“Parents? Hah! I was born from the sun and have sand in my veins!”

Miracles.

I can’t say that I was ever a big believer in miracles. Back in Stable 25 there was never a need or want for them, everything was predictable and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. I might have considered a day without somepony beating me up a miracle, but I knew that was just a mix of good luck and self induced Isolation.

And in the wasteland… Well, I had seen enough atrocities in the blood and ash coated wastes to know without a doubt that there were no miracles here. Even good luck was simply the wasteland telling you it wasn’t done toying with you yet. There was no mercy, survival was simply a slower and more painful death.

As I had stood atop the platform within the MAS tower, I had been so certain that I was going to die. In fact, I had even managed to come to terms with the idea somewhat. There was no pony left who could save me, no logical way to escape alive. There I would die, blasted to pieces and what little remained of my corpse buried below hundreds of miles of rock.

And yet, a miracle happened. As it turns out, I had been wrong about there not being any pony to save me. That there was one pony that I or even Kamari couldn't have possibly accounted for. Somepony that had been with me for a long time now, and finally decided to take action.

One moment I was slowly bleeding out atop a platform far below the surface of the earth, my hoof pressed on the detonation button to activate over a hundred balefire bombs around me. Then the next moment I was standing in the radioactive landscape of the Glowing Sea, a dull green light slowly fading from my vision.

I blinked, taking in the desolate landscape and huge towering black spire of the MAS hub in front of me. “What the fu-”

I was knocked off my hooves as the entire tower exploded. Once again my vision flared with green as the hundreds of balefire bombs detonated at once.

I hit the ground hard, my head cracking against a rock. My ears rang, but I couldn’t tell if it was from hitting my head or the ear splitting, thunder-like boom of the balefire bombs. It was probably both. I shook myself, pulling myself back to my hooves to look at the tower.

The MAS tower was practically gone, the only proof of it ever existing at all being the small, black shards of glass like metal that now scattered the Glowing Sea like leftover shrapnel. A huge, billowing green, mushroom shaped cloud of flame and smoke was slowly rising into the sky above me, making the once looming monolith like tower seem tiny compared to its vast size and might.

The explosion had done more than just blast apart the horrific tower though. Up above me the clouds had been ripped apart, giving me a clear look at the brilliant blue sky far above. A beam of sunlight seemed to shine directly through it, warming me with it’s golden light. A single streak of beauty amongst the desolation.

I saw a small flicker of light from around the explosion, itself a strange and unnatural shape. For a second I saw an etherial apparition of the MAS tower, a spire like ghost amongst the ashes as the B.S.S.G. finally gave out and dissipated.

I had to squint my eyes just to look at the huge explosion and glowing sunbeam. Tears streaked down my cheeks and I could feel my eyes sizzle a little. I glanced away quickly. Stinging, sizzling eyes probably wasn’t a good sign to keep staring.

I accepted the massive shockwave of fire and kicked up ash to slam into me, killing me in the impending fallout. But the shockwave never came. My gaze met the radioactive ground around me. It was untouched. Not a single speck of ash around the exploding tower had been moved by the blast. What I had taken for a shockwave that knocked me off my hooves had simply been me jumping in fright at the booming noise.

I remembered Twilights terminal saying something about the B.S.S.G. shield the MWT had installed being a two way shield. I had put that into account when I had decided to detonate the balefire bombs, but seeing it in action was still a little mind blowing. It kept everything except the tower and sky above to be completely untouched by the balefire.

“Huh… Guess Twilight was right,” I choked out, my voice dry and pained. “That B.S.S.G. really can withstand a balefire bomb… or two… or hundred I suppose.”

It hurt to talk. I glanced down at my body and gasped. I was covered in cuts, bruises, gashes and bullet holes from the fight inside of the tower. Blood was spilling from my body fast, hot red fluid spilling down my body and pooling around my injured hooves.

Now that the sudden shock of being alive and seeing the balefire explosion was wearing off, I was becoming painfully aware of the loud clicking of my pipbuck. My eyes widened. I was in the Glowing Sea without my hazmat suit! I hadn’t even taken any Rad-X!

My hooves fumbled to my saddlebags immediately, pulling at the yellow hazmat suit I had folded up within. My small collection of Rad-X and radaway tumbled from my bags, scattering across the ashy ground. I pulled it out, struggling to clamber into it as fast as possible.

My vision swam, dark, black specks swarming into my view. I coughed, blood burbling from my lips. I could feel my insides churning as I took in far more rads than I had ever thought possible for a pony to take.

I managed to slip one hoof into the hazmat suit before I toppled over, radiation filled haze spiralling down my throat and into my lungs. I gasped out, my body instinctively trying to get a decent breath of air. There was no clean air for my body to get.

I tried one last time to pull myself into the suit, only for my wounded legs to scream in protest and make me yelp in pain.

Then my whole body seemed to go limp, all my strength sapped. I froze, both from the pain and radiation poisoning. My mouth opened and closed aimlessly as I tried to utter something, anything. Nothing came out.

Just before my vision blacked out completely, I saw the blurry face of a pink filly standing over me, her amber eyes looking down with interest into mine.

I awoke with a cough and a sputter. I bolted upright, my vision still spinning.

I looked around, trying to take in everything. I was still in the Glowing Sea, the ruins of the MAS tower still crumbling not too far away. My pipbuck still ticked, but the vile sensation of radiation poisoning and even the burning feel of my wounds had dissipated.

I was in my hazmat suit somehow, the yellow suit tightly fitted over my body. I checked my pipbuck, finding that my rads had once more dropped to zero. My saddlebags lay beside me in a messy pile, now empty syringes of Rad-X, Radaway and even a few empty healing potions scattering the area around it.

“How the-” I started, my eyes once again lifting to look at the ruins of the MAS tower.

“Ouchie!” a voice squeaked out from me behind me, making me spin around with a start. “Never let me do that again! Damn it!”

Behind me stood a filly. A pink filly with a pink and blue mane and Amber eyes. My eyes glanced down at her cutie mark, a red screwdriver stared back. The filly me.

Her horn was charred black and steaming a little from the top. She rubbed it gingerly with her small hooves, trying to brush away the pain from the smouldering appendage.

“You!” I blurted, immediately jumping to my hooves and pointing at her with a hoof. My hooves slipped on the ash coated ground and I fell back to my haunches.

The filly me jumped, noticing that I was awake for the first time. She scampered back, quickly ducking behind a large rock with a startled yelp.

“Oh no you don’t! Not this time!” I yelled, jumping forwards at the filly as she scampered away. “You aren’t disappearing on me again! I want answers!” I leaped over the rock, diving to where I thought the filly would have been hiding. My hooves met air and I tumbled face first into the ground.

Did that count as falling out of bed? I had just woken up… damn it wasteland! Just once, I want to not fall on my face!

I heard a small giggle from above me. I rolled over, flopping on my back to look up at the top of the rock where the filly had somehow managed to perch herself. She lay on her stomach, her fore hooves crossed in front of her to support her head.

I glared up at her and pointed at her with an accusing hoof. “Who are you and what do you want!” A thought passed through me and I glanced back at the broken tower. “Were you the one that got me out of there?”

The filly gave me a nod and a smug grin. She suddenly winced. “Sorry I couldn’t get your cyber pony friend out too…”

I shook my head, not sure how to take that. “It’s… uh… okay. I don’t think he wanted to get out of there anyway,” That stung far more than I expected. It would have been a bit of a stretch to call Crank my friend, but his death was unexpectedly hitting me pretty hard. He had only just begun to become a better pony, only for the wasteland to rip that away from him. Just like it had taken everything else he cared about away.

I glanced back at the shattered remains of the tower. I suppose it was possible he had survived, Crank was rather resilient after all. But I doubted even somepony as powerful as the mighty cyber alicorn could survive hundreds of balefire bomb detonations point blank.

I shook my head and pushed the idea from my mind. I’d mourn for him and Shade later. First, I had to figure out what the fuck was happening. I looked back up at the filly. “How did you even manage to get me out of there? Teleportation?”

That seemed like the most likely possibility.

“Well, kinda I guess,” the filly me responded, kicking a bit of ash off of the top of the rock. “I mean I got you into the hazmat suit and gave you some rad-X and some Radaway, but my magic isn’t strong enough to teleport both of us that far by myself. I needed a little bit of help to cast the spell,” She glared up at her smoldering horn. “Took a lot more power than I was expecting.”

“Help from who?” I asked, still having no clue whatsoever about what was going on.

The filly chirped up at that. “Oh, my friend of course! He’s around her somewhere I think!” She turned away from me and surveyed the area around us. She put a hoof to the side of her mouth. “Oh mister nice pony!” She waited a second before turning back and giving me a shrug. “He must have left, but don’t worry, he’ll be back. Probably. I never really know with him.”

Okay, this filly was a little on the odd side. Not to mention looked exactly like me. That was still unnerving me a fair amount. “Who, er… What are you? Why do you look like me?” I inquired, leaning in a little. I suddenly realized that she was standing in the Glowing Sea perfectly fine without a Hazmat suit. “And how the hell are you resisting all that radiation?”

The filly grinned and held up a large pile of empty Rad-X syringes and Radaway. “I found a good collection of these back in the Hollow Shades. They should keep me okay till we get out of the Glowing Sea.”

I nodded. Okay, that made sense. “And your appearance?”

The filly gave me a nervous look. Her eyes darted around, clearly questioning if she could avoid answering by running away. From the way her blackened horn looked, I figured teleportation was out of the option for her.

She turned back and glanced down at her hooves, shuffling them atop the rock shyly. “That’s not important.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Yes, yes it is,” I insisted stubbornly. “Are you one of those synth things I’ve heard about? A robot that looks like a pony!”

The filly me gave me a quizzical, if not amused look. Slowly, a wide smile broke out across her face. She rolled onto her back, her hooves clutching her stomach as she giggled maniacally. “You thought that- that- I was a- Hahaha!” She burst out laughing, her mouth twisted into a wide grin. Eventually she stopped rolling with laughter and looked back at me, wiping away tears. “You’re a riot Amber Aura!”

I didn’t get the joke. I tried again. “Well if you aren’t a synth, then what are you?”

The fillies face hardened again, and her eyes once again darting around. “I said that wasn’t importan-” The fillies horn flickered green. She yelped, quickly diving behind the rock and out of sigh.

She had a green aura… so she wasn’t a complete copy of me at least.

I hastily moved around the rock, praying she hadn’t disappeared again. Thankfully, she was still there, smacking at her flickering horn with a hoof. A small green spark flickered from the tip before disappearing. She backed up nervously when she saw me.

“Look, maybe it would just be best if you pretended you never saw me, okay?” She said timidly, backing up a little bit more. “I’m having second thoughts on all this and-”

“Nope, out of the question!” I stated, stomping my hoof down firmly. “You’ve been following me around for who knows how long for some reason and you look exactly like me, but younger and I want answers now!”

“I really don’t think that-” her horn flickered green again. She yipped and tried to dart behind the rock again, but she didn’t move fast enough this time.

As she scuttled around the rock I saw a small pillar of green fire-like magic swirl around her body, momentarily revealing a strange insect looking creature with translucent blue wings.

My jaw dropped. “You’re- a changeling…” I suddenly had the urge to turn around and run away as fast as I could. Changelings were, simply in concept alone, horrifying. The idea of a creature that could pose as somepony you loved and feed of your life force was perhaps one of the most terrifying things I had ever heard of. I had heard stories about them back in the Stable, but never really believed them. It had been quite a shock to learn in the MAS tower that they had in fact been real creatures at one point, but I had calmed myself by assuming they had all died in the apocalypse over two hundred years ago.

Apparently not.

There was a small flash of green light from behind the rock. A few seconds later, I saw a pair of wide amber eyes peek over the top of the rock to look at me. “Um… no. W-why would you think that?” She was lying, that much was obvious. But even with the truth revealed, she managed to make a pretty damn good performance. Changelings needed to be good actors I supposed. There was an awkward moment of silence, neither of us really knowing what to do. Finally, the filly I now knew to be a changeling dropped their head and stared at her hooves. “Okay, maybe I might be a changeling just a little bit…”

I realized my jaw was still hanging open and quickly shut it. “You’re a changeling!” I repeated again, the shock and horrified awe in my voice still very prevalent.

Nodding, the filly crawled out from behind the rock to let me get a good look at her. She took a deep breath, before letting her horn spark a little. Magical green fire surrounded her for a second, the magic flaking away her pink coat and revealing the dark insectoid shell underneath.

She didn’t look much different than the two changeling guards I had seen in Twilight Sparkles memories. Black shell, wide blue eyes, curved horn, two small fangs protruding from her upper lip. But she was a lot younger than the changelings from the memory, clearly a filly herself even outside of her disguise. Her eyes were a little larger and her fangs just a little smaller.

I almost screamed in fear out of instinct.

No Amber, it’s okay. She’s not attacking you. I reminded myself, forcing myself to hold my ground. Besides, I had had a similar reaction when I first met Xayah, and look how that turned out.

I gulped. “Well that… certainly wasn’t what I was expecting…” I dared myself to take a small step forward and looked at the filly changeling a little closer. “How long have you been following me? And why?”

The changeling’s horn sparked and she quickly changed back into a filly version of me. “You’re not going to run away?” she asked timidly, her eyes huge.

Was that an invitation to run away? If it was, the offer was tempting. For some reason I shook my head. Despite the fillies race, she didn’t seem to have nefarious intentions, it would be wrong for me to abandon her. Damn my morality. “No. not until I find out what’s going on at least. So now answer my question.”

The changeling looked away at the dunes of ash. “I’ve been following you since I saw you kill all those raider foals,” She finally said simply, giving me a small shrug.

I balked. That was way longer than I thought she had been following me for. “Since you saw me- Why the fuck would you follow me after you saw that!” My hoof clamped over my mouth. I realized too late I probably shouldn’t be swearing like that in front of a little foal. Did that even matter around a changeling? I had no idea.

The changeling gave me a crooked grin. “Oh right, like I’ve never heard that word in the wasteland before,” She gave a small chuckle, before looking back up at me. “And yes, since I saw you do that.”

“But why? After seeing me do something like that, Wouldn’t I be the last pony you’d want to follow?” I asked, the memory of the foals broken bodies flashing back into my mind. I turned away, the thought causing both shame and guilt to flare through me. Here I was, thinking this filly a monster, when I had gone and done monstrous things like that.

The changeling shook their head. “Yeah, you were pretty scary. But like, this is the wasteland, I’ve seen worse,” I winced at her comment and the sad truth about the wasteland. “And while it might have been scary, it also showed me two things about you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And what would those be?”

“Simple,” The changeling said with a timid grin. “First was that you would do anything for your friends, I mean not just any pony kills a whole bunch of fillies and colts to protect somepony they care about. Changelings sure don’t. And secondly, I saw you convince your friends to go into that building to save a fillies parents. Now their parents might not have actually been captured by raiders, but you didn’t know that and still went in to save them all the same. Very few ponies would do that.”

I blinked. The idea that I had killed the foals to save Xayah had crossed my mind before, it was one of the few facts that kept me sane after I had found out about what I had done. But the idea that going in there in the first place was some sort of heroic deed in it of itself was a new thought.

“Okay…” I said, rolling what she was saying around in my head. “So why did that make you start following me? Curiosity?” I felt a pang of fear pass through me. “You weren’t trying to feed off my love for my friends were you!” I took a couple steps back as that insane idea began to suddenly feel a little too real. I considered reaching for Boneless, only to remember it was now obliterated by balefire and lying hundreds of miles beneath my hooves.

The changeling jumped back, a frightened look crossing its face. “What! No!” I could hear the hurt in her voice. I had offended her somehow, or at least hurt her feelings. “I mean, yes. I am hungry. But that’s not what I was doing! I promise!”

That calmed me down a little bit. I suppose if it was trying to drain me of love it probably wouldn’t have pretended to be me. “So then why were you following me?”

The changeling bit her bottom lip a little, her eyes looking anywhere except at me. Her horn flickered again, and for a brief second I saw her insidious insect-like form. Then she flashed green and she was back to being a smaller version of me. “I, uh… I kinda need someponies help.”

I pointed to myself with a hoof dumbly. “You need my help?” What the hell could a changeling want from me?

The changeling bit her lip again and gave a shy nod. “Mm-hmm. I considered going to that Stable dweller the DJ keeps talking about, but they’ve been off the radar for a bit and honestly, they’d probably just send me to Junction R-7 or something like that. I thought about asking Security too, but that just seemed like a death wish, and she’s pretty far away.”

Great, so I was just a backup. That’s fine, not like I had any pride anyway, right? I straightened up a little bit. “Okay, so what is it you want?”

“Oh, uh… Just a bit of help finding somepony. It’s nothing big really,” The changeling fidgeted, clearly nervous about talking about the whole thing.

I gave her the most skeptical look that I could. “You’ve followed me for over a week and half way across the wasteland for me to help you find this pony and it’s nothing big?” Not even good acting could fool me on that remark. “I can’t help you if you don’t know what you want.”

The changeling fillies eyes dropped. “You’re gonna make me say it huh…” she paused, trying to figure out how best to proceed. “See, the thing is… um… I never really knew my mom and stuff, and like I was hoping that maybe… um… maybe it would be okay if…”

My ears perked up a little. “You need help finding your mom?” The changeling gave me a small nod in response. That was it? Tragic, sure, but simple. I had been expecting far worse. Another thought hit me. “Don’t all changelings have like… the same mom or something? Like isn’t the changeling queen the mother of all changelings?”

I had no idea how changeling reproduction worked. Until today I hadn’t even though they were real, let alone considered how changeling babies were made. But I had read a bunch of books about insects, and a lot of them reproduced asextually. It only seemed logical that changelings were the same.

The changeling filly gave me a stupid look. “That’s a dumb question,” She soothed, her statment ending in a small chuckle. She didn’t answer the question though, I duly noted.

Finally I gave the filly a small smile and nod. “Alright, sure. I can help you find your mom.”

The changeling’s eyes popped wide with excitement. “R-really?!” Before I could even think to get out of the way, the changeling rushed forwards and tackled me with a tight hug. I stiffened at the touch, afraid just being too close to the weird little creature might sap me dry of my life force. “Thank you so much! I’ll be a huge help! I promise!”

I peeled the filly off of me with my hoof and scooted her back a little bit. “Okay, but I have a few rules first if you’re going to travel with us,” I started. The changeling quickly sat down to listen, nodding vigorously to imply they were listening. I took a deep breath. “First off, no more disguising yourself as me, it's weird and it creeps me out.”

There was a flash of green and the changeling turned into a filly version of Xayah. The tiny zebra grinned up at me. “Okie dokie pokie!”

I shook my head. “No, no turning into my friends either. Just stay as yourself like the rest of us please.”

The changelings eyes shot wide and they quickly morphed into their natural form. They curled up a little, as if trying to hide themself from me. “A-are you sure? Ponies don’t like me much when I look like this… I think I’d be more comfortable if I could hide around other ponies.”

I looked at them for a second, what they were saying piercing itself together in my mind. She wasn’t wrong. If I had reacted the way I had after she had saved my life, I could only begin to imagine how other ponies might react. I remembered how the gathering of ponies in Twilight’s memory had freaked out when Chrysalis had revealed herself, and that had been with Twilight and Luna’s permission. Perhaps it was best if she didn’t walk around in her true form.

“Alright, you can shape shift, just don’t impersonate my friends and I,” I finally compromised. “Can you do that?”

The filly nodded, then thought for a second. “What if I have a really fun joke I want to tell and it involves me turning into one of you?” she quickly turned into a small yellow and pink filly that I didn’t recognize.

I just stared at the changeling for a second, not really sure how to answer that. Finally I just shook my head and continued on, ignoring the question. “Rule number two, don’t hurt my friends. That includes not feeding on our love and stuff. I don’t know how all that works, but I want nothing to do with it.”

The changeling grinned. “I’m sure I can keep my feeding under control. Probably.” I didn’t want to think about that. “Are there any other rules?”

I thought about that for a second. Two rules felt strange and I had some weird desire to make it three. Three was a nice number. I tossed a couple of possible rules around in my head, but nothing really stuck. “Rule three is that I need to know your name,” I finally said lamely, realizing it was hardly a rule. But I supposed if she was going to be traveling with us, then I had better at least know her name.

The changeling blinked up at me, her head cocked slightly to the side in confusion. “My… name…?” She puzzled, her voice almost a low whisper.

“Yeah, I can't just keep going to call you changeling or mini me forever,” I said, waiting patiently for her to answer my question.

The changeling filly just continued to look at me blankly. “I, uh… I don’t think I have a name…” She said, her head dropping to look at the ground.

“You… You don’t have a name?” I restated in surprise. Was that like, a changeling thing or something?

The filly gave me a sad smile. “I mean yeah, I didn’t exactly have my mom to give it to me you know.”

The full realization of just how alone this changeling must be abruptly hit me in full force. No parents to raise them or even name them and no pony they could turn to. She had to resort to following me, a complete stranger, all the way across the wasteland just to get help. I suddenly felt really bad for acting so poorly at them being a changeling. They were just a filly that needed a place to belong.

“Well you said you had a friend that helped you get me out of the MAS tower, what do they call you?” I asked, hoping for her to give me something to go off of.

The changeling just shook their head. “He’s not really much of a talker. He just kinda shows up sometimes,” She said quickly.

I sighed. “Alright, then. I guess that means you can have any name that you want? So what do you want to be called? Is there a name you like?” I asked, slowly sitting down myself before the filly.

The changelings eyes widened and she quickly transformed back into a tiny me. “Any name that I want! But there are so many! How could I choose?”

“Hey, I said no changing into me!” I blurted, pointing at her quickly with a hoof. “That freaks me out!” She quickly turned back into a yellow and pick filly.

"Sorry, it's a habit of mine," The Filly changeling admitted with a blush. "I do that when I'm nervous."

An idea struck me. “Hey! How about we call you Mirror?” I asked, Feeling a little proud of myself for coming up with that on the spot.

The changeling just stared at me with an amused look. “Mirror? What kind of name is that!?” She blurted. She rolled back onto her back, giggling to herself. “Mirror, what a silly name!”

I pouted at her. “Oh come on! I thought that was kinda clever, what with all your mimicking and such!” I crossed my fore hooves grumpily. “If it’s such a bad name, why can’t you think of something better?”

The changeling stopped her giggling and looked up at me thoughtfully. “No no, I can work with Mirror. I’ll just tweak it a bit,” She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a second. “How about… Mirra?” Her eyes shot wide. “Ohoh! I like that! Can I be Mirra! Can that be my name!”

I nodded, giving her a small grin. “Sure Mirra, the name is yours,” I pulled myself up and looked out across the wasteland. “I don’t suppose you know where my friends are, do you?” I asked, hoping they weren’t too far away.

I suddenly realized they probably all thought I was dead. I gulped, finding them I suppose would give me some good foresight on what would happen when I really do die.

Mirra nodded, standing up herself and taking a small sniff of the air. “They aren’t that far away. Come on!” quickly, Mirra began moving in the direction she had been sniffing.

I reached down and picked up my saddlebags with my mouth. The open sack flopped open and a black, oblong device tumbled to the ground. I stared at it, realizing I had actually managed to pull the A.A.S.S. out of the MAS tower with me.

I shook my head, stuffing the device back into my saddlebags and slowly following after Mirra.

“We should have fucking killed you when we first met!” I heard Brisk shout. We hadn’t been walking for very long, a few minutes at most, when I began to pick up the angry yells of Brisk and Pyre as they squabble back and forth.

“I told you already! Amber told me to get all of you out of there!” Pyre shouted back, her voice a mix of anger and irritation. “If you want to die of radiation poisoning then fine, go throw yourself into that balefire crater! You’d get the fate you seem to want so badly!”

“I never said I wanted to fucking die you bitch!” Brisk shouted back, his voice rising. “But we could have helped her! We could have at least tried to get her out of there and find another way!”

We were slowly getting closer, their voices echoing out from behind a large rock outcropping jutting out of the ash covered ground of the Glowing Sea.

“Find another way? We had a full fucking minute to get out of there before those balefire bombs went off! There was no other fucking way!” Pyre growled in return. “Amber trusted me to get you morons to safety, and that’s what I did! The only alternative was for you to stay behind and die along with her, and I’m pretty fucking sure that’s not what Amber would have wanted!”

I turned the corner of the rock to see Brisk and Pyre face to face. Pyre was sporting her usual power armour while Brisk had pulled himself into his hazmat suit. They were snarling at each other, muzzles almost touching and eyes locked as they engaged in some sort of battle of will.

I stopped a few feet away, not quite sure how to proceed. Did I make a joke to break the tension? Simply say ‘I’m alive’?

Turns out I didn’t need to do anything. Brisk looked away from Pyre’s gaze, unable to meet her eye anymore. His eyes found me. He looked at me for a second, his eyes distant from behind the tinted visor of his hazmat suit. He stared past me, as if I were invisible.

Then his gaze locked on my visor, in particular the lock of pink and blue mane that had been pushed up against it. His ears shot up immediately. “Amber?!”

I raised a hoof and gave him a small wave. “Hi. I'm back...”

For the second time since I had been teleported out of the MAS tower, I was tackled into and wrapped in a tight hug before I could think to move. Brisk’s hooves wrapped around me tightly, pulling me close as if he were afraid if he let go I would disappear.

He pulled back, staring me right in the eye. “I thought you were dead sis!”

I tried my best to give him a smile in return. “I thought I was dead too. Turns out I’m a harder pony to kill than everypony thought.”

I saw his eyes harden through his visor. “Don’t you ever even dare doing something stupid like that again! We’re a team Amber, that means we do stuff together! No more taking the bullet for the rest of us!”

I nodded, but mostly to keep him from strangling me on the spot.

“Alright, alright. Give the filly some space,” Pyre grumbled, pulling Brisk back a little. He clung to me for a second, before finally letting go and standing a few paces back. “I’d need a little space too if I just walked out of a balefire bomb explosion like that.”

I shifted my gaze to face her. “Thank you for getting everypony out of there, Pyre. I’m glad you all made it out okay.”

Pyre just shook her head sadly. “Glad at least one pony isn’t pissed the fuck off at me for that,” She cast Brisk a grumpy side glance. “And don’t thank me yet. Shade didn’t make it out with us. I’m sorry Amber, I thought she was with us- but when I realized she had fallen behind, it was too late to go back for her.”

“I-I know,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face and giving her the smallest shake of my head. “She stayed behind to help me. She- she died a hero… Crank did too,” I could feel my gut clench up just thinking about that.

“How the fuck did you even get out of there?” Pyre blurted, asking what must have clearly been on both of their minds. “I mean, you were hundreds of miles underground, surrounded by hundreds of zebras and in the center of hundreds of balefire bombs going off! Thats a lot of fucking hundreds Amber!”

“My new friend helped pull me out,” I said with a small grin, turning to my side. “Say...” Mirra was gone. I glanced around, trying to spot where she went. “...Hi?” I spotted a green bar behind the rock outcrop on my EFS. I turned back to face Brisk and Pyre with a sheepish grin. “Sorry, would you two give me a quick second?”

I quickly slipped away from them, moving back behind the rock. As I moved away, I saw Brisk and Pyre cast each other a strange glance. If they thought that was weird, wait until they saw Mirra.

I found Mirra cowering behind the large outcrop, shivering slightly as she peeked around the corner to look at Brisk and Pyre. She had taken the form of a cream coloured filly with an orange mane. Still just a filly, I noted. I wondered if she even had the ability to turn into adults. I crept over and knelt down next to her. “Hey, you coming or not?”

Mirra gave a timid shake and looked up at me with pleading eyes. “What if they don’t like me?”

I shook my head, almost repulsed by the simple idea. “Look, if I can make Brisk and Xayah put up with Pyre Blaze’s snide remarks and raidery past, I’m sure I can make them like a cute filly like you.”

“But what if they still don’t like me?” Mirra pushed, her whole body trembling. “Will you still help me find my mom if they won’t?”

“They will, I promise,” I insisted, nudging her towards the edge of the outcrop. “And if they don’t at first, I’ll talk some sense into them. They’ll listen to me.”

A small swirl of green magic enveloped her and suddenly Mirra was a blue pegasus filly with a turquoise mane. “Maybe it would be better if I just stay in disguise and let them think I’m a normal pony.”

There was a small spark of magic from atop her hornless forehead. For a second she flickered back into view as a changeling, before quickly changing back into the blue pegasus filly. She whimpered a little, rubbing her head as a spike of pain shot through it.

I shook my head at her. “Your horn doesn't seem to be working quite right after pulling me out of the MAS tower. There’s no way you would be able to hold up that facade,” I informed her truthfully. She glanced down at her hooves nervously, dropping the spell and revealing her true and hideous form. “Besides, if you want them to like you, the last thing you want to do is lie to them. Especially about something that important.”

Mirra nodded solemnly, her body still shaking a little, but she seemed to have calmed down a fair amount. “Okay… I’m trusting you Amber. Please don’t let them attack me.”

I scoffed. “That’s probably the last thing they’ll try and do,” I thought on that remark for a second. “Well, maybe Pyre might… But she wants to attack anypony.”

With a little bit more encouragement, I managed to fully convince her to come out. I stepped out first, signalling for both of my friends to stay wear they were. Brisk and Pyre exchanged another look, their faces still very much perplexed. Slowly, Mirra crept out from behind the rock, her black, insectoid shell glinting of the hazy, clouded sunlight from above.

Immediately, Brisk and Pyre crouched into a battle stance. The tip of Pyre’s lone flamer sparked with fire and Brisk’s pistol whipped into the air with lightning speed. Mirra shrieked and dove behind my hoof, her body morphing into that of a pony filly.

I slapped my face with a hoof. Seriously! They seriously had to jump right into attack mode after I promised that they wouldn’t… fuck my life.

“Amber! Step away, that fillies a-” Brisk started, his eyes narrowing on the filly cowering behind me.

“I know it’s a fucking changeling!” I spat back, feeling more annoyed at their reaction than angry. I winced and looked back at Mirra. “Sorry, I’ll try not to swear anymore.”

Mirra rolled her eyes, still shivering a little. “I’ve heard ponies say fuck before Amber.”

Brisk’s eyes still bore into the shivering changeling with an unwarranted hatred, but Pyre had already let the fire at the end of her flamer extinguish. Through the visor of her battered helmet, I could see the edges of her mouth twist into a wide grin.

“Well damn, Amber. You are full of surprises today, ain’t ya!” Pyre chuckled, taking a few steps forwards to get a better look at Mirra. I could see her eyes light up as an idea crossed through her. “Say, changeling… Can you turn into Amber?”

I could see a confused look cross Mirra’s face. I opened my mouth to tell her not to, but before I could there was a flash of green and Mirra morphed once again into a tiny me.

“Hey! Pyre! I told her not to do tha-”

I was cut off as Pyre suppressed a small snicker. “And here I thought that you couldn’t get any cuter Amber! Looks like I was wrong again! HAha!” She turned back to look at Mirra, her grin widening. “I don’t suppose you are any good at impressions, no?”

I could see the confused look on Mirra’s face get wiped away as she realized what Pyre was asking of her. A small, yet devious grin spread across her face. She put a hoof to the sky and struck the most dramatic pose that she could. “My name is Amber Aura, and I’m not cute at all!” She squealed, in the most spot on impression of my voice. Her voice squeaked a little at the end, making her seem even more adorable. “I love books and I have a super duper big crush on that zebra!”

Pyre Blaze was rolling on her back with laughter, her armoured hooves clutching at her stomach as she cackled. I felt my ears grow hot and my cheeks flush.

“Wha- what! I never- I don’t sound like that! And I’m not that obsessed with books!” I sputtered, by blush only growing. “And who said I have a crush on Xayah! I didn’t say that! You have no proof!” My outburst only seemed to make Pyre and Mirra laugh more.

“Changelings can sense love Amber!” Pyre informed me between laughs. “So if she thinks that, it’s probably true!” she rolled over, laughing more.

Mirra’s devious smirk grew to a point that I thought it might jump right off her face. “She even told the zebra ‘I love you’ back in the tower!”

My face was so hot I felt like it was going to catch fire. “What- but- how! You heard that!” I folded my ears back against my head and narrowed my eyes at the changeling. “Don’t encourage Pyre, she’s the worst.”

Pyre began snorting as she tried to hold back her uncontrollable laughter. “Oh this is too good!” She had to stop for a second to catch her breath. She looked over at Mirra and extended her hoof to her. “You’re okay kid. The name’s Pyre Blaze. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”

Mirra’s eyes widened and she quickly accepted Pyre’s hoof. “Friends! Really, you mean it!?”

Pyre snickered. “Oh, you got that right! We’re gonna mock so many ponies! It’s going to be great!” Pyre glanced over at Brisk who was still standing with his gun drawn, not quite sure how to proceed. She pointed at him enthusiastically. “Do him next! Do him!”

Mirra stuck out her tongue. “Ew! But he’s a boy!”

That only made Pyre laugh harder. She rolled over to face Brisk with a snide sneer. “Hear that, you’re so gross she doesn’t even want to turn into you!” Brisk just gave her a grumpy look in return.

"Pyre! I told her not to change into us-" I started, but Mirra's laughter cut me off.

“Oh oh! I know!” Mirra burst into flame again and turned into a filly Brisk. She jumped up and down, imitating Brisk’s seemingly endless energy. “I’m Brisk Spark and I never take anything seriously! I think I’m suuuppper funny, but no pony actually likes my jokes!” her voice was a perfect imitation of Brisk’s own.

“Hey! Ponies like my jokes!” Brisk interjected, defensively placing a hoof over his chest.

I had to hold back a snicker of my own at that remark. “No offence bro, but your jokes are pretty awful.”

“Wait wait, who does Brisk have a crush on!” Pyre snorted, her hoof beating at the ground as she laughed. “There’s got to be somepony!”

Brisk began blushing himself. He waved a hoof, indicating for them to stop. “Okay, I think that’s enough of this!”

Mirra was rolling around on the ground herself now, no longer able to suppress her giggles any. “Oh.. Haha! Oh I’m Brisk and I think fliers have the cutest bodies!” She put a hoof to her mouth to hide a snicker. “They’re just so sleek and their wings are so soft or whatever.”

I laughed along with them as Brisk’s blush grew as red as mine. She had even gotten his trademark 'or whatever' line down. I looked at him almost pitifully. “Don’t worry bro, your secret is safe with us.”

Brisk crossed his fore hooves. “I don’t think it is anymore,” he said with a grumble, but the smallest of smiles had managed to creep onto his face.

“It’s too bad Xayah missed this, she would have gotten a good laugh out of this whole ordeal,” Pyre giggled, reaching out and giving Mirra a hoof bump.

Alarms went off in my head. I looked around, trying to spot my zebra friends. “Uh- where is Xayah?” I felt a little bit of fear creeping into my voice. She had made it out of the tower before it exploded right!? Pyre and Brisk would have said something if she hadn’t, wouldn’t they?

Almost immediately, Pyre’s laughing stopped. She gave Brisk a worried look before she stood up and faced me directly. “She’s fine Amber. Alive, anyway.”

“But where is she,” The tight knot in my stomach was getting tighter and it was refusing to go away.

Brisk finally approached us, his expression a little distant. “Amber, we all thought you were dead… That hit her pretty hard…”

I felt like I was getting bucked in the face. I whirled around, not bothering to listen to whatever else Brisk was about to say. My EFS picked up a lone green bar not too far away. “Give- give me a moment guys. I need to do something.”

I found Xayah sitting at the edge of a large cliff overlooking the vast, empty expanse of the Glowing Sea. Far in the distance I could see the rocky crags and billowing smokestacks of the Hollow Shade’s settlement and even beyond that on the tip of the horizon I could make out the faint red glow of Fillydelphia.

Xayah’s shoulders were slouched forwards, her shoulder blades pressed tightly against her back and pointing up towards the sky. Like the rest of us, she was back inside her hazmat suit, the suits bright yellow now dulled by the ash and grim of the wasteland. She looked like a wreck.

I cleared my throat, trying to figure out the best way to get her attention. I saw her ear twitch a little at the noise, but she didn’t turn to face me.

“Brisk, I told you I wish to be alone,” Xayah said back, her melodious tone empty and emotionless. “I-I just need a moment.”

I crept a little closer, not quite sure what exactly to say. Finally I just sighed. “Xayah... It’s me. I’m okay,” What else could even be said.

Xayah’s ears shot straight up. We were both silent for a moment as we tried to figure out exactly what to do. I could see Xayah’s whole body start shaking and heard a small sobs escape her lips.

I saw it coming this time, but I didn’t dare try to move out of the way.

Xayah spun around, her striped hooves reaching out and wrapping around my neck in the tightest hug I could have possibly imagined. I let my hooves wrap around her as well as I held her, holding her close as she cried into me.

After a few moments, Xayah pushed herself back and looked at me, her emerald green eyes locking with mine through the tinted visor of our suits. “Amber… I- I thought you were…” She trailed off, her expression growing hard. Her hoof lashed out, striking me across the face. “Don’t you ever do that again you foolish pony!”

I rubbed my face with a hoof, trying to dissipate some of the pain. I had almost forgotten how painful Xayah’s slaps were. They were powerful and precise. I gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I already promised Brisk I wouldn’t do that again.”

Xayah shook her head in disbelief, still trying to figure out if I was actually sitting in front of her or if life was giving her a very cruel hallucination. “How did you even survive…”

“A new friend of mine pulled me out,” I replied, gesturing over the hill where Brisk, Pyre and Mirra were waiting patiently. I questioned myself if I should inform her that Mirra was a changeling now, but I decided I’d cross that bridge when I got there. “Something about a mysterious friend of hers helping to pull me out. I don’t really understand it myself, but it used up a lot of her magic. Want to go meet her?”

Xayah shook her head. “Not yet, give me another minute,” She leaned forwards and wrapped her hooves around me again, finding comfort in my presence. “I think I’d just like to sit with you a little longer.”

I smiled, cuddling into her closer. We were silent again, comforted by the warmth of the other. Eventually, Xayah tilted her head up a little, peering up at me with one of her green eyes. “Amber, there is something I want to ask you?”

I nodded skeptically, not fully sure what exactly there was left to ask. “Yeah sure, what’s up?”

Xayah gulped. “It’s… well…” She bit her lip, trying to think what exactly to say. “It’s about what you said back in the tower. Right before Pyre pulled me out of there…” I gulped myself. I knew exactly what three words three words she was referring to. Xayah hesitated for a second. “Did- did you actually mean that? I know since your Stable and all you’ve been a little confused and you wanted to sort out your emotions before you gave me a definite answer, so… I mean if you’re still not sure about how you feel about me, that’s fine, I can still wait if you-”

I put a hoof to her lips, silencing her. I took a deep breath, preparing for what I was about to say. “Xayah, back there I thought I was going to die. I didn’t think that anypony was going to pull me out and I thought I was never going to see you again. You’d think something like that would jumble my emotions more, but they didn’t,” I started, trying to put my thoughts into words. “I started thinking about all the things I did wrong, all my regrets. Everything I had done right as well. I don’t think my mind had ever been so clear in my whole life.”

Xayah’s eyes widened a little. “So… are you saying that-”

I gave her a small nod and an encouraging smile. “I can’t say I’m very experienced with this whole romance thing, I mean I haven’t even kissed a pony before, let alone had a special somepony, but I’m willing to give it all a shot if you will.”

Well, I guess Mirra had been spot on in her impersonation after all.

Xayah grinned back at me. “I’d love that,” She pushed herself against me again, cuddling in even closer than she already was. “And I'm new to all of this too, so… I guess this is a first for both of us,” Our heads moved closer together. The bulky dome on our hazmat suits clinked together, knocking our heads apart a little.

I chuckled. “I’ll give you a real hug when we aren’t completely covered in this uncomfortable suit thing.”

Xayah just smiled. “That would be nice.”

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to my new friend,” I said, pulling myself up. Together we walked back towards where our friends were waiting, our hooves intertwined.

As Xayah and I walked over the crest of the hill we could make out Brisk, Pyre and Mirra sitting in a circle talking to each other. Mirra was in her natural form, her jet black insect body sticking out amongst the dunes of brown and grey like a sore hoof.

Xayah froze beside me as her eyes landed on the small changeling, her whole body going rigid. “Star spy,” She hissed through gritted teeth, crouching down into an attack position. Her hoof reached for her sniper by her side. “I thought they were a myth.”

I caught her hoof with my own before she could pull out her weapon. Damn it, I knew I should have told her before we arrived. “That’s Mirra. She’s the one that saved me,” I blinked. “Wait, Star spy?”

Xayah nodded, her eyes still fixed on the changeling. “Zebra’s believed that changelings were spies sent from the stars above to cause mischief among pony and zebra kind alike. They are much hated by all races.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I was pretty spooked at first too, but Mirra’s cool. I promise,” I insisted. The idea that Mirra was a spy sent by some evil star god was ridiculous, not that the idea of star gods made much sense to me anyway. “Besides, Mirra isn’t like other changelings, she’s really friends. A little shy maybe, but friendly. I don’t think she’s here to spy on us.”

Xayah hesitated, looking back at her sniper for a second. Finally she rightened herself. “Alright Amber, I will give this star spy a chance. But only for you.”

I gave her a soft smile. “Don’t worry, you’ll like her.”

Together, we slowly approached our friends below. Brisk spotted us first, waving us over with a bright green hoof. His eyes landed on our locked hooves and he gave a cheeky looking smile.

“Well well, looks like we have some love birds here,” Brisk smirked as we drew up next to the small circle.

“I think we just went over the fact that you’re the one here that likes flying things,” I shot back, causing both Pyre and Mirra to giggle foalishly. Xayah just looked confused by my remark. I turned to face Xayah and Mirra and gestured towards the changeling. “Anyway, Xayah, this here is Mirra. We’re going to be helping her find her mom.”

Xayah stepped up the Mirra, looking down at the changeling as if it were a timebomb. “So you are the one whom pulled Amber from the explosion?” She asked, hesitating on whether she should get closer or not. Finally she sighed. “Thank you for saving her star spy.”

Mirra cocked her head in confusion. “Thank you. What’s a star spy?”

Xayah looked a little confused at that remark. Slowly she pointed a hoof at Mirra. “Um.. You are star spy.”

Mirra giggled a little. “I’m not a star spy silly, I’m a changeling?” She shook her head chuckling to herself. “But everypony here calls me Mirra! Isn’t that such a great name?! I made it myself!”

“Hey, I helped come up with it,” I pitched in before realizing that absolutely no pony cared about that tiny detail.

Xayah looked a little lost for words. “You are not how I expected a star sp- a changeling to act. You are much less intimidating.”

I chuckled a little. “She’s plenty intimidating when you keep seeing yourself out of the corner of your vision for a week or so,” I said with a mix of both a laugh and a grumble. “And when you see her in an abandoned nursery. That was just creepy.”

Mirra gave an innocent looking shrug, but I could see a devious smile on her lips. “Eh, had to keep you on the tips of your hooves somehow.”

Pyre cleared her throat and pulled herself up to full height. “As great as it is that Amber is still alive and well, I think it would be best if we don’t stay here,” She grunted, looking around at the dunes of ash and rock around us. “Let me remind you all that this is still the Glowing Sea. The last thing I want is to be attacked by another Tatzelwurm or Celestia forbid another mutated dragon thing.”

We all agreed, pulling ourselves back up to our hooves.

“So, where are we off to next?” Brisk asked, looking off into the distance.

Well wasn’t that just the question on everyponies mind. “Back the the Hollow Shades first I suppose,” I said, turning in the direction of the settlement. “The train should be back by now, so we can probably get a ride back to Manehattan.”

“And after that?” Brisk pushed. “I mean all the cyber alicorns and Kamaris are dead, the A.A.S.S. is destroyed and we won’t be saving our Stable anytime soon so… what? Did we win? Is everything over?”

I shook my head and reached into my saddle bag as we started moving towards the Hollow Shades. “The A.A.S.S. is fine, I managed to grab it before the bombs went off,” I informed them, pulling the dark oblong device out. “And there are a few things left for us to do. We still don’t know who Crank’s original client was, the one that sent him to get the A.A.S.S. in the first place. Plus we need to find Mirra’s mom now too, so there’s a few more adventures for us along the way.”

I could see Mirra gave a small grin at that last bit.

“Plus, we never did find that Rubber Bands Character that Flask told us to find back when we were in Fetlock the first time,” Brisk added. “Looks like we actually have quite the list of things to do when you add it all up. So what first?”

“First is Tenpony!” Pyre interjected, jumping ahead of us a little bit. She turned to look at me. “You promised we’d go to Tenpony Tower when we were done with Kamari, and I’m holding you to that! I need my cheese!”

I gave her a nod. “Tenpony first,” I affirmed, with a small smile. “I think we all need a bit of a break after all of this. Besides, we aren’t in a rush like before. As far as I’m aware, there is no sudden and impending doom. A day or two without any violence will do us all some good.”

Brisk stumbled a bit at that. “Wait just a second! A few days without any adventure! Who do you take me for?!”

“Not a single adventure, we are going to go relax and you’re going to like it,” I informed him strictly. “No getting shot, blown up, stabbed or dropped by an elevator.”

Brisk grumbled, but didn’t complain as we slowly made our way back across the empty expanse of the Glowing Sea.

“I saw the tower explode, so I figured y'all did somethin’ over there,” Toffee said with a frown. She had met up with us shortly after we had arrived back in the Hollow Shades. She had traded the rags we had met her in for a dark brown leather duster and cowpony hat. A golden star now rests over her heart, signifying her position. “But a crazy zebra cult and a giant dragon bein’ resurrected by a mega spell weren't my first couple guesses.”

We had told her the whole story as she walked with us to the train station. She had been quiet at first, but the further through the story we got, the more and more questions she seemed to ask. The idea that all that had been happening not all that far away from her town had clearly unnerved her.

I glanced down beside me where I could see a small shift in the air where Mirra had hidden herself under Xayah’s stealth cloak. We had told her Toffee was a friend, but she insisted that she stay out of sight until we were out of the town. At least until her horn stopped flickering and revealing her disguises.

“It was pretty crazy, but it’s done now,” I said, looking back to Toffee. “Kamari won’t be causing trouble any time soon.”

Toffee grunted and pushed her cowpony hat up onto her head a little higher with a hoof. “Well I reckon I own y’all again, even if I had no idear that all that was goin’ on.”

“You own us nothing, we are just happy to have aided your town,” Xayah said flatly as she walked beside me. She seemed almost naked without her stealth cloak on.

As we approached the train station, we found another familiar face waiting for us. Chestnut stood on the planked platform of the station. She held herself up with a set of crunches and she had two large saddle bags slung over her back packed full of an assortment of different supplies.

There were a few other ponies as well, five in total, all packed and ready to leave for what I could only assume was Manehattan. They were all wounded in some way, clearly ponies that had fought in the Hollow Shades Massacre.

The train itself was in much better condition than when I had last seen it. Most of the damage caused by the bandit attack had been patched up and all of the wheels seemed to be in working order. The wagon Crank had destroyed in the battle was still missing most of its walls, but it looked like it would still function.

“Glad to see you all got through the Glowing Sea intact,” Chestnut said as she spotted us. I winced at that. Of course she didn’t know about Shade and Crank. “Sorry I couldn’t join you, what with being stuck in the hospital and everything.”

I walked up to her quickly, glad to see she was out of the hospital and walking around. “Are you coming with us?” I asked her, gesturing to the near overflowing saddlebags she was carrying.

Chestnut gave me a sad shake of her head. “Nah, I figured that now that the Hollow Shades is somewhat safe, it’s about time I go give Red Eye and his Slaving fucks what’s comin’ to em. My son is still somewhere in Filly, and I’ll be damned if I don’t get him back,” She told us, stamping her hoof on the ground to emphasise her point. “I’m just taking the train about half way and hoofing it the rest of the way to Filly. I hear there are some of those new applejack rangers out that way that are making a resistance there, so perhaps I’ll join up with them.”

“Are ya sure you don’t need thin’?” Toffee asked as she pulled herself to a stop beside me. “I’d love to help out some. Red Eye screwed me here just as much as he did you. I’d love to see that bastard get what’s comin’ t’ him.”

Chestnut just shook her head again. “You’re needed here. The Hollow Shades are gonna need somepony to help pull ‘em out after the Hollow Shades Massacre. And don’t even think about trying to give me more supplies, I got more than I can carry anyhow.”

Toffee gave a nod of understanding. “They you be safe. And get yer son back, got me? He's a good kid and don't deserve to be in the hellhole,” Toffee turned to look at me. “And that goes for you folks as well. I don’t want t’ hear on the radio that the wasteland lost another one of it’s heroes, ya hear? We have so few as it is these days.”

“No promises,” Brisk said with a grin, playfully trotting onto the train. “Trouble is kinda what we do best.”

We all said our goodbyes and boarded the train. Chestnut got onto a different train car to talk to some other ponies that were leaving as well, leaving us alone in our battered train wagon.

The ghoul conductor started traveling through the different train cars, collecting caps from everypony for passage on the train. He froze when he reached our cart, his eyes darting back and forth at all of us. “Ah fuck, not you ponies again! I was hopin’ y’all would die in the Hollow Shades,” he grumbled stumbling over and collecting our caps before putting them into his hat. “You ponies know how hard it was to fix up my train after it got blown up! I’m fuckin’ two days behind schedule 'cause of you wasteland hero wannabes.”

“We won’t be blowing up your train this time, don't worry,” I said, trying to calm him. He didn’t seem to be very calmed by me and went on grumbling to himself as he moved to the next train car.

As soon as no other ponies were around, Mirra ducked out from under Xayah’s stealth cloak and handed it back to the black and white zebra, the changeling filly now in the form of a pink earth pony with an orange mane.

I climbed up onto the seat next to Xayah and looked out the window with her as the train started pulling away from the station. Far off in the distance the glowing remnants of the massive explosion that had blown apart the MAS tower could still be seen. Even a few hours after it happened, the smoke seemed to still be rising. The cloud layer was completely reformed though, I guess the Enclave had seen to that.

“I keep thinking about all those zebra’s back in the tower,” Xayah said, breaking the silence. “It is hard to believe that so many would rally behind a zebra so openly declaring himself as a follower of the stars.”

“I don’t think they did,” I said, remembering the yellow tinted eyes and the lifeless expressions. “Kamari was using some weird magic in that place. They were all under some sort of mind control spell.”

“Then it is even more the tragedy,” Xayah sighed, her gaze never moving. “At least we were able to free them from whatever dark place Kamari had trapped them.”

I gave her a nod, not really sure what to say. I hadn’t even thought about all those zebra. Who had they been? Kamari was using necromancy, so were they even alive? If not, how had they died? So many questions I knew I'd never get the answer to. At the very best, it was good to know I had stopped him from being able to send any more troops out to help that Remnant faction in the Hoof I had heard about.

“It’s crazy to think what we set out to achieve is finally done,” Xayah said, her eyes locked on the green glow haloing the horizon.

I shook my head. “We aren’t quite done yet, but yeah. I know what you mean. It kinda feels like the end of an era in a way.”

“Hopefully that new era will be a little happier,” Xayah said with a warm smile.

I gave a small yet sad chuckle at that. “That shouldn’t be to hard, these last couple of days have been fucking aweful,” I looked away from the horizon and over at Xayah. “Besides, I have you now. I know things will be much better.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Brisk grimaced, walking over and sitting down on the seat across from us, plopping his head down on the sill of the open window to let the fast moving wind whip his short mane around. “Say shit like that and we’ll end up needing to actually fight a giant unkillable dragon.”

“On the bright side, we all came out alive,” Pyre said lazily, walking towards us whilst carrying Mirra atop her back. The changeling filly grinned down at us, clearly enjoying the ride.

My face dropped. “Not all of us…” I muttered, all of the losses from the tower flashing through my mind. The hellhound I never got to free, Shade and Crank. Even Kamari’s death had left a strange hole inside of me that didn’t seem to want to fill. My rage would leave me hollow, that’s what Crank had said.

“Er, sorry. At least we five got out alive,” Pyre corrected, realizing her mistake.

“Perhaps they all found a way out too,” Xayah suggested, seeing the clear distress on my face.

I shook my head. “Shade didn’t make it to the explosion. She was killed by a zebra before it even happened. And Crank… Well, he can survive a lot, but I don’t think even he could have gotten out of that.”

“Perhaps he teleported,” Brisk said, tapping his horn. “I mean, he does have a horn after all. He still has a chance.”

“He was an earth pony under all those cybernetics. His horn didn’t have magic, not in the traditional sense anyway. It was more a gun than anything else,” I told him. “I suppose it’s possible he survived the blast and regenerated himself, but I wouldn’t count on it. I’m pretty sure that there needs to be at least something left of him to regenerate, and we’ve proven a few times now that a cyber pony can be taken to the point where their body simply fails them.”

There was a strange silence between us all. Everypony knew what had to be asked, but no pony dared to say it. Finally, Xayah cleared her throat and cuddled a little closer into me, somehow finding the courage to speak up. “And what about you Amber? Did you make it out of there?”

Everyponies eyes turned to face me. Of course I had physically made it out alive, but I knew that wasn’t what she was asking. I had had so much rage, it all slowly burning away everything inside me until I was only to be a shell of what I once was. Everypony had seen it happening, Crank had even warned me of it.

I tried to find that burning rage within me. Nothing. I just felt a little cold. But I didn’t feel hollow, not like how I thought I would have. I had been told to hold onto something, something to keep me moving forwards.

I gave them all the best smile that I could. “I’m going to be alright. I’m not sure what I’m going to do next, but I know that as long as I’m with all of you, I’ll be okay,” my smile only grew as I realized what I was saying wasn’t just some lie to make my friends feel better. I genuinely meant it. “I spent so long holding onto my anger. It’s time for me to learn how to let go.”

Brisk gave a smile to match mine. “Maybe going to Tenpony will be good for us or whatever. I think we’ve all kinda lost a bit of ourselves since Stable 25. It’ll be good for us just to learn how to be us again.”

Xayah turned to look at me, her expression still a little worried. “And what about now? What are you holding onto?”

I could feel my smile growing even more as I looked back into her emerald eyes. I wrapped a hoof around her and pulled her a little closer. “Well I've got you don’t I?”

Pyre put a hoof to her chest dramatically. “Oh, now aren’t you two just adorable,” Then she gagged a little. “Please don’t tell me this means we need to put up with a bunch of gross lovey dovey stuff now?” Xayah’s eyes grew wider, her worry washing away in replace of a large blush. Before I realized what was happening, she launched into me and pressed her lips up against mine. I could hear Pyre groan. “Oh shit, we are going to need to deal with it now, aren’t we!?”

My eyes widened with surprise at Xayah's kiss. I closed my eyes, letting the wonderful feeling of her lips against mine fill my senses as I kissed her back. Not how I expected kissing to be like. It was so much more normal than books made it out to be, but it was still nice. Somehow, the realism of the kiss only made it all the better.

Mirra put a hoof over her mouth as she flickered back into her changeling form. She quickly sprung off of Pyre's back and darted as fast as she could for the door of the train car. “Sorry! I can't!” Then she was out the door and into the empty train car beyond.

Xayha pulled herself off of me and looked around at the rest of us all awkwardly. “Heh, sorry about that,” Brisk just gave her a nonchalant shrug.

I gave her a smug grin as I pulled myself back up into a sitting position as well. “Hey, I’m not complaining,” That only seemed to make her blush more. I glanced over at the door Mirra had just darted through. “I suppose I should probably go see what that was all about, shouldn't I.”

I climbed down from my seat and moved towards the doorway leading into the next train wagon. I knocked on the door, drawing the attention of the small changeling inside. “Hey? You okay if I come in?”

“I think it would be safer if you didn’t,” I heard Mirra’s timid voice reply through the door.

I shook my head. “Nope, that’s not happening,” I pulled the door open and walked inside. At first I didn’t see her, but quickly I noticed a small shivering black form curled up underneath one of the seats. I crept up next to her and knelt down to her level. “Hey… what was that freak out about?”

To large blue eyes peeked out at me from under the seat. “Sorry, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do it,” Mirra squeaked, curling up a little tighter. “I won’t do it again. It just kinda happened.”

I shushed her with a hoof. “Alright, slow down there. I don’t even know what you did,” I said, trying to understand what had happened. “Just tell me what happened and I’ll try to help, okie?”

Mirra nodded, slowly crawling out from underneath the seat. “Sorry. Um… Well the wasteland doesn’t really have all that much love in it, so I was really really hungry and…” She trailed off, looking away from me. “I promised you I wouldn’t feed off all of your love, but then the zebra kissed you, and I was hungry and instinct kicked in and… I might have fed on you a little,” She finally admitted shamefully.

I took a small step back. Okay, that was creepy. I tried my best not to show how creeped out I was by that. I didn’t really feel all that different, so it mustn't have been all that bad. “Thats- er… that’s okay, just try not to do it again, alright?” I said, trying to hide my discomfort. “And the zebra’s name is Xayah. You don’t need to call her the zebra.”

Mirra nodded shyly. “I-I-I’ll try. But it’s really hard. Especially if you two are going to go kissing each other like that all the time.”

I blushed a little and awkwardly scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah, sorry about that. We’ll try to keep that under control while around all of you from now on. Does that sound good?”

Mirra gave a small smile and nodded. “Y-yes. That might help. I’m really really sorry misses Amber.”

I gave a small frown at that. “You can just call me Amber. Amber Aura if you really want, but Amber will do just fine,” I sat back for a second, trying to figure out what else to say. I couldn’t think of anything. I realized that I knew next to nothing about this changeling I was now traveling with. Welp, time to fix that. “So Mirra, tell me a bit about yourself,” I asked, hoping to draw the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of feeding off of my emotions.

Mirra hesitated. “Well, there isn’t all that much to say. I’ve traveled a lot of the wasteland looking for my mom. I mostly just hide from ponies, no pony wants to be my friend after they find out what I am.”

“That’s it? You haven’t had a single pony to talk to?” I asked, feeling fairly sorry for the small changeling.

Mirra cracked a tiny smile. “Well there’s my friend that helped me get you from the tower, but he doesn’t talk very much, and sometimes I might go for moons without seeing him. He’s mysterious like that.”

“And your mom? Do you have any leads on her?” I pushed. “If I’m going to help you find her, I’ll need to know as much as I can.”

Mirra gave her head a sad shake. “I haven’t been able to find anything. I don’t even remember what she looks like,” The changeling filly said sadly. She reached somewhere behind her and pulled out a jagged slab of white metal and held it up to me. “This is all I have to remember her, but I don’t really know what it means.”

I took the piece of metal and looked it over. Along the surface a few words had been scratched into the metal. “We’ll meet again - Mom,” I read aloud, looking over the rather small note. I glanced back up at Mirra. “Not really much to go off of, you’re right.”

Mirra extended a gnarled hoof and turned the piece of metal over in my grasp. “There’s something on the back too, but I don’t know what it is either.”

It took me a second to even see what she was talking about. The more I squinted at the surface, the more I began to make out the faded shape of some sort of symbol. The symbol was familiar in a sense, being a faded and scratched picture of the Stable-Tec logo. I could make out it’s horseshoe shaped image with a small circle in the middle and three sharp lines stretching out from either side. But the symbol was different as well, with the head of a unicorn with a glowing red eye embedded on the circle in the middle of the symbol.

“Something to do with Stable-Tec I think,” I said dumbly, not really knowing anything about the unicorn head in the middle. “Maybe the unicorn head has something to do with the mare on the moon, but I don’t really know beyond that.”

“Yeah, that’s about all I can get from it too,” Mirra declared sadly. “I haven’t been able to find that symbol anywhere else.”

I passed the chunk of metal back to her. “We’ll find her, don't you worry,” I scooted forwards a little to sit next to her. I made sure not to get too close in fear of her presence quite literally draining my life away. I still had no idea how all that worked. “You know, I lost my mom too. I don’t really remember what she looked like, outside of what my dad told me.”

Mirra looked up at me, eyes huge. “We… we could search for her to…”

“I don’t think that would help any,” I said with a sad smile. “The wasteland got to her long before my father could. She’s up with the goddesses now.”

“Do you think my mom’s okay?” Mirra asked, the idea that her mother might be dead frightening her.

I shook my head and tapped the chunk of metal she clutched tight to her chest. “I have no idea, but that says you’ll meet her again, so I wouldn’t give up hope,” I stood back up and turned to face the door. “Now come on. You aren’t making any friends by hiding yourself away.”

With a grin, Mirra stood up and followed me back into the train wagon with the rest of my friends. As I pushed open the door and stepped between the moving wagon, my eye briefly caught with Pyre’s as she looked out the window at the distant glow of Fillydelphia.

I had just gotten to know one companion of mine, might as well get to know them all.

Leaving Mirra behind with Brisk and Xayah, I trotted over to Pyre. It was one of the rare times that she had taken her helmet off, revealing her orange coat and fiery red mane. As I neared I realized she wasn’t looking out the window at all, but looking at the large claw marks that raced down her face in her reflection on the dirty glass.

“I already know what you're going to ask Amber,” Pyre grunted, her eyes flicking up to look at my reflection behind her as I came to a stop. “You’re going to ask what’s been up with me since that raider attack. And the answer is that I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Actually, I was hoping that we could just talk about you for a second,” I said honestly. “We’ve been traveling together for almost a week and I still know practically nothing about you and every time I try to talk about it out you just shut me out. I’ve only just met Mirra and I think I already know her better.”

Pyre groaned. “Trust me, you don’t want to know about my past. I’m not your friend like the others over there.”

“But you are my-”

“I’m not,” Pyre spat back. “We are mutual allies. I help you, and you help me. That’s it.”

I crossed my fore hooves. “We’ve both risked our lives for each other numerous times. I don’t care what you say, that makes us friends,” I insisted. “You’ve even called me your friend before. It feels like you want to be friends, but you're scared of it for some reason.”

Pyre humphed. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Well obviously I don’t understand, you won’t tell me anything about yourself!" I threw my fore hooves above me in annoyance. "Maybe I could relate with you more if you would perhaps, I don’t know, open up a bit?”

Pyre turned her head to look back at me with her eyes. “You really want to know, huh?” She sighed. “Fine, the reason I don’t want friends is because I’ve either kill my friends or my friends eventually tried to kill me. I'm worried that if I become friends with all of you, you'll all just end up dead too.”

I nodded. “You told me after what happened in my Stable that somepony forced you to kill all your childhood friends,” She had said something else, but I had been a little too emotionally broken at the time to really listen all that much.

“Yeah, I was five when that happened,” Pyre said glumly, looking away and out at the dunes of rock and ash. “But that wasn’t the beginning of my problems. My father was a piece of work. He beat me and raped me and did a bunch of other shit I don’t particularly want to mention. Did all that shit to mom too. One day he just got bored of me and sold me to some slavers that owned a rock farm. Life was a little better there I guess, but that’s not saying much. Finally one of the slavers got particularly nasty and told me he’d set me free if I killed all the friends I had made since I got there.”

“That must have been hard,” I said, trying to imagine what a life like that must have been like.

“I’m just surprised that the slave master there actually gave me permission to kill all those foals. I guess they had the ability to buy more or some shit, I don't know. I was pretty social back then so I ended up killing pretty much every foal expect for this one dumb ass green pegasus who had had his wings broken on an anvil. I suppose he was lucky I picked on him so much. Probably saved his life,” Pyre said, a loathing towards her captors very clear in her voice. “Anyway, the whole thing was just some cruel joke. They didn’t let me go. I was their bitch for another few years. Fuck me if I know how long. Eventually some big shot slaver that worked for Red Eye came along and bought me. His name was Adversary, nasty piece of work he was.”

That name sounded familiar. It took a few seconds to put a face to it. “Wait, was he a tall black stallion?” I asked, memories rushing back to me.

Pyre looked at me with a bit of shock crossing her face. “Yeah, how the fuck did you know that? The bastard’s been dead for years.”

“I saw him inside of Inferno’s memories. He was the one that taught Inferno how to fight,” I said, surprised by the sudden connection between my flamer wielding friend and the flamer wielding cyber pony.

Pyre gave a small snort. “Can’t say I’m too surprised. Adversary had a knack for picking up ponies that were exceptionally fucked in the head and had a love for burning ponies alive. It would explain how Inferno seemed to always know my moves, if he learned to fight under that son of a bitch.”

“Adversary trained other ponies as well?” I asked. In Inferno’s memory I had only seen him dealing with Inferno. There hadn’t been any pony else.

“Sure, the asshole was one of Red Eyes head ponies back in the day. He’d find some desperate foal that had been fucked over by the wasteland and twist them into killing machines. He was damn good at it too. I wish I could have seen it when that shit finally got what was coming to him,” Pyre sighed, leaning back a little. “After his death though, I found myself alone in the wasteland. I wandered around for a bit before finally settling down in Friendship City. That was probably the only good part of my life.”

I gulped, knowing full well things were about to go downhill very quickly in this story. “Then what happened?”

Pyre gave a small growl. “I met a cute little filly a year or so younger than me named Viscera. The name probably should have given me a hint that she was bad news, but she was cute and we got along pretty well so I just ignored it. See she had been fucked over too, raped, tortured, you name it. But unlike me, she wasn’t trying to run away from the horrors of the wasteland, she wanted to get even with them,” Pyre paused, her face oddly reminiscent and euphoric. “Viscera proposed that we start up our own band of raiders, take back what had been taken from us. I was young and it seemed like a good idea at the time...”

The train lurched forwards a bit, making me stumble slightly before it continued along the tracks to Manehattan. “This Viscera, is that the same one that attacked you in the Hollow Shades?”

Pyre nodded. “While building up our gang we ran into a big buck named Skull Crusher. He fit into our little clique perfectly. In a weird way we were a happy family, so long as you overlooked the murdering and raping side of our profession. It didn’t take long for us to become one of the more feared gangs in Manehattan. We called ourselves the Manehattan Scourge. Everything was great for a while, but when a raider gang gets as notorious and daring as we were, it's starts to catch the attention of other raider gangs."

“Las Pegasus?” I guessed, knowing full well that was the gang they were to inevitably end up in.

“You got that right, but it wasn’t just them,” Pyre said, her voice dropping to a low octive. “Las Pegasus was interested in recruiting us, that gang has always been notorious for finding the best of the best and recruiting them into their ranks. Other gangs just wanted us dead. There was this big clan called the Bloodletters. We pissed them off a fair amount and they were slowly picking us off one by one. With them on our flanks, our options were quickly reduced to battling the leader of the Bloodletters in combat, which was to say near impossible, or joining up with las Pegasus for protection. I’m sure you already know what we chose.”

“Is that why Viscera is so determined to kill you?” I asked, recalling how hostil that psycho was toward Pyre.

Pyre chuckled. “That crazy bitch is pissed off cause she sees my leaving of the Las Pegasus raiders not only as treason to the gang, but also a direct betrayal to her. She never took kindly to betrayal.”

“Then why did she let you live?”

“Because of this,” Pyre grunted, tapping her hoof on her heavy power armour. “Viscera is bat shit insane. It doesn't take a smart pony like you to figure that out. She wasn’t my death to be a big show, a grand finally to the legend of Manehattan Scourge. She wants me at my best when she kills me. She won't settle for anything less.”

“Do you think you can beat her?” I asked. "When you're at your best that is."

Pyre put an armoured hoof to the claw marks on her face. “Does it look like I can beat her. You saw the fight back in the Hollow Shades. She whipped my ass, and she’ll easily do it again if given the chance.”

The train breaked again, this time coming to a complete stop. I stumbled backwards, falling onto my rump. Brisk and Xayah bolted up, looking around.

“What happened? There’s no way we’re already there,” Brisk stumped, glancing out the window opposite to Pyre and myself.

Pyre turned her attention from me, glancing out at the wastes. “Oh fucking shit,” She grumbled, qucikly bolting upright and placing her helmet over her head.

“What? What is it?” I asked, struggling off my rump and looking out the window as well. Outside stood well over sixty slavers, all dressed in full suits of combat armour. A few pulled wagons full of empty cages and large red banners were hefted up on spiked poles, depicting Red Eye’s wicked symbol. I turned back to Pyre nervously. “I thought you said Red Eye wouldn’t attack this train? That it was under his protection or something.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Pyre uttered, a small flame flickering to life on the end of her lone flamer. “Something must be going on.”

The slavers started moving towards the train, bursting open doors into the train wagon and charging upon the cowering ponies inside.

“Search the train, find any trace of Kamari or his associates!” A large slaver shouted, directing a few more in our direction. Around ten slavers were quickly moving towards us, weapons already drawn and aimed.

Mirra scuttled over and hid behind Pyre’s large leg. “W-What is happening?” she squeaked, her eyes darting back and forth between the approaching Slavers and her body rapidly switching between her different forms. She finally settled on a small yellow pegasus filly with a long pink mane.

The slavers burst down the doors, their guns already pointed at our heads. I reached for Boneless, only to once again remember it was destroyed and at the bottom of a balefire bomb crater. The rest of my friends were a little less defenceless, their guns spinning up and pointing towards the slavers that held them at gunpoint.

“Put your weapons down, and no pony needs to get hurt,” The slaver that seemed to be in charge growled, pulling me up against him and leveling his hunting rifle with my head. “I’d hate for this little pony to get a bullet where her brain should be,” Then his eyes turned to face me, a small smile breaking out across his face as he recognized me. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the group of ponies that Red Eye put a reward out for. Perhaps what we are looking for is on this train after all,” he turned to another one of the slavers, his gun still aimed at my head. “Fetch Stern. She’s going to want to see this.”

I tried to struggle against the slavers tight grip, but while I was many things, a strong pony was not among them.

One of the slavers quickly ducked out, while two more spilled into the wagon to take their place. Brisk dared himself to take a small step forward, his gun trained on the slaver that was holding me hostage. Two guns quickly spun to face him.

Pyre snarled, taking a step forward to stand next to Brisk. “What’s going on, I thought that this train was under Red Eyes protection?”

The lead Slaver scoffed. “Red Eye has us making sure nothing leaves the Hollow Shades that we don’t want. And it looks like we found what he was looking for.”

A large black griffon strutted into the wagon. While it was my first time seeing her in the flesh, I had come to recognize her fairly easily through a few of the memories I had seen both in Chestnut and Crank’s mind. This was Red Eye’s second in command. This was Stern.

The large griffon looked down at me, her head cocking to the side of a second. Finally she grunted. “Search through their saddlebags.”

Strong hooves reached around me and pulled my saddlebag from my back. I tried to fight back, but they pushed me back, sending me skidding off the floor to lie in a heap by my friends hooves. Other slavers moved in, ripping the saddlebags off my friends and beginning to dump their contents onto the floor.

I heard a loud clattering noise and saw the A.A.S.S. fall from my bag and roll across the floor to rest by Stern’s claws. The griffon looked down at it for a second, before picking it up and admiring the oblong device. She turned to me, her face a snarl. “Where did you get this?”

I pulled myself up hastily and prepared to lunge at the griffon when Pyre’s hoof shot out and held me back. I struggled against her, trying to free myself and attack the griffon. Pyre leaned down, her mouth only an inch from my ear. “Stay down Amber,” She whispered aggressively. “This isn’t a fight you can win.”

I calmed down a little but kept my eyes locked on the griffon. Stern took a step towards me, her large Anti-Machine Rifle swinging out to face us. “How did you get your hooves on this?” She repeated, her voice growing more, well, stern.

“I stole it from Kamari!” I spat, my eyes burning into the griffons. “Right before I killed him.”

Stern looked at me with surprise, before a strange calm settled on her face. “I suppose that makes my job easier,” She turned to the slaver that had initially been leading the group. “Spread the word. We are no longer going to the Hollow Shades.” The slaver gave her a saluet and moved out of the train car. Stern returned her strong gaze to me. “I suppose I should be thanking you pon-”

Two slavers burst into the train wagon. One pushed a battered looking Chestnut forwards while the other held a shotgun to her head. “Stern, this one tried to attack us. She killed two of our men. What do you want to do with her?”

Chestnut pulled herself up and glared at Stern. As their eyes met, Chestnut froze, her face temporarily going slack with fear. “S-stern…” Then the shock and fear was gone as her face welled with anger. “You slaving bitch!” Her horn flared and she reefed the shotgun aimed at her head away from the slaver and spun it around to face the large, black griffon.

Blam!

Stern dodged to the side, easily avoiding the shot. Her tail lashed out and knocked Chestnut’s newly acquired shotgun from her grasp as she spun. Chestnut dove forwards to attack Stern with her hooves, but her broken limbs slowed her dramatically.

Before she could reach the griffon, one of Stern’s claws flashed out and grabbed Chestnut around the neck. With a mighty heave of unpony-like strength, Stern raised Chestnuts squirming body up into the air before slamming her down into the metal floor of the train wagon. The whole wagon shook as Chestnuts body collided with it.

One claw clamped tight around Chestnuts face, pinning her to the ground as she squirmed while the other swung her Anti-Machine rifle to face her. The large griffon leaned down, preparing herself for the kill. She glanced back at the slavers behind her and gestured towards us. “Kill them, they are of no more use to Red Eye.”

The slavers grinned and turned on us, their weapons raised. My whole group tensed as we awaited the attack.

“What the fuck is the meaning of this!” The ghoul conductor yelled as he burst into the wagon, anger blazing from his eyes. “This train is under Red Eye’s protection, you can't kill any of the ponies on it! That’s part of the fucking deal!”

All the slavers glanced at the ghoul, not quite sure how to proceed as the ghoul bravely strode towards them. They looked to Stern for orders as the ghoul conductor moved in. clearly this wasn't something that the slavers encountered often. Stern straightened herself and addressed the ghoul directly. “Red Eye has ordered that we retrieve something for him, something these ponies were in possession of,” Stern decreed, holding up the A.A.S.S. “Do not get in the way of Red Eye business.”

The ghoul conductor gestured to the device in the griffon's claw dumbly. “Well you have it now don’t you?! Now respect the goddess damned fucking contract, let them go and get the fuck off my train. Unless you are planning to take a ride on it!”

For a second I thought Stern was going to attack the ghoul, but finally she removed her claw from Chestnut’s face and retracted her gun. “A Talon always respects the contract,” She turned back to face the rest of her slavers again. “Pack it up, no slaves here.”

Without saying another word or even looking at any of us, Stern turned and marched proudly out of the train wagon, the A.A.S.S. still in her claws. The rest of the slavers groaned and followed her out, a few casting us all dirty glances as they left.

She was going to let us live because of a contract? Griffons were weird.

As soon as the last one was out of sight I pushed past Pyre and rushed for the door, only for Pyre to grab me again and pull me back again. “Damn it Pyre! Let me go! They have the A.A.S.S!”

“Leave it Amber, fighting them won't do us any good,” Pyre hissed, grabbing my back hooves and slamming me down onto the ground. Xayah jumped forwards, standing protectively between Pyre and myself. “There are too many of them, and too few of us. Not to mention we are low on medical supplies, half dead and you’re missing a weapon. Let them go, we’ll find a way to get it back.”

I stopped struggling and let Xayah help pull me back up. “But they’ll get a head start to Fillydelphia!” I spat, glaring at the power armoured raider. “If they make it too Red Eye’s city there will be no chance of us getting it back!”

“I don’t think they’re heading for Filly right away,” Brisk said, rushing up to the window and looking out at the slavers that were slowly leaving us behind. “They’re moving in the opposite direction.”

“Rumour has it that that crazy Stable Dweller and her friends recently made a fool of Stern in Filly. I’d be surprised if she would dare return without a large collection of slaves,” Pyre told me, looking out the window at the slavers. “They’ll probably make a few stops before Filly. And they’re a large group they’re not going to be going anywhere fast.”

“What if they send a smaller group to take the A.A.S.S. back while the rest keep hunting slaves?” I insisted, looking around for anything I could use as a weapon. I saw nothing short of stealing one from my friends.

Pyre shook her head again. “With something that is clearly that valuable to them. They wouldn’t dare risk that. Our best shot it to stick to the plan. Get to Tenpony, get a good night sleep and stack up on supplies and ammo. Then we’re going to need to find some allies to help us, we can’t take all of them on alone.”

“But what about-” I started, but this time Xayah cut me off.

“We are outnumbered and outgunned you foolish pony. The only thing stopping them from ending us now is that we’re on this train,” She said, resting a striped hoof over my now trembling shoulders.

“That’s right, listen to you special little zebra there,” Pyre sneered, turning from the window to face me. “You go after them and you're dead. This time you won’t come back to life.”

“Besides, we don’t really need the A.A.S.S. anymore,” Brisk pointed out, moving back towards me. “Why don’t we just forget it? It’s not going to help us save the Stable any.”

I shook my head. “It’s not about saving the Stable Brisk. I don’t know who it is that wants it, or why they sent Crank and the other cyber ponies into our Stable to get it, but I’m not going to let them have it. Not after everything. And if they’re working with Red Eye, then that’s only more reason to need to stop them.”

But I knew my friends were right. There was no chance any of us could take on a group of slavers that size. Not alone and definitely not in the state we were now.

Mirra shyly approached the ghoul conductor who was glaring angrily around at all of us. “Um, thank you for helping us Mr. you really saved us.”

The ghoul glanced down at the disguised changeling. “Hey, I don’t remember you paying to board the train.”

Mirra chuckled nervously and passed him a hoof full of caps.

Chestnut finally pulled herself up. She rubbed her face where three small claw marks now lined her brow. They were nothing compared to the claw marks Pyre had on her face, but they must have hurt all the same. “Fuck. I forgot how fast that dumb griffon is.”

I rushed over to her and hoofed over one of her crutches. “You okay?” I asked, helping her up to her hooves.

Chestnut gave me a pained grumble in return. “I’ll be fine. That was just a reminder of what might happen if I mess up,” She turned to the ghoul conductor and gave him a polite nod. “Thanks for saving our asses there. I owe ya one. I think I’ll be getting off here. It’s about where I was planning to depart anyhow.”

The ghoul conductor gave a stiff grunt. “Don’t thank me, thank Red Eye for makin’ that contract. Now get the fuck out,” The ghoul turned to us. “I don’t suppose you five are going with her?” I shook my head. “Damn, well then just don’t cause any more trouble till we get to Manehattan. And I don’t want to see you back on this train for a good while.”

I tried to give him the politest look I could. “We’ll do our best. And thank you…”

“Hello Wastelanders! This is DJ Pon3, singing out t’ all of you loud and proud,” Shortly after the train had started moving, I had turned my radio to DJ Pon3. It seemed that a lot of interesting things had been going on in the wasteland, and I wanted to make sure I was all caught up. “The wasteland is a hard and grueling place my little ponies, I’m sure you’re all well aware of that. But this week has come with a couple of little surprises that just might make it a little bit better. First of all, Hallelujah! If you haven’t heard the news yet, the whole wasteland can hear me! Take that Red Eye! Take that Lonesome Pony! I’m still the best station around. Second of all, them Steel Rangers I always need to warn you about just went through a bit of a break up. That’s right, some of them are actually fighting t’ protect ponies now. They’re callin’ themselves Applejack’s Rangers. So if you see a ranger sporting a new black and red colour scheme, feel free to say hello. And I bet you can all guess who had a hoof in that. You guessed it, that crazy little Stable Dweller.

“But that’s not the only thing our Stable Dwellers done. No no! See she just left Tenpony a day ago for Maripony, and now she’s comin’ back! Wooh! Probably already dealt with whatever unspeakable evil was residing there. I swear that gal is after my own heart. A vindicator of peace and comin’ around to see little old me. If I wasn’t always takin’ a peak at all those letters my assistant Homage keeps writin’ t’ her and learnin’ about the crazy shit they get up to behind closed doors, I’d probably be askin’ for her hoof in marriage myself.

“But enough about the Stable Dweller, though I’m sure I could talk about her all day. See my little ponies, even when things look like they're gettin’ better, some rain is bound t’ fall. Red Eye is sendin’ more and more troops out towards the Everfree forest. I don’t know what they’re doin’ out there, but I’d recommend steering clear. And I’ve gotten a few reports about a balefire bomb that went off by that small settlement in the Hollow Shades. Was the explosion for good or bad? Hell if I know, but I would never count on balefire being good.

“That’s all for now pooonies! This is DJ Pon3, tellin’ you to keep on fighting that fight! You know the one! The good fight ponies!... And now, for one of my favorites sung by our very own Velvet Remedy herself! This is Broken Wing blues!”

As the voice of DJ Pon3 died out a slow sad song began to play from my pipbuck. I let the song play out, listening to Velvet Remedy's enchanting voice as the train moved closer and closer to Manehattan.

It was always weird hearing about my exploits on the radio. Or course everything that I did always seemed to get overshadowed by this Stable Dweller. She must have been some real deal wasteland hero.

“The Stable Dweller is quite the hero,” Xayah said from beside me, stating my thoughts aloud as she looked out at the rapidly approaching suburbs of Fetlock and the looming towers of the Manehattan skyline. “Gives me hope that we might actually be able to save the wasteland some day.”

“It would be great if we could,” I agreed. “The wasteland needs more heroes like her,” That couldn’t have been more true.

The train pulled to an abrupt stop at the Fetlock train station. I stepped out onto the rotting planked platform of the station, taking in the smogy, but seemingly clean in comparison air of Manehattan. Ah, it was good to be back home. The city where encounters were random, but far less emotionally devastating. I at least knew a good old fashioned bullet would actually kill my enemies here.

Not far away I could see the silhouette of the huge, menacing gun atop the Steel Rangers base and the towering structure of the Ponypalooza Hotel. I never did end up going to that hotel, and from what I had heard about it, hopefully I never would.

To my surprise, I found a familiar looking pony waiting on the platform. The weathered, tattooed face of Tales grinned at me, the burned off hide on the left side of his face twisting into weird patterns as his grin widened. “Well if it ain’t Amber Aura. Didn’t think I’d see you again,” The old storyteller said gleefully, pushing his black stetson up higher onto his head.

“Tales? What are you doing here?” I asked, walking over to him. It had been a long few days and I had almost forgotten about the old eccentric storyteller. “Leaving Manehattan?”

Tales stuck his corn cob pipe into his mouth a leered. “I heard there was a balefire explosion out in the area ‘round the Hollow Shades. Sounds like an interestin’ story to me. Thought I might check it out.”

I chuckled awkwardly. “Heh, that may or may not have totally been me.”

I could tell Tales was about to respond, but before he could, Pyre Blaze came waltzing from the train wagon to join me on the platform. Brisk, Xayah and Mirra slowly walking out after her. Tales eyes locked on Pyre, his face twisting into a snarl. “YOU!”

Pyre looked around before pointing at herself innocently. “Me?”

We all cast Pyre an interested look. “You’ve met Tales?” Brisk asked, taking a small step away from both Pyre and the seething storyteller.

Tales stalked forwards toward Pyre, his back arched as if he were a cat preparing to lunge. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, facing me again!”

“I’m sorry, have we met?” Pyre asked, genuinely confused as to what was going on. “I feel like I’d remember your ugly face.”

Tales gave her a growl and pointed to the burned off coat on the left side of his face. “You’re the fuckin’ reason I’ve got an ugly face you raidin’ bitch!”

Pyre just stared at him for a moment, trying to remember. Finally a look of comprehension crossed her face. “Oh yeah! You were the buck that hid in a radroach pit!” Pyre chuckled to herself a little. “I gotta say, that was a smart move. Hiding from our EFS like that... Look, we all make mistakes so no hard feelings or anything, right?”

“No hard feelings!” Tales gaped at her. “You told your raiders to skin me alive! I had to hide in a radroach pit for three goddess damned fucking days! And you say no hard feelings! I lost half of my face ‘cause of you!”

Pyre just casually waved a hoof to brush aside his remarks. “I used to tell my boys to skin everypony alive. They only sometimes did it,” She admitted with a smirk. She lazily gestured to the rest of us. “I even told them to skin these goofballs and now we’re traveling the wasteland together.”

Tales stuck his nose up in the air and turned away from Pyre, grumbling to himself. He turned back to look at me. “You ever manage to catch up with those cyber ponies you asked me about?”

I nodded. “Yeah, the last one died as of yesterday. We’re just heading to Tenpony to have a bit of a break now that they’re all dealt with.”

Tales took on a grim look. “Careful while going to Tenpony. Red Eye has been surrounding the tower ever since that Stable Dweller escaped from Filly. No pony knows why, but it can't be good.”

I slapped my hoof against my face. “Damn it! Really? Can I not just have one day without bad shit happening?!”

Welcome back to Manehattan Amber, I thought to myself glumly. In the Hollow Shades or not, nothing good ever happens here.

Footnote: Half way to next level.

Author's Notes:

What's this? Another fallout: Equestria story with a same sex love interest? I mean, it's just kinda tradition to do that at this point, right? Surely you all saw this coming.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat