Trees and rocks littered their path, as the little convoy continued to move towards the Hoofington Docks area. Leaves of dead trees made their presence known within the vast emptiness of the forest. Brick, Gretzky, Roselight and Saber lead the way, carving their own path through the trees and dead bushes. Blitz, Azure, Lumia and Zeke were all bunched up, walking at their own speed. Blitz looked around and saw that Death, Anti and the nightmare were following them slowly, Anti being the only visible one to all of them.

Azure looked over to his left, seeing Hoofington in the distance. It was really scary to see a green void that separated it from the rest of the Wasteland, which made him shudder a little and put him on edge. Azure looked away, but his eyes were slowly being dragged back to it, almost like it had some type of spell attached to it. Blitz turned Azure's head with his magic, snapping him out of its invisible trance. Azure smiled at Blitz, silently thanking him for doing that.

They were heading towards the SS Celestia, which was inhabited by Steel Rangers. Blitz and Azure were pretty sure that they would have been able to just stand outside the boundaries of their base and observe the ship. This was their little tour convoy. The radroach on Blitz's back was still there, waiting for it's perfect time to strike ponykind down. Blitz looked back at it and stayed silent, before seeing it scuffle about on Blitz's back a little. Azure found it pretty cute, but it was still something that could hurt a pony, so he stayed around a meter from Blitz.

Azure realised something to do with Lumia. Since the Steel Rangers were heavily focused on technology, wouldn't that make Lumia a priority to get hold of? Azure looked back at her and smiled, before falling back to her a little.

"Lumia, can I talk to you quickly?" Azure asked, getting a little nod from Lumia.

"You may, what seems to be wrong Doctor?" Lumia asked, being a little curious as to what Azure wanted to tell her.

"Are you able to hide from the Steel Rangers? They focus heavily on technology and… well… yeah, you are just technology. If they see you, then they will definitely want to have you and would probably use force to get you." Azure explained to her, getting her to understand why she couldn't be spotted by the Steel Rangers. She nodded, understanding a little bit, but now knowing that the Steel Rangers were power hungry or tech hungry.

Azure caught back but to Blitz and Zeke, who were having a little talk about some of their previous experiences with weapons and how they got familiar with them. Azure heard something about 'starting out young' from Blitz and 'becoming a traitor to their kind' from Zeke, which worried Azure a little, but he was relieved when he saw Blitz laughing. That eased Azure's nerves enough for him to stay chill and continue on with the journey ahead of them all.

Hoofington was now behind them, and they were all following a stream that went from somewhere in Hoofington to the sea. Nopony there had any idea on how the water was getting from Hoofington to the sea, but they didn't even want to challenge the idea of it. They were beginning to enter a valley, making Azure want to choose the high ground of the valley. He began to hover up, watching Blitz do the same in the process.

"If you two go and catch up to the others, we will take the higher part of the valley and hopefully protect you all from fire." Blitz commanded, watching as Lumia nodded and grabbed Zeke with one of her hooves and teleported away, leaving Azure and Blitz to themselves.

Azure looked up to the sky, seeing that all of the clouds were covering a sky that should have been cloud free, or was before the bombs dropped. It made him almost sad, like he didn't know that this area, this part of the world, was Equestria. Azure looked to Blitz and saw that he was deep in though too, probably thinking to himself about Death and the nightmare. At least Azure knew what was happening within Blitz's head, rather than not knowing what was bothering him. Blitz was still Azure's right hoof stallion, so he could have trusted him with any decisions that Azure himself couldn't make up.

Blitz was indeed in his own little world, daydreaming about something that was bothering for a while. There was a figure that Blitz tried to remember, but always drew a blank to when he did indeed try to remember them. It was almost like something had deleted that memory entirely. It had something to do with a previous relationship that Blitz had, before something happened to him and he woke up in a bed at Journey. It was something that kept creeping to the front of Blitz's mind, so he kept trying to think about it.

Blitz tried to shake it off him, making him look like he was going a little insane, due to his vigorous body moment and twitching. Azure flew closer to Blitz and tapped him on the side, making him turn to him, both eyes being blisteringly red, almost like he was bleeding from his eyes. A strange ghoul came running at them both, making Blitz turn to see it. Being in the state he was in, Blitz turned and pinned the ghoul to the floor next to them both, before pulling out a long metal spike that was jutting out of the ground beside him. Without hesitation, the rapid like ghoul had a metal rod pinning its body to the ground. He was aiming for the head, but just didn't feel like killing the pony ghoul, just in case somepony had a cure for ghouls. Blitz stood up and turned around, seeing that Azure was still looking at the ghoul. Blitz turned back around and drew out his anti-material rifle and aimed down the scope of it. Within a second, the ghoul's head was reduced to shrapnel and blood jelly. Azure flinched, before rushing up to Blitz and seeing that his eyes were closed.

As soon as Blitz opened his eyes, he had both Gretzky and Azure looking at him, Azure being the closest to Blitz and Gretzky being pretty far away, but still able to see Blitz and the state of which he was in. Blitz looked back at the ghoul and saw that the head was gone, most likely into bloody pieces of flesh and bone. The rest of the ghoul's body was slumped against the floor, having been pinned down with the metal rod. It made Blitz a little twitchy, but he was sure that the ghoul was in a better place now.

Blitz turned and continued to walk, seeing that Gretzky was waiting up for them both. Azure followed Blitz and tried to stop himself from looking back, but found it very difficult to avoid doing so. It was something that was going to play out in his head later on, so he tried to avoid thinking about it at least, focusing on the relationship that him and Blitz had. It made Azure feel quite special, because of the love that him and Blitz shared for one another. It made his heart flutter, but he had to bring himself back down to the harsh reality that was the Wasteland, a land where good events were rare and extraordinary events were non-existent.

Blitz looked over the side, seeing that the lower down group were a little way ahead, not stopping for anypony that would have slowed them down. Gretzky looked down too and felt a little emptiness start to fill him, almost like a hole getting filled with water or a bucket getting filled with water. There were so many similes that could have described that one moment, where the smile on Gretzky's face began to fade, making him look like he was slowly going crazy or that he realised what they were walking into.

Azure looked down at Roselight and Saber talking happily. Although he saw that Lumia, Zeke and Brick were speaking together, he didn't focus on them. He focused mainly on Roselight and Saber and looked at what made Saber come out of his shell so much when Roselight was around. Was there something that wasn't being said about their friendship as a whole or was there a lot more that both Roselight and Saber weren't telling?

Azure flew over to Gretzky, seeing that he was looking directly forward and not in any other direction, making Azure think that he was daydreaming or something. Azure flew up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, getting no response from him in the process. He quickly tapped his shoulder again, making his tap a little harder this time and finally getting a response from Gretzky. He turned around to look at Azure, a little confused as to what he wanted to speak about. Azure landed and began to walk alongside Gretzky, looking down at the others on occasion.

"What's the chemistry behind both Roselight's and Saver's friendship?" Azure asked, seeing that Gretzky had a smile on his face once again. He rubbed the back of his head trying to explain it, but thought of a way to break the news to him, having not known already.

"Well, for starters Alchem, Roselight is Saber's mother, which is always nice to have around for chemistry reasons and emotional support that not everypony in the Wasteland is miserable. Also, they have a strong bond that kind of reminds me of my parents…" Gretzky stated, before cutting himself off and looking down at the pair below. Azure guessed that the reason that Gretzky kept looking down was a reminder that not all was bad in the Wasteland and not all was lost. That, or he just really enjoyed seeing a mother and son together on a journey. It made sense that they were mother and son, but Saber looked so different compared to Roselight, which is why Azure got thrown off track.

"Is that why you keep looking down, cause you miss your family?" Azure asked, seeing a little nod of disbelief and a little tear fall down Gretzky's cheek, which was quickly removed by his own wing. Azure felt a little bad about bringing it up, but the more that somepony grieved about something, the more that they would either work, or forget. Having heard that, Azure hugged Gretzky, wrapping his wing around him and pulling him in closer. Not only was Azure a great doctor, but he was also a great hugger, which every little group needed. That made him even more mandatory to keep alive, so that he could heal ponies and give them hugs of affection.

Azure looked back at Blitz and felt a little bad about all that had happened to him, seeing his mother die the way that she did and not being able to do anything about it. He must have hurt so many times over, compared to anypony else in the Wasteland, which made Azure feel even worse, but as long as Azure was there for him when he needed it, that would surely be enough, right?

Azure washed the thought away from his mind, as both Blitz and Gretzky stopped at the sight of the ship that they were looking for. Blitz looked down and teleported the others on top of the top of the valley, allowing them to individually see the ship. Most of them stared in awe, but also felt that they were a little dumb. On the side of the ship was the name of it. Although they hadn't had a problem with calling it the SS Celestia, it was clear to them that it was not actually called that. It was actually called the HMS Celestia, but that really didn't make a difference because it was still the ship with the name of a former ruler of Equestria, before it was loomed down to the little sister, Princess Luna.

As soon as Blitz got everypony up on the top of the valley, he began to walk up a little extra part of the valley, leading up to a higher point, allowing him to overlook the warship. Gretzky joined him, quickly flying up the hill towards Blitz. Azure decided to stay with the others, just in case something bad was to happen while he wasn't there.

Blitz pulled out his anti-material rifle and looked down the scope of it. Gladly, there was no scope glint, due to the sun not shining as bright behind the clouds. Blitz used this to his advantage and peeked into the base that was so much bigger than he had even thought. Yes, there were Steel Rangers, but the base was so much bigger than he had originally thought. That got him curious as to what was inside there, but he knew that he wouldn't have been able to get into the base, but would he have been able to get next to the checkpoint, surely.

Blitz saw that there were plenty of Steel Rangers inside the base, as well as a ton of technology, hence the reason why he wanted to hide Lumia or at least had to hide her, just so that those Steel Rangers couldn't get their hooves on her. Blitz was tempted to make Lumia sit on the hill that he was on, but thought that it would have been risky enough her being where they were right now, but he had faith in them not being able to see as far up as Blitz initially thought.

"Lumia, are you able to stay here with all of our technical stuff?" Blitz asked, getting a swift nod from her, followed by her shaking off the PipBuck on Azure's forehoof. Azure was a little surprised by the action, but willingly let her try to take it off. It took a good couple of seconds, but she managed to get it off and place it on the ground beside her. She looked over them all and tried to see if they had any items on them that would have counted as technology. She looked to Gretzky and smiled, seeing his massive bag on his back, compared to the other saddlebags that he would normally be carrying.

"I hate this!" Gretzky stated, walking with the rest of the group as they walked down the hill, carrying no items on them that were electrical. Blitz had given Lumia his cloak, showing off his scars a little more and making him look like a changeling zebra, which made him chuckle quietly. The others didn't see them as he did, rather than seeing them as a joke of the past, they saw it as a sign that Blitz was either a tough nut to crack, or that he needed medical attention. Although Azure hated the look of him like that, it was something that he was going to have to get over, in order to move on with everything that was happening. He went back to the words that he remembered getting told by Blitz, some night ago.

"Looks are deceiving. Looks don't define a pony, it's what parts are in said pony that should get an evaluation." Blitz stated, some time ago. It was a memory that Azure would never forget, because everytime he thought about it, it reminded him of who he was, being a zebra and pegasus hybrid after all. Blitz was similar, Azure thought, but he couldn't be too sure. He was pretty sure that Blitz talked to him about him being half changeling and half earth pony, but Azure couldn't remember exactly.

Gretzky, Roselight and Saber looked on in shock at Blitz's form. Cuts, bruises and scars were permanent on his body, making for a more vicious look to him, rather than being the big softy that he was outside of combat. If there was anything that would make the Steel Rangers fear, it was Blitz. Azure ran up alongside Blitz and strolled along with him. They both looked down and saw that the base was huge, but there was a checkpoint that allowed them to see the ship. They all calmly walked down, seeing that there was a guard or two at the checkpoint. As Azure looked at them, they locked eyes with him. To ease the tension, Azure waved to them, making them look at each other and wave back.

There was a pony in power armour just outside the gate to the checkpoint. It tracked them and all of them watched as one of the guards walked towards the power armour and spoke into its ear, making it look straight again. It didn't seem to be a threat to them, so they all just looked at each other, before setting foot on the ground, being the same level as the guards and the power armour user.

They slowly walked towards them all, keeping their weapons away from the group. Blitz looked behind, at the group that he was escorting and smiled, before turning back to the two guards that were approaching. He raised a hoof to the guards and watched as they became a little wary of their actions outside a Steel Ranger base of operations. It was unusual that ponies came to the base, especially ones that were unarmed.

"Hello, may I ask what you are doing out here?" One of the guards asked, being a little aggressive with his questioning. Blitz looked from one to another and then gulped.

"We have travelled out here to see the HMS Celestia. Not trying to get close to it, but to have a good view." Blitz explained, seeing part of the ship and not the whole thing. The two guards were a little sceptical about his decision, but they knew that they weren't up to no good because they had no weapons and seemed a little hesitant at first.

The guards got a good look at Blitz and turned around to see that power armour user had gotten up and begun walking towards them. He stopped as soon as he got to the other guards and looked over Blitz's form, seeing his changeling resemblances.

"If I may ask, what are you?" One of the guards asked, getting a little curious about seeing his first changeling. Blitz looked back to the others and then saw that they were getting a little bit closer to Blitz's location. The guards pointed to a nearby hill, which would have given them a look into the warship's location and what it looked like. It was a huge ship, from what Blitz had initially seen of it. The group walked to the hill that the guards pointed to, leaving Azure to wait for Blitz and Blitz standing next to the guards.

"I am a changeling, a being that is pretty much a shape-shifter with unicorn properties and wings." Blitz explained, pointing at his horn and wings, before changing into one of the guards. "I am pretty much able to change my body into anything that I want." Blitz added, before changing into some power armour, which made them smile at each other, before looking back at Blitz.

"Hey, that's pretty cool. What else can you do?" One of the guards asked.

"Yes… what else can you do, changeling?" The power armour spoke, their voice dull and raspy, almost like they were clinging on to death, or were a ghoul within the armour. Blitz looked at them and changed into rock, then into a stick and then into a timberwolf. They all smiled and laughed a little, before Blitz changed back into himself. They were really surprised to say the least.

"I will clarify, I don't know how many changelings there are left in Equestria, due to the bombs, but I stay positive and hope to find some more someday." Blitz explained, making them feel a little bad. "Alchem, go and enjoy the view. I'll be up there shortly." Blitz explained, telling Azure that he would definitely be up on the hill. "I promise!" Blitz added, finishing off his worries that Azure would've gotten hurt around the area that they were at. Blitz looked back at the guards, a fake smile in their face. Blitz knew what was coming.

Blitz's prediction was that since the Steel Rangers were hoarders of technology, they would try to get him to turn into something that they found useful and try to capture him. Blitz got that right as soon as they looked at each other. They talked to each other, before Blitz looked back, in the direction of Lumia and asked her to do something, using his mind to speak directly to hers. As soon as he looked at the group, they began to vanish one by one, each pony becoming more and more confused.

Blitz looked back to the group and smiled, being pretty shy in the process.

"Can you turn into a big structure?" One of them asked, before seeing Blitz shake his head.

"Can't do huge things and the biggest I could possibly go is an animal with three times my height." Blitz lied a little, knowing that an animal three times his size wasn't his limitation, but knew that if he focused enough, he could turn into a huge structure. They looked back at each other and then looked back shortly after.

"Can you change into a weapon?" They asked, getting a quick nod from Blitz in the process. Blitz changed into a fully automatic rifle, before getting picked up by one of the guards. "I think that you will be an awesome addition to the collection we already have." The guard stated, watching as Blitz teleported back to the original spot and changed into his beaten and holed self. He looked at them with disgust, but didn't want to hurt them until it was necessary. They one of them pulled out a pistol and aimed it in Blitz's direction.

"I ain't saying here." Blitz told them bluntly.

"What are you going to do, run to your friends? They have left!" One of the guards told him, making him smile.

"Good!" Blitz stated, before seeing Anti peeking behind them. Blitz commanded in his mind for Anti to attack the right one, which had the gun aimed at Blitz's head. Anti jumped onto the back of the pony who was aiming at Blitz, giving Blitz enough time to draw out his suppressed rifle and shoot the other in the head. No mercy was allowed. The Steel Ranger that was left panicked a little, seeing the timberwolf ripping through their friendly ally. He aimed his weapon at Blitz, but paused as he saw an anti-material rifle pointed directly at his head, making him pause. He didn't say anything, probably due to him being frozen in fear.

Anti growled and snarled at the Steel Ranger within the power armour, making him aim his weapon at Anti, purely out of fear that the wooden wolf would melt his armour. Green liquid dripped off Anti's fangs, making Blitz feel a little uncomfortable. Blitz was going to hold a grudge against the Steel Rangers, just for wanting to take advantage of him. Blitz commanded for Lumia to do something, using his mind to chat with her again. Lumia teleported to Blitz's location, before pulling down the hood of the cloak. The Steel Ranger stood motionless, before Lumia used a spell to cancel out all of the sound around them. The noise cancelling spell would prevent any sound from escaping the bubble, which was beneficial to Blitz for him to not get spotted.

"You need to teach me this spell somewhen." Blitz explained, getting a quiet nod from her in response. The Steel Ranger looked at Lumia and stood motionless, not understanding how it was possible for a pony to become technology. Blitz chuckled, before seeing the Steel Ranger bringing up some weapons that were slotted into the side of his armour, which made the smile fade from Blitz’s face. He brought up his own weapon and aimed it at the Steel Ranger’s helmet, before refusing to give him a chance and shooting him flat in the face. The anti-material rifle tore through his armour like it was butter, making it slightly delve inwards towards his face, but his face had completely exploded from the inside out.

Lumia dropped the spell, before being able to hear sirens going off, due to the cameras seeing everything that had just happened. There was the tiniest amount of doubt that was present in Blitz’s mind, but those doubts were quickly washed away into fear as a couple of Steel Rangers charged at them, different types of weapons ranging from pistols, to laser miniguns firing upon their position. Blitz used his magic to cast a shield of magic that could protect them from enemy fire, but it was quickly running his magic reserves dry, due to the sheer force of the artillery of weapons firing on his position. As soon as Blitz felt that his magic was getting low, it instantly filled itself back up. It was almost like Blitz was not in control of his magic supply, but that was the least of his worries, as the bullets still continued to fly towards them both. Lumia eventually teleported them both and landed the teleport on a nearby hillside, not the hillside that Lumia originally had teleported to. Blitz looked over to the base and then to the other hillside and saw the group hiding behind some trees.

“Lumia, this is my fault entirely. All of you are in danger because of me. I need you to teleport to the others and run. I'll create a distraction so that they don’t follow you back to the settlement.” Blitz stated, getting his rifle ready and looking down at the base. They were all flooding out and heading in the direction of the others. Blitz had to act fast, otherwise it wouldn’t be him being the only one that made a sacrifice on that day. He looked back at Lumia and nodded, before seeing her nod back and teleport off. A tear ran down Blitz’s cheek as he aimed down the scope of his rifle and shot another bullet that was blisteringly loud through the air. All of the Steel Rangers turned from their original position, to look at Blitz and begin shooting at him. Although he was their main target, there were still two or three ponies with no power armour going off in the same direction as the rest of Blitz’s group. When Blitz looked back at the group, they had vanished, making Blitz’s heart feel a little bit of happiness, as he now had an entire army to deal with.

“Good luck, my lover…” Blitz stated, before picking up his cloak off the floor and putting it on, the same on the Lumia should have been wearing, but probably left it there for a reason that Blitz had not yet picked up on. Blitz aimed his anti-material rifle at another Steel Ranger, before firing and beginning the start of his slaughter.

Azure and the rest of the group were running at some speed, seeing that this was their chance to get away from all of the fighting, without any problems. Although they wanted to believe that, they had lost one team member that had a huge impact on the group. Azure refused to speak at that point, trying to hold back the anger that he had for the Steel Rangers taking Blitz away from them. They were now divided from him, which didn’t make their goals any easier to get to, due to them having to run away from all of the badness that was happening behind them.

Gretzky and Lumia, along with Roselight were flying in the air, making their journey go quicker. They still had a little way to go, but they couldn't get any faster than they were going then, but eventually they would have to slow down, due to being out of breath and being tired of all of the running and flying that was going on with them. Azure could have begun to fly, but he didn't in the end, due to the fact that he didn’t really feel like doing it at all. Azure was too busy focusing on what he had lost, rather than thinking about what he could have lost next. Zeke kept looking back and seeing little movement in the trees behind them. It was most likely all of the foliage that they were running through, but he kept a watchful eye out for anything that would have related to an animal or a pony. He looked forward again, but had his doubts that there were no ponies following them.

Azure kept his eye on all of the remaining group, trying to make sure that they all would be alright and not end up getting divided, like Blitz had been. It broke his heart that Blitz was the distraction that they needed to get away from the Steel Rangers, but wasn’t that life? He shook the bad thoughts out of his mind and tried to focus on the main thing that he and the rest of that group had to do. They had to get back home, before anything bad happened.

“Come on, this way!” Gretzky stated to the rest of the group, still trying to fly between the trees. It was difficult and getting even worse, due to the density of the trees around the area getting closer together. It was like they were trying to stop all flyers and make the woodland a no fly zone, but they were only trees. Gretzky landed after a couple of trees got into his way and blocked the path in front of him. Azure followed him close, hoping that the others were okay behind him.

"Saber, come on!" Roselight stated, looking back at Saber and seeing that he was falling behind a little bit. Azure looked back to see this as well and began to slowly decelerate his momentum and wait for Saber to catch up. As soon as Azure stopped, he saw some rustling in the bushes behind Saber and raised his gun, slowly moving towards both Saber and the thing in the bush. Gretzky had stopped and raised his gun to the rustling bush as well.

Anti slowly emerged from the bushes, making everypony and creature feel less tense. Anti howled, before being turned into sticks, symbolising death. The only problem was that Anti didn't come back to life after. They all looked at the timberwolf and saw that it was only an abundance of sticks, making it seem like the timberwolf was gone. A thought crossed Azure's mind, which hurt his mental state a little. He shouldn't have delved on it, but he did and couldn't help himself.

A gunshot was shot next to Saber, followed by another gunshot, hitting Saber in the chest and spurting blood out in all directions. Saber dropped to the floor in shock, followed by Roselight screaming and running over to him. She picked him up carefully with his magic, before flying up, out of the tree line. Brick caught sight of one of the Steel Ranger spotters and shot one of them with the shotgun he had, plastering the non armoured Steel Ranger in buckshot and turning him into pulp. Azure was refusing to hurt anypony and fled with the same ambition that Roselight had done, to save Saber.

Gretzky stayed with Brick, Lumia and Zeke. Lumia welded one of Blitz's old weapons. The shotgun that he had offered to Gretzky to use. It was the perfect size for her to get some revenge on some Steel Rangers, which was perfection for her. She just had to be mindful that she was most likely the Steel Rangers main target, being a machine and all.

Gretzky was whirling about, welding his own modified weapon. It was a single shot assault rifle that had been modified to shoot sniper rifle ammunition, which made it pack a punch, especially against non armoured enemies. He was grateful for the company that he had right there.

Zeke didn't use a weapon like theirs. Instead, Zeke had some lightweight claws on his hooves, which were made by Nightclaw to be fast, agile and able to deal some serious damage, even to some armoured enemies. Zeke was skulking around, being as low to the floor as possible.

The Steel Ranger scouts were using Stealth Bucks to keep hidden from the small group that was able to kill the scouts over and over again. Zeke saw one of them, before lashing out and sticking one of the claws into the neck of one of them. The Stealth Buck wore off and made the scout that Zeke had stabbed visible. This only pushed Zeke to stab further into the neck of the scout. Zeke was close to ripping off the head of the scout, but resisted himself to do so, going to the PipBuck that the scout had and smashing it with his hooves, ending all communication and tracking from the PipBuck. He let the now limp body drop to the floor and continued to find the last one that was firing at the group.

Brick found the other one, trying to reload the weapon that he was using to shoot at the group. Brick pinned the scout to the wall, before looking him over. Zeke ran up to the scout and plunged the blade from his hooves into the PipBuck, breaking it and destroying the screen and interface on it. The scout screamed, as the blade tore into his skin, causing a huge amount of blood to be lost. Brick chuckled before aiming his shotgun at the scout's head. The Stealth Buck wore off and Brick smiled, before unloading a shot into the skull of the scout. It covered Zeke's head and Brick's head in bloodz which made them recoil a little bit, but made them look back to the scene that they had changed. Blood was spurting out of the scout's head, or where his head had been. It was a gory display for sure, but it was necessary to ensure that they weren't followed. They quickly forgot about the bodies and tried to make their way back to the settlement. It wasn't too far away, but it was far enough away for the Steel Rangers to not know where they were going.

They all began to run, pushing their bodies to their limits, as they kept trying to escape the scene. They were all tired and out of breath, but they could all agree on one thing. The HMS Celestia was a beautiful ship, but very, very scary. They all moved as a group, not allowing anypony else to get separated from the group. It was a weird way of moving, but it worked in their favour. They were making sure that there was no chance of losing somepony from the group, after losing a key member already.

Time took its toll on Azure, but before long, they were all back, safe and sound. It didn't take a genius to know that they weren't happy about their little adventure, but they had an amazing view, over a pony that they cared a lot about. Petalbreeze and Sadjoy were at the gate, having big smiles on their faces, but seeing that all of them didn't have a smile at all on theirs. They were slightly confused, but then Sadjoy clocked in on the situation.

"Where is Eater?" Sadjoy asked, being concerned at her friend's disappearance. Azure just looked down and walked past her, going to the house that they both had called home. It was a sad thought that he had lost a friend then and there, but at the back of his mind, he knew that there was a chance of Blitz being alive. He didn't stay strong to believe in that chance and instead, walked into his home, alone, a tear creeping down his face as he entered.

Azure was definitely down about all that had gone on with Blitz's sacrifice, but Azure was having his doubts about Blitz's survival. He was crying because he thought that Blitz was dead, never coming back again. Although he didn't know it, Blitz was most likely, in Azure's mind, fighting against the Steel Rangers, being the one pony army that he had originally shown to Azure.

Azure rested his head on the chair, lying flat in it and making sure that he didn't get interrupted by locking the door. He closed his eyes and stayed silent, hearing his muffled breathing as he remembered the fallen. He let out a sigh and tried to fall asleep, not failing in the slightest, because Blitz knew that Azure was great at anything he did.

Blitz was still alive and he was still kicking with life. The Steel Rangers couldn't get him out of his cover, challenging an entire army with the skills and knowledge that he had. He unloaded shot after shot, ensuring that the Steel Rangers were dwindling in numbers, before they did something that Blitz had never seen before. There was a very special type of modification added to a rocket launcher one of them was using. It carried a type of tentacle with a stone attached to it. The stone glowed with magic, making Blitz slightly afraid of what it could do to him. He teleported to another piece of cover, knowing that they didn't know where he was other than the original cover he had. He kept hidden and then as a rocket was hurled in his original direction, along with the rock and tentacle after. The explosion blasted the cover away and revealed that nopony was there at all. The tentacle was meant to attach to the victim, being part of killing joke after all, meaning that it would most likely jump to the target, before exploding, due to the rock.

Blitz wanted to find out what the rock would do to a pony, so he kept quiet for a couple of seconds, before being bucked to the side of the head, feeling his head jerk from metallic hooves hitting him directly in the head. He felt like his skull was bleeding internally, filling with unnecessary blood that didn't belong in that part of his head. His vision went fuzzy and he looked around at the entire army ready to beat him up. He smiled and coughed up blood, before feeling like he was going to pass out. He got dragged to the centre of the viewpoint, being surrounded by the entire base, planning on what to do with the changeling.

"We can keep him for storage, maybe he could shapeshift into something that could help us have an advantage." One of them suggested with a deep and raspy voice. Blitz chuckled, coughing out blood is eyes beginning to drip blood too. That made his nose, mouth and eyes drip green blood out. He kept his eyes closed, because he was hurting all over and hated the feeling of his eyes bleeding.

"You want me to change into something useful do you? Well, how about this, just so I can see what it does!" Blitz explained, turning into the ball that he had seen, the stone. Before any of them could get a chance to run, the stone that was Blitz's exploded, making the closest Steel Rangers turn into some statues of stone, which gave Blitz an idea of what they wanted to do with him. They wanted to freeze him and turn him into stone, so that they could use him for a use later on.

Blitz looked to his right and saw that there was a good portion of the Steel Rangers left, who were not looking too happy with him. Blitz saw that one of them was holding the same rock, before throwing it at Blitz, slowly turning him into stone. He smiled, before closing his eyes and letting the stone take him, eventually giving up. His vision and movement became blackened and still, allowing him to do nothing, while he slowly suffocated within his own stone prison.

Azure was dreaming about things to help him relax, but surprisingly, they weren't helping him at all. Happy places that he had once known before, sent him happy little wake up calls and satisfaction thought his body. Now, those happy places weren't so happy anymore, giving off negative emotions and showing him a life that would never have been so perfect, showing how his life could've been, if the war didn't hit Equestria.

Although clouds were meant to be a happy thing to dream about, Azure didn't dare dream about it, because it would have just brought back memories of the past and generally would have made him angry, regardless of where he was or how happy he was. Everything was spiralling downhill and the last thing that he wanted to think about was the area that was home to the entire enclave, the entire area of the world that became hostile towards any ponies on the ground, regardless of race.

"Everything would be alright Azure, if you didn't create arguments all the time!" Azure muttered, trying to keep himself cool. He had just lost one of his closest and last friends from the original settlement, meaning that he was mainly just on his own. He was the last one from Journey. Azure waited for a couple of seconds before trying to do anything else, being restricted, due to him having the possibility of having a bad dream or even worse, a nightmare. That was something that crossed his mind. Why in the end did Blitz have Roselight's nightmare within him, after the fight? Azure was still confused by that part, but felt like he should have known somehow, like he knew exactly what was happening for Blitz.

Despite seeing Blitz nearly dying to a ghoul previously, he never thought that after that he would have to say goodbye to his friend. The sad part about that, was that he never got the chance to say it. He never had the chance to kiss Blitz on the head, before saying goodbye. That got him a little bit emotional, but made him smile a little, knowing that Blitz wouldn't want him to dwell on the loss of him. Blitz would have wanted Azure to use his death as an excuse to do crazy stuff, more daring stuff or just motivational stuff. That thought made a tear run down Azure's cheek, but didn't make him sad, it only made him chuckle, as he looked at the image of the small pony with animatronic limbs. Project Chimera was something that both Blitz and Azure never got into or looked up or even talked about. Azure was sure to ask about it whenever he could, but was pretty sure that it was an interesting topic to try to get some light shined onto.

Azure stopped trying to rest and just got up and walked over to the barred up window and looked through the cracks. It didn't help that the cracks were super small, making Azure's head work super hard to try to find a comfortable position to look outside. There was no end result of being comfy and being able to see outside, so Azure set his ideas on a different idea to look outside. He opened the door and stood in the doorway and looked to the sky, seeing that the clouds were getting darker and darker. It wasn't looking good for the entirety of Equestria, as it looked like it was going to try to send a thunderstorm sweeping across Equestria.

Sadjoy saw Azure and gazed at him for a couple of seconds, before walking up to him and stopping in front of him. Azure looked down from the sky and met the grey bat pony's purple eyes. The shimmered within the darkness, being the light that he so desperately needed to cling onto. He smiled at her, before looking back up at the sky, being scared that he would have had another year fall down from his eyes. Sadjoy walked quickly up to the blue pegasus and hugged him, wrapping her hooves and wings around him. Azure did the same, wrapping his hooves around the bat pony that was trying to comfort him. They clung to each other and passionately hugged one another, making sure that the other couldn't get away and feel down about the loss of their good friend.

Azure pulled away from the hug at first, followed by Sadjoy slowly recoiling away from Azure, just to make sure that he was able to get all of the space that he wanted. Azure offered Sadjoy into the house, smiling as soon as she entered and closing the door behind him. He walked over to the chair and hopped up into it, not saying a word about anything and just watching her, like a cat stalking its prey and waiting for it to get close enough, before pouncing at it. Sadjoy looked at all of the pictures on the wall and then down at the Project Chimera picture, featuring the mare with the metallic limbs. She questioned it, but quickly moved on and saw that Azure was sat up in the chair. It was big, but there was room for multiple ponies to lay down and take things easy.

Azure offered her a place on the chair, which Sadjoy quickly accepted, as she jumped up and laid down next to Azure, placing her head on top of his. They both didn't dare say a word, not to break the beautiful silence that they had and for the time that they got to remember Blitz in all of his glory. Although he wasn't actually dead, they didn't know that, they just assumed that he was. He was actually encased in stone, not being able to break out of it and being frozen solid, like a statue. Azure closed his eyes, before letting out a sharp exhale of breath and making it so that he was able to get comfy with Sadjoy on his head.

He tried to dream, which didn't work too well for him. Nothing went his way, did it? Azure's head began to spin, as flashback after flashback played in his mind, displaying a full image like view within a matter of seconds. Azure stood on a ledge, making it impossible for him to fall, due to his wings not being tied up and a barrier in the way, preventing anypony from jumping off and causing huge damage to their minds. Without a warning, the barrier melted and Azure's wings just weren't there. He got instantly shoved forward, pushing him towards the edge and giving him a look down into the void beneath.

Azure was lightly tapped off the edge and made his way down not the void, silently screaming and frantically trying to correct himself in the air. There was no ground in sight, but he just didn't want to be falling. Giving up on correcting himself in the air, Azure just relaxed and tried to unwind while he was in the air. It was anticlimactic, but it was actually helping him, rather than hindering him. He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, before opening them again and looking around.

The original blackened walls that surrounded Azure previously, changed to an almost galaxy like pattern, making Azure feel like he was falling through space, making the dream less real, but more relaxing for him. He casually glided down, not allowing his wings to take over, like his body wanted to so badly, due to fear of falling down and splatting on the floor. In the reality that Azure was in, there was no ground, just an endless loop that kept dropping him further and further.

The galaxy-like background faded a little bit, allowing for Azure to see memories of his past, one of them involving Blitz and making his mood snap to an angry one, vibrating the flashes of his life on the galaxy wall. Azure shook his head, before seeing one that stood out to him, which he didn't tell anypony about. The moment that he should have been branded a dashite, but got away with a little flimsy sticker. He still had said sticker over his cutie mark, but he didn't dare remove it. It was safer to be a fake dashite, rather than a real one.

Azure wanted to look into Blitz's past, to see what life was like within the Wasteland, before things had gotten bad. He was pretty sure that there was no way of doing that, without having him lose the memories. Not only that, but he wasn't there right then, so Azure relaxed a little on that idea and swayed away to look at another image, as he continued to fall into the void beneath.

His brain placed him back into the dream or nightmare that both Azure and Blitz had previously, seeing that they had both been within close proximity of each other, not only in the dream, but in real life. He watched the events of the dream unfold and noticed something quite spectacular. Death was standing by Blitz and looked at him. As soon as Blitz got hit by one of the dummies that were shooting at him, he healed a little, almost like somepony was watching over Blitz and his position.

Azure paused the events that were going on and walked around the battlefield. He was able to interact with everything, changing everything to see what would happen and what effects could have occurred. Azure walked up to Death and blankly stared at him. He didn't look like anypony in existence, adding to the mystery of the Wasteland. It didn't help that Azure was unable to identify Blitz's massive helper, that healed him for a little bit, before fading away to someplace else entirely.

Azure looked about at the setting of the area. It was a training course, but it was in a place that looked far too familiar to both him and Blitz. The area was a part of Journey that didn't exist. Blitz used assets from his mind to create the settings, using the walls of buildings found in Journey. It was like the nightmare that enveloped his mind, used things that he had seen against him. It was a cruel joke to think that somepony would stoop so low to do something like that, using memories of the past to alter his vision and thoughts.

Azure was able to view all of what happened in that nightmare and saw that something was definitely distracting Blitz, due to the look on his face. Blitz looked over to Azure's ghostly figure, almost like he was looking directly at him and able to see him. He slid a memory orb towards Azure actual direction and went back to shooting the dummies, seeing that one was getting closer to him, than what Azure saw in the dream. Real Azure looked down at the memory orb and picked it up.

"Clutch this as hard as you can and get somepony else to allow you to view it!" Azure said out loud, before seeing Blitz get shot, before the fake Azure shot a syringe in Blitz's direction, hitting him in the side, before Azure shot one of the syringes at the ghouls, turning it over to their side. Azure still didn't know how he did that with the syringe or the gun itself, but it might have been something to do with the recipe he used to create the syringes. Maybe it had something to do with the syringe gun or something? Azure couldn't really tell, all he could do was speculate.

The vision of the nightmarish events faded away and got replaced with flashes of Azure's life as a doctor's assistant, back in Journey. It was a great time there, a great time to be alive, but sadly, like most things in the Wasteland, they have to come to an end. It hurt Azure at first, when it actually happened, but it didn't hurt him anymore, almost like he wasn't able to remember the feelings in those events, but he did still have his feelings, which was a little weird to say the least.

Sentences rang out in Azure's head, ranging from hateful comments about him, to the most heartwarming ones that would have made him cry, if he wasn't already so emotionally attached to one of the sentences that was said.

"When this is all over, somepony will buy you a drink and tell you what it is really like to be happy." A voice called out. It was a voice that Azure could remember, but couldn't remember the name of said pony. All he remembered was that it was the main doctor of Journey who said it. Azure was pretty sure that those words would stay true, but who he was having that drink with, was always changing. First it was the doctor, then it was the mayor, then it was Blitz and now, now Azure did have a single clue who that pony would be.

He feared that all of the decisions were slowly changing and soon, he didn't know if he was still going to be the same stallion that all of the other ponies had seen. He was determined to keep going, regardless of what happened. With that, he closed his eyes in the hope to wake up, just so he could be productive and get more stuff done.