Azure woke up in a hurry, seeing that Sadjoy wrapped her wing around Azure, like he was something that she was trying to protect. Azure rubbed his cheek and found that his cheek was matted in water, either coming from being tears or sweat. Giving his circumstances, it was most likely his tears, but he couldn't tell at that point in time. He was pretty sure it was thought, which didn't help too much with his emotions.

There was one thing that he needed to get out of his head, in order for him to feel somewhat normal as a pegasus. He needed to get the thought of Blitz still being alive out of his head, otherwise he would go on to doubt himself for the rest of his life or what remained of it. Azure was pretty sure that it would be difficult, but he was going to try to trick his mind to change the knowledge of Blitz's state.

Azure closed his eyes again, before feeling a wing tighten around his shoulder, making him look into Sadjoy's eyes, before she pulled him closer and nuzzled into him. Azure felt a new load of warmth enter his body and made him feel a little better, but he was still trying to get rid of any memories of Blitz from his mind, only to make him not feel guilty about his death, even though there was nothing that they were able to do. It hurt Azure a little that that was the case, but that was how life worked. There were no lucky ponies, only normal ponies and unlucky ponies. Blitz fell into that unlucky section of ponies.

"What's up, Alchem?" Sadjoy asked, seeing that something was bothering him. She had her guesses, but she was pretty sure that he was remembering Blitz's best moments. She nuzzled him a little, making sure that he was okay, which officially he was, but he didn't want to accept it. He looked to the floor and dropped his noggin down to match his eyes looking at the floor and then slowly looked over to Sadjoy.

Sadjoy looked adorable, giving Azure a confused, yet confident look, making him not understand what emotion she was feeling mainly. She became even cuter, due to her ears flopping and flapping about. This made Azure show the tiniest of smiles, but it didn't last too long, before he went back to his basic looking self, rather than his happy looking self.

Azure got up and stretched, making his body click multiple times, before stopping and loosening his legs, stretching them shortly after he had stretched his body. The pegasus looked into the mirror and saw a pony that looked similar to the strong, determined Azure, but he wasn't feeling those emotions right then and there, especially because he had just got up. Azure was never a morning type of pony, because he enjoyed his bed whenever possible. It was his home away from home, taking him away from all of the hassles of the Wasteland and put him in a land that was easy and satisfying land, where the harshness of the Wasteland couldn't hurt him, as well as the rules of life.

Azure looked at himself and saw that his mane was a mess, which didn't help his mood, it just distorted some kind of grunt from him as he tried to get his mane into a nicer shape, not really caring too much for it. He had bags under his eyes, which showed how tired he was, but there was no time for rest during the mornings, or at least that's what he felt. He didn't like to take naps, only allowing his day to live up to its full potential and not wasting a second, unless he was severely sick, which made it its own little story.

Azure looked away from the mirror and looked towards his saddlebag and slowly walked towards it. He got to it and picked it up and got a couple of syringes out, before just looking at them. The red liquid was there to heal ponies, so why couldn't Azure have stayed with Blitz's original position? He could have possibly helped him survive and possibly went down with him if the worst came to be.

Azure did indeed blame himself, but Blitz in the end was the pony that would sacrifice himself so that the rest of his group could survive. It hurt Azure a little to know that about Blitz, but he guessed that Blitz was more noble than he let on. Officially, Azure was going to have to change and adapt to the lifestyle of possibly losing one of his friends. He didn't want ponies to be immortal, but he wanted each and every pony to live their life to the fullest, hence the reason he became a doctor in the first place, or an apprentice or assistant.

Azure closed his eyes before stomping his hoof on the ground, getting a somewhat scared reaction from Sadjoy, who came over to check on Azure, just to see if he was okay. He looked at her with anger in his eyes, anger that was not directed at her, but anger that was directed at everypony but her. Azure shook for a couple of seconds, before taking in a deep breath and looking to the door of the room.

Azure walked up to the main door of the building and rested his head against it, before opening it and stepping outside. The pitter patter of rain splashed against the floor, as Azure stepped out into the drizzle that was the Wasteland weather. The rain was slightly acidic, making it not beneficial to be standing out in it for too long, but Azure didn't care as much for the details of it and stepped a hoof into a radioactive puddle.

Azure quickly rushed over to Gretzky's shop and saw that the gryphon was there. Gretzky was checking out some of his stock, making sure that it was all in good order and that he wasn't running out of anything. Gretzky turned to see Azure standing on the opposite side of the counter, making Gretzky show a huge, proud smile. He slowly walked over to speak to Azure, chuckling to himself in the process, due to a thought that he had.

"Hello Doctor Alchem! How may I help you this fine morning?" Gretzky asked Azure, seeing that there was no smile on Azure's face, making Gretzky feel a little bad and made him cough, to change the tone of his voice to a deeper pitch.

"I need some radaway and some rad-x. How much is it for one?" Azure asked, no life or joy being present in his voice when he said that statement. Gretzky could see that he was annoyed and trying to vent all of his anger off, so he went to grab a hazmat suit that he had lying about. He grabbed it, before dragging it over to Azure and giving it to him.

"This might be more beneficial, just make sure to return it to me, okay?" Gretzky asked, using his question to be as polite as he could have been. Azure sighed, before grabbing the suit and putting it on. It seemed to fit perfectly to his body, almost being perfectly moulded to his body.

"Thank you. I'll return it back then I have finished with it." Azure informed Gretzky, getting a smile from Gretzky in return, brightening his mood the tiniest of bits. Azure was unable to fly in the suit, so he had to talk to Saber about letting him out. As he was walking to the gate, he noticed that Sadjoy was standing at the door of Azure's home, watching Azure walk in the rain. She eyed him with her pin like eyes, piercing his own with her own beautiful eyes. Azure was glad that she had come to stay with her, because he was pretty sure that he would have probably gone insane if she didn't.

Azure raised his hoof up to say hello. Surprisingly, Sadjoy smiled and lifted up a hoof to reply back, instead of breaking the silence that was guarding the area. That little wave back from Sadjoy made Azure smile, if not for a brief second, before he looked serious again and continued onwards towards the gate.

A couple of minutes later and Azure was out of the settlement and just walking around it. Saber had given him a knife that he could use to defend himself, if he did indeed come across any unwanted ponies or creatures. Azure didn't see himself as wanting to use it, but he did keep it.

The yellow and black striped hazmat suit protected Azure from the radiation that came from the rain. Each little drop of water not wanting to harm anything, but was spiked with poison from the war and the surroundings to do so. Azure was just ensuring that his light blue mane and tail, as well as his bright blue fur, were able to be immune to all of the harshness of the world.

Although Azure had been in the radioactive rain before, he had taken some rad-x and danced in the rain, as if nothing ever bad had happened. Although his mood was getting better, he still didn't feel like dancing. Instead, he would push himself to work harder and to try to achieve more. That would be what Blitz would have wanted, right?

Lucid daydreaming made him phase from reality to a fantasy land of pure imagination. Azure kept flicking from harsh environments to beautiful mountains, which didn't help him focus on where he was going, making him trip over a root of a tree. He landed face first into a puddle of radiation, making him feel a little dirty, even though the water and even the radiation couldn't get through. Azure picked himself up just in time to see a ghoul standing in front of him.

Azure scrambled as soon as he noticed the ghoul, not initially seeing it when it was in his vision the first time. Azure drew his knife out in fear, holding it with his muzzle and making sure that the sharp end was facing the ghoul, rather than having it facing himself. The ghoul just looked at him, not knowing what to make on the situation.

The ghoul was feral, that was for sure, but it didn't show any signs of being feral. It didn't attack Azure, it didn't look like it had any plans to attack him and it ignored him, making him slightly confused. The ghouls didn't look at Azure, as it passed him, making him a little confused. Azure kept moving forward, still with the dagger in his mouth. Azure heard a twig snapped and turned to see the ghoul jumping at him. The only thing that the ghoul didn't notice was that Azure tilted his head away, trying to dodge the attack, but also bringing the knife up to be standing tall, making the ghoul's stomach and entire chest get sliced by Azure's actions.

Azure looked behind him, in the direction that he originally wanted to go and found the ghoul bleeding out on the floor. Azure observed the ghoul carefully, knowing full well that they were beginning to get smarter, using a bit more of what they had less of, their brain. Azure had to admit that what the ghoul had done in that moment in time was pretty smart. It would look like it didn't even care about him, with a big chance to fail if it attacked Azure from the front. So instead, the ghoul strolled past and didn't bat an eyelid at Azure, until it got behind him, having more of a chance to successfully complete its attack.

Azure went to go and help the ghoul, but saw that it tried to lunge for him, making Azure think about not trying to save it. He didn't mean to hurt it, but if the ghoul continued walking, then it wouldn't have been a problem. Azure just tried to turn around, but he couldn't do it. He walked closer to the ghoul and watched as the ghoul lashed out at him a couple times, nearly catching Azure with its claws, carved out of bone and dead dry skin.

The actions of the ghoul made Azure shrink back, making him feel like there was nothing that he could have done to make it so that the ghoul was able to at least walk again. Azure just watched as the ghoul suffered, then made it come down to the final thing that he could have done in that situation. Azure pointed the knife he had at the ghoul, showing the ghoul that he would do something if it refused to listen to him or stop. The ghoul was having none of it, trying to claw Azure from the floor. Since Azure only had a knife at his disposal, making him wish that he could have just brought his gun along with him. Azure looked down at the ghoul, who was eagerly trying to come closer to him, its mind shrouded with pure intent to hurt, kill, eat, repeat.

"Why do you want this?" Azure shouted, realising that there was no visor on the suit, making him question how he didn't recognise that earlier. Azure regained his focus when the grunts of the ghoul slowly turned into a voice. It was almost like it was pleading for help, but at the same time sounding like sarcasm.

"Because eat!" The ghoul answered, blood dribbling down its mouth as it spoke. While that happened, the ghoul quickly lapped up the blood before it reached the bottom of its muzzle, or what was left of it. The made Azure wince a little, before the ghoul tried to lash out at him again, snapping what it had left in Azure's direction. It failed, due to the distance that Azure was at, but didn't make his choice any easier, due to the ghoul bleeding out. Azure didn't want the ghoul to suffer, but he also didn't want the ghoul to hurt him or any other pony.

The choice for Azure was a lot harder for him, due to him caring about all life, but he had to come to a conclusion, one way or another. Nopony said that it would have been easy, but he was going to do it. Azure closed his eyes, before signing and standing on his hindlegs, before jumping up, with the knife in his mouth. He landed on the back of the ghoul and watched as it tried to turn over, but it couldn't, due to both the wound on its stomach tearing and Azure being on the back of the ghoul. Before Azure could do anything, he closed his eyes before jamming his head to the right, tilting his head to get the knife into the skull of the ghoul.

The groans of the ghoul died down completely, after Azure jammed his down. A tear went down Azure's cheek and made him open his eyes to the sight that he had just killed. The ghoul was lying limp on the ground and blood was sporting out of two locations; one on its front, where Azure went through it accidentally. Two, was now in the top of its skull. It looked awfully painful and Azure expected that it probably was, but at least the ghoul wasn't in any pain anymore, that was what Azure wanted to do, only because he felt like the ghoul would have been in so much pain otherwise and didn't want to see it suffer.

Azure backed up a little bit from the ghoul's body, seeing that it was gone from the world. He didn't want to hurt anypony, yet he didn't want anypony to get hurt because of his actions, making him dwell more on stuff that really shouldn't have bothered him. He kept his eyes on the ghoul, seeing if it would reanimate again and make him kill it a second time. Gladly but sadly, it didn't. That brought joy and sadness to Azure's mind instantly, but he shook his head and tried to get around the fact that he didn't need to worry about something that was already dead.

Azure placed the knife in his mouth again, before walking away from the ghoul, hoping that it wouldn't come back to life in any way, shape or form. He noticed that he was feeling a little bit different, noticing that he was thinking a little bit straighter after easing the suffering of the ghoul, making him give the slight sigh possible, before thinking straight for a little bit. All emotions seemed to get filtered away from him, giving him more of a positive vibe from all that he had done. Maybe this was a way of Blitz telling Azure that he was fine. Azure only wished that Blitz could have been there to help him, but sadly, he wasn't.

Azure rounded the settlement once, before finally stopping and entering the settlement, thanks to Saber guarding the gates of the settlement and allowing him entry. Azure looked at him and passed the knife back to him, before seeing a reaction that Saber wouldn't normally portray. Saber looked confused about the amount of blood on the dagger that Azure had just passed back to him. It was literally covered from handle to the tip of the blade, in blood. Saber took one look at Azure, before looking back to the blade.

"Are you okay? Where did this blood come from?" Saber questioned Azure, making Azure smile slightly. That smile that Azure pulled didn't make Saber smile, it just made him scowl. Azure looked around the hazmat suit for any signs of blood, before noticing that there was a little on the back of his hindleg. That didn't go down well with Saber. "What happened?" Saber asked with a straight face.

"I got attacked by a ghoul, but it isn't going to be a problem anymore." Azure stated, a stern look on his face, making Saber look away from him to try and hide any fear that he might have had of Azure. Azure just let Saber be alone with the knife, as he went to return the radiation suit back to Gretzky. He wanted to know why there was no face cover or face shield on the hazmat suit. It really threw him off when he wanted to understand the reasoning behind it, but sadly, he couldn't get his head around the reason at all, so he was going to ask Gretzky for clarification.

As Azure walked around in Sharpened Death, he noticed the area was more populated with ponies. There were a huge amount of ponies over at Nightclaw's shop, making Azure a little confused on why they were there. Did they want something from him? Azure slowly walked up to the group that were buying from Nightclaw, before stopping when he saw that Sadjoy was watching the group carefully, patrolling the area, just in case anypony wanted to steal something and make off with it.

Azure turned and continued his journey to see Gretzky, seeing that he was indeed in his shop. Gretzky noticed Azure with a smile, making one also grow on his face, because nopony wanted to see another pony sad. Gretzky walked out from behind the counter of his shop and helped Azure with getting the suit off. It was a bit of a struggle getting it off on his own, so Gretzky decided to help Azure, to make it quicker and less awkward to see him struggle. Eventually, they got the suit off, making Azure thank Gretzky for the help. Gretzky nodded back and went back behind the counter, before placing the hazmat suit below his counter to dry off.

"Yeah, that reminds me of something that was on my mind, Gretzky. Why didn't the suit have a visor with it?" Azure questioned, hoping that Gretzky was up for answering his question. Happily, Gretzky had all the time in the world, having done most of his tasks earlier in the day.

"It simply didn't come with one when I found it. If it did, I would have still left it off, due to it only being used for rainy days and nights. If the opportunity comes up to go to a radioactive place, then yeah, I'd attach the visor to it." Gretzky explained, getting a firm nod from Azure, as he just relaxed and let the air wrap around him like a blanket.

"Okay then, thank you for the information." Azure stated, getting a response from Gretzky. He gestured his claw in a manner that meant no problem. Azure stood on his two hindlegs and placed his forelegs on the counter dropping his head a little. Gretzky knew what Azure was going through and knew that Blitz was close to him, so he wanted to help as best as he could. He tried to change the subject and had an idea.

"So Alchem, how was the walk? Did it work?" Gretzky asked, getting Azure's attention and seeing that his ears perked up, making Gretzky smile. Azure was about to explain it all to him, but he was going to sum it all up into a couple of words. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but Azure was going to keep it brief.

"Short, relaxing and aggravating." Azure told him flatly, making Gretzky a little confused.

"Why aggravating?" Gretzky asked, a sense of doubt rising in his mind that Azure was still thinking about Blitz.

"I had to kill a ghoul who was smart enough to attack me from behind and just walked past me like I was nothing." Azure explained, making Gretzky smile again. He nodded and grabbed something from beneath his counter. He brought it back up, using his claws and Azure saw that it was a drink of some kind.

"I had a bottle of this lying about and I thought that Eater would have wanted you to have it. It was his favourite drink after all." Gretzky explained, making Azure look at him in confusion. Azure didn't drink, but he knew that Blitz would have, if given the option to. How did he know that it was Blitz's favourite as well. Blitz probably talked to him, duh!

Azure grabbed the bottle and looked at it. Applejack's homemade cider was the name of the bottle and the liquid within, making Azure wince a little, due to how old the bottle must have been. Gretzky opened the bottle for Azure, before waiting for him to take a sip of the mixture. Azure took a sip of the mixture and smacked his lips together, while he swallowed the drink. It was alright, but he wasn't too much of a drinker, but at least he would have been able to finish the mixture. It didn't really taste like alcohol for starters, but was in the end, but that was quite refreshing for Azure and definitely shifted his mood.

Gretzky walked out from behind the counter and hugged Azure softly, before going to the edge of his shop and signalling for Azure to follow him.

*You know the saddlebags that you originally had when you came here, Alchem? Well, I have been busy and have found a couple of extra saddlebags along our journey and have finally gotten around to doing something with them." Gretzky explained, before going around the back of the shop with Azure. "I'm pretty sure the Steel Rangers will be surprised that they haven't been working on this. It was one of the ministry mares that incorporated souls of ponies into material, only this material was chopped up into multiple sources, to help with saddlebag use. What if we used that purpose for… I don't know, armour maybe?" Gretzky added, before showing Azure the armour that he had made. It looked like a bandaged mummy costume, but Azure could tell that a lot of detail went into the design of the rags. The rags created a somewhat type of armour.

The armour looked like it wouldn't have any protection whatsoever, but in fact, the rags were somehow armour. That confused Azure massively, but it was pretty cool to say the least. Azure walked up to the armour and touched it with his hoof, reminding him that he had to go and see Lumia to receive something of his, his PipBuck to be precise.

Gretzky watched Azure's amazement of the armour, seeing that Azure was constantly feeling it, only because he couldn't believe it. Azure walked back and Gretzky brought out two items to test on the material. The first one was a hunting rifle and the second one was some aerosol with a lighter attached to it, making a cheap flamethrower. Azure walked back when he saw both items and made sure that he was out of the way for when Gretzky wanted to test them on the armour.

First of all, Gretzky used the flamethrower on the armour, after dragging it out and away from the shop, to prevent it from burning the shop down. Azure watched as the flames danced in the air, almost like a phoenix did, swirling in motion as the fire danced around the object and sent Azure into a daze. The flames began to heat up the dummy and made Azure wince and then look surprised because of the dummy not bursting into flames.

The armour was protecting the dummy from the flames and making it seem like it was heating up, even if it wasn't. It was pretty smart, but Azure wanted to learn more on the matter of soul energy. It was something that confused Azure, but he would eventually get his head around it. Azure just admired the craftsmanship that went into it, knowing it wasn't Nightclaw's doing, because he dealt with metalwork, rather than material work.

Gretzky stopped with the flames from the aerosol and placed it down, before getting out his rifle. He aimed the rifle at the body of the dummy and fired, seeing that the bullet just bounced off and ricocheted off the armour, which surprised Azure immensely. The shot was loud and probably echoed across the land, but it was at least for testing purposes and not used for harm at all.

Zeke walked behind the shop, just to check on what was happening and saw that Gretzky was standing there with a rifle in his claws with Azure watching. He smiled, before nodding and backing away. Azure and Gretzky both looked at each other and chuckled softly, before paying their attention back to the armour.

"Alchem, I want you to have it. It has a button system that will allow you to put it on and off with ease and i have a feeling that being a medical pony and all, that you would probably have the most positive impact wearing it." Gretzky explained, going to grab the armour and trying to take it off the dummy. It was still hot, but not boiling hot, so Gretzky used the button to unclip the back of the armour, before passing it to Azure. "If I'm not mistaken, soul magic does multiple things for the host, especially if you communicate with said entity every once in a while." Gretzky added, before placing the dummy back under the dust sheet that he had and moving with Azure to the front of the shop.

Azure carefully placed the armour on, after taking off his medical jacket and saw that it had some holes for his wings, which he didn't see before. This made Azure a little confused, but as he got the armour properly equipped onto himself and pressed the button, he could hear a faint voice echoing in the back of his mind.

"Help the world and I shall help you!" The voice whispered, barely enough to be audible. At first, Azure thought that the voice came from Gretzky, but realised that he wasn't paying any attention to Azure at that point, making him question what had actually spoken to him. Was it the armour? Probably. Azure placed his medical jacket and saddlebag over the armour and felt that they were both significantly lighter, especially the saddlebag. It almost felt like the saddlebag was empty, which made Azure actually question if he did indeed have anything within it.

Gretzky walked around the front of the shop and continued to work on some other things that he had to keep working on, while Azure walked past him while he was going back to it. Azure looked at him and saw that he was busy, so he didn't want to disturb him. He supposed that he would come back after he had collected his PipBuck from Lumia, then he would see if Gretzky was busy enough to talk about something with Azure.

Azure turned and walked away from the shop, waving to Gretzky with his hoof, but not getting a response from the hard working gryphon. Azure could understand that at least. He continued to walk away from the shop and saw that Zeke was talking to the kirin,
Lilly. Azure hadn't talked to her much, if not at all, but he was pretty sure that she was a nice mare after all.

Azure walked over to the pair and got the same reaction from both of them. A smile! Azure stopped as soon as he got to Zeke and smiled at them both.

"How are you two doing?" Azure asked, his expression neutral. Zeke looked to Lilly and then back at Azure, drooping his ears in the process.

"To be completely honest, Doctor Alchem, I'm not sure what emotions I am feeling today, especially after what events unfolded and what happened to…" Zeke explained, before Azure cut him off and stopped him completely from finishing the sentence.

"I know, I think that we all know Zeke! I just want to remember him as somepony I held onto for a while." Azure explained, making himself go cold, as well as Zeke. Zeke didn't speak for another good amount of time, before he went to try to speak, but refused himself to do so, keeping the peace within the air.

Lilly walked up to Azure and wrapped her hooves around Azure, feeling that she was hugging him with so much emotion, trying to help him to forget about the events that happened to hurt him so much. Azure was happy that somepony was finally giving him some physical affection, because he really needed it at that moment in time.

"Thank you!" Azure whispered into her ear, making it twitch as soon as she heard the words come out of his mouth. She looked at him and kissed him on the head, sending him into a daze of what in the sweet Celestia happened right there and then with Lilly. Azure was starstruck, emotions flooding his mind and body like they did with Blitz, only he didn't love her. Azure snapped back to reality and shook his head, before tilting his head to her. He walked past them both and regained focus on his main objective, getting his PipBuck back from Lumia.

Azure walked up to the exact house that Lumia and Professor Delta were set in previously, being that it was actually the new security room, for monitoring things that were going on around the settlement. Azure knocked on the door and waited for either Delta or Lumia to open it. The door was metallic and had electricity running around the outer part of the doorframe, making it so that Delta could have opened the door, if he wanted or needed to.

Lumia opened the door slowly, making Azure slowly peep inside, the anticipation killing him as slowly as Lumia was opening the door. As soon as she opened the door, she signalled for Azure to come in, which Azure didn't reply at all. The room was huge! The house or building was made to have multiple rooms, but instead, they planned to just have one room for the computer and setup that was needed.

"Welcome to my home, Azure!" Lumia stated, before going over to a mattress on the floor, next to the computer that Delta was inside. Azure was glad that both Blitz and Nightclaw were able to get Delta over to the settlement. At least then, he could have been kept from being in the wrong hooves. Azure looked at Lumia for a couple of seconds, seeing that she wasn't too happy at all, but still tried to smile. It was so easy for Azure to tell that her smile was fake.

"Yes, welcome to our humble abode, Azure! Feel free to make yourself feel at home." Delta explained, getting a smile from Azure in the process. Azure walked over to the computer, before looking at one of the cameras in the corner of the room. He turned and walked closer to it and watched as it followed his movement. Azure stopped right next to it, seeing that it too had stopped.

"I never really understood how you did this, Professor Delta, but maybe someday I will be able to get an explanation as to how it all happened and how it works?" Azure stated, hoping that someday he could just pop in and get told the story and how it happened.

"Of course! The professor would love that!" Lumia told Azure, getting up from the mattress and going over to Azure's PipBuck. "I knew that you would come back for this machine. Maybe one day the professor could find one that hasn't been used before and integrate himself onto it, or even look into it, to see if he could unlock its potential." Lumia explained her thoughts, making Azure slightly curious as to if he could indeed do that. Surely it was just like getting a virus on the thing, right?

Azure walked up to Lumia and got a surprise hug from her, making him pleasantly surprised that she did anything that loving. She wrapped her hooves around him tightly, trying to literally squeeze the badness out of his body. He appreciated the hug, but also appreciated the air getting to his lungs a little bit more. She lessened her grip on him and smiled.

"Sorry, I guess I squeezed you a little too hard." Lumia admitted, backing up a tiny bit, just to give Azure some space. Delta would have hugged Azure too, but sadly, he didn't have a body to show affection from. He was a little surprised that Azure hadn't broken down at Blitz's loss, but he was genuinely happy for Azure, happy that he was able to stay so strong.

Azure placed the PipBuck on the same forehoof that he did originally, finally feeling like he could have nearly completed his life and put things back to normal, only that isn't how it worked.

"Anyways, thank you both for the affection and comfort. I don't know what I'd do without you both." Azure explained, before rushing out of the door and closing it behind him, almost like he was rushing to get to somewhere, but was he? He looked up and saw that it had stopped raining altogether. That thought made him smile. He flew directly up, riding the wind as he swirled and spiralled up into the sky, but not daring to get anywhere close to the clouds.

Azure used his PipBuck to slow down time, using SATS and letting his body loosen up. He was pretty high in the sky and knew that he was most likely endangering himself and making himself a target, hence the reason why he activated the PipBuck so quickly, to avoid anypony targeting him and being able to get a shot off on him. Sniper or no sniper, he was an easy target for all, which explained why he wanted to keep his time in the air short.

Azure looked around, while still being in the protection of SATS. He was able to see and describe things like he had never been able to before. Everything was enhanced by the slowness of the PipBuck, which was quickly draining his stamina away. Azure looked about the area and relaxed, easing his muscles and loosening all of his joints, trying to make himself feel as comfy as possible.

Azure admired everything that he could within the amount of time that he had left before SATS turned off and sent him plummeting towards the ground. He wanted to describe everything to himself as the most positive that they could have been. He looked around for something to start on, but then looked up and smiled.

The clouds above wore a crimson glow, making the sunshine behind them irradiate them with a warm and calming light. Although the clouds were really thick, the sunlight's beam was far more effective, separating the darkness and light into two completely different entities. All of the shapes of the clouds worked together to fit into place, just like a jigsaw puzzle, not missing a single piece. It was truly remarkable how the Enclave was able to get all of the clouds so compact together and tight enough to not allow much sunlight through to the ground below. They were without doubt selfish though, making Azure hate them for what they had done and what they had contributed to.

Azure looked down and saw that the ground below was poor, but so rich at the same time. Although the ground looked like it hadn't been looked after in decades, the soil was so fertile, especially in some places. That would allow for farmers to be able to create food, but sadly, because of the selfish pegusi, there was little to no sunlight, making it that the plants below would not be able to grow. That left an imprint in Azure's mind that the pegusi were no better than the zebras.

Although Azure kind of hated most of the pegusi and the zebras, he didn't hate himself for being one of them, combined to technically be the worst of all of them. Sure, he grew up with stripes and wings, but he wouldn't judge himself for it, because he never spent time with any groups. If he was to openly show off his stripes, he was pretty sure that he would have been judged for it and everypony's opinion of him would change.

His stamina was draining quickly, which allowed him to stay for one more carefully detailed sight. The settlement of Sharpened Death was one that didn't stick to its name, giving ponies the complete opposite of what they would have been expecting from a place with a vicious name like that. The name hadn't changed from when Roselight and all of the others had moved into the settlement, so there was no point bringing up a debate to change the name to something else.

Looking at the settlement, Azure was proud of what he helped to create. A settlement with a name that not only didn't suit it, but scared off others that might have wanted to attack the settlement. That thought alone made him chuckle to himself while he was frozen in place. The settlement was beautiful, a community below Azure, held together by love, support and friendship. It was an example of what most settlements should have been, but sadly, it wasn't reality for all of the settlements to be like Sharpened Death, because there were some ponies in Equestria that were not made up to be nice and kind. Instead, they had murderous intent, regardless of what it was. Nopony was perfect and that was a fact!

SATS ran out for Azure, making him feel like he needed to take a deep breath in, which he did within a couple of seconds after he had thought about the idea. He was slowly falling through the air, but had his wings out, hence the reason that he was falling slowly. He turned over so that he could land properly and succeeded in landing with perfection, almost like there was nothing that happened. Azure looked around and saw that Saber was just standing there, face blank and showing no emotions on it whatsoever.

Azure looked at him and smiled, before walking in the opposite direction, back towards his home. Although he now has the house to himself, it wasn't the same experience as sharing it with somepony that he cared about a lot. He had mourned Blitz's death, but knew that Blitz wouldn't have wanted him to do so. Blitz would have wanted for Azure to be strong and continue to fight for what was right, in his eyes at least. Azure closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, before a tear rolled down his cheek, making a smile appear on his face.

"Thanks for being there…" Azure stated, being grateful for something that Blitz had done simply for him. Blitz had protected Azure multiple times, but now it was time for Azure to show Blitz that he was going to use the chances that Blitz had originally given him, to his advantage. Azure looked up and saw that the world had gotten a lot darker, signalling that rain was approaching. A clap of thunder shook the world with a blistering roar, as Azure was unfazed by the clap of thunder, making him seem fearless at that point.

Before long, it began to rain, soaking Azure in radioactive water, falling from the sky. He walked back under some cover, before shaking himself like a dog, trying to shake all of the water off his body. His fur was plastered in water, so I did help get rid of a lot of it at least. Azure looked at his PipBuck and sighed, before turning into one of the 24/7 radio stations. There was one that was outputting some of the best songs before the war, without any breaks. He felt like he had made a great choice by choosing it and was glad to hear that jazz was coming up next on the radio station.

Azure smiled as he listened to the music that was emitting from his PipBuck. The jazz was smooth and relaxing, making Azure feel like his head was being massaged from inside out. He loved his music, always had done, it was just that he had never been able to listen to it a lot, but now that he had his PipBuck back, he could listen to it on the fly.

Roselight rushed under the cover that Azure was sitting under, skidding to a stop as soon as she saw him. She heard the jazz coming from the PipBuck and smiled at him, noticing that he was relaxing and listening to music to clear his mind. Roselight sat down next to him and looked around at the rain falling around them, the constant pitter patter of rain splashing onto the ground and creating small puddles, which then would merge together to create a bigger puddle.

A loud crack of thunder broke her silence, making her scream out loud, before more flashes of lightning lit up the world with sharp forks of electricity. Although Azure didn't like thunder and lightning too much, Roselight hated it so much more. Azure used a wing and wrapped it around the alicorn, making her look at him, giving him a scared look.

"It won't hurt you anymore that it will hurt me!" Azure pointed out, making her relax a little, before another crack of thunder shook the air, roaring with vicious intent to scare the entire world. Roselight wasn't having any of it, rushing over to Azure and lying down, before placing her hooves over her ears and her wings over her eyes, trying to hide from something that wasn't even alive.

Azure placed his wing over her and looked down at her, seeing that she was cowering a little. He placed a wing over her, protecting her from the light that she was afraid of as well. She slowly opened her eyes to see what Azure was doing, before smiling and going back to the position that she was in before.

Gretzky ran over to them and stayed quiet, seeing that Roselight was behind Azure's wing, while she cowering herself. Gretzky went to open his mouth, but then closed it again instantly as he looked to Azure and saw that he was shaking his head at him.

"I… I have some news for both of you. It needs to be addressed quickly." Gretzky addressed quickly, stuttering at the start of what he was trying to say. Roselight looked up and saw that he was dead serious about it, making her look at Azure for a response. Azure… really didn't have a response to that. It was Gretzky's plan that originally got Blitz killed, so why could he trust him with going on probably another voyage to see something else.

"What is it?" Roselight asked Gretzky, making him look down at her on the floor. Azure looked out to the rain and saw that it was getting heavier, making their chances of going out on that day, very unlikely. Gretzky looked to Azure and then sighed, before looking back to Roselight.

"Some raiders are in a factory that is about a couple of miles away. It looks like they have found something that the Steel Rangers would want and are trying to use it as bargaining chips for them to come out of hiding and for the raiders to get a bunch of power armour suits." Gretzky explained, making Azure's ears perk up.

"So basically, the raiders are trying to lure out the Steel Rangers to kill them and take their armour? Why is that bad?" Azure asked Gretzky, getting a worried look from him in response to that last question.

"Because if the Steel Rangers die, the raiders around us get stronger. If the raiders die, the Steel Rangers will search for the source of the raiders, potentially coming closer to us and finding out about our new member, sitting inside a computer. Professor Delta, as well as Lumia." Roselight stated clearly, sounding much more confident about her situation. Lightning flashed in her face, but she didn't even recoil, as she thought about something that could have been done.

Azure was getting to the point where he knew what was coming, although he didn't like to admit it, due to it being something that he wanted to stop, because that wasn't the role of a doctor. Azure was scared, but knew that they were going to have to eliminate both the Steel Rangers and the raiders. This sent a shiver down his spine, but also made him feel a little more comfortable with everything, because it was the two factions that gave Blitz trouble, while he was alive that was.

"Welp, I guess I'm in then. How many ponies are we taking into the battle or the operation… or the… whatever you wanna call it?" Azure asked, trying to get a rough estimate as to how cautious he had to be. Gretzky thought for a second, before sitting down.

"I think it is going to be me, Nightclaw, Roselight and Petalbreeze. Would you want to chip in Alchem?" Gretzky asked Azure, noticing that he was in deep thought about it. Azure did indeed have to think about it, because it was a decision that might have cost him if he did go, but might have cost him if he stayed at the settlement. It was a hard choice for the zebra-pegasus hybrid, but he came to the conclusion that it would have been more beneficial for him to go with them, just in case they were to get damaged while fighting.

"I'm in, but I will not be killing others unless it is necessary." Azure announced, getting a firm nod from both Roselight and Gretzky. They both looked at each other and nodded, before Gretzky flew away, back to his shop. Azure was left wondering how they would kill the Steel Rangers behind their armour, but he was pretty sure that was why they were bringing Nightclaw along with them.

Roselight rested her head against the wall that they were sat against, before shortly closing her eyes and sighing. Azure looked to her again, before hearing somepony approaching them. Azure turned his head to see Sadjoy walking towards them, entering the cover and laying down beside Azure. She looked at him and tilted her head to one side, making her ears follow and bringing a smile to Azure's face. She chuckled lightly, before resting her head on the floor.

"We really can't do much until the rain stops, so we might as well relax for a little bit." Roselight suggested, looking at Sadjoy and Azure. Roselight smiled for a short time, before looking to the sky by peeking her head out of the cover that they had from the rain, thunder and lightning. The clouds extended across the sky, being as black as the night itself, making Roselight question if it was actually the pegusi' doing. She highly doubted it, but kept her suspicions about the matter.

Azure laid down and looked at Sadjoy, seeing that she was not one for the rain. She was soaked. Sadjoy was most likely cold, so Azure used his wing to cover her and warm her up. It worked a little, but then Sadjoy got up and curled around before lying down again, curled up next to Azure. Azure tried again with his wing and saw that it covered her entire form. Azure was pretty sure that she was cold, so he was sure that she would have appreciated the comfort that he was giving to her at least.

Sadjoy peeked her head out from beneath Azure's wing and rested her head on the floor, looking into Azure's eyes. Azure was beginning to think that Sadjoy enjoyed Azure's company, which gave him happy thoughts. That was a first in the Wasteland. Azure had to think about how he was going to approach the situation of going with Gretzky and the others, whether that would involve him staying back just in case something happened to land wrong and mess up, or whether he should have been sneaking about and trying to knock ponies out.

Gretzky made it clear that both parties had to be eliminated, but A ure couldn't bring himself to kill somepony, not again. He hated it and didn't necessarily like the ones who did, but they had to do what it took to survive, just like Azure probably would, if it came down to it. When it came to ghouls, Azure wouldn't mind taking a stand against them, due to them already being dead, an aftermath of pre-war Equestria.

"I can do this!" Azure whispered to himself, before looking to Sadjoy and noticing that she was looking up at him.

"Yeah, you can do this!* Sadjoy mimicked, making both Azure and Sadjoy both smile in unicen. It was a happy sight, to see Azure smiling in the way that he was. Sadjoy knew that she was helping, but knew that Azure would mostly be a little upset about Blitz's death. Sadjoy was determined to make her friend feel like he hadn't lost a single friend at all. That was how determined she was to make him happy, so she would try, at all costs.

The thunder picked back up, startling not only Roselight, but both Azure and Sadjoy. Sadjoy didn't mind it, but it was extremely loud for some apparent reason, which was news to her, because she normally would fly up to the sky to hear the thunder as loud as it was right there. Life was confusing, but she liked the confusion a lot.

"Roselight, how many artifacts do we have remaining?" Azure asked, getting a look from her that was not too pleasing.

"I told you to keep this quiet!" She announced, feeling like she had been defeated in some way.

"Hey, we ain't going to find these on our own, are we? You are our boss, our leader, our friend! I don't think that for one minute that anypony will betray you. We have all been loyal, so we only strive to help others as much as we can!" Azure announced, standing up slowly and looking down at Roselight. Roselight closed her eyes and then thought for a couple of seconds, before opening them again and actually agreeing with him, wanting her to be right so much, but in the end, Azure was correct. It would be better if they were all looking for it, rather than a select few.

Roselight nodded to him, before Azure sat down and wrapped himself around Sadjoy, making her feel ever so warm. Roselight looked at the two and smiled, before looking away and making her smile fade away. Azure noticed that she was looking at them both and was feeling like she was missing something. Azure whistled at her, getting her attention, before using his hoof to signal for her to come to him. She slowly crawled over next to him and made herself get as close to him as she could, before Azure wrapped his other wing around her, making her feel all of the warmth in the world.

They all sat there for a couple of minutes, admiring the storm, before Roselight's leg began to twitch rapidly. Azure took notice of this and smelt that something was off within the air, almost like somepony was…

"Azure, Sadjoy, do you two want to go and relax in my home?" Roselight asked, making Azure smile and making him also look at Sadjoy, who was inches away from being asleep. She woke up more and went wide eyed.

"Wait, Roselight? Are you in heat?" Sadjoy asked, getting a massive blush from Roselight. Sadjoy looked to Azure and smiled. "Yeah, sure!" Sadjoy added. Roselight looked into Azure's eyes and tilted her head slightly, trying to give off a cute look. Her heat was beginning to become overwhelming to her, making Azure's choice make or break the situation that they were going to have, or the orgy.

Azure nodded, before Roselight teleported them both away, bringing them both to her home.

"Roselight, why did you call Alchem Azure for?" Sadjoy asked, before getting a blank from Azure.

"Wrong name!" Roselight yelled out, as she closed the windows and locked the door, before opening the door to her bedroom and pushing the two into it, closing and locking the door behind them. Azure was going to have a feeling that he was going to be excited to go on the mission tomorrow, but was still a little worried.

All of the worries seemed to vanish, as two mares playfully teased him, behind the locked door. Tonight was a great night!