly worried.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion for a second before a look of understanding crossed her face. She quickly shook his head. “No no, not Golden-cough-a-lot. The silver one.”

It looked like Rarity was about to comment further on the topic when the large double doors behind me swung upen with a bang. I spun around to see who had intruded on our conversation.

The unicorn stallion that entered was an interesting sight to say the least. His coat was a dazzling shade of gold with a matching mane and tail and eagle like silver eyes. He wore a navy blue suit with gold buttons and a twirled mustache rest on his upper lip. He was old too, clearly a few years older than either Rarity or Rainbow Dash, however he managed to hide his age due to what I assumed to be extensive plastic surgery and makeup. A thin silver scar ran down his neck and disappeared below the collar of his suit.

“Rarity! I demand an explanation!” The gold stallion rasped. His voice was low and nasally, as if he had a cold and was doing his best to hide it. Each and every word he said seemed to ooze with malice and end in punctuation.

Rarity gave a small sigh and stood from behind her desk. “Pureblood, how may I help you,” Rainbow Dash just looked back and forth as the two ponies talked.

Pureblood cleared his throat. “It has come to my attention that you have once again rejected my sons proposal for marriage,” He stuck his nose in the air and looked down at Rarity with disapproving and impatient eyes. “I will not stand to have me family disrespected in such a manner.”

Rarity huffed. “Well you can tell Blueblood that it doesn’t matter how many times he asks me, I will never say yes to him!”

Pureblood’s eyes narrowed and he took a step closer to Rarity, staring down at her with a clear loathing. “You would be wise to avoid that kind of tone with me,” His posh voice had dropped to a sinister growl that set both me and my hosts hairs on end.

I quickly found myself pushing my way between the two ponies and giving Pureblood a small shove away from Rarity. “And you would be wise not to talk to her like that!” Rainbow Dash scolded, staring down the golden pony.

Now faced with Pureblood stare I found myself wanting to crawl away. His stare was cold and intense. Somehow, Pureblood managed to look down on us, despite Rainbow Dash flying in the air above him. I applauded Rainbow Dash for not running away and hiding immediately.

Pureblood coughed. “Ah yes, you must be Rainbow Dash. I see you are as forward as everypony tells me,” he raised a hoof and slicked back his golden mane before giving Rainbow Dash a charismatic smile. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.”

Even Rainbow Dash shivered at how suddenly Purebloods mannerisms had changed from hostile to friendly. I didn’t doubt that if I had my pipbuck in this memory, his bar on my EFS would have abruptly changed from red to green.

“Uh, yeah… nice to meet you too…” Rainbow Dash stammered, not sure what to make of his change in attitude. “Um… who are you again?”

Pureblood flicked his tail in annoyance, but remained grinning.

Rarity stepped forwards. “Rainbow, allow me to introduce you to Pureblood, head of the Canterlot high council and father of Blueblood,” Pureblood raised his head higher as Rarity said his titles, relishing every second of his introduction.

Rainbow Dash looked him over for a second. “Blueblood’s dad huh?” Pureblood nodded proudly in response. Pureblood opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as Rainbow dash abruptly jabbed him in the chest with the tip of her hoof. “You keep that foalish son of yours away from Rarity! You got that?”

Purebloods upper lip twitched slightly and his welcoming grin reverted to a snarl. “You will both learn that I am not one to defy!” The older gold unicorn barked. “In my Utopia you would be bowing at my hooves and beg to marry me or my son!”

“Well in my Utopia you aren’t in this room,” Rainbow Dash smirked, pointing her cyan hoof at the door. “Now beat it before I make ya.”

Pureblood simply stared at Rainbow Dash in obvious outrage for a few moments before giving a snort of disapproval and marching out the door. Rainbow Dash flashed over and slammed the door behind him once he was clear.

“What’s up with that guy?” Rainbow Dash asked, landing back on the ground. “In my Utopia? What is he on about?”

Rarity gave a low sigh and returned to her desk. “He's always going on about his Utopia. Pureblood wishes for Equestria to function under his strict morals and believes that all ponies should follow those without question. Why Celestia ever put him in charge is a mystery to us all.”

“Well if he gives ya any more trouble, just let me know and I’ll give him a kick or two in a couple a tender places,” Rainbow Dash stated, doing a small kicking motion in the air.

“Thank you Rainbow, but I don’t think that will be necessary,” Rarity said. “Despite Purebloods rather intolerable personality, he is a very valuable asset to all of our Ministries. His donations are almost half of Twilights budget over in the MAS and you would be surprised how much he has donated to those eyesores you have placed all over Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash Groaned. “Ugh, I hate politics. I wish things could just go back to how they used to be.”

Rarity gave Rainbow Dash the first real smile I had seen since entering the memory orb. “You and me both darling. You and me both.”

When I finally came out of the memory orb something wasn’t right.

I sat up and looked around. I was still inside the sky wagon and like before, both Xayah and Brisk stood beside me. As I stood and looked out the window with them I noticed that all of their muscles were tense as if they were awaiting something to attack us.

“What is going on?” I asked, rubbing my head and trying to get a grasp on the world around me. Being ripped out of and then thrown back into your body was something I was probably never going to get used to.

“Radscorpions,” Xayah stated, aiming her sniper at something outside the window that I couldn’t see.

I pulled out Boneless and scanned the area. Nothing. I quickly checked my EFS. Like there had been when we first walked onto the street, my EFS was clogged up with red bars everywhere.

Please tell me those aren’t all something worse than Radroaches.

I watched a red bar that seemed to be moving at an alarming speed seemingly race towards us. I glanced back out at the street. Still there was nothing. Which meant that…

“They are underneath us!” I shouted to my friends. Brisk waved his pipbuck in my face and gave me a ‘no duh’ look.

Well excuse me! I wasn’t here when they showed up!

Something crashed into the side of the sky wagon, knocking it violently onto its side. I wrapped my friends in a field of telekinesis to help soften the impact as we were catapulted upwards and into the opposite wall of the sky wagon. I wasn’t strong enough with magic to be able to do something insane like levitate myself or even levitate another pony for longer than a few seconds, but I could carry some of the weight.

Unfortunately for me, levitating my friends meant that I couldn’t reduce my own impact.

My head crashed into the metal wall with a solid thwack. The world spun and I staggered to stay upright.

Seriously! My head was already spinning from the memory orb! You just had to go and make it worse didn’t you Wasteland!

Brisk softly landed next to me and gave me a quick nod of gratitude. He got half way through saying the words thank you when the sky wagon was slammed into again, this time knocking us all out of the wagon and onto the street.

Xayah rolled to her hooves and was up with her sniper drawn faster than either Brisk or myself could react. I slowly pulled myself up and offered Brisk my hoof. He grabbed it and hauled himself to his hooves as well.

“Any plan of action?” I asked, Taking a small step back. I didn’t like not being able to see where my attackers were.

Neither Brisk or Xayah had time to respond as three massive armoured scorpion tails erupted from the ground around us, spraying us with bits of dust and asphalt.

We scattered as the huge stingers dove towards us. I saw Brisk slice at one with his machete, only for the armoured appendage to duck below the ground and burst out behind him. Xayah was having equal difficulty. Her sniper was not meant for close range combat as she would need a few seconds to aim, which the stingers weren’t allowing her to do. Instead, Xayah pulled out her knife and slashed at the limbs, only to meet the same problem as Brisk.

I seemed to be the only one able to do any damage. I spun Boneless around and around firing shots at anything that got too close to me.

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

My first two shots tore bloody holes through one of the tales before it ducked back below the ground and evaded my third.

We had to get these things above ground, otherwise we would be at a massive disadvantage.

Then a massive grey claw broke the surface and snapped at me. Shit! Maybe I didn’t want them to come above ground.

I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being chopped in half. I Watched in horror as six razor sharp claws began lashing up out of the ground at us. We weren’t able to stand in the same spot for longer than a second before the huge pincher lunged out from below.

My heart was racing a hundred miles a minute as I jumped and spun to avoid the stingers and claws. I lashed out with my baton a few times, but the limbs either ducked back underground before I could do anything or my weapon bounced of their tough armour harmlessly.

I took a quick step back as one of the claws burst from the ground in front of me. It snapped at me a few times before ducking back below the ground. For a split second after the claw had hidden itself again, I saw a flash of fleshy pink skin.

I stared at the closest claw to me, which it would so happen was currently in the middle of trying to snap Brisk in half. I levitated my baton before me and smashed it as hard as I could into the back of the claw. As expected, the Radscorpion recoiled its pincher into the ground.

Without waiting for a second, I levitated Boneless over the hole it had left and fired. I saw a flash of light from within the hole followed by a high ear piercing shriek. I doubted I had killed it, but I had definitely injured it rather severely.

Apparently I had made them angry as well because only seconds later the asphalt around us was torn open and three giant Radscorpions pulled themselves out. They shrieked again and began rushing towards us, their tales lashing forwards in a desperate hope to impale us.

Well, I had gotten them out of the ground. Now I just needed to find a way to kill them.

They had had the advantage before, lashing out at us from anywhere without us having proper time to react. Now above ground, I was able to see that they weren’t quite as fast as they appeared. They could move a decent speed, but as soon as they got within striking distance they had to slow down to attack us.

One of the Radscorpions charged at me specifically, the top of its head was a bloody mess of broken shell and tattered flesh. I found myself backpedaling with all I was worth to avoid them while simultaneously firing Boneless into the creatures face. I fired five shots, each one ripping away bits of its armour and flesh.

The creature reeled back as one of my shots took out its eyes. It began blindly lashing out at everything, crashing into the walls of the broken skyscrapers and bashing into the side of the sky wagon.

I took the opportunity to see what Brisk and Xayah were doing. Brisk seemed to be on top of things. He had managed to completely sever the Radscorpions tail from its body with his machete and was currently using the trick I had pulled where he backs up while shooting it in the face. Xayah on the other hoof was seriously struggling. Her sniper was practically useless against them and even while they were above ground, there was little Xayah could do with her knife clenched between her mouth.

I was about to run and help her when the Radscorpion I had shot the eyes out off bashed me across the chest with its claw. I felt the air get knocked out of me as I was sent flying backwards a few feet to land heavily on the ground. Now alerted to my location, the Radscorpion turned to face me and lunged. I rolled aside as the claws lashed at me, the sharp pinchers tearing up small patches of the road as the shrieking Radscorpion continuously lashed out.

Without its eye, the Radscorpions aim was dramatically worse, allowing me to avoid the attacks without too much difficulty. But for what it lacked in perception, it made up with sheer ferocity. Every attack was shortly followed by another and another.

I swung at it with my baton, but the Radscorpion hastily bashed it aside with its claw and pinned both of my front hooves down, giving me a clear view of is gaping maw and thrashing mandibles. I yelped in pain as the monstrous scorpion dug its claws into my injured leg. The Radscorpion’s stinger flipped over its head and aimed down at me, preparing to skewer me.

I managed to twist my head at an angle to avoid its first stinger strike from impaling me between the eyes. I began thrashing, trying to escape its sharp grip on me. The Radscorpion aimed its stinger over me again, its grip on me tightening and holding me tighter in place. Thinking fast, I telekinetically shoved the barrel of my shotgun up its mouth and fired three rounds.

The Radscorpion was dead before the last shot fired, it's already bloodied head bursting into gruesome confetti.

I rolled the heavy carcass off of me and moved to help Brisk and Xayah. As I did, Brisk stabbed his machete through the skull of the radscorpion attacking him. The creature thrashed around until it finally fell still at Brisk’s hooves.

Xayah was still having trouble. I could see multiple cuts across her striped hide from where she had been unable to evade the Radscorpions claws. She had managed to cut a large gash into the creatures side which oozed blood, but other than that the Radscorpion seemed fairly unharmed by her.

Simultaneously, Brisk and I charged towards the Radscorpion. Our intrusion caused it to momentarily turn from Xayah and lash out at us with its stinger. Brisk swung his machete to meet the lunging appendage. The serrated blade sunk deep into the Radscorpions armored tail, but failed to cut it off completely. It did however, manage to stay completely lodged in the Radscorpions tough exoskeleton. The creature swung its tail around, causing Brisk to lurch into the air and dangle from the handle of his machete while the Radscorpion lashed its tail about.

I blasted the Radscorpion with boneless, blowing out bits of shell from its armored back. A thrashing claw swept towards me, knocking the breath from my lungs and sending me toppling backwards into the wreckage of the sky wagon. I could feel a large gash open up on my chest and hot blood spill from the open wound.

Now with a few moments to line up her shot, Xayah finally managed to fire a shot from her sniper. There was a burst of blood as the bullet passed through the creatures head and lodged itself in its brain. The Radscorpion shuddered, then collapsed in on itself.

Brisk was violently slammed into the ground as the deceased Radscorpion’s tail abruptly crashed to the cracked asphalt. He pulled himself out from under the carcass and dislodged his blade from its body.

I slowly crawled over to where my saddlebags had fallen and pulled a healing potion out. Without much thought, I chugged the contents of the bottle down. Instantly I felt better as its restorative abilities took effect. The gash on my chest closed up, but the area where it had been still felt a little sore.

Brisk took a shaky breath and tried wiping the blood on his coat off, only to smear it into his green hide even more. “Well that could have gone better.”

Xayah agreed. ‘Indeed. It is rare to see Radscorpions in such small groups in Manehattan. They most often hunt in swarms.”

I froze as she said that. Larger groups? I checked my EFS. It was still swarming with hundreds of red bars. Please be Radroaches!

I approached one of the large holes in the road that the Radscorpions had left and slowly peered inside. At first all I saw was darkness, but then something huge scuttled across the hole, then another, and another. They were far too big to be Radroaches.

“We should probably get off the road,” I said, pointing towards the hole. Brisk quickly glanced in the hole closest to him, then quickly stepped back with a frightened expression.

“Agreed, let's go,” He croaked in a startled tone. He turned to the far side of the road and froze.

Xayah and I dared to look in the same direction. A large swarm of smaller Radscorpions had massed at the end of the road and were slowly advancing towards us. Because of course they were.

Brisk gave a small forced laugh. “Okay, plan B. lets go inside a building and hope for the best like the last two times this sort of thing happened.”

He began heading towards the abandoned theater that lay only a few feet away from us. I shook me head. “Nope, not this time Brisk! The last two building you dragged us into almost got us killed. I’m picking the building this time,” I turned and walked into the broken down apartment building that lay next to the theater. Now up close to it, I could see the words ‘Four Star Living’ written above the cracked glass door.

Xayah nodded and followed me. “Indeed, the last thing I want is to see more Pinkie is watching posters.”

Four Star Living was possibly the most inviting looking structure I had been in since leaving Stable 25. Even Friendship city, while less abandoned, didn’t feel quite as much like home as the building I found myself in did. It was clean, much of the grime and debris that lay scattered amongst the floors of most of the buildings had been removed or swept into the corners of the room. Much of the furniture had been broken or toppled over, but quite a few remained intact as well.

“I don’t like this,” Brisk muttered, glancing around the room as if expecting something to jump out and attack us. Xayah nodded at his statement in agreement.

“What? Why?” I asked, moving away from the door and into the center of the room. “This looks like the safest building we’ve been in since entering the Wasteland.”

“Exactly,” Brisk said, walking up to a charred skeleton that rest behind a semi polished receptionist desk. “It shouldn’t be this clean. Somepony is cleaning it.”

“I’d rather a clean building than whatever you were going to lead us into,” I retorted. “Knowing your luck, there was probably going to be some kind of super ghoul in there or something.”

The Radscorpions outside we beginning to gather outside the door. I noticed a strange green slime that had been slathered on the frame of the door. Every time a scorpion drew to close, it seemed to recoil from the substance as if it couldn’t stand the smell. Okay, so someone had definitely been here.

“What is the plan then?” Xayah asked, looking at the group of Radscorpions outside. “I doubt we plan on fighting all of those, so do we just keep walking up and hope there is a painfully convenient way out like last time?”

We all exchanged a look. We probably wouldn’t have something as convenient as a giant scooter that bridges us to the next building, but what other option did we have? We turned to the stairs and began our slow descent to the top of the apartment building.

The second floor was almost completely collapsed. The floor had once been a long hallway leading to the different apartments on the floor. That had been a long time ago however as the roof had caved in, leaving only a few doors still accessible and most of the hallway including the rest of the stairs completely under a large pile of rubble. A few holes in the walls allowed us to see into the apartments and the contents that lay beyond.

“Wonderful, it would appear we have reached a dead end,” Xayah muttered, glancing around the ruined remains of the hallway. “Do we look for a different way out?”

“I think we can still get through,” Brisk muttered, pushing his head up against one of the many holes in the walls and peering into the apartment beyond. Leave it to Brisk to do something like that. “I think I can see a way through in this apartment here.”

I turned to the apartment door and tested the door knob. Locked. Typical. I floated a bobby pin and screwdriver from my saddlebag and placed them into the lock.

Snap!

“Damn it!” I screamed in frustration. I hated locks so fucking much.

Brisk glanced down at our two remaining bobby pins and grimaced. “Yeah, how about you let me do the lockpicking from here on out.”

I groaned and gave him the rest of the bobby pins. I sat back on my haunches and watched in disbelief as Brisk placed the bobby pin in the lock and got to work. Two seconds later Brisk gave me a smug grin and pulled the door open.

The apartment was small, about the same size as the average sleeping areas in Stable 25. A cracked and boarded up window was set in the far wall, small beams of light shone through small cracks in the boarding. A small bed adorned with stained grey blankets and a small picture of a brown and grey earth pony sat atop a crooked dust covered desk. As Brisk had suggested, there was a massive hole in the wall that lead to the room beyond.

What caught my attention the most however was a large cork board that had been hung up above the desk. Pictures of different ponies and building from around Manehattan had been pinned to it and connected with a faded red string. The longer I looked at it the more I noticed that there were multiple pictures of the large monorail that ran above the Manehattan streets.

“What the hell is this?” I questioned out loud as I looked the cork board over. I turned my attention to a terminal that rest on the desk. Hopefully that could give me some answers. I turned back to my friends who all looked equally interested. “Give me a second, I’m going to see if I can get into this terminal.

I brushed aside the dust that coated the screen, coughing as the dark dust cloud engulfed my face. Turning the terminal on I found it locked as I had expected. No problem, I might not be very good at picking locks, but I could hack a terminal like it was no ponies business.

Within the minute there was a small beep from the computer and the terminal unlocked. I found myself looking at a bunch of different files. I clicked on the first one titled ‘objective’ and began to read.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Pinkie Pie is determined that Four Star is a group of Zebra sympathizers. She seems to think that they’re planning something big. Who the hell knows what that is, but she hasn’t been wrong yet so I suppose it’s worth looking into. My objective is as follows, get a room in this new four star apartment and find out what they are up to from inside. Not sure exactly why a bunch of zebra sympathizers would use a company like four stars as a front, but I guess that's what I’m here to find out.

I closed the file and turned to the next couple.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Day 1: I have successfully bought a modest apartment. I don’t know how the MoM can afford to throw away that many bits and just get me an apartment like that, but I ain’t complaining. Spent the last few hours searching and asking around, and guess what I found. Nothing. No sign of anything related to zebras, sympathisers or conspiracies against Equestria. I’m not one to jump to conclusions, especially after only one day of investigations, but Four Star seems clean. I think Pinkie might finally be wrong for once. Not that that's really all that bad for me, I could use a more relaxed infiltration mission for once. Besides, I’ve been betting against Pinkie for far too long now, perhaps now that she is cracking I might be able to get some bits out of all that betting. Who can say.

I started scrolling through the different files. There were a lot and I didn’t have the time or patience to read through all of them. Finally I found the last file and pulled it open.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Day 48: Today marks my last night in Four Star. Guess I’m going to need to eat all my previous words. Pinkie was right. Again. There is no denying Four Stars involvement in much of the zebra activity in Manehattan and even small areas around Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and the Hoof. Hopefully, the research I have gathered here will be helpful to the MoM in their raid on Four Star tomorrow. Sounds like Pinkie is going all out on this raid too, said something about Steel Rangers in balloons. Won't that just be grand. This is Inspector Saddles, signing off for the last time.

So this building was a front for zebra sympathizers back in the war. I was beginning to question if every building I walked into in Manehattan was going to contain something weird. Was a normal building to much to ask for.

“Hey, check this out,” Brisk called from across the room. Xayah and I exchanged a look before trotting over to see what it was.

“What is it?” I asked, pulling up next to him. I spotted a charred skeleton lying curled up in the corner of the room by Brisk hooves. “Yikes, what ever happened to last night in Four Star.”

Brisk shook his head and pointed up at the wall. “Not the skeleton, that.”

I looked up to where he was pointing. Written on the wall in what I could only assume was blood was one phrase. ‘I can’t remember anything’.

“What happened here?” Xayah asked, looking from the bloody letters to the bones on the floor.

“Beats me,” Brisk said with a shrug, but there was a clear shutter in his voice.

We moved on through the hole in the wall to the room beyond. Unlike the previous room, there didn’t seem to be anything of interest, just a dull grey bed and an empty dust covered desk. Had there not been the skeletal remains of a pony on the bed, I’d have assumed that no pony had even bought the room and the apartment had been abandoned long before the bombs. The door had long since been blasted open, leading us back into the hall on the far side of the rubble.

“Tada!” Brisk exclaimed, shaking his hooves in the air. “Back on track, just as promised.”

I poked my head out of the apartment and looked down the hallway. Instead of a hallway leading to another flight of stairs, the ceiling had once again collapsed, this time giving us a makeshift ramp to the third floor.

“Oddly convenient,” Xayah muttered, following behind us as we made our way to the next level. I had to agree. Our luck was too good, it was bound to run out soon.

Our luck didn’t run out. We came to a second hallway that had caved in like the floor below, and yet again, Brisk quickly picked the door to another apartment and found us a way around the blockage via another large hole in the wall.

Before entering the next apartment, I examined the rubble that had blocked the hallwayway. It was burned in places, as if it had collapsed due to being heated to scorching temperature.

“What you lookin’ at there?” Brisk asked, hoping up next to me and eyeing up the burn marks. “Black rocks?”

I shook my head. “No, burn marks. It doesn’t look like the roof collapsed by itself.”

Brisk groaned. “No duh. Everything in Manehattan in burned and broken. I’m pretty damn sure that's just a side effect from the balefire bombs and shit.”

I rubbed my hoof across the surface, scratching off bits of ash. “I don’t think so. Look! The burn marks are only in a few concentrated spots. Somepony intentionally collapse the ceiling.”

“Why would anypony do that?” Xayah asked, joining us. “That seems like a foolish thing to do, only makes getting up and down harder.”

I had no idea, and I doubted that staring at a bunch of burn marks was going to give me the answer. Stumped on the origin of the collapsed roof, we moved on to the now open apartment door beside us.

It had all the same traits as the usual Four Star Living apartment room. It had a dull grey bed with a cracked window and the usual dusty metal desk topped with a flickering terminal. This room however was very clearly the room of a zebra sympathizer. Small totems depicting zebras fighting of strange star beasts covered the desks and pictures of what I imagined to be the zebra homelands had been pinned above the bed. A large poster of Fluttershy surrounded by two evil looking zebras took up most of the wall, though somepony had drawn a moustache onto Fluttershy’s face. The caption on the poster read, ‘We must do better’.

The desk also held some sort of headpiece. I picked it up and flipped it over in my hooves, trying to figure out exactly what it was. After a few seconds of trying to figure it out, I gave up and turned to the terminal beside me.

Like before, I brushed the layer of dust off the screen before turning the terminal on. I did however manage to evade the cloud of dust that came off the screen this time around. See, I learn. To my surprise, I found it unlocked. The title of the first file caught my attention. The pony that had lived here had labeled it, ‘me and sexy’. I glanced around the room to make sure both Brisk and Xayah weren’t looking at the screen before I opened it.

It was a video recording, and what's worse was it had audio. Heavy panting and moaning escaped the terminal and the image of a bright red and blue buck going at it with a light and dark grey zebra flickered to life.

My ears stood on end and my face flushed a dark red as I stared at the screen.

“What the fuck?” Brisk blurted, walking over and staring at the screen. “The fuck are you watching?”

I blushed even more. “I uh… it just turned on.”

Brisk gave me a strange look and started walking away. “Sure it did, don’t think I forgot that 'never got any action in the Stable' thing,” Well, this couldn’t get any worse. I turned back to the screen just in time to see the zebra pin the red stallion down with her striped hooves and start sucking on his-

“Oh…” I heard Xayah’s shocked and breathy voice behind me as she stared in awe at the screen, her eyes wide and transfixed on the scene. Xayah bit the bottom of her bottom lip as if to prevent herself from moaning alongside the pony and zebra in the video. Never mind. This just got worse.

I quickly closed the file and and gave Xayah an awkward smile. “It just kinda opened. Sorry.”

Xayah blinked and gave her head a quick shake. “Of course, that is most unfortunate,” By her tone, I doubted she thought the file popping up was unfortunate. For some reason that made me blush more.

I returned to looking through the files when I spotted a file that had been labeled as Inspector Saddles. Interested, I opened it up and began reading its contents.

>That Fucking inspector wont stop asking questions. Does he think we don’t know he’s working for the MoM? Does he think he’s being fucking subtle? That Dumb fuck asked me if we had ever met a zebra sympathizer and if I knew where to find one. I mean what the fuck? At least try to throw us off. Not that that matters much, going to have to do him in anyway. He’s found shit, I know he has. Tomorrow morning I’m wiping his memory, sticking it all in a memory orb and fucking throwing that memory orb off a cliff. Furthermore, I’m going to shoot that bastard in the chest and let him bleed out on the floor. Can’t have him telling his pink fucking boss about whats goin’ on here. Fuck him.

Well I guess that answered why Saddles had written that he didn’t remember anything on the wall and why he never left the apartment building.

I opened up one of the desk drawers and found a glowing memory orb inside along with five bottle caps. Who puts bottle caps in a desk drawer? I quickly pocketed the caps before turning my attention to the orb.

It probably wasn’t the wisest idea to view it now, we really had to catch up with those cyber ponies, but my curiosity was going through the roof. Did it contain Saddle’s memories? A zebra conspiracy? Something different all together?

I reached forwards with my magic and wrapped the memory orb in an amber glow, then the apartment around me swirled away.

I was sitting in a classroom, or at least some form of lecture room. In front of me sat a large stack of textbooks and just beyond that a tall black stallion that I assumed was the teacher paced back and forth across the front of the room.

School was perhaps my favorite thing in the Stable. If you were to just remove the bullies it would have been like Celestia herself was blessing me. I loved learning, I loved books, I loved everything that made up a classroom. So I would have loved everything about this memory if it hadn’t been for one tiny little thing.

I was in the body of a goddess damned stallion. My whole body felt heavy and the space between my legs was so fucking tight. Seriously, how the hell do stallions do it!

“This here is a memory recollector,” The teacher said, holding up a strange looking headpiece. I noticed it was the same one that I had found on the desk beside the terminal. “It is the most recent piece of technology from the Ministry of Moral, Technology, and Arcane Science. Think of it like a horn in many ways. As memory orbs can only be made or viewed by unicorns, these prove as a useful method for any other type of pony to access or create them. That is including griffons and dragons.”

I felt my host raise his hoof. The teacher took me in for a second before gesturing for me to speak and giving me a small nod. “Does the recollector work for Zebra’s?” My host asked. The room had been quiet before, now it was silent. I could feel the eyes of the many ponies in the room staring at me.

Wow. these ponies do not like zebras.

The teacher cleared his throat. “Yes, I suppose they can. The recollectors can be used by practically any creature. Though I hope that they are one thing that the zebra’s do not get their striped hooves on.”

I saw another hoof in the crowd go up. The pony had a silver coat, though I couldn’t see who the hoof belonged to through the other ponies. The teacher nodded towards them and I saw the hoof lower.

“Can memory orbs be connected with it?” The stallion asked. His voice was low and smooth, despite clearly belonging to a significantly older buck.

The teacher furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Can they be connected,” The older pony said again, more firmly this time. “As in can you combine memory orbs into one large one. Viewing one memory would take you to another. Memory orbs only have so much storage they can carry, I want to know if I can find a fix for that.”

“I’m not sure myself,” The teacher said, continuing to pace back and forth against the front wall. “It is definitely a hypothetical. Though depending on how many memories you are stringing together, you would need to hook it up to a very powerful computer. Not like something the MoM has access to at the current time.”

So this was a Ministry of Moral lecture. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by that. They were talking about extracting ponies memories and putting them into memory orbs after all.

“Are there any other questions?” The teacher waited a few moments for another hoof to be raised. None did. “Alright then, let's continue,” Then he went into a long speech about how recollecors work. At first I was interested, but as the lecture went on, I found myself getting worried.

How long had I been sitting here? When was this memory going to end? Despite my initial interest on what the memory orb contained, we were still on a bit of a time crunch to stop those cyber ponies. Memory orbs were starting to feel really claustrophobic as I realized I couldn’t get out.

Finally the memory orb ended and I found myself lying on the floor on the Four Star Apartment again. I looked up and found myself staring up into Xayah’s green eyes.

“Let me guess, Brisk got tired of waiting for me to wake up and told you to watch over me?” I asked, pulling myself to my hooves and relishing in the feeling of being back in my own body. Xayah gave a small nod. “You know you don’t have to stare at me when he says that right?”

Xayah scratched her head and blushed. “I will keep that in mind.”

“How far ahead did Brisk get?” these explorations through random buildings was beginning to become routine.

Xayah shrugged. “I do not know. I doubt he has gone far, you were only in that orb for a few minutes.”

Only a few minutes? Really? It felt way longer than that. Maybe Brisk was wearing off on me and I was getting board in classes. wasn't that a horrifying thought!

We moved onto the next apartment room. It had been filled with books, or at least what had once been books. The pages lay in charred ruins and most of the covers had corroded away. I almost felt like crying as I looked over all the lost knowledge. What a waste of perfectly good books.

I looked over at the desk that had been pushed below the window. As expected, a dusty terminal sat on top of it. What really drew my attention though was the name tag that had been placed on the desk.

I came closer to make sure I hadn’t read the name wrong. I hadn’t

“Silver Ace,” I read aloud, scanning the nametag a third time. “You just like to pop up all over the wasteland, don't you?”

I tired to crack the terminal, but after two failed attempts, I pulled myself away. I only had one try left before the computer locked me out for good.

Alright Silver Ace, what’s your password. I tried to think of what I knew about him. He had been saved by zebras from a dragon back before the war, Pinkie didn’t like him, and his name was Silver Ace. damn, not a lot to go off of there.

Finally I just sulked away from the terminal, unable to guess the code.

“I have yet to see you be bested by a terminal,” Xayah commented, following close behind me. “I was starting to think you could crack them all.”

“Apparently not,” I grumbled, giving an evil glare back at the terminal. That terminal should feel bad for not letting me in, and I wasn’t going to let it forget. Unfortunately, looking back at the terminal, meant not looking where I was going.

Thwack!

I walked face first into the doorframe and landed hard on my rump. I turned my evil glare from the terminal to the door frame. Silver Ace’s room was out to get me, I swear.

Xayah chuckled and walked past me into the hall. “I’m glad somepony is enjoying my suffering,” I grunted. Not cracking that terminal had really put me into a really bad mood.

I followed Xayah into the hallway. The whole hallway was tilted at a weird angle, making the walls look like they were slanted. We walked for a few moments in silence, the only noises being our hoof steps and the creaking floorboards. I found it interesting how the bottom floor could be so clean and yet the higher floors so damaged. I glanced around the hallway. Yes it was damaged, but now that I was looking at it, it was clean as well. Much of the rubble had either been removed or swept up into a pile against the wall.

My gaze landed on the symbol on Xayah’s rump. A strange five pointed star with crossing stripes inside of it. I began contemplating exactly how Zebra marks worked. Were they cutie marks like ponies? Or were they something different?

Now that I thought about it, how did pony cutie marks work? Why does everypony have a different cutie mark? How can one specific family have a hereditary cutie mark? How could mine be different? So many questions, and no answers at all. was it connected to fate somehow? Did my cutie mark know I would leave the Stable, making it impossible to become the Overmare? If that was true, did that mean I was never going to return to the Stable again?

I looked up to see Xayah looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I blushed as I realized I had zoned out staring at her ass. She gave her butt a little wiggle, making me blush even more and look away. Seriously, she had to go and make this embarrassing moment even more embarrassing for me by wiggling it in my face.

“Uh… sorry, lost in thought,” I muttered, trying to look at any anything else except her rump. Damn it, why did this sort of thing seem to happen to me all the time.

Xayah just gave me a smug smirk and continued walking. “That is fine, I know that I am not the one you are interested in.”

I froze. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked cautiously, not fully comprehending of what she was implying.

Xayah turned back and raised her eyebrow at me again. “Are you trying to tell me you do not have a thing for Brisk?” My mouth dropped open. She thought that I… that me and Brisk…

“What? Me and Brisk?” I coughed, trying to hide my growing blush. “Don’t be ridiculous! I've only known him for like, three days,” Xayah just stared at me as a blabbered. “I mean I’m not saying he isn’t cute or whatever, or that he isn’t brave and the first person to actually treat me like a friend that was my age and-” I cut myself off and put a hoof over my mouth. Why did I just say all of that? I couldn’t actually have feelings for… I looked back up at Xayah. “You heard nothing, got it. Not a word to Brisk.”

Xayah nodded and gave a smug grin. “Your secret is safe with me.”

I quickly held out a hoof. “Wow wow! Slow down, I never said I actually like him. Maybe I’m into mares. You don't know,” Xayah raised her eyebrows again. I sighed. “Alright fine, I do like him I guess. But for the record I am actually into mares as well.”

Xayah nodded. “Yes, mares are most agreeable.”

I blushed again. “Wait? You are into mares too?”

Xayah nodded quickly and continued on walking down the hallway. I quickly followed behind her, trying to wrap my head around these new found feelings for Brisk.

I glanced at the symbol on Xayah’s rump again and this time decided to bring it up. “By the way, do Zebras have cutie marks or is that like a tattoo?

Xayah glanced at the symbol on her butt. “Most zebra’s believe it to be similar to that of a cutie mark, assuming it depicts one's destiny. Others believe it is simply nothing more than a birthmark that a zebra is born with. Few can find an actual meaning to them. But no, they are not cutie marks.”

“So Zebras are born with them?”

Xayah nodded and gave a melancholy sigh. “Zira was always interested in zebra glyphs. She always wanted to find out the real cause behind them.”

“Zira?” I asked curiously.

Xayah nodded slowly, her pace slowed to a near crawl. “Zira was my daughter, she was killed by those raiders you killed when we first met.”

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” I said, slowly coming to a halt in the hallway. “I’m sorry you had to lose her like that.”

Xayah just gave me a sad smile. “Yes, I miss them all quite a lot.”

If that wasn’t the perfect segue to talk about her family, I don’t know what was.

“How are you holding up?” I turned to face her, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze had locked on a small rock that lay on the ground between us.

“I have been better,” Xayah finally replied after a long pause. “I try to tell myself that I will not grieve too much for them, but embrace this change that life has given me. I was always told that feeling sad for those you have lost only prolongs the pain you feel for them. Holding the feelings back though is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

That was perhaps the most depressing thing I had ever heard somepony say. It was one thing to move on quickly, it was quite another to force yourself not to feel sorrow and try and convince yourself that you didn't care. “No pony says you can’t grieve for them,” I told her, taking a small step closer to her. “No pony is expected to deal with something like that and just be okay.”

Xayah raised her gaze a little to look at me, but she still kept her head low. “Perhaps. I will find a time to say goodbye to them.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by finding a time to say goodbye to them, but I was glad I was able to have this talk with Xayah. Not knowing what else to do, I reached out and gave her a big hug. I felt her body tremble a little as I wrapped my hooves around her.

“It’s going to be okay,” I assured her, holding onto her tighter. Maybe if I kept saying that one day things would be okay.

We slowly pulled apart and looked back down the hallway. “We should probably catch up with Brisk, I fear that unsupervised, he will get into a lot of trouble,” Xayah said, forcing a smile onto her face.

“Right, Brisk,” Now I just felt weird thinking about him. “Lets see what crazy thing he has gotten himself into this time.”

We began walking down the hallway when Brisk came darting around the corner and pulled to a stop in front of us. I guess he was smart enough not to get himself killed then. “You two are not going to believe what I found!” He exclaimed, bouncing on his hooves. He was becoming surprisingly good at moving in his leg braces. He turned and began darting back down the hallway.

Xayah and I exchanged a glance before racing after him. He lead us up a few flights of steps before he came to a halt inside of an apartment on the top floor of the building.

I had thought the lobby of the apartment had been clean, but the room I found myself in now was practically spotless. The ground was clear of debris and had clearly been scrubbed clean of all the grime that coated the surface of everything in the wasteland. The walls, while once cracked had re-plastered and the broken furniture that cluttered the other rooms had been replaced with new pristine versions. Complex schematics and diagrams had been pinned to the walls and I spotted a large picture of some form of anthropomorphic dog with massive claws above the desk at the far end of the room. Below the picture of the dog, three terminals sat atop the practically sparkling clean desk.

These terminals were not like any other terminal I had ever seen however, in fact they weren’t even made out of metal. I walked over and reached out to touch one with my hoof, only to find my hoof pass straight through it.

It was made out of clouds… why the fuck was it made out of clouds!

“What do you think this is?” Brisk asked, sticking his head through a cloud terminal and looking out through the screen. I stared intently at the terminal. Not being able to hack Silver Aces terminal had annoyed me, but not even being allowed to touch this terminal was torture.

“It appears to be Enclave,” Xayah stated, waving her hoof through the third terminal.

“How do you know?” I asked, turning my attention from the cloud terminal to her. “Also, I thought the Enclave never came below the clouds?”

“I know because of the big Enclave poster,” Xayah said bluntly, pointing to the large black poster sporting a Large white E surrounded by stars that I had somehow overlooked. “And as far as I am aware, they usually don’t come down here. Whatever they were doing in here must have been very important.”

"Guess that explains who cleaned this place up and put that weird Radscorpion repellent outside,” Brisk muttered. “They were probably hoping the Radscorpions would keep ponies from coming here.”

I gave a small snort. “Ironic that the Radscorpions are the reason we are here in the first place.”

Then we heard ponies talking outside. Fuck. I quickly checked my EFS. Four red bars were fast approaching the room. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a place to hide. Under the desk maybe? We wouldn’t all fit. Out the window? That was boarded up tight, not to mention that a window probably wasn’t the best way to escape something that could probably fly.

Damn it, looks like the only way out was confrontation. I turned to the door, pulling out Boneless and getting ready for anything that might come through the door. Brisk and Xayah pulled out their guns and did the same.

I spotted the red bars on my EFS stop just outside the door.

“I’m sorry, run that by me again?” I heard a female voice say. She sounded pissed. “You lost track of the fucking hellhound?”

There was a stern sounding grunt from whomever she was talking to. “It is hard to keep track of things that burrow underground,” A male voice responded. “Not to mention something that you need to stay far enough away from so that they don’t cut you in half with one slash of their claws or shoot you with their fucking energy weapons.”

The female huffed. “Then get back out there and find it. Or did you forget our mission?”

There was a long intense pause where no pony spoke. I imagined the two ponies sizing each other up on the other side of the wall. Finally I heard a small grunt and one of the four red bars began moving away from the room and back down the hallway.

Well that was one less pony to deal with I guess.

That still left three though. Three ponies that were entering the room at that very second.

The first pony to enter was a petite looking pegasus with a lavender coat and a mint green mane that had been pulled back into a long ponytail. Her mint eyes matched her mane and she had the cutie mark of a wrench and a syringe. She wore what I assumed was a black lab coat overtop of a white turtleneck and she held a clipboard in front of her with her right wing.

The two other Enclave that entered behind her were more intimidating as they had bulkier builds and were covered head to hoof in a dark insectoid like armor. Large blade like appendages had been built into the back of their armour, giving them a scorpion like appearance and both of them were equip with a battle saddle carrying two magical energy riffles.

Really? Cause I haven’t fought enough things with stingers today?

The three pegasi froze as she spotted the three of us, The female’s clipboard clattering to the ground as she took us in. We all stood in silence for a second as we all contemplated what was going to happen next.

The female pegasus in the lead put a wing to her face and groaned. “Fuck my clit with Balefire egg launcher and call me a promiscuous whore!” She cursed, lighting kicking the ground with her hoof. That wasn’t the reaction I had expected, or ever expected to hear in general. I didn’t even know what the hell a Balefire egg launcher was, but I assumed I didn’t want my clit to be fucked by one. The pegasus glared at us. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Uh… leaving?” I suggested, holding my ground. I didn’t know what to expect from these Enclave bunch. “We were trying to escape the Radscorpions.”

The Enclave cast a few glances at each other. The Lavender and mint pegasus turned back to us. “Yeah, you three wont be allowed to leave this building,” I could feel the tension in the room growing and could hear the faint sound of the energy weapons on the Enclaves battle saddles charging.

“Look, we have no quarrel with you ms…” I checked the nametag on the Mares black lab coat. “Ms Star Breeze. We just want to get out of here without a fight.”

Star sighed. “I’m afraid we can't let you leave and risk you telling other ponies of our location,” then she pulled out her laser pistol and all hell broke loose.

The Enclave took to the air instantly. The room wasn’t nearly big enough for flying to be a large advantage, but it was big enough for flight to make them move far faster than we were able to hit, even while covered in heavy armor. Red beams of light shot out from their magical energy weapons, singeing out coats and barding. I leaped back and forth, doing my best to evade the stream of fire while trying to land a shot of my own.

After two failed shots from my shotgun, I switched tactics and began swinging at them with my shock baton. I suddenly felt like I was trying to swat at a fly that was annoying me by buzzing around me head. I felt my baton make contact with one of the pegasi’s wings. There was a satisfying zap and the armored Enclave trooper fell to the floor with a thud.

I swung my baton at the pegasus again, but he rolled aside and leapt to his hooves with surprising speed and agility. His scorpion tale lashed out at me, but I quickly deflected it with my baton and kicked him across the chest with both of my forelegs. He stumbled back slightly in surprise, but I wasn’t nearly strong enough to do any real damage with my strength alone.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Xayah darting around the room, dodging the blasts from the energy weapons with a fair amount of ease. The two enclave members I wasn’t fighting seemed to be directing most of their attention on her as she seemed to move and hit the fastest.

That was a mistake on their part. Brisk came up behind them and leapt into Star Breeze, knocking her from the air and causing the two of them to tumble across the ground together, kicking and yelling at each other.

That was all I was able to see before the Enclave trooper lunged at me again. I went to deflect his oncoming tail, only for his battle saddle to blast me in the chest with two red burning lasers. Two holes were ripped open in the front of my barding and I was tossed half way across the room. I was incredibly lucky not to have been disintegrated into a pile of glowing red ash on the spot.

The Pegasus lunged at me again, this time I didn’t try to deflect, but attack. My magic wrapped around his scorpion tail and I telekinetically rammed the blade at the end at his left wing. I felt the resistance of the mechanical appendage as he tried to pull it in the opposite direction. At last he tucked in his wings and dropped to the ground, whipping his tail out of my magical grasp. He fired at me again, but I had already moved out of the way.

I raised Boneless and fired at his front legs. The shattered shells peppered his front, much of the shrapnel bouncing off his metal armour. He did however real back in pain as he was sprayed with Bonelesses fire. His armor was tough, but it didn’t make him invincible.

Brisk and Star stumbled past me. Brisks pistol clamped tight in his mouth as he tried to fire at the small pegasus. She dodged his shots and kicked him in the face, bloodying his nose. He fell back, his hooves flailing in the air before him. One of his hooves made contact, knocking her to the floor.

The Enclave trooper began circling me. He had tried to take me out with sheer tenacity, but now he was clearly trying to find another approach. Well I wasn’t going to give him the time to figure that out.

I began swinging my baton at him in fast strokes, trying to keep him as occupied as I could. His mechanical tail turned out to be even better at deflecting melee attacks than it was at attacking as he managed to block all of my attacks fairly easily.

What he wasn’t able to block was when he found Boneless pointed at the back of his head. He froze as he felt all three of the barrels tap the back of his helmet. We stood for a second, eyes locked as my magic slowly tightened around the trigger of my gun.

He was horrified. I couldn’t tell at first through the tinted goggles of his helmet, but the longer I looked at him the more his growing fear was beginning to show. His legs began to quiver ever so slightly and I could have sworn I saw pinpoint pupils through the shroud of his goggles.

I remembered the audio recordings Cheese Sandwich had left behind. I remembered his broken corpse. I had killed a good pony and I hadn’t even known it.

Who was this Enclave pegasus really? Did he love somepony? Did somepony love him? Could I really blow out the brains of somepony I didn’t even know?

My telekinetic grip on Boneless weakened. Damn it, this mindset was going to get me killed in the Wasteland, but what could I do? I couldn’t be myself if I just went around killing everypony that attacked me.

“I am not a raider, I am not a raider,” I muttered to myself. That sentence seemed to give the Enclave trooper the impression that I wasn’t going to fire. Not that he was wrong in thinking that.

His tail lashed up and knocked Boneless across the floor and out of the room. I staggered back as my telekinetic grip was lost. The scorpion tail lashed at me next, bashing me across the face and sending me sprawling across the floor.

I saw Xayah get knocked to the ground as well as the Enclave pegasus attacking her barreled into her. She was knocked backwards, landing next to me with a thud. Both armored Enclave troops now began advancing towards us, their energy weapons charging with an ominous hum. Behind them, I could see Star pin Brisk to the ground and aim her pistol at his face. She was hesitating to blast his head off, thank the goddesses for that, but that didn’t give us much time.

We had to get out of there now. We were very clearly outmatched against their magical energy weaponry and military combat experience.

Welp, here goes nothing. I wrapped Brisk and Xayah in a magical field and imagined the doorway to the room. I doubted I would be able to get us much farther than that.

“Oh no you fucking dont!” Star shouted, noticing what I was doing.

She blasted at Brisks face with her pistol, only for all three of us to disappear in a flash of amber light before the attack could land and rematerialize at the door. With my last remaining strength, I picked Boneless up off the ground with my shaking hooves. My head felt like it was going to explode from using a teleportation spell again, not to mention using a teleportation spell on myself as well as my two friends at the same time.

I swayed slightly on my hooves before collapsing into Brisk. Everything began going foggy and I became incredibly disorientated. I heard yelling and the sound of the Enclaves lasers blasting towards us. I felt Brisk haul me onto his back and begin rushing down the hallway as the Enclave gave chase. I heard Xayahs voice say something to me, but I couldn’t make out the words.

I fell from Brisk back as he sharply turned a corner. I landed with a thump against the corner of the hallway. I could make out the forms of the Enclave growing closer and closer as they descended down the hall towards me. I tried pulling myself to my hooves, only to collapse back to the ground with a thud and a groan.

Then I was on Brisks back again as we raced down a flight of stairs to the level below. Xayah was a few paces ahead of us as we charged onwards. A few red beams of energy flew past us as the Enclave tried to gun as down and prevent our escape.

Then we were standing on a ledge overlooking the wasteland. The large monorail I had seen racing along the Manehattan skyline connecting to and running through the apartment building. Four Star Living wasn’t just an apartment building, it was a train station.

Through my haze I could see the ruins of the buildings below me. “That must be the theater we were going to enter,” I muttered to myself drowsily.

More red lasers were bouncing around us. Brisk was needing to dodge them continuously to avoid being evaporated. I wrapped my hooves around his chest and held on for dear life as I was tossed to and fro as Brisk bounded and leaped from one spot to another.

Brisk and Xayah exchanged a few yells, and then they both began racing across the monorail. The sudden sensation of being so high up with no ground below be temporarily pulled me from my trance.

Holy Fuck we were high up! I felt like I was in the middle of a vast void and that I could fall in any direction and never stop.

The Enclave had begun swooping around us, flying far above our reach before swooping under the monorail making it impossible for us to go on the offensive. I tried to pull out Boneless, but I was so weak that I had trouble even lighting up my horn.

One of the Enclave troops blasted at Xayah’s hooves. She leaped out of the way, but lost her balance on the monorail and slipped off. She reached up and grabbed onto the lip of the monorail with her hooves. She began trying to pull herself back onto the monorail, only for her left hoof to slip and make her dangle even more precariously.

Brisk rushed forward and began trying to pull her back up, but with my weight already bearing down on him, he could do little more than prevent her from falling more.

The Enclave began doing loops around us in the air, firing shot after shot from their energy weapons at us. Brisk had to do everything he could not to drop Xayah as a laser punched its way through his broken forehoof.

“If you could teleport us again Amber, that would be great!” Brisk shouted, struggling to keep Xayahs hoof in his. She began to slip further and further out of his grasp.

I looked down at the theater below us. There was no way I could teleport all three of us (or even one of us) all the way down there, it was way too far of a distance. I glanced back at the Four Star Living building. There would be no point in teleporting back to the apartment building. The Enclave would just continue to gun us down.

Making my decision, I wrapped all three of us in my magic and took a deep breath. I needed my head clear for this if we were going to survive. My head screamed in protest as I held them all in my magics amber glow.

“Alright, drop on three,” I commanded.

Brisk gave me a wide eyed stare. “What! Are you crazy!” He shouted, just narrowly avoiding a blast from one of the Enclaves battle saddles.

But I didn’t have time to explain, I was already putting all of my effort into what I was about to do. “One!” I shouted, taking another deep breath. I could feel Brisks muscles tighten. “Two!” I shut my eyes, not ready to feel the world fly out from under me. “Three!”

Then we were falling. The cold air rushed around us as we plummeted towards the theatre below us. I forced my eyes open and saw the ground close approaching. Goddesses the ground had never been so horrifying. It came closer and closer. I focused on it. only a few more seconds and we would be nothing more than smears on the ground. Good, we had to be close for it to work. My head screamed and I felt a splitting pain threaten to tear me apart. I pictured the floor of the theatre, now only a foot below me.

Then there was a flash of amber light and everything went dark.

“Amber! Amber! Damn it Amber Aura, you wake up right now!” I heard Brisks panicked voice shout. I felt his hooves violently shake me as he attempted to pull me from unconsciousness.

I let my eyes drift open. The light of the sky above temporarily blinded me as I tried to focus on my surroundings. The first thing that came into view was Brisk face looking down at me. And by Celestia’s mighty horn, he genuinely looked concerned.

“What the fuck happened?” I asked, trying to pull myself to my hooves. I failed miserably and landed flat on my face. Why do I always fall on my face when I wake up!

Brisk gave a small chuckle and lifted me onto his back. “You did your crazy magic thing or whatever. Teleported us into the theater.”

I looked around the room. It didn’t really look like a theater from inside, just another dull grey and green wasteland ruin. The room was small and a bunch of shattered mirrors covered the walls. I assumed it had once been a green room of sorts.

“By the way, that was an impressive trick you did. Teleporting us and all,” Brisk complimented, trying his best to walk forward while carrying my weight. “I mean teleporting us once was crazy and shit, but twice and while falling from the sky? That's gotta be the most impressive feet of magic I’ve ever seen.”

I blushed. It felt good hearing that from him. “Thanks, but it was really nothing,” That was a lie. I was having trouble believing I had managed to cast that spell twice myself. My head also didn’t think it was nothing. I currently had the worst headache I had ever had in my entire life.

Brisk snorted. “If that was nothing then you should teleport more of our enemies onto pikes,” He said sarcastically as he pushed open a dented metal door that lead to the rest of the theatre. “Now come on, we gotta find Xayah.”

My ears shot up with alarm. “Wait! Where is Xayah?” I asked, noticing our zebra friends absence for the first time.

“I’m not sure. She didn’t appear in the room with us when you teleported us,” Brisk said. I had an awful image in my mind of Brisk and I disappearing into thin air and leaving Xayah to fall to her death, her broken body splattered against some desolate and grey road. I pushed the thought from my head. I had saved her and she was somewhere in the building. She has to be. “I was going to go look for her but I didn’t want to leave you alone here with the Enclave outside. I spotted them circling the building looking for survivors.”

“Of course they are,” I groaned, resting my chin on the top of Brisks head as he began carrying me through the ruined theatre. “Why can’t we just get an easy day in the wasteland?”

We entered a large, almost circular room. The building was starting to look a lot more like a theatre now. We stood on a large black stage, the dark paint chipped and cracked from age. Before us sat rows of ruined red velvet chairs. Some had been damaged due to age, while others seemed too had clearly suffered water damage. Broken stage lights cluttered the ground or hung from the ceiling and to my dismay I spotted a bunch of mannequins shoved into the corner. Once again they seemed to be staring right at me. Damn those things were spooky! Why the hell did the wasteland seem to have so many?!

“Seems to be the main area of the building,” Brisk muttered to himself. “We probably should be able to find Xayah fairly easily from here. Let’s see,” He looked down at his pipbuck and looked for bars on his EFS. “Oh shit! Red bar!”

I checked me EFS. He was right. A red bar darted back and forth from somewhere inside the building. I noticed I had seen that kind of movement before with the Radscorpions.

“It’s below us,” I informed Brisk, wrapping my magic around Boneless and- Wait a second. My horn failed to even produce light as I tried to use my telekinesis. “Oh fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!”

I had heard of horn burn out before. A state that a unicorn can be in after exerting their magic too much to the point that their horn simply stops working. In serious cases it can be permanent, though more often than not it just takes a day or two before you can use magic again.

I pulled my triple barrel shotgun out with my mouth. Wow that felt weird. “Loogks like I maht musing magic mora mit,” I grumbled around Boneless' mouthpiece.

“What?” Brisk asked, trying to make sense of my jumble of words.

I spat Boneless into my hooves. “I said it looks like I’m not using magic for a bit. Horn burn out,” I pointed lamely at my horn.

“Welcome to my world,” Brisk said with a grin. I gently knocked him upside the head.

“Oh shut up you.”

We heard a loud screech of gears from behind us. We turned to see a trapdoor in the center of the stage swing open, a thick green mist that was swirling from within began seeping onto the stage. Slowly, a platform began to rise from the hole, the figure in a dark cloak stood completely silhouetted upon the platform as it rose.

I heard the crack of static as the speakers above us flared to life. “Mares and Gentlestallions, fillies and colts, behond! The-” The speakers crackled again and began playing some form of operatic music.

What the fuck was going on?

The shadowy figure slowly approached us, stepping into the orange glow of a spotlight.

It was a ghoul of some form, wrapped in a tattered and burned black cloak. Half of the ghouls face was obscured by a sinister white mask. Its rotting flesh, though withered like the many other ghouls I had encountered in the wasteland, held scores of burn marks and oozing puss bubbles. His milky pale eyes seemed to have a spark inside of them, burning with a fire I couldn't and might never fully understand. From within its charred skin, a baleful green glow seemed to emanate from him

“Are you kidding me!” I yelled. “There really is a fucking super ghoul in here! I was just joking!” I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or scream, so instead I just groaned.

The ghoul began advancing towards us again, this time a glowing green light began building up in the back of his throat. Brisk and I realized what was happening too late.

Brisk leapt to the side, just narrowly avoiding being burned alive as the theatrical super ghoul sent a jet of fire spewing from its mouth. Both our tails caught flame as the fire raced towards us.

I rolled off of Brisks back and began trying to put out the fire in my tail before it could consume any more of my body. I was sad to see that my beautiful curly pink and blue tail had been reduced to a small charred stump.

The green fog that had begun seeping across the stage and was licking at the bottom of my hooves. Instantly, the geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking a hundred miles a minute. That ghoul must have been soaking up all that radiation for almost two hundred years, no wonder it was breathing balefire.

I pushed myself away from the radioactive fog, only to find myself roll of the stage and whack the back of my head on one of the broken seats. The world spun as I felt my already aching head whirl in pain from the impact. I crawled towards the stage and tried pulling myself back onto it. In my weakened state I found the action of climbing a lot harder than I would have liked.

Brisk twisted just out of reach as the glowing ghoul lashed its burning hooves at his face. I could hear Brisks pipbuck clicking from the radiation all the way from across the stage just by being too close to the ghoul. Brisk jumped back again, this time pulling out his pistol and shooting the ghoul point blank in the face.

Green ooze burst from the ghouls head as the bullet made contact. It stumbled back, falling into the green fog. Brisk and I watched in horror as the charred skin slowly pulled itself back together.

Radiation could regenerate this guy! Did the wasteland have some sort of vendetta against me or something?

Brisk wasted no time firing two more shots into the ghoul as it began to close in on him again. Now submerged in the fog however, the oozing holes punched into his body by the bullets mended together fast enough that the glowing ghoul didn’t even slow down.

Brisk switched to his machete, aware that his pistol wasn’t going to do much with all the radiation. When it came to this ghoul, you either kill it in one go, or you die trying.

Before Brisk had a chance to attack, the ghoul let loose another jet of fire from its jaw. Brisk dove away from the flame, rushing in a large circle around the ghoul. The glowing monstrosity simply spun on the spot, sending fire spewing in all directions.

I finally hauled myself onto the stage, only to need to drop onto my stomach as a blast of fire flew over my head. Crawling forward, I raised Boneless and fired at the creature. The blast took out half of his side, sending glowing viscera flying across the room in all directions.

The ghoul stumbled, its mouth closing and drawing the spewing fire erupting from its maw to a halt. It glared at me, its eyes filled with rage.

Shit, this guy was not something I really wanted to have attack me while I was unable to do magic and had difficulty standing.

The ghoul began closing in on me. I could see a ball of fire building up within its chest as it drew closer. Before it could reach me though, Brisk leapt toward it and severed one of its front leg with a swipe of his machete.

The glowing ghoul collapsed, his hind hoof lashing out and punting Brisk in the face, leaving a large burn mark across his left cheek. Brisk tumbled back, landing hard on his side in the fog.

I aimed Boneless at the ghoul, but I was having trouble seeing it through all the fog. The fog was everywhere now, covering the whole theater in a blanket of radioactive green. My pipbuck said I was taking in over ten rads a second, and the number only seemed to be growing with each passing minute.

I really didn’t want to grow some sort of mutation from this.

Through the fog, I saw the ghoul pull itself to its hooves. To my amazement, its front leg was almost completely regrown already. The monster hissed and turned to face me again. I could see the glow of its eyes perfectly as they cut through the dense fog.

Blam!

A bullet tore through both of the ghouls front legs. It fell forwards, trying to keep its balance as its front half was blown out from under it.

I looked up to see Xayah standing on the stages catwalks, her sniper drawn and aimed at the glowing ghoul. I couldn't help but smile at her. Thank the goddesses she was still alive and well.

I pulled myself forward, blasting the ghoul again with Boneless. Another bloody hole was ripped through its body as the shrapnel tore into it.

It scrambled towards me, the radiation pulling the muscle tissue back together. A howl escaped the creatures peeled lips as it charged me.

Then Brisk was up and swinging at it with his machete again, this time cutting the ghoul clean in half. The back half of the ghouls body flopped over limply, the front however continued squirming. It scuttled towards me on its still regenerating front legs, trailing bits of intestine and tattered muscle behind it as it did.

Xayah fired again, this time her bullet pierced the ghouls skull. Its head burst open, spraying Brisk and I in glowing brain matter.

And sweet Celestia it was still moving. Its body thrashed about as it tried to claw at us. Due to its eyes currently being oozing pulp scattered across the floor, most of the creatures attacks all fell short. Slowly, the broken remains of its skull began to grow in size, mending themselves back together. I could see the oozing remains of eyes slowly reform in to glowing spheres atop its forming head.

It could regrow its brain! This was getting absolutely ridiculous.

Brisk stepped forward and stabbed the point of his machete through the top of the ghouls head, pinning the creature to the floor as the blade sailed straight through the writhing body and into the wooden stage beneath it.

Brisk gave me a quick nod, signalling for me to fire at it. I raised Boneless and place the edge of the barrel against the ghouls reforming forehead. The creature opened its mouth to breath another jet of fire into my face, but I didn’t give it time. I pulled the trigger on Boneless and watched as what little remained of the ghouls was pulverized by Boneless’ explosive fire. At last, the ghoul stopped squirming and simply slumped to the floor, green slime spilling from what little remained of his corpse.

Brisk popped a tablet of buck into his mouth and pulling me onto his back. “Come on, let's blow this place. I don’t think we should be taking in this much radiation.”

Somehow, Xayah had already made it down from the Catwalks and was gesturing for us to follow her. “Come, I Think I know a way out of this theatre of scares!” She urged, disappearing behind the door she had indicated us to go through.

Without hesitation, Brisk followed after her. A few moments later, we pushed our way out of the broken down theatre and onto the street. It wasn’t the street we had entered on however, but rather the back side of the theatre. I was glad to see no red bars on my pipbuck.

“You think you can walk?” Brisk asked me, coughing slightly in an attempt to remove some of the radioactive fog from his lungs.

I shakely stepped off of his back and onto the ground. My legs felt like jello, but I was able to stand. “Yeah, I should be okay.”

“Thank Celestia, I really didn’t want to carry your sorry butt all the way to Fetlock,” Brisk grinned, stretching his back hooves.

“That shouldn’t be far, Fetlock is only a few more hours I hear,” Xayah stated in her methodical tone. “And the Ponypalooza hotel is closer than that. We should still be able to make it before the end of the day if everything else goes our way.”

“Right, because we aren’t going to run into any more complications,” I sighed, taking a slow and shaky step.

Only a few more hours. I could do that.

My thoughts returned to the cyber ponies. I was probably going to be confronting them in a day or two. Had they made it to the Ponypalooza hotel already? If it was only a few more hours walk for us, then they probably had. Which meant that it wasn’t long before they doubled back and went for Stable 25.

The idea that the cyber ponies could be preparing to wipe out every pony I had ever known made me feel sick. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. The action only made me feel sicker.

I felt my heart start racing. I had to fix this. I had to get moving. We were racing apotheosis now, and we were falling behind.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Entomologist -- Lets be honest, bugs and scorpions are kinda gross. +50% damage to insects.

Author's Notes:

So I took a week long break from writing after the last chapter, only to end up going on vacation for a week, so this chapter ended up coming out a lot later than I had hoped it would.
hopefully the next chapter will come out a bit sooner.

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira

I hope you all had a good day and continue to have a good days onwards from here.

Chapter VI: Comradery of the Steel Rangers

“We are the only salvation this tortured planet and its people have. Without us, pony kind is sure to perish.”

Time.

In the wasteland, it was easy to get sidetracked. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to stay on track, one thing will inevitably lead to another, then another, then another. Eventually you will find yourself walking a path you never meant to walk, trying to achieve a goal that you never wanted to achieve.

The journey to the Ponypalooza Hotel felt exactly like that.

Let's try to walk down this street here. Sorry, looks like there are some Radscorpions to fight. Sorry, you just got stuck in this building. Sorry, looks like there are some Enclave pegasi to fight. Sorry, now you gotta fight a glowing ghoul thing now! It was starting to become really damn annoying.

We probably could have made it to the hotel already if we hadn’t gotten sidetracked so much. Which meant we could also have been a step closer to saving Stable 25 from starvation and iminent slaughter.

I groaned as I marched down the road. My hooves hurt and all my wounds kept on opening back up the more I walked. Not to mention that my head was still spinning from teleporting three ponies twice.

I rubbed my forehoof over the gauze that had begun to peel off of the large cut on my side. The scabbed over injuries itched more than they hurt. I was beginning to feel like I had been eaten by hundreds of mosquitoes.

Brisk and Xayah trailed behind me, talking back and forth with each other is some sort of friendly debate. I tired to listen in on their conversation a couple of times, but nothing they said seemed to catch my attention.

Instead I focused on what was ahead. A few hours of walking, followed by a big ol’ fight with a bunch of killer cyber ponies.

The idea of actually being able to take one of those metal monstrosities out was laughable. The three of us had struggled to kill only one alicorn, and even then we had come dangerously close to dying multiple times. While on the other hoof, I had watched the cyber ponies tear through dozens of alicorns and simply laugh it off afterwards.

I had to think of some way to take them out. I could theoretically just steal the A.A.S.S from them, but then what would stop them from stroming Stable 25 and killing everypony inside?

Could I trick them into killing each other somehow? That seemed unlikely. Perhaps I could find some more ponies to help me fight them. Then again, that might take time, and we didn’t have time to get sidetracked anymore than we already had.

I could see the looming structure of the Ponypalooza Hotel slowly rising up in the distance before us. Even two hundred years after the apocalypse it looked stunning. Most of the destroyed walls had been patched together with what looked like bits of marble castle walls and through the grimey stain glass windows I could see dazzling glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. How those had managed to survive the holocaust and two hundered years of the post apocalyptic wasteland, I will never know.

“Looks like we are almost at our destination?” Brisk muttered to himself, staring up at the towering hotel in the distance. “Y'all think those cybernetic freaks are inside?”

“I sure hope so,” I grunted, pulling out Boneless. “Boneless and I have a few presents for them in the form of exploding shotgun shells.”

Xayah quickened her pace and caught up to me. “Do we have any actual plan to kill those cyber ponies?” She asked, eyeing my triple barrel shotgun. “I don’t know how much our weapons are going to do against such a formidable opponent.”

Before I could tell her that we had no plan and were most likely all going to get blasted to bits the second the cyber ponies saw us, we heard the sound of a young filly call out. “Help! Raiders took my parents! Help me!”

We looked over to see a small yellow and blue filly cowering against a wall a few feet away from us. She was covered in cuts and bruises and a small trail of blood ran between her back legs.

When she spotted us, her eyes widened in what I could only assume was hope. “Please, help me! They’re in here! Hurry” Then she spun around and darted through the doors of the building beside her.

I began rushing in the direction of the filly, only for Brisk's hooves to pull me back.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He hissed.

“Helping that filly,” I responded quickly. “You heard her, her parents are being held by raiders in there!”

Brisk shook his head and groaned. “What is it with you and wanting to help everypony we run across? It’s going to get you killed. Who would save Stable 25 from destruction then?”

“But I can’t just-” I began, but Brisk cut me off.

“Yes you can! You can just walk away. A filly and her parents are not more important that everypony in Stable 25. I can't believe that I of all ponies need to remind you of that!”

Damn it! Why did Brisk always need to do this! “Oh yeah! Well, Xayah wants to go help her!” I retorted, pointing a hoof at Xayah. The zebra flinched slightly as I flicked my hoof at her. “Right Xayah?”

Both Brisk and I locked our gaze on our striped friend who began slowly shrinking away from us. “I uh…” Xayah stammered, glancing back and forth between us. “I think we should save her family.”

Of course she would want to help a family in danger. I doubted she would want to let anypony go through what she had.

Brisk groaned and slapped his hoof across his face. “We are never going to get anywhere at this rate.”

Together, we turned and approached the door the filly had gone through. I spotted a handful of red bars inside on my EFS. Looking up, I spotted a bunch of twisted corpses hanging from meat hooks above the door. Yup, definitely raiders inside.

I slowly pushed the door open, letting the green glow of my pipbuck light the dark room beyond. We were met with horrors.

The walls that had once been a dull grey were now shiny and red with blood. The floor was sticky and coated in what I only imagined was the liquified remains of ponies. Bloody skeletons sat in strange positions around the room. Some simply sitting in chairs, while others displayed more perverse scenes. What made it all worse however, was how the bones did not appear to be two hundred years old like the rest of the skeletons I had seen, these skeletons were fresh. Somepony had deliberately skinned and cleaned the bones by hoof.

“I do not like this,” Xayah whimpered, keeping her head low as she followed behind Brisk and I. She held her striped hoof over the gem on her stealth cloak so she could turn invisible as soon as trouble reared its head.

Brisk nodded. “I hate raiders. I don’t know how they can live with themselves after doing shit like this.”

The three of us pushed onwards through the building. Each turn led to a horror even worse than the one before. First a wall covered in skinned pony faces, then ten filly heads on pikes. I began keeping my eyes low whenever we turned a corner, I was going to have enough nightmares from the wasteland when this was all done.

As we climbed a flight of stairs to the second floor, Xayah brought up the question that we had all been wondering. “Where did that filly go?”

As we arrived on the second floor we were given our answer.

A unicorn raider stood in the center of the room. His armour was similar to that of most raiders armours, assembled from jagged chunks of metal, spikes, chains and anything else he could get his hooves on. His black hair had been pulled back into two pigtails on the top of his head and his face was covered in a sickening mask of a screaming pony face.

No wait… it wasn’t a mask, at least not in the traditional sense. He had literally pulled a skinned pony head over his own. I had to do everything I could to keep from vomiting up all of the cookies I had eaten this morning.

The raider held a large serrated knife in its magic and had pushed the blade up against the neck of the filly we had followed in. The fillies eyes were wide and her shaking pupils had turned to pinpricks.

“Don’t take another step or I’ll slit this fillies throat!” The raider cackled, grinning at us through his skin mask. Seeing the raiders mouth move below the mask was an awful sight.

I raised Boneless, only to see the edge of the blade dig deeper into the fillies neck. I quickly lowered my gun.

The raider laughed again. It was a horrible laugh. “That's a good girl! Now put your weapons down!”

I looked around, trying to spot a more effective way out than violence or surrender. There were red bars everywhere on my EFS. My eyes darted around the room, trying to spot the other raiders to no avail. My amber eyes landed on the yellow filly the raider held captive. My eyes narrowed. Why didn’t I see any green bars?

I was sitting against the street corner. I didn’t know how the hell I had gotten there or where the raiders had gone. My head felt dizzy as if I had just teleported and I was having trouble focusing on things. There was a booming sound in the distance, but I couldn’t make it out very well.

A green object swam before my vision. I squinted, trying to make out exactly what it was. Was it a pony? It kinda looked like it.

“Amber? You okay?” Brisk said, leaning in a little closer, allowing me to fully make out his features.

I rubbed the back of my head and looked around. “Uh… yeah, I think so. How did we get here, what happened to the raider?”

Brisk glanced around nervously. “We were jumped from behind. The raiders knocked you out. Xayah and I managed to kill them and pull you from the building.”

Something about that didn’t sound right. “What about that filly?” I asked, my voice cracking a little. I already knew the answer, but I forced myself to ask anyway.

Brisk bit his lip. “She, uh… she didn’t make it. Sorry.”

I glanced over at Xayah, who was cowering behind a large pile of rubble, her sniper drawn. She was covered in cuts and gashes, though most of them looked like they had quickly healed over.

“We uh, had to use the last of our Healing potions on Xayah. She got hurt the most,” Brisk said, slowly pulling me to my hooves.

Now a little bit more aware of my surroundings, I began making out the booming sounds I had head. Gunfire. Lots and lots of gunfire.

“What is happening?” I asked, pulling up to Xayah and peeking over the rubble. I saw a group of seven or so ponies clad in heavy steel armour firing at a notably larger group of less equipt ponies. I spotted the large red flag depicting a sinister looking eye looming over the larger group of ponies. “Slavers,” I muttered, pulling out Boneless. Damn it, I hated these guys.

Xayah glanced at me wearily. “Are you alright?” She asked, looking me over.”

“Yeah,” I grumbled, rubbing the back of my head. “I don’t really remember anything from the fight, but I can walk and stuff.”

Funny, I didn’t feel any bump on the back of my head.

“We accidentally stumbled into a crossfire between these two groups here. I recognize a few of the slavers, I think some of them chased us back at the MoM building. No clue who those metal ponies are though,” Brisk said, sliding up next to us and pointing at the ponies in the strange power armour.

“So what should we do?” I questioned, glancing back and forth between the two groups fighting. “Do we fight them both? Just the Slavers? Who's side are those metal ponies on?”

“Those are the Steel Rangers,” Xayah informed, nodding towards the armoured ponies. “They are… well they might be friendly. Really depends on what mood they’re in.”

Brisk eyed the heavy power armour. “I’d recommend sneaking away and continuing to the Hotel. These aren’t ponies needing saving and or even our fight.”

For once I agreed with him.

Xayah tapped me on the shoulder. “Do not look now, but I think this situation we are in is about to become less pleasant than it already is.”

I glanced to where she was gesturing to see three alicorns standing with the slavers. And of course they were looking at us. Because we simply couldn’t get a break.

“YOU!” all three of the alicorns shouted into our heads. Shit! They recognized us?! How the fuck did they do that?! We killed the only alicorn that had seen us!

Beams of energy started flying towards us. We ducked below the rubble to avoid being dusted. A few of the slavers turned and began firing at us, though most of the slavers kept their attention on the armoured ponies that were assaulting them. I assumed the alicorns had telepathically instructed some of them to attack us.

“Okay, take out the alicorns first and foremost,” I instructed, turning to my friends. “Then the slavers. Hopefully we will have figured out if those Steel Ranger are friendlies by then.”

Brisk nodded and quickly reloaded his pistol. “Copy that,” He drawled, once again peeking over the mound of broken bricks and rocks to look at the small armies. A wall of bullets spewed towards us, causing him to duck back down.

Xayah waved her hooves in front of our faces. “Do we have a plan this time!”

“Yes, take out the alicorns then-” I started.

“No, that is a list of things we need to accomplish,” Xayah stated. “Do we have a plan for killing the alicorns? Or did you forget the difficulty we underwent upon our last encounter with one?”

“I don’t suppose we have any more grenades? We could use a similar strategy as last time?” Brisk suggested.

I shook my head. “All out. We only had the one.”

While we had been talking, two slavers had pulled themselves up against the far side of the rubble and had began to inch around it with their weapons drawn.

Xayah spotted them first. Flickering out of view and lunging into one of them. The slaver stumbled back as the invisible zebra slammed into him, a clear look of shock on his face.

Brisk’s machete was out at once, swinging at the second slaver who was in the middle of pulling himself over the rubble. The slaver dodged, rolling onto his side and flopping lamely by my front hooves. I raised my baton and bashed him over the head, a small shower of sparks shooting from the end of my baton as it came in contact with his noggin.

The slaver went still upon impact, though I could still see his chest rising and falling. I pulled my baton up for a second hit, this time to put him down for good.

My eyes landed on Brisk. He was looking at me cautiously, as if waiting to see what I would do. Why the fuck was he looking at me like that?

I glanced down at the unconscious slaver. He wasn’t a threat anymore, why was I attacking him. I slowly lowered my baton.

Brisk rolled his eyes and raised his pistol.

Blam!

The unconscious slavers head burst open, blood splattering across the ground and seeping away from the body.

I stared in horror at the bloody corpse.

“You didn’t need to kill him!” I spat, pushing back up against the rubble and glancing at the advancing slavers.

“Yes, I did,” Brisk monotoned, rummaging through the slavers pockets and passing me two shotgun shells. “I let him live and he just goes and enslaves more innocent ponies. You need to understand that the life of the one doesn’t undermine the lives of the many.”

I pocketed the shotgun shells and huffed. “Fine, we can talk about this later, but we have a bit of an issue at the moment.”

Brisk nodded in agreement and readied himself for the next wave of slavers.

Xayah limped up to us, her coat matted in blood. I could see the broken body of the slaver Xayah had fought a few feet away, though I couldn’t seem to spot any serious injuries on her.

“There are more coming,” She panted, raising her sniper and aiming at the oncoming slavers.

The rushing ponies never reached us, as a large Steel Ranger leapt in front of them and blasted them with what I could only describe as a rapid fire missile launcher. The slavers scattered at the Steel Ranger's attack and began focusing their attacks on the intruder.

Brisk nudged me. “This would be a good opportunity to attack those alicorns,” He suggested, moving along the side of the rubble to where a could see a small stretch of open ground between us and the three alicorns.

I nodded and followed, Xayah trailing a foot or so behind me.

The three of us weaved our way across the war zone. Though the Steel Rangers weren’t attacking us directly, they ended up being a bigger problem than the slavers. Their explosive weaponry made moving from one place to the next near impossible as the area around us was bombarded by explosion after explosion. Bits of shrapnel and debri rained down on us from all sides, forcing us to move as fast as we could through the clearing.

Two of the alicorns had taken to the air and were blasting at the small squad of Steel Rangers with burning lasers. One however, stared at us as we approached it. Its slitted eyes burning into us as we rushed forwards.

“YES! Come to me!” The alicorn screamed in our minds. “We are ready for a rematch!” A rematch? Was this the same alicorn or something? Did they all share the same memories? Alicorns are weird.

“We still don’t have a plan!” Xayah shouted as the looming alicorn continuously drew closer. “Why do we always rush into things without a plan!”

“I have a plan!” I shouted back, reaching into my bag and pulling out a memory orb. I figured if they shared the same memory, then it wouldn’t let us bring a grenade anywhere near it.

I smirked and tossed the memory orb at the alicorn. I saw the alicorns eyes flick up, watch the memory orb fly at her, then drop back down to me. The alicorn gave us a wide smile as the memory orb landed with a small thud by her hooves.

“You really thought you could trick me like that?” It yelling into our heads. “We will not let you kill us the same way twice!”

Seriously! Somepony had already done that trick! And here I thought I was being clever.

“What about this trick?” I heard Brisk grunt. My eyes dropped to where Brisk had pulled up next to the alicorn, his pistol pointed right under her chin. In my futile attempt to trick the alicorn into going into a memory orb I hadn’t seen him sneak up to the alicorn, and by the sudden shock that crossed the alicorns face, I could tell she hadn’t either.

Damn Brisk could be a sneaky pony.

The alicorns shield flaired to life, but not before Brisk managed to fire off a round from his gun. The bullet burst through the alicorns lower and upper jaw and blew off the front half of her face.

The fake goddess stumbled back, her hooves pressed tightly against her ruined face. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted Brisk.

“The goddess will make you pay for your transgression!” The alicorn shreaked. Her shield dropped and a beam of blue light blasted from her horn, striking Brisk across the chest. He flew back, crashing into and through the ruined wall of an old skyscraper.

Xayah fired a round from her sniper, the shot tearing through the alicorns back two legs and making her drop to the ground with a scream. The two other alicorns reacted to her wails, turning from their fights with the Steel Rangers and began swooping towards us.

This was bad. Really, really bad!

A slaver pounced onto me from the side, knocking me off balance. I grappled with him to the ground as he tried to pin me down. I reached for my baton with my magic, only to find my horn still suffering from burnout.

I hated not having magic! I don’t know how earth ponies did it. Hell, I didn’t know how Brisk did it.

I grabbed onto the handle of my baton with my mouth and whacked the slaver across the face. He reared up, accidentally getting in the way of one of the Steel Rangers explosive projectiles. The slavers body burst open, gore and viscera pouring down on me. The force of the explosion sent my flying backwards crashing my head against the ground.

The whole world spun as I tried to pull myself to my hooves. A second explosion detonated close to where I was standing, sending me flying backwards again. I felt my back collide with something solid, only for it to break away and for my to land heavily on my side.

I pulled myself up again and glanced around. I had been thrown into a nearby building, its walls crumbling more and more with each blast of the Steel Rangers weaponry.

Brisk pulled himself up next to me. “Howdy,” he moaned, placing a hoof over the large burnmark on his chest. “Got any more bright ideas?”

I glanced out of the large hole in the wall to where I could see Xayah doing her best to avoid being struck by the three alicorns many lasers. A few slavers had turned their attention to the zebra as well, rushing at her with knives or shooting at her when they could get a shot in.

We had to think of something quickly. Even if the Steel Rangers managed to take out all the slavers and the alicorns, I doubted that they would be able to kill them all before we bit the dust ourselves.

I looked over at the crumbling walls of the building. “Alright, I’ve got a plan.” Brisk raised his eyebrow at me sceptically. “No really, I actually have a plan this time! Do you think you can sneak past the slavers and get to the Steel Rangers?”

Brisk looked out at the chaotic bloodshed. “Its possible, but I might need a few minutes.”

I nodded. “That's fine, I’ll need a few minutes myself. Just find the Steel Ranger with the biggest gun you can find to fire at the bottom floor of this building.”

“Do I even want to ask why?” He asked, continuing to stare out at the ponies fighting.

“We don’t have time to explain,” I ushered, picking up the largest rock that I could with my mouth.

Brisk groaned. “So I still don’t know what the plan is. This is a bad habit that the three of us are getting in,” He grunted, slinking out of the broken wall of the building and into the havoc outside.

I turned my attention from him to the alicorns outside. I aimed, reeled my head back, and threw the rock at the alicorns head as hard as I could. The rock came in contact with a blue alicorns head and bounced off harmlessly, but it definitely took her by surprise. All three alicorns glared up at me, their vision locking with mine.

I mustered up what little courage I had and cleared my throat. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve met an alicorn, last time I blew one's head right off it neck!” I shouted down at them in the most condescending voice that I could. “Come over here and I’ll give you the same treatment!”

I don’t know if it was at the mention of their fallen comrade or if it was simply the fact that I was yelling at them, but in an instant all three alicorns were rushing at me.

Good, enter my trap.

I dove to the right as a beam of blue energy bust through the wall and disintegrated the ground where I had just been standing. I rolled back onto my hooves just in time to lerch to the side again as a green laser flew past my head.

The alicorns burst through the wall, rock and debri flying everywhere as half of the wall flew inwards. The whole building seemed to scream and shake as they entered.

“You will pay for mocking the Goddess!” They all screamed in unison. I put my hooves over my ears to try to prevent the pounding in my head from their voices.

These alicorns scream too much. I shook off the ringing in my ears and grinned at all of them. “Oh yeah? How much? Will five bottle caps do?”

The alicorns growled and began blasting lasers in my direction. I jumped and rolled and vaulted around the room as the alicorns shot at me. One of the alicorns teleported into my path and sent of beam of light straight at my face.

I ducked to the ground and rolled under her legs, just narrowly avoiding being turned to a pile of dust. As I rolled beneath her, I saw the alicorn’s startled face as she looked at me between her legs.

I bolted into the next room. It was smaller than I had hoped. In fact, I found myself in the remains of a filthy public washroom, which meant that there was no doorway out except the way I came.

Damn it!

“Do you really think you can run from us?” I heard the alicorns say in my head, their voice had dropped to a more sinister sneer.

I gulped and raised Boneless. “Well if you think you have the balls to take me, then come and get some!”

The alicorns were silent for a moment. No doubt they had not expected me to be quite as ballsy myself. Finally I heard them laughing, not in my head, just laughing out loud. One of the alicorns even had the audacity to seemingly flop onto their back and roll on the floor as they howled with laughter.

“Do you really think you can take us on?” One of the alicorns mocked. I could see the three bars on my EFS moving closer to me. “Do you really think you even have a chance?”

I pushed my back up against the bathroom wall. I glanced around, looking for an exit. Nothing. It was fight in here, or rush out and risk getting being blown to pieces.

I cleared my throat again and tried my best to hide the tremor in my voice. “What’s funny is that you think you had a chance yourself!” I mocked. My voice gave out on the last word and revealed my fear. The alicorns began laughing again.

“Fine,” One of them finally cooed. “Lets see if you’re all your say you are.”

There were three loud popping sounds accompanied by blinding flashes of light as the three alicorns teleported into the room before me. A laser blasted Boneless out of my mouth before I had time to fire, sending the shotgun skidding across the floor.

I swung at the closest alicorn with my hooves, only for another one to bash me across the head with their own hoof. I was sent flying across the room where I crashed into the toilet stall and landed atop the toilet seat with a thud.

I heard the sound of the alicorns horns charging up. I Crawled out from under the stall only seconds before the stalls were blasted to smithereens. The force of the exposition sent me toppling head first across the room where I was slammed into the wall upside down with a heavy smack. I took a second to take in the upside down image of the room before I slowly slid down the wall and landed with a thump on my head.

I felt a telekinetic grip surround my neck and pull me into the air. I grasped at my throat and tried desperately to gasp for breath as I felt the grip tighten.

The alicorn that was missing the front half of her face raised me to eye level and stared at me. Blood had begun spilling over her mangled face and down the front of her coat. Her gaze was murderous.

“You will pay for your transgression interloper!” The alicorn hissed, her slitted eyes narrowing.

I tried to choke out a word, but all I was able to make was pathetic gagging sounds. The bloody face of the alicorn grinned as I struggled. I could see the shattered remains of teeth though her unnaturally wide smile.

Then there was a thunderous boom. The whole building shook as the remaining walls of the building were blasted away by the Steel Rangers explosive fire. The alicorn dropped me in surprise as large chunks of ceiling began crashing down around them.

I kicked off with my legs and began scrambling for the door of the bathroom as fast as I could, snatching Boneless off the ground as I went. I could hear the screams of the alicorns as the roof caved in and buried them under a pile of rubble and cement. One alicorn’s horn lit up as they tried to teleport away, only for a large slab of the ceiling to land atop their head, shattering her erect horn as if it were glass.

I stumbled through the collapsing structure. I could see the exit only a few steps away. Another blast from the Steel Rangers artillery caused the back half of the structure to completely collapse behind me. A large chuck of the wall fell in front of me, blocking me path. I stumbled backwards to avoid being crushed by the falling debris.

I felt one of the alicorns magic wrap itself around my hind legs and begin dragging me back into the building. I twisted around and aimed Boneless at the alicorn, only to find myself on an empty chamber.

The once mighty alicorn look more like a monster from a nightmare than the fake goddess it had once been. The blown off front of her face had peeled away further, revealing bits of her skull and muscle. Her hind legs were broken and she had taken to crawling towards me on flayed forelegs. One wing was bent at a strange angle and her slitted eyes were bloodshot and puffy.

“DIE!” The alicorn screamed into my head. I tried to kick her away with my legs, but she held me in place with her magic. A second aura appeared around her cracked horn and I could feel a tight grip crushing my windpipe again.

Rocks and bits of ceiling fell around us as we struggled. A large slab of cement crashed next to my head, nearly breaking off my horn. I choked out as clouds of dust clogged up what little room I had for air in my throat.

I stumbled with my shotgun shells, trying to reload Boneless. The alicorn wrapped a field of telekinesis around my gun as well and began trying to pull it from my grasp. I clutched onto it as tight as I could with my mouth and managed to pop a single shell into the gun.

The alicorns eyes widened as I lowered the gun to face her. She let go of me with her magic and threw up her shield just in time to deflect the blast from Boneless.

I rushed forwards, rocketing towards the exit of the building as the walls around me gave way. Another blast from the Steel Rangers made me stumble forwards, tripping on my own hooves and half somersaulting half half falling out of the building.

There was a scream from the alicorn behind me as the rest of the structure collapsed in on her, burying her under a mile of stone and concrete.

I rolled to a stop in front of the large Steel Ranger who I had seen fighting earlier. He was clad in a full suit of power armour like the other Steel Rangers except his power armour was a dark purple. On his right was a large gatling laser and on his left was an impressive looking rocket launcher. I blinked up at the large armoured ranger and gave a sheepish smile.

“Thanks?” I said timidly, glancing around the battlefield. The Steel Rangers had managed to take care of the slavers. A handful of unarmoured rangers were going around collecting anything of value from the slavers bodies, while the rest of them gathered around me. I spotted Xayah and Brisk with uncomfortable expressions on their faces.

The Steel Ranger above me simply stared down at me in silence through the visor of his purple metal helmet. Finally he cleared his throat. “You are from Stable 25?”

Not exactly what I had expected him to ask. I nodded. “How did you…”

“It says so on your Stable barding,” He pointed out in his low rumbling voice, pointing to the twenty five on my stable barding. “Where is it?”

I glanced over at Brisk and Xayah. Xayah gave me a small shake of her head, indicating I shouldn't tell him. Having no idea what to think of this Steel Ranger bunch, I decided that was probably a good idea.

“Don’t know,” I said simply, shakely pulling myself to my hooves. “We are hopelessly lost.”

The Steel Ranger grunted. “Can you give us a landmark to go by? Anything?” I shook my head innocently. The Ranger grunted again. “I find this unlikely.”

I chuckled nervously. “Well if I knew I’d tell you. But seeings how I don’t I think the three of us should be on our way,” I turned to Brisk and Xayah, preparing to run if I needed to. I froze as I saw to magical laser weapons pointed at my friends heads.

Well that settled that, I don’t like the Steel Ranger. Yet another wasteland faction I would have to deal with I guess.

I turned back to the large Steel Ranger. “I swear, I don’t know where the Stable is.”

The Steel Ranger stomped his metal clad hoof. “Then I suggest you remember quickly,” He grunted, turning to his fellow Ranger. “Lock them up. Don’t let them go until they give us the location of their Stable.”

Well shit.

In less than a minute, Brisk, Xayah and I were handcuffed and under the intense gaze of four Steel Ranger guards as the Steel Rangers finished collecting all the valuables from the slaver corpses. Small metal rings were placed over both Brisks and my horns to prevent us from using magic. I didn’t bother to tell them that neither of us were able to cast spells at the current moment.

The Steel Rangers made quick work of the locks on our pipbucks, expertly removing them from our forelegs. Shortly afterwards our weapons were removed and Xayah’s stealth cloak was stripped away from her.

Brisk looked back and forth between Xayah and I. “So like… should we just tell them where the Stable is or...? I mean we are kinda on a tight deadline right now.”

Xayah shook her head. “No, that would be unwise. The Steel Rangers are notorious for hoarding pre war technology, and your Stable is packed full of it. If your home is already on the brink of destruction, the last thing you’ll want to worry about is Steel Ranger invasion.”

I had to agree with her. I was already worried about four cyber ponies attacking the Stable. An army of equally armed ponies sounded like my nightmares nightmare.

Finally, one of the Steel Rangers approached the Ranger I had been talking to and gave him a salute. “Senior Paladin Iron Hock. All of the slaver scum’s weaponry has been confiscated.”

Iron Hock nodded in approval. “Let's get moving!” The Senior Paladin ordered to the rest of the Rangers. As if rehearsed for a play, all of the Steel Rangers formed into a tight formation and began marching forwards. We were ushered forwards as the squad advanced deeper into the Manehattan ruins.

I glanced around, trying to spot a way out of our situation. There were heavily armed Rangers on all sides of us, making our escape near impossible. Conveniently though, we seemed to still be moving in the general direction of Fetlock, so hopefully when we did manage to escape we wouldn’t be ridiculously off track.

The squad of Steel Rangers marched forwards for almost half an hour in complete silence. The dark cloudlayer above us began to slowly drip with rain, then it began to pour. Within minutes my coat was soaked all the way through. I groaned as we passed a rusted over street sign reading Fetlock. I was so close, yet still so far away. After a few more minutes of silence, one of my guards bumped me on the shoulder.

“You three should be honored you know,” The guard mumbled. “Y'all are about to gain entrance to the main base of operations for the mighty Steel Rangers. The great Fort Strong!”

I glanced up and took in the massive structure before us. It had once been a large military base, with humongous concrete walls surrounding the entire bunker. Large banners depicting the Steel Rangers emblem hung proudly from the walls and teams of Steel rangers patrolled the outer and inner walls of the base. Protruding from the top of the building was unquestionably the largest gun I had ever seen.

Even through the rain, I could see the large barrel of the gun. The massive weapon was roughly the same size as a small skyscraper. Multiple laser cannons the size of my whole body surrounded the main barrel and slowly swiveled around to face every moving target in the area. Large tubes stretched from the roof of the base and entered the back of the gun, assumably loading the gun with whatever the hell it used for ammunition.

“What the fuck is that thing,” Brisk muttered, staring up at the massive gun with a mix of horror, shock and awe.

“Beauty ain’t she,” Our guard said, once again breaking his silence. “Thing was designed to blast armies of dragons out of the sky back during the war. Did it’s job too. That gun even managed to blast a few balefire bombs out of the sky before they impacted the city. Unfortunately it wasn’t able to save us from the bombs that had been smuggled into the city, but It gave us it’s all.”

“Does it still work?” I asked. Please tell me that thing doesn’t work!

Our Guard shook his head. “Nah. that thing take more power to run than the whole damn city of Manehattan. We got the smaller laser cannons around it to function, but the main gun itself has been dead for almost two hundred years.”

“Shortcake, stop talking to the prisoners,” Another Steel Ranger from somewhere behind us ordered.

“Oh come on now,” Our guard, now known as Shortcake grunted. “These three ain’t done anything actually wrong,” But he did shut up after that. At least not all the Steel Rangers seemed to be pricks.

As we approached the massive doors to Fort Strong an elderly earth pony buck approached us. “Senior Paladin Iron Hock, please report,” The older stallion demanded, scanning the squad.

Iron Hock took a step forward and gave a quick salute. “Elder Cottage Cheese, the slavers have been dealt with, and I have successfully confiscated a large arsenal of pre war weapons and technology,” He declared proudly. He signaled for one of the Steel Rangers behind him who quickly approached and held up Brisk’s and my pipbucks. “I have also managed to obtain two functional pipbucks.”

Elder Cottage Cheese nodded and turned his gaze to us. As I looked closer at his face, I realized he wasn’t an earth pony at all, rather a unicorn who had had his horn sawed off. I didn’t want to know how or why that happened. “And who are those three?” He asked coldly, his gaze shifting back and forth between the three of us.

“Two Stable dwellers,” Iron Hock one again declared. “Almost certainly from Stable 25. I wish to bring them in until they reveal the location of their Stable.”

Elder Cottage Cheese’s eyes narrowed at us and he slowly took a few steps towards us to get a better look, making out the small yellow twenty five on our barding. Finally he nodded. “Very well, take them to holding. I would very much like to see this Stable 25.”

Iron Hock saluted again before motioning for his squad to advance. Like a marching band down a street, the squad surged forwards, bringing us into the guarded concrete walls of Fort Strong.

Elder Cottage Cheese had told Iron Hock to take us to holding. That had been a nice way of saying throw them in the brig. We had been aggressively thrown into a large prison room with three caged off sections, one for each of us. Each cell had a small stone ledge protruding from the wall that I guess was supposed to act as our bed and a metal bucket in the corner that must have been the cells sad excuse of a toilet.

I pushed my back against the back wall of my cell and looked at my friends in the cages across from me. My eyes wandered to the guard fully clad in power armour that stood at attention by the door.

Well this was just great. At least they were nice enough to give each of us a Radaway. We all needed it after the fight with the glowing ghoul. I wished I still had my Pipbuck so that I could have seen my rad levels drop back to zero.

Brisk had quickly taken to pacing in a circle around the outside of his cell, shaking the occasional bar every now and then to see if one might come loose. None of them did. “Well this is just great,” Brisk grunted, echoing my thoughts in words. He smacking the bars of his cage with a hoof in frustration. “We help these bastards out and they throw us in a cell! Really!” he pointed an accusing hoof at the guard. The guard didn’t react, or even flinch. He just stood at attention, almost statue like.

No pipbuck, now weapons, no bobby pins and a guard that seemed to take his job very seriously. Please don't tell me that the only way out of this was to actually give the location of my Stable. I groaned and slapped my hoof across my face.

Well, I might as well see if I could talk my way out of it. Not that I was overly charismatic.

I turned to the guard and gave him the nicest smile I could. “Um, so the three of us are actually going somewhere and we are on a bit of a tight schedule, do you think you could let us out?” The guard just stared at me blankly.

Yeah… I don’t know why I thought that even had a small chance of working.

Brisk gave a short chuckle. “Did you just ask the guard to let you go because you are busy?” I nodded lamely in response. Brisk chuckled again. “That was the worst attempt to convince a trained guard to let you go that I have ever seen.”

I blushed. “Shut up! Besides when we first met, I’ve never had to break out of a cell before!” The guard stomped his hoof in response to my outburst. I winced. That probably wasn’t the best thing to say while the guard was in the room.

Brisk grinned at me. “I noticed.”

I sat down on the stone bed and folded my hooves in front of my chest with a huff. We sat in silence for a long time like that until I shifted my gaze over to Xayah who had taken to lying on her side in her cell, her eyes darting around the room in a desperate attempt to find a way out. My eyes landed on a large silver scar that ran down her soft underbelly from the bottom of her neck to between her hind legs.

“How did you get that?” I asked breathlessly, pointing to the long scar. The skin around it was still pink making it appear fairly recent.

Xayah tucked her legs up against her and rolled onto her stomach. “That isn’t important. I am healed now.”

Both my concern and curiosity had been piqued. Mostly concern. “Xayah, how did that happen?”

“It’s not Important Amber,” Brisk blurted, drawing my attention away from Xayah. He had a strange look in his eyes, I couldn’t explain it.

“But-” I started.

“Amber Aura, do you trust us as your friends?” Brisk asked sternly. I look at him in silence for a few moments. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Do you trust your friends?”

“I… Yes?” I said slowly. I didn’t understand what all the secrecy behind the scar was for. “I trust you.”

“Then forget about that scar,” Brisk demanded, finally stopping his pacing and sitting down on his stone bed. He exchanged a sad nod with Xayah.

I was so far beyond confused by that point, but they seemed to have a reason for me not knowing about it and I did trust them. I decided to drop it and continued looking for a way out.

After a few moments of trying to figure out an escape plan to no success, my face turned a dark shade of red. “Uh, do um… Do you guys think you could look away for a second?” I asked, nervously looking towards me friends.

Instinctively, Xayah rolled towards the wall to face away from me. Brisk raised his eyebrow and gave me a quizzical look?

“Dare I ask why?” He questioned in confusion. I blushed even more and gave the small metal bucket in the corner of my cell a gentle kick. He looked at me in confusion for a few awkward moments before his eyes widened in understanding. “Oh! Yeah, sure,” He too turned his back and stared awkwardly at the wall.

I sat on the bucket and gave the guard an uncomfortable glare. “Um… I don't suppose you would mind looking away for a moment either, would you?” the guard continued to silently stare at me.

I groaned loudly, and under the intense glare of the guard, began to pee.

I was walking down the slightly curved hallways of Stable 25. The hallways were more crowded than normal, it must have been a celebration or something today. Each pony I walked by gave me a warm and genuine smile as I passed them, a few going so far as to greet me or ask me how my day was going.

I calmly marched past them, basking in their affection for me and politely greeting them in return. They all loved me, and I loved all of them in turn. My father approached me for across the hallway. His curly red mane bounced atop his head as he practically bounced towards me and he gave me one of his infamous dorky grins.

“Good afternoon Amber, are you ready?” he asked joyously, calmly placing his hoof on my shoulder.

I rubbed my temple with a hoof. “Am I ready? Ready for what?” I asked, trying to remember if I had forgotten something important.

My father grinned ear to ear. “Why today is the day I step down and you take my place as the Overmare of Stable 25!” He declared with pride.

I glanced back at my flank to see the dazzling image of an Overmare cutie mark staring back at me. Of course I was becoming the Overmare! The cutie mark was hereditary! I don’t know why that slipped my mind.

“Oh, of course I’m ready for that,” I said boldly, standing tall and proud before my father. “I’ve been ready my whole life!”

My father smiled at me proudly. “I know you are. I always knew you would be the greatest Overmare this Stable has ever had.”

Then I was standing before the whole Stable in the large atrium. My father stood next to me, preaching to the crowd how honored he was to have me as his daughter. Everypony in the audience stared up at us with huge smiles across their faces and a twinkle of joy in each of their eyes.

This was the perfect life. This was Utopia.

How much better this utopia was than the horrors of the desolate wasteland outside the Stable door. Out there was cruel and evil, but here we were safe. Within these walls we had utopia.

The Wasteland outside.

The wasteland

It suddenly all came back to me. The cyber ponies, the radscorpions, the Enclave, Brisk and Xayah. Where were they? Why was I hear?

“This is a dream isn’t it,” I muttered, looking out at all the smiling faces.

“Of course it is,” Shade said, approaching the stage and giving me an honorary badge, declaring me the new Overmare. “You are still in the wasteland.”

“Why is everyone so happy?” I asked Shade, looking at all the ponies.

Shade smiled at me. “It’s your dream Amber, what you want is what happens.”

I scanned the crowd. My eyes landed on a green unicorn and zebra standing in the crowd cheering me on. Of course they lived in the Stable with me, there would be no perfect world without them.

My two friends rushed towards me. Now closer, I could see that they were lacking the many scars they had acquired during our journey through the wasteland. I had never seen them so clean before.

Xayah gave me one of her kind smiles, wrapping a striped hoof around my neck in a tight hug. I turned my head to Brisk who was now standing close at my side. He leaned his green head closer and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I blushed, wishing the kiss had lasted longer.

I could hear the subtle sound of the A.A.S.S pumping vapors into the air. We must have won! We must have killed the cyber ponies and returned the A.A.S.S to its rightful place.

I was wrong. We hadn’t killed the cyber ponies.

A blast of blue energy lanced out and struck Brisk through the chest. He screamed, clutching where he had been shot with a hoof before he slowly faded to dust beside me. He tried to reach out and grab onto me, but the ground below me seemed to pull me away from him as I watched Brisk disintegrate.

The mechanical laugh of the cyber ponies drew my attention to the entrance of the atrium. All four cyber ponies stood in the doorway, the monstrous cyber alicorn in the lead. He laughed again as they advanced upon the helpless Stable ponies.

The ponies didn’t run or scream. They just stared up at me smiling, confident that their Overmare would protect them. But I couldn’t. I was frozen as I watched the cyber ponies blast them all to bits, some being turned into a pile of dust while others burst open in a shower of bloody visera.

Xayah caught fire next to me, screaming in agony as one of the cyber ponies doused her in burning gasoline. She flailed around, trying to put out the flame. But the fire could not be extinguished. The fire spread across her whole body, then to the corpses lying bloody on the atrium floor. Then my whole world was a blur of fire and blood.

My father was next, the cyber alicorns razor sharp wing lashing forwards and severing his head from his neck. No… not sever. His head dangled from the back of his neck by a few tattered muscles and veins.

And still my father was screaming.

There was no logical way he should still be alive, but he was. He howled in agony as his head flopped limply from his neck as he desperately tried to reattach his skull to the top of his exposed spinal cord.

At last the fire overtook him. Slowly burning his body away until he was little more than a blackened skeleton.

The cyber ponies surrounded me, covered in the blood of the ponies I had once shared a life with. Bits of ripped flesh and intestines hung from their metallic coats.

“Thank you for bringing us to your Stable,” The cyber alicorn rumbled in his deep intimidating voice. “These ponies never expected a thing.”

I glanced back to see the makeup hiding my stupid cutie mark dripping off of my flank, reveiling a red screwdriver, now soaked in blood.

A manic laughter broke out beside me. I turned to face Shade, her smile now forced open by metal clips. “Did I say dream?” Shade cackled, flopping onto her back and rolling in a large pool of blood and brain matter. “This is a nightmare!” Her laughing continued until one of the cyber ponies finally stomped her head into paste.

I awoke covered in sweat. The light of the prison had gone out, leaving us in almost complete darkness. The only light that could be seen was a small sliver of golden light at the base of the door on the far side of the room and small silver glints gleaming off of our beady eyes in the dark.

The wasteland was a cruel place, filled with crueler things. One doesn’t simply transverse the deserted streets of Manehattan and not end up scarred by nightmares for the rest of their life. I pulled my legs up close to my body and shivered as the images of my Stable in a bloody ruin flashed through my mind.

I couldn’t let that happen. Not at the hooves of the cyber ponies, not at the hooves of the Steel Rangers, not even at the hooves of the Equestrian wasteland itself.

“...I’m worried about her you know,” I heard Brisk whisper in the dark. My ears perked up as I heard his voice. What was he talking about? “The Wasteland is hurting her. Not just physically. She isn’t built for the kind of things the wasteland makes you do.”

“No pony should need to endure the hardships of the wasteland,” Xayah replied evenly. “Not me, not you, and certainly not Amber,” So they were talking about me. Great, that was just great.

“You saw what happened back with the Enclave right?” Brisk asked. “She had her gun pointed right at that bastards head and then she just let him go. That kind of mindset is going to get her killed. Hell, it did almost get us killed,” He sounded frustrated. I thought back to the fight with the Enclave. If I had pulled the trigger, could we have won? Would we not have needed to run away and fight that glowing ghoul?

“It is her virtue,” Xayah answered simply. “A powerful virtue, one the wasteland needs. Of course it is also the hardest to hold onto, and in many ways, that makes it the most dangerous.”

“Virtue?” Brisk asked. I could hear him sit up a little on his stone bed. “What do you mean by virtue?”

“A Virtue is something that everypony has. It is a piece of themselves that they can hold onto to remain sane in the wasteland,” Xayah explained. “Losing it can be catastrophic to your psyche, as you can see with the raiders. Though if you can hold onto it, then you can beat the wasteland.”

“What is Ambers virtue then?” Brisk pushed. I was very interested to hear that myself.

Xayah gave a small cough. “It is not exactly my place to say. That is up the Amber and Amber alone. But if I had to guess, I would put my caps on morality.”

“Morality?” Brisk continued. “As in knowing right from wrong or whatever?” From the silence that followed his question, I assumed Xayah nodded. “How is that a virtue?”

“It’s perhaps the most important virtue in the wasteland,” Xayah stated bluntly. “It's the virtue that the wasteland lacks the most and it's the corrupted version of this virtue that created the wasteland in the first place.”

Brisk gave a long sigh. “I suppose it was the corrupted version of this virtue that we saw today?” Brisk guessed. Saw that today? What the hell did he mean?

I heard Brisk stand up and begin pacing around his cell again. There was another silence from Xayah, so I assumed she nodded again. “Today we saw morality at its worst, both with the lack of it with the raiders and the overabundance of it with Amber. We now know first hoof what happens when her virtue overtakes her...”

“She completely loses control,” Brisk finished with a grunt. I had no idea what they were talking about at this point. Had I done something back with the raiders? Something so moral my friends needed to hide it from me? And hadn’t I been knocked out at the time? There must be a lot more to the story than they weren’t telling me.

After a few seconds of silence, Brisks voice spoke up again. “What do you think my virtue is?” He asked curiously.

“Hard to say,” Xayah stated. “Perhaps adventure or freedom. I would assume the latter.”

“And yours?”

There was another long pause. “I don’t know what my virtue is,” Xayah finally admitted. “There are many things I am good at, though very few I excel in. It's possible my virtue is resilience, though due to recent events I find that unlikely. Ambers virtue is more clear than most, as it actively affects how she interacts with the wasteland.”

I could hear Brisk fidgeting in his cell. “Uh, hey Xayah?”

“Yes?”

Brisk stumbled for words for a second. “Do… do you think that Amber… Well do you think she likes me?” I froze. Shit! Please tell me I wasn’t that transparent with my crush for Brisk. From the silence, I could tell that Xayah had frozen too.

“Well, uh…” Xayah searched for the right thing to say. Damn it Xayah, don’t you dare tell him my secret. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I mean… I don’t think she likes me and stuff. I’ve kind messed up a couple times and… I really don’t want her to leave me,” Brisk sputtered. “I don’t think she flat out hates me or anything, but I don’t think she wants to be my friend either.”

I let out a small sigh of relief. He didn’t know yet. Thank Celestia.

Xayah gave him a sad chuckle. “Do not worry Brisk, I can assure you that she does in fact like you.”

Brisk fidgeted in his spot for a bit before returning to his bed. “I don’t know. The first night out of the Stable we were attacked by two bandits. They were fairly inexperienced, lucky us, but we managed to disarm them and could have left them alive.”

“But you killed them,” Xayah said for him. “You told me this story when we first met.”

Brisk nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t tell you about how Amber felt about that.”

Xayah gave a small laugh. “Knowing her, not very well.”

“If that ain't the understatement of the year,” Brisk agreed with a chuckle. “She told me, and I quote. We are not raiders. I thought she was being stupid at the time, but… I can’t stop thinking about that. Where does the line between us and raiders start and end?”

“That is likely Ambers morality speaking. She has a clear sense of what is right and wrong and knows when and where to draw the line. Unfortunately, as proven today, her morality will allow her to push the line to achieve what she deems as the more moral of two evils,” Xayah speculated. “She is able to see past the blood and vulgar visage of raiders and understand that what makes them immortal is not the gore, but the act.”

Brisk groaned. “I only understood like, half of that,” He sighed. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do when she is gone.”

Xayah cocked her head. “Why does she ever need to be gone?”

“Have you not been listening to her?” Brisk snapped. “Once we get that dumb ass program back from the cyber ponies, Amber plans to march back to Stable 25 and live out the rest of her life there.”

“And you are committed to never returning?” Xayah asked.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brisk nod slowly. “I can’t go back there. The wasteland is where I belong.”

“Why are you really out here Brisk?” Xayah asked cautiously. I heard her move for the first time that conversation. “I don’t think it's just because you crave adventure. No pony just waltzes into the wasteland because they are bored.”

“Well there is a first for everything, right?” Brisk grinned back at her through the darkness. “Do I really need a better reason?”

Xayah just stared at him, her forehooves crossed. I doubted she believed him. To be honest, I was starting to feel like there was more to it that that as well.

The two of them just sat in silence after that. After I figured they weren’t going to pick the conversation up again, I gave out a big yawn and pretended to wake up.

“Mornin’ sleepy head,” Brisk commented, approaching the edge of his cell and peering at me through the bars in the darkness. “Sleep well?”

I grimaced as I remembered the nightmare. “I’ve had worse sleeps?” I lied casually, propping myself up and rubbing an eye with my forehoof. I glanced around the dark room, noticing for the first time that the guard was gone. “Hey, where did the guard go?”

“He left once the lights went out,” Xayah stated. “Though I suspect there will still be a guard outside the door.”

“Do you think they can hear us in here?” I asked quietly, looking towards the door. I could still see the small sliver of golden light peeking out from underneath. Brisk and Xayah exchanged a glance and a shrug. I dropped my voice to a whisper so that only my friends could hear me. “So, how do we escape?”

Again, my friends exchanged a glance. “We have been trying to figure something out. Unfortunately, anything short of telling them where Stable 25 is seems to be improbable,” Brisk grunted.

I rolled that around inside my head. Tell them the location of the Stable? I couldn’t do that… or could I? A plan suddenly started forming in my mind.

“Alright, here is the plan,” I whispered, leaning as far as I could towards them.

“Alright, you win!” I yelled. “I’ll tell you the location of Stable 25! Just let us out!” We waited in anticipation for something to happen. Nothing did. Darn it. “I said I’ll tell you the location!” I screamed again. This time we heard movement outside the door.

The door slid open and a single guard stomped in. As soon as she entered the room, the door behind her slid closed again and the lights above us flickered to life. I had to cover my eyes as I was temporarily blinded by the light.

“Amber stop!” Brisk yelled. “Don’t tell him!” I was impressed by his acting. He didn’t seem to overplay the part as much as I had anticipated, but he did have a small ear twitch that gave away his performance just a little. Nothing an unsuspecting guard would pick up on.

“You would tell me where it is?” The guard asked, almost in surprise.

I nodded. “I just want to get out of here. If giving the location of my Stable will get me out, then I’ll do it.”

“Perfect. Where is it?” The guard ordered, taking a small step closer.

“Come here and I’ll tell you,” I said calmly, beckoning her over with a hoof. Come on, come on! Take the bait damn it!

The guard gave me a weary look, no doubt suspecting some form of foul play. She placed the keys to the cell on a desk next to the door, far out of our reach. Damn, she seemed somewhat competent. The guard took a few steps closer, but still made sure she was out of hoofs reach of me.

I sighed. “You’ll have to come closer than that,” I said, beckoning her to take a few more steps. The guard stood her ground and didn’t step forward.

“I think you can tell me perfectly fine from there,” She stated bluntly. She definitely wasn’t stupid then, I’ll give her that. Guess it was time for some improv.

I took a step back and drew my hoof in the thick layer of dust on the ground. “Alright, well this here is Fort Strong, where we are right now,” I started, making sure that the fictitious map I was drawing was small enough that she couldn’t see it well. The guard craned her neck forward and squinted at the dust through her helmet, but didn’t take a step forwards. “It’s about a days walk from here to Friendship city, where we came from,” I continued, drawing a small line away from my first point and drawing another circle at the end of it in the dust.

“Amber, don’t do it!” Brisk yelled again, thrusting his hoof through the bars. Now he seemed to be hamming it up a little to much. Xayah simply shook her head at me silently. All in all, our performances seemed to be convincing the guard. She took another small step forwards to get a better look at my map.

Alright, just a few more steps.

“From there, there is a long two day trek west,” I stated, drawing a few different lines in a grid like pattern west of where I had claimed Friendship city was. I was just making stuff up at this point. If my memory serves, Stable 25 was south of Friendship City anyway. “And this is where Stable 25 is,” I said, drawing a big X in the dust.

The guard took two more steps forwards looking down at the X I had drawn at the edge of the cage.

Got ya.

I lunged forwards and wrapped my arms around the guards head. She pulled back in surprise, her guard had clearly been down. Good.

I pulled against her, smashing her head into the bars of my cell. She stumbled, but wasn’t down yet. As she slowly began making sense of the situation, I slammed her head against the bars again. Then again. Then again. Finally, the guard dropped unconscious to the floor.

“Prison break! that’s my girl,” Brisk exclaimed proudly, looking at the unconscious guard. “Clearly I’m a bad influence on you.”

I shrugged casually. “I got us out of prison once right? Break out of one, you’ve practically broken out of them all.”

Xayah shook her head. “You two are weird,” she glanced over at the keys to the cells on the far side of the room. “Though it is good to be rid of our guard, a matter of escaping the cells still poses a conundrum.”

I glanced over at the keys, then down at the lock. “Hey Brisk, do you think you could pick this if you had any bobby pin?” I asked.

“But we don’t have any bobby pins. They took all our stuff, remember?” Brisk monotoned.

“But can you pick them?” I asked again, giving him a flat stare. “That’s all I need to know.”

Brisk gave a small laugh and looked at the lock. “Of course I can pick these. The amount of cell doors I have picked in my life is staggeringly high.”

I nodded and bent down to reach the unconscious guards armour. I reached my hooves out of the cell and began fiddling with the lock on the helmet. Finally it popped off with a metallic clink, revealing the head of the red mare inside.

I began disassembling pieces of the helmet. It was a lot harder than it should have been since my reach was limited by how far my hooves could reach through the cage.

“Damn, I wish I still could use magic,” I grunted, pulling off a small piece that had once been the lock holding the helmet in place.

Brisk grunted. “You’re tellin’ me.”

Xayah looked at me curiously. “Amber, what exactly are you doing?” She asked.

I pulled the rest of the lock on the helmet off and watched as a small metal pin dropped out and landed by my hooves on the floor. “Looking for this!” I declared, quickly reattaching the lock to the helmet and holding up the pin.

“And what is that?” Brisk blurted, eyeing the pin. “And how did you know it was in the helmet in the first place?”

“It's a dowel pin,” I chuckled. “They are usually used to align machine components during assembly. I figured that those power suits probably had at least one. Most likely where the helmet met the neck of the armour. Lucky us, this one is extra thin.”

Brisk put a hoof over his face. “Oh sweet Celestia! You are such a nerd!”

I grinned back at him. “I’m a nerd that is going to get us all out of this cell,” I informed him, Tossing him the small dowel pin. He easily caught it in his mouth and began picking the lock. A few seconds later and we were all out of our cages.

“Now we need to figure out a way to get out of this bunker without being caught again,” Xayah stated. Right, that might be a challenge. “Not to mention we should probably find our stuff first,” She continued, gesturing to our lack of saddlebags.

“We could probably wear the guards armour as a disguise,” Brisk suggested, pointing to the still unconscious guard. “And the rest of us could pretend to be your prisoners or whatever.”

I nodded in agreement. “Alright, who’s gonna wear the power armour?” I realised that both Xayah and Brisk were looking at me. “Wait? Why me?”

“Well the armour is meant for a female, so it wont fit me,” Brisk said casually.

“And if I need to speak, my voice will give us away,” Xayah added. I hadn’t considered her voice being much of an issue, but I guess I hadn’t really seen any zebra Steel Rangers.

We quickly removed the power armour from our guard and clamped it over me. I must admit, I felt pretty damn cool wearing it. Then we ran into our first problem.

It had looked as if Elder Cottage Cheese had had his horn surgically removed. Now faced with the task of adorning my head with a power armour helmet, I realised why he might have done that.

“I can’t get the helmet on,” I groaned, rolling the hornless helmet around in my hooves. That might pose a bit of an issue.

“I thought I saw a unicorn Steel Ranger wearing a helmet back when we were fighting the slavers?” Brisk mentioned thoughtfully. “Are there other helmet variance?”

“Not that I have seen before,” Xayah said. “It is possible it is a newer model or a prototype though. If so, there is possibly another one in Fort Strong somewhere.”

Who’s idea was it to only make it possible for Earth Ponies to wear power armour? I wanted to buck whoever that was across the face so hard at this moment.

I sighed. “Alright, you two wait here. I’ll see if I can get myself a helmet I can use,” I grimace, not liking the idea of sneaking through a bunker full of Steel Rangers in plain view.

I walked out into the hallway. It seemed empty enough. One Steel ranger stood at attention a few feet down the hall, but they didn’t seem to have any interest in me.

I walked onwards, following the signs that hung on the walls. Armoury to the left, one read. Perfect. As I approached the armoury, a squad of five Steel Rangers rounded the corner and began walking towards me.

Just act calm Amber. Make it look like you’re supposed to be here and they won’t think anything of it.

I held my head high and stuck my chest out slightly as I walked, never losing stride. An action I had always done every time I had tried to show my father I was more responsible back in the Stable. The Steel Rangers walked past me, unfazed by my presence.

I slipped into the armoury and took in the rows of power armour; enough to equip a small army with. To my disappointment, it seemed as if they were all damaged in some way. Most likely these were getting ready to be repaired instead of being on standby for use.

I spotted what I needed at once, a single power armour helmet sat on a table on the far side of the room. It looked identical to every other helmet with the exception of the metal horn that protruded from the forehead. The visor had a small crack down the middle, but is wasn’t in bad enough condition that I couldn’t use it.

I picked it up and quickly fastened it to my head. An amber HUD popped up on the visor, showing off the armours condition as well as a small geiger counter and an EFS. A seemingly more effective and sleek take on many of the pipbucks functions.

To the left of the room was a pile of junk that the Steel Rangers had collected. I spotted our saddle bags, pipbucks and weapons and quickly retrieved them as well.

Then I spotted something I didn’t recognize. It appeared to be some sort of large gun, though unlike most firearms, it was a long open metal tube with some sort of catapult like mechanism at the back. Beside it sat three glowing spheres, similar to memory orbs, but seemingly more explosive. Interested as to what exactly it was, I threw the gun over my back and carelessly tossed the glowing spheres into my saddlebag.

Then I had to walk back. I walked as quickly as I could down the hallway without seeming too suspicious. More ponies stopped and glanced at me now, most of them eyeing up the large gun I was carrying. None of them seemed to have any interest in stopping me however.

I marched back into the holding cell area and threw the two saddle bags belonging to my friends onto the floor in front of them. “My new helmet and your old stuff secured,” I said gleefully, tapping a hoof on my newly acquired helmet.

Xayah gasped as she spotted the large gun on my back. She pointed to it dramatically. “Where did you get that?” She blurted, her eyes wide.

I grinned. “In the armoury like everything else!” I said, hauling it off my back and examining it closer.

“What is it?” Brisk asked, leaning closer to get a better look at the massive weapon.

“I have no idea,” I admitted, rolling it over in my hooves.

“It’s a Balefire Egg Launcher,” Xayah stated bluntly. Brisk and I raised our eyebrows at her in confusion, asking her to elaborate. She sighed. “It was a devastating weapon developed close to the end of the war that was designed to catapult Balefire eggs at the enemy,” She explained. When we both still looked confused she tried again in simpler terms. “It shoots mini Balefire bombs.”

I dropped the gun in shock. The heavy Balefire Egg launcher landed heavily on the floor with a thud. I gaped at Xayah. “This thing shoot Balefire Bombs!”

Xayah nodded, slowly draping her stealth cloak over her shoulders. Brisk grinned. “Well I guess we have a way to take out those Cyber Ponies now,” Brisk declared, looking the gun over with more interest than before. “Promise I can shoot it once?”

I just stared at him. “Really? You find out this thing shoot Balefire Bombs and you want to shoot one?” He just nodded eagerly at me in response. I groaned. Of course he did.

After we had locked our old guard up in my old cell we moved into the hallway. Xayah had turned herself invisible to avoid detection and Brisk had kept his magic reduction ring over his horn to make him look more like a prisoner. Not that he really needed magic anyway. I walked a step behind him, my shotgun trained on his back.

“Do you really need to point your gun at me?” He whispered after we had passed a few Steel Rangers. “It’s kinda embarrassing.”

“We gotta make this look authentic,” I muttered, pushing him forwards with my gun. Brisk grumbled but didn’t complain anymore.

We were almost to the exit when a familiar booming voice sounded from behind us. “And where do you think you are going with that prisoner?” Iron Hock demanded, Stepping towards us. His Dark purple armour seemed darker and more intimidating in the harsh light of Fort Strong. “Please report.”

I tried to stand as tall and straight as possible and turned to face him. “Uh… Elder Cottage Cheese has requested to talk to the green one,” I responded in as deep a voice as I could fake.

Iron Hock approached me and looked me over. “Really?” I nodded quickly. “Elder Cottage Cheese’s office is the other direction,” He deadpanned, his eyes flicking back and forth between Brisk and I.

I looked around, hoping for some way out. I didn’t see one. “Oh… sorry. Must have gotten lost,” I said quickly, hoping that would be enough to get the senior paladin to back off. It wasn’t.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before, you must be new here,” Iron Hock snarled. “What contingent are you from?”

“I… uh…” Well shit! That wasn’t something I could talk my way out off. What other places were there in the Wasteland? Canterlot? To mainstream. What was that place Watcher had briefly mentioned? “I’m uh… From the hoof.”

Iron Hock cocked his head. “The hoof? Dangerous place. Who is your commanding officer?” Damn it, he really needed to stop asking questions.

My eyes darted around the room. What is a Steel Ranger name… My eyes landed on the metal window looking out into the rainy weather outside. “He was uh… Steel rain…” I said slowly. Please work!

Iron Hock reacted with surprise. “Steel Rain!”

I scratched the back of his head. “Yeah… Uh, you might not have heard of him, I don't know-”

“Steel Rain is pinnacle of what all Steel Rangers should strive to be! He is a true visionary. Once the rest of the Steel Rangers understand what power we have at our hooves, We might be able to finally control the damn wasteland and bring order to it!” Iron Hock Exclaimed, placing a metal clad hoof over his chest. “That pony is an inspiration to us all!”

I chuckled nervously. “Heh, yeah. He is pretty great. And order to the wasteland! It could use some of that.”

Iron Hock gave a stomp of agreement. “The ponies of the wasteland have proven they will not bow willingly to us. We will have to take it by force and bring justice to those who would defy us the right to do so!”

Iron Hock’s ideals were beginning to make me uneasy. Conquest of the Wasteland? That didn’t sound like order to me, it sounded like the beginning of a war.

“I won’t hold you any longer,” Iron Hock soothed, lowering his hoof and stepping past me. “Ad Victoriam!”

I put my hoof to my chest in the same manner I had seen him do only seconds before. “Uh… Ad Victoriam!”

Brisk and I began marching towards the door again. Iron Hock coughed, making us turn. He pointed towards the hallway he had indicated earlier. “Elder Cottage Cheese’s office is that direction. And make sure you fix your helmet, it is cracked.”

I nodded. “Sorry, thank you Paladin. Will do.”

We quickly changed directions and walked down the hallway he was suggesting. As soon as we were sure Iron Hock was gone, we doubled back and continued to the exit.

“Is he crazy?” Brisk whispered to me as we slowly neared the exit of Fort Strong. “Taking over the wasteland to bring order? Bringing justice to those that oppose? He’s mad!”

I hushed him quickly. “You don’t need to tell me. Hopefully he doesn’t get the chance to do any of that.”

As we exited the base we were stopped by another Steel Ranger in full power armour. He extended a hoof to us as we approached. “Hault, please state your name and identification number,” The guard ordered, lowering his hoof back to his side. He glanced over at Brisk. “And please elaborate on why you are removing a prisoner from the premises?”

Before anypony could do anything, a tip of a sniper appeared pressed against the guards head. I could see the small shimmer of light that was Xayah under her stealth cloak standing behind the guard. My zebra friend leaned close and whispered in the guards ear so quietly I had trouble hearing it myself.

“You are going to pretend everything is normal and let us pass,” Xayah whispered. “Or I blow your brains out.”

The guard nodded. He looked around for a second before finally straightening up. “Alright, everything seems to be in order here,” He glanced nervously behind him, but he couldn’t see anything. “You are free to go!”

I gave him a grateful nod and pushed Brisk out of the building and into the barren Manehattan street. Night had fallen and I could see the final cracks of sun peaking through the cloud layer far off on the horizon. Shortly after we had left Fort Strong, I spotted the guard running away from the scene as fast as he could out of the corner of my eye.

“We should probably get out of here,” I said, picking up my pace and finally aiming my gun away from Brisk.

Xayah threw off her hood and came back into view beside me. “Agreed, it is hard to say how long it will be before they send Rangers after us. And I don’t take Iron Hock as one who takes deception well.”

I looked off into the distance where the Ponypalooza hotel lay. It seemed closer than it ever had before. It wouldn’t be long now, we were almost there.

The final stretch to the Ponypalooza hotel was seemingly empty. The only thing on our EFS was the occasional Radroach or bloatfly. We did run across a bunch of blasted appar ghoul corpses, a clear sign we were on the right track and the cyber ponies weren’t far away.

The heavy rain that had accompanied our walk the day before had died down to a slow drizzle. Small droplets of rain rolled down the cracked glass of the visor on my power armour helmet, slightly obscuring my view of the road ahead of us.

The looming hotel in the distance was growing at an alarming rate. The closer I got, the more I wanted to run and hide. I was starting to realize how truly horrified of those cyber ponies I really was.

So when somepony snuck up behind me and pointed the barrel of their gun at my head, I almost jumped right out of my skin.

“Y'all came to the wrong part of Manehattan,” A low voice growled at us. “We don’t take kindly to Steel Rangers round here.”

I slowly turned to face the pony who was talking to me. It wasn’t a pony at all, but rather a family of ponies. Each one of them armed with some sort of makeshift pipe weapon. Closest to me was a brown earth pony buck who had pushed a shotgun up into my face.

I awkwardly raised my hooves over my head in surrender. Brisk and Xayah did the same as guns were pointed at them as well.

“We aren’t Steel Rangers,” I said calmly, slowly lowering my hooves back down.

The pony holding a shotgun to my face snorted. “A likely story!” He spat at the ground in front of me. “You want to explain what you are doing with all that firepower and a suit of power armour with the Steel Ranger logo on it?” He demanded, shaking his shotgun with more vigor.

“We just escaped Fort Strong,” Brisk pitched in. “We were being held prisoners there, used the power armour to escape.”

The ponies glanced around each other, seemingly weighing how good our word was. They seemed to all come to some sort of silent agreement because the brown pony lowered his shotgun a little.

“Alright, I’ll give y’all the benefit of the doubt, long as ya get out of that fancy armour of yours,” He said, taking a small step back. The rest of the ponies kept their weapons drawn and aimed.

“Yeah, no problem,” I said eagerly. I didn’t really enjoy wearing power armour anyway. It felt clunky and slowed me down too much. Then I frowned. “Uh, Could you guys help me out of it?” I asked turning to Brisk and Xayah. “I don’t really know how.”

Brisk groaned, but joined Xayah as she started unlatching the metal suit around me. The group of ponies seemed to relax as they watched my clumsy display of stumbling out of my power armour and landing on my face.

The brown buck laughed. “Ah, these three aint no Steel Rangers!” He turned back to the ponies. “Its alright folks, they’re fine,” The ponies all began putting their guns away with a sigh of relief. I realised that none of them had any desire to fight us.

“Why do you hate the Steel Rangers so much?” Xayah asked, taking a step forward after she had finished pulling me out of the suit of power armour. “They rarely have malicious intentions towards ponies?”

The brown buck scoffed. “They do if you got somethin’ they want! Those metal freaks might act all civilized, but deep down they aint no better than raiders!” I could believe that, especially if Iron Hock was involved. The brown buck’s face split into a small grin. “Well if y’all aint friends with the Rangers, then y’all are friends with us. Come on, lets get ya some grub.”

I couldn’t argue with that idea. My stomach was growling just at the thought of food. When had I eaten last? Was it those cookies Xayah had made? That was what? Twenty four hours ago? I nodded and followed him as he led us towards their camp.

Brisk stopped me. “Shouldn’t we get going? Who knows how long it will be until those cyber ponies head back to Stable 25? Assuming they haven’t started heading back already,” he said in a hushed tone.

I glanced at the ponypalooza hotel in the distance. We were so close, we couldn’t afford to get sidetracked now. I sighed. Food would have to wait. “Alright, lets deal with the cyber ponies first.”

A small grey and black foal beside us looked up at me in surprise. “You three are looking for some cyber ponies!?” the whole crowd of ponies stopped and turned to us in shock.

“Uh… yes?” I stammered not sure how to react.

The foal turned to the Brown Buck. “Do you think it's the cyber ponies we saw daddy?” they had seen the cyber ponies?!

The Brown buck looked as us sceptically? “You three aint lookin’ for four metal freaks round the Fetlock area are ye?”

I exchanged a few nervous glances with my friends. We returned our gaze to the stallion and each gave a timid nod. “Yeah, have you seen them?” I said. “We think they’re heading to the Ponypalooza Hotel.”

The group of ponies looked around at each other. A grey unicorn mare stepped forwards. “We saw them a few hours ago. But they weren’t heading to that old hotel.”

My heart stopped. Please don't tell me they were on their way to Stable 25! I had to force myself to get the next sentence out. “Where were they heading?” my voice cracked as I spoke.

The Brown buck cleared his throat. “Fetlock by the look of it,” Oh thank the goddesses. “Had some strange oblong device with em.”

So they hadn’t given it to whoever had asked them to retrieve it yet. That was… confusing.

“Why do you think they are heading there?” Brisk asked, giving me a concerned look. “A change of plan or something?” I shrugged in response.

“Well I can’t tell you that,” The brown buck stated. “But I think they still can.”

“What do you mean by they still can?” Xayah questioned sceptically.

“Follow me and I’ll so ya,” The buck grinned, turning back and continuing to lead us in the direction he had before. “It’s just past our camp here.”

The group led us through their small camp that was situated in the middle of the street between two somewhat sturdy looking skyscrapers. Compared to settlements like Friendship City or even Fort Strong this camp was small. It consisted of five tents and a large bonfire located in the middle of the camp. A few ponies stood guard around the outskirts of the camp, but it was hardly enough protection to last against most of the threats I had stumbled across in the wasteland.

“So what’s your name?” I asked the brown buck as we walked through the camp.

“Names Dusty,” The buck said with a smirk. “And this here is my son Scrapper,” He said, gesturing to the grey and black foal that had spoken up earlier. Scrapper gave us a polite wave before darting off to join a small group of other foals. “I’m the mayor of this town. It ain't much, but I do what I can to keep these ponies safe from the dangers of the wasteland.”

“Must not be easy,” Xayah chimed in. “Manehattan isn’t the most hospitable place for small groups.”

Dusty grunted. “You got that right. But not all of us are rich enough to get into that fancy smancy Tenpony Tower,” He gritted his teeth at the mentioned the tower. “We don’t usually need to deal with much more than Radroaches and the occasional ghoul, but lately the fuckin’ Steel Rangers have been stompin’ ‘round with a bigger stick up their metal ass than normal.”

“Any idea what’s going on with them?” I asked. “There must be some reason they are acting like that all of a sudden.”

Dusty shrugged. “Who knows. I ain't one to pay attention to politics. Rumor has it their forces are runnin’ a little thinner than usual. Couple of select rangers have been questioning the rangers way of life or some shit, leadin’ to them actin’ lot more rash than usual.”

Dusty lead us to a large multi floor building that looked as if had once been some form of shopping mall. Most of the left side of the structure had collapsed and sunken into a sinkhole, causing the whole building to look warped and crooked. A large sign hung over the door, though due to years of rust and corrosion, it had become near impossible to read.

Dusty stopped as we reached the entrance. “This here is as far as I’ll take you,” Dust grunted. “Thing is damaged and not much of a threat anymore, but I don’t want to risk it. Not with all those ponies back there still needin’ my help.”

I gave him a small smile. “Thanks. We appreciate the help,” I turned to my friends. “You two ready?”

Brisk gave a small gulp. “If I die, I’ma gonna come back and haunt all of you.”

I grinned. “Do me a favor and don’t die. Got it?”

The abandoned mall was eerie to say the least. Dark blood was splattered across the cracked dust covered walls and the floors had been scored with a multitude of scorch marks. Abandoned shops had been trashed or looted, leaving piles of junk scattered across the floor. The whole building was slanted at and awkward angle, making it difficult to move very fast.

There were also skeletons everywhere. In the shops, in the hallways, even a couple hanging from the roof. Most of them were old, no doubt caused by the apocalypse two hundred years ago, though there were a couple of more recent corpses that filled the mall with a pungent stench.

As we trotted deeper into the mall we began to uncover a different kind of corpse as well. There were multiple corpses belonging to large bipedal hound like creatures littering the floor. They had massive sharp claws, clearly indicated by the huge claw marks that had been gouged into the walls. Most of them had been blasted open with some form of powerful energy weapon, while other lay in mutilated piles. A few of the bodies had even been burned to the bone, leaving nothing but a charred black skeleton.

They weren’t ponies, but the scene reminded me an awful lot like my nightmare.

“Hellhounds,” Xayah muttered, making sure she was as far away from the mutant dogs as possible. So these were the hellhounds I had heard ponies mention off. Xayah had been right, they didn’t look like very good singers.

“The cyber ponies did this,” I said bluntly, looking at the scorch marks on the wall. “They were definitely here.”

A dark mechanical chuckle slowly filled the hall around us. All my hairs stood on end as the chuckle morphed into a deep manic laugh. In the darkness of the tunnel we could see something moving just beyond our sight. It was low to the ground and slow, but it was definitely made of metal.

“Oh we were here,” The metallic voice cackled. I shone my pipbuck light in the direction of the voice and took in the cyber pony.

It wasn’t the cyber alicorn, but rather the cyber pony who sported two magical laser weapons on each side. From what little of his old coat remained, I could tell he had once been a dark green. Very similar in colour to Brisk. I didn’t know much about this one, as he never seemed to talk as much as the other three. Granted, I didn’t really know anything about any of them.

The cyber pony wasn’t looking his best either. The back half of his body had been completely removed, laying a few feet away from his front. He was slowly dragging himself across the floor towards us, his backside trailing a mix of wires and intestines mixed with some weird black fluid. The metal plating that covered most of his body had been dented and his face had been burned away, revealing a metal skull with bits of exposed brain.

I could see bits of the cyber pony slowly reforming, fixing and patching many of the smaller injuries. Whatever parts of him had once been organic seemed to have healed the fastest, only a few bleeding wounds on his coat were visible. A few wires were trying to reattach his back half, but they seemed unsuccessful.

The cyber pony laughed again, slowly inching itself closer to us. It was a pained laugh. “Well if it isn’t the Stable dweller that let us in!” The metal monstrosity grinned. “Crank thought you’d be to scared to run after us! Guess he was wrong!”

“What the fuck happened ot you,” I asked, cautiously stepping towards the cyber pony. I noted that while he didn’t have his back half, his laser weapons were still very much intact.

The cyber pony snarled. “Hellhounds! Treason! Take your pick! Doesn’t matter to me!” He barked, a few sparks flying from the top of his head as he did.

“It looks like you freaks took care of the hellhounds fine,” Brisk mocked. “My bet is your buddies left you here for dead,” The cyber pony growled at him as Brisk spoke.

Xayah shrunk back. “I think it foolish to antagonize the thing with big laser weapons,” She squealed, taking a small step behind me and peering around my flank to look at the cyber pony.

I could agree with that sentiment. “Where is the A.A.S.S? I asked, taking another cautious step closer. “And the other cyber ponies?”

The cyber pony grinned again, showing off rows of metal shark like teeth. “Come over here and I’ll tell you?”

I froze. Well didn’t this seem all to familiar. “I’m sure you can tell me from there,” I deadpanned, taking a small step back.

The cyber pony snarled again and pulled itself closer on its broken front legs. “Then I’m not telling you anything,” It growled, its bulb like eyes glowing a flickering red.

Then I spotted it. It was small and had faded over the years, but I had seen it enough times throughout my life that I recognised it the second my eyes landed upon it. Right where the cyber ponies head connected to its neck was a tiny Stable-Tec symbol.

The cyber ponies were Stable-Tec! Or at least built out of parts made by Stable-Tec. I recalled the the call I had gotten from Stable-Tec only seconds before the cyber ponies showed up. That connected a few dots at least, but didn’t even come close to explaining everything.

But if they had Stable-Tec parts in them, then there was a good chance that they worked similar to other Stable-Tec machines. And I knew my Stable-Tec machines.

I grinned ear to ear. “This is your last chance to tell us where they are,” I said confidently. It felt weird being as confident as I was. “I’m finding out whether or not you choose to tell me.”

The cyber ponies face turned into a scowl. “Then you’ll have to figure it out on your own,” He hissed. I could see his tongue through his metal teeth, one of the only parts of him that didn’t seem to be made of metal.

I turned to Brisk. “Can I borrow your machete please?” The cyber ponies eyes widened in both fear and confusion.

Brisk wordlessly passed over his blade, raising his eyebrow slightly at me. I took it in my mouth and slowly approached the broken cyber pony. Xayah and Brisk kept their guns out and pointed at the cyber pony as I drew closer to it.

The cyber pony glared at the machete, his eyes locked onto its serrated edge. My eyes found his laser guns. They were slowly charging up. I wasn’t surprised.

Whether the cyber pony was faking how damaged he was or adrenalin had simply kicked in I can't be sure, but the second I drew within range he lunged at me with a speed comparable only by a bullet. He slammed into me, knocking the machete from my mouth and clattering across the floor.

I really needed to hold onto my weapons better.

I stumbled back as the full force of the cyber pony slammed into me. Xayah and Brisk fired their weapons, but they both missed the speeding target as it lunged on top of me and pinned me down with its two remaining hooves.

I brought Boneless out and aimed up at the cyber ponies head. He was faster, his mechanical laser weapons swiveling at his side and blasting my weapon out of my mouth. I managed to kick up with my back hooves, pushing the cyber pony off of me as I scrambled to retrieve my weapon.

Xayah fired again, but this time her shot landed. Her sniper tore through the cyber ponies side, spraying the wall with blood and that strange black fluid. Almost instantly, the hole in the cyber ponies side healed itself, metal chunks quickly forming overtop of the gaping wound.

I hated enemies that could regenerate. It was even more unfair than enemies that could fly.

The cyber pony blasted at Xayah with his lasers. The black and white zebra dodged and flickered out of view narrowly avoiding being turned to ash.

I pulled myself back to my hooves and watched as the raging cyber pony launched himself at Brisk. Brisk dodged the attack, but failed to evade a second attack as the cyber pony whipped back around and lashed at him with his metal hooves. Brisk fell backwards, crashing to the ground clutching his face.

I raised boneless and fired. The explosive shells burst open and sprayed the cyber pony with shrapnel. It whirled around and blasted at me, the powerful lasers only missing by inches as I dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way.

Brisk popped a buck into his mouth and pulled himself back to his hooves. He raised his pistol and fired at the cyber pony, or at least he would have had he not found himself on an empty chamber.

“Shit,” He muttered, pulling the trigger on his gun a few more times to make sure that it was actually empty.

The cyber pony grinned and rushed towards him, scuttling forward on its two legs. His laser weapons fired again, this time one of the shots blowing off one of Brisks ears.

Brisk screamed as his ear was burned away, leaving a bloody oozing stump where it had once been. He clutched at his ear with his hoof, trying to stop the blood flow. A second shot blasted him in the face, ripping away much of the flesh on his face and making one eye burst open with a shower of yellow fluid.

The cyber pony pounced on him, pinning him to the floor and screaming into his face. The cyber ponies metal hooves pushed down on Brisk chest. I could hear snapping as his ribcage was slowly crushed.

I yelled something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Xayah flickered back into view as she lunged at the cyber pony, but once again they cyber pony proved to be faster than us. Its weapons swiveled to meet her, blasting at her hooves and making her stumble away into the darkness.

Brisk lashed his hooves against the cyber pony in desperation as the metal hooves stomped down on him again. He tried to scream but his voice was obscured by the gurgling of blood. The cyber pony placed a hoof over Brisk’s throat and began pushing down, slowly crushing his windpipe. The cyber pony turned its vile head to look at me, its malicious jagged smile oozing with black sludge.

I charged forwards, swiping Brisk machete up off the ground. I was filled with anger, fear, hatred. My whole body felt cold. I couldn’t lose Brisk. Not now! Please goddesses not now!

The cyber pony blasted at me again with its lasers, the shots burning into my hide and leaving large burn marks across my front, but I didn’t care. I continued charging, ignoring the pain as the cyber pony fired another laser into my chest.

I aimed the machete at the cyber pony as I neared. The serrated blade pierced a gap in the armour plating on the cyber ponies neck that showed off its matted green coat. Blood spewed from the wound in its neck as it thrashed about, trying in vain to dislodge the blade from its throat.

I pushed him off of Brisk as the cyber pony spasmed. He crashed into the walls, clawing at his neck and trying to regain some form of composure. I sure as fucking hell wasn’t going to let this monster do that!

I leapt on top of him and began bashing my hooves against his metal skull. Wherever metal he was made of seemed to hard to damage, so I took a different approach. I ripped the machete out of his neck with my mouth and began jabbing it in every area of his body that wasn’t covered in metal. I didn’t care if my virtue was morality or not. This bastard was going to suffer for hurting Brisk.

The cyber pony flailed his metal hooves against my sides, desperate for an escape. I didn’t budge. I kept stabbing into him, ripping out what little bits of pony were left in the monster. I was soaked in blood, but I couldn’t tell if it was his or my own anymore. It was all the same to me. My life didn’t matter at this moment, only Brisk’s.

I reared the machete up and brought it down as hard as I could against the cyber ponies neck. There was a snap and both the monsters neck and the machete shattered. The cyber ponies head popped off and rolled a few feet away from us. At last the thrashing body of the cyber pony went still.

One down. Three to go.

I turned and looked at Brisk. Half his face was gone and his throat was covered in a dark purple bruise. His chest had been caved in, but he was still breathing slow and pained breaths. Blood was spilling from his body fast. Really damn fast.

Xayah sat next to him, doing her best to stop the bleeding. But she could only attend to one spot at once, she couldn’t stop it all or fix the shattered rib cage and crushed windpipe. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with a horror that I had never seen on her before.

No! We can't lose him! Please!

I turned back to the ruined body of the cyber pony. He had been regenerating most of the damage on his body, but that wasn’t just some high tech machine, he had been healing organic matter as well.

I pulled out my red screwdriver and began pulling apart the metal plating on the body. With each movement I found myself struggling to keep focus. My head was spinning and I was starting to feel the burning sensation in my chest where I had been struck with multiple blasts of the cyber ponies laser weapons. Glancing down I could see fountains of blood spilling from my chest.

I’d have to work fast.

At last I found a metal compartment near the Cyber ponies synthetic heart. Propping it open I saw multiple tubes pumping different chems into the veins and throughout the body. I spotted the one I had been looking for. Hydra!

I hauled the body of the cyber pony over to Brisk. Ripping out the tube pumping hydra and placing it in his mouth, letting the chems flow down Brisk crushed throat. Xayah and I watched in utter amazement as skin began reforming over his face and his ribs painfully popped back into place with a loud snap. His breathing slowly returned to normal as his throat reshaped itself.

Then we ran out of Hydra. Fuck!

Most of the lethal damage had stopped, but much of the bleeding continued. I tried to rise but a shooting pain erupted in my chest and caused me to fall pathetically to the floor.

“Get... healing… potions,” I grunted to Xayah, trying in vain to push myself back up again.

“We are all out,” Xayah said in a panic. “We used them all on me back with the raiders!” I briefly remembered having that conversation.

I shook my head. “Then find some,” Xayah nodded and darted away into the darkness of the mall.

I looked down at my chest. Three large holes had opened up, pumping hot blood out of my body. We were both losing blood fast!

I placed a hoof over my chest in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding and dared to glance over at Brisk. Even after the hydra, he wasn’t doing well. Most of the fur on the left side of his face was burned away, revealing the soft pink skin underneath. His eye hadn’t reformed perfectly, looking more like a goopy blob than an actual eye and his chest was still pumping blood where the cyber ponies hooves had ripped open his flesh.

I took my hoof off of my chest and rolled closer to him. I applied pressure to the gaping hole in his torso with both my hooves, drenching my coat in his blood.

“It’s going to be okay Brisk. We are going to get you out of this, okay?” Brisk just lay there unconscious, a small stream of blood flowing from his lips. I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes and rolling down my face. A few droplets landed on Brisk’s chest, disappearing into a pool of his blood. His breathing was slowing again, sometimes there would be long periods of time where his chest would simply fail to raise again. I coughed, tasting blood swirl into my mouth. “Please don't die Brisk, come on!”

I could feel myself slowly drifting away in oblivion. I had to fight it! I had to stay awake! For him!

I was slipping. My blood soaked hooves were having a harder time applying pressure to his chest. I bit down on my tongue and tried to keep focus, but it was no good. Everything was slipping away too fast. I found myself lying by Brisk’s side, my hooves wrapped around his hooves.

He wasn’t breathing. Damn it! Breath! But I couldn’t do anything about it. I was too weak to even speak, let alone save his life.

I opened my mouth and tried to get out a word, but I only coughed out blood. I tried again, putting all my willpower into saying just these few words. “Please don’t leave me… I don’t want to be alone,” I coughed up more blood. “Please… I love you.”

Then I was swirling away into darkness. I tried to hold onto my life, but it was spilling onto the floor with the rest of my blood. The light around me had gone out and I found myself drifting away from my body. Nothing hurt anymore. Maybe this would be okay.

My mind flashed with the bloody image of my Stable in ruins. If I died, they would die! I couldn’t let that happen. Then I saw Brisk and I lying broken on the floor below me and I screamed.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Mysterious stranger -- You have gained the attention of a mysterious stranger who will appear from time to time. If your ally is lost in combat, do not expect him or her to be replaced
Quest Perk added: Power Armour training - You can now wear and use power armour.

Author's Notes:

Sorry, not sorry.

As always, thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout Equestria and thanks to Somber for Project horizons.

I just got a new computer as my last one was over 23 years old. hopefully, that will help me get chapters out a little bit faster than normal. (I swear the next chapter won't be so long)

I hope you all enjoyed and have a lovely day!

Chapter VII: Facing Annihilation

“From where you’re kneeling it must look like an 18 karat tun of bad luck. Truth is… the game was rigged from the start.”

Death.

Everypony hears stories about death at one point or another. Some say it is a cold dark void, others say it's warm and fuzzy and you are greeted at the end of the tunnel by Celestia herself. I never knew what to believe. The idea that I might one day die and cease to be anymore than a rotting pile of flesh, lost and forgotten in some hole had scared me out of my wits. I was always actively avoiding doing something stupid like think about what it would be like, I’d only scare myself more.

Of course then I found myself leaving the Stable and walking through the nightmare called Manehattan. Suddenly the idea that I might die became less of a foreboding future that I was slowly inching towards, but an inevitable event that wasn’t a matter of when, but how. That helped me become less afraid of death, I think.

Don’t get me wrong, I still didn’t want to die, but I had come to terms with the fact that at any second I could fail to dodge a bullet, or some sniper I didn’t see would decide my time had come. It didn’t matter, my life wasn’t all that important.

What did matter was saving Stable 25. I had pushed forwards, fighting against the worst the wasteland could throw at me just to save the ponies who had beat me and degraded me day after countless day. I suppose that was my virtue. Morality, doing the right thing, saving those even when they don’t deserve to be saved.

Not that that mattered anymore. I had come so far, fought and lost so much, only to die in some grey blasted apart mall. It wasn’t fare! Not to me, not to anypony that was counting on me to save their life. Most of all though, it wasn’t fair to Brisk. He hadn’t wanted to come here and save the Stable, he had just wanted to be free of the shackles of Stable 25. But I hadn’t let him do that. I had pulled him into my dumb quest, only for him to bleed out next to me on the floor, unable to see the sky or feel the open air.

There was a saying in Stable 25. Here you are born, and here you would die. Ironic, Brisk and I might not be in the Stable, but we were still going to die in a dark grey hallway, devoid of light and love and fresh air.

I wanted to return to the living world, I wanted to make all of the cyber ponies pay for what they had done, but most of all, I just wanted to save Brisk.

I could feel a hoof touch my forehead in the darkness. I tried to open my eyes to see who it was, but I was too weak. Once you have fallen into the darkness, you cannot simply climb out.

Somepony was saying something, though I couldn’t make out what it was. They spoke in a soothing tone, calming my nerves and making me drift more peacefully into oblivion.

I could taste something trickling past my parched lips, flavorless. I couldn’t stop it, I just lay there in the dark. Then, I faded into nothingness completely.

I jerked my eyes open and sat up with a start. Where was I? Why wasn’t I dead? What was going on!?

Xayah put a black and white striped hoof on my chest and pushed me back down. I let her, gently resting my back back against the cold grey walls of the mall.

“What happened?” I asked, looking up at Xayah. She looked shaken, her striped mane was a mess and her normally stunning green eyes were puffy and red. She had clearly been crying. Fear shot through me. “Xayah! Where is Brisk!”

“I’m fine,” Brisk wheezed, propping himself up from the ground a few feet away from me. “Its okay Amber, were all fine,” I could have cried right then I was so happy. Brisks eye was still a pulpy mess, but the rest of him looked back to normal. He did look a little shaken though, no doubt having trouble adjusting to his lack of vision on one side.

I spotted a few empty healing potions and hydra laying in a pile next to me. I gave Xayah a shaky smile. “I see you found healing potions.”

Xayah shook her head. “I didn’t find anything. I thought you were dead for sure.”

“Wha- what do you mean?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. “What happened?”

“I looked as hard as I could, but the mall has been completely looted,” Xayah said. She was beginning to tear up, wet tears were starting to roll down her cheeks and dampen her coat. “I thought you two were dead and then… then…”

I slowly pushed myself back up again. “Xayah, what happened?”

Xayah whimpered. “I returned, thinking I had failed you and… and…” she had to wipe a hoof across her face to clear some of the tears away. “I saw a stallion standing over you. But… I don’t think he was a pony.”

I felt a chill go up my spine. “Why do you think he wasn’t a pony?” I soothed, trying to hide the discomfort in my own voice.

Xayah shook her head cluelessly. “I don’t know, he just seemed wrong. Like he wasn’t supposed to be there,” She started shaking a little as she spoke. I reached forwards and held her tight in my hooves. How odd that it was the pony that almost died that needed to comfort somepony, but I had never seen Xayah this shaken, even after watching her whole family get slaughtered by raiders. Xayah bit back more tears. “He was stroking your mane and whispering something to you. When he saw me he just disappeared.”

“Well everything it's all okay now, right?” I asked, glancing over at Brisk. He gave a slow nod, but seemed unsettled by the news as well. I glanced at the empty bottles around us that had once held healing potions. “So did he give us the healing potions then?” I asked. besides being a little mysterious, he didn’t seem all that bad.

Xayah shuttered. “I don’t know… I... I don't know what I saw.”

After a few minutes I let go of Xayah and crawled over to Brisk who was rubbing the goopy socket where his eye used to be. “You doing alright?” I asked as I pulled up next to him.

His lower lip trembled slightly, but he kept his composure. “I’ve been better. Cant see good though,” He poked at his eye socket a few more times with his hoof. I caught his hoof and lowered it away from his eye.

“I’d try not to touch it,” I soothed. “It’ll just make it worse.”

Brisk grunted. “It’s hard to get worse than gone,” He grumped, running his hooves over the regrown fur on his chest. It was patchy where the cyber pony had ripped him open.

I gave him a warm smile and gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder. “Maybe we could get you an eyepatch or something, make you look like a pirate.”

He answered my statement with a genuine smile. “Awe, really! Ya really know how to put a grin on my face.”

I found myself chuckling despite myself. “I just gotta say dumb shit,” He gave me a playful punch on the shoulder in return.

With everypony feeling better, I stood and turned to what we had come here for in the first place. The broken remains of the cyber pony.

His metal head and popped off and rolled away from the body a few feet, landing in a pile of trash in the corner of the hallway. A small light blinked on and off behind his glass like eyes, illuminating bits of the hallway for short periods of time.

I approached it, Boneless drawn and aimed at the sinister head. I doubted it was still a threat, but after our fight, I wasn’t going to underestimate these cyber ponies again. Even broken they were death machines.

A small buzzing escaped the jagged sneer of the cyber head and a crackling voice spoke out. “Please, d-d-d-don’t do this!” I froze as I got closer. It was still alive. And worse, it had the audacity to ask me to spare it? “I won’t do it a-a-again, I sw-w-wear!” the voice sounded scared, nothing like the vile monster that had attacked me before.

“Why shouldn’t I kill you!” I asked, drawing a few steps closer, boneless trained on the head.

“I-I-I d-d-d-don’t want to become like t-that thing!” it screamed, the pained voice blaring from the motionless head. “Don’t turn me into a monster!”

I stopped a few feet away from it. I doubted it was talking to me at this point. “What monster are you becoming?” I asked it, lowering my shotgun a little.

“Metal, all metal!” The head yelled. “It hurts me! I don’t want to hurt anymore…”

“What is it talking about?” Xayah asked, stepping up to me and looking the skull over.

“I think it's remembering when it became… well this,” I replied, gesturing to the broken metal husk of the cyber pony on the ground.

“NO!” The cyber ponies voice began screaming. Its voice was pained and shrill. “NO! It hurts! Don’t let it hurt me!” there was a sudden silence from the screaming metal head. When if finally spoke again its voice was low and pained. “Why is it so dark…” He muttered, almost as if on the verge of tears. Then, with one last burst of sparks, the flickering light inside the head went out.

I Kneeled down next to the metal skull and began opening up the back of the skull with my screwdriver. There was a satisfying click and the back half of the skull opened up.

“So what are you doing again?” Brisk asked, peering over my shoulder and looking at the circuitry inside of the cyber ponies head. I doubted any of the things inside meant anything to him, but to me it felt like I was staring at an old friend.

"It's likely that these cyber ponies brains have been augmented, which means that there is a good chance that their memories are stored as some form of data inside their head,” I replied evenly, getting to work and fiddling around with the different circuits in the skull. Its eyes were also mechanical, so I can probably pull up complete videos of the cyber ponies memories from the last few hours.”

“And you know how to do this how?” Brisk asked, shaking his head and looking away from the metal head.

“Because I have spent my life dealing with and fixing Stable-Tec machines,” I said. I grinned and flipped a small switch in the center of the cyber ponies head. The eyes on the cyber pony flared to life again and projected a light blue tinted video onto the cracked wall. “And this... is Stable-Tec technology,” I stated proudly, watching the video.

On the projection, we watched from the cyber ponies perspective as all four cyber ponies stood in a circle in the middle of the hallway.

“Come on!” The cyber pony wielding two large flamers groaned. “We can take em’! Let's burn their asses to a crisp!”

The cyber alicorn stomped his hoof, shaking the walls of the mall. “We can’t attack them in the open. It will be easier to fight them if we lure them here first,” all the cyber ponies shut up after that.

A few seconds passed, then the cyber alicon put a metal hoof to his ear as if he heard something. None of the other cyber ponies dared say anything as he listened. When he finally put his hoof down and grunted. “There has been a change of plans. We aren’t bringing the A.A.S.S to the Ponypalooza Hotel anymore.”

Once again the flamer cyber pony spoke up. “Fuckin’ hell! Where does he want us to drop it off now? And don’t tell me Filly-fuckin’-delpia!”

“We aren’t giving it to him anymore,” The cyber alicorn barked. “We are heading to the Fetlock train station. I just got word from Kamari. He gave me a deal for it I can’t refuse.”

The cyber pony we were watching through the eyes of snarled. “You would dare turn on our maker! He gave us a direct order to retrieve this fucking device and I intend to deliver it, even if I have to take it from your mangled corpse!”

The cyber alicorn growled and narrowed its mechanical eyes at us. “You would be best to watch your tongue Steel Blade,” The cyber alicorn threatened. “I have no desire to be that basterds puppet forever.”

Steel Blade snarled and readied himself into an attacking position. I applauded him on his bravery against the cyber alicorn. The cyber alicorn remained stoic, almost unfazed by the metal pony before him preparing to lunge.

“How much did Kamari offer?” The flamer cyber pony blurted, interrupting the standoff between the two hulking metal monsters.

“Five Hundred thousand caps each,” The cyber alicorn deadpanned. All of the cyber ponies froze. “Our original paycheque was only twenty thousand.”

After a long silence the cyber pony who had yet to speak spoke. “Holy fuck,” I noted that he had been the psycho that had continuously stomped an alicorns head in.

The flamer wielding cyber pony laughed an awful laugh. “I say fuck him! I’ll take five hundred over twenty any day!”

Steel blade growled again. “How dare you! All of you! He made us! He is a god! He will bring about Utopia!”

The cyber pony with the flamer sneered. “Oh go preach your religious bullshit to somepony that gives a fuck!”

The tension in the room grew. Steel Blade was practically fuming at this point as he glared down the other three cyber ponies. The flamer cyber pony chuckled at him, tempting him to attack by shooting small puffs of flame out of his flamers.

Before Steel blade could lunge, a massive form burst from the ground and lashed at him across the side. Three massive gouges were ripped into Steel Blades side as hordes of Hellhounds tore their way out of the ground with deadly ferocity.

Now I understood why hellhounds were so feared in the wasteland. The cyber ponies had been slaughtering alicorns with ease, but against the hellhounds they had to fight for their life. Where bullets had merely bounced off of the cyber ponies metal armour, the hellhounds claws tore large chunks of metal from their flesh. Steel blade took the worst of it, his back half been torn away from his body as three hellhounds grabbed onto him and pulled him apart.

The cyber alicorn was not as easily taken down. His tesla cannons blasted massive burst of blue energy into the hellhounds, each strike ending in the targeted hellhound being blown to pieces. One hellhound managed to claw the cyber alicorn across the face, leaving a deep claw mark across his front.

The cyber pony with the flamers seemed to be holding his own as well, sending jets of flame into the oncoming hellhounds. A few hellhounds tried to burrow back into the ground to escape his fire, only for him to blast a steady stream of flame down the hole after them.

As the final hellhound was blasted away, the standing cyber ponies gave a howl of laughter. The cyber pony with the flamer leaned in close to Steel blade and grinned. “Oh, looks like you need a little help there!” the cyber pony cackled to himself as he stared down at Steel Blades broken form.

Steel blade answered him by blasting him in the face with two shots of his laser weapons. The flamer cyber pony staggered back, clutching his charred face.

The flamer cyber pony laughed again despite the pain he must have felt, his flamers slowly building up. “Ho ho! You just messed with the wrong pony!” The flamer cyber pony laughed, flipping Steel Blades broken body over and pinning him down with one hoof. The flamer cyber pony leaned in close and spat in Steel Blades face, blemishing the video with oddly black spit. “I’d rape you, but you’re a little old for my taste,” The flamer cyber pony glanced at Steel Blades lower half a few feet away. “And you’re kinda missing all the good parts.”

The cyber alicorn approached from behind them and stomped his hoof on the ground. “Stop taunting him Inferno, just make him burn,” The cyber alicorn growled.

The flamer cyber pony now known as Inferno chuckled. “With pleasure Crank!” Then the video was filled with flames. The screen flickered a few times, then went out.

So that cyber pony with a flamer was named Inferno, and the cyber alicorn was named Crank. I glanced at the broken head of the cyber pony. “Guess that makes you Steel Blade, huh?”

“Sooo, what do we do know?” Brisk asked. “I mean, we still don’t know why all of this is happening.”

“We head to the Fetlock train station,” Xayah said. “I have heard the train only comes every few days, so it is unlikely that the cyber ponies are on it yet.”

“How far of a walk is it to the station?” I asked, tossing the metal head back into the pile of trash and beginning my way back out of the building.

“About an hour,” Xayah informed us. Brisk and I froze. We were going to be facing down three cyber ponies in around an hour. I didn’t know if I should be happy or horrified. I decided to settle for both.

The sun had just risen above the horizon line as we stepped out of the abandoned mall. The camp of ponies we had encountered before were only a few feet away, all of them gathered around a campfire roasting some form of meat on a stick.

As we approached, Dusty walked up to us with a big grin. “Ya made it out! Y’all were in there so long, I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back.”

I grimaced. “We came pretty damn close to not coming out,” I admitted.

Dusty sent a nervous glance at Brisk melted eye. “I noticed. I can get ya a pair of sunglasses if you wish?” Brisk pocked at the goopy socked and nodded solemnly.

“Say, we just cooked up some bloatfly if you want some,” Dusty said, leading us back over to the camp.

Bloatfly. I didn’t know if that was better or worse than eating Radroach. These ponies needed to try Xayah's cookies, that would put any radioactive wasteland meat to shame.

As we drew closer to the camp, I began to make out the ponies gathered around the fire better. Among three mares sat and old buck with a pipe in his mouth and a handful of foals that had taken to running in circles around the fire. It was good to see that some ponies could manage to find some form of happiness in the wasteland, even if it that happiness was hard to maintain.

A dark black buck with a grey stetson walked out of one of the tens and joined the ponies by the fire. Dusty brightened up at the sight of the pony.

“Ah, there he is,” Dusty exclaimed, ushering us over and passing us each a chunk of bloatfly meat. “There is a stallion here I’d like y’all to meet. Y’all seem to have a bit in common.”

I took the meat from him and followed him over to where the black buck had sat down. As we neared, I took a quick bite of the meat. It wasn’t awful, though it would be a stretch to call it good.

“Friends, I’d like y’all to meet Flask,” Dusty said, gesturing to the buck. “Flask here is a regular in our little comunity, brings supplies to us from all over the wasteland. See, he travels the wasteland like y’all, looking for robo ponies!”

Flask waved a hoof at Dusty. “Dusty, what have I told ya about tellin’ every pony that? It is supposed to be a secret.”

“You're Flask?” Brisk asked sceptically, taking a small step forwards. He cast a glance at me. “Are you the pony we are supposed to meet?”

Flask stood up and took the three of us in. “Depends, who sent you?”

Brisk quickly pulled out the metal box we had received in Friendship City and passed it to him. “Friend of yours named Emissary gave us this for you in Friendship City. Is that you?” I mentally kicked myself. In my hurry to catch the cyber ponies, I had completely forgotten about that deal we had made with Emissary in exchange for a place to sleep.

“Emissary sent you?” Flask asked. We all nodded in unison. Flask’s eyes darted around to look at the other ponies around the fire. After taking a second to assess the situation, he turned to Dusty. “Do you mind if I take a moment to talk to these folks?”

Dusty nodded casually, as if this kind of thing was a common occurrence with Flask. “No problem, take all the time ya need.”

A few minutes later and we had all piled into one of the tens around the campfire. Flask took the metal box from Brisk and looked it over.

“I’m surprised Emissary sent y’all. He's not usually one to trust others with important tasks like that, so either you are new, or he was desperate to get this out of Friendship City,” Flask said pointedly. “So? What is it? How much to you three ponies know?”

I raised my hooves in defence. “We don’t know anything. He just seemed to be offering us a job,” I answered honestly.

Flask gave a disbelieving grunt. “Well, thank you for your service,” He hastily tossed a bag of twenty caps in front of us.

“What is this for?” I asked as I picked up the caps.

Flask gave me a dumb look. “For bringin’ me my package,” He answered flatly.

I was about to argue that we didn’t do it for caps when Brisk cut me off. “Thank you, we’ll make sure we use these caps well! So, what is in the box?” Brisk asked curiously, leaning in slightly. “I tried to open it a few times, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how.”

I gave him a disappointed look. “Why the fuck were you trying to look inside of somepony else's mail?”

Brisk gave me a blank stare. “Hi, my name is Brisk Spark, it’s nice to meet you,” He made a good point.

Flask gave Brisk a disapproving look before returning his gaze to Xayah and I. “If Emissary trust you and made you come all the way out here, I suppose I should give you some explanation,” Flask sighed, and put the metal box down by his hooves before sitting down on a wooden chair in the center of the tent. “Tell me ponies, have you ever heard of the Institute?”

Instinctively, Brisk and Xayah shook their heads. I thought for a second. The name did sound familiar. Oh wait, that's right! Tales had mentioned the Institute back in Friendship City. But that had just been a crazy conspiracy theory, right?

Then again, so was the Enclave and I had seen first hoof how real they were.

“I've heard a little, but not very much” I admitted. “Something about kidnapping ponies?”

Flask nodded. “That and more. You see the Institute has created something called the Synth.”

“Ah, this I have heard of,” Xayah said. “Robots so realistic, you cannot tell them apart from ponies. But I thought those were just a foolish myth?”

Flask shook his head. “They’re no myth, and they are more than just robots. The Institute believes these synths to be no more than mindless machines. Slaves to their every whim, but they are so much more.”

“If they’re robots created to be slaves, is that not what they are?” I asked, trying to picture a synth in my mind. I was having a difficult time.

Once again, Flask shook his head. “Perhaps they are not born from the womb like you or me, but just like ponies they are capable of sentient thought. They are able to learn. If they look like ponies and think and feel like ponies, they are ponies,” Flask informed us sternly.

“I was not sure if these synths existed,” Xayah restated. “How do you know they are real?”

Flask smiled at that. “Because there are ponies out there like Emissary and myself that have dedicated our lives to protecting and liberating these synths, freeing them from the shackles of the Institute if you will.”

“Ponies?” Brisk asked. “How many of you are there?”

“We are few and far between,” Flask informed us. “We are a group called the Friendship Express. We help synth in need of protection from the Institute and others who would do them harm.”

“Where is this Institute?” I asked. It seemed odd that such a faction would be spoken of so little that most ponies didn’t even know they existed.

“No pony knows,” Flask muttered. “We have been trying to find them for years, but they are notoriously good at staying on the down low.”

Brisk rocked back and forth on his hooves a couple times. “This is interesting and all, but can we open up the box and see what's inside now?” he blurted impatiently. “I mean, I was forced to carry around a mysterious box for a full day and I still don’t know what's inside!”

Flask and I rolled our eyes. Brisk could be so childish sometimes. Flask leaned forward and picked the box up in his hooves. He pulled out a strange talisman in the shape of a lantern and placed it to the metal box. There was a small click and the top of the box opened inwards.

“It is a magical box that the Friendship Express has developed over the years,” Flask explained as he pulled a stained yellow folder out of the box. “They are designed to only be opened by members of the Friendship Express.”

Brisk crossed his hooves and grumbled. “Stupid Brisk proof boxes.”

“What is in the file?” Xayah asked curiously, leaning in to look at the folder. Flask yanked the folder away before she could get a good look at it.

“Sorry, there is a reason that this was in one of those boxes. If this information gets out then one of our clients lives could be a risk,” Flask snapped, closing the folder and putting it back into the box for later. He quickly pulled out a steel flask and took a swig from it. “My apologies.”

Brisk threw his hooves into the air in despair. “Seriously! Now I can’t even see what it is! Ugh! I hate not getting to see things!”

Flask gave us a smug smile. “We all have our secrets,” he glanced down at the box and pondered something for a second. “I’ll tell you what though. Since y’all have been wandering the wasteland, I figure you might be able to help me some. I’ve been looking for a runaway synth that is going by the name of Rubber Band. If you happen to run across him, would ya mind getting word of his location to us? We’ve been looking awfully hard for this one.”

I grimaced. Another side quest? Were we their personal grunts now?

Flask seemed to notice my expression. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure we pay you a good pile of caps for it if you do.”

Brisk nodded vigorously. “You had me at caps!”

As we piled out of the tent, we found Dusty’s son Scrapper waiting for us outside. He passed Brisk a pair of black tinted sunglasses. “Here, dad said you’d want these,” Scapper said as Brisk took the shades and placed them over his eyes gingerly.

“Well, they’re no eyepatch, but I’ll take it,” Brisk joked, tapping the glasses with a hoof.

Xayah looked at her reflection in the lenses. “Yes, they seem to suit you most nicely.”

Brisk flicked his hoof and gave a fake chuckle. “Oh Xayah, you say the sweetest things!” He said in the most flamboyant voice he could. It was good to see that even the wasteland couldn’t change the childish goofball that was Brisk.

“How long will you ponies be staying?” Scapper asked, turning his attention to me. “We always like having newcomers!”

I glanced up at the sky. Midday already. “We should probably get going,” I answered. “Sorry, but we have something very important to do today.”

“Is there anything you would like from us before you depart?” Dusty asked, walking up to our group.

I shook my head. “No, I think we should be-” Brisk bonked me atop my head with the grip of his gun. “Ouch! What was that for!”

Brisk waved his empty gun in my face. “We could use some ammo if you can spare any,” Brisk suggested, returning his gun to his side.

Dusty nodded. “I’m sure we can find y’all somethin’ ta shoot with. it ‘s the least we can do after puttin’ a gun to yer head earlier.”

Apparently ‘more to shoot with’ ment every bullet and shell in their possession that could fit our guns. I appreciated Dusty’s generosity, especially after our less than pleasant first meeting, but I worried that such kindness would get the poor buck and his family killed. As we walked away from the camp and into the desolite suburbs of Fetlock I began counting our ammo. Fifteen shotgun shells left for Boneless, twenty two new shots had been added to Brisk’s pistol and Xayah’s sniper ammo had increased to twenty one. Then of course there was our three shots for our Balefire Egg Launcher.

We walked in silence for a roughly half an hour, the towering skyscrapers slowly sinking away into the distance as they were replaced by smaller buildings. I flipped though my pipbuck until I found DJ Pon3's radio station.

"...For any of you wastelanders daring the trecherous stretch between Manhattan and Fillydelpia, be on high alert. I have heard of a group of bandits that have been patrolling most of the area. When those fuckers see something they want, they go an' take it... an' they always forget to say please," DJ Pon3's charismatic voice said over the radio of my pipbuck as we walked. "There is good new too though. See these bandits seem t' be giving Red Eye a bit of a rough time as well. According to my sources, they have robbed quite a few of his slavers on their way back to Filly. Bold move bandits, bold move.

"But it doesn't end there. oh no. Do you all remember those Canterlot ghouls I mentioned the other day? Well it seems they are comin' over from Filly as well. Not sure why yet, but whatever it is can't be good. There's a lot of activity in those parts these days, so perhaps it is best to steer clear. Until then my little ponies, keep on fighting that fight! The good fight!"

DJ Pon3's voice died out and some form of instrumental began playing from the radio. I listened to it for a bit, taking in the different sounds. Maybe I should try and bring some new music back to the Stable with me when I return, I thought to myself as I glanced up at the thick cloud layer above me. I was becoming more adjusted to the looming sky above.

I looked over at Brisk who was busy digging through a toppled over garbage can a few feet in front of us. Occasionally he would find something of interest, look it over for a few seconds, then toss it behind him and move on to the next piece of junk.

"What do you think he's doing?" Xayah asked from beside me, looking at Brisk with her eyebrow raised.

I gave her a quick shrug. "Who the hell knows why Brisk does half the stuff he does," Xayah chuckled at that “So... There is a functional train station still working in Equestria?” I asked Xayah as we passed a cluster of broken down houses. The structures in Fetlock seemed tiny in comparison to the towering skyscrapers of Manehattan “Even after two hundred years?”

“Mm-hmm. I heard some ghouls managed to repurpose the Manehattan station a few years back. They will take you anywhere that those tracks are connected to,” Xayah said. She thought about that for a second. “Well… the trains might not necessarily be functional per say, that is probably the wrong word. They don’t exactly have the coal to run it. I think they were like that even before the bombs fell.”

“I thought you said the train comes once every few days?”

“Mm-hmm, it does,” Xayah confirmed.

I slapped a hoof across my face. “How is it supposed to do that if it doesn’t have any coal? Does it run with magic or something?”

Xayah shook her head simply. “Nope, they use pony power.”

“Pony power?” I questioned. “Like… ponies pull the train?” Xayah gave a small smile and nod. Well that just seemed stupid.

While I questioned whether or not a pony pulled train was actually productive or not, Brisk pointed off into the distance and gave a small word of warning. “We're here.”

The Fetlock train station wasn’t anything overly special. It was a long single story building with a thatched roof attached to a tall clocktower on its right. A long black train sat silently at the station, half of the train cars comprised of pieces of junk. A couple of ghouls wandered around the area, minding their own business. Their bar on my pipbuck was green, so I assumed they were friendly ghouls like Coco.

“Keep your eyes open for the cyber ponies,” I instructed as I began walking closer to the station. “The train hasn’t left yet so they are probably still in the area.”

Brisk poked me on the butt to catch my attention before pointing his hoof back at the station. “I’m way ahead of you Amber.”

In the direction of his hoof I could see all three cyber ponies. At the moment they were just standing around and waiting at the train station. Had they not been made of metal and sporting massive weapons of destruction at their sides, they might have just looked like any other pony. It was almost funny; three massive war machines waiting patiently for the next train. Almost funny.

The cyber alicorn I now knew as Crank paced back and forth in front of the other two cyber ponies. Even with his bladed metal wings folded up against his sides I could see the razor sharp blades gleaming in the sunlight and the huge tesla canons that rest just below them.

I gulped. Well shit, I guess it was time to face annihilation.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to Xayah and Brisk. “Alright, are you two ready?”

“That depends,” Xayah soothed in her exotic voice. “Do we have a plan?”

A plan? Against those things? The idea of taking out one was a joke. Any plan I could probably come up with would have a very low chance of success.

“We almost died trying to kill the last cyber pony,” Brisk added. “And that one was severely damaged and missing half his body. I doubt we can just run up and attack three fully functional ones.”

“I don’t think we can take all of them out regardless,” I grunted, glancing back at where the cyber ponies were waiting patiently. “We could try to lure them away from each other and take them out one by one, but that’s still a stretch,” I pulled out the Balefire Egg Launcher I had slung across my back. “We could always shoot them with this? Three shots, three cyber ponies.”

Brisk taped his fore hooves together in excitement. “Please oh please let me fire it!”

Xayah shook her head. “Only if you want to destroy the A.A.S.S as well. Whatever that hits goes up in flame, living or no.”

“Then how are we supposed to fight these things?” I asked out loud. “It’s not like we can just ask them to give the A.A.S.S to us.”

“We could try to steal it from them,” Xayah pointed out. For some bizarre reason, the idea of just stealing it had never crossed my mind. “You and Brisk could try and separate them while I steal the A.A.S.S with my stealth cloak.”

Not the worst idea. Though there were two burning questions I had. “How do we know which one has the A.A.S.S and how do we distract and or seperate them without being blown to pieces?” I asked, stating my concerns outloud.

We all returned our gaze to the cyber ponies in the distance. From here they appeared as little balls of metal against the horizon if you didn’t squint your eyes. And yet even from this far away, I could feel the danger. It was as if at any second they would turn and spot us.

Brisk let out a small chuckle. “You want us to distract them?” He said, almost arogently. He turned to us and gave off the most dramatic pose that he could. “Well then say no more, as there ain’t no pony better at being a nuisance than I!”

Xayah and I exchanged a look. This was going to be something…

Brisk leaned in closer. “Alrighty, here's the plan!”

The Fetlock train station was silent. All the ghouls that walked about preparing the train for departure kept their heads low and avoided all eye contact. The metal monstrosities that the ghouls were cowering from stood at attention on the platform above them, their glowing red gaze scanning over the small groups of ghouls below. The only sound was that of the cyber alicorn’s heavy hoof steps as he paced back and forth across the platform.

Brisk, Xayah and I had crept up the side of the station wall and were peeking over the edge of the roof down at the cyber ponies below us. They were only a few feet away from us now. Close enough that we could make out the deep grumble of their voices as they spoke to each other.

I prayed to Celestia they didn’t notice us on their EFS.

“At least he was nice enough to pay for our train,” Inferno grumbled, keeping his gaze fixed on the ghouls. “But are you sure I can’t just torch one fucking ghoul cunt? I’m itchin’ to burn something!” A few ghouls stared at him in horror as he spoke.

The cyber pony beside him groaned. “Oh shut it with all your grumbling! You complain more than fucking Steel Blade!”

Inferno growled at him, baring his metal fangs at the cyber pony. “Fuck you Tripwire! Don’t compare me to that preachy hunk of shit!”

The Crank stopped pacing and rubbed his ear with a hoof. “There is a lot about being made of metal I can’t stand, but the worst needs to be the enhanced hearing. Your constant bickering feels worse than getting my heart ripped out,” Crank growled. The two cyber ponies stopped arguing at once. Apparently they all knew what having their heart ripped out felt like. I didn’t want to know how.

“You really think Kamari is gonna pay Five Hundred thousand for this thing?” Tripwire asked in a low grumble, pulling the A.A.S.S out and looking it over. I didn’t know exactly where he had managed to pull it out from. “I mean who the fuck would even want some piece of junk like this?”

I exchanged glances with Xayah and Brisk. Now we knew which cyber pony had it. All that was left to do was lure the others away and steal it back. No pressure.

Inferno shrugged. “Hell if I know, but it seems everypony wants this thing. When there are that many caps on the line, how can ya say no?”

Brisk began slinking off of the roof next to me and down to the edge of the platform. He made sure that he stayed far enough away from the cyber ponies that they wouldn’t notice him until he was ready.

“What are you even going to do with all those caps?” Tripwire asked, rolling his head side to side. A sharp cracking sound accompanied each head roll.

Inferno gave a wirily smile. “I hear Red Eye has a few fillies in his mines. Might give them a couple tries. It’s been a while since I forced a filly to pleasure me.”

Holy fuck that cyber pony was twisted. His remark almost tempted me to pull out the Balefire Egg Launcher and blow them all to hell right now. Screw the A.A.S.S. these bastards needed to die.

Brisk nodded to me as he approached the edge of the platform and entered the cyber ponies field of view. This was it, no turning back now.

I could see Xayah’s muscles tensing as we watched Brisk draw closer to them. My stomach did a flip inside of me. Please don’t die Brisk.

Brisk cleared his throat, drawing all of the cyber ponies attention. “Hey, y’all want to hear a joke?” the cyber ponies looked at each other, not sure how to react. “Alright, here it goes!” Brisk cleared his throat again. “There are three types of ponies in the world. Those that can count, and those that can't!” Yup he was dead.

There was a stunned silence from the cyber ponies. After the initial shock had passed, Inferno turned to Crank. “Oh please let me burn this fucker!”

Crank didn’t even ponder Inferno’s request. “Roast him,” Crank ordered, pointing a metal hoof towards Brisk. Inferno grinned and charged forwards, his flamer blasting a massive jet of flame.

“Well shit!” Brisk exclaimed, turning tail and rushing away from the cyber ponies as fast as he could. The ghouls preparing the train scattered and started running in any direction they could to escape the charging cyber pony. Brisk used that to his advantage, hiding himself in the chaos.

That just left the cyber alicorn to distract. I took a deep breath and began to climb down the side of the roof as well.

Before I got to the edge of the roof, Brisk yelled out. “Here’s another one! What's ugly, metal and as far from a pony as can be!” Crank froze and glared at Brisk as he danced around the fire spewing from Inferno’s flamers with surprising agility. “You assholes!”

With a loud roar, Crank took to the air and began diving towards Brisk. Something about that joke had pissed him off, and pissed him off bad. Brisk gave a small squeak of fear as he saw the monstrous metal alicorn flashing towards him. He began running towards the more dense parts of the Fetlock suburbs.

Xayah and I gave each other a nervous glance. Hopefully Brisk could manage to run long enough with them both on his tail.

“That takes care of that,” I muttered to Xayah. “I’ll give you cover while you go down there.”

Xayah silently bowed and flickered out of view. I pulled out Boneless and kept it aimed at Tripwire below me. The cyber pony was standing on high alert. No doubt he suspected some form of trickery ahoof.

I watched the small shimmer of air as Xayah crept closer and closer to the cyber pony. I tensed as she approached him, her hoof slowly slipping into view as she reached for the black oblong device at the cyber ponies side.

“Crank is wrong,” Tripwire grunted, glaring out at the rushing ghouls as his two cyber pony companions chased after Brisk. “Enhanced hearing is a useful feature!”

His back hoof kicked backwards with lighting speed, kicking Xayah across the chest. She flickered back into view as she flew backwards, crashing into the wall of the train station. Tripwire spun around and lunged at her, his front hooves smashing into her and sending her crashing the rest fo the way through the wall and into the large clocktower.

I fired Boneless and let the explosive shells burst against his metal armour. Unfazed, the cyber pony glanced up at me, his two large weapons on his side quickly swiveling to face me. Now faced with the barrel of his weapons, I began to make out what they were. On the left was some form of laser weapon similar to what Steel Blade had carried. On his right however was a large tube like barrel with a bulky ammo magazine on the end.

Tripwires guns fired, a large grenade firing from his gun and hurtling towards me. It was a grenade launcher! He had a goddess damned grenade launcher attached to his side! Are you kidding?!

I jumped from the roof as the spot I had been standing exploded in a burst of fire and shrapnel. I landed on the platform on my hooves, a heavy shock going through my body as I hit the wooden floor. My whole body ached, but I couldn’t tell if that was from the explosion or the impact of jumping to the floor.

Tripwire was on me in seconds, his metal hooves bashing me across my face and sending me toppling to the ground. He sneered down at me as he placed his hoof on my chest to keep me down.

“Hey, you’re that bitch from the Stable!” He chuckled, his laser weapon turning to face me. “I hope you know that once we’re done here, I’m going to personally kill as many of those Stable fuckers as I can.”

I steadied Boneless in my mouth and aimed up at him. “Amd I mersonallme gomma kill as mamy cymer momies as I man!” I yelled back at him around the handle of my gun. From the look he gave me, I doubted he had any idea what I said.

I fired Boneless, making the cyber pony stagger backwards. I pushed myself to my hooves and fired at him again, blowing off more of the remaining hide on his face.

Tripwire growled, rubbing a hoof across his face as his coat slowly began to regrow. The dented metal began popping back into place and even his teeth quickly regenerated themselves.

“You’re going to pay for that bitch!” He screamed as he rushed towards me. His grenade launcher fired again, detonating at my hooves and sending me sprawling backwards. My pipbuck started flashing warnings that all of my hooves were damaged. I hope that wasn’t permanent.

Tripwire prepared to fire again when Xayah climbed out of the clocktower and shot him through the chest with her sniper. Black fluid and blood spewed from the wound as the bullet lodged itself in him. He stumbled, crashing into the wall of the train station. I watched in amazement as his chest shot the bullet back out and patched itself back together.

He spun around and blasted at Xayah with his laser rifle. The shot lanced through her forehoof, burning away her hide and revealing the white bone underneath. Xayah screamed out as she dropped to the ground, a stream of blood spilling from her foreleg.

The cyber pony rushed at her, his laser gun charging up for another shot. I lept forwards, wrapping my hooves around his neck and clinging tight to him as he burst through the wall of the clocktower.

Xayah rolled out of the way as Tripwires hooves crashed down at her head.

Tripwire bucked, sending me flying into the air and smashing my head against the staircase leading to the top of the tower.

The inside of the tower was mostly hollow. A small spiral staircase twisted around the inner edge of the tower all the way to the top. A few small landings provided resting spots on the way up the tower.

I tried to shake the pulsing, spinning feeling from my head as I pulled myself off the ground. I pulled out my baton and stared down Tripwire, only to see his grenade launcher staring back.

Shit!

I ducked and rolled as I was assaulted by a volley of grenades. The walls of the tower shook as holes were ripped into the walls and floor of the structure.

Xayah lashed at Tripwire with her knife, the blade sinking deep into his neck. He kicked at her with his hooves, making her stumble away. He pulled the knife from his neck and tossed at the floor, the incision in his neck quickly closing up with a new layer of fur.

Fighting him was going to get us nowhere. He was too fast and strong for us, not to mention his weapons were way overpowered and he could regenerate any wound we gave him.

I concentrated on his grenade launcher. Alright, if there was any time for my horn burnout to go away this was it! My head screamed as I attempted to do even the most basic magical feat.

Tripwire glanced at my horn as it began to glow with a faint amber light. He turned his grenade launcher to face me again. “Fuck you and your unicorn tricks!” he yelled, firing off three grenades.

As the grenades left his gun, I grabbed onto them with my telekinesis and held them in place. My head screamed in pain at the effort, but I was able to successfully hold the grenades aloft. Tripwire stared at the three grenades that were floating in the air in front of him with shock. “Well fuck me!” he blurted, taking the smallest of steps backwards.

The grenades exploded in his face, tearing away the his metal plating and most of his coat. Both of his eyes were peppered with sharp chunks of shrapnel, temporarily blinding him. He stumbled back and crashed into the wall, his grenade launcher now blasted apart, the end of the barrel was a jagged mess of crumpled metal.

But he wasn’t done yet. He pulled himself back up, the hydra pumping through his body regenerating his injuries faster than I could have expected. Even his grenade launcher began to reform a little, but it looked like I had a few minutes before that reformed completely.

“Oh come on! Really! How do you survive that!” I complained, thrusting my hoof out at him with a huff. “I literally just blew three grenades up in you face!”

Tripwire sneered and pounced at me, not bothering to answer my question. His hooves pounded into my face, knocking me prone on my back and sending a few of my teeth flying from my mouth. He raised his front hooves up, preparing to slam them down on my head and crush my skull.

Xayah shot a round from her sniper straight through both of his back hooves. Tripwire fell backwards, crashing into the ground as his hooves hastily pulled themselves back together. He glanced up at Xayah who had taken to the stairs and was shooting down at him from above. Another shot from her sniper hit him between the eyes, but the bullet bounced harmlessly off of his metal plating.

I rocked to my hooves and slammed my shock baton against his head. An electric shock shot through him, making the many lights on his body flicker. That seemed to be effective, and Tripwire knew it too.

He blasted at my baton as he pulled himself upwards. The laser struck my mouth and singed the fur on my face, making me drop my baton. I went to reach for it, but the cyber ponies bladed tail swung at me, nearly slicing my hoof from my body.

Until this point I hadn’t even noticed their tails doubled as swords. Steel Blade had been missing his back half and all the other times I had been too preoccupied with their massive weapons to notice it. I saw it now though as he lashed at me with his tail over and over again as if it were a whip. I lurched back, just narrowly avoiding being cut in two. I wasn’t able to avoid the next couple cuts though as he pushed forward.

The blade cut deep into my hide in multiple spots as Tripwire viciously lashed at me. I could feel my Stable barding tear in multiple places as the blade ripped into me. Blood trickled down my body as I was scored by countless cuts.

I dove aside, firing another shot from Boneless into him. The heavy slugs tore at his side, but failed to do any lasting damage. Not that any damage lasted with these fuckers.

I rushed for the stairs and began racing up them as fast as I could. I had to get the A.A.S.S from him. If I could do that, I could blow him to pieces with the Balefire Egg Launcher. I doubted even he could survive that.

I heard a click from behind me as Tripwires grenade launcher finished pulling itself back together. Well that was bad.

A volley of grenades were sent hurtling towards us as Xayah and I raced up the stairs. The steps behind us were blasted to dust as we ran. I had to do everything I could do not stop running, otherwise the explosions would catch up to me and I would be sent hurtling to my death.

Tripwire began switching tactics and started launching explosives at the steps in front of us. A large chunk of the stairs gave way before us. Xayah bounded over the gap with little difficulty. I on the other hoof was far less nimble. I stumbled, reaching for the far side of the stairs with my fore hooves as I leapt forwards. The good news was that my right hoof managed to get onto the far side, the bad news was that the rest of me did not. I dangled precariously as I held onto the edge of the steps for dear life.

I could hear Tripwire cackling somewhere below me, but the air in the tower had filled with so much dust and debri that I wasn’t able to see him below me anymore. I could only see a thick layer of dusty brown fog.

Xayah reached down and pulled me up onto the stairs, only for another grenade to land behind her. The steps beneath us exploded, ripping a massive hole in the wall. Xayah leapt into the air and grabbed onto the broken wall with one hoof as the surface below her was torn apart. She held me tight with her other hoof as I began trying to pull myself back up onto the broken part of the wall with Xayah.

The bottom of Xayah’s back hooves had been flayed by the explosion. Her once beautiful black stripes now a collection of bleeding gashes and wounds.

“Do we… have a plan…?” Xayah grunted, biting back tears as she tried to stop the bleeding on her hooves.

I looked down at the manic cyber pony below us, then up at the roof. The stairs led to a small platform that overlooked the whole tower. Perfect.

I turned back to Xayah. “Do you think you can get back down to the bottom safely?” I asked her. Xayah glanced down at the floor where the killer cyber pony had taken to taunting us with rather unflattering phrases. She raised her eyebrows and gave me a confused look. “Well, uh… safe ish?” I corrected.

Xayah gave me another confused look, but nodded her head. “I can do my best,” She grunted, slowly stepping back towards the broken stairs.

I gave her an encouraging smile. “Get to the bottom and wait for me to toss it to you,” I said, hopping from the wall back to the stairs. Tripwire gave me a small growl as he saw me continue climbing the steps.

“Toss me what?” Xayah asked, her face still filled with confusion.

But I didn’t have time to explain. Tripwire began launching another wave of grenades in my direction, this time accompanied by some uncomfortably well aimed shots from his laser rifle. I could see Xayah creeping around the stairs in the other direction as she began her descent back to the ground.

I had to keep the cyber ponies attention on me. Harder still, I had to get him to follow me. What would Brisk do?

“Hey metal butt!” I yelled down at him. The steam of explosive fire stopped just long enough for Tripwire to hear what I was trying to say. “What’s black and white and black and white and black and white and green?” I could see Xayah groan in annoyance from here. I faked a laugh. “Three zebra’s fighting over a pickle!”

Tripwire screamed in annoyance and began firing his grenades at me even faster. I heard the sound of flames and smelt the pungent odour of gasoline. Looking down, I saw Tripwire quickly rocketing up towards me, his hooves blazing with fire.

“Seriously! You cyber ponies have jet hooves too! Unfair!” I screamed, rushing up the last couple of steps even faster.

I came to a stop and looked down at the floor of the clocktower below me. Holy fuck that was far down.

Tripwire landed on top of the platform next to me. His metal hoof lashed out, catching my stable barding by the collar and hoisting me into the air. I squirmed as I tried to free myself from his grasp, but he held me to tightly.

Tripwire gave me a jagged grin, his mouth oozing with black sludge. “I’ll be honest, I am glad you came out here. It’s been so long since I had a good fight!”

Brisk darted into the tower like a mad pony. His coat was burned in multiple places and his sunglasses had been lost somewhere outside. “Were about to get company!” He yelled, ducking behind a fallen chunk of stairway.

Tripwire gave me a sinister grin. “Did you really think you could defeat us? Even if you somehow managed to kill me. You would still have two more of us to face,” He leaned his metal head closer to me and bared his jagged metal fangs. “We are pain! We are fear! We are death!” He screamed at me, bits of black ooze flying from his mouth.

I gave him the most smug look I could muster. “Think I could beat you? Not without a plan,” I telekinetically yanked the A.A.S.S from his side and tossed it off the edge of the platform. “Xayah catch!” Below me, I saw my zebra friend rush forwards and catch the oblong device in her hooves.

Tripwire howled, his glass eyes blazing a dark red. “I will skin you all!”

Before he could do anything else, I telekinetically lifted the Balefire Egg Launcher and placed it against his head. Tripwire froze as he was confronted by the massive weapon. My magic tightened on the trigger of the gun.

“You wouldn’t…” Tripwire soothed, his usual snarl reverting to a calmer composure.

I grinned at him. “You should have left my Stable alone,” A flicker of fear passed over Tripwire’s face. “What was it you said? ‘We are pain? We are fear? We are death?’ You’re right. You are going to be experiencing all of that very soon.”

I kicked off from him with my hide legs, throwing myself over the edge of the platform. As I fell, I pulled the trigger.

The world above me exploded in a mix of fire, radiation and baleful green light! The roof and walls of the top half of the tower were blasted apart as the Balefire Egg detonated. Tripwire was annihilated where he stood. He flesh melted away first, his coat burning away and his skin liquifying into a green ooze. Then his metal plates exploded, raining even more shrapnel down on us.

The shockwave of the blast slammed into me, knocking the air out of my lungs and sending me hurtling towards the ground at a nauseating rate.

A plan. I had a plan, just not an end to it. For instance, how the fuck was I supposed to survive falling from this high up! The idea that I might actually die via falling was ironic. That was never a concern in the Stable.

As luck would have it, Brisk had my back. He had climbed up a bunch of stairs and leapt into the air after me, catching me mid fall. He collided with the ground, cushioning my fall. He groaned, rolling me off of him and rubbing his back.

I blushed. “Thanks,” I squeaked, helping him back to his hooves. I glanced over at Xayah who held the A.A.S.S in her hooves. We had done it.

“We need to get going!” Brisk shouted, ushering me toward one of the many holes in the walls. “Any second were going to be in a lot of-”

Crank and Inferno burst into the room. They both had a crazed look in their eyes as they took us all in. Brisk, Xayah and I took a step back as we were confronted by the two metal monsters.

Both of the cyber ponies eyes narrowed as they spotted me. “You!” Crank roared, slamming his hooves on the ground in front of him. The wood cracked and splintered from the force.

Inferno gave a wide grin and began closing in on us, his flamers ready to blast a jet of fire at any second. “And here I thought I wasn’t going to get to burn much today!” He chuckled. He looked me over and licked his lips with his black slug like tongue. “Oh, but I think I’ll take this one slowly! I’m gonna fuck your cunt till you're broken first!”

I raised my Balefire Egg Launcher to face them. They both took a step back as I loaded a glowing Balefire Egg into the weapon.

“Sorry, you won’t be fucking anyponies cunt today,” I grinned. All at once, both cyber ponies began charging me. I jumped into SATS and targeted Cranks head and… holy horse cock! They were still moving! Even in the magically induced stillness I could see the two cyber ponies lunging towards me.

My pipbuck claimed I had zero chance of hitting the cyber alicorns head! What! Really? I shifted my focus down to their hooves. I didn’t need to hit them with this weapon to hit them. I just had to hit near them.

I pulled down hard on the trigger of the Balefire Egg Launcher. The glowing green orb inside sailed out of the gun and into the air. It missed the cyber ponies, landing on the ground about an inch behind them, but that was enough.

The bottom half of the tower exploded. Our vision was obscured by a blinding flash of green and our hides were scorched by balefire. The walls of the tower crumbled inwards, collapsing in on the mangled bodies of the cyber ponies as they desperately scrambled to avoid falling debris. I saw flesh burning and metal bursting. I felt my own flesh sizzle from the scorching heat.

Brisk grabbed me by the collar of my Stable barding and bolted out of the building, Xayah draped over his back. I hadn’t realized how bad of shape Xayah was in. Aside from her flayed hooves, her body was covered in deep gashes and dark bruises.

Brisk hauled us from the building just as the remains of the roof crumbled in, burying the cyber ponies alive under ten feet of rubble. That was assuming they were still alive of course, it was hard to tell when all you could see what burning green flames.

Brisk dragged us as far from the train station as he could before his legs collapsed and he stumbled to the ground. Xayah groaned as she hit the rocky ground. She pushed herself up onto her fore hooves and looked back at the ruined train station.

“Do you think they survived that?” I asked, looking away from the broken tower.

“Survived a balefire bomb and having a building collapsed on them?” Xayah asked. “No, I doubt even they can survive something like that.”

I stood in silence for a long time, simply staring at the ruined train station. It seemed so surreal that it might almost be over. We had reclaimed the A.A.S.S, killed the cyber ponies and were now on our way home. And we had all survived. Banged up, but alive all the same.

I couldn't help grin ear to ear. We had faced annihilation, and we had won!

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Demolition Expert -- +20% damage with explosives.

Author's Notes:

The original Fallout: Equestrian was by Kkat

Chapter VIII: Homecoming

“Have you ever watched the moon rise over the wasteland? I wish I could have given you something as wonderful as that.”

Quests.

Stable 25 didn’t have near as many books as I would have liked. There had been a decent collection of history books and manuals for practically every machine, but as far as fiction novels went, we had next to nothing. The extent of our fiction section consisted of a couple of Daring Do books and my personal favorite piece of literature, Lord of the Horse Shoes. I had been engroused in the epic quest from the beginning. Though when I read it, I had never considered how tedious the long journey back was.

Now I was halfway across the massive city of Manehattan, helping Brisk carry a wounded Xayah on our backs as we slowly marched our way back to Stable 25. It had taken us what? Five days to get to Fetlock? Dear Celestia, don’t make us walk five days back to the Stable.

I glanced over at Xayahs frayed hooves as we walked. They didn’t look good, though I imagined that a couple of healing potions would be able to fix the damage. Assuming we could find one that is.

I was walking along side Brisk, doing my best to support Xayahs weight, though It was pretty obvious that Brisk was doing most of the lifting. My height and lack of physical strength were proving to be rather inconvenient in the wasteland.

“I need to take a rest,” Brisk grunted as we trudged on. “I can’t carry you any farther.”

Xayah nodded. “I am sorry for my lack of assistance, perhaps we should take a break in that building over there,” She gestured to what looked like a broken down restaurant a few feet away with one of her injured hooves.

Brisk grunted in agreement and began hauling Xayah towards it. As we neared I checked my EFS. There didn’t seem to be anything alive inside. Good, I could do with a day in the wasteland that wasn't packed full of bloodshed.

The restaurant was one of the smallest buildings I had seen in Manehattan. It was only one floor tall and most of the roof had collapsed in, making the inside of the structure seem smaller than it should have. The windows had all shattered inwards, covering the floor in a layer of broken glass that made walking around inside an inconvenient chore. Above the broken glass doors was a faded sign reading ‘The Hay Burger’.

After sweeping up a bit of the glass on the floor, we placed Xayah down gently in the corner of the restaurant. Brisk whole body seemed to sigh with relief as the zebras weight was removed from his shoulders.

“Alright, you two stay here, I’m going to go look around for some healing potions,” Brisk stated, walking towards the door.

I quickly pushed myself in front of his path. “Not without me you’re not. I can help.”

Brisk gave me a tired look. “Neither of you are in any condition to be walking around the wasteland right now. If Xayah hadn’t been so badly hurt, I would have carried you here too.”

I stomped my hoof on the ground in annoyance. The force of hitting the ground shot up through my leg and almost made me topple over. “I’m not that injured. I can still walk, so I can still help.”

Brisk shook his head. “All of your legs are broken Amber, the fact that you have walked this far is a miracle. I don’t want you on your hooves any more than you need to be.” When did he become the doctor of the group? Furthermore, when did he get so serious. “Besides, Somepony needs to look after Xayah. I don’t want to leave her here by herself.

I glanced back at our zebra friend who had curled up into a tight ball. I lowered my head in defeat and sighed. “Fine, but don’t be gone long or get yourself killed. Got it?”

Brisk broke his serious composure and gave me his infamous smirk, showing off his missing tooth. “I’ve lasted this long in the wasteland haven’t I? I think I can last a few more days.”

I gave him a grin as he walked out. I slowly limped over to Xayah and flopped down lazily next to her on the floor. The floor was colder than I would have liked.

“How do you think your Stable is doing?” Xayah asked, rolling over a little to look at me. I caught a quick flash of the long scar across her stomach before it was covered up again.

I shrugged. “I’ve been trying not to think about it much,” I admitted. “The Stable has a few days worth of food stored away incase of an emergency like this, but I imagine that would have all run out by now,” A wave of fear washed over me as I imagined all the ponies I had ever known slowly starving out on the metal floor of the Stable. “But it's all okay now, the cyber ponies are gone and we are on our way back with the A.A.S.S.”

Xayah nodded solemnly. “And what about you and Brisk?”

I blinked at her. “Uh… I don’t know what you mean?” Was she talking about my feelings for Brisk? Why was she bringing this up now?

“Have you told him yet?” Xayah asked bluntly.

I blushed. “What?! No! I can’t tell him! Not yet!”

Xayah raised her eyebrow at me. “Well you better figure out what you are going to say to him soon. You two don’t have much time together?”

“Wha- What are you talking about?” I hadn’t the faintest idea of what Xayah was getting at. Was Brisk going to die or something?

Xayah gave me an almost bored expression. “In a day or so you will be returning to Stable 25. You probably won't see Brisk again. If these feelings you are having mean anything to you, I’d talk to him about it. It is better to know and possibly get rejected than to live the rest of your life wondering what might have been.”

I shivered at that, but she was right. My friends always seemed to be right. Damn them for that.

A few minutes later, Brisk stumbled in carrying a small bag of healing supplies. He quickly dumped them next to us and handed two to Xayah who drank them without question. Her flayed hide pulled itself together and most of the gashes across her body clotted over.

I picked a potion up with my magic and slowly poured the contents down my throat. Like Xayah, most of my injuries patched themselves together. Healing potions truly were an impressive creation.

“Where did you get these?” I asked, propping myself back up as I finished the potion.

Brisk reached down and began unclasping the metal braces on his front legs. “There was another skywagon a bit down the road. Looks like it had been transporting some medical supplies before the bombs. I’m surprised they hadn’t been looted yet.”

“What are you doing?” I asked as I watched him remove his braced and place them on the ground in front of me.

“You are going to need these more than me,” He stated, gesturing to my broken legs. “The healing potions might have healed most of your wounds and stopped the bleeding, but I know from experience that they don’t fix broken bones.”

“What about you?” Xayah questioned as she pulled herself back to her hooves. “Have your legs healed?”

Brisk shrugged. “I think they have a bit of healing to do still, but I got this to keep me going,” Brisk pulled out his pack of Buck and popped a tablet into his mouth. I noticed his stash was starting to run a little low. I guessed he only had seven or so left.

I slowly pulled the braces over my forehooves. Brisk had been right, even after the healing potions my legs still felt like they were on fire.

Brisk was a fair amount larger than I was, so the Braces had been adjusted to fit a leg far too big for me. Before I could figure out how to tighten them, Brisk was at my side, pulling on the straps and fitting it to my legs.

I recalled what Xayah had said. I figured now was as good a time as any to confess my feelings to him.

I took a deep breath. “Hey Brisk,” I started, my voice caught in my throat a little.

“Mmhm?” Brisk grunted, not looking up from the brace as he moved to my next leg and began tightening it.

“There’s uh… something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a bit now,” I gulped and tried to figure out how I was going to say it. Do I say it bluntly or work my way up to it?

Brisk had finished the brace and was now looking at me, waiting for what I had to say. From the look on his face, I could tell he knew it was something important to me.

I struggled to find my words. “Well, I’ve been meaning to tell you that, uh…” I blushed and looked down at my front hooves. Come on Amber, you got this. “I kind of…”

I spotted movement on my EFS. Red bars! Twelve of them!

My head turned to look out the window where I saw twelve raiders slowly approaching the restaurant with their weapons drawn.

Shit! How did they know we were here?!

My eyes landed on the raider that was leading them. A large earth pony clad in a heavy suit of black power armour. The armour had red and orange flames painted into it and two large flamers had been attached to their battle saddle.

Damn it, that power armour must have an EFS built into it!

I glanced to the raider beside the one in power armour. He was a bloody, cacking mess of a raider with a collection of unicorn horns around his neck. Worst thing about this raider though was that he was carrying a massive rocket launcher aimed right for us.

“Get down!” I yelled, pushing Brisk to the ground. I say Xayah follow suit only seconds before the massive rocket blasted through the window and detonated behind us.

The walls of the restaurant were blown apart. Debris rained down around us as our cover was blasted away, leaving us exposed to the raiders attacks. I pulled myself up and raised Boneless to face them.

The raider in power armour flared their flamers to life and snarled at us. “Skin ‘em alive boys!” It was a female voice to my surprise. I might have even called the voice cute had it not been called for our deaths.

The raiders began charging towards us. As they neared, I began to notice that they seemed to have better equipment than most raiders I had seen before. While most raiders carried little more than knives and the occasional gun, these raiders seemed to have a rather large arsenal of rocket launchers, chainsaws, machetes and machine guns. Their armour was better too. Quite a few raiders were sporting a full suit of combat armour and a couple even had parts of scavenged power armour.

A wall of bullets seemed to spew towards us as the raiders advanced. I ducked behind a fallen table to avoid being hit with the oncoming attacks. I heard a bunch of bullets ricochet off the metal table to the floor. One bullet burst through the table top scarily close to where my head was. I ducked lower to the ground to avoid risking a shot to the head.

A few feet away from me I could see Xayah and Brisk crouched behind another table. They too had their heads close to the ground.

“Do either of you have a plan!?” I called out to them over the booming sound of machine gun fire. They both cast each other awkward glances and shook their heads.

I heard the whistling sound of the missle flying towards us through the air a few seconds before it landed. The missile detonated between the two tables we were hiding behind, sending all three of us flying backwards and smashing into the back wall of the restaurant.

As the smoke and fire of the explosion began to clear I could make out the silhouette of the raider in black and red power armour charging towards us. Her flamers spewing a steady stream of fire in our direction.

I managed to pull Boneless out from under me and roll out of the way before I was scorched by her flamers. I began to pull myself back up when the raider pounced on top of me and pinned me down with her metal clad hooves.

I tried to push her off, but she was a lot bigger and heavier than I was. Instead, I telekinetically raised Boneless to face her and let loose two explosive slugs into her face. The slugs burst against her armour, knocking her back and allowing me to push myself away from her, but they unfortunately failed to get through her helmet.

The rest of the raiders were beginning to reach us as well. They began switching to knives or baseball bats that had large spikes sticking out of them. I noticed a few raiders kept their guns out, continuing to spray us with a constant shower of lead.

The raider with the rocket launcher unfortunately was one of the few that didn’t switch to a melee weapon. Every few seconds I could feel the air around me shift, followed by the feeling of raging fire across my back and a sudden blinding light.

I had to take that raider with a rocket launcher out or we were done for. Assuming I could get away from this damn power armoured raider.

The raider in power armour was moving way faster than anypony in armour that heavy should have been able to move. Each shot from my triple barrel shotgun either bounced off her thick metal armour or missed entirely. I tried to target her in SATS, but with all the commotion going on I couldn’t even seem to land a good shot in with that either.

The raider in power armour blasted a jet of fire towards me. I dropped to the ground and rolled under a table that by some miracle had managed to stay standing. I could feel my pink and blue mane get singed a dark black. I patted the top of my head to put out a small fire that had started in my hair.

The raider in power armour snarled at me. “Come on out and face me! I ain’t got all day!” she charged at the table I was under and bucked at it with her front hooves. The table was ripped in half and sent flying away.

Shit that pony was strong!

I moved again, this time taking out my baton and swinging it towards the raiders face. The black club came in contact with the raiders head, her power armour locking up for a second as the electric shot went through the mechanical armour.

I took that moment to leap over her and rush towards the raider with the rocket launcher who was currently trying to blast Xayah apart.

I pulled out Boneless and placed it against the back of the raiders head. The raider reacted with surprise, spinning around and aiming their rocket launcher in my face. I didn’t give them time to fire as I sent an explosive slug between there eyes. The raiders head burst open, soaking my coat in blood and bits of flesh. They dropped the rocket launcher to the ground before their body collapsed next to it.

The raider in power armour limped up next to me and glanced pitifully at the raider I had just blown the head off of. “Ah shit… Razor Blade is going to kill me,” the raider groaned, almost sarcastically.

Before I could process what she had just said a massive form broke the surface in front of me. At first all I could see was a large shape erupting from the ground that was obscured behind a large cloud of dust, then as the dust settled I began to make out the image of the massive body of a Hellhound. The monstrous Hellhound howled and lashed at the raider in power armour. The raider lept back, avoiding having her head completely severed from her body. The Hellhound lashed at her again, its huge claw creating three deep gashes into her armour.

Holy Shit! Boneless couldn’t even dent that power armour let alone rip it open. I reminded myself not to get hit by those Hellhounds claws. Without power armour I would be done for. Hell, with power armour I might be done for.

The rest of the raiders turned to see the new threat. As their eyes landed on the Hellhound they turned their guns to face it as well, no longer very concerned about my friends or I.

The volley of bullets that had been speeding towards us quickly everted their focus onto the Hellhound. Not that the bullets seem to be doing any good. The Hellhound was taking bullets like they were nothing, not bothering to slow down as the beast began tearing into the raiders.

I saw Brisk and Xayah duck behind a table in the kitchen as the raiders attacking them moved to the new opponent.

The raider in power armour seemed to be the most effective against the Hellhound. The constant stream of fire was drawing most of its attention and seemed to be the only thing he could feel. That and her power armour was managing to keep her alive a lot longer than the rest of the raiders.

I aimed Boneless and sent a large slug into the Hellhounds head. The slug burst against the creatures head, blasting apart one of its eyes and tearing a lot of the flesh on one side of its face.

It turned to me and growled, baring its sharp teeth. Welp, apparently it could feel that too!

The Hellhound Lashed at the power armoured raider with a hind leg before bounding towards me. I gulped and began scurrying away from it. I wasn’t in power armour. One hit from that thing and I would be dead.

The Hellhound tore its way through the group of raiders to get to me, its legs crushing the skulls of a few raiders that were unfortunate enough to fall over.

Why the fuck was this thing so damn fast! Nothing that big had the right to move so quick.

Brisk leapt at it with his pistol and shot a few bullets into the Hellhounds shoulder. Not seeming to feel it, the Hellhound kept charging towards me, it claws reaching out to rip me apart.

Xayah jumped onto its back, stabbing into its neck with her knife. The Hellhound howled, definitely feeling that. It thrashed around and slammed its back into the wall to knock Xayah off. Xayah’s head crashed against the wall, making her lose her grip on her knife and tumble to the ground.

The Hellhound turned and glared at Xayah. It bared its teeth and raised its claws above its head to slash Xayah appart.

I screamed and raced forwards, but I was too far away to get to Xayah in time. There was nothing I could do but watch.

To my surprise, the Raider in power armour barrelled into the Hellhound, the force of the impact knocking the Hellhound prone on its back. The raider leapt on top of the monster and began slamming her hooves down against the Hellhounds throat.

In retaliation, the Hellhound grabbed onto the raiders sides and began to dig into the thick armour with its claws. The metal began to crumple like a pop can under the force of the Hellhounds massive claws.

Before the Hellhound could crush the raider completely, she sent a burst of flame into the Hellhounds face. The Hellhounds head was submerged in fire as the flames swirled into its mouth and eyes and cooked the brain.

In a desperate attempt to attack, the Hellhound let go of the raiders sides and lashed at her face with its claws, gouging long claw marks into the raiders helmet. The raider stumbled back, allowing the Hellhound to bash her across the face again with its claw, sending her flying and crashing against the far wall of the restaurant.

Unbelievably, the Hellhound began to rise from the ground, its face a charred mess and both its eyes melted into an ooze like sludge. I readied myself as its powerful gaze locked on me.

Blam!

Brisk sent a bullet through the Hellhounds now exposed eye socket and into its brain. The Hellhound swayed for a few moments before finally dropping to the ground.

I took a deep breath and looked around the room. Brisk, Xayah and I had come out of the fight practically unharmed with the exception of a couple of cuts and bruises. The Hellhound had taken care of the rest of the raiders for us. The room was covered in massacred raider corpses, most of which had been completely ripped in two or three pieces.

Thank the goddesses that those fights had happened at the same time. I doubted we would have been able to take that Hellhound out so easily had the raiders not lent a hoof.

A small cough from across the room drew our attention to the raider in power armour who was doing her best to pull herself back to her hooves. She managed to pull herself half way up before her injuries caused her to collapse back to the ground.

I readied Boneless and slowly approached her, placing the tip of my shotgun against her head. The raider laughed as she stared down the three barrels. “So, you must be that Stable dweller everypony keeps talking about, huh?”

I shook my head, understanding the mix-up. “Nope, just a pony trying to get home,” I got ready to fire Boneless.

“I suppose I had better thank you for helping me deal with those raiders,” The raider said, rolling onto her back lazily and looking up at me through the visor of her damaged power armour helmet. “I thought I was going to have to kill them all myself, but I’m glad you decided to lend me a hoof.”

I lowered Boneless in confusion. “You- uh… Are you not a raider?” I was getting weird vibes from this pony. I didn’t know what to think of her. Was she a blood thirst raider, or a pony that wanted to help us?

Brisk and Xayah walked up next to me as the raider in power armour took us all in. “Oh, you can bet your pink ass I’m a raider, but this group here wasn’t really a fan of how I let a couple ponies go. Pretty sure they were going to do me in at the next chance they could get. You three did me a huge favour.”

I exchanged glances with all my friends. I returned my attention to the raider. “I suppose I should thank you for saving my friend then…” I really didn’t know how to react to this pony, and thanking a raider just felt weird, not to mention getting thanked by one.

The raider laughed. “You scratch my back, I scratch yours. The name is Pyre Blaze, it's a pleasure to meet you.”

Brisk gestured for me to shoot her. I shook my head at him and looked back at Pyre Blaze. “Can you give me a reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now?”

Pyre scoffed. “Is saving you and your friends from a Hellhound not enough?”

“You attacked us,” Brisk pointed out, stomping his hoof on the ground. “Furthermore, you told your raiders buddies to skin us alive!”

“Valid points,” Pyre soothed, rolling the words around in her mouth. “But I didn’t kill you and you weren’t skinned alive so no harm was done.”

Brisk grunted in return. He turned to face me and pulled out his pistol. “Can I shoot her please?”

I shook my head at him again. He gave me an annoyed pout.

“Look, I’m in a bit of trouble with the raider gang I’ve been running with and I’m guessing that you're the ponies that those freaky cyber ponies are after, so working together would be beneficial for both of us. I keep you protected from those metal monstrosities and you keep some of the raiders off of my back,” Pyre said factually.

So she wanted to travel with us now? Who the hell did this pony think they… I froze. “What did you just say?”

Pyre grinned at me through her helmet. “There were these two cyber ponies at the old Train station in Fetlock. Apparently some crazy Stable dwellers and a Zebra stole some stuff from them. They’re pretty pissed off right now.”

Crank and Inferno were still alive! How the fuck did they survived being melted by a mini balefire bomb!

Pyre noticed my shock and chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve heard they’ve been spreading the word about you three to anypony that will help them. Red Eyes Slavers, Talon mercs. They're even going so far as to offer raiders a reward for your capture. Not that raiders listen much.”

Xayah shivered. “This is bad.”

“Bad ain’t even the half of it!” Pyre laughed. “Red Eye is sending a large group of slavers out to Manehattan. Apparently they are waiting around most of the notable settlemtents, particularly Tenpony Tower. They aren’t doing anything yet, but a lot of ponies are on edge right now.”

“Bu- But we only stole stuff from them a few hours ago! How could all this have happened already!” I stammered, taking a small step back. Red Eye was sending a mini army to wipe us out and half of the fiends in the wasteland had been instructed to kill us!? Well fuck me!

“Word travels fast in the wasteland when DJ Pon3 or Red Eye want ponies to know about it,” Pyre smirked. “Practically every Sprite Bot in Manehattan is calling for your capture.”

Brisk groaned. “I don’t trust her. I say we kill her and get out of here.”

“But what if she’s telling the truth?” Xayah challenged. “If we have two cyber ponies hunting us down and a small army of slavers and mercenaries looking for us, then shouldn’t we take all the help we can get?”

“How do we know you won't just attack us when you get the chance?” I asked, pushing against her helmet a little harder with my shotgun.

Pyre shrugged. “I told you, I need protection from my old raider gang. Killing you three won't help me any. Mutual benefit is the most powerful bond of all you know.”

“We can’t really be considering this?” Brisk complained, rubbing his forehead with a hoof.

I glanced back and forth between Brisk and Pyre. Finally I gave a small sigh. “Alright, you can come with us. But you attack either of my friends and I will personally end you. Got it?” I demanded, lending Pyre a hoof up. She was heavier than I expected, but then again, she was wearing power armour. Pyre Blaze winced as she stood wobbly on her hooves. Brisk groaned and sulked away to look outside.

Pyre gave me a small pat on the head. “Of course, and the same goes to you and your pals. You don’t attack me and I won't burn you all alive,” She limped away from me and went to stand by Brisk at the front door.

“I’m going to regret this, aren't I?” I said to Xayah as we slowly followed Pyre out.

Xayah shrugged. “I hope not. We really could use help in fights.”

We were beginning to pass landmarks that I recognized. An old Pony Joe's donut shop, a broken radio tower. We made sure to go around road that was infested with Radscorpions and instead go behind the Four Star apartment building.

“So where exactly are we going?” Pyre asked as we trotted along. She was still walking with a seemingly painful limp. I guessed being tossed around by a Hellhound will do that to you.

Xayah and I had taken up the front as we walked. Behind us was Pyre, who had insisted on not walking in the front. I suppose that was fair as we had just been threatening to blow her head off. Brisk walked slowly behind her, his eyes fixed on the raider to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid like attack. If felt good to know he was watching my back.

“Friendship city,” Xayah deadpanned, pointing towards the looming Statue of Friendship in the distance. “We need to stop there quickly for supplies before we head to Stable 25.”

“Ah, it'll be good to be back. I haven’t been there in ages,” Pyre said gleefully, bouncing on her hooves a little and looking up at the large monument on the horizon. She winced as her front legs hit the ground and stopped bouncing.

“You’ve been there before?” I asked, not bothering to look behind me.

Pyre nodded. “Surely you don’t think I’ve spent every second of my life in the wasteland? I spend most of my days all the way up in Las Pegasus, but I’ve come down to the Wasteland enough to have stayed in Friendship City once or twice.”

“I didn’t think they would let raiders in,” Brisk blurted, narrowing his eyes at Pyre. “You know, with it being Friendship City and all.”

Pyre chuckled and turned to face him. “The guards will let anypony in if you sleep with them. They'll sometimes even let me bring in my flamers if I get really naughty.”

I glanced down at my pipbuck map to make sure we were still heading in the right direction. My eyes landed on my EFS. A red bar. I glanced around to see if I could spot where it was coming from and quickly hushed my friends.

A few feet ahead of us was a gap between the old theater and the Four Star apartment building. I slowly crept forwards and glanced down the alley.

Please don’t be more Enclave! Oh Celestia tell me it's not more Enclave.

It wasn’t Enclave. It was much worse.

A Hellhound stood in the center of the alley. The Monsters massive claws glinted in the light and it pale yellow eyes were glaring directly at us. Instinctively I pulled out Boneless in case it decided to charge us.

“Why isn’t it attacking us?” Brisk asked as he peeked over my shoulder and nervously looked at the Hellhound. “Is it waiting for something?”

“And what's on its head?” Xayah asked, pointing at the creatures head.

I glanced up at the massive monsters head and spotted what Xayah was talking about. Some sort of strange metal headpiece had been placed over the Hellhounds head. It was bulky too. So comically large in fact that I was surprised the Hellhound was able to keep his head up.

Brisk glanced down at his pipbuck. “Its tag is hostile, it should be attacking us. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe it can't,” Pyre stated bluntly, painfully limping out from behind the cover and approaching the Hellhound.

“Pyre Blaze! What the fuck are you doing!” I hisses, urging her to come back. The raider shrugged me off and continued to approach the statue like Hellhound. I noticed that the Hellhounds eyed followed Pyre Blaze as she neared.

“Welp, she’s dead,” Brisk bluntly declared. “Let's leave her for the hound and get out of here.”

Pyre drew closer and closer until she eventually reached out a hoof and poked the Hellhound in the stomach. We all winced as her metal hoof came in contact with the creatures hide. Pyre rolled her eyes and gestured for us to come over.

“Come on, he won't bite,” Pyre grinned, stroking the Hellhounds fir with her outstretched hoof.

Cautiously, the rest of us slowly approached her and the Hellhound. Like it had with Pyre, the Hellhounds eyes followed us as we came closer.

“Why do you think it's just standing there?” Brisk asked me, poking the Hellhound himself. “This is weird.”

I shrugged. I glanced up at the machine on its head. “It must have something to do with that thing it's wearing. Maybe it's some kind of mind control device?” It looked like some sort of broadcaster, with a small antenna on one side and a miniature satellite on the other.

I noticed a second bar fast approaching on my EFS. I glanced around before daring to look up. A pegasus was quickly descending towards us. But it wasn’t just any pegasus. I knew this one.

“Oh sweet fucking celestial orgasm of Luna!” Star Breeze exclaimed as she slowly pulled up above us. “What the fuck are you three doing back here!”

I groaned. Damn it, there was Enclave!

“Just passing… again…” I muttered, taking a step back from the lavender and mint green pegasus.

Star Breeze slapped her hoof across her face. “Why is it that the Enclave can operate in secret for so long and so well, and you fuckers just happen to stumble across our secret opperations twice in two fucking days!”

“We just kinda suck like that,” Brisk said, following my example and taking a step away as well.

“Wait, you guys all know members of the fucking Enclave?” Pyre asked, glancing from us to the pegasus. Pyre gave a devious grin. “You all just become a more interesting bunch by the minute don’t you?”

“Look, we didn’t get along very well last time, but how about we try and resolve this situation more peacefully this time around?” I suggested, lowering Boneless a little bit.

Star Breeze sighed. “You know I can’t do that. If Colonel Autumn Leaf found out I let you escape twice, he’ll probably shut me fucking down! I’m already in a lot of shit for what you asshats pulled last time!”

“Let me remind you that there are four of us, and only one of you,” Brisk threatened, gesturing to all of us.

Star Breeze gave him a flat stare and pointed at the humongous Hellhound. “I have a fucking Hellhound bitch,” she deadpanned. “Which means if you try and fight I’ll have it rip you a new asshole. you can’t run either, cause this Hellhound will be able to smell you from thousands of miles away now that it has your sent.”

I glanced at the large metal helmet on the Hellhounds head. Damn it, it was mind control wasn’t it?! I took another step away from the massive dog.

Xayah gave Brisk a small shove. “Let's not try and anger her.”

Brisk shifted his gaze from Star breeze to the motionless Hellhound and gave a small nod in response.

I took a deep breath and stepped forward again. “Look, we have nothing against the Enclave or whatever weird shit you are doing here. If you just let us leave peacefully, we will be on our way and your boss doesn't need to find out we were ever even here. This doesn’t need to get violent.”

Star glance at the Hellhound. Finally she gave a long annoyed sigh. “Alright, fine. Get the fuck out of here,” She demanded. “And I don’t want to see you or your friends around here again, got it?”

We all nodded. All except Pyre that is.

“Really? We aren’t going to get to burn this pegasus bitch?” Pyre complained, pointing up to Star. We all gave her an annoyed look and I gave her a small shove. Pyre groaned. “Fine, we’ll deal with this the boring way.”

I looked back up at Star Breeze. “Thank you. We’ll try to stay out of your mane from now on.”

Star Breeze crossed her hooves in an attempt to look intimidating. “You better keep that promise.”

A small walkie talkie that was clipped to the inside of her lab coat buzzed. “Star Breeze, report! What the fuck is taking you so long?” A slightly muffled voice demanded through the speaker.

Star yipped and fumbled to pull the walkie talkie from her coat. “Damn it! Get the fuck out of here! Go!” She urged quickly between clenched teeth before putting the walkie talkie to her ear. We all moved away from her and the Hellhound with a great deal of haste. As we exited the alley I could just make out Star say. “It’s all good. Just checking on the Hellhound sir.”

“Well that explains the fucking Hellhound we encountered,” Pyre grunted, limping up beside me as we moved away from the Four Star appartment building. “I thought it was rather odd.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, glancing back the way we came.

“That Hellhound we killed back at the Restaurant,” Pyre Blaze elaborated. “I thought it was odd that it was hunting alone. Hellhounds usually come in packs. It must have been looking for its mate.”

“They hunt in packs!” I exclaimed in alarm. Was there anything about Hellhounds that wasn’t terrifying?

“Yes, we have been very lucky these past two encounters, all things considered,” Xayah said, walking up next to us. “Though the Enclave using mind control on them is most concerning to me.”

“Do you think they plan on attacking ponies with them?” Brisk asked, his gaze fixed on the Statue of friendship in the distance.

Xayah shrugged. “I do not know. But it seems odd that a group of ponies that refuse to leave the clouds would try and control such monsters that can only move on ground unless they were planning to do some form of attack.”

Well that wasn’t a terrifying thought at all. I imagined armies of pegasi descending from the clouds in massive flying war ships while Hellhounds ripped apart the ponies on the ground. I felt a shiver of fear go through me at the mere idea.

Pyre Blaze collapsed abruptly. The three of us jump with surprise as the heavy suit of power armour slammed into the ground. Pyre let out a low groan of pain as she tried to push herself back up.

I rushed over to her. “Shit! Pyre, what happened?”

Pyre looked up at me dumbly and gestured to the large claw marks across her armour. “I got mauled by a fucking Hellhound, what do you think happened?” She grumbled, trying to stand again. She fell back to the ground. “The fact that I managed to walk this far is a mother bucking miracle.”

“Brisk, pass a healing potion,” I ordered, reaching my hoof out to get a potion.

Brisk shook his head. “We don’t have any. You two used them all up back at the restaurant,” He said flatly.

Damn it, we needed to start stocking up on healing potions. “Fine, pass me a Buck then,” I demanded again, keeping my hoof outstretched. Pyre’s sour mood seemed to brighten up at that.

Brisk’s eyes narrowed and I could see the muscles in his neck tighten. “I don’t need to give her fucking anything,” He snapped, sitting down and crossed his fore hooves sternly across his front.

I stared at him in shock. “Brisk, give me a fucking Buck,” Was he seriously pulling this now!?

Brisk just glared at Pyre Blaze and I with a loathing I hadn’t seen in him before. “I’m not giving that murderous bitch anything,” He snarled, his eyes seemingly shooting daggers at Pyre.

My jaw dropped. Where was this side of him coming from? I knew he didn’t like Pyre Blaze much, but this wasn’t like him. I cast a look at Xayah for help. My zebra friend bit her bottom lip for a second as she considered what action to take.

Finally Xayah turned to Brisk. “Give her the buck.”

Brisks face was packed full of anger and betrayal as his eyes darted around at all of us. At last he grunted and tossed a single buck tablet at my hooves before spinning around and walking away from us with a huff. I watched him march away until he had disappeared behind one of the buildings.

“Looks like somepony’s got a nasty little addiction to Buck there,” Pyre Blaze smirked, popping the dirt covered tablet into her mouth without hesitation.

I gave her a grumpy glare. “Shut it you. Don’t make me regret bringing you along,” Brisk attitude was making my attitude shit. The last thing I needed was Pyre’s snide comments. I turned to face Xayah, who was looking off in Brisk’s direction wearily. “What do you think has Brisk in such a mood.”

Xayah gave me a worried look. “Probably a lot,” She started, casting a small glance at Pyre. “I fear my prediction of his addiction is correct. Plus Pyre Blaze’s presence and your inevitable parting is most likely souring his mood.”

Our parting? That was what was getting under his skin? I thought back to our first night out of the Stable. What was it I had promised him? That I would stick around? I guess in a day or two I would be breaking that promise. Some friend I turned out to be.

“Shit,” I muttered, glancing in the direction Brisk had gone. I could see a small tuft of green fur sticking out from behind a building in the distance. At least he hadn’t left us completely. “What should we do about that?”

Xayah raised her eyebrow and cocked her head a little. “Us? I think you need to talk to him. You two have a lot to sort out before you part ways tomorrow.”

Pyre rubbed her armoured leg with a hoof. “Part ways? Where the fuck are you going?”

I turned to face her and did my best to stop myself from shaking. Why was I shaking? Was I excited? Nervous? Both? I took a deep breath. I suppose it was only fair that I let Pyre in on what we were doing. “Tomorrow I will be returning to my Stable… and I highly doubt Brisk is coming with me.”

Friendship City was just as I had remembered it. The massive statue towered over most of the collapsed Manehattan buildings and a small collection of wooden structures had been built into its base. The long bridge to the city extended from the entrance of the city to the mainland and a couple of guard ponies patrolled around the area. I noticed a decently sized group of slavers off in the distance. Pyre hadn't been lying, Red Eye really did have ponies out looking for us.

As we neared the large gate that leads into the main market area of the city we were approached by two guard ponies similarly as we had before. They quickly retrieved our weapons and the gem off of Xayah's stealth cloak from us. They hesitated when they turned to take Pyre’s flamers, but when she put up no resistance over giving up her weapons they seemed to relax a little.

Inside the city was less packed than it had been on our last visit. Only a few ponies walked along the catwalks or haggled at shops. Though it was getting late in the day, I guessed most ponies were starting to retire to their sleeping areas.

“Alright, so what is our first order of business?” I asked, turning to face the many shops that lined the inner sides of the Statue of Friendship.

“I’ll get medicine,” Brisk grunted, quickly moving away from our group. “We clearly need some.”

Xayah cast a sideways glance at me, reminding me that I needed to talk to Brisk. I quickly darted up to him. “Hey, I’ll go with you.”

Brisk kept walking, not bothering to look at me. “No, go with Xayah and the raider. I can get some healing potions fine by myself.”

I felt like he was slapping me across the face. I really needed to talk to him.

“Alright then, how but the three of us go get some better armour?” Pyre said, seeing the dejected look on my face. “After the fight with the Hellhound, all of our gear could use some fixing,” She turned to Xayah. “And your cloak is so ripped up I doubt it will actually hide you any.”

Xayah and I agreed and followed Pyre Blaze to a higher level of Friendship City. “When was the last time you were here?” I asked Pyre as we walked up the spiral steps to the floor above. She seemed to have a pretty good idea of where she was going.

Pyre shrugged. “Hard to say. You tend to lose track of time in the Wasteland,” she replied, entering onto the floor above. The second floor seemed to have more ponies than the previous, most of them gathered around a pub at the far end of the floor. “Two years ago, at least. Though I lived here for a bit back before my raider days, so I can remember my way around well enough.”

I saw a small clothing booth that had been set up in one of the corners of the large room that didn’t seem to have very many customers. The racks of clothes held a large variety of dresses and even a couple pieces of fashionable looking armour.

“Might we be able to get our armour fixed there?” I asked, gesturing over to the shop.

Both Pyre and Xayah nodded. “Yes, there should do most nicely,” Xayah stated, approaching the shop. Pyre and I followed close behind her.

As we got closer to the shop I began to make out the pony standing behind the booth. She was a small pony with the thinning remains of a light cyan mane atop her head. She wore a ripped sailor collar with a scarlet tie and the remains of a floppy hat cutie mark on her rotting rear.

A ghoul pony! But not just any ghoul pony. This was a ghoul I had seen before. I seemed to be bumping into a lot of ponies that I knew today.

“Coco Pommel?” I asked as I approached the booth. Both Xayah and Pyre cast me a strange look, wondering how I knew the ghoul.

Coco Pommel looked up from the dress she was making and gave me a wide smile. “Oh! I didn’t expect to see you again!” she looked genuinely happy to see me. “Thank you so much for what you have done for me, you really are a hero.”

I blushed at the ghoul ponies words. “Thank you, but it was nothing, really,” I insisted, holding up my brace enclosed hooves. “But what are you doing here?” I asked, turning away slightly to observe the clothes on her clothing racks.

“Well now that Suri Polomare is gone I’ve started trying to turn Rarity's Boutique into a real business in the Wasteland. Not that many ponies travel through that area though, so I thought I could open up a mini shop in Friendship City as well. You know, get ponies aware and interested in the business.”

“The fuck are wastelanders going to do with a dress?” Pyre blurted, holding up a long flowy white dress with a translucent train on the end. “Fashion is a little bit more about practicalities these days.”

Coco Pommel nodded with a small smile. “There are a couple groups in the Wasteland that still try to look their best, mostly being the ponies over in Tenpony Tower. But I do have the rest of the ponies interests in mind as well. Back in the war, Rarity had been working on a type of fabric that could be used by soldiers to protect them in combat,” Coco said, holding up some strange silver fabric that she had been working with. “I call it ballistic weave, I can line clothing with it to help protect ponies in the wasteland while still letting them look fashionable. It’s what Rarity would have wanted.”

I looked closely at the silver material in Coco Pommels hooves. It looked like normal fabric to me, but the idea of it was quite fascinating. I gestured to the ruined clothing we were wearing. “Do you think we could possibly get our clothes patched up?”

Coco leaned forwards and inspected the large rips and tears in my Stable Barding. “Yup, I think I can fix your barding. I can probably patch up that stealth cloak of yours as well,” She said cheerfully, indicating to Xayah and I.

“Thank you, that would be most gracious of you,” Xayah commented, unclasping her now gemless cloak and handing it over to Coco Pommel.

Coco Pommel cast a glance at Pyre’s Red and Black flame covered power armour. “I don’t think I can fix that, but perhaps I can offer you a dress?”

Pyre snorted. “You couldn’t pay me enough caps to get me to wear some gaudy dress,” she aggressively put the white dress she had been holding back onto the dress rack. If Coco Pommel was offended by Pyres statement, she didn’t show it.

“I should have these done by tomorrow morning. You can stop by then to pick them up then,” Coco Pommel Said, pulling out a large roll of blue material that matched my Stable Barding.

I winced. Tomorrow? I hadn’t planned on sleeping here. I wanted to get back to Stable 25 as soon as possible, especially now that I knew Crank and Inferno were still alive and looking for me.

Xayah must have seen my worried expression because she put a striped hoof on my shoulder. “Do not worry Amber, we will head to Stable 25 first thing in the morning. Besides, some rest will be good for all of us.”

Brisk was waiting for us in Emissary’s room when we arrived, a small bag of healing potions lying next to him by the window.

“Nice digs,” Pyre muttered taking in the room. “It’s no Tenpony sweet, but it’s pretty fucking good for a bunch of amateur wastelanders,” she approached the single bed and flopped down in it lazily. “I call this bed!”

Brisk bolted to his hooves and pointed at Pyre accusingly with a hoof. “Nope, that’s my bed. Down!” Pyre just rolled her eyes and snuggled into the blankets.

After we had finished talking to Coco Pommel, Pyre had stopped by one of the armour Vendors to see about getting her power armour patched up. Like Xayah and I, her armour wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow morning.

Without her armour, Pyre looked a lot less intimidating. She was still a good half hoof taller than the rest of us, but she wasn’t nearly as bulky as the armour had made her appear. She had a bright autumn orange coat and a fire red mane that clearly hadn't been brushed in years. Her face had a few burn marks under her left eye and her underside was practically one giant scorch mark. Her legs and coat were covered in a multitude of silver scars that zigzaged across her body.

I combed through the healing potions that Brisk had bought. He had managed to buy five healing potions in total. Hopefully these will last us longer than healing potions we had had in the past.

I glanced out the window to see the last few beams of sunlight through the clouds disappear beyond the horizon. Only one or two day left until I was back home. I glanced over to Xayah who had taken to sitting on the end of the double bed and was watching Brisk Spark and Pyre Blaze fight over control of the single bed.

“Same sleeping arrangements?” I asked Xayah, hopping up onto the bed next to her. She gave a quick nod, but didn’t take her eyes off of the far bed. I crawled under the blanket covers and looked over at Brisk and Pyre. “Either share the bed, or one of you sleep on the floor!” I ordered, closing my eyes and rolling away from them. I heard them both snarl at each other in unison, but they seemed to quiet down after that.

I really wanted to get to sleep. The sooner I could get up and leave Friendship City, the sooner I would be back home in Stable 25. I didn’t want to think about what was happening to everypony back in the Stable. Had they all starved to death? Did they leave the Stable? I wouldn’t be able to tell until I got back I suppose.

After a few moments the lights in the room went out, followed by Xayah crawling under the covers next to me. Brisk and Pyre hadn’t said anything since I yelled at them, so I assumed they had come to an agreement of some form. Good, I didn’t want to hear them bickering all night.

I lay in the darkness of the room for a while, hoping that sleep would overtake me. It never did. I was too worried about what might be happening at the Stable. I kept trying to figure out what was going on there, despite trying my best not to think about it.

Restlessly, I rolled over to find Xayah still awake next to me. She looked over at me with her green eyes, silently trying to make out my expression in the darkness.

“Why are you still awake,” I whispered, trying not to wake up the others.

“Worried,” Xayah bluntly whispered back in her methodical voice. As my eyes adjusted, I was able to make out her face better. She did look worried, but more than that, she looked tired.

I reached out a hoof and patted her gently. “What’s worrying you?”

I could see Xayah visibly relax a little from the touch. “What is going to happen after tomorrow?” she asked in concern. “With Brisk and I? Or even Pyre? What are we all going to do?”

“When I’m gone you mean?” I asked, trying to understand what she was talking about. Xayah slowly nodded her head. This issue had always seemed like a problem between Brisk and I. I had hardly considered the impact it might have on Xayah. Thinking about it, I realised that without Brisk and I, Xayah would be alone. She didn’t have a family to return to like I did or the desire to go on adventures like Brisk did. Would she continue traveling with Brisk? Find other ponies to travel with? Something else altogether? “I don’t know Xayah, I think that’s something you and Brisk need to talk about.”

Xayah gave me a small nudge with her muzzle. “You should talk to Brisk now, all of our time together is running short.”

“You’re probably right,” I sighed, pulling myself out of bed. As is tradition, I tripped and fell flat on my face.

Really? Can I not just get out of bed once without falling over?

Rubbing my head, I quietly trotted over to the side room where Pyre and Brisk were resting. I found Brisk lying on his back next to the window, staring up at the ceiling.

“You’re awake too, huh?” I asked, sitting down next to him. “Can’t sleep?”

“Mmhm,” Brisk muttered, rolling over to sit next to me. “Yourself?”

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” I admitted, looking out of the window at the water below Friendship City. “I think we all are.”

The two of us were quiet for a moment, taking in the silence of the room. I thought I could hear gunshots far off in the distance, but I couldn’t be sure. It felt so detached from the Wasteland in this room, almost as if we were back in the Stable. Peaceful, painfully peaceful.

“I’m sorry about how I acted today,” Brisk started, keeping his voice low. “I should have just given you the Buck. I don’t know what went over me.”

I sighed. “It’s okay, we all make mistakes,” I reassured him.

He gave me a sad smile, very unlike the smile I usually saw on him. His expression quickly changed to that of excitement. “Oh, I got you something,” He said impatienlty, shifting his weight a little and digging around in his saddle bags. He pulled out a dirty looking box with the faded image of a rainbow and a paintbrush on the top. He placed it in front of me with lackluster vigor.

“What is this?” I asked, turning the box over in my hooves and brushing the thick layer of dust off of it. I could hear a couple of things shifting around inside as I tilted it from side to side.

“It’s a painting kit,” Brisk said, gesturing to the box. “I remembered that you said you always wished you could do painting the last time we were here, so when I found this in Fetlock I grabbed it for you.”

I grinned and opened up the box, looking over the painting supplies inside. To my surprise the paint still seemed usable, even after two hundred years in a radioactive wasteland. I turned and gave Brisk a tight hug. “Thank you, this means a lot to me,” I said, trying my best not to cry.

He gave me a quick hug in return before returning his attention out the window. He gave a small sigh. “I thought that maybe… maybe I should give you something to remember me by. You know, before you go back to the Stable or whatever.”

I took a deep breath. “Brisk,” I started slowly. I had a lot of things that I needed to tell him, none of which I knew how to say. “I think we need to talk.”

“What about?” He acted confused, but from the small shiver of his hooves and tremble in his voice, I could tell he had a couple of ideas.

“About everything I guess. You, me… Us,” I took a pause to take another breath. Brisk looked away from the window and into my eyes. He wasn’t trying to mask his emotions with humor at the moment, and I could see the hurricane inside him threatening to tear him apart. “What do you think? About tomorrow?”

Brisk rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I’m scared, I think. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.” I nodded in response. I was beginning to question what I was going to do with myself as well. I hadn’t known Brisk or Xayah for very long, but I already couldn’t imagine my life without either of them in it. “To be honest, I didn’t think I would survive this long in the wasteland. Back in the Stable, we were always told that outside was nothing but death. I hadn’t planned past escaping. You and your quest to save the Stable gave me something to do for a bit, but now that thats all over, I’m just going to be a lost pony with nowhere left to go.”

I put my hoof on his. He twitched a little at the touch, but didn’t move away. “You could come back to the Stable, start a new life in there,” I suggested.

“No,” Brisk said flatly. He didn’t even seem aggravated at the suggestion any more. He just seemed tired. “I can’t go back there. There is no place for me there.”

“You can always have a place with me,” I offered. He looked away and out at the harsh wasteland beyond the window. The wasteland was so much more dangerous than the Stable, yet is appealed to him far more.

“No, I can’t go back there,” was all he said, not bothering to elaborate.

We were both silent again for a moment. “Why did you leave the Stable Brisk?” I asked, pulling myself a little closer to him.

“I wanted to-”

“And none of that you were board bullshit,” I added. “I want to know the truth… please.”

Brisk bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes. To my surprise a small tear rolled out from under his eyelids and raced down his cheek. “It’s not something you want to hear.”

I shook my head. “I know. But I need to hear it. I need to understand.”

Brisk took a shaky breath and turned his head to face me. “You know how the security in Stable 25 works, right?” He asked, his voice low and aching.

I nodded slowly, unsure where he was going with this. “All of security functions under the head Security pony, and they work under the Overstallion.”

Brisk nodded. “Yeah. Well, at least that's what the Overstallion tells everypony. Technically, the Overstallion is in charge, but the head of security has the complete power to overthrow him if he steps out of line. The Overstallion needs to make sure he is on the security ponies good graces, otherwise he would be in a lot of trouble.”

This was something I definitely hadn’t heard. My father had told me multiple times not to interfere or aggravate security in any way. I had assumed that that was simply for my own protection, but was there more to it than that? Could it have been for his own protection?

“When I was a colt, I was assaulted by one of the ponies in security,” Brisk continued. I could feel the muscles in his hooves tightening as he spoke. “She uh… She raped me. I was only ten years old.”

I felt like I had walked directly into a wall. I felt sick, wrong. I felt dirty just thinking about what Brisk was saying. That would have been around the time I was just getting my cutie mark. Those were the security ponies that I always saw. That I lived with. This could have been me! This had happened to Brisk!

“Goddesses, I’m so sorry,” I muttered, not knowing what else to say to him.

Brisk snorted. “You haven’t heard the half of it. My parents took the problem to the Overstallion... your father,” Brisk voice caught and his whole body started shaking. I tried to wrap my hoove around him, but he just pushed me away. “He- he did nothing,” Brisk finally managed to get out between ragged breath. “They told him I was raped and he did fucking nothing!”

I winced at his outburst. I was having trouble accepting what he was telling me. There we a lot of things about my father that I didn’t like or understand, but doing nothing to help a rape victim that had been assulted by one of his own security seemed cold, even for him.

Brisks violent shaking and heavy breathing calmed down a little. “My mom and dad were beaten to death by some security ponies the next day. I was told my parents attacked first, but honestly I don’t know what to believe.”

“Did you tell anypony else about what happened to you?” I asked, looking him over.

Brisk shook his head, his eyes wide with fear. “No, I didn’t want them to think of me as the dude that got raped. Or worse, what if they didn’t believe me and thought I was just trying to get attention? After all of that, I had to get out. I spent the next ten and a half years trying to escape the Stable, I’m not going back in there now. Not ever.”

We were quiet again for a bit. “I believe you,” I said bluntly. Taking his hoof again. “And you are a lot more to me than just the pony who got raped. That might have happened to you, but it's not what makes you.”

Brisk did his best to give me a smile, but it looked forced. My mind had transfixed on the thought of my father hearing of what had happened to Brisk and doing nothing. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he had ignored the situation. Brisk had set the scene perfectly. If my father had tried to oppose the actions of the security ponies, he could have been attacked or overthrown himself. But that in no way justified his actions.

I was going to need to have words with my father about this upon my return.

Brisk shifted his position and wiped a tear from his cheek. “So yeah. Now you know,” he sniffed and looked over at me. “What about you? I know the Stable wasn't great on you either.”

After what I had just learned about Brisk, a couple of beatings and a bit of self loathing felt like nothing in comparison. “I was just a disappointment,” I finally said. “I had a lot to live up to, and I failed to live up to any of it. Some ponies hated me for that, others took advantage of that. No one liked me for that.”

“Failed at leading the Stable?” Brisk questioned, looking down at his hooves in an attempt to hide his tear filled eyes.

I nodded. “As you know, everypony in my family has been the Overmare or Stallion since the Stable was made. I just ended up as some dumb machanic,” I glanced loathfully at my screwdriver cutie mark.

Brisk forced a chuckle and shook his head. “I don’t know. You’ve done pretty good at leading us out here. I think you’re better than you give yourself credit for,” He turned back and gave me a smile. A real one this time.

“I don’t know. Traveling across the wasteland is a lot different than leading a Stable,” I stated. “I don’t think I can handle that kind of responsibility.”

“What you’re doing is probably more responsible, not to mention more stressful than anything your father has ever done while leading the Stable,” Brisk soothed. “If the wasteland has taught me anything Amber, it's that you are not a pony to mess with. You always do what's right for others, what's moral. Even if that puts yourself in danger. I don’t know what else could make a better leader or even a better pony than that.”

Shit, now I was blushing. Something Xayah had said earlier that day came back to me. ‘It is better to know and possibly get rejected than to live the rest of your life wondering what might have been,’ she had said. Well I guess it's time to find out what might have been.

I cleared my throat. “There’s uh… there’s one other thing I need to tell you Brisk,” I stammered, feeling my blush deepen. Brisk raised his eyebrow in interest. I gulped and took a deep breath. “I uh.. Well I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while. I realised it back in the Four Star Apartments while I was talking to Xayah…”

And now Brisk just looked concerned.

“And that is?” He pushed.

I looked down at my hooves. “I um… I kinda have a bit of a massive crush on you.”

Silence.

I looked back up at him. Brisk had taken to silently staring out the window again, this time he seemed a little more uncomfortable than before. He sighed and turned his head to face me again. “Look, Amber. I’m flattered, really. But… I don’t think that will work out.”

My heart sank.

“If you had said that to me when we had first left the Stable, maybe. I admit to having a fancy for you when we first met. You were smart and cute and the only pony to ever treat me like something other than a freak,” He started, shifting his whole body to face me. “But then you saved me after I was sure that I was about to die and then again with the Enclave and with the Cyber ponies. I started viewing you more like a little sister. I think- I think starting a relationship between us would just be weird. And… and you’re returning to the Stable tomorrow, so… Sorry,” he ended lamely, looking away.

I dropped my head. “Yeah, no it's okay. I figured you’d say something like that anyway. I’ve just been to afraid I wasn’t good enough to ask.”

Brisk gave me a gentle nudge with his hoof. “I really am sorry Amber. I still want to be your friend though. And it's not because you aren’t good enough. I’m pretty sure you're one of the best ponies out there, and when you do find the pony that's right for you, I know you will make them happy.”

My heart hurt and my stomach felt heavy, but it felt as if a large weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Xayah had been right, the pain of rejection might sting now, but at least now I could manage to move on. Not saying this didn’t suck still, because I still felt like total shit right now.

Brisk took a deep breath and slowly pulled himself to his hooves. “I think I need to go for a walk, sort some shit out in my head,” He said, walking over to the door. I nodded slowly and remained looking out the window at the wasteland. Right before he left, he looked me over one last time. “I truly am sorry Amber,” Then he ducked out of the room.

I just sat in silence for a bit, watching as the dull beams of moonlight managed to seep through the thick cloudlayer. The conversation had left me with a lot to think about.

“Stuff like that hurts,” I heard Pyre Blaze say from behind me. I looked over to see her sitting on the bed with her front hooves crossed. “I’d give advice for a broken heart, but I killed the last four ponies that broke mine, so perhaps my advice isn’t the best.”

“I could still kill you you know,” I grunted, rolling onto my stomach to face the orange coated raider. The last thing I wanted right now was to be degraded by Pyre.

Pyre Blaze scoffed. “No you won't, you’ve heard my name.”

I cocked my head at her. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean.”

‘Pyre Blaze,” She said smugly. “Take it from a pony who has killed hundreds. Once you know a ponies name, killing them becomes a lot harder.”

I bent down and rest my head between my front hooves. “I bet I look pretty pathetic to you right about now. Getting all worked up about this sort of stuff,” I said. I imagined that an experienced raider like Pyre Blaze had probably gone through some tough shit in her life.

Pyre shook her head casually. “Quite the opposite. If anything you just earned my respect.”

“Your respect?” I asked, raising my head back up in confusion. “How so?”

Pyre Blaze rolled her eyes. “The wasteland likes to break you. Throw the worst it has at everything you hold dear. You tend to witness horror after horror. After a while, it almost becomes routine,” Pyre said factually. “Believe it or not, it's the emotional turmoil within ourselves that causes the most pain. Admitting your feelings like you just did I say goes to show how strong you really are. Trust me, I know.”

“I feel worse than when I was hiding it from him,” I moaned. “Before it had felt like a tight knot in my stomach, slowly getting tighter. Now I just kinda feel hollow.”

“I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt,” Pyre corrected, rolling onto her back and snuggling into the stained pillow on the bed. “And don’t expect the pain to just disappear either, but the worst has gone,” Silently, she turned away from me and fell asleep. a few seconds later and she was snoring peacefully.

I watched her sleep for a few moments. Pyre sure wasn’t like any other raider I had ever met. She seemed smarter, much smarter. I’d have to ask her about her life story at some point. If I ever had the time.

I heavily pulled myself from the ground and sulked back to the bed I was sharing with Xayah. I could see the small glint of light reflecting off of Xayah’s eyes in the dark as she watched me approach, no doubt she had heard my whole conversation with Brisk.

I crawled under the covers and lay silently in the bed beside her for a second. “I don’t know what to do,” I muttered to Xayah. I could feel my body begin shaking as the gravity of everything that had happened over the past few days hit me like a balefire bomb. I could feel tears begin to race down my cheeks.

I pulled myself forwards as I curled up against Xayah’s chest and wept. Xayah wrapped her forehooves around me and slowly stroked my messy mane.

“It’s going to be okay,” She soothed in a hushed tone. “We can all figure out what to do together.”

The next morning was awkward. Aside from falling out of bed like usual, half of the morning was spent exchanging nervous glances at Brisk as the two of us tried to figure out how exactly to proceed. If one of us made eye contact, the other would drop their head and do everything in their power to look as if they had been looking at something else.

Xayah had cooked up some sort of zebra food that none of the rest of us had ever heard of or could even pronounce properly. It looked like a mix between the innards of a Radroach and a hollowed out gourd. Despite its appearance, it almost managed to surpass the taste of her cookies. Almost.

Pyre Blaze’s eyes lit up as she tasted Xayah’s cooking for the first time. “Damn! I wish all raiders could cook this good. We could have used some pony with your talent out in Las Pegasus.”

I furrowed my brow at her. “We aren’t raiders,” I said, looking away from my plate of food as I bit into it. It really did taste good if I couldn’t see how gross it looked.

Pyre scoffed. “Nah, we’re all raiders. Some ponies just tend to show it better than others. Given enough time, you will come to see that too.”

“We are not raiders,” I insisted, echoing what I had told Brisk on our first night out of the Stable. “We don’t kill for sport. We don’t kill children, and we don’t rape ponies,” I saw Brisk and Xayah glance at eachother uncomfortably.

Pyre simply rolled her eyes. “You can keep telling yourself that Amber, but optimism won’t change the wasteland.”

As soon as we were finished eating, we packed up our stuff and headed down to the market area to retrieve our armour. As Coco Pommel had said, I found both my Stable Barding and Xayah’s stealth cloak all patched up at her vendor. Coco had done a wonderful job of patching them back together, they looked as good as they had when we had first gotten them. It made me sad to see such talent. I’m sure that if the bombs hadn’t fallen, Coco Pommel could have been very famous in the world of fashion.”

Xayah and I met up with Brisk and Pyre at the front gate. Pyre had retrieved her power armour and had returned to looking as dangerous and imposing as ever. Like our clothes, Pyre’s armour looked shiny and new.

Pyre looked over her armour for a moment before pushing up against a wall and pulling her armour across the surface, creating a long scratch on the side of the armour. She gave a small sigh of relief. “Much better.”

Just like in our first visit to Friendship City, the guards returned our weapons to us as we left the gate. Lantern had returned to their usual post at the gate, but we exchanged far less words than we had on our first meeting. I was to worried about the future to manage to hold a good conversation. While once I had been excited to return to the Stable, now I felt a creeping sense of dread. The idea of leaving Brisk and Xayah behind and even the idea of seeing my father again after everything that had happened and everything I had heard was a little scary.

Brisk walked silently next to me as we marched across the bridge leaving Friendship City and towards the wasteland outside. “You, uh... You ready to go home or whatever?” He asked, keeping his head forwards to avoid eye contact. Goddesses this was all so awkward.

I took a deep breath. “I hope so. I think I have a lot of sorting out to do once I get there,” If that wasn’t the understatement of the year, I didn’t know what was.

Brisk scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “I know I probably can’t change your mind at this point, but I figured I better try at least once more. Are you sure you wont stay out here with us? After you return the A.A.S.S and stuff?”

I shook my head. “The Stable has problems, I’ve always known that. Maybe I didn’t know how bad it really was until last night, and maybe I still don’t know the full extent of it all, but the Stable is my home even with its faults. I don’t think I could live a life out here in the wasteland. I’m a mechanic, not an adventurer,” I gave him a small, timid smile. “I’m glad you would still be willing to travel with me though, even after everything.”

Brisk gave my shoulder a small bump. “Well, you are the nicest pony I’ve ever met. I won’t give up what we have, even if I need to go through a little awkwardness.”

We seemed to be having a rather large amount of luck as we made our way back towards Stable 25. We weren’t swarmed by raider or ghouls and what few things did decide to attack us were quickly burned alive by Pyre’s flamers. I was starting to have a pretty large appreciation for our power armoured raider companion. I wished she had started traveling with us sooner, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed to run away from things as much.

Despite how much ground we seemed to be covering while not being sidetracked or delayed, it was still a long ass walk. I combed through my pipbuck looking for something to do while we walked. I considered tuning into DJ Pon3’s radio, but I figured that as I would probably never be in the wasteland after today, the news wouldn’t be all that interesting. Finally I spotted one of Cheese Sandwich’s Holotape at the bottom of my saddlebag. With everything that had happened, I had forgotten that there was still one audio file I was yet to listen to. I popped the holotape into my pipbuck and listened as the ragged voice of Cheese Sandwich came to life.

Cheese Sandwich’s voice was strained and cracked. No doubt he had already become a ghoul at the time of recording. “I found one of your stashes of Party-Time-Mint-als Pink. I figured you probably won’t be needing them anymore. These things were the only thing keeping my head clear and I think I just ran out, so I figured now would be a good time to say what I need to say,” Cheese Sandwich started. He coughed a little, but his throat sounded dry and scratchy. “He has put something into motion, something big. I don’t know what it is or when it’s going to happen, but you need to stop it,” He stopped so he could cough again, this time I could hear him spitting up blood. “As you can probably hear, I’m not doing to great. It hurts, everything hurst. Thank you for helping me. I want you to know that I don’t blame you for what you had to do to me. You did what you had to do,” now I was confused. If I hadn't known any better, I would have sworn he was talking to me. “Take Boneless, use him well. He’ll serve you better out there than he ever did for me.”

Cheese sandwich went silent for a few moments, I began to think the recording had finished. It felt calming to hear Cheese sandwich say what he had. Even though I knew there was no way he could have been talking to me, it was good to know that I had done him a service, rather than an injustice.

As I was about to turn the recording off, Cheese Sandwich’s voice sprang back to life. “Oh, and one last thing Amber. The password is Paradise.”

I felt a chill go down my spine as the holotape came to a stop. He had been talking to me… but how could he have possibly known? And what was that password he was talking about? I remembered that strange twitch Cheese sandwich had had when I encountered him. Could he see the future? Or did it have something to do with those Party-Time-Mint-als he mentioned? I doubted I would ever know for sure.

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice where we were until Brisk tapped me on the shoulder. “We’re here,” Brisk said quietly as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. We were standing outside a long metal tunnel that lead into the ground. To any run-of-the-mill wasteland wanderer, it might have just looked like some old metal warehouse. Definitely not a location of interest. But just the sight of it made my heart start racing a hundred miles a minute.

This was the entrance to Stable 25.

Brisk took a small step away from the tunnel. “Fuck… I really didn’t want to come back here.”

I took a deep breath and approached the small steel door that lead into the dark tunnel beyond. My friends followed closely behind me, slowly making their way through the tunnel entrance and towards the Stable. At first I couldn’t make anything out through the gloom, but as I delved deeper and deeper into the blackness I began to make out a large circular shaped light at the end of the tunnel. The Stable door was open!

I froze as I saw the colossus metal gear ajar. My father had opened up to the world beyond the Stable? That meant that they had found food! They were probably still alive. I began racing towards the Stable. I could feel the weight of all the stress and anxiety I had been carrying the last few days disappear as I grew closer.

I stepped in something wet and sticky as I raced forwards, but I didn’t bother to check what it was. I was so close now, a few more steps and I would be home. A few more steps and the wasteland would be behind me forever.

“Look out!” I heard Pyre Blaze exclaimed in alarm. "Red bars!"

Before I could put her words together into a meaningful sentence a large figure stepped into view in the doorway. The pony stood in silhouette, his features obscured by the light of the Stable behind him, but I could still make out his horrific form.

A cyber pony.

I skidded to a halt before the cyber pony as I began to make out the red bars on my EFS as well. There were red bars everywhere.

The air around us seemed to shimmer as a small army of zebras lowered the hoods on their stealth cloaks and flickered into view. The light from the entrance behind us was blocked as the zebra assassins moved to block our only exit out.

I began to make out other things as well. The blood that soaked the floor of the tunnel, the pony corpses dressed in Stable barding that lined the walls. It was my nightmare all over again, but this time it was real.

“Welcome home,” The cyber pony Inferno snarled, a small flame igniting at the end of his flamers. “Kamari sends his regards!”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Impartial Mediation -- You gain +30 speech when you have neutral karma

Author's Notes:

So summer break is over and I'm back in university. I'm going to do my best to add a new chapter every month, but I'd rather give you guys a good chapter than a rushed chapter, so I guess we'll see how I manage to do with my busy schedule.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat.

Chapter IX: The Blood Soaked Walls of Stable 25

Author's Notes:

Warning: This chapter has very mature content and graphic scenes. Reader discretion is advised.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat

Enjoy!

“Did I say Dream? This is a Nightmare!”

Home.

Home is such a simple word. We all have a home and know where it is. The idea of home is so simple in fact that until this point in my life I had never truly thought about where it was that my home actually is. Back when Stable 25 was the only life I had ever known, I had considered my room in the Overstallion’s office to be home. Thinking back however, it might have made more sense to consider the generator room where I had once spent most of my time home.

Though once I had left the Stable behind and traveled across the wasteland, I had at some point begun to consider the Stable in general to be home.

Throughout my time away from the Stable I had pictured what might be happening to the Stable in my absence. The ponies fighting amongst themselves, slowly starving to death, or worst of all begin blasted to bits by cyber ponies or other wasteland horrors. I had thought that I had managed to save the Stable from that last one.

Apparently, I was wrong. I was always wrong.

I knew the wasteland like to destroy what you loved most. But I had never imagined the wastelands sick, twisted game would catch up to me so soon. The Stable had always been a place where the wasteland couldn’t reach; a safe haven. But I had ruined that to. I had let the wasteland in, and it had begun its corruption from there.

The wasteland infects. It's like a growing parasite that latched onto everything that comes in contact with it and slowly twists it until it becomes just like it. You can fight the wastelands corruption all you want, but one way or another, it will overtake you and you will become one with the cruelty of Equestria.

We are not raiders… right?

My eyes darted around the tunnel. Zebra’s were approaching from all sides. I pulled out Boneless and readied myself for their attack. My friends had managed to move closer to me, allowing us to form a small circle in the centre of the ring of zebra assassins.

The cyber pony Inferno chuckled at us from the entrance to Stable 25. “Did you truly believe you could be rid of us?” He gloated, slowly emerging from the entrance and joining the zebras as they closed in on us. “Did you really think we would just give up?”

I turned to face him and snarled. “I’ll kill you!” I screamed. I could feel a tidal wave of different emotions surging through me. Fear, hatred, pain. But above all else, I felt anger. I felt an anger towards this fucking metal basterd that I didn’t know I had in me.

Inferno just smirked as he neared, his large flamers readying themselves. He came to a stop before us, the small army of zebras slowing to a halt behind him. “I’ll give you one chance to give me the A.A.S.S. Then, maybe I’ll let you live.

I glanced at the pony corpses that lined the walls of the tunnel. There were lots, but not nearly as many as there were ponies in Stable 25. Some ponies might still be alive. If there was still some alive, there was still hope.

Brisk spat at Inferno, a large glob of spittle splattering against the cyber ponies red glass eyes. I applauded Brisk on his bravery.

Inferno just lazily looked my group over and slowly wiped the spit off with a hoof. “Fine, have it you way. Kill them.”

The mass of zebras surged forwards. We were confronted by an organized frenzy of blades as the invaders lashed towards us. My group dove apart, dodging and spinning away from the volly of attacks. Pyre Blaze launched herself at Inferno, streams of fire spewed from them as the two flamer welding psychopaths collided with each other.

I spun and fired shot after shot from Boneless. Each blast from Boneless’ explosive slugs burts open a new zebra’s head. I felt a piercing pain in my hind leg as a zebra assassin stabbed into me with one of their curved blades.

I whirled around and blew out the zebra brians with a precise shot from Boneless. The zebra's head burst open, brain matter spewing everywhere, but the zebra had done its job. I stumbled, trying to keep my balance as the pain in my hind leg pulsed up my body.

Three zebras took advantage of my momentary weakness and slammed me into the ground. My head hit the cold floor of the tunnel with a crack, the world above me began spinning as I tried to pull myself back up and continue fighting.

I saw a zebra crouch overtop of me. I raised my baton and prepared to lash at it when I spotted the long scar that raced across its underside.

As my eyes came back into focus I made out the shape of Xayah standing over me as groups of zebras rushed towards us. She was managing to hold her own fairly well against the onslaught, but she was still covered head to hoof in long gashes made by the attacks that managed to make it past her defences.

Across the room I could see Brisk leaping back and forth with his pistol in his mouth as he was assaulted by countless assassins. He was having difficulty getting a shot in as the zebras were both too fast and attacking him from all angles.

I pulled myself up just in time to bash a zebra across the head with my baton before it could slice into Xayah. I stood with my back hooves pushed up against Xayah's as we swatted away zebras with our baton and knife.

I heard Xayah shout something over the sound of battle, but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. She yelled it again, this time only slightly more audible. “What’s the plan?”

Plan? Against a cyber pony and an army of zebras? Was she kidding. We had almost died the last two times we had fought cyber ponies, and back then we had only been fighting one at a time. I glanced at the entrance of the tunnel. A group of zebras were blocking the exit. We couldn’t escape the way we had come. Perhaps we could hide inside the Stable? Of course that would only be a temporary solution.

A zebra’s hoof lashed out and kicked me in the face. It felt like the whole world froze for a second as I was sent flying through the air where I crashed against the far wall. I felt the A.A.S.S slip from my saddlebags and roll across the floor. I scrambled towards it, only for a zebra to jump into my path.

Inferno pushed Pyre Blaze aside and Lunged for the black device. “Get it!” The cyber pony shrieked as he raced forwards.

I lashed at the zebra with my baton, knocking it prone as it tried to slice me with its blades. The zebra stumbled, but remained upright and leapt into me, knocking me back to the ground. I kicked at the zebras sides with my hooves, trying to get it off of me.

I could see Inferno getting closer to the A.A.S.S. a few more feet and he would have it. Pyre and Xayah lept into him, forcing him to stumble backwards. He roared in rage and began swinging his bladed tale at them, the sharp scorpion like tail lashed Xayah across the chest, ripping away her beautiful striped hide.

Pyre Blaze roared with rage as Inferno pounced onto her. She let loose a massive jet of flames that sent multiple zebras ablaze. Inferno laughed off the fire as it submerged him, basking in the burning pain that accompanied it.

I slammed the tip of Boneless against the zebras stomach and blasted a hole through the center of its body. The zebra assassin when frigid, then collapsed down on top of me. I rolled the striped corpse off of me and rushed for the A.A.S.S.

I felt a blade cut through my back leg just above me hoof. I screamed in pain as the zebra’s blade sliced through the tendons on my leg, forcing my to fall flat on my face. My leg went limp as I lost the ability to move it around. I rolled onto my back and blasted the zebra who had cut me in the face with Boneless as it leapt towards me. The flesh on its face was stripped away until only a bloody skull and some pulped flesh remained.

I glanced over to the A.A.S.S. More zebras had noticed it and were beginning to move towards it. Without the use of my back leg there was no way that I could reach it in time.

I saw a flash of green swoop in and snatch up the A.A.S.S. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Brisk darting away from the scene with the A.A.S.S tucked tightly under his fore hoof.

Inferno pinned Pyre Blaze to the ground and screamed. His flamers shooting a large jet of flame in Brisk’s direction. “Get him!” Inferno ordered, his usual manic tone more prevalent than usual. Pyre bucked him in the jaw, forcefully shoving him off of her. He snarled at her and began trying to push past her to Brisk.

Brisk dodged a zebras attack and rushed over to me. “Amber, come on! We’ve gotta get out of here!” He tried to pull me up with a hoof, but my sliced tendon refused to let me stand. I fell back to the ground with a thud. “Damn it Amber! Come on!”

I shook my head and pulled myself away from him. “You’ve got to run! I’ll just slow you down!”

Tears were forming in his eyes, he looked around at the battle unfolding around us. We couldn’t win. There were to many zebras. I had lost track of Xayah after Inferno had injured her. Hopefully she was still alive.

A zebra jumped at Brisk from his blind side. I gave out a small warning, giving Brisk just enough time to dodge the attack, the curved blade just barely missing face. I pushed him away from me and turned to face the oncoming zebras. “Go, I’ll hold them off!” I shouted, limping on three legs. The pain in my back legs was excruciating. “Get the A.A.S.S out of here!

I heard Brisk yelp and dart away behind me. I took a deep breath. “Run Brisk,” I muttered to myself. "Run."

The first zebra sent a well aimed kick at my chest. I hoped backwards, bashing my baton against the zebras extended limb. The zebras leg snapped under the force of the baton, sending the zebra toppling to the ground with a cry. The next two zebras swung at me with their blades. I telekinetically lifted both my baton and Boneless to meet the deadly weapons, stopping both blades mid-air. A third zebra launched themselves at me from behind, thrusting their blade through my chest. I felt the curved edge of the weapon pierce my hide and slide between my ribs.

I screamed in pain as an agony I had never felt pulsated through my whole body. I kicked at the zebra, knocking them away from me. The curved blade remained lodged in my chest. Probably for the best I suppose, I didn’t want to bleed out.

My grip on my baton and Boneless was lost with my concentration and both of my weapons clattered to the floor. The zebras advanced inwards. Black spots were swimming before my eyes as I tried to stay focused. Each movement caused a new wave of pain to wash over me, threatening to throw me into unconsciousness.

Another kick to the head sent me crashing to the ground. I was having difficulty making out the world around me now and everything was beginning to sound distant. I thought I could hear Inferno screaming something, but I couldn’t be sure.

I could see the forms of zebras closing in around me, their mouths twisted into a malicious grin. I wanted to kill them! All of them! How dare they attack my Stable!

I tried to growl at them, though I think I only managed to make some strange un-pony-like sound. “Stay away or I’ll kill you,” I stated drowsily. The zebras only laughed and kept advancing.

Then everything went dark.

The next couple of hours were a blur. I remember drifting in and out of consciousness, but never conscious enough to fully pull myself back to reality. I caught glimpses of chains and zebras, Inferno glaring down at me with hateful mechanical eyes. I felt something warm and shivering tied up against me and the sensation of being pushed forwards down a long hallway. And there was a smell. Two smells actually. One was the scent of fresh blood and death, the other was the familiar smell of home. The metal walls, the stale air. I hadn’t noticed how stale the air was down here.

“Amber! Amber!” Xayah’s panicked voice pulled me from my sleepless slumber. “Damn it Amber, wake up you foolish pony!”

I tried to rub my eyes, but found my hooves had been chained tightly to my body. “Xayah? What’s happening?” I asked, trying to make sense of the situation. “Where is Brisk and Pyre Blaze?”

“I do not know,” Xayah muttered. “I hope they are still alive.”

A pit seemed to form in my stomach. Oh goddesses they had better be alive still. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to Brisk.

As my eyes began to focus, I started to take in the rest of the room. I recognized it at once. Xayah and I had been chained up in the Overstallion’s office. I spotted my room just a little to our left and my fathers just a little past that. Unlike how I had left it however, the Overstallion’s office was now soaked in blood. Dead ponies had been gutted and tossed across the floor as if they were trash. I spotted a few faces among the corpses that I recognized. A boy that had worked in maintenance with me a couple of times, my old teacher Ms. Dry Chalk, one of the janitor mares. I shut my eyes and looked away, not able to take the sight anymore.

Goddesses! Please tell me somepony was still alive! I could feel tears forming in my eyes.

“Why do you think they let us live,” Xayah asked. There was a small shiver in her voice. No doubt she was finding our surroundings to be disturbing as well.

I shook my head. “I don’t know…” I let my eyes drift open a little. My gaze landed on the charred remains of a filly. Inferno’s work no doubt. I bit my bottom lip. I was going to make that sick son of a bitch pay for this!

There was a loud sound of metal on metal as the door to the Overstallion’s office opened. “Well well well, look who’s finally awake,” Inferno chuckled, waltzing into the room as if it were a dance floor.

I scowled at him “Fuck you,” I growled, narrowing my eyes in his direction.

Inferno grinned down at me. “Why so rude? After I all I’ve done for you? I told my zebra friends to spare you and your friends life and you go saying hurtful things like that,” The cyber pony laughed. “I’m offended, really.”

“Where’s Crank!” I spat at him. It was odd that the cyber alicorn wasn’t here as well.

Inferno giggled manically. “Oh, ol’ Crank is in trouble!” He stated in a sing-song voice. “That bastard's meeting up with good old Red Eye. explaining why he double crossed him. Very unfortunate.”

Inferno began pacing around us, looking us over from all angles. He leaned in and looked me over closely, his glowing red eyes seeming to pierce into my soul. “What do you want?” Xayah asked sternly, glaring at the chaotic cyber pony.

“I wanted to make you a deal,” Inferno cackled, moving away from me and appraoching Xayah. he licked his metal lips with a black, slug like tongue and ran a hoof down Xayah’s body. Xayah shivered at the touch. “I want the A.A.S.S, you want your friends alive. If you two tell me where it is, I’ll spare you.”

“I don’t know where it is,” I blurted in frustration. I pulled against my chains in a futile attempt to free myself. “I don’t have it anymore!”

Inferno’s metal hooves slammed down next to my head, denting to metal walls of the Stable. “That fucking Green pony has it!” Inferno spat, black fluid flying from his mouth. “I know he is still in the Stable! You are going to tell me where he has gone!”

“How am I supposed to know where he is?” I retorted. “And I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew!”

Inferno gave me a smug grin. “Good, I was hoping you would say that,” A horrifying feeling washed over me as he said those words. Inferno stomped his hoof and called out into the hallway. “Bring them in!”

Five zebra guards pushed a bunch of ponies into the room. Each pony was tied in chains similar to what Xayah and I were tied in and were wearing traditional Stable barding. I gulped as Inferno turned back to face me.

“You are going to tell me where that Green cunt is or I’m going to start having some fun,” Inferno grinned. Damn it, he didn’t care what I did. I knew Inferno enough to know that he would be perfectly willing to kill everypony if he had the chance.

My eyes darted around the room. Shit, I need to find a way out of this.

Inferno took my silence as a response and gestured for the zebras to bring ponies forwards. A zebra with dark grey and white stripes pushed a mare and a young colt towards the cyber pony. I recognized them, I had once babysat that colt while his mother was off at a party.

Inferno turned to them, his smile practically reaching his ears. The mare pushed the colt behind her in a futile attempt to protect her son.

“NO! Stop!” I screamed. I thrashed against the chains, trying to get free and save them. The mare looked at me helpless, tears spilling down her face. “Please! No…”

Fire spewed from Inferno’s flamers, engulfing the mare and her son. Their bodies went up in flames. I could hear their flesh sizzling and their pained screams as they tried to put out the fire on their coats.

Inferno laughed as the two ponies fell to the ground flailing, taking in the sight of the flames as they spread across their whole body. Fire was not a pleasant way to go. It was long and slow, and by Celestia it hurt.

By the time the mare and colt had stopped squirming the flames had died down, allowing us to see the blacked corpses and charred flesh. A few hot embers still burned under the ponies skin.

Tears were streaking down my face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Xayah’s eyes had weld up with tears as well. Seeing a family get murdered was too much for her to handle.

Inferno rolled the burned remains of the colt over and chuckled. “Let’s try that again. Where is the A.A.S.S?”

“I don’t know!” I screamed between tears. “I don’t fucking know! Just please! Stop!”

Inferno’s tail lashed out and slit the throat of another Stable dweller. The pony dropped to the ground, blood spilling from his neck. I recognized him as the head of the Stable basketball team. I had had a crush on him once, a long time ago.

“Where is the A.A.S.S!” Inferno insisted.

I had broken down into tears. I tried to tell him to stop, but I couldn’t manage to make words between my uncontrollable sobs.

Another blast from his flamers a mare went up in flame, her whole body burning until there was nothing but a pile of ash and bones on the floor.

“Mom!” A small green filly screamed, her eyes filled with tears as she tried to push past the zebra guards and get to the pile of ash that had once been her mother. Inferno glanced over at the filly and licked his lips. He gestured for the zebras to drag her forwards. The zebras obeyed without question.

Inferno returned his attention to us. He took a step forward and smacked me across the face with his metal hoof. My head snapped to the side. I was lucky the force of the slap didn’t break my neck. “Where is the A.A.S.S,” Inferno demanded again.

Xayah tried to swing at him with a hoof, but her hooves were tied to tightly to her body. “Leave her alone!” Xayah shouted, her voice catching as she tried to hide her terror.

Inferno lashed her across the face with his tail, creating a long, deep cut across her cheek. “I wasn’t talking to you cunt,” Inferno grinned, placing his hoof on her head and pushing her into the ground. “Now shut the fuck up or I’ll fuck you until you're broken.”

Xayah whimpered and tried to curl away from him, but Inferno kept his hoof pressed tightly down against her head. He looked over at me and smirked. “Well?”

“I… I don’t...” I sobbed. I was breaking inside. I didn’t feel like anything anymore. Simply heartache, sorrow and regret.

Inferno removed his hoof from Xayah and approached the filly. “Pin her down and lift up her tail,” He ordered the zebras. The zebras obeyed. The filly cried out as she was forcefully pinned down. The zebras grinned as they lifted up her tail and exposed her cutie markless flank.

“You fucking monster!” I screamed as what he was going to do to that filly hit me. I growled, finally able to make more sounds than just sobs. Rage was flowing through me; building up inside of me at an alarming rate. I had to hold onto that. If I couldn’t hold onto rage then I would be lost with nothing but despair.

Inferno chuckled and moved behind the filly. “I’ve been a monster for a long time.”

One of the ponies pushed away from the zebras and rushed at the door. Infernos flamers swiveled at his side and set the pony ablaze before he could make it more than two feet away. Inferno snarled at the rest of the captives. “Don’t run. I will kill you.”

The captives all shrank back.

Inferno leaned over the filly and slowly licked the side of her face with his black tongue, smearing dark saliva across her face. The filly shivered as he pushed down on her with his hooves. “Have you ever been fucked before little filly?” Inferno whispered into her ear. Then he began pounding into her, making her body shake violently with each painful thrust. The filly screamed and tried to crawl away, but the zebras held her down.

The door burst open and the form of a pony in dark power armour charged into the room. Fire was sent spewing in every direction as the pony aimed their massive flamers at the group of zebras and set them aflame.

The captive ponies screamed and rushed for the door as the pony in power armour advanced on Inferno. The cyber pony scowled and crushed the fillies skull under his hoof as he pulled himself up to face the intruder.

“Burning ponies without me?!” Pyre Blaze cooed. “Well that’s just not fair.”

I gave a small laugh between my sobbs. I could have hugged Pyre at that moment. I never thought I would be so happy to hear that damned raiders voice.

Inferno sneered at her. “You dare interrupt me!” He scowled, crouching into a battle position. “Well guess what missy. I’ma going to rape you next!”

The two armoured ponies launched themselves at each other. They bashed at each other with their metal hooves and blasted bursts of fire in each others direction. It was becoming painfully clear though that despite Pyre Blaze’s ferocity, Inferno was clearly the better fighter. Chunks of metal was ripped from Pyre’s armour with each lash of his hooves and when Pyre did manage to get a hit in, Inferno quickly regenerated the damage.

“Now might be a good time to escape,” Xayah whispered, struggling to pry the chains off of her.

I tried to wipe a tear from my eyes and nodded in agreement. I pulled against the chains, but to no avail.

A pony in Stable security armour rushed up to us and bashed at the chains with a large chunk of metal. To my surprise, the chain snapped and dropped around our hooves.

“Who are you?” I asked the security pony as I dodged a stray blast of flames from Inferno’s flamers.

“Now is not the time,” the security pony barked, gesturing for us to follow him. “We’re here to rescue you.”

Inferno bashed Pyre Blaze across the face with his tail, launching her across the room where she slammed against the wall next to us with a thud. Pyre groaned as she pulled herself back up and rubbed the side of her head with a hoof.

“Shit you hit hard,” Pyre Blaze grumbled, dusting off the ash that had accumulated on her armour. “Remind me to pump myself up on whatever it is you’re taking.”

Inferno’s face slowly began pulling itself back together from the damage that Pyre Blaze had done. As his eyes reformed he glared and Xayah and I, now out of our chains. He growled and flared up his flamers. “I’m going to burn your asses!”

“Now would probably be a good time to run,” Xayah suggested, turning and sprinting to the door.

I took a step to follow and fell flat on my face, my back hoof giving out underneath me. Unlike the Steel Rangers, Inferno clearly hadn’t been kind enough to tend to my injuries when he captured me.

Pyre Blaze scooped me up onto her back and began charging after Xayah. I could hear Inferno roar with rage and bound after us. The security ponies throat was lashed out as Inferno’s blade like tail sliced at him as he charged past. The guard pony fell to the floor dead. I wish I could have known his name.

We charged down the hallways of Stable 25. Each turn was met by a new gruesome sight. Blood had been splattered against almost every wall and there were so many pony corpses littering the floor that it was hard not to trip over all the bodies.

Inferno trampled over the bodies behind us, crushing skulls and rib cages under hoof as he bounded forwards. The hallway behind us was filled with roaring flames as the crazed cyber pony tired to burn us alive.

More ponies were stepping out into the hallway now, most of them only armed with small objects they had picked up off of tables. They threw things at Inferno as he neared, slowing him down and making him stagger backwards. Once they had thrown all they had, the ponies turned tail and raced after us and away from the flaming cyber pony.

Zebras were beginning to spill into the hallway as well. The pulled out their curved scimitars and charged at the Stable dwellers.

I slammed my leg against Pyre’s side. “We need to go back and save them!” I shouted as Pyre and Xayah kept rushing forwards.

“Not unless you want to die,” Pyre Blaze retorted. We continued rushing forwards as fast as they could until the sound of combat was far off in the distance.

At some point, Pyre stopped running. “Xayah, this way,” She ordered, turning down a hallway and descending a set of stairs that headed down to a lower level of the Stable. Xayah nodded and followed closely behind her.

“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to look over Pyre’s shoulder as she carried me deeper into the Stable.

“When the Stable was attacked by zebras, one of three things happened to the Stable dwellers here. A: they got slaughtered, B: they got captured and raped by Inferno, and C: they got driven into the lower levels of the Stable and are trying to plan a rebellion,” Pyre Blaze informed us factually.

“A rebellion?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Pyre quizzically.

Pyre snorted. “Well you didn’t think that they were just going to sit and let the Stable get taken over by a bunch of zebras did you?” She responded flatly. “I was lucky enough to stumble across them shortly after escaping into the Stable. We’ve been trying to figure out how to free you guys for the last hour.”

“Hour?” I asked. “How long was I out?”

“A while,” Xayah stated, trotting along beside us. “I’m surprised you are still alive after you received that wound to your chest.”

I glanced down at my chest to see the zebra’s scimitar still protruding from my body. I felt faint just by looking at it. Now that I had a moment of calm, I began to notice how much pain I was actually in. My chest throbbed and breathing was next to impossible. Blood trickled from my hind legs where the zebras had sliced my tendons. My whole body was shaking, but I couldn’t tell if that was from the pain or the traumatic ordeal that my life had become.

“Oh, I met your old man by the way. Interesting guy. Kinda a dick though,” Pyre stated, distracting me from the aching pain all over my body.

I felt a strange mix of emotions flood through me at that. My father was still alive. I didn’t know if I should be happy or horrified. Finally I just gave a grunt. “Good, I have a thing or two I need to talk to him about.”

Pyre chuckled. “That a girl! He doesn't seem like the talkative type, but you can give it a shot.”

“Is Brisk with them?” I asked in worry, hoping he had managed to find a safe place. “Inferno is looking for him.”

Pyre shook her head. “I haven’t seen him since the fight outside the Stable door. He darted into the Stable with that weird device thing. Haven’t seen him since.”

I exchanged a worried glance with Xayah. This was bad, but at least Inferno didn’t have Brisk or the A.A.S.S yet.

Pyre led us through a few more halls before coming to a stop outside a door. Pyre reached out and tapped on the door gingerly with her hoof.

“Who is it!” A gruff voice demanded from the far side of the door. I could have cried. I knew that voice. It belonged to the purple security pony that had arrested Brisk and I on our last day in the Stable.

“It’s me, that dumb fucking phycopath, remember?” Pyre snorted in minor annoyance. I wonder what conversation they had had prior to this to evoke such a response.

There was silence on the far side of the door for a second, then the door slid open and revealed the room beyond. A group of maybe four hundred ponies sat tending their wounds in the room. A few security ponies were standing at attention in each corner of the room.

Aside from a couple batons that hung at the security ponies sides, they whole group was incredibly ill-equipped.

I gulped. How did we hope to execute a successful rebellion against such powerful adversaries with a couple of beat up ponies that had never been in a fight and a hoof full of batons? Then again, I had made it across Manehattan and back with less.

I gave everypony in the room a weak smile. It was good to see that there were survivors regardless.

A familiar looking dark purple pony with a white mane trotted up to me and passed me a bottle of whiskey. I took the bottle in my shaking hooves and took a small sip of the burning alcohol. As soon as the liquid hit my tongue I spat it out in disgust.

“There’s the Amber Aura that I know,” Shade chuckled, taking back the bottle and chugging the rest of the contents. “Never thought I’d see your sorry face back here.”

I gave her a small smirk, showing off a couple of my missing teeth. “Eh, I’m a hard pony to kill I suppose.”

Shade shook her head. “You’re a stubborn pony, that’s for sure,” She sighed. “You look absolutely awful, but it’s good to have you back.”

“Thanks,” I said dully. “It’s good to know you’re okay.”

Pyre groaned and placed me down on the floor. “Alright, that’s enough reunion time for you. You need some healing, pronto,” Pyre Blaze insisted, gesturing for a pony in a lab coat to get over here.

The pony obeyed, but cast Pyre and I a dirty look. “I have other ponies to treat right now you know,” The doctor deadpanned, pulling out a couple of healing potions. “If you haven’t noticed, you are not the only ponies that need help here.”

Pyre growled at him, making him cringe back. “My friend is injured, and if you don’t want to need healing yourself, you’re going to help her,” She snarled, gesturing to me.

“Oh? We’re friends now?” I asked smugly to Pyre as the doctor began looking over my wounds. “I thought we were simply tolerating each other for mutual benefit?”

Pyre shrugged. “I figure if we’re gonna get through this bitch of a situation you’ve gotten us into, then we might as well do it on good terms with each other.”

I gave her a grin. “Yeah. friends.”

“This moment is lovely and all,” The doctor interrupted, placing his hoof on the handle of the sword protruding from my chest. “But if I am to remove this with any success then I will need to concentrate.”

Pyre nodded and gave me a gentle bump on the shoulder. “Catch ya later buddy,” It was good to have somepony as strong as Pyre Blaze on my side.

“I’m going to need to remove the sword,” The doctor said, pulling out a thick cloth and giving it to me. “Bite down on this. This is going to hurt.”

I did as he instructed and clamped my mouth down on the cloth. The doctor reached down and withdrew the curved blade from my chest. I bit down harder as my body tried to force a scream from my mouth. As soon as the blade was clear of my chest, hot blood began spilling from the wound. The doctor pressed against the gaping wound with a hoof and passed me two healing potions with the other. I raised them to my lips and chugged the magical fluid as quickly as I could. Instantly I could feel the hole in my chest closing up. I pulled the lid off the second bottle and drank that one as well.

The doctor removed his hooves, revealing a large silver scar where I had been stabbed. The doctor instructed me to roll over so he could examine my hind legs. The healing potions had done a majority of the work, but he quickly wrapped them up in gauze just in case.

“You’re legs should heal pretty quickly, but that was a rather nasty wound you got,” the doctor said. “I would advise not walking for at least a few hours to let your legs truly heal,” Then he was off looking over the next pony in need of help.

Xayah walked up and lay down next to me. “Are you doing okay?” She asked, running her hoof over the silver scar on my chest.

I gritted my teeth together. “I’ll be fine,” I lied. The image of all the ponies Inferno had killed because of me flashed through my mind. I shut my eyes to try and block out the image, but I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head.

Xayah shook her head and nuzzled me. “I know you aren’t, but we will get through this together, okay?”

I gulped and nodded slowly. “Okay, I’m glad you’re here with me,” I said softly. Xayah gave me a small, sad smile.

I heard a pony clear their throat. I looked up to see my father looking down at me. He had a sad look in his eyes.

The two of us just stared at each other for a long time, neither one of us knowing what to say. Finally my father broke the silence. “Amber… I’m… glad to see you.”

If this whole ordeal hadn’t been enough, that was. I broke down again, my body being wracked with shaky sobs. Despite the doctors warning, I pushed myself up and wrapped my hooves around my father and cried into his shoulder. He didn’t hug me back at first, he just stood there, staring painfully at the wall. Then, as if unable to control himself, he returned the hug and wept.

Neither of us stopped crying for a long time.

I pushed myself back a little and sat back down, resting my hind legs. “Dad, I’m… I’m so sorry that all of this happened. I really… I really thought that I could fix this,” I whimpered between my tears.

“I know,” My father stated bluntly. “I’m sorry about what I said to you the night you left. I should have handled the situation better.”

I laughed nervously. “Yeah, uh… Sorry for telling you to go fuck yourself and all that…” I rubbed the back of my head and chuckled nervously. “So uh… yeah. Sorry,” I looked at the ponies tending to their injuries. “How did those zebras and Inferno get into the Stable in the first place?”

“I’m not sure,” my father admitted. "I never opened the door for them. They must have found a way to override the Stable door somehow.”

I furrowed my brow. “But that doesn’t make sense. If they could have just gone through the front door, why didn’t they do that the first time the cyber ponies came here?”

My father shrugged. “I don’t know Amber. I simply don’t know.”

There was a long silence between us as we tried to figure out how to continue.

My father knelt down next to me and looked out at the ponies around us. “It must have been hard. Outside the Stable. You don’t seem like the Amber that left.”

I looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean by that?” I asked. “Like, I look different and stuff? I got a few cuts and bruises, that's for sure, but…”

“No,” My father said, cutting me off. “You’re acting more mature. A lot more hardened. I don’t think the Amber that left the Stable would have been able to see what you’ve seen and still be okay.”

I chuckled. “You would not believe the last few days I’ve had.”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t,” My father agreed, looking down at his hooves. He took a deep breath. “Have I ever told you how your mother died?” he asked, finally looking over to me.

I shook my head. I had asked him a few times when I was old enough to understand what death was, but he had never really answered the question. Whenever I asked he just shook his head and moved on with what he was doing.

He sighed. “She hated living in the Stable. Always wanted to get me to open it up to the outside world. I of course couldn’t let her do that,” He rubbed his head and tried to hide the tears in his eyes. “One day, shortly after you were born, she stole the override code from my office and left the Stable. I did everything I could to bring her back. Finally a scouting mission was arranged, but when they found her it was too late. Some sick monster of the wasteland had cut her open and left her to bleed out in some garbage dump. I never got to say goodbye.”

I blinked away a couple of tears and placed my hoof on his. “Well I came back. You didn’t need to say goodbye to me.”

A pony in security armour walked up and stopped in front of us. “Sir, we need to do something. Ponies are getting restless.”

Security…

I narrowed my eyes at the security pony and pulled my hooves away from my father. “You did nothing,” I growled at both my father and the security pony.

My father raised his eyebrow sceptically, shocked by my abrupt change in tone. “Did nothing about what?”

“About Brisk,” I snarled, my voice rising with every word. “He came to you about what security had done to him and you did nothing!” I pulled myself to my hooves again, only to fall back down. “How could you do that to him!”

Ponies were beginning to look at us. I didn’t care. I wanted answers. Xayah put a hoof on my shoulder.

“Amber, perhaps it would be foolish to pursue this issue now. Perhaps we should wait for a more opportune moment.”

I shrugged her off. “No, I want answers now.”

My father's eyes flickered to Xayah as if it were the first time he had seen her. “How did a zebra get in here?!”

“She’s with me!” I snapped, trying to force him to stay on topic. “Why the fuck did you do nothing for Brisk!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” My father stated, his eyes still transfixed on Xayah. “Perhaps we should talk about this later. Once this whole mess is done with.”

My eyes narrowed. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. I know you do,” I could feel the rage building up inside me again. I had so much rage now. I feared when this was all over rage would be all that was left of the little pink pony once known as Amber Aura.

I saw a bead of sweat roll down my father's face. The security mare next to him was looking awfully uncomfortable as well. They knew. Damn it they knew.

“Amber,” Xayah pleaded, looking around at all the ponies looking at them. A few faces a begun glaring at Xayah in anger. No doubt they were associating her with the zebras that attacked the Stable.

I growled at my father one last time before turning back to Xayah. “We need to find Brisk! Any idea where he is,” There was an edge to my voice. I could see a small sliver of fear in Xayah’s eyes at my tone.

Xayah shook her head. “I have never been in this Stable before. I do not know where he would hide.”

I started pacing back and forth, completely disregarding what the doctor had told me not to do. My legs stung, but I could walk. “Brisk is smart. He would hide somewhere that he knows I’ll be able to find him,” I walked back and forth a little more. What did I know about Brisk? Where would he hide?

I thought back to when I first met him. He had hid from security above the generator in the generator room. Could that be it? I took a deep breath. “I think I know where Brisk Spark is.”

“I can walk fine,” I complained as Pyre carried me down the empty hallway. I had insisted upon walking, but everypony insisted that I let Pyre carry me so that I didn’t injure my legs anymore than they already were.

“Not if we need to run,” Xayah said from behind me. “If we are confronted by trouble, then we will need to make a speedy escape.

I groaned and let my hooves dangle lazily from Pyre’s side. “Fine… but I don’t have to like it,” I grumbled. I pointed down a hallway. “Turn here.”

Pyre turned and headed down a second flight of stairs. A head of us I spotted the sliding door leading to the generator room. The door had been covered in blood and the mangled corpse of a maintenance pony lay broken next to to on the floor. This all seemed like some horrifying nightmare that I couldn’t seem to wake up from.

Pyre reacted with surprise and quickly ducked into a side room. I was about to ask what she was doing when I saw the two red bars on my own EFS. Zebras.

We peered around the corner to see two zebras walking out of the room next to the generator room and slowly approaching towards us. We ducked back behind the corner off the wall. They hadn’t seemed to notice us.

“You think that cyber pony is going to keep his word?” I heard one of the zebras ask.

The other zebra grunted. “Hard to tell. As far as I can see, Inferno is in it for the caps. As long as Kamari is paying more than Red Eye, Inferno will deliver.”

“I hope so,” The first zebra muttered. “I do not wish to fight that monster. He is quite terrifying.”

“It’s Red Eye I’m worried about,” The other zebra responded. “If he finds out where Kamari is, what’s to stop him from wiping all of us out?”

The first zebra gave a small laugh. “Because if we get the A.A.S.S. Red eye will not be a problem. We will have the power of the stars on our side.”

Both zebras laughed as they continued down the hallway. I could feel Xayah shaking next to me.

“You okay?” I whispered to her.

“I do not know what they mean, the power of the stars. I do not know,” Was all Xayah said.

We crept out of our hiding spot and approached the generator room. I tapped my pipbuck against the panel beside the door and watched as the door slid open with a click.

Blam!

A bullet whizzed past us, nearly shooting Pyre Blaze in the face.

“Shit, sorry,” Brisk apologize sincerely, slowly climbing down from the top of the generator. “Thought you were zebras.” Xayah rolled her eyes.

Pyre glanced at the bullet lying a few feet away from her. “Maybe look before you shoot next time. You almost blew my fucking brains out with that shot.”

“Sorry,” Brisk apologized again, a little less sympathetically this time. He looked the three of us over. “Goddesses, I thought you guys were dead.”

I gave Brisk a smug grin. “Hurt, but still kicking. You doing alright?”

“Yeah, I’m doing fine,” Brisk lied, giving off his best fake smile. “Yourself?”

“Never better,” I lied back. We both knew full well that neither of us would probably ever be fine again. We could accept that. Sometimes things break you, and there is no amount of time that will heal the wound.

Brisk reached into his bag and pulled out the A.A.S.S. “I still have it. I considered putting it back into the machiny thing, but I figured that that would alert that metal bastard as to where it is.”

“Not a bad idea. Probably won't be able to return it until Inferno and the Zebras are taken care off,” I said. “But I have no idea how to take them all on. There are too many.”

“What about the security?” Xayah asked, looking back out the door and into the hallway beyond.

“Most of Security is dead,” Pyre stated bluntly. “We’ve got a couple of ponies in security barding and a few batons, but that's about it.”

Xayah shook her head. “No, not the security ponies. The security systems,” She pointed up at a deactivated turret hanging from the roof in the centre of the hallway. “Can those be used to aid us?”

I looked up at the turret. There were hundreds of turrets located throughout the Stable. They were put into place in the off chance that the ponies in the Stable started some form of uprising against the Overmare or Overstallion.

“Yeah, all the turrets are controlled at a control center in the security wing. It has overrides for all the doors as well, assuming you have the codes to access them,” I said. Bits of a plan started forming in my mind. “If we could lock down parts of the Stable we could keep the zebras concentrated in one place, then slowly feed them through the tunnels and pick them off with the turrets,” I said aloud, trying to put all of my thoughts into words.

“There is a fuckton of Zebras,” Pyre Blaze reminded me. “I doubt we would be able to take out them all. Plus we’ll need those door override codes you were talking about.”

“I know where we can get those codes,” Brisk blurted excitedly. “On the night I left the Stable, I downloaded all of the override codes onto my pipbuck. Unfortunately they security ponies confiscated it, but it and the codes should still be in the locker where security keeps most of their stuff.”

I nodded. “There’s probably a large arsenal of weaponry there as well,” I said. If we can get a small infiltration team together to sneak down to the locker and retrieve Brisk’s old pipbuck and some guns we might have a fighting chance against the remnants of the zebras. We could lead them right into a trap after we set the turrets on them.”

“And what about Inferno?” Xayah questioned. “I doubt turrets will be able to take him out and it is unlikely we would be able to kill him even with a large arsenal of weaponry at our disposal.”

Pyre nodded. “I’ve gone hoof to hoof against that bastard twice now. I don't think I’ve ever fought a stronger opponent, and I’ve fought hoards of hellhound by myself.”

“We’ve taken down two Cyber ponies already. I think we can take on one more,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

“That’s a nice way of saying you have no plan,” Pyre said with a grin. “We're soooooo dead.”

“The plan is simple,” I said to everypony. We had returned to the rest of the ponies to tell them our plan. I stood in front of the large crowd, all eyes were locked on me. My hooves trembled slightly, but I managed to keep a calm composure. “Brisk, Xayah and two members of security are going to sneak into the security locker and retrieve as many weapons as they can and bring them back here. Brisk is also going to retrieve his old pipbuck and bring it to me so that I can corral the zebras and gun them down with turrets while all of you get into position. I’ll be able to hold the zebras back, and I’ll try to take out as many as I can, but when they break through you all need to be ready to take out the rest of them.”

“And what about the cyber pony?” Shade asked, raising her voice over the din of the room. “What are we supposed to do about him?” the crowd of ponies looked around at each other uncomfortably. No doubt each and every one of them had been wondering the same thing.

I gestured to Pyre Blaze who was standing next to me. “Pyre and anypony who wishes to volunteer are going to try and keep Inferno distracted for as long as they can. I’ll try to tire him out with the turrets as well, though I have reason to believe that will have minimal effect on him. Once the zebras have left the range of the turrets and are in combat with you I’ll go and help Pyre take out Inferno if she hasn’t dealt with him already.”

“And what do you want me to do?” My father asked, stepping forwards. “This is my Stable, and I’ll be damned if I just sit back and let everypony save it without me.”

“I’ll need you and Shade to help me get into the control center as you two are the only ponies outside of security that has access to the area. We are going to need as many security ponies as we can helping out with everything else so we won't be able to spare one for my part of the plan. Once in the control centre, I’ll need you to watch my back incase we get attacked.”

My father gave a small nod followed by Shade giving me a small smirk and salute. “I’ll follow your lead,” I felt my spirits rise as my father said those words. How long I had waited to hear him say something like that.

I took a deep breath. “Alright, anypony have any questions?” no pony raised their hooves. “Alright then. Let’s show these fuckers that they messed with the wrong damn Stable!”

I crept towards the doorway of the security wing. My father and Shade slinked forwards a few feet ahead of me and Brisk, Xayah and two security ponies trailed behind us. I gave Brisk and Xayah a parting wave as our two groups split up and headed in opposite directions.

“How much farther is it to the control center?” I asked as we entered the security wing.

“Not much farther,” My father said, glancing down at his pipbuck. He froze. “There are three red bars up ahead,” He informed us. I glanced around and spotted a large paperweight on a security desk against the side of the hallway. I picked it up in my magic and approached the room. As I got closer I began to make out the zebras talking.

“I don’t know. It seems weird that those Stable ponies are staying quiet for so long,” One zebra muttered in aggravation. “I figured they would have tried to reclaim their Stable by now.”

“Have patience, they cannot take us all out,” Another zebra soothed. “Besides, Inferno managed to get a pony to let us in, did he not? I’m sure our little spy can keep us informed.”

We all froze. Somepony had let the zebras into the Stable? But who?

I glanced at my father and Shade, but they seemed equally confused. I took a deep breath and whipped around the corner, bashing the nearest zebras head in with the paperweight.

The zebra stumbled, dropping its curved blade. I scooped it up in my magic and stabbed it through the chest of the next zebra. The final zebra charged at me, only for me to target its head in SATS and lash it across the face three times with deadly precision.

My father gawked at me as all three zebras fell dead at my hooves. “When did you become a fighter?” He asked, awestruck.

I shrugged. “You learn to do things in the wasteland,” I said simply. Ain’t that the truth.

I picked up the three curved blades and distributed them among us evenly. Now we at least had something to fight with for next time.

We continued through the security wing. We didn’t seem to see many more zebras after that. After a few minutes of walking, my father came to a stop next to a large sliding Stable door.

“The control room is just inside, give me a second,” He bent down and started punching a code into the control panel next to the door. A few seconds later, the door slid open with a hiss.

“Now what?” Shade asked, taking a small sip of her whiskey and approaching the different terminals and monitors. She began turning on all of the screens.

“Now we hold this position and wait for Brisk to get us his pipbuck,” I stated.

“Do you really think this plan will work?” My father asked, walking over and looking at the stable controls. “I mean those zebras are pretty well trained compared to us Stable ponies, and honestly… Brisk isn’t the most reliable pony.”

I glared at him. “I trust Brisk with my life, and the life of every pony in this Stable,” I remembered our conversation from earlier. “I trust him to do what's right more than I trust you.”

The monitures buzzed to life above us. “Got ‘em working,” Shade stated flatly, scrolling though the different cameras throughout the Stable. On the monitures I could see that a majority of the zebras were gathering in a room not far from the Stables main atrium. Good, that would be a good place to bottleneck them.

I flipped through until I found the locker area. Brisk, Xayah and the Security ponies had just entered it. Unfortunately, there were a couple of zebras there as well. The three of us watched in suspense as our comrades quickly dispatched the zebras. I hated being able to watch the fight, but not be able to help my friends. I switched to the camera that overlooked the ponies waiting in anticipation for our infiltration team to return with the weapons.

“We’ve got a few minutes until its showtime,” I said flatly, flipping through a few different cameras. I couldn’t seem to find Inferno. Hopeful he wasn’t going to be too much of a problem. “I think now is a good time to talk.”

“Talk about what?” Shade asked, glancing back and forth between my father and I.

“Amber, I really don’t think we should talk about this,” My father soothed.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I really think we do,” we were both silent for a long moment. “Why didn’t you help him?”

“Amber, please,” My father tried to defuse the topic again.

I felt the rage returning. “Why didn’t you fucking help Brisk after he was raped!”

A look of sickening fear crossed over my father's face. Shade cast him a surprised glance. “I knew the Stable was fucked up, but I didn’t realize it was that fucked up,” Shade grimaced, taking another swig of her whiskey. “Tell me this isn’t true?”

My Father slowly sat down and placed his head in his hooves. “Goddesses. Don’t bring this up. Not now...”

Shade winced at that. “It is true then. Isn’t it.”

My father nodded. “His parents came to me with the news of what had happened to him. Told me to hold charges against the security pony responsible,” He buried his head deeper in his hooves. “And I did nothing. But look Amber, you need to understand that I couldn’t have done anything. If I had stepped out of line, security would have killed me… and you. My hooves were tied.”

I shook my head. “I’ve learned a lot of things in the wasteland dad, but if there is one thing that I have learned for certain, it's that you always have a choice. The choice to do what’s right, and the choice to do what’s wrong. And you’ll need to own up to the consequences of your choice, regardless of which one you make.”

“Fuck, and I thought the blatant mind controlling, love the Overstallion, fear security shit was bad,” Shade coughed. “Makes me feel like Brisk was right for leaving. This whole place is one big fuck up, and now we’re all paying the price.”

I leaned down and gave my father a hoof. “Just don’t make this mistake again, okay dad?” I told him, helping him to his hooves. “Fix what you’ve done and make sure you never repeat the past.”

My father nodded. “Yes, of course. Thank you.”

The door to the control center slid open and Brisk marched into the room carrying a collection of machine guns across his back. He must have acquired an eyepatch from the locker as he had one placed tightly over his missing eye.

“Your savior has arrived,” Brisk declared, placing his old, beat up pipbuck on the table next to me. “And I found this is the locker Amber, I figured you would want it,” He tossed my saddlebags onto the floor in front of me. “The zebras must have put it into the locker with the rest of our stuff.”

I peered into my saddlebags. Everything seemed to still be there. I pulled out Boneless and my baton and grinned. “Perfect, thank you Brisk,” I pulled him close and gave him a tight hug. “I like the eyepatch by the way.”

Brisk grinned ear to ear. “I don’t know why the hell they had one in the locker, but fuck yeah! Brisk is officially a badass!”

I shook my head, but couldn’t help but smile. “Get going you doofus. The rest of the Stable needs a badass like you right now.”

He gave me a wink, which kind of just looked like a blink since he only had one eye and turned to head out the door.

My father reached forwards and put a hoof on Brisk’s shoulder, stopping him. “Brisk, wait.”

Brisk turned back and took a nervous step away from the Overstallion. “What do you want?”

My father cleared his throat. “I just… I just wanted to say I’m sorry. For what happened to you… how I treated you… You deserved better.”

Brisk glanced down at his bandaged hooves. “Yeah… thanks I guess. Whatever,” Brisk grunted. Then he nervously darted out of the room and out of sight.

My father shook slightly as he watched Brisk dart away. He dropped his hoof back to the ground and stared out into the hallway. “I don’t feel I amended what I had done to him.”

I shook my head. “I doubt you ever will. But at least you are trying,” I glanced over at Brisk’s old pipbuck resting on the table beside me. “Alrighty… it’s showtime.”

I flipped through the different cameras. The Stable ponies were gathering in the atrium. I could see Xayah and the two security ponies that had accompanied her and Brisk handing out weapons to everypony. I flipped to the camera overlooking a majority of the zebras. They seemed unsuspecting at the moment, though that was soon about to change. Good.

I flipped through more and more cameras, trying to spot Inferno. Finally I came to a camera that overlooked Pyre Blaze and a couple of security ponies that had volunteered to help her slinking down a hallway. I switched to a camera in the room they were outside of to find Inferno crouching behind the door in anticipation. He had clearly spotted Pyre and the other ponies on his EFS. I could see Pyre react similarly.

Everything seemed to be in order. I returned to the camera view overlooking the zebras. “Action,” I muttered, activating the override code on the doors. I saw multiple doors around the zebras slam shut. Two zebras got stuck between the doors while they closed, their body getting completely cut in half by the powerful mechanical doors. The zebras reeled in surprise as they realized what was happening.

I turned to the control terminal next to me and turned it on. The screen flickered to life.

>Standardized turret control firmware v8.13

>Status: Online, all clear

>Admin: Turret defence system

>Units connected: 207

>Please exercise caution around turrets, users should always assume that turrets are loaded and capable of live-fire.

[Activate]

I clicked activate. At once, I saw the turrets swing to life above the Zebras heads. I could see them shouting and rushing to disable the turrets as fast as possible. A hoof full of zebras fell to the turrets fire, but not as many as I would have liked. I opened up one of the doors and began hurding the crowd of zebras through a maze of turrets. A few more fell to the turrets fire, but a majority of the zebras still remained.

I switched over to the camera watching Pyre. She was in an explosive combat with Inferno. I couldn’t tell who had attacked first. Two of the security ponies that had accompanied Pyre already lay charred at Inferno's hooves as he lashed his tail against Pyre’s thick power armour.

I reached for the turret controls and switched that hallway to manual controls and began directing the turrets fire at Inferno. As I had expected, the turrets rapid fire did little against Inferno’s strong armour and impressive regenerative abilities.

Inferno let loose a blast of flame that engulf the remaining Security ponies attacking him. The ponies went up in flame, thrashing themselves against the Stable wall in a desperate attempt to put out the fire.

Inferno returned his attention to Pyre. My power armoured raider friends slammed into him, tossing the cyber pony stumbling to the ground. Inferno growled and lunged onto Pyre, pinning her down with his hooves and bashing her across the face with his spiked tail, knocking her unconscious.

I aimed the turret and fired at the back of his head. The flamers at Inferno’s side swiveled to face the turret and blasted it apart with a single jet of flame. Inferno glanced around casually, before finally letting his glaze rest on the security camera. I winced back as his gaze met mine through the screen.

He grinned at me. I might not have been able to hear what he was saying, but I could easily tell by the smug look on his face. “There you are Amber,” He seemed to say to me. Then the monitor was obscured by flames.

“Shit… you think he’s coming for us?” Shade asked, eyeing the monitor worriedly.

I gulped. “Oh yeah. He’s coming for us. May Celestia save us all,” I turned back to the camera watching the zebras. They had almost made it to the atrium. I might only be able to take a few more out with turrets before they made it to the Stable ponies waiting for them with machine guns. We had them out gunned, but they still outnumbered us two to one.

My father nervously looked at the screens. “This plan of yours isn’t going exactly to plan right now, is it?” He asked.

I wiped some sweat from my brow and shook my head. “We aren’t out of this yet… but no, this could be going better.”

There was a crash from down the hall. “Amber! Come out, Come out, wherever you are!” I heard Inferno scream.

Shit! I knew he was coming for us, but I hadn’t expected him to find us so fast!

“Lock the doors to the security wing!” Shade demanded in a panic, glancing down the hall. I spotted Inferno charging towards us, the hallway filling with flames behind him as he rocketed forwards. I turned and locked down every door on the security level. Three massive steel door slammed down between us and the raging cyber pony. I could hear Inferno scream in anger and begin slamming against the metal doors.

On the monitor I saw the first zebra enter the atrium. In unison, the Stable ponies raised their weapons and fired. The zebra was pulped in seconds. More zebras began spilling into the room, surging forwards in organized rows of two as they squeezed through the small door.

I aimed the turrets in the atrium at the door and let loose a constant stream of fire at the onslaught of zebras. The bullets ripped through countless zebras, but still more seemed to spill from the opening and overpower the Stable dwellers.

I heard a massive crash as Inferno burst through the first security door. Those doors weren’t going to hold him long.

“You two need to run!” I demanded, pointing to a door on the far side of the room. “I can hold Inferno off.”

“Are you crazy?!” My father exclaimed, holding up the curved blade he acquired from the now dead zebra. “I won’t let my daughter fight that thing alone.”

I gave him a thankful nod. I turned to Shade. “You really should run. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Shade nodded, knowing full well that I was nicely saying she would just get in the way and darted towards the back exit and out of the room.

There was another loud bang as Inferno smashed through the second door. The insane cyber pony began ramming against the door to the control room. Each time he slammed into the door a massive indent formed in the metal surface.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked my father as I turned to face the door. “There’s a good chance he is going to kill us. Or worse.”

My father grunted in resignation. “I think I screwed up a lot of things in my life. Brisk, the Stable, but I think I failed with you the most.”

“Look, I know I wasn’t the child you wanted. I’m sorry I couldn’t have been more like you,” I said softly. “I truly wish we could start this whole father daughter thing all over again and get it right.”

My father shook his head. “No, you're not the child I wanted. You are far too good to be that. I think the reason you never got an Overmare Cutie Mark is because unlike the rest of this cursed family, you were able to truly be yourself. Be the pony you were supposed to be and not have some predetermined fate thrust upon you. I think I’ve proven that I was far from a good Overstallion. And for that, I am proud to call you my daughter.”

I felt a small tear roll down my cheek. I felt something that wasn’t rage for the first time since returning to the Stable. I felt hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe, things would turn out okay.

The door flew open with an explosive bang, jets of flame spewing through the entrance. We rolled to the side to avoid been burned alive as the fire consumed the space we had just occupied.

Inferno strode into the room, his metal hide burned in places and bits of his flesh slowly pulling itself back together. “Oh Amber! I think it's time we ended this little game of ours!” he looked down at us and cackled. “How would you like to be cooked? Medium or rare?”

I telekinetically lifted Boneless into the air and leveled it with Inferno’s face. “Actually, I tend to like my steak with a side of suck it!” I pulled down on the trigger and fired three explosive slugs point blank into his face.

Inferno reeled back, clutching his face with a hoof as his flamers began firing a steady jet around the room. I rolled to the side to avoid being torched and pulled out my shock baton. I had noticed that the shock effect was fairly effective on the last two cyber ponies. Let's hope it's equally effective on this one.

My father lashed at Inferno with his zebra blade. The blade cut deep into Inferno’s leg, but failed to sever it. Inferno whipped around and lashed and him with his tail, sending my father flying across the room and crashing against the wall.

Inferno learched forwards, ramming his metal hooves against my father's chest and stomping him into the ground. Before he could finish him however, I sprang at him with my baton and smacked him across the back of the head. An electrical shock pulsed through him, momentarily locking up his armour.

My father slipped from his grip and rammed the edge of his zebra blade through Inferno’s chest. The blade sunk deep into the cyber ponies body, but was stopped as it came in contact with the Inferno’s heavy metal heart.

Inferno broke free from his locked state and bashed my baton aside with his tail before sending a stream of fire in our direction. I pushed my father to the ground as the fire roared over us.

Everything in the room had caught fire. Massive flames streaked up the sides of the walls and the terminals began exploding under the heat of Inferno’s flames. Charred bits of metal began collapsing from the ceiling as Inferno’s rage began engulfing more of the room surrounding us.

I pulled myself up and lunged for my baton, only for Inferno to swat it away from me again with his tail. He lashed at me again, this time aiming for my face. I ducked and kicked at him with my hooves. Inferno back stepped, easily avoiding my attack.

My father jumped into Inferno from the side, knocking the cyber pony off balance. Inferno regained his composure and bucked him off, lashing out with his tail and cutting my father across the chest.

I screamed at raced forwards, slamming the end of Boneless against Inferno’s head. The cyber pony staggered, his glowing red eyes locking with mine.

Inferno snarled and pounced onto me, holding me down with his hooves. I felt the metal on the bottom of his hooves heat up as he began to charge up his jet hooves.

Fuck! I had forgotten these cyber ponies had jet hooves!

I rammed the end of Boneless into his mouth and let loose a slug right into his brain. Inferno’s head exploded, allowing me to push myself away just as his hooves burst into flames and rocketed him towards the ceiling.

I quickly checked my ammo. Only two shots left in Boneless. Damn it, I needed to stay stocked up on shotgun shells better.

My father looked over the flailing headless body of Inferno. “Is he- Is he dead?” He asked, raising his weapon and drawing closer to the cyber pony.

Inferno’s head began to pull itself back together before us. His mouth slowly mended itself back, allowing him to laugh. “Oh, it has been so long since I’ve gotten to have a good fight!” Inferno chuckled. His eyes slowly reformed, letting him look us over. “But we all know that you still won’t be able to win this fight!”

His flamers whirred to life again, sending burning flames spewing towards us. I tumbled to the side, the left side of my body scorched by multiple burn marks.

Inferno approached me through the hazy smoke filled air. “How about we finish this?”

His bladed tail lashed forwards, aimed towards my heart. My father jumped in the way of the blade, the long spiked shaft skewering him through the chest. His blood splattered against my face.

Inferno retracted his tail and let my father's corpse flop to the ground next to me. I reached forwards and touched his face with my hoof. He was so cold.

Once again I felt the rage inside me. It had taken me my whole life to truly understand and connect with my father. And now he was dead. Dead because of this fucking basterd.

I pulled myself to my hooves, ignoring the pain that shot through my hind legs or the burning sensation on my left side.

Inferno chuckled, placing his hoof on my father's head and crushing his skull flat. “Oops. Did daddy get hurt?”

I screamed something that didn’t sound like it came from a pony mouth and tackled Inferno to the ground. Inferno bashed against me with his hooves, denting my ribs and cutting large holes open in my sides. His tail flew backwards and impaled my hind leg.

But I didn’t care. Not anymore. Inferno had succeeded in destroying everything that I cared about, everything I had fought to save while I journeyed across the wasteland. He had won and left me with nothing. Nothing but pure, uncontrollable rage.

The sensation filled me, fueled me. Each strike of my hoof against Inferno’s head was packed full of rage. And still Inferno endured. His metal armour and scarred flesh patched itself back together faster than I could destroy it. My front hooves were broken from slamming them so hard against his tough metal form. His flamers licked at my underside, searing my flesh and cooking my insides.

And all the while Inferno laughed as if he had just been told the funniest joke in the world.

I couldn’t win… not against him. So instead I reached into my saddlebag and grabbed the first thing my magic came in contact with. The memory recollector I had found in the Four Star Apartment building.

I Telekinetically pulled it from my bag and bashed it against his head. Instantly, as if I had just entered a memory orb, the whole world swirled away around me.

I was floating in darkness. Small silver lights danced around me in beautiful patterns. It what I imagined a starry night sky might look like, had the Enclave not created the cloud cover over the wasteland. The silver stars seemed to be singing a melancholy song to me. I knew this song, recently I had come to know it well. It was the song of how the wasteland corrupts. The song of rage.

A metal form floated a few feet away from me. I squinted at it, trying to make out exactly what it was. The form began to move and unfold until I could make out the silhouette of Inferno. He glanced at me, his eyes filled with fear.

“Where ther fuck are we!” He demanded, glaring down at me. “What the fuck did you do!”

I took a step back. “Inside your head… I think,” I answered, not fully sure what I had done myself.

Inferno growled. “Get out of my head you bitch!” He lunged at me, slashing at my throat with his tail. I shut my eyes, waiting for death. Death never came. Inferno’s bladed tail sailed straight through me as if I were made of air. He stared at me with astonished loathing. “Fucking unicorns and their magic tricks!”

“We won’t be able to hurt each other in here,” I informed him. “Our physical bodies are still back in the Stable.”

Inferno’s flamers whirred to life and blasted me with a large burst of fire. The flames washed over me, passing through my form. Inferno stomped his hooves in frustration as I emerged from his attack unharmed.

“You are only delaying the inevitable,” He snarled. “As soon as I get out of here. You’re dead!”

I grimace. “I figured as much.”

A small orb of silver light floated down from above our heads and hovered before me. It sang a different song than the rest of the silver orbs. This one sounded happy. A fleeting memory of what once might have been.

I reached forwards with a hoof towards the pulsating light. Inferno flew at me, lashing at me with his hooves only for his whole body to pass through me. “Stay away from those!” He threatened, trying to move between me and the orb.

I ignored his threat and placed my hoof against the light. Let's see what a fearsome cyber pony like Inferno feared. As my hoof came in contact with the silver orb it began to expand, overtaking the dark void with a blinding light.

When the light died, we found ourselves in the wasteland. To our right was a field of some mutated fruit and to our left was a ramshackled farmhouse that had clearly seen better days. A beat up looking Sprite Bot floated through the air next to us.

“Where are we?” I asked, taking in my new surroundings.

Inferno sighed and looked over to the horizon where I could see the silhouette of a colt racing towards us. “No tragedy would be what it is, if not for a glimmer of hope at the beginning,” Inferno grunted, followed the young colt longingly with his eyes. “That there… that was me. A long time ago.”

I wanted to ask what that ment, but before I could, an old mare and buck walked out of the farmhouse. “Whistle! Get over here please!” The elderly mare called out. The colt changed direction and rushed towards the couple at the farmhouse.

“Coming mom!” The colt yelped. Now closer I could make out the colts scarlet coloured coat. The colt jumped over a broken picket fence and raced into the building.

The scene shifted and we found ourselves around a small table in the middle of the farmhouse. The colt and his parents sat around the table, eating a strange mix of the mutated fruit and what I imagined to be bloatfly meat.

“I saw a dead Hellhound today!” young Inferno declared proudly, taking a bite from the meat. “It was really cool!”

His father gave him a small smile, but there was a look of worry in his eyes. “Where did you see that Whistle?”

Whistle pointed out the window. “Just down the road by that broken down power plant.”

His mother and father exchanged a glance. No doubt they were worried about how close a hellhound had been to their home.

I looked over at Inferno, who was staring at the parents intently. “This was you as a kid?” I asked, pointing to the scarlet colt. “You and your family seem so… Normal?”

Inferno huffed. “Everypony has their beginnings.”

"Your name used to be Whistle?" I asked, glancing at the colt. Inferno simply grunted in response.

I shook my head in disbelief. I didn’t like seeing these monsters as anything more that violent death machines. The idea that they had once been just a small colt like every pony else should have been obvious, but it was hard to wrap my head around all the same.

“What happened then?” I asked.

Inferno pointed towards his father. “Watch.”

His father’s hoof flew up to his chest, his body began shaking violently as he racked with violent pains. His wife and son flew to his side in an instant.

“Dad! Dad! What’s wrong!” The colt cried, grappling onto his father's leg.

I glanced at Inferno for him to elaborate on what happened. He just stood stoically and stared off out the window. “We never found out what actually happened to him,” Inferno grunted. “One day he was fine, then the next moment he was dead. It might have been a heart attack or something. I just don’t know.”

The scene shifted again and we found ourselves overlooking a small unmarked grave next to the farmhouse.

Inferno took a shuttery breath. “We buried him outside the house. The next day we had to leave.”

“Why did you have to leave?” I asked, leaning down and looking at the grave more closely. A loud roar from behind me gave me my answer. A group of Hellhounds tore themselves from the ground and started ripping apart the walls of the farmhouse. I heard a scream and saw the mother and young colt racing away from the house.

“We weren’t meant for the wasteland,” Inferno admitted. “We were scared, inexperienced and without any form of weapon.

The world around us morphed into the familiar streets of Manehattan. I saw the mother cornered in a back alley as a group of raiders closed in on her. She pushed her colt behind her as they neared, hoping to shield him from what was about to happen.

The raider in the lead cackled as his eyes landed on the young colt. “Oh, you think mommy can protect you? How sweet!”

The colts mother scowled. “If you touch him, I will end you!”

The raiders laughed and pulled out their blades. The mare shrank back as they got closer, her legs shaking and threatening to give out under her. The lead raider grinned a terrible grin. “Take her kid!”

Two raiders sprang forwards and grabbed onto the colt, pushing him to the ground. The mare tired to fight them, but to more raiders grabbed her from behind and threw her violently to the ground. The lead raider pulled out a pistol and placed it against the colts head.

“If you want to protect your little colt so bad, you are going to do exactly as I tell you,” The raider sneered. The raiders around him chuckled.

The mare glanced around the group, trying to find a way out. Finally her head drop and she moaned in defeat. “I’ll do anything, just please... don’t kill him.”

The lead raider grinned. “That’s a good girl," the raider mocked, pulling the colt in closer to him. He looked around at his raider gang deviously. "Now, which one of you wants to fuck this cunts pussy first!” The raiders cheered and closed in on the frightened mare.

Inferno turned his back and stared up at the sky. I wanted to do the same, but I was frozen. My eyes locked on the horrific scene that followed.

The next few minutes were a mix of perhaps the most horrible things I had ever seen. The raiders raped and tortured and degraded the mare. The called her 'slut' and 'whore' and did everything in their power to make each moment more terrible than the one before.

And all the while the colt cried. He cried for the raiders to leave his mother alone, he cried for the raiders to let him live, but above all else he cried for his mother to save him. But she never would, not this time.

Finally when the raiders had had their fun they tossed the mares wet, shivering body against the wall. The lead raider leaned over her and traced his dagger along her cheek. “I appreciate your participation,” the raider whispered. He turned back to his gang. “Hold down the colt. I want my way with him now.”

The mare screamed and thrashed her hooves against the raider. “No! You promised! Don’t you fucking dare hurt him!” She demanded.

The raiders hoof went up and slapped her across the face, knocking her back against the wall. “Tie her hooves and douse her in gasoline,” He ordered the other raiders as he turned and approached the colt with a greedy look on his face.

I forced myself to look away. I don’t know when, but at some point I had started to cry. I looked over at Inferno and to my surprise saw black tears dripping down his face.

I could hear the colt screaming as the lead raider pounded into him and the wails of his mother as the raiders struck a match and made her burn. Goddesses, why wouldn’t this memory end!

Finally I felt the world shift around me. I looked back to see a bloodsoaked colt curled up tightly against the charred and mutilated remains of his mother. The colt wept, his tears mixing with the blood and semen that coated his fur. He was covered in deep gashes all over his body and his mane was a mess.

A tall black stallion approached him. He was quiet, I didn’t even notice him until he spoke. “What’s your name there?” The stallion asked, leaning down to eye level with the colt.

The colts head shot up in surprise as he noticed the intruder for the first time. “Go away!” The colt screamed, thrashing his hooves at the new pony. “Leave me alone!”

The black stallion dodge the colts lame attack and slapped the colt across the face with his tail. The colt fell back crying.

The stallion clicked his tongue and leaned down again. “My name is Adversary. What is yours?”

The colt lashed out at him again with his hooves. Once again the stallion dodged and slapped him across the face with his tail.

The colts whole body shook as he stood to face the stallion. “I don’t want my name. Go the fuck away!”

Adversary once again slapped him in the face, knocking the colt to the ground. “Then make up a name!” Adversary growled. “What do you want to be called?”

The colt looked over at his mother's burned corpse, his body once again being racked by uncontrollable sobs and moans. When he was finally able to speak again he glanced up at Adversary. “Inferno,” The colt demanded, pulling himself back up. There was a gleam in his eye that belonged to a pony much older than he was. “Call me Inferno!”

The world swirled away and we once again found ourselves in the dark void. I looked over to Inferno. He was shaking. “What happened next?” I asked, approaching the cyber pony.

Inferno lashed a hoof out at me. I didn’t bother jumping away, I knew it would go through me. “I don’t need to tell you anything else!” he yelled. “Now get the fuck out of my head!”

“No,” I stated flatly, floating over to the next glowing silver orb.

Inferno shook and crumpled to the ground. “Please… no more…”

I shook my head and reached for the orb. What had happened to Inferno had been horrible and wrong, I wasn’t denying that. But that didn’t change the fact that he was still a monster. He deserved to go through this.

My hoof came in contact with the sphere and the void was once again filled with glowing light.

As the light diminished, we found ourselves standing tucked up behind the side of a building. In the distance I could see a raider camp built between two broken skyscrapers.

Beside us stood a slightly older Inferno. He was about my height now, but he had a much thicker build. His legs and body were covered in silver scars and his right forehoof had been replaced with a mechanical one.

Beside him was a weary looking Adversary. While Adversary had seemed to be a tough and headstrong pony in the last memory, he now looked tired and old. His legs wobbled slightly as he tried to hold up his own weight. He had a golden pistol holstered at his side and he was dressed in a set of black combat armour.

“Come on, let's go kill those bastards!” Inferno demanded, stomping his mechanical hoof on the ground. Adversary just kept his cool and scanned the raider camp for threats. “Damn it Adversary! Let’s make them burn!” the young Inferno brandished the flamer he had strapped to his battle saddle.

Adversary put his hoof out, ordering Inferno to calm himself. “The bounty wants Needles alive. If you go in and burn him, we don’t get our caps.”

Inferno stomped the ground again and groaned. “Fuck that! This isn’t about the damn caps you dull cunt! This is about me and him!”

Adversaries hoof shot out lighting fast and knocked Inferno across the back of the head, ramming him face first into the wall. “I said we take him alive,” Adversary insisted, pulling out his pistol and slowly moving towards the camp. “Now follow my lead and don’t be an idiot!”

Inferno grunted and began slinking along behind Adversary with his head low. Inferno and I slowly walked behind them, watching as they drew closer and closer to the camp. As we neared, I began to make out the voices of the raiders.

“Lets just blow her fucking brains out already!” A raider screeched. There was a loud thunk and I could hear a mare whimpering.

An old stallions voice rasped out. “Blow her brains out? Well now where is the fun in that?” The young Inferno froze at the sound of his voice. The more he talked, the more I realized I could recognize his voice too. It was older than it had been before, but it was still very clearly the sadistic voice of the raider that had raped Inferno and his mother.

I saw a look of pure hatred cross young Infernos face. He roared in rage and leapt into the camp, his flamer unleashing hell upon the raiders.

“Inferno! NO!” I heard Adversary scream, but I had lost track of where he was over all of the fire.

I watched in amazement as the young Inferno tore the raiders apart with his hooves. He spun and lashed out at the raiders, ripping out chunks of their throats and flesh. His flamer blazed brighter and brighter as the psychotic pony went into a frenzy of fire and blood.

A pained scream sounded over the havoc of the fight. Slowly, Inferno came to a stop, his scarlet coat soaked in raider blood and the end of his flamer burning a hot red. He panted, glaring at the lead raider.

The lead raider had impaled Adversary on a large pike, Adversary’s once black coat had now turned a dark blood red.

Inferno roared in anger and charged the raider. The raider lept back, desperately trying to avoid the attack. The raider fell flat on his rump, he pushed himself backwards trying to get away from the crazed Inferno.

“Who the hell are you!” The raider screamed, thrashing his hooves about as Inferno loomed over him. “What do you want!”

Inferno placed his mechanical hoof on the raiders chest and pushed down. A sickening crack erupted from the raiders chest, making him cry out in pain. Inferno leaned forwards placing the tip of his flamer on the raiders forehoof. The hot metal burned away the raiders hide and cooked the flesh underneath.

“No! Please! I’ll do anything if you spare me!” The raider cried out as Inferno dragged the hot metal across his front, burning a line in his flesh.

Inferno snarled down at him. “Anything?” the raider nodded vigorously. Inferno smirked. “Good, because I’m going to do everything that you did to me and my mother to you, and them some. And when I’m done, I’ll give you over to Red Eye as he requested.”

I could see the fear in the raiders eyes.

The world swirled away and we found ourselves in a small room beneath the floorboards of a house. Four fillies huddled against each other in the corner while a brown buck did his best to barricade the door. I could hear the sounds of screaming and gunfire in the distance.

The brown buck turned to the fillies, his face showing clear signs of terror. “It’s okay, he won’t find us down here.”

As he said the final words, the door exploded inwards. The buck fell to the ground as a wave of fire shot from the doorway and the room began to fill with thick, black smoke. The dark form of Inferno, now clad in Adversary’s old black combat armour marched into the room, his flamers ablaze with hellish light.

Inferno’s hoof stomped down on the bucks head, crushing it flat with his unnatural strength. The fillies screamed as the bucks blood spilled across the floor and pooled around their hooves.

Inferno advanced on the fillies, they tried to run, but he was too fast. From out of his saddlebags came metal collars with blinking red lights. Inferno clamped the collars around the fillies necks.

“You run, you die,” Inferno rumbled, his voice more intimidating than ever. The fillies cowered away from him, pushing themselves as far into the corner as they could. Inferno smirked and violently pinned one of the fillies to the floor with a hoof while he slowly dragging his other hoof down her front and between her legs. “You all belong to me now. Let's have some fun.”

The world swirled away, returned us to the void. I was thankful the memories didn’t force me to watch what was to become of those fillies.

“Now you can understand,” Inferno growled, turning away from me and staring into the darkness. “Now you can see the justification for my actions. The wasteland is the villain, not me.”

I shook my head. “I understand you, I think. But this is not justification. Nothing can justify what you have done.”

“The wasteland gave me no choice!” Inferno barked. “I had to do what I did! There was no other way for me to survive! To live with myself!”

“There is always a choice!” I yelled back. I was getting sick and tired of ponies using that as an excuse to do evil deeds. “You could have turned back! You could have chosen not to rape those fillies!”

Inferno’s whole body was shaking. Black tears were spilling from his eyes. I could tell he couldn’t take much more of this. He turned his back to me again, hiding his face. “I did what I must,” He wimpered, more to himself than to me. “Don’t make me see any more. I don’t want to see anymore!”

I turned from him again and reached towards yet another glowing light. Inferno roared with rage. “NO! Please! I’ll do anything! Just please don’t hurt me again!”

I froze. Damn him. I shut my eyes and touched the final silver orb. Everything exploded into light.

When I opened my eyes I was still standing in darkness. For a second I thought that we had failed to enter another memory until I spotted a cyber pony staring at me from the gloom.

I rose and drew closer to the cyber pony. I had expected to see Inferno, but instead I found myself face to face with the cyber alicorn Crank.

I looked around the darkness. If this was Inferno's memory, then where was Inferno?

“No please, not this memory…” I heard Inferno whimper in my head. “Anything but this memory.”

I glanced down at my body. Instead of the light pink coat that I usually saw, I found myself sporting a scarred scarlet coat and mechanical leg. A large flamer rest at my side.

This was unlike the other memories, this one was far more vivid. My mind had become one with Inferno’s. I saw through his eyes, felt what he felt, thought what he thought. I all I could feel was pain.

Not physical pain, but emotional pain. My heart ached more than I ever thought it could. Something about who I was felt fundamentally broken, as if my very existence was dirty and wrong. Between each thought came a nagging in the back of my mind that I was bad, pathetic, a shitty pony just for existing.

The longer I stood there soaking in all of Inferno’s thoughts the more I began to understand. Inferno hated himself. He wanted to die!

“Are you ready?” Crank grumbled. I took a small jump back as he broke his silence. I nodded slowly, not fully knowing what to expect. Crank gave a low sigh. “So be it. He is waiting for you inside.”

“Th-thank you,” I stuttered, stepping past Crank and stumbling blindly through the darkness. At last I found the entrance to the next room stumbled into it as well.

“Ah, I have been waiting for you,” A vial nasally voice said to me from somewhere above. I tried to see where the voice had come from, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see my own hooves in front of my face.

I took a step forwards. Then another. I could hear the buzzing of machinery coming from all around me. Then from the darkness came hundreds of mechanical tendrils. The tendrils stabbed into me, ripping out parts of my flesh. I was lifted into the air where large scissor like knives cut me open and pulled out my innards. My heart was replaced by a machine and my coat was patched back together with jagged slabs of metal. A large metal spike was shoved through where my tail had once been and my eyes were slit and infused with circuitry and wires.

I screamed into the darkness as a pain I had never imagined overtook me. I squirmed, fighting against the metal tendrils that probed into me. I felt a sharp scalpel press against my face and slowly peel the flesh off of my skull.

I could still see though my mutilated eyes. Claws descended from the ceiling far above and whisked away bits of my flesh and organs. I was no longer a pony. My body had become what I was on the inside. A desecrated monster that didn’t deserve anything other than constant misery. And now I would have just that.

The tendrils removed themselves from my body, letting my now metal form drop to the floor. The holes left by the tendrils quickly pulled themselves back together. I couldn’t die. I was doomed to eternal hell.

When the scene faded away we didn’t find ourselves in the dark void, but rather we found ourselves on the floor of the Overstallion’s office.

I rolled off of Inferno and lay next to him on the blood soaked ground, panting for breath. The ordeal in my… in Inferno’s head had done a number on me. From the way that Inferno was shaking, I could tell it had done quite a bit to him to.

Inferno slowly pulled himself to his hooves, glancing at his reflection in the terminal monitor. He was silent for a long time, simply staring at himself and what he had become. Finally, he lifted his head back and wailed. Black tears spilled from his eyes and pooled around him. He placed his hooves against his head, trying to shake away the memories that had just been forced back into him.

He glared down at me with a burning hatred in his eyes. “What have you done to me!” He screeched, stumbling backwards. He grabbed onto the terminal resting on the desk and began smashing his head against it. The glass on the screen shattered, stabbing into what little parts of him were still pony. He face was torn apart, bits of flesh and metal catching on the jagged screen and tearing away from his body.

He reeled back, his head a bloody mess of dangling visera. Almost instantly his face reformed, perfectly patching itself back together.

He lashed at his own throat with his tail, tearing out his throat and spilling sludge like blood across the room. And yet he still failed to die. His body sew himself back together as if nothing had happened. He clawed at his chest, hoping to rip out his heart, but it was no good. There was only one fate he would need to endure.

He turned away from me, his flamers swiveling to face himself. His animalistic moans became whimpers, then quieted as he uttered a single word. “Monster…”

His whole body was consumed by a massive flame as he set himself ablaze. The cyber pony burned, his flesh and metal melting under the intense heat of the fire. He screamed as he was consumed by his own inferno, his own rage. The scent of burning tissue filled the air, the taste of ash accumulated in my mouth. Inferno burned.

And I wept for him. Despite all he had done, despite all the hurt he had brought upon me, I wept for him. I wept for a pony that had lost even more than I, a pony who had never been able to see another way. I had seen who he had once been and what he had become. A monster, a raider, a victim, a survivor, a failure, but most of all, a pony.

At last the flames subsided and the mangled and blackened skeleton of what had once been Inferno clattered unceremoniously to the floor. Inferno the cyber pony was dead.

I lay there, blood slowly seeping from my wounds. I had to move, I had to get help. I had to aid all the ponies that were still battling the zebra forces in the Stable atrium.

I looked over at my father's body resting across the room from me. I wiped away my tears and began crawling towards him. My hoof touched his. His body was cold. So very cold.

I curled up against his chest and cried into him. This had all been too much. Far too much. I remembered who I had been only seven days ago. A small, insignificant maintenance mare whose only desire was for other ponies to care about and look up to her.

What have I become? Not an adventure like Brisk, not a monster like Inferno. I was something else, something in between. I dared myself to look up at my fathers crushed skull and missing heart. I had spent my whole life wishing my father would accept me; be proud of me. But the cost of that had been so high. So fucking high.

I let my body relax as unconsciousness overtook me. Take me away from this world death, let me sleep. My mind calmed at that thought. I had returned the A.A.S.S. to the Stable and defended it against those who would aim to hurt it, my duty was done. I could embrace death openly without regrets.

Pyre Blaze stumbled into the room, her armour dented and burned. She looked down at me, worry crossing her face. “Oh shit!” She rushed to my side and pushed a healing potion to my lips. “Drink Amber,” She instructed, pouring the fluid down my throat. "come on, drink!"

I tried to push her away, but Pyre was a lot stronger than I was. “No…” I tried to mutter, but Pyre continued to administer the potion. I struggled for a few more seconds, feeling the potions magical properties take effect and cleanse my body of injuries. Then I fell into a fast sleep.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The automated alarm on my pipbuck sprang to life, aggressively pulling me from my slumber. I hated how early I had to get up in the morning, it’s not like the Stable-Tec Generator was going to be going anywhere any time soon. I think I’ll just lie in bed for a few more minutes.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Alright! Alright! I’m getting up!,” I yelled at my pipbuck in aggravation as I slowly crawled out of the dull grey sheets. My hind leg got caught on something, causing me to trip and land face first on the cold ground. I looked up to see my leg tied up in some sort of sling.

I was in medical. What the buck was I doing here.

I pulled myself to my hooves and looked into the mirror that hung on the wall next to the door. I was startled by how beat up and frail I looked. Where a once soft pink coat had been was now a matted, mud filled mess with gross hairless patches where my coat had not yet grown over a myriad of silver scars. Dark bags had formed under my amber eyes and my curly mane looked more like a rats nest than anything else.

I lazily patted down my mane and headed for the door. I was already running behind schedule. I had to get to the generator room before Shade came in to check on me.

I marched as quickly as I could down the hallways of Stable 25 to get to the generator room. The hallways were dirtier than normal, but it looked as if somepony had done a lazy job of cleaning up whatever mess might have once been there.

As ponies started emerging from their rooms they cast me nervious glances as I strode by. What was their problem? They had seen me plenty of times before. There were less ponies than normal in the hallway today as well, maybe everypony was having a rough morning too.

Funny. Usually the Stable announcer would be playing the Stable-Tec March over the intercoms right about now.

I entered the generator room and looked it over. Everything seemed to be in order. I reached under my desk and pulled out my dogeared Power Ponies comic.

“Ah, just where I left you,” I grinned, sitting down in my chair and opening up to the last page I had read.

Goddesses I was sore. My whole body hurt for some goddess damned reason.

I glanced over at the black metal box that housed the A.A.S.S. I could hear the quiet clicking as the small device distributed sustenance to the Stable.

My eyes locked on the device. It was here. Back in the Stable.

Everything came flooding back to me. The journey across the wasteland, the friends I made along the way, the enemies I had slain, the final confrontation with Inferno.

I felt a wave of tears begin to wash over me again. I blinked them away and tried to stay strong. I had won. It was time to move one with my life. It was time to recover.

The door to the generator room slid open and Shade hauled herself into the room. She gave me a tired look. “Hey kiddo. How are you doing?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be okay again,” I admitted, placing the comic down on the table. “I don’t know how I ever can be.”

Shade gave me a quick hug. “I’m sorry about your dad. I’m glad you finally managed to make amends with him before the end.”

I could feel my body threatening to break out into another fit of shaking, but I did my best to hold it back. “Yeah, I’m glad I got the chance to do that too.”

Shade gave me a small, sad smile and passed me a bottle of whiskey. “I know it ain’t your favourite beverage, but I figured you could use a good drink right about now.”

I accepted the bottle and levitated it to my lips. The liquid burned my throat, but somehow it managed to make everything seem slightly more bearable. “Thanks,” I said, downing most of the contents.

Shade looked at me with admiration. “Eh, that’s what I do. When life in the Stable feels like shit, I just drink away the problems.”

“You’re always drinking,” I observed.

“That I am,” Shade said with a sad chuckle. “That. I. Am.”

I sat up straighter on my chair and looked up at the generator. “So… what happened. With the zebras?” I asked. I couldn’t remember what had happened after I blacked out in the Overstallion’s office.

“When Pyre returned to the atrium with your unconscious body and news of Inferno’s death, it was the last nail in the coffin for those zebra freaks,” Shade grunted, taking another swig of whiskey. “We managed to kill them off pretty easily after that. Their confidence was completely shattered. A few managed to escape back out into the wasteland, but they’ll think twice before trying to come back here.”

“And my friends?” I asked, leaning in a little. A terrible thought washed over me. “They haven’t left yet? Have they?”

“No no, not yet,” Shade chuckled, waving her hoof in the air for me to calm down. “They wanted to make sure you made a full recovery before they headed out. You’ve got some pretty great friends. You know that, right?”

I smiled. A real smile this time. “Yeah, they’re the best.”

I entered the crowded Atrium of Stable 25. Or at least it would have been crowded had the Stable’s population not been suddenly reduced to around two hundred ponies.

I spotted Brisk, Xayah and Pyre gathered around a table at the side of the room, deep in some sort of conversation. All the Stable ponies that past them cast them dirty glanced and made sure to give them a wide berth.

I limped up to them, doing my best to force a smile onto my face.

Brisk spotted me first. Our eyes met and instantly my smile faded away. He hurt too. Perhaps not as much as me, but damn did he hurt. I rushed up to him and gave him a tight hug. We were silent for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” Was all he was able to say to me.

When we finally parted I felt a lot better than I had before. I still felt terrible, but a little of the weight had been lifted off of my shoulder knowing that I wasn’t alone in all of this.

“Amber, I am glad to see you are awake,” Xayah said, standing from the table and approaching me. “How do you feel?”

I exchanged a knowing glance with Brisk. We both knew that was a stupid question. “I’m going to be okay Xayah,” I lied, putting back on that fake smile. “We’re all going to be fine.”

Pyre Blaze huffed. “I’m glad you think so, but I don’t think I can say the same about the rest of the Stable. Even with the A.A.S.S. returned and the zebras gone, it's going to take a long time for this place to be back to the way things used to be. There’s always a lot of healing to be done after shit like this.”

I nodded. I didn’t doubt that for a second. I looked around at the three of them. “How long are you guys going to stick around here?” I asked, dreading the answer. The last thing I wanted right now was for them to leave me alone here.

Brisk gave me a sad smile. I was getting a lot of those these days. “Now that you’re okay, we’re probably going to be heading out tomorrow morning. I think we’ve all been cramped up in here long enough, and I’ve got nothing but bad memories of this place.”

I sighed. After everything that had happened, I was starting to feel like I only had bad memories of it too. I pulled them all in for a tight hug. Even Pyre, who protested against the physical contact. “I’m glad that of all the ponies I had to go through this with, I went through it with all of you,” I said. “I’ll never forget you guys.”

Xayah forced herself to hold back a tear. “We will always remember you as well, you foolish little pony.”

The four of us stood in the atrium tight in each other's embrace for a long time.

The door to my old room slid open. It was one of the few rooms in the Stable that hadn’t been drenched in blood. The dim light on the ceiling slowly flickered to life, revealing my old bed. It was so strange to be home.

I flopped down in my bed and let myself sink into the mattress. It wasn’t a comfy bed, but compared to everything in the wasteland it felt wonderful. I let the calming sensation of my room flow through me.

“It’s not over,” A stern voice said. I bolted upright and looked around the room. I spotted a tall beige stallion with a long brown coat and wide brimmed fedora atop his head standing in the corner. His face didn’t look quite right, almost as if he were wearing a hyper realistic mask.

“Who are you?” I asked in alarm, quickly pulling myself out of bed and reaching for Boneless at my bedside table.

“It’s not over,” The mysterious stranger repeated. His eyes followed me as I moved, but he himself remained still. “They are coming for it. Even now as we speak.”

“Who is? Coming for what?” I demanded, finally raising Boneless to face him. Now looking at him, he seemed familiar somehow. As if I had seen him somewhere in a dream or other life. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out his features better in the dim light of the Stable. “You’re the pony that saved me and Brisk, aren’t you?” I asked quietly.

An alarm sounded outside of my door. I heard ponies rushing past outside and shouting frantically. I glanced back at the pony only to find him gone. I didn’t know who he was talking about, but I could guess the what.

I rushed out of my room. A couple of security ponies rushed down the hallway in the direction of the Stable entrance. I spotted my friends rushing in my direction as well and flagged them down.

“What is going on?” I asked, as they neared me.

“Somepony opened up the Stable door,” Brisk replied breathlessly. “We were heading down to see what happened now.”

My heart thudded in my chest. It wasn’t over. The nightmare was never over.

I turned and started running in the opposite direction.

“Amber, where the fuck are you going!?” Pyre called after me as she sprinted forwards and did her best to keep pace with me. Brisk and Xayah followed suit.

“They’re coming back for it!” I shouted, panic rising in my voice. “Damn it! I should have known they wouldn’t give up!”

We rounded the corner to the maintenance wing. Ahead of us was the generator room. I put my energy into pushing forwards and sprinted the last few steps to the door. I opened up the room and stepped inside. Everything was calm and normal, or at least it seemed that way.

I checked the A.A.S.S. To my relief it was still there. My friends quickly piled into the room behind me.

“Amber, is everything alright?” Xayah asked, looking over my shoulder and examining the black case that held the A.A.S.S.

I took a long deep breath. “Yeah… everything appears to be…” I spotted a faint shimmer in the air; a small ripple of light bouncing off of seemingly nothing. To the untrained eye, it would have been nothing more than a trick of the light or a large gust of air. I knew better. I had seen it enough times.

It was somepony moving under a stealth cloak.

Xayah saw it too. She whirled around and swung her dagger at the invisible intruder. The intruder flipped over her blade and jump kicked Xayah in the face, sending her toppling into Pyre. I raised Boneless to fire, only to have the invisible attacker swipe it from my grasp and toss it out of the room.

Previously unaware of the intruders presence, Brisk and Pyre took a moment to recover from the initial shock. The intruder sprang forwards and smacked Brisk’s head against Pyre’s, knocking both of them to the ground.

I swung my hoof at the intruder, only to hit empty air. My eyes darted around, trying to spot our attackers. I looked for anything. A glimmer of light, a ripple in the air, a flash of a hoof under the stealth cloak. I saw nothing.

Suddenly somepony smacked me in the back of the head, causing me to stumble and fall head first into the ground.

The intruder flickered into view giving me a good look at our attacker. It was a zebra, but unlike any I had seen before. Instead of dark and light grey or black and white stripes, this zebra’s coat was a dark grey adorned with deep violet stripes. His mane was put up in the traditional zebra mohawk and his hooves had dark steel horseshoes on them.

The strange zebra grinned at me and quickly snatched up the A.A.S.S. He tossed it carefully into his saddlebag and then flickered back out of view.

I screamed and pulled myself to my hooves. I thrashed around hoping to strike down the invisible zebra before he could escape.

Brisk finally pulled himself up. “Shit...” He groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

I didn’t have time to see if he was alright. I had to stop this. I charged down the hallway. I had to get to the Stable door before that zebra did. I heard my friends galloping behind me. We had come so far. We couldn’t afford to lose the A.A.S.S. again. Not after all we had been through.

I galloped to a halt in front of the Stable door. Two security ponies lay dead by the exit.

“No no no no!” I screamed, looking out the entrance and spotting the strange zebra making their way to the exit of the tunnel leading into Manhattan. Another pony walked next to them. I froze as my eyes landed on them.

It was Shade. She had a saddlebag full of her belongings on her back as she followed the zebra away from the Stable.

I raced out to confront them, my friends close behind me. “Shade!” I called out, trying to catch her attention.

Both Shade and the zebra turned to face us as we raced towards them. A look of shame crossed over Shade’s face as she saw me. “Amber, I’m sorry.”

My blood ran cold. I stopped in my tracks and glared at her. “It was you… You opened the Stable doors for Inferno and the zebras.”

“I’m so sorry, I had no choice,” Shade begged, taking a step away from me. The zebra beside her held his ground.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Shade had been more of a parent to me throughout my life than my father ever was. That fact that she could betray the Stable like this was beyond me ability to believe. I growled at the strange zebra. “You are going to give the A.A.S.S. back, right now!” I snarled.

The zebra gave me a smug grin. “Oh, I do not think so,” The zebra’s voice was deep and powerful. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a metal device. "I will not disappoint Kamari."

My eyes widened as I realized what the zebra was holding. It was some form of detonator.

“What are you doing,” Brisk demanded, taking a threatening step towards the zebra.

The strange zebra gave him a crooked smile. “What Inferno was not able to do,” the zebra pressed the button on the detonator.

I could hear a loud explosion from behind me. I turned to see a cloud of pink mist wafting from the Stable. A Stable mare screamed and raced for the exit, only for the pink cloud to consume her, melting away her flesh and welding her now skeletal hooves to the metal floor.

Howling screams rose from the depth of the Stable as the inhabitants inside were boiled alive. I saw a small filly not far from the exit of the Stable disintegrate into nothing more than bones and collapse to the ground.

My eyes stung as the poisonous cloud seeped from the Stable and began to wrap around me. My flesh stung and burned. I think I screamed and tried to rush back into the Stable; to die with what little remained of what I once was, but Pyre’s strong hooves wrapped around me and pulled me kicking and screaming away from the Stable door.

I saw Brisk rushing along beside me, his face red with tears. We had done so much, lost so much, for nothing.

As Pyre Blaze pulled me from the tunnel I got one last glimpse of the Stable door, now oozing pink cloud. My home, my life; it was all gone now.

I looked around, my vision streaked with tears. Shade and the strange zebra has vanished into the night. Leaving nothing but the corpses of hundreds of innocent ponies in their wake.

I crawled off of Pyre and lay on my back, staring up at the gloomy cloud covered sky. It was all over. I had lost.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Daddy's Girl -- +5 Science, +5 Medicine
Quest Perk added: Rage -- The wasteland has taken everything from you. You gain a +3 to all intimidation attempts

Chapter X: Wrath of the Lamb

“The thing about happiness is that you only know you had it when it’s gone. I mean, you may think to yourself that you’re happy. But you don’t really believe it. You focus on the petty bullshit, or the next job, or whatever. It’s only looking back by comparison with what comes after that you really understand, that’s what happiness felt like.”

Rage.

Rage had fueled me for so long. It had pulsed through my veins as if it were my very blood. I had harnessed all of that rage to push onwards; to endure the horrors I had been forced to witness and commit. Hundreds had fallen to the burning fire within me.

Inferno had done the same. He had let his anger and hatred fuel him. It had overtaken everything he had once been until all that was left was a distant memory locked away in the back of his mind. Rage had burned away what made him a pony… and now it was doing the same to me.

Or at least it would be, had I not used it all up. Now with everything gone and my rage abused, I was left with nothing more than emptiness. I had become hollow, a shell of the pony I once was. Nothing mattered anymore. Not the Stable, not the A.A.S.S. not even myself. Especially not myself.

I could curl up in some dark hole in the wasteland and die, and nopony would even care that I was gone. It was all just so pointless. What was the point in fighting if no matter what you do, you always fail.

I wanted to scream, cry, yell at the wasteland for taking what it had away from me. But I couldn’t. I didn’t have the strength to do anything anymore. So instead of fighting, I simply lay on my back and stared up at the overcast sky as the first drizzles of rain pattered down against my face. My whole body felt heavy and the very thought of picking myself back up felt like an impossible chore.

Somewhere to my right I could hear Pyre snarling at Brisk. “Come on, get your ass up. We can’t stay here.”

I could hear Brisk moan and pull himself to his hooves. Damn him for having the strength to do so.

Pyre Blaze’s helmeted face moved into my view as she peered down at me. I considered telling her to leave me alone, but I couldn’t seem to find the words.

“Alright Amber, get up,” Pyre ordered, trying to nudge me up with a hoof.

I groaned and rolled away from her, swatting at her lamely. “Go away,” I moaned, shutting my eyes and curling up into the fetal position. The images of oozing pink cloud spilling from the Stable door while the ponies inside slowly melted away flashed before my eyes. I could feel myself shaking at the thought.

Pyre snarled. “I wasn’t asking,” my raider friend snapped, knocking my upside the head and causing me to sprawl awkwardly onto my front. “Get up now. We can’t stay here.”

“Just let me die…” I whimpered, trying to curl back up again. Everything hurt. I gave up and just lay in an uncomfortable pile. “I just want to die…”

Pyre Blaze grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and hoisted me to my hooves violently. She glared at me through her power armour visor. “Oh boohoo, you lost. Get the fuck over yourself Amber. You’re in the mother fucking wasteland now. Out here you lose. You lose all the fucking time. And yeah, you’re going to want to die. But you can’t because you’ve got shit to do. Now stand the fuck up on your own four hooves and move!” Pyre snapped at me, tossing me back a little. I stumbled, but managed to remain upright.

“I don’t have shit to do Pyre!” I yelled, dangerously pulling out and waving Boneless in her face. “Everypony I have ever known is fucking dead! I have nothing! Am nothing! I just want it to stop!”

Pyre took a threatening step forwards. I winced back as the power armoured raider loomed over me. “Oh, you want to be like that, huh? I was raped by my own fucking father when I was four years old and then sold into slavery. I was forced to kill all of my childhood friends for some sick bastards twisted amusement. You think you have it bad Amber? I’ve been living in the wasteland a hell of a lot longer than you have; this sort of shit is just another fucking day to me. I’ve probably seen more fillies die than there were ponies in your dumb fucking Stable,” Pyre’s voice was rising at an alarming rate. The very air around her seemed to be heating up as if it were an extension of her emotions. “You want bad?! I’ve had dreams worse than your fucking nightmares! Now Move!”

I glared at her, unsure if I should obey, break down again, or get angry at her in return. Finally I turned away from her and stared out at the ruins of Manehattan. Fuck, how I hated seeing it again. “I… I don’t know if I’m strong enough Pyre, I’m not made for the wasteland like you are,” I whispered at last, just loud enough that only she could hear it. “I don’t know if I can go on like this.”

Pyre took a long, deep breath. “What do you feel?” She asked me in a much softer tone, the sharp edge in her voice dropping to a low hum.

I huffed. “I don’t know… nothing,” That scared me the most. Was I a sociopath? Why the fuck didn’t I feel anything. “I just kinda feel… numb.”

No wait, there was more. Deep down I could still feel it churning, expanding and threatening to burst out and consume me. I still had rage. Somewhere deep down in my soul was some fundamental part of me that couldn’t let go. I still had some hate left in me.

“I feel angry, I guess,” I said flatly, trying to push down the rage still building up inside. I had to keep it down, I couldn’t lose to that as well.

“Rage, that’s good,” Pyre cooed, slowly walking in a circle around me. “Use that, hold onto it. Let that motivate you.”

“You want me to motivate myself with hatred?” I asked dumbly, looking over to her.

Pyre nodded her head. “There ain’t many things more motivating than that in the wasteland,” She admitted simply. “Who are you angry at?”

I had to think about that. Who was I angry at? Inferno? He was dead. Crank? He had nothing to do with the death of my Stable. Shade? Maybe. The zebra who killed everypony and stole the A.A.S.S? They were just a puppet to their real master.

“Kamari,” I muttered. “That zebra said they worked for somepony named Kamari.”

Pyre Blaze grinned wickedly at me. “Good. Then if you don’t know what else to do, go kill that son of a bitch.”

“I don’t know where he is,” I muttered, looking over to Xayah who was trying her best to comfort a teary eyed Brisk. “He could be anywhere in the Wasteland.”

“Then find him,” Pyre ordered bluntly. “When you let your rage take hold of you, you can do anything.”

“You seem confident,” I deduced, looking back at her. “How are you so sure I can do that?”

Pyre gave me an even stare. I knew she was telling me the truth. “Because that’s what I do, every minute of every day. The wasteland has taken a lot from me Amber; as it has you. You will learn to let your rage guide you.”

With that, Pyre turned from me and walked over to Brisk and Xayah. I thought about what she had said. Perhaps rage was the only thing that could allow you to truly survive in the wasteland, but then would I not just be like all the other raiders who had had their virtues corrupted? I had begun to really appreciate Pyre Blaze’s presence in our group over the last three days and had even come to consider her a friend, but I didn’t want to become like her. I didn’t want to let the wasteland in.

Then again, if I stayed like this; a hollow shell of who I had once been, would that not mean that the wasteland had won anyway? Was I doomed to either die a failure or become a raider? Neither of those options sounded very satisfying. Was is possible to do both at once? Or would that just tear me apart like it had done to so many others?

I took a deep breath. Perhaps it was better to become what I hate, than to let what I hate roam free. I could feel the rage inside growing; a powerful warmth spread throughout my whole body.

I was stronger, able to stand on steady legs. I was determined, nothing could stand in the way of me and my wrath. I looked over Boneless with hateful eyes. I could let morality take a seat on the sidelines just this once… for the greater good of course.

I felt as if I could take on the world. Nopony could stop me, not anymore.

I spotted three red bars light up on my EFS. The wasteland thought it could take me back down another peg? It thought it could knock me down and ruin the small glimmer of fleeting drive so quickly? Time to prove it wrong; I can’t go any lower than I already am.

I spotted three alicorns materialize down the road from us. They didn’t seem to see us, and my friends didn’t seem to see them.

I glanced at Boneless and slowly holstered it. I pulled out my baton and began approaching the alicorns. “Alright wasteland, bring on your worst,” I grunted as I drew closer. If my friends saw me leave, they did nothing to stop me.

The alicorns noticed me long before I reached them, their slit pupils following me with interest as I advanced.

“What is this? A trick?” One of the alicorns asked, their words bouncing around inside my head. “What a silly pony you are to face us alone.”

“I’ve killed your kind before,” I thought back at the alicorns. The alicorns looked almost nervous at how calmly I had responded.

A dark blue alicorn in the middle took a step forwards. “Yes, we remember you Amber Aura. The goddess is most displeased with you.”

I smirked. “Good, I was hoping to get to kill something holier than thou.”

I took a final step and swung my baton at the alicorns. As I had predicted, they took to the air. I had learned in my last encounter with alicorns that I couldn’t use the same trick on them twice; too bad they didn’t seem to learn that lesson as well.

I wrapped my magic around the blue alicorns wings and telekinetically slammed her back into the ground. The alicorn smashed into the ground with a solid thud and a crack. Before she had time to pull herself back up I was upon her, bashing her over the head with my baton with as much force as I could muster.

A green blast of energy lanced out at me and struck me against the side. I stumbled off of the alicorn, a trail of smoke wafting from the newly received scorch mark on my side. The blue alicorn shambled to her hooves and began administering a healing spell on herself while the two green alicorns lunged at me.

I dropped to the ground and slid under the lunging alicorns, slamming my baton as hard as I could across their legs. One of the alicorns tripped, toppling over with two broken legs.

“You will pay for that!” The blue alicorn howled as the skin on her face slowly patched itself over.

I grinned manically at her. “Like you could make me pay any more than I already have,” I thought back. I swung my baton in a large arc and crushed the toppled green alicorns head with one massive thwack. Instantly the alicorn went still.

Everypony froze, all of our eyes locked on the dead alicorn. I had killed it fast. Really really fast. And the other alicorns knew it. I wondered how often somepony took out an alicorn so quickly. Judging from their shocked faces, it wasn’t very often.

I could feel the alicorns fear from where I was standing. It was clearly alien to them.

At once the two remaining alicorns blasted lasers at me. I jumped to the side, just barely missing incineration. Both alicorns flew up into the air, surrounding themselves with a bubble shield before I could pull them back down with my magic.

They were being careful now. They had seen my wrath, and they feared it.

One alicorn would swoop down and blast at me with magic or attempt to skewer me with their horn while the other shot down at me from above to ensure I was unable to attack back. As soon as I began to get control of the situation again, they would switch positions and throw me off again.

As the blue alicorn came in for a stab at me with her horn I swapped tactics and raised Boneless to face her. Her eyes widened with shock seconds before she was sprayed with a shower of explosive shrapnel. Her left side with was torn to shreds and she dropped to the ground in pain.

The only standing alicorn dropped down between us and threw a shield up around the two of them while the blue alicorn began healing their wounds.

I smirked at the alicorns through the bubble shield and took a step towards them, slowly raising my shock baton into the air. Both alicorns winced back as I drew closer.

Ha! And here I thought these creatures had no fear.

“You were a fool to face us without your friends!” the blue alicorn threatened as her damaged wing patched itself back together. “We have already sent for reinforcements.”

I smacked my baton against their shield aggressively. It wasn’t nearly strong enough to break through the shield, but it did make the alicorns jump. I noticed the alicorn holding up the shields magic flicker as my baton came in contact with the magic bubble… interesting.

I slammed my baton against the shield again, and again, and again. After the sixth hit the shield began to flicker. The blue alicorn stared at the flickering shield in disbelief.

Smash!

My baton broke though the shield, causing the alicorns magic to burst and send them staggering back. I lept forwards, pouncing onto the stunned alicorn and ramming my baton against the end of their horn. Their horn didn’t break, but rather the bone was slammed violently into their skull.

The alicorn screamed and flailed across the ground as the broken bone impaled their brain. Blood oozed from their mouth and turned the pathetic wails into helpless gurgles.

I turned to the final alicorn, her face a mask of terror. Then it changed. She glanced up at the sky, a smug smile spreading across her face.

I turned around just in time to see five alicorns swooping down at me. I leapt to the side, avoiding the first blast of energy, only for a second blast to knock me to my back.

The alicorns landed in a circle around me, each one as smug as the one before. The blue alicorn stalked over and looked down at me with hateful eyes. “You were saying?” She said smugly, igniting her horn and preparing to blast me to dust.

The blue alicorn went up in a blaze of fire as Pyre bounded towards me, her flamers assaulting the alicorns with a constant stream of fire.

The five alicorns took to the air at once, their horns lighting up as they retaliated with a brutal onslaught of energy blasts. Pyre Blaze twirled around the beams gracefully, managing to avoid most of every strike, though a few blasts did manage to scorch her armour.

Blam!

A well aimed shot of Xayah’s sniper sent a bullet straight through an alicorn's head. The alicorn's body plummeted towards the ground, smashing into the street with a solid smack. I could hear the alicorn's bone crack upon impact.

The alicorns turned to face Xayah when Brisk bolted out from behind a topple skywagon and fired at them with his pistol. The alicorns swerved out of the way of his shots, bringing them back into the range of Pyre’s flamers.

Brisk’s landed two shots on one of the alicorn's legs, forcing her to put up a shield to regain her composure.

I pulled myself back up and swatted at an alicorn with my baton, shattering the underside of her ribcage. The alicorn screamed out and lashed at me with their hooves, only for Pyre Blaze to slam into her from the side and crush her head under her heavy hooves.

An Alicorn blasted a beam of energy into Pyre, knocking her off her hooves and sprawling across the ground. I stood over my fallen raider friend as the two alicorns moved in.

Another shot from Xayah blasted a hole through one of the alicorns wings, dropping her to the ground. The other alicorn threw their shield up, just as Brisk shot at them again with his pistol.

The alicorn Brisk had shot in the leg had finished healing their wounds and sent a beam of green energy towards Brisk. He rolled to the side, evading the shot and countered with a bullet to the alicorns neck. Blood spurted from the bullet hole as the alicorn tried to get breaths out through her damaged windpipe.

Pyre hauled herself back up and sent a jet of flame flying into the grounded alicorn, burning up their body and turning them into little more than ash.

The remaining alicorn glanced around at the four of us through her shield, her slitted eyes narrowing as they landed on me. “You have made a very powerful enemy with the goddess!” She roared into our heads.

I grimaced. “We hadn’t already?”

The alicorn’s horn glowed brighter as she dropped the shield and lashed at me with a beam of crimson magic. I rolled under the beam and bashed my baton against her front hooves, breaking the bones at the joint.

The alicorn screamed and flew backwards, just barely avoiding a shot from Xayah’s sniper. She was less lucky with Brisk as he sent a shot into her hind leg. She staggered in the air, twisting around and swooping down towards Xayah. She shot a blast of energy towards her, searing the front of her body and sending her flying back.

Pyre lept forwards and slammed her hooves into the alicorn’s side mid-air. The alicorn fell to the ground, the skin on her left side torn open by the powerful attack of Pyre’s hooves. She tried to pull herself back up again, but a burst of fire from Pyre’s flamers quickly turned her broken form into ash.

The whole world seemed to take a breath as the final alicorn sputtered it last painful breath.

I turned to my friends and gave them all a wicked grin. The only one of them that seemed to return my pleasure was Pyre.

“What were you thinking you foolish Pony!” Xayah exclaimed, striding over to me and giving me a death glare. “You could have hurt yourself, or worse!”

I chuckled and pushed her concern aside. “Yeah, but I didn’t. What did you want me to do? Wait for your sorry butts and let them get the upper hoof?”

Xayahs striped hoof slapped me across the face.

Note to self. Zebra slaps are precise and painful.

My hoof flew up to my face and rubbed the red mark where she had slapped me. “What the fuck was that for?” I blurted, surprised at her assault. I had yet to see Xayah lose her cool like that.

Xayah shook her head. To my surprise, she appeared to be holding back tears. “I know what it’s like to lose those you love. I’ve been there. But lashing out and not trusting your friends is a sure way to let your anger consume you.”

“It’s the only way I have left,” I snarled at her, making her take an uncertain step back. “It’s the only thing I have left.”

Pyre chuckled, marching up beside Xayah. “I don't know, it looked like she was doing a pretty good job of those alicorn’s on her own. Not something the Amber I first met could do.”

Xayah cast the raider a death glare. “Do not encourage this,” She demanded, pointing a hoof accusingly at Pyre.

“Encourage it?” Pyre scoffed. “I’m surprised you don’t. Without this rage, your precious little Amber would be a sad heap of depression right now,” Pyre gave me a small wink. “Besides, I mighta kinda totally put her on this path.”

Xayah narrowed her eyes at Pyre. “You did what!”

I pushed my way between the two of them. “Stop it, both of you!” I demanded. My sudden outburst caught both of them off guard and shut them up immediately. “We have a job to do and we aren’t going to get it done if we stand here arguing.”

Pyre smirked at Xayah through her helmet. “Exactly. Lead the way boss.”

I don’t know when I had become the boss, especially to a powerful killing machine like Pyre, but I didn’t bother to question it. I was to focused on what was to come to care. Besides, I needed obedience right now, not friends.

I approached Brisk who had taken to looking out at the wasteland. He seemed lost in thought and I doubted he had even heard the argument that had just occurred.

“You ready to go?” I asked him sternly, turning his attention to me.

He nodded solemnly and looked back out at the towering skyscrapers. “I didn’t even like them Amber… why does it hurt?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know Brisk. That’s something for you to figure out,” I turned so that I was facing everypony. “Alright, listen up! Here's the plan.”

Xayah cocked her head to the side. “Plan? To do what?”

I smirked and began pacing back and forth in front of them. With each step my confidence seemed to be growing. How powerful it felt to let my rage free. “We are going to find the bastard Kamari, and we are going to make him pay for what he’s done.”

I pushed the door open with a creak. The lobby was just as I had last seen it, that was to say uncomfortably clean for a location in the wasteland. The only real give away that we were still in the wasteland was a charred skeleton that rest behind the reception desk.

Behind me I could hear Pyre’s flamers spewing a constant jet of fire as she torched the oncoming Radscorpions. Had we had somepony as strong as Pyre on our first encounter with them, we might have been able to deal with them a lot faster.

Brisk and Xayah quickly darted into the lobby after me, avoiding a particularly close snap of a large scorpions pincers.

“Are you sure you do not want us to accompany you two?” Xayah asked in concern, glancing up at the stairway. “We might be able to help out.”

I shook my head calmly. “Pyre and I should be able to take care of it by ourselves. You two will be safer here anyway,” Xayah almost looked saddened by that statement. “But we need somepony to keep watch of the front door to make sure no pony comes up on us from behind,” I added, hoping to soften her disappointment.

The comment seemed to soothe her a little, but she still seemed uncertain.

Pyre burst into the lobby, her red and black power armour soaked in ash and Radscorpion blood. The raider grinned at us. “Fuck I’m excited for this. I almost hope things go south so we can actual give it to ‘em!”

Xayah gasped and wrapped a tight hoof around me defensively. She snarled at Pyre. “You will not ‘Give it to ‘em’, got it?”

Pyre just rolled her eyes.

I glanced over at Brisk who was cradling his pack of Buck in his hoof in the corner of the room. Once all of this was over I’d need to make sure he was okay.

I looked back to Pyre. “Are you ready?”

The raider cackled ominously. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more ready for anything.”

We turned from the door and began ascending the steps of the building. Like the lobby, the upper floors were just as I remembered. Most of the roof had caved in at spots, forcing us to travel through various apartments.

I paused as I passed a locked terminal sitting on a dust covered desk. Silver Ace’s terminal. I glared at the terminal angrily. I was still kind of pissed off that I had been unable to hack it.

Something Cheese Sandwich had said in his last audio recording came back to me. It had been the one thing he said that had somehow be directed at me. ‘The password is Paradise’.

I held up a hoof to signal for Pyre to hold up. “Give me a second, I want to try something,” I muttered, approaching the terminal cautiously. I turned on the terminal and quickly typed the word paradise in. In an instant, the computer unlocked.

I stared at the screen in shock for a moment. How the hell could Cheese Sandwich have known? The fact that he had talked to a pony born two hundred years after him was odd enough, but this was just insane.

Unlike the other terminals I had found here, silver Ace’s terminal consisted of only a couple audio files. Knowing I didn’t have time to listen to them all right now, I quickly downloaded them onto my pipbuck and played the first one aloud as I continued my way up the building with Pyre Blaze.

“And you’re sure this is going to work?” The nasally voice of Pureblood said over the recording. “I would hate for all this hard work of yours to go to waste.”

“Trust me, it will work. So long as our agreement stands of course,” Another stallion said. I had heard his voice before, though he sounded much older this time. “As long as we have the funding, the project should be able to stay on its hooves.”

“When do you plan on letting me in on who’s involved with this, Silver Ace?” Pureblood urged. “I’m not a fan of funding a project that is trying to be as secretive as my goddess damned grandson.”

Silver Ace chuckled, his voice being slightly obscured by a loud hum of static. “Everypony is on this project. The princesses, the ministry mares, even Stable-Tec.”

“You got both Twilight and Pinkie to work together?” Pureblood gawked in astonishment at Silver Ace's statment.

“Together? No. Simply on seperate sides of the same project. Twilight was driven enough by the desire to learn more and win the war that getting her on my side after I told her she wouldn’t need to work directly with Pinkie was easy.”

“And what about Pinkie?” Pureblood pushed.

Silver Ace gave a sad laugh. “Pinkie is… a little delusional at the moment. She thinks I’m up to something terrible. The opportunity to get to work with me was more than alluring enough for her.”

Pureblood took a deep breath. “Alright Silver Ace, we have a deal. You keep your side of the bargain, and I will keep mine,” Pureblood chuckled deep in his throat. “Ah, my utopia will be glorious!”

The recording cut out. Goddesses did I wish I had some context to what they were talking about.

Pyre and I exited the stairway onto the top floor and slowly began approaching one of the apartments at the end of the hall. Even from across the hallway I could hear the ponies inside talking.

“I’m telling you, the mind control devices would be far more effective if they also completely erased the Hellhounds memory as well,” A voice said as we slowly drew closer.

“And you don’t think that’s fucking immoral?” I head Star Breeze shout. “How would you be able to live with yourself, knowing that you did that to a living creature!”

“Oh, are we trying to take the moral high ground now? Because mind control wasn’t immoral enough? Come on, it’s not like these dumb beasts are pegasi or anything!”

Pyre and I turned the corner to see Star Breeze and another Enclave scientist in a heated debate. Three Enclave troops stood awkwardly around them, watching the two bicker.

“Mind control is one thing, but to completely destroy who they used to be? That’s just evil!” Star Breeze retorted, not seeing the two of us watching them from the doorway.

“You need to put aside your dumb morals and do what you’re told Star, otherwise ponies might start thinking you’re a traitor. And you know what happens to traitors in the Enclave.”

I knocked my hoof on the open door and gave a small cough, drawing all of their attention. The second their eyes landed on us they whipped out their guns and aimed them in our direction. They were all fast, but Pyre was faster.

Before any of the Enclave had any real time to react, they were all staring down the barrel of a loaded Balefire egg launcher.

Star’s eyes narrowed when they landed on me. “Damn it Amber, I thought I told you not to show your face around here again!”

I grinned at her menacingly. “Yeah well, things have changed."

The other enclave scientist growled at Star. “You’ve met these savages before and let them fucking leave!”

Star hissed at the scientist and waved her off with a flick of her wing. “What the fuck do you want Amber?” she scowled, glancing nervously at the massive gun over Pyre’s shoulder.

“I want a Hellhound,” I demanded, taking a step towards her. All of the Enclave ponies took a step back as I advanced.

After a few seconds of shocked silence Star gave an uncomfortable laugh. “You- you want a what?”

“A Hellhound,” I demanded again, more firmly this time. “I know you have been creating mind control devices for Hellhounds. I want one.”

“The fuck do you want a Hellhound for!” Star spat.

I shook my head. “That isn’t something you need to worry about. You just need to worry about the balefire egg launcher over there,” I gestured to Pyre Blaze and the massive gun she had aimed at all of them.

“Please, you wouldn’t dare fire that gun in here, you’d die too!” One of the Enclave troopers spat, advancing towards us.

I laughed at him, levitating a sparkle cola from my saddle bags and taking a quick swig from it. “Don’t be so sure. I just lost everything that I care about and was kinda considering using it on myself earlier today, I couldn’t care less if I don’t walk out of here,” I lowered the bottle and grinned at all of them. “And my friend here is just kinda crazy, so she’ll do anything.”

To prove my point, Pyre gave a manic laugh and fiddled around with the trigger of the gun. I wasn’t sure if she was hamming up the performance for the Enclave or she genuinely was that insane. I never knew with Pyre.

“You’re insane!” Star exclaimed, stepping away from me. “You ponies are fucking lunatics!”

I smiled at her sweetly. “Nah, I’m not insane. I’m just really fucking angry at everything right now.”

The Enclave trooper who had spoken up earlier took a threatening step towards me again and charged up his laser weapon. “You’re bluffing. How dare you try to interfere with the Grand Pegasus Enclave!”

I casually glanced over at Pyre. “Alright, I tried. Fire when ready.”

Pyre gave me a wide grin. “Finally, for a second there I thought I wasn’t going to get to use this thing! Brisk is going to be so jealous!”

Star’s eyes widened in horror and she threw her hooves into the air defensively. “Hold on a second, let's talk about this. How about we just talk this out like civilized ponies!”

“I don’t talk to savages!” one of the troopers declared, stepping forward to join the other Enclave member.

“Guess that settles it, I’ll see y’all in hell!” Pyre laughed, tightening her grip on the trigger.

A metal device clattered by my hooves. I looked down to see a slightly less bulky version of the headpiece I had seen on the hellhound a few days ago. I glanced up at Star who was doing her best to keep from shaking in fear.

“There you go,” Star spat, pointing to the head piece. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

I gracefully picked up the headpiece and tossed it into my saddlebag. “Thank you all, We’ll make sure to put it to good use,” I smirked, slowly backing out of the room.

“Yeah whatever, now get the fuck out of here Amber, and don’t think the Enclave will forget this!” Star growled, digging at the floor with the tip of her hoof.

Pyre groaned. “Wait, so I’m I not going to get to fire this off?”

“Not unless they do something stupid,” I comanded, walking out of the room. Pyre pouted and followed me out.

As we left I could hear the Enclave scientists turn back to Star breeze and snarl. “Don’t think Autumn Leaf won’t hear about this! You’re dead Star! You’re fucking Dead!”

When Pyre and I returned to the lobby we found ourselves in a bit of an odd situation.

Brisk and Xayah had ducked behind the reception desk with their weapons drawn. Every few seconds they would peer over the edge of the desk before ducking back behind it.

I checked my EFS. Nothing. Outside of our four green bars there didn’t seem to be anything moving.

“What are you doing?” I hissed, pulling up next to the two of them. Pyre crouched down next to me, though her power armour made ducking very difficult.

“Bounty Hunters,” Brisk answered, quickly glancing over the desk again. “They used a Stealth buck after they started attacking us. We think they’re after our bounty.”

Shit, I had forgotten about the bounty Crank and Inferno had put on my head. So much shit was going on, it was hard to keep track of it all.

“I don’t see them?” I stated dumbly, glancing in the direction they were supposedly in. A bullet whizzed past my head and embedded itself in the wall behind me. I quickly ducked back down.

“That would be because they are invisible as Brisk previously stated you foolish pony,” Xayah scolded, throwing her hood over her head and flickering out of view.

“How many were there?” I asked, pulling out my baton. “Four, five?”

“Seven, I think,” Brisk answered. “It was hard to get a good look at them.”

Pyre peeked over the desk. A bullet lanced out and ricocheted off the side of her helmet. “Alright, what's the plan Amber?”

I looked around at my companions. “It will be hard to shoot them when we can’t see them. Pyre do you think you could flood the room with fire? Draw them out?”

Pyre smirked. “You don’t even need to ask.

“Xayah? Are you still there?” I asked, assuming my zebra friend was still to my right. I heard a small noise of acknowledgement. “I need you to keep a watch on the battle from afar. Try and take out anypony we don’t see. Strange movement in the fire, shoot it.”

“And what do you want me to do?” Brisk asked, popping open his container of buck and popping one of his last tablet into his mouth.

I gave him a grin. “You’re with me. Take out everything that moves.”

“Alrightly,” Pyre smirked, lighting up her flamers. “Let the fun begin!”

Within moments of Pyre launching herself over the table, the room was filled with raging fire. I heard screams from the bounty hunters as they did their best to evade the burning inferno.

Brisk and I leapt out with our weapons drawn. I spotted the forms of a few ponies rushing around the room. While invisible, the ponies looked as if they were made of fire with the hot flames dancing off of their transparent coats.

I swung my baton at the closest one, crimping his leg and sending him toppling over. As the blow struck, the pony flickered into view for a second, just long enough for me to get a grasp on where they were. I slammed my shock baton down where their head was. The collision was accompanied by a loud crack and the splatter of blood. A few seconds later the broken corpse of the bounty hunter flickered into view, only for his mangled visage to once again disappear behind a blanket of fire.

To my right, Brisk learched back and forth while he tried to avoid the swinging blade of a burning bounty hunter. He turned and bucked the bounty hunter in the face, sending him stumbling backwards. A shot from Xayah’s sniper pierced the bounty hunters skull, making him fall limp into the raging fire.

An alarm began to sound, followed by the strange noise of moving pipes. There was a burst of sound from above us and the buildings sprinkler system flared to life, causing water to cascade down onto our heads. I was surprised that the sprinkler system was still working after all these years, but I suppose the Enclave had been keeping the building in pristine condition.

Almost immediately the fire was extinguished, once again hiding our attackers from view. They weren’t completely hidden however, if I looked close enough I could see water dripping off of seemingly nothing.

“Amber, to you left!” Pyre shouted, barreling into seemingly nothing. A pony flashed into view a few seconds after she collided with it.

I spun and ducked away from my left side just as an axe swung past my head. I lashed out with my baton, clashing with the swinging blade mid air.

The invisible pony reeled back and swung the axe at me again, this time aiming for my front hooves. I back stepped, avoiding losing my front two limbs.

Brisk jumped at my attacker from the side, wrapping his legs around him and pulling him away from me as he tried to swing his axe at me again. The Bounty hunter bucked Brisk off of him, slamming Brisk into the ground with a heavy thump.

I saw the axe raise into the air above Brisk’s head. Before it could split his skull in half I yanked out Boneless and blasted the invisible bounty hunter in the face with my last shell. The bounty hunters head burst open, sending bits of skull and brain flying in every direction as if it were shrapnel from a grenade.

I saw Pyre Blaze pin a bounty hunter down and cover them in a wave of fire. Unfortunately for the bounty hunter, the sprinklers kept putting out the flame, making their painful end only last longer as Pyre continued to burn them away.

The loud bang of Xayah’s sniper drew my attention to the far side of the room where Xayah had expertly shot a bounty hunter between the eyes. How she had done that while he was invisible I will never know.

The last two bounty hunters flickered back into view and stared at us in awkward horror, their stealth bucks clearly spent.

Pyre Blaze was on them in an instant, pinning both of them down with her powerful metal clad hooves.

“Wait! Don’t hurt us, we didn’t mean nothin’ by it!” One of the bounty hunters squaked, trying to push Pyre off of him. He was unsuccessful in his attempt.

I raised my baton and slowly approached them. The two bounty hunters began fighting even harder to free themselves, but Pyre proved too strong for both of them.

Brisk put a hoof out and stopped me. “Amber stop. They aren’t a threat anymore,” He seemed worried. I looked down at the two bounty hunters. It would be so easy to kill them right now, then they wouldn’t come back and cause trouble. “We aren’t raiders Amber.”

Brisk’s words cut through me like a knife. Of course we weren’t raiders, why was he even drawing that comparison? I glanced at my baton raised above the bounty hunters head. Why hadn’t a lowered it yet.

I leaned in close to the bounty hunters and snarled at them. “Get out of here,” I demanded, my voice low and steady. “And go tell everypony that’s thinking about hunting us down what happens when they do…”

They bounty hunters gave a timid squeak and pushed away from me. Pyre raised her hooves and let the two bounty hunters dart off.

“Really? We’re just going to let them go?” Pyre grumbled, watching the two scurry off into the wasteland. “You know doing that kind of shit always comes back to bite you in the ass, right?”

“We aren’t raiders,” I reminded her. “It’s just Kamari we’re after.”

Xayah slid down from her perch above us. “Did you two get what we came for?” She asked Pyre and I, eyeing my baton nervously. I was still yet to have lowered it from its threatening position. I quickly returned the baton to my side.

“We did,” I grinned, holding up the Hellhound headpiece. Things were working out just as planned so far. “Let’s go hunt a Hellhound.”

I have learned many things during my time in the wasteland. Yet for some stupid reason I was yet to have learned that confronting a Hellhound is never a good idea, regardless of how prepared you were or how much rage was flowing through you. I should learn that one quickly.

The massive swing of the Hellhounds claw sent Me flying back and crashing into the side of a broken down skywagon. The metal walls caved under the sudden impact, sending my body straight through one side and out the other.

I slowly pulled myself up and shook my head, trying to lose the dizziness induced by crashing through two solid metal walls. Unfortunately the motion only made the feeling worse.

In front of me, Brisk had started running in loops around the raging Hellhounds, blasting it with constant shots from his pistol. Few shots missed, fewer shots caused any real damage.

Xayah had once again disappeared under the cover of her stealth cloak. The only proof of her still being around was the loud bang of of her sniper, followed shortly by a quick spurt of blood on the Hellhound where the bullet hit.

Pyre Blaze seemed to be the most effective in the fight as usual. She would use her heavy power armour to her advantage, ramming into the Hellhound to keep its focus off of us and praying to Celestia above that it didn’t manage to get a good hit on her when she did. It was a dangerous gamble, even with the power armour the Hellhound’s claws managed to rake straight through and tear at her hide beneath.

Finding a Hellhound had been easier than I had expected. What I had assumed might be a day or two of searching quickly turned into an unexpected ambush. What I also hadn’t expected was that we would run into a Hellhound four times the size of the common one. Its matted fur was a dark jet black and it’s large form was covered in crisscrossing scars. This Hellhound had seen battle, and it’s relentless ferociousness only proved the point. What was worse was that this Hellhound seemed to be carrying some sort of highly modified magical energy weapon that would blast at us if we tried to steer clear of its claws. There was no getting out of range with this thing.

I looked around at our surroundings, looking for something that might help us take down something as powerful as our current adversary. A couple of broken skyscrapers, a ruined sky wagon, nothing that seemed to be of any use in combat.

Alright then, I’d just have to take it down the old fashioned way.

I raised my baton and charged at the Hellhound. The goal was to subdue and control, not to maim. Not that I was worried about not being able to hurt this thing.

I smacked my baton across the back of the Hellhounds head, drawing its attention to me. It spun around and lunged at me, forcing me to duck low to the ground and roll to the side to avoid being sliced in twain. I rolled back to my hooves, only for it to plow into me and send me falling over onto my back.

Brisk leapt up and wrapped all four of his legs around the Hellhound’s shoulders and began smacking it across the head with his pistol. The Hellhound lurched from side to side, trying its best to shake Brisk off. Finally he swiped at him with his claws, causing Brisk to jump away before he could be mauled.

I pulled myself back up and rushed towards the creature. Before I could get close however, the ground in front of me was blasted apart by deadly shots of the hellhounds magical energy weapon. I swerved to the side, my front hooves burned by the attack.

The Hellhound charged me, blasting more lasers in my direction. Pyre Blaze leapt in front of me, taking the attack for me. The side of her power armour were stripped away revealing the autumn orange coat underneath. Pyre hissed and lunged at the Hellhound, using her weight to knock it over and pin it down with her hooves.

“Amber! Now!” Pyre yelled, indicating for me to throw the mind control headpiece over its head while it was down.

I pulled out the headpiece and rushed toward the toppled Hellhound. The Hellhounds eyes widened as it saw the device and thrashed harder against Pyre. The Monster kicked at Pyre’s underside with a hind leg, throwing her off of it and sending her slamming into me.

The headpiece fell from my grip as Pyre’s heavy body crashed into mine. I rolled Pyre off and rushed for the fallen headpiece. The Hellhound got to it first, lashing at me with it’s claws as I neered. I lurched to my right and bashed at its claws with my baton. The Hellhound coiled away from me, hunching over the Headpiece to ensure I couldn’t get to it.

So these things were smarter than I gave them credit for. Well that was just perfect.

Xayah sent a bullet through the Hellhounds leg, dropping the monster to it’s knee. The Hellhound howled and glared up at where I assumed Xayah was hiding. The Hellhound sent a laser up in her direction blasting her across the chest and making her flicker back into view.

How the Hellhound had managed to know where she was even while she was invisible was astonishing. I supposed it had to be because of it’s incredible sent.

Brisk bolted past me and dove between the Hellhounds legs, snatching the headpiece as he did. The Hellhound growled and lashed at him with its claws, ripping three large claw marks down Brisk’s front. Brisk screamed and dropped the headpiece, clutching his chest to slow the bleeding.

The Hellhound pounced and pinned Brisk to the ground with a claw. The massive hound moved over him and prepared to tear into his throat with its huge jaw.

Pyre sent a small jet of fire at the Hellhound. Not enough to burn it, but enough to hurt. The Hellhound Shrieked and swatted at her, forcing Pyre to veer away from the massive claws.

Brisk quickly pulled himself away from the distracted Hellhounds grip and began scrambling towards the headpiece. The Hellhound lashed at him with his hind leg, sending Brisk toppling face first into the asphalt.

“Do these things have any weaknesses?” I asked as Xayah joined me in rushing towards the Hellhound.

“I’ve heard they do not like loud noises. But if that is a weakness or no, I cannot say,” Xayah replied, pulling out her knife and stabbing it deep into the Hellhounds back. The Hellhound didn’t even seem to notice and continued advancing on Brisk as he struggled to pull himself back to his hooves.

“Loud noises?” I questioned, more to myself than to Xayah. “What the hell around here can make a loud noise?” I had no idea. And how loud did this noise need to be? Guns were loud, and the Hellhound didn’t seem to care about that. It’s not like I could just sing at a high pitched note or something, that would be ridiculous.

Pyre slammed into the Hellhound again, knocking it away from Brisk. “Amber, don’t just stand there! Do something!”

I looked around. “Loud noise, loud noise, come on!” My eyes landed on the broken down skywagon. I remembered back at school in the Stable our teacher Ms. Dry Chalk would sometimes scratch her hoof down the chalkboard to get our attention. If I could only amplify a sound like that.

I wrapped the skywagon in a field of magic and tried to lift it as high as I could into the air. My head pounded from the effort it took to raise such a large object even a few inches off the ground, let alone as high as I was taking it. I felt the magic around my horn begin to fade as the throbbing pain in my head threatened to make me lose my concentration.

“Come on! Just a little higher!” I yelled, forcing myself to focus even harder on the magic lifting the skywagon into the air. I had been gifted enough with magic to be able to utilize a fairly wide variety of spells, unfortunately I was no Star Swirl the Bearded and I wasn’t capable of doing crazy magical feets. What I wouldn’t give to be a master of Telekinesis right now.

The skywagon reached the top of the tallest skyscraper around. I placed the side of the wagon against the wall and prayed that the sound hurt the Hellhound more than it hurt me.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” I grunted. Slowly, I dragged the skywagon down the side of the building. The ear piercing sound of metal against metal rang out across the Manehattan ruins. The sound might not have been as bad as hooves on a chalkboard, but the shrill noise still hurt, and it was much much louder.

Instantly the Hellhound reached for its head and began trying to try to cover it’s ears with its claws. Pyre took advantage of its lack of ability to use its arms and pinned it to the ground. The Hellhound howled and tried to break free from her grip, but every attempt to get her off forced it to remove its claws from its ears and endure the full painful sound.

“Brisk! Get that thing on it’s damn head!” Pyre ordered, struggling to hold down the thrashing Hellhound.

Brisk scooped up the helmet and slammed it down onto the hellhounds head. At the same moment, the Hellhound kicked Pyre of of it and sent her tumbling into me. My concentration on my magic was lost upon impact and the sky wagon fell to the street with a crash.

The Hellhound pulled itself up and lunged at Xayah, who did her best to stay clear of the deadly claws.

“I thought you said that thing would control it!” Brisk gasped, out of breath from the fight. The large claw marks on his front had stopped bleeding a bit, but they would clearly leave a brutal scar.

I began scrolling through all the radio frequencies on my pipbuck. “Give me a second, give me a second!” I retorted in a panic.

The Hellhound grabbed onto Xayah and lifted her into the air. It opened its jaw and began moving in to bite off Xayah’s head.

I found the radio frequency I was looking for and activated it. Instantly the Hellhound froze.

“Holy shit!” Pyre exclaimed, approaching the now still Hellhound. “What I’d have done to have a trinket like that the last couple times I’ve had to fight these things.”

“So like, do you just have complete control over it now or whatever?” Brisk asked, joining Pyre next to the Hellhound. “Like we can just use it to fight stuff and all that?”

I nodded slowly. “I think so, I mean I’m no expert on these mind control things, but I believe that’s the general idea.”

Xayah coughed, drawing all of our attention to her still dangling from the Hellhounds claw. Her head still half inside the hellhounds mouth. I realized had a been a second slower, Xayah would have been dead. “Do you think you could tell it to maybe put me down?”

“Uh, sure,” I said, looking the Hellhound over. That was assuming I could figure out how to give it orders of course. “Could you, uh… put my friend down please?”

Almost instinctively, the Hellhound placed Xayah back down on the street gently. Once free of the monsters grasp, Xayah scooted back a few inches nervously, putting her hooves over her head protectively.

“Alright, time for part two of the plan,” I said, circling the Hellhound and taking in all the possibilities I had with it now under my control. “We can use it’s powerful sent to hunt down-”

“We should probably set up camp actually,” Brisk stated, cutting me off and glancing up at the sky. The light of the sun was just beginning to set behind the broken skyscrapers of Manehattan and the thick cloud layer over the Wasteland looked like it could start a massive downpour of rain at any moment. “And we need a moment to heal up anyway.”

I grumbled. “Fine, but we leave early tomorrow morning.”

Brisk gave me a sad grin. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

We holed up in a small house on the side of the road. The structure looked tiny in comparison to the rest of the Manehattan buildings, but somehow it had managed to stay more intact than most as well. Inside were a large living room that had seen better days and a thin hallway leading into a bunch of separate rooms.

I glanced down at my EFS. There didn’t seem to be anything alive inside the building. I was however once again discomforted by the fact that three twisted mannequins stood in the center of the room. Why the hell are there so many damned mannequins in the wasteland?

“Pyre, can you start up a fire?” I asked, sitting down on a broken couch and rummaging around in my saddlebags for our healing potions.

“Me? Start a fire? Preposterous!” Pyre joked, lazily knocking over the three mannequins and lighting them ablaze with her two flamers.

I pulled a healing potion out of my saddlebag and passed it to Brisk who gratefully took it between his hooves and downed the contents of the bottle. I could see the skin around the claw marks on his chest beginning to heal before my eyes, though three silver scars still remained on his chest.

“How are you holding up Brisk?” I asked, scooting closer to him.

He finished the bottle and looked away from me. “I’ve been better. I keep thinking about what happened at the Stable… Th-the pink cloud and…” he stopped himself and tried to control his emotions as he started shaking. “I never wanted to go back to that terrible place again, but… I didn’t want that…”

I took a long, deep breath. “I keep thinking about Shade and that purple striped zebra. I mean, how could they do this! Why would they do this!” I could feel the anger in me bubble to the surface again. I didn’t know what I would do when I saw Shade again. Would I be angry? Or would I just curl up and cry?

Brisk looked over and cocked his eyebrow. “And how are you doing? You haven’t seemed yourself after it happened.”

“I’m just angry, that’s all,” I grunted casually. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be fine as soon as we give this Kamari bastard what he deserves.”

“And what if we never find him?” Brisk pushed, he looked down at the ruined remains of his Stable barding. It was in far worse condition than mine.

“We will,” I insisted, daring myself to glance at the Hellhound curled up in the corner of the room. “I know we will.”

“But what if we can’t. This plan of yours is risky Amber. And that’s coming from me!” Brisk pointed out. “I mean the Hellhound is only the second most dangerous part of this mission, and that’s not even including whatever happens after we locate this Kamari pony.”

“Why are you so worried about this right now?” I asked. It wasn’t like Brisk to be full of self doubt or be weary about an adventure.

Brisk looked down at his hooves. “I don’t know. What happened to our Stable just kinda got me thinking ya know,” He trailed off and looked me in the eye. He looked so afraid. “If we hadn’t chased that purple zebra out of the Stable… that could have been us inside. I don’t think I’m ready to die yet Amber.”

Ironic. the death of my Stable had briefly made me want to kill myself. How strangely polarizing our reactions had been. I forced myself to give him a smile. He didn’t give me a smile in return. He of all ponies knew far too well my pain. And I knew his.

I sighed, dropping the fake facade. “Get some sleep Brisk. We all need it.”

I stood up from the couch and approached Xayah who was sitting around the fire. She had taken to staring into the flames, her eyes displaying signs of troubled thoughts. The fire danced across her eyes, making them look like they sparkled more than usual. I sat down next to the zebra and stared into the fire with her.

“Hey.”

“Hello Amber, how are you coping?” Xayah asked, turning from the fire to look at me. There was clear concern in her voice.

I gave her a fake grin. She seemed to believe it more than Brisk did. “I could be doing worse.”

Xayah gave me a crooked look. “Could be doing worse? Amber I know just as well as you what it is like to lose those you hold dear. Please, You mean a lot to me and I do not wish to see you distraught. You seem to be heading down a dangerous path.”

I shook my head. “I said I’m fine Xayah. I appreciate your concern, but I assure you I’ll be okay,” I hoped she couldn’t tell that I was lying though my teeth.

Xayah seemed to relax at my words. “I do not think you quite realize how much I care, but I am glad you feel like you are in control.”

In control? What was that supposed to mean?

“Are you ready for what we are going to need to do tomorrow?” I asked. Xayah shivered at the mention of my plan.

“I am not sure I am prepared for what is to come, but if it is what we must do, then I will,” Xayah mumbled, glancing at the sleeping Hellhound. “Are you sure the Beast will be able to do what you need?”

I nodded smugly. “That thing managed to smell you from a fairly far distance and shoot you down with uncanny accuracy,” I pointed out. Xayah looked uncomfortable at the mention of her being shot. Her striped hide was still scorched in a few spots from the Hellhounds magical energy weapon. “If there is anything that can hunt him down, it’s that thing.”

Xayah nodded solemnly and curled up next to the fire. “I hope you are right Amber,” I gave her a smile and turned to leave, but Xayah reached out a hoof and stopped me. “I do not know exactly what you are going through right now Amber, but please be careful. I do not know what I would do if something bad happened to you.”

I could feel my heart warm a little at that. “I’ll do my best Xayah. Thank you.”

Xayah gave me a warm smile before resting her head on her hooves and drifting off to sleep. I looked down at the sleeping zebra for a second. She looked so small all curled up by the fire. I didn’t want her to get hurt anymore than she already had. Both her and Brisk deserved to be safe. And that wasn't something they could have while traveling with me. I was only going to get them hurt if they followed me down this path.

I sighed and turned away from Xayah before trotting over to Pyre who was poking at the fire with her hoof. The fire would race up her hoof for a second before she would jerk her hoof away and smother the fire.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked, looking at her slightly scorched hoof.

Pyre shrugged casually. “Eh, once you get burned enough times you begin to get numb to the feeling.”

The amount of times Pyre must have been burned for that to have happened was far beyond my ability to comprehend at the moment. I looked my raider friend over carefully. Despite having known her for a few days now, I still knew next to nothing about her. “When are you going to tell me a bit about yourself Pyre?”

Pyre Blaze chuckled. “When I feel like it,” I waited for her to elaborate on that, but she never did. Pyre looked between Brisk and Xayah sleeping around the fire. Then she looked back at me. “You’re thinking about leaving them to find Kamari on your own aren’t you?”

I looked at her in shock for a second before nodding shamefully. “How did you know?”

“I told you earlier, I’ve seen things in the wasteland far beyond anything you could imagine. I’ve been where you are now, I know what you’re thinking and trust me when I say you’re going to need them. They aren’t safer without you, and you’re dead without them.”

I looked over at Pyre. She had removed her helmet, allowing me the rare opportunity to see her face. “But what if they get hurt? They deserve more than that.”

“They probably will,” Pyre stated flatly. “But that’s not up to you. If they choose to follow you then they will follow you. If you choose to run from them, the will only be left with one less pony looking out for them.”

“I’m worried I’m going to hurt them,” I admitted. “I think I’m losing myself to the wasteland. Once Kamari is gone I will have nothing left…”

“Then find something to hold onto fast,” Pyre soothed. “Because if you don’t you’ll just get swallowed up by the wasteland. I would know.”

“What are you holding onto Pyre?” I asked, looking into the fire.

“Nothing,” Pyre grunted. “I have nothing left, and it drove me past redemption. You might have some weird delusion that I’m better than other raiders Amber, but the truth of the matter is that I’m just as vile and twisted. Maybe a little smarter and stronger, but just as bad.”

“I don’t believe that,” I stated firmly. “I’ve seen you care about things. I think that under all that blood and cruelty, you’re a good pony.”

Pyre laughed mockingly. “Ha! You better make sure I don’t stop needing you Amber, cause I care a lot less about you and your friends lives than I think you think I do,” with that she pulled herself up and marched out of the building, staring out at the desolate street outside.

I released a breath and looked around the room one last time before settling my gaze on the burning mannequins. “Alright Crank, ready or not, I’m coming for you.”

I rest my head on my scared hooves and let myself drift off to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Bloody Mess -- +5% overall damage, more violent death animations

Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. School has been very busy.
Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat

I hope you all have a good day and happy late Halloween!

Chapter XI: Dancing With Fire

"You open a closet, it’s just a closet. You can never find the monster that hides inside. Not until it jumps out at you."

Self-absorption.

I had gone so far, faced and lost so much, only for the world to take what little I had fought to achieve. Everything I had done, everything I had been through, was to help the ponies I cared about. But now they were all gone. The world couldn’t have cared less about how I felt or what I did. And now it was my time to do the same. It was my time to take what I wanted for myself!

I could feel my being slowly being devoured by the rage that coursed through me. At first it had been a numb sensation, then a quiet hum in the back of my brain. That hum had grown until it had become the blaring blast of balefire. Each moment more and more of me was consumed by the hate that had formed in me.

I had been told to survive in the wasteland I would need to find something to hold onto. Rage and angry could only drive me for so long. Once that was done and gone, I doubted there would be much of me left. Perhaps when Kamari was dead at my hooves I could crawl away into some abandoned hole in the ground and die, forgotten by the rest of the world.

The idea of ceasing to exist seemed so calming, but I couldn’t yet. Not until this was all done.

Until that time came however, to hell with the wasteland and to hell with reason. I was going to find Kamari and keep my friends safe, even if everypony told me otherwise and life itself threw its worst at me. An army of cyber alicorns weren’t going to get between me and my revenge!

And it’s not like my friends couldn’t survive without me, right? They would probably be better off, I only seemed to bring death to those I cared about anyway.

I sat up and looked around the small room we had set up camp in. The burning mannequins Pyre Blaze had lit aflame to keep us warm had long since gone out and a soft, ash filled breeze wafted through the shattered windows.

The sun was still yet to rise above the horizon, leaving the world wrapped in a silent and cold blanket. The air seemed a chilling blue, beautifully contrasting the occasional pop of a surviving spark from the remains of the fire. Despite the cold and eerie atmosphere, I couldn’t help but feel calmed by the stillness.

I looked from Brisk Spark to Xayah; both slept soundly on the floor around the charred models. They almost looked peaceful, but I knew that was a lie. Nothing was peaceful in the wasteland.

I silently pulled myself to my hooves and walked over to retrieve my saddle bag. The floorboards of the house creaked slightly as I slinked to my belongings, making me freeze. I glanced around at my slumbering friends; none of them seemed to have heard anything in there sleep. I bent down and placed my saddle bag over my back.

I turned and approached the Hellhound who had curled up in the corner. Despite the occasional twitch of its tail, and the constant rise and fall of it’s chest as it breathed, I could have sworn it was a statue.

“Come, we’re leaving,” I whispered, ordering the Hellhound to move. It obayed instinctively, almost robot like.

I glanced around the room one last time, taking in all of my friends. My gaze caught Pyres. She wasn’t asleep, but rather sitting back watching me. She seemed slightly disappointed, but made no effort to stop me or alert my friends of my leaving.

I gave her a small parting smile and crept from the building, my Hellhound trailing close behind me.

What did Pyre Blaze know anyway? My friends would be fine without me and I would be fine on my own. If they followed me down this path they would die, and I couldn’t let that happen to those that I carried about. Not again.

The sky outside was cast in dark clouds, which wasn't any different from the normal wasteland weather I suppose. Small beams of moonlight managed to pierce through the thick layer of clouds, illuminating the menacing city skyline with a ghastly light.

At this time of day the wasteland looked both beautiful and lonely, like a lost soul trapped between life and death.

I turned to the massive Hellhound and raised my right hoof for him to sniff. Much of Inferno’s blood still coated my tattered Stable barding. I didn’t know how much alike Crank and inferno’s blood smelt, but I hoped whatever black fluid flowed through them was similar enough for the Hellhound to trace. “Find him boy,” I muttered, as the Hellhound gave me a sniff and started scrambling along the broken street after something I couldn’t smell.

I pulled my saddlebag tighter around me and followed after the Hellhound into the early morning. As the Hellhound lead me around a corner I turned back to look at the ramshackled structure my friends slept inside. I let loose a long slow breath.

“Be safe, please,” I muttered, before turning away and marching into the ashes of Manehattan.

I followed the Hellhound for almost an hour. The sun was still yet to have risen. I must have left earlier than I thought. All for the best I suppose, I didn’t want my friends following after me.

The further we walked, the more bloodshed we seemed to pass. Ever turn lead us to a bloodier street filled with even more corpses than the one before. At first it was just a couple of squashed radroaches, then it was a raider camp. Finally we turned to a street where a whole squadron of Steel Rangers had been butchered.

I was thankful for the darkness of night as it hid many of the horrors I past from me, though even through the gloom I could tell that many of the corpses were a bloody messy.

Yup, we were definitely on Crank’s tail. No other pony could be this lethal.

The Hellhound paused and glanced around the empty street, it’s sharp claws fidgeting at its side in agitation. I glanced around not spotting anything out of the ordinary. The Hellhound crouched low and began slinking it’s way towards a large trash bin on the side of the road.

I glanced down at my EFS. A lone green bar popped up on my pipbuck. Something was in the trash bin, but it didn’t seem to be hostile.

Interest got the better of me and I stalked over and slowly raised the lid of the trash bin. Instantly my eyes met a matching pair of Amber eyes looking back at me innocently through the gloom. I pushed the lid up the rest of the way, revealing a small pink filly looking up at me.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed it was a tiny version of me. The unicorn filly had a light pink coat with a curly pink and blue mane. Her amber eyes were strikingly similar to my own and she even had many of the same cuts and bruises that I had.

A small gasp escaped my lips as my eyes landed on her cutie mark. A red screwdriver… my cutie mark.

I swallowed, not sure how to handle the tiny me. “Uh, hi there little filly,” I stumbled, trying to find words. “What’s your name?”

The filly cocked their head and continued to look up at me silently, not bothering to answer the question. She began to reach out a hoof. Hesitantly, I slowly raised my hoof to reach hers.

Her eyes flashed blue and for a second I could have sworn her timid expression changed to one of amusement.

“Gah! What the fuck!” I yelped, jumping back in shock and landing heavily on my rump. I quickly pulled myself back to my hooves and pulled out Boneless, only to remember I was out of ammo.

“Amber?” A synthesized voice said from behind me.

I whirled around and raised my baton in the direction of the voice, still shaken by what I had seen. To my surprise I found a Sprite bot bobbing up and down in front of me. I squinted at it. “Watcher? Is that you?”

The sprite bot bobbed up and down faster as if it were nodding. “Yes, hello Amber.” I glanced behind me at the trash bin. The tiny filly had somehow disappeared into the cold night. “Are you alright Amber? You seem nervous?”

I shook the image of the filly out of my head and turned back to the Sprite Bot. “Y-yes, thanks Watcher. I’m fine. I think I’m just seeing things. That’s all.” As I couldn’t see Watchers face or even hear any inflection in his voice, it was hard to tell if he believed me or not. I sighed, hoping he took that answer. “How have you been Watcher?”

“Things have been… interesting, to say the least,” The Sprite bot hummed. “Seems like half the wasteland is at war with each other right now,” The Sprite Bot turned to look at the Hellhound. “Interesting friend you have here.”

I chuckled darkly. “Yeah, took him of some Enclave scientists.

Watcher went silent for a long moment. “What do you mean Amber?” Watcher finally said. It was hard to tell with the synthesizer on his voice, but he didn’t seem very pleased with my statement.

I took a step away from the hovering Sprite bot. “The uh- Well the Enclave kinda created these mind control devices- and well- I kinda stole one of there Hellhounds…”

The Sprite bot just continued to bob up and down for a few moments. I could tell something about that had rubbed Watcher the wrong way. “You would use mind control on somepony to get what you want?” Watcher grunted, his voice lower than normal.

“Somepony?” I scoffed, pointing a hoof at the Hellhound. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but that’s not a pony. This thing is a death machine and I need it!”

I could hear Watcher growl. It was a strange noise. It didn’t sound like any noise a pony would make. “That thing is sentient Amber. Just like any other pony!”

I glanced at the Hellhound. Could it talk? Comunicate? I could feel my magical grip on my baton tighten. It didn’t matter how smart it was, I needed it.

“Then I’ll let it go when I’m done using it! But I need it Watcher. Those cyber ponies I told you about, they killed my Stable. Everypony is dead. I’m not going to stop until those bastards and the ass hole that sent them are lying dead at my hooves!”

Watcher was silent again, trying to process what I was saying no doubt. “Where are you friends Amber?” Watcher cooed in a softer tone. I looked away from him, not wanting to look directly into the camera. “Amber, where are your friends?”

“I left them!” I finally yelled out at him. I could feel tears forming in my eyes. I was starting to realize just how much my friends had been keeping me together. I blinked the tears away quickly. Not yet. I couldn’t let myself break down yet. I still had work to do. “I didn’t want them to get hurt. They'll be safer without me,” I turned away and looked out at the Manehattan skyline. “It’s better this way. I don’t need friendship.”

Watcher was silent for a while. When he spoke up, his words were slow and somewhat pained. “What do you know about the Ministry Mares?” Watcher asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Outside of science and math, history had been my favorite subject back in school. The history of Equestria and the war had fascinated me and I had spent countless hours reading and rereading my history textbook. Not sure what kind of response Watcher was looking for, I dug around in the back of my mind for a quick summary of the ministries. “Well- I know that they each ran their own ministry. The Ministry of Arcane Sciences, the Ministry of Wartime Technology, the Ministry of Image, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Morale and the Ministry of Awesome,” I thought for a second. “Though I don’t really know what the Ministry of Awesome did. If memory serves, I think Luna actually shut it down.”

“Indeed, these six ministries were run by the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. United, the six of them could overcome any obstacle that faced them,” Watcher said. “Their friendship alone was strong enough to defeat Nightmare Moon and return her to being Princess Luna.”

I glanced around at the bombed city. “Doesn’t look like it was strong enough to stop the war,” I grunted, gesturing around me.

Watcher sighed. “I think it was actually. The biggest mistake that was made during the war was to separate them. Divided, they were no match for the hatred that the war brewed, but together, they might have been able to prevent it.”

“You’re trying to tell me that if Princess Luna hadn’t created the Ministries, the war would have turned out differently?” I asked. The idea seemed ridiculous that six ponies could friendship away so much anger and hatred.

Watcher chuckled. “Without the Ministries, a lot would be different. Probably more than you or I could even begin to imagine. But I think that things would have turned out much better for everypony.”

“So what are you saying?” I should take my friends into danger? Even if they might die?” I asked. I felt a tight knot tighten in my stomach. The image of Brisk or Xayah being blown to pieces, their blood seeping across the floor made me feel sick.

“Friendship isn’t always easy Amber, but one thing is for certain...” Watcher began. “...Aside from being difficult, it is also very powerful. Together anything is possible, but without it… things can be a lot harder.”

I groaned. “You sound like one of those old Twilight Sparkle quotes I had to memorise back in school,” Watcher went quiet at that. I could hear some sort of shuffling through the synthesised noise. “Watcher?”

“Thank you Amber,” Watcher’s voice piped up. I don’t know how I could tell, but I knew he was crying. “That means more to me that you realise,” and with that, the sprite bot began playing its annoying tune and started bobbing back down the street.

I glanced at my Hellhound who was standing perfectly still in the middle of the road. I gave a sigh of defeat. “I guess that means we’re going back to get our friends, huh,” The Hellhound just stared back blankly. I groaned and holstered my baton. “Come on, lets go get them.”

By the time I returned to the abandoned structure my friends were in, it was already well into the morning. Even from afar I could hear their panicked voices as they packed up their bags.

“Where the fuck do you think she went!” I heard Brisk Spark ask worriedly.

“Where do you think. She took that Hellhound and went after Crank,” I heard Xayah’s panicked voice pipe up. “How could none of us have heard her leave? That Hellhound is huge!”

“Don’t look at me, I sleep like a rock,” I heard Pyre Blaze drawl.

I froze. Pyre Hadn’t told them what I was doing yet. Why? Did she know I was coming back? Did not telling them benefit her in some way? I took a deep breath and continued into the house.

Everypony froze as they spotted me in the doorway, their faces stricken with both shock and panic. Everypony except Pyre who greeted me with a wide smile.

“Well well well, you’re back soon,” She grinned at me, flicking her tail and slowly pulling herself into her dark power armour. I gave her an awkward wave.

Xayah stormed up to me, a strange look I didn’t recognize burned in her eyes. “What were you doing you foolish pony!” My zebra friend demanded, Pointing her striped hoof at me accusingly. “I was so worried, I thought that you… I thought that…”

I glanced at the Hellhound lumbering in the doorway. “I was just taking taking this thing out for a test run. I wanted to make sure I knew how to control it properly,” I lied. I cast a glance at Pyre Blaze who rolled her eyes and placed her heavy helmet over her scarred head.

Xayah narrowed her eyes. “You should tell somepony where you are going before you run off like that! What if you were attacked! Or, or, what if the Hellhound broke free of the mind control and attacked you! What if…”

“Oh hush up,” Pyre scoffed, waltzing up and placing a heavy hoof over Xayah’s shoulder. “What are you, her mom? Amber’s a grown mare, she can do what she wants.”

Xayah pushed Pyre’s hoof away and growled at her. “You be quiet. We are still not on speaking turns after what you did with the Alicorns you fiend!”

"Oh go back to your potions and star worship," Pyre countered, narrowing her eyes at Xayah.

Xayah gasped and was clearly resisting the urge to reach out and slap Pyre. "I do not worship the stars! Educate yourself on the Zebra tribes before you make such a comment again!"

Pyre rolled her eyes. "You zebra all look the same to me."

"I do not look like a Starkatteri!" Xayah snarled, crossing her hooves in front of her to help make her point.

I raised my hooves and tried to calm them both down. “Hey, it’s alright. I mean nothing bad happened, right?” Xayah huffed at my remark and marched over to pick up her saddle bags without saying another word. I glanced nervously at Pyre. “What’s up with Xayah? She doesn’t usually act like that?”

Pyre tried to suppress a chuckle. “She’s just worried as all. I’m sure she is fine,” the raider soothed. “I think we’re all a little on edge after what happened at Stable 25.”

You didn’t need to tell me that. I knew the emotional devastation of that better than anypony.

I turned to Brisk, who was eyeing my from across the room. “Hey, you ready to get going?” I asked, not liking the strange look he was giving me.

Brisk nodded, pulling the strap on his saddlebag tighter. He slowly approached me and looked me over. “How did testing out the Hellhound go?” he asked skeptically.

My ears folded back against my head. I didn’t like the suspicious tone in his voice. I gave him a fake smile that he could clearly see straight through. “Good, I think I know how to make him find Crank,” I said, my voice cracking a little.

Brisk raised his eyebrows and glanced down at my saddlebags. “You’re well stocked for a test with the Hellhound. Did you have a snack while you were out?”

I glanced down at my saddle bags to see the few days worth of food I had grabbed. I gave him a nervous chuckle. “Didn’t want to be stuck in the wasteland unprepared. Anything could happen.”

Brisk raised his eyebrows again, but didn’t push the issue any further.

The glow of sunlight from behind the cloudlayer was just beginning to rise above the skyscrapers when we stumbled out of the dilapidated structure. A sight that had looked somewhat beautiful by the eerie moonlight now looked as dead and bleak as the overcast sky cast the world into a depressing sea of grey and brown.

I raised my hoof for my Hellhound to sniff again. The Hellhound gave a long sniff of the stained cyber pony blood and started traveling back down the street. As I had predicted, it followed an almost identical path to the one it had traveled earlier that day.

I fell into step beside Pyre and leaned close so that our other companions couldn’t hear me. “You didn’t tell them?” I whispered, confused by Pyre’s earlier actions.

Pyre Blaze simply shrugged. “These are your issues Amber, not mine. Don’t expect me to try to intervene.”

The march that followed echoed my walk earlier in the morning. We passed the same carnage as before, though this time I could see the devastation Crank had reeked in the light of day. Ponies limbs had been torn apart from their bodies and many of their bodies had been ripped open, revealing the shattered rib cages inside. Blood and viscera had been splashed across the surfaces and I could see a few piles of ash where ponies had quite literally been disintegrated.

Brisk glanced around at all the corpses squeamishly. “Goddesses. And here I thought Inferno could be destructive.”

“We’re… going to fight the pony that did all of this?” Xayah asked with a shudder as she looked down at the body of a Steel Ranger who had had their spinal cord pulled out of their throat. “This seems…” She rolled her tongue around inside her mouth as she searched for the right words. “Daunting.”

I shook my head. “Not fight him. I doubt we would stand a chance. We are going to talk to him.”

“And if he says no and attacks you?” Brisk pushed, walking up next to me. “We don’t have a great track record of getting out of a situation without a fight.”

Pyre grinned from behind the visor of her helmet. “That’s why I love you ponies. You always find the exciting way to deal with stuff.”

I pulled out the Balefire Egg Launcher. “That’s why we have this, it seems to do a pretty good job at taking care of the things we can’t fight our way out of.”

“Except he survived the last time we shot him with it,” Brisk pointed out. “What makes you think he won’t survive it again or whatever?”

“I missed last time,” I assured him. “If it comes down to a fight with him again, I won’t miss.”

I spotted a Sprite bot watching me from a distance. I hoped Watcher could see that I listened to his advice and joined back up with my friends.

We followed the Hellhound around another corner and froze. We were in a large town square with massive skyscrapers looming up around us on every side. Not far away was the single largest tower I had seen while in the Wasteland. Unlike the rest of the structures, it seemed fairly intact, standing almost double the height of the tallest building. The large monorail that raced above our heads stretched towards it, creating a walkway of sorts into the building.

But what really made us freeze were the bodies. The area was filled with the corpses of slavers and alicorns alike. The mounds of bodies rose up to almost above our heads. Limbs were scattered everywhere and smashed skulls lined the sides of the street. Never before had I seen such graphic desolation.

I tried to take a deep breath to prevent myself from hyperventilating. There was so much blood. I didn’t even want to imagine how many dead ponies were in front of me. There might not have been as many corpses as there were in my Stable, but it was pretty close.

I put a hoof over my mouth to try and stop myself from vomiting as the stench of death filled my nostrils. I could see Brisk and Xayah’s faces go pale as they took in the ghastly sight.

“Oh, there’s Tenpony Tower,” Pyre laughed, pointing up at the massive tower and seemingly ignoring the sea of bodies. “It’s been ages since I was there. There is this super awesome cheese shop there, best cheese in the wasteland if I do say so myself.” We all stared at her in shock. She rolled her eyes at us. “Yeah yeah, the corpses are interesting too I suppose.”

“Crank was definitely here,” I muttered, looking around at all of the bodies.

“Inferno said Crank was meeting with Red Eye, do you suppose this is where they were supposed to meet?” Xayah stated, walking among the countless bodies. She flinched as her hoof accidentally brushed a severed pony leg.

“I fit is, it looks like that meeting didn’t go very well,” Brisk joked uncomfortably, slowly following after the zebra. “What do you think happened? Do you think Crank killed this Red Eye guy everypony keeps talking about?”

Pyre scoffed, poking at a severed pony head with a hoof. “I’d be surprised if Red Eye actually left Fillydelphia. I doubt he would be dumb enough to confront Crank personally, especially if he’s aware of what this cyber alicorn thing can do.”

I looked around at all the bodies. I was impressed that the Hellhound had managed to pinpoint Crank’s sent through the stench of all the corpses. Crank was a lot more dangerous than I was expecting. I felt a shiver go down my spine. I raised my Balefire Egg Launcher and advanced forwards.

As I moved through the streets I began to notice a large collection of weapons that scattered the ground. I guessed Crank didn’t really have much need for scavenging. But we did.

I smirked as I picked up a double barrel shotgun and found two unfired shells inside. “Hey, we should probably stock up on anything we can find here,” I said, popping the shells into my own gun and moving onto the next body.

Brisk nodded as he picked up a large baseball bat. “Eh, I preferred the machete, but I suppose this will do for now.”

After scavenging through most of the bodies we found a lot less than I was hoping. It seemed that a bunch of scavengers had already picked most of the area clean before we got here. I did manage to find eighteen slugs for Boneless, and I saw both Brisk and Xayah collect five bullets each for their guns respectively.

I grunted as I rolled a slavers body over. “Seriously, not a single healing potion?” I kicked at the ground in annoyance. Was some medical supplies really so much to ask for.

“They were probably the first thing here to get scavenged,”Pyre replied lazily as she attached a new canister of flamer fuel to her battle saddle. “Bullets are a lot harder to find, so they are more likely to be left behind by ponies trying to get out of the area in a rush.”

“Why would they be in a rush?” I asked dumbly, looking up at my power armoured friend.

Pyre snorted. “Do you see where you’re standing? This many bodies would make even the bravest of raiders uneasy.”

“You seem pretty calm,” I pointed out, remembering how the first thing she had done after seeing the corpses was talking about a cheese shop she liked.

Pyre shrugged and continued combing through the bodies. “Las Pegasus raiders are a lot harder than most of the other raider gangs in the Equestrian Wasteland. We’ve seen a lot of shit.”

I thought crossed my mind. “Have you ever seen a pony that looks just like you? But a filly?” I asked, thinking back to the strange filly I had seen earlier that morning.

Pyre gave me a quizzical look. “What like a clone?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but as a filly version of yourself?”

"Do I even want to ask why?"

I shook my head, fully aware that the question I had asked was both unexpected and oddly specific. "I'm just wondering."

Pyre tapped her hoof against her chin for a second. “Well I ran into a synth that was impersonating a member of my gang once. Running into a synth isn’t very common, mostly because you can’t tell them apart from any other pony. They don’t usually take the form of a younger you though.”

“Those are the robots that the Institute makes? Right?” I asked, moving over to another body and searching through his pockets. To my delight, I found a large tin full of twenty bottle caps.

“Yup, that’s them,” Pyre confirmed with a nod. “I’m surprised you know about them. Not that many ponies have outside of the odd conspiracy theory here and there. If it weren’t for that one synth I just mentioned, I probably wouldn’t have heard of them myself. ”

I simply shrugged. “Crazy what kind of weird stuff you hear in Manehattan.”

“You can say that again,” Pyre said with a laugh. “It may not be the neighvada desert, but I’m seein’ just about as much crazy shit here.”

I turned back to searching through the bodies, only to find myself face to face with Brisk.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” He asked, his tone stoic.

This seemed serious. Why couldn’t I just have a friendly conversations with my friends for once. It always had to be so depressing with them all the time. “Yeah, sure,” I said, finding another bottle cap and sticking it into my saddlebags. “What do you want to talk about?”

Brisk cast a glance at Pyre Blaze who was digging through a pile of corpses a few feet away. “Can I talk to you alone?”

I glanced back at Pyre myself before nodding and following Brisk a few paces away.

“What’s the problem? I thought you had gotten over your issues with Pyre?” I stared, as he came to a stop next to a particularly damaged skyscraper.

“Gotten over my issues with her? Are you kidding?” Brisk blurted. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed Amber, but Pyre Blaze is not exactly like the rest of us. Or have you forgotten that we kill raiders?”

“She’s not like the other raiders,” I retorted, determined to defend Pyre’s name. “Besides, she’s useful in a fight. We’re going to need that kind of firepower where we’re going.”

Brisk groaned. “I’m not arguing that. Just don’t expect Xayah and I to get all buddy buddy with her like you have,” He took a quick second to regain his train of thought. “Anyway, I didn’t drag you over hear to debate how good of a pony Pyre Blaze is. I thought I should talk to you about Stable 25.”

I could feel my heart thud in my chest as he said that. I forced myself to chuckle. The chuckle had an uncomfortably heavy sound to it. “Wha- what about that could you possibly want to talk about,” I gulped, trying to hold myself together.

Brisk raised his eyebrow at me. “Please Amber, don’t lie to me. I know how much you’re hurting,” I could feel my legs getting weaker as he spoke. “I’m not going to pretend to have liked the ponies in Stable 25. Hell, some sick twisted part of me is glad they’re dead, and yet despite all that I’m still hurting. Far more than I should be. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through.”

“I’m- I’m fine!” I shot back, letting my rage shield me. I wasn’t going to let his words break me. Not now. Not yet.

Brisk stomped his hoof stubbornly on the ground. “No you aren’t. You are not okay. I can see it and Xayah can see it!” He pushed, taking a step towards me. I cowered back at his approach. He took a deep breath and shifted to a softer tone. “You haven’t been acting like yourself ever since we left the Stable. This whole revenge thing you have going on is destroying you.”

I looked away from him, not able to meet his eye. “Everything will be okay once Kamari is dead,” I insisted. I had to keep believing that was true.

“Will it?” Brisk asked, holding his glare. “Because I have trouble believing when this is through that there is going to be anything left of the Amber that first emerged from that Stable.”

I shivered. “I- I’ll be fine.”

“You’re standing in a pool of blood Amber,” Brisk pointed out, pointing down at my hooves. Sure enough the bottom of my hooves were submerged in blood. I hadn’t even noticed. “The Amber Aura who left the Stable would probably have screamed if she stepped in blood.”

“I’ve just gotten used to the wasteland I guess,” I suggested, anxiously stepping out of the blood. “I think I’ve seen enough of it by now to have gotten over being squeamish of it.”

Brisk sighed and placed a hoof on my shoulder, making me return my gaze to him. “Xayah was worried when she woke up to find you gone this morning. I don’t think I’ve seen her that upset before, and we met her shortly after she witnessed her family getting slaughtered. You’re scaring her.”

“What’s going on with Xayah right now anyway?” I asked, glancing over at our zebra friend as she bickered back and forth with Pyre. “She isn’t usually this easy to upset.”

“She cares about you a lot Amber. She just doesn’t want you to hurt yourself,” Brisk Informed me, removing his hoof from my shoulder and looking out at the zebra.

“We’re in the wasteland. If she thinks I’m not going to get hurt she should probably reassess what kind of stuff happens out here,” I grunted, turning back to Brisk.

“I don’t think you quite realize how much she loves you.”

I blinked at Brisk. “Wait- When you say Xayah loves me… You don’t mean that…”

Brisk’s eyes popped wide and he clapped his hoof over his mouth. “Damn it, I told her I was shit at keeping secrets.”

I gawked at him. “Wait! What? Are you trying to tell me…” My mind blanked as I tried to figure out exactly how to take this news. “Xayah has a crush… on me?”

Brisk grimaced. “Please don’t tell her I told you, I promised I’d keep it a secret. I don’t know how you and Xayah managed to keep your crush a secret from me for so long.”

“So… what do I do?” I stuttered, trying to think of how to approach the issue. It wasn’t something I had ever had to think about before. “Do I confront her about this or…”

Brisk shook his head. “No, I’d let her come out about it on her own terms. We don’t need any more awkwardness in this group. Besides, you aren’t supposed to know yet.”

“I guess so,” I grumbled, looking back at Xayah. I’d have to figure out how to address that for when it becomes more of an issue I guess. At least I had time to prepare how to respond unlike when I had sprung my feelings onto Brisk.

Brisk gave a small sigh. “The point I’m trying to make Amber is that we’re all hurting after what happened. You aren’t alone in this fight against Kamari. We’re going to trust you, but that means you’re going to need to trust us as well. That means no running off to hunt him down on your own,” I considered arguing with him and denying my intentions, but I knew better than to lie to Brisk. He simply knew me too well. “And try to take care of yourself, I still want my friend to be around once this is over.”

I gave him a small smile. “I’ll try. Thank you. I’m really glad we’re friends, even after all that lovey dovey stuff I sprung on you the other day.”

Brisk grinned back at me and gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Don’t mention it. And honestly, can you blame yourself? I am pretty handsome,” He struck his best seductive pose.

Despite everything, I found myself laugh at his ridiculousness. I returned his playful punch and turned back to the rest of our friends. “I think annoying is a better word for it,” I joked as he started following me back towards the center of the square. “Besides, green on green is a pretty boring colour palette.”

“Right, like pink on pink is any better,” Brisk said with a smirk. “Face it, you’re the least intimidating pony in the wasteland.”

As I approached Xayah and Pyre, I spotted a pool of black fluid in the middle of the street and leaned down to investigate. It was definitely the same sludge I had seen coming out of the other cyber ponies. I touched the tip of my hoof to the black puddle. It was still wet. Furthermore, it was still warm.

I gulped and turned to the rest of my friends. “Stay alert. Crank can’t be far away.”

I could feel the whole group start to feel a little uncomfortable at that.

I pointed the Hellhound towards the pool of black slime. “Find him,” I ordered. The Hellhound obeyed, crouching down and taking a whiff of the cyber alicorn’s blood. Instantly, the Hellhound caught onto Crank’s sent and started moving along the streets away from Tenpony tower.

Pyre groaned as she watched the Hellhound walk away. “Damn, I was really hoping we would get to go to Tenpony tower. It’s been years and I want some cheese,” she moaned, following after us as we moved behind the Hellhound.

“We can go there once Kamari is dead,” I grunted, not bothering to look back at her.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Pyre smirked, trotting up beside me. “And I will never forget a promise.”

As we moved further and further away from the massacre, we began to see less and less bodies. The only bodies we ran across were just a bunch of raiders that had seemingly butchered each other over the carcass of a dead radroach.

“Watcher wasn’t wrong, seems like the whole wasteland is at war right now,” I muttered, looking at the slaughtered raiders.

Brisk’s ears perked up. “You saw Watcher again?”

I flushed and stumbled to figure out how to explain myself. “Uh… yeah. Ran into him while I was out with the Hellhound this morning,” I stammered. I mentally scolded myself for being so careless with my words.

Brisk turned back to look at the Hellhound. “He isn’t wrong. Everything seems to be getting worse.”

Pyre chuckled. “Oh you all just wait,” She said, practically dancing on the tips of her hooves. “This is only the calm before the storm my little ponies.”

“How do you know this?” Xayah muttered, casting Pyre a dirty glare.

Pyre gave her a dumb look. “Oh it’s not just me that knows. Everypony knows it. Things are happening all over the wasteland. Red Eye is burning down the Everfree, alicorns are all over the place. I don’t know if you three have been keeping up with DJ Pon3’s broadcasts, but your Stable ain’t the only one that got hit. A couple days ago the Steel Rangers did a raid on Stable 2 and out in the hoof I heard something about a Stable getting turned into a bunch or cannibalistic raiders.”

“What do you think all of that means?” Brisk asked Pyre, scratching the back of his neck. “Do you think it’s all connected?”

Pyre shrugged as we turned into a tight back alley. The walls of the skyscrapers around us rose high above our heads on both sides, blocking out most of the sky. “Fuck if I know, some of it might be. Point is that while some crazy fucked up shit is always going down in the wasteland, everything seems a little more crazy than normal.”

A bunch of red bars popped up on my EFS. I stopped in my tracks and silently signalled for my friends to halt as well. I couldn’t see what was causing the red bars on my EFS, but whatever they were, they were surrounding us from all sides.

Pyre spotted the bars on her EFS as well. She dropped her head and groaned. “Ah, shit.”

“What? What is it?” Xayah asked. Being the only one of us that didn’t have access to an EFS, she had little clue what was going on.

“Raiders,” Pyre grunted. “And I recognize this tactic. These are Las Pegasus raiders.”

I quickly tried to think of what Pyre had told me about this raider gang. Not much, only that they were a lot more hardened than you average raider. I remembered fighting against some when I had first encountered Pyre Blaze. They had been hard to kill back then, and that was with the unexpected intrusion of a Hellhound.

I glanced over at the massive black Hellhound beside me. That said, We had a Hellhound on our side this time too.

An earth pony raider came around the corner and approached us. I raised Boneless to face him, but hesitated. He didn’t seem to be attacking us, just slowly approaching us. I glanced at my EFS. his bar was green.

“Well look who it fucking is,” Pyre blurted as the raider closed in on us. “If it ain’t my old pal Skull Crusher.” I didn’t need to wonder what this raider had done to earn that title. “What the fuck do you all want?”

Skull Crusher smirked at Pyre before scanning over the rest of us with his eyes. “Razor Blade asked me to come get you. He was hoping to have the personal pleasure of skinning you alive.”

“He didn’t want to come all the way out to see little ol’ me himself? I’m hurt,” Pyre mocked, holding a hoof to her Chest dramatically. “Tell me, does Jinx know about all of this?” I could see Skull Crusher wince at that comment.

I stomped a hoof in front Pyre defensively. “Pyre isn’t going anywhere with you,” I spat. I wasn’t afraid of these Las Pegasus raiders. I had killed plenty of Raiders, these would be no exception.

Pyre slapped a hoof across her forehead and gave a slight chuckle. “You might want to figure out how dire of a situation you’re in before you go around saying that kind of shit Amber,” Pyre soothed, pushing my hoof away. “You want to tell her Skully?”

Skull Crusher groaned. “Damn it Pyre, I told you not to call me that!” He grumbled to himself as he took another step forward and turned to address me directly. “You are surrounded by about twenty raiders. Eighteen of them are well trained snipers and the other two are armed with Balefire Egg Launchers.

I felt my stomach drop. I glanced around at the tall buildings around us. I could see the raiders on my EFS, but not with my eyes. I couldn’t fight that kind of firepower, especially if I couldn’t even see what I was shooting at.

I saw Xayah and Brisk look around the area nervously as well, they too were unable to spot the raiders.

I turned to Pyre. “Any idea how to get out of this sort of situation?” I asked timidly. I didn’t like the idea of two Balefire Egg Launchers being pointed at me. I didn’t know how trigger happy these raiders were. If my experience with raiders over the past few days had taught me anything, it was that they loved to shoot at things.

“A plan to get out of this situation? Fuck no. I knew we were screwed the second I saw those bars on our EFS,” Pyre grunted taking a step towards Skull Crusher.

“Then what do we do?” Xayah whispered, looking back and forth between us.

Pyre took another step so she was only a foot or so away from Skull Crusher. “The only logical thing to do…” She paused and took a breath. “Duck and cover.”

Pyre’s hooves lashed out slammed into Skull Crushers face. Skull Crusher stumbled back, falling flat on his back.

I dove to the sides as quickly as I could. Multiple rounds from a sniper whizzing past where my head had been less than a second before. I saw Brisk and Xayah dive away from me as well and shelter themselves under a collapsed nook in the side of the skyscraper, well out of the range of the snipers. The nook was small, just barely big enough for a pony, let alone two. That left just Pyre and myself open to their fire.

I learched to the side again as a second round of shots blasted towards me. These ones came much closer to making their mark. I felt a few bullets pass through my tail and a sharp pain as one bullet grazed the side of my foreleg.

I saw Skull Crusher pull himself back up and pounce at Pyre, knocking her backwards. He lashed at her with his hooves, bashing a chunk of her power armour’s metal off of the suit. My Hellhound bounded towards Skull Crusher, lashing at him with his razor sharp claws. Skull Crusher dove away from the lethal swing to slow, the massive claws cutting through his right foreleg, revealing bone.

I heard a heavy clunk up above me. The sound gave me flashbacks to my fight with Tripwire back at the train station. It was the sound of a Balefire Egg getting loaded into it’s launcher.

“Fuck,” I muttered, Darting across the street towards Brisk and Xayah. A few more shots from the snipers bounced around me, on shot embedding itself in my back. Pain raced through my body as I collapsed to the ground, a few inches away from the cover.

Xayah bolted out from the cover and wrapped her hooves around me tightly, hauling me closer to the side of the building.

Blam!

A bullet pierced one of Xayah’s legs, causing her to stumble, but she managed to keep moving.

I spotted Skull Crusher pull a large sledgehammer off his back and swing it at Pyre, who just barely managed to avoid having her head lopped off and sent flying across the street like a baseball. Before Skull Crusher could swing again, the Hellhound pounced at him, forcing him to stumble backwards.

I could hear a click from above as the Balefire Eggs were pulled into position. I screamed out for Pyre to get to safety as Xayah tossed me into the hole with her and Brisk. My body was pushed tightly up against Brisk’s body, followed shortly by Xayah’s form slamming into me from behind, her hooves wrapping around me as she did her best to both squeeze into the hole to save herself and shelter us from the impending detonation.

I saw Pyre Blaze look up at something above her. Spinning she bucked Skull Crusher in the face and dove for the corner of the street. Skull Crusher reeled back, before quickly lunging forwards and slamming his super sledge against her hide legs. Her back legs crumpled like a tin can under the impact of the hit. She spun onto her back and blasted Skull Crusher with a burst of flames, submerging him in a raging inferno.

The Hellhound began racing towards the end of the street as well, no doubt aware of the oncoming danger.

With the last bit of strength Pyre had, she pushed herself up and leapt for the edge of the street.

There was a whistling sound from above. I put my hooves over my face and shut my eyes as the two Balefire Eggs collided with the street.

My world was cast into a baleful green light. Fire flashed before my eyes and I could feel my coat sizzling under the intense heat. The walls around us cracked and began to crumble as the miniature Balefire blast sent a shockwave through the very foundation of the building.

My geiger counter ticked furiously as the radiation levels around me skyrocketed. Within seconds it started flashing warnings that I was taking over thirty rads a second.

The blinding light of the detonation slowly died down, allowing me to make out the shapes of my friends all pushed up against me.

I turned to look at Xayah. “Is everypony alright?” Xayah gave me a timid nod. from the steam coming off her back I doubted she was okay, but at least she was alive. I turned to Brisk. “Brisk, you alive?” Brisk’s face was red with embarrassment as I faced him. “Brisk?” It was only then that I noticed something hard was poking at my belly. I glanced down, my face turning just as red as Brisk’s. “Brisk! What the fuck!”

“I’m sorry, you’re rubbing up against it!” Brisk moaned in embarrassment.

I jumped back as fast as I could, trying to position myself in a less awkward position, only for my rear to end up getting pushed up against Xayah’s face. I could both hear and feel her gasp with surprise as her face collided with my plot.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry!” I blurted, my already flushed cheeks turning an even darker shade of red. I pulled myself upright into a slightly less promiscuous position. Xayah's face had turned an even dark shade of red than mine, her eyes wide with embarrassment.

“Think their dead?” I heard a raiders grunt from outside.

“I’m still picking up some ponies down there on my EFS,” Another hushed. “Just wait for them to come out of hiding. They can’t stay in there forever.”

So one of them had an EFS. That either meant they had a pipbuck or power armour. Both of those were bad news for us.

“Do you see Pyre?” I asked Xayah, trying to twist my head at an angle that I could see the street. I wasn’t picking her or the Hellhound up on my EFS.

Xayah scanned what little of the street she could see, glad to be able to hide her flushed face from the rest of us. “I don’t see her?”

I grimaced. Goddesses, please don’t be dead.

“Okay, so… what’s the plan?” Brisk asked, his face still red with embarrassment from what had just happened. “Do we just… sit tight and hope for a miracle?”

I glanced at my three companions. I had no idea how to get out of this one. Not that I ever really had any idea how to get out of anything.

“What the fuck is that thing!” I heard a raider shriek from above us. His screams were quickly followed by a chain of loud booms. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end after each boom as a wave of static electricity pulsed through the building.

I cast a glance at Brisk. “I guess we just got a miracle or something.”

Brisk grunted, crossing his forehooves. “Or something.”

The body of a raider fell from above us and landed with a thump on the street, sparking with blue energy. It’s body had been blasted apart by some form of massive energy weapon. A few seconds after the corpse had collided with the ground, it faded away into ash.

I gulped. I could recognize that weapon damage anywhere. Hell, I had been following it all day.

“It’s Crank, isn’t it,” Xayah muttered as she looked at the steaming pile of ash a few inches away from us, the last bits of hope draining from her face. “I don’t know if I should be glad or horrified.”

I followed that sentiment.

There was another boom of a Balefire Egg Launcher, followed by a blinding flash of light somewhere up above us. Then another raider fell to their death. Then another, and another.

Then after a few minutes of screaming, everything went silent.

“Do you think he’s still out there?” Xayah muttered, trying to peer out onto the street.

There was a loud thud, followed by the sound of metal on metal. “Amber! Come out here!” I heard Crank demand from somewhere beyond my line of sight in his deep, booming voice.

I shuddered. Not only was he here, but he knew I was here as well.

I took a breath and tried to steady my breathing. I focused on all the rage I had been storing up since the massacre at Stable 25. I couldn’t waver now.

I pushed at Xayah and slowly pulled myself out of the hole.

Crank was standing in the center of the alley, his metal coat coated in a thick layer of blood. His blade like wings were fanned out at his sides, giving him an imposing and almost godlike appearance. His red, mechanical eyes bore into me with a burning anger. He had one hoof buried deep in Skull Crushers crushed skull and his other placed firmly on top of Pyre’s chest who to my relief was still very much alive.

My Hellhound stood a bit behind the cyber alicorn, awaiting instruction. Much of the Hellhounds fur had been burned away by the Balefire Egg, but he seemed mostly unharmed.

“Get off me you fucking metal Bitch!” Pyre ordered, trying to push Crank off of her. He held his ground, unmoving under even Pyre’s force.

Crank snarled down at Pyre. “You should be lucky I am even letting you live,” He snapped, pushing down harder on her with his hoof. I saw Pyre’s metal power armour dent under the pressure.

I raised my Balefire Egg Launcher and aimed it at Crank. “You are going to listen to my demands Crank or I will end you,” I growled, tightening my grip on the trigger of my weapon.

Crank stared at me dumbfounded for a long moment, taking in me and my friends. Finally, he raised his head and laughed. His laugh sent unsettling chills down my spine. This was not how I had expected him to react. “You really think you have any chance against me!” Crank scoffed between laughs. “I don’t think you are in any position to be making demands with me girl!”

I gritted my teeth and waved the Balefire Egg Launcher at him with more vigor. “Oh really? You’re outnumbered and outgunned, I think this is the perfect time to be making demands.”

Crank gave me a smug grin. “Surely you saw the piles of corpses back there,” Crank soothed. “Surely you don’t think that not a single Slaver was in possession of such a weapon as the one you wield now? Furthermore, this would not be the first time you have used that Balefire Egg Launcher on me. I didn’t die then, why would you think I would die now?”

I could feel my confidence faltering at his words. I had just witnessed him take out twenty raiders in less than a minute, and they had been in possession of two Balefire Egg Launchers. I held my head high and pretended to have more confidence than I really had.

Crank rolled his eyes. “And even if by some miracle you do manage to kill me, you would only kill your friend here in the process,” He pushed harder down on Pyre, causing her armour to cave in even more. “And don’t think that your Hellhound there is going to help you much either. I’ve killed hundreds of Hellhounds.”

“I have a pretty good track record with killing cyber ponies,” I insisted, taking a step towards him. I wasn’t going to look weak, not in front of him. “Hell, killing assholes like you is practically becoming routine for me.”

Crank scoffed. “Please, I practically killed Steelblade for you, and killing that idiot Tripwire was nothing special. He always was the weakest of the four of us,” Crank mocked, his tesla canons crackling with blue energy. “You’ve managed to get lucky with two cyber ponies, but you have no idea how much power you are really facing.”

“Three,” I blurted, catching him off guard.

Everypony went silent. “Excuse me?” Crank said, looking at me with minor confusion.

“Three cyber ponies,” I corrected him. “Inferno is dead. I killed him myself.”

For the first time since I had met him, Crank seemed genuinely taken aback. He looked at me with something other than just hatred. Was it respect I saw in his glass eyes? “Inferno is dead?” Crank muttered, seemingly unable to believe the words he was uttering. He began looking me over a little more closely, his smug expression replaced with interest.

I nodded, trying my best to look as intimidating as possible. “If you don’t listen to my demands I’ll make sure my cyber pony kill count reaches four.”

Crank pondered the new news in his head for a second before finally folding back his bladed wings against his side and lifting his hoof off of Pyre, allowing her to scramble away from him. Crank still didn’t look scared or intimidated by me, but he definitely seemed interested. “Well, it’s about time somepony gave that vile child rapist what he deserved. Perhaps you are more interesting than I thought.”

“I know you know where Kamari is,” I demanded as Pyre pulled up next to me, shaking her hoof at Crank. “I want you to take me to him.”

Crank cocked his head. “You want me to…” he gave me a cruel grin as he pieced together what I was asking of him. “You want me to take you to Kamari? You think I would do that for you just because?” He chuckled, trying his best to suppress a second laugh. He crouched into an attack stance. “How about I just take the A.A.S.S from you and return to Kamari myself?”

Brisk and Xayah took a step back as Cranks tesla canons and jagged metal horn began to glow a brilliant blue.

I rolled my eyes, holding my position as I stared down the cybernetic fiend. “We don’t have the A.A.S.S anymore. Otherwise I’d be back at my Stable.”

Crank froze, his eyes narrowing at me. I could see his muscles tensing through the few spots on his metal plating that revealed the scarred orange coat underneath. “Who has it!” Crank boomed. I found myself taking a few steps away from the cyber alicorn despite myself.

“Some zebra with purple stripes and a mare named Shade from my Stable,” I confessed, refusing to lower my weapon. “They stole the A.A.S.S from the Stable and are currently taking it to Kamari.”

I could see one of Crank’s glass eyes twitch ever so slightly. He snarled and stopped a hoof on Skull Crushers corpse, collapsing his rib cage. “Azar…” He growled, his metal jaw twisting in rage.

Xayah’s body went stiff as she heard the name. “You do not mean… Azar the Unbeatable… do you?” Xayah stammered, her eyes widening in a mix of both shock and absolute terror.

Crank gave her a cruel sneer. “You think there is another zebra with purple stripes running around the wasteland?”

Xayah took a meek step back. “That… that’s not possible, Azar died almost ten years ago! How can what you say truly be so?”

“Does somepony mind filling the rest of us in on who this Azar character is?” Brisk said, raising his hoof into the air awkwardly as if he were asking a question in a classroom.

Xayah cleared her throat and turned to face him. “Azar was a very powerful zebra warrior. He was known as the Unbeatable, as he never lost a single combat,” Xayah explained pointedly in her mesmerizing voice. “Azar was one of the few remaining zebras who practiced the art of Dragon slaying. He was... a very powerful and ferocious combatant.”

I vaguely remembered talking to Xayah shortly after I met her about zebra’s the practiced Dragon slaying. “You said he died ten years ago?” I started, trying my best to make any sense out of this new information. “If he never lost, how did he die?”

“He was in the center of a balefire bomb blast,” Xayah said simply. “Or so I have heard. I suppose if he didn’t die in the explosion, he still holds the title of Unbeatable,” she cast a worried look at Crank, whom had started to develop a worried look himself. “Are you sure this zebra is Azar? How can he still be alive?”

Crank clenched his jaw. “Hell if I know. I haven’t met Kamari or Azar face to face, and my interactions with them both have been minimal. Azar is, let's just say... not my favourite zebra,” Crank cast a thoughtful glance at me. He gritted his teeth for a second before rightingin himself into a more friendly demeanor. “Fine, I will take you to Kamari.”

I felt a wave of relief pass through me and my friends at his words. All things considered, this confrontation was going far better than I had expected.

“You will?” Pyre Blaze blurted, clearly surprised by the cyber alicorns decision. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly as the rest of us cast her an angry glare. She waved her hoof in front of her innocently. “What? I’m just surprised we didn’t have to kill anypony ourselves.”

Crank slowly took a few steps towards us. His movements were less threatening than they had been, but his presence alone still made me feel uneasy. “I will take you to Kamari,” Crank repeated as he stopped in front of me. He looked down at me with his glowing red glass eyes. “On one condition.”

I slapped my face with my hoof. Of course there was a condition. There always was. I faked a smile that even the most oblivious pony could see through. “And what is that?”

“When this is done, I want the A.A.S.S.”

I snarled. “Not likely,” I retorted, crouching my legs into a more battle ready stance. “I don’t know what you or your clients want with it, but whatever it is, I won’t let them you metal freak!”

Crank was on top of me faster than I could comprehend. His hooves slammed into my chest and knocked me prone on my back before the full weight of his body pushing down on me and pinned me to the ground. I let out a ragged gasp for air as all the wind was pushed out of my lungs.

I heard a startled cry from my friends as they launched themselves at my attacker in the hopes to get him away from me. Before they could reach us, Crank’s tesla cannons fired at their hooves, the massive shock wave of the blast sending them all flying into the wall of the alley.

My Hellhound rushed Crank, claws extended to tear him apart. In one swift movement, Crank’s blade like tile shot into the air, wrapped around the Hellhounds neck and slammed it face first into the ground. The Hellhound tried to rise, but Crank’s tail only tightened around its neck, causing the Hellhound to gasp and sputter, flopping around on the ground like a fish out of water.

I tried to raise my Balefire Egg Launcher, only to find it had been ripped from my telekinetic grasp and had landed far out of my reach.

Before we had even gotten a chance to retaliate, the battle was over.

Crank’s eyes peered down at me with a clear loathing. He took a slow breath and allowed himself a smug grin. “I enjoy that you are still under the impression that we are negotiating,” Crank growled, pushing his hoof down tighter on my chest. “I will take you to Kamari and I will get the A.A.S.S.”

I tried to push against his strength, but I was no match for his raw power. I clenched my teeth together and resisted the urge to spit at him. “I won’t let you!” I yelled back. The pressure on my chest began to increase until I feared Crank’s hoof would crash straight through my ribcage and crush me flat.

Crank raised a metal eyebrow. “And why not? Your Stable is dead and gone. It is of no use to you now. why keep fighting against me?”

I stopped struggling at that. He wasn’t wrong, I had no reason to keep pursuing the A.A.S.S. It was no longer of any value to me other than a clunky, black, oblong device. But still, I couldn’t allow monsters like Kamari or Red Eye to get ahold of it. Who knew what they needed it for. Probably not something very good, that was for sure. But then again, was keeping it from the hooves my enemies out of spite more important than my revenge?

I allowed myself to relax a little, or at least relax as much as somepony can relax while they are being pinned to the ground by a walking death machine. “Fine. You help us, we’ll let you have the A.A.S.S.”

Crank scoffed and removed his hooves from my chest, allowing me to stand. “Let me have it?” He shook his head and made a noise that was half way between a grunt and a laugh. “You have yourself a deal Amber.” The cyber alicorn turned and marched off down the alley. He turned back to look at us. “Well, don’t just stand there. Kamari isn’t going to wait for you to come kill him.”

I cast a nervous glance at my friends. I was met by three wide, fear filled eyes. I gave them a shaky smile. “Well, you heard him. Let's get going.”

Brisk glanced worriedly at the Cyber alicorn making his way down the street. “We are so going to die, aren’t we?”

Pyre gave him a playful shove and started following behind me with a laugh. “Oh yeah, we’re so fucked.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Nerd Rage! -- +50% DR and Strength increases to 10 whenever health is 20% or lower

Author's Notes:

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat.
Please feel free to give your thoughts and feedback.
With all that said, I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter and have a good day.

Chapter XII: The Corruption of Morality

"They were led here, following the path of a great roaring machine that disappeared. They believe it to be a sign that the old world is waking up."

Trains.

Even back when I had first heard mention of them I thought it was ridiculous. Not that trains were a strange way of transportation or that a machine of that size could move, but the idea that ponies pulled the train themselves was simply ridiculous. Wouldn’t it be more effective to just have wagons that ponies could pull? Pulling a train just seemed silly.

Then I had seen one when I battled against Tripwire. There was no doubting that the magnificent machine was something to behold, until I saw it was being pulled by a handful of ghoul ponies. Had I not been so preoccupied with my impending death at the time, I would have found the sight hilarious.

What idiot thought it was a good idea to create something that ran on coal when there was no coal to be found in equestria. The answer of course I knew. The design was a simple reminder of the peaceful life before the war. A time when trade between Equestria and the zebra homelands was a logical and viable option for both species.

And here I was, about to board that joke of a machine.

It had only taken us a few hours to walk to Fetlock train station. Crank seemed to be the kind of pony that liked to get places fast and didn’t like interruptions. While our first journey to Fetlock had been jam packed with near death experiences and a plethora of drawn out combats, our return had been quickened by Crank’s unprecedented raw power. Few raiders tried to attack us, and those that did where turned to ash by Crank’s tesla cannons before the rest of us even noticed there were red bars on our EFS.

The more time I spent with Crank, the more thankful I was that he was on our side and not at our throats. For the time being, that is. I dreaded the moment that the deal we made came to an end, be it completion of our mutual quest or simple betrayal. I doubted I actually stood much of a chance against him, even if I had more Balefire Eggs and a launcher for them that was rapidfire.

A ghoul in a tattered train conductor uniform marched up to us, a determined yet noticeably worried expression across his face. No doubt he recognized us as the ponies that had caused the destruction of half of the train station a few days prior.

“I’m afraid that you are too late, the train isn’t scheduled to leave for another few days,” The ghoul conductor insisted, stamping his hoof down to emphasize his point. “We just went out that way and need a good few days rest before we decide to pull another load out there,” The ghoul gave Crank a nervous glance, no doubt afraid that the cyber alicorn would blast him into pieces.

His fears were not unfounded. Crank lead down towards the ghoul, his metal jaw twisting into a cruel sneer. “I’m sure you’ll make it work, we are in quite the hurry,” Crank snarled, his jagged horn crackling slightly with blue energy. I noticed that his tesla cannons charged up with his horn, almost as if they were connected.

I ghoul gave a timid squeak and backed up a few steps. Finding himself unable to evade Crank’s intimidating glare he bowed his head. “I- I’ll see what I can do,” he muttered, a horrified tone creeping through his voice. The ghouls eyes wandered to the ruins of what had once been the train stations clock tower. His body began to tremble slightly. “Just give us an hour, I’m sure we can all get through this without any trouble.”

Crank grunted, causing the ghoul to flinch. The ghoul took the cyber alicorn silence as his cue to leave and blotted out of there as fast as he could. Despite his nerves, I applauded the ghoul on his ability to even confront the cyber alicorn in the first place.

Now that I thought about it, we did appear to be a rather intimidating bunch. If a powerful cyber alicorn wasn’t scary enough, we were also backed up by a psychotic flamer wielding raider in power armour and a massive black Hellhound. Brisk was bloodied and wore an eyepatch over his eye that made him look far more intimidating than he really was and Xayah… Well Xayah wasn’t overly intimidating, but zebra’s seemed to put ponies on edge. And to top all of that off, I had a murderous gleam in my eye and a Balefire Egg Launcher slung across my back.

I can definitely understand the ghouls fear.

“Sooooo, You guys come here often?” Pyre asked, glancing around at the ruined train station. “I must say, you four give terrible first impressions on ponies.”

Crank cast her a sour look, but remained just as silent as he usually was.

“And uh- you’re okay with this?” Brisk asked me, pulling me aside for a second. “I mean this whole forcing the ghouls to pull the train thing seems a little raidery, don’t you think?”

I shrugged. “It’s for the greater good Brisk. If we let this Azar character get to far ahead of us we risk him giving the A.A.S.S to Kamari, and then we not only need to worry about him doing whatever he plans to do with it, but we also run the risk of losing Crank as an ally.”

Brisk grimace. “When you put it all together like that, I don’t mind being a little raidery I guess.”

“It’s not being a raider,” I assured him. “It’s doing what needs to be done to stop something far worse from happening.”

Brisk seemed to take that for a solid answer. I returned to standing next to Xayah by the train. She looked just as worried about the situation as the rest of us, but she didn’t seem to have anything to say on the matter.

“So where exactly are you taking us?” I asked Crank as the ghouls started getting the train ready for departure. “You haven’t exactly told us much of anything.”

“Hollow Shades,” Crank grunted, keeping his eyes fixed on the ghouls.

Well that didn’t answer much. Granted I had never been outside of Manehattan so short of him saying Canterlot, his response probably wouldn’t have helped me much.

“The Hollow Shades?” Pyre echoed, casting a strange glance at Crank. “The fuck is Kamari doing out there? Last I heard that place was a abandoned?”

Crank shook his head. “The area around the Hollow Shades were used as a testing ground for Balefire bombs before the war. Ministry of Arcane Science set up there as well I believe. Last I heard there’s an old Stable up there that still has ponies in it and a small town of some sort.”

“And this is where Kamari is hiding?” Xayah asked innocently. “In the Hollow Shades?”

Crank shrugged. “Never met Kamari face to face. That was where he told me to meet him before some ponies decided to interfere,” Crank growled, casting me a death glare. I felt myself shrink under his gaze.

“So we don’t know where in the Hollow Shade he is then?” Pyre cooed, stretching out her front legs like a cat. “How do we hope to find him once we get there?”

“The Hollow Shades is a fairly small area,” Crank injected. “It will probably be easier than you think, and we can always ask the locals.”

“It’s closer to finding him then we’ve been so far,” I admitted, not enjoying the fact that I was siding with Crank on anything. “We’ll find him. I know we will.”

The train took longer to prepare than I would have liked. The hour that the ghoul conductor had suggested turned out to be more like two and a half hours, though it definitely still beet a couple of days.

We quickly piled onto the train and set off. My Hellhound quickly curled up in the corner of the wagon and fell asleep. I was glad that the creature still had enough free will to do that.

The ride was uncomfortably bumpy and the interior of the train looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years, but it sure as hell beat walking. I marched over to one of the leather covered train seats that seemed somewhat intact and sat down on it. The seat made a gross squishing noise under my rump as I put my weight onto it. I stuck my tongue out in disgust at how wet the seat was.

Really, the wasteland couldn’t even give me a nice place to sit? Seriously?

Brisk and Xayah trotted up to me and slumped down on the seat as well. They seemed to care less about the gross noise that accompanied that action then I did.

“Conductor says the ride is only a few hours or so, we should reach the Hollow shade before nightfall assuming something crazy doesn’t happen,” Brisk informed me. He then cast a dirty glance at Pyre and Crank on the other side of the train wagon. Pyre seemed to be playing a game of staring the massive cyber alicorn down while Crank did his best to ignore her, a grouchy look sprawled across his face. “Not that I expect nothing crazy to happen. We don’t have that kind of luck,” He added flatly.

“The wasteland between Fetlock and Fillydelphia has been patrolled by a large group of bandits, with luck we can avoid an incident with them,” Xayah added. I remembered DJ Pon3 saying something about bandits that were picking on wastelanders and Slavers alike.

My ears popped up as a thought hit me. “Wait? Fillydelpia?” I asked, a small shiver running down my spine? “Isn’t that were Red Eye is?”

Xayah nodded. “It’s not far from Manehattan, in fact we will probably be passing it in a few minutes. Is that an issue?” Xayah asked, a bit of concern creeping into her voice.

“If your worried about getting involved with Red Eyes shit, then don’t be,” Pyre said, getting bored of staring down Crank and coming to join us on our side of the train wagon. “Red Eye doesn’t usually come out into this area of the wasteland. Not many ponies in these parts worth enslaving I guess. We might pass a slaver caravan out here moving to more populated areas of the Wasteland, but I doubt they’d attack us or anything.”

“How are you so sure?” Brisk pushed, narrowing his eyes at Pyre a little.

Pyre waved him aside. “How do you think this ghouls managed to collect enough caps to get this silly train into working order?” Pyre Blaze said, rolling her eyes behind the tinted visor of her helmet. “The ghouls here are neutral, they help anypony that needs a ride, that includes Red Eye and his slavers. They bring resources to Filly, allow Slavers bringin’ in Slaves a ride and in return Red Eye keeps them safe and loaded with caps.”

I didn’t like the idea of being on a train run by Red Eye. Pyre could tell to. “Don’t think too much about it Amber, the ghouls here help other ponies too. It’s a mutual thing.”

I glanced out the window to see the dark towering buildings of Fillydelpia looming in the distance for the first time. An ominous red halo of light seemed to shimer from behind it’s fortress like walls and strange looking hot air balloons circled the dark spires. Even all the way out here, the city looked evil.

I grimace. With my luck, I’d be heading into there someday. I didn’t like the idea of that one bit.

Xayah snarled as she spotted the vile cities silhouette on the horizon. “My family and I were nearly captured by Slavers on our way to Manehattan,” Xayah said, her gaze locked on the city. “The bastards had children in cages. They tried to take Zira as well, but we managed to escape.”

“Yeah, Red Eye’s weird like that,” Pyre grunted. “He enslaves children, then goes about teaching them and giving them toys. Course some slavers don't give a shit about educating the youth, so a lot of slavers just kill the children for fun. The guys a total nut job.”

“Hold up, who the hell is Zira?” Brisk grunted, clearly not thinking too much about what he was saying. I gave him a kick, knocking him to his senses. Almost immediately he realised his mistake, though in his defence I couldn’t remember Xayah ever talking to him about her past family like she had with me.

“Zira was my daughter,” Xayah said, her voice cracking slightly.

“You had a daughter? I thought you were like... gay,” Pyre quipped, giving me a quick wink. Brisk gave Pyre an angry glare at her comment. I would have as well had Xayah and I not been blushing. Seriously? Pyre knew about Xayah’s crush on me too? Did everypony know about it and were just waiting for her to make a move on me?

Xayah glanced away from us and back out at the landscape that flew past us out the window. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” She remarked, not answering Pyre’s question.

Great, probably another traumatic thing from one of our parties pasts that was going to come up later in some deeply emotional and heartbreaking conversation. Just what we needed.

I glanced over at Crank who was standing alone adjacent to us. He was staring out the window at the endless miles of wasteland beyond. Save for the twisted and leafless husks of charred trees and the occasional broken down single story building, there was nothing but flat open space. Having never been outside of Manehattan, I had never seen so much emptiness. The skyline had always been obscured by the towering skyscrapers and it had at least felt like there were always walls on all sides of me. But not out here. Out here was even more barren and dead. It was simply vast and empty.

Hollow. The wasteland felt hollow.

I groaned and pulled myself up from the seat, my eyes trained on the cyber alicorn. “Alright, I’m going to go talk to him,” I said, wincing at my own words. I saw Crank’s ear twitch. No doubt he could hear everything we were saying.

Brisk gave me a strange look. “Why? Please don’t tell me you are planning to make friends with that thing?”

I shook my head. “No... We need answers. He probably knows some,” At least I sure hoped he did. I also hoped he was willing to share them with me and not decide this deal of ours wasn’t worth his time and try to kill me. I could see our conversation going either way.

“Don’t make him angry,” Xayah suggested, casting the cyber alicorn a nervous glance. “I’m pretty sure a blast from his cannons will destroy this train,” I could have sworn I saw a small smile creep onto Crank’s face at that comment.

I gave Xayah a small nudge and smiled, making her blush. Holy shit, Brisk and Pyre were right, Xayah really did like me. I still had no idea how to deal with that. The idea that somepony had any form of romantic feeling for me was just strange. “I’ll be fine… probably.”

I turned from my friends and slowly advanced towards Crank. He was only about five steps away, but I took my time, afraid to get close to him.

“So you want answers?” Crank rumbled, not bothering himself enough to turn back and look at me. I shrank back slightly, having already forgotten how powerful and commanding his voice was.

I nodded, noticing that his gaze had locked on me through the reflection of the window. I pointed to the small Stable-Tec symbol at the base of his neck. “What’s your connection to Stable-Tec. Are they working with Red Eye or Kamari or something? Is that why I got a call from Stable-Tec right before you showed up in my Stable?”

Crank glanced down at the engraving on his neck. “Stable-Tec has been gone for a long time. However much of their technology is still very much active and usable. As a Stable Dweller, you should know that better than anypony,” I grunted, finally looking back at me and looking me over with his red eyes. “One of Stable-Tec’s headquarters is located in Fillydelphia. Take control of the headquarters and you suddenly have access to a lot of the Stables around the Wasteland.”

“And the symbol?” I repeated, pointing once again at the Stable-Tec logo on his neck.

“Stable 101 was filled with cybernetics,” Crank explained. “Even after Red Eye murdered his Stable, much of the contents inside were still in working condition.” I shivered at that. Red Eye murdered his Stable? The idea of that was unthinkable. “He soon realized that the cybernetics inside of the Stable, combined with a mix of MWT technology and various MAS projects could create something very powerful.”

“He being Red Eye, yes?” I asked, trying to keep up with all the information that Crank was springing on me. He was bing much more cooperative than I had been expecting.

Crank was quiet for a moment before turning back to look out the window. “Something like that,” He grunted, staring out at the ash coated wasteland.

I raised an eyebrow. “Not Red Eye? So like, another party that works closely with Red Eye?”

Crank grunted. I didn’t know if I should take that as a yes or no. So much for my previous statement of Crank being cooperative.

I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere with him on that topic so I quickly changed to something else. “And what about this Kamari? Who is he? I figured he isn’t working with Red Eye.”

Crank looked back at me again and scoffed. “He definitely isn’t with Red Eye, that much is certain. Kamari is about as secretive as the damn Enclave, if not more so. I know he has a decent following of zebra’s and a lot more resources to throw away than even Red Eye. I don’t know much past that, though I hear he has been lending zebra’s to the remnant out in the Hoof.”

I wasn’t sure how much that information helped me. Most of that I had gathered already. The stuff about him lending troops to a faction out in the Hoof seemed interesting and most likely spelt trouble, but it wasn't something that I necessarily needed to worry about in the foreseeable future.

“Is that it?” I asked, hoping he had a little bit more info on him.

Crank though for a moment. “I’ve heard rumors that Kamari actively practices necromancy, though I can neither confirm nor deny that fact,” Crank stated flatly.

Necromancy. That word itself was simply horrifying. I racked my brain for anything I knew about that specific form of magic. I didn’t know much.

Back in the Stable, I had read a book about different types of magic that the Ministry of Arcane Science had been studying before the bombs fell. There had been pages upon pages detailing almost every form of magic out there. Every form except necromancy of course. That had only gotten a brief description and a warning saying that it was both extremely dangerous and very much illegal.

“Necromancy?” I stuttered, trying my best to not sound nervous. “Kamari can resurrect the dead?”

Crank gave me a shrug and continued staring out the train's window. “So the rumour goes. Though as I said, I can’t confirm that.”

“Okay, and what about you?” I asked, taking a meek step towards him.

Crank shot me a warning glare. “What about me?” His voice had changed to a threatening rumble. I took a quick step back, returning to the spot I had just been standing in.

“What about you?” I repeated again, trying my best to sound confident. “Like, what’s your story? How did you become a cyber pony? Shit like that.”

Crank narrowed his glowing red eyes at me. “Why do you care?”

I gulped. “I don’t know. Just wondering I guess,” Clearly Crank wasn’t a fan of answering personal questions. “I got really inside of Inferno’s head when I fought him, so I just thought that-

“You just thought what?!” Crank snarled, turning around to face me. The massive cyber alicorn loomed over me, blocking my view of the window. My friends across the train wagon saw the threatening movement and quickly drew their weapons, expecting some sort of a fight to break out.

I boldly put out a hoof and pushed Crank back a little, hoping to ease a little bit of the sudden tension. “You can take a step back. I know you’re taller than me, no need to rub it in,” I joked between quivering lips.

Crank glared down at me for a second before taking a quick step back. My friends relaxed a little and returned to their chatter, but I could tell they were preparing for a fight if something were to happen. Brisk didn’t even bother putting his pistol away.

“I am not Inferno,” Crank scowled, his eyes burning holes into my very soul. “I am nothing like that monster.”

I waved my hooves in front of my in an attempts to show that I understood. “Alright, alright. So Inferno was crazy even by your standards,” Crank continued to glare at me. I chuckled nervously. “Okay, Inferno was just bat shit crazy and you had to deal with him. Got it.”

Crank seemed to ease up at that. “Inferno was a monster in every stretch of the word,” Crank rumbled. “He was very useful in a fight, but his morals and vile lusts made him near impossible to deal with.”

I tried to imagine needing to work alongside Inferno, needing to put up with his violent behaviour and his sickening tendencies to rape every pony he could. The idea was horrifying. That said, I had seen into his past. Lived it. I had seen exactly what had driven him to become what he had become. “I’m not sure he was a monster actually,” I replied with an uneven tone. “Twisted and fucked up sure. Insane and violent, definitely. But in the end he was a pony like the rest of us.”

Crank gave me a hate filled sneer. “What the fuck did you witness in your little encounter with Inferno that gave you that twisted idea?” Crank hissed.

I kicked the floor of the train wagon awkwardly. “I uh- Well I kinda dug around in his head and made him relive all of his past traumas.”

Crank just stared at me coldly. Finally he shook his head. “And what you saw made you think he was deserving of forgiveness and redemption?”

That gave me pause. Did Inferno deserve either of those? I doubted it. Even with his past, nothing could excuse the things he had done. “No, I don’t think I could forgive Inferno for what he had done, but I do think that had things turned out differently for him, he could have been a better pony.”

Crank’s even stare was beginning to make me uncomfortable. His glass eyes kept looking over me as if trying to find something hidden on my body. “Having a good sob story doesn’t change the fact that you’re a monster. It only gives the monster a way to shift the blame onto something else,” Crank Replied grimly. “Inferno was the product of what happens when the wasteland consumes a pony. He could have been a pony had things been different sure, but that doesn’t mean he was one.”

I gulped as I readied my next question in my mouth. “And uh- are- are you a pony?”

The second the words left my mouth Crank froze. His entire body went rigid as he took in what I had asked. The momentary reaction of panic that flashed across Crank’s face was almost instantly covered up as he hid his feelings behind a cruel sneer. “I’m trying to be,” He scowled, his black, slug like tongue pressed tightly against his jagged fang like teeth as he released a hiss that sent a numbing chill down my spine.

“But you aren’t currently?” I pushed, cocking my head slightly to the side. I could see by the burning hate in Crank’s eyes that I had hit a nerve with him on that last question. I took a step back as I realised that I might have overstepped with my questions.

Crank bared his teeth at me, his tesla cannons slowly charging up as he stared me down. For a horrifying second, I thought he might actually fire at me. Then, just as quickly as his anger had come, it subsided and Crank turned to look back out at the window. “No, not yet. But I will be. Soon as this is all over…” There was a strange tone in his voice I understood far too well. In a painful second I didn’t see Crank standing before me, but rather I saw another version of myself. I saw a pony that for reasons I could not yet explain, had lost everything and was consumed by the rage that forced them to pursue the one thing they thought could undo all of their problems. For me it was revenge on Kamari, for Crank it was the completion of this mission for one reason or the other.

I gave a forced laugh. “I guess we’re both pretty fucked up, huh?”

Crank gave me a skeptical look. “Amber, you’re little squad is probably one of the most fucked up groups of ponies I’ve stumbled across in the wasteland. And that’s saying something.”

That made me stop. I glanced over at my friends across the train wagon. “We aren’t that fucked up,” I said protectively, looking them all over. “We’ve got a few problems sure, but nothing the average wastelander doesn't have.”

Crank gave out a hollow laugh. He pointed over at Pyre with a metal hoof. “I think that bitch has more problems than she wants you to think. Ask her about it some time. There is a level of fucked up in her brain that gives the mighty Inferno a run for his money,” his hoof shifted until it was pointing at Brisk. “And that one’s been through some shit. Judging by the way he keeps checking to make sure his Buck is still safe, I’d say he’s dealing with some nasty form of addiction towards it. And that Stable messed him up bad too. My caps are on a mix of suicidal tendencies and having been raped as a kid.”

My heart thudded in my chest at that. How the fuck could Crank have possibly guessed that after having know Brisk for only a few hours. It had taken me days to find out that bit of information on him out. And I had never even considered the idea that he might be dealing with some form of depression. “I- How did you…?”

Crank gave me a pitiful look. “I’ve had to work alongside Inferno long enough to know the victim of a child rapist when I see one. They have this…” He rolled his tongue around as he searched for the right word. “...This shame. I can see it in their eyes. They feel ashamed of their body, their past… they hate themselves.”

I wanted to yell at Crank to shut up. I didn’t want to hear anymore of this, but my tongue seemed to have turned to stone in my mouth. “Bu- But what abou-”

“And then there’s the zebra,” Crank soothed, his steady, stoic glare rolling over Xayah’s body. “Where to begin with her. She’s lost some ponies very close to her quite recently, that much is certain,” He paused; his eyes inspecting each movement Xayah made. “She’s been the victim of harrowing circumstances her whole life. Rape, torture, discrimination,” He glanced down at her hooves. “Her constant state of misery is evident in her ever shaking hoof.”

I glanced at Xayah’s hooves. Sure enough her left forehoof was trembling ever so slightly. I felt a pang of guilt that I hadn’t noticed it until now, especially since Crank had spotted it so quickly.

Crank’s words were sinking into me. How fucked up were my friends really? Was it my fault? The stuff Crank was talking about was all the things that had happened to them prior to meeting me, but- For some reason I couldn’t help feeling that I was responsible for their pain.

Crank finally turned and rest his eyes on me. “And you…” His eyes darted around as he took in my whole being. He forced himself to withhold a sickening grin. “Well I’m sure you can figure that out for myself.”

I realised my whole body had tensed up as he psychoanalysed my friends. I took a slow breath and let my muscles relax. “I’m what?” I asked, not fully sure if I wanted to hear his answer. On one hoof, he seemed to be able to read all of our emotions like an open book. I was interested as to what I might hear. On the other hoof however, the last thing I needed right now was some crazy emotion destroying mental crisis because he had made me realise some sick twisted detail about myself I had been ignoring.

Crank gave me a cruel smirk. “Where to begin with you Amber Aura?” He rolled my name around the inside of his mouth as if deciding exactly how good my name tasted. “You are hurting from the loss of your Stable, the death of somepony very close to you and the pain of a recent betrayal,” He began circling me, looking over every inch of my coat. “You’re… you’re angry.”

I chuckled at that. “Oh yeah? Tell me something I don’t know.”

That only made Crank seem to grin more. “You direct your anger at the wrong ponies,” he stated bluntly.

“I- what is that supposed to mean?” I gasped, trying to put what he was saying together in my head. “Are you trying to tell me that I shouldn’t be angry at Kamari?”

Crank raised a hoof in mocking defence. “I mean you aim your anger at your enemies to hide the fact that the pony you’re really angry at is yourself.”

I took a step back, his words hitting me like a ton of bricks falling onto my head. “I- you don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammered, trying to prove him wrong. I wasn’t angry at myself for the death of my Stable. Right?

Crank finished his first circle around me and began his second pass. “You blame yourself for the misfortune that has befallen those around you because you believe you were born for greatness and failed miserably. Deep down you feel like you deserve the pain of the wasteland as punishment for not living up to the expectations you have placed upon yourself. You hate yourself Amber Aura. You wish you had died back in your Stable with the ones you love, and you are praying that this rage burning away everything inside of you will leave you as empty as you feel, because then at least you will have a good reason to blow out your own brains and end your pitiful suffering.”

I stumbled backwards and fell on my rump as his words washed over me like waves of fear and dread. My heart pounded in my chest and I had to suppress the growing urge to scream. “No… No I don’t think that.”

My friends were around me in moments, weapons drawn and aimed up at the powerful cyber alicorn that towered over me. He glanced at the weapons with mild amusement as they faced him.

“What did you do!” Brisk hissed, placing the barrel of his gun against Crank’s forehead. His eyes narrowed as he stared down the massive Cyber alicorn.

Crank chuckled, turning from them and marching away to the door leading to the train wagon behind us. “Just telling little Amber here the truth,” And with that he slipped from the train wagon and out of sight.

I let loose a long sigh and slid to my haunches. Xayah quickly knelt down to my level. “Amber, are you alright?” She asked, a worried tone in her voice.

I gave them all a forced smile that I’m sure more than just Brisk could see though. “I’m fine. He’s just getting in my head is all,” I reassured them, pulling myself up and sitting down on the seat I had occupied when I first boarded the train.

“Well if he does it again I’ll blast his brains out,” Brisk scowled, casting the door Crank had exited through a hateful glance.

I shook my head. “You know just as well as I that that wouldn’t do anything but make the issue worse.”

Brisk gave a low growl and propped himself up on the sill to the window where Crank had once stood, looking out at the desolate landscape beyond. “Did you at least get any useful information out of him?” Brisk asked in a begrudging tone.

“I’m not sure. I still don’t know what Kamari or Red Eye want with the A.A.S.S and I still have no idea what awaits us in the Hollow Shades, but bits and pieces of things seem to be coming together.”

“So it was Red Eye that sent this cyber ponies after this Ass thing?” Pyre questioned.

I shook my head, not bothering to correct her on her crude joke. “I don’t know. It seems like it, but Crank seemed to suggest that somepony else was behind it.”

“A pony that works for Red Eye?” Xayah suggested, hopping up onto the seat next to me. “Red Eye has a lot of allies out in the Wasteland. Perhaps the Talons?”

Pyre shook her head. “I’ve dealt with Talons plenty of times. They’re somethin’ and sometimes they do stuff you don’t expect, but this aint their style.”

“Crank said that their operating out of Fillydelphia,” I added. “They seemed to have some connection to a Stable called Stable 101.”

“That’s Red Eyes Stable,” Pyre blurted, rolling onto her back and looking up at the roof of the wagon. “This all just sounding like Red Eye shenanigans to me.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged, looking out the window. The distant silhouette of Fillydelpia had become little more than a small black dot on the horizon, surrounded by a villainous red glow. “I guess will find out sooner or later. For now, let's just focus on dealing with Kamari. We can figure out who Crank’s other client is later.”

Seeing that the conversation was more or less over, Brisk turned and continued looking out the window, his matted green mane flowing in the strong breeze outside as the train raced along the tracks.

Pyre… Well I don’t really know what the heck Pyre was doing. She lay on her back with he eyes transfixed on the ceiling, occasionally reaching up and trying to grasp at something that wasn’t there. I could only assume that she was on some sort of chem.

I glanced out at the window myself, looking at some strange shaped rocks far off in the distance that I assumed were the Hollow Shades. It didn’t look like a very pleasant place.

After a few moments I got the feeling of someone staring at me. I looked behind me to see Xayah watching me carefully, her emerald green eyes watching for… something. She quickly glanced away as I spotted her.

“You doin’ alright?” I asked, pulling myself from the window and scooting a little closer to her. I could almost hear her heart pounding from where I sat.

Xayah gave a quick nod and looked up at me. “Yes, I am glad your plan is working out so far,” She soothed, rubbing the back of her neck with a striped hoof. “But uh- there is something I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

Welp, this was it. I braced myself for the worst and pulled my lips up into a thin smile, hoping that it looked comforting and not menacing. “Ask away, what’s on your mind.”

Xayah’s eyes darted to the door Crank had left though. “Do- do you think that if we find the A.A.S.S before we kill Kamari that Crank will turn on us?”

That was… not what I had been expecting her to ask. “I uh- don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m just hoping we can find Kamari. Dealing with Crank as well is more than I think I can take at the moment.”

Xayah shivered. “I think Crank is planning something. I keep seeing him smiling at us,” She said, more worry creeping into her green eyes. “I don’t like it.”

I hadn’t noticed that, and I definitely didn’t like that. “I’m sure he is planning something,” I soothed. “But when he does whatever it is, we’ll be ready for him. Together.”

Xayah nodded, but the worry in her face didn’t seem to go away. “O-okay. Thank you.”

“For what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Xayah blushed slightly. “For being yourself, I guess. I’m glad you still seem to be with us, even after everything that happened with the Stable. I know your angry right now, but I am glad that you aren’t letting it take you over completely.”

I winced. If only she knew just how much that rage was really consuming me. I doubt she would have said that if she knew the truth.

I sighed and gave her a small pat on her fore hoof. “No problem. I’ll always be here for y'all,” I stated. Goddesses I hope that was true and what Crank was telling me about myself had only been a lie to get under my skin.

Xayah glanced down at her hooves for a second before looking back up at me. “There’s uh- one other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

I braced myself again. “Yeah? What about?”

“Well- uh- What was it I told you, It is better to know and possibly get rejected than to live the rest of your life wondering what might have been?” Xayah started, glancing back down at her hooves.

Yup, this was definitely it. I gave a nervous chuckle. “Yup, that was definitely what you said,” Damn it, why was I acting as nervous as she was right now.

The nervousness in my voice caught Xayah’s attention. Her eyes widened as she glanced up at me. “You know! You already know, don’t you!”

I bit the bottom of my lip and pretended like I didn’t know what she was talking about. “I uh- I don’t know anything of the sort,” I insisted, giving her the best fake smile that I could.

Xayah’s eyes grew even wider. “Brisk told you didn’t he!”

“What? Noooo…” I stumbled for an excuse. Xayah raised an eyebrow as I searched for words. I dropped my head. “Okay, maybe, definitely he told me.”

Xayah shrunk in her seat and pulled the hood of her stealth cloak up over her head before quickly wrapping herself up in her black and white tail. “Goddesses, now I just look like an Idiot…” She whimpered, trying to push herself as far back into her cloak as she could.

“What? No, you don’t look like an idiot,” I assured her.

Xayah peeked out at me flatly from beneath her hood. “Really?”

I made some sort of weird spitting sound that I hoped would signify me saying I didn’t think she was an idiot. A little white pony in my Saddlebag smiled at my reaction. “Not at all,” I said, seeing that the strange spitting sound didn’t comfort her at all. “I mean, I had a crush on Brisk for like, what? A week or something?”

“But he didn’t know till you told him,” Xayah moaned, curling up even tighter.

Well she got me there I guess. I shifted my body closer to the curled up zebra and placed my hoof over her. She flinched at the touch, but didn’t move away. “So you have a bit of a crush on me. So what? I’m flattered, honestly.”

I could see Xayah’s green eyes looking up at me. Small tears had weld up in her eyes and were rolling down her cheeks. It took my a moment to realize the gravity of what I was looking at. Xayah hadn’t even cried when her family was murdered in front of her, or at least she had managed to get ahold of her emotions enough in the hours that followed that she was able to refrain from shedding tears afterwards. That fact that this made her cry was… something I was having trouble understanding.

I pulled back her hood a little, allowing me to see the rest of her face. She quickly wiped her tears aside, but remained keeping eye contact. “W-well?” She asked in a cracked voice. “What do you think?”

Well wasn’t that the question of the day. I had been preparing for this moment since Brisk had told me Xayah had a crush on me, but I hadn’t managed to come up with an actual answer yet.

I sighed and scooted even closer to her, which was difficult as we are already shoulder to shoulder. “To be completely honest with you Xayah, I don’t know. After everything that’s gone on with my Stable, all my emotions have been so fucked up that I probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend love if it was staring me right in the face. I think I’m having trouble feeling anything but anger right now,” I sighed and slowly stroked her striped mane with a hoof. I was surprised how soft she was. “I do care about you a lot Xayah, but… I don’t know if I care about you the way you’d like me to.”

Xayah sniffled and nodded, slowly unraveling herself from the knot she had tied herself in.

I looked up from her and glanced at Brisk who was busy staring out the window. Typical Brisk and his windows. “Besides, I’m still trying to get over my feelings for Brisk at the moment. I do care about you Xayah, and I don’t want you to just be a rebound for me.”

Xayah quickly wiped away another tear. “So that is a no I guess,” She sniffled, giving me a sad smile.

“To being a couple you mean?” I asked her. She gave me a timid nod. I shook my head and stared out the window. “It’s less a ‘no’ and more of a ‘I don’t know yet’,” I answered. “Maybe after all of this is over I can give you a more solid answer.”

“But it’s a no for now?” Xayah pushed.

“Yeah. It’s a no for right now.”

Xayah took a deep breath before exhaling. “Then that’s okay. I was honestly expecting your reaction to be much worse.”

I glanced up at Brisk again. He had turned from the window and was watching us with his one good eye, his eyebrows raised. I sighed and dropped my gaze back to the shivering zebra. “Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.”

I wrapped my other hoof around her and let her curl up closer against my chest, her tears had died down, but I could still feel the occasional droplet land on my coat.

I looked from Xayah, to Brisk, to my reflection on the closed window of the train wagon. What was I going to do with the three of us. We were all a mess. An awkward, silly, emotional mess.

Pyre rolled across the floor so that she was lying below our feet, her eyes peering up at us though her visor as we cuddled. “D’awww, aren’t you two just the cutest,” she smirked, reaching out her forehooves to us.

I glowered at her. “I am not cute,” I insisted, trying to put on my most intimidating look. For the first time in a bit I found myself unable.

Xayah pushed back and looked up at me with her smug little zebra grin. “You are a little cute.”

Oh goddesses. Damn it, now I was blushing. I crossed my hooves. “Excuse me? I’m pretty sure you’re the cute one here Xayah, not me. No sir. I am the least cute thing on this train.”

I heard Brisk chuckle at that. I shot him a pouty look for his betrayal. He simply shrugged back at me. “Face it Amber, you’re pink, tiny and have huge adorable puppy eyes. You’re cute.”

“Puppy eyes!” I was starting to blush even more. “I’m an intimidating wasteland heroine! I am not a cute pony.”

“You have got to be one of the least intimidating ponies in the wasteland,” We heard Crank call from the other train wagon in his loud, booming voice.

We all stood in silent shock at the terrifying cyber alicorn’s sudden contribution to our ridiculous conversation. Then, for the first time since I had watched the death of Stable 25, we laughed. Not some fake laugh to cover up our sorrows and hurts. A real laugh that made our stomachs hurt and the sides of our mouths feel like they were getting pulled apart. I felt all our spirits lift and the darkness that had settled over us for the past few days brighten. The pain wasn’t gone, not by a long shot, but it had receded just a little. Just enough for things to be okay - at least for a little while.

As our laughter slowly died down to a slight chuckle, I leaned in and gave Xayah’s shoulder a little nuzzle. “See, things around here are going to be just fine,” I said with a smile, getting a large blush from her in return.

I met Brisk’s eye and he gave me a genuinely happy smile. Things were going to be okay. We were going to be okay.

“Welp, this has probably been the happy moment we’ve had since I joined the party,” Pyre said with a grin. “I was starting to think you three were nothin’ but a bunch of mopes.”

“We have our happy moments,” I said with a grin. “You should have seen us at Friendship City on our first visit. We spent half the night dancing to DJ Pon3’s radio.”

Pyre had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing. “I’m glad I missed that. Sounds a little too sappy for me.”

I gave her a sly smile. “I don’t know, we got DJ Pon3 on my pipbuck. I think we should do a little bit of dancing right now.”

Pyre’s eyes popped wide with horror. “Oh no! You ain’t getting me to dance. Not today, not tomorrow, and definitely not while I’m sober.”

“I picked up a couple bottles of Wild Pegasus on our first trip through Fetlock,” Brisk said smugly, leaning over Pyre and giving her his usual devious look. It was good to see that look back on his face.

Pyre pulled herself up and waved her hoof in front of her face. “Oh no you don’t. There will be no dances today my mischievous green friend.”

I gave everyone a wide smile. “Don’t worry Brisk, I got this,” I said, reaching out and wrapping my magic around his saddlebags where he had left them by the window.

Brisk’s grinning face quickly morphed into a look of sudden alarm. His eyes popping wide in panic as he reached his hoof out quickly to stop me. “Wait Amber! Don’t-”

Whatever he was going to say next was cut off as my magic fully enclosed around his saddlebags and the world swirled away from me.

I was standing at the top of a staircase.

Shit! There must have been a memory orb in Brisk’s Saddlebag when I picked it up. I made a mental note to not magically lift anymore saddlebags until I had checked to see what was inside. This was what? The second time this had happened to me now?

A sudden thought flashed through my mind. Why the fuck did Brisk have a memory orb in his Saddlebags? His horn could do little more than cover itself in an aura. He was incapable of doing even basic telekinesis, let alone tap into memory orbs.

The walls of the building were cracked and coated in a thick layer of mold and dust, a clear indication that this was a memory after the bombs fell. The floor was slathered in a thick layer of sticky red fluid that I could only imagine was blood.

In front of me stood a unicorn raider. His armour was like that of most other raiders, assembled from jagged chunks of metal, spikes, chains and anything else he could get his hooves on. His grease coated black hair had been pulled back into two pigtails on the top of his head and his face was covered in a sickening mask of a screaming pony face.

I gulped as I recognised the mask, or rather, what I had assumed to be a mask. It wasn’t the kind of thing that you forget.

The raider had literally pulled a skinned pony head over his own.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see both Brisk and Xayah staring wide eyed at the vile raider in front of us.

This was my memory!

This was shortly before we had our first encounter with the Steel rangers. Brisk and Xayah had told me the raiders had hit me over the head and knocked me out. A horrifying feeling began to wash over me as I realized that something much more sinister had transpired.

The raider before us held a large serrated knife in its magic and had pushed the blade up against the neck of the yellow filly we had followed in. The fillies eyes were wide and her shaking pupils had turned to pinpricks.

“Don’t take another step or I’ll slit this fillies throat!” The raider cackled, grinning at us through his skin mask. A terrible feeling of déjà vu flooding through me as he said those words

I felt myself raise Boneless. The raider dug the edge of the blade deeper into the fillies neck, causing me to quickly lowered my gun again.

The raider laughed his terrible laugh again. “That's a good girl! Now put your weapons down!” more déjà vu.

I looked around, trying to spot a more effective way out than violence or surrender. There were red bars everywhere on my EFS. My eyes darted around the room, trying to spot the other raiders to no avail. My amber eyes landed on the yellow filly the raider held captive. My eyes narrowed. Why didn’t I see any green bars?

There was a sinister twitch in on the corners of the fillies mouth. I stared at the slightly curved edges of her lips, taking in her vile grin.

I raised my shotgun again and took aim. Xayah gave me a worried look. “Amber, what do we do?”

The edges of my mouth quivered as I took aim on the head of the raider. I could see the raiders knife cut deeper into the filly. I bit my bottom lip to keep myself from screaming. This wasn’t fare.

Boneless fell from mouth and clattered to the floor. I couldn’t take the shot.

Both the raider and the filly gave me a wicked grin.

“Take them now,” The raider ordered.

Faster than I could have reacted the doors on both sides of us burst open. A group of ten Fillies and colts all clad in raider armour spilled into the hallway and charged at us with their knives. It had been a trap from the beginning.

Brisk, Xayah and I reeled back as the swarm of raider children flew towards us. I turned for the stairs and prepared to sprint away when we found ourselves blocked by five more armed children rushing up the steps to meet us.

I pulled out my baton and prepared for the first child to reach me. I aimed, pulled the shock baton back to crush the fillies skull and froze. They were just foals! I couldn’t do this!

I saw Brisk and Xayah react the same, their weapons aimed, but refusing to fire as the fillies raced forwards.

I felt three fillies jump onto my back, their rusted blades sinking deep into my coat. I screamed in pain and tried to buck them off of me, but they had clamped on tight, weighing me down and forcing me to fall to my side. My head hit the ground with a thud, a sharp pain ringing through my ears.

I felt multiple tiny hooves bind my legs together with barbwire and shove me aggressively against the wall. Through my blurry vision, I saw Brisk and Xayah fall to the ground too, their limbs also tied in the sharp barbwire.

I tried to reach for Boneless with my magic, only for my horn to do nothing but shoot a sad spark into the air. “Fucking horn burnout,” I sputtered, remembereing my horns currnet condition.

The masked raider chuckled and released his grip on the yellow and blue filly. Instead of dashing away from the raider in fear, she trotted along beside him with a huge smile sprawled on her face.

The raider leaned over me and gave me a vile grin from below his skin mask. “You ponies would not believe how many ponies fall for this trick. Any pony that would come to this little fillies aid wouldn’t have the guts to kill her,” He gave the filly a gentle pat on the head.

I tried again to reach for my weapon, this time stretching my hooves as far as I could. I felt a sharp pain spike through me as the raider stabbed his serrated knife through my foreleg. I squirmed in pain, trying to dislodge the blade from my flesh to no avail.

Grinning wickedly, the raider withdrew the blade from my leg and passed it to the Yellow filly we had followed into the building in an attempt to rescue. “Kill the zebra,” The raider ordered, pointing his blood soaked hoof at Xayah. “Make it slow.”

The Yellow filly took the knife in her mouth and began walking over to Xayah, no longer trying to hide her evil grin.

I thrashed about, trying to free myself from my bonds. The more I thrashed, the tighter the barbwire seemed to get around my hooves.

Brisk screamed out and tried to lung at the filly as she neared Xayah, but the binding on his hooves made him topple to the ground, hitting his chin against the floor with a painful sounding crack. Two colts rushed forwards and pushed down on him with their hooves, holding him down as he tried to break free and attack.

Xayah had gone pale with terror, her pupils had dilated into pinpricks and her whole body had begun trembling.

The lead raider guided the filly down to the base of Xayah’s neck. The cold blade pressed against her, sending chills through her body. “Remember, take it slowly,” The raider instructed. The filly nodded gleefully and began to apply pressure to the knife.

Xayah screamed, her high pitched wails surged through me. Hot tears spilled from both my eyes and hers as the filly began dragging the serrated blade down Xayah’s soft underside, pulling apart the skin.

Blood gushed onto the floor as Xayah was slowly pulled apart before our very eyes. Soon Xayah’s screams became gurgles as her blood rushed into her mouth and began to drown her. Her body was wracked with horrific spasms as she tried to free herself from her tormentors.

And yet the knife continued to drag itself down the length of her underbelly.

The filly stopped as the blade reached Xayah’s hind legs. She withdrew the blade and spat it out to the floor.

Xayah lashed out, trying to attack at the filly with her barbwire bound hooves. The filly easily stepped away from the attack. Three more raider children moved in behind Xayah, they hooves steadily holding her in place.

Her grin widening, the filly advanced yet again on Xayah, her hoof extending and plunging deep into the new gaping wound. Even through the garling of blood, Xayah’s screams could be heard as the filly slowly began pulling Xayah’s intestines out of her stomach.

Something inside of my broke. The world around me seemed to freeze and the corners of my vision blurred with red. I screamed and lashed out at the filly, ignoring the searing pain that shot through my leg as the barbed wire tightened around my hooves.

I wrapped my hooves around the yellow fillies neck, quickly crushing her windpipe with my own bound hooves. I snatched the serrated knife up off the ground with my mouth and jammed it into the fillies eye socket, penetrating her brain. blood and yellow fluid sprayed from her eye coating my coat in viscera.

The raider barked orders I didn’t hear and rushed at me, but I was faster. The blade in my mouth already having cut through the barbed wire on my forehooves, I lashed the rusted blade upwards impaling the raiders skull with his own weapon.

The raider stumbled back, his hooves frantically beating the protruding blade in a desperate attempt to dislodge it as blood began to spill from the open orifices on his face, seeping over the skin mask and oozing down the front of his body.

The crowd of raider children held back for a second, a wave of shock and panic washing over them as they stared down at their dead leader, giving me a few seconds to untangle my back legs from the barbed wire. Their shock didn’t last long however as a burning rage filled their eyes and they charged towards me.

I picked up my baton in my mouth and began to scream around the handle as I began bashing in the children's skulls. One by one they fell, their bodies broken and oozing with blood where I had battered them. Legs snapped, faces caved, spines were shattered. It didn’t matter where I hit them, the hit was lethal. It didn’t matter if they were children because they were wrong. It didn’t matter if they died because I was right.

I was the moral one. I knew what was right. They were wrong.

A filly managed to knock my baton aside in the middle of my rampage, sending it clattering across the floor. It didn’t matter, I would use my hooves.

My hooves lashed out at the remaining colts and fillies, fracturing their skulls and crushing their legs. I felt their blades dig deep into my flesh as they did their best to survive my rage. Then I felt nothing. Not the beating of hooves against my chest as I stomped on their throats, not the cutting of blades against my skin as they tried to free themselves from my grasp or the spasming of bodies as I broke their legs.

The haze around me cleared and I found myself standing in a room of corpses. My coat was drenched in the blood of children and my hoof was embedded in a colts chest. I could feel the hot tears spilling down my cheeks as I took in the havoc I had brought. My legs were shaking and I was having difficulty standing, but I couldn’t tell if that was from the various incisions on my legs or the emotional devastation of what I had done.

I looked over to where Xayah lay. Brisk had managed to pull himself free of his bindings and was fretting over Xayah, trying his best to hold her intestines into her open stomach. I had to resist the urge to vomit as I took in Xayah’s state.

Brisk stared up at me, horror spilling across his face. “Healing potions! Now!” He demanded, doing his best to hold back tears. “NOW!” I rushed towards them on shaking legs and dumped my saddlebags out on the floor. All of our healing potions clattered around us. “Give one to her! I’m going to need to keep her intestines in!” Brisk ordered, shoving one of the potions into my hooves.

I quickly moved myself to Xayah’s head and propped her up. A wave of blood poured from her mouth, coating me in red. I raised the potion and trickled the liquid down her throat.

Xayah began to cough and sputter, her chest heaving up and down, causing more visera to spill across the floor. A mix of blood and bile spurted from her mouth and nose again as she sputtered, much of the healing potion coming up with it.

Brisk tossed me another one and I quickly poured it down her throat before clamping her mouth shut and forcing her to swallow. The massive wound on her underbelly slowly began to pull itself back to normal as Brisk held the two flapping pieces for blood soaked flesh together.

Brisk grabbed another potion in his mouth and tossed it up to me. “Again!” he instructed, doing his best not to let the wound reopen as Xayah began a second fit of coughing. As soon as the coughing subsided I shoved the healing potion against her lips and tilted her head back, causing the potion to flow down her throat. Once again the gaping wound began to mend itself.

“Again!” Brisk insisted, passing me our second to last potion. I emptied it contents down Xayah’s throat as I had done with the others. Finally the bleeding subsided and Xayah gave a shaky cough before finally going still. Her only movement was the slow rising and falling of her chest.

I slumped back against the wall, my blood soaked hide sticking slightly to the surface as I tried to catch my breath. I could feel my tears beginning to obscure my vision again as I took in the lifeless bodies of all the colts and fillies that I had massacred. My body was wracked with painful shaking sobs as the horrors I had just committed flooded my mind. While I had been killing them it had been so easy, but now each and every one of their faces were flashing across my vision with perfect clarity.

Brisk reached over and handed me the last healing potion. I pushed it aside and continued to weep. I didn’t deserve it. I was a monster. Brisk repositioned his hoof and handed me the potion again. Again I swatted it aside.

“Damn it Amber! Take the fucking potion!” Brisk demanded, giving it to me again.

“I don’t deserve it,” I cried, staring at the pile of bodies in front of me. “Give it to Xayah.”

Brisk scowled. “Xayah has stabilized and will live. You will not if you don’t tend to those wounds on your legs,” he growled, gesturing to the large amount of cuts on my forelegs.

Begrudgingly, I took the potion and drank it. I felt the itching sensation as my muscles and skin stitched themselves back together. I felt better, but that only made me feel worse.

My eyes lingered on the bodies of the foals around me. I could feel myself shaking as the memory of me murdering them continuously replayed itself over and over in my mind.

Then Brisk was standing over me again, Xayah’s unconscious and limp form draped over his back. “Amber, we need to get out of here,” His words were fuzzy and sounded far away. “Amber! Get up! We need to go!”

Almost as if in a trance, I pulled myself to my hooves and silently followed Brisk out of the building. I glanced back at the broken remains of the foals, the image burning itself into my mind. Then we were gone, moving down the street and away from where we- I had committed my greatest failure. I had done what was right. What was moral... but to what extent. The corruption of morality is a far crueler mistress than having no morals at all. At least then you would know what you did was wrong… but this… I knew what I had done was right, and I hated myself for it.

At last Brisk came to a stop at the edge of a street corner and gently placed Xayah down on the ground. I slumped down next to her and stared off into the vast sky above me. How I wished I could fall up into that horrifying sky and disappear from the pages of history.

To my surprise Xayah had at some point opened her eyes and curled up into a tight ball, her hooves wrapped tightly around her stomach as is she were afraid it would pop open again and spill her innards across the street.

“Xayah, are you okay?” Brisk asked kneeling down next to her.

Xayah let out a shaky breath and nodded. “Yes, I will be fine. Just give me a few moments,” She glanced at me, her face filled with concern. “What about you Amber. Are you alright?”

I remained silent and continued staring up at the sky. I couldn’t stop my body from shaking. Why couldn’t I stop my body from shaking.

“Amber?” Brisk’s voice managed to break my concentration on the sky and make me look down at him. “Amber, talk to us…”

There was a loud boom from around the corner of the street. We could hear the sounds of yelling and gunfire as some battle unrelated to us started to unfold only a few feet away.

“Shit,” Brisk muttered, pulling out his machete. “Xayah, can you take watch? Make sure they don’t sneak up on us. Whoever the fuck is fighting over there.”

Xayah nodded and hauled herself up and towards the corner of the street where she ducked behind a pile of rubble.

Brisk lifted my chin up with his hoof and looked down into my eyes. “Amber, can you fight?” He ask, his eyes passing over me as he tried to get a reading on my emotional state.

I shook my head, and searched for the will to speak. “I… I can’t keep going Brisk… it won. The wasteland wins.”

Brisk gritted his teeth and knelt down next to me, doing his best to sound calm and composed. “Amber, you gotta keep going. Think about the Stable.”

I shook him off and curled up into the fetal position on the side of the road. “I just want the memory to go away. Please make it go away. I can’t live with this,” I moaned, trying to curl up even tighter. I memory flashed through my mind and I pulled out the memory recollector I had collected in the Four Star Apartment Buildings and slipped it onto my head. I looked up at Brisk with pleading eyes. “Take the memory away from me.”

Brisk’s eyes widened as he realised what I was asking off him. “What! I can’t do that! Amber, that’s insane!”

I snarled at him, tears spilling down my face and pooling around my hooves. “Take them away from me!” I screamed, burying my face in my hooves as the regret of everything I had done began eating away at my brain.

“I- I don’t even know how to do that!” Brisk exclaimed. “I can’t do magic remember!”

I shook my head. Or at least I tried to. It was hard to do anything with my body shaking as much as it was. “You- you don’t need to use a spell. Just touch it with your aura.”

Brisk bit his lip, questioning his own morality about erasing my memory. Then, he lowered his horn and placed it against the recollector. His horn began to glow a pale white for a second, then the world blink out of existence.

My eyes jerked open to see the roof of the train wagon above me. I was lying on the dusty floor of the train, my back pressed against the cold surface. Brisk, Xayah and Pyre were all looking down at me with worried looks on their faces.

Xayah reached out and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Amber… are you okay?” I let my eyes wander to Xayah's underside. There was the massive fleshy, pink scar that raced from the base of her neck to between her hind legs. It was there and very much real. It was all real...

I stared up at the three of them for a long moment. With each second the weight of what I had just watched myself do began to pulsate through me. I felt my body begin to tremble and tears creep into the corners of my eyes.

“Amber, we’re uh- we’re here for you if you want to talk or-” Brisk started, but I pushed myself to my hooves and rushed away from them. I couldn’t let them see me. Not now. How could they possibly still want to be friends with me after what I had done. How had they continued to travel with, knowing that I was a foal murderer.

“Amber! Wait!” I heard one of them call out, but I couldn’t tell which one it was. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

I burst out of the train wagon and hopped into the car ahead of us. I turned and slammed the door, bolting it shut so that no pony could follow after me.

I stood alone in the train wagon. My body began to tremble all over again and my vision was fuzzy with tears. The I went still for a moment, my breath taking a terrible second to catch up with me.

The faces of the foals I had killed flashed through my mind. Their blood spilling across my hooves as I crushed their skulls.

Then I screamed. I screamed until my lungs ran out of air and there was nothing left for me to scream. It didn’t sound like the scream of a pony, but a mad monster of the wasteland, so twisted and tortured that nothing could salvage what little scraps of sanity it had left.

I felt blood trickling down my nose. My body began to convulse and I fell to the floor as a squirming, sobbing mess. I tried to scream again, but no sound left my screaming lips.

Images of Inferno burning a family alive as I watched flooded my mind. I saw him raping fillies and crushing them below his hooves. I saw me…

I was a monster. I was becoming something that could not be salvaged, could not be forgiven and could not be reformed. Slap some spikes on my and I’d be a raider. I was a raider. Pyre had been right all along. The wasteland had beaten me, like everypony knew it would.

And what made it worse was that I couldn’t pin this on Kamari like I had pinned everything else. This had been my doing. This had been my mistake. I was the real monster.

Crank had seen through my lies. He had known the truth about me even before I did. I wanted to die. I wanted it so fucking badly.

I levitated out Boneless and checked the ammo. Thee barrel’s, three shots.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I raised the shotgun and placed it against my head. Just a simple pull of the trigger and everything would be okay. The pain would go away, and more importantly I would have rid the wasteland of yet another monster.

“Just pull the trigger Amber,” I whispered to myself. I felt my magic slowly tightening around the trigger of the shotgun. “Just pull the trigger. What do you even have left.”

I had nothing. No home, no family, no purpose. All that had been pushing my along was a desire for revenge and the twisted idea that I was actually saving ponies and making the wasteland better. What a fucking lie that had been.

This was my punishment for having the audacity to even suggest that everything might be okay. It was never going to be fucking okay.

There was a knock on the door. More tears spilled down my face as I pushed the barrel harder against my forehead.

“Damn it Amber, just pull the fucking trigger,” my whimpers were drowned out by the sounds of my sobs. “Pull the trigger you fucking foal killer.”

“Amber…” it was Brisks voice. His tone was soft and tired. “Amber, can I come in?”

I froze, my eyes locked on the door. Why hadn’t I pulled the trigger yet. What the fuck was I holding onto anymore? What was the goddess damned point of anything!

I took a deep breath, steadied my gun and prepared to fire. I felt a single tear roll down my cheek. “Good bye,” I muttered.

Then my eyes landed on something. In my screaming fit I had knocked my saddlebags off of me and send all my belongings spilling across the floor. Among them sat a dirty, beat up looking box with the faded image of a rainbow and a paintbrush on the front. The painting kit that Brisk had gifted me the night before we returned to Stable 25.

I stared at it for a long moment, my whole body frozen as I tried to figure out what to do next. I felt more tears come and run down my face.

Slowly, I lowered my shotgun and glanced up at the door to the train wagon. I wasn’t going to let the wasteland beat me. Not yet. Not after I had lost so much.

I took a shaky breath and let my shotgun clatter to the ground.

“Amber?” I heard Brisk’s voice from beyond the door again. “Amber please let me in…”

“J-just you…” I finally managed to get out between ragged breaths and sobs. I reached out with my magic and lifted the bolt on the door.

Slowly, Brisk crept into the room, closing and bolting the door behind him. He looked me over with sad eyes before his gaze finally landed on the shotgun laying at my hooves. A look of terribly understanding crossed his face.

“Hey…”

I swallowed and let him approach. “Hey…”

“You doing okay?” I gave him a flat look. “Alright, alright. Stupid question."

I glanced down at my hooves. “I’m a monster Brisk.”

Brisk sat down next to me and wrapped his hooves around me. “You are not a monster Amber, you just had to make a difficult choice to do what was right.”

Corrupted morality. Some fucking virtue that was.

I looked up at him, the bottoms of my amber eyes brimmed with tears. “But I killed them… all of them! They were only foals.”

“And if you hadn’t then Xayah would have died. Do you really think that if you had let them live they wouldn’t go and kill other ponies?” He asked flatly.

I shook my head, sobbing louder into his chest. “But… what if-”

“You are not a bad pony Amber,” Brisk interjected firmly. “You’re a good pony. One of the best. None of this fucked up shit is because of you.”

I began shaking even harder, the only thing managing to keep me together being Brisk’s comforting embrace. “What’s happened to me Brisk. Why can’t I be the pony I used to be?”

Brisk shook his head and frowned. “You look like the same pony to me.”

“What happened to the days where my biggest problems were fixing a generator and wishing that ponies would stop calling me cute,” I looked up at him again, taking in his steady eyes. “I’m so angry all the time now Brisk. Why can’t I go back to being me? Why can’t I just be a cute little pink pony wanting to impress her dad?”

Brisk gave me a warm smile. “For what it’s worth…” He booped me on the nose, making me jump back a little and blush with embarrassment. “I still think you’re pretty damn adorable. And I think we both know that Xayah thinks you’re cute too.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not cute…”

“Well either you’re cute or your angry, take your pick. And for the record, I think you’re cute when you’re angry too,” He booped me on the nose again, once again making me jump.

I covered my nose to protect myself from a third booping and looked up at him. “Fine, maybe I’m a little cute,” I admitted, trying my best to give him a smile. To my surprise, I managed to give him a real one, and he knew it too.

A big grin broke out across his face. “A little cute? Nah, you’re probably the cutest pony in the whole wasteland,” He smirked, pulling me back in for a hug.

I poked him hard in the chest, making him jump back a little himself. “Now you’re pushing it buddy,” I scolded, but I was smiling now. My smile fell when my eyes landed on my shotgun. “Brisk, can I ask you something personal?”

Brisk raised his eyebrow and nodded. “Yeah, I’m all ears.”

“Have you- well that is to say-” I stumbled as I tried to figure out how to put what I wanted to say into words. “Have you ever tried to kill yourself?”

Brisk froze, his gaze locked on the window. He took a deep breath. “Yeah… twice. Once after my parents were killed and another time right before I met you,” his eyes were sunken and sad. I nuzzled in closer to him.

“And how did you get through it?” I asked, closing my eyes.

Brisk stifled a pained laugh. “Spite, I guess,” he said, his embrace tightening. “The idea that I could get out of the Stable. That I could win…” He trailed off, his eyes now transfixed on the ceiling.

“And what keeps you going now?” I asked, trying to pull him even closer.

He looked down at me with his one good eye and gave me a small grin. Before I could stop him, he booped me on the nose a third time. Damn it, I shouldn't have let my guard down. “You,” He said. He glanced over at the door to the train wagon. “And Xayah, and yes, even Pyre Blaze a little bit.”

I smiled and wrapped my hooves around him as tightly as I could. “Thank you Brisk.”

He just kept grinning down at me. “Yeah, no problem. I am kinda awesome.”

I gave him a playful punch. “I’m glad we’re friends. I’m glad that little awkward patch we went through didn’t ruin that.”

“I think we’ve had this conversation already,” Brisk commented.

I shrugged. “Just making sure you know it you big dork.”

He ruffled my mane with a hoof. “Cutie patootie,” I gave him a small scowl for that one.

“Are you two almost done in there?” Pyre Blaze groaned from the other side of the door. “You might want to get out here!”

Brisk cast a nasty glance at the door. “Really a bad time Pyre!” He shouted, causing me to flinch slightly.

There was silence on the other side for a second. “Uh- yeah okay, that’s nice Brisk-y poo, but I really don’t care. Now get your green and pink asses out here,” Pyre growled back, rolling each word around in her mouth as if the words themselves were sour. “We’re almost there.”

Brisk and I exchanged a glance and pulled ourselves back to out hooves. Brisk looked down at me with his single eye. “You think you’re going to be okay now?”

I gave him a smug grin. “Yeah. I’ll be fine,” I raised Boneless and looked over the weapon. It really was a beautiful weapon. “Now let’s go give Kamari a piece of our min-”

The train stopped abruptly, making me fall flat on my face. I pushed myself back up, rubbing my nose with a hoof.

There was a loud bang and I saw a large explosion erupt a few feet away from the train out the window. I groaned. Of course we couldn’t have a simple ride without a fight.

Brisk and I raced from our wagon to join with Xayah and Pyre as they readied themselves for an oncoming attack. “What is it?” I asked, pulling up next to Xayah and aiming Boneless out the window. “Slavers?”

Pyre scoffed. “I told you slavers aren’t going to attack this train,” She grunted, the tips of her flamers flaring to life with a small hum. “It’s those damn bandits everypony keeps talkin’ about. The ones that are given' Red Eye some grief.”

Bandits. I had dealt with worse.

A bunch of bandits charged at the windows, their automatic assault rifles firing a wave of bullets towards us. The glass on the windows shattered and peppered us with jagged shards as we dropped as low as we could to avoid being shredded by the deadly assault.

Pyre grinned at the rest of us, then quickly leapt from one of the broken windows, crashing into one of the bandits and flattening his skull under her powerful metal clad hooves.

Xayah winced as the bandit was flattened. “I am glad she is on our side, and not attacking us like other raiders,” I agreed with that sentiment.

My Hellhound, which until this point I had forgotten was sleeping in the corner of the train wagon, sprang into action, charging after the bandits and ripping them to shreds with its massive claws or blasting them apart with its arm mounted energy weapon.

The bandits flashed by for a second assault. This time I was ready for them.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

I emptied Boneless in quick succession. Three bandits dropped to the ground dead, their bodies ripped open by the powerful buckshot. Brisk and Xayah fired as well, their shots lancing out at taking down two bandits of their own.

I dropped back to the ground as another wave of bullets bombarded us. More glass and bits of metal shrapnel flying over my head as they took out chunks of the window and blasted holes through the aged metal of the train's rusted wagons.

The hatch on the roof of the train wagon burst open and three bandits dropped down from above us, landing heavily on the train floor. All of them were earth ponies, with either brown or dark grey coats. A red bandana was tied tightly over their mouths, hiding most of their faces.

I turned to attack them, but before I could, I felt the familiar static filled crackle of energy on the back of my neck. The bandits reacted with surprise as the far doors of the train wagon burst inwards. seconds later, Crank launched himself at rocket speed towards the bandits, his Tesla cannons blazing with light.

I pushed Brisk and Xayah down and did my best to cover their bodies as Crank’s tesla cannons fired. He might as well have shot off a Balefire bomb! My vision suddenly erupted with blue and white light and one wall of the train was blasted apart. The blast’s shock wave sent me flying against the wall where my back collided with a heavy thunk.

I groaned and pulled myself back up, rubbing the top of my head with a hoof to try and ease my growing headache. Glancing over to where the bandits had once been I saw little more than three glowing piles of ash.

Goddesses I really dreaded when I would have to fight Crank.

I glanced out the window and watched as Crank slammed down from the sky, his hooves colliding with one of the bandits backs, snapping it in twain.

As the mighty cyber alicorn slammed into the ground, a massive cloud of ash and dust burst into the air, obscuring my view of everything outside of the train wagon. The dust cloud would only take a few seconds to dissipate, but in that time, the bandits were blind. Crank however was not.

A small glowing blue light began pulsing from the center of the dust cloud. Then there was a blast of light and a massive lazer lashed out through the ashes. The beam of glowing blue energy spun, slashing through the air in a chaotic frenzy. And where it went, blood would follow.

The dust died and the carnage of Crank’s battle could be seen clearly in the light of day. Every bandit lay dead at Crank's hooves, their bodies sliced clean in half or simply disintegrated into a fine blue powder.

I gaped at the bloodsoaked cyber alicorn in horror. Five seconds… he had killed them all in just five seconds!

Brisk peered over the top of the windowsill and looked over all the bloodshed. He gave a nervous glance at Xayah. “Pyre Blaze ain’t the only one I’m glad is on our side right now,” Xayah simply nodded in utter bewilderment.

I hopped out of the smoking train and looked over at Crank. “Holy shit!” Was all I could manage to get out.

Crank shrugged, the blue electricity that flowed through his tesla cannons and jagged horn slowly sizzling to a halt. “I don’t like being interrupted.”

“Apparently.”

The ghoul condutor from the station rushed up from the front of the train and looked over the damage that Crank’s attacks had done to the train. He grabbed his conductor hat and threw it angrily against the ground with a small yell of frustration. “Luna fucking damn it!” he turned and glared at all of us, no longer seeming to care how intimidating of a group we were. “You fucking ruined my train!”

“Will you be able to fix it?” I asked, walking up and surveying the damage with him. Almost half of the train wagon we had been occupying had been blasted apart, but the engine of the train seemed to be perfectly intact.

The ghoul scowled at me, showing off his rotten teeth. “Fix it?! Sure. I can fuckin’ fix it! Might take me a bit. Probably won’t be able to move again until tomorrow mornin’ if I really work my ass off! Course it probably won’t have walls for another goddess damned fuckin’ month!” he screamed in frustration. He pointed an accusing hoof at Crank. “Damn fuckin’ cyber ponies. Always wreckin’ your stuff.”

“So you won't have the train fixed until tomorrow morning at the least?” Crank rumbled, taking a step towards the angry ghoul.

The ghoul took a small step back, holding his hooves over his head to protect himself. “Well uh- probably not. Gotta fix up the wheels and all that. Thought I guess I could probably just ditch the wagon if I had a bit more muscle.”

Crank grunted and began moving away from the train and towards a large collection of jagged sharp rocks in the distance.

“Hey, where are you going?” I asked, trying my best to catch up with the cyber alicorn.

Not bothering to slow down or even look back at me, Crank grunted. “Hollow Shades. It should only be a short half hour walk from here. I’m not going to wait for the train. I hate waiting.”

Brisk glanced around at the desolate wasteland around us. Somehow the area managed to look even more dead than the graveyard that was Manehattan. “I don’t know. It might be safer to wait for the train to be back in order,” he said as some strange distant howl echoed in the distance. “Who knows what stuff is waiting out there…”

I looked around at my group of friends, then a quick glance at Crank. I gave a small chuckle, an action that was so polarizing to my earlier mood. “Brisk, I think we’re the most dangerous things in the wasteland right now.”

I turned and followed Crank towards the ominous rocky landscape of the Hollow Shades.

As we began moving away from the train the ghoul conductor grumbled to himself and turned to start fixing up his train. “Fuckin’ wastelanders. Always leaving me to clean up their goddess damned mess.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Life Giver -- +30 hit points

Author's Notes:

It only took me 155,819 words, but I finally got them to someplace that isn't Manehattan! Yay!

Also, for anyone that's confused when that memory was taken from Amber, it was right at the very beginning of the chapter 6 - Comradery of the Steel Rangers

As usual, huge thanks to Kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestria

Hope y'all enjoyed and have a good day (or night I guess).

Chapter XIII: What Lies Below

"The future must be secured. I won’t let you stand in the way of that."

Hollow.

I hadn’t even arrived at the Hollow Shades yet and I could already tell that it had been named vary appropriately. The desolate landscape that stretched out around the borders of the Hollow Shades were empty beyond comparison. There were no structures, no land masses, no life. Just seemingly endless miles of blackened stone and ash, mixed with the occasional withered remains of long dead leafless trees. Even my pipbuck failed to pick up even the smallest life form among the outskirts of the accursed location.

Everything seemed to still and quiet. The only movement being that of ash filled gusts of wind creating strange swirling shapes in the brownish grey atmosphere. Even that wind was completely silent as we trudged along.

Crank lead the way, his heavy hoofsteps muffled by the crunching of ash below his hooves. Pyre walked closely behind him alongside my Hellhound, their intense gaze locked onto the back of Crank’s head, ready to attack if he were to turn on us. Not that I thought that would do any good. Crank had proven beyond a doubt that he was perfectly capable of taking all of us out if he wanted to.

Goddesses I really hoped he didn’t want to.

That left Brisk, Xayah and myself to take up the rear. I didn’t mind that. It had been a long couple of days since the two of us had any real time just the three of us. Not that I didn’t like Pyre Blaze, but there was only so much of her a pony could take at a time.

The last few minutes of walking had been in complete silence, and it was really starting to get on my nerves. I wanted somepony to speak so I could get away from this eerie silence that had settled over us.

“They really meant it when they decided to call this place hollow,” Brisk grunted as he scanned the radioactive wasteland around us. No question about it, Brisk had been just as eager to break the silence as I had been.

Xayah nodded. “As Crank said, this area used to test Balefire bombs back before the war. To be truthful, we are taking far less radiation than I had expected.”

We were still taking rads. About one rad a second to be exact. But I had been forced to deal with far worse levels of radiation before, and considering how those places had not been hit point blank with a balefire bomb, I considered the amount of radiation I was taking to be a blessing. It could have been so much worse.

"I thought Balefire bombs were a Zebra invention?" Brisk asked. "Why were ponies testing them out?"

Xayah nodded, keeping her gaze out at the dunes of ash. "Ponies created mega spells, zebra's created Balefire bombs, but that does not mean ponies were without Balefire bombs and zebras were without mega spells."

The idea of a war where both sides had access to such powerful weapons of destruction was a terrifying one. I didn't like thinking about it.

“So what kind of stuff is out here?” I asked, following Brisk’s gaze out into the empty and vast expanse around us. “The kind of stuff that wants to kill you, I mean.”

Xayah simply shrugged. “Hard to say, I have never been out this way before.”

“Where have you been?” Brisk asked, turning back from the wasteland to look at her. “This was your first time in Manehattan as well, right?’

Xayah nodded. “I was raised in Glyphmark near Canterlot. My family and I spent most of our time there. We lived in New Appleoosa for a while as well, but the ponies there were- well, they were less than thrilled to need to share their home with a bunch of zebras.”

I tried to imagine what it must be like to not be wanted around because you were a zebra. It took me a second, but I quickly realized I understood how it felt to not be wanted because of something you were born into and had no control over.

I nodded Grimly. “Being hated because of who you are sucks. I had to deal with that a lot in my Stable,” I said with a frown, remembering all the beating I had had back in the Stable. The idea of some ponies beating me was a lot less terrifying now than it was back then. I had seen and done so much worse since those days.

Xayah shook her head in near disbelief. “It is hard to imagine anypony not liking you for who you are Amber. The idea is simply foolish to me.”

I blushed at that. Brisk slapped his hoof against his face with a groan. “Goddesses, you two need to stop flirting and just fucking buck already!” I shot him a grumpy look which he took as his que to leave. “Yeah, I’m going to just go chill with Pyre for a moment.”

I looked over at Xayah nervously as Brisk rushed ahead of us, not quite sure where to pick up the conversation after that comment. From the massive blush on Xayah’s face from Brisk’s outburst, I could tell she wasn’t quite sure either. And holy shit could Xayah blush. Her face had gone more red than a fucking tomato.

Xayah rubbed her forehooves together awkwardly. “So, how are you feeling? About the memory orb and all that?”

I winced. Damn, I was really hoping no pony would bring that up. “I uh- I’ve been better, but I’m coping,” I replied evenly, trying to suppress the images of all the broken foals bodies around my hooves from returning to my mind. I didn’t do a very good job.

“But will you be alright?” Xayah pushed, looking over at me with a worried expression.

“I didn’t know if I would for a minute,” I admitted. “But- but I think I’m going to be okay now. I just need to keep going and I’ll be fine,” I didn’t know how much of that was true. Hopefully most of it. I didn’t bother mentioning I had come terrifyingly close to killing myself back on the train. I didn’t want Xayah to be worried.

Xayah gave me a perturbed look, but seemed to believe me. “Well if you ever need to get something off you chest, I’m here for you,” she said quietly, giving me a gentle smile.

I returned her smile, though mine was arguably more forced than hers. “Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I never got to thank you for saving my life back with the raiders,” Xayah continued, facing forward and continuing to walk onwards. “Seeing’s how you were unaware of the attack at all.”

I waved my hoof nonchalantly. “Don’t mention it, it was nothing,” I insisted. “We’re all here for eachother in this,” I didn’t like being thanked for murdering a bunch of children, despite the good it might have caused.

“Perhaps it is nothing to you,” Xayah soothed flatly, slowing her pace a little. “But you were not ripped open and disemboweled.”

She had me there.

Ahead of us, both Crank and my Hellhound froze. The massive black Hellhound lifted its head up high and took a long sniff of the air, smelling out what I could only assume was some sort of incoming danger. Crank instantly dropped into a battle stance and awaited whatever it was the two of them were sensing.

I glanced down at my EFS. Nothing except the six green bars that made up our group. I looked up, hoping to spot whatever it was that I was unable to see. I found nothing.

Then I saw it. Something began moving towards us at an alarming speed from across the barren wasteland. It’s seemingly massive form hidden just below the surface, causing clouds of ash and rock to erupt from the ground wherever it moved.

I put my hoof in front of Xayah protectively as whatever it was grew closer. Brisk and Pyre reacted with surprise as well, readying themselves for whatever was approaching. Even as it drew near us, I was unable to pick up the massive concealed monster on my EFS.

I readied Boneless as the massive undisclosed beast began to circle us with a speed that I was having trouble keeping up with. My stomach clenched and I began to feel sick.

A foul smell seemed to ooze from all around us as the gigantic monster closed in.

Then, for a brief second, it broke the surface. I could see pink, fleshy skin coated in pony sized pus bubbles and hundreds of massive, slimy tentacles reaching towards me. In a flash, one of the tentacles wrapped around my hoof and began pulling me towards a gnashing maw filled with razor sharp teeth.

Then Crank blasted at it with his Tesla Cannons. Blood erupted from the side of the monster and splashed us all with visera. The creature screeched and ear piercing shriek that caused a small trail of blood to drizzle from my ears. The thrashing monstrosity coiled away from the attack, releasing its grip on me and quickly retreating into the ground and out of sight.

I lay on the ground panting for a second, staring in horrified awe at the hole that the creature had ripped in the ground, not sure how to take what had just happened. How the fuck had my pipbuck not been able to pick that thing up! It had been huge!

“What the fuck was that thing!” I heard Pyre blurt, peering down the massive hole that had been aggressively ripped out of the ground.

“There are things below the Hollow Shades that make the creatures of Manehattan look like play toys,” Crank grunted, continuing on towards the Hollow Shade as if nothing unexpected had happened. “Try not to get into a fight with them. Your bullets will do little more than pester them.”

I gulped as Xayah and Brisk rushed over to help pull me back to my hooves. Leave it to us to need to go to the one place in the wasteland that had creatures that big that you couldn’t kill. Just my fucking luck.

As we began to walk forwards again I could have sworn I saw a small, filly version of myself smiling at me from behind one of the dead trees. I squinted to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, only for the image to disappear.

“Did any of you see that?” I asked, pointing out to where I thought the filly me had been.

Both Xayah and Brisk cast a glance out to where I was pointing. “See what?” Xayah asked, worry creeping back into her voice. “Do you see something out there?” she quickly reverted to a battle stance.

I shook my head, not sure what I saw myself or if it had even been real at all. “Never mind. I’m sure it was nothing.”

I turned and began following closely behind everyone else. Very slowly the jagged rocks of the Hollow Shade began to loom towards us.

I pulled out my pipbuck and flipped through the audio files I had downloaded from Silver Ace’s terminal in the Four Star Apartment building. I had been so busy the last two days I hadn’t been able to give any but the first recording a listen. Figuring that I had some time to kill before we arrived at the Hollow Shades, I clicked on the second audio file and listened as the hum of static flared to life.

“Twilight’s insistence to reach out to other races has been… less than successful,” the aged, yet smooth voice of Silver Ace said over the recording. “The Buffalo were less than pleased by her attempts to persuade them to the side of Equestria and the Yaks are… well the Yaks are the Yaks,” Silver Ace gave a small chuckle at that, but there was some weight to it. “It should be interesting to see how her next attempt goes, though with the amount of hatred between them even before this damn war I can’t see it going any better.

“In other news, Stable-Tec has continued with the assigned mission. Scootaloo seems very interested in the project. She seems to be far more accepting of the idea of Utopia than I was expecting, even started creating an Atmospheric Administering Sustenance System for prolonged existence within the program.”

I could feel my heart start pounding at that. Atmospheric Administering Sustenance System? He was talking about the A.A.S.S! Stable-Tec had made the A.A.S.S for Silver Ace for some Utopia program he was working on? That brought up far more questions than it gave answers. How had it gone from this Utopia program to Stable 25? Was there more than one A.A.S.S’ out there? What the fuck was the Utopia program? I had no idea.

“The other two heads of Stable-Tec, that being Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, are far less enthusiastic about the idea,” The voice of Silver Ace continued, his tone dropping to one that was far less friendly, though still highly charismatic. “I do hope they don’t pose and issue farther on down the road. This project demands utmost dedication and secrecy. I guess we will see how that all unfolds at a later date.”

“Silver Ace, can I get your assistance please?” I heard a softer voice say from what sounded like a different room to the one Silver Ace was recording in.

“Of course Fluttershy, give me a moment,” Then the audio recording cut out.

I tried to process what I had heard. This Utopia Silver Ace was talking about must have some sort of connection to what was going on, right? There was no way that all this fuss over the A.A.S.S. was for nothing. I tried to think of what the connection might have been, but my mind was coming up blank.

The wasteland had many mysteries. I doubted I would know all of them for a long, long time.

It took almost an hour longer to get the the Hollow Shades than Crank had predicted. Perhaps he had underestimated the distance from the train to our destination, or perhaps he simply wasn't used to needing to travel at the same speed as a group of slower ponies.

Whatever the reason, by the time we had finally made it to the large jagged rock formations marking our destination, my hooves were tired and felt like they were about to fall off. My stomach gave a loud growling noise in protest as it demanded food from me.

I still wasn’t used to this whole needing to eat thing.

The Hollow Shade was a massive circular ruin wedged between two large rock spires. A small collection of ramshackled houses filled the inner circle of the ruins, most houses patched together with slabs of dark black stones. Cracked stone paths weaved through the dilapidated structures and small clusters of dead trees to a large well in the center of the Shade. I wasn’t able to see the bottom of the well from where I was standing, but I was fairly far away so it is unlikely that I would have been able to see the bottom, even if it was only a few feet deep. A large stone wall had been erected around the ruins, making entry near impossible without going through the front gates.

Far in the distance I could see a massive black spire of metal reaching up into the sky and disappearing above the thick grey cloudlayer. An evil green fog seemed to waft around the base of the massive structure.

“What is that place?” I asked, staring in terror at the looming structure on the horizon. It felt wrong somehow, like I was staring down the barrel of a gun.

“I told you that the Ministry of Arcane Science worked around here,” Crank grunted, seemingly more interested in the stone wall around the Hollow Shade. “That is the MAS headquarters.”

I gulped. “Why does it look so… evil?”

“Being hit by a balefire bomb will do that to ya,” Pyre grinned, looking up at the tower. “Don’t matter if you’re a living pony or a tower I guess.”

Brisk made a nervous chuckling noise behind us. “Uh, so- does Red Eye usually come out around these parts?” He asked, turning his attention from the ominous black tower to the stone wall blocking us from the Hollow Shades.

“I don’t think so,” Xayah asked, looking back at him. “Why do you ask?”

Brisk pointed at the large stone wall in the distance. I squinted to make out what he was pointing at. Sure enough two blood red banners depicting a rather evil looking eye had been raised above the entrance.

Before we could discuss that any further, I heard the click of a shotgun being cocked. Crank heard it too. He whirled around to face the sudden intruders, his tesla cannons already prepared to fire at any given moment.

Four ponies dressed in rags had started to approach us. The leader of the group, a tall earth pony mare with a dusty brown coat and black duster held a shotgun level with my head and glared at me with hateful eyes.

“Whose side are ya on,” the mare growled, taking a step towards us.

Crank snarled, his two tesla cannons charging up at his sides. “I would back down if I were you,” the cyber pony growled, making most of the ponies flinch. The mare in the front ignored him.

“I’m goin' t’ ask ya one more time, whose side are ya on?” The mare demanded, her steady gaze burning into us.

Crank began walking forwards, each step causing the ground to shake a little. His tesla cannons began to glow a brilliant blue. I waved my hooves in front of him to stop his attack.

“Hold on there Crank, we don’t need to attack them yet,” I said, hoping to defuse some of the growing tension.

“What do you mean, which side are we on?” Brisk asked, stepping up next to me.

The mare gave a hollow laugh. “Ha! Like y’all don’t know,” After seeing us exchange a bunch of confused glances she lowered her shotgun a little. “Y’all actually don’t know, do y’all?”

We all shook our heads in unison.

“We just came from Manehattan,” Xayah elaborated, keeping her hood pulled over her head in a failed attempt to conceal herself. “We have no idea what is happening out here.”

The mare’s skepticism seemed to buckle at Xayah’s words. She slowly turned to the four ponies that had been standing behind her with their weapons drawn. “Y’all can lower your weapons, I don’t think these folk here mean us any trouble.”

Now that I didn’t have a shotgun pointed at my face, I was able to take in the visage of the other four ponies. On the right was a blue buck with a short green mane and tail, he had a hunting rifle slung across his back and a water bottle cutie mark. Next to him stood an auburn unicorn mare with a long dark red mane. Her coat was covered in a myriad of scars. The final pony was a large black buck that to my suprise managed to stand a solid foot above Crank. His dark blue mane had been shaved on one side and he had a minigun attached to his battle saddle.

The brown mare in the duster turned back and looked us all over. “Well if you ain’t here ‘cause of what’s goin’ on, then what’s a strange lookin’ group like y’all doing all the way out here in the Hollow Shades?” She asked taking a step forward and offering me her hoof. “It ain’t every day a group a ponies wander into these here parts with a Hellhound and cyber pony for company.”

“We’re looking for a somepony named Kamari,” I said, taking her hoof and giving it a quick, awkward shake. “Have you ever heard of him?”

The mare tapped her chin for a second. “Kamari? Can’t say I have. And I was pretty sure I knew everypony round here,” She turned and pointed to the group of ponies behind her. “Allow me to introduce everypony. The blue buck there’s name is Salt Water, the mare there is Golden Chestnut and the big one is Boulder,” The lead mare said before turning back to us. “And of course I’m Toffee Lighting. Y’all can just call me Toffee for short.”

I nodded and quickly started naming off all my companions. “This is Brisk Spark, Xayah, Pyre Blaze, Crank, and my Hellhound. And I’m Amber Aura,” I finished. I hadn’t realised how large may group of companions had gotten over the last couple of days. We had certainly gone from some random wastelanders to a genuine group to be feared.

Toffee froze as I said my name, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Amber Aura? So Y’all are the ones that Red Eye was lookin’ fer in that bounty he put out a couple a days ago?”

I saw the muscles in Crank’s legs tense up at her remark. I gave her a nervous smile, getting ready to pull out Boneless if they decided to attack us. “Uh- yeah. Thats- thats us.”

There was a quiet moment of tension between us. Finally, Toffee gave us a wide smile. “Well if y’all ain’t friends of Red Eye, then y’all are friends of mine.”

I gave a quick sigh of relief. I really didn’t want to fight these ponies. Not that I didn’t think I could take them with Crank and a Hellhound on my side. From the relief that washed over the faces of Toffee’s companions, I could tell they had really not wanted to fight us either.

“So what is going on out here?” Xayah asked, glancing over at the Hollow Shade. “Last I heard, Red Eye rarely comes out this far.”

Golden Chestnut gave a loud snort, breaking her silence. “Oh his Slavers come out here plenty, usually only in small groups. Normally we just chase them off,” She said with a scowl, giving the wall around the Hollow Shades a putrid glare.

“Then what the fuck happened,” Pyre slurred, picking up a black rock from the ground and ballencing it on the tip of her metal clad muzzle.

“We usually chase ‘em off because we usually have the strength to chase ‘em off, long as they don’t show up in large groups,” Toffee said, finally putting her shotgun away. “But two days ago, Stable 44 sealed itself off to the outside world. We haven’t been able to make contact with them since. Course that’s when Red Eye decided to send in a fuckin’ squadrin of slavers and talon mercs.”

Brisk held up a hoof. “Sorry, what does this have to do with Stable 44 closing itself off?” He asked, clearly as confused as I was.

Salt Water stepped forward next to Toffee. “The Hollow Shades are a dangerous place. Our survival here is dependant on multiple things functioning as one whole. Lose one thing and everything goes to shit,” He explained, slowly pacing back and forth in front of us. “A while back we made a deal with Stable 44. We supplied Stable 44 with scraps that they didn’t have access to in their Stable, as well as protection if they need to venture out for whatever reason. In exchange they supplied us with education, weapons and barding as well as fresh water.”

That last one drew me up short. “You don’t have any water here in the Hollow Shades?”

Toffee shook her head. “The Hollow Shades was a wasteland even before the war. The apocalypse only help to cement that fact. You’d be hard pressed t’ find anythin’ out here that ain’t ash, rock or radioactive waste,” She elaborated. “When Stable 44 blocked themselves off from us we lost access to our only water supply. Next day we’re short on ammo, and the day after that Red Eye comes waltzin’ in like he owns the damn place.”

“Then what happened?” Brisk pushed, more interested in the topic than I would have expected from him. Brisk seemed to slowly be gaining a longer attention span the more time we spent outside of the Stable. Slowly.

“Slavers attack. We fight back. Slavers win. Many sent to Filly. Those who can fight kicked out,” Boulder grunted in a deep, choppy tone. Clearly he wasn’t much for talking. “Many ponies still inside. Trapped.”

Well that just didn’t sound good. “So what are all of you ponies doing out here?” I asked, looking back and forth between them all. “And you said ponies got kicked out? Where are they?”

Toffee gave me a frown. “We were on our way to Stable 44. We were hoping that we could get in and if the ponies in the Stable are willing, get their help in taking out the Slavers,” her brows knitted into a tight scowl. “And there ain’t any more of us left. Most everypony was either shipped off as slaves to Fillydelphia or still prisoners in the Hollow Shades. There were twenty of us that managed to get out of the town but… well it’s just the four of us out here now.”

“So you have a slaver problem,” Crank rumbled, looking over the group. “I could take them all out for you, if that would speed this up?”

Toffee shook her head. “I don’t know who you are Crank, but I doubt you’d be able to take out that many slavers on your lonesome.”

Crank’s eyes seemed to glow a darker shade of red. “I assure you, I can deal with them perfectly fine.”

Toffee shook her head again, clearly not sure how to take Crank’s confidence. “If you say so, but it won’t do us any good to just wipe them out anyway. Without water and help from Stable 44, we’re just sitting ducks out here. Even if by some miracle you manage to kill ‘em all, nothin’ would stop ‘em from sendin’ more, and I don’t think we would be able to survive another attack,” Toffee grumbled, looking off to where I assumed Stable 44 was. “Not to mention if we don’t get water out to the ponies here soon we might as well start burying ourselves now.”

“Do Red Eyes slavers not have water either?” Pyre asked. “They must be livin’ on something? Right?”

Salt Water nodded. “They brought water with them from Filly. More than enough for them to last a month or so, but they don’t seem to have any intention of sharing it with the rest of us.”

“Fucking Slaver bastereds,” Chesnut grunted, kicking at the ground with her hoof.

I gave a small sigh. “Alright, How about we make a deal,” I said, putting on a small grin. “We’ll help you get in contact with Stable 44 and deal with your Slaver problem, and you can help us locate this Kamari we’re looking for?”

Toffee and her crew exchanged a few glances before turning back to us. “I say you’s got yourself a deal partner,” Toffee said with a small nod. “The Hollow Shade is a dangerous place, we could use all the help we can get right now.”

“I don’t think this is a very effective use of our time Amber,” Crank grumbled, turning his glowing red death stare onto me. “It is likely that Azar arrived here before us and is well on his way to Kamari. We cannot afford to be sidetracked.”

I puffed out my chest a little and stared him down. “Well then you had better come with us to make sure we get things done quickly,” I told him in as stern a voice as I could.

Crank glared down at me for a few moments. For a horrifying second I feared this would be the moment he turned on me and blasted me into ash. Finally he returned to a more relaxed posture. “Fine,” He grunted, before turning away from me and staring off into the wasteland.

I let myself sigh. I had him working with me still. I just had to make sure not to piss him off more.

“So, where is this Stable 44?” Pyre Blaze asked, bouncing up next to Boulder as we began walking. The large pony grunted and continued trudging forward.

“You aren’t going to get much conversation out of him,” Salt Water said, falling in step with Pyre Blaze. “He isn’t much for talking.”

No really? Hadn’t noticed.

“Okay, well my question still stands,” Pyre Blaze soothed, rolling her eyes slightly and turning her head to face Salt Water.

“It’s not far from here,” Salt Water replied, combing his mane back quickly with his hoof. “It was supposed to be easily accessible by the Ponies in the Hollow Shade before the war, so as you’d expect, it was kept close to the Hollow Shade.”

I supposed that made sense. And I wasn’t one to complain, I could always do with a little less walking. my hooves still hurt from the long walk here.

“Far as we’ve been able to tell, the Slavers don’t know about the Stable yet,” Toffee said. She had naturally gravitated to walking at the front of the group. Crank kept casting her angry glares, clearly not enjoying somepony taking the lead with him. “Hopefully we won’t run into any of them on our way.”

“I hope we fucking do!” Chestnut spat, her voice filled with an anger that even my rage after the death of my Stable couldn’t match. “I’m going to fucking give those bastereds what they deserve!” She gritted her teeth together and stomped off ahead of the group.

“Is she doing alright?” I asked, quickening my pace so that I was walking alongside Toffee.

Toffee gave a small sigh. “Unlikely. Chestnut has more reason t’ hate the Slavers than the rest of us,” Toffee said, looking off at Golden Chestnut as she stomped ahead of us. “See her and her husband were escapees from Fillydelphia. From what I heard it was pretty awful in there. When the Slavers attacked the Hollow Shades, her husband didn’t make it out of the battle.”

“Goddesses, no wonder she hates them so much,” I said, sorrow creeping into my own voice. “That must have been pretty hard on her.”

“Still is hard on ‘er. Hard on all of us honestly. He was a good man,” Toffee’s eyes dropped down to her hooves for a bit. “Don’t help that the Slavers took her kid too. Last I saw him he was bein’ shipped off to Filly. Chestnut ain’t takin’ that well either.”

I could imagine.

“Why is she still here then?” Crank asked coldly in his deep, rumbling voice. He looked at Chestnut in the distance, a strange gleam on his glass eyes. “If her child is in Filly, why isn’t she going off to save him?”

“She probably wants too,” Toffee admitted. “But Chestnut’s been loyal t’ this here settlement for a long while now. We brought her and her husband in after they had been stuck in the wastes for nearly a month after their escape. I reckon she thinks she owes us a favor.”

“And what about the rest of your friends?” I asked, gesturing to the two stallions behind me. “What’s there story?”

Toffee gave a dry chuckle. “Well there ain’t much t’ tell bout those two. Salt Water there was born here in the Hollow Shades, he ain’t much for fightin’ but he’s the best damn mechanic in the whole damn wasteland I tell ya.”

I huffed at that. “Oh really? I guess we’ll just have to see about that.”

Toffee gave me a funny look. “What? Ya think you’re a better mechanic than Salt Water?”

I gave the most smug smirk I possibly could. There were many things I was uncertain of, but the one thing that I knew better than the back of my hoof was machines. “Oh, I know I am.”

Toffee seemed to be amused by my statement. “Well I guess we’ll just see about that,” She turned back and pointed at Boulder. “Anyhow, Boulder there spent most of his life livin’ out in New Appleoosa. I think he said somethin’ ‘bout workin’ on a rock farm out that way for a bit, But I ain’t to sure about that one. He’s not much of a talker.”

“A rock farm?” I asked, my pace faltering for a second. I quickened my step to keep from falling behind.

“Yeah, there’s one all the way out by Las Pegasus,” Pyre injected, clearly having been eavesdropping on our conversation. “We used to raid that place sometimes, but raiders don’t have much use for gems. Not many of them are smart enough to actually do anything with them.”

“And what about yourself?” I questioned, the idea of farming rocks still lingering in my head. “What’s your story?”

Toffee raised her eyebrow at that. “Well, I was the sheriff of this settlement till Red Eye’s slavers showed up. That’s been my life mostly. Makin’ sure all my ponies here are safe and all.”

“Must be hard protecting ponies in such a dangerous place,” I commented, thinking about how hard just trying to save ponies in Manehattan was. Not that Manehattan wasn’t dangerous, but the Hollow Shades just seemed lethal on another level altogether.

Toffee grinned at that. “You can bet your ass it’s hard, but we make by,” She glanced mournfully at her few remaining companions. “Or we usually do, anyway,” Before I could attempt to comfort her, she wiped away her sour expression and gave me a smile. “Well that’s enough about us, how ‘bout ya tell me yer story? And the story of yer more peculiar company.”

I cracked a smile. “Well funny story that-” I started, trying to figure out where to start.

I had only just began figuring out how I was going to explain my story when we came to a halt in front of a massive cave leading into the side of one of the Hollow Shades many jagged rock formations.

“We’re here,” Salt Water said, stepping up to the cave and slowly entering the gloom. “Told you it wasn’t all that far.”

The cave looked like the den of a dragon, or as Pyre quickly put it, an oversized Mole Rat. The cave was wide enough that we could all walk side by side and still not touch the sides of the tunnel. Sharp, fang like stalagmites hung in large clusters above our head. I kept glancing up at them, scared on might fall and skewer me.

And the whole cave smelt of rot. A foul scent wafted from within the depths of the cave, circumventing through the black rocks and into the air. A greenish brown sludge oozed down the walls and a couple droplets of some form of blood like substance dripped from the Stalagmites.

“I do not like this,” Xayah whimpered, peering around the dark cavern as we passed through it.

I didn’t like it either. It felt wrong, almost as if the rocks around us were sick. I shivered. I didn’t like how the cave felt alive…

“Everything below the surface of the Hollow Shades is like this. Thankfully you aren’t going to find to many critters in here,” Chestnut grumbled bitterly, having now rejoined the group. As she saw the uncomfortable looks on our faces she gave us a fake smile. “It’s better in the Stable. Assuming we can get inside.”

As we neared the end of the tunnel, I began to make out the huge Stable door. A massive steel gear that had managed to withhold hundreds of years worth of Balefire and Wasteland. A small control panel had been built into the wall beside it, looking almost comically tiny in comparison to the gigantic metal door.

Toffee walked up and placed her hoof on the panel, pushing down on a small red button to the left of the controls. “Stable 44, this is Toffee Lighting. Can you hear me?” nothing. Toffee cleared her throat and tried again. “This is Sheriff Toffee Lighting. Do you hear me?”

Chestnut scowled. “Those assholes can hear you fine Toffee and you know it. They just want to hog all the fuckin’ water to themselves.”

“But why? They have never showed signs of being short on water before,” Salt Water said, shaking his head a little. “I just don’t get what could have happened.”

I turned to look at Crank. “I don’t suppose you could just blast your way in?” I asked, gesturing to his two massive tesla cannons.

Crank shook his head. “These doors were made to survive Balefire bombs. My cannons will do little more than blacken them,” Crank grunted in his usual deep and stoic tone.

Salt Water approached and looked over the control panel for the door. He grunted as he ran his hoof across the metal surface. “You could probably open the door with the proper override code, but without it we’d need to completely rewire the doors from within the control panel, and most of the circuitry is inside of the cavern wall,” he said as he traced his hoof along the sticky rock walls of the cave. “Unless one of you ponies know the override code?”

All my friends looked at me as if expecting me to know it. “I can’t hack a terminal without a terminal in front of me to hack,” I said, raising my hoof. “I’m good with machines, I’m not psychic,” then a thought crossed my mind. I turned to look at Salt Water. “Wait, if we managed to get inside of the rock wall, do you think we could manually override the door?”

Salt Water nodded. “Probably. I mean it would be pretty similar to hacking a terminal, just with fewer numbers and letters and more wires and sprockets.”

“You’d need to actually get inside a solid rock wall though,” Pyre reminded me, tapping the wall with her metal clad hoof.

I pointed to my Hellhound smugly, a wide grin on my face. “These things burrow through rock, don’t they?”

The process was slow. Hellhounds, while perfectly capable of digging through rock, were in no way the most precise method of excavation. I had to instruct the Hellhound to dig slowly, only scrapping a thin layer off of the wall at a time. After a few minutes of digging into the stone, we began to see bits of metal tubing embedded into the rock face. How Stable-Tec ever managed to successfully embed circuitry into the rock was beyond me.

“Careful now,” I ordered as one of the Hellhounds claws came dangerously close to cutting one of the metal tubes in half. I didn’t want to know what would happen if we accidentally broke the circuitry. Would the Stable fail to open again? Open forever? Neither situation sounded pleasant.

“That should be good,” Salt Water said, holding up a hoof and inspecting the hole the Hellhound had dug. “I think I can rewire it from here.”

I ordered my Hellhound to stand down and joined Salt Water as he began fiddling with the metal tubes and loose wires that now protruded from the rocks. “Sooo, you can rewire the door from those?” I asked, looking the circuits over. It seemed impossible, even for me. And I was a master of Stable-Tec technology.

Salt Water nodded. “Yeah, should be that much different from rewiring a robot actually. Pretty much the exact same thing,” A small shower of sparks popped from the wall as he touched two wires together. “Though, maybe this might be just a little more complicated.”

“I’ve never actually rewired a robot. not many robots back in my Stable to do that on,” I admitted, staring over his shoulder as he worked in fascination. “I once managed to hack into the brain of a cyber pony, but that’s about it,” Crank cast me a nasty glare at that comment.

“Well just sit back and watch them,” Salt Water chuckled, his hooves still working furiously to override the door. “Maybe you’ll learn something.”

I groaned, not quite knowing how to feel about being upstaged by somepony at my special talent. My irritation quickly subsided as I was near mesmerized by Salt Waters work. I started picturing what each wire did and where they connected to each part of the door. That much I could at least figure out with some ease.

“What I tell ya,” Toffee chuckled. “Best damn mechanic in the wasteland.”

Despite my wonder, I still had to huff at the comment. “I’ll prove to you yet that I’m the better mechanic,” I grumbled, hitting a rock with my hoof.

Pyre chuckled at that. “Classic Amber, always trying to prove something.”

I gave her a small scowl.

There was a small buzzing sound and Salt Water took a quick step away from the wall. “That’s about as much as I can do,” he cooed, looking up at the large gear shaped door then back at the wall in frustration. “These doors were not designed to be opened from the outside, while I can override it, I would need a large power source strong enough to jump start it, which as far as I can tell, we don’t have access to.”

Crank groaned. “Ugh, how big of a power source?”

Salt Water gave him a sceptical look. “Large enough to power and move a massive metal pendulum. While I doubt Stable-Tec ever put Hellhounds into consideration while designing the Stable’s they clearly had no intention of ponies finding a loophole in the door.”

Crank took a step forward, grumbling something to himself under his breath the rest of us couldn’t hear. Probably a bunch of less than flattering insults. “Point me in the right direction. I’ll get it up and running,” he muttered, a large spark of light blue energy flashing up his jagged horn and sparking at the top.

Unsure what exactly Crank was proposing, Salt Water guided him to a large gap in the circuitry where all the metal tubes seemed to lead to. Crank put his horn to the spot, a massive spark erupting from the tip and sending streaks of crackling energy rippling through all of the wires.

The blast of his horn sent Crank staggering back where he landed on his metal rump, his horn smoking and charred a dark black.

He grunted, rubbing his forehead with a hoof. “Fuck I hate doing that.”

I heard a loud clunking sound as the Stables metal pendulum swung down on the far side of the Stable door and clicked into place before it began pulling the solid metal inwards. Sparks sprayed from the edges of the door as it slowly pulled itself open with a screech before rolling to the side to reveal the Stable within.

Standing in the doorway were five ponies in Stable Security barding. Each one of them was equipped with a shock baton almost identical to mine as well as an assault rifle. For a Stable, they were very well armed.

“Hold it right there!” A mare in a Stable jumpsuit called from the top of the grated stairs leading up into the Stable. “I don’t know how the fuck you managed to get that door open Toffee, but you had better turn your ass around and march on back to your town. You aren’t wanted here!”

Toffee held her ground. “I don’t rightly know what’s going on Purity, but I ain’t leavin’ till I have a proper answer.”

I could see the Stable security cast Crank and my Hellhound a worried look. From the looks in their eyes, I could tell they might just fire on us simply out of fear. I took a step forwards in a hopes to defuse the situation. “Purity, are you the Overmare of this Stable?” I asked, looking up at the mare. “We have just come to talk to you, we don’t have any interest in fighting.”

I could hear Pyre Blaze’s groan of annoyance at the lack of fighting part.

Looking at her closer, she had a solid white coat with a long blue main that looked as if it had been flat ironed. She had dark bags under her eyes. I had seen my fair share of tired ponies while in the wasteland, but these eyes reminded me a great deal of my fathers. This was a pony who had a great deal of stress on them to make sure their ponies were safe.

Toffee had similar eyes, though she seemed to do a better job of looking presentable.

Purity nodded. “Yes, I am. And who might you six be?” Her eyes swept over me and my company. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you before. You aren’t from the Hollow Shades, that’s for sure.”

Toffee shook her head and took a step forward, ignoring the Stable guards that raised their guns at her at her approach. “That’s not important right now. I want to know why y’all shut us all out!” There was a steady inline in the level of her voice. “Y’all know we ain’t got no water out here. Ya knew we would die and run short on ammo!”

Purity scowled. “You have no idea what’s going on in here. We couldn’t afford to continue with that one sided deal with your selfish town out there.”

Salt Water growled. “One Sided? We’ve been supplying you with scraps you can’t get in you Stable for years! How is-”

“And Scraps are all they are!” Purity yelled, cutting him off. “Crates of junk for fresh water, weapons, ammo and an education system is hardly a fair deal!”

“Because of what you did, Red Eye and his fucking slavers have taken over the Hollow Shades!” Chestnut spat, stepping past me to stare Purity down.

Toffee shook her head again. “Then y’all should’ve told us that it wern’t workin’ for y’all. I’m sure we could have come to an arrangement,” she gestured to the Stable Security. “Do ya mind tellin’ yer security here t’ stand down. I think we need t’ talk with a few less guns. Ya know we don’t mean y’all no harm.”

She didn’t withdraw her guards, but she at the very least told them to lower their weapons and allow us into the Stable so that we could discuss everything in a more civil manner.

Stable 44 looked almost exactly like Stable 25. There were a couple of discrepancies in the layout of all the rooms, but for the most part it looked identical. Same dull grey walls, same floor and claustrophobic feeling that came with the roof being so close to my head. I must have been the only pony in the wasteland that got a sense of euphoria from claustrophobic situations.

But it also felt sad, thought I couldn’t tell if that was the Stable itself or my overly emotional memories of Stable 25. I could imagine clouds of pink wafting through the blood soaked halls as the last of the Stable dwellers struggled for breath. Suddenly I was feeling a whole lot less euphoric.

Brisk seemed to be taking the whole ordeal just as well as I was. His eyes kept darting around the metal tunnel as if looking for an escape exit.

I leaned over to him so that only he could hear me. “Hey, you doing alright?”

Brisk nodded slowly. “Yeah, this place just looks really similar. I don’t like it.”

As we walked through the painfully familiar halls, my eyes landed on a room that did not exist back in Stable 25. Curious, I glanced up to the sign above the door that indicated the function of the room. The slightly glowing sign read ‘Library’.

My whole body froze as I looked up at the sign. I quickly pointed to the door. “You have a library in here?”

Purity looked back and glanced up at the sign above the door. “Of course. The ponies in this Stable are all descendants of members of the Ministry of Arcane Science back before the war. A rather large collection of books were collected in here.”

I bit my bottom lip and continued staring at the door. “You don’t think that I could- I don’t know… go take a look inside do you?”

Everypony turned and gave me a quizzical look. Purity raised her eyebrows. “I don’t see why not, though I would appreciate if we could all-”

Before she could finish her sentence I was darting through the door to the library. Inside was like looking at a massive pile of gold. There were hundreds of books. Rows upon rows of bookshelves lined the library walls and created small aisles down the middle. I had never seen such beauty in my life.

“-Stay focused on the matter at hoof…” I heard Purity finish with a sigh. “Is your friend always like this?”

“I really like books!” I called back as I raced through the different aisles of books. They had everything. The complete Daring Do series, power pony comics, the unabridged history of equestria. My eyes landed on a large leather tome that lay neglected in the corner of the room. The words ‘Big Book of Science’ was sprawled in gold letters across the front.

I quickly snatched up the book and pointed to it. “Can I have this one!” I called out in excitement.

The librarian, whom I hadn’t seen until now gave me a quizzical look. “You can borrow it, so long as you give it back. We don’t sell our books to outsiders.”

My face fell. Damn it! I knew there would be a catch. There was no way that I’d be staying around Stable 44 long enough to read the book.

I placed the book back down on the shelf and begrudgingly sulked out of the room to rejoin everypony else. “Darn wasteland, always ruining things,” I grumbled as I fell back in step beside Brisk and Xayah as we continued walking.

The library had given me a moment to disassociate myself with the Stable, but with each step down the hallway, memories of my time in Stable 25 came flooding back to me. I had a sudden urge to turn around and run for the door as fast as I could.

Stable Dwellers were beginning to poke their heads out into the hallway and stare in bafflement as the security ponies marched the ten of us down the hall. Clearly we were an odd sight, and with Crank and a Hellhound in toe, I wasn’t surprised.

Purity and her security entourage brought us to the Overmare’s office overlooking the main atrium of the Stable. I had to use every ounce of self control I had to not instinctively search for my bedroom.

With a tired sigh, Purity pulled herself into her chair and looked at all of us from across her horseshoe shaped desk. “So, would you mind telling me why and how you managed to open the Stable door?” She demanded, folding her hooves in front of her crossly.

“After you abandoned us, Red Eye showed up and took over the whole of the Hollow Shades,” Chestnut growled, stalking towards Purity with a hate filled gleam in her eyes. The security raised their assault rifles as she approached, forcing her to back down. “If you hadn’t cut us off from our main source of weapons and goddesses damned water we would have been able to fend them off!”

Toffee put a hoof on Chestnuts shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, but she simply shrugged it off.

Purity looked over us all again. “I’m sorry about Red Eye, I truly am, but the truth of the matter is that we are having issues with the water ourselves. Our water purifier has been having some trouble. There seemed to have been some form of magical malfunction. We only have enough water reserved for ourselves and even then we don’t know how long it will last us. We couldn’t risk you greedy ponies coming and claiming the water for yourselves,” She told us flatly.

Pyre coughed in a poor attempt to hide a laugh, drawing all of our attention to her. When she realized we were all looking at her she gave us a fake chuckle. “Sorry, ignore me.”

“Is there something you would like to share with the rest of us?” Purity asked, raising her eyebrow slightly.

“Well it’s just that that excuse is brahmin shit and you know it,” Pyre said bluntly, staring Purity down. “And I don’t need to know what it’s like to lead a Stable to know that.”

“And what would you have suggested I do?” Purity asked, giving Pyre a death stare. “Share the water? We both know that the wasteland does not take kindly to sharing.”

“Well you could have asked for help for one thing,” Brisk piped up, taking a small step next to Pyre. It was almost surprising to see him actually agree with her for once. “I’m sure other ponies would have helped you fix the purifier.”

“Or you could have given a warning that you were going to drop connection,” Xayah added, also taking a step forward to join my friends.

Purity cast Toffee a strange look. “Do you mind explaining who these strange ponies are and what they’re doing here again?”

Toffee simply shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t even know myself. But they’re here to help, and I’d be lying if I said I weren’t grateful fer it.”

“I understand that this is hard for you, but if you came her looking for my help, then you had best just leave,” Purity said in a stern tone. “I’m sorry about your town, but I need to think about the Stable first.”

I joined my friends in front of the desk. “The way I see it is that we have three problems here. You don’t have enough water to share or even for yourselves, the trade between the Hollow Shades and Stable 44 isn’t working out and Red Eye has completely taken over,” I summarized, putting everything together. “No pony here benefits from any of these problems.

“So, here’s what I’m thinking,” I continued, turning so that I was facing both Toffee and Purity at the same time. “We band together so that we can get the water back to working order and come up with a better trade agreement,” I turned to face Purity directly. “You said you need to think about the Stable first, well then you’re going to want to think about fixing the purifier and getting a useful form of trade going right?”

Purity seemed flustered at that. “Well yes, I-I suppose that's correct-”

I turned to look at both of them again. “Then we'll deal with those problems first. Once that’s all sorted out we can start working together proper on equal terms and go and deal with Red Eye and his forces as one unit.”

Toffee and Purity cast each other a nervous glance. “Well that sounds like a plan t’ me,” Toffee finally said, reaching a hoof out to Purity. “What do ya say? Together?”

Purity just stared at her hoof for a second before finally reaching out and shaking it. “You got yourself a deal.”

Brisk raised a hoof timidly. “So uh- How do we fix this purifier thingy? And why haven't you already fixed it? I’m sure you have the resources in the Stable.”

“Because the Water talisman or purifier isn’t the issue,” Purity said, looking over at Brisk. “We’ve tested it out and it seems to be in perfect condition.”

“What? Than what’s the issue?” Salt Water blurted, scratching the back of his head. “I thought you said it was a magical malfunction of some form.”

Purity nodded at that. “Yes, but not of the purifier. The malfunction is coming from the water itself. Our piping is getting little more than a dark oozing sludge.”

I glanced at Crank to see if there was any connection between this sludge and the strange black liquid that flowed through his veins. He remained as stoic as ever.

Toffee, Salt Water and Chestnut all slapped their hooves against their heads in unison. “Fuck! You don’t mean-” Chestnut groaned. I detected a small sliver of fear in her voice.

“Mean what?” Xayah asked, glancing from one pony to the next. “What does that mean?”

Toffee turned to face her, her face somber. “It means that whatever is causing the water to go bad is in the cave systems underneath the Hollow Shades.”

“That doesn’t seem so bad,” I said innocently. “I mean, this Stable is already underground, right?”

Purity shook her head. “The deeper you go under the Hollow Shades the more dangerous it gets, and the Hollow Shades is already a dangerous place. There are things down there that we can’t even begin to imagine.”

Toffee grunted. “If that ain’t the understatement of the year. Outside of massive face eating monsters that ya can't shoot or outrun, the cave system is filled with pockets of radiation. Stand in the wrong spot for too long and you’ll be melted right into the cave floor,” She glanced at Chestnut wearily. “And yes, other things that we can’t imagine.”

I gulped. Great. That sounded just great.

On the bright side, Purity had agreed to send us into the caves below the Hollow Shades well equipped. We quickly found ourselves each with an additional twenty shots in our respective guns as well as a generous stash of five healing potions. She was also kind enough to send four Stable Security ponies that had volunteered to help us.

I also had a Hellhound and ridiculously powerful cyber alicorn on my side, so that calmed me down a little.

On the down side, I was currently standing at the mouth of a massive dark, spooky cave that seemed to ooze with the feeling of dread and probably was hiding some unspeakable evil in the shadows.

We had gone to the lower levels of the Stable where a large maintenance hatch had been waiting for us. The hatched bordered on the edge of the dark caverns under the Hollow Shade. One side of the door was the creepily nostalgic Stable, the other was a horrifying rock tunnel.

“You ponies sure about this?” Toffee asked, looking over at me and my friends. “This ain’t yer problem. I’d hate for y’all to get hurt ‘cause of us.”

I waved her concern off. “Don’t worry about us. We’ve been through worse, I’m sure.”

Chestnut coughed. “Anypony that’s spent time in the wasteland thinks they’ve seen worse. Then they end up coming down here. Trust me, you haven’t seen nothing yet.”

“Really helping my confidence,” Brisk grunted, trying to peer into the darkness with his one good eye. “I don’t like what it smells like down here.”

He wasn’t wong. The entrance of the cave smelled like a mix between rotting corpses, bile and bad eggs.

“Once we get going, the smell is going to be the least of your worries,” Chestnut cracked, pulling out her hunting shotgun.

I would have loved to have a few more minutes to prepare myself before charging head first into what sounded like something similar to that of pony hell, but one of the Security ponies with a dark grey coat stepped forwards and began moving into the darkness. “Come, we have spent enough time here already,” He grunted, urging us to all move forwards.

Slowly, the fourteen of us descended into the darkness of the cave. With every step we took, the thick gloom around us seemed to darken exponentially. I quickly turned on my pipbuck flashlight, hoping to get a better view of what was around us.

“Shut that off,” Chestnut hissed from beside me as soon as the light flared to life. “Do you want to attract the things down here?”

Not bothering to question her, I shut the flashlight off and plunged us back into darkness. The blackness that surrounded us seemed to close in like a heavy blanket trying to smother us alive. The blindness was nauseating.

I heard the pipbuck of the Security pony walking in the front start to click as he began entering a radioactive area of the caves. There was a small yelp and the sound of him shuffling backwards.

“Radiation,” The security pony grunted from the darkness, restating what I had already figured out. “Give me a second, I’ll try to find a way around.” We all waited in silence for a minute as the leading security pony shuffled around the edges of the tunnel. Finally we saw a small flash of green light as he quickly flipped his pipbuck on and off to notify us on his location. “There is a relatively radiation free passage this way.”

We began walking down the new tunnel. My pipbuck began clicking as we began descending a steep slope into the cavern. We only seemed to be taking one or two rads a second though, nothing we needed to worry about too much at the moment.

A terrifying tingly feeling slowly began etching its way down my spine. I didn’t know why, but I could have sworn it was the feeling of something watching me. I shivered as I tried to shake the feeling, but it refused to go away.

I felt somepony brush up against my side, their soft coat an unexpected comfort in the dark bowels of the cave.

“Amber, you still there,” I heard Xayah’s soft voice whisper from the gloom beside me.

I nodded, then quickly realised that she couldn’t see me in the darkness. “Yes, I’m right here. Are you holding up okay?” I asked, moving against the warmth of her body a little more.

“I do not like it down here,” Xayah murmured. “I think something is watching us.”

Damn it. So it wasn’t just me that felt that. Something was in fact staring us us from behind the curtain of shadows that filled the cavern. For a second I considered turning on my pipbuck flashlight to see what it was, but I decided for the sake of our sanity, it might just be better to ignore the feeling and move on.

Up ahead a faint green light seemed to illuminate the tunnel beyond. I could see the shapes of tiny glowing green fungi growing out of the cracks in the walls. The radiation on my pipbuck spiked for a second, going from one rad a second to ten. The second we passed the fungi the geiger counter dropped back down.

“Those Flammulina Velutipes should give us some light,” Salt Water said, quickly stepping past the fungus himself. “Course they might give us a few more rads than we would like, but at least we’ll be able to see a little.”

“Flammulina vlewhatawa?” Brisk sputtered, shooting Salt Water a baffled look. “What the hell is that?”

“The glowing fungi on the walls,” Salt Water stated flatly, pointing to another cluster of fungi on the walls a few feet ahead of us.

Brisk gave a small pout. “Dumb smart ponies and there dumb long words.”

I glanced around to see if I could spot whatever was causing the ominous feeling of being watched, but aside from the dark shapes of my friends beside me, I couldn't see anything. Even my EFS wasn’t picking up any other lifeforms around me. Why couldn’t my EFS detect anything?

Now with the irradiated green light of the Flammulina Velutipes, I could begin to make out other things about the caves. Strange green ores ran through the dark rock walls, looking almost like sick veins in flesh. To my displeasure, I could see the melted remains of ponies fussed to the walls, their limbs reaching out as if they had died while attempting to give somepony a hug. Their long dead screaming faces had begun to ooze some form of sludge, giving them the appearance of melting wax.

I shivered and stepped away from the melted bodies. They made me very uncomfortable.

I looked at the four Security ponies that were walking ahead of us, their forms silhouetted by the glowing fungi. “Have you ponies ever come down into these caves?” I asked, jumping slightly as my hoof brushed up against a skeletal hoof that had been protruding from a crack in the ground.

The dark grey buck that had entered the cave first shook his head. “A few times, but this is the first time in a very long while. I don’t think we’ve sent any pony down here in over a hundred years.”

I was beginning to understand why.

Toffee and Chestnut exchanged a small glance. “The two of us came into similar tunnels out by our town,” Toffee said. “It wasn’t very pleasant, nearly didn’t make it out alive.”

“Some of us didn’t,” Chestnut grunted.

“Yes, and some of us didn’t.”

The guard glanced back at Brisk and I. “I noticed you two are wearing Stable barding yourself. What Stable are you from?”

“Stable 25,” I said quickly, not wanting to think much about my Stable. The memory of it hurt too much. Brisk and I exchanged a knowing, hurt filled look.

The grey security pony simply grunted. “Where is that? Manehattan?”

I nodded, then realised he probably couldn’t see me to well in the darkness. “Yeah, not far from Friendship City. Well- It used to be anyway.”

“Used to be?”

Brisk gave a small snort, telling him to back off a little. “It’s gone, the pony we’re looking for destroyed it.”

“Kamari?” Toffee asked from somewhere beside me. We had slowly entered another dark patch in the cave, making it impossible for me to tell exactly where she was.

“Kamari,” I confirmed.

The security pony gave a small grunt from the darkness. “Don’t suppose you being a Stable Dweller yourself has anything to do with how you opened up the Stable doors?”

“Opening the doors was more Salt Water’s doing,” I admitted, gesturing to the blue and green buck beside me. “That and assistance from my Hellhound.”

“Going to be a pain in the ass to fix that damage y’all did to the door,” another security pony grumbled. “Now any wastelander that knows a thing or two about overriding robots can get it open. Granted those are far and few between.”

I glanced over at Crank, who was silently trudging through the cave next to us, not bothering to join in on any of the conversation. I thought crossed my mind. “So Crank, how did you managed to get into Stable 25?” I asked, hoping to pry some more information out of him before his inevitable betrayal.

“Latched onto the Stable 25 emergency broadcaster after you activated it,” Crank grunted, his glowing red eyes remaining forwards and cutting a small beam of red through the darkness. "Once we had a location, we teleported in from Fillydelpia.”

I froze. Teleportation? How the hell had he managed to get his hooves on an ability like that? I had heard of unicorns that could teleport, myself included, but all the way from Fillydelphia and into a Stable seemed impossible?

“How- how does that work?” I stammered, trying to figure out the logistics of teleporting that far into a Stable that had from what I could remember, had a spell that keeps unicorns from teleporting in and out. “Like- with your own magic? And what about Tripwire, Steel Blade and Inferno? They don’t have horns, how did they get in?”

Crank shook his head. “I’m an earth pony. This cybernetic horn can’t do any magic like telekinesis or teleportation. It is more of a gun than anything else,” Figures as much, just a massive weapon of destruction.

“So what? You have some sort of teleportation machine that can bypass even Stable doors so long as you have the proper coordinates?” I asked, slowly piecing everything together.

I could see Crank’s glowing red eyes bob up and down in the gloom, signifying the nodding of his head.

I gulped. I didn’t like the idea of enemies that could teleport anywhere and from any distance. “And Red Eye has this kind of tech in Filly?” I was almost afraid of the answer.

Crank pondered that for a second. “Not yet,” He rumbled slowly. “But he probably will soon.”

“But the pony who sent you to retreive the A.A.S.S has that?” Brisk said from beside me, shifting Crank’s attention to him.

“To an extent. He only had the ability to get us in and out,” Crank grunted. “But given time, I’m sure he will have more access to it.”

I raised my eyebrow at him. “So there’s a he now? When are you going to tell us who sent you?” I said smugly.

Crank simply grunted and stopped ahead of us, refusing to answer my question yet again. Damn it, what was his resistance to telling me to had hired him? Was it part of a contract or something? And if so, why did Crank care? He had already double crossed whoever it was.”

My pipbuck began clicking faster as we began entering another cloud of radiation. The security ponies noticed it on their pipbucks as well, pausing for a second as they contemplated what to do.

“We’re going to have to run through,” One of the security ponies that hadn’t spoken yet grumbled. “I don’t think there is any other way around.”

“Crank and I could just go scout ahead,” Pyre suggested, dancing up to the front of the group in her power armour and trying to look down the dark cave in front of her. I doubt she was able to see anything. “I mean, neither of us are affected by radiation and all that. We could search for another router for you all.”

The gray security pony who I was starting to suspect was in charge shook his head. I only barely managed to make out the movement a few inches in front of my face. “No, I would not recommend splitting up the group down here. We are much safer when we are together.”

“So what? We run through it and hope that the patch of radiation isn’t a long one?” Chestnut scoffed, taking a small step away from the radioactive area. “What if the rest of the cave down there is irradiated or some shit?”

“We will run,” Boulder grunted bravely, taking a small step forwards. I jumped a little at his voice. Despite his immense size, he was so quiet I had completely forgotten he was standing right behind me.

Well I guess that settles that.

Toffee nodded grimly. “Alright, we will run. On three?”

I tensed my legs and I prepared to dart through the darkness. Even from a few feet away from the irradiated section of tunnel I was taking in a lot of rads. I would need to be fast.

“One.”

I could feel Brisk and Xayah begin to crouch low to the ground in anticipation, both of their sides brushing against mine as they prepared themselves. Even Crank seemed to be preparing to charge forwards.

“Two.”

Goddesses, I hoped this tunnel didn’t last long.

“Three!”

We surged forwards as one. My geiger counter went crazy, the clicking going so fast that it began to blur into a droning hum. Twenty rads a second. Thirty rads a second. Forty rads a second. My hooves pounded against the ground as I raced forwards, waves of pain rushing through them as the impact of the rocky ground pulsed up them. I felt something slither under my hooves, but I didn’t dare stop to see what it was.

Five seconds paced. Then ten seconds. Then a minute. We had taken almost two hundred rads. I could feel my insides begin to churn and boil. No doubt we had all been infected with some form of radiation poisoning.

Then, the clicking on our pipbucks halted and and we all collapsed to the ground out of breath. I rubbed my hind hooves as I tried to steady them from shaking after running so fast. I could hear all of my companions gasping for breath around me.

“Is- is everypony alright?” I heard the grey security pony call out in a shaken voice. There was a bunch of grumbles from around the cave as everypony tried to put words to their survival. “Roll-call,” the security pony grumbled. I could hear him pull himself to his hooves. “Cherry, Granite, August?” he called out, allowing me to hear the other security ponies names for the first time. Each one making some form of grunting noise at their name. “Toffee, Salt Water, Chestnut, Boulder,” Again, three grunts of acknowledgment. “Brisk, Xayah, Amber, Crank, Pyre?”

I raised my hoof and called out. “Here,” as if I were back one of the classes back at school in Stable 25. I could hear all of my friends do the same. I reached out and patted the dark coat of my Hellhound to make sure it was there. To my relief it was.

“Alright, that could have gone worse,” The grey security pony I still didn’t have a name for grumbled, walking around and passing out a radaway to each of us. I gratefully gulped it down, ignoring the vile taste of the orange fluid. Thankfully I wasn’t able to see it in the darkness of the caves, that helped me get it down a little better.

I watched in satisfaction as my geiger counter dropped back to around fifty rads. At one point in my life, I would have been panicking if I was even above five rads, but after having spent a couple days in the wasteland, being below one hundred rads seemed like a blessing.

I felt something slimy slither past me, making me jump back a little. Both Crank and my Hellhound froze, their eyes darting around the room.

“There’s something in here with us,” Crank grumbled. I could feel everypony tense up as he said that. He was silent for a few seconds, scanning the darkness with his red glare. As the dim light of his eyes passed over the walls I caught a small glimpse of something fleshing riggling away from the light and up the rock face. “Multiple things actually.”

“Are they hostile?” Xayah asked. I could feel her turning her head to try and spot them. Like me, her eyes found little more than darkness.

I glanced down at me EFS. Still nothing. Were the things down here dead already? Was that why I couldn’t pick them up? I doubted I’d ever know for sure, but the thought terrified me.

Crank was quiet for a few seconds. “Yes, they are just waiting for an opening to attack,” he answered, his tone stoic as ever. Great, so these things were intelligent. Just what I needed. “Do not stop facing towards the walls.”

“Huddle in the middle,” Toffee ordered, pulling herself up and slowly backing inwards, making sure to keep her eyes fixed on what she assumed was the walls of the cave around her.

I pulled myself up began backing up. I felt my rump push up against both Brisk and Xayah’s as we met in the middle of the cavern. Somewhere to my right I could sense the large forms of both Crank and Boulder back to back.

“We won’t be able to fight these things without light,” Salt Water said, a sliver of fear slipping into her voice.

“Pipbuck lights?” One of the security ponies that I now knew as Cherry suggested, tapping their pipbuck with a hoof.

“I thought that attracted the stuff down here?” I squealed, remembering what Chestnut had told me when we first entered the cave. “Isn’t that like… bad?”

“Well we’ve already attracted them,” Chestnut growled, stomping her hoof slightly. “Sure they’ll attack us if we turn it on, but they’ll attack us if we run anyway and we have a better chance of survival if we can see.”

I gulped. That made sense to me. Despite my earlier actions on the train, I really didn’t want to die. Especially not in this dank hole in the ground.

“Alright, everypony ready?” Toffee asked, readying her gun. “Now!”

I clicked on the pipbuck flashlight and let its green light illuminate the cavern. I saw Brisk and the four security ponies do the same. Even Pyre’s helmet shot a beam of yellow light from a flashlight installed my her right ear.

Our light flooded out the gloom of the cave, giving us a glimpse of the cylindrical rock space we had gathered in. For a terrifying second I thought that the cave was made out of a mass of wiggling flesh and tentacles. Then I saw the hundreds of beady white eyes peering back at us. The cave wasn't made of rotting flesh, but covered in… in… things!

A creature lurched off the wall and lunged at me, revealing a circular mouth filled with spinning teeth. Blood oozed from its jaw and spilled down its front as it lashed at me with its gnashing fangs.

Boneless flew into the air and blasted it apart with a single shot, its explosive rounds pulping its head and sending bits of rotting flesh spewing everywhere. It’s form immediately melted into a strange pulpy fluid and dropped to the floor.

Then they were all lunging at us, strange wriggling forms of flesh flashing from the wall and surging around us. My vision was filled with a blur of puss bubble covered flesh, tentacles and jagged gnashing teeth.

I could hear my companions firing shot after shot into the surging mass. Every shot was accompanied by a burst of flesh and blood, followed by the targeted creature flopping to the ground as some strange ooze.

Squirming tentacles began trying to wrap around me and drag me towards a plethora of gaping jaws. I could feel some sort of radioactive ooze seeping from the tentacles and into my coat, causing my body to itch and burn. Long tongues lashed out of the mouths, wrapping around my hooves and trying to pull me in faster.

Xayah lashed forwards, her knife slicing through the tentacles and freeing me from their grasp. I swiveled boneless to face the mass of jaws and fired.

Blam! Blam!

The tongues coiled away from the assault as the creatures were liquified by the explosive buckshot. I pulled out more shells and began loading them back into my gun, unfortunately giving the strange creatures an opening. One lunged at me, clamping its slimy mouth around my forehoof. I tried to shake it off, yelping in pain as the razor sharp jaws shredded my hide. I raised my hoof and brought it down on the creature, crushing its skull and making it liquify.

Then fluid that had once been the creature began to writhe around my hooves. Twisted hooves reached from the flood to grasp at me as the creature began to completely regenerate itself from nothing.

They hadn’t been lying, bullets did nothing against what lurked below the surface of the Hollow Shades.

I massive shock pulsed up my body as Crank’s tesla cannons fired another blast of blue energy into the hoard of monsters. All my hairs stood on end as he fired blast after blast into the onslaught. Fire roared around us as Pyre Blaze’s flamers set the squirming creatures ablaze.

My Hellhound lashed at the monstrosities viciously, tearing them apart with his massive claws and turning them to dust with precise blasts of his energy weapons. Any creature that got close was instantly shredded by the whirlwind of thrashing claws.

And yet they still continued to rise, nothing was slowing them down or seeming to prevent them from regenerating. As soon as one would fall, five more would take their place.

I saw one of the security ponies, August I think, overcome by the waves of creatures. The mass of flesh and tentacles surged over him, gnashing mouths of razor fangs shredding him to the bone in seconds.

“We need to get out of here!” I heard Salt Water yell, managing to shoot one of the creatures through the face with his hunting rifle. “We can’t kill these things!”

More were rising from the dead. Their liquified bodies had pool around our hooves and were beginning to pull themselves up between us. I saw bloody mouths reaching from the ground to eat me as I tried to fight on.

From down the tunnel we had come came more slithering creatures. Their fleshy, snake like bodies wriggling around the walls and crawling up the roof of the cavern. I saw screaming pony faces stretched out across their bodies, as if they were made out of melted and fused pony corpses.

We had to run. This place was a death trap.

Crank sent a massive blast energy towards the exit of the cave, a gaping hole that descended deeper into vile cavern. The creatures covering our escape route were blasted apart into dust and rotting fluid.

“Run! Now!” Crank ordered, charging down the tunnel, his tesla cannons and horn sending massive bursts of bright blue light flashing down the hall, incinerating anything that remained down there. “Pyre, take back!”

I didn’t have time to argue or figure out that specific order for Pyre as I felt the whole group begin charging after him, Pyre Blaze taking the back of the line and sending a wave of fire at the entrance of the tunnel to prevent the creatures from pursuing as fast as they normally would have.

One of the fleshy monsters managed to evade the wall of fire, darting down the tunnel and latching onto Salt Waters hind leg with its jaws. Salt Water screamed in pain as he toppled to the ground, beating at the creature with his hoof. The gaping jaws dug deeper into his flesh drawing blood and ripping most of the hide from the bone.

I blasted the creature with a shot from Boneless, spraying blood and bits of rotten flesh across Salt Waters face. I pulled him up and helped him run along as we did our best to keep pace with the galloping group.

Another blast of fire from Pyre’s flamers set the tunnel ablaze with firelight. I could feel the heat of the flame flaring around me as the creatures rushed down the tunnel towards us.

The strange snake like creatures bolted through the fire, ignoring the searing heat and flames that raced across their bodies. The Grey Security pony shot up at them with his assault rifle, but the bullets did little to slow down the incoming creatures.

The snake creatures lashed at him, coiling their bodies tightly around his neck. I could see the grey ponies eyes start to bulge as their grip around him began to constrict. Before the pressure could pop off his head however, Boulder’s massive sledgehammer collided with one of the snakes head, making the body fall to the ground. The creature began writhing as it tried to chase us even without its head.

Ahead of us I saw a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Crank had already left the tunnel, his large form bursting into the cavern beyond. I picked up my pace, doing my best to help Salt Water along as he limped towards the exit.

“Come on! Hurry up!” I heard Pyre growl, another wave of fire submerging the tunnel behind us. I heard the creatures shrieking as they were once again set aflame.

The rest of us shot out of the tunnel and into the gloomy cavern beyond. The second I pulled Salt Water from the tunnel, a blast of light blue energy lanced over our heads from Crank’s cannons and collided with the rocks above the tunnel. The top of the cave collapsed inwards, burying the tunnel under a few feet of black rock and crushing the flesh creatures inside.

I gasped, slowly helping Salt Water to the ground. “What the fuck were those things?” I sputtered, glancing back nervously at the collapsed tunnel.

“No fucking idea,” Chestnut whimpered, not sounding quite so intimidating for the first time since I had met her. “I’ve never seen anything like that down here.”

“Where the hell are we?” I heard Brisk utter breathlessly from beside me. I turned to look at the room we now stood in. instantly my jaw fell open in awe.

We had entered some form of giant underground cistern. Massive stone pillars ran in organized rows through the large space, the tops of them curved into beautifully sculpted archways. The floor was a large body of water about four feet deep with a stunning green and blue tile floor below it. Strange blue light emanates from between the cracks in the tiles, giving the room a spooky glow just bright enough for us to see a few feet in any direction. The room was large and dark enough that I couldn’t see the walls, so whether they were still made of rock or if they were as beautiful as the rest of the room remained a mystery to me.

“We’re in one of the old cisterns below the Hollow Shade,” Salt Water chilled, pulling out a healing potion and downing the contents. The nasty wound on his leg began to heal a little bit, but the strange acidic sludge the creatures had been oozing seemed to be preventing the wound from healing completely. “There’s a massive network of these below the whole area. The Ministry of Arcane Science used to spend a lot of time down here I think, I don’t know where these ruins came from or what they had hoped to find down here though. It’s one of the Hollow Shades many mysteries.”

“More importantly, it’s where Stable 44 gets their water,” The grey security pony in charge informed us, pointing to a water generator sticking out of the water not too far away. The rusted piece of pre war technology clashing with the stunning architecture. “So whatever is causing the issue with the water should be down here too.”

Great, so we just needed to search this area until we found the source. That wasn’t so bad. I remembered the horrifying fight we had just gone through and quickly changed my mind. I suddenly didn’t want to know what was causing all the problems.

I glanced over at Xayah who had taken to looking up at the roof, her eyes fascinatedly looking over something. I slowly limped over to her, pulling a healing potion and quickly drinking the fluid inside to heal the wounds I had received from the fight.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, pulling up next to her and following her gaze to the ceiling.

She pointed a hoof up at a large white serpent like object embedded in the rock roof of the cistern. “Bones,” Was all she said. It took me a few seconds, but I began to make sense of the strange shape.

It was some form of giant skeleton belonging to some kind of serpent like creature. It was hard to tell exactly what the creature had once been as all I seemed to be able to see was a small portion of its massive tail. Even still, each vertebrae of the tail seemed to be bigger than my entire body.

I shivered, glad that whatever those bones belonged to was long dead. I really, really didn’t want to fight something of that magnitude.

“Hey, I think I found somethin’ over here,” Toffee called out, looking off into the water farther out into the dark cistern.

We all wandered over to where she stood and looked at what she was pointing at, the crystal clear water around our hooves slowly transformed into a dark green ooze around the generator and continued off into the darkness of the cistern. The ooze mingled with the water, slowly seeping into it and turning it into a sickening green as well.

“Well we seem to have found the source of the problem,” Salt Water commented, limping on his injured hoof and following the trail of dark sludge into the gloom of the cistern with his eyes. “Guess we better follow it to see where this stuff leads.”

Everypony nodded in agreement and began trudging through the foul fluids and into the darkness beyond. I gulped as I slowly began to walk after them. Something about the area seemed wrong to me, as if the cistern itself had eyes and was watching me from the darkness. I felt like I was standing in the throat of a beast that intended to swallow me whole.

In the distance I could see the far wall of the cistern. the walls were covered in strange ancient drawings depicting strange star beasts. a particularly large image was of a massive pony made out of what I assumed were shadows. A massive archway in the middle of the wall lead to a dark tunnel beyond. Through the darkness, I could have sworn I saw two pony shaped figures standing silhouetted in the archway.

“Bad,” A choppy voice grunted from behind me, shifting my attention from the wall. I nodded, assuming it was Boulder, granting us with one of his few moments of speech.

Then I spotted Boulder walking a few feet ahead of me beside Toffee and the grey security pony. I whirled around to face whomever was behind me. Only my Hellhound stood there, their eyes locked on me with a strange fear filled glare.

“Did- did you just talk?” I asked shakelly. I had had no idea that Hellhound could speak. They seemed intelligent in combat and Watcher had seemed to suggest that they were just as sentient as ponies, but they idea that they could actually converse with us had never crossed my mind. I felt a chill go through me as I realised how truly morally wrong it was to be controlling this hellhound the way I had been. It might as well have just been a pony. I had to do everything I could to stop myself from releasing it right then and there.

“Bad,” The Hellhound grunted again, looking up into the darkness my friends were approaching.

Something was wrong. Why had it waited until now to speak? Was the mind control device keeping it from talking as it normally would, and if so, why was it speaking now? “What’s bad?” I asked, glancing in the way of my friends. I had a sudden terrible feeling that we were walking towards something truly horrifying and terrible.

“It comes,” The Hellhound grunted, taking a step back. A small whimper escaping its mouth. Okay, something was definitely wrong. “Bad. Very bad.”

Before I could ask the Hellhound more or question the morality of my actions, I spotted something hunched over in the darkness. At first I assumed it was nothing but a large rock in the center of the dark cistern, but the longer I stared at it the more it began to unfold. A massive body emerged from the depths on huge gnarled legs. A hulking mass of fleshy tendrils broke the surface of the foul water, writhing as they slowly expanded and contracted from the creatures body. The bodies of hundreds of ponies squirmed from underneath the creatures rotting flesh as they tried to rip themselves free from the massive body. The dark sludge that had begun to contaminate the water radiated off of the creature, the water around it as dark as the shadows in the cave.

Whatever it was, it was the cause of the bad water.

A foul stench began to fill the cistern, reeking of rot and decay. I placed a hoof over my mouth to keep from vomiting.

The creatures head slowly emerged from the water, its limp jaw crooked and gaping as thousands of tentacles pushed their way from the creatures mouth. slowly, its eyes began to open.

I stumbled and fell into the water as the creature turned to gaze at me, dark green sludge surging over me and obscuring my view of the creatures eyes.

I sputtered as the dark fluid poured into my throat. It burned like acid. I broke the surface again and spit it out, bits of sudge mixed with bile and viscera spilling from my lips.

I looked up at my friends. They had all turned to stare in horror at the hulking monstrosity that had emerged. No wait, not starring in horror. They were frozen in place, their jaws slack and their bodies shaking ever so slightly as they stared at the beast. Even Crank stood immobilized, his powerful form twitching as he stared down the creature.

They weren’t there, not mentally. I could tell by their blank expressions. Something about looking into the creatures eyes had frozen them.

I could hear the creature slowly lumbering forwards on its lopsided legs, a blood curdling wail echoing from its strange tentacle filled mouth. My body began to shake at the sound of the wailing. It was Brisk’s cries.

I kept my head low, not daring to look up at the creature as it slowly advanced towards it prey. I dashed over to Brisk and Xayah, waving my hoof in front of their face in a desperate hope to break them free from whatever trace the massive creature had put them in. They just stared back at me, horrified expression on their faces as their eyes darted to a fro.

Making sure not to look into the creatures eyes, I raised Boneless and fired at the creature, the explosive shells bursting against the monsters rotting flesh. A gaping wound was ripped open in the creature, allowing a pony like form to flop out of the body in a wave of blood and yellow fluid before the monsters rotting flesh pulled itself back together like nothing had happened. The massive creature didn’t even seem to notice the attack and continued slowly closing in on us.

Yeah, I hadn’t really expected that to work. Guns were next to useless down here anyway.

I turned back to my friends. There had to be some way to get them out of this trance. An idea came to mind, but I knew it would take time. I rushed away from Brisk and Xayah and stopped in front of Golden Chestnut, the only other unicorn in the group that could do magic. Taking a deep breath I ignited my horn and placed it against her forehead.

My vision flared with a blinding white, a sharp pain shooting through my head. I forced myself to go on, ignoring the pain. Then everything swirled away into blackness.

I was standing atop a large platform overlooking a crowd of slaves as they were herded like cattle towards a large machine. Slavers in dark black combat armour stood over them, occasionally cracking their bladed whips down upon slaves that were moving to slowly. The sky was cast in a deep red haze and a thick smog had settled over the area around us. Above me I could see the shapes of hot air balloons made to look like the old ministry mare Pinkie Pie’s smiling face.

The air was filled with the shuffling of hooves as the slaves were pushed along and the loud buzzing of machinery. Every few seconds a scream would echo from the crowd and pound in my ears. I might have been standing in hell itself.

This could only be one place… the dreaded Fillydelphia.

I saw Chestnut down below me, dressed in rags and her hooves clamped in chains as she shuffled forwards. I could see multiple whiplashes across her back. A strong looking brown stallion slave stood beside her, doing his best to comfort her as they both cried and pushed forwards.

I was about to run up and help her when a dark red stallion with a jet black mane stepped up beside me. I glanced at him, taking in his commanding presence. I saw a dark red mechanical eye on his face, very similar to Crank's eye.

I gasped and took a nervous step back, certain that I was staring at the infamous Red Eye I had heard so much about. He was a cyber pony too! The whole world seemed to be shifting around him, but not in the literal sense. The very air around him felt commanding and headstrong. Some part of me that I hated even admitted that being so close to him was… was comforting. Peaceful.

A particularly large, black female griffon swooped down and landed next to Red Eye. She raised a thick bullwhip and slashed it through the air, causing a massive cracking sound that made all the slaves wince.

“Silence slaves!” The griffon roared from beside me. I had to put a hoof over my ears to prevent them from exploding from the power of her voice. All the slaves below went silent and froze, even the slavers had a moment of pause as the armoured griffon loomed over them.

The griffon took a step back, allowing Red Eye to take the lead. The cybernetic pony strode forwards calmly, taking in all of the ponies that cowered before him. Everypony was silent. No pony dared to interrupt whatever he was about to say, even in the slightest. “Ponies. The world of Equestria from the days of old has gone, replaced with a sick and twisted landscape that we must struggle to survive day by day. But because of your contribution, we will rebuild Equestria and make a world where our children and the generations to come can live a true life. A happy life,” His words struck me as oddly charismatic. Despite the growing hatred I had developed for him over the past few days, I couldn't help but feel an eerie sense of calm by just listening to him.

Red Eye took another step forwards, looming over the crowd of slaves. He reached his hooves out, as if offering to help pull them up to the platform with him. “Let us join hooves. Let us work towards a better tomorrow. Equestria could be a Utopia once again, we just need to make it so,” The word Utopia made a chill go down my spine. Something about that word was starting to feel wrong. Like a sick and festering lie that was slowly curroding away at my understanding of the world at large. Red Eye continued, his smooth, oily words filled with an intelligence I had never seen in another pony. “Today you begin your contribution to the great cause. Today you build a world that your children will be able to live and thrive in. Today we take back this wasteland and make it what it should have been all along through a great unity. Today we take one more step closer to making this world home.”

With that, he turned and slowly walked from the platform and out of sight. I followed him with my eyes as he left, unable to tear my eyes away from the impressively smooth speaker. The second he had left my view I snapped back to my senses as if I had been caught in a trance. For a second I wondered if his words had put a spell on me. I mean he couldn’t simply be that charismatic and convincing, right? There was no way words could be that powerful!

All the slavers stomped their hooves in applause at his words. To my disgust, I saw a few slaves stomping along as well, clearly swayed by his speech.

Remembering what I was here to do, I began walking down from the platform towards where Chestnut and the brown Stallion were being pushed along by the slavers. I had to figure out a way to get Chestnut out of this weird dream state thing before that monster back in the real world reached us and started eating us alive.

None of the Slavers stopped to look at me as I made my way past them. I doubted they could even see me in this bizarre nightmare world I was in.

As I neared her, Chestnut tripped on her own broken hooves. She collapsed to the ground, one of the slaves that had been walking behind her stepping on her chest to get over her as the slavers urged them to move forwards. The brown stallion leaned down to help her, but a slaver with a dull blue coat and cyan mane pushed him away, ordering him to stay in line.

Aggressively, the slaver bit onto Chestnuts ear and yanked her from the line where he threw her down into a pile of scraps. The jagged chunks of metal and broken shards of glass cut at her sides, tearing up Chestnut’s exposed coat as she began to whimper.

I had never seen Chestnut look so defeated and broken. She had always seemed so strong. Not that I had known her for very long, but still.

The slaver raised his whip above his head, readying to lash it against her back for daring to slow down in the line.

I saw his rage filled eyes flash with a pale yellow and a mass of tentacles burst from his mouth. It only appeared for a second, but it was just long enough for me to see.

I knew what I had to do. I had to remove this strange creatures imprint from my companions minds. Seemed simply enough.

“There you are,” I muttered, raising boneless and firing point blank against the slavers head. The slaver burst open, dark ooze spilling from the stump that his head had once been. it swayed slightly, before falling to the ground with a thump.

Chestnut looked up at me, tears in her eyes. Then there was a flash of white light and a spike of pain that shot through my skull. Once again, I was torn away from reality.

My eyes flashed open. I could see Chestnut’s eyes open as well a second later, a look of fear and hurt still played across her face.

She slowly began to tilt her head up to see the lumbering monster again, still consumed by a state of confusion, fear and shock. “What in the world hap-”

I grabbed her head and pulled it back down away from the massive creature, looking her in the eyes and refusing to let her look back up at the monster. “Don’t look into its eyes,” I instructed, keeping her gaze fixed on me. “Looking at it sends you into some sort of waking nightmare. You’ll need to go into your friends heads get them out of the trace as well. Got it?” I instructed, trying my best to both explain everything that was going on as well as understand it myself.

Chestnut nodded, her eyes still displaying signs of terror at what she had just seen. What she had just had to live through for a second time. “How- how do I do that?”

“Do you know how to use memory orbs?” I asked quickly, quickly checking my ammo. I still had thirty five shells. Clearly shooting of a gun in the weird dreamscape I had been inside of didn’t take up ammo. I shouldn’t have been surprised. She nodded quickly. “It’s the same sort of thing. It seems to be embodying ponies that you fear from your darkest moments or some shit. Find the creature inside and kill it. You save your friends, I’ll save mine.”

I could hear the monster getting closer. It was practically looming over top of us now.

Then I was darting back over to Brisk and Xayah as the continued to stare motionlessly at the oncoming horror. I hoped Chestnut would be able to figure out how to get ponies out of this trance state, there was no way I could free all of their minds myself in time.

Even now I saw the creature bend down in the corner of my eye. It’s slithering tentacles wrapped around the frozen grey security pony and began dragging him into his mouth with a disgusting sucking noise.

Something was quickly moving towards me in the water. I couldn’t make out it’s shape as it stayed low below the surface.

Shit, I had to do this fast. There were more things coming.

I turned and placed my horn against Brisk’s head. A sharp pain shot through me and everything swirled away into a blinding white.

I was standing in Stable 25. Not the bloodsoaked metal halls from my last visit, but as they had once been a long time ago. Dull and grey.

I was in the security holding area. A few Security ponies stood around me at all sides, grinning at us with wicked grins.

Shit. I could already tell where this was going.

A filly Brisk lay snivelling in the centre of the room, his green coat sticky with semen and covered in dark bruises. He was dry heaving on the floor, his hooves already in a pool of vomit and bile. He couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

A Security mare stood over him, a look of pleasure still very much visible on her face. She had a dark grey coat and a dusty beige mane, her cutie mark was that of a baton.

Fuck her, I knew her too. She had escorted me to class a few times when the bullying and beatings had gotten extremely bad. She had even helped me with my homework once, a long time ago. She had seemed so nice. So very very nice. Damn her.

The security mare put a hoof on Brisk’s back and pushed him hard into the floor, his face landing in the pool of vomit. She grinned at him, wiping some of the bodily fluids off of her own barding.

I didn’t need to see her face contort into a mass of tentacles to know it was her I had to kill. I raised my baton in my magic and slammed it down across her head, cracking her skull. But the mare didn’t die. She whirled on me, her limbs thrashing. Tentacles began slithering out of every orifice in her body as the deranged creature tried to attack back. it would not let me kill it so easily this time around.

Foul tendrils of flesh began wrapping around my body. They dripped of a vile black slime that burned away at my flesh.

As the tentacle tightened, I began to smell the stench of death. Pink clouds began pumping into the room from the vents above me, slowly making my coat melt away. The once sneering security ponies that circled the room began to cough and clutch at their throats as the iniquitous cloud pushed its way into their lungs.

I bashed the creature over and over with my baton, each hit breaking bones and causing the creature to ooze with more puss filled fountains of blood. I would not let it get to me. I would not let it get Brisk.

And yet still it held tight to me, its slimy tentacles wrapping tighter and tighter around my body, making me gasp for air.

I saw bodies of raider foals at my hooves, blood spilling from their shattered skulls. Their broken forms began to thrash as some twisted magic brought them back from the dead, only for them to start screaming in agony as they felt the damage I had done to their body.

The Creature began to shift, something inside of it expanding and bursting from the flesh of the grey security mare. It took the form of Inferno, his flamers ablaze with light as they sent waves of fire washing over me, burning away at my already melting skin. Then it became the grinning grey and purple zebra Azar, tentacles bursting from every part of his body even as he placed his hoof over the detonator held tight in his grip.

I could feel myself slipping away, dying. It was going to tear me apart from my very body.

I didn’t let them. I began slamming my baton harder against the creatures skull again and again until its head burst open and the slithering mass of rotting flesh inside of it spilled across the floor.

I raced up and wrapped my hooves around the shivering form of the filly Brisk. He pushed me back, coiling away from my touch as his face was marred by burning tears.

The pink cloud began closing around us tighter, my breath became ragged as I started to choke and drown in my own blood.

I took a step back from him and bent down to eye level. “It’s going to be okay Brisk. I’m here for you. You are not alone.”

Then the world flashed white and I felt myself being ripped away from the nightmare of Stable 25 once again. For once, I wasn’t sad to see the Stable go.

Brisk and I opened our eyes at roughly the same time. To my relief, none of the wounds the two of us had received had followed us out of the nightmare. He looked at me, tears brimming the rim of his eyes. He shook his head, trying to shake the image of what had just happened. “Amber, I- I didn’t want you to see that. I- That isn’t me anymore…”

I gave him a tight hug. “I know. You are who you are Brisk. That memory doesn’t define you,” I pushed back from him quickly, realising how little time I had to save everypony. Already I could see the monster turning from where the grey security pony had once been and moving towards Salt Water, it’s large tentacles reaching out to consume him. I never was able to find out that security ponies name. I turned to look at Brisk. “Don’t look the monster in the eye. Get someplace safe!” I shouted as I quickly moved to face Xayah.

Brisk glanced down at his hooves and began backing up, clearly not wanting to go back into the monsters strange nightmare trance.

As I neared Xayah something leapt from the water and knocked me to the side. Damn it, I had forgotten about the weird thing I had seen moving in the water.

As I steadied myself, I took the creature in. It was a ghoul, or at least something very similar to one. It’s rotting and patchy coat was covered in oozing puss bubbles, a few of them popping even as I watched. It’s face had been distorted, twisted into an endless scream and its jaw crooked and impossibly wide. I could see things wriggling below its flesh, as if the creatures veins had turned into maggots and were trying to eat their way out of him.

The ghastly ghoul lunged at me again, swiping at me with gnarled limbs. I leapt to the side, bringing my baton down hard on it’s back.

The creatures spine snapped, it’s back half twisting up at a near ninety degree angle. And yet it refused to die.

The geiger counter on my pipbuck spiked and clicked furiously just by being close to the creature.

It lunged again, refusing to even be a little slowed by its crooked and flailing back half. It’s hooves lashed me across the face. I could feel its mear touch burn away skin.

I reeled back and bashed it across the head with Boneless, causing it to stumble to the side. As it began to realign itself to attack me, I pushed Boneless up against its head and Fired.

Blam!

The creatures head exploded, it’s whole body dissolving into a black ooze as it died.

But it didn’t die. It slowly began to rise again from the water, the black sludge slowly hardening into thrashing limbs. It didn’t seem to be pulling itself together quite right either, it’s head wasn’t straight and it seemed to have a few additional limbs as it began to rise.

Shit. Just like everything else down here, shooting it did little more than use up our ammo!

I turned back to Xayah and put my horn to her head. I had to do this before it finished reforming and attacked me while I was in Xayah’s memories.

I quickly glanced at Brisk, who was doing his best to keep his eyes away from the massive monster. “Keep that thing at bay!” I shouted, pointing to the slowly reforming ghoul creature. I saw Brisk nod as I ignited my horn and let the world swirl away.

We were surrounded. Raiders were closing in from all sides, their wicked grins filled with malice and undeserved hatred for the group of zebra’s I was standing with.

There were three zebras total. The one closest to me was Xayah, that much was obvious. Unlike the other memories I had gone into, Xayah looked no younger than she did in the present day, though she was admittedly in better condition. I hadn’t realised just how damaged looking she had become during her travels with me.

Beside her was a much older looking black and white zebra I could only assume was Xayah’s mother. Xayah was clearly a spitting image of her mother, from the same stripes and colour pattern, to the same emerald green eyes and upward mane.

Squeezed between the two of them, was a young zebra I assumed was Xayah’s daughter Zira- or at least what I thought had been a zebra. She was a lighter colour than Xayah was, being a light grey and black and her mane was a solid white unlike any other zebra I had seen. The zebra glyph on her rump was not a zebra glyph at all, but rather the image of a wooden flute.

Xayah had told me back when we had first met that Zira had been fascinated by zebra glyphs. Now I knew why. Zira was possibly the only zebra with a cutie mark instead. Was she half pony? How did that work?

The first wave of raiders swarmed inwards, a deadly wall of knives and barbwire covered baseball bats surging towards the three zebras. They managed to dodge the first attack with the same surprising agility I had come to expect from zebras, but they were greatly outnumbered and didn’t even seem to be in possession of any weapon. Xayah had told me her family had not been fighters.

A pegasus raider dropped down on them from above, her chainsaw severing off the leg of Xayah’s mother. I noticed that the pegasus’ cutie mark had been burned away and replaced with what seemed to be a replica of the old ministry mare Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. Odd, what the hell does that mean?

ZIra screamed, racing for where her mother had fallen bloody to the ground. Xayah raced up to her, her hoof deflecting oncoming attacks as she frantically fought for her life against the onslaught.

I narrowed my eyes at the pegasus raider. I had no doubt she was who I was meant to kill to get Xayah out of this nightmare. A flash of pale yellow in the pegasus’ eyes only confirmed my theory.

Xayah was crouched over her broken mothers body as she tried to fend of raiders coming from every side. Even against so many, she seemed to be faring fairly well.

Then a raider broke past her defences and stabbed a rusty knife deep into her calf and it was all over.

Raiders bore down on her mother, ripping her apart limb for limb. Blood and viscera were sent flying everywhere.

Zira screamed, thrashing her hooves against the raiders sides and trying to free her still flailing mother from their attacks. A raider lashed out with a machete, the wide blade slamming down hard on the fillies head.

With a thwack, the blade lodged itself in the fillies skull and stuck. There was a moment of stillness from both Zira and the raider, as if the sudden and anticlimactic attack had frozen them both in place. Then the raider pushed against Zira’s body with a hoof and dislodged his blade.

And just like that, I watched Zira die, at least it had been somewhat quick.

To Xayah’s credit, she managed to hold herself back from bursting into uncontrollable sobs as both her mother and daughter were slaughtered before her eyes. Not that I was surprised. I don’t think Xayah had even learned how to cry until after the death of Stable 25.

The pegasus landed atop Xayah’s mother’s body, her chainsaw swinging down and decapitating the thrashing zebra’s head. She stared up at Xayah, her vile gaze passing straight through me. “Chain that one up,” The pegasus raider cackled. “I want to have fun with that one.”

I gritted my teeth. I had killed this bitch once before. I’d be damned if I couldn’t do it again.

I rushed forwards, firing Boneless against the pegasus’ head. The shot missed as the pegasus rocketed towards the sky with a powerful flap of her wings, but this time I knew that I couldn’t run out of ammo here. Here I could be a little more reckless.

I fired up twice at the pegasus as she dove down towards me. The first shot missed again, but the second shot made its mark, shredding the pegasus’ wings and dropping her to the ground. Instantly tentacles began shooting from its mouth, trying to wrap around me. I wouldn’t let it. I quickly reloaded and fired again, this time into its mouth. The tendris were blasted apart into visera.

Then the raiders began attacking me. Their faces had twisted, now resembling something similar to the ghoul creature I had fought back in the cistern.

Damn it, this thing was learning. It wasn’t just going to sit back and let me kill it, it was going to start throwing everything in had at me. And in a dreamstate that it controlled, ‘everything it had’ could be virtually anything.

I leapt to and fro, doing my best to dodge the unexpected assault of raging ghouls. A hoof swept out my hooves out from under me, sending me topping to the ground. The mass of ghoul raiders, lunged, clawing at me and tearing away flesh.

I screamed and pulled away from them, reverting my attention to the brutalized mutating pegasus. These ghoul raiders didn’t matter, only her.

I telekinetically swung Boneless to face her. I could see the creatures eyes widen as it realised it was only seconds away from being blasted apart once again.

It began shrieking, a large hole in the fabric of existence began tearing its way out of the air between us. Through the hole I could see what appeared to be the wastelands equivalent of a dessert.

The vile pegasus lurched forwards, throwing itself through the portal and towards whatever was on the other side to escape me. Seconds after it began to close, and with it the whole world began to crumble. Manehattan skyscrapers fell, its already broken spires crumbling and raining down on us from above. The ground was ripped apart and broke beneath my hooves. I could feel my very being beginning to cease to exist.

The terrifying idea of dying in here and having my mind forever tapped deep in Xayah’s twisted subconscious, unable to return to my body flashed through my mind. The idea was horrifying.

Not knowing what to do, I shook the ghoul raiders from me and leapt into the closing portal after the monster. It felt like I was being squeezed through a hole the size of a straw. My whole body convulsed, my battered form clenching tight around my guts. For a horrifying moment I thought my ribs might snap and burst through my chest.

Then I was standing in a ramshackled house. Out the window I could see a radioactive desert. An old sign had been hastily spray painted to read ‘New Appleoosa’.

A slightly younger looking Xayah stood shivering in the corner of the room. A trail of blood drizzling down her hind legs. A large buck with a lasso for a cutie mark towered over her, his face a strange mix of sickening pleasure and rage.

“Y’all should never ‘ve come t’ this town,” the stallion snarled, pinning the shaking Xayah down with a powerful hoof. “We don’t take kindly to zebras ‘round here. Now you get down and beg!”

Xayah crouched down even lower, her eyes filled with a fear I had never seen in her. The stallion’s strong hoof pounded her across the face, making her fall flat on her stomach. The Stallion laughed and said something, but I wasn’t able to make it out.

Not because he said it quietly though, in fact it was quite the opposite. The stallion had practically yelled at her. But I was so angry, blinded by a burning rage that bordered on death of my Stable levels of anger that I had lost the ability to do anything other than seethe in rage.

How dare he! How dare he touch her like that! For… for what? Being a zebra?

With Brisk, I had at least been somewhat prepared. As sick and fucked up as it had been, I had at least been mentally preparing myself to face the atrocities of what the Stable had done to him. When I had gone into his mind to save him, I had known deep down that I was going to witness his rape.

But not with Xayah… I had no idea…

Crank had told me. I should have listened. Damn it!

I saw the Stallion lay a hoof on her head. Xayah whimpered at the contact, her left forehoof starting to shake violently. I knew it would never stop.

“You Fucker!” I screamed, lashing out at him with my baton. The heavy shock baton hit, sending the stallion crashing down on top of Xayah’s shaking form. I pushed him off of her, allowing her room to pull herself away and huddle in the corner. My baton beat down again, snapping both of his front legs. “You fuck! You- You fucking rapist!”

I could see the stallion slowly morphing into the hideous tentacled monster again, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to bring pain to that stallion. Give Xayah some form of justice for what had been done.

My baton slammed down again, and again, and again, and again. Electric shocks rippled through the creatures body with each hit. I felt bones break, limbs crunch. Blood was gushing onto the floor. I raised my hoof and slammed it down across his face, only to feel his face give way to the punch, my hoof lodging itself halfway through his skull.

The squirming stopped.

I looked up at Xayah. She was afraid. So goddess damned afraid. And she was shaking, she wouldn’t stop shaking.

Both our eyes burst open. We stared at each other for a long moment, both of our eyes welling up with Tears.

“Xayah, I… I had no idea,” I muttered softly, wrapping her tightly in a hug.

Xayah sniffled, hugging me back. “I did not want you to know. You would- you would worry about me. And- and... I… I did not want myself to know.”

I didn’t have time to ask what that meant as the ghoul like creature slammed into me again, knocking me off balance. So much for Brisk keeping it away from me.

Then I spotted Brisk doing his best to deal with two other ghoul things. Shit! There were more of them?! Where the hell were they coming from?

I heard Chestnut and a now freed Toffee screaming as they blasted at the massive monster with their guns. I turned to face them, finding the monsters gaze away from me and locked on the pony it quickly sucked into its mouth. I saw the last few seconds of Salt Waters life before he disappeared into the mass of tentacles in the creature's mouth. Salt Water gave a loud pained scream, clearly having broken from his trance mere seconds before he was devoured.

A fucked up part of my brain sighed that I would never be able to prove I was a better mechanic than him, before the more emotional side of me began to sob uncontrollably, realising I had just watched a friend get eaten alive.

I watched as Toffee fired a shot from her shotgun, the buckshot ripping a massive hole in the hulking monsters side. Like what had happened with I had shot it, a pony sized glob of something fleshy flopped out of the monsters bleeding wound.

Terror shot through me as I realised what was happening. I reached a hoof out, signalling for the two of them to stop attacking it. “Stop! Shooting it just makes more ghouls!” I screamed, hoping they could hear me over the chaos. “Just focus on getting everypony out of the transes!” They seemed to hear me. Chestnut began running over to Boulder, and Toffee began focusing her attacks at the few ghouls that had wiggled their way out of the creatures flesh.

Xayah and I turned to face the ghoul thing that had jumped at me, both our bodies tensing up as we saw it preparing to lunge at us again. It’s attack never came.

Before it had the chance to move, Pyre’s massive power armoured form collided with the ghoul, her armoured hooves stomping down on its head and crushing it flat.

“Get going!” Pyre shouted, stomping her hooves on the creatures head again as it began to rise back up. “We need to find a way to kill that thing!” Yeah, no shit. But I was happy to see her all the same.

Apparently Chestnut had freed Pyre Blaze as well. I wasn’t complaining, there wasn’t any pony better to have in a fight than her. Well, I guess there was one...

I quickly looked over at Crank standing frozen a few feet away from me. Him and Boulder seemed to be the only two that hadn’t been set free. I could see the two remaining Security ponies fending off ghoul things while doing their best to not look directly at the massive abomination.

The monster had begun to move again now that it had finished eating Salt Water. It’s long tentacles began reaching out, twisting their way towards Crank. For a second I considered just letting the monster eat him. It would be one less enemy I would have to worry about and it would save me a lot of trouble in the future.

I sighed, shaking my head a little. No, if I didn't save him I wouldn't be Amber Aura. I needed to save him.

Fucking morallity. Worst. virtue. ever.

I began racing through the dark cistern. A ghoul jumped out at me, it’s hooves slashing at my throat in a savage attempt to rip it out. I ducked low, my chin just barely skimming the surface of the black water.

My Hellhound lashed out, cutting the ghoul in half before it could attack again.

Apparently Chestnut had freed my Hellhound too. Clearly she was faster than I was at the whole dreamscape thing. That or the memories she had to deal with were easier. I almost laughed at that. I doubted Pyre’s past was easy.

I skidded to a halt before Crank. I could feel the massive monster behind me looming over me, slowly drawing closer and closer. I could see it’s tentacles slither towards us like snakes. One began wrapping around my hoof, another around Crank’s thick neck.

It was now or never. I took a deep breath and put my horn to Crank’s forehead.

“Alright, lets see what the mighty cyber alicorn fears,” I said, almost whimpering in fear as I realised how dangerous what I was about to do was. I ignited my horn and sent my world into a blinding white.

This time wasn’t like before. Before I had found myself in a horrible memory while terrible things happened to ponies at the hooves of monsters just as foul as the one making these nightmares occur. But this wasn’t a memory. It was a void.

A void that had been filled with corpses. Everywhere I looked I saw bodies. Many blasted apart and oozing blood. I recognised the many wounds that coated all the bodies. These were all of Crank’s victims. Goddesses there were so many.

I could feel the presence of the creature searching through Crank’s mind, searching for the perfect nightmare. It was either having trouble finding one, or there were too many to choose from.

The bodies around me seemed to be glowing slightly. I drew closer to them, spotting a strange pulsing sphere of light inside of them. They were very similar to the silver orbs I had seen when inside Inferno’s head. Whether these were a cyber pony thing or just what memories looked like I couldn’t be sure. I guess they did kinda resemble memory orbs in a way.

Slowly, I reached out and touched the body of a buck who had been ripped open. Instantly the world flashed into a brilliant white and I found myself standing in the wasteland.

The corpse of the buck was no longer a corpse, but rather a pony standing beside me. A few other ponies stood behind him as well, pulling a large wagons full of scraps down the cracked roads of Manehattan.

I could see four figures approaching from the distance, the light of the cloud covered sun gleaming off of their metal plating. The ground seemed to rumble as they approached, each one of their hoof steps causing a miniature earthquake.

The group of ponies slowed to a stop as they spotted the four cyber ponies nearing them. Many of the ponies quickly reached for their guns, not sure what to make of the oncoming death machines.

All four cyber ponies stopped a few paces from the group. I could see all four of them, their mere presence sending chills down my spine.

Inferno, Steel blade, Tripwire and Crank. Four of the most deadly fighters the wasteland had ever seen. Just seeing them all at once gave me a creeping sense of dread. I had managed to kill three of them so far, but not without a great deal of effort and a lot of luck and unfair advantages. The idea of facing down all four at once chilled me to the bone.

“Well hello there,” the buck said, taking a nervous step forward. He did his best to hide the fear in his voice, but he was unable to conceal it completely. “Can we help you four with something?”

I could see Crank’s red glass eyes narrow. “We are looking for a pony named Diesel. Have you seen him?” His voice was a low commanding rumble that made all of the ponies, myself included, take a fearful step back.

A wave of discomfort washed over the ponies. Just from their reactions I could tell that they not only knew where this Diesel pony was, but he was in this very group right now. Inferno clearly felt the discomfort as well. He stepped forwards, sneering at all of the ponies with a cruel and wicked sneer. I could see the ends of his flamers start to heat up.

“Point me towards him,” Inferno inquired simply, his tone almost sweat. My skin crawled just hearing the vile cyber ponies voice again.

There was another moment of uncomfort. Finally I heard somepony from the back of the group call out. “We don’t need to tell you anything.”

His comment only seemed to make Inferno grin wider.

“You would dare defy us and the will of our god!” Steel blade bellowed, stomping his hoof on the ground. The other three cyber ponies seemed to roll their eyes at his outburst. Now given a moment to take him in, I realised how much smaller Steel Blade was compared to the rest of the cyber ponies. Crank hadn’t been lying when he said Steel Blade was the weaker of the four.

“Your deaths can easily be arranged,” Crank snarled bluntly, taking a step forward, his tesla cannons and horns glowing a brilliant blue. “Bring him forwards and the rest of you can walk away.”

There was a moment of silence, followed only by a fairly small and frail looking stallion pushing his way to the front of the group. He shook in fear before the four death machines. “I… uh… I’m Diesel.”

Instantly, a ray of blue light blasted from Crank’s horn and lashed through Diesel’s chest. The stallion screamed and clutched at the gaping hole that was just ripped through his front. Blood spilled across the dark concrete road as he flopped over and died.

It all happened so fast.

Everypony stood in shocked silence, staring at the blood spilling across the road. Finally the buck who I had first seen roared with rage. “How dare you! You… You monster!” he rushed forwards, pointing a shotgun at Crank and firing off a round in pure anger.

Crank didn’t even bother to dodge as the buckshot bounced of his metal coat harmlessly. Crank’s bladed tail lashed out, sending a massive spike through the bucks forehead. The buck spasmed for a second before going limp on the end of Crank’s tail. With a quick flick, Crank send the body flying away to the side.

“Make sure that stallion wasn’t just covering for the real Diesel,” Crank snorted, fanning out his bladed wings. “Do whatever you feel is best.”

Crank rocketed off into the sky, leaving the remaining ponies alone with the three cyber ponies. Inferno grinned, trotting up and looking down at a filly who was cowering in fear.

“Oh, I have a few ideas,” He smirked, his vile black tongue licking his lips as he looked down at the filly. Then the three cyber ponies surged forwards, their weapons blazing with light.

Then I was back in the void, staring out at the massive collection of corpses. There was a story behind all of them. They had all met a tragic end at Crank’s hooves. I spotted the bloodied corpse of Diesel beside me. So many deaths.

I moved through the bodies, doing my best not to touch them. Occasionally, one would brush against my side making their last few moments flash through my mind. I saw ponies being torn apart, blasted to bits and turned to ash. It was horrifying.

I could sense something moving through the darkness around me, obscured by the shadows and mounds of corpses. The creature I was here to kill perhaps? Or something else?

Why the hell was this so different from all the other nightmares?

As I walked forwards, I found an area of the void that wasn’t filled with corpses. A sad wailing like sound seemed to fill the air as I began walking through it. Up ahead I could see a lone corpse floating in the blackness.

It was a mare. She seemed to be about my age, if not a little older. She had an auburn coat with a beautiful orange mane that flowed slightly in the strange breeze that passed through the void. Unlike the rest of the bodies, she seemed at peace.

She was truly beautiful. A ray of light amongst the darkness of Crank’s subconscious.

Curious, I reached a hoof forward to touch the glowing light that seemed to be emanating from her.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Crank snarled form behind me, making me jump and spin around to face him. I hadn’t heard him approaching. Crank’s eyes were filled with anger as he glared at me, his glowing red eyes cutting through the gloom. “Step away. Now!”

I did, quickly moving away from the mare. I looked at him as best I could in the darkness. Something about him seemed off. “I don’t understand,” I muttered, looking away from him and back at the floating corpses. “Why is everything like this? It wasn’t like this in the other’s heads.”

Crank snorted, slowly advancing on me. I could feel myself backing up on instinct to get away from the lethal cyber alicorn. “Don’t you understand?” Crank grunted. “This is my greatest fear. The ponies that have died because of me.”

I could understand that far too well. Again I saw Crank not as a machine of death, but as an older version of myself, twisted and ruined by the wasteland. That image was quickly destroyed as Crank growled, his eyes flicking back to the glowing body of the mare.

“But where are the ponies that wronged you?” I asked, glancing around as if the creature was going to emerge from the darkness. I had no idea how to get Crank out of here if I couldn’t find the creature to attack.

Then, as if on cue, I saw Crank’s glowing eyes flash a sickening yellow. It was him… The creature was inside of Crank! He was the pony he feared the most.

Damn it, this wasn’t going to be easy, was it?

I raised Boneless and leveled it at Crank’s head. “Just trying to save you,” I muttered, before firing off a round at his head.

Crank dodged, evading the shot and rushing at me with impossible spreed. His tail lashed forwards, coming dangerously close to slicing me in two. The only thing that saved me being my baton blocking the path of his attack as I quickly swung it up to meet his bladed tail.

The shock of the impact sent me stumbling back into the darkness, my baton now completely ripped in two. Before I had time to steady myself, Crank was on top of me, slamming down on my chest with his hooves. I felt bones break under the heavy assault.

I blasted another shot from Boneless into his face, the explosive buckshot ripping apart some of his his remaining flesh. Faster than the regeneration of the other three cyber ponies, his flesh melded itself back together. He didn’t even react to the attack as he continued slamming down on me.

My body was torn open, blood spilling from the gaping wound in my chest. I could feel my mind slipping away, melting into the darkness of the void. My body would become one of the many that surrounded me soon.

Crank’s face moved down inches from my own, his jagged metal jaw now filled with writhing tendrils of rotting flesh. His tesla cannons began to charge, readying themselves to blast me into oblivion.

Blam!

A booming shot rang out in the darkness. The bullet tore through Crank’s skull, sending black sludge like blood spewing from his head. He staggered, stumbling off of me as his skull began to pull itself back together.

I rushed to my hooves, feeling a wave of pain wash over me as the movement caused more blood to rush from my body. I looked over to where the shot had come from.

Brisk was standing in the darkness, his horn glowing with a pale light. I could see his face strained with pain as he tried to keep his magic concentrated enough to remain inside of Crank’s head.

I stared at him with a mix of shock, wonder and pride. “You… you’re using magic,” I beamed breathlessly, looking at him and his glowing horn.

He gave me a pained grin. “Well it’s kinda like memory orbs right, and I can do those things.”

We didn’t have time to talk more as Crank turned back to face us. His blood soaked face twisting with anger. He lunged at us, his wings slashing at the air in an attempt to rip us apart.

The two of us dove to the sides, scattering and began our attack on him from all sides.

The air filled with gunfire as Brisk and I shot at him with everything we had. But despite our best efforts, Crank would not go down. He was faster, stronger and far more experienced than both of us combined. Not to mention he was being possessed by some massive tentacle monster. His tesla cannons flared, sending explosive blasts of sparkling blue energy in all directions. With each blast the black void was filled with blinding light.

We ran and dodged, doing our best to stay on the offensive while evading his powerful blasts. Crank could afford to be hit by our attacks, he would just regenerate all the damage in a matter of seconds. But I knew that if either Brisk or I got hit by even one of his attacks, we would die.

My whole body screamed in protest as blood continued to gush from my wounds. Every time I tried to evade his deadly attacks I felt myself slowing down. The pain was unbearable, threatening to throw me into unconsciousness at any given moment.

This was getting us nowhere. We couldn’t hurt him, and we could only evade him for so long. How long would it be until he managed to land a shot? A couple seconds?

I glanced up at the body of the beautiful glowing mare. Crank had seemed protective over her. Perhaps if I could just...

I rushed towards the mares body, dodging another blast from Crank’s tesla cannons. I didn’t avoid getting hit by it’s massive shock wave though. I was sent flying forwards and crashing into the body of the mare.

Crank roared in rage, blasting at me yet again. The glowing blue light of the tesla cannons collided with me. I felt my forehooves get blown apart and my coat burned until I was little more than a flailing pile of flesh. I went blind in one eye, no doubt it had been melted under the searing heat of the cannons. I screamed as I felt every bone in my body shatter and my insides begin to boil. Blood was everywhere, spilling out of my body and into the darkness around me like a waterfall. It was pain like I had never experienced before. But I wasn’t dead yet. I still had a chance.

I could hear Brisk screaming, blasting at Crank with his 10mm pistol. The attacks did nothing. Crank ignored him as he Charged towards me.

I pushed myself forwards on my back legs, the only part of me that seemed somewhat intact. My already ruined vision began to fade even more as my remaining eye began to liquify. Pain shot through my body, causing me to scream out as I pushed myself closer and closer to the body of the mare.

Just a little closer.

I realised I had no idea if this would even work. Goddesses I hoped it would.

I reached out, my hoof touching the mares body. At the same time, Crank roared. His tesla cannons fired again, the blue energy blasting me apart and blowing off the lower half of my body. The light of the tesla cannons mingled with the light of the mares body, the dazzling silver merging with the glowing blue.

For a split second I wasn’t in the void at all. I was someplace else, flashing through a collection of memories that I couldn't understand. Crank’s memories. I saw his whole life flash by me in a second, filling all of my senses with his own. Pain, loss, grief, failure, even brief moments of joy and love flared through my mind. It was so fast, I didn’t have time to register any of it.

Then I was back in the void. I could see Brisk rushing towards me as my vision began to darken more. Tears streaked down his face as he called out. I couldn’t hear him, my hearing was gone as well. All I could hear was this endless buzzing and the rapid beating of my own heart.

With my last bit of strength, I turned my ruined, nearly liquified head to look at Crank. Blood spilled from the top of my head, obscuring my dissipating vision.

Through the blood and the rapidly growing darkness I saw Crank staring at me, a look of sheer terror on his mechanical face. He had seen what I had too, his whole miserable life splayed out before him. Every mistake, every failure, every death.

Crank growled, but it wasn’t at me. “Get out of my head!” He screamed, bashing at his skull with a hoof. “Get the fuck out of my head!”

He lashed at himself with his hooves breaking open his own skull. A writhing mass of tentacles burst from his head, spilling across the floor and wrapping around his hooves. He growled again as his face pulled itself back together, his tesla cannons blazing brighter than ever as fought back against the creatures possession.

Brisk was standing over me, doing everything he could keep me conscious and stop the bleeding. But he couldn’t stop the bleeding. How can you stop it when I was bleeding everywhere.

I saw Crank’s cannons fire, blasting apart the fleshy creature and blowing his own body apart. As I slowly faded into death embrace, I saw Crank scream in rage, his horn burning with blinding light. Then the monster was turned to little more than ash as I drifted into nothingness.

I was alive. My eyes popped open, bringing me back into the dark cistern. Crank must have killed the creature inside mere moments before I had died. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I had been far too close to death there for my comfort.

Then I realised I was no longer on the floor of the cistern. I was half way between the ground and the massive mouth of the creature. It’s tentacles had wrapped tightly around me and was slowly dragging Brisk, Crank and I into its razor sharp jaws. Hundreds of gnashing mouths reached out for us as it pulled me in closer.

I thrashed against it screaming, trying to get myself away from its jaws. Brisk was squirming beside me too, trying to free himself from the lumbering creatures grasp. Damn it, I didn’t want to die like this!

Then Crank emerged from the nightmare. He glanced around, only taking a second to take in what was going on. Then he bellowed with rage, the walls of the dark cistern shaking from the noise. His tesla cannons flashed, turning the creatures tentacles into ash. Blood surged from the ruined stumps of where the tentacles had once been as Crank send blast after powerful blast into the creature.

Brisk and I fell to the ground as the tendrils of flesh holding us aloft were ripped to shreds. Brisk crawled over to me, clearly glad that the injuries I had received inside of Crank’s mind hadn’t followed me out. Not in the physical sense anyway, but I could still remember the agonising pain. I doubted that memory would leave me for a long while.

Another blast of Crank’s tesla cannons drew my attention back up to him as he battled against the massive monster. The huge creatures head exploded, raining dark visera down around us. I saw swarms of ghoul creatures tearing them self through the monsters flesh, spilling out onto the floor of the cistern around us.

Killing this thing was going to unleash and army of ghouls on us!

“Wait stop!” I yelled, hoping Crank could hear me. Either he couldn’t or he simply didn’t care. Crank continued to fire. Blast after blast, bloody holes were ripped into the monster. Finally, with a massive burst of light from Crank’s horn, the beast exploded. Black sludge and bits of bone showered down around us as the massive monster finally died.

Crank landed with a big splash on the floor of the cistern. His heavy metal hooves cracking the flood and causing the whole cavern to shake. A ghoul lunged at him, its rotting teeth doing little but scratch his thick armour plates.

Crank glanced around at the massive swarm of ghoul that were rising from the water. “Everypony get down!” Crank ordered as his horn began to glow brighter. When Crank demanded something, you obeyed. We all dropped below the surface of the water. I noticed that now that the monster was dead, the water had already begun to clear.

A flash of blue light flared above our heads. The water distorted the sound, making it sound like a far of gunshot.

Out of breath, I pushed myself back above the surface. All the ghouls still stood standing, but their entire top half had been sliced clean off. After a second, they all fell limp to the floor. I doubted that would stop them from coming back to life again, but it gave us a few minutes at least.

I glanced over at Crank as the rest of my party began to break the surface of the water as well. He was shaking a little, clearly still hurting from whatever it was he had seen when all those memories flashed through his mind.

“Fuckin’ shit!” I heard Toffee exclaimed as she looked around the cistern. “Now I’ve seen some fucked up shit in my day, living my whole life in the Hollow Shades and all, but that was fucked,” She glanced nervously at Crank. “An’ maybe you weren’t lyin’ ‘bout taken on all them slavers yerself.”

We heard a slow clapping sound from across the cistern. We all looked up towards the crooked archway I had seen right before we were attacked. I hadn’t been mistaken, there were two pony shapes in there.

Slowly the figures emerged, coming closer towards us. One of the forms clearly more brave than the other.

The first pony I saw in the gloom wasn’t a pony at all. It was a zebra. A zebra with dark purple stripes. I felt my stomach clench as the strange zebra grinned at us with mocking praise. Azar…

My eyes drifted to the second pony. The pony was shorter than Azar, with a lavender coat and a long white mane that was very reminiscent of the old ministry mare Rarity. My eyes locked on the pony.

Shade!

What the hell were they doing down here? Unless these tunnels lead to Kamari...

I snarled and moved towards Shade, Boneless tight in my telekinetic grasp. I fell a rage building inside of me. The same rage I felt when I had watched my Stable die.

Shade backed away from me, cowering behind Azar as I approached. Azar grinned back at her, before pushing her forwards with a hoof, as if instructing her to go join me. Shade’s eyes widened as she was pushed forward.

“Go to them,” Azar grinned, giving her a slightly harder push, making her stumble forwards and land by my hooves.

“But… They’ll kill me!” Shade squeaked, scooting away from me on her hind legs. “You said you would get me away from the Stable!”

“And I have,” Azar smirked, looking down at Shade with mocking pitty. “Now get. I tire of you.”

Crank stepped forwards, his glowing eyes locking with Azar’s even stare. “Give me the A.A.S.S Azar!” He boomed, his powerful voice filling the whole cavern.

Azar didn’t even flinch, in fact he just grinned wider, showing off uncomfortably white teeth. “I do not think so. I think I would very much like to give it to Kamari myself,” Azar soothed in his deep and methodical voice. I could feel Xayah cowering behind me as she heard the mighty zebra speak. “Though you are of course welcome to try and take it.”

With a roar, Crank lunged at Azar, his cannons blasting at the strange zebra. to my surprise, Azar swiftly leapt to the side, dodging the attack before kicking back and striking Crank in the neck with his back hooves.

Crank was knocked sideways upon the impact, seemingly shocked that Azar had managed to hit him. His tail lashed out, slashing Azar across the face. Blood spilled from the open gash before the zebra’s purple stripes glowed a deeper purple. The wound stitched itself back together.

Of course Azar could regenerate. Because of fucking course.

The two powerhouses clashed, incredible speed and agility verses unparalleled strength and firepower. For the first time, I saw Crank face off against somepony that seemed to be equally as deadly.

The cavern flashed with blue light as Crank tried to blast Azar apart. Crank was fast, yet somehow Azar managed to outmaneuver him every time. Azar was strong, yet Crank managed to shake off every attack that Azar hit him with.

Fear gripped at me as I watched the two powerful combatants battle it out. They were both so deadly, far beyond anything I had the ability to kill.

I saw something slowly moving away from me out of the corner of my eye. I turned just in time to see Shade start running away. Boneless swung up, knocking her legs out from under her as she tried to flee. I pushed my hoof down on her to keep her from running and snarled at her.

“You aren’t going anywhere!” I screamed, rage still building up inside of me. How dare she! She had been my friend!

Shade curled up in the shallow water and whimpered. “I’m sorry Amber. I’m so sorry.”

Brisk was next to me, his eyes burning with anger as he glared down at Shade.

I heard a loud shout from Azar as one of Crank’s lethal blasts made contact. The blast had ripped one of Azar’s legs clean off. As I watched, his stripes began to glow and the limb quickly pulled itself back together.

Crank wasn’t looking at Azar anymore though. I followed his gaze to where a small black device had fallen. The A.A.S.S.

Realising the device had fallen from his Saddlebags, Azar Began rushing towards it. Crank got to it first, snatching up the device and taking to the air on his bladed wings. Azar leapt for him, leaping higher into the air than anypony should have been able to. His hooves collided with Crank’s left wing, denting the metal and making Crank drop down towards the ground.

Azar’s hoof flashed out, striking Crank across the face and sending him staggering backwards. Crank quickly recovered and blasted a beam of blue energy towards Azar from his horn. Azar jumped back to avoid being turned too ash and into the darkness of the tunnel beyond, disappearing from view.

Crank snarled and pounced forwards, landing in the large archway. He glanced back at us, his glowing eyes landing on me for a moment. “You saved me from that monster Amber,” His voice was low, and for the first time since I met him, he seemed to not want to blow me to pieces on the spot. “So I’m going to let you live. Don’t come after me or Kamari, this is beyond you.”

I stared at him in shock. Was he sparing me? Would this have been the moment he would turn on us, had I not just saved his life? Not how I had expected the moment to go down. “You know I will be coming for Kamari,” I said, holding my ground before the mighty cyber alicorn. "Nothing will stop me from trying."

Crank shook his head, seeming to understand, but also disappointed. “Go home Amber. I will not be so generous next time we cross paths.”

His massive tesla cannons swiveled at his sides to face the roof of the cistern. There was a loud bang and and flash of blue light. The rock ceiling collapsed down above us, blocking the entrance to the tunnel to keep us from following as Crank charged into the darkness after Azar.

I stood there in the darkness, staring at the blocked off exit of the tunnel. “Home…” I muttered, my heart sinking. I could feel a tear roll down my cheek. I could feel Shade squirming underneath me and Brisk breathing heavily to my right. We were all that remained of Stable 25. “What home…”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Robotics Expert -- +25% damage to robots, can shut down robots by sneaking up on them

Author's Notes:

This was originally supposed to be the shortest chapter in the whole story, however as you might have noticed, things didn't turn out that way. In fact, I've ended up splitting it into two parts. I got really into the story of the Hollow Shades I guess and I wanted to explore it in greater depth.

Fallout Equestria belongs to Kkat

I hope you all enjoyed and have a lovely day!

Chapter XIV: Battle for the Hollow Shades

"I don’t like killing, but when done righteously, it’s just a chore, like any other."

Dreams.

I was no stranger to dreams, particularly dreams of the nightmare variety. They were common back when I was living in the Stable, but once I had entered the wasteland they had become a constant. A certainty. From emotionally draining nightmares about how I had been treated in my Stable or my Stable’s horrific fate to being forced to relive the terrors of the wasteland again and again.

It wasn’t even all that uncommon for me to have a lucid dream. It had happened back in the Stable a few times and even once while I had been imprisoned by the Steel Rangers. I could always tell those dreams were fake. They were usually too good to be true.

But this dream… This dream was different.

Usually when I had a nightmare I was looking through my own eyes. I could feel my own emotions and thoughts. Not this time though. This time I wasn’t inhabiting a body at all. I was floating through the air as a casual observer of the scene that was unfolding before me. Almost as if I was a very slow moving fly or spec of dust slowly making its way to the ground.

I hadn’t remembered falling asleep either… how odd.

I could see the forms of two ponies curled up together in an abandoned house, their hooves tight around each other to share their warmth to fend off the cold winter night of the wasteland. One an earth pony stallion, the other a unicorn mare. The mare was asleep, her chest slowly rising and falling as she took what appeared to be pained breaths.

I recognised the mare almost immediately. Even covered in ash and marred by cuts and bruises, she was too beautiful to not recognise. I saw an auburn coat with a beautiful orange mane. She was the mare I had seen inside of Crank’s mind. Her amber eyes slowly drifted open, looking up at the strong stallion that had wrapped his large hooves around her protectively. Her eyes were almost identical to mine.

The Stallion was one of the largest stallions I had ever seen. He had a dark orange coat and a short brown mane. His cutie mark was a small glimmer of white, surrounded by an oncoming darkness. What that meant, I had no idea. I didn’t recognize him, but something about him seemed familiar.

“Hey,” The mare said, looking up at the stallion before placing a quick kiss on the tip of his muzzle.

“You should be asleep,” The earth pony stallion said in a deep voice. Had I been inhabiting a normal body, I would have frozen in place. The voice sounded younger and more alive, without the metallic rumble I had come to know, but it was definitely his voice. Crank’s voice. This was Crank from before he was a cyber alicorn.

The mare just gave him a small smile and kissed him again. “Like I can sleep when you’re around,” she tightened her grip on him and cuddled into him closer.

I could see Crank’s tense muscles relax as she curled up into his chest, but he shook his head anyway. “You need sleep,” He insisted, running his hoof down her tangled mane and doing his best to untangle many of the knots. “At least until we can find some Radaway for you.”

The mare just rolled her eyes and giggled. What she was giggling at I couldn't tell. “We could always stop at Tenpony, I’m sure we can get healed up there.”

Crank frowned at that. “You know full well we can’t afford Tenpony,” he grunted, his hoof stopping for a second before he continued stroking her mane. “But I’ll get you in. Don’t you worry. I’ll find a way.”

The mare pushed herself back a little and stared up at him, her eyes both wide and stern. “We will get both of us in,” She insisted, placing her hoof on Crank’s chest. “Not just me. Both of us.”

Crank gave a small sigh. “Of course. Both of us.”

The sound of pounding hooves on asphalt drew both of their attentions to the window outside. I heard a few yells as some group of ponies outside surrounded the building. Crank sprung to his hooves in seconds, clearly he was fast even before his cybernetic transformation.

“Raiders,” Crank snarled as he whipped out a large hunting rifle. It seemed strange to see him fight with a weapon that wasn’t his usual massive tesla cannons.

The mare whimpered and pulled out her own her own pistol with her glowing red magic. She tried to pull herself to her hooves only too collapse back down.

Five raiders marched in. The first four seemed no different than normal raiders if not a little bit rougher and better equipped. The fifth raider however was a huge, hulking earth pony wielding a massive sedgehammer in their mouth. I knew him too. Skull Crusher.

These were Las Pegasus raiders.

“Well well, look what we got here boys!” Skull Crusher chuckled, stomping one of his massive hooves on the ground. The raiders behind him cheered, clearly getting hyped up for the kill they would get to have soon.

The mare shivered as Crank protectively stepped in front of her. “Get lost, I’m not going to ask you twice,” Crank growled, levelling his rifle with Skull Crushers head.

The raiders sneered back at him, but I could feel a small sense of hesitation as the ferociousness of Crank’s growl. Skull Crusher seemed unamused and unfazed. His bloodshot eyes narrowed as he stared Crank down.

“Grab the mare,” Skull Crusher bellowed, seemingly ignoring Cranks threat. He took a step forwards, the ground cracked below his hoof. “Red eye’ll give us a pretty little price for a unicorn.”

With little warning save for a roar of rage, Crank surged forwards, his rifle firing off a few rounds in Skull Crushers direction. Faster than he had any right to move, Skull Crusher rolled away from the shots and slammed his sledgehammer down hard on Cranks back legs.

Crank fell, his legs broken and twisted in an awful way. But he refused to stay down. Crank pushed himself up on wobbly legs and began to fire again. His first shot took the head off a charging raider, sending their already twitchy body into a violent spasm before finally falling still. The three other raiders surged past him, one managed to get a knife into his foreleg while the other grappled into the mare, knocking her gun aside.

Cranks eyes burned with rage as he watched the raider strike the mare. He began to rush towards them, only to find Skull Crusher ram his chest with a devastating blow of the sledgehammer. Crank’s chest caved in with a vile sounding crunch.

Skull Crusher glared down at him with a sneer. “Never cross Las Pegasus raiders,” He smirked, raising his hammer up again and bringing it down hard on Crank’s forehoof. The hoof snapped, making Crank scream out in pain. I had never seen him so hurt.

The mare pushed past the raiders and limped in front of him, holding her hoof up above her head protectively. “Leave him alone!”

The hammer swung again, this time crashing into the mares side and sending her stumbling across the room. “You don't get a say in this!” Skull Crusher bellowed, stomping his hoof down on the ground. The tile floor cracked more below the force.

Crank glared up at him, a hatred in his eyes I had never seen before. When he spoke, his voice was low and filled with malice. “I will kill you,” It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.

Skull Crusher almost seemed startled by the cold and confident certainty of Cranks words. Finally a grin returned to his face, wiping away the shock. “Unlikely,” If only Skull Crusher knew what I did.

The hammer swung again, finally breaking Crank’s last usable leg. Crank screamed, coiling away from the hammer.

“I said leave him alone!” The mare yelled again, pushing herself back up. Her side was bleeding badly and I could have sworn I could see a few broken ribs.

A raider lashed out, knocking her back to the ground with a strike of his hoof. “Tie her up. We bring her to Red Eye.” Skull Crusher ordered, kicking Crank’s trembling and broken body aside with his hoof. The raiders grinned wickedly and advanced on the wounded mare, slowly dragging her from the building and away from Crank as he bled out on the floor in a disheveled and broken heap.

It took me a second to figure out where I was when I opened my eyes. For one horrifying moment, I feared I had gone blind. Then I saw a dull green light reflecting off of some jagged rocks a few feet above my head. A cave! I was still in the caves beneath the Hollow Shades.

I bolted up to my hooves, the blood quickly rushing to my head and making me dizzy from moving upwards so quickly. I stumbled, trying to remain upright as the world spun around me. I felt something warm and soft that had been curled up next to me jump at my sudden movement.

“A-Amber?” I heard Xayah squeak from beside me. “Are you alright?”

I blinked a couple times, trying to make sense of my surroundings. What the hell had just happened? I nodded a few times, hoping she could see me in the dim light of the cave. “I-I’m fine. I just… I thought I saw...” I glanced around, trying to get my bearings. “What’s going on?”

As my head began to clear, noises began filtering into my ears. A distant and haunting howl was echoing down the tunnel towards us, far off, but still very much there. The sound of a hammer was slamming against rocks and I could have sworn I heard sobbing amongst the darkness.

As my eyes began to adjust to the dim light, I began to make out the shapes of all my remaining companions. Boulder stood at the entrance to the tunnel we were in, his huge sledgehammer continuously crashing into the side of the cavern. To my right, Brisk and Pyre stood over the shaking body of Shade, making sure she didn’t run anywhere. Finally, Toffee, Chestnut and the two remaining security ponies stood in a lopsided circle while they discussed something. All four of them seemed to be crying.

“After Crank chased after Azar you just dropped,” Xayah explained with a hint of worry in her voice, returning to her spot by my side. Her warm presence making the vile and sick feeling cave feel a little less hopeless. Those strange ghoul creatures that Crank killed started rising from the water shortly afterwards. Pyre had to carry you as we ran.”

I listened quietly, trying to work out exactly what happened. I had just… dropped? I had had some sort of vision from Crank’s past? Why?

Before I had time to dwell on it, the top of the cavern entrance crashed down from the top as Boulder swung his sledgehammer into it with an exceptionally strong slam. With an ear shattering crash, the rocks tumbled down and blocked off the exit.

“There. Should hold them for now,” Boulder grunted in his deep voice, taking a step back as to not get crushed under the miniature avalanche himself. He silently looked over his work of blocking off the entrance with a sort of stoic pride.

Toffee trotted over, quickly wiping a tear from her eye and putting on a strong face. “Good, we should get goin’. I don’t want t’ be down here any longer than we ought to. We’ve all lost enough down here already,” she turned and caught my eye. Toffee’s face seemed to relax a little at the sight of me being awake, but she still looked stressed and distraught. “Glad yer awake. Can ya walk?”

I nodded, pushing aside some of the drowsiness from my mind. “I-I’ll be fine. Just a little dizzy.”

Toffee nodded solemnly before turning back to the rest of the group. “We’ll leave in five minutes. Everypony catch their breath. It shouldn’t be too much farther t’ the Stable.”

On shaky legs, Xayah and I pulled ourselves over to where Brisk and Pyre loomed over Shade. Now a little closer, I could make out the intimidating silhouette of my hellhound just behind them. His black fur blending into the shadows of the cave.

I bit of guilt flashed through me. That Hellhound was intelligent in some way, I knew that now. I had no right to be controlling it like I was. I was beginning to understand why Star Breeze had been so opposed to having the mind control devices wipe their memory completely. It was beyond immoral. I’d have to let this thing go somehow when all of this was done and through.

As we got closer I began to make out Brisk’s words, his tone a quite yet sharp hiss. “So what, You just thought you’d kill everypony!” Brisk snarled, his voice rising a little at the end.

Shade was in tears, cowering away from the seething green unicorn and the stoic raider. I had never seen Shade so scared, nor Brisk so angry. For that matter, I had never seen Pyre so stoic. She didn’t even attempt to slip in a witty or sarcastic remark as Brisk rounded on the cowering unicorn.

Shade’s eyes landed on me, her pupils wide with fear. She took a nervous and desperate step towards me, keeping her head low and eyes down. “I-I didn’t mean for everypony to die Amber. I really didn’t. You have to believe me. Azar told me to do it. He's responsible, not me.”

Rage flared up inside of me at her words. Pure and powerful rage. How dare she! I could almost see the pink ooze like cloud seeping from the Stable door as the ponies inside were melted alive. She had let the zebra's in and now dared to say she was innocent! My hoof lashed forwards on instinct, striking Shade across the face and sending her toppling backwards where her head smacked against the far wall with a thud.

My friends jumped back at my assault, clearly taken aback by the unexpected lash. I didn’t pay them any heed as I stomped forwards and sent another hoof into Shades face. Shade yelped as the hoof struck her, blackening her eye. She tried to push herself backwards and away from me, only to find herself already pushed up against the wall.

“Amber please. You’ve seen how screwed up the Stable was. You know how-”

I struck her again, her whole body was slammed downwards by the impact and her head cracked against the rock floor, bouncing slightly. Both Brisk and Xayah rushed forwards, pulling me away from Shade. I fought against them for a second, trying to get in another punch before simply going still and staring at Shade with loathing.

“You had better start explaining yourself,” I hissed, my voice low.

Shade slowly pulled herself back up, her hoof pressing against her temple to stop the bleeding that had accompanied my last attack. “Azar contacted me over the speakers in the generator room. He told me that if I opened up the Stable door for Inferno and those zebra’s that he would take me away from the Stable and somewhere safe in the Wasteland,” She said, scooting back a little as her panicked gaze met mine. “He just said that he was going to take something from the Stable, but things didn’t go as planned at first. I didn’t think he was going to kill everypony! I just thought Inferno was crazy or some shit.”

Well at least she was right about that last part. Inferno was crazy, who knew how of script he might have been from the original plan.

I pushed Brisk and Xayah off of me with a small shake of my shoulders and growled at her. “That was the first time you opened the door, what about the second?” I snarled. I started stomping towards her, but stopped when I saw Brisk and Xayah’s worried expressions. I took a deep breath. I had to keep my anger under control. I can’t let it consume me. “You knew Azar would just kill everypony, so why the fuck did you open it again.”

Shade began shaking. She wrapped her tail around her and curled up into as small a ball as she could before us. “I just- I don’t- I just wanted to get out of there. I couldn’t stand it any longer… please. I never wanted to kill anypony…”

I felt the rage inside me beginning to grow again. Higher and higher. I had to use all my energy to not simply strike out at her again. Slowly, I dropped to the ground in front of her. “Why couldn’t you have just talked to us. We could have helped you… you were…” I sniffed. I could feel the tears coming, but I managed to hold them back. Not yet. I wasn’t going to cry yet. “You were my friend. We could have helped you,” I finished softly. Were we friends? We used to be…

Shade shook her head. “You were gone when I opened up the door for the first time. I didn’t think you would ever come back… and the second time…” She paused, hesitating on how to continue. She lowered her head, not daring to look me in the eye. “I had gone too far by then. I had no other choice…”

“You always have a choice,” I retorted grimmly. I was still angry at her, and it was very apparent in both my eyes and tone, but I had calmed down enough that I wasn’t yelling anymore. Then my glare hardened again as a thought crossed through my mind. “Where is Kamari,” I rumbled, my eyes locking with hers again. “I know Azar was taking you to him.”

Shade shook her head sadly. “I don’t know… Azar just said that going through the tunnels was the safest way to get there. He never said where that was.”

Going underneath the Hollow Shades was the safest way? What other route could be more fucking dangerous than this one? And if Crank destroyed the only entrance… Shit, I really didn’t like what that implied.

“Why did you even want to leave the Stable in the first place or whatever,” Brisk asked from behind me, his voice was still sharp and hateful, though now slightly more hesitant.

Shade gave him an angry look. “Don’t you talk to me about wanting to leave the Stable Brisk Spark!” Shade snapped, narrowing her eyes at him. Her eyes shot wide again and she scooted back a little more against the wall as she realized she probably wasn’t in the right position to be scolding any of us right now. She glanced down at her hoof and drew a small circle on the rook with its tip. “You both know how screwed up it was in there. The security brutality, the blatant mind control,” Her voice sounded far away. Her eyes turned to once again face me. “Your father was actively involved in secret Stable-Tec sanctioned experiments on the residence,” She gave a small sad chuckle, but it felt forced. “And honestly, I don’t think I could stand another day listening to that Stable-Tec March song they kept playing.”

I let my head rest on the cold floor of the cavern. I could feel myself trembling. “They didn’t need to die,” I muttered, my voice sounding just as far away as it felt. “We could have found another way.”

I could feel Brisk shaking behind me, his eyes burning holes into Shade. Finally he grunted and marched off. “I need a fucking Buck,” He grumbled, struggling to pull the tin from his saddle to get at the chems.

“I hear them,” Boulder grunted from across the room, his ear pushed up against the wall that he had collapsed. “They are not far away.”

I was beginning to hear them as well. At first they simply seemed like an elongated and distant moan echoing through the cave, but the longer I listened the more I began to pick up on the individual grunts and shrieks that were coming from the darkness. Coming from and getting louder by the second.

“We need to get moving,” One of the security ponies that I now knew as Granite said flatly, picking themselves up from the ground. “If we get moving now we should be able to get to the Stable before they reach us, but we’ll need to hurry,” They turned to an exit tunnel a few feet down the cavern from us.

A loud crash from behind drew all our attentions to the wall Brisk had walked towards. Brisk stood seething next to the wall, one hoof grabbing onto the cold rockface for support. His now empty jar of Buck lay at his hooves where he had violently tossed it. He scrunched up his face and resisted the urge to scream. He did a bad job.

“Fucking shit!” Brisk hollered, picking up the empty jar just so he could throw it again. It toppled through the air and hit the far wall with a clang, rolling away into the gloom. “Celestia fucking hell!”

“Brisk? Are you alright?” I asked quickly, limping over to stand next to him. Xayah followed swiftly behind me.

Brisk’s head whipped over to look at me so fast I was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. To my surprise I found him in tears. “Do I look fucking alright Amber!”

I took a step back, unsure how to properly react to his sudden outburst. “What… what’s wrong?” I had to do my best to keep the worry out of my voice.

“I just… I just need some… You know what? Never mind Amber, it’s not important,” He grumbled, turning away from me and walking towards the tunnel. “Just need some Buck, that’s all.”

Everypony glanced around at each other as he stumbled past them, they all looked concerned. I glanced down at his fore hooves that had been injured so long ago. The scars that had once marred his coat had all but almost healed and he seemed to be limping more on some wound to his back leg than his front.

“I-I don’t think you do,” I muttered, slowly shifting my gaze to face Xayah beside me. Her face was grim as ever.

Brisk whirled around and slammed his hooves down on the ground in front of him, only confirming that his fore hooves were fine. “Yes I fucking do!” he shouted, his voice echoing around the small cavern. He blinked for a second before looking around, as if realizing how outrageous his outburst was for the first time. “Sorry, I-I don’t know why I did that…” He cast a nervous glance around at everypony, taking in their worried expressions. “Sorry, I’m sorry. Lets just keep going… I’ll get some Buck later or whatever. It’s all cool,” he turned from us and quickly continued walking down the tunnel.

Pyre Blaze walked up, stopping briefly beside me as I stared down the tunnel entrance after Brisk. “Now I’m all for experimenting with chems, hell it’s one of my favourite things to do, but that pony needs to see a doctor or some shit. That stuff is killing him,” Pyre grunted, following my gaze.

“I did warn you he had an addiction,” Xayah said quietly from beside me. She wasn’t bragging or boasting, simply stating facts in her blunt, zebra logic like manner. I figured when all of this was done, we would all need some help and a long, long rest.

In my saddle bags I could feel the light weight of the small jar of Buck I had found so long ago. Now probably wasn’t the best time to mention I still had some.

With the sudden drama out of the way, everypony began making their way down the tunnel exit. The tunnel didn’t seem any different from any of the other tunnels below the Hollow Shades. Dark jagged rocks made up the long twisting passage and every surface seemed to drip with a foul green slime. Like before, we walked in near darkness using only the rare and dim light of the occasional Flammulina Velutipes. We didn’t dare use the light of our pipbucks in fear of attracting more attention to ourselves in the depths. To my relief, the tunnel seemed to be going up at a steady state.

I found myself walking alongside Toffee as the two security ponies led the way up the tunnel. As we passed one of the few glowing mushrooms in the cave, I spotted the green light glisten of silent shining tears racing down her cheeks. I took a few awkward steps towards her, trying not to trip and stumble in the darkness.

“You alright?” I asked in a low whisper, trying to keep our conversation just between the two of us in the confined space.

Toffee glanced over at me, trying to make out my features in the gloom. “I-I’m fine. Just thinkin’ ‘bout Salt Water. He was a good pony. One of the best. I’ve lost a lot of friends in the last few hours Amber, I guess it’s all just catchin’ up t’ me now.”

I nodded. “I know what you mean. It’s never easy,” I did know what she meant. It had only been four days since I had watched Stable 25 get slaughtered and my mind was still reeling from that loss. I wouldn’t be surprised if some part of me would always feel broken and empty.

Toffee simply nodded. “I’m sorry yer friend betrayed you back there. I’ve gone through my fare share of betrayals myself. Always stings a bit after.”

I shook my head. “I’ll figure out how to deal with Shade later. I don’t really want to think about her right now.”

Toffee raised her eyebrows and gave me a quizzical look. “I was referrin’ to the Cyber alicorn. It’s gonna be a mighty lot harder takin’ out those Slavers now that he’s not on our side. Was really startin’ t’ appreciate havin’ that death machine around. Made fights a whole lot easier than they would have been.”

I gulped. Right, we still had to deal with a whole army of slavers to deal with once we got out of this. The horrors and hardships of today just never seemed to end.

A loud echoing bang bellowed up at us from down the tunnel. We all froze as the sound reverberated around us. For a few seconds after there was silence, then the screaming began. Long drawn out wails of fear and pain rose from the darkness of the tunnel, making my body start shaking all over again.

“I suppose they broke down that barrier of yours,” Chestnut grimaced, glancing over to an ever stoic Boulder. He just gave her a small grunt in return, whether he was agreeing with her or simply acknowledging that her heard her I had no idea.

“Then we should pick up the pace and get out of here,” One of the security ponies said from in front of us, though I couldn’t tell if it was Cherry or Granite. “The last thing we want is to be swarmed by a bunch of unkillable ghouls in this confined space. And we can’t risk letting them get into the Stable either.”

If that wasn’t a terrifying thought, I don’t know what was.

We all began moving quicker down the passage. At first we began going at a quick trot, but we soon found ourselves galloping at full tilt as the haunting sounds of the horde of ghouls grew louder behind us. They sounded like they were moving fast. Very fast.

“Are you sure this heads up to the Stable?” Pyre asked, rushing past me and up to the front with the two security ponies. Her heavy power armour making loud thunking noises as her metal hooves pounded into the ground.

Cherry tapped her pipbuck with a hoof before motioning ahead. “My pipbuck map says there should be an old elevator down here that accesses a long abandoned part of the Stable,” She replied between breathes as we raced onwards. “If we can get into that we should be safe.

The howling of the strange immortal ghouls seemed to be getting closer with every step. I couldn’t see much in the darkness, but it felt as though they were right behind us, breathings down our necks as they swarmed in for the kill.

Fuck I hated these caves.

But as we raced forwards it wasn’t just ghouls we had to worry about. Our clatter was beginning to attract other things from below. Out of the corners of my eyes, I began to see dark and almost ethereal shapes bolting from shadow to shadow around us. once again, the feeling of being watched overcame me. I knew something was there, waiting in the shadows just beyond my line of sight.

“They’re coming!” I heard Shade shriek from somewhere behind me. The clamor of the ghouls had increased. I dared myself to look behind me.

Pale yellow eyes stared at me from the darkness. A vile stench attacked my senses, making me want to retch and vomit. It was the smell of rot and death. They were almost upon us!

Turning back to face ahead of me, I began running as fast as I could. My whole body screamed in protest as I pushed forward. I could feel some of my wounds begin to reopen as I overexerted every part of me that I could get to work.

“The elevator! Up ahead!” I heard Granite shout. I glanced up, not daring to slow my pace. Sure enough, a small, almost ramshackle looking elevator sat in the dim and flickering lights of some LED fixtures built into the stalactite covered ceiling of the cavern. We were almost there. We just had to run a little farther.

Cherry reached the elevator first, quickly activating it with her pipbuck and swiftly stepping inside as the steel and glass double doors of the shaft jerked open. “Come on, everypony in! Now!”

We began quickly shoving our way into the elevator. It clearly had been designed for a smaller group of ponies, but so far, we didn’t seem to be having too much trouble all fitting in.

Then I heard Xayah scream.

Goddesses no!

I turned to see two of the gnarled and puss covered ghouls lung forwards and wrap their twisted hooves around Xayah, dragging her to the ground. She batted at them with her hooves, her well aimed punches did little against the creatures as they clawed at her and tried to drag her back toward the oncoming mass.

Without thinking, I lunged from the safety of the elevator. Boneless was raised in an instant, swiveling up to face the two ghouls.

“Amber! What are you doing!” I heard Pyre shout after me as I rushed forwards. I didn’t listen to her.

Blam! Blam!

Boneless’ explosive buckshot ripped into the ghouls. Both ghouls heads burst open in a shower of foul puss, their bodies dropping to the floor. I knew that wouldn’t hold them off for long, already I could see their heads beginning to pull themselves back together. What the fuck had the Hollow Shades been through to make these goddess damned things?!

I rushed forwards and pulled Xayah back to her hooves. She stumbled, her legs bleeding from multiple nasty bite wounds on her fetlock and a few around her neck. She let out a sharp yelp as she tumbled back to the ground.

More ghouls were spilling in all around us, and not just from down the tunnel either. The foul creatures began scuttling out of smaller tunnels higher up around us, crawling out of the walls and surging down the side of the rock face like the rotting ooze that coated it.

Another ghoul rushed forwards, its jaw open and revealing rows of jagged fangs as it went to bite into me. I swung my baton out and cracked it against the ghouls leg, breaking the bone just below the joint. It didn’t even slow as it continued its mad and deranged rush forwards.

I swung at it again, missing by inches as it dove below my attack and sunk its jagged maw into my fore hoof. I screamed, trying to shake the ghoul off and swatting at it helplessly with my free hoof. The more I struggled, the deeper its fangs seemed to sink into my flesh.

Using what little strength she had left, Xayah leapt forwards. Her back hoof slashed at the ghouls throat, tearing it out and sending a waterfall of oozing bile and blood to spill down its front. The ghoul tumbled backwards, ripping out a large chunk of flesh from my fore hoof as it went. A second strike flew through its face, sending brain matter flying across the room.

Note to self, don’t let Xayah try to punch me.

More ghouls were rushing towards us now, their mutilated limbs reaching for our throats as they prepared for their attack.

I pushed myself back up despite my bleeding legs protest, my side brushing against Xayah as we slowly began pushing our way back to the elevator. But there were simply too many ghouls. With each step they grew closer, their pale and hollow eyes burning into us with an unprecedented desire to… no, need to tear us apart. Another ghoul made an attempt, slashing at us with their hooves.

The attack never landed as a blast of purple energy flashed out from behind us and shot a hole through the ghouls chest, dropping it to the ground.

I glanced back to the elevator, picking out Shade's glowing horn as she almost dropped to the ground from the exertion caused by the spell. She had… saved me?

Pyre leapt in front of us as ten more ghouls charged forward, her two huge flamers flaring to life and sending waves of fire into the oncoming creatures. The ghouls backed up slightly as the front line of ghouls were turned to ash. But their charge didn’t hold for long. These things were without fear.

“Get back! Get back now!” Chestnut shouted over the chaos. A few ghouls darted past Pyre Blaze and made a rush for the open elevator.

I could hear the ponies behind me screaming and open fire as Xayah and I slowly pushed ourselves back towards the elevator one small step at a time. Over the booming noise of Cherry and Granite’s assault Rifles, I could make out the distinct sound of Brisk’s 10mm pistol and the occasional crack of Toffee’s shotgun.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Boulder take a brave step forwards, the minigun strapped to his battle saddle whirring to life and sending round after round into the hoard of ghouls. Even my Hellhound lurched into the oncoming wave, its massive claws tearing them open as they began to pile atop him.

I pulled Xayah into the elevator, both are bodies falling limp to the ground with exhaustion as we stumbled in. Brisk and Toffee quickly went to work administering healing potions to both of us, slowly making the bite wounds dissipate. The large chunk of missing flesh on my fore hoof doing little more than clotting over slightly.

“They’re clear! Get back into the elevator, now!” Cherry shouted from beside me, her assault rifle firing a few more times into the ghouls as she covered for Granite as he messed around with a small terminal next to the door.

Boulder began quickly backpedaling, his minigun tearing apart any ghoul that go to close to him. Pyre began moving back as well, but she was much closer to the waves of ghouls than Boulder or even Xayah and I had been. Each step she took gave the ghouls a little more room to advance in on us.

“Come on! Get in!” I shrieked, helping Xayah back to her hooves and firing Boneless’ last shot out the door, blasting the head off another ghoul. I quickly began to reload, popping three more shells into the gun.

At my command, my Hellhound threw the ghouls off of him and began tearing its way back through the ghouls to get to the elevator. The Hellhounds relentless assault on the ghouls gave Pyre a little more leeway in her retreat.

Xayah’s sniper was out, nearly defining me as she fired carefully aimed shots into the ghouls. She fired five shots into the swarm before she needed stop and reload herself.

I could see Brisk needing to reload as well, our stream of fire at the ghouls temporarily slowing. The ghouls saw their chance and took it.

They swarmed forwards, ignoring the wall of fire Pyre had created and surged over her. Pyre Blaze was overcome by the ghouls, her whole body submerged under the wriggling mass. I could see small bursts of flame shoot out as Pyre tried to escape the deadly onslaught.

“Pyre!” I screamed, horror racing through me. I couldn't let her die! Not like this! I once again rushing forwards and emptying Boneless into the ghouls atop my friend as I tried to get them off of her.

Boneless clicked empty, but I had caught the ghouls attention now. A few of them removed themselves from Pyre and scrambled towards me on broken limbs.

With no time to reload, I whipped out my baton and began slamming it into the ghouls, breaking limbs and heads as they lunged at me. But despite my best efforts, nothing was slowing them down. There were simply too many and those that fell refused to stay down.

My attack did however lessen the amount of ghouls on Pyre, giving her a chance to escape. With an almost monstrous roar of rage, Pyre Blaze burst from beneath the mound of ghouls, her flamers blasting jets of fire and her intense force throwing ghouls in all directions.

She rushed past me, her metal clad hooves ripping into the ghouls around me as she slung me over her back and leapt a full four feet through the air. She landed inside the elevator with a thump, nearly crushing Chestnut below her hooves and sending a massive shock through my whole body as I fell from atop her back.

The second we were inside the small elevator, Granite hit a button and the reinforced steel doors slammed shut behind us.

“Granite, get us out of here!” Cherry cried as the wave of ghouls began crashing into the side of the elevator. Through the glass, I could see hundreds of pale eyes staring at us with seething hatred. Twisted hooves battered at the bulletproof glass with a strength such frail and rotten hooves had no right to possess and I could see jagged and foaming maws.

“I’m trying!” Granite shrieked back, typing furiously at the terminal with his bleeding hooves. “This elevator hasn’t been used since the Stable was being built, my security pass code doesn’t work on it!”

“What!” I heard Chestnut yelled from beside me, her gun aimed at the ghouls as they tried to bash down the door of the elevator, her eyes wide with fear and her pupils dilated to pinpricks. “What do you mean you secur-”

She was cut off as a ghoul’s hoof smashed through the glass of the door and began trying to reach for us. Xayah shrieked, pushing herself away from the door and as far away from the hoof as she could as it tried to grab at her.

Brisk sent a shot out, the bullet piercing the gnarled hoof and making the ghoul retract its limb from the window. But it wasn’t the only ghoul that we had to worry about. Multiple hooves began smashing through the glass, sending sharp shards of glass spraying across us as more than half off the window shattered.

I quickly pushed Granite aside and began typing furiously at the terminal, pulling up its coding. Shit, it was a hard password. Who the fuck makes the password to an elevator nine letters?

“What the fuck are you doing?” Granite yelped, firing a shot out the window at the ghouls. I heard a howl of pain as his shot landed and blew the head off a ghoul.

“Hacking the terminal!” I shouted back, slightly aggravated I was needing to explain myself in such a stressful situation. “We don’t have time for anything else right now!” I didn’t hear Granite respond, so I assumed he agreed with my sentiments.

“Shit! More of those things coming!” I heard Toffee frantically shout over the sound of gunfire. At first I assumed she meant more ghouls, but as I dared to glance over the top of the terminal I felt a wave of fear wash over me.

Larger shapes were beginning to emerge from the darkness beyond the ghouls. Hulking non pony forms covered in a slithering mass of fleshy tendrils. They weren’t quite as large as whatever we had fought in the cistern, but they were still huge… and there were lots of them.

A blood curdling howl echoed down the tunnel as they approached, their lumbering bodies slowly picking up speed as they surged towards us.

I heard multiple ponies screaming as one of the massive abominations smashed into the elevator, shaking the whole structure and threatening to bash in the door. The rest of the already broken glass shattered, leaving a large gap in the door.

Ghouls began squeezing in to get us, their twisted hooves and dagger filled maws reaching out to ripp us limb for limb.

I looked down at the terminal as I began trying to hack it with renewed desperation. I was trembling, my whole body shaking as I tried to stay somewhat calm and get us out of here.

My hoof slipped, clicking the wrong word. Damn it! No letters were correct! I only had one shot left!

“Help me!” A desperate wail echoed around us, emanating from the howling mouths of one of the hulking creatures. I felt a shiver raced down my spine. Fear gripped at my chest and threatened to lock up my whole body. It was Salt Water’s voice! “Please! Toffee! Help me!”

Toffee’s eyes went wide as the voice reached her, her whole body started shaking and her eyes welled with tears. Her shotgun fired again and again as she tried pushing her way past the ghouls and back into the tunnel beyond. “Salt Water! I’m coming!” She screamed, her hooves lashing out and batting a ghoul aside as it rushed at her.

I saw Chestnut reach out and throw her back into the elevator. Like Toffee, her eyes were wet from tears. “He’s dead Toffee! It’s not real!”

More ghouls began trying to push their way in, their gnashing teeth clamping tight around Granite’s forehooves. With a sudden tug, the ghouls pulled him from the elevator. His blood curdling screams echoed around us as the ghouls tore into him.

“Granite! Damn it!” I heard Cherry scream, her assault rifle firing into the ghouls that were tearing him apart. “No more! I won't lose another one!” Before anyone could stop her, she rushed from the elevator to fight off the ghouls around Granite.

A ghoul rushed into the elevator, its maw latching onto Pyre’s leg as it tried to bite it’s way through her armour. Before it could do any real damage, my Hellhound blasted it apart with a shot from its energy weapon.

“How’s the terminal going!” I heard Pyre shout as she crushed a ghoul below her hoof and tossed its slowly regenerating corpse from the elevator. It’s body crashed into two more ghouls as they tried to claw their way in. There was no sarcasm in her voice, only fear.

Before I could answer, the elevator was rammed by another one of the massive monsters. The whole thing shook and a shower of sparks began erupting from the already flickering light. The lights shorted out, sending us into complete darkness for a second before it flashed back to life and began flickering faster, plunging us into blackness every couple of seconds before re-illuminating the elevator shaft.

“There’s too much happening! I can’t concentrate!” I screamed, squinting my eyes and trying to make out the terminal scream through the strobing light as I searched desperately for the right Password. I only had one shot!

I could see Shade cowering in the corner as ghouls continued trying to pour in, all her energy already spent on that one blast that had saved my life. Brisk and Xayah stood back to back, keeping a constant stream of fire on the broken glass entrance to the elevator, keeping the ghouls from completely overpowering us as Pyre and Boulder tried to keep the massive abominations at bay.

We were running out of time! I had to think fast!

To my surprise, Cherry stumbled back into the elevator. She was bleeding all over from numerous cuts and bite marks and she carried a near dead Granite on her back. Her Assault rifle fired behind her as she sprayed the ghouls with lead as they tried to claw at her.

“Please! It hurts me!” I heard the haunting scream of the grey security pony I had never gotten the name of come from the vile mouths of the abominations.

“Amber! We need to get this elevator moving now!” Pyre urged, her flamers turning from the abominations and to the mass of ghouls as they began to overpower our defences. “We are all going to die here!”

My eyes darted back and forth between the coding of the terminal. “Come on! What is it!” I screamed at myself, slamming my hoof down on the floor of the elevator. Pain shot up me at the contact.

I needed more time! There was just so much, I couldn’t concentrate! I needed to slow everything down!

An idea shot through me head. Flicking my hoof to my pipbuck I quickly activated SATS. Instantly the whole world quieted. To my horror I could still see the ghouls and mass of tentacles moving in towards us in the magically induced stillness, though they were dramatically slowed.

In the slowed state of SATS, I stared down at the terminal. Password… password. Come on, I was good at this! Hell it was my special fucking talent!

My eyes popped open as I finally figured it out.

I quickly deactivated SATS, returning me to the hectic reality. Ghouls shrieked and pounded against the doors, trying to push past us. I stumbled a little and almost lost my train of thought as the banging sounds and rapid, jarring motion abruptly assaulted my senses. Trying to stay on task, I pushed myself towards the terminal and typed 'stabletec'.

There was a second of delay, then the elevator began to shake and move upwards. I could have screamed with relief, but I was simply was too exhausted to do much more than drop to my stomach as we began our assent back up to the Stable.

I looked around the elevator as we moved away from the screaming hoard of nightmares below. We weren't looking well. Xayah and I had received numerous cuts from the first ghoul attack and Pyre’s power armour was so damaged it looked about ready to fall off of her. Toffee and Chestnut lay in a disheveled heap, tight in each other's embrace as they wept openly for their lost friend. Cherry and Granite were a bloody mess, now looking more like ghouls themselves due to their shocking amount of gashes and missing chunks of flesh and fur. Granite lay unconscious in Cherry’s hooves, the only indication he was alive being the slow and unsteady rise and fall of his chest.

It had been hell, but we had made it. We had travelled into the depths of the Hollow Shades and made it out alive.

I cast a sad glance at the two weeping groups of ponies that now lay almost still on the elevator floor, too tired and emotionally devastated to do anymore. Well… some of us had made it out alive at least. My group had been lucky this time, but others had not.

No one spoke as we slowly moved towards the surface. It had been a long day, and no one had the strength to do any more than lie on their side and cry. When we finally reach the surface we passed two healing potions to each one of us that had sustained injuries in the fight and began shakily crawling and limping our way through the abandoned parts of the Stable.

Cherry had been right, the elevator led up to a broken down and closed off part of the Stable I doubted anypony had been in for a long time. Dust coated every surface and a thick layer of grim seemed to be slathered across the cracked floor.

“Why was this part of the Stable abandoned?” I asked, breaking the silence as we painfully limped up a small flight of metal stairs. The lights in this part of the Stable had long since gone out and we had to rely on our Pipbuck light to see any more than an inch in front of our face, giving the abandoned metal halls into an eerie and haunting look.

Cherry shook her head as her eyes darted around the gloom, no doubt still expecting a ghoul to launch themselves at us at any second. We were all very shaken by the attack. “This area has been closed off since long before we were born,” She said, as she cast a worried glance to Granite, who now hung limp from Pyre’s back. “My best guess? Something from below got in.”

I shivered at that. The idea of a Stable turned nightmare was still all to real in my memory. I could still very clearly remember the blood soaked halls of Stable 25.

I didn’t remember walking through the abandoned parts of the Stable. One minute we were all limping and stumbling through the dark and eerily empty corridors, the next we were flopping to the ground inside the brightly illuminated and very much populated hallway of Stable 44. In my hazy and darkening vision I could see a few medics rushing towards us, picking up the most heavily wounded first and rushing them off to medical.

I saw them try to help Pyre, only for her to shake them off and stomp down the hallway after Brisk and Xayah.

Hooves slowly picked me up from the ground and rest me down on a stretcher before beginning to whisk me away to what I assumed was medical as well.

I could feel myself slowly falling into unconsciousness from overexertion and blood loss. Then the word went black.

I was floating again. A silent, bodiless observer watching over the scene below. Below me I could see the wounded and heavily bandaged form of Crank as he hid behind a large broken down factory wall. Once again, it was him before he was the cybernetic monster he is today. His mud and ash coated coat still revealing a little bit of his scarred orange hide and brown mane.

The air around us was red and smogy. In the distance I could see large metal smokestacks pumping out large billowing clouds of red and black smoke. Far above hot air balloons made to look like the smiling face of Pinkie pie leered down and teams of griffons darted through the sky.

The screams of slaves and the crack of whips echoes around the city like a never ending drum.

It was the second time I had seen a memory of somepony in this cursed place. Fillydelphia.

Five slavers clad in heavy combat armour rushed past the crumbling wall Crank hid behind. “Come on! I think he went this way!” One of them yelled, darting past and down an adjacent street.

As soon as the squadron of slavers passed, Crank limped from behind his hiding spot and began rushing towards a tower not to far away from where he currently was. He had to duck back into hiding or simply crouch low in the shadows and smoke filled air a couple of times as slavers or griffins passed by.

The large tower he was approaching was surrounded by a large barbed wire topped wall. The only entrance leading through being a heavily guarded iron gate. Two turrets sat atop the wall, looking down and slowly scanning the area below for any possible intruders. I didn’t know what was inside, but from the amount of security I could make pretty damn good guess.

This must be where Red Eye himself resided.

Taking a second to console himself, Crank took a deep breath and slowly approached the gate. All of the guards raised their weapons up and aimed at him as they spotted him.

“Stop right there!” A large brown griffon demanded, taking a step forwards and leveling her anti-material rifle with Crank’s head. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“I have an appointment with Red Eye,” Crank stated bluntly, keeping his steady gaze locked with the griffon. “Let me through.”

The griffon scoffed... Or rather squacked... It was a strange noise. “With that many firearms? I don’t think so,” The griffon spat sharply. I began to realize that Crank was armed to the teeth with guns and weapons. A few grenades hung from his battle saddle and I could see something large inside his saddlebag. “We would have needed proof of your meeting arrangements and for you to hand over your weapons. But it doesn’t matter now. Red Eye is on lockdown. Somepony just breached the wall and was seen heading here. No one goes in or out now.”

Crank gave off the deep and annoyed sounding grunt that I had come to associate with him. “Well, it was worth a shot I suppose.”

Before the griffon had time to react, Crank had a combat shotgun in his mouth and fired three shots into her head. The griffon’s head was pulped, spraying the rest of the stunned guards with blood and viscera.

The turrets sprang to action before the guards did, spraying a rain of fire down at Crank’s position. Crank reacted fast, dodging to the side and rolling out of the way of the automated machine gun fire. He ducked behind one of the recovering guards and used him as a living shield as the turrets ripped into him.

The guard fell, bleeding from multiple bullet hole in his legs, chest and head. But the other guards were beginning to recover from the initial shock now as well. They turned, spraying Crank with bullets from their own weapons.

There was a loud pop followed by a sudden rush of wind as a rocket shot out from behind the dead guards body and rushed towards the five other guards.

BOOM!

The rocket impacted, blasting them apart as Crank pushed the corpse aside and stepped out with a huge rocket launcher over his shoulder He quickly dropped it down where it almost magically clicked into his battle saddle and fired up at one of the turrets.

The turret got one shot out before the massive missile collided with it and blew it half to hell. Metal shrapnel rained down from where the missile had detonated.

“Shit! At the gate! At the gate!” A slaver yelled as a group of ten or so slavers rounded the corner of the wall and began charging toward Crank, their weapons already out and firing upon his position.

Crank leapt back to avoid the attack of the remaining turret and turned to face the huge entryway. Once again, his rocket launcher blasted forwards and sent a missile into the gate. Impressively, the door held, but part of the top blew slightly apart under the explosive hit.

A slaver rushed at him, a large whip cracking down towards the earth pony. Before the blow could land, Crank whipped out a machete and dove to the side, slicing the blade through the tendons in the back of the slavers legs.

As a pony that had had that happen to them before, I can say from experience that that hurts a lot.

The slaver screamed and dropped to the ground. Crank dove forwards, driving the point of the machete into his neck and completely severing the slavers head from his body.

Not daring to wait for the rest of the slavers to catch us, Crank fired a second rocket at the door. Again, it collided and did little more than dent and blacken the metal.

I could see Crank grit his teeth together and hiss. “Fuckin’ damn it. Just open!”

The turret fired again, forcing Crank to dive to the side while he tried to load another missile into his launcher. The slavers didn’t let him finish as one lunged into his side and knocked him over.

With a roar of rage, Crank threw his machete at the slaver, skewering him through the chest with the huge serrated blade. The Slaver fell, his torso ripped open by the brutal attack.

Two more slavers began firing at him with assault rifles forcing him to backpedal as he tried to load the rocket. Between steps he would bite down on the trigger of his saddle to fire off a shot from his combat shotgun. One of the slavers legs were blown out from under them from the near rapid fire buckshot.

Having a few seconds to reload, the turret swiveled to face him. Crank gave a loud grunt of pain around the trigger of the battle saddle as the turret sent a bullet through his already injured hoof.

He turned and fired his combat shotgun at the turret, finally blasting it to bits. Unfortunately for him, that left him open to the slavers as they charged forwards. Firing upon their now open opponent. Two more bullets made their mark, sinking deep into Crank’s side and making him stumble back in pain.

Crank growled and bucked a slaver in the face as he neared, the force of the attack strong enough to send the slaver sprawling back a few feet and collapse to his side. Not waiting another second and with his rocket launcher now properly loaded, Crank spun to face the wall and fired off a third and final rocket into it.

With a loud crash, the gate was blasted apart, leaving a smoking hole into the grounds around the tower.

Shots pinged around him as Crank lunged forwards on shaky legs and began rushing as fast as he could through the opening and towards the tower. Adrenaline pushing him far past his physical limit as the slavers already within the wall began rushing forwards and firing at him.

More slavers were beginning to pilling through the gateway after him, calling for him to stop or even keep running if they were sadistic enough and wanted the hunt. From up above I could see groups of Griffons begin diving down towards him in tight formation and even a few mighty alicorns protected by their annoyingly powerful shields.

And yet Crank kept going, determination, fear, adrenaline and desperation surging through him and keeping him from collapsing as he continued pushing forwards. His combat shotgun blasted apart any slaver that dared to get within range and the occasional swing of his machete promptly severed the head of anypony that managed to get within swinging distance.

Up ahead a doorway into the massive tower loomed before him. Not daring to slow down, Crank fired his rocket launcher, blasting open the doorway with one mighty explosion. Seconds later he was speeding through the door, his body already bleeding from the numerous bullet wounds he had received.

Slavers were massing behind him now as they tried to squeeze themselves through the small entryway into the tower.

Somehow that I will never be able to properly understand, Crank managed to swing the tides of the battle to his favor. His ferocious and seemingly unstoppable combat skill using the door he had just run through as a choke point against the slavers as they tried to pile in after him. Both his combat shotgun and rocket launcher fired, blasting apart the first five rows of slavers that managed to get through the door.

One by one they fell. Within seconds, Crank had somehow turned his own seemingly hopeless situation in a massacre. For one astonishing second, I thought Crank might actually win.

But then the slavers from within the tower began to spill down the stairway from the floor above. Their guns ringing out as they fired upon the lone earth pony.

Crank faltered, his stream of fire switching to his new attackers as he had to dodge with all he was worth to avoid the onslaught that was coming at him from all sides. And yet despite everything, he managed to hold his own for a few moments, trapped between practically endless waves of slavers.

Both his shotgun and rocket launcher clicked empty. There was a quick silent moment where no one fired. Horror crossed Crank’s face as he began quickly rummaging through his saddlebags for ammo.

Slavers were grinning as they advanced upon him, certain their victory was at hoof. Guns were lowered and whips were raised as numerous slavers went in to claim their new prize.

Then Crank threw something from his saddlebag. The strange shape flew through the air and landed on the stairs where a large group of slavers blocked his path to the higher floors. The slavers stared at it in shock for a second before a wave of panic washed over them.

Crank dove to the side and under the closest table he could find as word of what had been thrown went out. “Balefire Egg!”

The stairs were hit with a massive explosion rivalled only by the detonation of a full balefire bomb. Slavers were sent flying, bloodied limbs and bits of gore splattered against the walls or sailing over the remaining slavers head as they all dove for cover. Eardrums burst and the air was filled with a loud ringing sound that deafened anypony that was too close to the explosion.

Quickly pulling themselves to their brutalised hooves, Crank charged past the wounded and disoriented slavers and bolted up the stairs, his two primary guns once again fully loaded. One blast of his shotgun bursting one of the few standing slavers into gore as he tore past him.

“Don’t let him get away!” one of the Slavers shouted from below as Crank raced up the steps.

The exertion of his single pony siege on the tower was beginning to take its toll on him. His already wounded legs began to slow as the exhaustion and pain of his newly inflicted gunshots wounds began to hit him at full force. But he never stopped running. He screamed as he pushed himself, forcing himself to go beyond what any living pony should have been able to bear.

Bullets whizzed past him as the slavers gave chase. A few griffons began soaring into the building behind him, their shots ripping chunks out of the walls as they fired at the intruder.

But he kept going. Nothing could stop him now! He had come too far. Rage had consumed him so much. Even from my bodiless, birds eye perspective on the firefight below, I could feel his raw rage flowing through him and pushing him onwards. He had a score to settle, and no pony would stop him.

At last he reached a large doorway with two griffons standing guard outside. The front of the door had a large red symbol of a red eye engraved into it.

This was it!

Crank’s shotgun fired, killing both griffons before they even had a chance to properly acknowledge his presence.

Not waiting for his pursuers to catch up, Crank burst through the door into the office beyond, quickly turning and locking the door behind him. I could hear the slavers yelling and banging on the door as they tried to get through. Many of the screams were that of rage, but I could pick out a few fearful ones as well. No doubt they feared for Red Eyes life… or for their own after what Red Eye might do as punishment for their failure.

Turning around, Crank let his eyes take in the room. Almost instantly, his eyes landed on the red and black stallion that sat behind a desk close to the centre of the room.

Red Eye sat in the center of the room. He looked almost exactly the same to how I had seen him when I had gone into Chestnut’s memories, though he did appear to be a few years younger. His glowing red cybernetic eye looked over Crank, almost as if interested in who this newcomer might be. I had noted before that Red Eye’s eye had looked similar to Crank’s eyes, but now as I looked him over, I realized it wasn’t just similar, but exactly the same.

What caught me most off guard about Red Eye however was the strange calm that his face seemed to suggest. His organic eye seemed to hold an intense curiosity and his eyebrows were raised in a way one might while looking down upon a child as they told a ridiculous tale.

If I had had a body I would have shivered as I looked upon the great slave master. His very presence made me feel strangely comfortable and at peace regardless of my constantly growing hatred for him.

Red Eye looked over Crank for a few more seconds before allowing his mouth to grow into a small yet oddly warm and charismatic smile. “May I help you?”

Crank growled and stomped his hoof on the ground before him, readying his rocket launcher to fire upon Red Eye at any moment. A part of me wished he would fire and blow that likeable smile off of Red Eyes face, only I had enough foresight to know that Red Eye was still very much alive to this day.

“Where is Scarlet Dusk?!” Crank demanded, slamming his hoof down on the floor again. His booming voice drowning out the pounding of the slavers outside. “Tell me where she is or I will bast you apart here and now!”

Red Eye raised his eyebrows a little higher at the remark. His hoof raised slightly as if gesturing for Crank to calm down. Red Eye’s charm may have been uncomfortably effective on me, but Crank was having none of it. “The new unicorn? Auburn coat, orange mane?”

Even Crank was visibly taken aback by Red Eye’s knowledge of all the slaves that worked under him. I questioned if he knew every single one of his slaves names or if Scarlet was simply more well known. Judging by Red Eyes expression, I guessed it was the former.

Crank snarled, flourishing his rocket launcher in an attempt to intimidate the cybernetic earth pony. “Where is she?! Take me to her!” Crank demanded, taking a step forward.

Red Eye simply continued to stare Crank down, his smile never fading. “I’m afraid I cannot do that. I am sorry, but every pony must play their part in restoring Equestria if we are ever to have unity.”

“I don’t need you to find her! I can’t find her myself! Don’t make me need to do this the hard way you son of a bitch!” Crank roared, clearly going into some for of hystarics at Red Eye’s refusal to cooperate with his demands. I doubted this was how Crank had expected this confrontation to go down. “I don’t need you! Tell me or you’re dead!”

Red Eye simply gave Crank a sad smile and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

There was a loud pop of air as the rocket burst forth from Crank’s rocket launcher and hurtled towards Red Eye at an alarming speed. The rocket detonated, the huge explosion sending furniture flying around the room or simply blasting it apart.

As the smoke cleared, I found Red Eye still sitting behind his desk, the warm and now almost sorrowful smile still very much present on his face. Both him and his desk remained completely unharmed by the explosion. Now that I looked a little closer, I could see the faint glimmer of a magical shield around him. He must have alicorns hidden somewhere casting a shield spell to protect him, of course Red Eye wouldn’t be so foolish as to let all this happen without some form of failsafe.

Crank’s eyes widened as he took Red Eye in. His fatigue and wounds quickly caught up with him and he promptly toppled over before Red Eye’s desk. Victory had been so close, only to be stripped away.

The doors burst open and the large group of Slavers, griffons and alicorns rushed into the room, surrounding Crank and dropping their guns down to face the defeated earth pony. Even a large cybernetic dog bounded into the room and snarled down at Crank’s trembling and nearly unconscious bloody form. The same large black griffon I had seen in Chestnut’s memory swooped in and landed before Crank, one talon pressed down upon his chest and her large Anti-Machine Rifle swinging down to press against Crank’s forehead. The griffon’s talon quickly tightened around the trigger of the rifle.

“Wait for a moment Stern,” Red Eye’s smooth voice said calmly from behind his desk. His voice was quiet, not coming even close to as loud as the rest of the hubbub in the room, yet despite that everypony froze and took a small step back from Crank.

The large griffon I could now Identify as Stern glanced back at Red Eye, her head tilting to the side in that weird way that griffons do. “Are you sure?”

Red Eye simply nodded. Begrudgingly, Stern complied, removing herself and rifle from Crank. Red Eye took a few steps around his desk and approached Crank, though I noticed he didn’t leave the safety of his magical shield.

For a brief moment he loomed above Crank, his two different coloured eyes looking over every part of his being. Then, to my surprise, Red Eye knelt down to be at Crank’s level.

“Getting to me here was quite impressive,” Red Eye’s voice was low and even. He almost spoke in a whisper that I doubted anypony except Crank could hear. “Not just anypony can fight their way all the way through Fillydelphia, not to mention on already broken limbs.”

He was right, the longer I looked at Crank, the more I realized that his limbs weren’t just injured, they were broken in the same places I had seen Skull Crusher break them. He hadn’t gone to a doctor or waited to heal his wounds. He had come right to Fillydelphia in a desperate rush to get his mare back. From the dark bags under his eyes, I doubted he had slept at all either.

Crank slowly tilted his head up to look at Red Eye. His strength betrayed him and his head dropped back down to look at the floor. “Please…” Crank’s voice was weak and almost inaudible. A stark contrast of the powerful booming tone he had had only moments before. With hope had gone his strength and will. “I need to save her… Please…”

Crank moved forwards slightly and wrapped his fore hooves around Red Eye. whether it was a weak and pathetic attempt to make an attack or a desperate act of begging I couldn’t tell.

Every slaver in the room raised their guns as Crank touched their leader, but Red Eye waved them all off with a hoof, clearly not concerned about what Crank might do.

“Perhaps you will be happy to learn that Scarlet has signed up Stable duty at the mall. If she can survive the next two years, she will be granted freedom from Fillydelphia,” Red Eye soothed, not reacting to Crank’s desperate pleas.

“No! I-I need to get her out… She cant… I can't ...” Crank was in tears now. Hot streaks of tears were rolling down his face, cleaning away the ash and grim that had coated his hide.

Thoughtfully, Red Eye stood back up, Crank’s weak grip on him faltering and making the whimpering earth pony fall back to the ground. “Then perhaps we can make a deal. I have an associate that has been looking for a pony like you for quite some time,” Red Eye began, slowly walking back around his desk and taking a seat. “Perhaps if you would volunteer yourself to work for him in his little… how do I put this… Crusade… we can shorten your mares sentence quite dramatically.”

Crank looked back up to Red Eye, a new found hope glimmering in her tear filled eyes. “Yes… YES! If it will get her free. I-I’ll do it!”

Red Eye raised his hoof again, making Crank go silent. “Be warned, this will not be easy on you. My associate is less generous than I am. I cannot guarantee your safety there. Not for your body, and not for your mind.”

“But you can guarantee hers?” Crank asked, slowly pulling his damaged and beaten body from the floor to stand proudly before Red Eye and the rest of the Slavers. “You can keep her safe and get her out of Fillydelphia?”

Red Eye gave Crank a small, sympathetic smile. “I can, if this is truly the road you want to take. Again, let me remind you that you-”

“I’ll do it!” Crank insisted urgently, stomping his hoof on the ground with more determination than ever. He didn’t even wince as the hope was once again restored to his body. There was no sadness or fear in his eyes for his future or well-being, only the desire to do what he must for the one he loves. “For her, I’ll do it!”

My eyes fluttered open. The sudden brightness of the room blinded me temporarily as I tried to make out what was around me. As my eyes began to focus, I could make out the roof of the medical bay of Stable 44. I could recognize the dull, slightly rounded roof of a Stable anywhere.

My whole body felt sore and the places that I had been bitten by those strange ghouls still ached like hell. That said, much of the pain from before had subsided and I could feel that odd itchy feeling that lingered a few minutes after taking a healing potion. Some of the larger wounds I had received that were beyond the help of a simple healing potion had been wrapped up in now bloody bandages.

Upon hearing the soft sound of breathing, I turned my head to the side a little to look over at the shape of Xayah sleeping next to the medical bed. Her head and fore hooves resting on the lip of the bed while her bandaged back hooves lay curled up beneath her on the floor.

It was a small comfort to know she was still there. I needed comfort after everything I had seen in the ghastly depths of the Hollow Shades.

Not wanting to wake her, I lay still and silent for a few seconds, trying to make sense of the strange vision of Crank’s past I had once again witnessed. What the fuck was happening to me? Did it have some connection to something that had happened when I was inside of Crank’s head? If so, why was this happening to me and not Brisk? He had gone in there too.

I remembered being stuck between the glowing light of the mare I now knew to be Scarlet Dusk and the blazing blue light of Crank’s own mental canon blasts. Something had happened then. Crank’s whole life had flashed before me. Crank had seen it to, it’s what gave him the strength to fight back against whatever that strange monster had been.

Had I somehow gotten some of his memories transferred into me? The idea was terrifying. How often would I have these strange memories that didn’t belong to me? Would it only happen when I sleep? Or could I simply fall unconscious at any moment like the first vision seemed to suggest.

A horrifying idea crossed over me. What if I started having difficulty separating his memories from my own?!

“It’s okay Amber,” I said quietly to myself in a failed attempt to calm myself down. I didn’t even know if that was what had happened yet, it was only speculation at this point. Though deep down, I knew that I was right… at least to some extent.

Not being able to bear sitting still any longer, I slowly crawled out from under the covers, doing my best to not wake Xayah as I pulled myself up. I had only gotten one hoof onto the floor when-

I slipped and tumbled out of bed, smacking the bottom of my jaw on the cold floor of the medical bay with a small yelp.

Luna fucking damn me! Can I not get out of bed once without falling over! I mean seriously! Just once would be nice!

My yelp of surprise prompt jolted Xayah from her sleep. Her eyes widened as she saw me struggling on the floor as I tried to untangle my hooves from the dull blue blankets that had somehow tied themselves around me. She quickly rushed over and gently pulled me out from under the blankets.

“Amber, are you alright?” She asked, shocked by my sudden fall.

“I seem to get asked that a lot,” I grumbled, standing up proper and giving my bed the stink eye. One day, one day I will arise from my sleep trip free! I turned back to face Xayah, a small blush across my face. “How long was I out?”

“But a few hours or so,” Xayah said, the worry slowly draining from her face and her tone returning to that soothing and melodious rhythm that zebra’s seemed to have. She picked up a glass of water from the table beside us and gave it to me. “Here, you should drink. Return your strength.”

I took the glass in my magic and looked it over quietly. “I’m taking it that we successfully fixed the water issue then,” I said with a grin, levitating the glass to my lips and taking a quick sip. I don’t think I had ever drank something so refreshing. I tried to remember the last time I had drunk something so clean. Did that one bottle of wild pegasus I shared with Shade back in the Stable count.

My eyes narrowed at the once relieving and almost happy memory, now soured by the current events.

Xayah nodded and hopped up onto the bed, sitting with her hooves dangling off and her back straight up. It was a weird looking way to sit. “Yes, Purity was most pleased at our success,” Xayah said, almost gleefully, though there was a melancholy tone in her voice. “Though she was rather upset by the losses.”

“And everypony that did make it out? Are they all okay?” I asked, praying to the goddesses that they were.

Xayah gave another small nod. “Everypony from our party came out with only a few minor injuries. Nothing a healing potion can’t fix. I haven’t seen Toffee and her crew, though they seemed most fine when we got back.”

I gulped. “And Cherry and Granite?”

Xayah hesitated at that. “They will… um.. Cherry will make it for sure, though she is going to be out likely for the next few days. Granite is alive... but they do not know for how long. Perhaps they can save him, with the right luck.”

I gave a pensive nod. That was the best I could hope for at least. I slowly trotted forwards and hopped up onto the bed next to her, resting in a much more comfortable position than the one she had taken. “And yourself? How are you doing?”

“My wounds will heal,” Xayah said nervously, clearly understanding that it wasn’t talking about her injuries. “It will perhaps take me a while to not jump at shadows after what we saw down there, but I will recover.”

I rest my hoof over hers. “I’m not talking about your wounds. I saw what happened to you when I was in your mind. I- Well… I wanted to make sure you were okay. And I mean really okay,” I said softly, scooting a little closer to her. “You’ve somehow managed to stay stronger than any of us through this whole thing, but I know you’ve been through bad stuff, even before we met. This group of ours has been hiding enough of our own issues from one another for too long.”

I could feel her left hoof slightly trembling beneath my hoof. A terrible and constant reminder of what had happened to her in New Appleoosa. Glancing up, I could see her eyes wide and fearful, her pupils darting back and forth as they tried to figure out how to approach my question.

Slowly, she withdrew her hoof from mine and tucked it beneath her body as she leaned into me. “I will be fine. You do not need to fret about my well being.”

I knew that was a lie, but I simply didn’t know how else to respond. So instead of pushing her on the subject more, I wrapped my hooves around her and hugged her tight.

That was how Brisk found us a few minutes later as he marched in with a power armourless Pyre Blaze behind him. He raised his eyebrow at me as he looked the two of us over. I gave him a simple shrug before pulling myself away from Xayah and walking over to give him a big hug as well.

“What? I don’t get a hug?” Pyre smirked sarcastically, walking past me and sticking a packet of Party-time Mint-als that were lying on one of the tables into her saddlebag, clearly having no real interest in actually getting a hug. To her surprise, I reached out and pulled her into my hug as well, simply happy that they were both alive. To stunned to actual move away from my embrace, Pyre simply grumbled and awkwardly stood there, not rejecting the hug, but not quite returning it either.

As we pulled apart I looked between the three of them, noticing one very key pony that was missing. “Where’s Shade?” I asked, doing my best not to growl at the mere mention of the pony.

“Under the watch of Security,” Brisk replied quickly, stepping around me and sitting into one of the rather uncomfortable metal chairs in the corner of the room. “Don’t worry, we aren’t going to let her out of any ponies sight for a while.”

“And how were the negotiations going?” Xayah asked, looking over to Brisk as he closed his one remaining eye and tried to get a little bit of rest right there and then.

“They’re going boring!” Brisk complained in a whiny tone, not bothering to open up his eye. “They spent the first hour just talking about what qualifies as good scrap to bring in from the wasteland!”

“To answer your question, it’s going well. Stable 44 has decided to help fight off Red Eye’s forces,” Pyre said flatly. “We left shortly after they started doing a plan of attack. They said they’d debrief us when you were a wake,” She directed that last line at me.

It was good to hear that everything was coming together. All that was left to deal with was the battle with the slavers. After what we had just gone through below the surface, I had faith we could deal with a couple of armed ponies. I could feel a smug look crossing my face. An amused looking glare from Pyre made me suddenly want to rethink that thought.

“What?” I asked, meeting her stare.

“Feeling confident are you?” Pyre asked mockingly, taking a small step towards me and looking down at me. Damn it, why did she have to be so much bigger than me even without her armour.

“I-I mean… with everything that happened down there I figured that… well, I thought…” I stumbled with my words as I tried to figure out what to say. Gosh darn it Pyre, stop calling me out on stuff like that. “I mean we’ve fought Red Eye slavers before. We can do it again, right?”

“I seem to remember us running from Red Eye’s slaver a lot,” Brisk muttered, his eyes still closed. I shot him a grumpy look that he couldn’t see.

“This isn’t just a simply every day skirmish Amber,” Pyre Blaze grunted, her usually sarcastic tone dropping into something much more serious than I had ever seen on her. “This is a war. Two big groups battling it out. There’s strategy and intrigue involved now. Ponies die in war. It doesn’t matter who you are.”

At some point during her miniature speech I had started shaking. I quickly stopped myself. “I don’t think this is quite a war yet. I mean, it’s just one fight. Nothing on the scale of the great war or anything.”

Pyre Blaze scoffed. “You got that right, it's not anywhere near that big. But that don’t make it not a war. Bloodshed is coming, you can be assured of that.”

There was an awkward silence after that, none of us really knowing how to follow up the conversation. After a few minutes, a security pony came in and told us that Purity wanted to see all of us.

The security pony began leading us down the long hallways to what I could only imagine was the Overmare’s office. Having lived in a Stable my whole life and with the shocking similarities this one had to my own, I probably could have gotten there by myself, but I took the opportunity to ask the guard if they had heard any news on Cherry and Granites state. Unfortunately they hadn’t seemed to have heard anything.

As we walked down the halls, I saw ponies getting into Stable security barding and loading up as many assault rifles as they could. It still surprised me how much military weaponry this Stable had access to. I guessed that since this Stable had connections with the ministries more so than the others, they had gotten access to more stuff.

As we entered the Overmare’s office we found a group of twenty ponies crowding around the horseshoe shaped desk. Purity sat in her seat, looking over a map of the Hollow shades. Toffee, Boulder and Chestnut stood to her side, the initial rags we had met them in now replaced with dark blue combat armour bearing the Stable-Tec logo. The rest of the gathering consisted of Stable security and a couple of doctors and scientists.

Purity and Toffee looked up as the five of us walked in and gave us a quick nod each before returning their attention to the map.

As I got closer I could make out a bunch of bottle caps located across the map that I assumed indicated the location of different troops. Pyre had been right, they weren’t treating this like any other battle. This was something new.

“I want to be there in the front lines!” Chestnut spat, pointing to a small collection of caps positioned at the front gate. “I’m going to give those slaving bastards what’s coming to them!” Clearly the horrors of the deep had done little to diffuse her hatred of the slavers.

Toffee shook her head. “I assure ya, there’ll be plenty of slavers to kill in there, but we need ya in the extraction team. Those ponies in there need to see some familiar faces. They need t’ know they can trust us.”

“Then send Boulder!” Chestnut growled, her hoof shifting to point up at the large, quiet stallion with the mini gun and sledgehammer. “They’ll all recognize him!”

Again, Toffee shook her head. “We need ponies that can get the slaves out quietly and discreetly. And let's be honest here, regardless of his personality, Boulder’s fightin’ style ain’t exactly quiet or discrete,” she glanced up at Boulder to make sure she hadn’t offended him. He simply gave her a small nod of acknowledgement in return. “Besides, we’ll need him on the front lines. That’ll be where the main action is.”

Chestnut grumbled and crossed her hooves, but didn’t speak up again.

“I guess that puts me on the front lines to then,” Pyre said casually, her seriousness from our previous talk once again gone.

“If ya think you can carry those big flamers of yers without that fancy suit of power armour,” Toffee agreed.

“Ha! You think I need the power armour for those? I’ve been using those babies since I was a little filly!” Pyre grinned, bouncing up and down a little on her hooves.

I cast Pyre a quizzical glance. “Why won’t you have your armour?” I didn’t like the idea of her going into battle unprotected. I had seen Pyre rely on her armour to get her out of tight spots before, and if this coming fight was as bad as everypony seemed to thing, then I wanted her to to be at her prime.

“Got broken pretty bad by those ghouls in the caves. It’s getting repaired now, but it won’t be ready till after the battle,” Pyre shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t you go worrying ‘bout me cutie. This ain’t my first rodeo.”

I huffed. “I’m not cute…”

“Alright, so the plan is settled then,” Purity said, looking over the map with harsh skepticism. “Chestnut will lead a group of ponies into the Hollow Shade here and here,” She started, pointing to two locations on the map that had been marked with an X. “Once inside you will split into two groups. Chestnut will lead one to get the slaves out of there and to safety. Once outside we can supply the slaves with guns and armour if they wish to aid us in our fight while the rest get to shelter in the Stable. A medical team will be on standby outside for the surviving slaves when they get out. The second group will sneak to the main gate and open it up for the rest of us outside.”

“And how do we plan on getting these groups past the wall in the first place?” One of the security ponies I didn’t recognise asked, looking over the battle plan. “As far as I know there is no other entrance to the settlement.”

Purity glanced over at me, as if expecting me to answer the question. What was that look for? I didn’t know the plan yet? Finally, Purity sighed. “Amber, do you think you can get that Hellhound of yours to dig two tunnels into the settlement?” All the eyes at the table turned to face me.

“Oh uh… Yeah. I don’t see why not,” I responded quickly. The security pony nodded at that, clearly satisfied with the answer. Everypony turned back to address the plan.

“Once the slaves are clear and the door is open we’re going to launch a full fledged attack at the front gates. Toffee, Pyre and Boulder will lead the charge, backed by as many security ponies as we can spare. The previous infiltration team will re enter the Hollow Shade through the Hellhound tunnels and flank the slavers from behind. Meanwhile, a smaller group of ponies will launch an attack on the opposite side of the wall. I doubt that attack will be able to do little more than annoy the slavers, but if we can spread out their forces enough we might stand a shot at this.”

“And what do you want us to do?” I asked, looking back and forth between Brisk, Xayah and myself.

Purity looked us over thoughtfully for a moment. “Amber, We could use you in the extraction team with Chestnut. Brisk and Xayah, I’ll need you two to lead the team in opening the gates. That is if you three still think you can fight?”

I nodded eagerly. The Hollow Shades might have beaten us down, but we were far from out.

“Alright then,” Purity said grimly, returning her gaze to the map. “We are outnumbered, gunned and are going to have to fight our way through a chokepoint to get in, but I think we can do this. You’re all dismissed. Meet up at the Stable door in two hours,” She turned to face the few doctors that stood around the table with her. “You three stay with me, I want to go over your placement in all this. There is no room for error here.”

“Have you ever in an all out battle before?” Chestnut asked as she loaded three explosive shells into a newly acquired combat shotgun before throwing a few more into her saddle bag.

I shook my head. “I’ve been in fights before, but I don’t think they’ve been this big yet,” I pulled on one of the straps on my new combat armour as I tried to tighten it. No matter how much I tugged on it, the whole set of armour still seemed loose. All the reinforced plates seemed to dangle off of me as if I wear a little filly trying to wear something clearly made for a fully grown stallion. I probably could have stuck my whole hoof between my body and armour if I tried. “You?”

We were standing in the Stable’s armoury. Most of the gear had already been taken by ponies when the call to arms had first gone out. Xayah had been looking through it with me for a few minutes before picking up a silenced sniper rifle and joining Brisk outside. Now the boxy metal room felt almost empty as the two of us searched for equipment to fight with.

“Fights? Sure, probably same as you,” she grunted, tightening her own suit of armour up with ease. “I had to fight for my life when my husband and I escaped Filly. Hardest damn fight of my life,” She looked off at the wall longingly. “But that wasn’t a war. That was an escape. A desperate run for freedom against impossible odds. This is different.” She glanced at me trying to pull myself into my armour. “You want some help getting into that?” I nodded quickly. She walked over and started tightening all the different straps.

As she began pulling straps tighter, I flipped the channels on my pipbuck to the radio. It had been a long time since I had had a moment to simply sit and listen to DJ Pon3.

“-Loud and proud!” The Voice of the DJ said over the radio as I finally found the right channel. I must have just missed the beginning of the news. “Now you all might be wonderin’, how does the great and powerful DJ Pon3 know that I can hear him all the way out in Vanhoover or other less favorable places like Fillydelphia? It’s ‘cause of that wonderful Stable dweller, that's how! That crazy mare snuck into Filly, right under Red Eyes nose and back out again safe and sound. And now thanks t’ her, I’m broadcasting all across the wastes for all t’ hear, Yeehaw! Can’t stop the signal baby! Can’t stop the good fight! And now, some music,” Slowly, one of Sweetie Belle's songs began to play over the radio.

I caught Chestnut looking almost longingly at my pipbuck as the radio switched to music. All this talk about Fillydelphia must have been getting to her, “What was it like? Fillydelphia, I mean?” I asked, unsure if this was something I really should be asking.

Chestnut cast me a weary glance, telling me I was already treading on thin ice with this topic, but she didn’t seem to be as opposed to talking about it like I had expected. “Filly was like hell,” She started bluntly, adjusting the large shoulder piece that I had somehow put on backwards. “They say no pony escapes Filly. It's just an endless nightmare with no feasible escape.”

“But you escaped it, right? And the DJ just said that stable dweller got out,” I pointed out, hoping to brighten up the somber mood in the room.

Chestnut smile a little at that, though it seemed sad. “I don’t know if I really ever escaped. I still have nightmares about the things that happened in that place. All the pain I had to go through… the things they made me do…” Her eyes looked distant as she finished tightening the last strap. She stood back up and looked me over, making sure everything was in place. “I don’t think I’ll ever truly be free of it. There are some wounds that even time can't heal.”

“Well you’re out now, they cannot hurt you any more,” I stated flatly, still trying to lighten her mood just a little. “We’ll get them you know. Red Eye and all his slavers. We won’t let them keep doing what their doing. Somepony will stop him, I just know it.”

Chestnut simply looked pained by the comment. “They have my child in that place again Amber… I- Well... I think I’m going to be going back there sooner or later. You can’t escape Filly. Not forever,” She turned to go before stopping and looking back at me. “How old are you again?”

I was a little taken aback by the question. “I’m uh… twenty. Brisk and Xayah are too I think. We never really talked about it much. Why?”

“You just seem so-” Chestnut stopped and hesitated, quickly looking at the exit of the armoury as if questioning if she should just drop the train of thought altogether and get ready for the battle. “You just all seem so young,” She finally said, not daring to look me in the eye. “The wasteland is cruel. Ponies like you don’t deserve to be stuck in it like this.”

With that, she turned from me completely and sulked out of the room to join the gathering of ponies at the Stable door. I let her words sink into me a little bit before shaking them from my head and following her out. It didn’t matter if I deserved this or not, I was in it now, and there was no going back.

We spent hardly any time at the Stable door. Purity and Toffee said a few words before we broke into our designated groups and moved out towards the settlement of the Hollow Shades.

Upon my request, Shade accompanied me and Chestnut as we lead a group under the wall to rescue the slaves. She was half the reason I was in this mess right now and I’d be damned if I didn’t make her at least try to help fix it. To my surprise, Shade seemed fairly determined to help when she was told. Despite all my hatred and resentment towards my old friend at the moment, it was becoming very clear to me that she regretted what she had done. My caps were on her hoping she could make up what she had done to me somehow.

Chestnut, Brisk, Xayah and Shade all pulled up next to me behind a small jagged rock formation overlooking the Hollow Shades. A small group of ten security ponies crouched in anticipation a few feet behind us, five for each team. Several medics waited a few feet down the hill, awaiting for when we managed to get the slaves back out.

I pulled out a pair of binoculars Purity had given me and began to survey the area below us. Off to the right, I could see Pyre and Toffee organising a much larger group of armed ponies just out of view of the settlement gates. Surprisingly, I couldn’t see Boulder among them, considering his large size, but I knew he was down there somewhere. Even farther off in the distance I could see a small group of twenty or so ponies moving around to flank the slavers from behind when the battle broke out in full.

Shifting my gaze to the Hollow Shades itself I could see groups of slavers patrolling the walls. They were well organised, at no point leaving any area around the settlement undefended. Red Eye never left things to chance and always tried to stay a few steps ahead of everypony, that much I had learned from my strange vision of Crank’s past. Within the walls I could see even more slavers, probably upwards of one hundred or so. They were just going about their normal business at the moment, cooking meals, setting up tents. I did spot a few adding additional fortifications around the perimeter of the settlement.

beyond even that, I saw the dark monolith like tower of the Ministry of Arcane Science Building looming in the background. a radioactive green glow seemed to emanate from around it and seep into the already overcast sky. The tower stood as a silent observer of the hell that was to break loose in the valley below.

Brisk squatted down beside me, trying to make out what I was looking at with his one eye. “It’s crazy to think we’ve come all this way, huh.”

I looked down from the binoculars and over to him. “What do you mean?”

He gave a small roll of his eyes. “I mean it seems like only yesterday we were running from the Stable and into the great unknown. Getting in near death situations with small bands of raiders and ghouls or whatever,” He said, his eye still fixed on the scene down below. “Never woulda thought we’d be involved in a war or anything.”

I gave a small nervous chuckle. “Guess were some super awesome wasteland hero’s now or something,” I joked, before realizing I was only half joking. Wasn’t that a weird thought.

Brisk just grinned, seeming to like the idea more than I did. “I guess we are, huh. Bet that’s a bit of a confidence boost, eh. You’ve come a long way since the Stable.”

I gave him a small nudge with the side of my hoof. “You’re a little less annoying than you used to be yourself,” I gave him a grin, it was somewhat real.

Brisk’s face grew a little serious for a moment as he averted his gaze from the settlement below and looked over at me. “Amber, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Mh-hmm?”

He scratched the back of his head nervously and blushed slightly. “Well, I don’t know if this’ll be weird or whatever… After that whole crush thing you went through with me and all, but…” He hesitated, but he had my full attention now. “When you told me, I said it would be weird because after you saved me I started viewing you kinda like a little sister and stuff… and well I thought… uh… well...” He paused again, making sure he wasn’t doing something he would regret.

“Do… do you want to be siblings?” I asked, trying to fully understand what he was saying.

Brisk looked at me nervously for a moment before nodding. “I mean if you’d have me… it’s just- you know... After security killed my parents, I never really had someone I could consider a friend, let alone family. Then you just kinda popped into my life and well- I’d love if we could like… I don’t know. Be siblings or-or some shit,” He finally wrapped up lamely, realizing he was starting to ramble. "I don't know. maybe I'm just being dumb or some shit. Those caves were just kinda getting to my head and all."

"I don't think you're being dumb," I said, almost defensively. I looked at him for a moment, trying to judge if this was some kind of weird Brisk joke or if he was genuine. From the nervous and almost scared look in his eyes, I could tell he was being serious. I bit my lower lip for a second before I let my lips twist into a warm smile. “I'd like to be siblings too bro.”

I pulled him up close with a hoof and held him in a tight embrace. Not knowing what to say, he just accepted the hug with a growing blush. "Uh... Thank you sis."

“Brisk, we need you to go over the plans of getting to the gate,” One of the security ponies said, marching up and interrupting our little moment.

Brisk groaned and pulled himself up and away from me. “Fine fine. Just please let it be less boring than the first battle meeting we had,” He swiftly followed after the security pony. My eyes followed him a bit until my gaze landed upon Shade watching me from a few feet away. Our gaze locked for a moment before she looked away.

“Are we all ready?” Chestnut asked a few minutes later. Her whole body looked like it had gone tight with anticipation for the coming fight. Her eyes had taken to an eager and violent look.

I turned to look at my Hellhound waiting silently behind me before glancing over to my friends. “We’re ready. Let's do this.”

I had never seen a Hellhound burrow quite like this before. I had seen them rip apart the surface of the earth and had even seen them dig with an almost uncanny precision as I tried to open up the Stable door of Stable 44, but now as I stood behind my massive Hellhound and watched it dig, I saw just how fast they could be. Rock didn’t slow the hellhound down in the slightest. It dug and clawed its way through solid rock at a slow jogging speed as we descended down into the earth. After a few minutes of digging, I felt the large tunnel it was creating for us start to slowly arch and angle upwards as we began a slightly slower assent up towards what I could assume was behind the large wall.

We all huddled close as we slowly moved upwards. I was beginning to make out the muffled sound of hoofsteps and talking above us. We were under the slavers. From the way it sounded, I doubted we could have been any less than a foot below them.

I quickly waved for my Hellhound to stop. It obayed mechanically, a twang of guilt pasting through me as it did. I really needed to free this thing at some point, but it was just so useful.

Chestnut glanced back down the tunnel, trying to gauge exactly how far we had gone. She quietly counted for a few seconds before looking back at all of us. “This is it. We should be directly under the jail where they’re keeping the slaves,” She whispered in a hushed voice, making sure she wasn’t loud enough for us to get heards. “The Hellhound can let us in here, then take the rest of you to a location closer to the gate. Stay quiet and try not to draw attention to yourselves until all of the prisoners are clear.”

I nodded, pushing the side of my head up against the roof of the tunnel and listening to the voices on the other side.

“She’s fucking what!” The muffled voice of a slaver blurted out, the small layer of rock and dirt between us making it fairly difficult to make his words out. “Why the fucking hell is Stern coming all the way out to the Hollow Shades!”

“Beats me. To be honest, I don’t even know why Red Eye is so interested in this location,” A second slaver grunted. I could hear the muffled patter of his hooves as he paced back and forth. “I mean I know this place has been on his radar for a while, but it's out in the middle of nowhere Equestria and their ain’t all that many resources here anyhow. We lost some good ponies securing this spot.”

Before I could scoff at the idea of a slaver being a good pony, a third slaver spoke up. “The point is, Stern’s coming. I don’t know why, but it is crucial that we don’t fuck it up when she gets here. I’ve heard she’s pretty pissed off right now about that stable dwellers friends ransoming her to Red Eye.”

“Ransomed back to- Where the fuck did you hear that?” the first slaver that spoke said.

“Everyponies’ talkin’ about it,” The slaver responded, his voice rising slightly and making it a little easier to hear him. “I don’t think Red Eye want’s anyone to know, but words spreading pretty damn quickly 'bout it.”

I turned back to the ponies waiting patiently behind me in the tunnel. “There are three slavers up there,” I informed them as quietly as possible. I turned to face Xayah directly. “Do you think you can take them out quietly?”

Xayah gave a quick nod of confirmation before I signaled for my Hellhound to continue. In one fluid motion, the Hellhound burst from the ground, it’s massive paw tearing one of the slavers in half at the same time. A large cloud of dust, ash and rock billowed into the air around the Hellhound, obscuring the remaining slavers view. Before the other two slavers could make heads or tails out of what was going on and raise the alarm, Xayah lifted her newly acquired silenced sniper over the lip of the hole and fired two shots.

Both slavers fell dead, a bullet hole in the center of each of their foreheads. Save for the quick smashing sounds of my Hellhound ripping open the floor, we had taken out the slavers almost silently. And even then, my Hellhound had been shockingly quiet.

I could hear the slaves in the cells beside us whimpering as the Hellhound loomed over them.

The room was fairly small. Twelve or so cages lined two of the wall and a round, now toppled table lay in the middle. Dozens of scared and wounded ponies had been thrown into the cells or chained to the floor. Most of the cells were only made to fit a few ponies, making most of the prisoners need to squeeze together awkwardly as they tried to fit into the cramped space.

The slaves had all seen better days. Dressed in little more than chains and the occasional rag, they all looked tired and beaten. I could see bloody gash marks across many of their backs where the slavers bull whips has lashed against their hide. One mare in the corner of the room had a broken leg.

Chestnut quickly climbed from the hole and approached the cells, making sure all of the prisoners could see her clearly. She took in the state of the slaves, trying her best not to cry at the sight. She quickly turned back to Brisk and the five security ponies that had gathered around him. “Start getting to the gate. Stay low. We’ll join in on the attack when Toffee gives the signal,” She ordered quietly, quickly turning back to face the prisoners.

I hadn’t heard anything about a signal, but Brisk seemed to understand. He motioned for Xayah to join them as the Hellhound began digging another tunnel into the earth. Brisk cast me a quick glance before he moved further into the tunnel. “I’ll see you on the other side lil’ sis.”

Xayah cast us an odd lock at the remark and began to follow after him into the hole. She paused for a second as she passed me. “Make it out of this alive alright,” She said quietly, turning to look at me with the corners of her emerald green eyes.

“I’ll be fine. And you better come out of this okay too, got it?” I said quickly, trying my best to smile despite the dire circumstances.

Xayah nodded quickly, returning my smile. She hesitated for a second, before leaning in and giving me a small kiss on the cheek. Before she could see my reaction, she dropped into the hole after Brisk and began to move away into position.

I could feel my face heat up from my growing blush. That had been nice… still didn’t know how to take all of this crush stuff though.

“We are here to get you all out of here. Stay calm and keep quiet,” Chestnut informed the prisoners as she started looking around for a key. I found it first, picking it up off one of the fallen slavers and tossing it over to her. She caught it in her magic and quickly began unlocking cages.

“Everypony into the tunnel,” I ordered quietly, pointing down towards the hole as the panicked ponies began emerging from the cells. “There are doctors waiting on the other side with medical supplies.”

I saw a few security ponies help up the mare with the broken leg and start carrying her down the tunnel. Even Shade started tending to some of the more minor wounds and leading ponies towards the escape.

One of the ex-slaves nervously trotted up to Chestnut, her eyes wide and fearful. “Chestnut, did… did Salt Water make it out okay?” The mare asked, a small glimmer of hope in her near lifeless eyes.

Both Golden Chestnut and I visibly flinched at the question. Chestnut reached forwards and wrapped her hooves around the shaking mare. Her voice was low. “He was very brave Ruby. He was very brave.”

One by one, the security ponies and I helped to escort the slaves into the tunnel, gently helping them down the short drop into the hole. There were a few more ponies with broken limbs than we had initially thought that needed additional help getting down the Hellhound made passage.

“Where are all the foals?” Chestnut asked, looking around as some of the last few slaves started climbing through the hole. “Surely they weren’t all sent to Filly?”

“The slavers took them to the town hall,” One of the slaves said, pointing out the window to the largest building in the settlement. “They wanted to keep a close watch on them to ensure we didn’t try to run.”

Chestnut froze at the comment. The muscles in her neck clenched as she resisted the urge to not scream and blow our cover. “Fucking slaver cunts,” She rumbled, trying to contain some of her rage. She pointed over to the last security pony that was with us. “Get the rest of them to safety, and inform Brisk and Xayah to hold off on opening the gate as long as they can if you’re able. Amber, Shade, you two with me. We’re going to get those foals out of here.”

“Would it not be more practical to wait until after the battle once the slavers are gone? How do you hope to get a group of foals all the way from that building to the tunnel undetected?” The security pony argued, helping the final pony into the hole.

“Those slavers took the foals to keep the slaves from trying to escape. If we start a full out attack, they might take it as an escape attempt and kill the foals. We need to get them out of their before the attack begins,” Chestnut growled, stomping her hoof and turning to the door. Her eyes locked on the town hall on the other side of the settlement.

“Should we maybe get that useful Hellhound to dig its way there and get the foals out without needing to go into the open?” Shade suggested, speaking up for the first time since the caves. She glanced out the window and took in the slavers that stood between us and the foals. “That’s a lot of slavers we need to get through.”

I shook my head, the levity of the situation coming down upon me with full force. “This whole operation is counting on Brisk and Xayah getting the gate open. We can’t jeopardize that or we risk everything,” I could feel my body going cold as I realised what had to be done. “We’re on our own.”

The second the coast was clear, we slipped out of the prison and began creeping around the edges of the camp that the slavers had set up in the middle of the town. The sun was still high in the sky, washing out almost all of the shadows and making hiding spots near impossible to find. It felt like every few steps the three of us had to duck behind cover as slavers walked past. We were making slow progress.

I attempted to quicken my pace as I remembered the slavers might kill the foals if we didn’t get them out before the battle started. We were racing against our own side to save them. We had no way of knowing if news of out attempt to save the foals had reached Brisk and Xayah’s ears.

A formation of three griffons soared above us, keeping a birds eye view of the area and keeping a lookout for intruders and escaped slaves. I shivered as I thought I saw one of their eagle like eyes pass over me, but they simply continued on, unsuspecting of us for the moment.

As we drew closer to the town hall, Chestnut motioned for us to follow her around back as she spotted two slavers standing guard outside the doorway. “There is another entrance at the back. Hopefully it is less guarded.”

We began moving around the building. We were halfway around the building when we froze. The loud booming sound of a horn echoed over the town, causing most of the slavers to look up from what they were doing and direct their attention towards the gate. To my horror, I saw the huge gate creak, and then swing open!

No! Not yet! We weren’t ready!

But the slavers didn’t seem to be panicking. From my limited field of view I could make out the shapes of Slavers pulling the large gates upon.

The slavers were opening the gates themselves?

Our small army of ponies were not the ones standing on the other side like I had been expecting. Instead I could see the vile shapes of about a dozen raiders, each one better equipped than your average wasteland psycho. At the front of the group stood a blood soaked mare, grinning at all the slavers with a wide, unsettling grin.

The slavers backed away and let the crazed group of raiders in, flinching whenever the deranged looking mare got too close to them. To my horror they seemed to be walking towards the town hall. Towards us!

“We need to move. Now,” I urged, pushing Chestnut along as she stared off at the new raiders. Both her and Shade quickly agreed and began scurrying along the side of the building.

Chestnut pulled up beside a small door on the back of the building. To my relief, there didn’t appear to be any guards. Pulling out a key, Chestnut quickly unlocked the door and ushered us inside. As we piled in, she slipped the key back into her pocket. “Toffee gave me that key ages ago, never thought I’d actually need it,” She grumbled, more to herself than Shade or I.

The sound of hoofsteps drew our attention to the stairway to the second floor. We could see the shadows of a particularly large looking slaver slowly marching his way down the steps, every second step stalling slightly as the large slaver limped forwards.

Chestnut froze, her eyes wide. She recognized that rhythm of that walk, I could tell she did.

“Hide,” Shade hissed, pulling the two of us back. We stumbled backwards, doing our best to hide behind a large, dirty looking sofa as the slaver entered the room.

The slaver was huge. Perhaps not as big as Crank or Boulder, but he definitely would have towered over Pyre or even Skull Crusher if he were still alive. Like many of Red Eye’s slavers, he was dressed in a full suit of heavy combat armour, his painted a dark black with the crimson insignia of Red Eye engraved onto the front. His coat was a dirty grey and he seemed to emit a foul musk.

“What the fuck is happening out there!” The slaver roared, his heavy limping step thudding onto the floor from the stairs. I could see Chestnut tremble more as his booming words reached her ears. “Somepony answer me! NOW!”

“Raiders, sir,” A slaver that I had not heard enter said, his voice sounding almost as scared of the massive slaver as Chestnut was. “But they aren’t here to fight us… they… they want to make an alliance.”

I gulped. Shit! We didn’t need more ponies to fight, we were outnumbered enough here as it is. Shade and I exchanged a worried look, our frightening situation allowing me to put aside me resentment towards her for the moment.

The huge slave master stood in stunned silence for a moment before chuckling to himself. “Good, we could use the help dealing with those ponies and their foolish rebellion attempt.”

My blood ran cold. They knew. The battle hadn’t even started yet and they were a step ahead of us. I should have known this would happen with somepony like Red Eye calling the shots. I glanced back at the door, wondering if I would be able to sneak back out and warn everypony before this turned into a massacre. But the huge slaver was blocking my path and if we left now, we would be leaving the foals at the mercy of slavers.

And now raiders as well, I added to myself grimly.

There was a loud, yet playful sounding knock at the door. Before either of the slavers could move to open the door, it swung open, a sharpened and gnawed on looking bone jammed into the lock. A crude and literal skeleton key. Standing on the other side of the door stood the psychotic looking unicorn raider mare.

Now up close I was able to make out her features. She had an oddly beautiful cream coloured coat with a light pink mane that slowly fade to a light blue around the tips. Her dazzling blue eyes had a scarily alert yet insane look to them as they scanned over the room as if inspecting every inch of it. Like most raiders, her body was covered in long crisscrossing silver scars and her hooves had been tied to deadly sharp bone blades. I recognized the blades immediately as Hellhound claws.

Her very presence seemed to fill the room with a stilted uncertainty. Even the huge slave master took a step back at her sudden intrusion.

Not bothering to wait for either of the slaver to invite her in, the mare waltz into the room, wiggling her rump in the air slightly as she moved and dancing to a song than none of the rest of us could hear. Her Hellhound claws scraped across the floor every few seconds, making me want to cover my ears and beg for the noise to go away.

Leaping into the air, the raider mare flopped onto the couch across from us and struck a seductive pose that would make any mare or stallion that wasn’t currently fearing for their life swoon. She raised one of her hind legs up into the air and began to lick her coat, as if she were a cat trying to groom herself.

The huge slaver cleared his throat and took a small step forwards. “Excuse me, may we help you?” Even while nervous, his loud and commanding voice sent shivers down my spine. I could see Chestnut cowering behind me more with every word.

Not bothering to lower her leg, the raider lazily glanced over at him, her tongue still dangling from her mouth. “Well duh. You think I came all the way here from Las Fucking Pegasus just for kicks?” So these were Las Pegasus raiders. shit. Her voice reflected exactly how she looked. That being completely insane and strangely seductive. “Me and the boys want to make a deal. You interested.”

The slaver simply grunted, not daring to let his gaze drift away from the raider as she went back to licking herself. “Very. what is this deal of yours?”

The raider gave him a warm smile. “As I’m sure you are aware, there is a group of ponies waiting just outside your walls. Me and my boys can help defend your little outpost from them,” She finally lowered her leg and sprawled across the couch lazily. “They have a pretty solid plan at the moment, and a lot of guns. As it stands, they have a pretty good shot at winning this fight.”

The slaver kept looking her over as if trying to make sure she wasn’t secretly a bomb about to explode at any moment. “I know you raider type. What do you want in return?”

The mares grin widened, showing off a set of sharpened white fangs. “A few things. Mostly the life of one of the ponies helping them. There’s a traitor from our gang named Pyre Blaze. I want her dead after what she did to Skull Crusher!” her grizzly smile morphed into a snarl and his hoof claw flew out, slashing at the couch she lay on and ripped it in two. Unsatisfied with the result she continued slashing at the couch, ripping out chunk after chunk of fluff. “Skull Crusher might have been dense, but he was good at givin’ a hard fucking when I told him to. Really knew how to make lady feel special, you know?”

This was bad. Really, really bad. I had to find a way to warn Pyre. I mentally threw that onto the list of things I had to do before this fight.

As she ripped more and more into the couch, the two slavers stepped back, afraid to get caught in her wrath. After a few seconds the large slaver cleared his throat again. “I’m sure that can be arranged. What are your other demands?”

The raider whipped around and gave the slavers and innocent smile, all traces of anger and violence had disappeared from her face. “We want free slaves. Now don’t get me wrong, the winged rats up in Las Pegasus are fine and do their job well, but Jinx says I can't fuck a single one of them! Apparently they’re under her protection or some shit! Do you know how hard it is to not fuck those flying cunts? I sure do! And I really really want to fuck some cunts!” She began waltzing around the room again, doing her weird butt wiggle dance walk. “So I want some personal slaves, free of charge! Us raiders ain’t huge fans of paying for things, don’t you know,” She bat her eyes at the slaver. She might have looked cute had her face not been matted with blood.

“Absolutely not!” The large slaver bellowed, his hoof stomping down hard on the floor and almost making me squeal with surprise as the shockwave made me bump slightly into the air. “Red Eye would never allow it. Everypony must play their part in uni-”

The slave was stopped abruptly as the mare flew into him, her hind hooves wrapped around the front of his face and her two front hooves pressed tight against his throat as she dangled from his head upside down. From behind the couch, I could see her Hellhound claws digging a little into his flesh, just going deep enough to draw a little bit of blood. “I might have called this a deal, but I have no intention of negotiating,” She snarled, her eyes narrowing as her hoof claws tightened around his throat. “You will give us what I want or I swear I will rip off your dick and face fuck you with it so hard that you-” She froze, her eyes drifting around the room. “Do you smell that?”

The large slaver was actually shaking as he slowly shook his head. “No, I don-”

“It is!” The raider yelled gleefully, hopping off of him and taking a deep sniff of the air. “I smell fear!” She held the vowels in the word fear for a few seconds longer than she should have. “There are some little ponies in here that don’t belong!” She sang out in a singsong voice as she started slowly stalking around the room, her hoof claws tossing aside every piece of furniture that could be used to hide behind, and even some that couldn’t. “Come out, come out wherever you are my little ponies! I'll only fuck you a little bit!”

Shade and Chestnut began trembling beside me as the crazed raider sang out. Had I not been so frozen with fear I probably would have been shaking too. I could hear her getting closer, each step followed by a crash as she threw aside a new piece of furniture.

I could hear the sound of the mare licking her lips as she approached the couch, her large hoof claws causing ear piercing scraping noises to ring out with each step as she dragged them across the floor. “I’m gonna find you! Yes I am! Yes I am!” She called out playfully, her voice in a childish and almost mocking tone.

Snapping out of the fear that had grasped me, I pulled out Boneless and readied myself. Both Chestnut and Shade quickly followed suit with their own weapons.

The raider was practically standing over top of the couch now. I could feel her hot breath as she began clawing at the ground. I heard her sniff a couple times in our direction. “Oh? What have we here?”

The door to the town hall burst open again, drawing the attention of both the slavers and the insane raider. A smaller slaver walked in, clad in little more than some light leather barding. He was riddled with gunshot wounds and was bleeding all over the floor. “Sir, we’re under attack! The wall has already been breached, they’re attacking us from all sides!” with that, he dropped to the floor, dead.

Looks like our time was up. Brisk and Xayah had opened the gate.

The large slave scowled. “Alright raider. You have a deal. You and your raiders kill these ponies, you get some slaves. Seems like a fair trade to me.”

The raider mare squealed with delight, completely forgetting about looking for us and bounded over to the large slaver, wrapping him up in a bag hug. The large slaver stiffened at the contact. “Oh I knew you were reasonable you big cute. Just remember, Pyre Blaze is mine!” She didn’t sound at all angry anymore, simply like a little filly on hearts warming eve. She clapped her hooves together happily. “Oh I’m going to fuck that bitch so fucking hard! Look out Pyre, I'ma comin’!” And with that she bounded out of the door.

I was starting to be able to hear the sounds of gunfire echoing in from outside. The sounds of screaming laced with the occasional explosion was slowly becoming overpowering, even from this distance.

The large slaver turned back to look at the only other slaver in the room. “They are no doubt here to free the slaves. I won't allow this,” He paused, glancing out the door at the firefight I couldn’t see yet. “Red Eye is going to hate this…” He took a deep breath, before a look of grim determination crossed over him. “Kill the foals.” Not waiting for the smaller slaver to acknowledge his demand, the large brute of a slaver marched from the building, a large shotgun raised in his mouth.

My mouth dropped. He was willing to murder the foals… Just to spite us! How dare he!

Clearly, Chestnut had very much the same reaction. She leapt over the couch and rammed her shotgun into the remaining slavers face. The slaver fell back, clutching his broken muzzle with a hoof. Chestnuts levitated her combat shotgun over his head and fired, bursting his head open like a gore filled balloon.

“Come on, we don’t have much time!” Chestnut shouted as she started racing up the stairs. Shade and I leapt from behind our cover and started racing after her as fast as we could. Already I could hear a few slavers on the top floor racing down to see what the shots were.

“How the fuck did they get in already!” I heard a slaver shout as they raced down the steps and rounded the corner to meet us. Boneless was up and firing before he managed to get a shot in. One of his legs were blown out from under him, making him topple down the stairs and lie in a bloody heap.

Two more slavers came bounding around the corner, hunting rifles raised in their magical grip. We dove to the side as they opened fire upon our position, blowing holes in the walls and ripping up the dirty carpet that covered the floor. I pushed Shade behind a wall as she was almost blasted apart by the lethal fire.

Chestnut dove from cover, her combat shotgun firing off six rounds of buckshot before she had to jump back behind cover and quickly reload her shotgun.

I could hear three more slavers start rushing down the stairs towards us, the loud cracks of their rifles joining the orchestra that bombarded us with fire. There was a small click from somewhere above me followed by the sound of something small bouncing down the stairs towards us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a grenade roll to a stop by our hooves.

My eyes shot wide with alarm. “Grenade!” I screamed, pushing Shade out of cover with me and back down the steps. I saw Chestnut dive after us, followed a second later by the ear ringing boom of the grenade going off. Chunks of shrapnel flew over us, a few cutting into my coat and ripping hole in my Stable barding.

Through the smoke, I saw the five slavers advancing, rifles drawn and ready to shoot at anything that moved.

Reaching out with my magic I unlatched the magazine on one of the slavers guns, making it drop to the floor with a loud clatter. The slaver looked down, realising his predicament. “What the fuck!”

The group of slavers surprise and hold of fire was long enough for us to turn the tables. Chestnut and I both fired up with our shotguns, each one of us blowing the heads off of two slavers. Their bodies fell limp onto the stairs, making the others slavers stumble as they tried to reorganize themselves.

I moved back behind the corner of the wall, quickly reloading three shells into Boneless. One of the slavers spotted me and rushed forwards, swinging his rifle around the corner to get at me.

Bang!

The slaver dropped dead, a well aimed shot from Shades gun tearing out his neck. The precision suggested she had used SATS to line up her shot. I glanced over at her, taking in her mortified, wide eyed expression.

“I just killed somepony,” She uttered softly, a small tear rolling down her dark, lavender cheek. “Goddesses, I just kill somepony.”

The last slaver looked at his fallen comrades, before looking up at the three of us slowly closing in on him. Wisely, he turned tail and started bolting back up the stairs as fast as he could. He didn’t get far before Chestnut’s shotgun blasted out his back two legs, sending him flopping to the ground and smacking his head on the stairs. Upon impact, he went very still.

Without a word, we raced up the rest of the stairs. At the top, several fillies and colts huddled up together in a large cage in the corner of the room. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be hurt. A slaver that had remained behind to stand guard over the foals fired at us as we made it onto the floor, already awaiting our arrival.

The three of us scattered. A trail of bullets pounded into the wall behind me as the slaver chased after me with his fire. The foals screamed and tried to push themselves away from the booming sound of the gunfire.

I swung my baton out with my magic, knocking the slavers gun away and sending it spinning across the floor. He dove away as Chestnut shot at him with her shotgun, the buckshot missing completely and instead blasting a hole into the wall and out into the raging battle beyond.

The slaver rushed for his gun, knocking Shade aside as she tried to jump into his path. His mouth clamped around the grip of the gun and swung it up just in time to see my baton as it once again rammed into him, this time sending him flying across the room and crashing into a wall.

Chestnut’s combat shotgun roared as he tried to pull himself back to his hooves, pulping his head and making his now bloody body slump over. She quickly turned back to the foals in the cage and knelt down to their level.

“Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay. We’ll get you out of here,” She turned back to look at us. “Shade, come with me!” She looked at me directly. “We’ll hold down this position and give you time! You get to picking the lock on that cage!”

I flushed at that. “Might be a bad time to mention this, but I can’t pick locks.”

Chestnut just gave me a flat stare before eyeing my cutie mark. “You’re telling me that you don’t have a lockpicking cutie mark?”

I felt my blush growing. “NO! Why does everybody think that! Does no pony know what screwdrivers are actually for? And surely ponies sometimes pick locks with a screwdriver that isn’t red!”

Chestnut groaned and walked over to the cage. “Fine! You two hold the position, I’ll see what I can do,” she bent down and started working away at the lock. Her hooves were shaking a little and I could tell she didn’t have nearly as much skill with lock lockpicking as Brisk did.

I gestured for Shade to follow me as I went to go stand at the top of the stairs. If the slavers tried to break in, this would work as a good choke point. Without hesitation, Shade scrambled forwards and stood next to me, her weapon drawn as we awaited any unwanted guests.

I could hear the sounds of battle picking up outside. Gunfire mixed with pained howls and panicked screams. Somewhere off in the distance I could hear a loud booming noise as some sort of heavy artillery gun fired at charging ponies, mowing them down on the spot. Soon, the wild whoops of raiders began drowning out even the sound of gunfire as they surged in for the kill. I prayed Pyre Blaze was going to be okay with that psycho out to get her.

After a few seconds of listening to the battle, I began to make out the sound of Shade trying to catch my attention. The fighting below was simply so loud I hadn’t been able to hear her from right beside me.

“What!” I snapped at her, not bothering myself enough to look her direction. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to her at the moment.

Shade gulped, taking a small step away from me. “I just wanted to say I truly am sorry. For what I did. I don’t know what I could ever do to earn you trust again bu-”

“You already tried apologizing,” I growled, swinging my head around to face her at last. “Saying sorry isn’t going to get you off the hook for what you did! I saw you look all shocked that you killed that slaver back there, but the truth is Shade, you’ve killed a lot more than just him!”

“Amber, I’m trying to-”

I snorted and stomped my hoof. “I don’t give a damn! Stable 25 is on you Shade! I trusted you! You- we were friends! And you fucked it up! Now you need to live with it!” I could see Chestnut cast me a worried glance as she heard me yelling over the gunfire. I lowered my voice and turned away. “You can’t fix what you have done.”

Shade was silent for a moment, simply staring at me with sad old eyes that betrayed her age. At last she too looked away and down the stairs to the floor below. “I know I can’t fix it… I just… Maybe I can do a little good before this is all done and through.”

I heard a loud smash from down below followed by the sounds of angry shouts as a group of slavers burst through the door. I could hear their surprised yells as they found the bloody corpses of the slavers we had killed. “Shit! Mother Fucker! There already in here!” A slaver yelled. I heard them all start running for the stairs as a unit.

“You want to do some good? Then help end this,” I grunted, readying Boneless for the incoming slavers. Shade gave me a small nod and readied her own gun, a 10mm pistol with the Stable-Tec logo engraved on it.

The first group of slavers turned the corner. We fired upon them, sending them into hysterics as the ones leading the charge were blown apart by Boneless’ explosive fire.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Reload.

Another round of slavers began rushing forwards, their assault rifles firing as they tried to fight their way through the chokepoint.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Reload.

They were beginning to put a pattern to my attacks, leaping out from behind the cover we had initially used whenever I would reload. Shade’s pistol cracked off a few shots, most missing their target, but two finding their home in a slavers legs as they rushed towards us. The slaver fell, collapsing in front of two other slaver that were trying to rush up the steps and making them stumble.

A few shots whizzed past me, causing me to duck back and fire blindly from behind my cover. I heard a slaver yell in pain as the buckshot blew into him, but I didn’t know if he died or not. More shots pinged off the walls around me, spraying me with rock, dust and plaster.

Shade screamed as a bullet tore through her forehoof. She tumbled backwards and fell, clutching her bleeding hoof.

“Damn it,” I grunted, swinging out my baton and bashing a slaver that had reached the top of the stairs across the head. They stumbled back, their head crumpled in from the heavy blow. “Chestnut, how’s the lock going!” I shouted at her frantically, taking another blind shot down the stairs.

“Give me a few more seconds!” She cried out, her concentration entirely directed towards getting the lock to the cage open. “I haven’t needed to do this since Filly!”

More shots lanced out at me, making me duck back as I tried to aim up a shot. To my surprise, Shade had pulled herself up through the pain and was making potshots down at the slavers below us. A second shot rang out, tearing through Shade’s already injured hoof. Again she collapsed to the ground with a scream, this time unable to pull herself back up proper.

Two slavers made it to the top of the stairs, their guns firing at the first pony they could find. A shot blasted out Chestnuts back leg, sending her falling away from the cage. Foals cried out as they watched her fall, reaching out as if hoping that by grabbing onto her, they could save themselves.

Chestnut growled in pain and spun her shotgun around to face the slaver that shot her. Four rounds went straight into his face, reducing his head to little more than a bloody blob.

The second slaver spun around to face me, his rifle firing a round straight into my chest. The heavy impact of the blow knocked me from my hooves and sent me falling backwards, the heavy plating of the combat armour Chestnut had helped me into being the only thing that kept the bullet from penetrating my heart.

Shade fired two shots from her pistol at the slaver, one of the two embedding itself in his side. Howling with pain, the slaver reared up and bucked shade across the face. Shade’s head was slammed into the ground from the impact.

Boneless fired again, ripping the coat and flesh off of the slavers torso and sending him limp to the ground.

Trying my best to ignore the pain, I pushed myself back to my hooves and took a defensive position at the top of the stairs again, facing off against the twelve slavers still on their way up. Behind me, I spotted Chestnut pull herself over to the cage and continue trying to pick the lock open, but her hooves were now shakier than ever before.

I could see five more slavers rush around the corner and make a mad rush up the stairs towards me. There were just too many! We couldn’t hold them all off!

Blam!

A bullet ripped into my fetlock. I yelled as the throbbing, burning pain raced up my body. I fired two more shots into the slavers below, only managing to stagger one before I once again ducked behind cover and collapsed, trying to reloaded my weapon with trembling hooves.

There was a click and I saw Chestnut swing the cage door open. The foals rushed from the cage and cowered behind any cover that they could, their hooves raised above their heads defensively as they whimpered. “They’re out!” Chestnut shouted, pulling herself up and quickly limping over to me to hide behind the cover, her combat shotgun out and ready to fire. “We need to get them out of here!”

Thanks for stating the obvious.

I heard Shade fire off three more shots from where she lay on the ground before her gun ran empty. I heard her curse and roll behind the wall, still unable to pull herself to a standing position with her wounded leg.

“Everypony down!” I heard one of the slavers shout. I peaked around the edge of my cover to see what he had been yelling about. What I saw made me stop dead in my tracks.

At the bottom of the stairs sat a massive artillery machine gun that the slavers had wheeled into the building. A slaver stood behind it, aiming it up the hallway at us.

Well fuck me! I quickly ducked back behind my cover. "Get down!"

The massive gun fired. My eardrums exploded as the rapidfire gunshots blared through the building. Massive hoof sized bullets whirred past me and tore open everything they came in contact with. The walls, the furantre, the roof. Bullets ricochet around us, threatening to slash open our throats and burst open out heads. A massive hole was ripped open in the sky as the artillery gun roared, giving us a clear view of the dark cloud filled sky. Even the dim glow of the sun couldn’t seem to seep through the thick layer of black smoke that had consumed the air around the Hollow Shades.

“The roof! Get them to the roof!” Chestnut yelled, levitating her combat shotgun around the corner the second the huge gun ceased firing and firing off a few shots herself.

I turned to the foals and began helping them each up to the roof. I wrapped a field of telekinesis around as many of them as I could and began trying to lift them up and out onto the crumbling ceiling. I screamed from the effort it required to levitate them up. I saw a few bullets from the battle outside fly over the rooftops from the large hole the slavers artillery had made.

“Keep your heads low!” I ordered as the first foals began scrambling onto the roof. A few foals gave a horrified squeak of acknowledgement as they wriggled themselves up onto the somewhat sturdy roof of the building. I saw a filly duck as a bullet flew past their head.

“The roof! They’re going to the roof! Cut them off!” I slaver started yelling. Seconds later, Chestnut’s combat shotgun silenced them. But the word had already gotten out. Slavers were beginning to break off from the main group and head in a different direction.

Chestnut’s yell of alarm and the spinning of the large artillery was all the warning that I got. “Move aside! Move aside now!” I yelled frantically to the foals as I myself took cover behind the wall. The foals scattered as the heavy artillery once again open fired.

I heard a colt scream as he was torn apart by the extensive explosive fire. The loud booming of the gun and massive wave of air drowning out my screams and forcing my eyes to go painfully dry as I watched the colt fall, his body now a broken and bloody mess.

Damn them!

The slavers that hadn’t broken off were pushing forwards, using the large guns devastating fire to keep us at bay while they advanced. I could hear them firing off shots, a few of the rounds coming dangerously close to many of the foals.

Chestnut jumped forwards, taking the bullet for one of the foals as a slaver fired upon them. She fell back onto the crying foal, a large gun wound in her side.

Gritting my teeth I lifted the last few foals onto the roof. As soon as the last one scrambled up, my magic popped and I staggered backwards, exhaustion quickly overtaking me. Chestnut pushed herself up and helped haul me to my hooves. “Come on Amber, we aren’t out of this yet!”

Adrenaline racing through me, I rushed over and threw an almost unconscious Shade over my back. She was loosing a lot of blood. We were all loosing a lot of blood actually. I could feel my head grow lighter every second as the blood poured from my body.

Shade wasn’t very heavy, but I wasn’t a very strong pony. I struggled to maintain my balance with the new weight on my back and began trying to climb my way to the roof. Bullets slapped into the rubble around me as I darted upwards and latched my hoof around the edge of the hole. Four fillies quickly rushed to my aid and helped pull me up with them.

Now outside and on the roof, I had a clear view of the massive battle raging all around us. Hundreds of ponies charged and fired at each other while other lashed and cut with knives and blades. Fires raged around the darkening landscape, filling the air with a dark black and red smoke. Ponies were dying left and right, some dropping on the spot as a stray bullet blew out their brains while others lay screaming on the ground with broken limbs before someone finally put them out of their misery.

The artillery in the town hall wasn’t the only one either. Slavers wheeled large guns around and placed them at the end of long rows of buildings to prevent ponies from making a charge.

Off in the distance I could see large jets of fire spewing over large groups of Slavers as Pyre, Toffee and Boulder let a large group of ponies in a direct attack against the slavers.

It was chaos. That was the only word to properly describe it. I felt myself shaking more as I stared down at the endless bloodshed. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason, simply a desperate attempt to kill as many ponies as you could.

Chestnut began racing across the room towards the hole. As she neared she jumped into the air, her hoof extending for the lip of the roof. Another bullet shot through her hind leg. She fell short, collapsing to the ground with a scream of pain.

“NO!” I scream, dropping Shade onto the roof and jumping back down to the floor below. Slavers shot at me as I wrapped my trembling hooves around Chestnut’s waist and began hauling her up the rubble. I felt her helping to crawl forwards on her aching limbs as we slowly made our way back up to the roof.

As soon as we had reached the roof I rolled off of her and tried to catch my breath. It was all to much.

“There they are! Get them!” A slaver yelled. A hatch farther down the roof slammed open as four slavers began pulling themselves up onto the roof with us. Still in a battle, no time to rest.

Feeling too weak to use my magic, I raised Boneless into the air with my mouth and fired. The shot ripped apart a slavers foreleg, sending him falling off of the roof and tumbling down where he hit the ground with a solid thunk.

“Next roof! Go! Go!” Chestnut urged, finally pulling herself up completely and ushering the foals towards a nearby roof they could jump to. I was amazed she still found the strength to stand after all of her injuries.

The foals began rushing towards the edge of the roof, leaping off at the last moment and landing heavily on the lower roof opposite them.

Following in Chestnut’s example, I pulled myself up and slung Shade over my back. I fired another shot at the slavers clamoring towards us. The targeted slaver jumped aside, avoiding the shot, but it gave Chestnut and I enough time retreat backwards and hop to the next roof as well.

The slavers baulked and started firing after us, their shots ripping holes in the adjacent buildings roof and shattering two hundred year old shingles.

“Keep going! Don’t stop!” Chestnut instructed, rushing the foals along the roof and onto the next. Slavers from down below were beginning to look up at the commotion and spot us, turning their weapons skywards and peppering us with fire.

I skidded across the roof as I tried to avoid a bullet, only to find myself slipping down the sharp incline, Shade's added weight dragging me down faster. My hooves clawed at the roof desperately as I felt myself start sliding down and losing my hoofing. Finally I managed to snag my hoof on a broken chunk of the roof and steady myself before rushing back across the roof after Chestnut and the foals. I could hear Shade trying to mumble something from my back, but either due to the blaring noises of the gunfight, or that she was simply too weak to speak coherently, I was unable to make out any of it.

Ponies on our side of the fight we starting to spot us as well, shifting their efforts to keeping the slavers off of us as we made a mad rush for the town prison. The gunfire around us lessened, but it didn’t let up entirely.

As I jumped the gap of a building after the foals I made out the shape prison. It seemed untouched so far compared to the wreck the battle had left most buildings in. It didn’t look like the battle had managed to make it there yet.

We were going to make it!

The roof behind us was blown apart as a slaver with a rocket launcher began firing up at us. I was almost knocked off my hooves at the roof started to collapse below me.

“Run!” I screamed, thrashing my back hooves and rushing forwards with a small burst of fear induced speed. As if telling them to run was going to make them run faster.

A second rocket slammed into the roof between me and the foals, separating me from the group. Chestnut turned back, holding out her hooves as if suggesting she’d catch me if I jumped. I waved her off. “Keep going! Get the foals to safety!”

Regardless of if she heard me over the battle, she seemed to understand what I was saying. I saw her yell something to me that I didn’t catch before darting after the foals to the prison. I hoped they could get into the Hellhound tunnel and out of the settlement safely. I glanced back at the limp form of Shade and my own bleeding body. Hell, I hoped I could get there safely, neither of us were in any condition to fight as we are now. We needed healing pronto.

The slaver with the rocket launcher fell to a bullet between the eyes, pulling the trigger of his huge weapon in his last seconds. A rocket flashed out towards us. I dropped through the broken hole in the roof from his previous attack and rolled over Shade to protect her with my body as the rocket detonated above our heads, sending debris raining down upon us. A large chunk of wood crashed down onto the back of my head, threatening to throw me into unconsciousness.

I pushed the debris aside and pulled myself to my unsteady hooves. With a groan of pain, I once again slung Shade over my back and pushed my way through the collapsing building. Each step sent a new wave of agonizing pain shooting through me.

Finally, I managed to stumble to the door and out into the street. A group of slavers rounded the corner of the street, yelling frantically and firing behind them as they rushed in my direction. One of the slavers spotted us, his gun spinning around to face me.

I yelped and started running towards the prison as fast as I could, which in my state wasn’t very fast. A felt the rapid whooshing of air as bullets flew past me as the slavers gave pursuit. Up ahead another group of slavers came running around the corner, guns raised and aimed at the two of us.

“Oh come on! Give me a break!” I screamed in frustration, dashing forwards and trying to make it to the prison before the slavers in front of me blocked it off. “Can I just have one thing go my way for once! JUST ONE!”

Something went my way. From behind the slavers emerged a large group of security ponies, their assault rifles cracking down on the slavers moving in to block my path. The slavers turned returning fire upon the greater threat as the security ponies gave me the opening I needed to escape. Slavers and Security ponies were dying everywhere, each second leading to a new pony to drop dead to the ground. It was all to much. Just to much...

I never saw who won that skirmish as I darted into the prison with Shade still limply draped over my back. As I bolted in, I saw Chestnut directing the last foal into the hole that led to the Hellhound tunnel below.

Chestnut looked up as I burst in her eyes going wide as she spotted something behind me. “Amber, down!” I dropped as her combat shotgun flew out, blasting the head off a slaver that had chased me in. She quickly gestured for me to get into the hole. “Come on!”

I rushed past her and dove into the hole, landing harshly on the rough rock tunnel floor. Picking myself up with a great deal of effort, I began my slow descent down the tunnel. I could sense Chestnut limping a few inches behind me, but my world was spinning so much I was having trouble staying awake.

“A-Amber,” I heard Shades weak voice stutter from atop my back. Her voice was frail and shaky. “W-Why?”

It took me a few seconds to clear my head enough to properly answer, or even fully comprehend the simple question. Why was I saving her after everything? everything would probably be easier for me if I had just left her to the mercy of the slavers back there. “Because you’re trying,” I finally grunted, almost falling over as the effort of talking almost made me loose my hoofing. “I don’t forgive you, I probably never will... but at least you’re trying.”

I could hear Shade gasp for breath a little as she tried to make her mouth form words. “Th…” She choughed, blood dripping from her mouth. “Thank you,” With that, she went limp on my back.

By the time I hauled Shade from the tunnel and into the embrace of the medical team on standby that immediately went to work on our wounds, I was so far beyond tired that I simply fell limp to the ground With Chestnut. I felt the doctors pick Shade up and whisk her off, mostly likely for some more serious treatment.

A medic in a Stable-Tec lab coat bent over me and pushed a healing potion to my lips. I felt the magical fluid drizzle down my throat and heal over most of my bleeding wounds. Beside me, I could see another doctor doing the same for Chestnut.

“F-Foals…” I groaned, trying to sit back up. The whole world seemed to be spinning and I was seeing double of everything.

“Yes, the foals are alright,” The medic said, gently pushing me back down. “They are safe now. So are you.”

Chestnut bolted upright, pushing herself into a sitting position. Her hooves lashed out and grabbed the doctor tending to her by the collar. “How’s the battle going! Are we winning!”

The doctor hesitated at her question. “Things are… not looking good. A gang of raiders we weren’t expecting joined the fight. I don’t know if anypony else is going to make it out of there alive.”

I suddenly felt very much awake, the drowsiness that had consumed me quickly getting washed away with fear. Brisk and Xayah were still in there! And that psycho was going after Pyre! By Chestnut’s widening eyes, I could tell similar fears were racing through her mind as well. “Give me another healing potion, and some chems if you have any,” Chestnut demanded, crawling to her hooves and raising her combat shotgun in her magic.

I pushed myself up, ignoring every scream my body made at the sheer effort of doing so. “I’m coming with you. I’ve got my own friends in there,” I said, putting on a brave face and trying not to show my fear.

The doctor shook their head, urgently trying to get us to sit back down. “There is no way I’m letting either of you run in there in your state. You hardly made it out as it is! You’d die if you went back in like this!,” They said, placing a hoof on Chestnut’s shoulder. She pushed the hoof aside. “I took an oath to do everything I could to keep ponies alive! I simply cannot let you do this!”

“Well I’m going in regardless!” Chestnut snapped, the strong, determined look I had come to know her for returning to her pale face. “My friends and family are down there… and so is Bomb Collar. I think I’ve been trying to escape from that monsters for long enough. If you want to keep to your oath, you’ll give us the healing I asked for to help us stay alive the best we can.”

I gave a strong nod in agreement. The doctor looked back and forth between the two of us, before sighing and pulling out medical supplies from their bag.

Chestnut and I raced down the Hellhound tunnel. Each step bringing us closer and closer to the raging battle ahead. As we drew closer, my senses were once again assaulted by the overload of sound and smells. Gunfire, screaming, explosions, the crackle of a dozen large fire. My nostrils filled with the rancid stench of rot and smoke.

I could still feel the tingling sensation of the three healing potions I had downed. Much of the aching and shooting pains in my hooves and chest were beginning to dissipate. The potions however had done little to remove the growing fatigue in my mind. For that we had each taken a tablet of Buck and a small dose of some other chem I hadn’t of heard before called Dash.

For the strangest reason, I felt great! Like I could take on the whole army of slavers by myself. Was this what Buck did? Was this how Brisk felt all the time? I could see why it was addicting. Granted, this could all be the Dash talking. I had no idea.

“Who was that slaver back in the town hall?” I asked as we raced along, finding running a lot easier than it should have been in my injured state. “You recognized him, didn’t you?”

Chestnut nodded, he pace not slowing. “Bomb Collar. He was my old slave master back in Filly. One of the old school Slavers from before Red Eye. Worked for a real monster I often heard about named Shackles.”

Sounded like somepony that needed to be stopped. For some weird reason, I found myself grinning from ear to ear. “Then let’s go and end that fucker!”

Chestnut gave me a grim, almost loopy smile in return. Yup, we were on way to many drugs.

We crawled our way out of the hole in the prison and made our way to the door. To my growing pleasure, I found that the fight I had left behind in my desperate run for the prison had been won by the security ponies, who now stood guard around the prison to ensure no slavers could get through the Hellhound tunnel and make it to the escaping slaves.

One of the security ponies turned to us, quickly giving us a one over before pointing towards a small barrier of sandbags they had set up. “There’s another group of slavers coming this way! Take that position and hold it. We need to last this out!” he ordered, raising his large assault carbine and preparing for the slavers to round the corner. The two of us quickly ducked behind the designated location. “If we can’t wait this one out we should be free to advance further into the settlement. It should take a few minutes before the Slavers will be able to launch a third-”

The first slaver rounded the corner before he could finish. In an instant, all the guns were up and firing at him as he sped towards us. Bullets ripped apart him limbs long before he had a chance to defend himselves.

“Steady! Here they come!” Another security pony yelled out. There was a tense moment of stillness while we waited for their approach. I could have sworn my heart almost stop several times in the span of a minute. Waiting in war seemed almost as deadly as the war itself.

Then the slavers burst from around the corner, their guns spewing a constant fire upon us as they charged. Our side returned fire, our shots tearing into them just as much as theirs tore into us. There was no dodging or diving for cover here. Simply a desperate rush and hope that you don’t get shot.

With my horn still suffering from the exertion of lifting the foals onto the roof, I fired shot after shot at a the slavers with Boneless clamped tight in my mouth. Twice I thought I had been shot, only to find that the blood splashing across my face belonged to somepony else.

Within a minute all the slavers lay dead, their broken and bloody bodies scattered across the street and soaking the scorched ground red. More than half of our platoon had been decimated, only the few that had been lucky enough to be at the back had survived. Chestnut placed her hoof over a a bullet wound on her shoulder that poured blood and applied pressure.

“Where are most of the slavers gathering!?” Chestnut called out, keeping her eyes fixed on the corner in case more slavers decided to ambush us.

The security pony we had first talked to now lay dead at my hooves, so another pony stepped forwards to answer. “Most ponies are gathering at the front gate! The diversion at the back wall failed. They had been waiting for us! The charge at the front is doing all they can to keep from falling back at the moment!” They yelled over the din of battle. Half of their words were completely drowned out by a sudden explosion in the distance, making me need to fill in a couple of the words with my mind.

“That’s where he’ll be!” Chestnut shouted to me, vaulting over the sandbags and starting moving towards the gate. “He’ll want to be leading the charge!”

Not bothering to question her, I rushed behind her to keep up as we raced through the war torn streets. Up ahead, a small group of slavers and security ponies shot at each other from the cover of two broken houses. We raced forwards, doing our best to evade being shot by either side as we pushed towards the main gate. I could see it up ahead. A large swarm of slavers and raiders pushed back against the slightly smaller group of ponies trying to force their way through the chokepoint. I could see the burst of flame as Pyre send anypony that got within range ablaze.

As we got closer a rain of fire started firing down on us from above. Chestnut and I ducked to the side, getting under cover as a squad of talon merc flew above us, their large anti-material rifles picking off anypony that seemed to be a threat. I even saw one griffon shoot one of their own slavers. I suppose in war you didn’t have time to take chances.

We pushed forward again, just barely dodging the massive explosion of a grenade as it detonated behind us, filling the air with dust and smoke. The sudden blast nearly knocked me off my hooves as I was sent sprawling forwards a few feet.

I skidded to a stop in front of a surprised raider, swinging my baton out and sending him crashing to the ground. I saw Chestnut do something similar, her combat shotgun already drawn and sending buckshot into two raiders from behind.

“Well well! Look who decided to join the party!” I head Pyre shout over the madness around us. Despite what she said, her face and tone of voice were as serious as ever. “Welcome to the real fight Amber!”

Pyre jumped to the side as a raider plowed towards her. Her hind hoof lashed out, catching the raider across the face and throwing them with a strength I didn’t realize Pyre possessed outside of her power armour back into the oncoming slavers. Her flamers roared and set another slaver on fire as he tried to shoot down a weaponless security pony.

Beside her stood Boulder, his face as stoic and grim as ever. His massive battle saddle mounted mini gun let loose a constant fire upon the slavers and raiders. Any that dared to get close to him were met with a powerful swing of his sledgehammer. Somewhere behind them, Toffee blasted at slavers and raiders alike with her shotgun while she organized the troops into some form of attack.

A raider leapt at me, a massive serrated machete clenched in it’s mouth and swinging for my neck. The near silent shot of Xayah’s sniper somewhere above us shot a bullet straight through the raiders brain, making him fall short and collapse at my hooves.

I looked up, I spotting Xayah, Brisk and one other pony as they tried to secure one of the tower walls around the settlement as a wave of slavers rushed towards them.

Even through all of this, Xayah was looking out for me. I could find an odd comfort in that.

We were being surrounded on all sides, overpowered at every move. We were outnumbered, out gunned and our attack plan was failing. We needed to end this! We needed to cut the head of the snake!

“Push then back!” I heard the booming voice of Bomb Collar ring out over the chaos. From the way Chestnut locked up, I could tell she heard him too.

I gave her a quick nod. “Let's finish this!”

We rushed through the violence towards the commanding sound of his voice. Every few seconds we were needing to backtrack and take a new route as the one we were currently taking either collapsed into rubble or was consumed by never ending violence.

At last we saw him. The massive slaver towered over most of the combatants on the battlefield, his thick combat armour deflecting a majority of the bullets that came his way. Every few seconds his shotgun would fire off a round, more often than not hitting his targets with a deadly accuracy a shotgun shouldn’t possess. Five slavers surrounded him protectively, making sure he had cover from all sides as he commanded the small slaver army in the attack.

I could see a rage building up in Chestnut as she strode towards him. Her shotgun raised and leveled with the huge slavers head. “Bomb Collar!” She yelled out, drawing his attention to her.

The moment his eyes landed on the smaller pony, Bomb Collar's face broke into a huge grin. “Well if it ain’t the little slave gal that thought she could get away from Fillydelphia! How’s that working out for you!” He bellowed, gesturing to the violence around us. He seemed to be relishing every second of the mayhem. “I told you back when you were my slave that you could never escape. Everypony ends up back in Fillydelphia somehow!” he gestured for his guards to advance and pointed a hoof at Chestnut. “Bring her to me! I want that one in chains!”

I rushed to go help her, only for five raiders to slam into me from the side, each one of them welding a jagged and rusty knife in either their mouth or magic. I rolled to the side as they swung their blades at me.

A shot from Xayah up above sent one of the raiders flying backwards, their chest spewing blood from the brutal gunshot wound.

The rest of the raiders pounced, lashing at me with hooves and blades. I rolled aside again and jumped to my hooves, the effects of the Buck and Dash allowing me to move far faster than I ever had before. But these raiders were merciless and relentless, these were las Pegasus raiders. When fighting them, you don’t get time to rest. Each and every second seemed to be marked by another attack, as they pushed in on me.

Boneless fired two shots, emptying the gun into one of the raiders head. I popped my gun open and backpedaled trying to give myself time to reload as the raiders moved in. I was starting to run low on ammo too, only ten shots left before I had to rely only on my baton alone. And in a firefight of this scale, I didn’t like the idea of that.

I had better make these shots count.

With Boneless now loaded to full capacity, I jumped into SATS and targeted each of the three remaining raiders head. The SATS spell ended and Boneless roared forth. The first two raiders were blasted open, the third ducked to the side, having a few seconds to realize what was happening.

The dodge saved him from my attack, but it didn’t save him.

A tall beige stallion with a long brown coat and wide brimmed fedora atop his head fired a shot from his .44 revolver beside me. The last raiders head was blown open as the stranger shot him down with terrifying accuracy.

I turned in shock to the strange appearance of the mysterious figure. “You again! How did you-” He gave me a small wink and tip of his wide brimmed hat and he was gone. I blinked, not sure what the hell had just happened.

Turning back, I saw Chestnut engaged in a bloody hoof to hoof combat with Bomb Collar, three of his guards laying broken and brutalized on the ground. I couldn't tell what happened to the other two through all the chaos. Both of their shotguns lay a few feet away where they had dropped them, either knocked away during combat or simply tossed aside to engage themselves in the much more personal fight. Regardless of Chestnuts determination and will to kill the one who had hurt her, she was constantly being beaten down by his sheer size and power and he pummelled into her. One massive Amber Aura sized hoof raised up and slammed down on Chestnut’s head, sending her sprawling to the ground before the great slaver.

I screamed and rushed forwards, shoving my horn upwards, it’s sharp tip jabbing into Bomb Collars underbelly. The force of the attack sent a shock shooting through my body as my horn threatened to get rammed into my skull from the impact. Bomb Collar roared and slammed me across the chest with one of his huge hooves, sending me flying back and crashing into a group of security ponies.

I hauled myself back up, my hooves feeling heavy as I tried to rush the slaver again. Clearly the effects of the Buck and Dash were wearing off. Glancing down at my body, I realized it was less the decline in effect of the chems and more how broken my body truly was. I was bleeding everywhere from a multitude of wounds I didn’t even know I had received. If anything the chems were the only thing still keeping me from collapsing on the spot.

Bomb Collar turned to face me, his grin still etched across his face as his eyes rolled over the desolation around us. He raised his shotgun and prepared for my charge.

Chestnut beat me to it, pulling herself from the ground and flying at the huge slaver with a flurry of hooves. Bomb Collar whirled with surprise, batting her attacks aside with his hooves as she tried to pummel him into the ground.

I charged again, using all of my strength to swing my baton at his head. The black shock baton collided with his noggin, sending a bolt of electricity pulsing through his body. His whole form went rigid for a moment, before he shook himself out of the shock and sent the back of his hoof crashing into my chest.

I was flung back, my whole body spinning end over end as all the air was thrown from my lungs. My head smashed into the thick stone wall of a collapsing structure and all went dark.

The world I woke up in wasn’t much better than the one I had just left. I found myself in a small enclosed metal chamber, with the only exit being a rusted yet sturdy looking barred door leading further into whatever building this was. Even inside, the air was tinged a crimson red.

Below me I could see the forms of Crank and Scarlet tight in each others embrace, each one of them wrapped in bandages from the numerous wounds they received from Red Eye’s slavers. I could relate with them with that.

“What are they going to do?” Scarlet asked, her voice betraying much of the worry that she felt. “I can stay in here for the two years, find a different way out. This can’t be the only way!” her worry was slowly turning into panic.

Crank raised his hoof and ran it down her long matted mane. “It’s going to be alright, you’ll be safe.”

Scarlet pushed him back a little. “It’s not supposed to just be me! It’s supposed to be both of us! We are supposed to do everything together!” she protested. “Stop just trying to protect me and think about yourself for once. Just once! Please…”

Crank simply shook his head and continued running a hoof down her mane as she shivered and cried into his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay,” He repeated in his deep voice. “I’ll do what they need me for, and when I’m done, I’ll come and find you. I’ll get you through this.”

He sobs were becoming uncontrollable. “But I need you! I- I can’t do this without you…”

Crank simply nodded and lifted her chin before gently placing a kiss upon her lips. For a short, near magical moment, Scarlets sobbing subsided.

Heavy hoofsteps echoed down the hall towards their cell. The both looked up as a group of twenty slavers approached them. Red Eye was taking no chances here. “It’s time,” One of the slavers grunted, pulling aside the door and gesturing for Crank to follow them.

Crank stood, standing protectively over Scarlet for a moment before taking a shaky step forwards. He was scared. More scared than he had been in his whole life. And yet he still walked forwards. Scarlet wailed and threw her hooves around his as he moved towards the slavers. “No! I won’t let you take him!”

“Scarlet, please,” Crank soothed, his hoof lifting up her chin once again. “Be strong for me. It will all be alright in the end. I promise.”

Scarlet sniffed, taking a small step back and nodding. “You come back to me you hear. Please goddesses come back to me.”

Crank nodded, giving her a warm smile. “I will... I love you.”

Then he walked away to join the slavers, glancing back only once as they pulled him away towards a fate he could never properly comprehend.

I was violently thrown back into the waking world as a grenade detonated a few feet from me, showering me in shrapnel and sending my near limp body flying across the battleground.

I pushed myself up, spitting out the ash and dust that had accumulated in my mouth and quickly jumped aside as the body of a security pony fell dead next to me. I looked around trying to make sense of the world around me. Everything seemed to be spinning and a loud ringing noise attacked my ears.

Pyre Blaze rushed past me, her flamers spewing fire as she tried to buck three raiders that had leapt onto he off. I saw a stray bullet pierce Boulders thick armour, the large stallion dropping dead to the ground without so much as a final word to join the building pile of corpses. Something fell from above me, a griffon’s body perhaps? I didn't have time to check as it was covered by more blood and corpses.

Another explosion launched me into the air, sending my already turned around sense of direction into even more disarray. I slammed against a slaver, knocking him down as I landed. Ponies were dying all around me. I couldn’t even tell who was who any more. They all just seemed to be moving blobs in a fuzzy world.

But I could make out one shape. The large form of a slaver looming over everypony else as they bashed his hooves down against a small unicorn again and again. the mare cried out, her face bloody and broken almost beyond recognition. Bomb Collar!

Pushing through my dizziness with the last bit of strength I had I rushed at him, my horn glowing with amber light as the last bit of magic I had left in me went into raising Boneless and firing. The buckshot ricochet off of his armour and staggered the huge slaver, but doing little more than that. He glared up at me, hatred in his eyes.

That was all the time Chestnut needed. With her own last bout of magic, she raised her combat shotgun and placed it against the huge slavers chin. Bomb Collars eyes went wide as he felt the cold end of the gun barrel press against his head. “I’m never being your slave again!” Chestnut roared defiantly, her combat shotgun firing all seven rounds into the slavers head.

Bomb Collar exploded much like his name suggests he should. His head burst open in a shower of blood and guts as the seven explosive rounds ripped through his coat, flesh, skull and brain. His huge body stayed up right for a moment, swaying slightly as if some part of him was still struggling to keep fighting, even after death before crashing unceremoniously to the ground.

The whole slavers army paused for a second as they watched their leader fall, a sudden wave of panic washed over them as they realized they were without command. Pyre’s vicious onslaught against them never slowed, even as they did. She charged forwards, taking advantage of the temporary shock and completely flipping the tides of the battle.

Under Pyre and Toffee’s charge, our forces pushed forward against the slavers. Where once the slavers had been pushing them back and wearing them down, they were now being pushed back themselves farther and farther into the center of the city.

From my spot on the ground, I lay and watch the battle begin to change in our favour. I was far too tired and broken to move or contribute. I simply lay and watched with blurry and slowly darkening eyes, my part in this battle was over.

As I watched, a massive yell of rage bellowed out from behind the slavers lines. Bursting from the doors of the prison, the freed slaves charged forth, now fully healed and armed to the teeth with weapons. they had come to join the fight, either to protect those they loved or for simply revenge.

Up above, I heard a massive cheer as Brisk and Xayah took complete control of the cities outer wall. security ponies and Hollow Shades citizens alike swarmed across the length of the wall, sending a rain of fire down upon the remaining slavers.

The slavers panicked as angry ponies flooded towards them from all sides. We had gone from being out gunned to outgunning them.

Pyre’s flames wrecked massive damage amongst the slavers as they tried to get away. Every attempt to shoot down the flaming raider failed as she proved too fast without being slowed by her normal heavy armour.

As long as Pyre stood leading the charge, we couldn't fall. we kept advancing forwards, each and every step bringing a look of hope and victory to the faces of our forces… and then the impossible happened.

Pyre fell.

A whirlwind of cream, pink and blue slammed into her, sending Pyre flying back and crashing straight through the wall of a crumbling building.

From all around us, bloody raiders surged in. They had never joined up with the slavers proper. They had been waiting behind walls and in buildings while they waited for their leader to make the first real move of the battle. With Bomb Collar now dead and the slaves now freed, the raiders had little use left for the slavers as they closed in on and slaughtered both armies alike.

Just like that, we were outnumbered again. But this time, it was by more than a few. the raiders outnumbered all of us by the hundreds. The amount of raiders spilling into the city were beyond that of either of our armies put together. They had planned this from the beginning, and they had played us all for fools.

The deranged raider mare rose from where she had landed, waltzing around Pyre as she tried to slowly climb back to her hooves as well. Pyre never got the chance to stand as the mare kicked her across the chest and sent my friend stumbling back to the ground.

The raider mare laughed, circling Pyre again and placing her hoof over her throat. I wanted to scream as I saw the razor sharp Hellhound claws digging into Pyre’s flesh. without her armour, those Hellhound claws could easily rip her apart! “Did you really think you could actually escape us Blazy?” The mare cooed resting her chin on her hoof as she pushed down on Pyre’s throat more. “You don’t get to leave the Las Pegasus raiders! Nono! Well you can’t run anymore now, can you!”

She raised her hoof again and lashed Pyre across the side, three large gouge marks being ripped open on her coat from the attack.

Xayah shot down at the raider, but somehow the mare reacted with more than enough time to easily step away. She glared up at Xayah with hatred. “This is between me and this traitor! Stay out of this!”

She turned and launched onto Pyre again both her hoof claws extended to rip Pyre open. Pyre rolled away with just enough time to avoid getting raked in two, but not enough to completely dodge the attack as three deep cuts were ripped open across her back.

Painfully, Pyre pulled herself to her hooves, thick hot blood pouring over her body. Both her flamers had fallen off of her, leaving her completely defenceless. “Fucking hell Viscera! This has gotta be the single worst fucking time!” Pyre groaned, taking a small step away from the bloody raider. “Can we do this some other time please?”

Viscera hissed at her, her long Hellhound claws scraping large grooves into the ground. I thought she was going to lunge again, but instead her eyes widened as if she were actually seeing Pyre standing in front of her for the first time. She stared at her for a moment, her mouth slightly a gape before leaning her head back and roaring at the sky. “Cunts!” It wasn’t directed at anypony in particular, simply a curse to the goddesses above. “Pussy fucking damn fucking shit! Fuck me hard! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” She screamed, stomping up and down like a filly having a tantrum. Her hoof claws started flailing around her madly and ripping up anything she could, the ground, the walls, an unfortunate raider that was too close. She turned back and glared at Pyre with loothful eyes. “Where is your fucking clit fucking armour you bitch fucking cum guzzling slut!”

Everypony took a nervous step back at the stream of expletives that were bursting from her mouth. Even Pyre’s mouth dropped open at the excessive profanities spewing towards her. “Uh… it’s broken. I was getting it… um… repaired…” I had never seen Pyre so lost for words. A smug look quickly crossed her face as she stared Viscera down. "Ha! I bet that fucks up your plan a bit, huh?"

Viscera glared at her for a moment, before righening herself and giving off a warm smile. “Okay! That’s fine! I can work with this. I CAN! It’s all okay,” She trotted over, once again dancing to a song I was beginning to guess was some sort of voice in her head and wiggling her rump. She approached Pyre slowly, her tail running along Pyre’s chin and flicking her cheek. “It’s all good, really! I should have told you I was coming! Honestly, what kind of guest am I? I’ll come back when you’re all your best, I want this to be a fight for the ages!” she turned to look at the rest of her raiders that had gathered around and gave them all a sweet smile. “Let’s make this fight a little funky, what do you all think? Kill the rest of the slavers would you dears? We’ll let Pyre and her friends off this time.”

The raiders looked around at each other, clearly confused, but they weren’t going to miss the opportunity to rip into pony flesh. They swarmed in on the slavers, ripping the remains of their forces to shreds with their teeth and blades. The security ponies stumbled back to evade the attack, but the raiders kept true to their orders and only tore into the slavers.

Viscera turned back to Pyre giving her a warm smile before launching herself forward and pinning Pyre to the ground, her hoof pushing down on her head. Viscera’s kind tone and mannerisms reverted to an animalistic snarl. “But I’ll be coming back for you Blazy, and this time you’ve had your warning to prepare!” Viscera sneered, her hoof claws digging into the flesh on Pyre’s scalp, making her yelp. “Until then I’m going to be leaving you with a little gift, to make sure you don’t forget where you came from and who's coming after you you whore!”

Viscera’s hoof claws slashed down Pyre’s face tearing three massive claw marks down her front and ripping out large chunks of her mane. Pyre screamed, her hooves flailing as Viscera stepped over her and waltzed back towards the gate, her hoof lashing out one last time and slicing the throat of a cowering security pony.

With the slavers now in bloody tatters around the city, the raider scurried after her, their coats and mouths soaked in the blood of their kills.

Pyre struggled to pull herself up before collapsing back to the ground, blood spilling across her mutilated face. she lay their limp, her chest barely moving as she blacked out.

I looked around through hazy vision at the scene around me. We had taken the city, freed the slaves and beaten the slavers. This had been a victory… so why did it feel like we lost...

The day that followed was about as dreary and miserable as one might have expected. Many of the survivors spent the day pulling the broken bodies of their loved ones from the rubble and carrying them out to be buried in the cemetery outside the city walls. The corpses of the slavers and raiders were unceremoniously tossed into a pile and set aflame. There was no mourning or final rights for them.

The wounded, myself included, were rushed to the broken down remains of the hospital. Medics both from Stable 44 and the survivors of the Hollow Shade massacre as it was coming to be known worked tirelessly over the bleeding and crying ponies.

It wasn’t until much later in the day when the sun had almost dropped below the skyline that I was allowed to leave the hospital. I had been beaten pretty bad in the fight, but I had been among the lucky ones. Save for severe blood loss and a minor concussion, I had come out relatively alright. One of the doctors confessed to wanting to keep me longer, but there were more dire patents that needed attention. The hospital was overcrowded as it was anyway, I was more than happy to give up my bed to someone more deserving. I really didn't deserve the healing as it was, not after all that I had done.

Upon release from the hospital, a massive worry that had been building up over the course of the day was extinguished. I found Brisk and Xayah alive and well. They were waiting for me outside the hospital anxiously as I limped my way out. I rushed forwards and wrapped them both in a tight hug, wishing I never had to let go of them again. These past few days had been far more than I could handle.

"Glad to see you're alright sis," Brisk said with a short and pained laugh. His right fore hoof had been wrapped in a thick wad of bandages. Xayah gave a grateful nod of agreement, pulling tighter into our embrace

Even Pyre and my Hellhound seemed to have come out relatively okay. Pyre had received three huge blistering scars down the front of her face from Viscera’s last attack. She seemed quieter and more reserved than she normally did, only responding in short and quick answers when addressed, otherwise she was silent.

Even Chestnut and Shade seemed to be recovering slowly, but the doctors insisted they keep Shade in the hospital at least until tomorrow morning for a full recovery.

Not an hour after I had left the hospital, a messenger found us and told us Toffee wished to see us all in the town hall.

The town hall had been cleaned up a little. The bloody bodies of the slavers Chestnut and I had killed had been removed and a small memorial had been erected where the young colt had been torn apart by the slavers heavy artillery gun. Most of the rubble and debris remained scattered across the floor, making the structure look like nothing more than a collapsing and gutted structure like every other in the wasteland.

Toffee stood in the middle of the room, her back turned to us as she surveyed the numerous bullet holes that peppered the walls.

“I’m sorry Boulder didn’t make it out of the fight,” I said cautiously as the four of us walked in to meet her. “He was a good pony.”

Toffee sniffed. “A lot of good ponies died today, many of them were close friends of mine. Boulder was only one of the many that I lost,” She said sadly, whipping a tear away and turning to face us. “But I didn’t call ya'll here t' mourn those we lost. There will be plenty of time for that in the days to come. You four have helped us here at the Hollow Shades far more than I could have expected. I really lucked out running in t' you ponies,” she reached into her saddle bag and pulled out a large stash of caps and hoofed it over to me.

I took the cap stash. It was much heavier than I had expected. “How-how much is this?” I asked, trying to weigh the amount. it was more than I currently had, that much was for sure.

“Two Hundred caps,” Toffee said flatly.

My mouth dropped. “Two- two hundred caps!” I exclaimed, unsure whether I was really worthy of taking such a large reward. “We didn’t do this for caps!”

Toffee nodded. “I know, but I’m givin' them t' ya anyway. The wasteland needs more ponies like you. Maybe these will help ya live a little longer out there fer the rest of us.”

I blushed at the compliment. I could see Brisk and Pyre staring at the cap stash in awe. “Thank you… I don’t know what to say.”

Toffee waved my thanks off. “Hold yer horses, I got more for ya,” She reached back into her saddle bag and pulled out a large leather tome. My heart skipped a beat. A Big Book of Science! I had always wanted to read it! “Purity saw your interest in this book back in the Stable, she wanted to give it t' you as a thanks.”

I greedily snatched the book up and hugged it tightly. Perhaps some good might actually come out of this horrid day. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

Toffee face softened for a second. Then her expression stiffened, her face growing more grim. “There is one more thing as well. Don’t you go thinkin' I went and forgot about our original agreement,” I was suddenly very, very interested. I looked up from the book to meet her steady gaze. “I went askin’ ‘round about this Kamari bloke ya’ll were looking for. Just kept running into a bunch of dead ends at first. But then I found somepony that spotted a group of zebra’s passing through the Hollow Shades 'bout five days back. Said they overheard them mention this Kamari figure.”

That was it! Those must have been the zebra’s Kamari had sent to attack Stable 25 with Inferno! “Where! What did they say?” I demanded, my grip tightening on the Big Book of Science.

Toffee gulped and looked me dead in the eye. “They said they had just come from over the area that we here refer to as the Glowin’ Sea,” Toffee paused, looking around at the four of us. “Said they came from the Ministry of Arcane Science.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Fast Metabolism -- +20% hit points restored with healing potions

Author's Notes:

Holy, this chapter took forever to write! Constant combat like that can be tricky. Sorry it took so long, hopefully it was worth the wait and that the next one will be out sooner! Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat

Short: What the Past has Taken, What the Future Might Give

I sat with my back pushed up against a large half broken chair. The chairs legs on one side had collapsed, leaving the whole thing slanted to one side. Across the room, I could see a large gaping hole in the wall that had been blown apart by some explosion during the battle earlier today. Outside I could still make out the forms of ponies rummaging through the debris, looking for loved ones they had lost. Every once and a while I would hear the manic wail as somepony found who they were looking for, often broken and crushed beneath the heavy rubble.

Despite the structures broken disarray, a lone brick fireplace had miraculously managed to stay perfectly upright and intact. I had spent a few minutes desperately trying to light a fire to warm up the defiled cottage before Pyre had marched in and quickly lit it up with a flumph of her flamers. Before I could thank her, she sulked out of the building without saying so much as a word to me, grumbling to herself and trying her best to hide the massive red claw marks that now races down her face.

I sat with the large Big Book of Science in my hooves as I eagerly turned page after page, hoping to use the escapism of the wonderful book before me to let me leave the depressing world I was currently stranded in. The last five days had been without question the worst days of my entire life. What had started with the traumatic invasion of my Stable had led to a seemingly endless string of horrors just as evil if not more so than the one before. The final destruction of Stable 25, finding out about my murder of the raider foals, the nightmares below the surface and finally the senseless violence of the Hollow Shade Massacre.

It was all just too much.

A ragged and broken looking pony coated in a thick layer of blood and muck stumbled into the cottage, limping heavily on his right fore hoof. He slumped down next to the fireplace and went limp, the fight had taking far more out of him than he had ever had to give. With a great deal of effort, I levitated a tattered blanket over to him and softly draped it over his almost lifeless form. The ponies of the Hollow Shades would need a lot of healing over the next few days, and not just for the physical wounds that had accompanied the bloodshed.

My thoughts turned back to the battle. The graphic image of a young colt being torn apart by a huge artillery weapon was still very vividly imprinted into my mind. It had all been so pointless! All of it! None of the ponies should have needed to die!

I could feel myself start shaking as more and more memories started flooding my mind. Slavers heads being blown open by blasts of my shotgun, raiders gnashing at me with sharpened fangs and twisted daggers, Boulders final seconds as a stray bullet lanced through his chest, blood spewing from the wound and across the charred pavement. They all flashed through my mind, refusing to leave me in peace.

I looked back down at my book defiantly, trying my best to simply not think about it. Push all the raw hurting feelings deep down where they can't hurt me. What was done was done, there was no going back now. The most I could do was try and deal with it the best I could, and the only way I knew how to escape my feelings was through books.

“Brisk and Pyre just left for Stable 44,” Xayah said as she pushed open the door to the cottage and trotted in. I didn’t bother asking why she used the door at all since half the building’s walls had been obliterated in the war.

I looked up, I saw her walk over to stand beside the sleeping pony by the fire. We were going to need all the supplies we could. If this Glowing Sea was as dangerous as Toffee had told me, we were going to be in for a real hell of a time. “And how are they holding up? Brisk and Pyre, I mean. I haven’t talked to either of them since our meeting with Toffee.”

“Brisk is doing well,” Xayah started, trying to warm herself up by the fire. She was shivering, both from shock of all that had happened and the deathly cold night breeze. "Save for a little pain in his fore hoof, he managed to get out with less wounds than most ponies."

I nodded, taking in the information. “And Pyre? How is she? She hasn’t seemed herself since that raider attacked her."

She hesitated for a second before answering. “I am not sure. Something is weighing down on her mind quite a lot,” Xayah said quietly. “She is refusing to talk about what happened. Whomever this Viscera is got to her.”

The whole deal with the raiders wasn’t sitting well with me. This was the second time I had survived an encounter with Las Pegasus raiders on sheer luck alone. “Why do you think Viscera turned on the slavers and let us all live?” I asked, the memory of Viscera’s defeat over Pyre just as prevalent in my mind as the other horrors I had witnessed.

She simply shook her head. “I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Xayah looked up from the fire towards me. “And You? How are you doing?”

“Just uh- reading a book is all. I’ll be fine,” I lied, lowering the book slightly and looking away from her. I didn’t really want to talk about my emotional state at the moment in fear of shattering into a million pieces.

Xayah cast me a weary glance. “Was it not you who told me that this group of ours has been hiding enough of our own issues from one another?” She cocked her head to the side a little, the motion slightly reminiscent of the movement of a griffon.

My face dropped. “That transparent am I?”

Xayah shook her head, her face somber. “You do not need to be transparent for me to know you need help. Nopony is simply fine after war, and you were already in a rather emotional place.”

I grumbled, not wanting to meet her eye. “It’s just… it all seems so pointless! All this violence! Why is it even happening! Wouldn’t it be better for everypony if we all just got along!” I blurted, my fears and doubts coming to the forefront of my mind. “I can’t even figure out what it will take to make it stop because I can’t for the life of me figure out why it has to happen in the first place!”

Xayah was silent for a moment, rolling my outburst around in her head for a bit. “I do not know why it has to happen, and I do not know why it is happening, but I do know you will make stop it,” I looked up at her as she spoke, my Amber eyes locking with her emerald ones. “You’ve come a long way Amber. I do not know where this journey you are taking us leads, but I am confident you will lead us safely to the end,” Her voice was steady, clearly believing every word of what she said.

I threw my hooves up in the air, letting my book fall onto the chairs dirty cushion. “But what if I don't?! I wasn't good enough to lead the Stable! My Cutie Mark alone is a constant reminder of that! I’m about to lead all of you through an incredibly dangerous, extremely radioactive wasteland to some crazy MAS building with who knows what inside!” I exclaimed. “What if one of you-” My voice caught in my throat, not wanting to even suggest such an idea. “What if one of you dies, Xayah? I don’t think I would be able to handle that…”

Shaking her head, Xayah limped over to me and hopped up next to me on the big chair. Somehow the chair didn’t collapse completely under our combined weight. “We will be fine. We will get through this together.”

Sighing, I put my book away and cuddled in closer to her, using her warmth to fend off the cold gusts of wind that ripped through the crumbling structure. “I’m just overwhelmed I guess,” I admitted, both to Xayah and to myself. “So much is happening that I don’t understand. I just- I don’t know… sometimes I wish that I really had died with everypony else back in Stable 25.”

Xayah’s eyes went wide at my words. She sat up a little and looked me in the eye, her expression hard. “Don’t say that! We will make it through, we will!”

I shook my head before resting it between my fore hooves. “Sorry, sorry. I know I shouldn’t think that, I just- Well... With everything going on, I guess thoughts about just escaping it all can be kinda easy to fall back to,” Neither of us spoke for a while after that as we sat and listened to the crackle of the fireplace and the far off howls of hurting ponies. After a few minutes, Xayah let herself back into a resting position, her muscles relaxing slightly.

“Seems like this whole wasteland is collapsing around us,” I finally muttered, looking out at the ruins of the Hollow Shades. “It’s suffocating,” My hooves tightened around Xayah.

“Perhaps we should do something when this is over. Put all this adventuring on hold,” Xayah suggested innocently, trying to lighten the mood.

I tried to smile. “I promised Pyre we’d stop at Tenpony Tower. There’s a cheese shop there that she really wants to go to,” I felt my mood brighten a little at the silly idea of the rough and tough raider Pyre Blaze eating fancy cheese in some high class establishment.

Xayah chuckled beside me. “Yes, that would be nice. I heard they have a spa there too, might be nice after all our hardships as of late.”

I blinked at her a couple times, trying to put meaning to her words. “What the heck is a Spa?” I asked, my interest peaked. I think I had read a book that mentioned a spa once, but I couldn’t think of anything past that.

Xayah shrugged. “I have no idea, but I’ve been told it is very relaxing.”

I couldn’t help myself. I found myself giggling at the whole thing. Fine food, relaxation, a raider and ghoul free day with no fighting in sight. It seemed impossible. “No adventures for a whole day huh? Sounds like Brisk’s own personal nightmare,” I chuckled. “Bet he’d be trying to escape the tower within the first hour of being there.”

“Pyre probably couldn’t spend a whole day without killing somepony anyway,” Xayah joked, her stomach rising and falling as she quietly laughed.

I sighed, letting my foalish giggles subside. “Thank’s Xayah, I needed a good laugh. It feels like I don’t do it enough anymore.”

“You don’t, and you should laugh more. You have a very cute laugh,” Xayah stated flatly, not even a hint of sarcasm in her voice. I blushed, but I didn’t bother rejecting the statement. I felt fine with it for once.

Some warm and fluttery feeling was gnawing away at my stomach. The feeling wasn’t all that different from the churning rage I had come accustomed to over the past few days, except it felt a little softer and almost soothing in a strange way, if not a little nerve-racking. I looked down at Xayah as she cuddled in close to me, the warm feeling only seeming to grow.

I had felt this before, not all that long ago while I sat beside Brisk in Friendship city, overlooking the gloomy wasteland…

Xayah opened up one eye and looked up at me, seeing the confused and distant look that had crossed my face as I silently looked down at her. “You alright?”

I nodded quietly, a lump forming in my throat. I looked away quickly to hide my blush. “I’m fine. Just thought… yeah…um... I'm fine.”

I shook the idea from my head. Maybe something was happening here, but everything was so confusing right now that I wasn’t in the proper mindset to make that kind of judgement. I’d figure this out on a happier day, when I could really think all this through with a clear mind.

Quietly, I cuddled up to Xayah and let my head rest atop her chest. I could feel myself slowly drifting off to sleep to the soothing rhythm of Xayah’s slow and calm breaths. We had a long and dangerous journey ahead of us tomorrow, but if all went well, perhaps this nightmare might all be over soon.

I really hoped it would be...

Chapter XV: Memoirs of Twilight Sparkle Part: 1

“In the Capital Wasteland. Seek a place called Dunwich. Within is an obelisk, itself a wicked thing.”

Annihilation.

Two hundred years ago, the world of Equestria had been obliterated by war and balefire. What remained after the years of bloodshed and hatred was a desolite husk of what the world had once been, a grim shadow of pony kind. But despite everything, the remnants of ponies emerged from below the crumbling and radioactive surface to once again reclaimed the ruin of Equestria. Settlements had been built, gangs, tribes and communities had been formed, even a form of economy had found its way back into the new world. In many ways it was beautiful; the endurance of civilization, assuming you could look past all the death, violence and misery.

But the Glowing Sea was nothing like that. The bombed, radioactive wastes of the glowing sea held no life, no signs of civilization, and no hope of ever returning to the ways of the old world. It was a peeling scab on the surface of the planet, a festering wound that would never truly heal. Its annihilation was total and absolute.

Dunes upon barren dunes of ash and cracked rock stretched out before me as far as the eye could see. The few trees that littered the desolite expanse were little more than charred and shriveled corpses with gnarled, skeletal branches. We passed the remains of an old pre war house, nothing but the crooked and unhinged front door remained. What did remain however, were skeletons.

There were hundreds of skeletons scattered across the glowing sea, many of them half buried in the radioactive ground. A few corpses still remained standing, the speed in which the balefire had descended down upon them leaving an almost statue-like remains of a pony, preserving their final seconds forever. They seemed to have died running, their faces twisted into an eternal scream.

It was death on a scale grander than any other. Complete annihilation.

Off in the distance, I could see the looming monolith like tower of the Ministry of Arcane Science. The towers smooth, black walls towered far above us even from this distance, making me feel small and insignificant before it. The thick green atmosphere gave the whole structure an even more sinister and imposing look. It felt… wrong… Like a sickening thing that wasn’t quite of our world.

We had hit the Glowing Sea like a wall. One minute we had been walking through the empty outskirts of the Hollow Shades, the sky no different than it usually was. Then, as if at the flip of a switch, the air turned thick and grim, clouding our view and obscuring most everything around us. The dead ground gave way to charred rocks and ash mixed with the occasional glowing pool of radiation and almost immediately my pipbuck began click click clicking as it warned me of lethal levels of rads in the air. Even with rad-x pumping through me and a hazmat suit tightly fitted over my body, I feared the radiation would melt me into a puddle on the spot.

Brisk and Pyre had returned from Stable 44 the night before with far more supplies than I had been expecting. Aside from Pyre’s now repaired power armour and a large stash of radaway and rad-x as we had planned, they had come carrying four bright yellow hazmat suits. The sight of them gave me a few moments of relief before realizing it meant I would have to cross the Glowing Sea without any real protective barding.

We had also gotten some ammo from the Stable as well, each one of us getting ten more shots for our guns respectively. It would have been nice to get more, but after the Hollow Shades Massacre, it was all Stable 44 was able to spare. I didn’t want to take too much ammo from them anyway, the last thing I wanted was for them to be unprepared if Red Eye decided to send more slavers to secure the location again.

My thoughts turned to the slaver forces of Fillydelphia as we moved along the uneven and rocky ground of the Glowing Sea. Even they had seemed confused by Red Eye’s decision to take the Hollow Shades. The settlement was simply too far out from any location of interest to be of any real tactical value to him. I had no doubt in my mind that Red Eye was less interested in the Hollow Shades, but rather who he might encounter in the desolation around it.

Red Eye was interested in getting his hooves on the A.A.S.S. Or at least somepony working with him did. If Kamari had it, then Red Eye would be coming here to get it. And I wasn’t going to let him do that.

Shade walked a few steps behind me, her head held low as she stumbled over the rough terrain in her baggy hazmat suit.

The doctors had released her from the hospital early in the morning, saying they needed more space for the more injured patients. Shade had healed enough that she was able to move with relative ease, though I could tell from her slow shaky limp that she was still in a fair amount of pain after the fight. She hadn’t complained once though, she probably didn’t feel like she deserved healing anyway after what she had done to our Stable.

Upon release, Shade had immediately requested to accompany us to the Ministry of Arcane Science hub. I had been sceptical to let her join at first, having no real interest in seeing her any more than I had to, but Brisk had convinced me that it was best to let her tag along. At the very least I could let her try to atone for what she had done. Not that I ever thought she would be able to.

The rest of my friends walked in front of me, their weapons drawn as they moved through the radioactive haze. The strong light on Pyre’s helmet illuminated most of the area before us, cutting through the thick green cloud like a knife.

Much like Shade, Pyre had remained almost completely silent as we walked. Even through her heavy armour, I could see her slumped back and defeated look. Whomever this Viscera was had really gotten under her skin. The large claw marks that raced down her face as a constant reminder of their fight no doubt added to emotional baggage she was clearly trying to suppress.

I trotted up to her and gave her a small tap on the shoulder to alert her of my presence in the gloomy fog. To my suprise, she jumped slightly. I don’t think I had ever seen Pyre Blaze so jumpy.

“Hey, you doing alright?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low enough that the rest of our party didn’t hear. I could see my Hellhounds ear twitch at my voice, but I wasn’t overly concerned about it over hearing. “You haven’t seemed yourself lately.”

Glancing away from me, Pyre looked out at the dunes of ash around us. “I’m fine. Just a little shaken. I’ll be able to fight,” she grunted, her voice betraying the embarrassment she must have felt from jumping at my touch.

I raised my eyebrow at her, before realising she wouldn’t be able to see it through the tinted dome of my hazmat suit. “I’m not worried about if you can fight, I’m making sure you’re okay,” I said flatly, trying to comfort her slightly with… whatever it was she was going through.

Pyre scoffed, not bothering herself to look back at me. “I’m in this group ‘cause I can fight Amber, don't try to pretend like I’m one of your friends. I said I can fight, so I’ll be fine.”

“We are friends,” I interjected, slightly taken aback by her statement. “I thought we had established that already?”

All I got was a small snort in return. Pyre glanced over at Brisk and Xayah as they bickered back and forth. “We aren’t friends like you three are friends. I’m here because I need you and you need me. Mutual benefit,” she started walking ahead faster, leaving me behind a little.

I quickened my pace to try and stay beside her. “But what about what we said back in Stable 25?”

Pyre simply snorted again and tried to push forwards. “That was then, this is now. I’ve been trying to run from my past, but Viscera made it very clear that I’m not escaping it anytime soon. So until then, I’m just here because y’all are of use to me,” She glanced back at Brisk and Xayah, I could see her gaze hold on Brisk for a few seconds longer. “Besides, the rest of your little troop aren’t as accepting as you have been.”

She finally managed to walk at a pace fast enough that I ended up tripping to try and keep pace. I fell and landed flat on my face. I groaned as I pulled myself up and brushed the ash of the hazmat suit. It was stuffy enough in this suit as it was, I didn’t need to go adding to the discomfort.

I felt Shade rush up to me and help brush off the ash. “You okay?” She uttered, trying to help me as best she could. I pushed her back slightly, probably a little harder than I should have.

“I’m fine, it’s just ash.”

Turning away from her, I focused on my Pipbuck that had been clamped tightly over the outside of my hazmat suit. I shuffled through my different audio files until I came across the one I wanted. It had been a while since I listened to one of SIlver Ace’s recordings and I was anxious to find out more about this Utopia program he kept mentioning. Not to mention how it might be connected to the A.A.S.S.

For a second, the recording held little more than static. Slowly, I began to make out the slow, quiet breaths of what sounded like an elder pony. “I don’t know where to start…” The sad voice of Silver Ace spoke. His voice was low and reflective. He sounded a lot older than he had in the other recordings. He sighed and I could hear him shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “...Maud Pie died earlier today. She was helping the Ministry of Image with some gem studies in creating stealth technology here in Manehattan. Apparently some zebra sympathisers caught wind of it and got word to the zebras. Pinkie’s... well, Pinkie’s furious…”

I could hear him sigh again. There was a long pause as he tried to figure out exactly what to say next. “The MOM is cracking down on ponies even more than they used to. I don’t think half of the ponies their accusing are even sympathisers. This war is causing us too much… there’s so much damn hatred,” He stopped again, his breath catching slightly. I could tell he was crying. “I was so certain I could stop all of this… the war… make everything okay between ponies and zebras… Fuck… Why did it have to come to this… This hadn’t been the plan... I just wish there was another way…”

The recording cut out, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I didn’t know who this Maud Pie was, but she must have been close to Pinkie somehow. I had heard horror stories of what the Ministry of Moral had done back during the war, that must have only made it so much worse.

No new news about that Utopia thing though…

I reached down to play another recording when my eyes landed on my Hellhound up ahead. They had frozen in place and were crouched down into a battle position. I checked my EFS, trying to spot whatever it was my Hellhound sensed. Nothing.

Of course they were no red bar on my EFS, this was the Hollow Shades. Monsters were tougher and EFS was useless.

Everypony else seemed to notice my Hellhound and I’s stance. They quickly silenced themselves and started looking around, waiting for something to emerge from the thick fog. Shade, being the least experienced of all of us, cowered behind me with her pistol drawn and swiveling around in her magic frantically as she tried to see whatever was coming.

“Amber, what do you see?” Xayah asked, her sniper swinging around to face a direction that no one else was facing yet. Clearly they assumed I had spotted it myself.

“No clue,” I grunted, turning to face my Hellhound. “Find it,” I ordered, keeping Boneless up and ready.

Slowly, the Hellhound pushed forwards, his nose sniffing the air every few seconds as it tried to pinpoint whatever it was. Then it froze, it’s eyes locked on something in the distance. I turned to see what it was and froze myself.

Something huge was coming towards us, its size comparable to that of the monsters we had fought below the surface. A large cloud of ash and dust was being kicked up into the air around it, making it nearly impossible to make out. Its huge scaled and serpent-like body was so wide and tall I could have mistaken it for a large hill had it not been darting towards us with terrifying speed. Through the green haze, I could see a massive maw the size of a small house filled with swirling, jagged fangs.

Smaller creatures were slowly rising from the ash around it as it advanced, their twisted and rotting forms somewhat resembling that of a pony. The smaller ghoul-like creatures that rushed forwards didn’t seem to have normal pony heads however. Instead, a large gaping mouth reminiscent of the large creature snapped and oozed from the stump of their necks.

I could see Pyre take a few horrified steps back. “Holy fucking shit!” She cried, her flamers whirring to life. “Run! Run fucking now!” she spun on the spot and began galloping as fast as she could from the creature and towards the looming black spire ahead of us.

Not waiting for a second longer, the rest of us jumped into action, spinning on our hooves and rushing after her. I heard Brisk fire two shots behind us at the onslaught of creatures, but they seemed to take the bullets like they were nothing and kept charging.

“What the hell is that thing!” Brisk screamed as he raced ahead of me next to Pyre.

“A fucking tatzelwurm!” She screamed back between heavy breaths. “I thought they were a fucking myth!”

The huge tatzelwurm was gaining on us. With each step we took it seemed to only grow larger and larger. I could feel the ground vibrating under its slithering movements. From around us, more pony-like creatures were crawling from the ashes. Their rotting bodies stripped of their once beautiful coat and missing bits of flesh to reveal the strange warped green bone underneath.

I gulped as I saw one of the skeletons we had been passing start to writhe and pull itself from the ground. I had been told Kamari might be meddling with necromancy, now I had my confirmation.

There was an ear piercing shriek from behind us and the deafening sound of the earth being ripped apart. I glanced behind me with just enough time to spot the huge form of the tatzelwurm dive below the surface.

Shit! This thing could burrow!

One of the zombie-like ponies slammed into me, knocking me from my hooves and sending me sprawling across the charred rocks. The sudden horrifying realization that if their attacks ripped my hazmat suit I would die of radiation poisoning in seconds flashed through my mind. I scrambled back to my hooves and leapt to the side as another zombie lurched at me, doing my best to evade any and all attacks.

This wasn’t a fight we could win, we simply had to run!

I swung Boneless through the air and shoved it’s three barrels down the zombies throat. One shot of buckshot obliterated its maw like head, sending bits of glowing viscera flying everywhere. Almost instantly, I saw the thick radioactive air surge through the zombie’s wound and pull it’s head back together. Not even Crank’s impressive regeneration could match up to this.

I pushed off from the ground and darted towards my friends as a horde of zombies clawed their way from the surface and charged me. I felt one of their large mouths clamp tightly around my back hoof, making me stumble again.

Before their sharp fangs could rip at my hazmat suit, Pyre Blaze leapt over me and crushed the creature flat with her powerful hooves. Her flamers blasted out behind me, setting my pursuers alight with flame.

I managed to pull myself away from the still squirming zombies grasp as it began pulling itself back together around Pyre’s hoof.

Pyre looked down too late as the zombie completely reformed, her hoof still embedded in it’s head. The creature's teeth sank into her leg, bending the armour and sending jagged pieces of metal crushing into Pyre’s hoof. By some miracle, the armour itself didn’t seem to get any holes in it.

Brisk pulled up next to us, his baseball bat clamped tight in his mouth as he swung it down and once again burst open the zombies head. Pyre pulled her hoof back the second it was free, using her free hoof to push us away as two more zombie things lashed at us with their gnarled hooves.

“Come! We must flee!” I heard Xayah yelled from ahead of us, her voice missing the normal enchanting rhythm and replaced by a pressing fear. “We are almost at the-”

The rest of her sentence was drowned out as the huge tatzelwurm broke the surface before her, cutting off our path to the Ministry of Arcane Science hub. A massive cloud of ash and rock billowed out around the tatzelwurm as it loomed over us, still keeping my vision of it obscured.

Xayah yelped with fear as the shockwave of the huge monster sent her stumbling backwards. She landed hard and skidded across the ground to a stop next to me.

The six of us cowered together, our backsides pushed up against each other as more and more creatures began crawling from the ground and closing in on us. The massive tatzelwurm began slithering forwards, its huge scaly body seeming to radiate clouds of radiation towards us as it drew closer.

From below the ground came the sound of scratching claws as the bodies of zombie Hellhounds began pulling themselves to the surface. Their pale yellow eyes seemed to burn into us as they joined with the rest of the oncoming horde.

I was very quickly understanding better than ever why Azar had said that even going through the caves of the Hallow Shades was a safer way to get to the dark spire.

The first Hellhound lashed out at us, it’s claws extended to rip us apart. Xayah shot it through the chest with a precise shot from her sniper, but it did little more than stagger the raging beast as it continued closing in.

Bullets and violence were useless here. This lesson, I had learned before.

I rolled to the side as a zombie rushed me. My baton swung up and crushed its skull, sending it into a short spasm as it pulled itself back together again and continued its assault.

I could hear the almost pathetic sounding cracks of Shades pistol as she fired shot after shot towards the advancing tatzelwurm. Even my Hellhounds mighty roars sounded more like whimpers amongst the howling of the undead army.

The tatzelwurm opened its huge mouth and screamed, the noise forcing the rest of us to cover our ears. I could feel a trail of blood leaking from my eardrums and running down my face. Several long fleshy tendrils shot out of the tatzelwurm’s mouth like bullets. The slimy tongues lashed out and wrapped around our hooves as it began slowly pulling us all towards its huge maw. I struggled against it’s tight restricting grip, but nothing seemed to faze the huge creature.

We were surrounded and had no way of fighting off such unkillable adversaries. It almost seemed like a cruel joke, for me to have come so far, only to die in perhaps the most desolate part of the wasteland, where no pony would ever even find my body. Assuming I even had a body left after the radiation ate away at me.

I could feel Xayah shivering behind me as countless creatures began descending towards her. Another tendril shot out and wrapped around her throat, choking the air from her lungs. I tried to reach out and help her, but the oozing tongues that held me pulled me back. There was nothing we could do! We were going to die!

Then everything froze. If not for the occasional twitch of one of the vial ghouls I would have assumed they had quite literally been turned to stone. Even the huge tatzelwurm seemed to pause, its gaping maw only inches away from swallowing all of us whole.

Then it realised us and darted away. We all dropped to the ground panting as the horde of zombie creatures turned and began crawling back into the ground which they had come from.

“Their leaving?” Shade gasped from beside me, slowly trying to pull herself back up. “Why?”

Pyre managed to get herself back to her hooves before the rest of us, her eyes darting around at the now seemingly empty wastes from behind her visor. “They’re running away…” Her whole body seemed to tense as she realized what that entailed. “We need to move, now!”

As we pulled ourselves up, a massive roar echoed from around us from all sides. A chill passed through me. Whatever that was, it was huge.

Some dark form was rising from the haze in the distance. Even from here, it seemed to tower over everything. I could make out the silhouette of huge bulging limbs and massive building sized spines that raced down it’s gigantic form. Two monstrous wings slowly unfolded themselves from its side.

I stared in horror as the growing shadow against the horizon began to take a horrifyingly familiar shape. I had seen it once before, in the first memory orb I had ever viewed… A dragon!

I was so frozen with fear I forgot to run. I just stood there, staring up at the massive form that towered above us. We were in the Hollow Shades, I knew that wouldn’t just be any dragon. This one would have been mutated by years upon years of slumbering in one of the most radioactive places in the whole wasteland. And we had just woken it up.

It took Brisk slapping me across the face to pull me from my terrified trance. His slaps were not nearly as strong as Xayah’s, but they did the job. My head snapped to the side to look at him, even through the tinted dome of the hazmat suit I could see his fear.

“Run!” He yelled, giving my flank a strong push and forcing me to rush towards the looming monolith. Now out of the trance, I didn’t hesitate to comply.

I could hear the booming steps of the dragon as if thundered after us, each step it took shaking the ground and threatening to knock me over. The monster roared again, the sound disorienting me and making me stagger slightly before I got my bearings and continued running. Then the thundering steps from behind us stopped and were replaced with the heavy sound of flapping.

Fwap! Fwap! Fwap! Fwap!

I turned back slightly to see the mighty dragon take to the air, each flap of its massive wings disrupting the thick layer of ash that had settled upon the dunes of the Glowing Sea and sending them into the air like a massive sand storm.

It was gaining on us! Fast!

Did I ever mention how much I hated enemies that could fly? It's so unfair! Why can’t I be a pegasus or something!?

“It’s coming! To the Tower! Hurry!” I heard Pyre’s desperate commands as we neared the massive spire.

Up close, the tower seemed even more wrong and alien. I couldn’t quite seem to place my hoof on it, but something about it just felt incorrect, like a poorly drawn picture of a pony with all the wrong proportions. Just being close to it made me want to curl up and hide. It was almost scarier than that dragon.

Pyre reached the black tower first. She charged towards a large set of metal doors in the towers base and began slamming her hooves against them to get them open. The doors didn’t budge.

“Amber, the terminal!” Brisk screamed as he reached the doors as well and turned to face the soaring dragon. He pointed towards a locked terminal that lay next to the large doors. He raised his pistol and aimed at the dragon, as if his tiny weapon could actually do something against a creature of that size.

I pulled up next to the terminal and began typing. Immediately I groaned. Fifteen figures! The password was fifteen fucking figures! There was no way I could hack that quickly!

The dragon was getting closer, the booming flap of its wings was beginning to drown out all other noise as it closed in. I was beginning to make out more of its horrifying visage as it grew closer. I had been right, it was no ordinary dragon.

Where once shining green scales had once been were now a myriad of festering scabs and blisters. Hundreds of smaller mouths gnawed aimlessly at the air from the few places that the oozing scabs had been pulled away to reveal rotting skin, dotting the flesh like zits. Its huge, pony sized eyes were pale and lacked pupils and its mouth was filled with rows upon rows of massive sharp fangs. It’s tale alone was the size of the tatzelwurm!

A sickening horror passed over me as I realized its tale wasn’t simply as big as a tatzelwurm, it was a tatzelwurm! The end of the spiked tale opened and closed as the tatzelwurm’s mouth helplessly lashed out at anything that it could get close to.

I hate the Hollow Shades! Only it could create horrors like that fucking thing!

I turned back to the terminal, trying to bypass the lock with my shaking hooves. I only had three chances, I could do this! hopefully!

Pyre sent a large steam of flame towards the dragon. Her flamers had an exceptionally far reach for a flamer, but they still didn’t have the same range of a normal gun and definitely didn’t have the range to hit the flying dragon above us. But Pyre didn’t seem to be caring much if she hit it or not, she just kept a stream of fire towards it as she zigzagged back and forth, slowly moving away from us.

“Pyre, what are you doing!” I heard Xayah call out. She jumped to the side as the Dragon swooped down and racked towards her with its claws. The claws missed by meer inches, digging massive grooves in the ground as it’s attack carried through. The dragon's claws lashed against the wall of the MAS hub, causing a shower of blue sparks to erupt around me. To my surprise, the wall itself remained unharmed, not even slightly scratched by the huge dragon.

“Distracting!” Pyre called back breathlessly, rushing up and managing to blast the dragon with a bit of fire before darting away as the dragon lurched at her. “Keep it away from Amber! We need to get that door open!”

The rest of our party seemed to understand and agree with her train of thought and immediately went into action, trying to draw the dragons attention toward any direction that wasn’t me. I wanted to protest and help them fight, but I knew far too well that if I didn’t get this door open we were all as good as dead. Still, it didn’t feel right to have all my friends risking their lives for me.

I took a risk and clicked on a potential password. I wanted to scream with frustration when it informed me I had gotten the password incorrect.

Okay… this is fine… only two chances left, I could still do this.

The dragon dropped straight down from the sky and crashed against the ground. The whole ground seemed to shake as it landed, making me lose my hoofing and fall flat on my rump. The dragons roared, its fang filled maw dropping widening. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a burning glow slowly building from within the dragon's throat.

I heard a quick scream of fear from somewhere behind me before my whole world was submerged in flames. Fire flared around me in every direction, nearly blinding me as the flames filled my vision and caught the tips of my tail aflame. I could feel the immense heat scorch my back and cause blisters to rise on my pink hide. Thankfully, the dragon didn’t seem to be directing it’s mighty blast in my direction, the flames washing over me only seeming to be the edges of the huge jet of fire that licked out at my writhing form.

I batted my tail with a hoof, trying desperately to put out the fire before it completely burned my tail off.

As the flames died down, I saw the stumbling form of Pyre as she struggled to pull herself from the ground. She had managed to avoid the attack, but just barely. Her metal armour steamed and glowed a dull hot red. I had no doubt that the searing metal was burning her from the inside. Had it been any other pony, they probably would have been dead. But Pyre was stronger, she had grown to not feel the burn of flame. Yet even she was screaming.

The dragon lurched around, its huge tatzelwurm tail sweeping across the ground and knocking more ash into the air. I ducked down as the tatzelwurm swung over me, crashing into the walls of the tower. Once again, a shower of blue sparks burst from where the dragon hit the smooth black walls, sending burning blue embers down upon me. I rolled to the side to avoid them burning through my hazmat suit.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Brisk’s pistol cracked off three shots into the dragon's head. Two of the bullets ricochet off of its tough natural armour, the third embedded itself right in the creatures eye. Instead of reacting in pain like any normal creature should, the dragon simply turned to glare down at Brisk, its pale eye slowly pulling itself together.

“Hehe… Amber! You almost got that door?” Brisk asked timidly as he met the dragon's gaze straight on. The dragon lunged at him before I had a chance to answer, not that my answer was of any use at the moment.

Brisk rushed to the side as the dragon lashed its huge claws at him, tearing out large chunks of the earth as it did.

I turned back to the terminal. Two attempts left, fifteen letters… I took a deep breath and went back to work. I could hear the screaming of my friends as they tried to keep the dragons' attention away from me. I couldn’t let them down… not now.

I dropped down as the huge beast tail swung over top of me again. My hoof slipped and I accidently hit a random password on the terminal. The terminal beeped.

>Access Granted

Huh… well would you look at that… I quickly checked what password I had hit. Twilightsparkle. Figures, should have guessed that one right away.

A massive stomp from the dragon behind me reminded me I didn’t have time to dally. I quickly advanced through the terminal.

>Welcome, Twilight Sparkle

>All Systems Operational

>Override Emergency Gate

[Confirm]

I clicked confirm as fast as I could. The large door abruptly burst open with a speed and fluidity that no post apocalyptic door should have been able to have.

I turned back to everypony else for a brief second. “The door is open, Everypony in!” I yelled, before turning and darting through the door myself. Behind me, I could hear my friends start diving for the door themselves, their hoofsteps drowned out by the thundering noise of the dragon as it gave chase.

My Hellhound scrambled into the building after me first, followed closely behind by the rest of my friends, Pyre Blaze taking up the rear. I thought I saw something smaller dart past the doorway and scuttle under a table, but there was so much going on, I didn’t have time to check.

The room within was a large circular chamber with three large doors against the far wall. A small platform rest next to the door and the floor was covered in boxy desks, each equipped with a dull grey chair and terminal.

“What! How did you get in!” I heard the rhythmic voice of a zebra call out. Looking up, I saw three zebras standing guard inside, their curved blades raised for a fight.

The zebra’s eyes widened as they spotted the huge shape rushing after us. Their jaws went slack as they took in the gigantic dragon. “Dragon!” One of them yelled, rushing for the emergency door controls on an elevated platform to the left of the door.

I felt the build up of heat on the back of my neck as the dragon prepared for a second blast of fire. Even before it left the creatures mouth, the heat was intense.

“Get to the sides!” I screamed at my friends as I pushed myself up against the wall as much as I could. My comment wasn’t necessary, they had already begun to move away from the door as fast as they could.

The dragon let loose another jet of smoldering flames. The fire pushed through the doors, setting the three zebras ablaze long before they could reach the emergency door controls. I pushed myself up tighter against the wall as the flames licked at my hooves. As the flames subsided, only three charred skeletons lay where the three zebra’s had once been.

“Get to the door controls!” I shouted, pointing to the elevated platform on the far side of the room from me. Xayah, who was closest to it, quickly began rushing towards the platform.

The mutated dragon's head burst through the open doors. It’s body couldn’t fit all the way though, but it’s head and serpentine neck seemed to have no trouble. It’s pale eyes scanned over the room looking for us.

It’s gaze landed on me. I felt a shiver race down my spine as its eyes locked with mine. It began moving its head towards me, even without the rest of its body giving it height, the massive beast towered above me.

Brisk and Shade shot off a few shots from their guns, but the dragon all but ignored it as it readied itself for an attack. It maw opened wide and it lunged it’s head down towards me, intent on swallowing me whole.

The door abruptly slammed shut on its neck, jerking the dragons head away from me and crashing against the wall. The powerful doors pushed against its armoured neck, slowly crushing it. The dragon roared with pain as the door tightened, a burning light once again forming in the back of its throat.

“Everypony down!” I screamed, lunging under the closest desk I could. I could see Brisk and Pyre do the same. I wasn’t able to see what happened to Shade, Xayah or my Hellhound. I hoped they found cover.

Seconds after I pulled myself completely under the desk, the Dragon let out another breath of flame. It’s head thrashed around the room, trying to dislodge itself from the large mechanical doors grip. Its thrashing motion sent the stream of fire spewing everywhere, blackening the walls and completely melting many off the desks. I could feel my skin boiling as the fire momentarily passed over the desk I cowered under.

There was a final mighty crash, and the large doors completely slammed shut, severing the dragons head from it’s body outside completely. The roaring fire went out immediately, only the lingering flames that burned away at the few wooden objects in the room remaining. Blood splattered against the walls and spilled from the severed stump of the dragon's neck.

Even decapitated the head squirmed back and forth, trying to snap at us. Finally, after a few seconds of thrashing and shrieking, the massive dragon went still and died.

I glanced up at the platform to see Xayah slowly pull herself out from behind the emergency door control. Thank the goddesses she had closed that door in time or I would have been dragon food. Xayah gave me a nervous smile as she caught my eye and waved.

I quickly checked my pipbuck. To my surprise, there didn’t appear to be any radiation inside of the MAS tower. Pyre must have noticed the same thing because she was quickly pulling herself out of her still steaming power armour.

I gasped as I saw the wreck her body was in. Pyre’s fiery coat had always sported a large collection of scars and burn marks, but now it was a complete wreck. The large claw marks from Viscera still throbbed a deep red across her side, back and face and most of her hide had been burned off by the dragons attacks.

I quickly rushed over to her and passed her a healing potion. She took it in her mouth without complaint and chugged the contents. Her coat and blistering wounds patched over a little, but the damage was still pretty bad. I passed her another one, but she just pushed it away.

“You only got five of those things left, save them for something really important,” She said, pulling herself to her hooves and looking over her steaming armour. “Shit, I just fixed this armour…”

Brisk trotted up, still limping on his leg. He seemed to have been unharmed by the dragon like most of us. “Is the armour still usable?” He asked, surveying the hunk of metal on the ground.

Pyre poked at her armour with a hoof. Had I been the one to touch it, I probably would have recoiled at the searing heat. Pyre however, kept her hoof on it for a few seconds, allowing herself to take in exactly how hot the metal really was. “The armour is usable, sure. But it’s too hot to wear, even for me,” she grunted as she pulled her hoof away. “And we don’t really have any water to dump on it and cool it off, so fuck me I guess.”

“I still have all that Wild Pegasus whisky in my saddlebag,” Brisk said, pulling out two bottles. I could see a few more still inside the bags. “Might make your armour a bit sticky, but might cool it down some.”

Pyre just grinned at him. “Ha, like my armour hasn’t been sticky with worse,” She joked, taking a bottle herself and dumping it on the armour herself.

“Like what?” I asked absentmindedly, puzzling over her statement, my thoughts still not fully all together after the whole dragon attack.

Pyre just gave me an amused look. “I’ll let you figure that one out Amber.”

I raised an eyebrow as I rolled it around in my head. I could feel my ears warm up and a blush cross my face as the answer finally managed to get through my thick skull. “O-oh…”

Pyre just smirked and poured another bottle of wild pegasus onto the armour. “Yeah, Oh.”

Shade hauled herself up from under a half collapsed desk and shakily looked over at the severed dragon head before turning her gaze to us. Her eyes widened in fear as she saw a bottle of her favorite whisky get dumped onto the steaming suit of armour.

“We had Wild Pegasus this whole time and none of you told me!” She gawked, watching in horror as the third to last bottle was unceremoniously dumped out.

Brisk scoffed and looked over the armour for a second. Deciding that the armour had cooled down enough, he shoved the last two bottles back into his saddlebag. “They weren’t for you.”

Xayah hopped down from the platform and joined us as Pyre slowly crawled back into her power armour. The metal still seemed hot to the touch, but nothing that Pyre wasn’t accustomed to already.

We quickly stripped out of our hazmat suits and pulled our normal barding back on. It felt good to be out of that stuffy thing.

“We should get going, no doubt our entrance has gotten us a fair amount of notice,” Xayah said, glancing around the large room. Her eyes landed on the three big doors on the far wall.

Brisk nodded, taking a few steps towards the doors. “I second that, you got a plan sis?” he glanced over at me. He had asked about my plan, but I could tell from his eyes he was also making sure I was still okay with the whole sibling thing.

I gave him a small smile before straightening up and approaching the three doors myself. “I don’t have a plan so much as an objective. Find and kill Kamari, then get the A.A.S.S. back if we can.”

“Any idea where Kamari might be? I mean this place is huge,” Pyre asked, looking over the three doors. “Do we split up to cover more ground or what?”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t split up, who knows what's in here. Besides, one of the few things we do know is that both Crank and Azar are somewhere in this building as well. It’s probably best to not run into either of them alone.”

They all quickly agreed to that. The idea of fighting either of those powerhouses was terrifying in it of itself, let alone fighting them by yourself.

I turned to the center door and activated the terminal beside it. Locked, but not nearly as hard as the one outside had been. I unlocked the terminal in a matter of seconds and the large metal doors slid open.

The hallway beyond felt like an unnatural version of the caves below the Hollow Shades. The circular black tunnel distended downwards into the earth at an alarming rate. A strange feeling seemed to be emanating from it, making me want to run and hide.

We pushed forwards into the cavern like hallway. Every few paces a doorway beside us would automatically open up, making us jump. Through the doors we could see the large office spaces filled with rows upon rows of desks and terminals.

As I looked over the nearly pristine desks, the wrongness of the MAS tower suddenly hit me. The reason it always looked so wrong suddenly made a whole lot of sense.

“It’s in perfect condition…” I gasped, as my eyes left the office area and returned to the long, dark hallway. Where any other structure in the wasteland would be crumbling and riddled with large holes, all the walls inside and outside of the MAS tower were still perfectly intact. Even the desks and chairs that lined the rooms were still in perfect condition.

Brisk glanced up at me. “What do you mean?”

“This tower was hit point blank with multiple Balefire Bombs… how can it still be in such good condition?” I said, wording my thoughts into a more coherent and understandable sentence.

“I saw the dragon's claws deflect off of the walls outside,” Pyre added, walking slowly behind us. “That thing should have been able to tear right through those walls like a Hellhound with dirt.”

“So what are we dealing with? Indestructible walls?” I asked, trying to wrap the mystery around my head.

Pyre simply shrugged. “Beats me, but probably not. The Balefire bomb would have still knocked over all the furniture. This shits magic or something.”

Of course it was. Because my life had to be difficult in every possible way.

Up ahead, I could see the shape of a large door at the end of the hall. Like the last door, it was locked with a simple terminal that I managed to hack at record speed. The doors squeaked open and revealed the large room beyond.

The large chamber was filled with exactly what I would have expected. Rows upon rows of terminal topped desks ran in perfect lines across the floor. Large blackboards covered the diagrams and equations so complex even I had trouble understanding them had been installed onto most of the walls and a large, multi screen monitor that had long since gone dead hung from the ceiling. At the far end of the room was a large set of double oak doors that lead into a room beyond and off to the right was the entrance to what appeared to be another long hallway.

“Looks like the main office area,” Shade said, walking amongst the desks and looking over the terminals. She glanced over at the large oak doors at the far end. “And I’d guess that's the ministry mares office.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” I added, not really knowing how much that fact actually contributed to the topic at hoof. Shade simply nodded in response.

Brisk waltzed up to the large doors and looked over the lock. “I can probably get into here if you want?” He stated, looking over to me for confirmation. He then proceeded to pick at the lock without waiting for my response. “Though it might take a second… Holy shit this lock is tough.”

“Make sure nopony sneaks up on us,” I ordered my Hellhound, pointing it towards the doorway we had just come through. I didn’t know how many zebras Kamari had working for him here. We hadn’t seen any others than the three at the front door, but if what Crank had told me was true, then he had a whole army hiding in here somewhere.

I thought for a second before slowly following my Hellhound to the door. I coughed slightly to catch its attention, but it didn’t seem to react. “So uh… I was just wondering… do you have a name?” I asked the Hellhound awkwardly. It stood there like a statue, ignoring my question. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. “Heh… right…” This felt weird, I didn’t even know how intelligent this thing was, not to mention it was kinda being mind controlled at the moment. Not really something I could have a conversation with. Not knowing how to proceed, I decided to cut right to the point. “Look, uh… Hellhound. I’m sorry I had to drag you all the way out here and stuff. Once Kamari is dead, I’ll let you go, I promise.”

The Hellhound remained silent and unmoving, but to my surprise, I saw the muscles in the back of its neck relax a little. So it could understand me, at least somewhat. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, it had been following my orders.

Whatever had motivated it to speak in the cistern below the Hollow Shades had past. It would remain silent now.

I patted it awkwardly on one of its big clawed arms and turned back to the room. Not knowing what to do while Brisk picked at the lock, I walked along the rows of desks with Xayah slowly trotting beside me.

“Why do you think this place is still so intact?” My zebra friend asked, looking at the many terminals cautiously. “I have never seen anything like this in the wasteland before. Granted I did not do very much traveling before we met.”

I shrugged. “No idea. It just seems wrong.”

Xayah glanced nervously back at the Hellhound. “I am glad you are deciding to free that thing, but how do you plan to do that without it attacking you?”

I gave her yet another shrug. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

Eventually, I picked a terminal at random and stopped in front of it. I clicked it on and scrolled through the different files. There were a few logs that had been saved to it, all of which had been named very creatively log #1, log #2, and so on.

I clicked the first log and let it open up

<BIOENGINEERING TERMINAL 8A>

>Log #1

>So a buddy of mine told me to keep note of all the stuff I need to do to help me remember everything. Kept saying that I have shit memory or something. Told me to write everything I need to do down so I won’t forget it. Shit, I think I said that already- point is, I’m taking his advice so, yeah… just bear with me, okay.

>Anyway, Twilight has us working around the clock on that strange Impelled Metamorphosis Potion stuff they’ve been shipping in from the Hippocratic Research Building. That stuff gives me the creeps. I can’t tell if the label on it is supposed to be a cruel joke or not, cause if it isn’t then nopony should be meddling with that shit. I mean, ‘Don’t touch, Breath or Stare at’? Are you kidding! I don’t want to go anywhere near the stuff. Not to mention the nasty side effects that it has. Just the other day, I heard somepony fell into a vat of it, apparently they currently have tentacles growing out of their eye sockets and an extra seven mouths. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard for having somehow managed to survive the ordeal.

>In any case, the big purple unicorn herself has us making sure every vat of that I.M.P. shit is perfect before we ship it off to Maripony. We’ve been ordered to dump all flawed batches of I.M.P. into the cave system below the Shades where it won’t hurt any pony. I just hope that that’s far enough away. That stuff is weird and I sure as hell don't want tentacles growing out of my eyes.

>I’ll update this on any other advancements in the I.M.P. production.

I read over it again to make sure I had read everything right. Tentacles and extra mouths? Sounded offley familiar. My best guess was that this Impelled Metamorphosis Potion they had been dumping in the caves had been the cause of the strange mutated creatures we had seen. No doubt the balefire radiation had only enhanced it, but that at least explained why these things were so different here from everywhere else in the wasteland.

Curious, I clicked open the next log and started reading its contents.

<BIOENGINEERING TERMINAL 8A>

>Log #2

>That I.M.P. is causing more deaths around here than the MAS is willing to admit! Daisy accidentally looked too long at one of those rainbow vats yesterday and she blew up! I’m not even fucking with you! They were serious when they said don’t stare at it! Then I found out this morning that the Ministry of Image was here and that there never was a record of a Daisy Wallflower in the MAS! They’re just fucking erasing us to cover their own tracks! Daisy was a good mare, and the fact that they can just pretend she didn’t exist is terrible!

>Fuck, I don’t even know how to take all this- it all just seems so crazy. Like some bullshit dystopian novel I read back in grade school.

>Weird conspiracies aside, the I.M.P. seems to be coming along pretty good. We’ve been getting positive responses out in Maripony, so I guess we must be doing something right. Not that they bother to tell us out here what the shit’s actually for, that's apparently some big ministry secret or something. Doesn’t matter. We all get the day off tomorrow, apparently Twilight is meeting with some important guests or something that she doesn’t want us to see. I don’t know who the hell it is, but I ain’t complaining about getting the day off. They should drop by more often.

That didn’t tell me as much as I would have liked. Of course, the fact that the Ministry of Image was covering up for accidents that happened was rather disturbing, though not really of any value to me.

I was about to read another log when a small clatter sounded from down the hall we had been yet to enter. My head shot up and looked towards the door. There didn’t seem to be anything there… but that didn’t mean nothing was. I glanced down at my EFS. I spotted one lone green bar.

I raised Boneless and slowly pulled myself towards the door.

“Amber? What is it?” Xayah asked from beside me, crouching down a little and letting her hoof hover over the gem on her stealth cloak. “See something?”

I narrowed my eyes at the doorway. “I don’t know… I’m seeing movement on my EFS. It’s not hostile,” I took another step closer to the door.

“Need some company?” Xayah whispered, pulling out her own sniper.

I waited for a second, my eyes still locked on the doorway. Then, from down the hall I saw it. A small filly was staring at me, half its face and body obscured behind a wall. The darkness of the hallway masked most of its colours in shadows, but I could still make out the fillies mane… my mane. The image of a red screwdriver rest on the fillies flank. Even from here, the symbol seemed to be calling to me. A thin, mischievous smile was etched across the small fillies face. A second later and it was gone, darting behind the doorway and into one of the rooms down the hall.

I shook my head. “You stay here. I’m going to go check it out?”

Xayah looked up at me nervously. “Are you sure? I find it unwise to split up in this place.”

I just shook my head again and moved into the hallway. “I’ll be fine. Just be ready in case something goes wrong,” I said.

I pushed down the hall, each step seeming to echo around me. I hated this place, it felt sick. I could sense movement in the far room, but I couldn’t seem to hear or see anything.

I slowly pushed the door open with the tip of my shotgun. The door swung inwards with a creak, revealing the room beyond. I gulped as I took the small, dusty room within. It was an abandoned nursery. Wooden blocks and stuffed animals lay scattered across the floor as if the fillies and colts that had once played with them had simply disappeared and left them behind. Three baby blue cribs sat in a half circle in the middle of the room, the center crib slowly rocked back and forth as if being rocked by a ghost.

I took a shaky breath. “Hello? Anypony in here?” I knew they were. A single green bar was still present on my EFS. “It’s okay, you can come out,” I tried to sound soothing and calm, but the whole ordeal had me a little too nervous to fully hide the terrified squeak in my voice.

From behind one of the cribs, I saw a pair of large pale eyes peeking over the rail and staring at me. Its large amber pupils seemed to glow slightly in the dark like a cat. I tried to get a better look at it, but all I could make out were those amber eyes and slightly curly pink mane streaked with blue.

I gulped and tried again. “Who- er… what are you? You’ve been following me for quite a while now, haven't you?” This was what? The third time I had spotted this tiny version of myself. I took a step forward, only for it to take a timid step back. I tried talking to it again. “Why do you look like me? Or a younger me anyway?”

The filly me’s mouth opened slightly as if preparing to say something. It hesitated for a second, its devious grin slowly shifting to a slightly more nervous expression.

“HA! Got it!” I heard Brisk yell from back down the hallway. I jumped a little at his outburst and turned to look out the door. I realized my mistake too late and spun back only to find the filly me gone. Once again, it had vanished before I had a chance to find out who or what it was.

“What the fuck is going on…” I muttered to myself as I left the room and slowly walked back out to join my friends.

True to what Brisk had said, the large double doors now lay open, letting us enter the large office on the other side. The room could only be described as organised chaos. Books upon books lay in organised heaps on the floor and the walls were lined with towering wooden bookshelves that had been categorized in such a complex and intricate manner that it actually became harder to find what you were looking for. A book covered desk sat in the center of the room with a flickering terminal on it. On the far wall was a large painting of the Ministry mare herself, Twilight Sparkle.

I had never taken Twilight to be the kind of pony to hang a large picture of herself on her office wall. Granted I only knew her from vague quotes and references in old pre war textbooks. That aside, the painting was gorgeous. The painting was of Twilight standing in an almost heroic pose with the magnificent site of Canterlot castle in the back, five books floating around her in her sparkling magic and the image of a six pointed star had been emblazoned on the golden sky behind her.

Brisk groaned the second he saw the room and the endless piles of books that were scattered around the area. “Are you kidding me! I spent all that work picking that lock, and Twilight was a fucking egghead!”

I grinned at him. “I think you should read more bro, maybe you could get some more brain cells in that big empty head of yours,” I joked, picking up the first book I could find and looking it over. I was in book heaven right now, and I was loving it.

Brisk just gave me a smug smirk and chuckled a little. “I’m perfectly happy with my two brain cells as it is thank you!” He stuck his tongue out at me playfully.

“Well it doesn’t look like Kamari is here, or that there is a passage here that might take us to him,” Pyre grunted, picking a book up herself and flipping through a couple pages. Deciding she had no interest in the book, she shot a small burst of fire from her flamers and turned the old book to ash. My heart cried a little at the sight.

“So what do we do? Try a different hallway and hope for the best?” Shade asked, peering into the room from the main office area. “We probably shouldn’t linger in any place for too long.”

My eyes locked on the terminal on Twilight's large desk. “Give me a second, maybe we can find some answers in that teminal there,” I turned back and addressed all my friends more directly. “Look around and see if you can find a layout of the building. There’s probably one lying around somewhere.”

Brisk gave me a quick salute and began rummaging through everything with Xayah. I turned back to face the terminal and turned it on. To my surprise, it was unlocked. The first log caught my eye and I clicked on it.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #1 Painting

>Rarity just came by and dropped off this painting for me. Not my usual choice in decor, but I appreciate the thought. It’s been so long since all of us have been together, soI ’m not going to complain when I get the chance to catch up. I believe she gave a painting to Rainbow and Applejack as well. I think she’s trying to keep us all connected through all of this, I really hope she can.

>I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what to do with it. Most of my offices don’t really have room for a painting this large and I don’t know if I really want a big portrait of myself hanging above my desk, despite its intentions. I’ll probably leave it here in the Hollow Shades. I don’t come out here very often, but I simply can’t just get rid of a gift with so much heart in it.

>At the very least I can use it to cover that ugly back exit Princess Luna insisted I have. I understand what she was thinking, and I don’t disagree with her, but did the architect really need to have it built a few feet off the ground? It looks ridiculous.

Finishing the log, I quickly moved onto the next one, deciding that the information about the painting really wasn’t all that interesting or important to me at the moment. I spotted a file that read, ‘Important guest - war delegations’. Sounded interesting enough.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #6 Important guest - war delegations

>They have agreed to have a private meeting with me tomorrow! If this all works out, then we might finally be able to get that edge over the zebras. Just imagine what we can accomplish if we combine the magic we have been researching here with that of the [REDACTED]! And if we get the Ministry of Image involved, we might be able to make better infiltration methods than even the zebras currently have!

>I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Nothing has been agreed to yet, and our alliance is still completely hypothetical. I have ordered everypony in the MAS that is uninvolved in the delegations to remain home tomorrow. While I have no doubt that [REDACTED] and her [REDACTED] will have no issue meeting me without drawing too much attention to themselves, I really want to make sure that this goes off without a hitch. The last few delegations have not really gone over too well.

>Silver Ace will be accompanying me to this delegation. He is very eager to hear the outcome, and I have no doubt that he wants to have [REDACTED] involved with [REDACTED]. I guess only tomorrow will tell what will happen for sure.

I stared at the terminal in frustration. If these ponies that Twilight was meeting with had only been mentioned once, I might not have minded. But this was the third fucking time somepony had mentioned them and I still had no idea who they were. The fact that their names had been straight up redacted from the terminal was almost insulting.

With a groan, I flipped to the next log titled, ‘B.S.S.G.’ With any luck, I’d get something more interesting out of this log than the last two.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #7 B.S.S.G.

>Applejack has finally finished having the MWT instal the B.S.S.G. or Ballistics Surface Shield Generator into the MAS tower here in the Hollow Shades. The MWT initially created it to install into those Steel Ranger suits to create an indestructible suit of power armour. Applejack is taking making those armours very seriously since Big Mac- Unfortunately, while it does help to keep the armour protected, it seems to be doing very little to help the ponies within, and it is currently far too bulky to be properly installed into a combat based suit of armour. Not to mention too expensive. Pureblood doesn’t seem to be very interested in investing in it...

>Thankfully, it seems perfect for structures. On the few tests we've done, structures installed with these can withstand practically anything. I don’t plan on testing out a full on Balefire bomb on the building, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it held. With any luck, it should make Zebra’s getting their hands on I.M.P. samples or sabotaging our operations out here a lot harder.

>The way the B.S.S.G. work’s is fairly simple. Once activated, it will make a scan of the structure and project a powerful magical field around the whole thing. The walls and floors are no less destructible than they were before, but a thin two way shield will have been snuggly fitted around the structure to give it that appearance. It really is a magical and technological marvel. Applejack should be really proud of this, even if it doesn't have quite the functionality that she wanted.

So that was it. The reason the building seemed to be well preserved was because it was. This B.S.S.G. had created some sort of magical force field that had protected the MAS tower, even to this day. It was truly amazing what ponies are able to create if given the chance. I suppose that only made the war more tragic.

With my hope renewed that the terminal might actually contain some interesting information, I turned my attention to the last log on the terminal, simply skipping over all of the others. The log was titled, ‘Luna Prime’. Without hesitating, I opened it up.

<TWILIGHT SPARKLES TERMINAL 42A>

>Log #59 Luna Prime

>[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].

>[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED].

I stared at the file for a second, lazily reading over the repeated word. I would read a few lines of it before I would lose my spot and gave up trying to read it all together. Finally I just sighed. “Well that was anticlimactic.”

My Hellhound gave a loud growl from where it was standing guard outside the room, alerting us to the quick clopping of multiple hooves powering down the hallway towards us. Before we had time to properly react, the Hellhounds growl turned to a booming roar. There was the sudden swish of a blade and the roaring went silent.

We all turned to face the doorway. A large, round object covered in thick, glossy black fur tubbled through the door and stopped at my hooves. I stared down at it in horror, making out the glazed over eyes staring up at me from my Hellound’s now severed head.

A pang of guilt shot through me. It had died my slave. I had kept saying I would free it, and I never did. I closed my eyes for a second, taking a deep breath to calm myself.

“I’ll do right by you somehow,” I whispered to myself, my voice so quiet I doubted that anypony else could hear me. I took a quick second to mourn for the Hellhound before opening my eyes and taking in the intruders.

My eyes met Azar’s powerful gaze. The strange dark grey and violet zebra stood in the large doorway to the main office, one of the curved zebra scimitars held in his hoof. He stood proudly, one striped hoof placed firmly on the limp and headless corpse of my Hellhound.

Five zebra’s flanked him. Two were equipped with similar curved blades, while the other three held large zebra sniper rifles up and aimed at us. They all had zebra stealth cloaks draped over them.

I stared the zebra down for a few seconds, taking him in. He was here, alive and well. Which meant he had done the impossible. Azar had defeated Crank in combat. The idea seemed almost laughable, yet was so very terrifying.

Not for the first time, I realized how dangerous this mysterious Azar really was.

Azar’s violet eyes shifted to look at Shade who had taken to cowering behind me. He gave the dark purple pony a twisted grin. “I see you all made it across the Glowing Sea. You all impress me so,” Azar said calmly, his voice as headstrong and authoritative as always. “To think I thought of you all as little more than pawns in Kamari’s game, I was clearly mistaken.”

I took a step forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of my friends. I knew we didn’t stand a chance fighting this zebra, so I figured the best course of action was to talk my way out of the situation. “We aren’t here for you Azar. We’re just after Kamari.”

Azar just cocked his head at me in slight confusion. “And you expect me to simply step aside? I think not. You ponies will not be leaving this tower alive.”

Multiple turrets popped out from the ceiling and walls, their barrels swiveling down to aim at all of us. I gulped as I took in the sudden extra firepower that was pointed towards us. I counted fifteen turrets in total.

I heard the heavy hoofsteps of Pyre as she marched forwards. For once, she seemed to be wanting to back me up on getting out of this in a more diplomatic fashion. “Oh come now, I think Kamari will be very interested in seeing us. You’d hate to need to be the zebra that told him you killed us.”

The attempt was foalish and clearly played on the hopes that Azar was less intelligent than he really was. Instead he simply gave us all a wide grin. “Oh Kamari can see you fine,” He raised his head to look up at the huge monitor that hung from the ceiling. “Everything working on your end Kamari?”

There was a sudden buzz of static and a foul, grating laughter filled the room. The sound bounced off the tall, metal walls, making the laugh echo around us as if it were coming from every direction. “Oh, I am seeing everything perfectly Azar,” A voice boomed out over the speakers. The voice was gravelly and deep, filled with a sick sounding gargle that dramatically contrasted its rhythmic tone.

The monitor flickered to life above us, at first showing little more than static before it began to faze into a real picture. A zebra glared down at us through the screen, his emerald eyes landed on me, making me freeze.

I let out a heavy breath and whispered in a fearful tone. “Kamari…”

Kamari wasn’t just any zebra, he was a zebra ghoul. But more than that, he was a glowing zebra ghoul. Where once he might have had a dazzling white coat, it had been stripped away and burned, now resembling black rotting flesh and scabs. His stripes, which to Xayah’s dismay were strange swirls and glyphs that resembled orbital paths of planets more than actual stripes, now glowed a vile, baleful green. His scarred and wrinkled face was marked with glowing claw like spirals criss crossing into horrific images.

And his eyes… They were the worst part. They were old and seemed to be filled with dark knowledge I could never hope to truly understand. Strong, powerful, intimidating; I found myself shivering just looking into them. But they seemed sad and tired too, like a pony that had seen and done far more horrors than any sane pony should be able to bear. Dark bags had formed below his baleful green eyes, but I couldn’t tell if it was from fatigue or simply a permanent part of his dark rotting flesh.

I could sense Xayah trembling behind me as she stared up at the horrifying monstrosity that at one point had been a zebra. “Power of the stars on their side,” She breathed, rephrasing what we had heard one of the zebras say back in Stable 25. I could hear the tremor of fear in her voice.

“So you are the ponies that have been such a thorn in my side,” Kamari spoke, his voice sending more shivers racing down my spine. He seemed almost bored with our presence, if not a little amused. “It is good to finally meet you.”

“Where are you!” I snarled, trying my best to hide my fear. Even while not in the room with him, he was terrifying.

Kamari chuckled, clearly amused by my obvious surprise and fear. “Irrelevant. You will never reach me.”

I could feel my ever growing rage brewing inside of me, trying to push itself to the surface. This was the monster responsible for the death of Stable 25! All my pain and strife had been because of him! And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t seem to let that rage take me as it usually did. Kamari’s sudden presence had shaken me, kept me off kilter.

“I’m going to kill you!” I growled up at him, trying my best to sound intimidating. What came out was little more than a sad squeak.

Kamari just stared down at me for a second, almost surprised by my statement. Then he laughed. His cold laughter shot through me like a bullet, shredding me of any confidence I might have been holding. “You are most amusing Amber Aura,” The glowing zebra ghoul chuckled, pulling himself back together. “But you are far too naive. This conversation is over. Azar, deal with them.”

The screen shut off, once again reverting to a moment of buzzing static before going dark altogether. My heart sank as the screen shut off. I could feel my anger finally push through. “You get back here! We aren't finished with you yet!” I screamed, waving my hoof frantically at the large monitor above us, as if hoping it would come back on line. “Kamari! Get back here!”

Azar chuckled at me from across the room as he watched my antics. He stepped over the slumped body of the Hellhound and began approaching me at an alarming rate. “Kamari is correct, you ponies are most entertaining. Unfortunately, this is where we must end this.”

I swirled around and glared at the strange purple zebra. “You bring him back! You bring him back right now or I swear...!” I shouted, raising Boneless and leveling it with Azar’s head.

Azar just gave my triple barrel shotgun a lazy look and kept advancing. “I fear that shall not happen,” He turned to look at the five zebras that were flanking him, his voice hardening. “Kill them!”

Before I could react, Brisk and Pyre rushed past me and slammed the large doors to Twilight’s office. I could hear the sound of automatic fire as the turrets in the room beyond opened fire upon the door. Hole were blasted through the sturdy oak wood as their bullets tore into the surface. Seconds after, the door shook as the zebra’s began ramming themselves against it, trying to knock it down.

The door was strong, but it couldn’t hold somepony as powerful as Azar for long.

I turned back to my friends, ducking slightly as one of the turrets shot a bullet through the door and whizzing over my head. “Anypony got a plan!” I shouted over the gunfire and ramming. All I saw were scared expressions in return.

“Come on out Amber! You are only stalling the inevitable!” Azar chuckled from beyond the door. There was a loud thump as he rammed himself into the door. The door shuddered, almost being knocked from its hinges from his force.

I pushed my shoulders up against the door, trying to keep it from collapsing in. A bullet burst through the wood next to my head making me jump.

With my back against the door, I was able to fully take in the room. There was no escape save for the way we came in! We were trapped.

Then my eyes landed on the large portrait of Twilight Sparkle at the back of the room. What had she said in her terminal? That she would use it to cover a back exit?

“The painting! Move the painting!” I shouted over the din.

Xayah made it to the painting first and pushed it aside. Sure enough, the doors to a small elevator escape lay beyond it a few feet off the ground, just as Twilight’s terminal had suggested it would be.

“Everypony in! Now!” Pyre roared, hoping up into the elevator.

I grimaced as I managed to push a chair up against the door to help barricade it. “Just so you know, I have the worst track record when it comes to not having elevators collapse when I’m on them!” I said, only half joking.

I pulled a trembling Shade of the ground and pushed her into the elevator. She gave a small squeak of fear as I lifted her up, but didn’t complain.

“What floor!?” Pyre asked hastily, her voice cutting through the banging of the door and boom of automatic gunfire. Her eyes scanned the large collection of buttons beside the door. “Shit this place has a lot of floors…”

“Don’t care, just get us out of here!” I screamed back, once again ducking as another bullet burst through the hard wood of the door. I was far enough away from the door that those bullets couldn’t hit me, but I ducked anyway.

“Top floor it is then!” Pyre shouted back, pushing the topmost button with a hoof. At once, the elevator began moving upwards. I was surprised to find it’s movement fluid and not janky like the last two elevators I had been in.

Was this how elevators were supposed to move?

The doors to Twilights office burst open. Azar strode in, his eyes staring at us from across the room. At once, his violet stripes began to glow a dark purple. To my surprise, a black magical aura wrapped around the elevator. The elevator jerked, and then dropped a bit as Azar’s oddly powerful magic held it in place.

Azar could do magic! Who the fuck was this zebra!

Sparks burst from the side of the elevator as Azar’s dark magic ripped the elevator from it’s tracks. Shade fell into me as the elevator jerked and slanted slightly.

Xayah raised her sniper and fired off two shots into Azar’s chest. The mighty zebra took a small step back from the impact, but seemed generally unfazed.

The other three zebra’s were beginning to close in on us now, their long curved blades held tight in their mouths as they galloped forwards. The first one managed to rush all the way across the room and leap towards the elevator before I managed to take a swing at them with my baton. The sparking rod cracked against their head, staggering them, but not dropping them.

“Anypony have a plan!?” Pyre called out, her flamers blasting to life as the other zebra’s neared. She spun around and gave a heavy buck to one of the zebras as they leapt into the elevator, the attack sending the zebra flying back out of the elevator. “Because I feel like right now would be a really good time for a plan!”

I did have a plan, but I didn’t like it. I pulled out my Balefire Egg Launcher and heaved it up to rest on my shoulder. “Damn, I was hoping to use this on Kamari…” I grunted, staggering slightly from the heavy weight of the weapon.

“Well we can’t kill Kamari if we don’t get to him!” Pyre pointed out, hoping to the side to avoid a blast from one of the zebra’s snipers. “So now might be a good time to use it!”

Brisk threw his front hooves up in the air frantically. “Wait!” I glanced over at him to see what the problem was. He gave me a smug grin. “Can I fire it sis? Pleasepleasepleaseplease!”

I shrugged and passed the massive weapon over to him. He grinned maniacally as he hoised the huge gun over his own shoulder.

Azar’s eyes opened. They no longer held pupils, but rather glowed with a dark violet light. Then they revered back to normal as he spotted the huge Balefire Egg launcher that was aimed right at him. Fear flickered across his face for a second as he took in the huge gun. He opened his mouth to say something, but Brisk didn’t give him time.

“Say hello to my little friend!” Brisk yelled joyously. He pulled the trigger on the Balefire Egg Launcher and fired off it’s final shot. The force of the blast sent Brisk flying back and off his hooves where he crashed into the back wall of the elevator with a thunk. But the balefire egg still shot true.

Azar’s stripes dropped their strange glow as he began backpedaling, trying to move away from the incoming attack. He got far enough back to avoid being hit directly, but not far enough to evade it altogether.

The balefire egg exploded, green fire erupted throughout the room and blinded us. The ear deafening boom of the blast exploded through the room, drowning out all other noise. The five zebra’s assailing us were blown apart, their limbs violently ripped from their bodies or bursting into paste. I could see Azar on the far side of the room, his face twisted in pain and his stripes glowing as his magic began regrowing his now obliterated legs.

Now torn from the elevator tracks and no longer held aloft in Azar’s magic, the elevator dropped. The movement was sudden, making it feel like my stomach was pushed up into my mouth. The sides of the elevator skidded against the walls of the shaft, sparks shooting over us from every direction.

I hate elevators...

We were dropping down fast, so fast that I found myself flattened to the roof of the elevator. Fear shot through me as we plumbited. If we hit the ground at this speed, we would die!

I reached out with my magic, trying to slow our descent with my telekinesis. I felt the elevator lose a bit of momentum, but we were still going really fast. Lights were flashing past me, making it hard to keep my focus on maintaining my magic. Shade’s horn beside me started glowing, as she caught onto what I was doing and tried to add her magic to mine. The elevator slowed a little more…

I screamed in both pain and determination as I put everything I had into holding the spell. My horn throbbed and pain shot through my whole body. Then we hit the ground floor and everything went dark.

I wasn’t in my body, or any body for that matter. I floated a few feet in the air, once again a simple observer of the scene to unfold. Around me was a heavy darkness that settled around the room like a thick blanket. Through the shadows though, I could see the faint image of towering metal walls that rose up around me on all sides.

A thin beam of golden light flashed down from the ceiling, illuminating a large platform in the center of the room. I tried to look through the gloom to see what was creating the light, but it was still too dark to see anything above me.

Changing my gaze to look at the platform, I found myself looking down at four metallic figures standing in an unorganised clump. The large metal figure at the head of the group caught my attention the most.

It had only been about a day since I had seen him in the flesh… or at least, as much flesh as he still had, yet it felt almost alien to see him once again as the horrifying cyber alicorn. Having those strange visions of his past had made me almost forget how fearsome he truly was.

Crank stood at the head of the group of cyber ponies, his body now comprised mainly of metal and machines. His large blade like wings were neatly folded up against his side and his eyes once more glowed a deep red.

I had thought I was through seeing strange glimpses of Crank’s past. Apparently not.

“Is Diesel dead?” A vial nasally voice echoed down from above us. I had heard this voice before when I had gone through Inferno’s memories. It sounded familiar though, even beyond that fact. I couldn’t place my hoof on it.

Steel Blade took a step forward, his head low as he bowed to whomever was above us. “He is my lord. We made sure of it,” The other cyber ponies just groaned at his words.

“Good,” The voice soothed. “I will not allow traitors of our great cause to simply walk free. Now, I have another task for you all...”

Crank pushed Steel Blade back behind him with a wing and took a step forward, his front hooves resting on the edge of the platform. “If you will, I’d like to talk with you alone for a moment,” Crank grunted, his voice steady.

Inferno sneered from behind him. “Oh, you got something you don’t want us to hear?” The insane cyber pony cackled, his flamers shooting off a small burst of flame. “Wouldn’t happen to be about that cute little mare of your’s, would it? Not like she’d love you with what you’ve become. Perhaps if we run into her I’ll…”

Inferno never finished his sentence. Crank’s tail lashed out and ripped out his throat, turning whatever Inferno was going to say into a sickening gargle. Crank was on top of him in a second, his tesla cannons charging and his face meer inches from Inferno’s.

“Mention her again, and I will kill you!” Crank growled down at Inferno, his burning red eyes piercing into the cyber pony below him like a knife.

The large gash on Inferno’s neck pulled itself back together, once more giving him the ability to speak. Inferno laughed, trying to pull himself up from under Crank. Crank simply held him down, not giving him the satisfaction of standing. “Kill me then, see if I care. We both know I like the pain!”

“Enough!” The voice from above bellowed, making the four cyber ponies temporarily freeze.

Steel Blade bowed low again, keeping his eyes low. “Of course my lord. Your wish is my command.”

Tripwire slapped Steel Blade across the back of the head, making the bowing cyber pony stumble slightly. “Oh can it with your preaching,” he growled, his voice low enough to not make too loud of a noise.

“I will speak with you,” The voice agreed at last, it's high and nasally tone sounding slightly more exasperated than before. “The rest of you are dismissed.”

Inferno gave Crank a final scowl, before pulling himself up and marching out of the room with Tripwire and Steel Blade. Crank watched them leave, his eyes never once leaving them as they stalked towards the door. As soon as the door closed he returned his gaze to whomever was above us.

“You need to let me see her,” Crank demanded, stomping his hoof on the ground and making the whole chamber shake. “I have done everything you asked without question for the last four years. I deserve to see her again.”

A sick, snooty laugh echoed through the chamber. “That was not the deal Crank,” The voice mocked. “The deal was that in exchange for her freedom, you were to work for me. I decide when you have paid off that debt in full. Until then, you will do as I decree!”

Crank’s eyes glowed brighter for a second and his massive tesla cannons began to crackle with deadly energy. For a second I thought he was actually going to attack. Then he paused, the slow rumbling sound of his tesla cannons charging up dying.

“Let me do this,” Crank insisted, his voice taking on a slightly more civil tone. “Let me find her and I’ll never ask you for anything again. Please, just this once…” he was begging now.

There was silence from the voice for a moment as it pondered what to do. Finally it responded, its voice low and threatening. “You have three days. I expect you to return or there will be consequences.”

With that, the world swirled away into darkness.

I woke up to the feeling of somepony shaking me awake. I slowly let my eyes flutter open to take in the dark and gloomy room around me.

Half of the elevator lay in a ruined wreck off to one side of the room, the other half lay on the far side of a thick metal wall that had been completely reduced to rubble. Much of the ceiling had caved in, making it impossible to tell how big the room had once been. A long dark tunnel lay to my left, I had no idea where it led.

The only light in the room was a slow and seemingly patternless blinking light in the smashed elevator and the dull green glow of Shade’s pipbuck beside me.

I sat up and looked over to Shade who looked relieved to see that I wasn’t dead. She was bleeding a little from a small gash on her head and she was covered in a couple of bruises, but she seemed relatively okay. “Oh thank the goddesses, you stopped breathing and I thought… I thought…” Shade had to stop herself and catch her breath.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, pulling myself up to my hooves. I staggered slightly as all the blood rushed to my head and made me dizzy. Shade rushed to my side to help support me, but I quickly pushed her away. I didn’t want her help.

I quickly looked around the room, trying to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important. I had, or rather, the room was missing something important. “Where is everypony?” I asked, fear trickling into my voice. I spotted Brisk’s saddlebags half covered in rubble. I rushed over and picked it up.

Goddesses, please don’t be dead.

“We’re okay! But we are a little stuck over here,” I heard the muffled sound of Brisk’s voice from the other side of the collapsed wall. “At least, Pyre and I are.”

I quickly rushed up to the pile of rubble and tried to move it aside to get to my friends. The mound of heavy rock and metal between us refused to budge. “Are you two alright?” I called back.

I heard Pyre Blaze give a loud, pained groan. “A little dinged up, but alive. How are things on your side?”

I glanced back at Shade. “We should be okay, just a few cuts and bruises. Any idea what happened to Xayah? Is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” Brisk spoke up, his voice filled with worry. “We haven’t seen her,”

I image of Xayah crushed and suffecating below all the rubble flashed through my mind. Fear flared through me and I immediately began desperately trying to dig through the rubble. I managed to do little more than move a couple of the smaller rocks aside.

“Xayah! Xayah!” I cried out desperately. My fear was slowly giving way to panic. I couldn’t lose her, I just couldn’t!

I heard a small muffled cough from somewhere to the right of me. “I’m- I’m alive…” Xayah’s voice croaked out. She sounded weak and far away. I felt my whole body go weak with relief. “I- I think my hoof is broken.”

My relief dissipated. “Okay, don’t worry, we’re coming for you. I’ll get you out of here,” I insisted, hoping to comfort my injured friend somehow. I turned back to where Brisk and Pyre were trapped behind the wall. “Can you guys find a way out of there?”

I heard a bit of mumbling as Brisk and Pyre exchanged a few words with each other. “There’s a tunnel in here, but we don’t know where it leads,” I heard the muffled voice of Brisk say. “Neither of our EFS’ are detecting anything, but I guess that doesn’t mean much in the Hollow Shades.”

I gulped, it didn’t. And we weren’t just in the caves below the Hollow Shades anymore, we were in the Glowing Sea. There was bound to be some awful shit down here.

“Just try and do the best you can. See if we can meet up with each other,” I ordered, trying to keep the tremors out of my voice. “Shade and I will do the same. We can do this.”

“You sure? I think we already went over how bad of an idea it is to split up in this place,” Pyre said gruffly. I could hear her trying to break apart the wall of rubble between us, to little effect.

“Do we have any other choice?” I retorted back, already knowing the answer. Pyre remained silent.

“Alright, we’ll meet up with you,” Brisk affirmed, I could hear him and Pyre start moving away. His hoofsteps paused. “Oh and Amber?”

“Yeah?”

I heard Brisk take a deep breath. “Just… Stay safe sis, okay? We haven’t come all this way for nothing, remember that. No matter what Kamari says.”

I let a small grin reach my face. “I won’t. That asshole is going to pay,” My grin faltered as I heard the two of them rushing off. I turned back to where Xayah was obscured behind the broken wall. “Xayah, are you still there?”

There was a small cough in response, followed by a timid whimper. “Yes, I am here.”

“Can you walk?” I asked, afraid of hearing the answer. “If you can, try and find someplace safe that we can find you. We are coming for you. I’m not leaving without you.”

I heard some shuffling on the far side of the wall. “I am not sure, but I will try. Thank you.”

I turned back to Shade, who was looking increasingly worried. “You’re coming with me. Come on,” I slung Brisk’s saddlebag over my back and started walking down the tunnel, praying it led me back to my friends somehow.

“A-Amber?” Shade whimpered, taking a few timid steps after me.

“What?” I half groaned half snarled at her, slowing my pace slightly so she could catch up with me. “What do you want?”

Shade bit her trembling lower lip for a second. “It’s just that… never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

I grunted and kept walking down the tunnel. Of all the ponies to be stuck with, I had to be stuck with this treacherous pony. I wanted to cry just thinking that thought. What had happened to our friendship? So much for friendship being magic I suppose.

The tunnel had started off as a long metal hallway, but very quickly that began to change. The smooth black metal gave way to jagged rocks and the only proof of ponies ever being down here were a collection of metal beams that held up some of the weaker parts of the roof. The occasional lantern lay against the wall. Although the flame inside them had long since gone out, I could still smell the scent of oil on them. They had been used recently.

“Looks like this place used to be a mine of some sort,” Shade remarked, trotting ahead of me a little to take a look at a broken down minecart in front of us. “What the fuck do you suppose the Ministry of Arcane Science needed a mine for? And why below their own hub?”

We let those questions hang above us in the air, neither of us having the answers to them. Turning the corner, we found a small room that had been dug into the side of the rock tunnel to make a small office. Spotting a terminal inside, I quickly ducked into it to investigate.

The room wasn’t very large, with just enough space to fit the two of us inside without any discomfort. The walls had been fitted with a cold metal lining, making the office feel a little less like a cave than it really was. The terminal I had spotted sat on a wooden desk at the back of the room next to a curled up skeleton.

I pulled myself into the chair behind the desk and clicked on the terminal. As I had expected, it was locked. “Give me a sec, I’m just going to hack this terminal,” I said, not bothering to look up at Shade as I began typing.

I clicked the first password option, only for the computer to tell me I had picked the wrong one. Before I had the chance to try again, the terminal clicked.

>Access Granted

I blinked, trying to figure out why it opened. I glanced up at Shade to find her meddling with the back of the terminal with a screwdriver. I let my mouth fall open a bit.

“H-how did you do that?” I asked in amazement, looking back and forth from the unlocked terminal to Shade. “You can’t just hack a terminal without hacking it! It's against the rules or something!”

Shade just gave me a sly, yet nervous look. “I was the head of maintenance for a reason kiddo. They don’t just let anypony overlook machinery that could get everypony killed,” She almost looked proud for a moment, before realizing she had quite literally gotten everypony killed. Her face dropped. “Sorry.”

I sighed, tired of being reminded about the tragedy of Stable 25. “Don’t mention it. I know,” I said softly, ignoring the tight knot that had formed in my stomach. “I’m sorry too,” I didn’t fully know what I was apologizing for, but it felt like the right thing to say.

Shade seemed to be a little comforted by that, though clearly a little taken aback as well.

I turned away from her and looked through the terminal. There were only a few entries, none of which really caught my eye. That is until I spotted one labeled ‘Luna Prime’. There it was again. Hopefully this time it wasn’t simply ‘redacted’.

I clicked the log open.

<Security Terminal 68C>

>Log #4 Luna Prime

>As I said in my last log, I don’t know what the fuck Twilight has us down here looking for. We’ve been spending a lot of resources digging, and nopony will even tell us why. The only thing we are told is to report something if we find something. I know, not very descriptive, right? But here’s where things get interesting. See there’s a rumor going around that Twilight is looking for something for this top secret project she’s working on called Luna prime. Fuck if I know what that is, but some ponies have been saying its some sort of mega spell. Spooky stuff…

>Course then we stumbled across that weird Cistern down in the caves. Nopony knows why it's there or even how it’s there, just that it is. Now Twilight’s got us digging in it and searching it inside and out for anything of interest, so my bits are on it being connected somehow.

>I don’t like it down here though. Things are weird, and I always feel like I’m being watched. Not to mention that theres this spooky as fuck carving on the monolith of a creepy pony made out of shadows. Gives me the willies.

>Twilight was nice enough to install a medical bay into the cavern though. Guess she’s worried something bad is gonna happen like when they found the place. Not that I’d want to be stuck in a hospital down here. I don’t even want to imagine trying to sleep the night in these spooky as fuck caves. Probably wouldn't be found in the morning.

So that explained what the ministry was doing down here… kinda. Okay, actually, that terminal told me less than nothing. I still had no idea what they were looking for. I skimmed through the rest of the terminal entries, but didn’t seem to find anything of interest.

“Shit, someponies coming,” Shade whispered to me, glancing out the doorway and into the tunnel outside.

My ears picked up as I heard the sound of rushing hoofsteps. “Our friends?” I asked hopefully. Please tell me they had found us.

Shade shook her head. “Zebras,” She hissed back.

Damn it. I quickly pulled Shade away from the door and behind the desk. Not two seconds later a group of zebras rushed past the room. They didn’t speak or make much noise, signs of true assassins.

I heard one of the zebras stop. There was the small clopping of hooves as they slowly strode into the room. I put my hoof over Shades mouth to keep her quiet.

I had no doubt I could take on this zebra, but I had no idea how many there were, and the last thing I wanted to do was alert more of our location.

After a few seconds, the zebra grunted and stalked out of the room, their hoofsteps getting quieter and quieter the further away they got. Once I was sure they were gone, I pulled myself out from behind the desk.

“We should get moving,” I said flatly, slinking over to the door and peering out. I didn’t see anything, nor did my EFS pick up on any movement. “The longer we stay here, the more likely we get caught.”

Shade quietly agreed and followed me out of the office as we continued down the tunnel. Up ahead, the mineshaft seemed to go on into the gloom with no signs of opening up into anything else.

After a few moments of walking, I felt Shade gently tap my flank with a hoof to get my attention. Before I could say anything, she put her hoof to her lips and shushed me. “I think we’re being followed,” She said in a hushed tone, her voice still very filled with fear.

I tensed up and glanced behind me. I saw nothing but the suffocating gloom that blocked out my view of the tunnel we had just walked through. “Did you see something?” I hissed back, my voice just as low. From my first encounter with him, I knew Azar could be sneaky.

Goddesses, please tell me Azar hadn’t found us already.

“I-I think I saw a small filly watching us from the shadows,” Shade whimpered back, her ears folding flat against her head.

I had no doubt she had seen that smaller version of me I kept running into. Up until now, I hadn't been sure if the filly had been real or if I had simply been hallucinating the whole thing. I didn’t know if I should be thankful I wasn’t insane or scared that that creepy foal was still following me.

I decided not to let Shade see any of my concern and simply grunted in response. “I know. She’s been following me for a few days now.”

Shade gulped as we continued walking forwards. I was now acutely aware of the small patter of hoofsteps far behind us as we began to move again. “Who is it?” Shade asked, not daring to raise her voice. “What does it want?”

I shrugged. “I wish I knew.”

We reached the end of the tunnel. It had been so dark that I hadn’t even seen the large chamber up ahead until we stepped out into it. What we saw made both of us gasp.

I had been in the cave system below the Hollow Shades before. Hell, I had even been within the strange cistern, but nothing I had seen yet could even come close to compare with the sight before us now.

We were in a massive cave, so large in fact that I was unable to see any off the walls. Even the floor lay hundreds of miles below us. Scaffolding had been built up through the massive cavern, creating small walkways and platforms that crossed over the huge casm. Tools and mining equipment lay in large crates along the catwalks and a few pickaxes lay on the ground where ponies had left them two hundred years ago. Like the cistern I had seen before, massive stone pillars that looked older than Equestria itself rose from the depths of the casm and formed into towering stone archways that supported the stalactite covered ceiling far above our heads.

In the center of the cavern, or at least what I assumed was the center as I couldn't see any off the walls, stood a massive black monolith. Strangely shaped rocks twisted up the sides of the monolith like writhing tentacles reaching from the deep and pony skulls had been embedded in its rough surface. Horrific images of creatures made out of stars and strange zebra glyphs ringed the monolith and at the very top was a huge carving off a pony seemingly made of shadows.

“What the fuck is that thing,” Shade squeaked, taking a terrified step away from the looming monolith. Even the air around it felt wrong, as if a thousand chanting voices were calling out from within.

It took me a second to realize I was so shocked by the cavern that my mouth was refusing to work. I took a deep breath and tried to steady my heart rate which seemed to be going at a few hundred miles a second. “I have no clue… but it’s just a rock, it can’t hurt us,” I tried to comfort her, but I didn’t even know if I believed my own words. The thing was simply so damn scary looking.

We pushed forwards, slowly making our way across the scaffolding. To my displeasure, I found that the catwalk seemed to be slowly taking us down into the darkness below us. I really didn’t want to find out what was down there.

I considered turning back and trying to find a different route, only to remember that there wasn’t one. This had been the only tunnel we could go down.

Then a thought hit me. I quickly turned back to Shade. “Those zebras that ran past us, you don’t suppose they’re going to come back once they reach the crashed elevator, do you?”

Shade’s eyes widened as she realized what I was saying. This was the only tunnel. Those zebra were coming back, and probably soon. “We need to get moving,” She insisted, quickening her pace. She didn’t need to tell me twice.

The catwalk ahead of us split into three directions. We glanced down each quickly, trying to gauge which one was the best option. Not seeing any difference between the three, we headed down to the left, hoping the zebra’s didn’t take it when they came back.

As we slowly moved down toward the bottom of the casm, we began to see a soft silver light slowly pulsating amongst the darkness of the cave. The lights felt slow and mournful. Just being close to it made me feel sad.

The closer we got to the light the easier I was able to make out what it was. It wasn’t a light at all, but hundreds of smaller light. Small silver balls of light bobbed up and down in the air around us, like large silver fireflies. They were both beautiful and terrifying.

“What are they?” Shade whispered, jumping back a little as one of the floating lights came close to her.

“They’re memory orbs, I think,” I said slowly, looking over one of them closer as we continued walking. “But I’ve never seen memory orbs like this.”

That wasn’t entirely true, and I knew it. The memories inside of Inferno's mind had looked just like this. But right now, the last thing I wanted to do was acknowledge the fact that the implications of that implied this whole place was alive. I don’t think my sanity could stand that.

Slowly, and without really thinking, I reached out towards one of the lights with my hoof. The glowing orb seemed to shutter and float away from me slightly, as if afraid of my touch. Then it seemed to decide otherwise and let my hoof place itself gently on it’s glowing surface.

Unlike most memory orbs, the world didn’t swirl away. There was no flash of blinding light or sudden flare of pain. I was simply inside the memory, as if I always had been.

I sat at the head of a table, my purple hooves crossed in front of me as I looked around at all those present. Most of the faces around me I could recognize. To my right sat a very tired and frazzled looking Rarity, a red pair of reading glasses rested on her muzzle as she read over a rather lengthy and boring looking document. To my left sat a less than happy looking Rainbow Dash, her hooves crossed grumply over her chest. The final pony I recognized was a slightly younger looking orange pegasus mare with a purple mane. I had seen her on Stable-Tec posters back in Stable 25. I couldn’t quite remember her name though, I always got the Stable-Tec leaders confused. Was she… Sweetie Belle? Yes, that must have been it.

The three other ponies that sat at the far end of the table I did not recognize. Two unicorn stallions sat on each side, seemingly acting as bodyguards to the green and orange mare that sat in the middle. She looked like she was a photographer of some kind, with a camera hanging around her neck.

Rarity looked up from the document, magically lifting her reading glasses off of her snout and placing them gently on the table. “Yes, this is a rather extensive and thorough confidentiality form darling, but when are you going to tell us what exactly it is for?” She asked. “I don’t appreciate being left in the dark, and I’m sure Rainbow feels the same.”

My host raised their hoof. “I’ll explain in a moment, we’re just waiting for a few more important guests,” That voice, so intelligent and well read with just a little bit of snark to it. Without having even heard her before, I knew I was looking through the eyes of the ministry mare Twilight Sparkle.

“Well yes of course, normally I would fully agree,” Rarity agreed, before holding up her own hoof, signifying there was a ‘but’ coming. “But, I don’t even know who this important guest is.”

“Well I do!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, flapping her wings and shooting up from her chair. “This important guest is slow! That’s what they are! I could have had this meeting five times already in the length it’s taking them to get here!”

Rarity just chuckled a little. “Well you know ponies with important schedules Rainbow. Always trying to fit more meetings into their allotted time.”

Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean they aren’t slow. Seriously, I swear it took Luna longer to get back from the moon than it is for them to get here!”

“I’ll need to be more punctual then,” Princess Luna said calmly from the doorway as she walked in. She gave Rainbow Dash a small smile and seated herself next to Twilight.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth dropped open. She quickly shut it. “Wait, Princess Luna? You’re the important guest?”

Luna gave the rainbow coloured pegasus a small smirk. “I’m not the only one.”

Pureblood stalked into the room, his nose held so high above his head it almost looked ridiculous. The air in the room seemed to get a little more uncomfortable the second he entered. Pureblood paused as he passed Rarity. He gave a small humph sound. “Rarity…” His voice was as snooty and nasally as ever.

Rarity let out a loud Groan. “Pureblood, always a pleasure,” From her tone, I could tell this meeting was anything but a pleasure.

“Are we ready now?” Rainbow Dash pestered, her wings flapping restlessly at her sides as she looked over to Twilight. “Or are there any other surprises you would like to drop on us before we start?”

I felt Twilight open her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by a new voice from the doorway. “I’m sure there will be quite a few more surprises before this meeting is through.”

Everypony turned to look at the new earth pony Stallion that had entered the room. The stallion looked old and tired, dark bags having formed under his pale, grey eyes. He had a dull silver coat with a mane that was almost exactly the same colour, if not a little darker. A saddlebag had been slung over his back and I could see a large collection of old looking books resting inside. His cutie mark was a single black spade.

Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity stood up immediately, their reaction a mix of Shock and protest.

“What is he doing here!” Rarity shouted, pointing a white hoof at the stallion accusingly. “I demand he be removed from this meeting immediately.”

“Girls,” Twilight said calmly, trying to catch their attention, but neither of the ponies seemed to hear her.

“I haven’t forgotten what you did with those mega spells!” Rainbow Dash growled, her eyes glaring at the pony with disdain.

“Girls!” Twilight tried again, her voice much louder than last time. Both Rarity and Rainbow Dash stopped and looked back at her. Twilight straightened up in her seat a little and took a deep breath, placing her hoof against her chest before breathing out slowly. “Silver Ace is the one that called this meeting.”

Both Rarity and Rainbowdash’s faces were priceless.

So this pony here was the Silver Ace I had heard so much about? Not what I had expected, but I knew looks could be deceiving. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way though. I let my eyes land on his head. He was an earth pony… but I thought I had heard somewhere that he was a magic expert.

Silver Ace cleared his throat and slowly walked into the room, sitting closer to where the three ponies I didn’t recognize sat. “Yes, thank you Twilight,” He looked around at everypony present. “Has everypony signed the confidentiality form?”

Rarity huffed. “I was just about to, but now I’m not so sure if I should.”

Twilight placed a hoof over Rarity’s. “Please Rarity, this is important. And we can’t let you in unless you sign.”

Rarity sighed and looked down at the form in front of her. “Alright, but only for you Twilight,” She leveltated up a pen and started signing her name on the numerous pages.

“Where’s Applejack and Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked as Rarity flipped a page over and began signing the next. “I thought they were supposed to be here too?”

“Yes, and Fluttershy?” Rarity asked, only half paying attention as she continuously scribbled down her name.

“Pinkie… er… Pinkie wasn’t invited,” Twilight said, her gaze dropping to the table. “I didn’t want to see her after-”

“Pinkie refused to show up,” Silver Ace corrected, his cold gaze distant. “I invited her, and she refused.”

Twilight shot Silver Ace a glare. He ignored her disapproving eyes and continued looking through the large stack of books he had brought in.

“Applejack and Fluttershy did not need to attend,” Luna said, cutting off the awkwardness before it could fester. “They are both already informed on everything that is transpiring.”

“And what exactly is transpiring?” Rarity asked, finishing off the forms and placing them in a neat pile in front of her. “What could possibly be this important?”

“Before we begin, I just want to restate what is already said on the forms you just signed,” Silver Ace soothed, his silver hoof gesturing to the large stack of papers. “Nothing said in this room is to leave this room under any circumstances. Nopony can know… and the last thing we want is OIA involvement.”

There was a round of nods as everypony around the table agreed, though I could see the discomfort on Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s faces. Satisfied with the response, Silver Ace gestured for Twilight to take the lead.

“Thank you SIlver Ace,” Twilight said, standing up before the gathering of ponies. She cleared her throat and took a moment to console herself. “As most of you know, I have been reaching out to the other kingdoms around Equestria. Unfortunately, most of my attempts were met with little success. What most of you do not know, is that I have managed to make contact with another kingdom and have managed to form a temporary alliance with them.”

“That’s wonderful news darling!” Rarity exclaimed, resting her hoof on the table. “Which kingdom?”

Twilight exchanaged a knowing glance with Luna. Slowly, Twilight turned to face the three ponies at the end of the table that I didn’t recognize. They had managed to stay almost silent so far, I had almost begun to forget they were even there. “When you’re ready,” Twilight said to the green and orange mare in the middle.

The mare gave Twilight a devious smirk. “We’re always ready,” She cooed. Had I my normal body, I would have shivered at her voice. The voice had a strange echo to it. It clearly wasn’t pony.

Both Rarity and Rainbow froze as the voice reached their ears. They recognized it.

Three columns of magical green fire surged up from around the three ponies hooves, completely obscuring them from my view. When the flames subsided, the three things that stood in their place looked like something from a nightmare.

The two creatures that had once been unicorn stallions had sprouted thin insectoid wings and hard beetle like shells. Their now solid blue eyes lacked pupils and two large fangs hung from their mouth.

The mare in the center however had turned into something much, much worse. She stood high above everypony on gnarled, spider-like legs. Her green eyes gleamed out at everypony from below a head of greasy, blue, matted hair. A jagged horn protruded from her brow and a pair of tattered insect wings fluttered at her side.

Everypony with the exception of Twilight, Luna and Silver Ace were on their hooves in an instant. “Changelings!” Pureblood shrieked, his mane and tail practically standing right on end. “Somepony call the guards! They have infiltrated us!”

“Luna! We must get you to safety!” Rarity cried out, jumping in front of the laid back princess of the night as if expecting to take a bullet for her.

“You’re gonna learn you’re messing with the wrong ponies!” Rainbow Dash yelled down threateningly as she readied herself for attack.

The large Changeling just sat back in her chair and looked around at all the chaos with a sick sense of amusement.

“Everypony! Calm down! Please!” Twilight’s voice cut over the sound of panic. Everypony took a second to breathe, trying their best to assess the situation better. “Please sit back down. Chrysalis and her changelings are here with my permission and Luna’s blessing.”

Everypony who had stood up did as they were told, but didn’t seem overly pleased about it.

“Twilight? What is the meaning of this?” Rarity asked, her voice filled with worry. “I mean, these are changelings we’re talking about! Surely you remember what happened at your brother and Cadence's wedding?”

Twilight gave a quick nod. “I know Equestria and the Changeling empire haven't exactly seen eye to eye in the past, but Chrysalis has agreed to sign a temporary treaty with Equestria. She plans to help us with the war effort.”

“And how do we know she won’t betray us?!” Rainbow Dash pushed in a brash tone, casting the three changelings a suspicious glance. “I mean, they aren’t exactly the element of honesty Twi.”

Chrysalis’ grin widened. “Because Right now you need us. Equestria is far behind the zebras technology and skill set in infiltration. We can fix that,” The changeling queen said smugly. “And with recent events, I doubt you will ever be able to catch up without our help? How is Maud by the way?” The last line was directed at Rarity.

“You all can’t be serious!” Pureblood exclaimed, pushing himself back up and pointing a hoof at Chrysalis. “Changelings have been enemies with Equestria for even longer than the zebras! They aren’t even ponies!”

“I can assure you Pureblood, that I have thought this all through and deemed it best for Equestria,” Princess Luna said, hoping to calm the snooty unicorn down slightly. He remained silent at her words, but didn’t seem all to comfurted.

“And what do you hope to get out of all this!” Rainbow Dash spat at the three changelings, her wings rustling against her side anxiously.

Chrysalis looked almost offended as she put a hole filled hoof to her chest in mocking offence. “Why can't I simply want to help out my neighbors? I’m hurt you would think I’m doing this for myself!” her echoey voice dripped with sarcasm and malice. She dropped her hoof back to her side. “If you really must know, I want Equestria to win. Zebra’s have created an effective way to unveil our disguises, and with the dragons now having joined their side…”

“Dragon’s tend to lack love towards other creatures,” Twilight Explained, picking up where Chrysalis had ommonusly trailed off. “A dragon run Equestria is an Equestria that Changelings simply cannot live in.”

Chrysalis gave a crooked grin. “Perciscely.”

“Regardless of your opinion on the alliance, there are more important things to discuss,” Silver Ace said, returning the attention in the room back to him. “Chrysalis and her changelings have agreed to help us on a project we have been working on.”

“Which is?” Rarity pushed, not enjoying Silver Ace’s dramatic pause.

Silver Ace gave a sly grin. “Twilight, Luna, Pureblood and I have been working on it in secret for quite some time now. It is possible that you all have heard vague rumours of it over the past few months. I believe it is time to let you all in in full,” he took another pause, adjusting one of the books he had laid out in front of him. “It is called The Institute of Arcane Technology… Though we simply call it The Institute. Think of it almost as a seventh ministry. A combination of all the ministries best works combined into one massive facility. Already we have been able to develop stealth technology that far exceeds the capabilities of the normal zebra stealth cloak.”

“And with our assistance, I can assure you winning the stealth race will not be a problem,” Chrysalis added, her voice low and hushed, as if letting everypony in on a big secret. I suppose in a way she was.

“But why keep this ‘Institute’ so secret?” Rarity inquired, cocking her head to the side slightly. “As it seems to thrive on collaboration, would it not be better to open it up to more minds?”

“The Institute must remain completely confidential. We are both in the planning stages and development stages of some of the most powerful and war altering advancements in science and technology in pony history. The zebra’s have already been known to steal some of the most secure secrets from the ministries as it is, if they were to get their hooves on what we have in the Institute…” He let that linger in the air for a bit.

“It is also best if the general public is left unaware,” Luna stated. “If ponies knew about a secret government facility below the city creating weapons and spyware on the scale we are, there would be panic. The last thing we need is for the zebra’s to take advantage of a mass panic in Manehattan.”

“How advanced exactly are we talking?” Rainbow Dash puzzled, raising her eyebrows a little. “Like mega spell level weapons?” her eyes widened. “Bigger than megaspell level weapons!”

“The Institute isn’t just making weapons. While there are weapons in development, that is far from the Institutes only or even main focus. But you know just as well as I that the public will jump to that conclusion, just as you just did,” Silver Ace said plainly, a bit of hurt behind his tone. “As for how advanced… Well… Scootaloo? Would you like to take it from here?”

Darn, it wasn’t Sweetie Belle… I should have known Sweetie Belle was the yellow and red one.

Everyone turned to face Scootaloo, whom until this point had been yet to say anything.The orange and purple pegasus stood up slowly and looked around at everypony. “The Institute has been fitted with my latest model of Crusader Mainframe. The updated model should possess five hundred times the power as the initial three. The mainframe should be capable of anything you need it for.”

“A Crusader mainframe?” Rarity gasped. “Why, I thought there were only three ever made. Were they not too expensive for production?”

“Money won’t be a problem,” Pureblood soothed from across the table, his gaze still locked on the changelings on the other side of the room. As if to prove his point, he pulled out a bit and fiddled around with it in his hoof. “The Institute has my complete and full support. Whatever is being done will be properly funded for and covered up by the best lawyers Equestria has to offer.”

“Your lawyers won't need to worry their little pony heads,” Chrysalis soothed at him. “I’ll keep everything nice and quiet.”

“What is the mainframe being used for right now?” Rainbow Dash asked, finally looking away from a very smug looking Chrysalis and towards Silver Ace.

Silver Ace exchanged a look between Pureblood and Scootaloo. “I’m afraid that is confidential, but rest assured that the Mainframe is still very much capable of running all of your projects as well.”

Chrysalis stood up from her chair. At full height, I was able to see just how tall she really was compared to everypony else in the room. “I think these introductions have gone on for long enough,” She said, her once sarcastic and calm tone now slightly annoyed and rushed. She clearly wanted to switch topics, that much was obvious. “I say it's time we get into the real business...”

I was unexpectedly thrown from Twilights memories and back into my own body. Just like going into the memory, there had been no warning or strange nauseating feeling of the world swirling out from under me. I was simply just back.

“That was… interesting…” I muttered to myself, trying to once again adjust to the dark surroundings. Had the cave always been this dark? It was horrifying.

“Amber we need to go,” I heard Shade whisper fearfully from beside me as she heard my voice. I looked over to see her crouching low behind me as she looked up at the entrance we had come through far above us.

Following her gaze, I saw the source of her fear. Twenty or so zebra we quickly making their way back down the catwalks towards us. They were moving quickly, though not rushing, so I assumed they hadn’t spotted us yet.

I nodded quickly, ushering Shade along as we continued moving. Our attempts to stay low and quiet were slowing us down somewhat, allowing the zebras to cover more ground than us. They were gaining on us quickly, and to my displeasure, I saw them turn at the fork in the same direction we had gone.

“Damn it.”

Moving forwards with only the dim, pulsing lights of the many floating memories, we descended farther and father into the massive cistern.

Who the hell even needs a cistern this big? I mean really? I thought to myself. Even after having descended this deep, I couldn’t see the bottom. I glanced back at the huge sinister monolith that seemed to be staring down at us pitifully. Just looking at it made my whole body feel cold. There was more going on below the depth than simply collecting water. This place was evil somehow. Something terrible had happened here.

With my head turned to look back at the vile totem, I wasn’t able to see where I was going. My hoof bumped into a metal bucket that had been left on the catwalk. I stumbled slightly, but managed to catch myself on the rail before I could fall. The bucket however, fell. It clanged loudly against the side of the scaffolding as it toppled over and rolled off the edge of the catwalk, clanking against another below us as if fell into the gloom.

We both froze and glanced up at the zebras. They were all staring at us, their yellow eyes glinting in the darkness.

“Think they see us?”

“There they are!” one of the zebras called out in a loud, yet monotone voice.

I slapped my hoof across my face. “Yup, they see us…”

We turned tail and started booking it as fast as we could across the catwalks. I heard the cracking sound of the zebra’s pulling out their snipers and firing down on us from above, their snipers resting on the rail of the scaffolding to steady their aim.

Zebra’s wielding long curved scimitars came charging down towards us, many hopping over the railings and jumping down to lower catwalks to get to us with surprising agility.

I whirled around, my baton swinging out and colliding with one of the curved blades mid air as one of the zebras neared. The two melee weapons clashed, making both of us stagger backwards slightly. I managed to regain my balance first, swinging my baton again and bringing it down hard on the zebras leg. The limb snapped at the joint making the zebra scream out in pain and fall backwards onto their rump.

I jumped back as another shot from the snipers above nearly took out my head. Shit these zebra’s have good aim. I shouldn’t be surprised, Xayah was the best shot of my party after all.

I backed up and started running after Shade who was now a few feet ahead of me. I saw her duck as a few shots lanced over her head.

Two more zebras rushed up behind me, their blades drawn and aimed for the back of my neck. I ducked low, dodging the first swing and kicked out with my hind leg to knock one of the zebras down. They both quickly leapt over my attack with a speed and agility I didn’t possess.

Now up close to them, I could see that something about them wasn’t right. The whites of their eyes had been tinged a pale piss yellow and their coat seemed to stand on end as if electrically charged somehow. They had a strange glazed over expression, lacking the emotion and intelligence I had seen in most ponies.

I realized their expression wasn’t just blank, it was also the same as my Hellhound had once had. These zebra’s weren’t in control, but being controlled.

Kamari had some sort of magical mind control too… that was just great.

I didn’t have much time to think about it as the two zebra’s began swinging at me again. I rolled away from their attack, luckily avoiding another sniper shot at the same time and hoped back to my hooves. Boneless swiveled into the air and blasted the head off the first zebra. Their body slumped over, their ruined neck spilling gore.

I hoped back as the second zebra swung at me. I saw three more quickly approaching behind them. Shade pushed past me, her pistol firing two shots into my attacker. Only one shot landed, tearing apart the zebra’s left forehoof. The zebra recoiled from the attack, giving me time to steady myself and send an explosive buckshot into their face. The zebra’s head was quickly pulverized.

We quickly turned and kept running, not bothering to try fighting the zebra that quickly filled the space the last two had just occupied. One of the zebra snipers shot down at me, the bullet just barely missing my hoof. I lurched to the side as they fired again, this time with a better aimed shot.

The movement made me stumble, my left side skidding to the edge of the catwalk and slamming into the railing. The railing didn’t hold. Two hundred years of neglect and water damage had weakened the railing and it gave way like paper as I collided with it, sending me flying off the side of the catwalk.

Screaming, I frantically reached out and grabbed onto the edge with my hooves, my back legs dangling over the side precariously. Shade darted over, reaching down to help pull me back up.

One of the snipers shot Shade through one of her hind legs. With a yelp of pain, she dropped to the ground next to me, still trying with all her strength to pull me back up.

“Shit, shit, fuck! Come on!” She grunted between gritted teeth as she pulled against my hooves with all her might.

The zebra’s behind us were closing in, their blades glinting from the floating silver obs. We only had a few seconds before they reached us, though they seemed to be slowing as they took in our predicament.

Shade glanced down at something below me. “Drop!” She instructed, pushing herself up on her injured leg and quickly jumping over the side of the rail.

Seeing her movement, the zebra’s began rushing towards us faster. No time to question if she was crazy or not, I just had to act.

I let go of the catwalk and dropped down. The air rushed past me, my heart beating faster than ever as I was plunged into the darkness below. Then my body hit another catwalk that had been a few feet below me, just far enough down that I hadn’t been able to see it through the gloom. The air was pushed from my lungs as I collided with the catwalk.

“Come on!” Shade pushed, pulling me up and forcing me to keep running down the catwalk. Her run was slowed as she hobbled on her shot back hoof.

The zebras were quickly following behind us, many jumping over the edge of the upper catwalks to land on our level while others continued racing up above to cut us off. Now a little lower and obscured by the higher elevated scaffolding, the zebra snipers had to rush to a new position to get a good aim at us. We had bought ourself a bit of time, but not a lot.

“There’s a tunnel up ahead!” I shouted, pointing towards the end of the catwalk. We had gotten closer to the walls of the large cistern. I could see that the rough rock walls were filled with hundreds of smaller tunnels, some near the ground while others remained halfway up the rock surface. Many off the catwalks led into them, assumably leading into other parts of the mine.

A zebra jumped down from the catwalk above, landing in front of our path. I whipped Boneless out only for the zebra to knock it aside with a kick of their hoof. I dodged to the right as they swung at me with their scimitar, the curved blade slicing through the air and clattering against the metal catwalk. Shade whipped the zebra across the face with her gun, knocking them back a little.

The zebra stumbled, trying to regain their balance as their vision whirled from the sudden impact against their skull. I wrapped my amber magic around their hoof and tugged, sending them flying off the edge and freefalling into the darkness below. I didn’t hear them land.

“Fuck, how deep is this place…”

The sound of gunfire alerted us that the snipers had managed to get back into a position where they could shoot down at us again. Bullets rained down at us from all sides and blasted at the catwalk below our hooves, blowing holes to the vertigo inducing drop below.

“Now would be a good time to get to that tunnel!” Shade shouted, rushing forwards towards the end off the catwalk. I quickly started after her, my magic reaching out and picking up Boneless as I went. My hooves were starting to ache from all the running and I could slowly feel the exersion starting to sap away at my energy. We were so close to the tunnel now, only a few more feet and we would be there.

A zebra pulled a grenade from one of their saddlebags and threw it down towards us. The grenade bounced down and rolled across the catwalk to land by are hooves. I wrapped Shade in a field of magic and pulled her back just as the explosive went off.

Shrapnel burst towards us, the small, jagged chunks ripping open small cuts in our coat. The catwalk wobbled, the area in front of us leading to the tunnel collapsing inwards. Then the whole thing started to crumble. Scaffolding started breaking below us and pieces of the Catwalk began cracking and falling into the abysse.

“Go back! Go back!” I shouted, pushing Shade back as the part of the catwalk we had just been standing on started collapsing.

I saw the zebra’s that had been chasing after us quickly start climbing up to higher levels to escape the crumbling structure.

With all the strength I had, I magically threw Shade up to the level above us. Her front hooves clutched onto the rail as she slowly pulled herself up. She turned and reached out her arm, gesturing for me to jump up to her.

I shook my head, there was no way I was going to make that jump.

The catwalk broke off below my hooves. I hoped to the side, just barely avoiding falling into the darkness below and started running for all I was worth. With each second, the catwalk seemed to collapse faster, the breaking pieces of scaffolding seeming to fall away behind me more and more with each step.

The zebras above me continued firing down, their shots bouncing and ricocheting around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shade jump backwards to avoid the swinging curved blade of a zebra that had begun to assail her.

I jumped from the catwalk, my hooves outsteched and reaching for a small platform a few feet below me. The second my hooves left the catwalk, the whole structure collapsed, crumbling away into the depths and out of sight.

My chest struck the floor of the platform hard, knocking the air out of me. I quickly rolled over as a zebra tried to fire another shot at me. The bullet missed by a hair, thudding against the metal platform and ricocheting away mere inches from my eye.

I pulled myself up and glanced over to Shade. She was rushing down one of the catwalks above me towards another platform as three zebra’s gave chase. She fired behind her blindly, hoping to take out or at the very least slow her pursuers. The zebras were managing to evade her attacks with a great deal of ease. I started charging up the catwalks to help her, only for two of the snipers to begin shooting down at me, forcing me to duck and move away.

I had to get rid of those snipers, otherwise they were just going to pick us off.

I glanced up at the catwalk suspended by scaffolding far above me where a majority of the zebra snipers had located themselves to get a clear shot at most of the surrounding area. If only I could...

I was hit with a plan.

I ducked behind some scaffolding as they continued shooting down at me. Out of my line of sight, it was going to be a lot harder, but I wouldn’t be able to do it if they continued shooting at me like that. I reached out with my magic, trying to remember exactly what position the zebra’s had been in with the quick glance I had gotten of them.

Using magic on something you couldn’t see was hard. Really hard. But not impossible.

Hoping I had managed to grab what I needed in my telekinesis, I gave a quick tug with my magic. At once I heard a zebra shout and saw a saddlebag tumble off of the catwalk. I quickly wrapped it in my magic and brought it over to me.

I opened it up. Sitting inside were several grenades. Perfect.

Using my magic I pulled all the pins at once. I jumped out from cover, locked eyes with the sniper zebras and pictured all of the grenades up with them. The moment the zebras spotted me their snipers turned and fired. One of the shots lanced through my leg, dropping me to the ground in pain. But it was too late for them. Seconds before the grenades exploded there was a pop of amber light and I teleported all seven of them up onto the catwalk with them.

The catwalk above exploded. Bits of metal and broken pipes from the scaffolding rained down around me as the whole thing began to crumble and collapse into the abyss. Most of the zebras were ripped apart in the blast, but a couple managed to jump from the collapsing structure. I saw a few bodies of frantic zebras falling past me into the darkness, their hooves flailing as they tried to grasp onto something.

Two zebras landed on the catwalk in front of me. They started to pull themselves to their hooves, but I quickly grabbed both of their heads in my magic and rammed them together, knocking both of them over the side.

I saw a zebra on a catwalk above me fall to a shot from Shade’s pistol. She was keeping them at bay for the moment, but I could tell she wasn’t going to be able to hold them off for much longer.

Trying my best to ignore my aching legs, I rushed up a sloped part of the catwalks and headed towards Shade. Before I could reach her, a large part of the scaffolding I had just blown up collapsed into the catwalk behind me, making the whole structure lurch awkwardly to one side. I stumbled on my hooves, doing my best to keep from falling.

I could hear the creaking of the scaffolding as the base slowly began to break away. The whole catwalk tilted dangerously and slowly began toppling downwards.

“Shit!”

I pushed with my back legs to propel myself forwards and raced for the end of the ramp. The whole catwalk wobbled, making it impossible to get any good hoofing as I sped towards the end. I wasn’t going to make it! It was falling too fast.

I leapt from the catwalk and grabbed onto the scaffolding across from me as the catwalk completely collapsed. With a groan of pain I began pulling myself up the side of the scaffolding and towards the platform it suspended above me.

I heard Shade shout something, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was she said. I heard her gun fire off a few more rounds, but I couldn’t tell if any of them made their mark.

I pulled myself up onto the platform and began rushing down towards her. Five zebras had circled her, their blades raised to rip into her.

I screamed, drawing the zebras attention to me as I charged up and fired Boneless point blank into one of their faces. The zebra's head was blown from its body, blood and viscera splashing up against us and coating our coats in red.

The four remaining zebras spun around to face me, their scimitars swinging in my direction. I jumped back and evaded the first strike, only for another blade to cut deep into my side. I yelled in pain as a large gash was torn open in my side.

Blam! Blam!

Two shots from Shades pistol pierced a zebras leg, making them collapse and fall screaming from the platform. I lashed out with my baton, knocking a zebra back before they had a chance to swing at me again.

One of the zebras lunged at Shade, their hooves wrapping around her neck and trying to strangle her. I moved in to help her, only for the other zebra to charge into me. I felt the zebras hooves wrap around me as they tried to leap from the platform.

They were trying to throw us off by tackling us! Even if that meant they would die as well! Were they insane?! One glance at their pale yellow eyes reminded me they weren’t even in control, let alone thinking straight.

I bucked at the zebra, trying to make it release its grip on me. It’s grip held tight. It pushed against me again, sending me a little closer to the edge. I felt my back hoof slide over the edge and dangle over the pit.

My whole body lost its balance as my hoof went out from under me. I fell, my whole body going over the side of the platform, taking the zebra with me. My hooves lashed out grabbing onto the rusted scaffolding before I could plunge to my death.

The zebra grabbing onto me held tight to my neck, continually trying to drag me down. It batted at me with it’s striped hooves, each strike hitting with a sharp and painful precision.

I magically pulled out my baton and slammed it against the zebra's head. The zebra jerked back, its face bloodied from the attack. It’s hooves loosened and it fell from me, falling away into the darkness.

Blam!

A gunshot rang out above me, followed by the body of the last zebra slumping over and falling from the platform.

I saw Shades head peek out over the edge and look down at me, her face filled with relief as she saw I was still alive and hanging on. She had a large bruise on her neck where the zebra had been choking her.

“You still hanging in there?” she asked, reaching down a hoof to help pull me up.

I rolled my eyes and accepted her hoof, letting her haul me back up onto the platform. “Haha. very funny,” I grumbled, pulling two healing potions out of my saddlebag and passing one to her before drinking one myself. I could feel the magic in the potion start to take effect and patch up some of my wounds.

Shade just gave me a sly, nervous smile before drinking her own healing potion.

Then the platform shook. I bounded to my hooves and glanced down. One of the toppled catwalks had collapsed into the platform, breaking apart some of the scaffolding. The whole platform slanted, making our hooves slip out from under us.

“Get to safety first, joke around later,” I cried out as the scaffolding supporting the platform broke away completely. The platform began plummeting downwards, what little scaffolding that remained intact breaking away under the sudden force.

My head darted around, looking for another platform or Catwalk to jump to. We were moving too fast, I couldn’t see one.

“Hold on!” I shouted over the sound of rushing wind as we began practically freefalling towards the darkness below us. I saw Shade wrap her hooves tightly around the edge of the platform.

I couldn’t see the bottom, so I shut my eyes and guessed how far down it was. This was a jump in the dark. I knew if I got this wrong, we were dead. I gulped, I really hoped I was right.

I wrapped my hooves around Shade and let my magic envelope both of us. With all the force I had left, I pictured what I really hoped was the bottom of the cave and cast the spell.

We teleported. I had hoped we would teleport to the ground, but it turned out the cave was even deeper than I thought. We materialized in the middle of the air, still plummeting downwards at a sickening speed.

I heard the booming crash of the platform we had just been on smash into the ground. That meant we were close to the ground too, really damn close!

I could see the rocky ground below us. It was just a few feet away now. It seemed to reach up towards us, rising at an accelerating speed.

I tightened my grip on Shade and tried to cast the spell again, but I didn’t have enough strength left. Not for two ponies anyway. I could only teleport one of us, the other would have to fall.

I made a choice.

My horn flared and I immediately teleported Shade to safety.

Then I was falling alone. Down, down into the deep. Moments before I collided with the ground, my flailing body hit one of the floating silver orbs that filled the air and everything changed.

Author's Notes:

Darn... so I was really hoping to have this just be one chapter, but after writing it I realized it was simply too long for that.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat.

Chapter XV: Memoirs of Twilight Sparkle Part: 2

I was once more in Twilight Sparkle’s body. Like before I was simply in her body, not thrown into like most orbs. I was walking down a long corridor, the same corridor in fact that Shade and I had just walked down to reach the large underground cistern. I could hear the soft clopping of hoof steps as a pony walked along beside her, but Twilight had her gaze fixed on the upcoming chamber making it impossible to see who it was.

I found it surprising to see the tunnel lit with light. I had seen it as a creepy, dank cave, but here it seemed simple and almost welcoming. Pretty lanterns lined the walls, filling the hall with a cozy, warm glow and the sound of bustling people in the distance made it feel like we were somewhere we were supposed to be instead of a deathtrap full of killer zebras.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Twilight finally said after a couple seconds of silence. I was unsure how long they had actually been walking before she had decided to speak up. “It just feels so wrong keeping this a secret from everyone. Especially Celestia…”

“My Sister put me in charge, it is no longer her place to say what is right or wrong,” I heard the voice of Luna say from behind me. Twilight turned her head a little, letting me make out the majestic form of the goddess walking beside me. “Besides, she will understand. Do not think I am unaware of her mega spell. Silver Ace and I simply think it would be wise if I had one as well. If we are to rule, then we are to rule properly.”

“Silver Ace?” Twilight asked cautiously. “When did Silver Ace get involved in this? I thought he was busy with all his responsibilities out at the MAS hub in Manehattan and his assistance with Fluttershy?”

The princess of the night nodded. “He is, but I have been checking in on progress there and have had a few talks with him. He was quite interested in the idea.”

“Silver Ace is interested in any idea, so long as he thinks it can be used to stop the zebras,” Twilight grumbled. It was interesting seeing her in this more casual manner. In the meeting it had seemed like she agreed and supported Silver Ace. Here she seemed to agree with, but be weary of him. “If it’s experimenting with magic or simply learning new magic, then he’ll agree to it. I guess I can relate with him on that.”

“Having second thoughts are you?” Luna asked, walking a few steps faster than Twilight so she could look at her properly. “I thought you wanted to do this?”

Twilight bit her lower lip, thinking how to proceed. “I did, It’s just... Celestia Prime is manageable. We can control it in the MAS Hub. But this? What if we aren’t able to control it properly? It could cause damage like we have never seen, and not just to the zebras.”

Luna gave Twilight a small smile. “We will. I have complete faith that we will be able to maintain and control Luna Prime.”

This was it then… Luna Prime. It was some sort of weapon then that Twilight at Luna had been working on. Something big. A mega spell. But what did it have to do with the cistern and conjoined caves below the Hollow Shades? And why keep it so secret?

A bright yellow stallion in a red hard hat came running up the tunnel towards them. His face was filled with fear. “Twilight! I was just sent to find you!” The yellow stallion gasped between breaths. His eyes landed on Princess Luna and he immediately dropped to one knee. “Your highness!”

“What is it Hammer?” Twilight Sparkle asked, reaching out a hoof and putting it on his shoulder to comfort him. “What did you find?”

The pony I now knew as Hammer glanced back at the tunnel he had come through. “The cave just broke open into this huge cistern of some form! There-there's something in there! Oh goddesses! It’s coming for me!” He put his hooves over his head and curled up into as small of a ball as he could.

Twilight knelt down to be at his level. “Where is everypony else?” She said, slightly worried. “Are they okay?”

“T-t-there still in there… Goddesses! You need to save them!” The stallion cried out as tears started racing down his yellow cheeks.

Twilight and Luna exchanged a look before rushing down the rest of the hallway, wasting no time. As they came to the end of the tunnel, they burst out into a large cavern. Unlike the cavern I had been in before, the floor was level with the entrance of the tunnel and the roof hung only about ten feet above our heads. Like before, columns rose up from the ground, slowly twisting above our heads and curving into arches that disappeared into the rock ceiling. In the center of the chamber stood the horrific monolith. It was exactly as I remembered, covered in skulls and zebra runes. The only difference was that now only the tip of the monolith protruded from the ground. The eyes of the shadow pony carving poked over the rocky ground, the only part of the twisted art I could still see.

A group of several ponies all dressed in hard hats knelt before the horrifying monolith, their heads bowed and their bodies still. They were chanting something, but I couldn’t seem to make out exactly what it was.

“What is going on here!” Luna demanded, striding towards the group. “You’re princess demands to know what is going on!”

At the sound of her words, the ponies around the monolith seemed to break away from their weird trance. They looked up, seeing the monolith for the first time. Then they began to scream. And scream. And scream.

One by one, their mouths dropped and a sickening, ear splitting scream erupted from their lips. They flailed their hooves and clawed at their ears as if trying to get a noise from out of their heads. Their back legs kicked and pushed them away from the monolith, trying desperately to escape it as if it were chasing after them.

Twilight rushed over to the closest pony. “Are you alright?! Talk to me!”

The pony looked up at her, her face filled with horror. “The voices! They won't stop!”

“It’s okay, we’re here now,” Twilight assured her, helping her to her hooves. She turned back to look at the rest of the ponies “We need to get you out of here, please head back to the tunnel.”

It took a few moments for the ponies to all come back to their senses and a few more to get them all out of the cavern and back into the tunnel. Once they were all gone, Twilight turned to look back at Luna.

Luna was standing in the center of the chamber, looking up at the huge monolith. Even while mostly submerged under rock, it was massive.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, taking a cautious step forward. “L-Luna, are you alright?”

“Yes Twilight Sparkle. I am quite alright,” Luna said flatly, her gaze shifting to the mostly submerged carving of the shadow pony on the monolith. “I have seen one of these before. A long time ago underneath Hoofington.”

“Underneath… You mean when you became Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked, looking at a pony skull that rest within the carved rock.

“Indeed. Though this one seems weaker. The one in the Hoof felt alive… this one feels…” Luna looked for the right word, her eyes remaining transfixed on the shadow ponies eyes.

“Dead…” Twilight finished for her, dropping her eyes to the alicorn beside her.

Luna looked up, a little surprised. “You can feel it too?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I think everypony can. It seems to be emanating some sort of dark magic similar to what I saw from Sombra in the crystal empire, just a lot weaker. Kinda like it's below us.”

They both glanced at the base of the monolith and the shadow pony carving that was half buried in the ground.

“How deep do you suppose it goes?” Luna asked, slowly walking around the monolith to inspect it from all sides.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight admitted. “But there is only one way to find out. My best guess is that what we are looking for is at the bottom.”

Luna glanced up at her and nodded before looking at the shadow pony carving once again. “When I was young, my teacher Starswirl the Bearded went missing,” Luna said quietly. Twilight suddenly looked very interested. “No pony ever knew what happened to him, but they said he fought a pony of shadows that came from the Hollow Shades. That a pony named Stygian had come here to gain power.”

Twilight glanced nervously at the monolith. “Do you think he found it here?”

“If I found my power to become Nightmare Moon near one of these out in the Hoof, perhaps this Stygian did the same here,” Luna suggested, finally looking away and to Twilight. “We had best start digging. We will need to do all we can before the zebras find out about this. I feel they will be less than pleased.”

I opened my eyes with a groan. I was in agonizing pain on a level topped only by the memory I had shared with inferno of getting turned into a cyber pony. Every part of my body throbbed with splitting pains and my horn felt like it was on fire. I tried to roll onto my hooves, only to find that I couldn’t move.

Panic flared up inside me. Goddesses, why couldn’t I move!

I tried to remember what had happened. I had been falling and… I had saved Shade. I had let myself fall. It was a miracle I was even still alive. But that didn’t change the growing fear that I had broken my spine or worse.

I tried to roll onto my hooves again, only to find myself still completely immobilized. Unbearable pain shot through my whole body as I tried to move.

Unable to move my neck, I glanced down at my hooves with my eyes. Goddesses, that wasn’t good. My legs probably weren’t supposed to bend in seven directions at once. I groaned loudly and tried to move them again. The most I could do was get my left hind leg to twitch a little, each twitch sending pain shooting down my leg and up my spine. They were definitely broken. All of them, everything. I had to resist the urge to scream as more and more fear and panic began to rise in me.

That memory orb must have saved me from feeling my body hit the ground. I had no doubt that had I been in my own body when I hit, I would have died from the agony alone. Bless the goddesses that I had at least managed to teleport most of the way down before I had hit the ground.

The idea of dying broken and bloodied in this dark fucking hole in the ground was terrifying. I would have been lying if I said I hadn’t had countless thoughts of ending my own life, but here in this lifeless pit, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to live.

I saw bits of rubble a few feet away get pushed aside as Shade slowly pulled herself from the collapsed catwalk. Apparently I had teleported her directly into the rubble. Save from a few cuts and bruises and the bullet wound in her hind leg, she seemed relatively okay.

She stumbled around for a second, trying to properly orient herself. She put a hoof to her head and shook herself, trying to shake the dizziness from her head to no success.

She slowly looked down, her gaze landing on my broken body. Her eyes popped wide as she took me in, an expression of true terror crossing her face. She rushed over to me in an instant, rummaging around in our saddlebags for any form of healing supplies. We only had three healing potions left.

She quickly poured the first two down my throat. I could feel the itching sensation as they patched up the many cuts that covered my body. Slowly I felt the blood stop trickling down the side of my head.

Shade went to pour the third potion down my throat. “N-no…” I managed to croak out before they could administer it.

Shade stared at me in confusion and fear, though mostly just fear. “Amber, you’re dying! You need this!”

“No…” I managed to croak out again. Each time I tried to speak it felt like I was swallowing nails. “Xayah needs one too. Need to find her.”

Shade gave me an awed, yet slightly angry look. “Amber! You need this more than her right now!” She spat, trying to give it to me again. I kept my mouth closed as to keep her from administering it. “Damn it Amber, take the fucking potion! I can't let you… You’ll… You’re all I have left! Damn it, don’t die!”

I just shook my head. Pain shot through my whole body just by doing the motion. “Won’t help… not broken bones… Find Medical bay…” I grunted, trying to keep from wailing like a foal as the act of talking sent shooting pains down my body. “Should be… down here…”

Shade nodded eagerly and looked around the gloom. The dull, flickering green glow of her pipbuck did little to illuminate the vast dark space. She pulled herself up and wrapped her hooves around me, gingerly trying to haul me onto her back. I did my best to help climb up onto her, but without the use of my hooves I was less than useless.

I moaned as I felt Shade place me over her back. She was trying her best to be gentle, but that did little to help the hurt.

“You hang in there, got it kid?” Shade instructed as she took off at a quick trot. “You aren’t going to die on me, you hear!” I did little more than whimper in response.

Shade moved forwards through the dark cave, her pipbuck lightning only a few feet ahead of her at a time. I was bounced up and down on her rump lightly as she bounded forwards, making my spine scream at me in protest.

I tried to reach for my own pipbuck to turn on it’s light, but my legs refused to move. I grunted as I tried to reach for it again. Nothing. I had never felt so helpless.

As it turned out, Shade didn’t need anymore light. Up ahead, her pipbuck light glinted off a large sign embedded into a rock face above one of the tunnels. As we drew closer, the faded and near scratched out letters became legible. They read, ‘Medical Bay, Geology Research Facility and Mega Spell Research’.

Had I the ability to move my neck, I would have taken a double take. Instead, I just took to blinking at the sign in disbelief. Mega spell research!? Were there megaspells down here? And if so, did Kamari have access to them? The last thing I needed right now was to have Kamari fighting me with something of that scale.

Pain shot through me again as Shade started rushing towards the tunnel. Right, first thing’s first… don’t die and get to the medical bay. I definitely couldn’t fight Kamari in this state, mega spells or no.

The Medical bay was the first room in the tunnel. Clearly Twilight had wanted the medical bay to be easily accessible in case something bad happened down here. I was thankful for that.

The room was a large square metal chamber, starkly contrasting the rough rock walls of the tunnel outside. The walls were lined with desks covered in an assortment of paper, medical boxes and terminals. A single medical examination bed lay in the center of the room, its light blue sheets now grey with dust and age.

Shade gently lifted me off her back with magic and placed me on the bed. I almost screamed as my back was laid out against the hard mattress. Goddesses I was in so much pain.

Shade immediately took to searching the room for anything of value. She threw open cupboards and ripped open medic bags, hoping for any sort of healing supplies. I could clearly see her distress after each and every thing she looked in she found empty. Clearly the medical bay had been looted already. Kamari had probably picked the whole place clean I suppose.

Shade slammed her hoof down on one of the desks violently, knocking papers and a lone, empty glass vile to the floor. The vile shattered, sending small shards of glass skidding around her violet hooves. “Fuck! There’s nothing here!” She slammed her hoof on the table again, this time cracking the rotting wood. From my spot on the bed, I could see the glistening tears in her eyes glinting in the dim light. “Damn it! I won’t be responsible for another pony from my Stable to die!”

I grimaced and tried to open my mouth to speak, only to find I was in far too much pain to make words. I choked and tried again. “Not your…” I was unable to finish the sentence, but the message was clear. Not your fault.

Shade picked herself up and glanced over at me weirdly, her eyes seeming to glow in the darkness from the tears that raced down her face. “But it fucking is Amber, and you know it! You wouldn't even be out in the wasteland if it wasn't for me! You could have teleported yourself to safety if you hadn’t saved me! I haven’t even been able to help you! All I've done is gotten in your way!” she had to take a second to catch her breath as her whole body was wracked with sobs. She wiped the tears away and stood up straighter, a look of determination across her face. “But I’m not fucking things up this time… I’ll fix this, I swear. Celestia damn me, I’ll fix this.”

She turned away from me and bolted from the room, not bothering to explain to me where she was going. I tried to call out to her, to say something. Anything. But I couldn’t. I was far too weak to speak.

I lay there on my back in the darkness, not fully sure what to do or what I even could do seeing how I couldn't move. So I simply just lay there and waited. And waited. Time was passing, though I couldn’t tell how long. Every second that passed felt like a minute and every minute an hour. I started trying to count the seconds to give me a good gauge on how long I had been lying there, but the near unbearable pain in my spine and legs made it impossible to keep any consistent train of thought.

As I tried to count to ten for the fifth time, I simply gave up and let my mind wander. I hoped Xayah was alright. She had sounded so weak after the elevator had crashed. Granted, I supposed I was probably in far worse condition then she was. Brisk and Pyre were probably okay, they were both strong and Pyre had been through some tough shit before.

My ears picked up at the sound of approaching hoofsteps. I was thankful to find that I could still move my ears. I tried to turn my head to face the door, but finding that impossible, I instead had to use momentum to roll my whole body to one side.

I waited as the hoofsteps grew closer to the door. I expected Shade to march in… I was wrong.

A zebra turned the corner and walked into the medical bay, a curved scimitar tight in their mouth. Their eyes locked with mine, a twisted grin spreading across their face. Even with the gruesome smile, their expression felt empty, lacking that spark that seemed to burn inside of every sentient creature.

It took a step forward, it scimitar pointed towards my neck. I tried to reach out for Boneless with my magic, only for a sad looking spark to shoot from my horn and trial lamely to the ground. Horn burnout! Now of all the fucking times!

I wanted to scream with frustration. Of course I had to lose my fucking magic now!

I inched forwards on the bed and slowly picked up the triple barrel shotgun in my mouth. My whole body spasmed slightly as I tried to move it past what it’s current state would allow.

The zebra saw my movement and began rushing forwards. With a loud groan I managed to aim Boneless and fire off a shot.

Blam!

The zebra jumped back a little, the buckshot ripping apart the ground by the zebra’s hoof. The zebra glanced back up at me and sneered. It took another step forward, then another. Then it was once again coming at me.

Blam!

I fired again, this time missing completely as the lack of moveability in my head refused to let me aim the shot. The zebra didn’t even wince as the buckshot flew past them and peppered the wall behind them with its explosive fire.

The zebra closed in, their face now only inches away from mine. They reared up, the curved blade aimed down at my neck.

Blam!

I fired again, this time blowing the zebra’s hoof clean off. Blood splattered around the room as the zebra stumbled back, nursing their wound as they tried to stop the bleeding. I lined up another shot, and pulled the trigger, my three barrels aimed at the zebra’s head.

Click.

Boneless ran empty. I pulled the trigger again, to make sure it simply hadn’t malfunctioned. Nothing. I needed to reload, and without both the use of my hooves and magic, that wouldn't be possible.

The zebra glared at me, their yellow eyes practically glowing with anger. They pulled themselves up and limped towards me, staggering to the side slightly as they tried to steady themselves on three hooves. “You will pay for that pony,” The zebra hissed as they pulled up next to the bed. They wrapped their remaining fore hoof around the edge of the bed to stay upright as they readied themselves. Once again they raised their scimitar, the curved blade splattered with their own blood.

I tried to pull myself back, but my body refused. I tried to thrash and squirm, but my legs remained unmoving. I tried to scream, but even my voice had failed me.

The blade came down.

The sharp blade pierced my chest. I could feel the cold metal slip between my ribs. Pain erupted through my whole body, my chest searing with a pain I had never felt. My legs twitched and spasmed, more of a reaction from my nerves than of my own free will.

The zebra smiled and twisted the blade again, ripping open more flesh around the wound. Blood began spilling over my body, a small geyser of blood squirting upwards from around the cold blade. My mouth twisted into a soundless scream as I tried desperately to call for help. I could feel blood quickly surging up into my throat and drowning me.

The zebra’s yellow eyes began to change, slowly glowing a baleful green and that spark of life returned to the zebra’s face. “Ah, Amber…” It was Kamari’s deep and gravelly voice. “Did I not tell you that reaching me was impossible?”

I moved my mouth to counter him, but my words were obscured behind the fountain of blood that pushed past my lips, the dark red fluid bubbling as I tried to breath through it. I spat it out at the zebra, the blood missing his face. “I… will… kill…” I coughed up more blood, pain surging around the pain in my chest and down my spine.

The zebra chuckled darkly, kamari’s voice slowly fading away as the green glow subsided from its eyes. “It has been fun Amber…”

The zebra’s head exploded, bits of brain splattering across my face. The striped body dropped to the ground with a solid thump, letting me see past the zebra to the door. Shade stood there seething with rage, her pistol in her mouth. Her coat was matted with blood and I could see a few more cuts and gashes on her body.

“You will stay away from her!” She growled at the lifeless body of the zebra. She spotted the curved blade protruding from my chest. Her face darkened and she snarled, her eyes narrowing at the headless corpse. “You fucker!” She quickly rushed over to me, something rattling around inside of her saddlebags. “Hold on just a few moments Amber, it's going to be okay. I promise…”

“S-Shade I-” Blood spilled from my mouth, cutting me off.

Shade put a hoof to my chest as she worked. “Don’t talk kid, I’ll fix this. I swear to the goddesses I’ll fix this!” She hooked something up above my head, but I wasn’t able to see what it was. As gently as she could, she put her hooves over the blade in my chest. “I’m sorry about this Amber, this is going to hurt.”

The blade was ripped from my chest. I screamed out, blood spilling like a waterfall from my chest as the metal blade blocking it was removed. My hind hooves spasmed, kicking out and hitting Shade across the side. She staggered slightly at the sudden and unexpected attack, but remained focused.

I felt myself start slipping into unconsciousness. The pain was simply too much for my body and it was starting to give out. Shade reached out and slapped me awake. “Come on, Stay with me! Don’t fall asleep! Stay awake Amber!”

I blinked, trying to stay alert. A sudden pain made my eyes pop wide as Shade started applying pressure to my chest. I bit down on my tongue to prevent myself from shrieking. My teeth dug into my tongues soft flesh, drawing blood.

Shade’s horn began to glow, her magic wrapping around something that she held aloft above me. The light started to grow, but it wasn’t the light of her horn. It was a bright blinding pink that washed out everything else in the room.

I could hear Shade struggling to maintain whatever spell she was casting. She glanced down at me, one eye closed as she tried to focus on her spell. “I don’t know if this is going to hurt or not, I’m sorry.”

I think I managed to nod, but with the amount of pain I was in, it was hard to be sure.

The pink light grew and grew until it filled my entire vision. The air was getting warmer, as if I was stuck inside of a gigantic oven. My legs and chest flared with pain, pink fire shooting from every gash I had and rushing up the inside of my body.

I saw Shades eyes open with worry as my whole body began being torn and burned apart from the inside. I screamed, no amount of blood being able to stop me from making my pain known. My scream didn’t sound like a pony, but some strange and hurting creature of the night howling at the black sky.

Then I was gone. My whole body burst apart, pink flames spewing from the open gashes in my body. My pained howls ceased as my mouth burned away into nothingness.

And then I was back, my body stitching itself together as if nothing had ever been wrong. Then I was simply fine.

I wiggled my hooves a little, to my surprise they seemed to work perfectly. Even my magic seemed to have returned to normal.

I stared up at Shade with a horrified expression. “What the fuck was that!” I blurted, my mind still reeling from what had just happened.

Shade stared back at me with a look of both horror and relief. “A healing mega spell… I, um… I didn’t know it was going to do that.”

I sat up, rubbing my back with a hoof. My whole body still ached, but the unbearable pain had vanished as if never even existing. “That thing just… I was just ripped apart and put back together again!” I exclaimed, the horror of what had just happened flaring through my mind. I looked over my healed hooves and then back at Shade with astonishment. “How did you even get your hooves on a mega spell!”

Shade gave me a sheepish grin. “The megaspell research facilities are not that far down the hall. They have a whole bunch of mega spells down here.”

“And Kamari doesn’t have any guards down there?” I asked in disbelief. “Seems like a stupid thing for him to do.”

Shade shook her head. “No, he had guards there… I uh… might have killed them all.”

My eyes widened a little wider. “By yourself?” I let my eyes drop to the numerous gashes that now scored Shades legs.

“Yeah, I mean, there were only two and I wasn’t just going to just let you die,” Shade answered, almost embarrassed. “I told you I’d fix this.”

Slowly, I climbed the rest of the way out of the bed. My legs felt wobbly and almost rubber-like, but I was still able to stand easily. “We need to get out of here. Kamari knows where we are now. And if you killed his guards at the mega spell research facilities, he’s almost definitely going to be sending more to make sure that place stays secured,” Shade nodded and let me lead the way as we swiftly left the medical bay. I paused as I reached the door and looked back at her. “And Shade… thank you.”

Shade gave me a nervous smile and glanced back down at her hooves, not daring to make eye contact. She quickly followed me out without saying a word. It wasn’t until we were half way down the tunnel that she spoke up. “There’s something else Amber, something I noticed while I was getting the mega spell.”

“Yeah?”

“Most of them are still there. That is, except for the Balefire bombs,” I gulped at her words, a bead of sweat racing down my forehead. Great, he had balefire bombs at his exposal too. Was there anything he didn’t have? “As well as something called Luna Prime.”

I stopped and looked back at her. “Luna Prime? Did it say what that was?”

“I had heard Azar mention it briefly when I was traveling with him. I never really thought much of it back then, he always seemed to be muttering to himself,” Shade admitted. “But when I saw that a mega spell of the same name was missing, I checked some terminal logs to see if I could find anything out about it,” She winced. “Though I probably should have saved you first, sorry…”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, I get curious too. Did the terminal say anything?”

Shade shook her head. “Everything was redacted with the exception of one word… or two words I guess,” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Nightmare Moon.”

I felt my stomach drop. I remembered what I had overheard some zebras saying back in Stable 25. That they would have the power of the stars on their side if Red Eye ever came looking for them. I remembered Twilight and Luna talking about whatever they were looking for possibly being at the base of the huge, nightmarish monolith.

“I think we need to look at that monolith again,” I said, quickening my pace and moving out into the large cavern. I saw the toppled ruins of the catwalks we had just fallen from and used them as a guide to the centre of the chamber through the gloom.

“Why the hell do we need to see that thing!” Shade blurted, following behind me. “That thing gives me the creeps!”

Up ahead, I could see the huge monolith stretching upwards and into the darkness above. For the first time, I was able to make out its horrific base. Mounds of crushed zebra skulls had been piled up around the bottom and large carvings of dragons decorated the rough surface. Something white glinted off the light of my pipbuck as we got closer.

I crouched down and brushed the dust away to get a better look at whatever the white thing was. A large spine like bone protruded from below the monolith. I took a step back as I took the thing in. the monolith had been built upon the back of some huge creatures skeleton. I shivered just looking at it.

“Fucking shit, glad that things dead,” Shade grimmaced, looking over the large bit of exposed bone. “I’ve never seen any living thing that big before.”

“Hopefully we never will,” I grumbled, eyeing the bones suspiciously. Course with my luck, I’d been fighting something of this magnitude before the night was through. Hell, with my luck I’ll be fighting this thing’s significantly larger mother.

There was the pattering of hooves somewhere in the darkness. I quickly turned off my pipbuck flashlight and ushered Shade to the side before pulling her into a small side cave. The cave wasn’t large, more of a nook than anything else, but it served its purpose and kept us concealed.

A few seconds later, a large group of zebra rushed past, their hooves pounding against the rock ground. I managed to count thirty or so of them before I lost track. “Kamari says they were at the medical bay,” One of them shouted, their voice surprisingly lacking the rhythmic zebra tone. “The rest of you scout out this cavern, see if we cannot find them in here.”

“What do we do?” Shade whispered as the large group of zebras split up and began searching high and low for us.

I pulled out Boneless with my mouth to keep from making light or noise with my magic and got ready for them. “We wait, hopefully they leave soon enough.”

Shade gave me a quick nod and readied her own gun. I could see the gun shaking a little in her grip as she waited. Clearly she wasn’t used to needing to use her mouth.

For the second time since I had fallen into this pit, I waited. The cave was vast, making it so that the zebras had to spread themselves out a fair amount. I considered taking out a zebra that came close to our hiding spot, but I quickly realized if I started shooting I would attract the rest of them. Best if I try and get out of this without attacking at all if I could.

Before long, most of the zebras had moved a decent distance away from us. Far enough that they were out of sight and ear shot, but not far enough that their red bar disappeared from our EFS. I glanced out cautiously, trying to see if there was a way out of the caves past them. To my displeasure, I spotted a few zebras still searching the gloom, making a current escape impossible.

I sighed as I ducked back into the small rock nook. “Looks like we might be stuck here a few minutes,” I informed her, making sure to keep my voice low. “At least until the zebras leave. The zebras back on the catwalks were hard enough, I don’t think we’d fair as well against so many.”

Shade grumbled and kicked a rock with a hoof. “Damn, how long do you think they’ll stick around for?”

“Till they find us I guess,” I said flatly. “I suppose they’ll find the medical bay empty sooner or later and realize I survived. They won’t stop until we’re found. We’ll just need to find an opening and take it, so keep your eyes on your EFS.”

Shade nodded and looked down at her Pipbuck, her eyes moving back and forth as she followed the red bars that darted around. I glanced over at Brisk’s saddlebag and pulled out the two bottles of Wild Pegasus Whiskey he had saved. I passed one over to Shade. “Here, I know it’s your favourite.”

Shade’s eyes widened a little as she took the bottle in her hooves and looked it over. She glanced up at me nervously. “A-are you sure?” She asked cautiously, a small tremor in her voice.

I shrugged. “Why not, We don’t have anything else to do for the next couple minutes. We might as well try and enjoy it.”

Shade looked back down at the bottle again. “It’s just… uh… Why are you suddenly being nice to me? After everything?”

Why was I offering her a drink? I hadn’t forgiven her for what she had done to Stable 25, had I? It hadn’t even been that long ago that I had been angry at her, simply for being present. What had changed? Was it because she had saved my life? That might have been part of it, but it still didn’t seem quite right.

Then the reason hit me. I reached into Brisk’s saddle bag and pulled out a glowing memory orb. I hesitated for a moment, the orb making a pang of guilt race through me. “This, this is why?” I placed the orb in front of me and stared at it angrily. “You aren’t the only one who has killed ponies… nor are you the only pony with regrets.”

“What is that?” Shade asked, looking over the orb with curiosity. “It looks like one of those floating silver things.”

I shook my head. “It’s a memory orb. My memory to be exact,” I took a deep breath, forcing myself to continue talking. “Shortly after I left the stable I did something terrible... I- I killed a bunch of foals. Raider foals, but still foals. I hated myself so much after I had done it that I forced Brisk to take the memory away,” I gritted my teeth at the memory of finding the orb on the train. “It didn’t really work in the long run. The point is, I understand how it feels to be responsible for something terrible and how much that hurt and guilt can eat away at you.”

Shade glanced away, not sure how to respond. “Amber, what you did and what I did aren’t-”

“I almost killed myself when I found out what I had done,” I continued, cutting her off. “I hated myself so much that I thought I could never really be myself again. If it weren’t for my friends, I probably would have pulled the trigger… So, it must really hurt for you to need to go through something like that without friends to pull you up.”

Shade’s head bolted up at my words, her eyes once again shining with tears. “W-what are you saying Amber?”

What was I saying? I hadn’t exactly thought any of this through before saying it.

I gave a long sigh. “I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t forgive you… I don’t think I ever can, but… I’m willing to give you a chance. I’m willing to try to be your friend again,” I glanced down at my own unopened bottle of Wild Pegasus. “Besides, us Stable ponies gotta stick together, right?”

Shade was silent for a second, her tear filled eyes locked with mine. Then, faster than I could have reacted, she rushed forwards and wrapped me in a tight hug. I sputtered a little as her hooves practically strangled me. I pushed her back a little, but didn’t reject the hug. “Can’t breathe, can’t breathe,” I managed to choke out.

The tight hug loosened a little and Shade gave me a small blush. “Sorry.”

I gave a small chuckle and returned her hug, wrapping my hooves around her slightly larger form. Finally, I pulled back and gestured to the Wild Pegasus. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”

Shade gave me a smirk and popped the cap off the bottle. There was a small popping noise, but nothing loud enough to alert the zebra’s searching for us. I watched as she took a big sip off the top before I turned to open my own. I was a little less graceful with popping off the cap.

After a bit of struggling, I managed to get the cap off and shove it into my saddlebag. I sniffed the bottle, taking in the foul sent and took the smallest of sips. I immediately spat the whiskey back out. Nope, still couldn’t handle the burn.

Shade chuckled a little. “Yup, you’re still adorable.”

I flushed. “Am not. I could drink this whole thing if I really wanted to.”

“But you don’t want to. I know, I’ve heard that before,” She gave me a smug smirk and for a calming second, it felt like I was back in Stable 25.

I put the bottle to my lips again and poured as much of the liquid into my mouth as I could. My cheeks bulged as my mouth filled with the burning taste of whiskey. “ffwee, I can dwink it if I wifthhh,” I slurred around the mouthful.

Shade just gave me an amused look. “Drinking it includes swallowing it Amber.”

I pouted and forced myself to swallow. The burning liquid surged down my throat, making me sputter. I had to put a hoof over my mouth to stay quiet. “See, I can drink it. I’m not cute,” I declared, almost proudly.

Shade eyed my bottle sceptically. “That wasn’t even a quarter of the bottle…”

I groaned and put the bottle down in defeat. “Ugh, never mind. I can’t do this. It tastes terrible.”

“And as I said, You’re adorable,” Shade affirmed with a small laugh. She quickly downed the rest of her bottle before picking up mine. She looked down at the bottle for a second before lazily glancing up at me. “So, I’m interested, what’s the story between you and the zebra?” she asked, catching me off guard with the question. The faintest hint of a smile played on her lips.

“Xayah, her name is Xayah,” I corrected, feeling oddly defensive about her name at that specific moment. “And the two of us are just friends at the moment, that’s all.”

Shade raised an eyebrow sceptically. “At the moment?”

I blushed. “Yes, currently we are friends. Why? What does it matter to you?” I didn’t know why I felt so embarrassed right now.

“I’ve known you since you were still in your mother's womb, which means I have also known you long enough to know you swing both ways there kid,” Shade said smugly, taking a sip from my bottle of whiskey. “When you returned to the Stable, I thought you mighta had a crush on that Brisk fellow, but now y’all are treating each other like siblings, so I reckon that’s out.”

“Just because I don’t have a crush on Brisk anymore, doesn’t mean me and Xayah are a thing,” I insisted, waving my hooves in front of me as if to ward her off. “Like I said, we’re just friends.”

“Friends that kiss each other on the cheek before running into battle and give up a healing potion that might save their life so the other might have it?” Shade asked, her voice sounding more sarcastic and rhetorical than curious. “And yes, don’t think I didn’t see that kiss she gave you.”

I simply gave her a nod. “Yup, just good good friends.”

Shade smirked. “You keep telling yourself that kiddo.”

My eye caught some movement along the rock wall beside us. Not an organic movement, but some strange ooze slowly dripping from a large crack in the wall. My brows knitted together as I looked at it. “What is that?” I leaned in a little closer to get a look.

It was some sort of strange rainbow fluid I had never seen before. Shade spotted it too. She reached her hoof out to touch it.

My memory flashed back to the terminal I had read about the I.M.P. stuff that they had been working on that I suspected was the cause of the strange mutations in the Hollow Shades. How had they referred to it? It had been in rainbow vats?

My hoof jerked forwards and slapped Shade’s hoof aside. “Don’t touch it, that’s I.M.P!” I still wasn’t fully sure what I.M.P. was, but anything that was labeled with a warning saying ‘don’t touch, breath or Stare at’ was dangerous in my books.

I realized immediately after I said that, that I had forgotten to lower my voice.

“What was that?” I heard one of the zebra’s shout from somewhere in the darkness. “I think it came from over there!”

Damn it! Welp, now was as good a time as any to get out of here I guess.

I turned to Shade, who suddenly had a look of panic on her face as she heard the large group of zebras rushing towards our location. “Shit, we need to go, now!”

A zebra who had already been close to where we had been hiding jumped into the hole with us, their curved blade out and swinging for our throats. I grabbed their head in my magic and rammed them into the strange rainbow fluid that was dripping out of the wall.

The zebra screamed as they ooze found its skin. I saw the zebras striped coat and flesh burn away just at the touch. Something squirmed below the zebras skin, slithering its way down the inside of its neck and towards its heart.

Note to self, don’t interact with I.M.P… Ever!

I bashed in the zebras skull, more as an act of mercy than an actual attack. The shock baton thudded against their skull, making the zebra go still.

I grabbed Shade by the hoof and pulled her out of the nook and back into the cavern. I heard the zebra’s shouting and started to give chase as they spotted us.

“We need to find a way out of this pit!” Shade shouted, jumping to the side as a bullet whizzed past her. She glanced behind her at the small charging army of zebras. They were gaining on us fast and my legs still felt like rubber from the mega spell.

There was no way we could escape them in this open space, they would just pick us off. We needed to find cover and a way to lose them.

I spotted the entrance to a tunnel to the left. I quickly angled myself towards it and started running as fast as I could. Shade followed closely behind me, occasionally sending off a shot behind her to try and slow down the oncoming zebras.

We zipped into the tunnel, the zebras still hot on our tail. The tunnel air was humid and stale and the walls seemed to slowly move in and out as if the tunnel as if it was breathing. It felt as if we were charging down the throat of a giant beast.

“Elevator to our right!” Shade announced, pointing to an elevator shaft not too far away. “We can get out of here on that!”

“I’m not going anywhere without my friends!” I shouted back in response, powering past the elevator. “We find my friends, kill Kamari, then we leave. No other order!”

Shade grumbled, but didn’t protest as she raced past the elevator herself. At least we knew how to get out of here now. Something told me we would be needing to escape in a rush.

a bullet flew past my face as we thundered forwards. I lurched to the side, just barely managing to dodge the attack. I spun around, my baton swinging out and crashing against the closest zebra’s head as they lunged towards me. The zebra fell, its head now caved in and leaking blood. I spun back around, not daring to wait for the other zebra’s to catch up.

Up ahead I could see the tunnel split into three. Shade looked between them, her eyes darting back and forth. “Amber, which way!?”

Without slowing my pace, I charged down the left tunnel. Shade quickly followed. I didn’t dare say the tunnel out loud, hoping we could use it as a way to shake the zebra off our trail.

I heard shouting from somewhere behind us. “Split up, find the ponies!” so we hadn’t lost them, but we had lessened the amount following us at least.

Once again, the path ahead split, this time only into two. I grinned, we might actually be able to lose them. I raced down the left tunnel again, hoping that the zebras were far enough behind us that they couldn’t hear or see which way we had gone.

A zebra from one of the side tunnels limped out and slammed into me, the force knocking me prone on my back. Boneless was out in a second, swinging towards the zebra and firing at their head.

The zebra leapt back with a timid yelp and skidded away from me, the shot just missing their head. “Amber, it’s me!” Xayah shouted, her voice filled with both fear and shock.

I dropped my shotgun, taking in the black and white zebra for the first time. “Oh goddesses, I’m so sorry, I thought that you were a zebra!”

Xayah gave me a funny look. “I am a zebra…”

I slapped my hoof to my face. “You know what I mean,” I looked back up at her and took her form in. Her right fore hoof was most definitely broken, twisted awkwardly to one side and bleeding profusely from a large gash on one side. I quickly passed her our last healing potion as well as one of the medical braces that Brisk had worn so long ago. “Here.”

Xayah gratefully took the potion while I quickly started strapping the brace onto her leg. “What is going on?” She asked, glancing around the dark tunnel. “I haven’t run into anything since we fell down here.”

“Then you were lucky,” Shade said flatly, her back turned to us and her pistol raised as she waited for more zebras to come down the tunnel. “We’ve been having a bit of bad luck.”

Xayah’s ears perked up as she listened to the sound of distant hoofsteps. “Zebras?”

“You guessed it.”

The first zebra came racing around the corner. Shade’s pistol fired, blowing out its leg and making it collapse to the ground. The zebra screamed out, alerting the others. I could hear the footsteps in the distance pause before rushing towards us.

Xayah’s sniper flashed out, a shot ringing out and nailing the zebra between the eyes. The zebra’s head burst open, ending its screams.

“Can you run?” I asked, glancing down at her braced leg.

Xayah gave a nervous nod. “I can do my best.”

I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out my Buck and passed one to her. “Here, this should be able to help.”

She glanced down at the tablet with distaste before popping it into her mouth. “Normally, I would not take chems, but I suppose I will bend that rule under our current circumstances,” Xayah said strictly, swallowing the tablet. “Does Brisk know you have those?”

I shook my head. “No, and I think it best he doesn’t find out.”

Three more zebra’s came charging around the corner, their sniper already out and firing down the hallway towards us.

I spun on my back hooves and started running again. “Well, time to get going!” I shouted, racing forwards and around the corner. Shade and Xayah bolted after me, Xayah no longer having trouble now that the buck was pumping through her.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw five more zebra rush around the corner to join the chase. There was no time to slow down and chat, we would be swarmed.

We burst into another large chamber, though not nearly as large as the one we had seen with the monolith. Metal barrels of I.M.P. littered the ground, most of their rainbow contents already spilled out across the rock floor. On the far side was a large tunnel leading deeper into the caves and to the right was a large metal door with the words ‘Mega spell launch chamber’ above it in huge letters. Like any self respecting door, it appeared to be locked with a terminal.

More zebras were charging at us from the far side of the cave. A zebra in the lead stared at us, their eyes slowly changing to a foul looking green. The zebra pointed across the cavern toward us, instructing the zebras to charge. “You have come far,” I heard Kamari’s vile voice sooth ooze from the zebras mouth. “But you have only wasted your time.”

“You keep saying that,” I growled back at him, rushing over to the large metal doors leading to the mega spell launch chamber. I jumped over a puddle of I.M.P. not daring to let myself touch the evil ooze. “Yet somehow, I keep surviving! So maybe you should be a little less ignorant!” I ducked as a bullet flew past me.

Across the room I could see the zebra grinning at me. “You have come farther than most, but for nothing. I assure you, you will not leave here alive.”

I raised Boneless and practically fired blindly behind me. The explosive buckshot burst from my gun, blasting open the head of the zebra Kamari had been possessing. “We’ll see about that!” I shouted angrily. Kamari’s confidence in me failing was beginning to get on my nerves.

Another zebra's eyes began to glow, this zebra only a few feet away from me this time. “Soon the power of the stars will rise from the deep!” Kamari’s voice continued, refusing to be silenced. The zebra lashed out at me with his scimitar with deadly speed. I had to do everything I could to keep from being cut clean in two. “Luna Prime will be activated and Nightmare Moon will once again walk free!”

“Luna Prime? What is that!?” I called back, hoping to stall for time. The zebra ignored me and continued moving forwards.

Blam!

Xayah sent a bullet through the zebra's head, dropping them to the ground. “Not if we have anything to say about it!” She growled, standing defensively in front of me as I began hacking away at the terminal. Shade moved up next to me as well and began helping me decrypt the password.

Yet another zebra’s eyes took on the baleful green. “Ah, Xayah. These ponies do not know of the power I threaten them with, but you do. You understand and fear the stars as any sane zebra should,” Kamari grinned, slowly closing in on us with the rest of his zebra’s. The zebras were moving around the puddles of I.M.P. quickly, the elongated root to get to us barely slowing them down.

“I do, and I will not allow you to do whatever evil you have conspired to do here!” Xayah yelled back, her sniper firing and taking the head off another zebra that was getting too close.

The glowing gaze left the zebra and appeared on another. “I have been planning this for over two hundred years, do you really think a ragtag group of wasteland hero wannabes can defeat me!”

Another shot from Xayah’s sniper dropped the zebra. “I believe that Amber will get us through this.”

Another green eyed zebra’s grin widened. “Then you are a fool, just like your pony ‘friends’…” the zebra raised their sniper and fired. The shot blasted out, striking Xayah in the chest. Xayah fell to the ground with a scream, her hooves clutching at her chest to stop the bleeding.

“Xayah!” I screamed, turning from the terminal and crouching over her protectively. Shade took my place at the terminal and began trying to hack it on her own. I growled at the zebras closing in around us. They had formed a tight circle now, almost close enough to be within melee range. “Don’t you dare touch her!”

The voice of Kamari once again switched to a new zebra. “As I said Amber, all of your fates were sealed the moment you entered the tower. There is no escape.”

Boneless took off the grinning zebra’s head. “I think you got it backwards Kamari. You sealed your own fate when you decided to mess with my Stable!”

The large doors behind me slid open with a loud clang. “Get in! Now!” Shade yelled, bounding into the darkness beyond the door.

I threw Xayah over my back and darted for the door.

“Kill them! Kill them now!” Kamari screached, the mass of zebras lurching forwards with a sudden unexpected speed. Bullets whizzed past me, one nicking the tip of my ear and drawing a bit of blood.

I leapt into the air, my body flying the last few feet and landing with a thump on the far side of the door. The second I was through, Shade shut the door, the large steel doors slamming shut just as quickly as they had opened.

I had expected some sort of large chamber like the last room. Instead we found ourselves in another long hallway, leading to another room at the end of the hall. A few doors lined the metal passage, leading to smaller offices.

“There, that should hold them,” Shade huffed, looking up at the large door. I could hear a few zebras slamming into the door on the far side. “This door was designed to hold out mega spells, it's practically a Stable door. There’s no breaking it down.”

The door suddenly slid open again, all the zebra’s on the far side staring at us with an awful twisted grin. A zebra with Kamari’s glowing green eyes stepped forwards. “Did you really think I didn’t have the override code for my own door? I have control over this entire facility,” Kamari’s voice mocked, taking another step towards us. “I feel you do not fully comprehend the condition you are in right now. Do not worry, I will ensure that you understand before the end.”

“Shit. Run! Run!” I urged, turning and bolting down the hallway. A zebra jumped at me, their hooves wrapping around my legs and dragging me to the ground. I fell over, my face hitting the ground hard.

Xayah rushed forwards, her knife stabbing deep into the zebra atop me and pushing them off. Somehow the Buck pumping through her must have managed to keep her on her hooves despite the bloody bullet wound to her chest.

Two more Zebra’s raced forwards, their knives drawn as the tackled Shade to the ground. I rushed to help her, only for a zebra with Kamari’s glowing eyes to block my path. “How far have you fallen Amber? What hope of escape do you think you have?”

I let Boneless answer for me, pulping the head of the zebra. I grimaced as I realized I had once again dropped below ten shots. I really, really needed to be more careful with how much ammo I used.

Xayah and I stood back to back as more zebra’s moved towards us. I saw Shade manage to push the zebras off her and start moving towards us, only to be blocked off again.

“The fuck is this!?” I heard a voice exclaim loudly from over the din. I looked up, my ears perking as I recognized the familiar voice. “A fight that we weren’t invited to? How rude!”

A jet of fire shot through the zebra’s ranks, setting a large portion of them aflame. Pyre Blaze stepped through the fire, striking her most dramatic pose she could as the zebras around her screamed and burned. I don’t think I had ever been so happy to see that damn raider in my whole life!

Blam! Blam!

I heard Brisk’s pistol crack off two shots, each one blowing the head off a zebra as he marched up to stand dramatically beside Pyre. He gave me a smug grin. “Hey sis, what I miss?”

“You two have got to be the most over dramatic ponies I have ever met,” I scowled at them, but I couldn’t help keep a small smile from my face all the same.

Pyre shrugged and let loose another stream of fire into the zebra. “Eh, what can I say? There's nothing like a good ol’ dramatic entrance!”

Brisk’s pistol fired off another shot, the bullet smashing into the terminal outside the large door and making the whole thing begin to spark. Pyre whirled around, her flamers clearing the way for her as she pushed herself towards the inner terminal and manually shut the large door.

There was a screech as the door once again closed itself, this time for good. The door slammed shut, blocking off a majority of the zebra’s that had failed to make it through the doorway before Brisk and Pyre had intervened.

The few zebras that had managed to get through clumped together, forming a tight circle they could defend from all sides. That was the biggest mistake they could make. You can’t defend yourself from a wave of fire and inferno.

Pyre’s flamers let loose a massive jet of fire, consuming the small cluster of zebra’s and setting them all ablaze. They zebras screamed as they fire engulfed them, and to my horror, I saw the yellow tint drain from their eyes seconds before their bodies completely burned away.

Brisk gave the door a smug grin. “There we go, try opening up that door now!” He gave the door a small kick. “It only opens from this side now, so ha! How do you like them apples!?”

There was a low grating sound over the speakers that I quickly realized was the sound of Kamari growling. “Clever, but futile,” The voice of the glowing zebra ghoul paused, thinking over his words before speaking again. When he spoke his voice was low and dangerous. “Congrats, you have almost reached me. Please continue, I have a present for you up ahead.”

The speakers cut out with a small burst of static.

I quickly turned to Xayah and looked over the bullet wound on her chest. “Does anypony have any gauze or something?” I called out desperately, placing my hoof over her bleeding torso. Xayah winced at the touch, but didn’t pull away.

“Yes, but you’re the one with my saddlebags,” Brisk pointed out, gesturing to the two sets of saddlebags flung over my back.

I blushed a little at my foolishness and quickly dug around in his bag until I pulled out a large wad of gauze. Who knows where Brisk picked that up. I passed Brisk’s saddlebag back to him and quickly started applying the gauze to Xayah’s chest. “We’ll get you a healing potion as soon as we get one, I promise,” I said solemnly as I wrapped the gauze tighter.

Xayah flinched as I pulled the gauze tight. “Of course, but I will be fine until then.”

With Xayah’s wound tended to, I turned and glanced down the hallway to the smaller door at the end. It didn’t look all that different from any other door, just a metal frame with a metal sliding door reminiscent of the doors in Stable 25.

“Think there’s a trap in there?” Brisk asked, slowly walking down the hallway and looking at the metal door.

“I’d be surprised if there wasn’t,” Pyre grunted, quickly trotting up and joining him. She glanced back at me with one eye. “So, what’s the plan Amber?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m not the leader of this group,” I said with a shrug. Everypony gave me a flat stare. “What, I’m not!”

Pyre just snorted. “Well, we’re here because of you, so we’ll let you call the shots. What’s the plan?”

I glanced at the door. “Well we can’t really go back, not with all those zebra’s out there… so through the door is really our only option.”

Pyre rolled that around for a second. “True enough. In we go.”

The door slid open automatically at our approach. The first thing I saw was the collection of silver memory orbs that floated through the air like they had back in the large cavern. There was a large steel door on the far wall, a large sign hanging over it read ‘Mega spells - do not enter’. As I looked down, I saw the silver light of the floating orbs glinting off the grimy metal of some large form that had been chained to the centre of the room.

I squinted, trying to make out what it was. Slowly, the shape began to take the form of a large metal pony, their metal wings clamped tight against their side and a magic reduction ring had been placed over their jagged horn. The figure raised its head, its blood red glass eyes piercing through the dark air into me.

I could hear my whole party gasp as they finally put a name to the figure chained down before us. “Crank…”

I had seen Azar in the MAS building. I had known that Crank had been defeated in combat. But even still I was surprised to find the mighty cyber alicorn chained up. The chains stretched out from him and across the room at all sides and pulled taut, keeping him from even moving an inch in any one direction.

I looked down upon him, my eyes seeming to understand exactly who was before me for the first time since I had met him. His eyes locked with mine, a deep hurt playing out across his face. At that moment I knew I was not the only pony to have been having visions of Crank’s past. He had been seeing them too. All his failures and hurts had been pushed back into him. No torture that Kamari or Azar could have done to him since he had wound up here could have compared to what his brain had been doing to itself.

“What did you do to me Amber,” Crank growled, his voice low and almost pitiful. “What did you do…”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’m sorry. I was only trying to save you at the time.”

Crank snarled, his horn glowing slightly, only for the magic reduction ring to snuff out the glowing blue light. “I only wanted to save her Amber… Scarlet deserved better than me…”

“Do you like my gift?” Kamari’s voice crackled smuggly over the speakers, making all of us jump a little. “Behold my favourite little pet.”

Crank growled in response, but I could clearly see the hurt in his glass eyes.

“Let him go Kamari!” I yelled up at the speaker. I don’t know when I had started caring enough about Crank to wish for him free, but I had. Probably at some point when I had been inside his memories I suppose. Finding out my enemies sob stories always seemed to make me empathize with them more than I should.

Kamari chuckled at that. “I was intending to,” The chains around Crank’s body released, allowing him to stand to full height. The metal ring around his body and horn released, freeing his wings and horn. “Kill them my pet. Kill them and you can redeem yourself to me.”

Once again, the speakers cut out with a small burst of static.

Crank turned his head to look at me, his red gaze seemingly cutting through me like a knife. I saw his back arch as he prepared to lunge at us.

We all took a step back. I held my hoof out in what I hoped looked like a peaceful gesture. “You don’t have to do this Crank, you can defy him still! Do you really think this is what Scarlet would have wanted?”

Crank gave a low, animalistic growl. “Don’t you dare speak her name! And it doesn't matter anymore! I cannot save her unless I am free! And if killing you is what I need to do to get that, then I will.”

We all took another step back, fearing the sheer hatred that we could feel radiating off of the cyber alicorn. The hate wasn’t directed at us, but at the wasteland, at the cruel fates that had forced him to where he was now. We were simply in his way. We were always the ones standing in his way.

Crank had given up everything. His body, his way of life, and now his sanity, all for one mare. One mare, who I was beginning to realize I had no idea the fate of. Was she even still alive? I had no idea.

I raised Boneless and prepared for his attack. I could see all of my friends do the same. Five against one, under any other circumstance, those would have been pretty good odds. But here, I prayed that we even stood a chance.

Crank attacked first, launching himself past the floating silver orbs and rocketing into me with tremendous force. I was sent sprawling back, my whole body spinning head over hoof as I stumbled down the tunnel.

Pyre lurched forwards, her strong, metal clad hooves pounding into Crank’s face. Crank took the hit, his head hardly even moving as the force that would take off any other ponies head simply bounced off of him.

Crank’s tail lashed out, its side catching Pyre across the side of the head and hurtling her into Brisk who had only just begun to attack himself. They hadn't even landed yet when Crank was upon them, his hooves pinning both of them down and his tesla cannons glowing a brilliant blue.

Xayah leapt onto his back, her knife cutting deep into the gap of fur on his neck. The blade sunk deep, drawing dark, sludge-like blood.

Crank bucked her off with a single mighty kick, sending the zebra tumbling to the ground with a painful sounding thud.

I pulled myself up and charged him, hoping to get the cyber alicorn off of my friends. In a similar fashion to how he dealt with Pyre, Crank’s tail flashed out at me, it’s long bladed appendage speeding towards my neck and trying to rip out my throat.

I ducked low, evading the attack and placing my shotgun tight against his head. I never had time to fire as he pounced off of Brisk and Pyre and rammed into me. All the air was knocked from my lungs as what felt like a wrecking ball plowed into me.

Blam!

A shot from Shade’s pistol lanced through Crank’s head, spraying the tunnel wall with black viscera. Crank shook the sudden pain off, his head knitting itself back together as his hydra infused blood did its work.

His tesla cannons swiveled at his sides, aiming towards Shade. I screamed out, urging her to move. She followed as I instructed, jumping to the side as Crank’s huge cannons blasted a massive blast of energy towards her. Our vision erupted into a blazing blue and all of my hairs stood on end as the powerful energy surged around the room.

Brisk was back to his hooves, his baseball drawn and swinging at Crank. The bat cracked against Crank’s head, the whole thing splitting in two against the cyber alicorns near indestructible metal plating.

I pushed myself up, grasping at a missing patch of fur on my foreleg that had been blown off by simply being in the near vicinity of Crank’s tesla cannon blast. “Crank please! We can help you help her!” I insisted, practically begging. “Do you really think Kamari will keep his word!?”

“I don’t think any of you will keep your word!” Crank growled, rounding on me. “For all my time in the wasteland, for all the mistakes I have made, one thing has been made very clear to me time and time again!” he stomped his hoof on the ground, his tesla cannons once again beginning to charge up. “It’s every pony for themselves in the wasteland! Friendship might have been magic once upon a time, but here… in the desolation and ashes, true friendship is dead.”

His cannons fired. I leapt away, just barely avoiding being turned to a pile of smoldering ashes on the ground. The shock wave of the blast hit me mid air, sending me hurtling back into the room full of orbs.

I looked up, trying to orientate myself as the world spun around me. I saw Crank’s glowing eyes moving towards me through the dust and gloom, a brilliant glowing blue slowly building around his horn.

I heard the sound of gunfire as both Shade, Brisk and Xayah blasted at him with their guns. Crank ignored them and kept moving towards me, their bullets either bouncing off him harmlessly or having their damage healed over within seconds.

“I spent years trying to save her Amber! I’ve lost everything for her!” a blue beam of energy lanced out from his horn. I rolled aside as the blue beam slashed at the ground next to me, charring the ground in a straight line. “I became a monster Amber! All because of a deal! I’m through with making deals!”

Another beam lanced out, nearly taking off my ear as I rolled to the side again. I noticed Crank’s aim was a little worse than normal, not enough to bet on him missing, but enough that I was able to keep from being hit and dusted immediately. Those memories must have been doing a number on him and keeping him off kilter.

Pyre rushed him, her flamers blazing and consuming him in a steady inferno. Crank’s wings shot out, there blade like feathers slashing into one of her flamers canisters. The flamer exploded, the blast knocking Pyre a few feet back and slamming hard against the wall of the tunnel.

I pulled myself up, backing up slowly until I was practically pushed up against the floating orbs. “Then don’t make a deal with me, but don’t make one with Kamari either. He’ll never let you go as long as he needs you!”

“Then I’ll just need to kill you both!” the cyber alicorn roared, rearing up on his hind legs and spreading out his bladed wings as he rose to his full height, towering over all of us like the sinister monolith. He sprang forwards, his hind hooves pushing him off and making him accelerate at a seemingly impossible speed. His cannons fired, their blue energy blasting towards me.

I leapt aside, trying to move out of the way of the blast, but Crank was thinking ahead of me this time. His horn shot out, its powerful blue laser lancing through my fore hoof and making me stumble.

However, Crank wasn’t the only pony who had been thinking ahead. I had been standing with my back nearly pressed against the glowing silver orbs. The same silver orbs that Crank now sped towards at full speed.

The cyber alicorn realized what was happening seconds before he would have hit the floating spheres. He planted his hooves firmly on the ground, his whole body skidding to a stop inches from the orbs.

I didn’t let him escape my trap. Ignoring the burning pain in my forehoof, I pushed forwards and tackled him. With my minimal strength, I was able to do little more than make his head bob slightly forwards, but that was all I needed. The tip of his horn bent down, the end brushing up against one of the silver memory orbs. Crank’s whole body went still as his mind was sent swirling into what I could only assume was another of Twilights many memories.

Unfortunately, I had flung myself at him with enough momentum that I was unable to stop myself from skidding forwards. I pressed my fore hooves against the ground in the same manner I had just seen Crank do, but without his immense strength, I could do little but make myself stumble more.

I tumbled and collided face first with one of the floating orbs myself.

For the third time that day, I found myself inhabiting the body of Twilight Sparkle. She sat behind her desk, the large painting of her that Rarity had given her resting on the wall behind her. She fidgeted her hooves slightly in agitation as she waited for whatever it was that she was waiting for.

There was a small rapping sound on the large oak doors. “Come in,” Twilight called out, straightening her back a little.

The door creaked open and a brown buck with a cyan mane marched in, a stack of papers held tight in his magic. The pony quickly closed the door behind him. “Twilight, I’m glad you’ve managed to make time to see me. Hopefully I won’t be long, you just need to sign a few things,” The stallion said in a bit of a rush, teleporting the papers over to her. He seemed nervous, if not outright scared.

“You must be Train Tracks, am I right?” Twilight asked, ignoring the papers for the moment and focusing on the nervous looking pony. “The spokes pony for Four Star?”

Train Tracks nodded, glancing down at his hooves nervously. I felt a bit of worry build up inside me. I didn’t know much about the company Four Star, but I knew a bit. In particular, I knew that they were zebra sympathizers and traitors to Equestria.

“We just need you to sign there. Just some legal permission to have the Manehattan Monorail connect to the ministry of Arcane Science hub. That’s all,” The stallion said, doing his best to keep his voice steady.

Twilight turned her attention to the papers and quickly read them all through. Holy shit she was a fast reader. She nodded her head and signed the paper with a red quill. “Alright, is there anything else you need?” she asked, looking up from the page.

“W-well… there is one thing…”

Before Twilight could ask what it was, a single red dart shot out of seemingly nowhere and embedded itself in Twilight's neck. Twilight’s body twitched with surprise for a second, before going rigid and still. Her mouth opened and closed silently as she tried to speak, but no words escaped her lips.

There was a shimmer in the air beside Train Tracks and a zebra in a stealth cloak flickered into view. I saw the zebra smile deviously from below his hood and give the skittish stallion beside him a pat on the back. “You did well, pony. You are dismissed.”

It was Kamari’s voice. Missing the sickening gurgle that accompanied being a ghoul, he sounded even more powerful and commanding.

Train Tracks gave a nod and slipped out of the room, making sure that the door never opened enough for anypony outside to see what was happening within.

Kamari waited until the Four Star representative had left before dropping his hood, revealing his strange spirally, black and white stripes. Now seeing him without the baleful glow, I could see that at one point in history, Kamari had had dazzling blue eyes.

“Do not think that anypony will overhear us,” Kamari soothed, slowly approaching Twilight’s desk. “Your room is magically sound proofed and my spies have already deactivated your security cameras.”

I felt Twilight’s eyes widen with fear, the only part of her that didn’t seem to be paralized by whatever poison that dart had been laced with. Kamari quickly gestured to the dart smuggly. “Do you like it? My own personal recipe. Immobilizes any pony for an hour, then erases their memory afterwards. Not that that last part will need to apply to you.”

Kamari began circling the desk, moving up beside the paralized ministry mare. “But do not worry, I still have need for you. I am simply here to erase your memory. Everything about the Institute, the Utopia program and Luna Prime,” Kamari grinned smugly as he spoke, relishing in his immobilized captive. “I realize that you have also just learnt about that little book of mine Rarity has been using. I’m afraid I will need to remove that from your mind too. Can’t have ponies I don’t want reading my masterpiece.”

Twilight opened and closed her mouth again, still trying to say something to little success. Her pupils had dilated into pipricks as she tried to figure out how to get out of this situation. Nothing came to her mind.

From out of Kamari’s saddlebag came a dark book, itself a wicked thing. He placed his hoof to an open page for a second, his blue eyes closing and a strange chant escaping his lips. When he opened his eyes again, they glowed the baleful green I had come to associate with him. “We’ve been playing you for a long time from the Shadows Twilight Sparkle, now we are simply cleaning house.” He reached forward, his hoof tapping Twilight on the forehead.

At once, Twilights body went slack, her body slouching over and her head hitting the desk with a small thunk. She stared out with lifeless eyes as whatever spell Kamari had just cast took effect.

Though faded vision, I could see Kamari’s grin widen. “You will awake in an hour or so with no memory of any of this. Fret not, your secrets are all safe with me.”

There was a small clapping noise from behind him. Kamari turned to see a green mare with an orange mane and a camera hanging around her neck leaning against the far wall. She gave him a sly grin. “You talk too much. Never talk. Let’s the ponies get the better of you,” that voice, I could never forget it. Chrysalis.

Kamari looked surprised at the unexpected mare. His hoof flying back to the black book by his side. “Who are you!” He demanded, his tone losing the arrogance and calmness it had just possessed.

Chrysalis let her grin widen more. “No pony interested in that silly Luna Prime that you’re after, I assure you. But I do care about one thing you just stole from our little Twilights brain,” Chrysalis glanced down lazily at the black book held tight in kamari’s grasp. “And put down that book, that will do nothing against me.”

Kamari lowered the book slightly, but didn’t lessen his grip. “What do you want with me?”

Chrysalis cocked her head to the side before letting loose a short laugh. “With you? Please, I want nothing with you. You do not know me, and honestly I suspect we will never meet again. But you have done me a great service. I was just here to do very much the same thing,” Chrysalis looked towards the painting behind Twilight. “And I advise you to take the elevator behind that painting. It should make your escape easier.”

Kamari glanced back at the large painting, his eyes glossing over it for a few seconds before turning back to Chrysalis. “Why are you…” His voice trailed off as he realized she had disappeared.

I was back in my own body, the world around me flashing past as we sped down the long hallway. I pulled my head up and looked around, trying to get my bearings. I was being carried on Pyre’s back as we rushed down a new hallway towards what looked like a large chamber at the far end.

“What’s happening?” I asked drowsily, trying to make sense of everything.

“We took advantage of Crank being stuck in that memory orb to rush past him! Good thinking getting him trapped in one of those by the way,” Pyre exposited. “We have until he gets out of that orb as a head start-” A loud roar of rage echoed down the hallway after us. The blaring sounds of Crank’s massive cannons firing after us filled the air and drowned out all other noise. “And there’s the end of our head start! Hold on!”

Pyre learched forwards, carrying me the rest of the way down the tunnel before dumping be on the ground in the large chamber at the end. The rest of my friends quickly pilled in around me, weapons drawn as the sounds of the enraged cyber alicorn thundered down the tunnel after us.

The chamber we entered was vast, even larger than the one containing the vile monolith. We stood on a long catwalk, the metal pathway stretching out over a massive pit and towards a huge platform in the center of the chamber. Smaller catwalks broke off from the main one, connecting to other platforms around the cavern. Lining the outer wall of the cavern, huge glowing green spheres rest in strange tube-like chambers. I grimace as I recognised them as much larger versions of Balefire eggs. These were full on Balefire bombs.

The large platform in the middle held what looked like a massive, makeshift mainframe that towered over everything. The top of the mainframe was a collection of jagged metal spire like machines that attached to a massive glowing blue orb. A mega spell, and I think I knew exactly which one… this was the chamber holding Luna Prime.

Emerging from the massive rock face in front of the looming mega spell was the dangling remains of a massive skeletal dragon. It was without question the largest thing I had ever seen, each tooth alone the size of a gnarled tree. It’s snarling bone head and bits of its claws lay exposed from the rock, as if it had died mid lunge and remained there until hundreds of years of rock had covered it. The rest of its body remained concealed within the stone. Strange zebra glyphs had been carved into the dragons bone, each glyph glowing a faint, icy blue. I recognized the glyphs, I had seen those very markings in the first memory orb I had ever viewed.

The sounds of cheering howls rose up at us from the depths of the pit and down below I could see the squirming mass of hundreds if not thousands of zebras as they stared up at the huge platform and monstrous dragon skeleton in anticipation. Two figures stood atop the platform, standing proudly before the army of zebra’s.

The first was Azar, his purple stripes glowing a brilliant violet as he stared down at the army with a smug grin sprawled across his face. His hooves were once again fitted with metal horseshoes like they had when I had first encountered him and his usual stealth cloak was draped over his shoulders, the hood pulled back to reveal his sinister face.

The second figure was the one I had come here to kill. The one I had lost so much to, and fought against so much just to find. His spiral like stripes glowed a sickening green, contrasting his rotted black flesh and his eyes seemed to illuminate the whole chamber by themself. He was dressed in a black robe, some sort of ceremonial attire and now in the flesh, I could see that his strange stripes seemed to move and writhe around him. Kamari…

Something in me snapped simply by looking at him. I felt rage building up within me, its burning warmth spreading throughout my whole body. The very rage that had been brewing since Stable 25 had been extinguished burst through me at full force, tinting the edges of my vision with red. My lips curled back, twisting my mouth into an animalistic snarl. “Kamari!”

Kamari turned, his baleful eyes locking with mine. His expression for the first time was one of shock, before he quickly concealed it with a vile sneer. “You have made it far Amber, farther than any to try before you… But you are too late, Luna Prime will awaken the great dragon! Nightmare moon rises!” I could hear a roar erupt from the amassing zebras below.

So that was it then. The mysterious mega spell Luna Prime reanimated a massive dragon from the dead. I’m sure there was more to it than that, but that alone was enough to make me quake in fear.

“You think that dragon is Nightmare Moon?!” Xayah scoffed, her tone more dangerous than I had ever heard it. “You are insane!”

Kamari just gave here a leer filled grin before turning to Azar, his face grim. “Kill them, do not let them interfere with Nightmare Moon's return!” He turned back to face the army of zebras below. “Kill those that dare to stand in the way of our mother of the night!”

All at once, Azar and the zebra forces charged forwards. Hundreds of zebras began clambering up the slopped catwalks towards us, knives, scimitars and snipers gleaming in the glowing light of Luna Prime. Turrets popped up from the elevated platforms, their metal barrels swinging around to face us. Azar stalked forwards, his lips twisted into a terrible grin.

This was it, the reason Kamari had been so confident that us five wastelanders were doomed to fail. How could we possibly stand against all of this!

I sprang into action at once, spinning around to face all my friends. “Alright, here’s the plan! Pyre, Brisk, you keep Azar off of us, kill him if you can! Xayah, Shade, take out as many zebras as possible! Don’t let them overtake the catwalk or we’ll be overrun!”

“And what about you sis?” Brisk asked, his pistol already in his mouth and firing off a few shots at the oncoming hordes.

I grimace and turned back to the tunnel we had just burst through. “There’s one last cyber pony I need to deal with…”

As if on cue, Crank burst through the doorway, his tesla cannons blazing blue light as the entrance was literally blasted open to allow him entry. He stared at me, his eyes loathing as he charged up for another blast.

“You know what you need to do, now let's do this!” I yelled out, my legs bending and every muscle in my body tensing as I readied myself for what was to come.

“What about Kamari!” Xayah yelled, her voice nearly drowned out by the crack of her own snipers fire.

I glanced over at the glowing zebra ghoul. He was crawling up the large makeshift mainframe, already halfway to the top. He seemed to be heading towards a large pod at the top near the mega spell. There was too much going on and not enough of us to deal with it all. “We’ll figure that out after, first we need to survive!” I yelled back, jumping to the side as the zebras started shooting up at me.

Crank thundered towards me, each powerful step of his piston enhanced hooves causing the catwalk to shudder under his tremendous force. I leapt aside, my hoove grasping around the edge of the catwalks rails as I threw myself over the edge and swung around to land on the catwalk behind him. I was glad to see these rails were in better condition than the ones in the first cavern.

Crank spun around faster than I could have expected, his cannons firing off a powerful static filled blast of energy towards me. I jumped back, the massive explosion only missing me by inches and the shockwave once more knocking me off my hooves.

I rolled across my back and sprang back up to my hooves, the effect of the healing mega spell form earlier making my body feel more agile than it had in ages. Boneless raised in my telekinetic grip, its three barrels aimed at the raging cyber alicorns head, yet I hesitated to fire.

“Please Crank! You don’t need to do this!” I yelled over the booming gunfire, trying one last time to get through to the cyber alicorn before me. I didn’t know why I seemed so determined to help him, but I did. After everything I had seen, I couldn’t find it in myself to hate him. “You can be the pony that you want to be! Not just the monster that the wasteland thinks you are!”

“Stop saying that!” Crank roared, once again charging into me and sending me flying from my hooves where I hit the catwalks guard rails with a clang. My head throbbed and my vision spun from the impact. “There is no redemption for a monster like me! The wasteland is right to fear me!”

He reared up his hooves, slamming them down towards me. I rolled to the side, his metal hoove smashing the catwalk where my head had just been. Behind him, I could see Pyre and Brisk in a violent combat with Azar, his hooves lashing out at a speed I was having trouble comprehending as he deflected both of their attacks while still managing to stay on the offensive. One of his hooves lashed out, catching Brisk along the side of the face and sending him flying across the catwalk.

“But you aren’t a monster! I’ve seen it! I’ve seen the real you!” I yelled back, rolling again as he stomped another hoof down at me, this time the bottoms of his hooves shooting jets of flame as his jet hooves activated. The catwalk below his hoof was crushed and charred. “I mean look at what you’re doing! You have given up everything for somepony else! Doesn’t that count for something!?”

“I said stop talking about her!” Crank roared his tesla cannons firing a powerful shot down at me. I ducked below his legs and pulled up behind him as the blast detonated, his own cannons blowing off his two front hooves. Before I could even righten myself, his hydra infused blood patched his hooves back together and he whirled on me. His hooves shot out, catching me by the collar of my stable barding and hoisting me over the side of the catwalk. He held me there, his blazing glass eyes cutting into me. “You do not understand me! You do not understand my pain! I’ve done things you could never understand Amber! Things that your worst nightmares couldn’t even begin to comprehend!”

His hooves let go of me, sending me falling from the catwalk. I stretched my hooves out, grabbing onto the rail with both of them and holding on for dear life. I could see the zebra’s below as they glared up at me, their snipers swiveling up to face me. I twisted to the side as a few shots fired upon me, the large bullets ricocheting off the metal rails by my hoof.

Not far from me I could see Xayah and Shade side by side, their guns firing down upon the zebras as they charged up at us. A few zebras had managed to get past their defenses, their scimitars out and swinging at my friends. Beyond even them I saw Kamari reach the peak of the mainframe, his grin only growing as he began to strap himself into the pod.

Crank loomed over me, his huge form blocking out the glowing light of the Luna Prime mega spell. He sneered down at me, his hoof raising as he prepared to kick me off the rail.

I squirmed, trying to move away from his impending attack. I found nowhere to go. “You’re right, I don’t understand! But that doesn’t mean anything! You said yourself that you were trying to be a good pony! Back on the train, you said a sob story doesn’t make you a monster, it’s only a way to push the blame off yourself!” Crank’s hoof slammed down, the immense force shattering the bones in my left fore hoof. I screamed, grabbing onto the rail tighter with my unbroken hoof as the now broken one swung free. “So you’re right! I don’t, can't understand you! But I understand friendship! You’ve been fighting this battle alone! Trying to save Scarlet from a world determined to tear the two of you apart! But it doesn’t need to be that way!”

I saw Crank raise his hoof again as he prepared to slam it down on my remaining hoof. I imagined the shield spell I had seen those monstrous alicorns cast so many times and made a gamble. As the hoof came down, my horn flared. A thin shield of amber magic materialized between my hoof and his, stopping his attack mid air. Crank snarled and pushed down upon the shield harder, causing thin cracks to form in its amber surface.

“We can help you! Really we can! My friends have traveled through hell and back for me, and I promise that we could do the same for you!” I yelled up at him pleadingly. Beads of sweat were rolling down my face as I put my effort into maintaining the spell. “My friends have gotten me all the way here! Closer to killing Kamari than any pony ever has! We could help you save her! You just need to believe me!”

Crank’s head drew close to mine, his whole force pressing down against my pathetic looking shield. His black, slug-like tongue lolled from his mouth as he pressed his jagged teeth together and hissed. “You don’t understand Amber! I don’t know how much you saw inside of my mind, but clearly you didn’t see it all!”

My shield broke and his hoof slammed down. I let go just as his hoof shattered the railing in two and grabbed onto the edge of the Catwalk itself. Crank’s horn began to glow brighter and brighter, each second punctuated with an electrical crack as the power within him began to build.

“I know! I said that-”

I was cut off as he slammed his hooves down on the catwalk in rage, black tears spilling from his eyes and down his metal cheeks. “Scarlet is dead Amber!” His bellows of rage sent chills down my spine. “I was given three days to find her, and when I did…” His voice trailed off, slowly changing into a low rumble. “She had been viciously murdered. Some raiders had raped and tortured her, torn her apart like animals!” he was seething, his blood red eyes glowing brighter. “All of this! I lost my body and freedom! Everything was for nothing! I gave up everything for her and the wasteland stole her away!”

I gulped, my grip on the edge of the rail loosening as my sweat began to make my hoof slippery. “I know what it’s like to fight so hard for something, only for it to be stripped away from you! I did things I will never forgive myself for so could save my Stable, only for it to be taken away from me when I thought I had won. I’ve killed foals and am plagued by nightmares worse than I ever thought possible, and in the end it was all for nothing!” I could feel tears start dripping down my face. Ever since the destruction of Stable 25 I had held them back, pushed down my feelings until I couldn’t feel anything. That time was over. And goddesses it hurt.

Hot tears spilled down my face, mingling with Crank’s as we both cried openly upon the catwalks. I could feel a shiver racing through my body as the horrible last few seconds of my Stable flashed through my mind. I tried to push aside the tears and pain, but they wouldn’t stop. “But just because the wasteland takes what you love away doesn’t mean you need to become a monster! I forgot that myself for a bit! I was so focused on my rage and revenge that I shut the rest of the world out! You can be better than me Crank! You can be the pony you are supposed to be! The pony Scarlet used to love! Still loves! Hatred and rage aren’t the only way!”

Crank’s face was conflicted now, I could see his glass eyes darting back and forth, trying to make sence of everything around him. His face would soften for a second, only to be covered up by a hard snarl. Then just as quickly he would look around scared, as if seeing the horrors of the wasteland for the first time.

He glared down at me, his red eyes begging for me to show him another way. “I don’t know how Amber,” His voice was so low, I almost couldn’t hear it over the booming gunfire and screams. “I don’t know how to be a good pony…”

I tried to reach out to him, but with one hoof broken and the other clutching the edge of the catwalk for dear life, it looked more like a weird wiggle. “Then let me show you! We can figure out how to be better ponies together!”

Blam!

A zebra below landed a shot on me, the bullet piercing through my hind leg, making me scream out in pain. I lost my grip and my hoof let go of the catwalks.

Then I was falling. Down, down into the pits of the Hollow Shades. Zebras cheered as they watched me fall, their blades extended skywards as they readied themselves to rip into me as I landed. I screamed out, my broken hooves flailing as I tried to reach out for anything that might save me. I tried to teleport with my magic, only for my fear gripped mind to be unable to focus.

I hit something hard, pain shooting through my whole body as my fall abruptly ended. I opened my eyes, taking in the sight of the massive cavern soaring around me. I was airborne, held aloft atop Crank’s metal back.

I stared at him, my jaw slack as I realized he had come to my rescue. “Crank… I…”

“I am not a good pony Amber, and I doubt I will ever truly know how to be one…” Crank growled as a few zebras shot up at us, their snipers ripping oozing holes upon on his underbelly and sides. “But I will try. For Scarlet, damn me I’ll try!”

We landed on the catwalk with a thunk, the whole structure shaking as Cranks metal form pounded into it. A zebra rushed us, only for Crank’s wings to lash out and sever its head from its neck.

“Thank you,” I muttered breathlessly, still surprised I had managed to sway the ferocious cyber alicorns mind.

Crank just grunted at me in return as he turned to face Azar. “Deal with Kamari, Amber! I will hold off Azar!” then he bounded forwards, racing past a wounded Brisk and Pyre and ramming head first into the strange zebra, knocking the zebra off his hooves and tumbling across the catwalk.

Brisk looked back at me, his expression confused as he glanced back at the cyber alicorn. “What just happened?” He uttered, clearly confused as to what I had managed to do.

“A miracle is what!” Pyre shouted back, pulling herself up and letting her single remaining flamer shoot a jet of flame towards a zebra that was trying to flank us.

“You two help Xayah and Shade defend the catwalk from the zebras!” I instructed racing past them and towards the large mainframe. The turrets on the surrounding platforms spun to face me, firing off a constant stream of lead as I ducked behind the large mainframe to get cover.

Azar pulled himself up, his glowing purple stripes de-caving his skull from Cranks attack. “Ah, so you have sided with the ponies?” the strange zebra chuckled, hoping back slightly as Crank blasted at him with his tesla cannons. “I think our last match proved you stand little chance against me.”

Crank snarled and blasted at him with his horn. Azar dodged, the blast flying out and striking a random zebra down.

I raced forwards, my hooves wrapping around the sides of the mainframe as I began to climb it. My broken hoof screamed in protest as I pulled myself up on it and my whole body ached from my fight with Crank.

Turret fire sprayed the area around me, forcing me to jump sporadically from mechanism to mechanism. I saw the turrets bullets bounce off of the mainframe with a small shower of sparks. The large machine must have been protected by the B.S.S.G. that the MWT had installed into the MAS building. Well there went the blow it all up idea.

The massive mega spell above me began to glow brighter. Strange blue magic began gathering around it, the whole orb beginning to pulse with neer blinding light. As if answering its call, the zebra glyphs engraved in the skeletal dragon’s bones began to glow.

I leapt aside again as a turret blasted at where I had just been standing. The blinding light of Luna Prime and the other balefire bombs that lined the cavern the only light I had to see by as I tried to find my hoofing.

My hoof slipped, my whole body falling down before I managed to catch onto a lower part of the mainframe. My hind hooves swung out over the vast pit below me, the many glowing yellow eyes of possessed zebras staring up at me from the darkness.

Up above I could see a vile green light emanating from within the pod atop the mainframe. Thin, near invisible beams of green lanced out, wrapping around the bodies of fallen zebras and slowly pulling their bodies back together. Necromancy.

I saw Xayah and Shade pull back as two zebras were reanimated before them. We weren’t just fighting a massive army, we were fighting an undead army!

I swung my hoof up and climbed higher, doing my best to dodge the turrets fire or the rare shot from one of the zebras that dared to turn their attention from my friends below. I crept closer, the pod at the top almost within reach.

I used my magic to swing Boneless above my head and fire at the pod. The explosive buckshot burst against the glass, doing little but raining shrapnel back onto me. Of course the pod was indestructible, nothing could ever be easy for me.

“You are persistent!” Kamari hissed at me, glaring at me through the tinted glass of the pod. Now up close, I could see that he had strapped himself into the machine more fully than I had realized. Wires raced from the sides of the pod and into his body and a large metal helmet similar to that which I had put on my hellhound rest on his head. A single tube ran up his nose and I could see bits of vapor going through the tube and feeding into his body. The pod was some kind of weird mix between a mind control and a life support pod. He didn’t think that… was he trying to control the dragon remotely from this mainframe?! The idea seemed insane, but then again, Kamari seemed anything but sane.

My eyes locked on the vapor being pumped through the tubes into his body, I had seen it before. It was the work of the A.A.S.S. Everything he had done, all the pain he had put me through, had been to create this machine. And I was going to do everything in my power to take it away!

I bashed against the glass of the pod with my baton, sparks spraying out around me as the baton sent bolts of energy into the already electrically charged surface. My attempts were in vain as my baton simply bounced off of the shielded surface.

I snarled at the zebra ghoul through the glass. “You are going to pay for what you did to my Stable!” I screamed, my baton slamming down again only to bounce right back.

Kamari grinned his wicked grin. The huge mega spell above me pulsed brighter, a huge beam of energy blasting from it and hitting the gargantuan skull of the dragon. To my horror, I watched as the massive bones began to shift and writh, coming to life with a horrific necromantic energy. “Behold the power of the stars, Amber! You are nothing before it!” Kamari cackled, his insane voice rising to simply be heard over the thunderous sound of the mega spell.

There was a crackle of noise over the speakers and the static filled voice of Twilight Sparkle spoke out. “T-minus 5 minutes till launch.”

I glanced around, panic rising up in me. Blaring red lights began flashing everywhere, large timers blinking to life on all of the balefire bomb chambers that surrounded us. Kamari was doing more than just resurrecting a long dead giant dragon, he was bringing about a second balefire annihilation! He was going to kill everypony in the wasteland!

I scrambled over the side of the pod and down the back of the mainframe. There had to be a way to shut it off! Some sort of override!

I spotted a terminal embedded in the back of the mainframe. There!

I pushed towards it, forcing myself to move back into the range of the turrets. They fired up at me, forcing me to jump forwards and grab onto a small ledge on the huge machine.

One of the turrets hit me, their shot tearing through my already broken fore hoof. My grip slipped, sending me plumbitting from the side of the mainframe. I hit another platform, my head ringing and the whole world spinning around me. I looked up, spotting the terminal only a few feet above me. I started crawling forwards, each time my hoof pulled me up causing pain to shoot through me.

Far below I saw the zebras push past my friends, their overwhelming numbers and inability to die giving them the strength to prevail against my friends teamwork. I saw Azar leap atop Crank, his metal covered hooves ripping apart pieces of metal with each well aimed attack.

I pulled myself up to the terminal, my hooves immediately reaching for the keys to activate it. Locked! Of fucking course it was! And thirteen letters too! Fuck!

A few zebras shot up at me, their shots bouncing off the tough metal of the mainframe as I dodged to the side, swinging Boneless down to fire at them.

Blam! Blam!

Two shots fired out, two shots made their mark. Both zebras fell dead to the ground, their bodies oozing blood and viscera.

I glanced up from the terminal, my gaze landing on a dark, oblong device resting inside of a glass case. Thick tubes had been hooked up to it and were pumping its nutrients filled vapors up into the machine. The A.A.S.S.

I raised my baton and slammed it as hard as I could against the glass. It didn’t shatter completely, but a small crack did form across the front. I grimaced and slammed the baton down against it again and again, each hit making the crack stretch farther and father across the thick pane. With one last mighty thwack, the glass shattered, its shards seeming to lash out at me and cut at my flesh.

Ignoring the pain, I wrapped the A.A.S.S. in a field of magic and yanked it as hard as I could from the mainframe. The wires tugged against me, holding the oblong device in place for a second before I overpowered it and ripped it free.

Up above, I could hear a howl of rage as Kamari noticed the sudden stop in vapers being pumped into his body. “Stop her! Kiiiilllll!” He shrieked out, his voice rising to a near impossible octave.

I saw zebras break off from their assault on my friends and start rushing towards me. Pyre Blaze leapt in their path, her remaining flamer at full blast as she turned them to ash. But there were more coming and we simply couldn’t hold them all off!

Several more pushed past her, charging fearlessly past Crank and Azar’s mighty battle and rushing the huge mainframe. I had no time to lose.

I turned to the terminal and started clicking away. “Password, password, password… What’s your password Kamari!” I grunted to myself, scrolling through the data.

“T-Minus 4 minutes till launch.”

Shit shit shit shit! An idea crossed through my mind and I made a gamble. I typed ‘Nightmaremoon’ into the terminal.

>Access Granted

I grinned. Yup, still got that magic touch. The terminal beeped open, giving me access to the two things inside.

<PRINCESS LUNA’S TERMINAL ALPHA-P>

>Mega spell launch options:

>Luna Prime - Active

>Balefire Bomb chambers - Active

There was a booming roar, causing me to look up. The huge skeletal dragon was moving on its own now, its huge maw wide open as it let loose and ear piercing roar. Its eyes glowed with the same light as the glowing glyphs and I could have sworn that the whole thing seemed to sparkle similar to how I had seen princess Luna’s mane in Twilights memory.

I clicked on the ‘Luna Prime - Active’. The terminal screen began beeping large flashing red lights blinked out at me.

>Access Denied

>Download to begin manual override

Download to- My eyes popped wide and I quickly hooked up my pipbuck to the terminal. I glanced down, seeing the shapes of the zebras rushing up the mainframe to reach me. I didn’t have long.

>Download initialized - please wait

A small green bar appeared on both my pipbuck screen and the flickering terminal. The bar blinked on and off as it slowly began to fill up. “Come on! Come on!”

“T-minus 3 minutes till launch.”

The zebras were firing up at me now. I ducked low to avoid a bullet as it whizzed over me and ricochet of the mainframes metal with a blast of sparks. The turrets opened fire again, sparks flying around me everywhere as the bullets cascaded around me.

The bar was half full, I was almost there.

The first zebra reached me, swinging their curved scimitar at me head. I rolled to the side, swinging my baton up to meet them. Our weapons clashed, my shock baton sending a small spark shooting down their metal blade and charring their mouth.

The zebra reeled back, snarling. They swung again, their blade slashing against the side of the monstrous machine as I leapt to the side. Sparks shot up from the machine as the B.S.S.G. protected it from the assault.

I turned and bucked at the zebra in the face with my hind legs. There was a crack as my hooves broke their jaw. They stumbled back, tripping over the machinery and falling from the mainframe. Their body fell past the catwalk plunging into the darkness of the pit.

The huge bone dragon lurched, rocks tumbling away as it began to claw its way to freedom. Its wings burst from the cavern wall, sending huge boulders erupting across the room like shrapnel from a grenade.

It’s head reared up, a bloodcurdling roar escaping its lipless maw. I shoved my hooves against my ears to try and block out the all consuming sound of its screams, only to find blood trickling down the side of my head.

Rocks began crashing down from the ceiling as the massive skeletal dragon ripped apart the walls keeping it imprisoned. Its jagged jaw opened wide, a heinous green fire burning in the back of its throat.

I didn’t have time to give out a warning as a huge jet of green flame burst from its maw and started lashing around the room. I ducked behind the mainframe as the fire surged and churned around me. The blazing heat licked at my hooves and blistered my flesh. I could feel the immense heat as it burst towards me.

The green bar on my pipbuck fully filled and the screen started flashing a multitude of different warnings. I gave as much of a smile as I could while in as much pain as I was. Now or never.

>Luna Prime downloaded

>Deactivate?

[Yes]

[No]

I didn’t hesitate. I pushed yes.

More and more sparks burst from the glowing Luna Prim mega spell above me, the huge beam of energy connecting it to the massive dragon flickered, then exploded. The whole cavern was hit with the shockwave, sending everypony unprepared flying from their hooves. I was flung backwards, crashing into the side of the mainframe.

I could hear Kamari’s enraged screams as the massive bone dragon slumped limp to the cavern floor, the strange blue glow around it slowly fading away into nothing. I saw the glowing zebra ghoul’s green eyes glaring down at me from the pod above. “What have you done!”

I gave him a smirk. “Foiled your plans did I?”

“T-minus 2 minutes till launch.”

My smirk was washed away. Why was it still counting down!? I looked around the cavern, my eyes wide as I took in the hundreds of blinking timers connected to the balefire bomb chambers. I might have delayed Kamari from using the Luna Prime mega spell, but there were still hundreds of balefire bombs primed and ready to annihilate the rest of the wasteland, and nothing was to stop him from reactivating Luna Prime once I was dead or gone.

I pulled myself over to the terminal, reaching for the Balefire Bomb chamber controls. I clicked it open, my eyes skimming through my scarily limited options.

<Balefire Bomb Chambers>

>Status: Activated

>Do you wish to activate manual detonation?

[Yes]

[No]

I could have screamed. There was no deactivate option!? Only detonate now or detonate later!? What asshole designed this thing!

The second zebra pulled themself up to my platform. Their sniper spun to face me, firing a bullet straight into my shoulder. I fell back with a scream, clutching the bleeding wound as pain shot up my body.

I rolled aside as they fired again, Boneless swinging up and cracking against their skull. The zebra stumbled back, but remained upright.

I saw the turrets preparing to fire again. I rushed forwards, tackling into the stumbling zebra just as the turrets let loose their fire. The barrage of bullets tore into the zebra as I used them as a meat shield. The zebra’s body spasmed above me as it was sprayed with the automatic fire.

As soon as the turrets fire subsided, I pushed the zebra off of me and let it slump down to the metal platform.

Down below, I saw Pyre get knocked off her hooves by a charging zebra and fall not far from the base of the mainframe. She sprang back up quickly, her power armoured hoof lashing out and crushing the offending zebras skull.

I took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do.

“Pyre! I need you to get Brisk and Xayah out of here!” I called out, catching her attention. I was surprised she could hear me over all the action. “There’s an elevator just down the hall! You all need to get out of here, there isn’t time!”

“What about you!” Pyre called back, her flamer shooting a jet of flame at a group of zebras that were rushing towards her.

I gulped, gesturing around to the ominously blinking balefire bombs around us. “They can only be detonated manually. I need to stay behind to activate them!”

I saw Pyre’s eyes widen below her helmet visor. “Are you crazy! You’ll-”

“I know!” I called back, a small tear rolling down my face. “I know… but it’s the only way. Please Pyre, do this for me.”

Pyre stood there conflicted for a second, her eyes darting back and forth as she tried to decide what to do. FInally she groaned and gave a low growl. “Fucking hell Amber, you really are somethin’. Fucking shit!” She turned from me, charging through the groups of zebras and swiping Brisk and Xayah up onto her back. The two looked down at her, trying to figure out what was going on. “Shade, get over here! We’re leaving!”

My friends charged past Crank and Azar, still engaged in a brutal combat. Azar leapt away from a massive blast of Crank’s cannons, his violet eyes glancing towards my friends as they fled. “What is-” His eyes locked with me. “Ah, clever pony…” He put his hoof to his ear, activating a small intercom I hadn’t noticed before. “Luna Prime is a failure. Get me out of here!”

Crank roared and lunged at the strange zebra. Just as his hoof was about to collide with Azar, a beam of blue light shot down around the zebra. Within seconds, Azar flashed out of existence and disappeared.

“What about Amber?” I heard Xayah ask from Pyre’s back over the gunfire. Pyre remained silent and kept charging for the exit. “Pyre!”

“T-minus 1 minute till launch.”

Xayah’s eyes widened in horror as she looked up and met my steady, yet sorrowful gaze. A second of understanding crossed her face as she realized what was happening, only to be covered by panic. She beat her hooves against Pyre’s armoured side, trying to get her to let go. “Amber! Pyre, turn back, we need to help her!” She screamed, her whole body thrashing as she tried to pull herself from Pyre’s tight grip.

I just stared at her, not sure what to do or say. This was it, the last time I would see any of them, I knew that now. Just like I knew Kamari had been right in saying I would never leave this tower alive. I could feel the tears beginning to pick up and roll down my face. She would be gone any second damn it, say it!

My voice died in my throat as I watched Pyre struggle to drag Xayah through the doorway. I gulped and forced my mouth to move. “I love you,” the words were quite, I hardly heard them myself, but I meant them, that was something I knew now too.

Xayah’s eyes welled with tears, her body finally going limp against Pyre’s side as she stared up at me. She had heard me, goddesses only know how, but she had.

Then they were around the corner and out of sight. Gone from my life forever. Not that I had much of one anymore. Funny how one can be so determined to kill themselves, only to wish they could have had just a little more time when their time had really come.

I wiped aside a tear, trying to clear my vision. “Bye… and stay safe…” I really hoped they would be.

I turned from the door and back to the terminal, my hoof resisting over the detonate button. I had to give them as much time as I could to escape.

With my friends now gone, the zebras began closing in, a tight circle formed around the base of the mainframe. More guns turned towards me, their constant fire making me need to constantly seek cover.

Somepony pulled themself up next to me on the platform. I whirled around to attack them, only to find myself muzzle to muzzle with Shade.

I gaped. “What are you doing! You were supposed to be getting out of here with them!”

Shade shook her head, her pistol spinning in the air and firing down a few shots into the oncoming zebras. “I’ve made mistakes Amber, one’s that neither you nor I can ever forgive!” She fired again, her shot taking off the head of a zebra that reached the platform. “I’m not going anywhere until I fix what I’ve done! Besides, you need somepony to cover your ass! You can’t take on all of this alone.”

“But…” My voice once again caught in my throat. “You’ll die!”

Shade gave a grim nod of resignation. “I know. And honestly, I think that’s for the best. Us Stable ponies gotta stick together after all.” She turned from me, her pistol firing shot after shot as she tried to buy me more time.

Crank shot towards us, his massive wings seeming to rip apart the air as bolted forwards. His metal hooves crashed against the platform as he took up a defensive position in front of me, using himself as a shield from the incoming bullets.

“What do you need Amber!?” His gruff voice boomed out. His cannons charged and shot a massive blasts of energy into the zebras, ripping apart the few unfortunate enough to not evade him.

“Are you sure you want to do-” I started, but Crank cut me off with a wave of his bladed tail.

“You already went through that with Shade. I’m a monster Amber… It’s about time I changed that.”

I nodded, a hardened expression crossing my face. “Alright, hold off the zebras as long as you can. I need to detonate the balefire bombs manually. We need to give my friends as much time as they can to get out of here!”

Crank grunted and fired off another shot from his cannons. Even while not directed at me, I had to do everything I could to keep from having the shock wave knock me from my hooves. Crank turned his head to look at me, one of his glowing red eyes peering into mine. “Do you think Scarlet is with the goddesses, Amber?” he asked, his voice low but unmistakable.

I gave him a timid nod. “She’s waiting there for you now. You know she’ll never stop waiting.”

I saw the smallest of tears roll down Crank’s face and to my suprise, the smallest hint of a genuine smile. There had been a few times I could have sworn I had seen the pony within him, but now, I hardly even saw the machine.

Crank gave a mighty roar as he let loose his full fury upon the zebras. Blast after blast, slash after slash. Shade stood by my side, her pistol firing off shots as fast as she could.

I raised Boneless and fired off shots of my own. Each shot a killing blow as my SATS enhanced aim targeted the heads of any zebra that dared to get in firing range.

And there, upon the peak of apotheosis, we made our final stand.

Something jumped down from above, it’s frail form clattering against the platform beside me. I turned too late as it swung out a glowing hoof and lashed me across the face.

I spun backwards, my hoof rushing to my face. Where the hoof had struck me, my coat had burned away and the flesh beneath had boiled.

Kamari advanced on me, oozing green blood from where he had ripped the wires from his own body. His face was twisted in rage, a rage that I knew very well.

“You’ve ruined everything!” The deranged ghoul shrieked, his eyes wide and blazing with a pure, untempered insanity. “Everything was perfect and you ruined it!”

Kamari lunged at me again, his radioactive hooves reaching out to strangle me. I duck to the side, my pipbuck’s geiger counter clicking furiously just by being in close proximity to him.

I swung Boneless and slammed the end of the barrel against his head. Kamari whirled, his mouth widening and shooting out a thick cloud of radioactive green fog.

I stumbled back, my skin boiling from the contact. I lost my telekinetic grip on Boneless and it clattered to the floor of the platform. I reached forwards, trying to wrap my hooves around it, only for Kamari to kick it away, sending my weapon spiralling into the abyss below.

I jumped back to my hooves, trying to pull out my shock baton. Before I could, Kamari rammed into me, his powerful hooves slamming into my chest and pinning me to the ground. My pipbuck clicked faster and I could feel my insides churning at the touch. Holes were burned away in my Stable barding where his hooves held me down.

Kamari leaned down, his glowing maw foaming with glowing saliva. “You will pay for what you have done!”

“T-minus 5 seconds till launch.”

My eyes darted up to look behind him. I forced myself to give him the single most smug looking grin I could muster. “Funny, I came here to tell you the same thing. This is for Stable 25 asshole!”

Kamari’s eyes widened and he spun around to find the barrel of Shade’s pistol pressed against his forehead.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Three shots fired point blank into the glowing ghouls head. Kamari’s head burst open, glowing viscera bursting from his mutilated neck as his body slumped down above me. I pushed him off, his body falling lifeless down into the darkness below.

“T-minus 4 seconds till launch.”

I gave Shade a small smile. She returned it. “Thank you…”

A stray bullet tore through Shade’s throat. Her screams died as blood surged up into her mouth and drowned her. Her body spasmed for a second, before falling limp to the floor.

“Shade!” Damn it! I pulled myself up, my whole body aching. I hauled myself over to the terminal and raised my hoof. The time had come.

“T-minus 3 seconds till launch.”

Behind me, Crank was overcome by the seemingly endless waves of zebras as curved blades ripped into his flesh and tore out anything they could. His huge cannons blasted apart the zebras pilling onto him, but there were simply too many.

“T-minus 2 seconds till launch.”

I felt my hoof shaking. Burning tears slipped from my eyes and rolled down my face. I had done good. I had saved the wasteland. That was more than most ponies could attest to.

I glanced at my rump, the image of a red screwdriver stared back at me. Maybe I wasn’t destined to lead a Stable, and maybe my special talent was just to fix machines. How ironic that I was about to die destroying the very thing that I had spent my life trying to maintain. Life was funny like that.

“T-minus 1 second till launch.”

I let myself smile. A real smile.

That was okay, I was okay. For the first time in my life since that darn cutie mark appeared on my flank, I was happy with who I was. I was Amber Aura, and that was the greatest thing in the world.

My hoof pressed down on the terminal.

“Balefire Bombs laun-”

The balefire bombs exploded. My vision flared with green and my body dissolved into nothingness.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Silent Running -- +10 sneak, hoof speed and armour weight no longer affect sneaking
Quest Perk Lost: Rage -- Vengeance has been taken. You no longer gain a +3 to your intimidation attempts

Author's Notes:

This chapter was a bit of a personal goal for me to reach. I always looked towards this chapter as something in the far off future that I needed to write. It almost feels weird to have finally written it...

Hope everyone has had a good day!

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat

Chapter XVI: The Long Ride Home

“Parents? Hah! I was born from the sun and have sand in my veins!”

Miracles.

I can’t say that I was ever a big believer in miracles. Back in Stable 25 there was never a need or want for them, everything was predictable and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. I might have considered a day without somepony beating me up a miracle, but I knew that was just a mix of good luck and self induced Isolation.

And in the wasteland… Well, I had seen enough atrocities in the blood and ash coated wastes to know without a doubt that there were no miracles here. Even good luck was simply the wasteland telling you it wasn’t done toying with you yet. There was no mercy, survival was simply a slower and more painful death.

As I had stood atop the platform within the MAS tower, I had been so certain that I was going to die. In fact, I had even managed to come to terms with the idea somewhat. There was no pony left who could save me, no logical way to escape alive. There I would die, blasted to pieces and what little remained of my corpse buried below hundreds of miles of rock.

And yet, a miracle happened. As it turns out, I had been wrong about there not being any pony to save me. That there was one pony that I or even Kamari couldn't have possibly accounted for. Somepony that had been with me for a long time now, and finally decided to take action.

One moment I was slowly bleeding out atop a platform far below the surface of the earth, my hoof pressed on the detonation button to activate over a hundred balefire bombs around me. Then the next moment I was standing in the radioactive landscape of the Glowing Sea, a dull green light slowly fading from my vision.

I blinked, taking in the desolate landscape and huge towering black spire of the MAS hub in front of me. “What the fu-”

I was knocked off my hooves as the entire tower exploded. Once again my vision flared with green as the hundreds of balefire bombs detonated at once.

I hit the ground hard, my head cracking against a rock. My ears rang, but I couldn’t tell if it was from hitting my head or the ear splitting, thunder-like boom of the balefire bombs. It was probably both. I shook myself, pulling myself back to my hooves to look at the tower.

The MAS tower was practically gone, the only proof of it ever existing at all being the small, black shards of glass like metal that now scattered the Glowing Sea like leftover shrapnel. A huge, billowing green, mushroom shaped cloud of flame and smoke was slowly rising into the sky above me, making the once looming monolith like tower seem tiny compared to its vast size and might.

The explosion had done more than just blast apart the horrific tower though. Up above me the clouds had been ripped apart, giving me a clear look at the brilliant blue sky far above. A beam of sunlight seemed to shine directly through it, warming me with it’s golden light. A single streak of beauty amongst the desolation.

I saw a small flicker of light from around the explosion, itself a strange and unnatural shape. For a second I saw an etherial apparition of the MAS tower, a spire like ghost amongst the ashes as the B.S.S.G. finally gave out and dissipated.

I had to squint my eyes just to look at the huge explosion and glowing sunbeam. Tears streaked down my cheeks and I could feel my eyes sizzle a little. I glanced away quickly. Stinging, sizzling eyes probably wasn’t a good sign to keep staring.

I accepted the massive shockwave of fire and kicked up ash to slam into me, killing me in the impending fallout. But the shockwave never came. My gaze met the radioactive ground around me. It was untouched. Not a single speck of ash around the exploding tower had been moved by the blast. What I had taken for a shockwave that knocked me off my hooves had simply been me jumping in fright at the booming noise.

I remembered Twilights terminal saying something about the B.S.S.G. shield the MWT had installed being a two way shield. I had put that into account when I had decided to detonate the balefire bombs, but seeing it in action was still a little mind blowing. It kept everything except the tower and sky above to be completely untouched by the balefire.

“Huh… Guess Twilight was right,” I choked out, my voice dry and pained. “That B.S.S.G. really can withstand a balefire bomb… or two… or hundred I suppose.”

It hurt to talk. I glanced down at my body and gasped. I was covered in cuts, bruises, gashes and bullet holes from the fight inside of the tower. Blood was spilling from my body fast, hot red fluid spilling down my body and pooling around my injured hooves.

Now that the sudden shock of being alive and seeing the balefire explosion was wearing off, I was becoming painfully aware of the loud clicking of my pipbuck. My eyes widened. I was in the Glowing Sea without my hazmat suit! I hadn’t even taken any Rad-X!

My hooves fumbled to my saddlebags immediately, pulling at the yellow hazmat suit I had folded up within. My small collection of Rad-X and radaway tumbled from my bags, scattering across the ashy ground. I pulled it out, struggling to clamber into it as fast as possible.

My vision swam, dark, black specks swarming into my view. I coughed, blood burbling from my lips. I could feel my insides churning as I took in far more rads than I had ever thought possible for a pony to take.

I managed to slip one hoof into the hazmat suit before I toppled over, radiation filled haze spiralling down my throat and into my lungs. I gasped out, my body instinctively trying to get a decent breath of air. There was no clean air for my body to get.

I tried one last time to pull myself into the suit, only for my wounded legs to scream in protest and make me yelp in pain.

Then my whole body seemed to go limp, all my strength sapped. I froze, both from the pain and radiation poisoning. My mouth opened and closed aimlessly as I tried to utter something, anything. Nothing came out.

Just before my vision blacked out completely, I saw the blurry face of a pink filly standing over me, her amber eyes looking down with interest into mine.

I awoke with a cough and a sputter. I bolted upright, my vision still spinning.

I looked around, trying to take in everything. I was still in the Glowing Sea, the ruins of the MAS tower still crumbling not too far away. My pipbuck still ticked, but the vile sensation of radiation poisoning and even the burning feel of my wounds had dissipated.

I was in my hazmat suit somehow, the yellow suit tightly fitted over my body. I checked my pipbuck, finding that my rads had once more dropped to zero. My saddlebags lay beside me in a messy pile, now empty syringes of Rad-X, Radaway and even a few empty healing potions scattering the area around it.

“How the-” I started, my eyes once again lifting to look at the ruins of the MAS tower.

“Ouchie!” a voice squeaked out from me behind me, making me spin around with a start. “Never let me do that again! Damn it!”

Behind me stood a filly. A pink filly with a pink and blue mane and Amber eyes. My eyes glanced down at her cutie mark, a red screwdriver stared back. The filly me.

Her horn was charred black and steaming a little from the top. She rubbed it gingerly with her small hooves, trying to brush away the pain from the smouldering appendage.

“You!” I blurted, immediately jumping to my hooves and pointing at her with a hoof. My hooves slipped on the ash coated ground and I fell back to my haunches.

The filly me jumped, noticing that I was awake for the first time. She scampered back, quickly ducking behind a large rock with a startled yelp.

“Oh no you don’t! Not this time!” I yelled, jumping forwards at the filly as she scampered away. “You aren’t disappearing on me again! I want answers!” I leaped over the rock, diving to where I thought the filly would have been hiding. My hooves met air and I tumbled face first into the ground.

Did that count as falling out of bed? I had just woken up… damn it wasteland! Just once, I want to not fall on my face!

I heard a small giggle from above me. I rolled over, flopping on my back to look up at the top of the rock where the filly had somehow managed to perch herself. She lay on her stomach, her fore hooves crossed in front of her to support her head.

I glared up at her and pointed at her with an accusing hoof. “Who are you and what do you want!” A thought passed through me and I glanced back at the broken tower. “Were you the one that got me out of there?”

The filly gave me a nod and a smug grin. She suddenly winced. “Sorry I couldn’t get your cyber pony friend out too…”

I shook my head, not sure how to take that. “It’s… uh… okay. I don’t think he wanted to get out of there anyway,” That stung far more than I expected. It would have been a bit of a stretch to call Crank my friend, but his death was unexpectedly hitting me pretty hard. He had only just begun to become a better pony, only for the wasteland to rip that away from him. Just like it had taken everything else he cared about away.

I glanced back at the shattered remains of the tower. I suppose it was possible he had survived, Crank was rather resilient after all. But I doubted even somepony as powerful as the mighty cyber alicorn could survive hundreds of balefire bomb detonations point blank.

I shook my head and pushed the idea from my mind. I’d mourn for him and Shade later. First, I had to figure out what the fuck was happening. I looked back up at the filly. “How did you even manage to get me out of there? Teleportation?”

That seemed like the most likely possibility.

“Well, kinda I guess,” the filly me responded, kicking a bit of ash off of the top of the rock. “I mean I got you into the hazmat suit and gave you some rad-X and some Radaway, but my magic isn’t strong enough to teleport both of us that far by myself. I needed a little bit of help to cast the spell,” She glared up at her smoldering horn. “Took a lot more power than I was expecting.”

“Help from who?” I asked, still having no clue whatsoever about what was going on.

The filly chirped up at that. “Oh, my friend of course! He’s around her somewhere I think!” She turned away from me and surveyed the area around us. She put a hoof to the side of her mouth. “Oh mister nice pony!” She waited a second before turning back and giving me a shrug. “He must have left, but don’t worry, he’ll be back. Probably. I never really know with him.”

Okay, this filly was a little on the odd side. Not to mention looked exactly like me. That was still unnerving me a fair amount. “Who, er… What are you? Why do you look like me?” I inquired, leaning in a little. I suddenly realized that she was standing in the Glowing Sea perfectly fine without a Hazmat suit. “And how the hell are you resisting all that radiation?”

The filly grinned and held up a large pile of empty Rad-X syringes and Radaway. “I found a good collection of these back in the Hollow Shades. They should keep me okay till we get out of the Glowing Sea.”

I nodded. Okay, that made sense. “And your appearance?”

The filly gave me a nervous look. Her eyes darted around, clearly questioning if she could avoid answering by running away. From the way her blackened horn looked, I figured teleportation was out of the option for her.

She turned back and glanced down at her hooves, shuffling them atop the rock shyly. “That’s not important.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Yes, yes it is,” I insisted stubbornly. “Are you one of those synth things I’ve heard about? A robot that looks like a pony!”

The filly me gave me a quizzical, if not amused look. Slowly, a wide smile broke out across her face. She rolled onto her back, her hooves clutching her stomach as she giggled maniacally. “You thought that- that- I was a- Hahaha!” She burst out laughing, her mouth twisted into a wide grin. Eventually she stopped rolling with laughter and looked back at me, wiping away tears. “You’re a riot Amber Aura!”

I didn’t get the joke. I tried again. “Well if you aren’t a synth, then what are you?”

The fillies face hardened again, and her eyes once again darting around. “I said that wasn’t importan-” The fillies horn flickered green. She yelped, quickly diving behind the rock and out of sigh.

She had a green aura… so she wasn’t a complete copy of me at least.

I hastily moved around the rock, praying she hadn’t disappeared again. Thankfully, she was still there, smacking at her flickering horn with a hoof. A small green spark flickered from the tip before disappearing. She backed up nervously when she saw me.

“Look, maybe it would just be best if you pretended you never saw me, okay?” She said timidly, backing up a little bit more. “I’m having second thoughts on all this and-”

“Nope, out of the question!” I stated, stomping my hoof down firmly. “You’ve been following me around for who knows how long for some reason and you look exactly like me, but younger and I want answers now!”

“I really don’t think that-” her horn flickered green again. She yipped and tried to dart behind the rock again, but she didn’t move fast enough this time.

As she scuttled around the rock I saw a small pillar of green fire-like magic swirl around her body, momentarily revealing a strange insect looking creature with translucent blue wings.

My jaw dropped. “You’re- a changeling…” I suddenly had the urge to turn around and run away as fast as I could. Changelings were, simply in concept alone, horrifying. The idea of a creature that could pose as somepony you loved and feed of your life force was perhaps one of the most terrifying things I had ever heard of. I had heard stories about them back in the Stable, but never really believed them. It had been quite a shock to learn in the MAS tower that they had in fact been real creatures at one point, but I had calmed myself by assuming they had all died in the apocalypse over two hundred years ago.

Apparently not.

There was a small flash of green light from behind the rock. A few seconds later, I saw a pair of wide amber eyes peek over the top of the rock to look at me. “Um… no. W-why would you think that?” She was lying, that much was obvious. But even with the truth revealed, she managed to make a pretty damn good performance. Changelings needed to be good actors I supposed. There was an awkward moment of silence, neither of us really knowing what to do. Finally, the filly I now knew to be a changeling dropped their head and stared at her hooves. “Okay, maybe I might be a changeling just a little bit…”

I realized my jaw was still hanging open and quickly shut it. “You’re a changeling!” I repeated again, the shock and horrified awe in my voice still very prevalent.

Nodding, the filly crawled out from behind the rock to let me get a good look at her. She took a deep breath, before letting her horn spark a little. Magical green fire surrounded her for a second, the magic flaking away her pink coat and revealing the dark insectoid shell underneath.

She didn’t look much different than the two changeling guards I had seen in Twilight Sparkles memories. Black shell, wide blue eyes, curved horn, two small fangs protruding from her upper lip. But she was a lot younger than the changelings from the memory, clearly a filly herself even outside of her disguise. Her eyes were a little larger and her fangs just a little smaller.

I almost screamed in fear out of instinct.

No Amber, it’s okay. She’s not attacking you. I reminded myself, forcing myself to hold my ground. Besides, I had had a similar reaction when I first met Xayah, and look how that turned out.

I gulped. “Well that… certainly wasn’t what I was expecting…” I dared myself to take a small step forward and looked at the filly changeling a little closer. “How long have you been following me? And why?”

The changeling’s horn sparked and she quickly changed back into a filly version of me. “You’re not going to run away?” she asked timidly, her eyes huge.

Was that an invitation to run away? If it was, the offer was tempting. For some reason I shook my head. Despite the fillies race, she didn’t seem to have nefarious intentions, it would be wrong for me to abandon her. Damn my morality. “No. not until I find out what’s going on at least. So now answer my question.”

The changeling looked away at the dunes of ash. “I’ve been following you since I saw you kill all those raider foals,” She finally said simply, giving me a small shrug.

I balked. That was way longer than I thought she had been following me for. “Since you saw me- Why the fuck would you follow me after you saw that!” My hoof clamped over my mouth. I realized too late I probably shouldn’t be swearing like that in front of a little foal. Did that even matter around a changeling? I had no idea.

The changeling gave me a crooked grin. “Oh right, like I’ve never heard that word in the wasteland before,” She gave a small chuckle, before looking back up at me. “And yes, since I saw you do that.”

“But why? After seeing me do something like that, Wouldn’t I be the last pony you’d want to follow?” I asked, the memory of the foals broken bodies flashing back into my mind. I turned away, the thought causing both shame and guilt to flare through me. Here I was, thinking this filly a monster, when I had gone and done monstrous things like that.

The changeling shook their head. “Yeah, you were pretty scary. But like, this is the wasteland, I’ve seen worse,” I winced at her comment and the sad truth about the wasteland. “And while it might have been scary, it also showed me two things about you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And what would those be?”

“Simple,” The changeling said with a timid grin. “First was that you would do anything for your friends, I mean not just any pony kills a whole bunch of fillies and colts to protect somepony they care about. Changelings sure don’t. And secondly, I saw you convince your friends to go into that building to save a fillies parents. Now their parents might not have actually been captured by raiders, but you didn’t know that and still went in to save them all the same. Very few ponies would do that.”

I blinked. The idea that I had killed the foals to save Xayah had crossed my mind before, it was one of the few facts that kept me sane after I had found out about what I had done. But the idea that going in there in the first place was some sort of heroic deed in it of itself was a new thought.

“Okay…” I said, rolling what she was saying around in my head. “So why did that make you start following me? Curiosity?” I felt a pang of fear pass through me. “You weren’t trying to feed off my love for my friends were you!” I took a couple steps back as that insane idea began to suddenly feel a little too real. I considered reaching for Boneless, only to remember it was now obliterated by balefire and lying hundreds of miles beneath my hooves.

The changeling jumped back, a frightened look crossing its face. “What! No!” I could hear the hurt in her voice. I had offended her somehow, or at least hurt her feelings. “I mean, yes. I am hungry. But that’s not what I was doing! I promise!”

That calmed me down a little bit. I suppose if it was trying to drain me of love it probably wouldn’t have pretended to be me. “So then why were you following me?”

The changeling bit her bottom lip a little, her eyes looking anywhere except at me. Her horn flickered again, and for a brief second I saw her insidious insect-like form. Then she flashed green and she was back to being a smaller version of me. “I, uh… I kinda need someponies help.”

I pointed to myself with a hoof dumbly. “You need my help?” What the hell could a changeling want from me?

The changeling bit her lip again and gave a shy nod. “Mm-hmm. I considered going to that Stable dweller the DJ keeps talking about, but they’ve been off the radar for a bit and honestly, they’d probably just send me to Junction R-7 or something like that. I thought about asking Security too, but that just seemed like a death wish, and she’s pretty far away.”

Great, so I was just a backup. That’s fine, not like I had any pride anyway, right? I straightened up a little bit. “Okay, so what is it you want?”

“Oh, uh… Just a bit of help finding somepony. It’s nothing big really,” The changeling fidgeted, clearly nervous about talking about the whole thing.

I gave her the most skeptical look that I could. “You’ve followed me for over a week and half way across the wasteland for me to help you find this pony and it’s nothing big?” Not even good acting could fool me on that remark. “I can’t help you if you don’t know what you want.”

The changeling fillies eyes dropped. “You’re gonna make me say it huh…” she paused, trying to figure out how best to proceed. “See, the thing is… um… I never really knew my mom and stuff, and like I was hoping that maybe… um… maybe it would be okay if…”

My ears perked up a little. “You need help finding your mom?” The changeling gave me a small nod in response. That was it? Tragic, sure, but simple. I had been expecting far worse. Another thought hit me. “Don’t all changelings have like… the same mom or something? Like isn’t the changeling queen the mother of all changelings?”

I had no idea how changeling reproduction worked. Until today I hadn’t even though they were real, let alone considered how changeling babies were made. But I had read a bunch of books about insects, and a lot of them reproduced asextually. It only seemed logical that changelings were the same.

The changeling filly gave me a stupid look. “That’s a dumb question,” She soothed, her statment ending in a small chuckle. She didn’t answer the question though, I duly noted.

Finally I gave the filly a small smile and nod. “Alright, sure. I can help you find your mom.”

The changeling’s eyes popped wide with excitement. “R-really?!” Before I could even think to get out of the way, the changeling rushed forwards and tackled me with a tight hug. I stiffened at the touch, afraid just being too close to the weird little creature might sap me dry of my life force. “Thank you so much! I’ll be a huge help! I promise!”

I peeled the filly off of me with my hoof and scooted her back a little bit. “Okay, but I have a few rules first if you’re going to travel with us,” I started. The changeling quickly sat down to listen, nodding vigorously to imply they were listening. I took a deep breath. “First off, no more disguising yourself as me, it's weird and it creeps me out.”

There was a flash of green and the changeling turned into a filly version of Xayah. The tiny zebra grinned up at me. “Okie dokie pokie!”

I shook my head. “No, no turning into my friends either. Just stay as yourself like the rest of us please.”

The changelings eyes shot wide and they quickly morphed into their natural form. They curled up a little, as if trying to hide themself from me. “A-are you sure? Ponies don’t like me much when I look like this… I think I’d be more comfortable if I could hide around other ponies.”

I looked at them for a second, what they were saying piercing itself together in my mind. She wasn’t wrong. If I had reacted the way I had after she had saved my life, I could only begin to imagine how other ponies might react. I remembered how the gathering of ponies in Twilight’s memory had freaked out when Chrysalis had revealed herself, and that had been with Twilight and Luna’s permission. Perhaps it was best if she didn’t walk around in her true form.

“Alright, you can shape shift, just don’t impersonate my friends and I,” I finally compromised. “Can you do that?”

The filly nodded, then thought for a second. “What if I have a really fun joke I want to tell and it involves me turning into one of you?” she quickly turned into a small yellow and pink filly that I didn’t recognize.

I just stared at the changeling for a second, not really sure how to answer that. Finally I just shook my head and continued on, ignoring the question. “Rule number two, don’t hurt my friends. That includes not feeding on our love and stuff. I don’t know how all that works, but I want nothing to do with it.”

The changeling grinned. “I’m sure I can keep my feeding under control. Probably.” I didn’t want to think about that. “Are there any other rules?”

I thought about that for a second. Two rules felt strange and I had some weird desire to make it three. Three was a nice number. I tossed a couple of possible rules around in my head, but nothing really stuck. “Rule three is that I need to know your name,” I finally said lamely, realizing it was hardly a rule. But I supposed if she was going to be traveling with us, then I had better at least know her name.

The changeling blinked up at me, her head cocked slightly to the side in confusion. “My… name…?” She puzzled, her voice almost a low whisper.

“Yeah, I can't just keep going to call you changeling or mini me forever,” I said, waiting patiently for her to answer my question.

The changeling filly just continued to look at me blankly. “I, uh… I don’t think I have a name…” She said, her head dropping to look at the ground.

“You… You don’t have a name?” I restated in surprise. Was that like, a changeling thing or something?

The filly gave me a sad smile. “I mean yeah, I didn’t exactly have my mom to give it to me you know.”

The full realization of just how alone this changeling must be abruptly hit me in full force. No parents to raise them or even name them and no pony they could turn to. She had to resort to following me, a complete stranger, all the way across the wasteland just to get help. I suddenly felt really bad for acting so poorly at them being a changeling. They were just a filly that needed a place to belong.

“Well you said you had a friend that helped you get me out of the MAS tower, what do they call you?” I asked, hoping for her to give me something to go off of.

The changeling just shook their head. “He’s not really much of a talker. He just kinda shows up sometimes,” She said quickly.

I sighed. “Alright, then. I guess that means you can have any name that you want? So what do you want to be called? Is there a name you like?” I asked, slowly sitting down myself before the filly.

The changelings eyes widened and she quickly transformed back into a tiny me. “Any name that I want! But there are so many! How could I choose?”

“Hey, I said no changing into me!” I blurted, pointing at her quickly with a hoof. “That freaks me out!” She quickly turned back into a yellow and pick filly.

"Sorry, it's a habit of mine," The Filly changeling admitted with a blush. "I do that when I'm nervous."

An idea struck me. “Hey! How about we call you Mirror?” I asked, Feeling a little proud of myself for coming up with that on the spot.

The changeling just stared at me with an amused look. “Mirror? What kind of name is that!?” She blurted. She rolled back onto her back, giggling to herself. “Mirror, what a silly name!”

I pouted at her. “Oh come on! I thought that was kinda clever, what with all your mimicking and such!” I crossed my fore hooves grumpily. “If it’s such a bad name, why can’t you think of something better?”

The changeling stopped her giggling and looked up at me thoughtfully. “No no, I can work with Mirror. I’ll just tweak it a bit,” She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a second. “How about… Mirra?” Her eyes shot wide. “Ohoh! I like that! Can I be Mirra! Can that be my name!”

I nodded, giving her a small grin. “Sure Mirra, the name is yours,” I pulled myself up and looked out across the wasteland. “I don’t suppose you know where my friends are, do you?” I asked, hoping they weren’t too far away.

I suddenly realized they probably all thought I was dead. I gulped, finding them I suppose would give me some good foresight on what would happen when I really do die.

Mirra nodded, standing up herself and taking a small sniff of the air. “They aren’t that far away. Come on!” quickly, Mirra began moving in the direction she had been sniffing.

I reached down and picked up my saddlebags with my mouth. The open sack flopped open and a black, oblong device tumbled to the ground. I stared at it, realizing I had actually managed to pull the A.A.S.S. out of the MAS tower with me.

I shook my head, stuffing the device back into my saddlebags and slowly following after Mirra.

“We should have fucking killed you when we first met!” I heard Brisk shout. We hadn’t been walking for very long, a few minutes at most, when I began to pick up the angry yells of Brisk and Pyre as they squabble back and forth.

“I told you already! Amber told me to get all of you out of there!” Pyre shouted back, her voice a mix of anger and irritation. “If you want to die of radiation poisoning then fine, go throw yourself into that balefire crater! You’d get the fate you seem to want so badly!”

“I never said I wanted to fucking die you bitch!” Brisk shouted back, his voice rising. “But we could have helped her! We could have at least tried to get her out of there and find another way!”

We were slowly getting closer, their voices echoing out from behind a large rock outcropping jutting out of the ash covered ground of the Glowing Sea.

“Find another way? We had a full fucking minute to get out of there before those balefire bombs went off! There was no other fucking way!” Pyre growled in return. “Amber trusted me to get you morons to safety, and that’s what I did! The only alternative was for you to stay behind and die along with her, and I’m pretty fucking sure that’s not what Amber would have wanted!”

I turned the corner of the rock to see Brisk and Pyre face to face. Pyre was sporting her usual power armour while Brisk had pulled himself into his hazmat suit. They were snarling at each other, muzzles almost touching and eyes locked as they engaged in some sort of battle of will.

I stopped a few feet away, not quite sure how to proceed. Did I make a joke to break the tension? Simply say ‘I’m alive’?

Turns out I didn’t need to do anything. Brisk looked away from Pyre’s gaze, unable to meet her eye anymore. His eyes found me. He looked at me for a second, his eyes distant from behind the tinted visor of his hazmat suit. He stared past me, as if I were invisible.

Then his gaze locked on my visor, in particular the lock of pink and blue mane that had been pushed up against it. His ears shot up immediately. “Amber?!”

I raised a hoof and gave him a small wave. “Hi. I'm back...”

For the second time since I had been teleported out of the MAS tower, I was tackled into and wrapped in a tight hug before I could think to move. Brisk’s hooves wrapped around me tightly, pulling me close as if he were afraid if he let go I would disappear.

He pulled back, staring me right in the eye. “I thought you were dead sis!”

I tried my best to give him a smile in return. “I thought I was dead too. Turns out I’m a harder pony to kill than everypony thought.”

I saw his eyes harden through his visor. “Don’t you ever even dare doing something stupid like that again! We’re a team Amber, that means we do stuff together! No more taking the bullet for the rest of us!”

I nodded, but mostly to keep him from strangling me on the spot.

“Alright, alright. Give the filly some space,” Pyre grumbled, pulling Brisk back a little. He clung to me for a second, before finally letting go and standing a few paces back. “I’d need a little space too if I just walked out of a balefire bomb explosion like that.”

I shifted my gaze to face her. “Thank you for getting everypony out of there, Pyre. I’m glad you all made it out okay.”

Pyre just shook her head sadly. “Glad at least one pony isn’t pissed the fuck off at me for that,” She cast Brisk a grumpy side glance. “And don’t thank me yet. Shade didn’t make it out with us. I’m sorry Amber, I thought she was with us- but when I realized she had fallen behind, it was too late to go back for her.”

“I-I know,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face and giving her the smallest shake of my head. “She stayed behind to help me. She- she died a hero… Crank did too,” I could feel my gut clench up just thinking about that.

“How the fuck did you even get out of there?” Pyre blurted, asking what must have clearly been on both of their minds. “I mean, you were hundreds of miles underground, surrounded by hundreds of zebras and in the center of hundreds of balefire bombs going off! Thats a lot of fucking hundreds Amber!”

“My new friend helped pull me out,” I said with a small grin, turning to my side. “Say...” Mirra was gone. I glanced around, trying to spot where she went. “...Hi?” I spotted a green bar behind the rock outcrop on my EFS. I turned back to face Brisk and Pyre with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, would you two give me a quick second?”

I quickly slipped away from them, moving back behind the rock. As I moved away, I saw Brisk and Pyre cast each other a strange glance. If they thought that was weird, wait until they saw Mirra.

I found Mirra cowering behind the large outcrop, shivering slightly as she peeked around the corner to look at Brisk and Pyre. She had taken the form of a cream coloured filly with an orange mane. Still just a filly, I noted. I wondered if she even had the ability to turn into adults. I crept over and knelt down next to her. “Hey, you coming or not?”

Mirra gave a timid shake and looked up at me with pleading eyes. “What if they don’t like me?”

I shook my head, almost repulsed by the simple idea. “Look, if I can make Brisk and Xayah put up with Pyre Blaze’s snide remarks and raidery past, I’m sure I can make them like a cute filly like you.”

“But what if they still don’t like me?” Mirra pushed, her whole body trembling. “Will you still help me find my mom if they won’t?”

“They will, I promise,” I insisted, nudging her towards the edge of the outcrop. “And if they don’t at first, I’ll talk some sense into them. They’ll listen to me.”

A small swirl of green magic enveloped her and suddenly Mirra was a blue pegasus filly with a turquoise mane. “Maybe it would be better if I just stay in disguise and let them think I’m a normal pony.”

There was a small spark of magic from atop her hornless forehead. For a second she flickered back into view as a changeling, before quickly changing back into the blue pegasus filly. She whimpered a little, rubbing her head as a spike of pain shot through it.

I shook my head at her. “Your horn doesn't seem to be working quite right after pulling me out of the MAS tower. There’s no way you would be able to hold up that facade,” I informed her truthfully. She glanced down at her hooves nervously, dropping the spell and revealing her true and hideous form. “Besides, if you want them to like you, the last thing you want to do is lie to them. Especially about something that important.”

Mirra nodded solemnly, her body still shaking a little, but she seemed to have calmed down a fair amount. “Okay… I’m trusting you Amber. Please don’t let them attack me.”

I scoffed. “That’s probably the last thing they’ll try and do,” I thought on that remark for a second. “Well, maybe Pyre might… But she wants to attack anypony.”

With a little bit more encouragement, I managed to fully convince her to come out. I stepped out first, signalling for both of my friends to stay wear they were. Brisk and Pyre exchanged another look, their faces still very much perplexed. Slowly, Mirra crept out from behind the rock, her black, insectoid shell glinting of the hazy, clouded sunlight from above.

Immediately, Brisk and Pyre crouched into a battle stance. The tip of Pyre’s lone flamer sparked with fire and Brisk’s pistol whipped into the air with lightning speed. Mirra shrieked and dove behind my hoof, her body morphing into that of a pony filly.

I slapped my face with a hoof. Seriously! They seriously had to jump right into attack mode after I promised that they wouldn’t… fuck my life.

“Amber! Step away, that fillies a-” Brisk started, his eyes narrowing on the filly cowering behind me.

“I know it’s a fucking changeling!” I spat back, feeling more annoyed at their reaction than angry. I winced and looked back at Mirra. “Sorry, I’ll try not to swear anymore.”

Mirra rolled her eyes, still shivering a little. “I’ve heard ponies say fuck before Amber.”

Brisk’s eyes still bore into the shivering changeling with an unwarranted hatred, but Pyre had already let the fire at the end of her flamer extinguish. Through the visor of her battered helmet, I could see the edges of her mouth twist into a wide grin.

“Well damn, Amber. You are full of surprises today, ain’t ya!” Pyre chuckled, taking a few steps forwards to get a better look at Mirra. I could see her eyes light up as an idea crossed through her. “Say, changeling… Can you turn into Amber?”

I could see a confused look cross Mirra’s face. I opened my mouth to tell her not to, but before I could there was a flash of green and Mirra morphed once again into a tiny me.

“Hey! Pyre! I told her not to do tha-”

I was cut off as Pyre suppressed a small snicker. “And here I thought that you couldn’t get any cuter Amber! Looks like I was wrong again! HAha!” She turned back to look at Mirra, her grin widening. “I don’t suppose you are any good at impressions, no?”

I could see the confused look on Mirra’s face get wiped away as she realized what Pyre was asking of her. A small, yet devious grin spread across her face. She put a hoof to the sky and struck the most dramatic pose that she could. “My name is Amber Aura, and I’m not cute at all!” She squealed, in the most spot on impression of my voice. Her voice squeaked a little at the end, making her seem even more adorable. “I love books and I have a super duper big crush on that zebra!”

Pyre Blaze was rolling on her back with laughter, her armoured hooves clutching at her stomach as she cackled. I felt my ears grow hot and my cheeks flush.

“Wha- what! I never- I don’t sound like that! And I’m not that obsessed with books!” I sputtered, by blush only growing. “And who said I have a crush on Xayah! I didn’t say that! You have no proof!” My outburst only seemed to make Pyre and Mirra laugh more.

“Changelings can sense love Amber!” Pyre informed me between laughs. “So if she thinks that, it’s probably true!” she rolled over, laughing more.

Mirra’s devious smirk grew to a point that I thought it might jump right off her face. “She even told the zebra ‘I love you’ back in the tower!”

My face was so hot I felt like it was going to catch fire. “What- but- how! You heard that!” I folded my ears back against my head and narrowed my eyes at the changeling. “Don’t encourage Pyre, she’s the worst.”

Pyre began snorting as she tried to hold back her uncontrollable laughter. “Oh this is too good!” She had to stop for a second to catch her breath. She looked over at Mirra and extended her hoof to her. “You’re okay kid. The name’s Pyre Blaze. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”

Mirra’s eyes widened and she quickly accepted Pyre’s hoof. “Friends! Really, you mean it!?”

Pyre snickered. “Oh, you got that right! We’re gonna mock so many ponies! It’s going to be great!” Pyre glanced over at Brisk who was still standing with his gun drawn, not quite sure how to proceed. She pointed at him enthusiastically. “Do him next! Do him!”

Mirra stuck out her tongue. “Ew! But he’s a boy!”

That only made Pyre laugh harder. She rolled over to face Brisk with a snide sneer. “Hear that, you’re so gross she doesn’t even want to turn into you!” Brisk just gave her a grumpy look in return.

"Pyre! I told her not to change into us-" I started, but Mirra's laughter cut me off.

“Oh oh! I know!” Mirra burst into flame again and turned into a filly Brisk. She jumped up and down, imitating Brisk’s seemingly endless energy. “I’m Brisk Spark and I never take anything seriously! I think I’m suuuppper funny, but no pony actually likes my jokes!” her voice was a perfect imitation of Brisk’s own.

“Hey! Ponies like my jokes!” Brisk interjected, defensively placing a hoof over his chest.

I had to hold back a snicker of my own at that remark. “No offence bro, but your jokes are pretty awful.”

“Wait wait, who does Brisk have a crush on!” Pyre snorted, her hoof beating at the ground as she laughed. “There’s got to be somepony!”

Brisk began blushing himself. He waved a hoof, indicating for them to stop. “Okay, I think that’s enough of this!”

Mirra was rolling around on the ground herself now, no longer able to suppress her giggles any. “Oh.. Haha! Oh I’m Brisk and I think fliers have the cutest bodies!” She put a hoof to her mouth to hide a snicker. “They’re just so sleek and their wings are so soft or whatever.”

I laughed along with them as Brisk’s blush grew as red as mine. She had even gotten his trademark 'or whatever' line down. I looked at him almost pitifully. “Don’t worry bro, your secret is safe with us.”

Brisk crossed his fore hooves. “I don’t think it is anymore,” he said with a grumble, but the smallest of smiles had managed to creep onto his face.

“It’s too bad Xayah missed this, she would have gotten a good laugh out of this whole ordeal,” Pyre giggled, reaching out and giving Mirra a hoof bump.

Alarms went off in my head. I looked around, trying to spot my zebra friends. “Uh- where is Xayah?” I felt a little bit of fear creeping into my voice. She had made it out of the tower before it exploded right!? Pyre and Brisk would have said something if she hadn’t, wouldn’t they?

Almost immediately, Pyre’s laughing stopped. She gave Brisk a worried look before she stood up and faced me directly. “She’s fine Amber. Alive, anyway.”

“But where is she,” The tight knot in my stomach was getting tighter and it was refusing to go away.

Brisk finally approached us, his expression a little distant. “Amber, we all thought you were dead… That hit her pretty hard…”

I felt like I was getting bucked in the face. I whirled around, not bothering to listen to whatever else Brisk was about to say. My EFS picked up a lone green bar not too far away. “Give- give me a moment guys. I need to do something.”

I found Xayah sitting at the edge of a large cliff overlooking the vast, empty expanse of the Glowing Sea. Far in the distance I could see the rocky crags and billowing smokestacks of the Hollow Shade’s settlement and even beyond that on the tip of the horizon I could make out the faint red glow of Fillydelphia.

Xayah’s shoulders were slouched forwards, her shoulder blades pressed tightly against her back and pointing up towards the sky. Like the rest of us, she was back inside her hazmat suit, the suits bright yellow now dulled by the ash and grim of the wasteland. She looked like a wreck.

I cleared my throat, trying to figure out the best way to get her attention. I saw her ear twitch a little at the noise, but she didn’t turn to face me.

“Brisk, I told you I wish to be alone,” Xayah said back, her melodious tone empty and emotionless. “I-I just need a moment.”

I crept a little closer, not quite sure what exactly to say. Finally I just sighed. “Xayah... It’s me. I’m okay,” What else could even be said.

Xayah’s ears shot straight up. We were both silent for a moment as we tried to figure out exactly what to do. I could see Xayah’s whole body start shaking and heard a small sobs escape her lips.

I saw it coming this time, but I didn’t dare try to move out of the way.

Xayah spun around, her striped hooves reaching out and wrapping around my neck in the tightest hug I could have possibly imagined. I let my hooves wrap around her as well as I held her, holding her close as she cried into me.

After a few moments, Xayah pushed herself back and looked at me, her emerald green eyes locking with mine through the tinted visor of our suits. “Amber… I- I thought you were…” She trailed off, her expression growing hard. Her hoof lashed out, striking me across the face. “Don’t you ever do that again you foolish pony!”

I rubbed my face with a hoof, trying to dissipate some of the pain. I had almost forgotten how painful Xayah’s slaps were. They were powerful and precise. I gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I already promised Brisk I wouldn’t do that again.”

Xayah shook her head in disbelief, still trying to figure out if I was actually sitting in front of her or if life was giving her a very cruel hallucination. “How did you even survive…”

“A new friend of mine pulled me out,” I replied, gesturing over the hill where Brisk, Pyre and Mirra were waiting patiently. I questioned myself if I should inform her that Mirra was a changeling now, but I decided I’d cross that bridge when I got there. “Something about a mysterious friend of hers helping to pull me out. I don’t really understand it myself, but it used up a lot of her magic. Want to go meet her?”

Xayah shook her head. “Not yet, give me another minute,” She leaned forwards and wrapped her hooves around me again, finding comfort in my presence. “I think I’d just like to sit with you a little longer.”

I smiled, cuddling into her closer. We were silent again, comforted by the warmth of the other. Eventually, Xayah tilted her head up a little, peering up at me with one of her green eyes. “Amber, there is something I want to ask you?”

I nodded skeptically, not fully sure what exactly there was left to ask. “Yeah sure, what’s up?”

Xayah gulped. “It’s… well…” She bit her lip, trying to think what exactly to say. “It’s about what you said back in the tower. Right before Pyre pulled me out of there…” I gulped myself. I knew exactly what three words three words she was referring to. Xayah hesitated for a second. “Did- did you actually mean that? I know since your Stable and all you’ve been a little confused and you wanted to sort out your emotions before you gave me a definite answer, so… I mean if you’re still not sure about how you feel about me, that’s fine, I can still wait if you-”

I put a hoof to her lips, silencing her. I took a deep breath, preparing for what I was about to say. “Xayah, back there I thought I was going to die. I didn’t think that anypony was going to pull me out and I thought I was never going to see you again. You’d think something like that would jumble my emotions more, but they didn’t,” I started, trying to put my thoughts into words. “I started thinking about all the things I did wrong, all my regrets. Everything I had done right as well. I don’t think my mind had ever been so clear in my whole life.”

Xayah’s eyes widened a little. “So… are you saying that-”

I gave her a small nod and an encouraging smile. “I can’t say I’m very experienced with this whole romance thing, I mean I haven’t even kissed a pony before, let alone had a special somepony, but I’m willing to give it all a shot if you will.”

Well, I guess Mirra had been spot on in her impersonation after all.

Xayah grinned back at me. “I’d love that,” She pushed herself against me again, cuddling in even closer than she already was. “And I'm new to all of this too, so… I guess this is a first for both of us,” Our heads moved closer together. The bulky dome on our hazmat suits clinked together, knocking our heads apart a little.

I chuckled. “I’ll give you a real hug when we aren’t completely covered in this uncomfortable suit thing.”

Xayah just smiled. “That would be nice.”

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to my new friend,” I said, pulling myself up. Together we walked back towards where our friends were waiting, our hooves intertwined.

As Xayah and I walked over the crest of the hill we could make out Brisk, Pyre and Mirra sitting in a circle talking to each other. Mirra was in her natural form, her jet black insect body sticking out amongst the dunes of brown and grey like a sore hoof.

Xayah froze beside me as her eyes landed on the small changeling, her whole body going rigid. “Star spy,” She hissed through gritted teeth, crouching down into an attack position. Her hoof reached for her sniper by her side. “I thought they were a myth.”

I caught her hoof with my own before she could pull out her weapon. Damn it, I knew I should have told her before we arrived. “That’s Mirra. She’s the one that saved me,” I blinked. “Wait, Star spy?”

Xayah nodded, her eyes still fixed on the changeling. “Zebra’s believed that changelings were spies sent from the stars above to cause mischief among pony and zebra kind alike. They are much hated by all races.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I was pretty spooked at first too, but Mirra’s cool. I promise,” I insisted. The idea that Mirra was a spy sent by some evil star god was ridiculous, not that the idea of star gods made much sense to me anyway. “Besides, Mirra isn’t like other changelings, she’s really friends. A little shy maybe, but friendly. I don’t think she’s here to spy on us.”

Xayah hesitated, looking back at her sniper for a second. Finally she rightened herself. “Alright Amber, I will give this star spy a chance. But only for you.”

I gave her a soft smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll like her.”

Together, we slowly approached our friends below. Brisk spotted us first, waving us over with a bright green hoof. His eyes landed on our locked hooves and he gave a cheeky looking smile.

“Well well, looks like we have some love birds here,” Brisk smirked as we drew up next to the small circle.

“I think we just went over the fact that you’re the one here that likes flying things,” I shot back, causing both Pyre and Mirra to giggle foalishly. Xayah just looked confused by my remark. I turned to face Xayah and Mirra and gestured towards the changeling. “Anyway, Xayah, this here is Mirra. We’re going to be helping her find her mom.”

Xayah stepped up the Mirra, looking down at the changeling as if it were a timebomb. “So you are the one whom pulled Amber from the explosion?” She asked, hesitating on whether she should get closer or not. Finally she sighed. “Thank you for saving her star spy.”

Mirra cocked her head in confusion. “Thank you. What’s a star spy?”

Xayah looked a little confused at that remark. Slowly she pointed a hoof at Mirra. “Um.. You are star spy.”

Mirra giggled a little. “I’m not a star spy silly, I’m a changeling?” She shook her head chuckling to herself. “But everypony here calls me Mirra! Isn’t that such a great name?! I made it myself!”

“Hey, I helped come up with it,” I pitched in before realizing that absolutely no pony cared about that tiny detail.

Xayah looked a little lost for words. “You are not how I expected a star sp- a changeling to act. You are much less intimidating.”

I chuckled a little. “She’s plenty intimidating when you keep seeing yourself out of the corner of your vision for a week or so,” I said with a mix of both a laugh and a grumble. “And when you see her in an abandoned nursery. That was just creepy.”

Mirra gave an innocent looking shrug, but I could see a devious smile on her lips. “Eh, had to keep you on the tips of your hooves somehow.”

Pyre cleared her throat and pulled herself up to full height. “As great as it is that Amber is still alive and well, I think it would be best if we don’t stay here,” She grunted, looking around at the dunes of ash and rock around us. “Let me remind you all that this is still the Glowing Sea. The last thing I want is to be attacked by another Tatzelwurm or Celestia forbid another mutated dragon thing.”

We all agreed, pulling ourselves back up to our hooves.

“So, where are we off to next?” Brisk asked, looking off into the distance.

Well wasn’t that just the question on everyponies mind. “Back the the Hollow Shades first I suppose,” I said, turning in the direction of the settlement. “The train should be back by now, so we can probably get a ride back to Manehattan.”

“And after that?” Brisk pushed. “I mean all the cyber alicorns and Kamaris are dead, the A.A.S.S. is destroyed and we won’t be saving our Stable anytime soon so… what? Did we win? Is everything over?”

I shook my head and reached into my saddle bag as we started moving towards the Hollow Shades. “The A.A.S.S. is fine, I managed to grab it before the bombs went off,” I informed them, pulling the dark oblong device out. “And there are a few things left for us to do. We still don’t know who Crank’s original client was, the one that sent him to get the A.A.S.S. in the first place. Plus we need to find Mirra’s mom now too, so there’s a few more adventures for us along the way.”

I could see Mirra gave a small grin at that last bit.

“Plus, we never did find that Rubber Bands Character that Flask told us to find back when we were in Fetlock the first time,” Brisk added. “Looks like we actually have quite the list of things to do when you add it all up. So what first?”

“First is Tenpony!” Pyre interjected, jumping ahead of us a little bit. She turned to look at me. “You promised we’d go to Tenpony Tower when we were done with Kamari, and I’m holding you to that! I need my cheese!”

I gave her a nod. “Tenpony first,” I affirmed, with a small smile. “I think we all need a bit of a break after all of this. Besides, we aren’t in a rush like before. As far as I’m aware, there is no sudden and impending doom. A day or two without any violence will do us all some good.”

Brisk stumbled a bit at that. “Wait just a second! A few days without any adventure! Who do you take me for?!”

“Not a single adventure, we are going to go relax and you’re going to like it,” I informed him strictly. “No getting shot, blown up, stabbed or dropped by an elevator.”

Brisk grumbled, but didn’t complain as we slowly made our way back across the empty expanse of the Glowing Sea.

“I saw the tower explode, so I figured y'all did somethin’ over there,” Toffee said with a frown. She had met up with us shortly after we had arrived back in the Hollow Shades. She had traded the rags we had met her in for a dark brown leather duster and cowpony hat. A golden star now rests over her heart, signifying her position. “But a crazy zebra cult and a giant dragon bein’ resurrected by a mega spell weren't my first couple guesses.”

We had told her the whole story as she walked with us to the train station. She had been quiet at first, but the further through the story we got, the more and more questions she seemed to ask. The idea that all that had been happening not all that far away from her town had clearly unnerved her.

I glanced down beside me where I could see a small shift in the air where Mirra had hidden herself under Xayah’s stealth cloak. We had told her Toffee was a friend, but she insisted that she stay out of sight until we were out of the town. At least until her horn stopped flickering and revealing her disguises.

“It was pretty crazy, but it’s done now,” I said, looking back to Toffee. “Kamari won’t be causing trouble any time soon.”

Toffee grunted and pushed her cowpony hat up onto her head a little higher with a hoof. “Well I reckon I own y’all again, even if I had no idear that all that was goin’ on.”

“You own us nothing, we are just happy to have aided your town,” Xayah said flatly as she walked beside me. She seemed almost naked without her stealth cloak on.

As we approached the train station, we found another familiar face waiting for us. Chestnut stood on the planked platform of the station. She held herself up with a set of crunches and she had two large saddle bags slung over her back packed full of an assortment of different supplies.

There were a few other ponies as well, five in total, all packed and ready to leave for what I could only assume was Manehattan. They were all wounded in some way, clearly ponies that had fought in the Hollow Shades Massacre.

The train itself was in much better condition than when I had last seen it. Most of the damage caused by the bandit attack had been patched up and all of the wheels seemed to be in working order. The wagon Crank had destroyed in the battle was still missing most of its walls, but it looked like it would still function.

“Glad to see you all got through the Glowing Sea intact,” Chestnut said as she spotted us. I winced at that. Of course she didn’t know about Shade and Crank. “Sorry I couldn’t join you, what with being stuck in the hospital and everything.”

I walked up to her quickly, glad to see she was out of the hospital and walking around. “Are you coming with us?” I asked her, gesturing to the near overflowing saddlebags she was carrying.

Chestnut gave me a sad shake of her head. “Nah, I figured that now that the Hollow Shades is somewhat safe, it’s about time I go give Red Eye and his Slaving fucks what’s comin’ to em. My son is still somewhere in Filly, and I’ll be damned if I don’t get him back,” She told us, stamping her hoof on the ground to emphasise her point. “I’m just taking the train about half way and hoofing it the rest of the way to Filly. I hear there are some of those new applejack rangers out that way that are making a resistance there, so perhaps I’ll join up with them.”

“Are ya sure you don’t need thin’?” Toffee asked as she pulled herself to a stop beside me. “I’d love to help out some. Red Eye screwed me here just as much as he did you. I’d love to see that bastard get what’s comin’ t’ him.”

Chestnut just shook her head again. “You’re needed here. The Hollow Shades are gonna need somepony to help pull ‘em out after the Hollow Shades Massacre. And don’t even think about trying to give me more supplies, I got more than I can carry anyhow.”