I was once more in Twilight Sparkle’s body. Like before I was simply in her body, not thrown into like most orbs. I was walking down a long corridor, the same corridor in fact that Shade and I had just walked down to reach the large underground cistern. I could hear the soft clopping of hoof steps as a pony walked along beside her, but Twilight had her gaze fixed on the upcoming chamber making it impossible to see who it was.

I found it surprising to see the tunnel lit with light. I had seen it as a creepy, dank cave, but here it seemed simple and almost welcoming. Pretty lanterns lined the walls, filling the hall with a cozy, warm glow and the sound of bustling people in the distance made it feel like we were somewhere we were supposed to be instead of a deathtrap full of killer zebras.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Twilight finally said after a couple seconds of silence. I was unsure how long they had actually been walking before she had decided to speak up. “It just feels so wrong keeping this a secret from everyone. Especially Celestia…”

“My Sister put me in charge, it is no longer her place to say what is right or wrong,” I heard the voice of Luna say from behind me. Twilight turned her head a little, letting me make out the majestic form of the goddess walking beside me. “Besides, she will understand. Do not think I am unaware of her mega spell. Silver Ace and I simply think it would be wise if I had one as well. If we are to rule, then we are to rule properly.”

“Silver Ace?” Twilight asked cautiously. “When did Silver Ace get involved in this? I thought he was busy with all his responsibilities out at the MAS hub in Manehattan and his assistance with Fluttershy?”

The princess of the night nodded. “He is, but I have been checking in on progress there and have had a few talks with him. He was quite interested in the idea.”

“Silver Ace is interested in any idea, so long as he thinks it can be used to stop the zebras,” Twilight grumbled. It was interesting seeing her in this more casual manner. In the meeting it had seemed like she agreed and supported Silver Ace. Here she seemed to agree with, but be weary of him. “If it’s experimenting with magic or simply learning new magic, then he’ll agree to it. I guess I can relate with him on that.”

“Having second thoughts are you?” Luna asked, walking a few steps faster than Twilight so she could look at her properly. “I thought you wanted to do this?”

Twilight bit her lower lip, thinking how to proceed. “I did, It’s just... Celestia Prime is manageable. We can control it in the MAS Hub. But this? What if we aren’t able to control it properly? It could cause damage like we have never seen, and not just to the zebras.”

Luna gave Twilight a small smile. “We will. I have complete faith that we will be able to maintain and control Luna Prime.”

This was it then… Luna Prime. It was some sort of weapon then that Twilight at Luna had been working on. Something big. A mega spell. But what did it have to do with the cistern and conjoined caves below the Hollow Shades? And why keep it so secret?

A bright yellow stallion in a red hard hat came running up the tunnel towards them. His face was filled with fear. “Twilight! I was just sent to find you!” The yellow stallion gasped between breaths. His eyes landed on Princess Luna and he immediately dropped to one knee. “Your highness!”

“What is it Hammer?” Twilight Sparkle asked, reaching out a hoof and putting it on his shoulder to comfort him. “What did you find?”

The pony I now knew as Hammer glanced back at the tunnel he had come through. “The cave just broke open into this huge cistern of some form! There-there's something in there! Oh goddesses! It’s coming for me!” He put his hooves over his head and curled up into as small of a ball as he could.

Twilight knelt down to be at his level. “Where is everypony else?” She said, slightly worried. “Are they okay?”

“T-t-there still in there… Goddesses! You need to save them!” The stallion cried out as tears started racing down his yellow cheeks.

Twilight and Luna exchanged a look before rushing down the rest of the hallway, wasting no time. As they came to the end of the tunnel, they burst out into a large cavern. Unlike the cavern I had been in before, the floor was level with the entrance of the tunnel and the roof hung only about ten feet above our heads. Like before, columns rose up from the ground, slowly twisting above our heads and curving into arches that disappeared into the rock ceiling. In the center of the chamber stood the horrific monolith. It was exactly as I remembered, covered in skulls and zebra runes. The only difference was that now only the tip of the monolith protruded from the ground. The eyes of the shadow pony carving poked over the rocky ground, the only part of the twisted art I could still see.

A group of several ponies all dressed in hard hats knelt before the horrifying monolith, their heads bowed and their bodies still. They were chanting something, but I couldn’t seem to make out exactly what it was.

“What is going on here!” Luna demanded, striding towards the group. “You’re princess demands to know what is going on!”

At the sound of her words, the ponies around the monolith seemed to break away from their weird trance. They looked up, seeing the monolith for the first time. Then they began to scream. And scream. And scream.

One by one, their mouths dropped and a sickening, ear splitting scream erupted from their lips. They flailed their hooves and clawed at their ears as if trying to get a noise from out of their heads. Their back legs kicked and pushed them away from the monolith, trying desperately to escape it as if it were chasing after them.

Twilight rushed over to the closest pony. “Are you alright?! Talk to me!”

The pony looked up at her, her face filled with horror. “The voices! They won't stop!”

“It’s okay, we’re here now,” Twilight assured her, helping her to her hooves. She turned back to look at the rest of the ponies “We need to get you out of here, please head back to the tunnel.”

It took a few moments for the ponies to all come back to their senses and a few more to get them all out of the cavern and back into the tunnel. Once they were all gone, Twilight turned to look back at Luna.

Luna was standing in the center of the chamber, looking up at the huge monolith. Even while mostly submerged under rock, it was massive.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, taking a cautious step forward. “L-Luna, are you alright?”

“Yes Twilight Sparkle. I am quite alright,” Luna said flatly, her gaze shifting to the mostly submerged carving of the shadow pony on the monolith. “I have seen one of these before. A long time ago underneath Hoofington.”

“Underneath… You mean when you became Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked, looking at a pony skull that rest within the carved rock.

“Indeed. Though this one seems weaker. The one in the Hoof felt alive… this one feels…” Luna looked for the right word, her eyes remaining transfixed on the shadow ponies eyes.

“Dead…” Twilight finished for her, dropping her eyes to the alicorn beside her.

Luna looked up, a little surprised. “You can feel it too?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I think everypony can. It seems to be emanating some sort of dark magic similar to what I saw from Sombra in the crystal empire, just a lot weaker. Kinda like it's below us.”

They both glanced at the base of the monolith and the shadow pony carving that was half buried in the ground.

“How deep do you suppose it goes?” Luna asked, slowly walking around the monolith to inspect it from all sides.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight admitted. “But there is only one way to find out. My best guess is that what we are looking for is at the bottom.”

Luna glanced up at her and nodded before looking at the shadow pony carving once again. “When I was young, my teacher Starswirl the Bearded went missing,” Luna said quietly. Twilight suddenly looked very interested. “No pony ever knew what happened to him, but they said he fought a pony of shadows that came from the Hollow Shades. That a pony named Stygian had come here to gain power.”

Twilight glanced nervously at the monolith. “Do you think he found it here?”

“If I found my power to become Nightmare Moon near one of these out in the Hoof, perhaps this Stygian did the same here,” Luna suggested, finally looking away and to Twilight. “We had best start digging. We will need to do all we can before the zebras find out about this. I feel they will be less than pleased.”

I opened my eyes with a groan. I was in agonizing pain on a level topped only by the memory I had shared with inferno of getting turned into a cyber pony. Every part of my body throbbed with splitting pains and my horn felt like it was on fire. I tried to roll onto my hooves, only to find that I couldn’t move.

Panic flared up inside me. Goddesses, why couldn’t I move!

I tried to remember what had happened. I had been falling and… I had saved Shade. I had let myself fall. It was a miracle I was even still alive. But that didn’t change the growing fear that I had broken my spine or worse.

I tried to roll onto my hooves again, only to find myself still completely immobilized. Unbearable pain shot through my whole body as I tried to move.

Unable to move my neck, I glanced down at my hooves with my eyes. Goddesses, that wasn’t good. My legs probably weren’t supposed to bend in seven directions at once. I groaned loudly and tried to move them again. The most I could do was get my left hind leg to twitch a little, each twitch sending pain shooting down my leg and up my spine. They were definitely broken. All of them, everything. I had to resist the urge to scream as more and more fear and panic began to rise in me.

That memory orb must have saved me from feeling my body hit the ground. I had no doubt that had I been in my own body when I hit, I would have died from the agony alone. Bless the goddesses that I had at least managed to teleport most of the way down before I had hit the ground.

The idea of dying broken and bloodied in this dark fucking hole in the ground was terrifying. I would have been lying if I said I hadn’t had countless thoughts of ending my own life, but here in this lifeless pit, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to live.

I saw bits of rubble a few feet away get pushed aside as Shade slowly pulled herself from the collapsed catwalk. Apparently I had teleported her directly into the rubble. Save from a few cuts and bruises and the bullet wound in her hind leg, she seemed relatively okay.

She stumbled around for a second, trying to properly orient herself. She put a hoof to her head and shook herself, trying to shake the dizziness from her head to no success.

She slowly looked down, her gaze landing on my broken body. Her eyes popped wide as she took me in, an expression of true terror crossing her face. She rushed over to me in an instant, rummaging around in our saddlebags for any form of healing supplies. We only had three healing potions left.

She quickly poured the first two down my throat. I could feel the itching sensation as they patched up the many cuts that covered my body. Slowly I felt the blood stop trickling down the side of my head.

Shade went to pour the third potion down my throat. “N-no…” I managed to croak out before they could administer it.

Shade stared at me in confusion and fear, though mostly just fear. “Amber, you’re dying! You need this!”

“No…” I managed to croak out again. Each time I tried to speak it felt like I was swallowing nails. “Xayah needs one too. Need to find her.”

Shade gave me an awed, yet slightly angry look. “Amber! You need this more than her right now!” She spat, trying to give it to me again. I kept my mouth closed as to keep her from administering it. “Damn it Amber, take the fucking potion! I can't let you… You’ll… You’re all I have left! Damn it, don’t die!”

I just shook my head. Pain shot through my whole body just by doing the motion. “Won’t help… not broken bones… Find Medical bay…” I grunted, trying to keep from wailing like a foal as the act of talking sent shooting pains down my body. “Should be… down here…”

Shade nodded eagerly and looked around the gloom. The dull, flickering green glow of her pipbuck did little to illuminate the vast dark space. She pulled herself up and wrapped her hooves around me, gingerly trying to haul me onto her back. I did my best to help climb up onto her, but without the use of my hooves I was less than useless.

I moaned as I felt Shade place me over her back. She was trying her best to be gentle, but that did little to help the hurt.

“You hang in there, got it kid?” Shade instructed as she took off at a quick trot. “You aren’t going to die on me, you hear!” I did little more than whimper in response.

Shade moved forwards through the dark cave, her pipbuck lightning only a few feet ahead of her at a time. I was bounced up and down on her rump lightly as she bounded forwards, making my spine scream at me in protest.

I tried to reach for my own pipbuck to turn on it’s light, but my legs refused to move. I grunted as I tried to reach for it again. Nothing. I had never felt so helpless.

As it turned out, Shade didn’t need anymore light. Up ahead, her pipbuck light glinted off a large sign embedded into a rock face above one of the tunnels. As we drew closer, the faded and near scratched out letters became legible. They read, ‘Medical Bay, Geology Research Facility and Mega Spell Research’.

Had I the ability to move my neck, I would have taken a double take. Instead, I just took to blinking at the sign in disbelief. Mega spell research!? Were there megaspells down here? And if so, did Kamari have access to them? The last thing I needed right now was to have Kamari fighting me with something of that scale.

Pain shot through me again as Shade started rushing towards the tunnel. Right, first thing’s first… don’t die and get to the medical bay. I definitely couldn’t fight Kamari in this state, mega spells or no.

The Medical bay was the first room in the tunnel. Clearly Twilight had wanted the medical bay to be easily accessible in case something bad happened down here. I was thankful for that.

The room was a large square metal chamber, starkly contrasting the rough rock walls of the tunnel outside. The walls were lined with desks covered in an assortment of paper, medical boxes and terminals. A single medical examination bed lay in the center of the room, its light blue sheets now grey with dust and age.

Shade gently lifted me off her back with magic and placed me on the bed. I almost screamed as my back was laid out against the hard mattress. Goddesses I was in so much pain.

Shade immediately took to searching the room for anything of value. She threw open cupboards and ripped open medic bags, hoping for any sort of healing supplies. I could clearly see her distress after each and every thing she looked in she found empty. Clearly the medical bay had been looted already. Kamari had probably picked the whole place clean I suppose.

Shade slammed her hoof down on one of the desks violently, knocking papers and a lone, empty glass vile to the floor. The vile shattered, sending small shards of glass skidding around her violet hooves. “Fuck! There’s nothing here!” She slammed her hoof on the table again, this time cracking the rotting wood. From my spot on the bed, I could see the glistening tears in her eyes glinting in the dim light. “Damn it! I won’t be responsible for another pony from my Stable to die!”

I grimaced and tried to open my mouth to speak, only to find I was in far too much pain to make words. I choked and tried again. “Not your…” I was unable to finish the sentence, but the message was clear. Not your fault.

Shade picked herself up and glanced over at me weirdly, her eyes seeming to glow in the darkness from the tears that raced down her face. “But it fucking is Amber, and you know it! You wouldn't even be out in the wasteland if it wasn't for me! You could have teleported yourself to safety if you hadn’t saved me! I haven’t even been able to help you! All I've done is gotten in your way!” she had to take a second to catch her breath as her whole body was wracked with sobs. She wiped the tears away and stood up straighter, a look of determination across her face. “But I’m not fucking things up this time… I’ll fix this, I swear. Celestia damn me, I’ll fix this.”

She turned away from me and bolted from the room, not bothering to explain to me where she was going. I tried to call out to her, to say something. Anything. But I couldn’t. I was far too weak to speak.

I lay there on my back in the darkness, not fully sure what to do or what I even could do seeing how I couldn't move. So I simply just lay there and waited. And waited. Time was passing, though I couldn’t tell how long. Every second that passed felt like a minute and every minute an hour. I started trying to count the seconds to give me a good gauge on how long I had been lying there, but the near unbearable pain in my spine and legs made it impossible to keep any consistent train of thought.

As I tried to count to ten for the fifth time, I simply gave up and let my mind wander. I hoped Xayah was alright. She had sounded so weak after the elevator had crashed. Granted, I supposed I was probably in far worse condition then she was. Brisk and Pyre were probably okay, they were both strong and Pyre had been through some tough shit before.

My ears picked up at the sound of approaching hoofsteps. I was thankful to find that I could still move my ears. I tried to turn my head to face the door, but finding that impossible, I instead had to use momentum to roll my whole body to one side.

I waited as the hoofsteps grew closer to the door. I expected Shade to march in… I was wrong.

A zebra turned the corner and walked into the medical bay, a curved scimitar tight in their mouth. Their eyes locked with mine, a twisted grin spreading across their face. Even with the gruesome smile, their expression felt empty, lacking that spark that seemed to burn inside of every sentient creature.

It took a step forward, it scimitar pointed towards my neck. I tried to reach out for Boneless with my magic, only for a sad looking spark to shoot from my horn and trial lamely to the ground. Horn burnout! Now of all the fucking times!

I wanted to scream with frustration. Of course I had to lose my fucking magic now!

I inched forwards on the bed and slowly picked up the triple barrel shotgun in my mouth. My whole body spasmed slightly as I tried to move it past what it’s current state would allow.

The zebra saw my movement and began rushing forwards. With a loud groan I managed to aim Boneless and fire off a shot.

Blam!

The zebra jumped back a little, the buckshot ripping apart the ground by the zebra’s hoof. The zebra glanced back up at me and sneered. It took another step forward, then another. Then it was once again coming at me.

Blam!

I fired again, this time missing completely as the lack of moveability in my head refused to let me aim the shot. The zebra didn’t even wince as the buckshot flew past them and peppered the wall behind them with its explosive fire.

The zebra closed in, their face now only inches away from mine. They reared up, the curved blade aimed down at my neck.

Blam!

I fired again, this time blowing the zebra’s hoof clean off. Blood splattered around the room as the zebra stumbled back, nursing their wound as they tried to stop the bleeding. I lined up another shot, and pulled the trigger, my three barrels aimed at the zebra’s head.

Click.

Boneless ran empty. I pulled the trigger again, to make sure it simply hadn’t malfunctioned. Nothing. I needed to reload, and without both the use of my hooves and magic, that wouldn't be possible.

The zebra glared at me, their yellow eyes practically glowing with anger. They pulled themselves up and limped towards me, staggering to the side slightly as they tried to steady themselves on three hooves. “You will pay for that pony,” The zebra hissed as they pulled up next to the bed. They wrapped their remaining fore hoof around the edge of the bed to stay upright as they readied themselves. Once again they raised their scimitar, the curved blade splattered with their own blood.

I tried to pull myself back, but my body refused. I tried to thrash and squirm, but my legs remained unmoving. I tried to scream, but even my voice had failed me.

The blade came down.

The sharp blade pierced my chest. I could feel the cold metal slip between my ribs. Pain erupted through my whole body, my chest searing with a pain I had never felt. My legs twitched and spasmed, more of a reaction from my nerves than of my own free will.

The zebra smiled and twisted the blade again, ripping open more flesh around the wound. Blood began spilling over my body, a small geyser of blood squirting upwards from around the cold blade. My mouth twisted into a soundless scream as I tried desperately to call for help. I could feel blood quickly surging up into my throat and drowning me.

The zebra’s yellow eyes began to change, slowly glowing a baleful green and that spark of life returned to the zebra’s face. “Ah, Amber…” It was Kamari’s deep and gravelly voice. “Did I not tell you that reaching me was impossible?”

I moved my mouth to counter him, but my words were obscured behind the fountain of blood that pushed past my lips, the dark red fluid bubbling as I tried to breath through it. I spat it out at the zebra, the blood missing his face. “I… will… kill…” I coughed up more blood, pain surging around the pain in my chest and down my spine.

The zebra chuckled darkly, kamari’s voice slowly fading away as the green glow subsided from its eyes. “It has been fun Amber…”

The zebra’s head exploded, bits of brain splattering across my face. The striped body dropped to the ground with a solid thump, letting me see past the zebra to the door. Shade stood there seething with rage, her pistol in her mouth. Her coat was matted with blood and I could see a few more cuts and gashes on her body.

“You will stay away from her!” She growled at the lifeless body of the zebra. She spotted the curved blade protruding from my chest. Her face darkened and she snarled, her eyes narrowing at the headless corpse. “You fucker!” She quickly rushed over to me, something rattling around inside of her saddlebags. “Hold on just a few moments Amber, it's going to be okay. I promise…”

“S-Shade I-” Blood spilled from my mouth, cutting me off.

Shade put a hoof to my chest as she worked. “Don’t talk kid, I’ll fix this. I swear to the goddesses I’ll fix this!” She hooked something up above my head, but I wasn’t able to see what it was. As gently as she could, she put her hooves over the blade in my chest. “I’m sorry about this Amber, this is going to hurt.”

The blade was ripped from my chest. I screamed out, blood spilling like a waterfall from my chest as the metal blade blocking it was removed. My hind hooves spasmed, kicking out and hitting Shade across the side. She staggered slightly at the sudden and unexpected attack, but remained focused.

I felt myself start slipping into unconsciousness. The pain was simply too much for my body and it was starting to give out. Shade reached out and slapped me awake. “Come on, Stay with me! Don’t fall asleep! Stay awake Amber!”

I blinked, trying to stay alert. A sudden pain made my eyes pop wide as Shade started applying pressure to my chest. I bit down on my tongue to prevent myself from shrieking. My teeth dug into my tongues soft flesh, drawing blood.

Shade’s horn began to glow, her magic wrapping around something that she held aloft above me. The light started to grow, but it wasn’t the light of her horn. It was a bright blinding pink that washed out everything else in the room.

I could hear Shade struggling to maintain whatever spell she was casting. She glanced down at me, one eye closed as she tried to focus on her spell. “I don’t know if this is going to hurt or not, I’m sorry.”

I think I managed to nod, but with the amount of pain I was in, it was hard to be sure.

The pink light grew and grew until it filled my entire vision. The air was getting warmer, as if I was stuck inside of a gigantic oven. My legs and chest flared with pain, pink fire shooting from every gash I had and rushing up the inside of my body.

I saw Shades eyes open with worry as my whole body began being torn and burned apart from the inside. I screamed, no amount of blood being able to stop me from making my pain known. My scream didn’t sound like a pony, but some strange and hurting creature of the night howling at the black sky.

Then I was gone. My whole body burst apart, pink flames spewing from the open gashes in my body. My pained howls ceased as my mouth burned away into nothingness.

And then I was back, my body stitching itself together as if nothing had ever been wrong. Then I was simply fine.

I wiggled my hooves a little, to my surprise they seemed to work perfectly. Even my magic seemed to have returned to normal.

I stared up at Shade with a horrified expression. “What the fuck was that!” I blurted, my mind still reeling from what had just happened.

Shade stared back at me with a look of both horror and relief. “A healing mega spell… I, um… I didn’t know it was going to do that.”

I sat up, rubbing my back with a hoof. My whole body still ached, but the unbearable pain had vanished as if never even existing. “That thing just… I was just ripped apart and put back together again!” I exclaimed, the horror of what had just happened flaring through my mind. I looked over my healed hooves and then back at Shade with astonishment. “How did you even get your hooves on a mega spell!”

Shade gave me a sheepish grin. “The megaspell research facilities are not that far down the hall. They have a whole bunch of mega spells down here.”

“And Kamari doesn’t have any guards down there?” I asked in disbelief. “Seems like a stupid thing for him to do.”

Shade shook her head. “No, he had guards there… I uh… might have killed them all.”

My eyes widened a little wider. “By yourself?” I let my eyes drop to the numerous gashes that now scored Shades legs.

“Yeah, I mean, there were only two and I wasn’t just going to just let you die,” Shade answered, almost embarrassed. “I told you I’d fix this.”

Slowly, I climbed the rest of the way out of the bed. My legs felt wobbly and almost rubber-like, but I was still able to stand easily. “We need to get out of here. Kamari knows where we are now. And if you killed his guards at the mega spell research facilities, he’s almost definitely going to be sending more to make sure that place stays secured,” Shade nodded and let me lead the way as we swiftly left the medical bay. I paused as I reached the door and looked back at her. “And Shade… thank you.”

Shade gave me a nervous smile and glanced back down at her hooves, not daring to make eye contact. She quickly followed me out without saying a word. It wasn’t until we were half way down the tunnel that she spoke up. “There’s something else Amber, something I noticed while I was getting the mega spell.”

“Yeah?”

“Most of them are still there. That is, except for the Balefire bombs,” I gulped at her words, a bead of sweat racing down my forehead. Great, he had balefire bombs at his exposal too. Was there anything he didn’t have? “As well as something called Luna Prime.”

I stopped and looked back at her. “Luna Prime? Did it say what that was?”

“I had heard Azar mention it briefly when I was traveling with him. I never really thought much of it back then, he always seemed to be muttering to himself,” Shade admitted. “But when I saw that a mega spell of the same name was missing, I checked some terminal logs to see if I could find anything out about it,” She winced. “Though I probably should have saved you first, sorry…”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, I get curious too. Did the terminal say anything?”

Shade shook her head. “Everything was redacted with the exception of one word… or two words I guess,” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Nightmare Moon.”

I felt my stomach drop. I remembered what I had overheard some zebras saying back in Stable 25. That they would have the power of the stars on their side if Red Eye ever came looking for them. I remembered Twilight and Luna talking about whatever they were looking for possibly being at the base of the huge, nightmarish monolith.

“I think we need to look at that monolith again,” I said, quickening my pace and moving out into the large cavern. I saw the toppled ruins of the catwalks we had just fallen from and used them as a guide to the centre of the chamber through the gloom.

“Why the hell do we need to see that thing!” Shade blurted, following behind me. “That thing gives me the creeps!”

Up ahead, I could see the huge monolith stretching upwards and into the darkness above. For the first time, I was able to make out its horrific base. Mounds of crushed zebra skulls had been piled up around the bottom and large carvings of dragons decorated the rough surface. Something white glinted off the light of my pipbuck as we got closer.

I crouched down and brushed the dust away to get a better look at whatever the white thing was. A large spine like bone protruded from below the monolith. I took a step back as I took the thing in. the monolith had been built upon the back of some huge creatures skeleton. I shivered just looking at it.

“Fucking shit, glad that things dead,” Shade grimmaced, looking over the large bit of exposed bone. “I’ve never seen any living thing that big before.”

“Hopefully we never will,” I grumbled, eyeing the bones suspiciously. Course with my luck, I’d been fighting something of this magnitude before the night was through. Hell, with my luck I’ll be fighting this thing’s significantly larger mother.

There was the pattering of hooves somewhere in the darkness. I quickly turned off my pipbuck flashlight and ushered Shade to the side before pulling her into a small side cave. The cave wasn’t large, more of a nook than anything else, but it served its purpose and kept us concealed.

A few seconds later, a large group of zebra rushed past, their hooves pounding against the rock ground. I managed to count thirty or so of them before I lost track. “Kamari says they were at the medical bay,” One of them shouted, their voice surprisingly lacking the rhythmic zebra tone. “The rest of you scout out this cavern, see if we cannot find them in here.”

“What do we do?” Shade whispered as the large group of zebras split up and began searching high and low for us.

I pulled out Boneless with my mouth to keep from making light or noise with my magic and got ready for them. “We wait, hopefully they leave soon enough.”

Shade gave me a quick nod and readied her own gun. I could see the gun shaking a little in her grip as she waited. Clearly she wasn’t used to needing to use her mouth.

For the second time since I had fallen into this pit, I waited. The cave was vast, making it so that the zebras had to spread themselves out a fair amount. I considered taking out a zebra that came close to our hiding spot, but I quickly realized if I started shooting I would attract the rest of them. Best if I try and get out of this without attacking at all if I could.

Before long, most of the zebras had moved a decent distance away from us. Far enough that they were out of sight and ear shot, but not far enough that their red bar disappeared from our EFS. I glanced out cautiously, trying to see if there was a way out of the caves past them. To my displeasure, I spotted a few zebras still searching the gloom, making a current escape impossible.

I sighed as I ducked back into the small rock nook. “Looks like we might be stuck here a few minutes,” I informed her, making sure to keep my voice low. “At least until the zebras leave. The zebras back on the catwalks were hard enough, I don’t think we’d fair as well against so many.”

Shade grumbled and kicked a rock with a hoof. “Damn, how long do you think they’ll stick around for?”

“Till they find us I guess,” I said flatly. “I suppose they’ll find the medical bay empty sooner or later and realize I survived. They won’t stop until we’re found. We’ll just need to find an opening and take it, so keep your eyes on your EFS.”

Shade nodded and looked down at her Pipbuck, her eyes moving back and forth as she followed the red bars that darted around. I glanced over at Brisk’s saddlebag and pulled out the two bottles of Wild Pegasus Whiskey he had saved. I passed one over to Shade. “Here, I know it’s your favourite.”

Shade’s eyes widened a little as she took the bottle in her hooves and looked it over. She glanced up at me nervously. “A-are you sure?” She asked cautiously, a small tremor in her voice.

I shrugged. “Why not, We don’t have anything else to do for the next couple minutes. We might as well try and enjoy it.”

Shade looked back down at the bottle again. “It’s just… uh… Why are you suddenly being nice to me? After everything?”

Why was I offering her a drink? I hadn’t forgiven her for what she had done to Stable 25, had I? It hadn’t even been that long ago that I had been angry at her, simply for being present. What had changed? Was it because she had saved my life? That might have been part of it, but it still didn’t seem quite right.

Then the reason hit me. I reached into Brisk’s saddle bag and pulled out a glowing memory orb. I hesitated for a moment, the orb making a pang of guilt race through me. “This, this is why?” I placed the orb in front of me and stared at it angrily. “You aren’t the only one who has killed ponies… nor are you the only pony with regrets.”

“What is that?” Shade asked, looking over the orb with curiosity. “It looks like one of those floating silver things.”

I shook my head. “It’s a memory orb. My memory to be exact,” I took a deep breath, forcing myself to continue talking. “Shortly after I left the stable I did something terrible... I- I killed a bunch of foals. Raider foals, but still foals. I hated myself so much after I had done it that I forced Brisk to take the memory away,” I gritted my teeth at the memory of finding the orb on the train. “It didn’t really work in the long run. The point is, I understand how it feels to be responsible for something terrible and how much that hurt and guilt can eat away at you.”

Shade glanced away, not sure how to respond. “Amber, what you did and what I did aren’t-”

“I almost killed myself when I found out what I had done,” I continued, cutting her off. “I hated myself so much that I thought I could never really be myself again. If it weren’t for my friends, I probably would have pulled the trigger… So, it must really hurt for you to need to go through something like that without friends to pull you up.”

Shade’s head bolted up at my words, her eyes once again shining with tears. “W-what are you saying Amber?”

What was I saying? I hadn’t exactly thought any of this through before saying it.

I gave a long sigh. “I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t forgive you… I don’t think I ever can, but… I’m willing to give you a chance. I’m willing to try to be your friend again,” I glanced down at my own unopened bottle of Wild Pegasus. “Besides, us Stable ponies gotta stick together, right?”

Shade was silent for a second, her tear filled eyes locked with mine. Then, faster than I could have reacted, she rushed forwards and wrapped me in a tight hug. I sputtered a little as her hooves practically strangled me. I pushed her back a little, but didn’t reject the hug. “Can’t breathe, can’t breathe,” I managed to choke out.

The tight hug loosened a little and Shade gave me a small blush. “Sorry.”

I gave a small chuckle and returned her hug, wrapping my hooves around her slightly larger form. Finally, I pulled back and gestured to the Wild Pegasus. “Well, don’t let me stop you.”

Shade gave me a smirk and popped the cap off the bottle. There was a small popping noise, but nothing loud enough to alert the zebra’s searching for us. I watched as she took a big sip off the top before I turned to open my own. I was a little less graceful with popping off the cap.

After a bit of struggling, I managed to get the cap off and shove it into my saddlebag. I sniffed the bottle, taking in the foul sent and took the smallest of sips. I immediately spat the whiskey back out. Nope, still couldn’t handle the burn.

Shade chuckled a little. “Yup, you’re still adorable.”

I flushed. “Am not. I could drink this whole thing if I really wanted to.”

“But you don’t want to. I know, I’ve heard that before,” She gave me a smug smirk and for a calming second, it felt like I was back in Stable 25.

I put the bottle to my lips again and poured as much of the liquid into my mouth as I could. My cheeks bulged as my mouth filled with the burning taste of whiskey. “ffwee, I can dwink it if I wifthhh,” I slurred around the mouthful.

Shade just gave me an amused look. “Drinking it includes swallowing it Amber.”

I pouted and forced myself to swallow. The burning liquid surged down my throat, making me sputter. I had to put a hoof over my mouth to stay quiet. “See, I can drink it. I’m not cute,” I declared, almost proudly.

Shade eyed my bottle sceptically. “That wasn’t even a quarter of the bottle…”

I groaned and put the bottle down in defeat. “Ugh, never mind. I can’t do this. It tastes terrible.”

“And as I said, You’re adorable,” Shade affirmed with a small laugh. She quickly downed the rest of her bottle before picking up mine. She looked down at the bottle for a second before lazily glancing up at me. “So, I’m interested, what’s the story between you and the zebra?” she asked, catching me off guard with the question. The faintest hint of a smile played on her lips.

“Xayah, her name is Xayah,” I corrected, feeling oddly defensive about her name at that specific moment. “And the two of us are just friends at the moment, that’s all.”

Shade raised an eyebrow sceptically. “At the moment?”

I blushed. “Yes, currently we are friends. Why? What does it matter to you?” I didn’t know why I felt so embarrassed right now.

“I’ve known you since you were still in your mother's womb, which means I have also known you long enough to know you swing both ways there kid,” Shade said smugly, taking a sip from my bottle of whiskey. “When you returned to the Stable, I thought you mighta had a crush on that Brisk fellow, but now y’all are treating each other like siblings, so I reckon that’s out.”

“Just because I don’t have a crush on Brisk anymore, doesn’t mean me and Xayah are a thing,” I insisted, waving my hooves in front of me as if to ward her off. “Like I said, we’re just friends.”

“Friends that kiss each other on the cheek before running into battle and give up a healing potion that might save their life so the other might have it?” Shade asked, her voice sounding more sarcastic and rhetorical than curious. “And yes, don’t think I didn’t see that kiss she gave you.”

I simply gave her a nod. “Yup, just good good friends.”

Shade smirked. “You keep telling yourself that kiddo.”

My eye caught some movement along the rock wall beside us. Not an organic movement, but some strange ooze slowly dripping from a large crack in the wall. My brows knitted together as I looked at it. “What is that?” I leaned in a little closer to get a look.

It was some sort of strange rainbow fluid I had never seen before. Shade spotted it too. She reached her hoof out to touch it.

My memory flashed back to the terminal I had read about the I.M.P. stuff that they had been working on that I suspected was the cause of the strange mutations in the Hollow Shades. How had they referred to it? It had been in rainbow vats?

My hoof jerked forwards and slapped Shade’s hoof aside. “Don’t touch it, that’s I.M.P!” I still wasn’t fully sure what I.M.P. was, but anything that was labeled with a warning saying ‘don’t touch, breath or Stare at’ was dangerous in my books.

I realized immediately after I said that, that I had forgotten to lower my voice.

“What was that?” I heard one of the zebra’s shout from somewhere in the darkness. “I think it came from over there!”

Damn it! Welp, now was as good a time as any to get out of here I guess.

I turned to Shade, who suddenly had a look of panic on her face as she heard the large group of zebras rushing towards our location. “Shit, we need to go, now!”

A zebra who had already been close to where we had been hiding jumped into the hole with us, their curved blade out and swinging for our throats. I grabbed their head in my magic and rammed them into the strange rainbow fluid that was dripping out of the wall.

The zebra screamed as they ooze found its skin. I saw the zebras striped coat and flesh burn away just at the touch. Something squirmed below the zebras skin, slithering its way down the inside of its neck and towards its heart.

Note to self, don’t interact with I.M.P… Ever!

I bashed in the zebras skull, more as an act of mercy than an actual attack. The shock baton thudded against their skull, making the zebra go still.

I grabbed Shade by the hoof and pulled her out of the nook and back into the cavern. I heard the zebra’s shouting and started to give chase as they spotted us.

“We need to find a way out of this pit!” Shade shouted, jumping to the side as a bullet whizzed past her. She glanced behind her at the small charging army of zebras. They were gaining on us fast and my legs still felt like rubber from the mega spell.

There was no way we could escape them in this open space, they would just pick us off. We needed to find cover and a way to lose them.

I spotted the entrance to a tunnel to the left. I quickly angled myself towards it and started running as fast as I could. Shade followed closely behind me, occasionally sending off a shot behind her to try and slow down the oncoming zebras.

We zipped into the tunnel, the zebras still hot on our tail. The tunnel air was humid and stale and the walls seemed to slowly move in and out as if the tunnel as if it was breathing. It felt as if we were charging down the throat of a giant beast.

“Elevator to our right!” Shade announced, pointing to an elevator shaft not too far away. “We can get out of here on that!”

“I’m not going anywhere without my friends!” I shouted back in response, powering past the elevator. “We find my friends, kill Kamari, then we leave. No other order!”

Shade grumbled, but didn’t protest as she raced past the elevator herself. At least we knew how to get out of here now. Something told me we would be needing to escape in a rush.

a bullet flew past my face as we thundered forwards. I lurched to the side, just barely managing to dodge the attack. I spun around, my baton swinging out and crashing against the closest zebra’s head as they lunged towards me. The zebra fell, its head now caved in and leaking blood. I spun back around, not daring to wait for the other zebra’s to catch up.

Up ahead I could see the tunnel split into three. Shade looked between them, her eyes darting back and forth. “Amber, which way!?”

Without slowing my pace, I charged down the left tunnel. Shade quickly followed. I didn’t dare say the tunnel out loud, hoping we could use it as a way to shake the zebra off our trail.

I heard shouting from somewhere behind us. “Split up, find the ponies!” so we hadn’t lost them, but we had lessened the amount following us at least.

Once again, the path ahead split, this time only into two. I grinned, we might actually be able to lose them. I raced down the left tunnel again, hoping that the zebras were far enough behind us that they couldn’t hear or see which way we had gone.

A zebra from one of the side tunnels limped out and slammed into me, the force knocking me prone on my back. Boneless was out in a second, swinging towards the zebra and firing at their head.

The zebra leapt back with a timid yelp and skidded away from me, the shot just missing their head. “Amber, it’s me!” Xayah shouted, her voice filled with both fear and shock.

I dropped my shotgun, taking in the black and white zebra for the first time. “Oh goddesses, I’m so sorry, I thought that you were a zebra!”

Xayah gave me a funny look. “I am a zebra…”

I slapped my hoof to my face. “You know what I mean,” I looked back up at her and took her form in. Her right fore hoof was most definitely broken, twisted awkwardly to one side and bleeding profusely from a large gash on one side. I quickly passed her our last healing potion as well as one of the medical braces that Brisk had worn so long ago. “Here.”

Xayah gratefully took the potion while I quickly started strapping the brace onto her leg. “What is going on?” She asked, glancing around the dark tunnel. “I haven’t run into anything since we fell down here.”

“Then you were lucky,” Shade said flatly, her back turned to us and her pistol raised as she waited for more zebras to come down the tunnel. “We’ve been having a bit of bad luck.”

Xayah’s ears perked up as she listened to the sound of distant hoofsteps. “Zebras?”

“You guessed it.”

The first zebra came racing around the corner. Shade’s pistol fired, blowing out its leg and making it collapse to the ground. The zebra screamed out, alerting the others. I could hear the footsteps in the distance pause before rushing towards us.

Xayah’s sniper flashed out, a shot ringing out and nailing the zebra between the eyes. The zebra’s head burst open, ending its screams.

“Can you run?” I asked, glancing down at her braced leg.

Xayah gave a nervous nod. “I can do my best.”

I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out my Buck and passed one to her. “Here, this should be able to help.”

She glanced down at the tablet with distaste before popping it into her mouth. “Normally, I would not take chems, but I suppose I will bend that rule under our current circumstances,” Xayah said strictly, swallowing the tablet. “Does Brisk know you have those?”

I shook my head. “No, and I think it best he doesn’t find out.”

Three more zebra’s came charging around the corner, their sniper already out and firing down the hallway towards us.

I spun on my back hooves and started running again. “Well, time to get going!” I shouted, racing forwards and around the corner. Shade and Xayah bolted after me, Xayah no longer having trouble now that the buck was pumping through her.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw five more zebra rush around the corner to join the chase. There was no time to slow down and chat, we would be swarmed.

We burst into another large chamber, though not nearly as large as the one we had seen with the monolith. Metal barrels of I.M.P. littered the ground, most of their rainbow contents already spilled out across the rock floor. On the far side was a large tunnel leading deeper into the caves and to the right was a large metal door with the words ‘Mega spell launch chamber’ above it in huge letters. Like any self respecting door, it appeared to be locked with a terminal.

More zebras were charging at us from the far side of the cave. A zebra in the lead stared at us, their eyes slowly changing to a foul looking green. The zebra pointed across the cavern toward us, instructing the zebras to charge. “You have come far,” I heard Kamari’s vile voice sooth ooze from the zebras mouth. “But you have only wasted your time.”

“You keep saying that,” I growled back at him, rushing over to the large metal doors leading to the mega spell launch chamber. I jumped over a puddle of I.M.P. not daring to let myself touch the evil ooze. “Yet somehow, I keep surviving! So maybe you should be a little less ignorant!” I ducked as a bullet flew past me.

Across the room I could see the zebra grinning at me. “You have come farther than most, but for nothing. I assure you, you will not leave here alive.”

I raised Boneless and practically fired blindly behind me. The explosive buckshot burst from my gun, blasting open the head of the zebra Kamari had been possessing. “We’ll see about that!” I shouted angrily. Kamari’s confidence in me failing was beginning to get on my nerves.

Another zebra's eyes began to glow, this zebra only a few feet away from me this time. “Soon the power of the stars will rise from the deep!” Kamari’s voice continued, refusing to be silenced. The zebra lashed out at me with his scimitar with deadly speed. I had to do everything I could to keep from being cut clean in two. “Luna Prime will be activated and Nightmare Moon will once again walk free!”

“Luna Prime? What is that!?” I called back, hoping to stall for time. The zebra ignored me and continued moving forwards.

Blam!

Xayah sent a bullet through the zebra's head, dropping them to the ground. “Not if we have anything to say about it!” She growled, standing defensively in front of me as I began hacking away at the terminal. Shade moved up next to me as well and began helping me decrypt the password.

Yet another zebra’s eyes took on the baleful green. “Ah, Xayah. These ponies do not know of the power I threaten them with, but you do. You understand and fear the stars as any sane zebra should,” Kamari grinned, slowly closing in on us with the rest of his zebra’s. The zebras were moving around the puddles of I.M.P. quickly, the elongated root to get to us barely slowing them down.

“I do, and I will not allow you to do whatever evil you have conspired to do here!” Xayah yelled back, her sniper firing and taking the head off another zebra that was getting too close.

The glowing gaze left the zebra and appeared on another. “I have been planning this for over two hundred years, do you really think a ragtag group of wasteland hero wannabes can defeat me!”

Another shot from Xayah’s sniper dropped the zebra. “I believe that Amber will get us through this.”

Another green eyed zebra’s grin widened. “Then you are a fool, just like your pony ‘friends’…” the zebra raised their sniper and fired. The shot blasted out, striking Xayah in the chest. Xayah fell to the ground with a scream, her hooves clutching at her chest to stop the bleeding.

“Xayah!” I screamed, turning from the terminal and crouching over her protectively. Shade took my place at the terminal and began trying to hack it on her own. I growled at the zebras closing in around us. They had formed a tight circle now, almost close enough to be within melee range. “Don’t you dare touch her!”

The voice of Kamari once again switched to a new zebra. “As I said Amber, all of your fates were sealed the moment you entered the tower. There is no escape.”

Boneless took off the grinning zebra’s head. “I think you got it backwards Kamari. You sealed your own fate when you decided to mess with my Stable!”

The large doors behind me slid open with a loud clang. “Get in! Now!” Shade yelled, bounding into the darkness beyond the door.

I threw Xayah over my back and darted for the door.

“Kill them! Kill them now!” Kamari screached, the mass of zebras lurching forwards with a sudden unexpected speed. Bullets whizzed past me, one nicking the tip of my ear and drawing a bit of blood.

I leapt into the air, my body flying the last few feet and landing with a thump on the far side of the door. The second I was through, Shade shut the door, the large steel doors slamming shut just as quickly as they had opened.

I had expected some sort of large chamber like the last room. Instead we found ourselves in another long hallway, leading to another room at the end of the hall. A few doors lined the metal passage, leading to smaller offices.

“There, that should hold them,” Shade huffed, looking up at the large door. I could hear a few zebras slamming into the door on the far side. “This door was designed to hold out mega spells, it's practically a Stable door. There’s no breaking it down.”

The door suddenly slid open again, all the zebra’s on the far side staring at us with an awful twisted grin. A zebra with Kamari’s glowing green eyes stepped forwards. “Did you really think I didn’t have the override code for my own door? I have control over this entire facility,” Kamari’s voice mocked, taking another step towards us. “I feel you do not fully comprehend the condition you are in right now. Do not worry, I will ensure that you understand before the end.”

“Shit. Run! Run!” I urged, turning and bolting down the hallway. A zebra jumped at me, their hooves wrapping around my legs and dragging me to the ground. I fell over, my face hitting the ground hard.

Xayah rushed forwards, her knife stabbing deep into the zebra atop me and pushing them off. Somehow the Buck pumping through her must have managed to keep her on her hooves despite the bloody bullet wound to her chest.

Two more Zebra’s raced forwards, their knives drawn as the tackled Shade to the ground. I rushed to help her, only for a zebra with Kamari’s glowing eyes to block my path. “How far have you fallen Amber? What hope of escape do you think you have?”

I let Boneless answer for me, pulping the head of the zebra. I grimaced as I realized I had once again dropped below ten shots. I really, really needed to be more careful with how much ammo I used.

Xayah and I stood back to back as more zebra’s moved towards us. I saw Shade manage to push the zebras off her and start moving towards us, only to be blocked off again.

“The fuck is this!?” I heard a voice exclaim loudly from over the din. I looked up, my ears perking as I recognized the familiar voice. “A fight that we weren’t invited to? How rude!”

A jet of fire shot through the zebra’s ranks, setting a large portion of them aflame. Pyre Blaze stepped through the fire, striking her most dramatic pose she could as the zebras around her screamed and burned. I don’t think I had ever been so happy to see that damn raider in my whole life!

Blam! Blam!

I heard Brisk’s pistol crack off two shots, each one blowing the head off a zebra as he marched up to stand dramatically beside Pyre. He gave me a smug grin. “Hey sis, what I miss?”

“You two have got to be the most over dramatic ponies I have ever met,” I scowled at them, but I couldn’t help keep a small smile from my face all the same.

Pyre shrugged and let loose another stream of fire into the zebra. “Eh, what can I say? There's nothing like a good ol’ dramatic entrance!”

Brisk’s pistol fired off another shot, the bullet smashing into the terminal outside the large door and making the whole thing begin to spark. Pyre whirled around, her flamers clearing the way for her as she pushed herself towards the inner terminal and manually shut the large door.

There was a screech as the door once again closed itself, this time for good. The door slammed shut, blocking off a majority of the zebra’s that had failed to make it through the doorway before Brisk and Pyre had intervened.

The few zebras that had managed to get through clumped together, forming a tight circle they could defend from all sides. That was the biggest mistake they could make. You can’t defend yourself from a wave of fire and inferno.

Pyre’s flamers let loose a massive jet of fire, consuming the small cluster of zebra’s and setting them all ablaze. They zebras screamed as they fire engulfed them, and to my horror, I saw the yellow tint drain from their eyes seconds before their bodies completely burned away.

Brisk gave the door a smug grin. “There we go, try opening up that door now!” He gave the door a small kick. “It only opens from this side now, so ha! How do you like them apples!?”

There was a low grating sound over the speakers that I quickly realized was the sound of Kamari growling. “Clever, but futile,” The voice of the glowing zebra ghoul paused, thinking over his words before speaking again. When he spoke his voice was low and dangerous. “Congrats, you have almost reached me. Please continue, I have a present for you up ahead.”

The speakers cut out with a small burst of static.

I quickly turned to Xayah and looked over the bullet wound on her chest. “Does anypony have any gauze or something?” I called out desperately, placing my hoof over her bleeding torso. Xayah winced at the touch, but didn’t pull away.

“Yes, but you’re the one with my saddlebags,” Brisk pointed out, gesturing to the two sets of saddlebags flung over my back.

I blushed a little at my foolishness and quickly dug around in his bag until I pulled out a large wad of gauze. Who knows where Brisk picked that up. I passed Brisk’s saddlebag back to him and quickly started applying the gauze to Xayah’s chest. “We’ll get you a healing potion as soon as we get one, I promise,” I said solemnly as I wrapped the gauze tighter.

Xayah flinched as I pulled the gauze tight. “Of course, but I will be fine until then.”

With Xayah’s wound tended to, I turned and glanced down the hallway to the smaller door at the end. It didn’t look all that different from any other door, just a metal frame with a metal sliding door reminiscent of the doors in Stable 25.

“Think there’s a trap in there?” Brisk asked, slowly walking down the hallway and looking at the metal door.

“I’d be surprised if there wasn’t,” Pyre grunted, quickly trotting up and joining him. She glanced back at me with one eye. “So, what’s the plan Amber?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m not the leader of this group,” I said with a shrug. Everypony gave me a flat stare. “What, I’m not!”

Pyre just snorted. “Well, we’re here because of you, so we’ll let you call the shots. What’s the plan?”

I glanced at the door. “Well we can’t really go back, not with all those zebra’s out there… so through the door is really our only option.”

Pyre rolled that around for a second. “True enough. In we go.”

The door slid open automatically at our approach. The first thing I saw was the collection of silver memory orbs that floated through the air like they had back in the large cavern. There was a large steel door on the far wall, a large sign hanging over it read ‘Mega spells - do not enter’. As I looked down, I saw the silver light of the floating orbs glinting off the grimy metal of some large form that had been chained to the centre of the room.

I squinted, trying to make out what it was. Slowly, the shape began to take the form of a large metal pony, their metal wings clamped tight against their side and a magic reduction ring had been placed over their jagged horn. The figure raised its head, its blood red glass eyes piercing through the dark air into me.

I could hear my whole party gasp as they finally put a name to the figure chained down before us. “Crank…”

I had seen Azar in the MAS building. I had known that Crank had been defeated in combat. But even still I was surprised to find the mighty cyber alicorn chained up. The chains stretched out from him and across the room at all sides and pulled taut, keeping him from even moving an inch in any one direction.

I looked down upon him, my eyes seeming to understand exactly who was before me for the first time since I had met him. His eyes locked with mine, a deep hurt playing out across his face. At that moment I knew I was not the only pony to have been having visions of Crank’s past. He had been seeing them too. All his failures and hurts had been pushed back into him. No torture that Kamari or Azar could have done to him since he had wound up here could have compared to what his brain had been doing to itself.

“What did you do to me Amber,” Crank growled, his voice low and almost pitiful. “What did you do…”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’m sorry. I was only trying to save you at the time.”

Crank snarled, his horn glowing slightly, only for the magic reduction ring to snuff out the glowing blue light. “I only wanted to save her Amber… Scarlet deserved better than me…”

“Do you like my gift?” Kamari’s voice crackled smuggly over the speakers, making all of us jump a little. “Behold my favourite little pet.”

Crank growled in response, but I could clearly see the hurt in his glass eyes.

“Let him go Kamari!” I yelled up at the speaker. I don’t know when I had started caring enough about Crank to wish for him free, but I had. Probably at some point when I had been inside his memories I suppose. Finding out my enemies sob stories always seemed to make me empathize with them more than I should.

Kamari chuckled at that. “I was intending to,” The chains around Crank’s body released, allowing him to stand to full height. The metal ring around his body and horn released, freeing his wings and horn. “Kill them my pet. Kill them and you can redeem yourself to me.”

Once again, the speakers cut out with a small burst of static.

Crank turned his head to look at me, his red gaze seemingly cutting through me like a knife. I saw his back arch as he prepared to lunge at us.

We all took a step back. I held my hoof out in what I hoped looked like a peaceful gesture. “You don’t have to do this Crank, you can defy him still! Do you really think this is what Scarlet would have wanted?”

Crank gave a low, animalistic growl. “Don’t you dare speak her name! And it doesn't matter anymore! I cannot save her unless I am free! And if killing you is what I need to do to get that, then I will.”

We all took another step back, fearing the sheer hatred that we could feel radiating off of the cyber alicorn. The hate wasn’t directed at us, but at the wasteland, at the cruel fates that had forced him to where he was now. We were simply in his way. We were always the ones standing in his way.

Crank had given up everything. His body, his way of life, and now his sanity, all for one mare. One mare, who I was beginning to realize I had no idea the fate of. Was she even still alive? I had no idea.

I raised Boneless and prepared for his attack. I could see all of my friends do the same. Five against one, under any other circumstance, those would have been pretty good odds. But here, I prayed that we even stood a chance.

Crank attacked first, launching himself past the floating silver orbs and rocketing into me with tremendous force. I was sent sprawling back, my whole body spinning head over hoof as I stumbled down the tunnel.

Pyre lurched forwards, her strong, metal clad hooves pounding into Crank’s face. Crank took the hit, his head hardly even moving as the force that would take off any other ponies head simply bounced off of him.

Crank’s tail lashed out, its side catching Pyre across the side of the head and hurtling her into Brisk who had only just begun to attack himself. They hadn't even landed yet when Crank was upon them, his hooves pinning both of them down and his tesla cannons glowing a brilliant blue.

Xayah leapt onto his back, her knife cutting deep into the gap of fur on his neck. The blade sunk deep, drawing dark, sludge-like blood.

Crank bucked her off with a single mighty kick, sending the zebra tumbling to the ground with a painful sounding thud.

I pulled myself up and charged him, hoping to get the cyber alicorn off of my friends. In a similar fashion to how he dealt with Pyre, Crank’s tail flashed out at me, it’s long bladed appendage speeding towards my neck and trying to rip out my throat.

I ducked low, evading the attack and placing my shotgun tight against his head. I never had time to fire as he pounced off of Brisk and Pyre and rammed into me. All the air was knocked from my lungs as what felt like a wrecking ball plowed into me.

Blam!

A shot from Shade’s pistol lanced through Crank’s head, spraying the tunnel wall with black viscera. Crank shook the sudden pain off, his head knitting itself back together as his hydra infused blood did its work.

His tesla cannons swiveled at his sides, aiming towards Shade. I screamed out, urging her to move. She followed as I instructed, jumping to the side as Crank’s huge cannons blasted a massive blast of energy towards her. Our vision erupted into a blazing blue and all of my hairs stood on end as the powerful energy surged around the room.

Brisk was back to his hooves, his baseball drawn and swinging at Crank. The bat cracked against Crank’s head, the whole thing splitting in two against the cyber alicorns near indestructible metal plating.

I pushed myself up, grasping at a missing patch of fur on my foreleg that had been blown off by simply being in the near vicinity of Crank’s tesla cannon blast. “Crank please! We can help you help her!” I insisted, practically begging. “Do you really think Kamari will keep his word!?”

“I don’t think any of you will keep your word!” Crank growled, rounding on me. “For all my time in the wasteland, for all the mistakes I have made, one thing has been made very clear to me time and time again!” he stomped his hoof on the ground, his tesla cannons once again beginning to charge up. “It’s every pony for themselves in the wasteland! Friendship might have been magic once upon a time, but here… in the desolation and ashes, true friendship is dead.”

His cannons fired. I leapt away, just barely avoiding being turned to a pile of smoldering ashes on the ground. The shock wave of the blast hit me mid air, sending me hurtling back into the room full of orbs.

I looked up, trying to orientate myself as the world spun around me. I saw Crank’s glowing eyes moving towards me through the dust and gloom, a brilliant glowing blue slowly building around his horn.

I heard the sound of gunfire as both Shade, Brisk and Xayah blasted at him with their guns. Crank ignored them and kept moving towards me, their bullets either bouncing off him harmlessly or having their damage healed over within seconds.

“I spent years trying to save her Amber! I’ve lost everything for her!” a blue beam of energy lanced out from his horn. I rolled aside as the blue beam slashed at the ground next to me, charring the ground in a straight line. “I became a monster Amber! All because of a deal! I’m through with making deals!”

Another beam lanced out, nearly taking off my ear as I rolled to the side again. I noticed Crank’s aim was a little worse than normal, not enough to bet on him missing, but enough that I was able to keep from being hit and dusted immediately. Those memories must have been doing a number on him and keeping him off kilter.

Pyre rushed him, her flamers blazing and consuming him in a steady inferno. Crank’s wings shot out, there blade like feathers slashing into one of her flamers canisters. The flamer exploded, the blast knocking Pyre a few feet back and slamming hard against the wall of the tunnel.

I pulled myself up, backing up slowly until I was practically pushed up against the floating orbs. “Then don’t make a deal with me, but don’t make one with Kamari either. He’ll never let you go as long as he needs you!”

“Then I’ll just need to kill you both!” the cyber alicorn roared, rearing up on his hind legs and spreading out his bladed wings as he rose to his full height, towering over all of us like the sinister monolith. He sprang forwards, his hind hooves pushing him off and making him accelerate at a seemingly impossible speed. His cannons fired, their blue energy blasting towards me.

I leapt aside, trying to move out of the way of the blast, but Crank was thinking ahead of me this time. His horn shot out, its powerful blue laser lancing through my fore hoof and making me stumble.

However, Crank wasn’t the only pony who had been thinking ahead. I had been standing with my back nearly pressed against the glowing silver orbs. The same silver orbs that Crank now sped towards at full speed.

The cyber alicorn realized what was happening seconds before he would have hit the floating spheres. He planted his hooves firmly on the ground, his whole body skidding to a stop inches from the orbs.

I didn’t let him escape my trap. Ignoring the burning pain in my forehoof, I pushed forwards and tackled him. With my minimal strength, I was able to do little more than make his head bob slightly forwards, but that was all I needed. The tip of his horn bent down, the end brushing up against one of the silver memory orbs. Crank’s whole body went still as his mind was sent swirling into what I could only assume was another of Twilights many memories.

Unfortunately, I had flung myself at him with enough momentum that I was unable to stop myself from skidding forwards. I pressed my fore hooves against the ground in the same manner I had just seen Crank do, but without his immense strength, I could do little but make myself stumble more.

I tumbled and collided face first with one of the floating orbs myself.

For the third time that day, I found myself inhabiting the body of Twilight Sparkle. She sat behind her desk, the large painting of her that Rarity had given her resting on the wall behind her. She fidgeted her hooves slightly in agitation as she waited for whatever it was that she was waiting for.

There was a small rapping sound on the large oak doors. “Come in,” Twilight called out, straightening her back a little.

The door creaked open and a brown buck with a cyan mane marched in, a stack of papers held tight in his magic. The pony quickly closed the door behind him. “Twilight, I’m glad you’ve managed to make time to see me. Hopefully I won’t be long, you just need to sign a few things,” The stallion said in a bit of a rush, teleporting the papers over to her. He seemed nervous, if not outright scared.

“You must be Train Tracks, am I right?” Twilight asked, ignoring the papers for the moment and focusing on the nervous looking pony. “The spokes pony for Four Star?”

Train Tracks nodded, glancing down at his hooves nervously. I felt a bit of worry build up inside me. I didn’t know much about the company Four Star, but I knew a bit. In particular, I knew that they were zebra sympathizers and traitors to Equestria.

“We just need you to sign there. Just some legal permission to have the Manehattan Monorail connect to the ministry of Arcane Science hub. That’s all,” The stallion said, doing his best to keep his voice steady.

Twilight turned her attention to the papers and quickly read them all through. Holy shit she was a fast reader. She nodded her head and signed the paper with a red quill. “Alright, is there anything else you need?” she asked, looking up from the page.

“W-well… there is one thing…”

Before Twilight could ask what it was, a single red dart shot out of seemingly nowhere and embedded itself in Twilight's neck. Twilight’s body twitched with surprise for a second, before going rigid and still. Her mouth opened and closed silently as she tried to speak, but no words escaped her lips.

There was a shimmer in the air beside Train Tracks and a zebra in a stealth cloak flickered into view. I saw the zebra smile deviously from below his hood and give the skittish stallion beside him a pat on the back. “You did well, pony. You are dismissed.”

It was Kamari’s voice. Missing the sickening gurgle that accompanied being a ghoul, he sounded even more powerful and commanding.

Train Tracks gave a nod and slipped out of the room, making sure that the door never opened enough for anypony outside to see what was happening within.

Kamari waited until the Four Star representative had left before dropping his hood, revealing his strange spirally, black and white stripes. Now seeing him without the baleful glow, I could see that at one point in history, Kamari had had dazzling blue eyes.

“Do not think that anypony will overhear us,” Kamari soothed, slowly approaching Twilight’s desk. “Your room is magically sound proofed and my spies have already deactivated your security cameras.”

I felt Twilight’s eyes widen with fear, the only part of her that didn’t seem to be paralized by whatever poison that dart had been laced with. Kamari quickly gestured to the dart smuggly. “Do you like it? My own personal recipe. Immobilizes any pony for an hour, then erases their memory afterwards. Not that that last part will need to apply to you.”

Kamari began circling the desk, moving up beside the paralized ministry mare. “But do not worry, I still have need for you. I am simply here to erase your memory. Everything about the Institute, the Utopia program and Luna Prime,” Kamari grinned smugly as he spoke, relishing in his immobilized captive. “I realize that you have also just learnt about that little book of mine Rarity has been using. I’m afraid I will need to remove that from your mind too. Can’t have ponies I don’t want reading my masterpiece.”

Twilight opened and closed her mouth again, still trying to say something to little success. Her pupils had dilated into pipricks as she tried to figure out how to get out of this situation. Nothing came to her mind.

From out of Kamari’s saddlebag came a dark book, itself a wicked thing. He placed his hoof to an open page for a second, his blue eyes closing and a strange chant escaping his lips. When he opened his eyes again, they glowed the baleful green I had come to associate with him. “We’ve been playing you for a long time from the Shadows Twilight Sparkle, now we are simply cleaning house.” He reached forward, his hoof tapping Twilight on the forehead.

At once, Twilights body went slack, her body slouching over and her head hitting the desk with a small thunk. She stared out with lifeless eyes as whatever spell Kamari had just cast took effect.

Though faded vision, I could see Kamari’s grin widen. “You will awake in an hour or so with no memory of any of this. Fret not, your secrets are all safe with me.”

There was a small clapping noise from behind him. Kamari turned to see a green mare with an orange mane and a camera hanging around her neck leaning against the far wall. She gave him a sly grin. “You talk too much. Never talk. Let’s the ponies get the better of you,” that voice, I could never forget it. Chrysalis.

Kamari looked surprised at the unexpected mare. His hoof flying back to the black book by his side. “Who are you!” He demanded, his tone losing the arrogance and calmness it had just possessed.

Chrysalis let her grin widen more. “No pony interested in that silly Luna Prime that you’re after, I assure you. But I do care about one thing you just stole from our little Twilights brain,” Chrysalis glanced down lazily at the black book held tight in kamari’s grasp. “And put down that book, that will do nothing against me.”

Kamari lowered the book slightly, but didn’t lessen his grip. “What do you want with me?”

Chrysalis cocked her head to the side before letting loose a short laugh. “With you? Please, I want nothing with you. You do not know me, and honestly I suspect we will never meet again. But you have done me a great service. I was just here to do very much the same thing,” Chrysalis looked towards the painting behind Twilight. “And I advise you to take the elevator behind that painting. It should make your escape easier.”

Kamari glanced back at the large painting, his eyes glossing over it for a few seconds before turning back to Chrysalis. “Why are you…” His voice trailed off as he realized she had disappeared.

I was back in my own body, the world around me flashing past as we sped down the long hallway. I pulled my head up and looked around, trying to get my bearings. I was being carried on Pyre’s back as we rushed down a new hallway towards what looked like a large chamber at the far end.

“What’s happening?” I asked drowsily, trying to make sense of everything.

“We took advantage of Crank being stuck in that memory orb to rush past him! Good thinking getting him trapped in one of those by the way,” Pyre exposited. “We have until he gets out of that orb as a head start-” A loud roar of rage echoed down the hallway after us. The blaring sounds of Crank’s massive cannons firing after us filled the air and drowned out all other noise. “And there’s the end of our head start! Hold on!”

Pyre learched forwards, carrying me the rest of the way down the tunnel before dumping be on the ground in the large chamber at the end. The rest of my friends quickly pilled in around me, weapons drawn as the sounds of the enraged cyber alicorn thundered down the tunnel after us.

The chamber we entered was vast, even larger than the one containing the vile monolith. We stood on a long catwalk, the metal pathway stretching out over a massive pit and towards a huge platform in the center of the chamber. Smaller catwalks broke off from the main one, connecting to other platforms around the cavern. Lining the outer wall of the cavern, huge glowing green spheres rest in strange tube-like chambers. I grimace as I recognised them as much larger versions of Balefire eggs. These were full on Balefire bombs.

The large platform in the middle held what looked like a massive, makeshift mainframe that towered over everything. The top of the mainframe was a collection of jagged metal spire like machines that attached to a massive glowing blue orb. A mega spell, and I think I knew exactly which one… this was the chamber holding Luna Prime.

Emerging from the massive rock face in front of the looming mega spell was the dangling remains of a massive skeletal dragon. It was without question the largest thing I had ever seen, each tooth alone the size of a gnarled tree. It’s snarling bone head and bits of its claws lay exposed from the rock, as if it had died mid lunge and remained there until hundreds of years of rock had covered it. The rest of its body remained concealed within the stone. Strange zebra glyphs had been carved into the dragons bone, each glyph glowing a faint, icy blue. I recognized the glyphs, I had seen those very markings in the first memory orb I had ever viewed.

The sounds of cheering howls rose up at us from the depths of the pit and down below I could see the squirming mass of hundreds if not thousands of zebras as they stared up at the huge platform and monstrous dragon skeleton in anticipation. Two figures stood atop the platform, standing proudly before the army of zebra’s.

The first was Azar, his purple stripes glowing a brilliant violet as he stared down at the army with a smug grin sprawled across his face. His hooves were once again fitted with metal horseshoes like they had when I had first encountered him and his usual stealth cloak was draped over his shoulders, the hood pulled back to reveal his sinister face.

The second figure was the one I had come here to kill. The one I had lost so much to, and fought against so much just to find. His spiral like stripes glowed a sickening green, contrasting his rotted black flesh and his eyes seemed to illuminate the whole chamber by themself. He was dressed in a black robe, some sort of ceremonial attire and now in the flesh, I could see that his strange stripes seemed to move and writhe around him. Kamari…

Something in me snapped simply by looking at him. I felt rage building up within me, its burning warmth spreading throughout my whole body. The very rage that had been brewing since Stable 25 had been extinguished burst through me at full force, tinting the edges of my vision with red. My lips curled back, twisting my mouth into an animalistic snarl. “Kamari!”

Kamari turned, his baleful eyes locking with mine. His expression for the first time was one of shock, before he quickly concealed it with a vile sneer. “You have made it far Amber, farther than any to try before you… But you are too late, Luna Prime will awaken the great dragon! Nightmare moon rises!” I could hear a roar erupt from the amassing zebras below.

So that was it then. The mysterious mega spell Luna Prime reanimated a massive dragon from the dead. I’m sure there was more to it than that, but that alone was enough to make me quake in fear.

“You think that dragon is Nightmare Moon?!” Xayah scoffed, her tone more dangerous than I had ever heard it. “You are insane!”

Kamari just gave here a leer filled grin before turning to Azar, his face grim. “Kill them, do not let them interfere with Nightmare Moon's return!” He turned back to face the army of zebras below. “Kill those that dare to stand in the way of our mother of the night!”

All at once, Azar and the zebra forces charged forwards. Hundreds of zebras began clambering up the slopped catwalks towards us, knives, scimitars and snipers gleaming in the glowing light of Luna Prime. Turrets popped up from the elevated platforms, their metal barrels swinging around to face us. Azar stalked forwards, his lips twisted into a terrible grin.

This was it, the reason Kamari had been so confident that us five wastelanders were doomed to fail. How could we possibly stand against all of this!

I sprang into action at once, spinning around to face all my friends. “Alright, here’s the plan! Pyre, Brisk, you keep Azar off of us, kill him if you can! Xayah, Shade, take out as many zebras as possible! Don’t let them overtake the catwalk or we’ll be overrun!”

“And what about you sis?” Brisk asked, his pistol already in his mouth and firing off a few shots at the oncoming hordes.

I grimace and turned back to the tunnel we had just burst through. “There’s one last cyber pony I need to deal with…”

As if on cue, Crank burst through the doorway, his tesla cannons blazing blue light as the entrance was literally blasted open to allow him entry. He stared at me, his eyes loathing as he charged up for another blast.

“You know what you need to do, now let's do this!” I yelled out, my legs bending and every muscle in my body tensing as I readied myself for what was to come.

“What about Kamari!” Xayah yelled, her voice nearly drowned out by the crack of her own snipers fire.

I glanced over at the glowing zebra ghoul. He was crawling up the large makeshift mainframe, already halfway to the top. He seemed to be heading towards a large pod at the top near the mega spell. There was too much going on and not enough of us to deal with it all. “We’ll figure that out after, first we need to survive!” I yelled back, jumping to the side as the zebras started shooting up at me.

Crank thundered towards me, each powerful step of his piston enhanced hooves causing the catwalk to shudder under his tremendous force. I leapt aside, my hoove grasping around the edge of the catwalks rails as I threw myself over the edge and swung around to land on the catwalk behind him. I was glad to see these rails were in better condition than the ones in the first cavern.

Crank spun around faster than I could have expected, his cannons firing off a powerful static filled blast of energy towards me. I jumped back, the massive explosion only missing me by inches and the shockwave once more knocking me off my hooves.

I rolled across my back and sprang back up to my hooves, the effect of the healing mega spell form earlier making my body feel more agile than it had in ages. Boneless raised in my telekinetic grip, its three barrels aimed at the raging cyber alicorns head, yet I hesitated to fire.

“Please Crank! You don’t need to do this!” I yelled over the booming gunfire, trying one last time to get through to the cyber alicorn before me. I didn’t know why I seemed so determined to help him, but I did. After everything I had seen, I couldn’t find it in myself to hate him. “You can be the pony that you want to be! Not just the monster that the wasteland thinks you are!”

“Stop saying that!” Crank roared, once again charging into me and sending me flying from my hooves where I hit the catwalks guard rails with a clang. My head throbbed and my vision spun from the impact. “There is no redemption for a monster like me! The wasteland is right to fear me!”

He reared up his hooves, slamming them down towards me. I rolled to the side, his metal hoove smashing the catwalk where my head had just been. Behind him, I could see Pyre and Brisk in a violent combat with Azar, his hooves lashing out at a speed I was having trouble comprehending as he deflected both of their attacks while still managing to stay on the offensive. One of his hooves lashed out, catching Brisk along the side of the face and sending him flying across the catwalk.

“But you aren’t a monster! I’ve seen it! I’ve seen the real you!” I yelled back, rolling again as he stomped another hoof down at me, this time the bottoms of his hooves shooting jets of flame as his jet hooves activated. The catwalk below his hoof was crushed and charred. “I mean look at what you’re doing! You have given up everything for somepony else! Doesn’t that count for something!?”

“I said stop talking about her!” Crank roared his tesla cannons firing a powerful shot down at me. I ducked below his legs and pulled up behind him as the blast detonated, his own cannons blowing off his two front hooves. Before I could even righten myself, his hydra infused blood patched his hooves back together and he whirled on me. His hooves shot out, catching me by the collar of my stable barding and hoisting me over the side of the catwalk. He held me there, his blazing glass eyes cutting into me. “You do not understand me! You do not understand my pain! I’ve done things you could never understand Amber! Things that your worst nightmares couldn’t even begin to comprehend!”

His hooves let go of me, sending me falling from the catwalk. I stretched my hooves out, grabbing onto the rail with both of them and holding on for dear life. I could see the zebra’s below as they glared up at me, their snipers swiveling up to face me. I twisted to the side as a few shots fired upon me, the large bullets ricocheting off the metal rails by my hoof.

Not far from me I could see Xayah and Shade side by side, their guns firing down upon the zebras as they charged up at us. A few zebras had managed to get past their defenses, their scimitars out and swinging at my friends. Beyond even them I saw Kamari reach the peak of the mainframe, his grin only growing as he began to strap himself into the pod.

Crank loomed over me, his huge form blocking out the glowing light of the Luna Prime mega spell. He sneered down at me, his hoof raising as he prepared to kick me off the rail.

I squirmed, trying to move away from his impending attack. I found nowhere to go. “You’re right, I don’t understand! But that doesn’t mean anything! You said yourself that you were trying to be a good pony! Back on the train, you said a sob story doesn’t make you a monster, it’s only a way to push the blame off yourself!” Crank’s hoof slammed down, the immense force shattering the bones in my left fore hoof. I screamed, grabbing onto the rail tighter with my unbroken hoof as the now broken one swung free. “So you’re right! I don’t, can't understand you! But I understand friendship! You’ve been fighting this battle alone! Trying to save Scarlet from a world determined to tear the two of you apart! But it doesn’t need to be that way!”

I saw Crank raise his hoof again as he prepared to slam it down on my remaining hoof. I imagined the shield spell I had seen those monstrous alicorns cast so many times and made a gamble. As the hoof came down, my horn flared. A thin shield of amber magic materialized between my hoof and his, stopping his attack mid air. Crank snarled and pushed down upon the shield harder, causing thin cracks to form in its amber surface.

“We can help you! Really we can! My friends have traveled through hell and back for me, and I promise that we could do the same for you!” I yelled up at him pleadingly. Beads of sweat were rolling down my face as I put my effort into maintaining the spell. “My friends have gotten me all the way here! Closer to killing Kamari than any pony ever has! We could help you save her! You just need to believe me!”

Crank’s head drew close to mine, his whole force pressing down against my pathetic looking shield. His black, slug-like tongue lolled from his mouth as he pressed his jagged teeth together and hissed. “You don’t understand Amber! I don’t know how much you saw inside of my mind, but clearly you didn’t see it all!”

My shield broke and his hoof slammed down. I let go just as his hoof shattered the railing in two and grabbed onto the edge of the Catwalk itself. Crank’s horn began to glow brighter and brighter, each second punctuated with an electrical crack as the power within him began to build.

“I know! I said that-”

I was cut off as he slammed his hooves down on the catwalk in rage, black tears spilling from his eyes and down his metal cheeks. “Scarlet is dead Amber!” His bellows of rage sent chills down my spine. “I was given three days to find her, and when I did…” His voice trailed off, slowly changing into a low rumble. “She had been viciously murdered. Some raiders had raped and tortured her, torn her apart like animals!” he was seething, his blood red eyes glowing brighter. “All of this! I lost my body and freedom! Everything was for nothing! I gave up everything for her and the wasteland stole her away!”

I gulped, my grip on the edge of the rail loosening as my sweat began to make my hoof slippery. “I know what it’s like to fight so hard for something, only for it to be stripped away from you! I did things I will never forgive myself for so could save my Stable, only for it to be taken away from me when I thought I had won. I’ve killed foals and am plagued by nightmares worse than I ever thought possible, and in the end it was all for nothing!” I could feel tears start dripping down my face. Ever since the destruction of Stable 25 I had held them back, pushed down my feelings until I couldn’t feel anything. That time was over. And goddesses it hurt.

Hot tears spilled down my face, mingling with Crank’s as we both cried openly upon the catwalks. I could feel a shiver racing through my body as the horrible last few seconds of my Stable flashed through my mind. I tried to push aside the tears and pain, but they wouldn’t stop. “But just because the wasteland takes what you love away doesn’t mean you need to become a monster! I forgot that myself for a bit! I was so focused on my rage and revenge that I shut the rest of the world out! You can be better than me Crank! You can be the pony you are supposed to be! The pony Scarlet used to love! Still loves! Hatred and rage aren’t the only way!”

Crank’s face was conflicted now, I could see his glass eyes darting back and forth, trying to make sence of everything around him. His face would soften for a second, only to be covered up by a hard snarl. Then just as quickly he would look around scared, as if seeing the horrors of the wasteland for the first time.

He glared down at me, his red eyes begging for me to show him another way. “I don’t know how Amber,” His voice was so low, I almost couldn’t hear it over the booming gunfire and screams. “I don’t know how to be a good pony…”

I tried to reach out to him, but with one hoof broken and the other clutching the edge of the catwalk for dear life, it looked more like a weird wiggle. “Then let me show you! We can figure out how to be better ponies together!”

Blam!

A zebra below landed a shot on me, the bullet piercing through my hind leg, making me scream out in pain. I lost my grip and my hoof let go of the catwalks.

Then I was falling. Down, down into the pits of the Hollow Shades. Zebras cheered as they watched me fall, their blades extended skywards as they readied themselves to rip into me as I landed. I screamed out, my broken hooves flailing as I tried to reach out for anything that might save me. I tried to teleport with my magic, only for my fear gripped mind to be unable to focus.

I hit something hard, pain shooting through my whole body as my fall abruptly ended. I opened my eyes, taking in the sight of the massive cavern soaring around me. I was airborne, held aloft atop Crank’s metal back.

I stared at him, my jaw slack as I realized he had come to my rescue. “Crank… I…”

“I am not a good pony Amber, and I doubt I will ever truly know how to be one…” Crank growled as a few zebras shot up at us, their snipers ripping oozing holes upon on his underbelly and sides. “But I will try. For Scarlet, damn me I’ll try!”

We landed on the catwalk with a thunk, the whole structure shaking as Cranks metal form pounded into it. A zebra rushed us, only for Crank’s wings to lash out and sever its head from its neck.

“Thank you,” I muttered breathlessly, still surprised I had managed to sway the ferocious cyber alicorns mind.

Crank just grunted at me in return as he turned to face Azar. “Deal with Kamari, Amber! I will hold off Azar!” then he bounded forwards, racing past a wounded Brisk and Pyre and ramming head first into the strange zebra, knocking the zebra off his hooves and tumbling across the catwalk.

Brisk looked back at me, his expression confused as he glanced back at the cyber alicorn. “What just happened?” He uttered, clearly confused as to what I had managed to do.

“A miracle is what!” Pyre shouted back, pulling herself up and letting her single remaining flamer shoot a jet of flame towards a zebra that was trying to flank us.

“You two help Xayah and Shade defend the catwalk from the zebras!” I instructed racing past them and towards the large mainframe. The turrets on the surrounding platforms spun to face me, firing off a constant stream of lead as I ducked behind the large mainframe to get cover.

Azar pulled himself up, his glowing purple stripes de-caving his skull from Cranks attack. “Ah, so you have sided with the ponies?” the strange zebra chuckled, hoping back slightly as Crank blasted at him with his tesla cannons. “I think our last match proved you stand little chance against me.”

Crank snarled and blasted at him with his horn. Azar dodged, the blast flying out and striking a random zebra down.

I raced forwards, my hooves wrapping around the sides of the mainframe as I began to climb it. My broken hoof screamed in protest as I pulled myself up on it and my whole body ached from my fight with Crank.

Turret fire sprayed the area around me, forcing me to jump sporadically from mechanism to mechanism. I saw the turrets bullets bounce off of the mainframe with a small shower of sparks. The large machine must have been protected by the B.S.S.G. that the MWT had installed into the MAS building. Well there went the blow it all up idea.

The massive mega spell above me began to glow brighter. Strange blue magic began gathering around it, the whole orb beginning to pulse with neer blinding light. As if answering its call, the zebra glyphs engraved in the skeletal dragon’s bones began to glow.

I leapt aside again as a turret blasted at where I had just been standing. The blinding light of Luna Prime and the other balefire bombs that lined the cavern the only light I had to see by as I tried to find my hoofing.

My hoof slipped, my whole body falling down before I managed to catch onto a lower part of the mainframe. My hind hooves swung out over the vast pit below me, the many glowing yellow eyes of possessed zebras staring up at me from the darkness.

Up above I could see a vile green light emanating from within the pod atop the mainframe. Thin, near invisible beams of green lanced out, wrapping around the bodies of fallen zebras and slowly pulling their bodies back together. Necromancy.

I saw Xayah and Shade pull back as two zebras were reanimated before them. We weren’t just fighting a massive army, we were fighting an undead army!

I swung my hoof up and climbed higher, doing my best to dodge the turrets fire or the rare shot from one of the zebras that dared to turn their attention from my friends below. I crept closer, the pod at the top almost within reach.

I used my magic to swing Boneless above my head and fire at the pod. The explosive buckshot burst against the glass, doing little but raining shrapnel back onto me. Of course the pod was indestructible, nothing could ever be easy for me.

“You are persistent!” Kamari hissed at me, glaring at me through the tinted glass of the pod. Now up close, I could see that he had strapped himself into the machine more fully than I had realized. Wires raced from the sides of the pod and into his body and a large metal helmet similar to that which I had put on my hellhound rest on his head. A single tube ran up his nose and I could see bits of vapor going through the tube and feeding into his body. The pod was some kind of weird mix between a mind control and a life support pod. He didn’t think that… was he trying to control the dragon remotely from this mainframe?! The idea seemed insane, but then again, Kamari seemed anything but sane.

My eyes locked on the vapor being pumped through the tubes into his body, I had seen it before. It was the work of the A.A.S.S. Everything he had done, all the pain he had put me through, had been to create this machine. And I was going to do everything in my power to take it away!

I bashed against the glass of the pod with my baton, sparks spraying out around me as the baton sent bolts of energy into the already electrically charged surface. My attempts were in vain as my baton simply bounced off of the shielded surface.

I snarled at the zebra ghoul through the glass. “You are going to pay for what you did to my Stable!” I screamed, my baton slamming down again only to bounce right back.

Kamari grinned his wicked grin. The huge mega spell above me pulsed brighter, a huge beam of energy blasting from it and hitting the gargantuan skull of the dragon. To my horror, I watched as the massive bones began to shift and writh, coming to life with a horrific necromantic energy. “Behold the power of the stars, Amber! You are nothing before it!” Kamari cackled, his insane voice rising to simply be heard over the thunderous sound of the mega spell.

There was a crackle of noise over the speakers and the static filled voice of Twilight Sparkle spoke out. “T-minus 5 minutes till launch.”

I glanced around, panic rising up in me. Blaring red lights began flashing everywhere, large timers blinking to life on all of the balefire bomb chambers that surrounded us. Kamari was doing more than just resurrecting a long dead giant dragon, he was bringing about a second balefire annihilation! He was going to kill everypony in the wasteland!

I scrambled over the side of the pod and down the back of the mainframe. There had to be a way to shut it off! Some sort of override!

I spotted a terminal embedded in the back of the mainframe. There!

I pushed towards it, forcing myself to move back into the range of the turrets. They fired up at me, forcing me to jump forwards and grab onto a small ledge on the huge machine.

One of the turrets hit me, their shot tearing through my already broken fore hoof. My grip slipped, sending me plumbitting from the side of the mainframe. I hit another platform, my head ringing and the whole world spinning around me. I looked up, spotting the terminal only a few feet above me. I started crawling forwards, each time my hoof pulled me up causing pain to shoot through me.

Far below I saw the zebras push past my friends, their overwhelming numbers and inability to die giving them the strength to prevail against my friends teamwork. I saw Azar leap atop Crank, his metal covered hooves ripping apart pieces of metal with each well aimed attack.

I pulled myself up to the terminal, my hooves immediately reaching for the keys to activate it. Locked! Of fucking course it was! And thirteen letters too! Fuck!

A few zebras shot up at me, their shots bouncing off the tough metal of the mainframe as I dodged to the side, swinging Boneless down to fire at them.

Blam! Blam!

Two shots fired out, two shots made their mark. Both zebras fell dead to the ground, their bodies oozing blood and viscera.

I glanced up from the terminal, my gaze landing on a dark, oblong device resting inside of a glass case. Thick tubes had been hooked up to it and were pumping its nutrients filled vapors up into the machine. The A.A.S.S.

I raised my baton and slammed it as hard as I could against the glass. It didn’t shatter completely, but a small crack did form across the front. I grimaced and slammed the baton down against it again and again, each hit making the crack stretch farther and father across the thick pane. With one last mighty thwack, the glass shattered, its shards seeming to lash out at me and cut at my flesh.

Ignoring the pain, I wrapped the A.A.S.S. in a field of magic and yanked it as hard as I could from the mainframe. The wires tugged against me, holding the oblong device in place for a second before I overpowered it and ripped it free.

Up above, I could hear a howl of rage as Kamari noticed the sudden stop in vapers being pumped into his body. “Stop her! Kiiiilllll!” He shrieked out, his voice rising to a near impossible octave.

I saw zebras break off from their assault on my friends and start rushing towards me. Pyre Blaze leapt in their path, her remaining flamer at full blast as she turned them to ash. But there were more coming and we simply couldn’t hold them all off!

Several more pushed past her, charging fearlessly past Crank and Azar’s mighty battle and rushing the huge mainframe. I had no time to lose.

I turned to the terminal and started clicking away. “Password, password, password… What’s your password Kamari!” I grunted to myself, scrolling through the data.

“T-Minus 4 minutes till launch.”

Shit shit shit shit! An idea crossed through my mind and I made a gamble. I typed ‘Nightmaremoon’ into the terminal.

>Access Granted

I grinned. Yup, still got that magic touch. The terminal beeped open, giving me access to the two things inside.

<PRINCESS LUNA’S TERMINAL ALPHA-P>

>Mega spell launch options:

>Luna Prime - Active

>Balefire Bomb chambers - Active

There was a booming roar, causing me to look up. The huge skeletal dragon was moving on its own now, its huge maw wide open as it let loose and ear piercing roar. Its eyes glowed with the same light as the glowing glyphs and I could have sworn that the whole thing seemed to sparkle similar to how I had seen princess Luna’s mane in Twilights memory.

I clicked on the ‘Luna Prime - Active’. The terminal screen began beeping large flashing red lights blinked out at me.

>Access Denied

>Download to begin manual override

Download to- My eyes popped wide and I quickly hooked up my pipbuck to the terminal. I glanced down, seeing the shapes of the zebras rushing up the mainframe to reach me. I didn’t have long.

>Download initialized - please wait

A small green bar appeared on both my pipbuck screen and the flickering terminal. The bar blinked on and off as it slowly began to fill up. “Come on! Come on!”

“T-minus 3 minutes till launch.”

The zebras were firing up at me now. I ducked low to avoid a bullet as it whizzed over me and ricochet of the mainframes metal with a blast of sparks. The turrets opened fire again, sparks flying around me everywhere as the bullets cascaded around me.

The bar was half full, I was almost there.

The first zebra reached me, swinging their curved scimitar at me head. I rolled to the side, swinging my baton up to meet them. Our weapons clashed, my shock baton sending a small spark shooting down their metal blade and charring their mouth.

The zebra reeled back, snarling. They swung again, their blade slashing against the side of the monstrous machine as I leapt to the side. Sparks shot up from the machine as the B.S.S.G. protected it from the assault.

I turned and bucked at the zebra in the face with my hind legs. There was a crack as my hooves broke their jaw. They stumbled back, tripping over the machinery and falling from the mainframe. Their body fell past the catwalk plunging into the darkness of the pit.

The huge bone dragon lurched, rocks tumbling away as it began to claw its way to freedom. Its wings burst from the cavern wall, sending huge boulders erupting across the room like shrapnel from a grenade.

It’s head reared up, a bloodcurdling roar escaping its lipless maw. I shoved my hooves against my ears to try and block out the all consuming sound of its screams, only to find blood trickling down the side of my head.

Rocks began crashing down from the ceiling as the massive skeletal dragon ripped apart the walls keeping it imprisoned. Its jagged jaw opened wide, a heinous green fire burning in the back of its throat.

I didn’t have time to give out a warning as a huge jet of green flame burst from its maw and started lashing around the room. I ducked behind the mainframe as the fire surged and churned around me. The blazing heat licked at my hooves and blistered my flesh. I could feel the immense heat as it burst towards me.

The green bar on my pipbuck fully filled and the screen started flashing a multitude of different warnings. I gave as much of a smile as I could while in as much pain as I was. Now or never.

>Luna Prime downloaded

>Deactivate?

[Yes]

[No]

I didn’t hesitate. I pushed yes.

More and more sparks burst from the glowing Luna Prim mega spell above me, the huge beam of energy connecting it to the massive dragon flickered, then exploded. The whole cavern was hit with the shockwave, sending everypony unprepared flying from their hooves. I was flung backwards, crashing into the side of the mainframe.

I could hear Kamari’s enraged screams as the massive bone dragon slumped limp to the cavern floor, the strange blue glow around it slowly fading away into nothing. I saw the glowing zebra ghoul’s green eyes glaring down at me from the pod above. “What have you done!”

I gave him a smirk. “Foiled your plans did I?”

“T-minus 2 minutes till launch.”

My smirk was washed away. Why was it still counting down!? I looked around the cavern, my eyes wide as I took in the hundreds of blinking timers connected to the balefire bomb chambers. I might have delayed Kamari from using the Luna Prime mega spell, but there were still hundreds of balefire bombs primed and ready to annihilate the rest of the wasteland, and nothing was to stop him from reactivating Luna Prime once I was dead or gone.

I pulled myself over to the terminal, reaching for the Balefire Bomb chamber controls. I clicked it open, my eyes skimming through my scarily limited options.

<Balefire Bomb Chambers>

>Status: Activated

>Do you wish to activate manual detonation?

[Yes]

[No]

I could have screamed. There was no deactivate option!? Only detonate now or detonate later!? What asshole designed this thing!

The second zebra pulled themself up to my platform. Their sniper spun to face me, firing a bullet straight into my shoulder. I fell back with a scream, clutching the bleeding wound as pain shot up my body.

I rolled aside as they fired again, Boneless swinging up and cracking against their skull. The zebra stumbled back, but remained upright.

I saw the turrets preparing to fire again. I rushed forwards, tackling into the stumbling zebra just as the turrets let loose their fire. The barrage of bullets tore into the zebra as I used them as a meat shield. The zebra’s body spasmed above me as it was sprayed with the automatic fire.

As soon as the turrets fire subsided, I pushed the zebra off of me and let it slump down to the metal platform.

Down below, I saw Pyre get knocked off her hooves by a charging zebra and fall not far from the base of the mainframe. She sprang back up quickly, her power armoured hoof lashing out and crushing the offending zebras skull.

I took a deep breath. I knew what I had to do.

“Pyre! I need you to get Brisk and Xayah out of here!” I called out, catching her attention. I was surprised she could hear me over all the action. “There’s an elevator just down the hall! You all need to get out of here, there isn’t time!”

“What about you!” Pyre called back, her flamer shooting a jet of flame at a group of zebras that were rushing towards her.

I gulped, gesturing around to the ominously blinking balefire bombs around us. “They can only be detonated manually. I need to stay behind to activate them!”

I saw Pyre’s eyes widen below her helmet visor. “Are you crazy! You’ll-”

“I know!” I called back, a small tear rolling down my face. “I know… but it’s the only way. Please Pyre, do this for me.”

Pyre stood there conflicted for a second, her eyes darting back and forth as she tried to decide what to do. FInally she groaned and gave a low growl. “Fucking hell Amber, you really are somethin’. Fucking shit!” She turned from me, charging through the groups of zebras and swiping Brisk and Xayah up onto her back. The two looked down at her, trying to figure out what was going on. “Shade, get over here! We’re leaving!”

My friends charged past Crank and Azar, still engaged in a brutal combat. Azar leapt away from a massive blast of Crank’s cannons, his violet eyes glancing towards my friends as they fled. “What is-” His eyes locked with me. “Ah, clever pony…” He put his hoof to his ear, activating a small intercom I hadn’t noticed before. “Luna Prime is a failure. Get me out of here!”

Crank roared and lunged at the strange zebra. Just as his hoof was about to collide with Azar, a beam of blue light shot down around the zebra. Within seconds, Azar flashed out of existence and disappeared.

“What about Amber?” I heard Xayah ask from Pyre’s back over the gunfire. Pyre remained silent and kept charging for the exit. “Pyre!”

“T-minus 1 minute till launch.”

Xayah’s eyes widened in horror as she looked up and met my steady, yet sorrowful gaze. A second of understanding crossed her face as she realized what was happening, only to be covered by panic. She beat her hooves against Pyre’s armoured side, trying to get her to let go. “Amber! Pyre, turn back, we need to help her!” She screamed, her whole body thrashing as she tried to pull herself from Pyre’s tight grip.

I just stared at her, not sure what to do or say. This was it, the last time I would see any of them, I knew that now. Just like I knew Kamari had been right in saying I would never leave this tower alive. I could feel the tears beginning to pick up and roll down my face. She would be gone any second damn it, say it!

My voice died in my throat as I watched Pyre struggle to drag Xayah through the doorway. I gulped and forced my mouth to move. “I love you,” the words were quite, I hardly heard them myself, but I meant them, that was something I knew now too.

Xayah’s eyes welled with tears, her body finally going limp against Pyre’s side as she stared up at me. She had heard me, goddesses only know how, but she had.

Then they were around the corner and out of sight. Gone from my life forever. Not that I had much of one anymore. Funny how one can be so determined to kill themselves, only to wish they could have had just a little more time when their time had really come.

I wiped aside a tear, trying to clear my vision. “Bye… and stay safe…” I really hoped they would be.

I turned from the door and back to the terminal, my hoof resisting over the detonate button. I had to give them as much time as I could to escape.

With my friends now gone, the zebras began closing in, a tight circle formed around the base of the mainframe. More guns turned towards me, their constant fire making me need to constantly seek cover.

Somepony pulled themself up next to me on the platform. I whirled around to attack them, only to find myself muzzle to muzzle with Shade.

I gaped. “What are you doing! You were supposed to be getting out of here with them!”

Shade shook her head, her pistol spinning in the air and firing down a few shots into the oncoming zebras. “I’ve made mistakes Amber, one’s that neither you nor I can ever forgive!” She fired again, her shot taking off the head of a zebra that reached the platform. “I’m not going anywhere until I fix what I’ve done! Besides, you need somepony to cover your ass! You can’t take on all of this alone.”

“But…” My voice once again caught in my throat. “You’ll die!”

Shade gave a grim nod of resignation. “I know. And honestly, I think that’s for the best. Us Stable ponies gotta stick together after all.” She turned from me, her pistol firing shot after shot as she tried to buy me more time.

Crank shot towards us, his massive wings seeming to rip apart the air as bolted forwards. His metal hooves crashed against the platform as he took up a defensive position in front of me, using himself as a shield from the incoming bullets.

“What do you need Amber!?” His gruff voice boomed out. His cannons charged and shot a massive blasts of energy into the zebras, ripping apart the few unfortunate enough to not evade him.

“Are you sure you want to do-” I started, but Crank cut me off with a wave of his bladed tail.

“You already went through that with Shade. I’m a monster Amber… It’s about time I changed that.”

I nodded, a hardened expression crossing my face. “Alright, hold off the zebras as long as you can. I need to detonate the balefire bombs manually. We need to give my friends as much time as they can to get out of here!”

Crank grunted and fired off another shot from his cannons. Even while not directed at me, I had to do everything I could to keep from having the shock wave knock me from my hooves. Crank turned his head to look at me, one of his glowing red eyes peering into mine. “Do you think Scarlet is with the goddesses, Amber?” he asked, his voice low but unmistakable.

I gave him a timid nod. “She’s waiting there for you now. You know she’ll never stop waiting.”

I saw the smallest of tears roll down Crank’s face and to my suprise, the smallest hint of a genuine smile. There had been a few times I could have sworn I had seen the pony within him, but now, I hardly even saw the machine.

Crank gave a mighty roar as he let loose his full fury upon the zebras. Blast after blast, slash after slash. Shade stood by my side, her pistol firing off shots as fast as she could.

I raised Boneless and fired off shots of my own. Each shot a killing blow as my SATS enhanced aim targeted the heads of any zebra that dared to get in firing range.

And there, upon the peak of apotheosis, we made our final stand.

Something jumped down from above, it’s frail form clattering against the platform beside me. I turned too late as it swung out a glowing hoof and lashed me across the face.

I spun backwards, my hoof rushing to my face. Where the hoof had struck me, my coat had burned away and the flesh beneath had boiled.

Kamari advanced on me, oozing green blood from where he had ripped the wires from his own body. His face was twisted in rage, a rage that I knew very well.

“You’ve ruined everything!” The deranged ghoul shrieked, his eyes wide and blazing with a pure, untempered insanity. “Everything was perfect and you ruined it!”

Kamari lunged at me again, his radioactive hooves reaching out to strangle me. I duck to the side, my pipbuck’s geiger counter clicking furiously just by being in close proximity to him.

I swung Boneless and slammed the end of the barrel against his head. Kamari whirled, his mouth widening and shooting out a thick cloud of radioactive green fog.

I stumbled back, my skin boiling from the contact. I lost my telekinetic grip on Boneless and it clattered to the floor of the platform. I reached forwards, trying to wrap my hooves around it, only for Kamari to kick it away, sending my weapon spiralling into the abyss below.

I jumped back to my hooves, trying to pull out my shock baton. Before I could, Kamari rammed into me, his powerful hooves slamming into my chest and pinning me to the ground. My pipbuck clicked faster and I could feel my insides churning at the touch. Holes were burned away in my Stable barding where his hooves held me down.

Kamari leaned down, his glowing maw foaming with glowing saliva. “You will pay for what you have done!”

“T-minus 5 seconds till launch.”

My eyes darted up to look behind him. I forced myself to give him the single most smug looking grin I could muster. “Funny, I came here to tell you the same thing. This is for Stable 25 asshole!”

Kamari’s eyes widened and he spun around to find the barrel of Shade’s pistol pressed against his forehead.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Three shots fired point blank into the glowing ghouls head. Kamari’s head burst open, glowing viscera bursting from his mutilated neck as his body slumped down above me. I pushed him off, his body falling lifeless down into the darkness below.

“T-minus 4 seconds till launch.”

I gave Shade a small smile. She returned it. “Thank you…”

A stray bullet tore through Shade’s throat. Her screams died as blood surged up into her mouth and drowned her. Her body spasmed for a second, before falling limp to the floor.

“Shade!” Damn it! I pulled myself up, my whole body aching. I hauled myself over to the terminal and raised my hoof. The time had come.

“T-minus 3 seconds till launch.”

Behind me, Crank was overcome by the seemingly endless waves of zebras as curved blades ripped into his flesh and tore out anything they could. His huge cannons blasted apart the zebras pilling onto him, but there were simply too many.

“T-minus 2 seconds till launch.”

I felt my hoof shaking. Burning tears slipped from my eyes and rolled down my face. I had done good. I had saved the wasteland. That was more than most ponies could attest to.

I glanced at my rump, the image of a red screwdriver stared back at me. Maybe I wasn’t destined to lead a Stable, and maybe my special talent was just to fix machines. How ironic that I was about to die destroying the very thing that I had spent my life trying to maintain. Life was funny like that.

“T-minus 1 second till launch.”

I let myself smile. A real smile.

That was okay, I was okay. For the first time in my life since that darn cutie mark appeared on my flank, I was happy with who I was. I was Amber Aura, and that was the greatest thing in the world.

My hoof pressed down on the terminal.

“Balefire Bombs laun-”

The balefire bombs exploded. My vision flared with green and my body dissolved into nothingness.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Silent Running -- +10 sneak, hoof speed and armour weight no longer affect sneaking
Quest Perk Lost: Rage -- Vengeance has been taken. You no longer gain a +3 to your intimidation attempts

Author's Notes:

This chapter was a bit of a personal goal for me to reach. I always looked towards this chapter as something in the far off future that I needed to write. It almost feels weird to have finally written it...

Hope everyone has had a good day!

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat