“The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”

Stables.

Stables were, for lack of a better word, complicated. They were the epitome of ponies' good intentions gone awry. They were desperate attempts to save as many lives as possible from the inevitable holocaust that destroyed the world, only for many of them to become tombs for the ponies that had made it inside. They were also the testing grounds for experiments, attempts to improve the future of pony kind to ensure that such atrocities such as war and balefire annihilation would never again come to pass. But those too, only became sick, twisted echoes of their original purpose, killing and harming far more ponies than they ever did good.

And even still, after all of that, Stable had failed to save their inhabitants from the horrors that would emerge from the wasteland in the coming centuries. Even functional Stable such as Stable 25 and Stable 44 had eventually been tainted by the wastelands influence.

Not that I would have considered Stable 25 to be a proper functioning Stable. Perhaps it had done better than others, and the experiments that had gone on inside had not been as fatal as they could have been, but it was still far from perfect. The mental conditioning and lack of freedom, the cruel brutality and dominating nature of the Stable Security. Even the A.A.S.S. had eventually failed in the end. Without a backup to your main food source, what was the point.

It didn’t matter anymore I suppose. Stable 25 was gone. The ponies within slaughtered, gassed and finally melted down into a fuel. No place stays free from the Wasteland for long.

I could feel my breathing grow ragged as I stared at the entrance to Stable 23. It looked so similar to what I had seen when I had returned to Stable 25 all those days ago. I almost expected Inferno and an army of zebras to step out and greet us.

Of course Inferno was dead, or at least as close to dead as you can be while still living on inside of my brain, and Kamari’s cult was blown to oblivion and buried hundreds of miles below the Glowing Sea. Not even they had been safe from the wasteland I suppose.

There was another very distinct difference here as well. The corpses that surrounded the entrance to the Stable were not Stable dwellers. Instead, the floor was littered with the armoured corpses of True Steels.

“What do you think killed them?” Xayah asked, nudging one of the power armoured corpses with her hoof. She leaned down to look over the corpses more carefully. “They do not seem to have any visible bullet wounds?”

Still trembling a little, I trotted over to Xayah and looked the body over myself. She was right, I could see no obvious sign of death. Not even a dent in their golden power armour.

“Hard to say what killed them. Likely there is some danger inside of the Stable. This would not be uncommon,” Crusader Blueberry replied, walking out of the elevator with his three Outcasts trailing behind him. “But there will likely be more True Steels inside of the Stable. There are only five corpses, and we have reason to suspect around twenty rangers have entered.”

Mirra fluttered over to one of the bodies and tapped the side of their helmet with a hoof. A strange expression crossed her face and she gave the helmet a small tug. “Uh… Amber. I think I found something?” As I trotted over to her, she elaborated. “Their armour seems to be… attached to their body?”

My eyebrows shot up in alarm. Attached? What the hell did that even entail? I leaned in and looked the body over closer. It was hard to tell, with the power armour being fully enclosed, but it did look like a small, exposed part of the neck where Mirra had tugged at the helmet had fused to the ponies hide underneath.

“Shit. She’s right,” One of the Outcasts I didn’t know the name of grunted, pulling at one of the metal plates on one of the Corpses. As the metal plate was removed, hide and flesh was pulled off with it. “What the hell could do something like this?”

“Alright, so what’s the plan?” Brisk queried, walking over to us and looking up at the big Stable door. Something in his eye gave me the impression he was just as anxious about going in there as I was.

“I would recommend splitting into groups and scouring the Stable for any True Steels inside. We will need to clear them out if we hope to properly secure this location,” Blueberry declared, taking a step towards the large door. He looked down at the True Steel corpses around us. “There is very likely some danger within the Stable, so we will need to assess and eradicate that as well.”

I gave him a surprised look. “Split up? Shouldn’t we stick together? You know, power in numbers sort of thing,” The idea of splitting the party never seemed like a good one to me. The last thing I wanted was for us to be picked off one by one by the rangers or other threats within the Stable.

Blueberry shook his head. “Paladin Tesla Coil is smart and has a head start on us. It is likely that he is making a push for both the security wing and the Overmares office,” He explained, gesturing for us all to follow as we slowly moved through the large door. “Assuming this Stable has anything in common with other Stables across the Wasteland, if he takes control of those, he will likely have full control over the security and surveillance systems,” I remembered how I had utilized those very same things when I had been trying to protect my own Stable from Inferno and Kamari’s zebra cultists. I looked up at the roof of the Stable to see a few turrets, currently deactivated. If Tesla Coil got his hooves on those, things would get really bad, really fast.

“Furthermore, we need to evaluate what dangers reside within the Stable,” Blueberry continued. He once again looked over at the True Steel Corpses. “As we can see, the True Steels were met with some sort of resistance, but I see no signs of what those are. Splitting up will allow us to cover more ground and learn more about this threat.”

I nodded thoughtfully. That all made sense to me.

“Amber and I can go together,” Brisk suggested, throwing a hoof around my neck and pulling me beside him. "The two of us know Stables better than anypony. We can probably do some good work together.”

From the tone of his voice, it was clear that he wanted to talk to me about something privately. I decided not to call him out on that in front of everypony though and simply nodded in response. “Sounds good.”

“I’ll go with Xayah then,” A yellow filly with a blue mane piped up. It took me a second to realize I was looking at Mirra. I hadn’t seen her transform and I had grown used to her simply staying in her natural form. She seemed to be getting more comfortable showing her true self around us, though I suppose the presence of the Outcasts were making her less comfortable.

Xayah nodded at the fillies suggestion. “We would be most stealthy,” Xayah and Mirra together being ‘most stealthy’ was the understatement of the year, but I didn’t feel it was worth pointing that out.

"Like ninjas," Mirra agreed. The changelings enthusiasm was almost contagious. almost.

Blueberry gave an affirmative nod. “Understood. I will lead the rest of my rangers. Report back here in an hour. Stop Tesla Coil if you can find him.”

We all gave nods of understanding before turning and breaking off into our groups, slowly moving deeper and deeper into the Stable.

The Stable was stange, to say the least. While the walls of Stable 25 and 44 had been a dull grey, Stable 23 took it to a whole other level. The walls were coated in a thick layer of rust and dust, giving the dark tunnels a strange organic feeling. Cracks ran along the metal surfaces and many of the glass windows that had once overlooked smaller rooms had shattered. Most of the lights had gone out, leaving most of the Stable in darkness. The lights that had not gone out flickered constantly, filling the halls with a constant electric buzz and giving the area an eerie feeling.

I walked silently beside Brisk as we trotted forwards through the dark halls. Save for a few spots of what appeared to be fresh blood, there were no signs of the True Steels or whatever had attacked them near the entrance.

I looked over at Brisk while we walked. His head was downturned and he was staring at his hooves silently. After a few more seconds of silence, I spoke up. “Alright, out with it,” Brisk looked up at me at the remark, only looking somewhat confused. “Clearly something is on your mind that you want to talk to me about. What’s going on?”

Brisk sighed and returned his gaze to his hooves. “Yesterday… back in the Manehattan Garden. I told you that there was something I felt we should talk about…” He sighed again and continued to glare at the floor. “I guess I just wanted to know… um… Am I helpful, sis?”

I stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked over at him. “I don’t kn… what do you mean?”

He stopped too and dared himself to look up from the ground at me. “I mean, I’m I helpful to this group of ours? Like… Am I useful?” He looked away and at one of the rust covered walls. “When I lost my horn, it got me thinking. Any other unicorn would have been upset, I would imagine, but I just kinda felt, well, nothing I guess. I realized that it didn’t really change anything. That I was still just a useless buck that couldn’t do magic. And that got me thinking about other things as well. That I’ll never be as smart as you, or as sneaky as Xayah, or strong like Pyre… I’m just middle of the road when it comes to everything.”

I shook my head. “That’s not true bro, and you know it,” I thought around for something to prove my point. “I mean, I’m hopelessly lost when it comes to lock picking, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a pony as good at that as you are.”

Brisk gave a mirthless laugh. “Right, because picking locks is totally as valuable of a skill as what the rest of you bring to the table,” He reached up and rubbed his temple with a hoof. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end. I’m just being stupid.”

“I’m not saying you aren’t valued, bro, because you are. But this group of ours. This family or whatever we want to call it...” If we were a family, we had to have been the most messed up family in the wasteland. “...We don’t keep each other around because of what we all bring to the table. That’s what Pyre thought, and it drove her away,” We were both quiet for a moment as we remembered Pyre walking off into the wastes alone. “You’re with us because we care about you. The rest doesn’t matter.”

The response seemed to make Brisk feel a little better, but he seemed unconvinced. He waved his hoof across his forehead, tracing the scar where his horn once sat. “How did we find ourselves mixed up in all this?” Brisk finally said, placing his hoof back on the ground so we could resume walking. “I mean, you used to just be a little maintenance mare, somepony trying to prove herself to her father. And I… I don’t fucking know… I was some idiot jackass jokester that tried to never take things seriously so that I wouldn’t think to much about the past,” He kicked at a piece of debris that lay in the centre of the hallway, watching as it bounced across the floor ahead of us. “I never thought I’d live a week outside the Stable. Now we're helping wasteland factions and involved in Institute conspiracies… Never would have imagined this was what would happen when I finally got through those doors.”

“Hehe… yeah. We’ve all come a long way since we first left I guess,” That wasn’t something I liked to think about. I didn’t know if I liked the pony I was becoming. I looked back over at Brisk. “I’ve been meaning to ask… You, um… you don’t joke around as much as you used to…”

“I haven’t found many things worth joking about,” Brisk answered honestly. “After… Well, after what happened to Stable 25, smiling through all the bad just started to get a lot harder. I think I just gave up at some point.”

I felt myself sigh. “Yeah, that seems to be a problem for all of us these days. Finding reasons to smile.”

“Pyre never seemed to have a problem doing it,” Brisk pointed out. “I don’t know how she did it.”

I grimaced. “Pyre had experience. She’s seen and done a lot worse than any of us. Smiling is how she copes. Ignore the bad and pretend it doesn’t hurt you,” I didn’t know if that was one hundred percent true, but from what I had seen from her, it seemed to be true enough.

“That’s what I used to do,” Brisk admitted. “Back before things were so complicated… But, I guess enough bad things eventually added up to a point where I couldn’t even lie to myself anymore. Smiling and joking just felt like I was pretending.”

I reached out and wrapped a hoof around him in a tight hug. “When this is all over, I swear, we’re all going to settle down and have a good long rest.”

Brisk gave me a small smirk. “I’ll hold you to that. You, me, Xayah, Mirra and Pyre. One big happy family. Maybe we’ll start our own little settlement in some corner of the wasteland. Away from all the raiders and mutated monsters.”

I gave a quick laugh. “I don’t think there is a part of the wasteland without those, but you got yourself a deal,” I put my hoof over my mouth as I tried to hide a snicker. “While we’re at it, why don’t we invite Star to join the family? That’s what you want right?”

Brisk gave me a grumpy glare. After a second he groaned. “Damn it Mirra. We need to have a talk with her about revealing ponies secrets like that.”

I shrugged. “Not her fault she can taste love. Besides, we’ll tease you for it, but you can like whoever you want, bro. That’s none of our business, really.”

“And you're okay with it and everything?” Brisk asked softly, casting me a gentle look. “You know… after how you used to feel about the two of us or whatever?”

I gave a small snort. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine with it. I’ve got Xayah now. Besides, we’re siblings, and that means a lot more to me than some romance.”

Brisk nickered. “Good… sorry, I hope I didn’t make shit awkward or anything. Just felt like it was a conversation that needed to be had.”

I gave him a small bump on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m with you. Feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve had a talk like this, just the two of us.”

We came up on a small, metal door. Above the door was a small sign that read, ‘Medical Clinic’. Remembering that this Stable had been used to experiment with some sort of medic based test, I walked over and let the door slide open.

As the room beyond came into view, I took a step back. From beside me I could hear Brisk intake a deep breath of air. The room was filled with blood. The walls and floors were stained with it. Rows of medical beds lines the walls, their dull coverings stained crimson by blood. Against the far wall was another sliding metal door, leading into some sort of back room.

“The fuck happened in here?” Brisk uttered, slowly creeping into the room and looking around.

I shook my head and scraped the tip of my hoof across one of the bloody surfaces. The blood wasn’t fresh, but years old. Though it was still very apparent, all that remained were red stains along the room's surfaces. “Probably whatever Stable-Tec was doing to experiment on the inhabitants of this Stable.”

Brisk glanced around. “Then why haven't we seen any bodies? I mean there were those True Steels at the entrance, but I haven't seen a single Stable dweller corpse since we got here?”

I looked around as well, realizing he was right. “No idea. Maybe they all left the Stable?”

Brisk gave me a flat look. “Unlikely. Not with this much blood,” he looked over to where a medical box with the image of three butterflies on the front rested. Trotting over he opened it and gave a small grunt of surprise before pulling out five healing potions. “Looks like the True Steels haven’t looted this place yet. That or they didn’t care for medical supplies, which I find unlikely.”

I took two of the potions from him and tossed them into my saddlebags. “Maybe they were more interested in weapons? That seems more up Iron Hock’s alley.”

Brisk shrugged. “Maybe… I don’t know. This place is weird and I don’t like it.”

My gaze landed on a terminal resting on one of the desks. I raised my hoof and pointed towards it. “Well, there’s only one way to find out what's been going on here, right?” I pulled myself over to the terminal and clicked it on. It was locked, but a locked terminal never stopped me from seeing its contents.

<MEDICAL CLINIC TERMINAL 1C>

>Log #1

>Damn, I hate this Stable. Maybe I don’t have the right to complain, with all the ponies outside that died wishing to get in, but fuck does this place suck. The walls are so damn fucking bland. I miss the grass and sun outside. I miss my family too. I hope they managed to find a safe place…

>Anyway, that's enough feeling sorry for myself. As it turns out, according to the Overmare, this Stable is part of an experiment Stable-Tec is working on. She wouldn’t give me the details, but apparently I have a big role in it. If it's supposed to help ponies, then I suppose I’m on board, but I don’t like the secrecy. Never was a big fan of secrets.

>Log #2

>One of the generators is leaking. Filled the whole bottom floor of the Stable with some sort of weird gas shit. I don’t know what the gas is, but it seems pretty bad. No pony got hurt, but the whole lower area is practically unusable. Which fucking sucks because thats were most of the sleeping areas are. Of course, that means that now we got a bunch of homeless ponies sleeping in the middle of the halls.

>It gets worse too. Some ponies are starting to get sick. Nausea, vomiting, bleeding out their eyes. It's some fucked up shit. Again, no ponies died from it yet, but it's spreading like wildfire and I wouldn’t be surprised if this Stable becomes a graveyard soon. Probably related to the gas leak, so maybe if we solve that things will be okay… goddesses I hope so.

>Log #3

>So the Overmare swooped in and decided to bless me with the fucking cure to that ailment everypony was getting. Whoopy fucking do. I’m not an idiot. This was planned. The gas leak, the sickness. This whole thing is some fucked up shit that Stable-Tec planned. Make it look like an accident so that no pony gets their panties in a twist. Fucking shitty part is that it seems to be working.

>The cure is some sort of brain implant. I was forbidden from giving it a close examination which fucking sucks, but it seems to be working on all the ponies that have undergone the procedure. Hopefully I’ll get a better explanation soon.

>Log #4

>Saw a cute buck today. That’s all I really have to say about that.

>Still haven't gotten permission to take a look at the things I’m being told to plug into ponies brains, but honestly I don’t even care anymore. Whatever those fucking things are, they work. There have been a few ponies complaining about having a migraine after the procedure, but who fucking cares. A headache is a shit tone of a lot better than bleeding out of your fucking eyes.

>Log #5

>My dumb ass assistant dropped one of those brain implants today. The damn thing cracked and started leaking some weird pink mist shit. Same gas stuff that was leaking from the generator by the looks of it. Still don’t know what it was, but the Overmare had this whole area on lockdown for a few hours afterwards.

>The complaints about migraine are getting worse. Apparently ponies are having trouble sleeping and are getting stomach pains. Still a lot better than bleeding out your eyes, but I’m starting to get worried all the same.

>Log #8

>Fucking hell. Some asshat broke into the clinic and stole the implants. The Overmare is going to be pissed about this. That and I’m probably going to have to fill out a fuckload of paperwork now. Fuck my life.

>Log #7

>Stable-Tec Lied. Now we can’t die…

I looked up from the terminal and over at Brisk. That didn’t tell us all that much about what dangers awaited us, and the last entry was unbelievably vague. But it was an interesting read at the very least.

“Any idea on what any of that might mean?” I asked, having no ideas myself.

Brisk simply shrugged in return and turned to face the door that led off to the side room. “Beats me, but then again, I’ve never been the smartest pony,” He trotted up and let the door slide open at his approach.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

A burst of shots blasted out from behind the door as it slid open. Brisk dove to the side, the shots missing him by inches. He slammed against the blood stained floor, his pistol already pulled out and aiming at the door.

Damn it! I should have been keeping closer watch of my EFS!

I pushed myself away from the door and pulled out Breabrun’s Liberator as the True Steel that had been cowering on the other side of the door let his saddle mounted mini gun fire off another stream of lead. The True Steel was looking worse for wear. His armour was coated in blood and even through the thick metal plates, I could see the pony shivering in fear.

“Stay back phantoms! Back!” the True Steel shrieked fearfully, their mini gun firing again and blasting holes into the metal walls of the clinic.

Phantoms? What the fuck?

Brisk pushed himself up, his pistol firing off two shots that slammed into the True Steels helmet. The True Steel staggered, their head whiplashing back as the force of the bullets rammed into them. The ranger spun and bucked in Brisk’s general direction, their hooves met air as Brisk hopped back to avoid having their head stomped in.

I fired a shot from my shotgun, the buckshot, ripped through the plating on the True Steels chest, shredding the metal and slashing against their hide beneath. The True Steel reeled back, blood spilling down their front. They twisted and charged at me, their mini gun spinning as it charged up to fire another hail of bullets in my direction.

Before the shots could fire, I leapt aside, throwing myself to the ground to avoid being filled with holes. I landed roughly on my stomach, a shock shooting through my body and knocking the air from my lungs.

Another shot from Brisk’s pistol fired, this time slashing through the joint in one of the True Steels back hooves and making them fall onto their face. The True Steel gave a pained yelp as they slammed into the ground.

I pulled myself back to my hooves at the same time as the True Steel. Their metal clad hoof lashed at me, attempting to pummel me into the ground. I ducked back, the swing flashing past my face close enough that I could feel the air shift.

Brisk leapt forwards, ramming his hooved down hard on the True Steels head. The True Steel stumbled forwards from the impact, still limping from the bullet wound in their hind leg. The True Steel bucked backwards again, this time slamming their hind hooves into Brisk's chest and sending him tumbling backwards where he hit his head against the far wall with a loud crack.

There was the loud whirring sound of the True Steels mini gun spinning up as the Ranger took aim at me. I pushed myself away from them, looking for cover from the barrage of bullets that were about to be sent my way. My eyes landed on the open door to the conjoining room and started dashing my way towards it.

I pulled myself around the corner of the doorway only a second before the True Steel opened fire. Bullets whizzed passed me through the open door, many of them sparking off the corner of the doorframe and ricochetting past my face.

I heard the heavy stomping of the True Steels hoofsteps as they marched towards me. I let my gaze drop onto the emergency door control resting on the doorframe beside me, a plan forming in my mind.

The True Steel stepped past the threshold of the door, half of their body entering the room as they craned their neck to look at me. I gave them a grim smirk and tapped the button to close the door.

There was a screech as the sliding Stable door slammed down on the True Steel’s body from both above and below. The loud sound of metal crumpling filled my ears as the True Steels armour was crushed between the two powerful metal doors. The ranger called out, their torso being crushed by their own armour. A spot on the side of the armour snapped, sending jagged chunks of metal slicing into the True Steels side and spraying me with a fountain of blood.

The True Steel spasmed. The door had failed to slice the ranger in half as I had initially intended. Rather, it had simply crushed their armour, sending bits of metal into their body and most likely puncturing many vital organs. It wouldn’t be a slow death.

Instinctively, I reached for the emergency release on the door, wanting to free them from their painful fate. I hesitated. These were the bastards that had stripped the remains of my Stable for parts. Melted down my family and friends into fuel. I had watched them kill traders simply for being present.

Slowly, my hoof moved away from the emergency release. I took a step back, feeling oddly hollow as I watched the True Steel struggle. Blood was beginning to seep from the cracks in their armour and drip down their body onto the floor.

I felt myself take a slow breath. What the fuck was I doing.

The door suddenly jolted open, dropping the True Steel to the ground. Brisk stepped forwards, placed the barrel of his gun against the rangers helmet and sent a bullet through their brain. He looked back up at me with a grim expression. “That was probably one of the most fucked up things I’ve ever…” his voice faded away as his eyes landed on something behind me. Slowly, he took a shaky step back, his eyes wide.

I gulped and turned around. Now in the calm that followed the battle, I was able to make out what was in the small room we had entered. I felt myself stifle a scream.

Now I understood why that True Steel had seemed so afraid.

The room was alive. The walls, which had once been a dull metal were now covered in a thick layer of flesh and muscle. Veins raced along the room's surfaces and organs seemed to be beating within the walls. My eyes locked with a pony face that had been fused to the wall, its mouth still twisting and warping in a silent scream as it stared out at me with pained eyes.

There was more than just one pony face as well. There were at least twelve, all staring out at us with horrified and pained expressions. Some of the faces were still fully intact, looking almost as if a head had grown out of a wall, while others looked less complete, only seeming to have half of their old face remaining. They all seemed to have one thing in common though. They were screaming. They were still alive.

I took a step back, my whole body filling with fear as I stared at the room. What the fuck could do something like that to a pony! It was beyond horror. My legs felt weak and I think I vomited, but I wasn't sure.

“A-amber… l-lets get out of here,” I heard Brisk whimper from behind me, his voice sounding just as weak and horrified as I felt. I felt myself nod, though I didn’t have the power to say much else. For once, I had no desire to find out what had happened here.

We turned and left the Clinic, trembling and wanting to forget.

But we couldn’t forget. The Stable was determined to remind us. The farther we walked into the Stable, the more the horrors grew. At first it started with a few veins clinging to the sides of the hallways like moss, then it became a layer of flesh over the walls and floor. I felt myself need to suppress another scream as I realized I was trotting over still living pony hide. Eventually eyes and faces began peering out at us from the walls, screaming in their eternal torment. A few hooves seemed to have grown out from the walls as well, reaching out as if begging for somepony to pull them free.

At some point I simply shut my eyes and tried to ignore it all. Somehow that made it all easier. I just had to keep telling myself I was walking on a wet carpet. Keep telling myself that and maybe I would forget.

After a few minutes of walking, I heard Brisk mutter something under his breath “A-amber…”

I nodded, still refusing to open my eyes. “Y-yeah?”

Brisks pace slowed, but didn’t stop. “That True Steel was in the Clinic before us… why didn’t he take the healing potions?”

I gave a small shake of my head. “I, um… I don’t know… maybe they overlooked them?”

Brisk shuddered. “Maybe… I don’t know. Something just feels really weird about that. I-I… uh…" He paused, his voice drifting off as something else caught his attention. "There’s something on my EFS…”

We slowed to a stop and I cracked an eye open to glance at my pipbuck. Sure enough, a red bar had appeared on my EFS as well. Most likely another True Steel… or whatever had killed them.

Pulling out my shotgun, I loaded in another four shots and readied myself for whatever was approaching. I focused on the end of the hall, trying my best not to look too long at the living walls around me. Beside me, I saw Brisk ready his own weapon.

There was a moment of tense silence, the only sound being our heavy breath and the strange slurping noises that seemed to emit from the walls as the living flesh warped and twisted. Then, my pipbuck light landed on something as it scuttled around the corner towards us.

It looked like it had once been a pony, but it didn’t look anything like one anymore. It’s legs had warped and twisted and it had grown multiple more limbs from its back and stomach. Its mouth was elongated, its jaw detached and hanging so low it almost reached the floor. Its skin was akin to something like a ghoul, wrinkled and rotting and scored by burns and blisters. Like Fleur De Lis, its eyes seemed to glow a pale pink and a strange pink mist wafted around their gnarled form.

Brisk’s pistol fired off a shot, the bullet ripping through the strange creature's disfigured head and sending brain matter spraying across the wall behind it. The Creature howled, staggering backwards and dropping to the ground with a squishy sounding thud.

I took a deep breath as the creature collapsed. “What the fuck was that.”

“Probably whatever the hell that Phantom thing the True Steel was raving about,” Brisk suggested, taking a nervous step towards where the creature had fallen. The fallen creature twitched, making him jump, but otherwise remained still.

I gave a shake of my head in disbelief. “That took out five True Steels? I don’t buy it,” I argued. “There’s no way that they would have been taken down by that thing, not with the crazy amount of weaponry those True Steels are carrying around at any given time.”

“Maybe there were lots of them,” Brisk assumed, poking at the corpse with a hoof. The pink mist burned away at his hide, forcing him to reef his hoof away. “Yikes… don’t touch it. It’s not soft.”

I shook my head again as I slowly trotted over to look the body over with him. “Maybe, but if there were we still should have seen at least one body. But I haven't seen a single corpse since we entered this place save for at the entrance.”

Brisk grimaced, clearly not having a response to that. Finally he shrugged. “Well, I’m not the smart one. I’m just going to say freaky pre war magic and leave it at that.”

Then the corpse of the creature gave us the answer to why we hadn't seen any bodies.

There was a sickening sputter as the corpse of the fallen creature shuttered. The pink mists around it seemed to seep into its wounds, patching it back together. On shaky legs, it pulled itself back up to face us, its impossibly large mouth dropping open and screaming at us.

I reeled back, Breaburn’s Liberator swinging up and blasting the creature through the chest with its explosive buckshot. Upon impact, pink fog burst from the creature's body, filling the hallway and making me cough. I could feel my eyes sting and my coat burn as I came in contact with the thick haze.

The shot failed to slow the creature down. It pulled itself back up, the strange pink cloud that I was realizing looked scarily like the pink cloud Azar had flooded my Stable with patching its wounds back together. It lashed forwards at us, its warped hooves Missing Brisk by Inches as he jumped back.

“Fucking shit!” Brisk stammered, rushing to push himself out of the expanding cloud of pink. His pistol raised in his mouth, only to click on empty. “Amber, run!”

I was way ahead of him. I spun on my hooves and bolted down the hallway. Brisk rushed after me, quickly catching up and glancing behind us as the creature we had thought we killed began scrambling after us.

“Which way!” I shouted, the hallway ahead of us splitting off into three different pathways.

“Doesn’t matter! Just pick one!” Brisk yelled back, loading another shot into his gun and firing off a shot behind him. The shot slashed through the creature's chest, but it failed to slow it down. More pink mist began to spill from its body.

I turned left, darting down the hallway as fast as I could. My eyes still stung from the exposure to the pink could and I could feel blisters forming on my body.

My hoof snagged on something as I ran along. I fell, getting a face full of blood and flesh as I landed on the living floor. I looked back, my eyes widening as I saw that a living pony hoof had reached from the ground to grab me.

I screamed, thrashing my hooves in an attempt to free myself. The hoof let go, allowing me to scamper back up and continue running.

The strange creature was gaining on us. I could hear its painted wails echoing around the dark hallway as it screamed. I couldn’t tell how it was moving so fast on such mangled looking limbs, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I needed to get away.

I heard Brisk give a yell of surprise. I shifted my gaze to the end of the hall to see three more of those… things, rushing towards us. Like the first one, they were twisted and distorted, like a pony that had been made of wax and then had a hairdryer taken to it.

“Quick, in here!” Brisk shouted, ducking into a sideroom. I rushed after him, desperate to get away from the howling monstrosities. The second I was in the room and the door had closed behind me, Brisk spun around and bucked at the emergency lock. There was a burst of sparks as it shattered under Brisk’s assault.

“That should stop them from following us,” Brisk said, tapping the door with a hoof. Though his voice didn’t reflect it, I could tell from the look in his eyes that those creatures had shaken him. He put on a fake smile. “I learned how to break the door systems back in Stable 25 to help escape security. They had to get some poor mechanic to open up the doors just to get to me.”

I winced, his words tugging at a memory. “Wait, that was you?” I slapped my hoof against my forehead. “Do you have any idea how long that took me to get open?! I was up for half the night trying to fix that damn door.”

Brisk gave me an awkward, sheepish look. “Hehehe… Whoops... No hard feelings?”

I just groaned, happy for the distraction to keep myself from thinking about anything but the horrors in this place. I turned to face the room we had entered. It looked to be some sort of sleeping area, though I doubted that was the rooms original purpose. Dozens of beds had been shoved into the room, a few of them little more than mattresses or sleeping bags with the Stable-Tec logo on them. There were a hoofful of terminals all over the room, though only one of them looked to still be functional. A door sat on the far side of the room, leading to what I could only hope was a way out.

“Probably where they were housing all the ponies that had been made homeless by the generator leak,” Brisk said, looking over the large collection of beds.

I gave a nod of agreement. That was as good a guess as any.

I pulled myself over to the only working terminal and clicked it on. Like the last one, it was locked, though not nearly locked enough to stop me from entering. Brisk peeked over my shoulder as I scrolled down a bit and opened one of the logs at random.

<DAFFODIL SUNSHINE G4>

>Log #14

>Hi, Daffodil again. I’m still sleeping with everypony else while they try to make the lower levels safe again. It’s taking them a long time. Hopefully they can fix the issue soon.

>Apparently there’s a cure to that sickness that has been going around. I haven’t gotten sick yet, but I’m planning on getting the implant tomorrow anyway. Better safe than sorry, right?

>Anyway, that’s all for now. I had better get some sleep.

>Log #15

>Hi, Daffodil again. So I just got the implant. My head’s feeling a little funny, but I guess that's just what’s to be expected.

>The Overmare says we should be allowed to move back to our old sleeping area in the lower levels soon, but the other ponies don’t seem so sure. I heard somepony say that they think the leak wasn’t an accident, and that Stable-Tec is forcing us out of the lower levels. But I think that’s silly. Why would they do that? What would even be the point?

>Log #16

>It’s Daffodil. I’ve had the worst headache all day. The other ponies that got the implant are having it too. One pony even started coughing up blood. I’m really scared. I think something is going on here. That or Stable-Tec made a mistake. I really hope they didn’t make a mistake.

>Some ponies are saying they're going to demand the Overmare has the implant removed from their head. I’m worried about them. Won’t that just make them sick? Whatever these headaches are can't be worse than that illness, right?

>Log #17

>I woke up in pain today. My head and stomach hurts and I’ve got a weird burning feeling in my throat. It hurts so much. I’m going to have the doctor look at it tomorrow. I’m just going to lie in bed until then. Maybe it will go away.

>Log #18

>Diamond Sky is dead! Well, not dead, but something happened to her. She woke up screaming and spitting weird pink globs. Then some strange pink mist started coming out of her mouth and security escorted her away! I’m freaking out right now. Apparently one of the security ponies got melted from being close to her. I heard they got fused right to the floor!

>So much is happening right now. Some ponies broke into the clinic and stole some of those implants to see what’s inside of them. It's the same pink stuff that was coming out of Diamond. Another pony got melted when they cracked it open.

>Diamond was the first to get the implant. Is that going to happen to me?! I really hope not. Fuck, this is scary. I hope this is over soon.

>Log #19

>Ponies are going crazy! There was another incident like Diamond Sky, but this time ponies didn’t just sit by and let security take them away. They’re storming the Overmares office. I don’t know what they hope to achieve, but I think they might just be out for blood.

>I’m going to try and get out of here. Fuck this Stable. Maybe I can get the Stable door open and get back outside. If there even still is an outside.

>This is Daffodil Sunshine. Bye, I guess.

I looked up as I read the last entry. Still not as much information as I wanted, but it did help to paint a slightly clearer picture.

“So I suppose those things we saw were Stable ponies,” Brisk grimaced, still reading over the terminal. I realized he was much slower at reading than I was and was still on the second to last log. “With the pink cloud and stuff. Whatever that is.”

I knitted my brow together. “I think it's a kind of megaspell or something. The one they used on Canterlot and our Stable. Kamari had a bunch of megaspells in the MAS tower, which I could only assume was how Azar got it. It would explain how the True Steels got fused to their armour and the living walls,” I shivered at the thought of the walls. Ponies that had been melted down, but still unable to die. I remember hearing somewhere that Balefire bombs had some sort of necromantic component to them. I could only assume something similar was going on here.

“Doesn’t explain what happened here though. Unless Stable-Tec was putting tiny megaspells into ponies heads,” Brisk grumbled, finally pulling away from the terminal. He looked over at the door at the far side of the room and gestured over to it. “Come on, let's try and find a way around those freaks.”

I nodded and followed after him as we made our way across the room. The door slid up as we neared, giving us a view of the hallway beyond. Thankfully, it seemed that it wasn’t covered in living pony flesh like the other one had been. The only light in the hallway that still functioned flickered constantly, making my head feel dizzy.

I hated this place.

I looked down at my EFS to make sure we were in the clear. Thankfully, I couldn’t see any red bars. There were however, two green ones.

“Looks like we're coming up on another of the teams,” Brisk said, spotting the two green bars before I could point them out.

“Let's hope they’re having more luck than we are.”

The hallway ended at another sliding Stable door. On my EFS, I could see the two ponies on the far side come to a stop. Likely they had noticed the presence of something on the far side. Hopefully they could tell that we were friendly.

“Amber? Brisk? Is that you?” I heard Mirra’s voice squeak out.

I nodded, only to realize that they couldn’t see me. Flushing slightly, I raised my voice. “Yeah, it’s us.”

A second later the door slid open and I was wrapped in a tight hug as Xayah pushed through the door and wrapped her hooves around me. Brisk looked at the two of us as we embraced for a second before shifting his gaze to Mirra. “Any luck on finding the security wing or Overmare’s office?”

Mirra shook her head as Xayah and I parted. “Nope. We ran into two Rangers though and a mutant thing,” She shivered. “That thing was scary.”

Xayah’s expression was grim. “We seemed unable to kill the creature. Shots to the head slowed it down, but it seemed otherwise invulnerable.”

I grimaced. “We ran into something similar. We had just about as much luck with putting them down,” I glanced behind me and down the hallway we had come. I could feel a shiver race through my body. “That and we found some weird parts of the Stable where ponies seemed to be melted into the walls.”

Xayah cocked her head and gave me a confused look. “Melted into the walls?”

Brisk and I exchanged a worried look. After a second we both shook our heads, coming to a silent agreement. The last thing we wanted was to drag Mirra through that nightmare. Not that we had any desire to see something that horrible again.

I turned back to face them. “Best we don’t show you. It’s not pretty.”

I saw Mirra stiffen and her nose twitch as some scent hit her nostrils. She flinched. “We’ve got more of those creatures coming from that way,” She said, gesturing down the hallway Brisk and I had come from. She sniffed again and turned to one of the conjoining side halls. “I smell ponies and fresh paint that way. Probably True Steels.”

I nodded and started heading down the hall. I had forgotten how useful Mirra’s sense of smell could be. It had been a real life saver on numerous occasions now. “Alright, let's go. Any idea how many are down there?”

Mirra sniffed the air again and shook her head. “Probably three or four? They’re too far away to tell for sure,” she hesitated for a second before continuing to follow after me. “I think I can smell rotting flesh and radiation as well. I think there might be more of those… those things,” she didn’t need to explain what things she was talking about. We all knew.

As we walked, I began to notice veins once more slithering across the walls. Not nearly to the extent of what I had seen before, but still very much present. I heard Xayah take a shaky breath as she saw the veins. “Oh… I see…” She sounded disturbed.

Mirra gave her a worried look. “What? What do you see.”

I placed a hoof on the small changeling's shoulder and quickly shut off my pipbuck light, sending us into darkness. “Doesn’t matter Mirra. Do you think you can lead the way through the dark with your scent?”

I could feel Mirra shiver beside me. “Wh-why? What is it? Why can I smell blood?”

I sighed. “Trust me Mirra. You don’t want to know.”

She didn’t answer after that. I had no doubt that our reaction was scaring her, but it would be better than letting the filly see the walls. That wasn’t something anypony should need to witness. After a few seconds of walking, I felt the squishing of flesh under my hooves. I was thankful I had shut off my pipbuck light.

I heard Mirra whimper slightly beside me. “We’re walking on ponies, aren’t we…” She whimpered. “It smells like pony flesh…” I nodded, though I knew she couldn’t see me in the darkness.

“Just keep walking Mirra. We’ll be fine… I promise...”

There was a small flicker of light up ahead of us that outlined a turn in the hallway. Through the dim light I could see the flesh covered walls. I considered covering Mirra’s eyes, but it wouldn’t be much good at this point.

Mirra paused. “There’s one of those creatures around the corner,” I could tell she was staring in horror at the flesh on the wall, but she was doing her best not to show her fear.

A few seconds later, a pained wail echoed down the hallway at us, confirming the creature's presence. I turned to Xayah. “Xayah, can you take out the thing? Aim for the head.”

Xayah nodded and slunked over to the corner of the hall, her sniper already drawn. The rest of us slowly trailed behind her, readying ourselves for attack. I poked my head around the corner and stared down the hall.

One of the warped creatures stood in the middle of the hall, silhouetted by the flickering light above. He scratched at the ground, ripping bloody gashes in the flesh covered floor.

I could see Xayah shiver as she took in the organic hallway. It was the first time she had seen it in somewhat proper light. Her sniper raised and aimed at the creature's head.

“When you fire, we’re only going to have a few moments before it pulls itself up again," Brisk reminded us, crouching down beside me and looking out at the creature. “And the shots are probably going to alert more of them and send them running after us as well.”

I gave a grim nod. “We’ll make a run for it,” I looked past the creature and at the intersecting hallways at the end of the hall. Who the fuck designed this Stable? It was like a fucking maze. Whomever made Stable 25 did a much better job. “Mirra, which hallway are we wanting to go through?”

Mirra gave a big sniff of the air. She gagged slightly at the scent of rotten flesh but eventually pointed to the left most hallway. “I think I can smell rangers down that way.”

I nodded. “Alright, we’ll head left. Xayah, whenever you’re ready.”

Xayah looked back to the creature and re-aimed their sniper. There was a tense second of silence as she lined up her shot.

Bang!

The shot flashed forwards, piercing the twisted abomination between the eyes. There was a spurt of blood and a howl of pain as the thing collapsed to the ground in a slump. At once, I pushed myself forwards and darted down the hall. Xayah was at my side in seconds and I saw Brisk carting Mirra on his back a pace behind me.

Horrific wails echoed out from the halls around us and the sudden sound of clambering hooves filled the air. Clearly there were more creatures around than we thought. I figured Mirra’s nose had its limits, and it was probably getting confused by all the living flesh.

As we neared the fallen body of the creature Xayah had shot, a puff of pink vapor burst from its form, filling the hallway with a thin mist of Pink. The pink mist began seeping back into its body, patching the bullet wound in its head back together.

I reeled back as I came up on the thin wall of pink. I glanced behind me, making out the vile silhouette of more creatures as they began to pour into the tunnel after us. No other way through. I slammed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and plunged into the pink.

For just a moment, my whole body felt like it was on fire. My insides churned, my eyes stung and leaked with tears and my hairs all felt like hot, metal rods that had been stabbed into my flesh. Less than a second later, I was out of the cloud and all the pain was little more than a throbbing memory in my head.

Brisk, Xayah and Mirra pushed their way out of the cloud less than a moment later and we continued scrambling as fast as we could down the hall. I heard the Creature give a howl of rage and torment as it finally rose back to its hooves and joined the rest of the monsters as they rushed after us.

We reached the end of the hall and I bolted left. A side door slid open at our approach, making way for one of the twisted creatures as they lunged out at us. I ducked and rolled, the fleshy apparition’s attack sailing over my head.

I bucked at it, my hooves slamming into the creatures head and staggering it. My hoof stung at the contact, the pink cloud wafting around my limbs. I yelped in pain and continued rushing forwards. I didn’t bother fighting it, I knew it couldn’t die.

The creatures were gaining on us. I couldn’t see them well in the dark, but I could feel their ragged, rot scented breath breathing down my neck. Brisk gave a holler of pain as one of the creatures lashed at him with a hoof, the mangled limb burning away a small bit of his hide.

Up ahead, I saw a sign embedded on the far wall, the words unreadable through the darkness of the room. I flicked on my pipbuck light as I ran, illuminating the hallway in hopes to read the sign and get an inkling of where we were. To my relief, the words Overmare’s office came into view. Clearly Mirra’s nose had not led us astray.

Unfortunately, my pipbuck light lit up other things in the hallway that were best left unseen. A collective gasp escaped my friends as they took in the ghastly Stable hallway.

Like the tunnel I had seen from before, the walls, floor and ceiling were covered in a thick layer of flesh and muscle, stretched across the surface like a canvass. Pony hooves and faces stretched out from the wall, squirming as if trying to break free from the wall. With my pipbuck light now activated, I saw its pale green glow reflecting off the numerous eyeballs that looked to have grown out of the wall and were following us as we ran.

“Quick, this way!” I shouted, trying my best to ignore the horrors of the Stable and turning down the hall that the sign suggested should lead to the Overmars office. “We’re almost there!”

One of the creatures dove forwards, their gnarled limbs wrapping around Xayah’s waist and dragging her to the ground with a scream, the pink mist wafting from its body burning at Xayah’s hide. Xayah flailed, slamming her hooves against the creature's body over and over in an attempt to free herself. She raised her sniper to blow out the creature's brains. I saw her whole body lock up as she took in the creature that had grabbed her.

The creature that had latched onto her was like all the others in many ways. Multiple twisted limbs, gaping maw, melted flesh. But it was different too. It was smaller. It was a filly.

I recalled what Xayah had told me. That fillies often remind her of Zira. I saw her jaw lessen and the sniper lower. She wasn’t going to shoot a filly, even if it was a mutated monster.

The filly creature’s mouth widened impossibly wide, its jaw unhinging and its long tongue lolling from its mouth. It’s jagged, rotting teeth glinted in the light of my pipbuck.

I whirled around, Braeburn’s Liberator swinging up in my magic and firing a shot of buckshot into the gnarled fillies head. Their heads burst open, making the creature stumbled off of Xayah, viscera spraying from the bloody stump of its neck.

Xayah blinked off the shock and pushed herself away from the scrambling mob of monstrosities. I could see tears in her eyes as she pushed herself past me, not bothering to give me even a sideways glance.

Ahead, I saw Brisk and Mirra charge around another corner, this corner seeming to lead to a more steady looking light. Pushing through my exhaustion, I pushed myself forwards and towards the light. As Brisk and Mirra moved out of sight, I heard the sound of what I could only assume was one of the True Steels Mirra had smelt.

“What the fu- we got ponies in here!” I heard them shout. My eyes filled with flashing lights as the sound of a mini gun opening fire rang through my ears. I hoped Brisk and Mirra managed to avoid the gunfire.

Xayah and I rounded the corner, stepping out into the light. A few steps away from us was a large open door that led to a larger room beyond. Four True Steels stood guard in the room around a door, their attention drawn to an open doorway that I could See Brisk and Mirra taking cover behind. One of them turned to face us as we entered.

“Shit! We’ve got more of the-” Through their visor I could see their eyes widen as one of the twisted creatures scrambled into the light behind us. “Fuck! Open Fire!”

The True Steels battle saddles let loose a stream of fire towards us. Xayah and I dove aside, taking shelter beside Brisk and Mirra. Thankfully, the True Steels weren’t aiming at us, but at the mass of creatures that were suddenly pouring into the tunnel after us.

There was a loud boom as a rocket shot from one of the rangers battle saddles. I ducked down, shrapnel blasting through the door as the large explosive ripped into the oncoming creatures.

One of the Creatures lunged forwards, lashing at a True Steel with their hooves. The True Steel stumbled backwards and fired at it, pink clouds bursting from the bullet holes that were ripped open in their body. The cloud consumed the ranger. I heard his screams as his hide was welded to his armour. A second later, he collapsed to the ground.

“Close the door! Get it closed now!” One of the True Steels shouted. I couldn’t tell which one. There was another blast of a rocket, followed by the frontmost creatures being ripped apart by the explosion.

One of the True Steels rushed forwards and activated the emergency lock on the door. Their metal clad hoof slammed down on the emergency lock mechanism, the large doors immediately sliding shut in response. Unfortunately for the True Steel, one of the Creatures had already pushed its way through the door. The True Steel staggered as the Creatures swiped at it with their twisted hooves, pink clouds seeping from their body and into the rangers armour.

The rocket launcher wielding True Steel lined up a shot and fired. The rocket blasted forwards, detonating with the creature's body. It exploded, limbs and gore flying all over the room. The Creature was not alone in their fate. The True Steel it had been assailing was blasted apart by their companions explosive attack. The True Steel screamed as they were blown apart, then there was silence.

No pony moved for a moment as they waited to see if the decimated creature would get back up. Pink cloud still seemed to be leaking from where its ruined head had landed, but other than that, it seemed to be staying down. I quickly took note that these things could in fact be killed. I just had to find a way to blow them up to a point they couldn’t regenerate. Perhaps fire might have been able to deal with them, had Pyre still been with us.

“Don’t move or we’ll shoot,” I heard one of the True Steels shout. I tensed up. I had forgotten that these ponies had seen us rush in. “We are not afraid to fire if you make any sudden moves,” I was honestly surprised they hadn’t fired yet.

I gulped as the sudden implication of one of the True Steels firing hit me. A single shot from that rocket launcher was likely to destroy everything in the small room we were taking cover in. Our cover suddenly felt more like a death trap. Curse these confined spaces.

Brisk cast me a glance. “Plan?”

“Star paladin Tesla Coil is probably in the other room. We need to deal with these rangers, then take him out.”

“That is simply a list of objectives,” Xayah quipped. “Why are your plans always just a list of obvious objectives?”

I threw my hooves up in the air in exasperation. “What else do you want me to do? I can’t be expected to make all these plans up on the fly like this all the time!”

“Step out with your weapons holstered!” The other True Steel ordered. “If you fail to comply we will fire!”

I turned to Mirra. “You have any grenades left from the MWT building?” I whispered. Mirra gave a timid nod. I allowed myself to crack a grin as I gestured to Brisk, Xayah and myself. “We’ll step out. When they’re distracted roll the grenade past our hooves and towards them.”

Mirra gave an affirmative nod, only looking somewhat confident in her ability to do so.

“I’m going to count to three!” One of them shouted. I could hear a rocket clicking into place in their launcher.

“No need. Just hold on, we’re coming out,” I said cautiously. Slowly, I stepped out from behind cover, Braeburn’s Liberator still holstered at my side. Nervously, Brisk and Xayah follow suit, their weapons also still at their sides.

The True Steel with the rocket launcher snarled at us. “State your purpose here.”

“Iron Hock sent us. We’re here to help,” I lied. If I could just catch them off guard enough…

“Unlikely. Only true members of the old order of the Steel Rangers are permitted entry into our ranks. Iron Hock would never accept some green Stable dwellers…” Their gaze shifted to Xayah. He gave her a low growl “And we would never affiliate ourselves with Zebras”

Xayah winced back slightly. I wanted to simply shoot this fucker then and there for that remark. That hadn’t been my best lies, I should have known they’d see through it.

I puffed out my chest and tried not to show any fear. “Well… um… Obviously. I never said we were True Steels… um…” I searched for a reason Iron Hock might have sent us. “Iron Hock figured we could help navigate the area… since… we’re Stable dwellers and all…”

“And the Zebra?” The second True Steel pushed.

“Um…” I looked at Brisk and Xayah for help. They just gave me unhelpful, worried shrugs. I looked back to the True Steels and gave an uncomfortable, nervous grin. “Backup?”

The True Steel with the rocket launcher snorted. “Yeah, right… Doesn’t matter anyway. We’re almost done here. Most of the old generator and the scrap metal has been salvaged and shipped off to Fort Strong. We’re just tying up loose ends.”

The ranger that hadn’t been speaking had taken to staring at me. I let my gaze flicker over to him as I spotted a sudden look of anger cross his face. “Wait a second. You’re that cunt that killed Pistachio!”

We all took a step back. I let myself groan. “Celestia damn it, can somepony tell me who the fuck this Pistachio is? Fucking hell!”

The grenade rolled past my hooves and landed by the True Steels hooves. They both dropped their heads down to look at it in shock. They realized what it was too late.

The grenade exploded, sending one of the True Steels flying across the room and smashing into a wall, their helmet now a dented and broken scrap of metal. The second True Steel stumbled back, their strong armour taking the brunt of the explosion.

My shotgun was up in the air in seconds, firing off a shot in the True Steels direction. The buckshot ripped through the rangers side, blasting apart metal and revealing bits of the scarred hide beneath. The True Steel staggered, still trying to keep his balance from the explosion that had rammed into him only seconds before.

There was a strong whoosh of air as a rocket launched itself from the True Steels side and flashed towards us. The shot missed by a mile, soaring above us and bursting against the top of the doorframe.

A rocket doesn’t need to hit.

I was knocked over, the shockwave slamming into me from above and making me collapse to my stomach. Brisk was sent reeling to his left, his head smacking against the side of the wall.

Xayah’s legs braced themselves, managing to keep her upright despite the blast. Her sniper snapped up and fired, its aim thrown off by the sudden detonation of the rocket. The bullet pierced the True Steels leg, making him collapse to one knee.

Behind me, Mirra fluttered out from behind the door and spat a large wad of green mucus from her mouth. The green slim splattered against the True Steels rocket launcher, covering the hole.

The True Steel didn’t seem to care. He pulled himself back up, his large weapon aiming to face me as I struggled to get back to my own hooves. The rocket launcher fired…

...and then promptly exploded.

The entire left side of the True Steel was blasted apart, the rocket detonation within his battle saddle before it had the chance to fire at me as it collided with Mirras green mucus. The True Steel was thrown halfway across the room, two of their hooves shredded and mangled underneath their armour. They landed in a heap, moaning in pain for only a moment before they went limp and died.

I let myself look away from the ranger and towards Mirra. “That spit thing is creepy.”

Mirra stuck her forked tongue out at me. “I work with what I’m given.”

Brisk turned to look at the door leading into the Overmares office. “You think Tesla Coil is inside?”

I gave him a nod. “If the welcome party was any indication, I’d say there’s a high chance that he’s in there.”

Like the rest of the doors in the Stable, the door to the Overmares office slid open at our approach. Instead of leading directly into the Office like I had expected, the doorway led to a short tunnel ending in a flight of stairs. Hopefully this distance between the door and the office itself would have been enough to muffle our previous fight. With any luck, Paladin Tesla Coil would have no idea we were coming.

We began slinking down the hallway towards the stairs. Like before, I could see veins spider webbing across the walls. Just a foot away from the first step, the walls once more became organic, covered in a thick layer of mangled hooves and warped pony flesh. A silently screaming pony face tried to stretch out from the wall and bite at me as we passed it.

The horrors in the walls seemed to be getting worse and more consistent the closer to the Overmares office we got. Something terrible had happened here. We were getting closer to the source.

As we slowly approached the top most step of the stairs, a voice was heard, low and gravelly. We all froze and listened in. “...We are almost done here. A few more hours and we will be ready to cleanse the Stable for good,” It wasn’t a voice I recognized. I could only assume it belonged to the aforementioned Paladin Tesla Coil.

“Good. Have you managed to reach the Security wing yet?” Another voice spoke up, this one filled with static and sounding as if it were coming over an intercom. I felt myself shiver. I knew that voice. I took a small step forward and peeked into the room.

The room was a lot like how I had expected it. In many ways it looked exactly like the Overstallion office back in Stable 25, if not just a little bit bigger. Across the room I could even see a small door that in Stable 25 would have led to my bedroom. It was weird to look at.

What made it different however were the living pony walls. Like the hallways, the Overmares office had become a nightmare of stretched pony flesh and muscle, mixed with veins, eyeballs and screaming pony faces. A few fully formed ponies still protruded from the walls and floor, their bodies twisted and warped and their hooves firmly welded to the ground as they tried to pull themselves free.

I wondered how long they had been like that, twisted and unable to move. Unable to scream or do anything beside writhe and feel pain. It was a terrible fate. One I knew would give me nightmares for years to come.

Paladin Tesla Coil stood in the centre of the room. He was a monster of a pony, standing almost three times my height. He must have ducked a little just to have fit himself through the door. He was clad in a fully enclosed suit of power armour that had been painted to be an almost blinding gold. His large, metal pauldrons had multiple energy capacitors built into them, each one connected to a bunch of tesla coils that raced across his form.

Attached to his battle saddle was a weapon I had hoped to never see used against me again. A massive Tesla cannon. Smaller than the twin ones Crank had been wielding, but not by much, and still a massive and impressive weapon all the same.

“I am awaiting confirmation from my grand knights on their success with the mission, High Lord Elder Iron Hock,” Tesla Coil boomed, facing the broadcaster he had set up in the middle of the Overmares office. That title still sounding fucking stupid. “As soon as they have secured everything of value, I’ll have them activate the security protocols and I’ll begin the pink cloud dispenser.”

I locked up. They wanted to flood the Stable with pink cloud as soon as they were finished looting? Why? Surely this place could be of some tactical use to them, right?

Iron Hock’s voice rumbled from the broadcaster, answering my thoughts. “Good. The last thing we need are the Steel Rangers, or Celestia forbid, the Fucking Outcast puppets, getting their hooves on this place,” He paused, and for a second I wondered if he had hung up on the other end. Then he spoke again. “I just got reports that your first scouting team has arrived. I am pleased to see you have delivered the generator and arch reactor as requested instead of chasing your own brash plan of storming the Security wing.”

I cast a worried glance with my friends, but they didn’t seem to pick up on the same thing as me. Why the fuck did Iron Hock want generator parts before weaponry? That seemed oddly out of character for him. And if what the True Steel in the room behind us had said was true, he had focused more on collecting scrap metal. Again, the question of why they hadn’t looted the medical clinic came up in my mind. The True Steels were here for something very specific. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what. Things just didn’t quite add up.

Tesla Coil put a large hoof over his chest and gave the Steel Ranger salute. I doubted Iron Hock could see him, but I doubted that mattered to Tesla Coil. The movements looked almost instinctual. “Ad Victoriam!” He declared boldly, before reaching forwards and shutting off the broadcaster. He turned back to the Overmares terminal and began typing something.

I turned back to my friends. “Alright, do we have a plan?”

They all stared back at me blankly. Finally Brisk spoke up in a hushed whisper. “That’s your job. Since when do I ever have a plan for anything?”

I grumbled. “Darn, why do I always have to come up with it?”

“You’re the smartest?” Mirra suggested helpfully.

I just groaned. “Alright. He’s just one ranger. We can probably take him out,” I looked to Brisk. “We’ll charge in. I’ll take the right, you take the left. We’ll attack him from both sides,” I turned to Xayah. “You stay here and give us cover fire. Try to take him out with his sniper.”

Xayah gave a quick nod and began readying her sniper. Mirra looked up at me. “And what do you want me to do?” She held up her pistol bravely, but her face made it clear she had no desire to fight anypony.

I gestured to the staircase. “Make sure we don’t get any other unwelcome guests. Alert us if there are more rangers coming. There are still nine unaccounted True Steels in the Stable… and whatever those monsters were.”

“Report,” I heard Tesla Coil boom from across the room, drawing our attention back to him as he once again flicking on the broadcaster. “Have you reached the security wing yet?”

The voice that responded sounded clearer and less static filled than Iron Hock’s had. Clearly the proximity to the broadcaster was helping the pony on the other side pick up and transmit the signal. “We just reached the entrance. Though we’ve had some resistance with those phantom things.”

Tesla Coil growled. “Blow them apart. They cannot regenerate once their head is pulped,” Good to know. I’d keep that in mind for next time. I heard Tesla Coil growl again. “Keep pushing through. I need those security systems back online.”

I signalled with my hoof for us to start moving. “Alright. Let's do this.”

Boom!

The wall beside me was suddenly hit with a blinding flash of blue light. I staggered back, my head reeling and my ears ringing. Brisk was sent flying down the steps, being closest to the blast, tumbling head first and coming to a sudden stop at the bottom in a disheveled heap. I heard both Xayah and Mirra whimper as the powerful shockwave knocked them off kilter.

I stumbled, raising Braeburns Liberator and firing off a shot. The buckshot met air as Tesla Coil quickly moved out of the way.

“Did you really think you could sneak up on me?” Tesla Coil snarled, his large Tesla Cannon charging up for another blast. He turned to look at us more fully, a small chuckled escaping his lips. “Surely some Stable dwellers would not so easily forget about EFS?”

Fuck! How did I forget that his power armour would have had that. Our sudden move to attack him would have alerted him by showing our four red bars.

Xayah fired a shot from her sniper beside me, her shot being just as effective as mine had been as Tesla Coil quickly stepped to the side. Clearly our element of surprise was gone, so… fuck it!

I pulled myself out from our cover and charged at the large True Steel, my shotgun already raised and aimed. Tesla Coil spun around, his large rear hooves lashing out and bucking me in the chest. I choked out a pained breath, my lungs feeling like they were on fire as I was sent flying across the room and slamming into the rear wall. His buck was accompanied by a painful crack as a few of my ribs were shattered under his force.

Brisk came stumbling up the stairs, his pistol raised and firing at the paladin. Tesla Coil twisted to face him, Brisk’s shots simply bouncing off his powerful armour. He charged, his Tesla cannon continuing to grow with intense glowing light as he prepared for another blast.

Xayah, Brisk and Mirra all scattered as the large True Steel bulldozed towards them. The tesla coils on his armour sparked, sending jolts of pale blue electricity lashing out around him. The bolts slashed into the walls, sending more sparks rippling across the surfaces. Had it not been for the walls of flesh, I have no doubt we would have been instantly electrocuted.

I pulled myself back to my hooves, my head still spinning from slamming into the wall with such force. I stumbled, the searing pain in my chest threatening to throw me into unconsciousness already. My head raised, my eyes widening as I saw Tesla Coil’s cannon fully charged and turning back to face me. The end of the massive weapon began to shine with a blinding blue as it prepared to fire.

With less than a second to spare, I ignited my horn, wrapping myself in a thin amber shield of magic. The second the shield was up, I was hit by the immense blast of the tesla cannon. My shield exploded around me, the blast sending me once more flying across the room.

I slammed against the wall, my vision spinning as I tried to focus on the battle around me. I saw Tesla Coil charging at me, his weapon once more charging up as he prepared to fire.

Mirra flew out towards him, her pistol blasting a shot off into the side of his helmet. The shot sparked off the metal, making the huge paladin stumble, but not fall. He spun around, his hooves lashing out and swatting Mirra out of the air. The changeling was batted to the ground, a spark of energy lashing out from Tesla Coils hoof and sending a bolt slashing across Mirra's Chest.

Mirra screamed, her front blackened and burned from the attack. She staggered back, trying to pull herself away from Tesla Coil as he reared up and prepared to slam his hooves down on the fillies head.

Xayah’s sniper swung up and blasted Tesla Coil in one of his reer hooves. The bullet ripped through the joint in his armour, making him collapse backwards and onto his side in a growl of pain. Brisk rushed forward and wrapped his hooves around Mirra, quickly pulling her out of range of the deadly True Steel.

I stumbled to my hooves, my vision still seeing double of everything. “Everypony okay?”

It wasn’t time to talk yet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blinding flash of blue. I ducked and rolled forwards, a powerful blast of the paladin’s Tesla canon flashing over my head and slamming into the wall behind me. My broken ribs screamed in protest as I rolled to a stop, my breath coming out in ragged pants.

Tesla Coil pulled himself back up, limping on his injured hind hoof and turning his angry gaze towards us. He gave a deep growl that seemed to resonate through my whole body. “Who do you ponies work for? The Outcasts?”

I cast a look at my friends before giving a small shrug. “Not technically, but let's go with that.”

Tesla Coil gave another growl. “Mercenaries then? Whatever you’re being paid, I’m sure I can double it.”

So these True Steel assholes were interested in talking it out now? I didn’t think so. I shook my head. “Not after what you did to my Stable. And the Outcasts aren’t paying us. This is more like volunteer work than anything else.”

Tesla Coil straightened up into a slightly less hostile position, but he never dropped his guard. I could still see his large tesla cannon charging up at his side. “So you simply wish to help the wasteland then? I can admire that,” He gave a low, deep chuckle. “Perhaps we can come to an agreement. It would seem we have the same interests.”

Xayah snarled. “Your interests are to rule the ponies of the wasteland. You do not wish to aid in their struggles.”

Tesla Coil gave a shake of his head. “On the contrary. The True Steels desire to bring the wasteland a form of government, the likes of which have not been seen since before the bombs,” He stomped his hoof and gave a snort. “The Steel Rangers had no interest in this. They were merely raiders in fancy suits. While what the Outcasts have done is… admirable, their lack of drive and focus on the here and now will very quickly lead to their downfall. How long do you think the Outcasts will be able to thrive in the wasteland? They are up against foes and factions far superior in firepower and numbers then they will ever be, and they are constantly losing valuable resources in their hopeless crusade to save civilians that share no respect for them. Only the True Steels are strong enough to create genuine, lasting change to the wasteland.”

Brisk gave a loud snort. “The wasteland needs order, no argument there. But not under you or Iron Hock,” Mirra folded back her bug like ears and gave the paladin a small growl to emphasize Brisk’s point, scrunching up her muzzle and bearing her fangs.

“Under Iron Hock?” Tesla Coil scoffed. “Iron Hock is an opportunistic fool. He will lead the True Steels to victory, but he will not live long enough to take control of the wasteland. I will see to that.”

I raised an eyebrow, suddenly caught off guard. “Wait… You’re… planning to backstab him?” I had taken Tesla Coil for more of an obedient soldier than as a pony who had their own plans for the wasteland. “Why?”

“As I said, Iron Hock is a fool. He would see the wasteland ruled by him. He would see the ponies slaughtered to get his way. Even now, he has killed more than even I am comfortable with,” Tesla Coil explained, his deep, commanding voice rumbling around the room. “So…? What do you say?”

I shook my head again. I could understand where Tesla Coil was coming from, but while he seemed to be more reasonable and less bloodthirsty than Iron Hock, his idea of making a perfect wasteland was still paved by blood and violence. Enough so that he was willing to stand beside Iron Hock as long as he needed to make it happen.

“No,” I said firmly, once more leveling Breabruns Liberator. “There has to be a better way to do this than violence.”

“Maybe so...” Tesla Coil admitted, his head cocking slightly to the side. “But if ponies were capable of doing such a thing, do you not think that they would have done so at some point in the last two hundred years?” There was a small beep from beside him, making Tesla Coil look over to the broadcaster he had been communicating to earlier. He reached over and clicked it on. “Are you ready?”

The voice of the True Steel Knight we had heard earlier spoke up. “The Security wing has been secured.”

Wait… What…? Fuck…!

Tesla Coil turned back to face us. I could see the edges of his smile twisting upwards behind his visor. “Wonderful. I have some company with me in the Overmares office. Would you mind eliminating them for me?” I took a step back at his words, only for him to take an advancing step towards me, his vile grin continuing to grow behind his helmet. “Gotcha!”

He hadn’t been trying to offer us anything! He had just been trying to distract us! Stall us!

Blueberry had told me that Tesla Coil was smart. I should have seen this coming.

Five turrets popped down from the roof above us, red lights flickering to life across their metallic surfaces. I heard all my friends give startled yelps as they were suddenly faced with the extra extensive fire power.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

The turrets unleashed their stream of fire. I dove to the side, my chest filling with agony as I landed heavily on my broken ribs. To my right, I saw Xayah try to move out of the way, only for the turrets fire to rip through her hind leg. She screamed, falling to the ground, blood spilling from the multiple bullet wounds in her leg.

Brisk rushed forwards, a few of the turrets shots grazing his side as he attempted to charge Tesla Coil. The large paladin’s armour sparked, a bolt of electricity shooting through Brisk’s body and sending him stumbling backwards.

I staggered to my hooves, my whole body being wracked in aching pains. I swung my shotgun up and fired it towards Tesla Coil. The explosive buckshot pounded into his chest, pushing him backwards. Fire shot across the front of his body and scorched his armour as the fire talismans in my shotgun took effect, but the shot failed to actually penetrate the thick metal plating. The paladin scowled, firing off a shot of his own explosive weapon towards me.

My vision flared with light as the blast of static filled energy burst against the ground before me. All of the hairs on my body stood on end as a shock zapped through me as my body was hit by the massive shockwave that sent me somersaulting through the air backwards.

Mirra fluttered forwards, one of her hooves still clutching at the burn mark caused by Tesla Coils previous attack. She reached out and wrapped me in her magic, cushioning my fall as I once more slammed into the floor.

There was a beep, as the turrets once again swiveled to face us and opened fire. I rolled to the side, one of the turrets firing into the side of my barding. I felt a piercing pain as the bullets thumped into me, but thankfully the ballistic weave Coco Pommel had placed into my Stable barding protected me from most of the damage.

I saw Xayah struggling to move out of the way of another Turrets attack, relying on her metal forehooves to carry her as her left hind leg dragged uselessly behind her from the turret's previous assault. She struggled to aim her sniper with her mouth, taking aim at one of the turrets and firing. The bullet lashed through the turret, making it explode in a shower of sparks.

Tesla Coil spun around, his hooves ramming forwards and knocking Xayah back down. She spun to try and fire a shot at him, only for him to crack his metal clad hooves against her head, knocking her prone to the ground. A small drizzle of blood spilled from Xayah’s muzzle as the large True Steel slammed her head against the ground.

Brisk’s pistol fired, the shot ripping through another of Tesla Coil’s legs. He staggered back again, grunting in pain.

Tesla Coil was strong. I had no doubt that had he been fighting only one of us, or even three of us, he could have taken us out with ease. But there were more of us than there were of him, and we were beginning to wear him down. I could tell that he was beginning to see that too as he tried to steady himself on his only two uninjured legs.

He gave us all a deep growl, his tesla cannon firing off a powerful shot in Brisk’s direction. Brisk dove aside, stumbling into me as the blasts shockwave rammed into him. I helped to pull him back up, turning to face Tesla Coil and trying to take aim on him again.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

My chest was ripped open as two of the turrets spun around and fired directly into me. I slumped backwards, pain shooting across my body. My barding absorbed a lot of the damage, but even it could only stop so much.

Brisk crouched down next to me, his hooves applying pressure to my bleeding front. Blood spilled from the wounds, soaking his coat in crimson.

Mirra darted forwards, her revolver firing a shot that pinged off Tesla Coils armour. The True Steel spun around to face her, only to see her spit a wad of green mucus onto the front of his saddle mounted gun. The trick had worked well on the True Steel we had fought downstairs. It was not nearly as effective against the energy based Tesla Cannon.

The quick drying mucus was blasted apart as Tesla Coil fired again, sending bolts of energy and green slime flying across the room. The blast of energy lashed forwards, detonating against the flesh covered wall behind Mirra, spraying her with a mix of shredded flesh and viscera. I was horrified to hear the walls scream.

Tesla Coil growled at Mirra as she quickly zipped away from another blast of his cannon. Snarling, he pounced forwards, his armoured hooves slashing through the air as he tried to bat the changelings to the ground.

Pushing past the pain, I loaded four more shots into my gun. I was beginning to run scarily low on ammo. I steadied myself, trying to aim at the paladin despite the pain flaring through my body. Braeburns Liberator fired, the buckshot bursting against the side of his armour and ripping open a piece of the metal plating, giving me a clear view of his green coat beneath.

Tesla Coil scowled, stumbling backwards as he tried to keep his now unarmoured side away from our weaponry. He limped over to where Xayah was still struggling to pull herself up off the ground after the paladin's last attack and placed one of his hooves on her head, pushing her face back down into the flesh covered floor.

“Surrender now or the Zebra bitch’s head gets crushed!” Tesla Coil demanded. I could hear a small tremor in his voice. We were beating him. We would beat him, and he knew it. But not before he would get the chance to crush Xayah’s skull. That was something he knew too.

I took a step forward, only to see him apply more pressure onto Xayah’s head. Xayah yelled out in pain as the metal clad hoof pushed down on her.

Up above, the four remaining turrets swiveled around to face us, each one aiming at one of our heads. I gulped. I wouldn’t be able to dodge the turret again if it fired. Not with my broken ribs and my chest riddled with bullet holes.

I saw the barrels of the turrets prepare to fire.

The turrets went dead, their red blinking lights going dark and the barrels dropping to face the floor.

Tesla Coils head shot up with surprise. His head whipped around to stare at the turrets, his eyes widening. “What! What the fuck is going on!”

My pipbuck made a small beep, drawing all of our attention to me. I flicked it on and saw that a familiar broadcast signal had popped up. I quickly activated it.

“Amber Aura, this is Crusader Blueberry reporting. We have just taken control of the security wing. What’s your status?” I felt my whole body seemingly go limp with relief.

“We’re here in the Overmares office with Tesla Coil. Mind giving us some assistance?” I could feel some smugness seeping into my voice, despite the unbearable pain that I was still feeling.

The voice on the other side of the broadcast was quiet for less than a second before Blueberry spoke up. “No problem, I have a visual.”

I saw Tesla Coil’s body go rigid with alarm. He scrambled to crush Xayah’s skull, only for all four turrets to whir to life and send a stream of bullets slashing into him. Tesla Coil screamed, stumbling away from Xayah as his body was ripped into by the constant fire. Most of the shots bounced harmlessly off his armour, but many pushed through, slashing holes into his flesh which quickly began to spew blood. One of his legs was blasted apart, momentarily forcing him to his knees.

Tesla Coil scrambled back up and reeled back, his massive cannon firing a shot towards the ceiling and blowing apart one of the turrets in an explosion of blue energy. The turret burst into shrapnel, raining shards of metal and lead down on all of us.

Brisk pulled himself away from me, his pistol firing off a shot. The shot lanced through Tesla Coils last intact leg, sending the paladin collapsing onto his front.

Tesla Coil roared with pain, his head turning to face us as he gave us all a hateful glare. Amazingly, he pulled himself back up on shaking legs, his whole body trembling as the turrets continued to pour their constant stream of fire into him. His body turned towards us, his tesla cannon levelling with our position and beginning to glow a brilliant blue.

“You cannot stop us!” He bellowed, one of his legs buckling under him as he tried to keep a strong stance before us. “You have no idea what Iron Hock is capable of… what he has set in motion!”

His tesla cannon continued to charge up, glowing brighter and brighter as he prepared to fire.

One of the turrets sent a bullet that lashed through his neck. The weak part of the armour that allowed for his head to move burst open, a thick spray of blood spurting from his neck and across the floor. He dropped to his knees again, the glowing light of his tesla cannon going dead. I could see him glaring at me through his visor as he collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled with pain. Then the life drained from his eyes and his body went limp.

I felt myself take a deep breath as the room was suddenly cast into silence. My chest throbbed as I inhaled, reminding me of my wounds. I pulled out one of my healing potions and looked it over. I recalled what Star Breeze had told me about healing potions and broken bones. Deciding her knowledge of medicine vastly outweighed my own, I placed the potion down and looked my chest over.

I couldn’t just leave the bones to heal, not with the blood spilling down my front from all the bullet wounds. But if I just drank the healing potion, my ribs might heal wrong, and that sounded like the last thing I wanted. Remembering the bone healing spell Heartbeat had used, I let an amber aura surround my horn. I focused for a second, sweat dripping down my brow as I concentrated on the spell. There was a small pop, followed by my ribs snapping back into place.

I screamed, my chest flaring with pain as the bones twisted within my chest. My version of the spell was not nearly as effective as Heartbeats had been, and hurt a fuck of a lot more, but it did its job. Or at the very least, it did its job enough that hopefully the healing potion would be able to do the rest of the work.

I picked the healing potion back up in my hooves, my horn throbbing from that last spell too much to use magic again for a few moments, and quickly drank the potions contents. Almost immediately, I felt the itch of my flesh patching itself back together as the healing potion worked its magic.

Across the room, I saw Brisk giving Xayah a healing potion before drinking one himself. A few moments later and they were both looking better, though admittedly fairly tired. I offered a potion to Mirra, but she just waved me off, telling me to save it for something more important. She wasn’t wrong, there was only so much a healing potion could do for a burn mark.

My pipbuck gave another beep, signalling to me that Blueberry was once more trying to contact me. I clicked the broadcast on. “Thanks for the help,” I said to my pipbuck, pulling myself up to my aching hooves. “How did taking the security wing go?”

There was a bit of static from the other end before Blueberry answered. “We managed to clear the way and dispatch all the True Steels without casualty. However, Knight Elderberry had been injured and was in serious need of medical attention. I sent knight Lemon Cheesecake to return him to the Stable door and get him to Dazzling Souvenir.”

I nodded, trotting over to the Overmares terminal and clicking it on. “We have the Overmares office secured as well,” I paused, not sure how to continue. “Did you.. Um… did you encounter the things that are down here? Not the True Steels, the, uh… other things…”

There was silence from Blueberry for a moment. I could tell from his silence that the answer was yes. “The True Steels were calling them phantoms,” Blueberry finally responded. “I think they were the original inhabitants of this Stable… them and the… the walls...” I could hear a shiver in his voice as he said that last part. He was silent for a few more seconds as he thought something over in his head. “They seem to be a particularly nasty variant of Canterlot ghoul. How the Stables inhabitants came in contact with the pink cloud though, we aren’t sure. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to deal with them all without the proper resources. Resources that the Outcasts simply do not have at this time.”

I nodded again, though I wasn’t quite sure what he was getting at. “Okay? So what are we going to do then?”

I heard Blueberry give a deep sigh. “We can’t secure this place for the Outcasts. It's too dangerous, and even if it wasn’t, it would seem the True Steels had managed to scavenge most of the Stables resources already anyway save for the Stables weapons and medical supplies. I will make sure to leave here with some of those,” He was silent again as he forced himself to say what came next. “...But we can't just leave this place either. It's a deathtrap. And something gives me the feeling those phantoms chased the True Steels into the Stable when they opened up the door. If the door gets left open or the next ponies to open it get killed off faster…” He stopped to let those words sink in.

I could feel myself take a deep breath. “Those phantoms might get out into Manehattan…”

Though I couldn’t see him, I knew Blueberry nodded. “The last thing the wasteland needs is more mutants roaming the streets. Especially things as deadly as these phantoms seem to be.”

I gulped. I had a bad feeling I knew what he was about to ask me to do. “Okay, so what are we going to do about them?”

Goddesses, please don’t be what I think it is…

“There should be a terminal in the Overmare’s office. Go to it,” He started. I was already at the terminal, so I simply told him to continue. “During our search of the Stable, we discovered that the lower levels are filled with pink cloud. There is likely a way to flood the Stable with the cloud. We’re going to need to activate that. The nature of the cloud should be able to meld the Stable door into place. Making it impossible to open.”

My heart fell. It was exactly what I thought he was going to ask. I opened my voice to speak, only for no words to come out. Taking a deep breath, I coughed and tried again. “Yeah… I… I can do that…” My voice sounded frail and weak. “I can probably put it on a timer too… give us all time to escape.”

I could feel a piece of me dying inside. I was about to do to this Stable what Azar had done to mine. I knew there was no ponies left in here that were worth saving, but the idea still made me feel sick.

I heard a grunt of approval from Blueberry on the other side of the broadcast. “Perfect. Activate it when you’re ready. I’ll use the turret system to help pave a safe path out of the Stable for you. I doubt I’ll be able to kill the Phantoms, but I can at least keep them distracted and down for as long as possible.”

I gave another nod that I knew Blueberry couldn’t see and gave a croak like grunt. “Yeah. Just give me a minute. I’ll tell you when I’m about to activate the cloud.”

Blueberry gave an affirmative noise before switching off his side of the broadcast.

I turned my attention from my pipbuck to the terminal in front of me. The screen already displayed the function I wanted. Tesla Coil had just been planning to do the same thing.

<OVERMARES TERMINAL 1ALPAH>

>Activate Cloud dispenser?

[Yes]

[No]

I stared at the words for a long second before scowling and pulling myself away. Fuck. This wasn’t fair. How was I supposed to do this… I… I just couldn’t…

“Amber?” Xayah’s voice piped up softly from beside me. I turned to see her looking at me. “I heard what you need to do… If it would make it easier, I could do it for you?”

I wanted to kiss her. I did kiss her. Didn’t change a damn thing. I sighed. “No… It has to be me. I’m the only one with enough knowledge of Stable-Tec technology to create a delay on the activator,” I took a deep breath. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine… I just need a moment.”

Xayah gave me a look that told me she didn’t quite believe me, but she nodded and trotted away anyway to go talk to Brisk and Mirra.

I stared at the screen for a few more seconds before scowling again and clicking away, pulling up the logs on the terminal instead. I needed something else to think about for a second.

I was met with a large collection of log entries and audio files. Curious, I opened up the first one. A familiar sounding voice came out of the terminal.

“Hello. My name is Scootaloo. Vice president of Stable-Tec. You’ve probably heard of me from my company Red Rac… Oh, never mind… It’s not important anymore… not if you’re hearing this. Look, you have been designated at Overmare of Stable 23 due to your extraordinary abilities as a leader. The Stable was designed to help keep ponies safe if the megaspells… when the megaspells finally fall, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to the place than that. We at Stable-Tec know that if we just lock a bunch of ponies up underground, then when we return to the surface to rebuild the world, we’ll just make the same mistakes. War never changes or some shit like that… That’s why your stable has a designated… test… that has been assigned to it to ensure that the world of tomorrow is a better one than this…

“One of the most destructive weapons we have seen in the war is something the zebras created called the pink cloud. Yes, the same weapon that was used in Littlehorn at the start of the war. It hasn’t seen mass production yet from what we can tell, but if the future that we fear is coming has come to pass, we can only assume that it has played some part in it. So, your Stable will be conducting a test to try and find a way to make an immunity to it. We’ve developed what we think to be a way to protect ponies from it. A kind of implant that goes into a ponies head. You can find more about them in the attached document. The medical procedure will be risky I’m afraid, and unfortunately we have not been able to do proper testing for it. That will be your job.

“I understand that you might not want to do this. That you’d rather sit underground safely than test these potentially dangerous implants on the ponies that live here. I can’t fault you for that. I wish you could do that too, but this experiment is too important for that. That's why we’re forcing you to use them. A week after the Stable door closes, the generator in the lower level will begin to emit pink cloud. Furthermore, the Stable door has been designed to not open for thirty years after it closes, so you won’t be able to escape it either. You will have to use the implant, or no pony will get to step hoof into Equestria again…

“On a side note, if you are feeling confident in the process of the implants, your terminal will have access to the cloud dispenser. You will be able to pump more cloud into the Stable without the rest of the Stables inhabitants knowing if necessary. You won't be able to slow it down or eliminate the cloud, but you will be able to have a little control over it for testing purposes.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this. I never imagined the world I grew up in could get this bad. That I would have to force you too… never mind. I’m getting off topic. I know you probably hate me right now, and honestly, you would be wrong not too. I’m not going to try and defend myself. This is Vice president Scootaloo, signing off…”

I stared at the screen as the audio log came to a close. I had known Stable-Tec had done experiments on the Stable dwellers, but I had never realized just how deep that rabbit hole went. To hear it all laid out like that...

I shook my head. I didn’t like thinking about all of that. I was about to move on to the first non audio log, when a particular log closer to the bottom caught my eye. It was titled, ‘Stable 25’. Reaching out, I clicked open the log.

<OVERMARES TERMINAL 1ALPHA>

>Log #24: Stable 25

>Fuck. I’ve been trying to get in contact with Trueblood, the Overstallion of Stable 25. The line Stable-Tec gave us to contact the nearby Stables is next to useless. I’ve picked up nothing but Static from the otherside. But I don’t think that's an accident. Those Stable-Tec bastards planned this! That bitch Scootaloo shoved me into a fucking doomed Stable and then sealed me off from the rest of the world! I bet the lack of communication is just another fucking ‘test’ too!

>Doesn’t matter. I’m out of time. The Stable is flooding with that fucking cloud and I’ve probably got about twenty fucking minutes before those ungreatful fucking Stable dweller burst down my fucking door and linch me.

>Damn it… fuck. Nothing. Maybe Trueblood is fucking ignoring me! That bastard and his snooby fucking uncle Pureblood were always a load of fucking donkey shit! I hope Stable-Tec gave him as big of a ‘fuck you’ as they gave me! Teach him right!

>Shit. The fucking Stable ponies are here. I guess I have less time than I thought. Damn them. This is there fucking fault! This is all of their fault! Fuck everypony! They fucking ruined everything! Fuck!

I blinked in disbelief as I read the log over. There were a few things there of interest, but one thing snagged at my attention.

‘Trueblood, the Overstallion of Stable 25.’

I read the line over and over again. My family had been the Overmare or Overstallion of Stable 25 since the day those doors had closed. A spell had been placed on our families cutie marks for years to ensure that that was guaranteed. An experiment to see if a government system like Celestia and Luna’s monarch could endure with the princesses gone. Trueblood must have been my great great something-or-rather grandfather.

But another part of that got stuck in my mind as well. Trueblood was Purebloods niece. The very same Pureblood I had been seeing bits and pieces off all over the wasteland for the past month. It was possible that it was a different Pureblood I suppose, but I felt the odds of that, especially considering the Overmare’s opinion on him, were rather slim.

Any yet, what did that even entail? That I was a descendant of some pre war blue-blooded aristocrat? It didn’t amount to much I suppose, just a gross feeling in my stomach that I shared genetics with somepony that seemed as vile as Pureblood and the rest of his family.

I sighed. I had learned enough and stalled enough. It was time to get this over with. Flipping on my pipbuck, I activated the broadcaster to speak with Crusader Blueberry. “Alright, get ready. I’m about to set the timer on the cloud dispensers.”

The large doors to Stable 23 slid shut with a loud clang. There was a burst of sparks as the door squealed into position before the solid metal gear came to an abrupt stop, sealing the Stable inside from the outside world once more.

There were a few seconds of silence before I heard the sound of the Stable’s cloud dispensers whirring to life. The sound was distant and muffled through the door, but I had heard the A.A.S.S. dispense nutrients into the air enough times in my life to recognize the sound perfectly.

Around the edges of the gear shaped door came a sharp, hissing sound. Slowly, the metal around the edges began to explain, warping and welding into the wall around it. After a few moments, the Stable door merged completely with the wall, becoming little more than a wall of near impenetrable metal with the number 23 plastered across the front.

I let myself release a long, deep breath. I was shaking. I had thankfully not seen the cloud filling the Stable halls, but the fact that I had done it filled me with dread and shame all the same.

Getting out of the Stable had been easy. I had made sure that we had plenty of time to get out before the dispensers began, and Blueberry had kept to his work and kept the Phantoms off us with the security systems. Not that I had any reason to believe that he wouldn’t have kept his word.

Blueberry stood beside me, looking towards the Stable door with me as it sealed off forever. His helmet was off, giving me a good look at his dark blue coat and white mane. He looked almost as sad as I did.

Finally, Blueberry turned away from the door and began walking to the elevator. “Come along. We’ve done all that we can do here.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to come along?” Blueberry asked me, pulling his helmet back onto his head. “We could really use your help dealing with the rest of the True Steels out here.”

I shook my head. “As much as I want to help and as much as I hate the True Steels, I’m afraid we can’t. We have our own business to attend to out in Fetlock. We’ve been sidetracked enough,” A thought hit me as I remembered our destination was fairly close to Stable 29. “But maybe we’ll stop by Stable 29 when we’re done. We can talk more once all of this has been dealt with.”

Blueberry gave a respectful nod. “I’ll make sure to keep an eye and ear out for if you drop by.”

The robobrain of Dazzling Souvenir quickly raised an accordion like arm to signal to me before returning her gaze to the injured knight in front of her. “Good luck on your travels Amber Aura. We wish you the best of luck and hope that our paths cross again in the future.”

I gave her a thin smile. “Yeah. Good luck to all of you as well,” I turned back to face my friends who were all waiting for me patiently. “Are you ready to get back on the road? We should be in Fetlock within the hour.”

Mirra shivered. “Anyplace is better than this place. I never want to see a Stable again,” I found that offensive for some reason, even though I completely agreed with her sentiment.

I turned to look at the horizon. Just peeking above the tops of the ruined skyscrapers, I could see the tip of the Ponypalooza hotel. It felt like it had been on my list of places to go since the first day I had left the Stable. For so long it had been the centre of my wonders and fears, a constant looming landmark that seemed to have watched over me for every part of my long journey. I had passed it so many times over the last few weeks, knowing full well that I was very likely to venture within its walls sooner or later, for one reason or another.

How odd it felt to finally be going there. To finally find out what lies within.

“Feels like this visit has been long overdue,” Brisk said, echoing my thoughts as we began making our way towards the hotel in the distance. “Feels like a lifetime ago that we were heading out to stop Crank and the rest of his gang from trying to reach that tower. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little curious about what we would have faced inside, had our adventures not taken us elsewhere.”

I gave a nod of agreement. “I guess we’re about to find out. For better or worse.”

“You ponies do realize we are walking towards a trap, no?” Xayah questioned, looking over to us in a slightly accusing manner. “I have doubts that this Fleur De Lis plans to simply let us talk our way out of this.”

“I know, but do we have any other options?” I pointed out. “They’ve already wiped out one settlement in the wasteland, simply because we failed to comply. Fleur isn’t bluffing. I wont allow her to wipe another off the map.”

“I'm not saying what she did was okay in any way, bit that was hardly a settlement,” Brisk said quickly. “The place they wiped out was more of a small camp than anything else. What makes you think they even have the firepower to take on a larger settlement like they claim?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Mirra stated flatly with a small role of her eyes, making Brisk glance down at her. “They have all of Red Eyes forces at their disposal. And Red Eye has made it clear that he is willing to spend troops on getting the A.A.S.S. Friendship City or Tenpony tower might be able to hold their own against his forces for a while, but for how long? The Hollow Shades is still weak from the Hollow Shades Massacre and Oasis wouldn’t stand a chance on a good day.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I reaffirmed. “They are killing ponies that don’t deserve it because of us. I refuse to stand down and let that happen.”

“But is simply delivering the A.A.S.S. to them really the best plan of action?” Brisk pushed. “There has to be something else we can do.

Xayah shook her head. “I hate to say it. But There is nothing else. Not without more casualties.”

Brisk looked onwards, dejected, his gaze transfixed on the looming hotel in the distance. It was getting closer. Perhaps only an hour more and we would arrive. How I dreaded when we would arrive.

The area around the Ponypalooza hotel had been cleaned of corpses when we arrived. Off to my right, I could see a large number of graves, each one marked with little more than a large stone.

I knew there were ponies that I knew buried there. Ponies that I had failed. Dusty and his son Scrapper. The two raiders I had reduced from the True Steels. Flask. The list of failures was forever growing.

I could feel a rage building up in me as I stared out at all the graves. Damn these basters for what they had done. I made a mental note to shoot every last one of them.

At least they had the decency to bury the bodies. Not that that made me feel all that much better. Evil was still evil.

The doors to the Ponypalooza hotel were guarded by five griffins in dark combat armour. Talons, if my memory served well enough. Up on the roof I could see a few more griffins and a couple of ponies looking down at us with snipers as we approached. I even spotted an alicorn amongst them, watching us with their intense, hawk-like gaze from far above.

My friends crouched into a battle stance as we approached. I reached out with my magic and wrapped Braeburns Liberator in my amber aura.

The talon mercs didn’t seem all that interested in fighting. Their bars on my pipbuck didn’t even change to red as we neared them. I could tell Brisk was a little put off by their rather passive behaviour to us.

As we got closer, one of the griffins cocked their head and looked us over with one of their eyes. He studied us for a second before, lowering his weapon and stepping aside, giving us a clear path into the hotel. The other four guards very quickly followed suit.

I glanced at all of my friends. I didn’t like this. I knew that they knew we were coming, but it just felt weird being let through so easily like this.

“Be careful,” Xayah said, one of her eyes flickering to look at the griffins. I could tell she was just as nervous as I was. “I do not like this.”

I shook my head. “Me neither…” I looked back to the large ornate doors of the Ponypalooza Hotel and took a deep breath. “Welp… here we go…”

I took a step forward, moving past the griffins and into the building beyond. My friends all gulped in unison, before slowly following in after me.

The inside of the hotel was much like how I had expected, though a million times more beautiful than I could have previously imagined.

The Ponypalooza Hotel had been a hotel for the upper class. A place for ponies like Pureblood and Fleur De Lis who could afford such extravagant luxuries. It was clear that after the war, somepony had put a lot of work into reverting the hotel back into its former glory.

The walls were made from marble, each and every intricate pillar that lined the halls seeming to glisten in the defused light of day as we walked past. The floor was covered in a large velvet carpet and extravagant glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling above us.

There were a few ponies inside dressed in Red Eyes combat armour, but the majority of the inhabitants inside were ghouls. Canterlot ghouls to be specific. All the ghouls were dressed in fancy suits, clearly attempting to maintain the fashion of the old world.

All eyes turned to us as we trotted our way in. I noticed angry expressions cross some of the slavers faces as we walked by. Perhaps they had met me before… or maybe I had killed somepony they cared about. Maybe both. It was hard to say.

No pony raised a hoof to stop us as we continued onward. They simply stood, and watched.

Before us lay a large set of stairs that led to another large ornate door. I saw a few of Red Eyes talon merc move into doorways, blocking our way from everywhere but the large doors ahead. Trotting quickly up the steps, I came to a stop before the doorway and turned back to look at my friends. They all looked as creeped out and worried as I felt.

“Alright… this is it…” I said slowly, resting my hoof on the door. “I’m going to guess Fleur is behind this door," All of my friends gave nervous nods, but remained silent. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the doors open and stepped in.

The second I saw the room beyond, I froze.

Fleur stood on the far side of the room, looking just as ghoulified and dead as ever. Two ponies with dark power armour stood on either side of her, each one wielding a large flamer on their battle saddle. Behind them was a large glass window, overlooking the suburbs of Fetlock. Far off in the distance I could see a red glow illuminating the desolate landscape, no doubt the pits of Fillydelphia.

But what really made me pause was what lay before Fleur.

A row of twelve fillies and colts sat before the Canterlot ghoul, each one strapped to a bomb collar and linked to the foal beside them with chains. They didn’t seem all that upset or worried, but they didn’t exactly look comfortable either.

Instinctively, I reached for my shotgun, only to stop as I saw the two power armoured ponies aim their flamers at the row of foals.

I could hear Xayah make a low growling sound behind me, her gaze narrowing in on Fleur. Brisk and Mirra both remained silent, but I could feel their discomfort and hate washing off of them.

Fleur De Lis took a careful step forward, her expression sad. “Amber. You brought the A.A.S.S?” It was more of a statement than a question.

I pointed to the foals on the ground before me. “Take them out of the room, then we’ll talk.”

Fleur shook her head. “I wish I could Amber Aura. I truly do. But you have shown over the last few weeks extraordinary dangerous behavior and a knack for getting out of tough situations. I will not be taking any chances with you here,” She gestured to the foals in front of her. “This is how this is going to work. I’m not going to try and fight you for the A.A.S.S. History would suggest that that would not turn out well for me. Instead I’m going to give you a choice.”

I felt my eyes narrow. I didn’t want to ask, but something gave me the feeling had no other option. “Okay… what is this choice?”

Fleur sighed. “It’s simple. If you do not relinquish the A.A.S.S. then we will continue to do what we have been doing. We will wipe a settlement off the map one at a time. Once a day. Every twenty four hours. We will begin with these foals…” Xayah gave another loud snarl at that remark. Fleur gave her a sad look. “If you deliver the A.A.S.S. to me, then the foals will be spared, and we will return to Fillydelphia. No pony else needs to die.”

“And if I decide to simply go guns blazing and kill all of you fuckers,” I growled, swiping my hoof across the ground and kicking up a little bit of dust.

Fleur cocked her head and gave me an almost pitying look. “You can try. Having seen some of your accomplishments over the past few weeks you might even succeed… But will you be able to do that before my guards can kill the fillies? And how many of your friends are you willing to spare for this? There are quite a lot of us here, and us Canterlot ghouls do not like to go down easy.”

Damn it. She was right. I let my eyes roll over the two flamers that were aimed at the foals. There was no way that I could get them out of the way of the flamers in time, even with all of my friends' help. Not to mention disarm all of the bomb collars in time. And even if I did manage to get a few to safety, how would I get them out of here and far enough away that they would be safe.

“Amber, what are you thinking?” I heard Brisk whisper beside me, his voice conveying his worry. He knew this situation was bad just as well as I did.

What was I thinking? I don’t know… I had no plan, no way out.

I locked eyes with Fleur. She looked so sad, so tired and broken. I wondered what she was like two hundred years ago. Before the bombs fell and ravaged her body. Was she like this? Was she nicer? A lot can happen in two hundred years. I had been through hell over a hundred times, and I had only been in the wasteland for a little under a month. What must she have been through, having lived out here for so long.

Not that that mattered. I'd find a way to kill her somehow...

My eyes landed on the red glow of Fillydelphia on the horizon. Red Eye was probably in there somewhere. Probably the mysterious director of the Institute as well. I had seen what evils could be caused if the wrong ponies got the A.A.S.S. Could I really allow Red Eye to do the same…?

Fleur took another step forward and held out her withered hoof. Bits of pink cloud whafted from her flesh and swirled around her from the motion. “You’ve protected that device better than anypony could have imagined or predicted. You should be proud of what you have done,” Fleur started, her gaze still locked with mine. “But there comes a time where you need to let go. Give me the A.A.S.S. It’s finally time for you to get your rest…”

I felt my hooves tremble at that. Oh how I wanted to simply let it all go. It could be over if I simply gave up the device. I reached back and pulled the A.A.S.S. out of my saddlebag. It was covered in muck and still had a few cracks down the front, yet it still seemed to shimmer in the light.

I felt Brisk step up beside me. “Amber… are you sure…”

I took a deep breath. I looked from the oblong device in my hoof to Brisk, then to Fleur and the foals. I looked back down at the A.A.S.S.

I couldn’t give it to her. There was no way in fucking hell I was letting Red Eye get his hooves on this. But I couldn’t just walk away. So many ponies would die if I let them continue to pick off settlement after settlement. And Fleur had been right, there was no fighting my way out either.

An idea crossed my mind. I didn’t like it, but it was the only way.

I took a step back. “No.”

Every pony tensed at my words. Fleur raised an eyebrow and gave me a mortified look. “No? What do you mean, no?”

“I mean no!” I growled firmly, slowly lowering my hoof and placing the A.A.S.S. on the floor. “Because I’m taking option four.”

Fleur scowled, the expression very unbecoming of her. “There is no option four. You either give it over or the foals…”

“There is…” I raised my hoof and placed it firmly atop the A.A.S.S. I pushed down, causing a crack to shoot out across the A.A.S.S’s. surface. Every pony in the room took a horrified step forward, their breath catching in their throats.

“What are you doing! Stop this right now!” Fleur screamed, waving her hooves frantically for me to stop. “Didn’t you listen to me! Give it to me or the foals die!”

I snarled at her, pulling her up short. “If it’s gone then Red Eye doesn’t get it and you have no reason to wipe out any more settlements,” I pushed down a little harder, making another crack spider web across the device. "So I'm going to destroy it... Game over."

“But the foals!” Fleur was practically in hysterics. She waved her hooves wildly, as if more motion would deter me from my course of action.

I simply pressed down again, causing four more cracks to snap across the A.A.S.S’s face. I saw the flamers aimed at the foals flicker to life, small fires burning on the end of each weapon as the two guards prepared to burn the foals alive.

“Amber!” Xayah’s hoarse voice snapped my attention over to her. She was crying, tears rolling down her face. “You promised. We would find another way to save foals…”

I felt my heart sink. I had promised that, hadn’t I. But this was the only way. The life of a few foals did not outweigh the lives of the rest of the wasteland.

I shut my eyes and looked away, already feeling the guilt start to build up within my chest. “I know… I’m sorry…”

“Amber…” Xayah’s voice was almost inaudible, muffled by her tears and hurt. Damn me and my betrayal.

“Stop! No!” Fleur was screaming louder, her voice raising and raising into a high pitched shrill. “I demand that you stop this instant!” I zoned her out. I didn't need to listen to her anymore.

I looked over to Brisk and Mirra, unable to look at Xayah any longer. the hurt and betrayal in her eyes was more than I could bear. Mirra looked terrified, but she understood. Her face was filled with fear, but also a strong sense of conviction.

Brisk held my gaze for a moment. He looked sad, but remained stoic. This is what he had been telling me to do all along. Maybe if I had listened to him from the beginning, things would have turned out better.

Fleur's screams were growing louder and more frantic, and I could see the two guards preparing to fire upon the foals. The second the A.A.S.S. was shattered, they would fire. There was no stopping that now.

It didn’t matter. I had made my choice.

I reared up, both my forehooves aimed to slam down on the A.A.S.S. This was it. After all this time. I had held onto the A.A.S.S. for so long. Clinging to it desperately as a reminder of Stable 25. But that didn't matter anymore. Stable 25 was dead and gone. Holding onto the past wasn't going to fix a damn thing.

There was a moment of stillness in the room as I rose to my full height. I felt my breath catch as my gaze locked on the oblong device below me. Then, I pushed forwards, working with gravity to slam myself down as fast as possible. I began to descend.

Blam!

I bullet ripped through my chest, sending me flying to my side. I hit the ground with a heavy though, my hooves missing the A.A.S.S. by inches. Agony flared through my whole body and blood began to spill down my front, pooling around my hooves and splashing across the floor.

I lifted my head and looked up. Xayah stood there, mortified, her sniper clamped tightly in her mouth and smoke wafting from the end of its barrel. Her hooves were shaking and tears rolled down her face and dripped from her chin. “Amber, I’m sorry… I’m so so sorry…”

Xayah had… shot me? That couldn’t be right… she would never…

My thoughts were interrupted as a wave of pain washed over me. I tried to scream out, only for blood to rush from my mouth.

My vision was spinning, my thoughts groggy and warped. I saw somepony standing over me protectively. It might have been Brisk. I couldn't tell. Then they were gone, pulled away as chains were snapped around their necks. I heard screams and shouts of rage, but no coherent words seemed to be reaching my ears.

Through the fog of my vision, I saw the rotting face of a Canterlot ghoul crouch down next to me. The ghoul leaned in, her ghastly face entering my visions shadow depth of field. Pink cloud wafted from their orifices and there was a sad look in their eyes.

“You shouldn’t have done that…” Fleur said, her voice sounding distant and muffled. She pulled away from me, her features going fuzzy as she got farther and farther away.

I rolled onto my back, pain lancing up through my body and spreading out from the bullet wound in my chest. Through my spinning vision I saw both Xayah and Mirra getting dragged away, metal collars clamped tightly around their necks.

“No…” I tried to utter, but my voice sounded weak and foreign.

Slowly, I began to drift away into unconsciousness, my vision filling with black. Two ponies were standing over me, reaching down and fastening a collar around my own neck. I tried to fight them off, but I was too weak. There was simply too much pain.

Then I was swirling away into oblivion, sinking deeper and deeper into my subconsciousness.

A thought snagged at my mind as I drifted away. “Xayah… why…”

I slowly opened up my eyes.

The morning light stung my retinas, forcing me to squint. At least that meant I wasn’t dead. I sure didn’t think I was dead at least. Dead shouldn’t be this painful.

Groaning slightly, I propped myself up and looked at my surroundings.

The first thing I spotted was the metal bars of the cage. I was in a cage. Specifically, a cage on a wagon. We were moving somewhere, being pulled by two large earth pony bucks that looked to be slaves themselves. I could only imagine we were going to Fillydelphia.

“Glad to see you’re awake,” I heard Brisk grumble from beside me. I looked up to see him slumped on the far side of the cage, tending to what appeared to be a bleeding whiplash across his back. A bomb collar had been clamped around his neck. He looked up at me and looked me over for a second with his one good eye. “This is probably the worst we’ve fucked up, huh.”

My eyebrows knitted together. “What happened?” The events in the Ponypalooza Hotel were still groggy in my mind. I remember trying to break the A.A.S.S. then a lot of blood. Lots and lots of blood. I remember Xayah standing there. She had just… “Xayah shot me!” I blurted, abruptly sitting up straight. Pain flared through my chest, making me look down and see the gauze that had been wrapped over my chest to stop the bleeding. I felt a familiar itch where the wound had been, a clear sign of having taken a healing potion.

My mind was flooded with a mix of conflicting emotions as memories flooded back into me. Hurt, betrayal, rage, regret. How could she have done that to me? After everything we had been through!

I knew the answer was simple. I had promised that if foals' lives were on the line again, I would find another way than letting them die. A better way. I had betrayed that promise. I had let Xayah down.

That fact almost hurt me more than Xayah's betrayal had.

But it didn’t change the feeling of betrayal that was slowly drowning me. My gut clenched and I had ro resist the urge to scream.

Brisk gave a grim nod. “Yeah… she did…” He looked out the bars at another pony pulled carriage just out of shouting distance from us. Through the bars of that cage I could see Xayah and Mirra huddled inside. “At the sound of her gunshot, the room got flooded with slavers and ghouls,” Brisk explained, tugging on the metal collar that was around his neck. “Slapped these collars on us and loaded us up into these cages. I figure we’re off to Filly now or whatever.”

I nodded, soaking in the information. I looked back down at my chest, my mind still filled with painful thoughts of betrayal. “They wrapped my wound up?”

“Yeah, gave you a few healing potions too. Fleur demanded that you didn’t die. I guess she has plans for you or whatever... I don't know,” Brisk grunted, curing up on the floor of the cage. The lash wound on his back continued to leak dribbles of blood.

“What happened to the foals?” I asked, worry filling me. Now that I was no longer in the moment, I don’t know if I would be able to handle learning I had caused the deaths of more foals.

“They’re fine,” Brisk grumbled, much to my relief. He pointed to yet another wagon, this one without a cage. On it, I could see the group of fillies and colts playing some sort of game. “Turns out those foals are from Red Eyes school. I don’t even know if they were ever in any real danger.”

I stared at the wagon of foals for a bit before returning my attention to Brisk. “How long have I been out?”

Brisk shrugged. “Not sure. Half a day at most,” He pointed up to the morning sky. “We’ll probably be arriving in Filly any moment now.”

It was clear that he was right. I could see the ruins of houses and factories all around us as our wagon was pulled through the Fillydelphia outskirts. Like Manehattan, most of the buildings were in complete shambles, being little more than large piles of rubble. A bit in the distance, I saw what appeared to be the Fillydelphia Stable-Tec Hub. The Steel Ranger's fag still waved above the building, signalling to me that Red Eye was still yet to successfully claim the area.

Those rangers must have been putting up one hell of a fight.

Turning my head, I saw the massive wall of Fillydelphia slowly looming towards us. Even from here, the air was beginning to turn a crimson red and I was already beginning to hear the screams of slaves and the clanking of chains.

We had been across the wasteland. Now we were entering hell.

After about twenty more minutes of traveling in silence, we came to a stop at the large gate into the city. The gate towered far above our heads, giving the evil city an imposing and hopeless feel. The looming, metal wall around of Fillydelphia seemed to be radiating heat, as if the city beyond was nothing more than a massive ball of fire. Smoke rose from behind the wall, blotting out the already overcast sky and making me cough.

Ten griffin mercs in combat armour pulled us over and began talking with Fleur. Fleur began to gesture towards our cage when another griffin, this one larger than the rest, dropped down from the sky and landed in front of her.

I felt myself take an involuntary step back, pushing my rump up against the edge of the cage. I had hoped to never see Stern again, and yet here she was, ready to welcome me to her city.

“...He wants her,” I hear Fleur say to Stern, batting her eyelashes in what looked like a seduction attempt. With her rotting looks and Sterns unblinking glare, something told me it didn’t work. “It is of utmost importance. The rest of her friends you can have.”

Instead of responding, Stern turned towards our cage and stalked over. She raised a talon and dragged it across one of the bars, making a loud, ear piercing squeal ring out. Both Brisk and I winced at the noise and scooted a little farther away from the edge of the cage.

“So. somepony finally got the better of you, huh?” Stern scowled, tilting her head to the side and looking the two of us over. “Shame. I wanted to have you down in the pits, but it looks like ‘his majesty’ has other plans for you,” She raised her talons in the air and made mocking quotations at the words ‘his majesty’. Her gaze twitched to look at Brisk. “But I’ll make sure the rest of your friends are put to work.”

Slavers pulled open the door to our cage and wrapped their hooves around Brisk, hauling him from the wagon. He squirmed and kicked, trying to break free, but it was to no avail. One of the slavers cracked the hilt of their gun against his head. There was a loud thump, and Brisk went limp in their hooves.

I screamed and pushed myself forward, trying to help him. A large slaver roughly pushed me back to the floor of the cage before slamming the bars shut, once more locking me inside.

A little bit away, I saw slavers pull Xayah and Mirra out of their cage. Mirra tried to run, but the slavers’ grip was far too strong. Xayah didn’t even try to pull away. She simply let them drag her away, her head hung low and her mane obscuring her face. I tried to catch her eye, but she didn’t even make an attempt to look at me.

Some betrayals simply cut too deep.

Stern tapped on the cage again, drawing my attention back to her. Her beak twisted into a sinister smile, showing off a few more teeth than I would have liked. “Send the big guy my regards.”

Fleur walked up to the cage, ordering for the two slaves pulling it to start moving. With a jolt, the wagon began moving away from Fillydelphia.

I scuttled over to the side of the cage and poked my head through the bars. “What’s happening? Where are we going?”

“Not Fillydelphia. We thought it would be best to keep you separated from your friends,” Fleur replied softly, not bothering to look at me. “And he wants to see you.”

I felt a bolt of alarm race through me. “Who? Who wants to see me?”

Fleur finally turned and looked up at me, her expression unreadable. “The director.”

My mind was filled with panic and excitement. As bad of a situation as we had found ourselves in, a small part of me was thrilled to learn that I was finally going to meet the mastermind behind all of my troubles. Assuming this director wasn't yet another puppet in the seemingly endless trail of lies, mystery and deceit.

The carriage came to a stop a few moments later in front of a heavily guarded bunker. A few ponies as well as Canterlot ghouls patrolled the entrance and I spotted a few green alicorns perched atop the roof, scanning the surrounding area.

A slaver trotted over and yanked open the door to my cage, giving me a sickening smile that showed off his rotting teeth. “Get out,” He snarled, cracking a whip in the air next to me, making me jump.

Giving him an angry glare, I pulled myself up and trotted out of the cage, trying my best to look as confident as possible. I wasn't feeling even the least bit confident right now.

The second my hooves touched the rough ground, I looked at the horizon, wondering if I could attempt to dart away and escape. The tight bomb collar around my neck made a small beep, telling me that probably wasn’t the best idea.

Besides, I still had to get my friends out of Fillydelphia. There was no way I was going to just leave them there, even if I did escape.

“Follow me,” Fleur said poshly, trotting towards the bunker. Two ponies quickly pulled open the door at her approach. The guards didn’t seem to be forcing me to follow like I had suspected them too, but since I couldn’t run anyway, I slowly followed after her anyway.

The bunker wasn’t very big, only consisting of a single room. The room had been cleared of practically everything inside, save for a large machine that stood erect in the middle of the floor. The machine was a large elevated platform, surrounded by three large metal pillars that flickered with rings of blinking red lights. Wires raced around the device, connecting all of it together.

I froze as I took in the machine. I had seen it before. In the director's office back in the Institute. I had been in a rush then and had been unable to find anything out on the nature of the device.

“What is this?” I asked Fleur, watching as she stepped up onto the elevated platform. Another Canterlot ghoul joined her, carrying my saddlebags with them.

“A teleportation device. We stole the designs from the Institute a few years back,” Fleur explained, her voice sounding almost proud of the machine she stood on.

I looked the teleporter over more closely. Crank and the rest of the cyber ponies had teleported into Stable 25 all those weeks ago. This must have been what they used to accomplish that.

Crank had told me that Red Eye only had limited access to this kind of technology. Clearly, he had remedied that in recent days.

“Where are we going?” I asked, nervously stepping up onto the platform next to Fleur. I felt a shiver race through me as the blinking red lights began to flicker faster.

Fleur gave me a halfhearted smile that still seemed to hold a feel of smug aristocracy. “You will see soon enough.”

Since we were teleporting there, I suppose that statement was true.

A purple alicorn flew in through the door and landed in front of the machine. Her horn began to glow, its aura wrapping around the machine. The lights began flashing faster and faster, the world around me seeming to vibrate beneath my hooves.

I shut my eyes as I felt the teleporter charging up.

I had teleported by non magical means before to get into and out of the Institute. I was really hoping this was going to be more pleasant.

It wasn’t.

My whole form was split apart into a million pieces with a flash of blue light and I was sent hurtling through nothingness. Despite being ripped apart, I felt like the air around me was constricting, choking me and warping my body into ways it should never be warped.

The procedure was somewhat smoother than the makeshift devices the Friendship Express had developed, but that didn’t make the whole experience pleasant.

Then, as fast as the blue light had torn me apart, I slammed into the ground, my lungs feeling like they were on fire and my vision blinded as the dazzling blue light faded from my eyes.

I staggered to my hooves, finding Fleur already standing beside me, unfazed by the unpleasant experience. I blinked away the dizziness, trying to get my bearings as the world around me swam into focus.

The first thing I noticed was the smoke. It was everywhere, clouding my vision and swirling down my throat, making breathing unnecessarily difficult. Not far away, I could see ponies wielding large flamers, sending jets of fire lancing forwards and burning down what looked to be large trees.

There were lots of trees too, towering over me, even from a distance. For a second I wondered if they had brought me back to the Manehattan Gardens. But that wasn’t right. The plant life in the Manehattan Gardens was strange and mutated, growing eyeballs like berries and glowing with radiation. These trees looked normal. Untouched by the bombs that had ravaged the world.

“Welcome...” I heard Fleur say as she began trotting forwards. I followed her with my eyes, letting my gaze land on what appeared to be our destination. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I saw the massive castle-like fortress that spiralled up into the sky before me. The huge castle walls towered higher than anything I had ever seen, even surpassing the MAS tower in the Hollow Shades in height. I saw Fleur cast me a smug, knowing look. “...To Red Eyes Cathedral…”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Grim Reaper Sprint -- At last you have reached the beginning to the final stretch of your journey. You will need to be ready to kill if you hope to survive what is to come. A kill in S.A.T.S. restores all of your AP points immediately

Author's Notes:

Would you look at that, Amber Aura just reached level 20. And just in time too, the next chapter is a doozy.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to the wonderful Kkat.

Enjoy your day.