Azure woke up in a bed that was not his. He was slightly confused, before the memories of earlier flooded through his mind, almost like a dam breaking and bellowing out water. Azure looked at the beam on the roof that was looking over him and smiled. He could definitely remember what he did earlier and could remember each and every detailed moment, from the way he moved, to what he did and what he was thinking and feeling.

Azure looked to his left to see Roselight. She was still asleep and probably would have been for a little while. Azure was pretty sure that it was still the same day, but he couldn't really tell or at least care, due to him looking at the grin on her muzzle. She had been happy the entire time, so Azure was pretty sure that he had helped her out a lot. He could tell that she was having happy dreams too, due to how she was chuckling while she was asleep. That thought alone made Azure's heart melt.

Azure then looked to his right to see an adorable little bat pony nuzzling his fur, only this mare was awake. Azure looked into her eyes and smiled. They sparkled like they were looking directly at the sun,which made her all the more cuter. Sadjoy yawned, making Azure do the same in rapid succession, due to yawns being highly contagious, if you saw somepony do it. After Azure yawned, Sadjoy kissed him lightly, on the lips. He was slightly surprised, but knew exactly why he had been kissed. Sadjoy closed her eyes and enjoyed it to the fullest, rubbing her body against his in an attempt to get as close as she could to him.

Azure slowly backed away from the kiss, seeing that Sadjoy was enjoying every second of it, until it ended. She smiled at him and giggled, showing that she had enjoyed his company more than she let on. Azure blushed slightly and rolled his eyes, before sitting up and trying to stretch his wings without waking Roselight. She deserved all of the sleep that she could have got. Azure acknowledged how hard it was to manage a settlement, let alone run it as their leader. Azure admired that about Roselight. She was a natural born leader and was really, really good at it.

As Azure got up, he noticed that there was an additional weight that was pulling him down. When he went to look, all he saw was Roselight holding him down, being wide awake. The proceeded to freak Azure out a little, due to how much of a deep sleep she was in. She smiled at Azure before seeing the shocked look on his face, making her cackle a little bit harder.

Azure pouted, pushing Roselight off himself and onto the bed, making sure that she didn't hurt herself at all. She landed on the bed softly, before making the bed bounce a little, due to the old springs of the bed being rusty and worn out. It was good enough to sleep on at least, which meant that it could be used for other fun activities as well.

"Morning then you lot! Did I help you with that issue, Roselight?" Azure asked, before getting a swift nod from her, while she moved her hips on the bed. Azure couldn't take his eyes off her, before Sadjoy dragged Azure's head to the side, allowing his eyes to stray away from her soft flank. Azure really did have a thing for them, that was something that they both knew by that point. Sadjoy looked him dead in the eyes, before smiling.

"You got better things to be doing than staring at Roselight's ass! Come on Alchem!" Sadjoy prompted, making Azure smile slightly. He did what he was told and stretched, before moving swiftly out of the door. He was in the main room and could see the door, but part of him didn't want to leave at all, making it a bit of a struggle for his mind to come up with a solution to the situation. Should he stay with both of the mares, like Roselight wanted, or should he have gone away from the two and begin to work? He didn't know what to choose at that point.

He closed his eyes and thought about what needed to be done, that he knew of at least, before remembering about the plans that Gretzky had. It involved both him and Roselight, so Roselight's option was instantly put out of the window, leaving Sadjoy's option last, so it was the option that he had to go for. Azure opened his eyes back up to see Gretzky standing in front of him, quickly accompanied by both Nightclaw and Roselight. Sadjoy was off to the left a little bit, before Azure looked over and saw her.

"Are we all ready then?" Gretzky asked, a sliver of doubt crossing his mind when he said that. Azure noticed that and then nodded, but then looked at Sadjoy to make sure that she was okay about staying back, out of the action. She swiftly shot Azure a smile, convincing him enough to let her stay safe. Azure had to keep a couple of friends close, but also some of them far away, just in case the ones that were close died. Azure was a little bit more open with death, but hated it just that little bit more.

Azure walked over to Sadjoy and hugged her, before letting go and kissing her on the cheek.

"Thank you for the time!" Azure thanked her, making her blush a little and kissed him on the cheek. She nodded, before she looked at the others, her mind still full of worry about what might happen to them if things fell as badly as they did last time. Azure wanted to avoid all conflict if possible, but this time, it was inevitable, due to the parties involved.

Azure gave Sadjoy one last hug before moving to the front door. He looked back to the others behind him and nodded, before stepping his hoof outside. The floor was damp and cold, signalling that it had been raining a short time ago, making their journey have a little bit of a risky one. Azure looked around and could only see the blackness of the outside world. It was coming to be night-time, making their journey dangerous, if not already. He exited the building and walked around, feeling that the floor was very, very wet. To save his fur and legs from getting muddy, Azure thought that it would have been a good idea to make more use of his wings, so he was going to fly all the way to the next area. That area was their objective, only Azure didn't know where it was, Gretzky and Roselight did.

They all travelled to a nearby building and knocked on the door, using a free hoof. Azure looked at Sadjoy as she nuzzled him, before walking away, probably to get her guard uniform or armour on. Azure really did enjoy her company, especially after earlier, which made him kind of a suck up for her. Azure could tell that she enjoyed his company as well, due to the way that she wanted to be as close to him as she could. Azure had a feeling that he had a new mare friend, but was she only doing it to make him forget about Blitz? That was something that was now bothering him, but he couldn't do anything about it anyway, so he just focused on the job ahead.

The door opened slightly, revealing a mare in some armour. That mare in the armour was Petalbreeze. She was ready by the looks of things, which made the process of getting off into action easier. Azure seemed a little confused at first, but then realised that she must have gotten ready earlier, hence the reason that he saw her running to her home.

"Are we going now?" Petalbreeze asked, getting a nod from her sister, Roselight. Petalbreeze stepped out and looked about, seeing that the entire group was either less armoured than her, or not even armoured at all, which made her a little confused.

"This is a stealth mission, not a full blown assault." Gretzky quickly pointed out to Petalbreeze, giggling a little from the mare in her armour. Petalbreeze didn't respond, hopping about and trying out her armour. She didn't look like she was going to take it off anytime soon, so they just rolled with it and went to pick up something from Nightclaw's shop.

Nightclaw flew as fast as he could, passing Azure like a blurt, which made Azure's head spin. He quickly landed and then cleared his head and made sure his eyes worked properly, before beginning to fly again. Azure could make out Nightclaw scrounging about inside his shop, looking for something in particular. Nightclaw pulled a face as soon as he had found it, before picking it up and placing it into his saddlebag. Azure didn't get a glimpse of what Nightclaw had picked up, but knew that Nightclaw knew what was good to have on a mission like the one that they were about to partake in.

Moments passed as they were let out of the gate, a stoic Sadjoy and Saber at the gate, protecting the settlement like their life depended on it, like it pretty much did. Azure waved back to Sadjoy as she gazed on in happiness that he had helped her have a stress free sleep. She wanted to thank him somehow, but how?

Night fell across the land, darkening the area and the sky as well. What was a once grey sky littered with clouds, was a black abyss with clouds above. The clouds destroyed any hope Azure had of seeing the so-called 'stars' in the sky, but he was told a lot of magical things about them.

"We shouldn't be long! I'm pretty sure that we're nearly there." Roselight explained, getting the group to be more focused. Nightclaw was flying and toying with a weapon that he had. It looked like a shotgun but also a rifle, which confused Azure a lot. There was a lot in the world that Azure couldn't wrap his mind around and one of them was weapons.

Azure could see weapons on all of the ponies and gryphons around him, making him roll his eyes and making him try to tell himself that they were for protection purposes only. Azure thought the truth, knowing full well that they wouldn't kill unnecessarily and only focused on defending themselves and their friends.

Petalbreeze could see that Azure was a little bit spooked, so she slowed down a tiny bit, before picking up speed again, as she got to his side. She noticed that he wasn't right. He looked a little more drained than he previously did, but she thought that it must have been what he had been feeling for Blitz was beginning to build up in his mind.

"Are you okay, Alchem?" Petalbreeze asked, looking slightly concerned at the state that Azure was in. Azure nodded, before looking at her, directly in the eyes. She could see that something was off, just by the look in his eyes and how his eyes kept twitching and darting from pony to gryphon. Petalbreeze didn't believe him for a second, before she pet her hooves on Azure shoulders, having to jump a little to bring him down to a lower level.

"What is it?" Azure asked, being slightly confused about what she found wrong with him.

"Relax! Please!" Petalbreeze commanded, being a little too loud and grabbing the attention of the rest of the group. Azure's ears folded over and made him look at the ground. He closed his eyes for a split second before perking his ears up again and opening his eyes. He nodded to her and flew up a little bit, clearing some of the trees above and instantly flying back down after catching a glimpse of a couple of raiders in the trees ahead. They didn't see him, but he wanted to make sure that they weren't spotted by them.

Azure tapped Gretzky on the shoulder, before whispering into his ear, telling him that he had just seen some raiders in the trees up ahead. Gretzky looked up and then back down at Azure, nodding to him quietly and pointing directly at Roselight and Petalbreeze talking, signalling for him to tell the two about the situation that they were in. Azure did as he was suggested, walking over to Roselight and Petalbreeze and noticing that they took an extended interest in the conversation that Azure wanted to have with them.

Roselight quickly and quietly rose up, using her wings to flap as quietly as possible and spotted the two raiders, before landing again and speaking with Petalbreeze. Petalbreeze nodded, before getting onto Roselight's back. Azure watched as both of them rose into the tree line, fading out of sight. A couple of seconds later, two bodies fell on top of Gretzky and Nightclaw. It was the two raiders, with knives plunged into their necks. Roselight and Petalbreeze both landed, before they used their magic to pull the knives out of the lifeless bodies. Azure should have felt something from the raiders, some sort of emotions, but sadly, he didn't.

Azure watched as the blood drained from the wounds in their necks, making everypony else look away, apart from Azure. It was almost like he was watching something like a bottle falling over and watching the water come out, only this water was blood and the bottles were bodies. Azure found it very hard to take his eyes off them , but knew that he had to move along. They were really close to the area where the raiders were meant to be setting up an ambush.

Azure looked at his PipBuck and saw that there were a couple of red blips on the screen of it, making him a little bit curious to see how many raiders were really inside such a small area. Azure looked up and could see the corner of the factory. Just like the last factory that both him and Blitz travelled to, the walls were crumbling just at the sight of it. It gave Azure a little bit of a reminder of finding the memory orb and one of the artifacts, that being the Daring Do figurine that was passed quickly from both of their grasps, to Roselight's tormented state. Roselight was back on their side at least, which filled Azure with a sense of achievement, boosting his confidence, ego and motivation.

Gretzky raised his weapon, along with Nightclaw, pointing it at the factory and wondering about what happened to the place. It looked exactly like one of the other areas that they had to clear out originally, which gave them a false sense of dread and made them a little confused, if not confused already. Azure didn't raise up his weapon, he only kept it to his side, being ready for if any ghouls wanted to intrude into their battle, making his mind race from the thought of a war occurring right there and then.

All of the group flew up, making it so that they didn't stumble across the raiders that were already inside, giving away their cover. They had an idea that they really wanted to stick to, which they hoped that it would work perfectly. They were going to hide in a position that would allow them to watch over the battle between the raiders and the Steel Rangers. They would then come out and finish off the side that was the last remaining, hoping that the raiders would win, due to them having no armour, unlike the Steel Rangers did. They were more confident going up against raiders than any member of the Steel Rangers, especially ones that had bigger mounted weapons on their sides.

The group landed on the top of the factory, before lying down and trying to see if they would be able to spot any raiders below. Gretzky had an abundance of weapons at his disposal, which made him the heavy hitter of the group, the one that could rain the pure light of the sun down onto the enemies below, making for a large assault on the ponies that challenge them and definitely the ground. Gretzky, with the amount of weapons and bullets that he had, was sure to leave a crater in the ground, especially if it was a Steel Ranger on the opposite side of him. Azure was a little confused by the amount of power that Gretzky was able to put out, but he understood that Gretzky would only use the weapons if he needed them.

As they all laid down, Azure could see that Roselight was holding Petalbreeze on her back, making her slowly slide down off Roselight’s back, making Azure smile and chuckle lightly. He was pretty confident that the group would have succeeded, if they managed to stay quiet and hidden all of the time. Azure was most likely the one to make them all stay quiet, due to him being the only one to want to avoid all conflict altogether. He was pretty stubborn about that as well, seeing that everypony had p[otential, if they tried at all to show a spark of good. If they did show a spark of good, Azure would have helped them set that spark into a fire of light and generosity. Azure looked at the group and smiled, knowing that they would have done anything to have helped Blitz, if they could have had the opportunity at all, that would lead to their survival of course. Azure had to stop thinking about his friend Blitz, but it was hopeless to try and forget somepony who meant a lot to not only himself, but others around him. Everypony in the settlement enjoyed his company and that was what made him such a remarkable changeling.

Azure caught sight of some raiders below them, which made him a little anxious about the entire situation, but then looked to Roselight and saw that she was smiling at him. The way that she smiled at him made Azure build up his confidence about the situation that they had placed themselves into. Bit by bit, Azure’s confidence increased for every member that was smiling, which gave him the confidence to smile as well. It made the tension of the situation die down just a little more than it previously did, making Azure’s nerves die down just that little bit quicker. Azure was still scared that he might have a chance to lose a friend, but he didn't let that stop him. Instead, Azure was slowly becoming more and more confident as the seconds went by, each one feeling a little longer than a minute, as the group waited for the perfect opportunity.

Gretzky brought one of his rifles to bear, before looking down the scope and locking onto one of the raiders, but refusing to fire until the time was right. Azure looked at the other raider and thought to himself about how the group would have gone about the situation to take out the remaining enemies, making him actually stop and think. Azure looked at his PipBuck and looked through his inventory. He didn't have too much stuff on him, only a few medical supplies, the pistol that Blitz had given to him, some canned food for when he got hungry and his syringe gun with some healing syringes. He really didn't have too many things, especially when compared to the others that he was tagging along with. Gretzky’s backpack was nearly full, due to the sheer amount of weapons and ammo that he had brought along with him.

Two more raiders appeared out of nowhere, making the group think that the raiders would have surely won. One of them was holding a rocket launcher, strapped to his back with the trigger in his mouth, getting ready for when he needed to use the weapon that was strapped tightly to the back of the raider stallion. All of the group spotted him as well and kept their eye on him, moreso for the reason of him having a rocket, when the rest of them had rifles in their magic or attached to their sides, on a battle saddle, much like the one that Azure had.

Before long, the raiders picked up on something, before scattering and hiding. They knew that the Steel Rangers were coming in their direction, so they hid out of sight quickly, to avoid the armoured units from getting the first initial shot off, one that would most likely cause the raiders to lose their ambush. Gretzky spotted a couple of them hiding in the factory below them and made out that at least one of them was trying to get onto the broken roof part that they were one, which made them all look to the ladder that was close by. They could hear one of the raiders climbing up and aimed a weapon at the position of the ladder. Each of their weapons were pointed at the ladder, pretty much making the situation completely overkill.

“We can't do that! It will alert the entire ambush team and it could make our time a little harder, potentially losing another good member of the group, which i don't want!” Petalbreeze called out quietly, making sure that she didn't talk too loud and getting them spotted or found out about. They all went completely silent as soon as they heard somepony climbing up the ladder, making each of them go breathless, apart from one pony, who was getting something out of their saddlebag.

The raider peeked his head up and over, not spotting the group originally, but noticing that something felt off with something, somewhere. As soon as the raider spotted the group, Roselight placed an orb around him, trapping the screaming that he was doing, due to spotting the group and trying to call out to his team of raiders that were pretty close by. It didn't work, making Roselight push on with her actions. She used her magic to lock the raider in place, before he was able to use the rocket that he had strapped to his back. Roselight was going to end it very quickly and quietly, moving up to him within the bubble and pressing a pistol to the frozen stallion’s head, before pulling the trigger and not hearing anything, only seeing his body go from life-like to dead within a matter of seconds.

Blood poured from the body of the raider like his head was a waterfall, for blood. It trickled down his head and made a little puddle on the floor beneath him. Azure disliked the scene before him, but didn't have the willpower to do anything about it. Azure just watched in shock as a pony was left to rot like the rest of the Wasteland. It was a sad sight, but Azure was determined to help those who deserved a second chance, not the ones that ruined their first chance so bad.

The rocket launcher on the pony’s back was heavier than they had originally expected, but they were able to unfasten it off the stallion’s corpse and take the rocket launcher away from him, allowing them to use it for themselves and for the entire team. They moved it into a suitable position and then got it ready to fire, waiting for the perfect moment to fire the rocket and release hell apun the opposition. All they had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity to use the rocket and then the battle would have been closed quicker than it normally would without it.

They all waited patiently as Roselight moved back down, removing the noise canceling bubble and waiting for something to happen. Just like them, the raiders were also waiting for sight of the Steel Rangers, which filled them with a little bit of excitement. Azure slowly shuffled over to the corpse of the raider and looked at it. As blood oozed from the bullet wound in his head, Azure was sure that there was no chance at all of saving the raider that he was looking at, making him frown a little. Despite them not really caring about anypony but themselves, Azure wanted to at least give some of the nicer raiders, a second chance.

Azure looked at the battle saddle and saw that it was similar to the one that he was wearing on himself at that point in time. Azure was pretty sure that all battle saddles were the same, but he couldn't tell for sure, due to how much of the world Azure still didn't know about, making him want to travel the world, not only Equestria. That thought alone got him thinking about what he wanted to do when it was all over, but that was a thought that would need to leave his head, due to him knowing that the world would probably not go back to how it used to be, but with time anything was possible, so he could hope for a better future at least.

Azure was called over again by Gretzky, telling him to get to position, do to them seeing the convey that was coming in their direction. As quick as a flash, Azure returned to the position that he was in originally, making them know that he was ready to do nothing at all, apart from being the medic and all. From where they were, they could see the Steel Rangers coming in their direction. From the looks of things below, it looked like there were only three of them, two in armour and one without armour. Azure was pretty surprised to see that there were not more of them, being how their battle with Blitz ended up. It was one changeling versus about ten or twenty Steel Rangers, making Azure chuckle a tiny bit, before going silent again. Azure looked at the convey coming towards the and wanted to wait for the perfect time to be able to signal to use the rocket launcher. Gretzky and Nightclaw both toyed about with the rocket, before Roselight moved it away with her magic, making the group focus more on the things the were going on in front of them, rather than the things that were beside them, like the rocket was before Roselight moved it away.

They all focused on the situation that was happening and tried to make out what was going on with all of the raiders below them. There were raiders pretty much everywhere, making it impossible for them to move around from the spot that they were already in. That made the situation that they were in worse, because now they couldn't rely on a plan B, which was to run back and set up further down the treeline. That sadly, wasn't an option anymore, as well as running away completely, due to more raiders being behind them.

Roselight had a plan, a plan that would make them able to stay where they were without giving off the impression that there was somepony on the roof of the factory, instead of nopony being up there. Roselight was going to stay behind cover with the rocket launcher and fire it off when the fighting started. Roselight noticed that the stallion had a timestamp on one of his forehooves, indicating that something was going to happen at that time. Roselight was hoping that it was the time that the Steel Rangers would have got there, rather than being anything else.

Azure could pretty much see all of the raiders about the area. Some were scattered across the area and some were packed into tight areas, getting ready for a fight that they were not really ready for. Azure could at least tell that nopony below had a strong enough weapon to be able to penetrate the armour that the Rangers used. Metal suits have a pretty high protection pattern, making Azure know that there was at least a couple of minutes worth of distractions, making him doubt the raiders.

Although they could see the ponies approaching, the raiders below couldn't make them have to wait for the others to call out and start shooting at them. If they were lucky, they could take out the non armoured pony, but that was a slim chance that they would have accomplished anything down below. Azure saw that there were a couple of raiders in the trees and behind them as well, making them pinched even more than they thought. One of the raiders spotted the convoy and shot a flair directly up, making it so that all of the other ponies around knew. Before they knew it, the group saw a lot of other flairs rise up after being shot, indicating that there were at least another fifty raiders outside of their view range, making all of their hairs on their tails stand on end. The flairs were all red, indicating nothing until roselight looked at the body. She found a flair gun too, noticing that it was green. Without a blind notice, she took it with her magic and aimed it at the air, before firing a green pulse into the air. The green flair traveled through the air and exploded, before hearing a blisting howl, followed by a lot of yelling.

The raiders charged into battle, shooting at all of the Steel Rangers from every angle, apart from above. Roselight noticed something as she was about to go and fire the rocket at the defending convoy. The convoy was delivering some boxes of food and the non armoured mare was also defenceless, having no weapon to defend herself with. Roselight could see that the Steel Rangers were protecting her with something, but she didn't know what they were using to do so. All Roselight knew was that the mare was not with the Steel Ranger, more or less being escorted by them.

That was bad for the entire party that was involved, not only the Steel Rangers, but also Azure's group that he was with. Not only were there too many raiders for them to handle, but they weren't even intercepting a convoy from the Steel Rangers. This was an escort! The Steel Rangers in the power armour used their guns, being able to take out raider after raider. Roselight spotted a crowd of raiders that had bunched up, about five or six of them and shot the rocket at them. It didn't go directly where she wanted it to go, but it did still hit all of them, making it not matter as it did a little swirl, before exploding and taking out the group.

The non armoured mare spotted the group and got shot in the foreleg, making her recoil in pain and shock. Gretzky flew overhead and let loose a stream of buckshot as he unloaded one of the shotguns that he had with him. The rest of them, being Petalbreeze, Roselight and Nightclaw stayed on the roof. Azure had a different idea, making him want to test the durability of Gretzky's design

Azure jumped down and landed on the ground, using his wings to slow the fall and prevented him from breaking or at least damaging his legs. As soon as his hooves touched the ground, he looked around and saw a couple of raiders getting closer to him, holding some sharp weapons in their mouth and magic, making them more of a threat than Azure had originally thought. A bullet whizzed past Azure’s ear, hitting one of the raiders directly in the centre of the head. Azure just stood there as the raider fell to the ground, his body becoming lifeless and still. The other raider looked at Azure, as Azure gave him a dead gaze, making the raider shake.

Azure outstretched his hoof, only wanting peace and for all of the violence to fade away and die down, rather let ponies battle one another like Celestia had not wanted them to do. The raider froze, not knowing exactly what to. Azure still had his hoof outstretched for the raider to join him, not wanting the raider to get hurt in all of this. Azure had to hurry up with the entire saving process, otherwise there wouldn't have been anypony left to save at all, making him feel like more pressure was on him, rather than anypony else in the group. The raider looked at the battlefield that they were in, before looking down at the body of his ally. The raider was pretty much siding with the enemy if he did agree to stop all of the murderous intent, but it was a difficult choice of the raider.

Out of nowhere, a raider rushed towards Azure, before knocking him over and making him roll onto the floor. The raider then proceeded to pick up the weapon that the fallen raider had and was about to plunge it into the body of Azure, before the blade of the weapon broke right in front of him. The raider looked at the blade and saw that it had been broken clean, leaving a straight line where the blade should have been. The raider got angry at this and turned around before lifting up its back legs. Azure rolled out of the way as two hooves came crashing down in the location that he was originally in, making him glad that his head was not in that position anymore, otherwise it would have been turned into mush. Azure was ready to keep rolling, but could see that the raider was not moving anymore. Azure looked over and saw that the previous raider, who Azure gave a chance to redeem himself, had done something to the raider that almost killed him. Azure got up and looked at the front of the raider and saw that there was a huge cut in the raiders throat. Azure looked down at the weapon that the raider had and saw that it was covered in blood, from the head of the blade, to the bottom of the blade. Without warning, a bullet whizzed past Azure again, hitting the already dead raider in the head and separated his head from his body, perfectly from where the somewhat good raider had cut him. Did the raider really decapitate his ally? If so, then it was a very clean cut.

Azure placed his hoof on the raider’s shoulder, before looking up at who was providing the protection from above. Azure looked over and saw that Roselight was looking directly at him, a sniper rifle in her magic, showing that she was indeed a good marksman. Azure looked back down to the raider and saw that he was smiling. He didn't seem to have any words to say, but Azure could tell that he was grateful for not killing him, like the other raiders. Azure was glad that he was able to change the thoughts of yet another raider, the first one being of course Zeke. The raider dropped the weapon that he had and waited for Azure to do something.

A scream came from the mare that had no armour and and both Azure and the new ally that Azure had acquired, looked over at the mare to see that one of the Steel Rangers had fallen, the armour getting blown to pieces with the Steel Ranger still being inside of it. Azure rushed over to the mare, charging through multiple gunshots and getting a couple of shots to the side, which quickly broke the bullet physics, making them bounce off the thin material, almost like it acted like metal. At least Azure now knew that the armour worked, putting his mind at rest, just long enough for him to be able to think of a strategy that they could do to allow not only the mare to survive, but the other Steel Ranger as well.

Azure and his friendly raider ran along the floor and got to some cover that was able to block them from most of the shots coming from different directions. Azure looked to his raider friend and saw that he was okay. Azure thought of something that might or might not have been a bad idea at the time, but it would have surely helped him get to both the Steel Ranger and the mare. Azure grabbed a spare pistol that he had within his saddlebag and dropped it in front of the raider, making the raider look at him with shock. Azure looked away from the raider and looked to where the mare was, before bolting out of cover and running towards them both.

Azure felt like the world was in slow motion, due to what was happening. Azure could hear multiple gunshots being fired directly at him, yet they took their sweet time to get to him and ping off his armour, like a piece of dust. It was almost satisfying, if it wasn't for the risk of death being there as well, with any well placed shot to the head being able to kill him within an instant. That was one of the fears that Azure had, which scared him a little bit every time he thought about it. As he continued to daydream, running across a battlefield, he shook his head and looked around, as his legs carried him forward with a great amount of speed behind each fluent movement. Azure was dodging so many bullets, which made him feel a little cocky in the situation that he was placed into. Bearing that in mind, Azure didn't go overboard with his decisions, making them and planning out how to carry them out carefully. Azure was nearly there, still trying to get across to the others. He could also see that Roselight was trying to help still, making sure that no raider could get to him, so that he could get over with the mare and the Steel Ranger.

A barrage of bullets came in Azure’s direction, making him have to take cover behind debris that came from the remains of the factory. It made a perfect amount of cover for Azure to creep behind and allow him to get a couple of peaking glances out of. Technically, he was pinned, dead as a doornail, but something happened that hurt him and surprised him at the same time. His armour, having a soul or fair few souls woven into the fabric, enhanced the armour a little bit, giving him an aura to him and giving him a visor made of magic and wing guards to protect his wings. Although that was good, there was still a downside to the entire thing. That being the fact that there was a full blown conversation between the souls and Azure, within his head, making him feel a little bit light headed and nearly making him feel like he was going to have a nose bleed. That thought alone made him smile and try to forget about the pain that was growing inside of his head, which allowed him to make another push, hopefully being the final push that he needed to get to the stranded two. It was!

Azure slid behind some cover and used his syringe gun on the mare, allowing her leg, that originally had been shot, to heal up properly and quickly, so that they were able to either sneak away or survive. Azure liked the first idea better, but had to go with the second option, due to them being the main focus of all of the raiders. Gretzky was shooting overhead as Azure stayed in front of the mare, allowing his armour to soak up all of the shots that would have torn through the skin of a pony, but it didn't for Azure. He was pretty much unkillable, until the voices finished their frantic nagging, within his head, thus removing the magical visor and wing guards.

The armour was dealing with some heavy fire, but Azure was pretty sure that it would have been able to withstand the full force of most of the raider’s weapons. Azure was pretty sure that there would have been another rocket launcher being used by another pony somewhere within the field, but Azure didn't have time to focus on all of the other ponies that could have had different weapons. He had to focus on the task before him, protecting the mare while the others protected the Steel Ranger. Azure slowly began to move, watching as the mare behind him moved along with him, shuffling as much as he did, making them both look like they were doing some type of synchronised dance or something else along those lines.

Gretzky was constantly diving on the enemies, making them shoot up at him, as well as throw stuff at him. Luckily, he was able to dodge all of the bullets, but not every item, as a random chair hit him, making him go off balance and do a little spiral, correcting himself almost instantly, as he flew back up into the sky, not wanting to even go close to the clouds out of fear of what they might do to him if he did get close. Each strafe that Gretzky did, ended up with a couple bullets less in his rifle and more bullets in the raiders.

Nightclaw joined Gretzky on that, with the entire strafing strategy, but instead of using a rifle, Nightclaw wanted a bit more gore and a bit more power, so he used a shotgun with a huge magazine, peppering some of the raiders that he got close to with molten hot buckshot, little pellets that ripped little holes into the body of the pony who was on the wrong end of Nightclaw’s barrel. Before he needed to reload his weapon, he threw some explosives at some of the raiders trying to hit him with debris from the factory. Nightclaw laughed before he landed with a shotgun in his claws and a couple of explosives on him, him wearing them like a belt.

The raiders charged Nightclaw and got instantly deleted from the world, as Roselight took out some of the raiders with her sniper rifle, allowing Nightclaw to have a little bit of fun. Using her magic, she lifted the side sight of the weapon to her eye, allowing her to look down the weapon with ease. She lined up another shot and took it, tearing a huge hole through one of the raiders head, making sure that he wouldn't have been able to get up from that. Roselight could hear a pony climbing up the ladder behind her and turned to load her gun for another shot, before the gun jammed. The raider got to the top of the ladder and laughed, before pointing a pistol at Roselight, using his mouth.

Petalbreeze darted in with a very sharp knife that one of the original raiders had, allowing her to threaten the raider. She skipped the talking phase of the ‘make friends’ plan and went straight for the ‘can't be trusted’ plan. Petalbreeze stabbed the raider directly in the throat with the knife, using the magic to carve into it, thinking bad thoughts to bring her to the limit of what she could mentally cope with. She took the knife out with her magic, before she lashed at him one more time, decapitating the raider in an instant and making his body drop to the floor, just like his head did. Roselight turned to her right and saw that there was a pegasus looking at them that was a part of the raiders.

The pegasus raider aimed their gun at both Roselight and Petalbreeze, making them stand still. A shot tore through the back of the raider’s head, forcing her to land forward, due to the force of the shot. Both Roselight and Petalbreeze looked to see who saved them, before seeing Azure’s new raider buddy holding a pistol in his mouth, before he lifted a hoof at them, waving at them like he was a friend that had not seen them in a while.

“Don't shoot him sister, he is friendly, thanks to Az… Alchem.” Roselight informed Petalbreeze, seeing that she was pulling out her own rifle, to be able to join in the action from the roof of the factory.

The new friendly raider looked about and saw one of his own approaching him, a gun within his grasp, his magical grasp. The raider came along and slapped Azure’s new friend with the back of the pistol that he had within his magic. They both didn't say anything, they just looked at each other, before the raider stood back and aimed his pistol at Azure’s friend’s head, before nearly shooting a bullet right into his skull. The thing that stopped him was a small brick that was travelling at the same speed as a bullet or near enough the same speed.

Azure shot a piece of debris at the raider that was harassing his new friend, using his syringe gun to shoot the brick at lightning speed, knocking out the raider in the process and hopefully not killing him, as Azure didn't intend on killing ponies that were alive anymore. He didn't care too much for ghouls, but alive ponies were different. They could still live a life, like the ghouls had originally done, making them more of a priority to save and keep them in the state that they were. Plus, it didn't help that only a hoof full of ponies were able to turn into ghouls after they died, so there wasn't even a chance that some ponies would get a second chance. Azure was thinking too much about all of the actions and choices that he would have made, making him not focus on the task that he had set himself, protecting the mare. Azure shook his head before getting back into the action.

Azure looked around and saw that there were only a couple of raiders left, as according to Roselight, making Azure breath a sigh of relief. The friendly raider walked towards Azure, making him smile before looking over at a raider that was rapidly coming towards Azure. Azure’s friend stepped in front of him and raised a hoof to the raider, making him slow down and come to a complete stop, before the charging raider looked at his former ally with confusion. The raider looked at all of the surrounding ponies, including Roselight and Petalbreeze on the roof, making him feel a little confused.

“They won't hurt us, not like the others would. If you want your life back, to be as normal as it could get, then join me in what i have done. There are more corrupt raiders out there, being put in control of others, choosing the life that they have to follow, otherwise, they die if they do not follow or do it right. These ponies, gryphons and other creatures could give us a chance to get our lives back, as long as we help them, that's what I'm guessing at least.” Azure’s friend spoke, looking back at Azure for confirmation on what he had just said being even the slightest bit right. Azure nodded with pride, knowing full well that his friend wanted to change how the raiders saw them. Azure was pretty shocked to see that his friend had been so outspoken and correct with his speaking, giving Azure a little bit of an insight of how the raiders worked a little. Azure was always wanting to work out and find out more about the world that he was living in, so this was the best chance that he could have got to show how interested he was with all of the raiders that were in front of him.

One by one, the raiders dropped their weapons and looked to Azure’s friend for insight into getting their lives back into working order. There were about ten raiders that were now interested in becoming better, which filled Azure with a little bit of confidence that he could offer the world a hoof and change it for the better. Azure looked at the mare behind him, before she stepped out from being behind him and watched with a little amount of scaredness, as she walked around without any protection and looked at each raider individually. She limped around, picking up her bad leg and keeping it off of the ground, making Azure remember that he had forgotten to heal her. Without warning, Azure placed a medical syringe into the syringe gun and fired it into the leg of the mare, with a bit of range to it. The mare recoiled a bit, before looking down at her leg, which was now rapidly healing due to the medical formula that Azure used to make the healing product. She looked over to Azure and smiled, making him blush a little, before she turned around and continued to look at all of the raiders, one by one. Her look was a little intimidating to say the least, but at least she didn't have any intention of murdering anypony, which satisfied Azure’s nerves.

Azure could tell that even the Steel Ranger was surprised, due to him stopping with all of the raiders as well. Azure felt proud as ever, being able to stop a fair few raiders from killing ponies that were innocent. Roselight and Petalbreeze came down from being on the roof of the factory and landed on the floor, Petalbreeze being placed on the floor by her alicorn sister’s magic, making her feel like she had just got off a magical dragon or something along those lines. Azure placed his hoof on the shoulder of his new friend, before looking at all of the ponies that he had changed.

Roselight looked at all of them, before looking at Azure with a somewhat angry face. Azure smiled back at her, almost like he was trying to overpower her frown. It worked for a tiny amount of time, before she went back to frowning.

“This is a good amount of ponies we have, but do we have enough space left to house them?” Roselight asked, Azure not really putting that into consideration at all, making Azure feel a little bad for doing all of it, even though it wasn't his fault at all.

“If needs be, i could share my area with a couple of them, just to make life easier for you, Roselight.” Azure told her, making her ponder for a couple of seconds before nodding. Azure's friend was pretty happy with what he had done, but knew that he would have to prove himself in order to make the entire group trust him, which was pretty respectable, even for a former raider that was trying to reform and change his way. He looked around to see a bunch of raiders that had changed for the better, knowing what was right, from what was wrong, making him feel even more proud of what he had accomplished.

Azure looked around, before turning to the mare that he was protecting originally from the raiders, before they had a change of heart. She was a little bit caught up in all of the aftermath of the fighting, but at least she didn't have any major injuries, due to the potion that Azure gave her to heal her wound on her leg. Azure was another pony in the crowd that felt like they had achieved something today, despite all of the fighting and the killing, he still viewed the actions of today as a success.

Roselight looked at the Steel Ranger before checking him over, just to see if there was anything damaged or missing from the power armour that he was in. Fortunately, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary for the Steel Ranger, apart from a fair amount of bullet marks, not holes.

“Thank you for the support there. I'm not sure how long we would have lasted if you weren't here to help. I extend my gratitude to all of you for the help and even thank all of the raiders for changing. If you saw the damage that the raiders have done to other settlements and areas, you would have changed on your own, without the help of the pegasus in front of me.” The mare explained, pointing to Azure for being the pegasus that changed the raiders for the better. Azure blushed a little bit, but deserved all of the praise that he had gotten that day. “We need to make up some lost ground and mourn the death of my other guard. I hope that you all will understand.” The mare stated firmly, getting a subtle nod from both Azure and Roselight.

The mare went on her way, allowing Azure and the rest of the old group and new group to look around the area, looting the long range weapons like the guns, rather than the close range weapons like sticks and batons. That lasted for a little while, before they decided that it would have been a good idea to head on home, due to the clouds forming above, making it seem like it would rain hard or creep in with some thunder and lightning. That thought alone made Azure walk at a quicker pace, making the others follow suit. Azure’s new friend walked beside him, along with Roselight walking the opposite side of him too. Knowing this, Azure walked calmly, his mind slowing down and relaxing, easing all of the nerves that were pent up and trying to exit his body at alarming speeds. For a little bit, Azure finally felt relaxed, which was something he definitely needed to feel once again, due to how nice it felt. Azure was in his own world, a world that was inside his head, as he trotted back to the settlement, with his new army of friends following beside him and behind him.