“Welcome to Friendship City, please wait while the bridge extends.”

Goddesses.

I had been told that thousands of moons ago, the magical land of Equestria had been ruled by two royal alicorn sisters named Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They had been powerful, wise, beautiful, and most importantly, fair to the ponies that lived under their rule. These goddesses had the power within them to raise and lower the sun and moon at the beginning and end of each day, never faltering in their duties.

I had always wanted to see the royal sisters, see if they were truly as magnificent as the stories had claimed.

The alicorn that now stood before us was not what I had imagined the goddesses to be like, and it wasn’t just because this one was green instead of the white and blue coats I had been told about. It was the malice in the creatures slitted eyes that proved it was no Celestia or Luna. It was a mockery of what they had once been. An insult.

An insult that I did not take very kindly to.

I slowly pulled myself to my hooves, raising my newly acquired shotgun and faced the not goddess. I wiped my hoof across my face to wipe away the blood that had begun to trickle out of the corner of my mouth. Brisk crawled back to his hooves beside me, helping Xayah up as well.

“Well?” The alicorn demanded, taking an intimidating step forward. “Will you join willingly?”

I growled. How dare she attack me and my friends. “How about fuck you?” I retorted, firing a shot from Boneless at the alicorn's head. It wasn't the wittiest insult, but I didn't care about that too much right now.

In an instant, a light green bubble shield appeared around the alicorn. The burst shells refracted off the surface of the shield, spraying me with small amounts of shrapnel. I took a step back and covered my eyes as I was assaulted by my own attack.

Really? A force field? So this thing could fly, shoot lasers, use telepathy, and make force fields!? I was calling it right here, alicorn’s sucked!

The alicorn grinned at us from behind its shield. “Fine,” it replied. “We will do this the fun way.”

The alicorns shield dropped just long enough for a beam of burning energy to flash from her horn and lash at us. The three of us scattered, doing our best to avoid the lasers as the alicorn began firing multiple rounds from her horn at a time.

My foreleg screamed in pain as I landed heavily on it to avoid having a hoof sized hole torn through my chest. I glanced down at it quickly. The gauze had peeled away to reveal a disgusting scab. Half of the scab had peeled off as well, oozing a weird orange slime.

“Sorry,” I muttered to my leg. “I’ll heal you up as soon as we get to Friendship City,” I dodged to the side again as another magical lance of energy flashed towards me.

Xayah had fallen onto all fours, revealing the bloody gashes across her back from the shattered window. Brisk stood over her protectively, his pistol clamped tightly in his mouth. He fired a shot at the alicorn. Once again, the creatures shield flared up and deflected the bullet before any harm could be done to her.

Bullets were useless against this thing unless we could find a way to get her shield down. If I was able to fight her up close, perhaps I would be able to get a hit in when she lowered her shield. I pulled out my shock baton with my mouth and raced towards the alicorn.

The alicorn shot a blast of energy towards me. I ducked under it and swung the baton at her head. Instantly her shield was up again, making my baton simply bounce off without harm.

Damn it, I hate alicorns!

Brisk had picked up on my train of thought and began sprinting towards the alicorn with his machete drawn.

The alicorn flapped its wings, shooting up towards the roof and moving out of reach of our close range weapons. This movement however, forced her to temporarily drop her shield.

Boneless swiveled around in the air to face her.

Blam!

Boneless fired, spraying the area above us in shrapnel. A bloody hole was ripped from the alicorns left wing. She flailed in the air for a second, before crashing back down towards the ground. Her shield flared back up as she came in contact with the ground, preventing her from breaking any limbs.

Brisk lunged at the fallen alicorn with his machete, only for a blast of energy from the alicorns horn to tear through his front leg and send him flying backwards five feet where he crashed against the wall next to Xayah.

The alicorn climbed back to its hooves and glared at me, murder in its eyes. “You will not get the pleasure of Unity,” The alicorn screamed into my brain. “I will rip you apart myself!”

Then she was lunging at me. I rolled to my side, just narrowly avoiding being impaled on her horn. As I recovered I felt a small tugging in my chest. I looked down to see a telekinetic glow around where my heart was. I realized with horror that the alicorn was trying to rip out my heart.

I grasped at my chest and gasped for breath as I felt the telekinetic grip tighten

I raised Boneless again and fired at the alicorn. Her shield flared to life again, deflecting the shot, but it forced her to release her grip on my heart.

Xayah had finally pulled herself to her hooves and rushed at the alicorn with surprising speed considering she had shards of glass sticking out of her back. As Xayah got closer to the looming alicorn she tapped the gem on her stealth cloak and vanished from view. The alicorn showed signs of surprise, quickly followed by anger as Xayah appeared atop the alicorns back and began trying to stab at it with her knife. With each strike of the knife, the alicorns horned flared up, creating a smaller shield to deflect the blows.

I swung my baton at the alicorn again, hoping Xayah would be a big enough distraction for the alicorn to not notice me. Unfortunately the alicorn noticed me anyway.

Still deflecting Xayah, the alicorn wrapped my baton in a field of telekinesis and flung my own weapon at my face. The impact sent me flying back and crashing into the large terminal against the wall, my back hitting a large red button as I landed.

The eyes of metal owls that lined the ceiling above us began glowing a crimson red and the mechanical birds began flying down from the ceiling.

Seriously? This building had security owl robot? Oh come on!

The Alicorn bucked Xayah off her back and put up a shield to avoid being disintegrated by the multitude of lasers that began raining down on us from the owls above.

Xayah, Brisk and I however did not have the luxury of magic shields. We began racing for the doorway, doing our best to dodge any and all robot bird lasers.

A handful of birds continued to fly in circles around the room, shooting at anything that moved, while the rest began flying out the door and into the rest of the building. I heard shouting coming from two floors below as the owls began attacking the slavers that were on their way up.

Shit, I had forgotten that the alicorn had dragged a small army of well armed ponies into the building with her. The owls had saved us some time, but I estimated that it would only take a few more minutes before the rest of the slavers pushed through the buildings defenses and made it to the fourth floor.

The three of us ducked behind the door frame as the alicorn began battling with the remaining metal owls.

“We need a plan,” I said quickly as I tossed two shotgun shells into my gun. “Any Ideas?”

My companions shrugged helplessly.

“We need to do something, just attacking it isn’t doing us any good,” I said in a panic. I had no idea how we were going to kill this thing. “That alicorn is to strong, none of our attacks can get through it’s shield.”

Xayah rolled something around inside of my saddlebag which rest on the floor beside me. “What if we attack it from inside of its shield?”

Before I had time to question what that meant, I heard the alicorn blast the last owl in the room to bits. “Alright my little ponies,” The alicorn screamed. I covered my ears to try and block out the noise in my head. I really didn’t like ponies talking inside of my brain. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”

Xayah just looked between Brisk and I. “Just distract her. I have a plan,” And with that she tapped the gem on her cloak and disappeared with my saddlebags.

I glanced over at Brisk. “You ready?”

He gave me a smug smile and pulled out his pistol. “There are worse ways to die.”

We jumped back around the door frame and into the room. The alicorn narrowed its eyes as it saw us, its horn began glowing with light.

Blam!

Boneless fired a shot. As I had expected, the alicorns shield flickered into view and deflected the shot. But I wasn’t trying to hit her now; now I was simply trying to distract her.

I telekinetically rammed the stock of my gun into the force field, making the alicorn rock to the side. At the same time, Brisk swung his machete in a large arch towards the alicorn. The heavy blade made contact with the shield, making the alicorn lose focus a little.

“Enough of this!” The alicorn yelled. The force field dropped and several rays of light lashed out from her horn. Brisk dropped to the ground, the beams of energy streaking over his head and singeing the ends of his tail.

I was less lucky. Multiple rays struck me, sending me flying backwards and knocking the breath out of me. I tried to pull myself back to my hooves to find my injured foreleg had finally given out and refused to hold my weight.

Damn it leg! Not now!

The alicorn took two steps towards us. “As if you three actually stood a chance against me!” The alicorn declared in triumph, a crazed tone in her voice. Then she stopped and glanced around. “Where is the zebra!”

A ripple in the air behind the alicorn gave her her answer. The alicorn swung around and blasted the invisible zebra with another laser before quickly bringing up her shield again. Xayah flashed back into view as she was hit by the burning laser. The blast struck her shoulder and knocked her backwards where she lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

The alicorn laughed. “Did you really think you could sneak up on me! Your plan has failed!” But our plan hadn’t failed. As I stared at the alicorn I finally understood what Xayah had meant by attacking her from inside her shield.

I grinned and pulled myself to my hooves. My leg gave out again and I tumbled back to the floor with a thud. “Oh yeah? Guess again,” I taunted, struggling to hold back a smug grin.

I pointed to the alicorns hooves where a small grenade lay trapped within the alicorns force field. The alicorn glanced down at her hooves with just enough time to see the explosive and drop her shield before the grenade went boom!

A cloud of dust erupted from around the alicorn as the grenade went off, obscuring our view of everything that wasn’t within a few inches of our face. Shrapnel rained down around us, forcing me to cover my eyes and take a step back.

I spotted the pale glow of light around the alicorns horn through the cloud of dust. Small and obscured, but still very clearly there.

You have got to be kidding me! How was she still not dead!?

I raised my shotgun to what I imagined to be the alicorns head level and advanced towards the flickering light. The dust settled as I approached, revealing the alicorn standing in a large pool of blood and flesh.

The alicorn had seen better days. Half of the creatures face had been torn off by flying shrapnel and she was missing her left eye. Both of her wings were filled with holes and her legs were a broken bloody mess. But shockingly, she was still standing.

As the alicorns horn glowed I watched in amazement as her muscle and skin tissue slowly weaved itself back together. Her eye began reforming in her socket and the holes in her wings began to patch themselves back together. The only proof of the wounds ever existing was a collection of silver scars all over her body.

“Oh come on!” I yelled at the alicorn. “Is flight, magic, and fucking force fields not enough! You have to have healing magic too! That’s just cheating!”

There are a lot of upsides to healing magic. The main reason of course being that you could heal most of the wounds you receive in battle with the exception of broken limbs. The downside however (and this applies mostly to dumb fucking alicorns that don't know when to die) is that while you are healing yourself, you aren’t able to use any other kind of magic due to the amount of concentration required to cast such a spell. Unable to use magic like a shield to be specific.

I targeted her head in SATS, raised boneless, and fired three shots point blank into the alicorns face. The first shot ripped away the remaining flesh, the second took out both of the alicorns eyes as well and pulverized the exposed muscle, and the third and final shot burst open the monsters skull and sent brain matter flying across the room in every direction.

The alicorn staggered slightly, managing to remain on all fours for a few seconds even after death. Then, the headless corpse of the alicorn fell to the floor.

Brisk and Xayah walked over and looked at the ruined body. “That could have gone much worse,” Xayah stated, her eyes lingering on the bloody remains of the alicorn. “I’ll be honest, I almost forgot to pull the pin. I have never used a grenade before.”

Before I could comprehend that Xayah simply forgetting the pin of the grenade could have killed us all, I heard a slaver shout. “They’re in here!” Crap, I had forgotten about them. Again.

A slaver in combat armor and a sniper rifle came charging around the corner of the door. I raised my shotgun to shoot him, but before I could do anything one of the mechanical owls flew from above him and sent a red laser straight through his chest. Almost instantly, the slaver turned into a fine red dust.

Instinctively, I swept up his saddlebag in my magic with one quick motion and dumped out the contents. Ten bullets for his sniper rifle dropped to the floor along with twenty or so caps. Perfect. I tossed the caps into my bag and loaded the bullets into my sniper before handing the gun over to Xayah. Now we all had guns.

Xayah took the gun in her hooves and gave me a quick nod.

“We need to get out of here,” I declared, spinning in a circle and trying to spot a way out. We couldn’t fight our way past twenty or so slavers, and while Xayah might have a stealth cloak, all three of us probably wouldn’t be able to sneak past them either.

Brisk stuck his head out the window the alicorn had destroyed. “Hey, let’s go out here!” he shouted, hauling himself onto and out of the window.

“Are you crazy!” I exclaimed, racing over to him. “This is the fourth floor!”

Brisk shook his head. “There is a thin ledge out here. We can scale the walls to the roof,” I glanced out the window. He was right. A thin ledge ran along the outside of the building at a steep slope. A few feet down the building I could make out what appeared to be another ledge that we could use to climb up to the floors above. Well that was oddly convenient.

“So we can get to the roof,” Xayah deadpanned. “What do we hope to do once we are up there?”

Brisk shrugged and continued to climb out the window. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there I suppose,” His back hooves touched the ledge and he began inching along the side of the skyscraper.

This is insane. I thought to myself; watching as Xayah began to follow Brisk out and onto the ledge. The sound of shouting as the Slavers closed in reminded me that there were worse things we could be doing.

“There are worse ways to die,” I muttered to myself, rephrasing what Brisk had said only moments before.

I began making my way over to the window and glanced down at the street below. Even only four floors up, it was a lengthy drop. Goddesses I hated heights.

As I was pulling myself onto the window sill, my eyes landed on I stack of five orange holotapes next to three empty tins of Party-time Mint-als. Out of simple curiosity, I swiped them up and tossed them into my saddlebags.

“There they are!” A slaver shouted as he burst into the room and spotted me half out of the window. He pulled out his machine gun and opened fired on me.

Shit, this was the part where I get the fuck out of there.

I dropped to the ledge as a barrage of bullets whizzed above me. Keeping low to the ledge I began inching my way towards the far side of the building.

The slaver poked his head out the window and watched with astonishment as we scaled the walls of the building. He sent a few shots our way before calling to the rest of the slavers.

“They are heading for the roof! Cut ‘em off!” as soon as he finished his command, he hopped out the window himself and began climbing towards us.

Fuck these assholes were persistent.

Brisk reached the far ledge and began pulling himself upwards with his forehooves. I could see his injured front legs start to shake as he hauled himself up. I supposed Buck can only do so much. As he made it to the second floor, he reached his hind hoof down to help Xayah up. As she seemed to be scaling the building better than the rest of us, I doubted she needed help, but she took his hoof anyway.

The slaver was closing in on me faster than I would have liked. I glanced behind me to see two more slavers climbing out the window with pistols.

Multiple shots flew past me as I raced for the far edge of the building. I reached up and grabbed onto Xayah's hoof, allowing her to pull me up. I grasped onto the second ledge and began to inch across again.

The second ledge was only about half the width of the first, making it much harder to climb. I spent less time trying to run forwards and more time trying to keep from falling.

The first slaver to climb out after us began firing at us with his machine gun again. I had to push myself as tight as I could against the wall to avoid being filled with lead. Holes were blown straight through the bottom of the ledge and I could feel it start to crumble away.

Clearly realizing that he might be able to make the ledge collapse, the slaver began focusing his weapon on the structure.

Yup, I definitely needed to get rid of this guy.

Reaching out with my magic, I wrapped his hind leg in a telekinetic field and gave it a good ol’ yank. As expected, the hoof was pulled out from under him and he was sent screaming towards the ground. A second later there was a horrifying thump and the screaming stopped.

I heard the two other slavers yell with surprise as they began tucking themselves closer to the side of the wall before I could do the same thing to them. At the same time, three more slavers pulled themselves out of the window. Holy shit, they just didn’t stop coming.

As we reached the end of the ledge we found a small flaw with our plan. The end of the ledge stopped only half way up the building with no obvious way to keep climbing up.

“Shit,” I heard Brisk mutter as he glanced down at the street below us.

I allowed myself to glance behind me to the two slavers. They had pulled themselves onto the second ledge and were approaching with alarming speed.

Xayah looked up the wall with a frown. She began trying to look up the wall at a strange angle, as if looking for something the rest of us couldn’t see.

“Either of you have a plan?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. We really needed to start thinking our plans through better. We tend to come up with a basic concept and then start winging it about halfway through.

Xayah nodded. “Yes, I think we can scale this wall here,” I looked over at the brick wall we were standing beside.

“How?” Brisk asked, trying to spot what the zebra could see.

Xayah put a hoof on a brick that stuck out an inch or so from the wall. “Just follow what I do, the bricks should be able to act like a ladder,” without saying more, Xayah began climbing up the side of the vertical wall.

“No you fucking don’t!” I heard one of the slavers yell. I turned around to see them only a few feet way, pistols drawn and ready to fire.

I raised Boneless and checked my ammo. Only one shot left, better make it count. I aimed my gun between the slavers. They saw me readying to fire and pushed themselves up against the wall as to save from plummeting to their doom. I grinned. Checkmate.

Boneless fired my final shell at the wall, showering them with dust, shrapnel, and tiny bits of debris. The slavers stumbled, rubbing their eyes with their hooves as their sight got obscured by dust and rubble.

I telekinetically swung my baton at their heads, knocking both of them over the side with one quick motion.

I glanced up the wall. Xayah and Brisk had already made it a few feet up. I placed my hooves on the wall and began to climb after them.

The three slavers had begun to pull themselves onto the second ledge, their weapons clamped tightly in their mouths. They had used a similar tactic to us, helping each other climb up. Needless to say, they were climbing really fast.

As I pulled myself upwards I came to stop next to a large window. I peered inside to see a terminal and the charred remains of what had once been a pony lying in the corner. Interested, I squinted my eyes at something I saw tucked up against the skeletons chest - A twilight Sparkle statuette, very similar to the Rarity one I had in my possession.

The statuette seemed to be calling out to me, as if it desperately wanted to connect with the tiny white pony in my saddlebag.

I reached out towards the window. Maybe I could just…

A volley of bullets peppered the wall beside be, nearly making me lose my grip on the bricks.

Okay fine wasteland! Have it your way!

I began climbing again, leaving the small statuette behind. Maybe I could come back for it some time. Though, if time in the wasteland continued the way it had been going, I doubted I would be coming back this way.

Xayah and Brisk pulled themselves onto the top of the building. Brisk turned back and lowered his hoof for me to grab on. Unable to let go of the bricks without falling, I reached up with my mouth and bit onto the bottom of his leg.

Brisk winced as my teeth enclosed around his broken hoof, but he didn’t complain. I supposed he probably felt he didn’t have the right to complain, as leaving the Stable was his idea.

Brisk pulled me up onto the roof of the MoM building. I flopped onto the floor and lay there panting for a few seconds.

I looked up to see Xayah barricading the door to the roof with a broken piece of piping.

“That will not hold the slavers for long,” Xayah said, returning to us. “Once they reach the top floor, I give us about two minutes before they break through,” I was unsure if she knew that because she had been in a similar situation before, or if she was simply good at guessing.

“So, what now?” I asked, glancing around the roof. I spotted a giant red scooter that had once been atop the building beside us, had since fallen and now become a fairly sturdy bridge to cross to the next building. Again, it was oddly convenient, but hey! I’m not complaining.

I pointed out the scooter to my friends, though they seemed to have already spotted it as well.

Pounding started coming from the door to the building, drawing our attention. The broken pipe was already struggling to hold against the weight of the slavers ramming into the door. Xayah might have said we had two minutes, but I only gave us one.

“Welp, no time like the present, am I right,” Brisk laughed as he charged across the bridge. I had no idea how he kept a cheerful attitude in times like this.

Xayah and I began to follow him across. The scooter rocked under our weight, but seemed to hold. As we ran, I could hear the door burst open as the remaining slavers rushed onto the roof. I could hear their yells of frustration as they fired round after round at us.

The wasteland is a funny thing. It's a very diverse place, where you really can’t predict what is about to happen. One minute you were talking to your mysterious robot friend, the next your fighting and alicorn, and shorty after that you get chased by a bunch of slavers across a giant scooter.

When a giant, winged lion scorpion thing lunged from the sky and began attacking the slavers, things had already gone so far out of left field that I wasn’t even surprised.

The slavers attention quickly turned from us and onto the oncoming beast as it ripped and gnawed its way through the slavers. There were screams of “Kill it! Kill it!” and “Manticor!” then only the sounds of ripping flesh and gunfire.

I didn’t bother checking behind me as we raced into and down the building across from us. We didn’t stop running until both the slavers, the MoM building, and whatever the fuck a Manticor was, were far behind us.

When we finally did stop, we just flopped onto our backs and caught our breath.

“That’s it, I hate the wasteland!” I declared, resting the back of my head against the ground.

Xayah chuckled. “Yes, it is a rather unpleasant place.”

I checked the map on my pipbuck. We were still heading in the general direction of Friendship City, but our run had put us off course a little. I guessed it would be a few hours walk at most. Which wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t keep running into stuff that wanted to kill us.

I groaned. “Well, let's get going. I really don’t want to be in the middle of Manehattan when it gets dark out,” Everyone thoroughly agreed.

“...And that's when we met Watcher for the first time,” Brisk explained. He had been retelling our adventure to Xayah as we walked. I walked a few paces ahead of the two of them, scouting out for danger and making sure we stay on track. “He told Amber where to find some medication. Then we just followed the tunnel until we found you.”

“An exciting tale,” Xayah applauded. “That is a rather harsh way to enter the wasteland. Though it is never a friendly place, you two seem to have gotten a particularly rough start.”

There was an awkward silence between the two of them.

“Soooooo,” Brisks voice piped up. “What do you do for fun out in the wasteland? Or is it always just a struggle to survive.”

“There are plenty of things to do in the wasteland,” Xayah replied. “My family often passed the time by telling stories or funny jokes. Though I suppose different groups do different things,” I thought I heard her voice catch at the mention of her family, but I wasn’t sure.

“Jokes!” I heard Brisk exclaim excitedly. “I love jokes. Oh! Here is one you might like! What is black and white and black and white and black and white and green?”

Xayah thought for a moment. “I am unsure,” She finally replied in a puzzled tone. “What is it?”

Brisk chuckled. “Three zebra’s fighting over a pickle!”

Both Xayah and I groaned at the joke.

“Oh Oh! I have another one!” Brisk declared, still clearly trying to stop himself from laughing. Xayah groaned again.

I pulled out the holotapes I had found and quickly put them into my pipbuck. I didn’t know what was on them, but anything was better than listening to Brisk’s jokes. I pushed play on the first recording and listened as the sound of static sprang to life.

“Happy Birthday Pinkie!” I heard the bubbly voice of Cheese Sandwich say. “You missed your party and I know that your busy with your ministry and all, so I thought I would send you an audio recording telling you how special you are! Tell her everypony!”

I could hear a few other ponies in the background yelling “Happy Birthday!”

“Did you get that present I sent you?” I heard Cheese Sandwich say. “I know you’ll just love it! You always do! Anyhow, I will get Derpy to send you this holotape as soon as I can. I’ll even save you a slice of cake or two, I know it’s your favorite! Triple chocolate and cherry!”

The audio recording cut out for a second, but after a short interval of static, Cheese Sandwich’s voice came back on. “...and so I hope everything goes well and that I can see you soon. It's been so long since we've thrown a party together, we really should do another one sometime. Oh, and make sure to say hi to you friends for me! I hope they are all having a super duper good time as well! And Happy Birthday!” there was a loud burst of static as the recording cut out.

I hit play on the next one and started listening to a slightly more somber sounding Cheese Sandwich. “I looked into that Silver Ace pony you kept telling me about Pinkie. I can’t find anything, but you’re right. That pony is up to no good. My Cheesy sense went crazy around him. Other than that though, he had his guard up at all times. I couldn’t find any way to get through to him. Have you tried talking to Fluttershy? She seems to be working with him a lot. I’ll update you on if I find anything, sorry I haven’t been the biggest, most super awesome help you wanted Pink,” once again, the recording shut out.

I looked at the pile of holotapes. Only three remained unplayed. I turned back to my friends a few feet behind me to see Brisk still in the middle of one of his jokes, Xayah’s expression was a mix of boredom and complete and utter despair.

Our eyes locked and Xayah’s gaze seemed to read ‘save me!’ I gave her a sympathetic smile that meant ‘I don’t want to be dragged into whatever that is.’ Xayah’s ears drooped in defeat.

Before I could hear the punchline of Brisks next joke, I loaded the next holotape and pushed play.

For a long time there was just silence, then I heard the faintest sound of breathing as what I assumed was Cheese Sandwich trying to figure out what to say next.

“I’m sorry to hear about Twilight,” Cheese Sandwich started. He hesitated as he said Twilight's name, as if he was afraid it was a landmine that could go off at any second. He sounded so sad, as if he were on the verge of tears himself. “I can go talk to her if you would like, but I don’t really know if that would be a good idea.”

There was another long silence. It was becoming very clear that Cheese Sandwich didn’t know what to say. “I hope to see you again soon Pinkie,” He finally said. “I can’t remember the last time the two of us spent time together,” and with a final buzz of static, the audio recording came to a close. the recordings were all short and awkward. I was getting the feeling that Cheese Sandwich was trying very hard to hold together a long broken friendship. I was beginning to feel really sorry for him.

Without bothering to see what my companions were up to, I inserted the second to last recording and pushed play. There was an echoing sound in the distance of the recording, almost like haunting drums. Aside from that however, it was eerily silent. There were no ponies talking in the background or the bustle of the busy Manehattan streets. Not even a bird called out. A silence had fallen over the land of Equestria.

There was a faint cough, to quiet to hear well, but loud enough to be heard. “Hey Pinkie, I got locked in this room when the bomb went off and I don’t think I’m going to be able to open it from the inside,” It was Cheese Sandwich’s voice again, though this time he sounded weak and in pain. “I think you're upstairs, so I doubt I will ever be able to give this to you, but I just wanted to let you know that…” He stopped just long enough to cough a few times. I could have sworn I heard the sound of blood dripping from his lips. “Let you know that you were right. About everything. Those crazy four star nuts… everypony…” He started coughing again, this time the coughing went on for a few minutes. “Not that it really matters anymore anyway. It’s all over now. I don’t even think that… that you’re even… goddesses! How did I not see this coming!”

I had to bite back my own tears as I heard the sound of Cheese Sandwich choking on something. I had been wrong, this was far worse than any of Brisk’s jokes.

The gagging ended and I heard Cheese Sandwich collapse to the ground. “You never did receive that party recording I made you, I still have it with me… I never found the right time…” He tried to laugh his bubbly, contagious laugh, only for it to be interrupted by a fit of coughing and sputtering. “I… I don’t know how long I have left… I’m taking in more radiation than any sane pony should… I’ll probably drop soon, it’s just a matter of time… not that that’s a bad thing. I could use a little sleep. It's been a long few months for all of us. Besides, the last thing I want is to be stuck in this ol’ room forever…” He choked back his own tears and made a strange noise in the back of his throat that sounded like a mix between a scream and a gargle. "What do you say Pinkie? Ready for one last party? Lets make it our best one yet..." He started coughing again and this time, he didn’t stop until the recording finally shut out.

As the audio file came to a close I found myself crying. I had managed to stay strong for so long in the wasteland. Inside of the Stable, crying had been no stranger to me. I had cried plenty of times. But the moment I had stepped past the giant steel door of Stable 25, I had changed. I was stronger, more emotionally stable. I had been attacked, I had killed ponies, I had been injured and chased and probably had more existential crises than I had my entire life. Yet somehow, I had pushed forward and held back my tears, because I knew that if I were to start crying… I probably wouldn’t be able to stop.

Not now though. Now I stood stopped in the middle of some desolate, long abandon street in the middle of the goddess damned wasteland and wept. I cried for myself, for Brisk, and for Xayah and her lost family. I cried for Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie and everypony else who's lives had been ended by the war for no fault of their own. Cheese Sandwich’s words had hit me harder than I could have imagined. What had I done!

I remembered the body of the zombie pony lying legless on the floor of the MoM Building. He had been a good pony once. A great pony. He had recorded a birthday party of Pinkie, just because she was busy…

And I had killed him…

“You alright Amber?” Brisk asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder, shaking me from my trance like weeping. I hadn’t heard him walk up, I had been to distracted with these jumbled emotions that had sprung on me out of seemingly nowhere. “What’s wrong?”

I turned to him, tears streaming down my face. I must have looked terrible, all red eyed like that. “I killed him Brisk,” I sobbed, pointing to the holotapes. “He was a good pony and I killed him!”

Brisk just looked confused. “Who are we talking about?”

“Cheese Sandwich!” I shouted, trying to hide my tears. “He’s dead because of me!” Brisk still looked just as confused as he had before, if not more so. I let out a slow shaky sigh. “The zombie pony at the Ministry of Morale building.”

Understanding crossed Brisk’s face, though he still looked a little confused. “But you didn’t kill him Amber… I did.”

I looked back up at him. “What?”

“I killed him remember?” I shook my head even though I did. I could clearly remember taking his gun, blowing off his legs, and then looting his body. I hadn’t even checked to see who it was I had just killed until after I had taken all of his stuff. Brisk might have dealt the final blow, but that didn’t make me any less of a murderer. If anything, it just meant that his blood was on both of our hooves.

“That ghoul had most likely been insane for two hundred years,” Xayah commented. I hadn’t seen her approach either. “Killing him was most likely a favor.”

I nodded slowly, fighting back my tears. I could keep going. I had to keep going.

Something about what Xayah had said didn’t seem right though. Cheese Sandwich had reloaded his gun, which told me there was still a bit of who he once was left in him. Who had actually attacked first? Was he still sane and simply trying to defend himself against us? That didn’t quite sound right either though.

I took a deep breath and looked towards where I was finally able to see Friendship City peeking over many of the toppled skyscrapers. I could do this…

“Alright… I’m okay now,” I lied, continuing my walk forward. I caught Brisk and Xayah exchange a quick concerned glance in the corner of my eye. I doubted they fully believed me.

We continued on our way. As we walked I looked at the final holotape. I shook my head and placed it back into my saddlebag, figuring that I probably wasn’t ready to listen to whatever content it held.

The ordeal about Cheese Sandwich had gotten me thinking about all the other ponies I had killed since I left the Stable. Had some of them been good ponies too? What had Suri been like before the bombs? Did the raiders have family and friends? Did the Slavers? They might have… I didn’t know anything about them besides they were lying dead at the base of the MoM building. What about the bandits that Brisk shot? They had only been trying to survive… If I had managed to save them, could they have become our friends?

I pushed the thoughts from my mind. If I kept thinking like this, I was going to drive myself insane. I had to keep going.

We walked in silence for around an hour. Brisk attempted to make conversation a few times, but after all that had happened, no pony could seem able to keep the conversation going.

At last we approached Friendship City. It was exactly as I had seen it from the MoM Building, though now that I was up close, I could make out a bunch of other details. The settlement was actually across a large body of water, with the only way across being a large, fairly well maintained bridge. A few smaller structures were set up on our side of the water. I assumed they were there as some form of security measure, though I wasn’t exactly sure how or why.

The wooden structures that I had seen from the MoM building I was now discovering to be more for defense than actual living area. All the housing itself seemed to be almost entirely inside of the statue.

A large sign beside the bridge read, ‘Welcome to Friendship City. Friendliest place in the wasteland!’

As the three of us approached the bridge, we were confronted by two guard ponies in matching security barding.

“Welcome to Friendship City,” The guard on the right said, rephrasing what the sign already stated. I was almost unsettled by how friendly they were. Regardless of if I was wandering the wasteland or back in the dull halls of Stable 25, no one had simply acted nice to me. I did notice a strange glance at Xayah though.

They were friendly, but not completely free of prejudice.

Xayah seemed to notice their glances as well and pulled up her hood in an attempt to conceal her face. I’d have told the guards to be more inviting to zebras, had I not been tempted to leave her in a cage for raiders when I first saw her.

Shit, I guess almost abandoning Xayah was another thing to add to the list of cruelties I had committed since leaving the Stable.

Thankfully, the guards didn’t argue as the three of us gave them small smiles and nods and began walking across the bridge, even if they did seem nervous about a zebra with a stealth cloak entering the city.

“This place seems friendly,” I commented once we were halfway across the bridge and well out of earshot of the guards.

Both Brisk and Xayah nodded in agreement. “Indeed, that is why my family and I intended to come here,” Xayah said. “We were told they try to be less prejudice towards zebra kin.”

The fact that they had let Xayah in proved that, though I did note that Xayah used the words ‘try to be’ instead of ‘are less’.

As we reached the end of the bridge, three more guards stood outside the entrance to the city. Two stood on either side of the door, while the third approached us with a smile.

“Greetings,” the guard said, as we stepped off of the bridge and onto the island that Friendship City was built into. “Names, Lantern. I’m afraid you will need to turn in your weapons before you enter the city. Friendship City is a friendly place after all, and we would like to keep it that way.”

I pulled out Boneless and my baton and levitated the weapons over. “We will get these back right?” I asked as Lantern took them and placed them in a large safe.

Lantern smiled. “Of course. All of your belongings will be returned on your way out. We just can’t afford to have ponies walking around the city waving guns around. We are having enough internal problems going around as it is, we wouldn’t want violence to get involved.”

I shared a glance with my friends. “What kind of internal problems?” Brisk asked as he relieved himself of his pistol and machete. “Anything interesting?”

Lantern shook their head. “Black Seas and Raspberry Tart are just havin’ a little spat about the politics of Friendship City. Nothing some newcomers like you need to worry about. You three just do your best to have a good time in the city,” Lantern turned to Xayah who quickly handed over her sniper and knife. Lantern hesitated for a moment before clearing their throat. “Um… We will need to take you’re stealth cloak as well, if you don't mind.”

I could see Xayah’s clear hesitation as she looked down at the black fabric she had draped over herself, clearly hoping to keep it to avoid too much attention. Finally she pulled of the gem on the front and handed it over to the guard.

Lantern pondered if that was enough for a second before nodding and letting us pass. Before we entered, I pulled Lantern aside for a quick second.

“So, What can you tell me about friendship City?” I asked. Brisk and Xayah motioned to me that they would be waiting inside when I was done. I gave them a quick smile in return.

Lantern nodded. “Well if you are looking for a place to rest your head, I’d recommend the Warm Smiles Inn. Great place. Course if you need something a little cheaper, there is always the Common room for free. Though I would steer clear of there, Raspberry Tart runs the area you see. Been told she runs it a little more dirty than the rest of us here in Friendship City would like,” They said. “If you're looking for a place to buy or barter, the market area has got pretty much everything you could want… Is there anything specific you are looking for?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m looking for some ponies that are traveling through the Manehattan area. I was hoping I could find somepony that might have information.”

Lantern thought for a second. “You might just be in luck actually. See there is this old buck named Tales that comes by every now and again. He makes it his business to know just a little bit about everything going on in Manehattan. Crazy old pony, but he knows his stuff when he can separate it from his conspiracies,” Lantern replied. “He ain’t hard to miss, tall frail buck with a black stetson, usually talking about what the institute plans to do next, or when the Enclave is going to finally decide to come down from the sky.”

“Thank you, this has been a lot of help,” I said, turning from lantern and entering the city.

Friendship City was massive. Concentric rings rose up the walls of the massive statue, each ring holding a collection of different stores and homes. A large spiral staircase ran up the center of the structure, with multiple walkways and platforms branching out from the steps to merge with the rings.

A majority of the structures were built from scavenged parts of ships that they had most likely pulled from the harbor, giving the city the feel of a boat cemetery. I noticed that a few of the shops were simply boats that had been disassembled, brought inside, and then reassembled to their entirety.

It wasn’t until I realized I was currently standing on the deck of a large barge that I realized how truly enormous the city actually was. From outside I could tell that the statue stood above most of the other structures in Manehattan, but I hadn’t quite realized how much bigger it was. For a pony that had spent her whole life inside of a Stable where the roof was only about a foot above your head, it was almost hard to comprehend.

Friendship City was also the largest gathering of ponies I had ever seen. Large groups of ponies moved about the city, going about their day to day lives in the makeshift buildings. There were ponies in almost every direction I looked, some walking across the catwalks while many others stood around talking or bartered with merchants at the many vendors.

Brisk stood in shock as well, his jaw slightly slack as he stared up at the enormous city. He might not have been as afraid of the sky as I was, but he was still awestruck by Friendship City.

I gave him a smirk and extended my hoof to give the bottom of his jaw a tap. “Keep your mouth closed there buddy, we aren’t even through the front gates yet.”

Finding this Tales fellow was harder than I expected. The marketplace that Lantern described wasn’t just one floor, but several. And if that didn’t make it hard enough to find him, the fact that there were more ponies than I had seen in my life was making it damn near impossible.

After almost half an hour of searching, we came to a stop in a large cafeteria area and sat at one of the empty tables.

“What does this Tales buck look like again?” Brisk asked, glancing around the crowd. As the sun outside began to set, many of the ponies had begun to return to their beds, making the place look a little less crowded. “He has a stetson? Not really much to go off of there.”

“He’s frail and probably spewing conspiracy theories,” I replied. “Lantern said he would be hard to miss. So we will probably know when we see him.”

“And yet he still remains unfound,” Xayah commented, joining us at the table with three Sparkle-colas and some weird looking meat on a stick. “A pony gave this to me for only 3 caps,” Xayah said as she handed us the food and beverage. “The ponies here are rather kind, and they do seem to be very negotiable.”

I took the meat skewer and eyed it suspiciously. “This isn’t Radroach is it?” I asked, hoping that fried insect wasn’t the main food choice out in the wasteland.

Xayah chuckled softly. “Oh no, most ponies come to places like Friendship City or Tenpony Tower simply to escape the need to eat such things,” Well that was a relief. “This is Radigator meat. It comes from a town called Arbu up by Bucklyn Cross.”

I didn’t know what Bucklyn Cross was, so that detail didn’t help much, but Radigator sounded more appetizing than Radroach, so I wasn’t going to complain.

The meat didn’t taste bad either. I was still wrapping my head around the idea that I had to digest food to survive and I would have much preferred to just be in a Stable being fed by the A.A.S.S. but if I had to eat, this would do fine.

“Friendship City seems a lot more exciting than the Stable, Aye,” Brisk said, looking up at the rings that we were still yet to explore. “You don’t get to see the sky either. Place is practically perfect for you.”

I followed his gaze and gave a sad smile. “Perhaps, but I still want to go home after all of this is done. No place in the wasteland can replace the Stable.”

Brisk frowned. “Can’t it though? I mean, you’d probably be happier out here…”

I shook my head. “Happy? In the wasteland? I don’t think the wasteland even knows what happy is,” Brisks face fell. I got the sinking suspicion that he was trying to convince me to stay out here with him when we final returned the A.A.S.S. I recalled the conversation we had had in the morning. He was probably afraid of being left alone. “But hey, I bet they don’t need to listen to that goddess damned music every morning.”

He perked up at the thought. “Fuck yeah! No more of that stupid tune!”

Xayah raised her eyebrows. “Why would they play it in the morning? We can listen to the music whenever we want?”

Brisk and I just stared at her. “Oh goddesses! Don’t tell me they play the fucking parasprites song in Friendship City too!” Brisk exclaimed in anguish. “If that song starts playing I am grabbing my gun and shooting every damn speaker in this city! To hell with the whole no guns policy!”

“The parasprite song? Oh Celestia no!” Xayah replied quickly, calming Brisk down. “I mean the radio… You have heard the radio, yes?”

Brisk and I exchanged another glance. “There is a radio in the wasteland?” I asked.

Xayah nodded. “I am surprised you haven’t listened to it yet, I assumed you can pick it up on the pipbuck of yours,” She reached forward and tapped my hoof.

I began quickly going through all of the radio signals on my pipbuck. Static, static, static, static, no wait! One of the radio channels was broadcasting something. I clicked it and out of my pipbuck came music.

I was no stranger to music, or so I had thought. I had heard it every morning of my life since long before I could remember. But this wasn’t anything like the Stable-tec march, or even the eerily similar tune of the Spritebots. This song was beautiful.

Melodies rose and fell, only to later mingle seamlessly with other flowing sounds. There was a pony singing too, her voice soft and sweet and full of more emotion that I though any one pony could convey. I couldn’t make out the words though, I had been hypnotized by the enchanting song from the second it reached my ears. The longer the song went, the harder it became to hold back tears.

At some point, I found the strength to turn my head and look at Brisk. He had frozen in place, his tear filled eyes locked onto my pipbuck.

He had left the Stable to try and live a life worth living. In his eyes, this music must have been proof that he had managed to do just that.

As the music slowly began to fade out I managed to form words. “Wha… what was that!”

As if answering my question, the smooth voice of a stallion came out of my pipbuck. “Ah, that was Sweetie Belle with ‘I’ll love you always’. That one always brings a smile t' my face.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Holy Fuck! There is a buck in my pipbuck!” Brisk looked equally started by my revelation.

Xayah giggled at our reaction. “No, you foolish ponies,” She chuckled. “That is DJ Pon3, he runs the radio.”

Well now I just felt stupid.

“Now listen up children, it’s time for the news… Today is a busy day it seems ponies, I got lots of things t' report. First and foremost I’d like to rephrase what I said earlier today. It seems Blackwing and her talons are still suck up in Horseshoe tower. Is no pony able t' help them? Or does no pony simply want t' after their last few stunts? hard t' say for sure, but I’m guessing the latter. In other news, it would seem that there are a bunch of Canterlot ghouls walking about Manehattan near Fetlock. What are they doin’ so far away from their mighty castle of pink cloud you ask? Once again, it’s hard to say, but I’d put my money on it being connected to all the shenanigans that have been going down in post apocalyptia these last few days.

“Is that all? I hear you yell. What else could possibly be happening in the goddess damned wasteland? Well let me tell you, and this one has me excited! See I have it under good authority that everypony's favorite Stable dweller has made her way t' Manehattan. Maybe I’ll finally be able t' share more than just her actions with you, but her thoughts as well. I think the wasteland could use a little more of what she has to say, don’t you? Until next time children, this is DJ Pon3, bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts…”

I turned off my pipbuck and looked between my two friends in shock. “How the fuck does he know who we are?” I blurted, waving my pipbuck in front of both of their faces.

“He must be working with those Red Eye slavers!” Brisk agreed, casting my pipbuck a dirty look. “They are the only ponies that have seen us and are still alive!”

Xayah looked almost alarmed. “Working with Red Eye? Whatever do you mean?”

“How else would DJ Pon3 know that we were walking around in Manehattan?” I demanded, almost angry at whoever this DJ was. “No one else even knows we are out here… except maybe Watcher…”

Xayah just stared at us for a long second, completely dumbfounded. Then, realizing what we were saying, slapped her striped hoof against her face. “He was talking about a different Stable dweller,” She said bluntly, removing her hoof from her face. “He has been talking about this heroine for just over a month now.”

Silence.

“Wow…” Brisk muttered, taking a bite of his Radigator. “We’re dumb,” I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

I looked at our food. “So, how many caps do we have left? We had 30, right?”

Xayah nodded. “The number of caps we have left to spend remains unchanged.”

Brisk glanced around. “I thought our meal was three caps?” He leaned in closer and whispered. “You didn’t steal this food, did you?” He was grinning while he said that last part. Part of me though he almost wanted our zebra friend to have committed theft.

Xayah shook her head. “No, the pony was simply foolish enough to forget to remove the caps on our Sparkle-colas.”

As we began laughing at our good fortune, I spotted a flash of metal amongst the ponies around us. I squinted in the direction of the metal until I spotted the cyber pony walking through the crowd.

He didn’t look like the cyber ponies that had invaded my Stable. Unlike the other cyber ponies, he was more flesh and blood than metal. He was a heavily scarred grey earth pony stallion with a jet black mane and matching tail. The only cybernetic part of him that I could see was a pair of metallic wings attached to his side. Each wing was a little bit larger than the average Pegasus wing and was comprised out of sharp blades where others would have feathers.

He was different enough to make me believe he wasn’t one of the same ones, but my eyes lingered on his blade like wings.

“They’re identical,” I muttered to myself, more impulsive than anything else.

Brisk raised his eyebrow. “What is?” He asked.

I pointed a hoof to the scarred cyber pony. “His wings… they look just like the ones the cyber alicorn in Stable 25 had.”

“What should we do then?” Brisk said, looking at the half metal pony. I ignored his question and began trotting over to the cyber pony. “Wait, Amber! What if it’s dangerous?”

“Amber seems to forget there are other ways to approach things other than head on I find,” I heard Xayah comment thoughtfully.

Brisk simply grunted. “I’ve noticed…”

I slowly approached the cyber pony. “Um… hello, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a second?” I asked. The cyber pony turned and glared at my with steel coloured eyes, but remained silent. This was already getting uncomfortable.

You gotta do this Amber. I reminded myself. The whole Stable is counting on me.

I puffed my chest out and tried again. “I’m looking for some cyber ponies that have very similar wings to yours, do you know anything about them?” again, the cyber pony remained silent. Though I noticed he was looking a little annoyed.

I was about to try a different tactic when I heard a voice behind me. “Can I help you with something?”

I turned to see the fattest mare I had ever seen. Her form was almost comparable to that of a large blob instead of a pony. She had a pomegranate coat with a mustard yellow mane. She smiled at me with a charming grin that fit neither her appearance or her tone.

“Uh, no…” I replied cautiously. “I just need to talk to this cyber pony here…”

“Gizmo here is my bodyguard, so if you want to talk to him you will need to talk to me,” the mares voice practically dripped with a mix of honey and malicious sarcasm.

I paused. “Um… sorry, who are you,” Shit, that came out ruder than I had wanted. Before I could rephrase myself I saw the mare narrow her eyes.

“My name is Raspberry Tart,” She replied coldly. “You had better remember it.”

I shrunk back. “Sorry, I was just…”

Raspberry Tart flicked her tail in the direction of Gizmo. “Come now, we have things to do,” The cyber pony nodded and began following her towards the staircase in the center of the city.

I cursed under my breath. I was about to give chase to them when an old, eccentric voice piped up. “You lookin’ for a buncha cyber ponies?”

I turned to see an elderly brown buck rocking back and forth on an old rocking chair, which was most peculiar since he was in the middle of the room. He was frail, practically skeletal and his wrinkled hide was covered in dark black tattoos depicting a bunch of historical moments from Equestira’s history that I had learned about back in school. The left side of the bucks face had been burned away, revealing soft, pink fleshy skin and atop his head sat a black stetson.

“Tales?” I asked, slowly approaching the stallion. Tales gave me a slow nod. I gestured for Brisk and Xayah to join me as I approached him.

“Ya ever heard of the Institute?” The old stallion asked, waving his forehoof in the air. “Those maniacs are snatchin’ ponies all over the wasteland up. Probably using them for some sorta sick twisted experiments too! Enclave is doin’ the same! Those buggers are going to swoop down from the sky alright, but I assure you, it ain’t to help.”

I shook my head. “I’m looking for some cyber ponies that are somewhere in Manehattan,” I said, brushing off his question. Then I scratch the back of my head awkwardly. “Which you already knew…”

Tales grunted gruffly. “Ignore the signs all ya want, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya,” The older buck gave a small cough. “Let me tell you, there ain't many cyber ponies roamin’ the wasteland these days,” Tales said, leaning back in his rocking chair and putting a corncob pipe into his mouth. “Plenty down in Filly, but in Manehattan? Ya got Gizmo, but that’s ‘bout it.”

“Do you know where some might be going?” I asked. Brisk and Xayah finally pulled up next to me, looking the old stallion over.

Tales gave a low, shaky laugh. “Do I know where some might be goin’?” I chuckled to himself again. “I can do you one better, I’ll let them tell ya!” He reached down and picked up a clunky black contraption that had been resting beside his rocking chair.

It took me a second to identify what the contraption was. I had seen one in my Stable only once, and it had been behind a thick pane of glass.

Or Stable had what one might call a museum. It consisted of around twenty pre-war artifacts and a handful of audio files for your pipbuck that give you the ‘complete’ history of the great war. Among those artifacts, was the rusted remains of what had at one point in time been something called a camera.

Now the black box that Tales held in his hoof was a much sleeker design, and lacked the rust that the camera I had seen had been adorned with, but it was definitely the same kind of device.

Brisk however, definitely did not go to Stable 25’s infamous museum, and if he had I would imagine he probably spent more time trying to steal from it than listen to what the audio recordings had to say.

“What in the name of Luna is that supposed to be?” He asked pointedly. “A paper weight?”

Tales simply scowled at the young green unicorn. “I can assure you, this is not as effective of a paper weight as your thick skull.”

I grinned. I liked this pony.

“Give ‘em hell!” the cyber alicorn on the flickering projection commanded, pointing his metal hoof towards a group of blue and green alicorns. It startled me to see there was more than just the one alicorn we had fought in the MoM building. It out right horrified me that the four cyber ponies I was hunting were so willing to fight a group of such powerful adversaries. Worse, they seemed to be killing the alicorns with ease.

Tales had invited us over to his living quarters at Friendship City. It was a small room consisting of an old mattress that didn’t look like it had been cleaned in years and about twelve or so shelves that held weird trinkets he had collected from all over the wasteland.

Tales had grabbed us some tea and attached his camera to an old, dusty projector. Before long the four of us were watching the flickering video recording of the four cyber ponies that I had encountered only two days ago.

Brisk shuttered when he saw the large canons on the cyber ponies sides. Had I not seen them before, I would have shuttered too.

The four cyber ponies bast there way through alicorn after alicorn. Explosive blue blasts of energy lanced from their canons and blew holes right through the alicorns shields. One cyber pony even had the audacity to laugh maniacally as he continuously stomped on an alicorns head.

One by one, the alicorns fell until only one remained. It turned and tried to fly away, but the cyber alicorn was faster, rocketing towards it and lashing out at the creatures neck with its blade like wings. There was a snap and the alicorns head was severed from its neck with a single clean cut.

I winced as the alicorn fell and crashed into the ground. I had been right, those were the exact same wings as Gizmo.

The cyber ponies chuckled as they stepped over the broken carcass.

“Almost a shame we are meeting them at the halfway point,” The cyber pony who had been laughing in the middle of the fight soothed in his metallic voice. “I’d love to fight our whole way there.”

The two cyber ponies behind him chuckled in agreement. “It’s been too long since we were all able to fight alongside each other like this,” one of them said, this cyber pony carried two large flamers at its side. “I say when all of this is over, we go back to that Stable and blow it all to hell. Lot of ponies to use as target practice in there.”

Again, there was a round of laughter from the group as they nodded in agreed.

I froze. They wouldn’t! How could they even suggest wiping out the whole Stable… for fun? I could feel a strong anger rising inside of me. I couldn’t let them do that.

“Why do you think he wants this thing so badly anyway?” the cyber pony continued, pulling out the case that the A.A.S.S. rest in and tossing it into the air before catching it on the tip of his muzzle. “He not want to eat anymore or somethin’?”

The cyber alicorn turned and growled at him, finally breaking his silence. “Careful with that you moron!” He snarled, his eyes glowing a deep red. “I don’t care why he wants it, all I know is that he is paying all of us a lot of caps to get it to the Ponypalooza Hotel,” He glare at the cyber pony that had tossed the A.A.S.S. into the air darkened. “And only if we get it to him in one piece!”

The other cyber ponies all took a step back. The A.A.S.S. was very quickly returned to the cyber ponies side.

“Let’s get going,” The cyber alicorn grunted. “I fucking hate the wasteland.”

They began to walk away, but the cyber alicorn suddenly stopped. The other cyber ponies looked confused for a second, but they suddenly froze too.

After a suspenseful pause, they cyber alicorn spoke up. “There are a lot of advantages to being made out of wires and gears you know,” the cyber alicorn chilled in its deep, intimidating voice. He slowly turned his head to face the camera. I could almost feel Tales hold his breath in the recording. The cyber alicorn began to slowly approach us through the screen. “One of the greatest, among many other things, is that we have a built in EFS,” with that all four cyber ponies began bounding toward where Tales stood shaking.

Then Tales ran. And my Celestia, he could apparently run really damn fast. There was the sound of metallic shouting in the distance, followed by pounding metal hooves. Finally, the screen went blank.

Tales walked over to the projector and shut it off, darkening the room exponentially.

“How did you escape?” Brisk asked in awe as the flickering light shut off.

Tales chuckled. “Wasn’t easy; it's hard to hide from something that can pick up your life force through walls. But this ain’t my first rodeo I tell ya! Once had to hide from a whole army of raiders with pipbucks. Spent three days in a Radroach pit just so they couldn’t detect me on their EFS.”

“Where is the Ponypalooza Hotel?” I asked abruptly. The whole idea of the cyber ponies coming back to wipe out the rest of my Stable had left a bad taste in my mouth and left me in no mood for small talk.

“Just outside of Fetlock, I believe,” Xayah said. “Though I have never been there myself.”

Tales nodded, confirming our zebra friends statement. “Damn place is a death trap, more feral ghouls in there than I can shake a stick at, and I shake a lot of sticks!” he glanced down at my pipbuck. “Here, let me mark it on your map.”

The second I had the exact location of the hotel on my pipbuck I was racing out the door and towards the spiral staircase that lead out of Friendship City.

Brisk and Xayah raced out after me. “Amber wait? Where do you think you’re going?” Brisk demanded, taking a few steps down the stairs after me.

“The Ponypalooza Hotel!” I shouted back. “You heard those cyber ponies, once their done there going to go back to Stable 25. I can’t let that happen.”

“Amber, the sun is going to set soon. Besides, the three of us are so exhausted and battered from the last two days that I doubt we would be any use in the wasteland,” Brisk retorted. “ At least let us buy some medication for our legs and get some rest. We can go and kill those sons of bitches in the morning.”

My legs were shaking and I was more than aware of the burning pain in my foreleg where the raider had cut into my flesh with a chainsaw. No doubt medicine and a good night's rest would do us some good, but I scowled at Brisk anyway. “No! The longer we wait, the further away they get and the closer they get to turning around and killing everypony we have ever known!”

“It would be foolish to fight them in our current state,” Xayah commented calmly. “You saw how lethal they can be. You will need something to fight them with, and as far as I can remember, you are out of ammo.”

I instinctively reached for my new gun Boneless, only to remember they had taken it at the front gate of Friendship City. I sighed, of course they were right. They were always right.

“Alright, I’ll wait until tomorrow,” I grumbled, pulling myself back up the steps. "But no later than that."

Brisk nudged my shoulder with his muzzle. “We will leave as soon as we can in the morning. I promise.”

Caps… We had only thirty caps to spend. That was thirty caps to buy a room for the night, get enough ammo to get all the way to the Ponypalooza Hotel and kill the cyber ponies, and get medical help for both of Brisks front legs as well as my own.

“A room costs how much?” I asked in disbelief as I talked to pony in charge of the Warm Smiles Inn.

The gruff looking stallion gave me a sympathetic look. “Twenty five caps, no more no less,” He said sternly. “Sorry, I can’t lower the price for you any. You and your friends can always sleep in the common room if you like. That's free for all ponies,” He gave a quick glance at Xayah. “An uh… and zebras too.”

I nodded and walked away from the hotel. “We cant do twenty five caps,” I told my friends. “Not if we want to send money on other things as well.”

“We could always sleep in the common room as that pony said,” Xayah stated. “It seems foolish to pass up on a free place to sleep.”

I grimace. “I suppose, but I heard that Raspberry Tart runs that, and honestly, I don’t think I feel safe in anything involving her.”

Brisk looked at my quizzically. “Raspberry who?”

“Raspberry Tart,” I restated. “I ran into her already, not the friendliest face in Friendship City.”

“Well it seems to me that medicine and ammo seems to be the most important thing to get at the moment, so let's go buy that and see where that leaves us, sound good?” Brisk asked, turning and walking towards the market area on the ring below us.

Xayah and I agreed and followed closely behind him.

It turns out that where that left us was about twenty shotgun shells for Boneless, ten additional shots for both Brisk’s pistol and Xayah’s sniper, a medical brace for both of Brisk’s legs, three healing potions, and about two caps remaining.

I looked at the remaining two bottle caps in my hoof. Definitely not enough to get a nice place to sleep. Not that I had expected to have such luck.

“So… Common room it is then,” I said with a pout. “Couldn’t be that bad. Right? You two sure we can’t just skip sleeping and go straight to the Ponypalooza Hotel?”

Brisk gave me a death glare. “No, we are getting our rest. We aren’t saving anypony how we are now. We need a good night's sleep.”

“Compared to the wasteland, I am sure that the common room isn’t that bad,” Xayah assured me, walking up to my side. “You’ve killed an alicorn now, it would be foolish for anyone to attack you.”

“It’s not an attack you need to worry about,” A pale grey buck said from the shadows beside me. “It’s the backstabbing and manipulation that’ll get to you.”

We turned to face the buck. It was hard to make out his features in the dark, but I could see that he wore a dark black suit and and wide brimmed fedora atop his head.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” I asked, hoping the stallion would take a step forward. To my relief, he did.

He was tall, a decent amount taller than I was, but only a foot or so above Brisk. He had a dark pair of shades over his eyes and a bright silver tie. He reminded me a lot of a side hero in a ‘Power Ponies’ comic I read back in Stable 25 named the Silver Shroud.

“No, we haven’t been introduced before,” The buck started, extending his hoof to shake mine. I gave it a quick shake, not fully sure how to take this pony yet. “My name is Emissary.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I replied sheepishly. “My name is Amber Aura, and these are my friends, Brisk Spark and Xayah,” Each of my friends gave a small wave as I said their respective names. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ll get right to it,” Emissary said, giving me a charismatic smile. “I have a friend named Flask out in Fetlock and I need to get a package delivered to him,” Emissary pulled out a small metal box with his mouth and placed it on the floor in front of us. “I heard that you three were heading out to Ponypalooza Hotel tomorrow, just so happens that Fetlock is right along the way. I was hoping that you could deliver it when you are in the area, or once you are done your business and on your way back.”

I was about to agree to his request when Brisk put out a hoof. “And what do we get in exchange?” He asked with a curious looking grin.

Emissary chuckled. “Of course, don’t think I didn’t have something in mind for that,” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key. “I’ll be leaving Friendship City tonight for Tenpony Tower. I won’t be needing my room for a bit and I heard that you were looking for a place to sleep,” he passed Brisk the key. “Room is yours if you except my request.”

Free, private room in exchange for bringing a box to somepony out the direction we were already going? Seemed almost too good to be true. Perhaps the wasteland was finally giving us a break.

We all piled into Emissary’s room. It was a decent size, with one large bed in the corner and a small side room holding a small guest bed. The only other furniture in the room was a small desk pushed up against the corner adjacent to the master bed, leaving a large portion of the room empty. A round window on the far wall gave us a beautiful view of the harbor. It was clear that Emissary had hardly ever used the room.

I looked around the room. “So, who is going to sleep on which bed? I mean there are only two.”

Brisk bounced up and down and waved one of his brace enclosed hooves in the air. “I call the single bed to myself!” goddesses, he was practically a foal. His childishness did manage to put a small smile on my lips though, so I wasn’t complaining.

Xayah nudges me with her foreleg. “Guess we’re sharing then,” The zebra said before tossing herself down on the bed and sitting on her hindquarters.

Brisk raced over to the window and looked out at the water below us. He just stared for a long time, before finally turning back to face us. “You know, the wasteland doesn’t look to bad at night from up here. Kinda peaceful to be honest.”

I chuckled. “I think I’ll avoid the window, I can’t stand the sky as it is. The last thing I need is to see the ground from all the way up here.”

Brisk looked up at the sky and grinned. “I hope you can appreciate the sky one day, it's rather stunning I think.”

“I suppose you never saw the sky in the Sable, did you,” Xayah said, as if realizing that fact for the first time. “It is strange to think of a life that is confined to such a small area.”

“It ain’t all it's cracked up to be,” Brisk replied with a snort. “Just boring old grey walls with even more boring rules. The wasteland is where all the fun is at!”

“What did you ponies even do in the Stable?” Xayah asked. “I can’t imagine there was much to do.”

Brisk snorted again. “You got that right. Pretty much everything I did that was even remotely entertaining just got me thrown in a cell.”

“Well you two must have had hobbies?” Xayah insisted. “When you were bored, what did you do?” She turned to me for the last part.

I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. “I don’t know, I just spent the day taking care of the generator room and sleeping,” I replied slowly, realizing how lame that sounded. “I mean I read lots of books and stuff… though usually those were just about machines as well - Sorry, you guys kinda just ended up traveling with the most boring pony ever…”
Xayah shook her head. “I do not think you are boring. I have known you for less than a day, and you are already one of the more interesting ponies I have met.”

I blushed and looked down at my hooves, letting my light pink and blue mane hide my face. “Thank you, but I’m really not.”

“Well is there anything you ever wanted to do?” Xayah asked in interest. “I’ve always wanted to be a singer.”

“Oh? You can sing?” Brisk asked, looking away from the window.

Now it was Xayah’s turn to blush. “Oh no, not at all. I said I always wanted to. My singing sound like hellhound giving birth, trust me when I say you do not want to hear it.”

I didn’t know what a hellhound was, or what it sounded like while giving birth, but I didn’t think I wanted to find out. “Well, I’ve always wanted to do painting…” I said shyly.

Xayah’s eyes widened. “Oh? I love painting? Have you painted anything before?”

I shook my head. “Nope, never tired, but it sounds like fun,” I turned to Brisk. “What about you? What do you like doing?”

Brisk gave us a devious grin. “Causing trouble and having adventures,” He said with a smirk, trying to fold his forehooves above his head. His braces made the act impossible however so he just kept his hooves at his sides. "And jokes of course. want to hear another one!?"

Xayah shook her head furiously, her eyes pleading for him to do anything but another joke. Brisk ignored her obvious distaste for his humor and laughed. "Here it goes, what is black and white and black and white and black and white and green?"

"You already told me this one," Xayah complained, grabbing the pillow beside her and shoving her head under it.

"No no, it's different this time, I promise," Brisk declared with a grin. "Do you want to know what it is?"

Xayah shuttered. "No, but you're going to tell me anyway..."

"It's you!" He said joyously, pointing a hoof at her green eyes. Xayah and I groaned. I was beginning to think that Brisk was intentionally making his jokes bad, just to annoy us. though by the way he was laughing at his own joke, I doubted that was the case.

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, but what else did you enjoy? Tell us something we don’t know?”

Brisk looked around the room for a moment, as if making sure we were alone. “Well… there is one thing…”

Xayah and I leaned in in anticipation.

“I… I, um,” Brisk stumbled, now blushing as much as the rest of us. His eyes started darting around the room even faster. "I don't know, it's kinda stupid..."

I threw my hooves in the air. “Well? Out with it!”

“I like dancing,” He finally mumbled. Okay, not what I was expecting from him, but still cool.

Xayah grinned. “Can you show us a dance?”

Brisks already red face grew even redder. “Show you a dance? Uh… I don’t know about that. Besides, I’d need music to dance to.”

Xayah reached over and pushed a button on my pipbuck. Music from DJ Pon3’s radio station came from my pipbucks speaker and filled the room. Brisks ear flattened against his head.

“Fine, But y’all are dancing with me,” He groaned, pulling himself away from the window.

I grinned and approached him. “Sure, though you’ll need to teach me some of the moves.”

Brisk rolled his eyes and gave a groan. “Fine…” He looked over at Xayah whom was still lying on the master bed. “You too Xayah.”

The zebra shook her head with a laugh. “No, I think I will just sit back and watch for now. I am not a very good dancer.”

“Oh no you don’t,” I said with a giggle, grabbing Xayah's hoof and pulling her into the middle of the floor with me. She struggled a little, but didn’t seem overly put out when I pulled her next to me.

“Alright,” Brisk said as the next song started to play. “Just start walking and follow what I do, you should catch on pretty quick.”

To put it nicely, we didn’t catch on at all. We spent the next five minutes tripping on our hooves as Brisk tried to teach us how to do a pirouette. Xayah and I might have been terrible at dancing, but Brisk seemed to be a natural, gliding around the room like a Pegasus in the air. Before long however the three of us had simply devolved into simply throwing the idea of dance moves out the window and just moved our bodies to the music however we felt.

We spun and jumped and waved our hooves above our heads like a bunch of mad ponies. Brisk waltzed and Tangoed around the room gracefully, switching between dance styles every few minutes. I couldn’t imagine what the ponies in the rooms beside us thought, but I really didn’t care.

I found myself laughing despite myself. The threat looming over Stable 25 had me in a bad mood, but at least I could enjoy myself for the time being. For the first time the wasteland didn’t seem like such an awful, inhospitable place.

The song on the radio changed to a slower, more somber tune. I found myself swept up in Brisks hooves as we slow danced across the floor. We spun in slow circles, making our way slowly across the room and back. He raised his hoof outwards, I spun outwards. He brought his hoof back in and I spun back in.

I spotted Xayah by the bed watching us and reached out with my hoof for her to join us. She gave a sad smile and reached out as well, joining the rotating circle.

As the song inched towards its end, Brisk spun out of the circle before showing off his pirouette that we had so helplessly failed to do earlier. I stuck my tongue out at him playfully and continued to spin and sway with Xayah. I looked into Xayah's stunning green eyes, then looked over to Brisk, his green mane flailing like crazy around his head as he leaped around the room. My blush deepened. I had defiantly picked the right friends.

The zebra chuckled, took a step back and did an elaborate flip. It might not have been dancing exactly, but it was still more impressive than anything I could do.

Brisk and Xayah joined hooves and spun in a quick circle of their own. I sat back and watched them, the first real smile on my face in a long time. Suddenly I rushed forward and wrapped them both in a tight hug, drawing their dance up short.

“What’s this?” Brisk asked playfully, though he didn’t sound as sarcastic as usual.

I smiled. “I’m just glad that off all the ponies I could have gotten stuck with in the wasteland, I ended up with you two.”

They both gave me a smile and returned my hug. Perhaps the wasteland really wasn’t so bad after all. Watcher had been right, keep making friends. Keep making friends and maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to win.

As the song came to a close the soothing voice of DJ Pon3 came from my pipbuck. “And that children, is one of my favorites. This is DJ Pon3, wishing all of you out in the wasteland a good night.”

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Cherchez La Femme -- +10% damage against same sex, plus unique dialogue options.

Author's Notes:

Don't really have anything to say here. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and have a good day or night (whenever it is you read this).

As usual, huge thanks to kkat for creating the wonderful world of Fallout: Equestira