“Hear me, and obey! Oh sorry, that’s that other radio station.”

Sleep.

I hadn’t realized how much I actually needed to have a good long sleep. Within seconds of my head touching the pillow, I had fallen completely unconscious. My whole body sighed with relief as I finally allowed myself to sink into the soft cushions next to Xayah. My legs hurt, my back hurt, my head hurt, but most of all my heart hurt.

But my heart was also feeling a lot less heavy as well, as if many of the weights that had been placed over it while traveling through the Wasteland had simply fallen away. For the first time since leaving the Stable, I didn’t feel like I was among strangers forced together to survive. I felt like I was among friends who genuinely wanted to be on this quest with me.

Watcher had told me to keep making friends, and after last night, I understood why. I wondered how many ponies he had watched wander the Wasteland alone, only to be slowly driven insane by the harsh worlds many vices and become monsters. With friends like these, I might be able to evade that fate. I had to keep going. I had to win.

When my amber eyes finally drifted open I felt better than I had since I had entered Manehattan. Everything was just a little less sore and the large scar on my leg had healed far more than I could have expected. I examined it a little closer, trying to figure out exactly how it had miraculously healed so much.

I swear, it felt like if you could slept long enough you can mend broken bones.

I pushed myself up and looked towards the window across the room that Brisk had looked out the night before. White light was streaming through the window and the sun peeked through the dull cloudlayer from somewhere above my line of sight. I glanced to the far side of the bed to find Xayah had already gotten up and was nowhere to be seen.

It was already morning, late in the morning by the looks of it. Shit! I slept it!

I pushed the blankets off of me and quickly scrambled to get out of bed. My hoof slipped and I ended up crashing into the ground face first. Again.

I groaned in a daze. I really needed to stop falling out of bed.

I heard Brisk chuckle and felt his hooves pull me up. I blushed as he helped me stand and my stomach started feeling all fluttery for some reason. I was probably just hungry or something.

“Morning Amber,” He said, walking away and returning to his favorite spot at the window. “Did you sleep well?”

I stretched my hooves and gave a loud yawn. “Better than I expected. I didn’t realize I was so tired.”

“Neither did I,” Brisk agreed. “Though we really shouldn’t be surprised, we probably did more in the last two days than we had our entire lives. Not to mention that all of those things were probably the most dangerous and stressful.”

Xayah chose that moment to walked into the room balancing a silver plate of cookies atop her head. The plate wobbled slightly, but she didn’t seem to be having any difficulty balancing it.

“I know you hope to go out after those cyber ponies as soon as you can,” Xayah started. “But I figured you would want a quick bite to eat first. It would be foolish to go into the wasteland without eating first if given the opportunity,” she lowered her head to offer me one of the cookies.

I gave her a smile and lifted one off the plate with my magic. Levitating it to my mouth I took a bite, and holy sweet mother of Celestia were they amazing! They tasted like what joy would taste like if joy was a physical thing you could consume.

I tried to remember a time I had tasted something that good. Definitely not the radroach meat, or even the Arbu Radigator. In the Stable? I hadn’t even eaten in there at all, so I probably wouldn’t have had something better then either.

My mouth watered as I took another bite. “These are amazing Xayah,” I commented quickly finishing the cookie I had grabbed before quickly snatching up another one. “Thank you! You made these?”

Xayah blushed and gave a small nod in response. “Oh, I do not know if they are amazing, but I do my best with what I am given.”

Brisk grabbed a cookie with his hoof and took a bite. His eyes lit up as the taste filled his mouth. “Holy shit… theses are good!” He declared, giving Xayah a grin. “It’s official, you’re making the food from now on in this group,” He quickly scooped up another with his hooves.

I watched him chew for a second before clearing my throat. “Soooo, when are you going to tell me what is up with you magic Brisk?” I questioned as he picked up a third cookie. “You havent explained to me why you can’t use magic yet.”

“Yes, I didn’t want to say anything, but I was quite curious myself,” Xayah added, putting down the tray and picking up one of her own cookies.

Brisk shrugged. “Never learned, it's that simple,” he chomped down on his cookie, a few crumbs sprinkled from his lips. "I was never one for learning or being told what to do. So I simply refused to be taught. guess I kinda shot myself in the hoof cause of that though."

“But can’t you do some magic? I mean, even fillies and foals without training can do basic magic,” I asked, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

Brisk shook his head. “My horn works, I just can't do any spells with it,” He flared up his horn and wrapped a small magic aura around a cookie. To my surprise, his aura was a pale white. He looked at me as he released the spell. “And that is it. Just a glow around my horn and a small object. But I can’t move anything with telekinesis or do any other fancy spells like the teleportation you used on the pegasus back in the sewer.”

“Have you ever tried to learn?” I questioned. It seemed almost surreal that a pony could go for so long without learning magic when it came so naturally to most.

“Oh I tried plenty of times,” Brisk grunted. “Never really worked out. Most I ever lifted was a Sparkle-Cola bottle and I even dropped that too. To be completely honest with you, I kinda wish my horn would just blow up and get off my head. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with the humiliation of being so useless.”

After a blunt statement like that, it was rather hard to pick up any conversation. We quickly ate a few more of the cookies, packed our bags and began our way to the front entrance of Friendship City. I found it hard not to dance on the tips of my hooves as we made our way down the spiralling steps to the bottom floor. We finally had a lead on the cyber ponies and we were finally going to confront them. This nightmare would be over soon.

Upon reaching the front gate, the guards on duty began pulling our weapons out of the safe and returning them to us. I watched with curiosity as Xayah placed her gem back onto her cloak and flicker in and out of view for a few seconds.

“Are you sure you want to come with us?” I asked, turning to my zebra friend. “I mean you have no business with these cyber ponies and you originally just wanted to come here…”

Xayah gave me a smile and a nod. “This adventure seems much more interesting than waiting around a city all day. Besides, Friendship City is only a terrible reminder that I am the only one to arrive here.”

She was acting so calm, but I knew that she must be hurting a lot inside. I reminded myself to pull her aside and make sure she was alright when the opportunity presented itself.

I looked down at my pipbuck map as we began crossing the bridge. Fetlock didn’t seem very far away. Only a day and a half walk if we were lucky. The Ponypalooza Hotel seemed even closer, maybe just a day if we could hustle our butts.

Spotting the signal on my pipbuck and having nothing better to do, I turned on DJ Pon3’s radio station. Instantly, the voice of DJ Pon3 came through the speakers. I must have just missed the song.

“Hello Wasteland! How is everypony doin’? Now I’ve got an exciting bit o' news for you children, listen t' this! That Stable Dweller heroine I keep prechin’ t' you about, she’s here. In Tenpony Tower! Now I haven’t gotten a good opportunity t' talk t' her yet, but believe me children, that report is comin' soon!

“But there is more t' tell my little ponies, so don’t go switching the channel yet. See I’ve heard a rumour that there are two other Stable dwellers runnin' around the Wasteland! I know, I know, I couldn’t make this stuff up! For all you ponies that like exploring the Manehattan ruins, consider dropping by that old boutique that’s been infested with ghouls for the last 200 years. See I hear these new Stable dwellers spread a bit of their own magic in there, now the place is up and running again as if the bombs never fell! Want some nice clothes for some reason? Well now you can get some! Until next time children, this is DJ pon3, and I’m here for you.”

DJ Pon3’s voice faded out and the sweet sound of music began humming from my pipbuck. My friends and I exchanged a glance.

“There, now she is talking about you,” Xayah said simply.

Great, I was on the news now. I just hoped that didn’t tip the cyber ponies off on us coming.

Manehattan was far bigger than I could have possibly imagined. Every time I thought I knew where we were, I found myself in a new part of the city I didn’t know about. If not for the map on my pipbuck and the rusted over street signs, I would have had no idea where we were.

The shattered remains of the Manehattan skyscrapers didn’t even stand half as tall as they had before the bombs fell and most were so damaged that even attempting to open the front door was impossible. Despite this however, the many looming buildings were still more than tall enough to obscure our view of where we were going and what might be around the next bend.

We spent more time watching our EFS and evading groups of enemies than actually walking. Manehattan might not be a functioning city anymore, but it was still filled with life. Granted that life usually wanted us dead.

Oddly enough, the radroaches proved to be the biggest difficulty, as there were so many of them that they clogged up our EFS’ and made it difficult to locate the actual threats. They were also difficult to hide from, seemingly popping up out of nowhere whenever we tried to take cover. Thankfully they weren’t hard to kill, and after an initial hesitation from Brisk and I, it became very easy to simply squish them under our hooves. No point wasting ammo on them if we didn’t have to.

We pulled up against the next corner of the road and checked our pipbucks. We were unsurprised to find the EFS once again filled with red bars.

“Radroaches?” I asked, trying to peek around the corner and see the creatures our EFS was picking up.

“Don’t know. Probably,” Brisk muttered, popping a buck tablet into his mouth. “You two wait here, I’ll check it out.”

“Wait, how about I-” I started, but Brisk cut me off.

“Nope, you checked it out the last two times. Leave some action for me, alright,” Then Brisk quickly ducked around the corner and began creeping towards the center of the street.

“Would it not be wise for me to scout ahead?” Xayah asked in a puzzled tone from behind me. “I mean, I do have a stealth cloak. It seems logical.”

I sighed. “Probably. You can scout the next one,” I glanced at the black and white zebra. Well, we were currently alone, now might be a good time to talk to her about-

“Your friend seems to be taking a lot of Buck,” Xayah deadpanned before I was able to bring up the topic of her family.

I glanced out at Brisk, still looking around for threats. “Yeah, so? He needs it for his leg to keep going.”

Xayah frowned. “But he has those braces now, he should be able to walk somewhat on his own without the chems,” She looked out at the street. “I fear he has become too dependent on them.”

I gave a small chuckle. “They’re just some chems, they can’t hurt him or anything,” I really didn’t understand what she seemed so worried about.

Xayah gave me a strange look. I felt like shrinking away from her gaze, but I wasn’t sure why. “They can hurt him if he becomes addicted or overdoses on Buck. Chems addiction can be incredibly severe if left untreated.”

“He will be fine,” I assured her. “He’s been taking them for a bit now, and they haven’t slowed him down yet. They’re practically the only reason he was able to make it to Friendship City in the first place.”

Xayah grunted, but seemed unconvinced.

The two of us stood in silence for a few moments. I considered bringing up the topic of her family, but it just seemed like a weird time to now. Finally after what felt like a lifetime, Brisk returned.

“Checked everywhere. Nothing in sight, so chances are there are just a bunch of Radroaches in the sewer beneath us,” Brisk informed us. “Just be careful incase there is something worse below our hooves,” In the Equestrian wasteland, something worse wouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

We began making our way down the street. As Brisk had said, there didn’t seem to be anything on the streets, but the constant movement of red bars on our EFS kept us on high alert. The area seemed to be in more ruins than most of Manehattan, with many of the buildings collapsed and lying across the street. The only two buildings that seemed even remotely intact was a large apartment building that connected to the massive monorail that ran above the city and a humble abandon theater that sat to the apartments right. Some sort of crashed machine lay in the center of the road. I didn’t need to know what the machine was to tell its purpose was to carry ponies.

“What is that exactly?” I asked Xayah as we neared the machine.

“It is an old sky wagon,” Xayah stated, peering into one of the many shattered windows. “It looks old, so probably not the property of the Enclave.”

“The Enclave? Isn’t that one of Tales’ conspiracies theories?” I asked, pulling open the back of the sky wagon and stepping inside. Almost instantly, my eyes landed on a yellow medic kit with a faded pink butterfly on it. I levitated it up to me and checked it’s contents. Two health potions and a handful of Buck. I was about to hand the buck to Brisk when I remembered what Xayah had told me about Chem abuse. Not sure what to do, I threw the chems into my saddle bag. I’d figure that out later.

Xayah entered behind me with Brisk. “It is possible that he has theories about the Enclave, but the Enclave themselves are very much real. Back when the bombs fell, the pegasi flew up above the clouds and created the cloud layer,” Xayah explained, looking around the sky wagon. “The Enclave is a fairly strong military force up there I hear, but they very rarely come below the clouds. If it wasn’t for the dashites, no pony would even know they exist. Well, them and the cloud cover that is.”

So that was why it was always so cloudy out. Weren’t the Enclave just a cheerful bunch.

I didn’t know what a dashite was, but before I asked my attention was drawn to the skeletal remains of a pony in the corner of the sky wagon, it’s hooves wrapped tightly around a mail bag.

“Well what have we here?” I asked myself, drawing the rest of my friends attention to the bag as well. I reached out with my magic and picked up the bag, or rather tired to pick up the bag. The second the bag came in contact with my magic the whole world swirled way.

I was in the body of a female.

Shit! There must have been a memory orb in that bag! That was the last time I picked something up with magic before I checked what was inside. I really didn’t have time for this!

On the bright side though, I wasn’t in a males body. So I could at least feel a little more at home.

My host flapped their wings and I found myself lifted off of the ground. I was in a pegasus! Damn it, I wasn’t going to feel at home after all.

I was in a large office with perhaps the most beautiful decor I had ever seen. Every piece of furniture in the room from the desk to the chairs to the curtains, all seemed to fit together as if they were designed to be a set of one. On the wall behind the main desk a large symbol of three diamonds had been engraved in an elegant blue between two large windows looking out at what appeared to be a pre war Canterlot.

The mare that sat before me was one I had seen before. She had a beautiful white coat and a perfectly styled purple mane. If she were to stand still, I might not have been able to tell the difference from the tiny statuette in my pocket.

“I’m sorry darling, what happened?” Rarity asked me, or rather my host. “Fluttershy did what?”

“She brought everypony back!” My host shouted. Her voice was raspy and clearly angry at whatever it was that Fluttershy had done. “We had won the fight, and Fluttershy had to go and bring everypony back with that crazy megaspell of hers!”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Rarity replied, holding up her hoof. She seemed relatively calm though, I could hear a slight edge in her voice. “You know Fluttershy. She was just trying to save as many ponies as she can.”

“I don’t think you get it!” Rainbow Dash was practically in hysterics, making a small loop in the air. Had I been able to, Xayahs cookies would have been vomited out of my mouth. “She didn’t just bring ponies back! She brought everypony back! That includes the Zebras! No pony should be using Necromancy on the battlefield like that! It’s to risky!”

Rarity was definitely looking uneasy now.

“And you do know who’s helping her right?” Rainbow Dash said flatly. It was more of a statement than a question.

Rarity was beginning to look pale. “Don’t tell me the OIA is getting involved in this,” Rarity said, visibly worried.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion for a second before a look of understanding crossed her face. She quickly shook his head. “No no, not Golden-cough-a-lot. The silver one.”

It looked like Rarity was about to comment further on the topic when the large double doors behind me swung upen with a bang. I spun around to see who had intruded on our conversation.

The unicorn stallion that entered was an interesting sight to say the least. His coat was a dazzling shade of gold with a matching mane and tail and eagle like silver eyes. He wore a navy blue suit with gold buttons and a twirled mustache rest on his upper lip. He was old too, clearly a few years older than either Rarity or Rainbow Dash, however he managed to hide his age due to what I assumed to be extensive plastic surgery and makeup. A thin silver scar ran down his neck and disappeared below the collar of his suit.

“Rarity! I demand an explanation!” The gold stallion rasped. His voice was low and nasally, as if he had a cold and was doing his best to hide it. Each and every word he said seemed to ooze with malice and end in punctuation.

Rarity gave a small sigh and stood from behind her desk. “Pureblood, how may I help you,” Rainbow Dash just looked back and forth as the two ponies talked.

Pureblood cleared his throat. “It has come to my attention that you have once again rejected my sons proposal for marriage,” He stuck his nose in the air and looked down at Rarity with disapproving and impatient eyes. “I will not stand to have me family disrespected in such a manner.”

Rarity huffed. “Well you can tell Blueblood that it doesn’t matter how many times he asks me, I will never say yes to him!”

Pureblood’s eyes narrowed and he took a step closer to Rarity, staring down at her with a clear loathing. “You would be wise to avoid that kind of tone with me,” His posh voice had dropped to a sinister growl that set both me and my hosts hairs on end.

I quickly found myself pushing my way between the two ponies and giving Pureblood a small shove away from Rarity. “And you would be wise not to talk to her like that!” Rainbow Dash scolded, staring down the golden pony.

Now faced with Pureblood stare I found myself wanting to crawl away. His stare was cold and intense. Somehow, Pureblood managed to look down on us, despite Rainbow Dash flying in the air above him. I applauded Rainbow Dash for not running away and hiding immediately.

Pureblood coughed. “Ah yes, you must be Rainbow Dash. I see you are as forward as everypony tells me,” he raised a hoof and slicked back his golden mane before giving Rainbow Dash a charismatic smile. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.”

Even Rainbow Dash shivered at how suddenly Purebloods mannerisms had changed from hostile to friendly. I didn’t doubt that if I had my pipbuck in this memory, his bar on my EFS would have abruptly changed from red to green.

“Uh, yeah… nice to meet you too…” Rainbow Dash stammered, not sure what to make of his change in attitude. “Um… who are you again?”

Pureblood flicked his tail in annoyance, but remained grinning.

Rarity stepped forwards. “Rainbow, allow me to introduce you to Pureblood, head of the Canterlot high council and father of Blueblood,” Pureblood raised his head higher as Rarity said his titles, relishing every second of his introduction.

Rainbow Dash looked him over for a second. “Blueblood’s dad huh?” Pureblood nodded proudly in response. Pureblood opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as Rainbow dash abruptly jabbed him in the chest with the tip of her hoof. “You keep that foalish son of yours away from Rarity! You got that?”

Purebloods upper lip twitched slightly and his welcoming grin reverted to a snarl. “You will both learn that I am not one to defy!” The older gold unicorn barked. “In my Utopia you would be bowing at my hooves and beg to marry me or my son!”

“Well in my Utopia you aren’t in this room,” Rainbow Dash smirked, pointing her cyan hoof at the door. “Now beat it before I make ya.”

Pureblood simply stared at Rainbow Dash in obvious outrage for a few moments before giving a snort of disapproval and marching out the door. Rainbow Dash flashed over and slammed the door behind him once he was clear.

“What’s up with that guy?” Rainbow Dash asked, landing back on the ground. “In my Utopia? What is he on about?”

Rarity gave a low sigh and returned to her desk. “He's always going on about his Utopia. Pureblood wishes for Equestria to function under his strict morals and believes that all ponies should follow those without question. Why Celestia ever put him in charge is a mystery to us all.”

“Well if he gives ya any more trouble, just let me know and I’ll give him a kick or two in a couple a tender places,” Rainbow Dash stated, doing a small kicking motion in the air.

“Thank you Rainbow, but I don’t think that will be necessary,” Rarity said. “Despite Purebloods rather intolerable personality, he is a very valuable asset to all of our Ministries. His donations are almost half of Twilights budget over in the MAS and you would be surprised how much he has donated to those eyesores you have placed all over Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash Groaned. “Ugh, I hate politics. I wish things could just go back to how they used to be.”

Rarity gave Rainbow Dash the first real smile I had seen since entering the memory orb. “You and me both darling. You and me both.”

When I finally came out of the memory orb something wasn’t right.

I sat up and looked around. I was still inside the sky wagon and like before, both Xayah and Brisk stood beside me. As I stood and looked out the window with them I noticed that all of their muscles were tense as if they were awaiting something to attack us.

“What is going on?” I asked, rubbing my head and trying to get a grasp on the world around me. Being ripped out of and then thrown back into your body was something I was probably never going to get used to.

“Radscorpions,” Xayah stated, aiming her sniper at something outside the window that I couldn’t see.

I pulled out Boneless and scanned the area. Nothing. I quickly checked my EFS. Like there had been when we first walked onto the street, my EFS was clogged up with red bars everywhere.

Please tell me those aren’t all something worse than Radroaches.

I watched a red bar that seemed to be moving at an alarming speed seemingly race towards us. I glanced back out at the street. Still there was nothing. Which meant that…

“They are underneath us!” I shouted to my friends. Brisk waved his pipbuck in my face and gave me a ‘no duh’ look.

Well excuse me! I wasn’t here when they showed up!

Something crashed into the side of the sky wagon, knocking it violently onto its side. I wrapped my friends in a field of telekinesis to help soften the impact as we were catapulted upwards and into the opposite wall of the sky wagon. I wasn’t strong enough with magic to be able to do something insane like levitate myself or even levitate another pony for longer than a few seconds, but I could carry some of the weight.

Unfortunately for me, levitating my friends meant that I couldn’t reduce my own impact.

My head crashed into the metal wall with a solid thwack. The world spun and I staggered to stay upright.

Seriously! My head was already spinning from the memory orb! You just had to go and make it worse didn’t you Wasteland!

Brisk softly landed next to me and gave me a quick nod of gratitude. He got half way through saying the words thank you when the sky wagon was slammed into again, this time knocking us all out of the wagon and onto the street.

Xayah rolled to her hooves and was up with her sniper drawn faster than either Brisk or myself could react. I slowly pulled myself up and offered Brisk my hoof. He grabbed it and hauled himself to his hooves as well.

“Any plan of action?” I asked, Taking a small step back. I didn’t like not being able to see where my attackers were.

Neither Brisk or Xayah had time to respond as three massive armoured scorpion tails erupted from the ground around us, spraying us with bits of dust and asphalt.

We scattered as the huge stingers dove towards us. I saw Brisk slice at one with his machete, only for the armoured appendage to duck below the ground and burst out behind him. Xayah was having equal difficulty. Her sniper was not meant for close range combat as she would need a few seconds to aim, which the stingers weren’t allowing her to do. Instead, Xayah pulled out her knife and slashed at the limbs, only to meet the same problem as Brisk.

I seemed to be the only one able to do any damage. I spun Boneless around and around firing shots at anything that got too close to me.

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

My first two shots tore bloody holes through one of the tales before it ducked back below the ground and evaded my third.

We had to get these things above ground, otherwise we would be at a massive disadvantage.

Then a massive grey claw broke the surface and snapped at me. Shit! Maybe I didn’t want them to come above ground.

I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being chopped in half. I Watched in horror as six razor sharp claws began lashing up out of the ground at us. We weren’t able to stand in the same spot for longer than a second before the huge pincher lunged out from below.

My heart was racing a hundred miles a minute as I jumped and spun to avoid the stingers and claws. I lashed out with my baton a few times, but the limbs either ducked back underground before I could do anything or my weapon bounced of their tough armour harmlessly.

I took a quick step back as one of the claws burst from the ground in front of me. It snapped at me a few times before ducking back below the ground. For a split second after the claw had hidden itself again, I saw a flash of fleshy pink skin.

I stared at the closest claw to me, which it would so happen was currently in the middle of trying to snap Brisk in half. I levitated my baton before me and smashed it as hard as I could into the back of the claw. As expected, the Radscorpion recoiled its pincher into the ground.

Without waiting for a second, I levitated Boneless over the hole it had left and fired. I saw a flash of light from within the hole followed by a high ear piercing shriek. I doubted I had killed it, but I had definitely injured it rather severely.

Apparently I had made them angry as well because only seconds later the asphalt around us was torn open and three giant Radscorpions pulled themselves out. They shrieked again and began rushing towards us, their tales lashing forwards in a desperate hope to impale us.

Well, I had gotten them out of the ground. Now I just needed to find a way to kill them.

They had had the advantage before, lashing out at us from anywhere without us having proper time to react. Now above ground, I was able to see that they weren’t quite as fast as they appeared. They could move a decent speed, but as soon as they got within striking distance they had to slow down to attack us.

One of the Radscorpions charged at me specifically, the top of its head was a bloody mess of broken shell and tattered flesh. I found myself backpedaling with all I was worth to avoid them while simultaneously firing Boneless into the creatures face. I fired five shots, each one ripping away bits of its armour and flesh.

The creature reeled back as one of my shots took out its eyes. It began blindly lashing out at everything, crashing into the walls of the broken skyscrapers and bashing into the side of the sky wagon.

I took the opportunity to see what Brisk and Xayah were doing. Brisk seemed to be on top of things. He had managed to completely sever the Radscorpions tail from its body with his machete and was currently using the trick I had pulled where he backs up while shooting it in the face. Xayah on the other hoof was seriously struggling. Her sniper was practically useless against them and even while they were above ground, there was little Xayah could do with her knife clenched between her mouth.

I was about to run and help her when the Radscorpion I had shot the eyes out off bashed me across the chest with its claw. I felt the air get knocked out of me as I was sent flying backwards a few feet to land heavily on the ground. Now alerted to my location, the Radscorpion turned to face me and lunged. I rolled aside as the claws lashed at me, the sharp pinchers tearing up small patches of the road as the shrieking Radscorpion continuously lashed out.

Without its eye, the Radscorpions aim was dramatically worse, allowing me to avoid the attacks without too much difficulty. But for what it lacked in perception, it made up with sheer ferocity. Every attack was shortly followed by another and another.

I swung at it with my baton, but the Radscorpion hastily bashed it aside with its claw and pinned both of my front hooves down, giving me a clear view of is gaping maw and thrashing mandibles. I yelped in pain as the monstrous scorpion dug its claws into my injured leg. The Radscorpion’s stinger flipped over its head and aimed down at me, preparing to skewer me.

I managed to twist my head at an angle to avoid its first stinger strike from impaling me between the eyes. I began thrashing, trying to escape its sharp grip on me. The Radscorpion aimed its stinger over me again, its grip on me tightening and holding me tighter in place. Thinking fast, I telekinetically shoved the barrel of my shotgun up its mouth and fired three rounds.

The Radscorpion was dead before the last shot fired, it's already bloodied head bursting into gruesome confetti.

I rolled the heavy carcass off of me and moved to help Brisk and Xayah. As I did, Brisk stabbed his machete through the skull of the radscorpion attacking him. The creature thrashed around until it finally fell still at Brisk’s hooves.

Xayah was still having trouble. I could see multiple cuts across her striped hide from where she had been unable to evade the Radscorpions claws. She had managed to cut a large gash into the creatures side which oozed blood, but other than that the Radscorpion seemed fairly unharmed by her.

Simultaneously, Brisk and I charged towards the Radscorpion. Our intrusion caused it to momentarily turn from Xayah and lash out at us with its stinger. Brisk swung his machete to meet the lunging appendage. The serrated blade sunk deep into the Radscorpions armored tail, but failed to cut it off completely. It did however, manage to stay completely lodged in the Radscorpions tough exoskeleton. The creature swung its tail around, causing Brisk to lurch into the air and dangle from the handle of his machete while the Radscorpion lashed its tail about.

I blasted the Radscorpion with boneless, blowing out bits of shell from its armored back. A thrashing claw swept towards me, knocking the breath from my lungs and sending me toppling backwards into the wreckage of the sky wagon. I could feel a large gash open up on my chest and hot blood spill from the open wound.

Now with a few moments to line up her shot, Xayah finally managed to fire a shot from her sniper. There was a burst of blood as the bullet passed through the creatures head and lodged itself in its brain. The Radscorpion shuddered, then collapsed in on itself.

Brisk was violently slammed into the ground as the deceased Radscorpion’s tail abruptly crashed to the cracked asphalt. He pulled himself out from under the carcass and dislodged his blade from its body.

I slowly crawled over to where my saddlebags had fallen and pulled a healing potion out. Without much thought, I chugged the contents of the bottle down. Instantly I felt better as its restorative abilities took effect. The gash on my chest closed up, but the area where it had been still felt a little sore.

Brisk took a shaky breath and tried wiping the blood on his coat off, only to smear it into his green hide even more. “Well that could have gone better.”

Xayah agreed. ‘Indeed. It is rare to see Radscorpions in such small groups in Manehattan. They most often hunt in swarms.”

I froze as she said that. Larger groups? I checked my EFS. It was still swarming with hundreds of red bars. Please be Radroaches!

I approached one of the large holes in the road that the Radscorpions had left and slowly peered inside. At first all I saw was darkness, but then something huge scuttled across the hole, then another, and another. They were far too big to be Radroaches.

“We should probably get off the road,” I said, pointing towards the hole. Brisk quickly glanced in the hole closest to him, then quickly stepped back with a frightened expression.

“Agreed, let's go,” He croaked in a startled tone. He turned to the far side of the road and froze.

Xayah and I dared to look in the same direction. A large swarm of smaller Radscorpions had massed at the end of the road and were slowly advancing towards us. Because of course they were.

Brisk gave a small forced laugh. “Okay, plan B. lets go inside a building and hope for the best like the last two times this sort of thing happened.”

He began heading towards the abandoned theater that lay only a few feet away from us. I shook me head. “Nope, not this time Brisk! The last two building you dragged us into almost got us killed. I’m picking the building this time,” I turned and walked into the broken down apartment building that lay next to the theater. Now up close to it, I could see the words ‘Four Star Living’ written above the cracked glass door.

Xayah nodded and followed me. “Indeed, the last thing I want is to see more Pinkie is watching posters.”

Four Star Living was possibly the most inviting looking structure I had been in since leaving Stable 25. Even Friendship city, while less abandoned, didn’t feel quite as much like home as the building I found myself in did. It was clean, much of the grime and debris that lay scattered amongst the floors of most of the buildings had been removed or swept into the corners of the room. Much of the furniture had been broken or toppled over, but quite a few remained intact as well.

“I don’t like this,” Brisk muttered, glancing around the room as if expecting something to jump out and attack us. Xayah nodded at his statement in agreement.

“What? Why?” I asked, moving away from the door and into the center of the room. “This looks like the safest building we’ve been in since entering the Wasteland.”

“Exactly,” Brisk said, walking up to a charred skeleton that rest behind a semi polished receptionist desk. “It shouldn’t be this clean. Somepony is cleaning it.”

“I’d rather a clean building than whatever you were going to lead us into,” I retorted. “Knowing your luck, there was probably going to be some kind of super ghoul in there or something.”

The Radscorpions outside we beginning to gather outside the door. I noticed a strange green slime that had been slathered on the frame of the door. Every time a scorpion drew to close, it seemed to recoil from the substance as if it couldn’t stand the smell. Okay, so someone had definitely been here.

“What is the plan then?” Xayah asked, looking at the group of Radscorpions outside. “I doubt we plan on fighting all of those, so do we just keep walking up and hope there is a painfully convenient way out like last time?”

We all exchanged a look. We probably wouldn’t have something as convenient as a giant scooter that bridges us to the next building, but what other option did we have? We turned to the stairs and began our slow descent to the top of the apartment building.

The second floor was almost completely collapsed. The floor had once been a long hallway leading to the different apartments on the floor. That had been a long time ago however as the roof had caved in, leaving only a few doors still accessible and most of the hallway including the rest of the stairs completely under a large pile of rubble. A few holes in the walls allowed us to see into the apartments and the contents that lay beyond.

“Wonderful, it would appear we have reached a dead end,” Xayah muttered, glancing around the ruined remains of the hallway. “Do we look for a different way out?”

“I think we can still get through,” Brisk muttered, pushing his head up against one of the many holes in the walls and peering into the apartment beyond. Leave it to Brisk to do something like that. “I think I can see a way through in this apartment here.”

I turned to the apartment door and tested the door knob. Locked. Typical. I floated a bobby pin and screwdriver from my saddlebag and placed them into the lock.

Snap!

“Damn it!” I screamed in frustration. I hated locks so fucking much.

Brisk glanced down at our two remaining bobby pins and grimaced. “Yeah, how about you let me do the lockpicking from here on out.”

I groaned and gave him the rest of the bobby pins. I sat back on my haunches and watched in disbelief as Brisk placed the bobby pin in the lock and got to work. Two seconds later Brisk gave me a smug grin and pulled the door open.

The apartment was small, about the same size as the average sleeping areas in Stable 25. A cracked and boarded up window was set in the far wall, small beams of light shone through small cracks in the boarding. A small bed adorned with stained grey blankets and a small picture of a brown and grey earth pony sat atop a crooked dust covered desk. As Brisk had suggested, there was a massive hole in the wall that lead to the room beyond.

What caught my attention the most however was a large cork board that had been hung up above the desk. Pictures of different ponies and building from around Manehattan had been pinned to it and connected with a faded red string. The longer I looked at it the more I noticed that there were multiple pictures of the large monorail that ran above the Manehattan streets.

“What the hell is this?” I questioned out loud as I looked the cork board over. I turned my attention to a terminal that rest on the desk. Hopefully that could give me some answers. I turned back to my friends who all looked equally interested. “Give me a second, I’m going to see if I can get into this terminal.

I brushed aside the dust that coated the screen, coughing as the dark dust cloud engulfed my face. Turning the terminal on I found it locked as I had expected. No problem, I might not be very good at picking locks, but I could hack a terminal like it was no ponies business.

Within the minute there was a small beep from the computer and the terminal unlocked. I found myself looking at a bunch of different files. I clicked on the first one titled ‘objective’ and began to read.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Pinkie Pie is determined that Four Star is a group of Zebra sympathizers. She seems to think that they’re planning something big. Who the hell knows what that is, but she hasn’t been wrong yet so I suppose it’s worth looking into. My objective is as follows, get a room in this new four star apartment and find out what they are up to from inside. Not sure exactly why a bunch of zebra sympathizers would use a company like four stars as a front, but I guess that's what I’m here to find out.

I closed the file and turned to the next couple.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Day 1: I have successfully bought a modest apartment. I don’t know how the MoM can afford to throw away that many bits and just get me an apartment like that, but I ain’t complaining. Spent the last few hours searching and asking around, and guess what I found. Nothing. No sign of anything related to zebras, sympathisers or conspiracies against Equestria. I’m not one to jump to conclusions, especially after only one day of investigations, but Four Star seems clean. I think Pinkie might finally be wrong for once. Not that that's really all that bad for me, I could use a more relaxed infiltration mission for once. Besides, I’ve been betting against Pinkie for far too long now, perhaps now that she is cracking I might be able to get some bits out of all that betting. Who can say.

I started scrolling through the different files. There were a lot and I didn’t have the time or patience to read through all of them. Finally I found the last file and pulled it open.

<INSPECTOR SADDLES TERMINAL>

>Day 48: Today marks my last night in Four Star. Guess I’m going to need to eat all my previous words. Pinkie was right. Again. There is no denying Four Stars involvement in much of the zebra activity in Manehattan and even small areas around Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and the Hoof. Hopefully, the research I have gathered here will be helpful to the MoM in their raid on Four Star tomorrow. Sounds like Pinkie is going all out on this raid too, said something about Steel Rangers in balloons. Won't that just be grand. This is Inspector Saddles, signing off for the last time.

So this building was a front for zebra sympathizers back in the war. I was beginning to question if every building I walked into in Manehattan was going to contain something weird. Was a normal building to much to ask for.

“Hey, check this out,” Brisk called from across the room. Xayah and I exchanged a look before trotting over to see what it was.

“What is it?” I asked, pulling up next to him. I spotted a charred skeleton lying curled up in the corner of the room by Brisk hooves. “Yikes, what ever happened to last night in Four Star.”

Brisk shook his head and pointed up at the wall. “Not the skeleton, that.”

I looked up to where he was pointing. Written on the wall in what I could only assume was blood was one phrase. ‘I can’t remember anything’.

“What happened here?” Xayah asked, looking from the bloody letters to the bones on the floor.

“Beats me,” Brisk said with a shrug, but there was a clear shutter in his voice.

We moved on through the hole in the wall to the room beyond. Unlike the previous room, there didn’t seem to be anything of interest, just a dull grey bed and an empty dust covered desk. Had there not been the skeletal remains of a pony on the bed, I’d have assumed that no pony had even bought the room and the apartment had been abandoned long before the bombs. The door had long since been blasted open, leading us back into the hall on the far side of the rubble.

“Tada!” Brisk exclaimed, shaking his hooves in the air. “Back on track, just as promised.”

I poked my head out of the apartment and looked down the hallway. Instead of a hallway leading to another flight of stairs, the ceiling had once again collapsed, this time giving us a makeshift ramp to the third floor.

“Oddly convenient,” Xayah muttered, following behind us as we made our way to the next level. I had to agree. Our luck was too good, it was bound to run out soon.

Our luck didn’t run out. We came to a second hallway that had caved in like the floor below, and yet again, Brisk quickly picked the door to another apartment and found us a way around the blockage via another large hole in the wall.

Before entering the next apartment, I examined the rubble that had blocked the hallwayway. It was burned in places, as if it had collapsed due to being heated to scorching temperature.

“What you lookin’ at there?” Brisk asked, hoping up next to me and eyeing up the burn marks. “Black rocks?”

I shook my head. “No, burn marks. It doesn’t look like the roof collapsed by itself.”

Brisk groaned. “No duh. Everything in Manehattan in burned and broken. I’m pretty damn sure that's just a side effect from the balefire bombs and shit.”

I rubbed my hoof across the surface, scratching off bits of ash. “I don’t think so. Look! The burn marks are only in a few concentrated spots. Somepony intentionally collapse the ceiling.”

“Why would anypony do that?” Xayah asked, joining us. “That seems like a foolish thing to do, only makes getting up and down harder.”

I had no idea, and I doubted that staring at a bunch of burn marks was going to give me the answer. Stumped on the origin of the collapsed roof, we moved on to the now open apartment door beside us.

It had all the same traits as the usual Four Star Living apartment room. It had a dull grey bed with a cracked window and the usual dusty metal desk topped with a flickering terminal. This room however was very clearly the room of a zebra sympathizer. Small totems depicting zebras fighting of strange star beasts covered the desks and pictures of what I imagined to be the zebra homelands had been pinned above the bed. A large poster of Fluttershy surrounded by two evil looking zebras took up most of the wall, though somepony had drawn a moustache onto Fluttershy’s face. The caption on the poster read, ‘We must do better’.

The desk also held some sort of headpiece. I picked it up and flipped it over in my hooves, trying to figure out exactly what it was. After a few seconds of trying to figure it out, I gave up and turned to the terminal beside me.

Like before, I brushed the layer of dust off the screen before turning the terminal on. I did however manage to evade the cloud of dust that came off the screen this time around. See, I learn. To my surprise, I found it unlocked. The title of the first file caught my attention. The pony that had lived here had labeled it, ‘me and sexy’. I glanced around the room to make sure both Brisk and Xayah weren’t looking at the screen before I opened it.

It was a video recording, and what's worse was it had audio. Heavy panting and moaning escaped the terminal and the image of a bright red and blue buck going at it with a light and dark grey zebra flickered to life.

My ears stood on end and my face flushed a dark red as I stared at the screen.

“What the fuck?” Brisk blurted, walking over and staring at the screen. “The fuck are you watching?”

I blushed even more. “I uh… it just turned on.”

Brisk gave me a strange look and started walking away. “Sure it did, don’t think I forgot that 'never got any action in the Stable' thing,” Well, this couldn’t get any worse. I turned back to the screen just in time to see the zebra pin the red stallion down with her striped hooves and start sucking on his-

“Oh…” I heard Xayah’s shocked and breathy voice behind me as she stared in awe at the screen, her eyes wide and transfixed on the scene. Xayah bit the bottom of her bottom lip as if to prevent herself from moaning alongside the pony and zebra in the video. Never mind. This just got worse.

I quickly closed the file and and gave Xayah an awkward smile. “It just kinda opened. Sorry.”

Xayah blinked and gave her head a quick shake. “Of course, that is most unfortunate,” By her tone, I doubted she thought the file popping up was unfortunate. For some reason that made me blush more.

I returned to looking through the files when I spotted a file that had been labeled as Inspector Saddles. Interested, I opened it up and began reading its contents.

>That Fucking inspector wont stop asking questions. Does he think we don’t know he’s working for the MoM? Does he think he’s being fucking subtle? That Dumb fuck asked me if we had ever met a zebra sympathizer and if I knew where to find one. I mean what the fuck? At least try to throw us off. Not that that matters much, going to have to do him in anyway. He’s found shit, I know he has. Tomorrow morning I’m wiping his memory, sticking it all in a memory orb and fucking throwing that memory orb off a cliff. Furthermore, I’m going to shoot that bastard in the chest and let him bleed out on the floor. Can’t have him telling his pink fucking boss about whats goin’ on here. Fuck him.

Well I guess that answered why Saddles had written that he didn’t remember anything on the wall and why he never left the apartment building.

I opened up one of the desk drawers and found a glowing memory orb inside along with five bottle caps. Who puts bottle caps in a desk drawer? I quickly pocketed the caps before turning my attention to the orb.

It probably wasn’t the wisest idea to view it now, we really had to catch up with those cyber ponies, but my curiosity was going through the roof. Did it contain Saddle’s memories? A zebra conspiracy? Something different all together?

I reached forwards with my magic and wrapped the memory orb in an amber glow, then the apartment around me swirled away.

I was sitting in a classroom, or at least some form of lecture room. In front of me sat a large stack of textbooks and just beyond that a tall black stallion that I assumed was the teacher paced back and forth across the front of the room.

School was perhaps my favorite thing in the Stable. If you were to just remove the bullies it would have been like Celestia herself was blessing me. I loved learning, I loved books, I loved everything that made up a classroom. So I would have loved everything about this memory if it hadn’t been for one tiny little thing.

I was in the body of a goddess damned stallion. My whole body felt heavy and the space between my legs was so fucking tight. Seriously, how the hell do stallions do it!

“This here is a memory recollector,” The teacher said, holding up a strange looking headpiece. I noticed it was the same one that I had found on the desk beside the terminal. “It is the most recent piece of technology from the Ministry of Moral, Technology, and Arcane Science. Think of it like a horn in many ways. As memory orbs can only be made or viewed by unicorns, these prove as a useful method for any other type of pony to access or create them. That is including griffons and dragons.”

I felt my host raise his hoof. The teacher took me in for a second before gesturing for me to speak and giving me a small nod. “Does the recollector work for Zebra’s?” My host asked. The room had been quiet before, now it was silent. I could feel the eyes of the many ponies in the room staring at me.

Wow. these ponies do not like zebras.

The teacher cleared his throat. “Yes, I suppose they can. The recollectors can be used by practically any creature. Though I hope that they are one thing that the zebra’s do not get their striped hooves on.”

I saw another hoof in the crowd go up. The pony had a silver coat, though I couldn’t see who the hoof belonged to through the other ponies. The teacher nodded towards them and I saw the hoof lower.

“Can memory orbs be connected with it?” The stallion asked. His voice was low and smooth, despite clearly belonging to a significantly older buck.

The teacher furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Can they be connected,” The older pony said again, more firmly this time. “As in can you combine memory orbs into one large one. Viewing one memory would take you to another. Memory orbs only have so much storage they can carry, I want to know if I can find a fix for that.”

“I’m not sure myself,” The teacher said, continuing to pace back and forth against the front wall. “It is definitely a hypothetical. Though depending on how many memories you are stringing together, you would need to hook it up to a very powerful computer. Not like something the MoM has access to at the current time.”

So this was a Ministry of Moral lecture. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by that. They were talking about extracting ponies memories and putting them into memory orbs after all.

“Are there any other questions?” The teacher waited a few moments for another hoof to be raised. None did. “Alright then, let's continue,” Then he went into a long speech about how recollecors work. At first I was interested, but as the lecture went on, I found myself getting worried.

How long had I been sitting here? When was this memory going to end? Despite my initial interest on what the memory orb contained, we were still on a bit of a time crunch to stop those cyber ponies. Memory orbs were starting to feel really claustrophobic as I realized I couldn’t get out.

Finally the memory orb ended and I found myself lying on the floor on the Four Star Apartment again. I looked up and found myself staring up into Xayah’s green eyes.

“Let me guess, Brisk got tired of waiting for me to wake up and told you to watch over me?” I asked, pulling myself to my hooves and relishing in the feeling of being back in my own body. Xayah gave a small nod. “You know you don’t have to stare at me when he says that right?”

Xayah scratched her head and blushed. “I will keep that in mind.”

“How far ahead did Brisk get?” these explorations through random buildings was beginning to become routine.

Xayah shrugged. “I do not know. I doubt he has gone far, you were only in that orb for a few minutes.”

Only a few minutes? Really? It felt way longer than that. Maybe Brisk was wearing off on me and I was getting board in classes. wasn't that a horrifying thought!

We moved onto the next apartment room. It had been filled with books, or at least what had once been books. The pages lay in charred ruins and most of the covers had corroded away. I almost felt like crying as I looked over all the lost knowledge. What a waste of perfectly good books.

I looked over at the desk that had been pushed below the window. As expected, a dusty terminal sat on top of it. What really drew my attention though was the name tag that had been placed on the desk.

I came closer to make sure I hadn’t read the name wrong. I hadn’t

“Silver Ace,” I read aloud, scanning the nametag a third time. “You just like to pop up all over the wasteland, don't you?”

I tired to crack the terminal, but after two failed attempts, I pulled myself away. I only had one try left before the computer locked me out for good.

Alright Silver Ace, what’s your password. I tried to think of what I knew about him. He had been saved by zebras from a dragon back before the war, Pinkie didn’t like him, and his name was Silver Ace. damn, not a lot to go off of there.

Finally I just sulked away from the terminal, unable to guess the code.

“I have yet to see you be bested by a terminal,” Xayah commented, following close behind me. “I was starting to think you could crack them all.”

“Apparently not,” I grumbled, giving an evil glare back at the terminal. That terminal should feel bad for not letting me in, and I wasn’t going to let it forget. Unfortunately, looking back at the terminal, meant not looking where I was going.

Thwack!

I walked face first into the doorframe and landed hard on my rump. I turned my evil glare from the terminal to the door frame. Silver Ace’s room was out to get me, I swear.

Xayah chuckled and walked past me into the hall. “I’m glad somepony is enjoying my suffering,” I grunted. Not cracking that terminal had really put me into a really bad mood.

I followed Xayah into the hallway. The whole hallway was tilted at a weird angle, making the walls look like they were slanted. We walked for a few moments in silence, the only noises being our hoof steps and the creaking floorboards. I found it interesting how the bottom floor could be so clean and yet the higher floors so damaged. I glanced around the hallway. Yes it was damaged, but now that I was looking at it, it was clean as well. Much of the rubble had either been removed or swept up into a pile against the wall.

My gaze landed on the symbol on Xayah’s rump. A strange five pointed star with crossing stripes inside of it. I began contemplating exactly how Zebra marks worked. Were they cutie marks like ponies? Or were they something different?

Now that I thought about it, how did pony cutie marks work? Why does everypony have a different cutie mark? How can one specific family have a hereditary cutie mark? How could mine be different? So many questions, and no answers at all. was it connected to fate somehow? Did my cutie mark know I would leave the Stable, making it impossible to become the Overmare? If that was true, did that mean I was never going to return to the Stable again?

I looked up to see Xayah looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I blushed as I realized I had zoned out staring at her ass. She gave her butt a little wiggle, making me blush even more and look away. Seriously, she had to go and make this embarrassing moment even more embarrassing for me by wiggling it in my face.

“Uh… sorry, lost in thought,” I muttered, trying to look at any anything else except her rump. Damn it, why did this sort of thing seem to happen to me all the time.

Xayah just gave me a smug smirk and continued walking. “That is fine, I know that I am not the one you are interested in.”

I froze. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked cautiously, not fully comprehending of what she was implying.

Xayah turned back and raised her eyebrow at me again. “Are you trying to tell me you do not have a thing for Brisk?” My mouth dropped open. She thought that I… that me and Brisk…

“What? Me and Brisk?” I coughed, trying to hide my growing blush. “Don’t be ridiculous! I've only known him for like, three days,” Xayah just stared at me as a blabbered. “I mean I’m not saying he isn’t cute or whatever, or that he isn’t brave and the first person to actually treat me like a friend that was my age and-” I cut myself off and put a hoof over my mouth. Why did I just say all of that? I couldn’t actually have feelings for… I looked back up at Xayah. “You heard nothing, got it. Not a word to Brisk.”

Xayah nodded and gave a smug grin. “Your secret is safe with me.”

I quickly held out a hoof. “Wow wow! Slow down, I never said I actually like him. Maybe I’m into mares. You don't know,” Xayah raised her eyebrows again. I sighed. “Alright fine, I do like him I guess. But for the record I am actually into mares as well.”

Xayah nodded. “Yes, mares are most agreeable.”

I blushed again. “Wait? You are into mares too?”

Xayah nodded quickly and continued on walking down the hallway. I quickly followed behind her, trying to wrap my head around these new found feelings for Brisk.

I glanced at the symbol on Xayah’s rump again and this time decided to bring it up. “By the way, do Zebras have cutie marks or is that like a tattoo?

Xayah glanced at the symbol on her butt. “Most zebra’s believe it to be similar to that of a cutie mark, assuming it depicts one's destiny. Others believe it is simply nothing more than a birthmark that a zebra is born with. Few can find an actual meaning to them. But no, they are not cutie marks.”

“So Zebras are born with them?”

Xayah nodded and gave a melancholy sigh. “Zira was always interested in zebra glyphs. She always wanted to find out the real cause behind them.”

“Zira?” I asked curiously.

Xayah nodded slowly, her pace slowed to a near crawl. “Zira was my daughter, she was killed by those raiders you killed when we first met.”

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” I said, slowly coming to a halt in the hallway. “I’m sorry you had to lose her like that.”

Xayah just gave me a sad smile. “Yes, I miss them all quite a lot.”

If that wasn’t the perfect segue to talk about her family, I don’t know what was.

“How are you holding up?” I turned to face her, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze had locked on a small rock that lay on the ground between us.

“I have been better,” Xayah finally replied after a long pause. “I try to tell myself that I will not grieve too much for them, but embrace this change that life has given me. I was always told that feeling sad for those you have lost only prolongs the pain you feel for them. Holding the feelings back though is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

That was perhaps the most depressing thing I had ever heard somepony say. It was one thing to move on quickly, it was quite another to force yourself not to feel sorrow and try and convince yourself that you didn't care. “No pony says you can’t grieve for them,” I told her, taking a small step closer to her. “No pony is expected to deal with something like that and just be okay.”

Xayah raised her gaze a little to look at me, but she still kept her head low. “Perhaps. I will find a time to say goodbye to them.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by finding a time to say goodbye to them, but I was glad I was able to have this talk with Xayah. Not knowing what else to do, I reached out and gave her a big hug. I felt her body tremble a little as I wrapped my hooves around her.

“It’s going to be okay,” I assured her, holding onto her tighter. Maybe if I kept saying that one day things would be okay.

We slowly pulled apart and looked back down the hallway. “We should probably catch up with Brisk, I fear that unsupervised, he will get into a lot of trouble,” Xayah said, forcing a smile onto her face.

“Right, Brisk,” Now I just felt weird thinking about him. “Lets see what crazy thing he has gotten himself into this time.”

We began walking down the hallway when Brisk came darting around the corner and pulled to a stop in front of us. I guess he was smart enough not to get himself killed then. “You two are not going to believe what I found!” He exclaimed, bouncing on his hooves. He was becoming surprisingly good at moving in his leg braces. He turned and began darting back down the hallway.

Xayah and I exchanged a glance before racing after him. He lead us up a few flights of steps before he came to a halt inside of an apartment on the top floor of the building.

I had thought the lobby of the apartment had been clean, but the room I found myself in now was practically spotless. The ground was clear of debris and had clearly been scrubbed clean of all the grime that coated the surface of everything in the wasteland. The walls, while once cracked had re-plastered and the broken furniture that cluttered the other rooms had been replaced with new pristine versions. Complex schematics and diagrams had been pinned to the walls and I spotted a large picture of some form of anthropomorphic dog with massive claws above the desk at the far end of the room. Below the picture of the dog, three terminals sat atop the practically sparkling clean desk.

These terminals were not like any other terminal I had ever seen however, in fact they weren’t even made out of metal. I walked over and reached out to touch one with my hoof, only to find my hoof pass straight through it.

It was made out of clouds… why the fuck was it made out of clouds!

“What do you think this is?” Brisk asked, sticking his head through a cloud terminal and looking out through the screen. I stared intently at the terminal. Not being able to hack Silver Aces terminal had annoyed me, but not even being allowed to touch this terminal was torture.

“It appears to be Enclave,” Xayah stated, waving her hoof through the third terminal.

“How do you know?” I asked, turning my attention from the cloud terminal to her. “Also, I thought the Enclave never came below the clouds?”

“I know because of the big Enclave poster,” Xayah said bluntly, pointing to the large black poster sporting a Large white E surrounded by stars that I had somehow overlooked. “And as far as I am aware, they usually don’t come down here. Whatever they were doing in here must have been very important.”

"Guess that explains who cleaned this place up and put that weird Radscorpion repellent outside,” Brisk muttered. “They were probably hoping the Radscorpions would keep ponies from coming here.”

I gave a small snort. “Ironic that the Radscorpions are the reason we are here in the first place.”

Then we heard ponies talking outside. Fuck. I quickly checked my EFS. Four red bars were fast approaching the room. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a place to hide. Under the desk maybe? We wouldn’t all fit. Out the window? That was boarded up tight, not to mention that a window probably wasn’t the best way to escape something that could probably fly.

Damn it, looks like the only way out was confrontation. I turned to the door, pulling out Boneless and getting ready for anything that might come through the door. Brisk and Xayah pulled out their guns and did the same.

I spotted the red bars on my EFS stop just outside the door.

“I’m sorry, run that by me again?” I heard a female voice say. She sounded pissed. “You lost track of the fucking hellhound?”

There was a stern sounding grunt from whomever she was talking to. “It is hard to keep track of things that burrow underground,” A male voice responded. “Not to mention something that you need to stay far enough away from so that they don’t cut you in half with one slash of their claws or shoot you with their fucking energy weapons.”

The female huffed. “Then get back out there and find it. Or did you forget our mission?”

There was a long intense pause where no pony spoke. I imagined the two ponies sizing each other up on the other side of the wall. Finally I heard a small grunt and one of the four red bars began moving away from the room and back down the hallway.

Well that was one less pony to deal with I guess.

That still left three though. Three ponies that were entering the room at that very second.

The first pony to enter was a petite looking pegasus with a lavender coat and a mint green mane that had been pulled back into a long ponytail. Her mint eyes matched her mane and she had the cutie mark of a wrench and a syringe. She wore what I assumed was a black lab coat overtop of a white turtleneck and she held a clipboard in front of her with her right wing.

The two other Enclave that entered behind her were more intimidating as they had bulkier builds and were covered head to hoof in a dark insectoid like armor. Large blade like appendages had been built into the back of their armour, giving them a scorpion like appearance and both of them were equip with a battle saddle carrying two magical energy riffles.

Really? Cause I haven’t fought enough things with stingers today?

The three pegasi froze as she spotted the three of us, The female’s clipboard clattering to the ground as she took us in. We all stood in silence for a second as we all contemplated what was going to happen next.

The female pegasus in the lead put a wing to her face and groaned. “Fuck my clit with Balefire egg launcher and call me a promiscuous whore!” She cursed, lighting kicking the ground with her hoof. That wasn’t the reaction I had expected, or ever expected to hear in general. I didn’t even know what the hell a Balefire egg launcher was, but I assumed I didn’t want my clit to be fucked by one. The pegasus glared at us. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Uh… leaving?” I suggested, holding my ground. I didn’t know what to expect from these Enclave bunch. “We were trying to escape the Radscorpions.”

The Enclave cast a few glances at each other. The Lavender and mint pegasus turned back to us. “Yeah, you three wont be allowed to leave this building,” I could feel the tension in the room growing and could hear the faint sound of the energy weapons on the Enclaves battle saddles charging.

“Look, we have no quarrel with you ms…” I checked the nametag on the Mares black lab coat. “Ms Star Breeze. We just want to get out of here without a fight.”

Star sighed. “I’m afraid we can't let you leave and risk you telling other ponies of our location,” then she pulled out her laser pistol and all hell broke loose.

The Enclave took to the air instantly. The room wasn’t nearly big enough for flying to be a large advantage, but it was big enough for flight to make them move far faster than we were able to hit, even while covered in heavy armor. Red beams of light shot out from their magical energy weapons, singeing out coats and barding. I leaped back and forth, doing my best to evade the stream of fire while trying to land a shot of my own.

After two failed shots from my shotgun, I switched tactics and began swinging at them with my shock baton. I suddenly felt like I was trying to swat at a fly that was annoying me by buzzing around me head. I felt my baton make contact with one of the pegasi’s wings. There was a satisfying zap and the armored Enclave trooper fell to the floor with a thud.

I swung my baton at the pegasus again, but he rolled aside and leapt to his hooves with surprising speed and agility. His scorpion tale lashed out at me, but I quickly deflected it with my baton and kicked him across the chest with both of my forelegs. He stumbled back slightly in surprise, but I wasn’t nearly strong enough to do any real damage with my strength alone.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Xayah darting around the room, dodging the blasts from the energy weapons with a fair amount of ease. The two enclave members I wasn’t fighting seemed to be directing most of their attention on her as she seemed to move and hit the fastest.

That was a mistake on their part. Brisk came up behind them and leapt into Star Breeze, knocking her from the air and causing the two of them to tumble across the ground together, kicking and yelling at each other.

That was all I was able to see before the Enclave trooper lunged at me again. I went to deflect his oncoming tail, only for his battle saddle to blast me in the chest with two red burning lasers. Two holes were ripped open in the front of my barding and I was tossed half way across the room. I was incredibly lucky not to have been disintegrated into a pile of glowing red ash on the spot.

The Pegasus lunged at me again, this time I didn’t try to deflect, but attack. My magic wrapped around his scorpion tail and I telekinetically rammed the blade at the end at his left wing. I felt the resistance of the mechanical appendage as he tried to pull it in the opposite direction. At last he tucked in his wings and dropped to the ground, whipping his tail out of my magical grasp. He fired at me again, but I had already moved out of the way.

I raised Boneless and fired at his front legs. The shattered shells peppered his front, much of the shrapnel bouncing off his metal armour. He did however real back in pain as he was sprayed with Bonelesses fire. His armor was tough, but it didn’t make him invincible.

Brisk and Star stumbled past me. Brisks pistol clamped tight in his mouth as he tried to fire at the small pegasus. She dodged his shots and kicked him in the face, bloodying his nose. He fell back, his hooves flailing in the air before him. One of his hooves made contact, knocking her to the floor.

The Enclave trooper began circling me. He had tried to take me out with sheer tenacity, but now he was clearly trying to find another approach. Well I wasn’t going to give him the time to figure that out.

I began swinging my baton at him in fast strokes, trying to keep him as occupied as I could. His mechanical tail turned out to be even better at deflecting melee attacks than it was at attacking as he managed to block all of my attacks fairly easily.

What he wasn’t able to block was when he found Boneless pointed at the back of his head. He froze as he felt all three of the barrels tap the back of his helmet. We stood for a second, eyes locked as my magic slowly tightened around the trigger of my gun.

He was horrified. I couldn’t tell at first through the tinted goggles of his helmet, but the longer I looked at him the more his growing fear was beginning to show. His legs began to quiver ever so slightly and I could have sworn I saw pinpoint pupils through the shroud of his goggles.

I remembered the audio recordings Cheese Sandwich had left behind. I remembered his broken corpse. I had killed a good pony and I hadn’t even known it.

Who was this Enclave pegasus really? Did he love somepony? Did somepony love him? Could I really blow out the brains of somepony I didn’t even know?

My telekinetic grip on Boneless weakened. Damn it, this mindset was going to get me killed in the Wasteland, but what could I do? I couldn’t be myself if I just went around killing everypony that attacked me.

“I am not a raider, I am not a raider,” I muttered to myself. That sentence seemed to give the Enclave trooper the impression that I wasn’t going to fire. Not that he was wrong in thinking that.

His tail lashed up and knocked Boneless across the floor and out of the room. I staggered back as my telekinetic grip was lost. The scorpion tail lashed at me next, bashing me across the face and sending me sprawling across the floor.

I saw Xayah get knocked to the ground as well as the Enclave pegasus attacking her barreled into her. She was knocked backwards, landing next to me with a thud. Both armored Enclave troops now began advancing towards us, their energy weapons charging with an ominous hum. Behind them, I could see Star pin Brisk to the ground and aim her pistol at his face. She was hesitating to blast his head off, thank the goddesses for that, but that didn’t give us much time.

We had to get out of there now. We were very clearly outmatched against their magical energy weaponry and military combat experience.

Welp, here goes nothing. I wrapped Brisk and Xayah in a magical field and imagined the doorway to the room. I doubted I would be able to get us much farther than that.

“Oh no you fucking dont!” Star shouted, noticing what I was doing.

She blasted at Brisks face with her pistol, only for all three of us to disappear in a flash of amber light before the attack could land and rematerialize at the door. With my last remaining strength, I picked Boneless up off the ground with my shaking hooves. My head felt like it was going to explode from using a teleportation spell again, not to mention using a teleportation spell on myself as well as my two friends at the same time.

I swayed slightly on my hooves before collapsing into Brisk. Everything began going foggy and I became incredibly disorientated. I heard yelling and the sound of the Enclaves lasers blasting towards us. I felt Brisk haul me onto his back and begin rushing down the hallway as the Enclave gave chase. I heard Xayahs voice say something to me, but I couldn’t make out the words.

I fell from Brisk back as he sharply turned a corner. I landed with a thump against the corner of the hallway. I could make out the forms of the Enclave growing closer and closer as they descended down the hall towards me. I tried pulling myself to my hooves, only to collapse back to the ground with a thud and a groan.

Then I was on Brisks back again as we raced down a flight of stairs to the level below. Xayah was a few paces ahead of us as we charged onwards. A few red beams of energy flew past us as the Enclave tried to gun as down and prevent our escape.

Then we were standing on a ledge overlooking the wasteland. The large monorail I had seen racing along the Manehattan skyline connecting to and running through the apartment building. Four Star Living wasn’t just an apartment building, it was a train station.

Through my haze I could see the ruins of the buildings below me. “That must be the theater we were going to enter,” I muttered to myself drowsily.

More red lasers were bouncing around us. Brisk was needing to dodge them continuously to avoid being evaporated. I wrapped my hooves around his chest and held on for dear life as I was tossed to and fro as Brisk bounded and leaped from one spot to another.

Brisk and Xayah exchanged a few yells, and then they both began racing across the monorail. The sudden sensation of being so high up with no ground below be temporarily pulled me from my trance.

Holy Fuck we were high up! I felt like I was in the middle of a vast void and that I could fall in any direction and never stop.

The Enclave had begun swooping around us, flying far above our reach before swooping under the monorail making it impossible for us to go on the offensive. I tried to pull out Boneless, but I was so weak that I had trouble even lighting up my horn.

One of the Enclave troops blasted at Xayah’s hooves. She leaped out of the way, but lost her balance on the monorail and slipped off. She reached up and grabbed onto the lip of the monorail with her hooves. She began trying to pull herself back onto the monorail, only for her left hoof to slip and make her dangle even more precariously.

Brisk rushed forward and began trying to pull her back up, but with my weight already bearing down on him, he could do little more than prevent her from falling more.

The Enclave began doing loops around us in the air, firing shot after shot from their energy weapons at us. Brisk had to do everything he could not to drop Xayah as a laser punched its way through his broken forehoof.

“If you could teleport us again Amber, that would be great!” Brisk shouted, struggling to keep Xayahs hoof in his. She began to slip further and further out of his grasp.

I looked down at the theater below us. There was no way I could teleport all three of us (or even one of us) all the way down there, it was way too far of a distance. I glanced back at the Four Star Living building. There would be no point in teleporting back to the apartment building. The Enclave would just continue to gun us down.

Making my decision, I wrapped all three of us in my magic and took a deep breath. I needed my head clear for this if we were going to survive. My head screamed in protest as I held them all in my magics amber glow.

“Alright, drop on three,” I commanded.

Brisk gave me a wide eyed stare. “What! Are you crazy!” He shouted, just narrowly avoiding a blast from one of the Enclaves battle saddles.

But I didn’t have time to explain, I was already putting all of my effort into what I was about to do. “One!” I shouted, taking another deep breath. I could feel Brisks muscles tighten. “Two!” I shut my eyes, not ready to feel the world fly out from under me. “Three!”

Then we were falling. The cold air rushed around us as we plummeted towards the theatre below us. I forced my eyes open and saw the ground close approaching. Goddesses the ground had never been so horrifying. It came closer and closer. I focused on it. only a few more seconds and we would be nothing more than smears on the ground. Good, we had to be close for it to work. My head screamed and I felt a splitting pain threaten to tear me apart. I pictured the floor of the theatre, now only a foot below me.

Then there was a flash of amber light and everything went dark.

“Amber! Amber! Damn it Amber Aura, you wake up right now!” I heard Brisks panicked voice shout. I felt his hooves violently shake me as he attempted to pull me from unconsciousness.

I let my eyes drift open. The light of the sky above temporarily blinded me as I tried to focus on my surroundings. The first thing that came into view was Brisk face looking down at me. And by Celestia’s mighty horn, he genuinely looked concerned.

“What the fuck happened?” I asked, trying to pull myself to my hooves. I failed miserably and landed flat on my face. Why do I always fall on my face when I wake up!

Brisk gave a small chuckle and lifted me onto his back. “You did your crazy magic thing or whatever. Teleported us into the theater.”

I looked around the room. It didn’t really look like a theater from inside, just another dull grey and green wasteland ruin. The room was small and a bunch of shattered mirrors covered the walls. I assumed it had once been a green room of sorts.

“By the way, that was an impressive trick you did. Teleporting us and all,” Brisk complimented, trying his best to walk forward while carrying my weight. “I mean teleporting us once was crazy and shit, but twice and while falling from the sky? That's gotta be the most impressive feet of magic I’ve ever seen.”

I blushed. It felt good hearing that from him. “Thanks, but it was really nothing,” That was a lie. I was having trouble believing I had managed to cast that spell twice myself. My head also didn’t think it was nothing. I currently had the worst headache I had ever had in my entire life.

Brisk snorted. “If that was nothing then you should teleport more of our enemies onto pikes,” He said sarcastically as he pushed open a dented metal door that lead to the rest of the theatre. “Now come on, we gotta find Xayah.”

My ears shot up with alarm. “Wait! Where is Xayah?” I asked, noticing our zebra friends absence for the first time.

“I’m not sure. She didn’t appear in the room with us when you teleported us,” Brisk said. I had an awful image in my mind of Brisk and I disappearing into thin air and leaving Xayah to fall to her death, her broken body splattered against some desolate and grey road. I pushed the thought from my head. I had saved her and she was somewhere in the building. She has to be. “I was going to go look for her but I didn’t want to leave you alone here with the Enclave outside. I spotted them circling the building looking for survivors.”

“Of course they are,” I groaned, resting my chin on the top of Brisks head as he began carrying me through the ruined theatre. “Why can’t we just get an easy day in the wasteland?”

We entered a large, almost circular room. The building was starting to look a lot more like a theatre now. We stood on a large black stage, the dark paint chipped and cracked from age. Before us sat rows of ruined red velvet chairs. Some had been damaged due to age, while others seemed too had clearly suffered water damage. Broken stage lights cluttered the ground or hung from the ceiling and to my dismay I spotted a bunch of mannequins shoved into the corner. Once again they seemed to be staring right at me. Damn those things were spooky! Why the hell did the wasteland seem to have so many?!

“Seems to be the main area of the building,” Brisk muttered to himself. “We probably should be able to find Xayah fairly easily from here. Let’s see,” He looked down at his pipbuck and looked for bars on his EFS. “Oh shit! Red bar!”

I checked me EFS. He was right. A red bar darted back and forth from somewhere inside the building. I noticed I had seen that kind of movement before with the Radscorpions.

“It’s below us,” I informed Brisk, wrapping my magic around Boneless and- Wait a second. My horn failed to even produce light as I tried to use my telekinesis. “Oh fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!”

I had heard of horn burn out before. A state that a unicorn can be in after exerting their magic too much to the point that their horn simply stops working. In serious cases it can be permanent, though more often than not it just takes a day or two before you can use magic again.

I pulled my triple barrel shotgun out with my mouth. Wow that felt weird. “Loogks like I maht musing magic mora mit,” I grumbled around Boneless' mouthpiece.

“What?” Brisk asked, trying to make sense of my jumble of words.

I spat Boneless into my hooves. “I said it looks like I’m not using magic for a bit. Horn burn out,” I pointed lamely at my horn.

“Welcome to my world,” Brisk said with a grin. I gently knocked him upside the head.

“Oh shut up you.”

We heard a loud screech of gears from behind us. We turned to see a trapdoor in the center of the stage swing open, a thick green mist that was swirling from within began seeping onto the stage. Slowly, a platform began to rise from the hole, the figure in a dark cloak stood completely silhouetted upon the platform as it rose.

I heard the crack of static as the speakers above us flared to life. “Mares and Gentlestallions, fillies and colts, behond! The-” The speakers crackled again and began playing some form of operatic music.

What the fuck was going on?

The shadowy figure slowly approached us, stepping into the orange glow of a spotlight.

It was a ghoul of some form, wrapped in a tattered and burned black cloak. Half of the ghouls face was obscured by a sinister white mask. Its rotting flesh, though withered like the many other ghouls I had encountered in the wasteland, held scores of burn marks and oozing puss bubbles. His milky pale eyes seemed to have a spark inside of them, burning with a fire I couldn't and might never fully understand. From within its charred skin, a baleful green glow seemed to emanate from him

“Are you kidding me!” I yelled. “There really is a fucking super ghoul in here! I was just joking!” I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or scream, so instead I just groaned.

The ghoul began advancing towards us again, this time a glowing green light began building up in the back of his throat. Brisk and I realized what was happening too late.

Brisk leapt to the side, just narrowly avoiding being burned alive as the theatrical super ghoul sent a jet of fire spewing from its mouth. Both our tails caught flame as the fire raced towards us.

I rolled off of Brisks back and began trying to put out the fire in my tail before it could consume any more of my body. I was sad to see that my beautiful curly pink and blue tail had been reduced to a small charred stump.

The green fog that had begun seeping across the stage and was licking at the bottom of my hooves. Instantly, the geiger counter on my pipbuck began clicking a hundred miles a minute. That ghoul must have been soaking up all that radiation for almost two hundred years, no wonder it was breathing balefire.

I pushed myself away from the radioactive fog, only to find myself roll of the stage and whack the back of my head on one of the broken seats. The world spun as I felt my already aching head whirl in pain from the impact. I crawled towards the stage and tried pulling myself back onto it. In my weakened state I found the action of climbing a lot harder than I would have liked.

Brisk twisted just out of reach as the glowing ghoul lashed its burning hooves at his face. I could hear Brisks pipbuck clicking from the radiation all the way from across the stage just by being too close to the ghoul. Brisk jumped back again, this time pulling out his pistol and shooting the ghoul point blank in the face.

Green ooze burst from the ghouls head as the bullet made contact. It stumbled back, falling into the green fog. Brisk and I watched in horror as the charred skin slowly pulled itself back together.

Radiation could regenerate this guy! Did the wasteland have some sort of vendetta against me or something?

Brisk wasted no time firing two more shots into the ghoul as it began to close in on him again. Now submerged in the fog however, the oozing holes punched into his body by the bullets mended together fast enough that the glowing ghoul didn’t even slow down.

Brisk switched to his machete, aware that his pistol wasn’t going to do much with all the radiation. When it came to this ghoul, you either kill it in one go, or you die trying.

Before Brisk had a chance to attack, the ghoul let loose another jet of fire from its jaw. Brisk dove away from the flame, rushing in a large circle around the ghoul. The glowing monstrosity simply spun on the spot, sending fire spewing in all directions.

I finally hauled myself onto the stage, only to need to drop onto my stomach as a blast of fire flew over my head. Crawling forward, I raised Boneless and fired at the creature. The blast took out half of his side, sending glowing viscera flying across the room in all directions.

The ghoul stumbled, its mouth closing and drawing the spewing fire erupting from its maw to a halt. It glared at me, its eyes filled with rage.

Shit, this guy was not something I really wanted to have attack me while I was unable to do magic and had difficulty standing.

The ghoul began closing in on me. I could see a ball of fire building up within its chest as it drew closer. Before it could reach me though, Brisk leapt toward it and severed one of its front leg with a swipe of his machete.

The glowing ghoul collapsed, his hind hoof lashing out and punting Brisk in the face, leaving a large burn mark across his left cheek. Brisk tumbled back, landing hard on his side in the fog.

I aimed Boneless at the ghoul, but I was having trouble seeing it through all the fog. The fog was everywhere now, covering the whole theater in a blanket of radioactive green. My pipbuck said I was taking in over ten rads a second, and the number only seemed to be growing with each passing minute.

I really didn’t want to grow some sort of mutation from this.

Through the fog, I saw the ghoul pull itself to its hooves. To my amazement, its front leg was almost completely regrown already. The monster hissed and turned to face me again. I could see the glow of its eyes perfectly as they cut through the dense fog.

Blam!

A bullet tore through both of the ghouls front legs. It fell forwards, trying to keep its balance as its front half was blown out from under it.

I looked up to see Xayah standing on the stages catwalks, her sniper drawn and aimed at the glowing ghoul. I couldn't help but smile at her. Thank the goddesses she was still alive and well.

I pulled myself forward, blasting the ghoul again with Boneless. Another bloody hole was ripped through its body as the shrapnel tore into it.

It scrambled towards me, the radiation pulling the muscle tissue back together. A howl escaped the creatures peeled lips as it charged me.

Then Brisk was up and swinging at it with his machete again, this time cutting the ghoul clean in half. The back half of the ghouls body flopped over limply, the front however continued squirming. It scuttled towards me on its still regenerating front legs, trailing bits of intestine and tattered muscle behind it as it did.

Xayah fired again, this time her bullet pierced the ghouls skull. Its head burst open, spraying Brisk and I in glowing brain matter.

And sweet Celestia it was still moving. Its body thrashed about as it tried to claw at us. Due to its eyes currently being oozing pulp scattered across the floor, most of the creatures attacks all fell short. Slowly, the broken remains of its skull began to grow in size, mending themselves back together. I could see the oozing remains of eyes slowly reform in to glowing spheres atop its forming head.

It could regrow its brain! This was getting absolutely ridiculous.

Brisk stepped forward and stabbed the point of his machete through the top of the ghouls head, pinning the creature to the floor as the blade sailed straight through the writhing body and into the wooden stage beneath it.

Brisk gave me a quick nod, signalling for me to fire at it. I raised Boneless and place the edge of the barrel against the ghouls reforming forehead. The creature opened its mouth to breath another jet of fire into my face, but I didn’t give it time. I pulled the trigger on Boneless and watched as what little remained of the ghouls was pulverized by Boneless’ explosive fire. At last, the ghoul stopped squirming and simply slumped to the floor, green slime spilling from what little remained of his corpse.

Brisk popped a tablet of buck into his mouth and pulling me onto his back. “Come on, let's blow this place. I don’t think we should be taking in this much radiation.”

Somehow, Xayah had already made it down from the Catwalks and was gesturing for us to follow her. “Come, I Think I know a way out of this theatre of scares!” She urged, disappearing behind the door she had indicated us to go through.

Without hesitation, Brisk followed after her. A few moments later, we pushed our way out of the broken down theatre and onto the street. It wasn’t the street we had entered on however, but rather the back side of the theatre. I was glad to see no red bars on my pipbuck.

“You think you can walk?” Brisk asked me, coughing slightly in an attempt to remove some of the radioactive fog from his lungs.

I shakely stepped off of his back and onto the ground. My legs felt like jello, but I was able to stand. “Yeah, I should be okay.”

“Thank Celestia, I really didn’t want to carry your sorry butt all the way to Fetlock,” Brisk grinned, stretching his back hooves.

“That shouldn’t be far, Fetlock is only a few more hours I hear,” Xayah stated in her methodical tone. “And the Ponypalooza hotel is closer than that. We should still be able to make it before the end of the day if everything else goes our way.”

“Right, because we aren’t going to run into any more complications,” I sighed, taking a slow and shaky step.

Only a few more hours. I could do that.

My thoughts returned to the cyber ponies. I was probably going to be confronting them in a day or two. Had they made it to the Ponypalooza hotel already? If it was only a few more hours walk for us, then they probably had. Which meant that it wasn’t long before they doubled back and went for Stable 25.

The idea that the cyber ponies could be preparing to wipe out every pony I had ever known made me feel sick. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. The action only made me feel sicker.

I felt my heart start racing. I had to fix this. I had to get moving. We were racing apotheosis now, and we were falling behind.

Footnote: level up.
New perk: Entomologist -- Lets be honest, bugs and scorpions are kinda gross. +50% damage to insects.

Author's Notes:

So I took a week long break from writing after the last chapter, only to end up going on vacation for a week, so this chapter ended up coming out a lot later than I had hoped it would.
hopefully the next chapter will come out a bit sooner.

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

I hope you all had a good day and continue to have a good days onwards from here.