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