“The precautions are necessary. In our business, if we underestimate our enemy’s capabilities it’s game over.”

Melancholy.

The very air around me had a dripping sense of melancholy. I felt like I was sinking, deeper and deeper into the endless sea of swirling sorrow. But through pensive sorrow I felt something else bubbling up as well. Hope.

It had been a very long time since I had felt any sort of hope. The last true memory of it I could remember was while I was rushing towards the open door of Stable 25, thinking my long and tedious journey had finally come to an end. How very wrong I had been.

I was sitting atop a hill, overlooking a field of ash. This wasn’t Manehattan, but I was able to see its looming silhouette at the edge of the skyline. There was little between me and the decrepit city, just miles of barren wastes and a couple of collapsed houses so coated in dust and ash that they had begun to blend into the landscape.

I felt his presence beside me before I saw him. That hope I felt amongst the darkness was radiating from him, slowly pushing back the endless bombardment of dread. I tilted my head to look at him.

Crank sat beside me, his eyes staring up at the glimmering stars far above us. The large cyber alicorn’s eyes were cold and unreadable as usual, but his face held a smile.

Tentatively, I pulled myself up to my hooves and moved a few paces closer to him. “Hey? You seem happy.”

Crank turned to look at me with his glowing red eyes. His edges of mouth twisted upwards more, giving me one of the first true smiles I had seen from him, lacking any pain or bottled up anger. “She’s alive,” He said gleefully, his normally monotone voice cracking slightly with emotion.

I felt my heart Sinking. “You’re talking about Scarlet, right?” Crank gave me a small nod and grin in response. “I had to leave her in the Institute Crank… I couldn’t save her…”

Crank held my gaze for a long moment before chuckling to himself and turning to face the sky once more. “I don’t think you understand Amber. If she is alive, there is still a chance to save her. I thought I had failed. That she was dead and all hope was lost. You have once again given me a second chance.”

I sat back down and looked up at the sky with him, trying to fully understand what he was saying. “But she’s still trapped. Who knows what the Institute is doing to her right now. Shouldn’t you be more… I don’t know… Angry?”

Crank gave a small grunt, his gaze still transfixed on the distant stars. “Let me put it this way Amber. If you had found out that the ponies of Stable 25 were still alive, but imprisoned, what would you feel?”

I thought about that for a second. “Hopeful I suppose. Scared for them, of course, but hopeful,” I looked up at him. “Do you really think we can get her out of the Institute?”

The cyber alicorn snarled beside me. “We will. The Institute will pay for what they did to her in time. However, for now, I can finally embrace that hope that I might still save her. I’ve been pushing that hope away for too long.”

“You do know that that’s not what she wants, right?” I said, thinking of all the things Scarlet had told me in the Institute. “It’s important to her that you are saved as well.”

Crank refused to look at me, his glass eyes suddenly conveying a sense of sorrow. “It is far too late for me, Amber. I cannot be saved. I am not the pony that she remembers. Every part of me has been destroyed. All that remains is a fragment of my old mind, trapped within the consciousness of another.”

I pushed myself up and moved in front of him, forcing him to look down at me. I reached a hoof out and placed it firmly atop his chest. “No. I don’t know how, and honestly, I don’t care, but I will not stop until you two are brought back together.”

Crank gave me a sad shake of his head. “You already did that Amber. You gave me the chance to finally say goodbye.”

“But you didn’t say goodbye, did you?” I shot back. Crank looked startled at the comment for a second, but quickly covered it with his usual stoic demeanor. “In the Institute you never said goodbye, because it wasn’t a goodbye, and you know it! We’re going to save her, and when we do, I’m not going to let you simply wither away in the back of my mind. You deserve better than that!”

I was on my back before I even saw Crank move. He had lunged forwards, his powerful hooves, flipping me over and pinning me to the ash coated ground. I suddenly found his jagged muzzle only inches away from my own.

“I do not deserve better! And I defiantly do not deserve her!” He snarled, bits of black ooze dripping from his muzzle. “What I have done has been to save her. You may have shown me how to be a pony again, but that does not make up for all the things I have done.”

I pushed at his hooves with my own, trying to pry him off of me. My efforts were of little success, but Crank got the message and quickly helped me back up.

“Scarlet deserves better, not me,” Crank finally said, turning his back to me and looking away into the distance. Far off I thought I saw the ominous red glow of Fillydelphia. It seemed to be calling out to us, trying to draw us in and ensnare our very minds.

I let a sigh escape my lips. “If we don’t save you both, then what would have been the point?” Crank shifted slightly next to me, but didn’t turn around. “Scarlet wants to be with you. You already gave her her freedom back when you rescued her from Fillydelphia, and she gave it up to come looking for you, just like you would have for her. It’s an endless cycle, and with each pass you’re both just going to keep destroying yourselves more and more until there really is nothing left to save or one of you gives up.”

“I will never give up,”Crank growled. I could feel a wave of anger wash off of him by the mere suggestion of it.

“I know, and neither will she,” I said solemnly, knowing full well that neither of them will ever stop trying to be together, even after death. “So you’re just going to have to save yourself as well, because if you don’t then you’re both damned.”

Crank was silent for a long while, simply staring off into space. Finally he spoke, his voice coming out in a low rumble. “I think it’s time for you to wake up. I need a while to think things through.”

Nodding, pushed myself away from him and started trotting off into the wastes towards the Manehattan ruins. With each step, I felt my body grow heavier and heavier and the world around me started growing dark. In the corner of my vision, I saw the cyber pony Inferno glowering at me, his glowing red eyes piercing through the gloom that was slowly creeping into my sights.

“I’m still waiting,” he seemed to growl at me, though I never did see his mouth move. Then he turned from me and sulked off into the desolation, his shrinking silhouette being swallowed up completely as I drifted into darkness.

“...We’re going to need to move to a new base,” Freedom said, looking over a map of Manehattan with Flask. “Now that the Institute has found us we’re going to need to be extra careful.”

I trotted over to them, all my friends trailing closely behind me. I had spent the good half of the morning recounting what had happened in the Institute to them with minimal help from Mirra, leaving my throat and mouth feeling oddly dry.

Xayah was walking around better as well. She wasn’t nearly as stealthy as she had once been, the heavy hoofsteps of her metallic legs making loud clunks as she moved, but she was at least walking straight. If anything, she seemed to be able to move faster, the mechanical limbs not being limited by strength or fatigue.

Freedom and Flask looked up as we drew close, their eyes flickering over us as we came to a stop.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my own eyes scanning over the map they had laid out on the table. It seemed to be an old map of the metro tunnels, the many lines now faded with age.

Flask exchanged a look with Freedom before returning his attention to me. “Thanks to the files you managed to pull from the Institute, we’ve begun to identify some of the synths within our own operations. We’re still going through the files, there are a lot, but now that we know the Institute is onto our location, it’s about time we found a new base of operations.”

“You’re leaving?” Pyre said, one of her eyebrows raising from behind her visor. “Just packing up and moving somewhere new just like that?”

“We have no intention of leaving Manehattan, but this base here definitely,” Freedom replied factually, her eyes returning to the map. “Once we have made sure the Institute no longer has spies amongst us, we will be off.”

“Of course that still leaves us with other issues,” Flask grunted, his own gaze returning to the map. He quickly took a swig from his flask and looked back up at Freedom. “We could always send Daisy?”

Freedom shook her head. Not until we’re sure she’s not a spy…”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, what other issues?”

Freedom and Flask exchanged another glance. They seemed to have a silent debate amongst each other before finally looking back at me.

“We got a distress signal from a synth a few hours ago. By the sounds of it, they’re in serious trouble,” Freedom explained, finally pulling herself away from the map completely to address us. “Normally we would respond immediately, rescuing synths is the entire point of our faction after all. However, we finally have a chance to blindside the Institute, and if we don’t act quickly that chance will disappear. And with the institute having spies among us, we simply don’t have the ponies to spare to go help them.”

“Not to mention they’re located right outside the Manehattan gardens,” Flask interjected. “We don’t have the kind of resources at the moment to go near that place.”

Pyre and I’s ears perked up simultaneously at the mention of the Manehattan gardens. “We could always go help them,” I blurted, remembering the conversation I had had with Pyre the night before I went into the Institute. “We were planning on heading out that direction anyway.”

Brisk, Xayah and Mirra looked over at me in confusion. “We were?”

Freedom and Flask exchanged a glance. “You were?”

I scuffed the tip of my hoof across the floor. “Sure. I mean, we don’t have anything better to do, right?”

All my friends save Pyre exchanged looks. Brisk turned back to face me. “You mean aside from saving Scarlet, dealing with Red Eye and figuring out who this strange director dude is or whatever?”

I nodded. “Yes, aside from that, we don’t have anything better to do. Besides, none of those are urgent, this is. We can afford to hold off on confronting Red Eye.”

Flask gave us an approving smile. “Alright then, I’ll send the distress signals radio frequency to your pipbuck. Meet the runaway synth and keep them safe until I can get there myself,” Freedom gave a quick nod at his words.

Mirra’s wings buzzed at her side in agitation. “Wait just a second. Why exactly do you not have resources to go to the Manehattan gardens? What’s so urgent about the synth? What exactly are we getting into? I have so many questions?”

Freedom pushed forwards a radio that was resting on the table beside her and fiddled with the dial for a second before it crackled to life.

There was a loud pop of static as a message burst through the speakers. In the distance, I could hear the constant fire of guns. “...Goddesses! They just killed Raspberry! Help! We’re being attacked by Steel Rangers!” There was another burst of static, this time mixed with the loud boom of a grenade going off. “I know you probably don’t have any reason to trust synths, but we need help! This message repeats!”

Freedom turned the radio off as the recording began to play again. “We got that only a few minutes ago. We haven’t been able to dispatch anypony to help them.”

Brisk grimaced. “Sounds like there's a good chance they're already dead.”

Xayah roughly nudged him in the side with one of her metal fore hooves. “Of course we will check it out,” She gave Brisk a quick glare. “Because helping ponies is what we do. Remember?”

Brisk rolled his eyes and gave her a sheepish smile. “I never said I wasn’t going to help. Besides, I’m always down to play hero or whatever.”

I caught Pyre’s eye through her visor for a quick second. She looked like she was silently trying to thank me. I gave her the best smile I could. It felt like smiling was becoming harder these days.

“I’m sorry, that’s a what?” Brisk said, staring up at the bird that was flying in quick circles above us. I followed the bird with my eyes as well, fascinated by the magnificent sight.

“Balefire phoenix,” Pyre said again, not bothering to look up at the glowing green bird herself. “We’re going to start seeing more and more of them the closer we get to the Manehattan gardens.”

“I have never seen a balefire phoenix,” Xayah said thoughtfully from beside me as she watched the bird do one more loop before swooping out of sight and behind one of the ruined skyscrapers. “It really is as beautiful as I was always told.”

Pyre just shrugged and continued to walk along the road towards our destination. “We’re going to be seeing a lot more soon. Try not to get sidetracked every time we see one in the garden.”

“And why exactly are we heading to the Manehattan gardens again?” Brisk asked flatly, glancing over at me. “You never did explain that to us.”

I exchanged a look with Pyre, not sure whether I should answer his question or not. Pyre gave a small shake of her head. “I have unfinished business there that I need to attend to.”

Brisk cast me a confused and accusing look, but something in my expression made him quickly drop the topic.

My pipbuck gave a small beeping noise as we neared an intersection in the road. I checked my map quickly, making sure we were still headed in the right direction. It looked like we were getting close to the source of the distress signal.

“We should be arriving in a few minutes,” I said, my eyes still transfixed to my pipbuck screen. “Keep your eyes open. The last thing we need is an altercation with the Steel Rangers.”

With a nod, everypony turned to face the area around them, wary of any approaching life signs.

I returned my attention to my pipbuck and opened up the Institute files I had stolen from my time in the Institute. I had spent a decent amount of time that morning perusing through the files. Most of it was of little interest to me, will almost every name on the long list of ponies replaced by synths being somepony I didn’t know. I had been surprised to learn that Salt Water had been a synth, before he had died in the caves below the Hollow Shades.

It was quickly coming to my attention that the Institute’s spies were far more integrated into the wasteland than I had previously realised. According to the files, it seemed like almost every settlement of note had a fair collection of synths. Many of the Institute's spies also happened to be figures of power, settlement leaders and the such.

I did notice that not a single synth had been deployed into Fillydelphia. Whether that was the work of Red Eye or the design of the mysterious director, I couldn’t be sure.

Slowly, I scrolled down through the files. There were hundreds of names, it was clear the Railroad was going to have a lot of work on their hooves. I doubted I would be able to go through the whole thing if I spent a full day doing nothing but reading it.

I was so focused on the files that I didn’t notice the lone green bar pop up onto my EFS until Brisk stopped and pointed it out to me.

I stopped and looked up from my pipbuck, my eyes catching on something large slowly rolling towards us from down the street. At the distance we were, it was hard to make out exactly what it was, but it seemed to be some sort of boxy robot that rolled along on a single wheel.

“What is that?” I asked, my eyes lingering on the single wheel before moving up to look at the rest of the robot's body.

“Securitron,” Pyre replied hastily, stepping up beside me. “There are tons of them out in Las Pegasus. Haven’t seen one out this far though.”

Mirra stood on her hind legs atop Pyre’s back to get a better look of the approaching robot. “What do you think it’s doing all the way out here?”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to get a better look at the thing. It seemed to be coming straight towards us, but according to my EFS, it was not hostile in any way. “I guess we’re about to find out,” I said glumly, quickening my pace slightly. “Because I think it’s here for us.”

I had been right. I hate being right.

The Securitron came to stop in front of us as we neared. Now up close, I was able to make out the rest of its body in fuller detail. It’s boxy body sported a central screen that currently played little more than static and a set of large pauldron-like missile launchers sat on each side. It had long, accordion-like arms, each one ending with a sharp metal claw.

We stood there silently, staring up at the large robot. After a few seconds of silence, I took a step forward. “Hello? Anypony home?”

“Amber Aura,” A voice suddenly said from the bot. I hopped back slightly with surprise. The voice was not what I had been expecting. I had expected some sort of synthesized tone, similar to Watcher or the many robots of the wasteland. This robot however spoke with a very organic feminine sounding voice. It had a posh, elegant tone to it, though noticeably raspy, as if the speaker's throat was slowly constricting.

Casting a glance back at my friends, I once more turned to face the securiton. “Who am I talking to right now?”

The screen in the center of the robot flickered and cut out. Then, it flashed back to life, this time showing off the image of a ghoul. The ghoul had a light grey, almost white coat. Her mane, though once clearly a light magenta with white streaks, had become a patchy mess. It was clear that despite her decrepit and rotting look, the ghoul had been attempting to make herself look appealing. A strange pink mist wafted around her, oozing from her orifices and spilling from her mouth. Had she not been little more than a rotting corpse, she looked like she had at one point been quite beautiful.

This must have been one of the ever so deadly Canterlot ghouls I had heard so much about.

In the background of the image I could make out what appeared to be fairly lavish looking walls and a beautiful crystal chandelier. A large window sat against the far wall, overlooking the ruins of Manehattan.

“Amber Aura,” The ghoul said again, speaking to us through the speaker of the Securitron. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I was beginning to think this meeting would never come to pass.”

I cocked my head to the side slightly as I looked up at the image. “I’m sorry. Who are you?”

The ghoul looked offended for a moment, before letting a stoic expression wash over her. “My sincere apologies. How very rude of me not to introduce myself. My name is Fleur De Lis. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

I exchanged another round of confused glances with my friends. This felt weird.

Fleur cleared her throat, which was far from a pleasant sound, and shifted slightly to look at all of us through the monitor. “This dance between us has of course been going on for long enough, so I shall pass most of the formalities and jump to what is important,” she raised her chin snootily and peered down at us. “All attempts to retrieve the A.A.S.S. from you have been met with failure. I wish to request that you deliver the A.A.S.S. to the Ponypalooza Hotel near Fetlock.”

My mouth dropped open. She wanted me to what?

I heard a small laugh escape Brisk’s mouth behind me. “Why in the name of Celestia would we do something stupid like that?”

Fleur scowled at him through the monitor. “You will of course be rewarded for your actions. Twenty thousand bits and place amongst the heigh society of the new world.”

I blinked. “Bits? You realize nopony has used bits in over two hundred years, right?” realizing that Fleur was very much serious, I shook my head. “I’m taking it you are with the Canterlot ghouls that have been gathering around Fetlock as well as the pony Crank was supposed to meet and deliver the A.A.S.S. to for Red Eye?”

A thin, sliver of a smile reached the edges of Fleur’s lips. “Of course. I am pleased to hear that my reputation precedes me?”

I snarled. “That’s not a reputation you want preceding you, I assure you,” I stomped a hoof and glared up at the image of the Canterlot ghoul. “I have been through hell and back to keep the A.A.S.S. out of Red Eye’s hooves, and you simply expect me to give it over to you like that?”

The thin smile faltered on the ghouls face, but did not recede completely. “We expected you to be unwilling to corporate, however trying to take the A.A.S.S. from you by force has proven to be less than successful,” Her smile returned in full. “So we figured we would ask you nicely before playing our next move.”

I exchanged a worried look with Xayah. The zebra took a step forward and looked up at the Securitron. “And what would that be?”

Fleur just gave a secretive grin that looked more like a grimace than anything else. “You have twenty four hours to deliver the A.A.S.S. to the Ponypalooza Hotel in Fetlock, or there will be consequences.”

Without so much as another word, the screen on the Securitron shut off and the robot began rolling back down the street and into the desolation.

Gulping, I looked around at all my friends who were looking just as confused as I felt.

Pyre cocked her head and looked over at the Securitron as it turned a corner and disappeared from sight. “We’re not actually going to do anything that old ghoul asks, are we?”

I shook my head. “If I gave up the A.A.S.S. every time somepony threatened to take it from me, I’d have hoofed it over three weeks ago. Let her do what she will, we can cross that bridge when we get there,” I glanced back down at my pipbuck. “Besides, we have other things to deal with right now.”

Trying our best to put Fleur’s threats out of mind, we once more began moving down the street towards our destination. According to the radio frequency on my pipbuck, we were getting awfully close.

“If they were being attacked by Steel Rangers, shouldn’t we be hearing something by now? Steel Rangers aren’t exactly the stealthiest bunch after all,” Brisk questioned, glancing around the quiet street. It was oddly silent… far to silent.

“Maybe it's a trap?” Pyre suggested, glancing around at the shattered windows that lined the streets. “Wouldn’t be the first time somepony used a distress signal to lure ponies into a trap.”

“Why would they admit to being a synth then?” Xayah pointed out. “If one wanted to play as bait, would they not claim to be something more trustworthy?”

“Maybe they’re dead then,” Brisk suggested. “It sounded like they were already engaged with the Rangers when we got the distress signal, and that was over an hour ago.”

I hesitated for a second. “Maybe… We’ll have to look around to know for…”

Blam!

I was cut off as a bullet slammed into the ground in front of me, sending a puff of dust, ash and loose asphalt up into my face. I jumped by, my magic pulling out Braeburn’s Liberator. The rest of my friends dropped into a battle stance, reaching for and pulling out their own weapons.

Mirra yelped. Instinctively, she morphed into a tiny me as she cowered behind Pyre. I gave her a small nudge to remind her of our travel agreement. The small changeling gave me a sheepish smile before transforming into a small yellow filly.

“Don’t come another step closer Steel Ranger scum! That was a warning shot!” A raspy female voice shouted at us from behind the broken window directly in front of us that appeared to belong to what had at one point been an old bank. “I’m armed and I won’t hesitate to kill you!”

That voice… exactly the same as the one from the distress signal. I turned to my friends quickly. “Not a trap then,” Turning back to the building, I shouted. “We aren’t rangers. We got your distress frequency and are here to help!”

There was a long pregnant pause. “Yeah right! Do you think I’m stupid?” They shouted back, their tone just as distrusting as it had been before. “Maybe if you weren’t heavily armed and walking around with a suit of fuckin’ power armour! Fuck you ranger!”

Before I could respond, I heard another voice pipe up. “Dude, they’re not fuckin’ raiders. That’s fucking Pyre Blaze!”

There was another long pause. “Last known location of Pyre was out in the Hollow Shades. No fucking way she’s out here.”

“I’m telling ya, that’s her. I’d recognize that armour anywhere.”

I turned and gave Pyre a confused look, but from her stance I could tell she was just as confused as me. Slowly, she took a step forward. “I am Pyre Blaze. We aren’t rangers. We are here to help.”

I could hear the sound of shuffling and muttering from inside the building. After a few long seconds, the mare’s voice spoke up again. “Well what are you waiting for! Get in here before they shoot you!”

Exchanging nervous glances with my friends, we quickly moved forwards and darted into the broken down bank.

The interior of the bank was a mess and had clearly seen battle recently. The windows had blown inwards, a clear sign of heavy explosives, and the walls were marred with bullet holes and scorch marks. Five pony corpses lay in mangled heaps on the floor. Four of them resemble raiders, ripped apart by what looked to be the Steel Ranger’s heavy weaponry. The final body was that of a Steel Ranger knight, its steaming power armour now rendered completely unusable from a grenade explosion.

There were three ponies still alive inside the building, all of which in different states of injury. One stallion laying in the corner had had both of his fore hooves blown off and was currently doing everything he could to stop the bleeding.

But it was how the ponies were dressed that gave me pause. Jagged chunks of metal and leather had been strapped over their body to make crude and intimidating pieces of armour. Their coats were stained with blood and muck and each one of them bore a twisted looking cutie mark of rusted knives or gory imagery.

They were raiders… we had been sent out to rescue raiders!

Almost instinctively, I reached for my shotgun to put one of them down. The wasteland was a twisted place, and sometimes it was hard to figure out exactly what the right course of action was to take, but I knew what to do with raiders. They were bad. Simple as that.

Pyre saw my reaction and quickly put a hoof up to silently tell me to stop. I glanced at her, confused. It wasn’t like Pyre to choose a nonviolent approach to a situation.

“How do you know who I am?” Pyre asked, her voice more monotone than I had ever heard from her as she turned back to the raiders.

One of the raiders, the mare that had sent the distress signal stepped forwards. “You’re fucking kidding right? Every raider between the Crystal Empire and fucking Canterlot knows who you are! You’re the raider that left the Las Pegasus gang. You’re the pony that said the big fuck you to Jinx and Razor Blade and just went out on your own.”

Pyre winced. “I didn’t say anything of the sort to those two… I just left.”

The raider missing his forehooves gave a small chuckle. “And you think they didn’t take that as a personal insult? I think you underestimate just how much those raiders hate you. Jinx is furious. Got every raider in the wasteland out for your head. You defying her like that is startin’ to make raider’s talk. They’re starting to say Jinx is going soft. That she ain’t as tough as she used to be.”

Pyre snorted. “Right, like anypony stands a chance against that force of nature.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard you mention their name before. Who exactly is this Jinx?”

Pyre cast me a quick glance. “Leader of the Las Pegasus raiders and someone you better pray you never meet. It takes a lot to be the overboss of a group of raiders that large, especially for how long Jinx has been running the joint,” She glanced back at the raiders. “But you didn’t quite answer my question. You said you’d recognize my armour anywhere. Have we met?”

Again, the raider missing his forehooves spoke up. “Names Caltrops,” he grunted, nodding his head slightly. “Proud member of the Manehattan Scourge. I don’t blame you for not remembering. It’s been a long time.”

Pyre went stiff. “No… No, I remember you. You were that little runt that murdered that little filly with a landmine…” Pyre was quiet for a few more moments, seemingly deep in thought. “I thought Viscera ate your heart…”

Caltrops grimace. “Don’t remind me. Somepony needs to tell that cunt to kill her prey before she does shit like that…” He shook the memory out of his head. “Ain’t none of us here are ponies. We all remember dying, then just waking up in some trash heap a second later.”

The raider mare spoke up next. “Took us a long while, but we started to hear rumours about ponies like us. Ponies that died only to come back from the dead…”

“Synths,” I grunted, recognizing the Institutes style of throwing out their failed experiments all too well.

The mare gave a grim nod. “Exactly. Before long we found more of us. Raiders that had witnessed death and were given another chance. Formed a small gang of our own. We weren’t doing half bad...” she glanced grimly at the Steel Ranger’s corpse lying in the middle of the room. “Well… until we had a run in with the Steel Rangers that is.”

Brisk looked back and forth a few times between all of us before giving me a small nudge. “So… Are we going to kill the raider’s or what?”

I cast him a small scowl, though I was unsure what the proper answer to that question was myself. Excluding Pyre, I wasn’t used to Raiders playing nice and not just shooting at us on sight.

The raider mare whom I was beginning to assume was the leader of the group took a step back and Brisk’s words and waved her hooves in the air. “Hold up just a sec. All of us here aren’t like that shit anymore. Experiencing death ourselves kinda took the novelty out of the whole thing. We’re trying to do better. I swear we are.”

Pyre turned to look at me, her eyes hard through her tinted visor. “We came here to help them right? Well, that’s what we’re doing.”

I gave her a confused look. “It’s not like you to search for the peaceful alternative before we do.”

Pyre simply shrugged. “I’m taking that talk we had to heart. I’m trying to get it right Amber. Fuck me, I really am going to try. I’ll start here,” She glanced back at the group of raiders as they tended to each other's wounds. “And maybe I might be able to help them to do better as well. Besides, it’s not often I get the chance to save one of Viscera’s victims,” There was a sense of sorrow to her voice. She was thinking about Heartbeat, I knew she was. Heartbeat and probably so many others that I didn’t even know about.

I gave an affirmative nod. “Alright. We’ll help them out,” I turned to face Xayah and Mirra who were looking over the group of raiders sceptically. “Can you two keep a lookout for any Steel Ranger. We need to get these ponies healed up before we move.”

The skepticism on both of their faces washed away at my words and they quickly darted out to do a sweep of the area. The raider that hadn’t spoken yet looked up as they darted out. “The Steel Rangers are likely still close by. Last time we checked was just a few moments before you guys showed up. It isn’t like them to simply give up. I think there’s around three or four of them.”

“You guys managed to hold off a whole squadron of Steel Rangers by yourselves?” Brisk asked, pulling out a healing potion and offering it to Caltrops.

Caltrops quickly drank the potion before giving Brisk a smug look. “As I said, I was once a member of the Manehattan Scourge. Toughest damn raider gang on this side of the wastes. I can put up a pretty damn good fight. Steel Ranger’s ain’t nothin’ but cowards in fancy armour,” He glanced over at Pyre who was still standing beside me. “You’re traveling with Pyre Blaze, surely she’s told you stories about us.”

Pyre shook her head. “I try not to talk about my past with these ponies,” She grunted, gesturing to Brisk and I. “They're a bunch of do-gooders. Talkin’ about some of the shit I did will probably just upset them more than anything. I do my best to forget about it… I’m trying to start new. Like you are.”

I gave Pyre a worried look. “I thought we were done holding stuff back from each other?”

Pyre scoffed. “We are. If you want to hear a detailed list of all the fucked up things I did as a raider, we can sit down and talk about them over a round of booze at some point. But unless you really want to hear it, I’ll keep those locked up tight and out of mind for now.”

I furrowed my brow as I tried to figure out just how to proceed with that. The truth of the matter was that I didn’t really want to hear everything she had done, and talking about it might not even be very healthy for Pyre’s emotional state. And at the same time, she was right. The list was probably too long to go over on a normal day and would probably just cause me more emotional turmoil than it would help her.

Caltrops shook his head. “I don’t think you can just forget about those kinds of things, Pyre. I’ve been trying for months. The more I try to pretend my past never happened, the more it keeps me up at night. The music must be faced, or it will only fester.”

It looked like Pyre was about to respond when a gunshot rang out throughout the building. Everypony flinched, ducking down and making sure to get out of view of the windows.

I scooted up against the wall and peeked out, taking in the street outside. Xayah and Mirra stood in the center of the street, their guns drawn and pointed at three Steel Rangers. The two Steel Ranger’s on the sides looked just as intimidating as Steel Rangers tended to look, both of them sporting a heavy set of power armour. The one to the right had what looked to be a grenade launcher attached to their battlesaddle, while the one on the left had two twin miniguns on each side. A red dot of light on Xayah’s side alerted me of a fourth ranger somewhere out of sight, keeping an eye on us with a sniper.

The Ranger that stood between them however was a sight to behold. His large suit of fully enclosed power armor was a dark purple, encrusted with dark, intricate patterns. His massive battle saddle held an impressive arsonal of firepower as well. On his right side was a bulky box filled with missiles and on his right was a huge cannon like weapon that was so comically large I could compare it only by that of a Balefire Egg Launcher. A small hatch had opened up on his back and some sort of magical energy turret had popped out and was currently shifting back and forth between Mirra and Xayah.

“You are in the presence of the True Steels!” The central Ranger boomed in a deep, resonating voice. “Drop your weapons or face our fury!”

Pyre gave me a confused look. “True Steels? The fuck is going on?”

I didn’t answer her. Instead, I exchanged a worried look with Brisk before looking back out at the Ranger clad in purple power armour. It had been a long time since I had heard his voice, but it was not the kind of voice one forgets. Strong and commanding and oozing with his zealot mindset.

“Iron Hock,” Brisk whispered at me, as he slowly crawled over and peeked out the window at the large Ranger.

I nodded. “This must be that splinter group Crossroads warned us about.”

Iron Hock took another step forward. There was a loud clunking sound as the rockets in his rocket launcher reloaded themselves. He glanced back and forth between Mirra and Xayah for a second, before finally focusing on Xayah and narrowing his eyes. “You… I never forget a face. You were that zebra bitch that was traveling with the two Stable dwellers.”

I saw Xayah take a worried step back at his approach. Iron Hock’s gaze flickered up to the window. I ducked down, but I’m sure that he saw me.

Brisk glanced up at me. “You got a plan?”

I shrugged. “We can try diplomacy I guess, but that didn’t work well for us the last time we crossed this guy.”

I could see the raiders readying themselves for what they knew was going to be a rather rough fight. I gulped. Four Steel Rangers would be tough at the best of times. But these zealots… these True Steels seemed to be packing a much larger arsonal than the normal Steel Ranger group.

Xayah and Mirra took another step back as the three members of the True Steels approached them.

“I would like the Stable Dwellers to know…” Iron Hock started, raising his voice so that we could hear him clearly. “...That I found their little Stable. It was tricky work, dealing with the pink cloud inside, but I made it work,” He paused, taking another step forward. His hooves thumped heavily against the ground as he walked. “...I stripped it of parts. Ripped apart the walls and tore out the generators. Scavenged everything of value. Your home is being put to good use, I assure you. No scrap left untouched.”

I scowled. I didn’t like the idea of ponies defiling the remains of my old home. I wasn’t sure if Iron Hock was trying to comfort me or get under my skin, but the whole thing just left a gross taste in my mouth.

A rather cruel sounding chuckled escaped the ranger as he continued to draw closer to the building. I suddenly knew that he was definitely not trying to comfort me. “The bodies inside of course had to be dealt with as well… I put those to good use too.”

Unable to contain myself anymore, I hoped out of my cover and scowled at the large ranger. “What did you do to them!” I bellowed, feeling a hot anger rising up inside of me. Mirra and Xayah jumped a little in surprise at my sudden outburst and quickly moved up beside me.

Even through his helmet, I could feel Iron Hock’s grin. “The Steel Rangers were always weak. Zombies such as Steelhooves and mindless lackeys like Crossroads were allowed to make decisions. They could have been something great… Now they’re nothing but history. The True Steels are what the Steel Rangers should have been. We will control the wasteland and create a new order. For two hundred years, pony kind has been stagnant. Magic and technology came to all but a standstill. Under the new order of the True Steels, progress can once more commence,” He raised his hoof up into the air dramatically. I didn’t doubt this speech had been rehearsed many times. He looked back down at me. When he spoke again, his voice was low and dripping with honey. “But for that to happen, we will need fuel.”

I felt my legs grow weak. He wasn’t implying that he… he couldn’t…

My mouth dropped open as I stared at him. “Y-you turned them into…” I clamped my mouth shut, unable to finish the sentence.

Iron Hock had no issue finishing it for me. “The corpses of Stable 25 will be melted down and used to fuel the new order. They should be enough for our purposes for the next few years until we can find a more sustainable source of energy.”

My legs gave out from under me and I collapsed to the ground. Xayah stepped in front of me protectively and growled at Iron Hock. “You need to leave… Now!” Xayah snarled, her lips curling back and baring her teeth.

Iron Hock simply sniggered. “That won’t be possible,” He gestured to the building behind us with an armoured hoof. “I am aware there are a group of raiders in there. They need to die. The world's new order has no room for anarchists like them.”

I pushed myself up and stomped my hooves on the ground. “These ponies are currently under our protection! You will leave now or we will retaliate.”

Iron Hock gave me an amused look. “You would protect raiders? These ponies are rapists. Murderers. I would have thought that even you would hate ponies like them.”

Brisk pulled himself out of the bank and stood next to me. “You’re the only raider I see here,” He scowled around the handle of his pistol.

All three of the True Steels took an angry step forward at that remark. Iron Hock snarled. “We are trying to save the wasteland. Bring it peace and governance. How dare you compare us to those filth!”

“You’re raiders in fancy armour,” I said flatly, giving him an angry glare. “Now fuck off!”

Iron Hock gave an agitated snort and scraped his hoof across the ground, leaving a large gouge in the road. “If you will not give the raiders over, then you are their accomplices,” the turret on the top of his back swiveled to aim at me. “...And you will be judged by the new order accordingly.”

I suddenly regretted making him quite so angry.

“Get back, now!” I shouted, pushing both Xayah and Mirra back into the building. A second later, the street where we had been standing was blasted apart by the sudden burst of the True Steels weaponry.

I was sent flying backwards, ash and debris obscuring my vision as the ground burst open in front of me. Fire flared before me, seering the front of my face and burning away some of my coat. I slammed against the side of the building and staggered, my ears ringing and my hooves shielding my eyes in an attempt to not go blind.

Brisk stumbled into me, the right side of his face oozing blood from the shrapnel from the explosive fire. I grabbed onto him and pulled him to the ground second before the turret atop Iron Hock’s back opened fire. Blasts of magical energy whizzed over our heads, bursting against the building stone walls and blasting out hoof sized chunks of the wall in a shower of sparks.

I felt a pair of strong hooves wrap around me as Pyre moved out from cover and started dragging the two of us back into the building.

There was an angry scream, followed by a loud explosion as one of the raiders tossed a grenade from the building. The True Steels scattered, jumping out of the way and getting clear as the grenade burst the street apart, sending shrapnel and debris flying in every direction.

A bullet slammed into Pyre’s armour, the unseen ranger finally taking a shot at us. The bullet ripped through the plating over Pyre’s chest and buried itself deep in her flesh. She screamed out, stumbling as she conitnued trying to pull us into cover. A lesser pony might have simply dropped dead from the shot, but Pyre was anything but a lesser pony.

I fell forwards, collapsing inside the structure. My head was spinning and my vision still seemed to be flashing with bright lights, but I was beginning to make the fuzzy shapes of ponies out again. I stood up, trying to get my bearings.

“The fuck are you doing!? Get down!” I heard one of the raiders shout at me. I only had just enough time to throw myself to the ground before a rocket came whizzing over my head and blasting against the far wall.

The shockwave from the blast sent me sprawling, my head slamming against the side of the wall. I groaned, rubbing the side of my head with a hoof. I could already feel a large bump forming.

Xayah pulled herself over to me and propped me up, looking me over for wounds. “Amber!? Amber, are you alright!?”

I blinked up at her, my head in a daze. “Y-yeah… I’ll be fine…” I leaned up and tried to give her a reassuring nuzzle, but with my spinning vision, I missed her completely. I felt anything but fine.

Two more rockets slammed into the side of the building, making the whole structure shudder. A large chunk of roof collapsed, nearly crushing Mirra who yelped and quickly hopped out of the way.

A blast of flame shot over me as Pyre began launching her own attacks at the True Steels. I heard one of them cry out in pain for just a second, but I doubted that her flamers managed to cook the pony inside the power armour that quickly.

Brisk threw himself to the ground beside Xayah and I as another round of Iron Hock’s turret sent magical lasers flashing into the room. Brisk raised his pistol and fired two shots blindly at the rangers before ducking back behind cover.

The raiders had begun firing back as well. The two raiders who still had all their limbs intact would jump out from hiding and send a round of bullets flying towards the rangers before jumping back behind cover. Caltrops had pulled himself up to the door and was quick at work setting up some sort of trap.

I rolled up to my hooves, swaying slightly as blood rushed up to my already spinning head, and fired a shot from Braeburn’s Liberator. The magically guided shot locked onto one of the closer rangers and blasted into their forehoof. The ranger howled with pain as the explosive buckshot ripped apart their armour and the fire talismans set their hoof ablaze. The ranger retreated slightly, moving out of range to tend to their wound, but they weren’t out of the fight yet.

The only warning I got was a small flash of red as the laser pointer on the end of the concealed rangers sniper leveled with my head. I ducked below cover, the shot from the sniper ringing out and blasting into the wall behind me.

“Those rangers are going to tear us apart with those explosives if we don't take them out soon, but we aren’t going to be able to land a good shot on them with that sniper always pinning us down!” I shouted over the din as yet another explosion rocked the structure. I turned to Xayah, who was currently doing her best to evade falling debri as the structure around us quickly started crumbling in on itself. “Xayah, do you think you can find and take out the sniper?”

Xayah ducked as another round of fire from Iron Hock’s turret lashed out at us and looked up at me. “I’m not as sneaky as I used to be, Amber,” She grunted, flicking at one of her new metal hooves in disdain.

I gave a slow nod. “I know, but you’re still the best sniper we have. Are you up for it?”

Xayah took less than a second to come to a conclusion. “Consider it done,” She pulled backwards and darted up a set of stairs that lead to a higher level of the bank.

I twirled around to face Pyre. “Pyre! You’re our distraction. The second that sniper goes down, I need you to draw their attention away from us. We need to divide their firepower or this fight is going to be over quick.”

Pyre gave a quick salute. “You couldn’t have asked a better pony for the job.”

I turned to Brisk and Mirra, ducking slightly as another missile bombarded the structure. “You two are with me. Once Pyre draws them away, we need to start picking off the rangers.”

“And what do you want us to do?” The raider mare asked, her horn glowing as she fired off a barrage of shots from her assault carbine.

“We aren’t going to be able to do much hiding behind here. The second those rangers manage to destroy this wall we’re all going to be a nice easy target for one of their missiles,” I explained, quickly glancing out the window. The three rangers had regrouped and were beginning to move closer. “I need you to try and flank them. There's eight of us and only three of them. If we can get behind them we might stand a chance.”

Caltrops rolled onto his back and looked up at me and wiggled his stump legs, some sort of explosive held tightly in his mouth. “Well I can do fuck all,” He grumbled loudly around his mouthful of explosives. “I’ll... hold down fort... I suppose. Don’t come in through the main door.”

The mare dropped her weapon as one of the True Steels sent a volley of grenades flying towards us. She lashed out with her magic and wrapped the grenades in her telekinesis before tossing them back out the window at the rangers. There was a boom as the grenades exploded half way out of the building, the explosion and shrapnel sending all of us staggering backwards against the far wall.

“They have EFS, they’ll see us trying to flank them,” The mare retorted, once again scooping up her weapons and firing blindly into the kicked up ash and smoke that was beginning to obscure the street.

I fired another shot out into the street, this time missing by miles as the minimal range on my weapon caused the buckshot to fall short. “You’ll have to split up. Head separate directions if you can. Confuse their EFS if possible,” I paused so I could jump backwards and avoid a particularly well aimed shot from the rangers sniper. “Wait for my signal and then get moving!”

“What’s the signal?”

There was a small popping sound of a silenced sniper firing, followed by a pony clad in combat armour bearing the Steel Ranger insignia falling from a rooftop and crashing to the ground with a thud.

“That would be the signal,” I grunted. “Go! Now!”

At once, the raiders began moving to the sides, creeping from the building and in a large arch around the street. At the same moment, Pyre burst from the already ruined window, the last bits of glass flying outwards as she barrelled towards the three Rangers.

The rangers yelled and reeled back, their attention suddenly pulled towards the large power armoured raider that was charging towards them. They stumbled back, trying their best to avoid the wave of fire that rushed towards them.

I waved my hoof towards Brisk and Mirra. “Now or never guys!” not waiting for them to respond, I leapt out the window and began moving around the edge of the street in an attempt to get a good shot on one of the rangers. Brisk and Mirra moved out after me, each one with their pistols out and ready.

I saw Iron Hock glance in my direction as he danced out of the way of one of Pyre Blaze’s blasts. He snarled and began darting towards me, only for Pyre to leap into his path and send him stumbling backwards with a strong buck. The Ranger growled and rounded on Pyre, the box of rockets on his side popping open and sending a plethora of missiles streaking towards Pyre.

Pyre rolled, using the weight of her power armour to pull her down as quickly as possible. The missiles sailed over her head. I was about to cheer at her successful dodge when I realized the missiles were now heading towards me. I pushed myself forwards, grabbing onto Mirra and Brisk and tossing them out of the path of the lethal projectiles.

The rockets slammed into the side of an already collapsing structure. The building's front was ripped apart, glass and brick was sent flying across the street and the whole structure started rocking dangerously.

Far to my left, I saw the raider mare slowly creeping around the edges of the street, trying to get behind the Rangers. Where the other raider was, I couldn’t tell.

I pushed myself forwards, Braeburn’s liberator raising and firing at the closest ranger. The buckshot tore through the armour plating over their shoulder, ripping into their flesh and sending dented clunks of metal plating shooting from their side like shrapnel.

The ranger stumbled, their eyes wide through their helmet as they felt the explosive round slam into them. They spun to face me, the twin miniguns on their side whirred to life and sent a hail of bullets towards me.

I leapt aside, searching for cover as the street around me was ripped up by the rapidfire. I tossed myself behind an old sky wagon, seeking shelter from the barrage. The miniguns fire sprayed the side of the wagon with led, a few of the bullets bursting through the wagons plating and shot past me. One shot grazed my side making me wince away.

Brisk fired off a shot at the ranger assaulting me. The bullet pinged harmlessly off the ranger’s armoured side, but drew their attention away from me long enough to move out from cover and fire off a shot myself.

The Ranger dropped to one knee, the explosive shot from my shotgun ripping into one of their legs. The ranger scowled at me as they slowly pulled themself back up and aimed their guns in my direction once more. I took a step back, getting ready to throw myself out of the way of their deadly fire.

Blam!

A well aimed shot from Xayah punctured through their visor and sunk into their brain. The inside of the rangers helmet was coated with red as the head inside popped like a balloon. The ranger swayed for a second, their power armour keeping them upright even after death. Then they collapsed to the ground in a mangled heap of flesh and metal.

I turned to the other two rangers, who were both doing their best to hold off Pyre's vicious attacks. The ranger with the grenade launcher pushed themself out of the way of Pyre’s fire as she closed in on him, his weapon firing and sending a grenade shooting towards Pyre’s face. The explosive burst well before it reached her, the searing heat of her flamers detonating it early.

Iron Hock lashed at Pyre from behind, his large, metal clad hooves slamming into her back and sending her toppling forwards. Pyre hit the ground with a thud, her fore hooves sprawled out in front of her.

I raced forwards, my shotgun aimed towards Iron Hock’s head. He snarled at my approach, his rocket launchers once more popping open and streaking their projectiles towards me. My shotgun exploded the first before it could reach me, blasting appart the rocket mid air and causing a large cloud of fire and smoke to obscure the street between us. I dove out of the way of the others, pushing myself to my right as the missiles launched past me.

I heard a roar of triumph as the raiders finally got into position behind the rangers and began bombarding them with a hail of bullets from behind. The grenade launcher ranger fell, his armour torn open by the brutal assault of the raider mare’s assault carbine.

Iron Hock was thrown backwards as Pyre pulled herself up and bucked at him with her strong back hooves. The ranger staggered, trying to keep himself upright after the devastating buck to the face. He glanced around at all of us as we slowly closed in around him, realizing he was very much outnumbered. He growled at me as I approached and raised my shotgun to face him.

“You have made yourselves enemies of the True Steels!” Iron Hock roared, as if attempting to intimidate his way out of the situation.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re telling me we weren’t already?”

Mirra hopped up on top of Pyre’s head, no longer in disguise, and hissed at Iron Hock, showing off her forked tongue and fangs. I thought it was a little adorable actually, but Iron Hock didn’t seem to think so. He took a nervous step back from us, only to find himself bumping into the two raiders that had flanked him.

I heard the loud, metal hoofsteps of Xayah walking up behind me. I turned my head slightly, to see her slowly approaching, adding her own weapon to the arsenal of firepower currently aimed towards Iron Hock.

“Well Amber? What is the plan?” Xayah asked as she pulled up next to me.

I glared at Iron Hock for a second, my eyes narrowing. This bastard had desecrated Stable 25. Melted down the corpses of my friends and family to use as fuel. He’d probably done the same thing to my father as well. I growled. “I don’t care... Just kill him.”

Thump.

We all looked up, our focus suddenly drawn to a noise that was slowly approaching from across the street.

Thump.

A red bar popped onto my EFS. Then another. Then another. Soon my EFS was swarming with so much red that I couldn’t tell where one bar ended and the other began.

Thump.

A small chuckle escaped Iron Hock’s lips. “What do you think the True Steel’s are stable dweller? A small group? A well armed gang of raiders?” he stopped to look back at where the loud noise was coming from. “I assure you, we are much greater.”

Thump.

A power armoured pony turned the street corner and began marching towards us, their battlesaddle equipped with just as much firepower as the rangers we had just put down. They were followed shortly by three more rangers, each with an equally deadly arsenal.

I crouched into a battle stance, readying myself for their approach. We had just taken on four True Steels without casualty, we could take on four more.

Then five more rounded the corner, their power armour glinting in the diffused light of the cloud covered sun. I felt my jaw go slack as I realized how completely screwed we really were.

Iron Hock turned his head to face me, the edges of his grin just visible through his visor. “I’d start running if I were you.”

The turret atop Iron Hock’s back flared to life, spinning in a fast circle and sending blasts of magical energy lashing towards all of us. We scattered, leaping out of the way of the fire as Iron Hock quickly bolted away from us and towards the approaching rangers.

I raised Braeburn’s Liberator, hoping to fire off a shot at the fleeing Ranger before he could escape me completely. I didn’t have time to fire as the incoming group of rangers let loose their own fire upon us.

I was thrown back, a rocket exploding against the ground only a few inches away from my hooves. The road was torn up, sending bits of asphalt into the air and raining down around me.

“Get back to the bank!” I heard Pyre scream over the booming fire and ringing in my ears. I saw my raider friend rush past me, carrying a heavily bleeding Brisk on her back. “Get back now!”

I stumbled to my hooves, trying to keep my balance as I scrambled away from the fire and back towards the crumbling remains of the bank.

One of the True Steels rushed at me, a minigun on their battle saddle spewing a wall of bullets towards me. I dropped and rolled across the ground, a few shots from the minigun whizzing through my tail as I threw myself down to the street.

I rolled onto my back and bucked upwards, my hooves colliding with the rangers chin as they reared up above me. The ranger stumbled slightly, but was hardly slowed by my rather measly strength.

Xayah rushed past them, one of her hooves flashing out and sending the ranger tumbling to the side. Xayah reached down and pulled my back up before pushing me back towards the bank. “Move! Go!”

The two raiders joined us as we began darting towards the bank. The ground around us burst apart as the oncoming rangers fired upon us. I was thankful that none of their weapons seemed to be very accurate… not that you needed to be very accurate with explosives.

Remembering Caltrops’ suggestion, I ignored the door to the bank and simply threw myself through the window, landing hard on the cracked, glass covered floor inside. Xayah landed next to me a second later, followed shortly by the two raiders.

Brisk glanced up at me as I landed and gave me a thin smile. One of his forelegs looked broken and the coat on his left side had been ripped apart by shrapnel. “Looks like we’re back to square one sis,” He grimaced, spitting out a small wad of blood.

The raider mare gave a fake laugh as she glanced out the window at the approaching rangers. “This is well below square one. We’re fucked.”

Caltrops pulled himself over. The stumps that had once been his legs were still bleeding profusely and the colouration of his coat was beginning to look pale. He nodded towards the back of the bank. “There’s one of those old safes back there. Open from years of looting. We could barricade ourselves in there.”

Pyre shook her head, crouching low as one of the rangers sent a rocket launching through the window at us. “What would that accomplish? We’d just be trapping ourselves.”

I grimaced. “It might give us a little time,” I glanced in the direction Caltrops had insinuated. Just through a door that led to the back room I could see the cracked open iron door of a giant vault. I couldn’t see much of what was inside, but the door looked incredibly sturdy. Like a miniature Stable door.

Mirra hoped to her hooves. “I think getting trapped in there is going to be better than being trapped in here in a second,” As if to prove her point, a grenade landed against the far wall and detonated, blasting apart the wall we were cowering behind and giving the rangers clear shots at all of us.

“No time to talk, get in the vault now!” I yelled, hauling Brisk up to his hooves and pushing him towards the safe. “Go go go!”

Everypony quickly clambered to their hooves and started charging towards the far room. Beside me, Caltrops, propped himself up against the remains of the crumbling wall, gun in mouth and firing at the oncoming rangers.

“What are you doing, come on!” I yelled, slowing myself to a halt as I saw him failing to follow us. “They’re going to tear this place apart in a few seconds.

Caltrops waved me off, wiggling one of his stumpy hooves. “I’m dead anyway. Maybe I can take one of these bastards with me,” He grunted and turned back to the street, his gun firing and piercing through the visor of one of the rangers. “Get the rest to safety.”

I heard Pyre’s heavy hoovesteps as she quickly trotted back over to us. “You sure about this? You were never one for self sacrifice back when you were in the scourge.”

Caltrops grunted again. “When the Institute gave me a second chance at life, I decided then and there I was going to be better. I faced my music, came to terms with the fact that I will never atone fully for what I’ve done as a raider. If I’m ta die, I’m not going to go down for myself,” He glanced back at Pyre and gave her a small wink. “If you really are trying to be better too, then I think it’s about time you faced your own music as well.”

Pyre gave a grim nod, taking a small step away from the bleeding raider. Silently, she turned her back and rushed back towards the vault. I hesitated for a second, questioning if I should drag Caltrops to safety myself. A pleading look from him told me not to.

The True Steels were getting closer. A few of them had started running towards the bank now, their massive weapons firing a consistent barrage of explosives towards us. One of them was foolish enough to burst through the door.

The explosion of the bomb Caltrops had rigged to the door sent me stumbling backwards towards the vault. I spun around and sprinted the rest of the way to safety, bullets slashing through the air around me as I ran.

One blast from Iron Hock’s rocket launcher sent me sprawling across the room. I tumbled head first into the large vault, my head slamming hard against the ground as I landed. The second I was in, Pyre and the two other raiders rushed up to the door and began to push. The huge vault door creaked and began to swing closed, slowly plunging the room into darkness.

I looked up just in time to see Iron Hock leap through the window of the bank, his ironclad hooves pulping Caltrops’ skull as he slammed the dying raider into the ground. Then the massive iron door slammed shut, sealing us off from the outside world.

The second the door was closed, everything went dark. I fumbled with my pipbuck until I found the flashlight feature and flicked it on, casting the room into a sickly green glow. Beside me, Brisk did the same.

We could still hear the rangers outside, but the sounds of their yells and the booms of their weaponry had been muffled immensely.

The safe was far from small. It consisted of a large room that was big enough to house at least ten ponies as well as a smaller room that branched off in the back. It was lined with rows upon rows of shelves that I assumed must have held bits back before the war. It had been looted clean by now, and only a couple of bits seemed to remain strewn across the floor.

“Who in the wasteland needs to loot bits?” I grumbled to myself, inspecting one of the empty shelves. “It’s not like they’ve been worth anything for hundreds of years,” I thought of the offer Fluer had given me. How she had offered bits in exchange for the A.A.S.S. I shook my head. Mysteries for another day.

There was a loud bang on the large safe door, making us all jump. Through the thick layer of metal, I heard Iron Hock speak. “So you have chosen to hide like cowards before our superior might!”

I rolled my eyes. This guy was way too dramatic about everything.

“How long do you think you will survive in there without food? A few days?” Iron Hock continued, once again slamming something against the door. “And what do you plan to do about us once you are forced to open the door?”

I scowled. “What? Are you ponies just going to wait outside with your hooves up your ass for the next few days? Do you really have nothing better to do than pester a bunch of wastelanders?”

There was silence from the other side of the door for a second. For just a moment, I thought I might have convinced him we weren’t worth his time.

“You have killed faithful members of the True Steels, insulted me personally and protected raiders,” Iron Hock snarled through the door. “Furthermore, you are in possession of two functioning Pipbucks and a set of fully operational T-60 Power Armour. I assure you, you are very much worth our time.”

Pyre grimace. “Whoops… yeah they probably don’t like the fact I’m running around with a set of stolen Steel Ranger armour.”

Brisk groaned. “Of course you stole it… why am I not surprised?”

Pyre shrugged. “Hey, I used to be a raider. What did you expect.”

Another thump against the large door once more drew our attention to Iron Hock. “I am giving you one chance to surrender yourselves.”

I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “Right, we’re totally going to do that,” I drawled, taking a small step back from the door.

There was a small sigh that sounded uncomfortably like a chuckle from the other side of the door. Then, there was silence. I waited a few seconds, but it seems that the rangers had gone completely quiet.

Great, now we were screwed and I was anxious.

I turned back to face the rest of the ponies in the room. “Get comfortable. It looks like we might be stuck in here for a little bit.”

The raider mare took a step towards me, her eyes glancing around the room. “Where is Caltrops?”

Pyre and I exchanged a glance. Finally Pyre stepped forwards. “He didn’t make it in. He died doing what was right.”

The mare's face faltered somewhat, but she remained fairly stoic. Raiders are just used to having their friends dying I guess. “His death is all that any of us can hope for at this point I suppose.”

I heard Xayah trot up beside me and wrap one of her metal hooves around my neck. “We’ll find a way out of this, don’t worry,” She whispered to me softly.

I nodded, though I was beginning to have doubts of our success. “We’ve all faced much worse in the past. We can deal with these Steel Ranger zealots.”

Not knowing what else to say, I reached into my saddlebag and started passing out healing potions to those that needed it most.

I had hoped we would have figured a way out within the hour. We didn’t.

We spent most of the time in silence, pacing across the room or simply laying on the ground waiting for something to happen. The rangers outside had remained completely silent as well. A part of me hoped they had simply left, but I knew that was unlikely.

Xayah had curled up beside me at some point, her head resting on my back as I sat on the cold ground next to the doorway to the adjoining room. A few paces away I could see Brisk exchanging a few words with the two raiders, their voices hushed to the point that the only way I knew they were talking was the opening and closing of their mouths.

I glanced back at Xayah, the boredom of being stuck in the same room washing over me. I was trying to keep track of how long we had been in here. An hour probably. Maybe two. It was hard to say.

“How do you keep going?” A timid voice suddenly piped up. My ears perked up at the voice. It was quiet, but amongst the near silence of the chamber, it caught my attention immediately.

I tilted my head slightly to look into the room beside me. Pyre and Mirra had wandered inside shortly after the rangers had gone silent and were now taking up the center of the room. Pyre lay on her front, her face and expression obscured by her helmet, while Mirra curled up atop her back, looking up at the ceiling with large, sad eyes.

“What do you mean?” Pyre grunted back, not bothering to raise her head to look at the changeling filly. Her voice was quieter than Mirra’s had been, but I could still hear it fairly well.

Mirra was quiet for a moment before responding. “About what you did to your mom? How do you live with yourself?”

Pyre remained silent for a long time. For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to respond. “You’re still thinking about what you did inside the Institute, huh?” Mirra nodded her head. Pyre sighed, “For a long time I just pushed all the thoughts about it to the back of my mind. Tried to forget…”

Mirra’s lip quivered. “But… But I can’t forget. I keep thinking about it…” Mirra looked down at her hooves, her eyes sad. “I’m finding it hard to smile, Pyre… I keep putting on a fake smile for everypony else, but it’s getting really hard. I don’t want them to worry about me.”

My heart went out for the little filly. I couldn’t even imagine what she was going through. I had lost my parents, sure… but to need to kill them myself? It was a terrible thought.

Pyre chuckled slightly, but it was a joyless chuckle. “If you’re worried about Amber, don’t. She’s understanding. Hell, she puts up with me. Being honest with her might help.”

Mirra shook her head and curled up into a tighter ball. “She already worked so hard to reunite me with my mom… I don’t want her to think that she failed me or made it worse or anything…”

I saw one of Pyre’s eyebrows raise through her visor. “Do you feel like she failed you or made it worse?”

I held my breath. Mirra’s silence told me everything. “I- I don’t know… maybe… If she hadn’t taken me to the Institute to see my mom, I would never have met her and I wouldn’t have had to do what I did… But that's not exactly fair of me to be angry at her for.”

“Ignorance is bliss as they say,” Pyre grumbled. “Anger isn’t usually fair. I was angry at the world for what I did to my mother, lashed out at it. I hurt a lot of ponies, but that wasn't fair of me either. That blame lands one only two ponies and two ponies alone.”

Mirra tilted her head and looked down at Pyre. “Can… can I ask who?”

Pyre snorted. “Me and…” Her voice choked in her throat. “And… never mind... It’s not important.”

Mirra seemed to get the message that Pyre didn’t want to talk about that anymore. “What should I do Pyre? I don’t know what I should do…”

For the first time, Pyre tilted her head to look up at the changeling. “Face the music... Come to terms with what you’ve done, and do everything you can to make up for it.”

“Have you faced the music?”

“No…” Pyre’s voice dropped to a low octave and she turned to look up at the ceiling. “But I will. Very soon…” he voice grew even lower, and for some reason, I got the impression she didn’t want Mirra to hear the next part. “...I’m coming back…”

Mirra sighed and shuffled up Pyre’s back to curl up between her large shoulders. “We could always try to face this together…” She offered, trying her best to give the large raider a hug. Her hooves didn't even wrap half way around Pyre’s neck.

Pyre gave a small huff like chuckle. “Yeah… sure kid. I’ll help you out any way I can.”

Mirra shifted uncomfortably atop Pyre’s back. I could tell she was about to ask something she was nervous about. “Um… Pyre? Do... do you mind if I ask something?”

Pyre grunted. “Of course. Anytime.”

Mirra shuffled her hooves together for a second. “Um… Well. I was wondering if I could call you mom?”

Silence. I could see Pyre’s body lock up from across the room. Clearly Mirra felt the shift in Pyre’s body language too as she stammered to explain herself. “I mean… Like, Amber and Brisk call each other brother and sister and stuff, and like… we both lost our moms, so I was thinking that… um… well, that is to say…”

Pyre shifted, gently letting Mirra flutter off her back. The large power armoured raider rose to her full height, her gaze fixated on the far wall and away from Mirra. She stood rigid for a moment, simply staring off into space. Finally she turned and faced the doorway. I ducked my head back before she could spot me eavesdropping on them.

“I think I need a bit to think things through,” Pyre grunted, her emotions masked by her helmet and stoic tone. She quickly trotted out of the room, not bothering to even look at the small changeling that whimpered sadly as she left.

I glanced up at Pyre as she trotted out of the room past me. My raider friend paused and looked down at me, our eyes meeting through her visor. “How much did you hear?” She grunted, her voice quiet enough that only I could hear her.

I grimaced, but didn’t have it in me to lie to her. “Most of it I think.”

Pyre gave me a small nod. “When we reach my father in the Manehattan gardens… I want you to make sure Mirra isn’t there… Understand.”

I furrowed my brow. “Pyre, I don’t think you should just push her away like th-”

“It's for her own protection Amber, not mine…” With that, she stomped the rest of the way across the room and curled up into a ball of her own in the far corner.

I glanced back into the room, making out the shape of Mirra in the dim light. She had her back turned to me and was staring down at her hooves. She didn’t seem to be crying, but that didn’t mean anything in the wasteland. We were all crying, even when the tears wouldn’t come. The wasteland was just like that.

A loud bang awoke me from my sleep. I bolted up, startling Xayah who had still been sleeping next to me.

Pyre and Brisk had leapt to their hooves faster than it had taken me to wake up and were slowly backing away from the large iron door with their weapons drawn. The two raiders pulled up beside them, adding their own weapons to the mix.

There was another loud bang on the door, this time shaking the whole chamber and forcing me to instinctively reach for my shotgun with my magic.

Mirra poked her head out from the room beside me and looked up at me. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head, my shotgun focused on the door. “Not sure. Sounds like those rangers are finally doing something.”

“Start the drill,” I heard a muffled voice call out. It wasn’t Iron Hock, but they definitely sounded like they had some authority.

The drill?

I didn’t have time to think about that as my ears were suddenly assaulted with a loud whirring sound mixed with the ear piercing squeal of metal on metal. We all took a step away from the door, my rump colliding with the far wall as I stepped back.

The centre of the large iron door dented then broke, the tip of a large spiralling drill pushing its way through the door with a large shower of sparks.

“A drill! Where the fuck did they get a drill!?” I heard one of the raiders shout out. I was too surprised to figure out which one had spoken.

I remembered the discovery we had found in the Fluttershy Medical Center about the True Steels. “They’ve been scavenging tech from all over the city and repurposing it,” A gross thought washed through me. They had plenty of fuel to power their machines too. The terrifying idea that this drill was using the corpses of my family and friends was suddenly all too real.

Brisk backed up to stand next to me. “You got a plan, Amber?”

I gave him a stupid look. “Why the hell would I have a plan? I think we should all know that none of my plans end up working out well for any of us.”

The drill pushed further through the door, bending the edges of the iron around it as it surged towards us.

“Well somepony better come up with something!” The raider mare shrieked, her assault carbine raised at the huge machine slashing its way through the door. “Cause we’re all going to die the second that thing takes the door down!”

I gave Mirra a sideways glance. “I don’t suppose you can do what you did at the MAS tower and teleport us the fuck out of here, no!?”

Mirra winced back, her eyes fearful. “I don’t have that kind of power by myself! My friend did most of the heavy lifting!”

Perfect. That wasn’t going to help much…

“Everypony! Into the room behind me!” I ordered, gesturing to the small back room. “We’re going to be in for a fight the second that door is down. We can use that doorway as a choke point!”

Everypony nodded and quickly rushed into the room. Pyre turned and stood in the doorway, her legs crouched in a battle stance and the ends of her flamers flickering to life. “Get behind me!” She hollered over the sound of the drill. It was getting harder and harder to hear each other as the massive machine ripped open the door more and more.

Xayah readied her sniper beside me, aiming over Pyre’s shoulder. One of the raiders pulled out an apple grenade and placed the pin in their mouth, readying themselves to toss it the second one of the rangers was in sight.

The drill abruptly spun to a stop and cast the room into complete silence. We waited, the only sound being our ragged breaths and the beating of our own hearts.

Then the drill pulled back, filling the room with a loud and unbearable screech. I winced, one of my hooves clutching at my ears as the noise nearly deafened me. Light spilled into the room as the large hole that had been ripped open by the drill was uncovered.

Then all hell broke loose.

Pyre sent a stream of fire shooting across the room, filling our vision with dancing flames. The raiders grenade was sent flying towards the rangers, its explosion accompanied by a howl of pain. Xayah’s sniper cracked off shots beside me. Through the fire, I saw one of her shots make its mark, dropping a ranger to the ground, dead.

A missile came whizzing towards us. It flashed forwards at lightning speeds, colliding with the ground directly in front of Pyres forehooves and sending her flying back across the room. I heard Mirra scream and rush to her as she was thrown against the far wall and went limp.

A ranger pushed their way through the dying wall of fire and slammed into me, sending me skidding across the floor. I raised Braeburn’s Liberator and fired at them, the buckshot denting their helmet, but doing little more than that.

The ranger reared up, the massive guns on their battle saddle turning to face me. I rolled aside as the first shot blasted past me, ripping apart the ground and showering me with bits of shrapnel.

Brisk rushed forwards and bucked at the ranger, making their second shot go wide as they fired upon me again. The ranger swung around to face him, but they were too slow. Brisk pressed the end of his pistol up against the rangers visor and sent a bullet lancing through his brain, coating the inside of the rangers helmet with gore.

A bullet pierced one of the raiders legs, sending them toppling to the ground. They rolled behind the corner of the door, grasping at their leg to stop the bleeding. The other raider stood over them protectively, their weapon firing off a potshot every few seconds in an attempt to hold off the coming rangers.

Xayah was knocked back as something exploded a few feet away from her, searing the right side of her body black. She staggered, only barely staying upright as she struggled to use her metal hooves.

Things were getting really bad, really fast. I had to find a way out of this now or we were all doing to be dead!

I activated SATS and targeted the head of one of the rangers. I let the spell go and watched as the buckshot flew from my gun towards the armoured pony. I missed, the buckshot slamming against the wall beside them and peppering it with holes.

Blam!

Then the ranger dropped dead, their head oozing blood from an impossibly aimed shot.

Surprised, I turned to spot a pony standing next to me, a smoking .44 revolver clamped tightly in his mouth. He was a tall, beige, earth pony stallion clad in his usual long brown coat and wide brimmed fedora. I felt my mouth drop open again.

“Y-you again!?” I stammered, ducking back as another projectile rocketed past me.

The mysterious pony gave me a small nod before taking a few steps away from the door. “I can get you out of here,” He said, his voice stoic and odd sounding. “...But it will take a lot of power. I will not be able to help you again.”

Xayah jumped with surprise, spotting the stranger for the first time. She ducked behind cover, her sniper swinging to face the mysterious stranger. I put a hoof out to stop her. “Wait, I think he’s on our side…”

An apple grenade rolled through the door, coming to a stop at our hooves. The raider mare picked it up with her magic and tossed it back out, but not fast enough. The grenade exploded, peppering us with fire and shrapnel. I shielded my face protectively with a hoof as the bomb fragments flashed towards me and threatened to blind me.

Pyre limped over, a worried Mirra scuttling around her large hooves. She sent a blast of fire shooting through the doorway before turning to me. “Amber, if we don't find a way to get out of here in the next few seconds, we’re all dead!” her eyes caught on the strange stallion that had appeared beside me. She cocked her head at him slightly. “Wait, who are you?”

Mirra’s eyes lit up as she looked up at the mysterious stranger. “Oh! Hi you! Can you teleport us out of here?”

My eyes widened. “Hold up! This is your…” A blast of magical energy flashed over my head, forcing me to duck low to the ground. I rolled back up to face Mirra. “This is your friend?! The one that pulled me out of the MAS tower!?”

The stallion flickered for a second, his whole body temporarily flashing out of view before reappearing. “I do not have much time,” The stranger said, his stoic expression cracking for only a second as he grimaced in pain. “Are you ready?”

I stepped back, narrowly avoiding a shot from one of the rangers. “Ready? Ready for what?!”

The stallion sent a shot out the door, dropping one of the rangers to the ground. “If I help you now, we may not meet again…”

Mirra jumped up next to me. “Yes, we’re ready! Let's go!”

The mysterious stranger nodded and began crouching into what looked like a battle stance. I glanced back and forth between Mirra and the Stranger. “Wait! What is happe-”

“-ning…”

My breath was knocked out of me as I hit the pavement. Groaning, I pulled myself back up to my hooves and looked at my surroundings.

We hadn’t moved far. In fact, just a few feet away I could see the very spot I had spoken with Fleur De Lis through the securitron. But we had moved far enough away that I doubted the True Steels were going to be able to detect us on their EFS so long as we didn’t stick around.

I did a quick body count to make sure everypony was present and well. Brisk and Xayah lay in an exhausted and disoriented heap to my right, Pyre and the raiders lay to my left and Mirra had somehow managed to land on top of me. Only the mysterious stranger wasn’t present, having once more swooped in, saved me, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The raider mare pulled herself up from the ground and glanced over at me, her eyes still spinning slightly from the abrupt teleportation. “What the fuck just happened?”

I gave her a somewhat smug grin, despite feeling a little confused and disoriented myself. “Emergency escape…” I glanced up at Mirra who was sheepishly crawling off my back. “You want to explain what just went down?”

Mirra shrugged as he hooves touched the ground. “My friend teleported us out of there.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How? He was an earth pony?”

Brisk Stumbled to his hooves and limped over to us, wincing every time he put pressure on one of his hooves. “Can anypony explain what just happened?”

I had to hold back the smallest of chuckles. “Apparently not,” I looked back to Mirra. “That stranger… your friend… he said that what he did would use up a lot of power. That he wouldn’t be able to help us again after this. Does that mean anything to you?”

Mirra tapped her chin thoughtfully. “He said something similar after he helped me get you out of the MAS tower. He said teleportation is hard for him and that he can only do it for a few seconds at a time. Teleporting seven ponies like he just did probably used up all the power he had.”

“Explains why he only ever shows up for a second or two,” I grumbled, glancing in the direction of where the True Steels must currently be scratching their heads at our sudden disappearance.

“I hate to end this rather interesting train of thought, but I think we should probably get out of here,” Pyre ordered, pulling herself up and tromping up to us. “Those rangers are going to be pissed when they find out we just disappeared like that. I’d suspect that they’re going to be scouring the surrounding area in a few moments, and their range of sight is limited only by the range of their EFS.

“And where are we supposed to go?” One of the raiders said, taking a step away from the direction of the bank. “That Iron Hock bastard got a good look at us. There’s a good chance every True Steel in Manehattan is going to be looking for us.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “We came here on behalf of a faction called the Friendship Express. They help rouge synths. They could probably help with…”

“We know who they are,” The raider Mare spat, interrupting me. “And we don't want anything to do with them or their idiotic and doomed war against the Institute.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of the proper response. That had not been the reaction I was expecting. Brisk quickly responded for me. “What do you have against the Friendship Express? They’re trying to help ponies like you?”

The raider scoffed. “I’m sure they are, but at what cost?” At our confused expressions, she elaborated. “The only way to keep a synth fully protected from the Institute is to wipe their minds. Make them forget that they’re synths all together. Lots of the ponies that go through that end up either getting shot by raiders or more often than not, becoming a raider themselves. We just left that life. There’s no way in fucking hell that we’re going to let the Friendship Express drag us back into it.”

“The Institute is using synths as tools to spy on the wasteland though,” Brisk argued. “They’re literally watching your life through your eyes.”

That gave both of the raiders pause. They exchanged a long glance as they tried to figure out how to proceed. Finally the raider mare turned back to us. “Doesn’t matter. I’d rather be spied on than run the risk of going raider again. Least this way, when the Institute comes knocking on my door, I’ll know who they are and why they’ve come for us.”

I saw Pyre take a nervous step back. I glanced down at my EFS. Red bars. Lots of them. Brisk saw them too.

“Those ranger’s are moving again,” I said urgently, turning and beginning to trot quickly down the street. “We can decide later, but right now we need to move.”

“And go where?” Xayah asked, quickly moving up beside me as we started out down the street.

Unsure how to respond, I glanced down at my pipbuck to check where the red bars were coming from. My eyes caught on a radio broadcast that I hadn’t spotted before. Interested, I clicked it on.

“-mber, come in Amber. You there?” It was Sprocket’s voice. She sounded bored, as if she had been trying to contact us for hours.

“I’m here… Sprocket, is that you? How did you get access to my pipbucks radio?” I asked, one eyebrow raising.

I couldn’t see it, but there was no doubt in my mind that the small yellow mare had rolled her large eyes. “I managed to create a device that could teleport you half way across Manehattan and you're going to question this? Doesn’t matter. I’ll show you next time we meet,” She paused to regain her train of thought. “What has been going on? I’ve been trying to contact you for almost an hour!”

I glanced down at my pipbuck to check on the True Steels position. I could still see their red bars, but we seemed to be moving away from then quickly. “We had a nasty run in with some ranger. We suffered casualties, but we managed to get two of the synths out,” I took a breath as I finished the quick recap. “What did you need to contact me for?”

“Flask told me to contact you,” Sprocket voice piped up through the speaker. “Told me to tell you he was ready to meet up and escort the synths to safety. Said he knew you were headed out in the direction of the Manehattan gardens, so he was going to meet up with you there.”

While I couldn’t see it through her armour, I could feel a wave of discomfort wash over Pyre. I gave a grim nod, though I knew she couldn’t see me. “Thank’s Sprocket. How’s everything going with the Friendship express?”

There was a sound from the other end I took as hesitation. “We managed to deal with all the spies and are currently moving to our new safehouse. It’s not as good as the old one, but it will do for now,” There was a little more hesitation. “Freedom told me that she found something in the Institute files that might be of great interest to you. She didn’t say what, but it sounded important. Just thought you might want to know.”

I nodded again, still very much aware she couldn’t see me. “Alright, thank you. I’ll give them a closer look,” With that, Sprocket’s voice was replaced by static as the broadcast went dead. I turned to face the rest of the ponies following me. “Alright, we’re off to the Manehattan Gardens. Pyre, do you know the way?”

Pyre gulped. “Yeah… yeah, I do. Follow me,” She moved past me and quickly started trotting down a side street. Thankfully in the opposite direction of where the True Steels were still searching for us.

I turned to the two raiders. “We’re meeting up with a Friendship Express operative at the entrance to the gardens. It’s up to you if you want to follow us.”

The raiders hesitated for a second before the mare gave a small nod. “We will follow you. We will talk to this Friendship operative about the details in his assistance.”

I gave her a small nod before turning and trotting after Pyre. Xayah glanced over at me as we started to move again. “When are you going to tell us why we’re going to the Manehattan gardens? From what I have heard, only foolish ponies go in there?”

Giving a small shrug, I continued after Pyre. “Pyre has something she needs to do there. If she wants to share it, that’s up to her. Right now we just need to support her the best we can.”

Flask was waiting for us at the entrance to the Manehattan Gardens as we had been told.

The entrance was a large archway that led off from the cracked sidewalk and into the large foliage covered landscape beyond. A long, warped gate stretched out from either side of the archway, creating a broken barrier between the streets of Manehattan and the garden.

I didn’t know what to expect when I had heard about the Gardens. Some sort of large radioactive landscape with only a few remaining withered corpses of trees to suggest that it had once been a massive sprawling park full of greenery perhaps. It was anything but that.

Manehattan had been hit hard by the megaspells, the gardens had not. Instead of leaving it as a crater or as crumbling remains of its former self, the fallout radiation of the megaspells had ended up seeping into the gardens plants, transforming them and mutating them into a massive jungle of twisting trees and vines that towered above even some of the ruined skyscrapers. Strange luminescent flowers and mushrooms grew up from the garden floor, giving the whole area a mysterious and eerie look.

The flowers and mushrooms were not the only things making the forest glow however. Letting my eyes drift up to the gnarled branches of the towering trees, I spotted large clusters of glowing Balefire Phoenixes peached above us, their glowing eyes slowly following us as we approached.

Flask looked up as we drew near, his mouth twisting into a smile as he saw us. “Glad to see you are all alright,” He said, pulling out his silver flask and taking a quick sip. “Sprocket contacted me and told me you ran into a little trouble with the rangers.”

Mirra gave a small scoff. “Yes… little…”

Flask’s eyes drifted to the two raiders. The second his eyes landed on them he froze, his hoof moving to hover over his revolver. I quickly signalled to him that they were safe. “They’re friendly. They’re the synths we were rescuing.”

Flask cast me a suspicious glance. “Rescuing raiders ain’t the craziest thing I’ve ever done with the Friendship Express. Wouldn’t even be the first time I’ve done it either. But they aren’t usually friendly about the whole thing.”

Before I could question him on his history with helping raiders, the raider mare took a step forward to confront Flask. “We aren’t exactly raiders anymore. Just ponies trying to do better.”

“If that’s so, you’re going to want to ditch that armour. Ponies see you dressed like that, they’re going to start shooting,” Flask grimaced. He turned to look at me. “I’ll take them all from here. The Friendship Express owes you five for this. If there is ever anything we can do to help, just…”

“Now hold up just a moment,” One of the raiders interjected, cutting Flask off. “We haven’t agreed to go anywhere with you yet. We know that most ponies you ‘protect’ from the Institute by wiping their memories go raider. We are trying to get away from that kind of life. How do we know that if we go with you, we won’t end up like that?”

Flask glanced back and forth between the two raiders for a moment. “We don’t force you to do anything. It’s true that the only way to gain complete protection from the Institute is a mind wipe, and that many of the ponies that go through that go raider, but we won’t force you to get it if that’s what you want. What we can do is get you to a safe place and prepare you for what the Institute might throw your way.”

The two raiders looked at each other for a moment. Finally the mare took another step forward. “Alright, we’ll go with you. We’ve been trying to figure out where to go next anyway,” She turned to face us and gave us a small salute. “Thanks for your help back there. Hopefully we’ll fight beside each other again someday.”

I turned to address Flask before he could walk off with the synths. “So the Friendship Express has a new headquarters… Where can we contact you if we need to keep in touch?”

Flask gave a sheepish expression. “For right now we’ll keep our exact whereabouts a secret, the last thing we need is the Institute finding our new location while we're still adapting, but if you need to contact me, I’ll be around the place we first met, out in Fetlock. You can meet me there.”

I gave him a small nod. “I’ll keep in touch,” Slowly, we turned from each other and parted ways. I looked over my friends for a second before glancing at Pyre who was staring intently at the large archway that led into the Manehattan Gardens. “Are you ready to head in?”

Brisk stepped forward. “Head in for what, Amber? When are you going to tell us why we’re here? It isn’t like you to keep secrets from us.”

“We’re here because of me,” Pyre said slowly, her voice coming out in a low rumble. We turned to look at her as she continued to stare into the looming foliage. “Caltrops was a raider through and through back when he ran with me, but he managed to dig himself out of that hole. He confronted his sins. Now it’s time for me to do the same. It’s time to face the music…”

Without waiting for us, she took a step forward and crossed the threshold into the Manehattan Gardens.

Footnote: Half way to next level.
Quest Perk Lost: Mysterious stranger -- A mysterious stranger will no longer appear from time to time to help you in combat.