There’s an old war story about a battle between the white dragon Mirroth and the Raptor-Class Cloudship, Cirrus Intortus.

Mirroth was badly injured and attempted to take advantage of a thick fog to flee from her assailants. Only the Cirrus Intortus, despite being badly damaged herself, dared to follow after the dragon. The crew knew full well that their decision was suicidal, that there was little chance that they could actually beat the beast in the state they were in. But with all of the unprotected towns the dragon was heading towards, they had to attempt to take Mirroth down.

Thus began the game of cat and mouse; both were wary of the other, unable to tell where they were in the fog, waiting for the inevitable confrontation.

And dear Luna was it a confrontation; Mirroth took the cloudship by surprise, nearly tearing it in half as the cloudship unloaded everything it had against his hardened scales.

The Cirrus Intortus lucked out in the end; a stray shot managed to clip Mirroth’s wing and forced him to take refuge in a cave. A cave that the cloudship promptly sealed with as much firepower as it could muster, ending the threat for good.

In a way, I’m beginning to understand how they must have felt back then: desperately trying to accomplish a suicidally insane task because the alternative is the mass slaughtering of ponies. Though it’s doubtful that any of them had to wait for their monster while pointing a rifle at the head of a stuffed doll.

And this is my plan. The one that even Rose isn’t sure will work. If that isn’t proof that I’ve finally gone insane, I don’t know what is.

My eyes dart around the small lobby. From the destruction of potential cover places, like the broken remains of a receptionist’s desk against an alcove along the wall, to nearly every hallway being filled with rubble, to even the deep gashes and claw marks everywhere, this place simply screams ‘this is a trap!’

Yet here I am, willingly standing out in the open with an ace up my sleeve, so to speak, and luck on my side. And a backup plan when those two things inevitably betray me and everything falls apart. Again, if this isn’t a sign of insanity, I don’t know what is. With a deep breath, I glance at the pin barely sticking out of the back of Smarty’s neck.

Dear Luna, please let this stupid plan work.

In an instant, three large red dots appear on my E.F.S. coming down the only other clear hallway leading to this place. With a few deep breaths, I steel myself for the encounter at hoof. Although every second chips away at my mustered courage as I hear heavy pawsteps and the scraping of claws against glass heading towards me.

Into the light walks the disturbing form of Lupa. Burnt skin is all that remains from the top of her head down to the upper part of her chest; some parts of her skin split open to reveal an amalgamation of muscles and metal. However, my eyes gravitate to the memory orb she is casually tossing into the air as Roxie and Winona appear next to her.

Her red eyes scan the room before settling onto me; her lips contorting into an unsettling smile. “Oh Intrepid! I’m so glad you came! My, you don’t look so well.”

“I-I’ve been better,” I say, trying, and failing, to rip my attention away from the terrifying orb.

“I’m sorry to hear,” She says, catching the orb and digging her claws into it as she cranes her neck to the side. “I don’t see your little friend anyway. Did she finally run off like the little rat that she is?”

Like a roar of vindictive thunder, a shot rings out in response. The orb explodes in Lupa’s paw, blood and glass scattering everywhere as the other two hellhounds immediately act. Roxie feints to the side, pulling out her cannon of a magical energy rifle in the process, while Winona instantly crouches with her claws extended. Pressing my rifle’s muzzle against Smarty’s head is enough to cause them pause. Though, given how both items are shaking in my magical grip, that might not last for long.

Lupa stares at the blood flowing out of her paw, watching the blood drip to the floor without any indication that she is in pain, before looking down the hallway behind me with a frown. “I’m not in the mood to play your games this time, dirty rat,” She snarls before motioning Roxie towards the hallway. I move to block her, only for Roxie to instead pull out a detonator and press the button.

The ground shakes as a cascade of explosions goes off and fills the lobby with dust and smoke. Pure instinct compels my body to the floor as my hooves cover my head. It takes all of my focus just to keep the rifle and doll in my magical grasp as the world around me trembles.

It feels like an eternity passes before the shaking stops and the dust starts to die down. Luckily, the explosion didn’t collapse the ceiling on me. Though it did collapse the hallway behind Lupa. Which means…

I pick myself up and look back to find that the other hallway is closed off as well. “Rose! Are you alright?!” I attempt to move some rubble aside, only to stop when Rose’s familiar whistle puts my mind at ease.

“Now,” Lupa says calmly, pulling my attention back onto her as she fixates on the doll still hovering near me. “About Smarty.”

I glance between the three hellhounds, then at the doll slightly trembling in my magical grip. A doll that is currently keeping Lupa at bay for now. In her mind, Lupa must be thinking that she has already won. With no avenues of escape and no other alternatives but to give the doll over to her, I am simply a dead stallion trying to hold off the inevitable.

“H-How do I know you actually have what I want?” I stammer through my question. Obviously undermining my attempt to look brave in front of them.

The little pony in my head can’t help but sympathise with Lupa as she rolls her eyes and motions to Winona. Winona almost gives an odd look to Lupa before thinking better of it and pulls out a holotape from her knapsack.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from my travels with Silverwing, however, it’s how to tell if something doesn’t add up. And one tape from four mainframes just doesn’t add up. I look straight into Winona’s eyes with as much courage as can be mustered. “Just one? Please, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Surprisingly, Winona shrinks back at my gaze, a paw hovers up to her chest before she shakes her head. After some more digging around, three more holotapes emerge from Winona’s knapsack before each one slides across the floor and right into my waiting hoof.

“See?” Lupa says with the same unsettling smile from before. “We gave you the tapes, just as promised.”

“We’ll see,” I say before loading a tape into my PipBuck. The screen soon fills up with a lot of numbers and other information that looks like something a rocket scientist would want. I hope. It’s hard to be thorough with three demons of death staring you down.

Ok, calm down, things are not as bad as they seem. The plan is still going smoothly and my ace in the hole is still well hidden. Just make sure that these tapes are legit and then Lupa can be dealt with.

A quick glance at Lupa’s scarred form puts that idea into doubt, though.

As I’m about to put in the third tape, Lupa growls. “I am getting tired of waiting,” She says, baring her teeth. “We gave you what you wanted, now return Smarty to us!”

With a deep breath, I place the tapes away and look up at Lupa. “Alright, everything looks to be in order,” I say before teleporting Smarty, minus the pin sticking out of her neck, to a spot in front of Lupa. “Even used the mend spell to tidy her up. No unwanted seams or anything.”

Lupa (or any of the other hellhounds thankfully) doesn’t seem to notice the pin sliding into my saddlebag as she picks the doll up and hugs it in a surprising display of affection.

“You really are a nice pony, Intrepid.” She says before motioning to the others. “Kill him.”

Both Roxie and Winona hesitate at the command, giving me enough time to teleport as an explosion rocks the inside of the room.

My timing is slightly off, if the ringing in my ears and the slight dizzy feeling in my head is any indication, but my senses are intact for the most part. The hellhounds, however, stumble about in their attempts to stand up; the stun grenade having the full effect on them while also reducing the doll containing it into a pile of burnt fabric and barely recognisable parts.

I smile as my view is soon blocked by the sudden appearance of my ace in the hole: a large, light blue Sentinel robot with a tiny, sparking StealthBuck crudely attached to its back.

This is what happens when you push a nice pony into a corner, Lupa. Especially one that is well read and experienced with pre-war technology.

With an announcement made unintelligible by the ringing in my ears, the Sentinel powers up its two arm cannons. Winona doesn’t notice as she digs her claws into the walls in an attempt to stay standing. Her eyes manage to come across Smarty’s remains before the Sentinel blasts her into the nearby alcove; her fur disintegrates and her skin blisters upon contact with the magical blast.

Shots of magical energy fly past my head. On my left, Roxie leans heavily against a wall, her magical cannon leveled in my direction. As Roxie pulls on the trigger, the Sentinel turns and fires, blasting the hellhound through the wall and disintegrating the cannon in her claw.

Setting aside the ethical questions about having a working Sentinel robot as a museum exhibit, this is actually working out a lot better than I thought. All it took was replacing some wires and using a little bit of magic to jumpstart the thing so it can give the hellhounds a run for their caps. Didn’t even need to mess around with the spell matrix to get it to do what I want, either.

Using one of the robot’s legs, I prop myself against it and wince as Lupa notices the remains of Smarty. A low, pained whimper emanates from her as the Sentinel’s cannons charge.

I’m sorry, Lupa. For what it’s worth, I didn’t want to do this to you. But you forced me down this path. And I’m not going to let innocent ponies die because of my mistake. Not again.

Once again, the Sentinel unleashes a torrent of magical energy at Lupa, forcing the hellhound into the rubble behind her; Her blistering skin breaks and bleeds as the sharp edges of broken concrete and rebar slices through it.

For a brief moment, I hope that this will mark the end of Lupa and her pack; their dead bodies lying on the ground, buried by the rubble of the facility whose owners they tried desperately to murder. But, unsurprisingly, Lupa refuses to stay down; her claws digging into the ground as she shakily stands back up, signaling to the Sentinel to prepare for one more barrage.

My little pony quietly suggests that maybe I should feel bad about causing Lupa so much pain; She looks outright pathetic with her body shaking and covered in blood as tears run down her cheeks.

Yet, seeing Lupa’s bloody visage reawakens that dark feeling within me. It claws at the back of my mind as the dark pony reminds me that Lupa did bring this on herself. After everything that she’s done, after all of the lives she has senselessly snuffed out, this is nothing less than what she deserves.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the impossible happens.

With unbridled rage radiating from her eyes, Lupa charges forward, pushing through another barrage of magical energy before swiftly tearing off the Sentinel’s arms and smashing its head in.

Then she glares at me with an intensity that could melt steel.

My teleport spell couldn’t go off any faster, my panicking mind picking the room beyond the hellhound-sized hole in the wall as the only escape route open to me. That hope is quickly dashed when the spell deposits me into a room with no way out.

Along with a badly burnt Roxie picking herself off the floor. Her body still swaying somewhat from the effects of the stun grenade.

Her claws barely tear into my duster as I dodge out of the way. My rifle manages to fire before she smacks my body into a wall with the back of her paw, knocking the wind out of me.

Pain wracks my chest while Roxie closes in on me. It’s out of sheer luck that her claws tear through the nearby wall instead of my hide as I barely manage to teleport behind her. The wall falls apart, with light pouring and showing a room that I can escape to. And not a moment too soon as Winona soon joins us in the room. A vicious swipe from her ripping into my duster and riot gear just as I teleport away from those two and into the light.

It takes a moment to gain my bearings in the lit intersection I find myself in. A moment Winona uses to tear through a wall and block one path forward. Before I can back up, Roxie rushes through the hole I escaped from and comes at me from behind.

Not liking being in between two irate hellhounds, I desperately teleport down the only hallway that doesn’t have a hellhound in it. Then keep teleporting down every hallway I can see before finding some dark room to hide in. I hug my rifle and press myself against a wall, waiting for them to come after me. Sweat runs down my face and a haggard coughing fit punctuates the silence as seconds drag out for an eternity.

Yet nothing happens.

While E.F.S. doesn’t pick up anything, their presence is still felt in the back of my mind. They are definitely still around, that’s for sure. So where are they?

Poking my head out the door, I visually confirm that they are not out there before finally abandoning my hiding place. With whatever few seconds I’ve just bought myself, I pull up my map. Though the arrow on the map doesn’t do a good job of explaining where I am. Ok, are there any visual landmarks to help pinpoint where I am? Huh, there’s a directory sign here: Three-hundred rooms to the left, four-hundreds to the right, executive offices down the now collapsed stairs. So that places the backup plan south of here. I think. Hopefully I can meet up with Rose before Lupa and the others have a chance to turn my body into a blood smear on the floor.

Red flashes past the corner of my eye before my rifle is swiftly aimed down an empty hallway. Seconds past. Nothing shows up.

Something’s not right here. I just ‘killed’ Smarty by stuffing a stun grenade in it, something I never should have let Rose talk me into doing. They should be ripping this place apart trying to get to me. This is too calm for them. Too restrained. What are they doing?

I shake my head and cautiously start heading down the corridor. That doesn’t matter now. What matters is meeting up with Rose so our backup plan can start.

‘And when that plan inevitably fails too?’ The dark pony asks. ‘You’ve seen what those hellhounds can shrug off. Will more of the same really make that much of a difference?’

Maybe. Maybe not. It’s safer than giving in to this horrible feeling of bloodlust. Safer for Rose, at least.

‘Really?’ The dark pony asks. ‘You didn’t kill Rose when you last used your blood magic. In fact, you saved her with it. It’s only your stubborn insistence that nothing good will come from it that is holding you back.’

Something crunches rock near me, triggers my instincts as I teleport forward. Not a moment too soon as claws dig into the ground and I find myself pointing my rifle at Winona. Once again, she hesitates when I look at her before dashing forward. Giving me just enough time to activate S.A.T.S. and shoot her legs out from under her. Then I run like a mad pony down the hall, hoping to put some more distance between us.

A large rock flies past my face and strikes a pile of rubble hard, causing some to slide off and reveal part of a casing for an old Mr. Handy robot. It starts sparking and I quickly teleport back to escape the explosion. A piece of rebar buries itself deep into my shoulder as I reappear; the force of the impact throwing my body into a nearby wall as I cry out in pain.

“Doesn’t feel good now does it?” Winona asks as she struggles to stand.

Clenching my teeth, I pull the rebar out of my shoulder before pointing it at Winona when she attempts to move forward. She hesitates, her eyes fixate on the bloody end of my makeshift weapon. Then looks up and smiles. I follow her gaze to see Roxie standing above me.

Before I can react, Roxie grabs me by the throat and squeezes. The rebar and my rifle falls to the ground and blood runs down my neck as I desperately try to pry her claws open in vain.

“Make sure you do it quickly,” Winona says coldly. “Before he does that stupid trick again.”

“Not yet,” Roxie growls before slamming me into the wall. Her rancid breath washes over my face as she leans in close. In her other claw hangs the tattered remains of Smarty. “You were her friend. Why did you kill her?”

“Because she couldn’t stand watching you kill more of her kind,” I manage to spit out, saying whatever words come into mind. “This was the only way she could think of to make you stop.”

“YOU’RE LYING!” Roxie roars as she once again slams me into the wall. Her grip around my neck, however, slackens enough to allow me to breath. Maybe I’m actually getting through to her?

“Look, there’s enough of her left that I can bring her back!” I quickly say before she gets the idea to strangle me again. “I just need some fabric for the spell and she’ll be good as new!”

“I’ve had enough,” Winona growls before extending her claws out. “I hope Rover gets the chance to tear your soul apart once I’m done gutting you!”

Thunder echoes throughout the hall before blood and sparks fill the air. Roxie cries out, letting go of me as she grasps at her wound. Seeing this, Winona move in for the kill before a bullet buries itself into her shoulder. I manage to grab my rifle and teleport away by the time a third shot rings out.

Pain sears through my shoulder as I stumble away from them. Thankfully, Winona doesn’t chase after me, instead deciding to grab Roxie and flee as more shots continue to tear into their bodies. Although, if the red dots on my E.F.S. mean anything, they’re not planning on staying away for long.

“That was too close for comfort,” Rose says as she appears next to me before wincing at my bleeding shoulder. “I knew I should have been standing with you during that deal. You alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” I say while using blood magic to patch up the wound. “Unlike the Sentinel that Lupa just ripped apart.”

“From the look of things, at least it gave them a beating,” She says before her ears flicker. She swears under her breath while glancing over her shoulder. “Can you run?”

Another jolt of pain sears through me as I attempt to move. “Maybe. A healing potion would be nice right about now.”

Our ears perk up as a glass bottle hits the ground in front of us before rolling to my hooves. Emerging from an adjacent corridor, Lupa quietly comes into view. Her cuts and gashes are healed but her body is still covered in her own blood; her red eyes burying themselves right into me.

As I take a step back, something shatters behind us, grabbing our attention as Rose swiftly points her rifle behind us. On the other end of the corridor stands Winona, wiping her muzzle with the back of one paw while the shards of another bottle lie at her feet.

“I was serious about fixing- I mean healing Smarty!” I say, darting my eyes between Winona and Lupa. “If you just get me the materials, I’ll make sure she’ll be good as new! Then we can just, you know, brush all of this under the rug-”

Lupa lets out a low chuckle which soon erupts into hysterical laughter. “My dear little Intrepid, what are you doing?”

Buying time. What little of it there is to pick out a spot to teleport to.

“It’s ok, you can stop lying to me now,” She says, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye. “I know who you really are deep inside. After what you just pulled, you’re about as cold and heartless as I am,” She then glares at me, whatever humor she had now gone. “So stop holding back and fight me like an equal!”

Winona takes a step back as Lupa drags a claw along her exposed chest, cutting it open and causing blood to appear in a diagonal line. “There, I was good enough to bleed for you. You know what to do next, right?”

“Intrepid, get your spell ready,” Rose whispers as she quietly slips a hoof into her bag.

I glance at Rose before leveling both my gaze and my rifle at Lupa, which simply causes Lupa to shake her head and sigh. “What will it take to make the real you come out again? Ah, I know!” She shifts her glare over to Rose. “Winona, tear her wings off.”

Winona again hesitates, glancing at me, as if fearful that I’m going to do something horrible to her. Until Rose fires a shot into her chest and causes her to stumble backwards. Letting out a blood curdling howl, she digs her claws into the ground and charges forward.

For a brief second, an opening emerges and, as my horn glows and I press my hoof against Rose’s shoulder, Rose drops a mine in front of her. Our reappearance some distance away is marked by a loud explosion as the mine goes off.

Shots ring out as we both fire into the dust cloud in front of us. How effective we are, however, remains to be seen as the dust settles to reveal two giant holes in the walls.

E.F.S. doesn’t pick up anything, although it is foalish to assume they aren’t around anymore. Rose quietly scans the area as I reload my rifle. Suddenly, her ears twitch and a flash of red is all that I see before my body is pushed to the ground; a claw breaks through the wall and cuts the air where our heads were mere seconds ago.

My rifle goes off, striking the chin of the hellhound attacking us and forcing her head upwards as Rose swiftly pulls out her knife and stabs right behind the kneecap. In response, the hellhound slams her paw into the ground just as Rose and I scramble out of the way. It takes a second to fully recognize our opponent as Roxie.

Roxie snaps her head towards Rose as a knife digs its way across her arm. Claws rake through the air at the moving bat pony, cutting through the leather leg guard and into Rose’s hind leg.

Rose clenches her teeth as she hovers above me just before I finish reloading my rifle. S.A.T.S. only lasting long enough to slam a bullet into Roxie’s shoulder before the spell prematurely ends.

The force of the shot causes Roxie to stumble and dig her claws into the floor to keep from falling over. A short whistle grabs my attention as Rose takes flight and glides down the hallway.

Teleporting up to Rose, I try to push past the pain in order to run alongside her. My injured shoulder, however, soon force my pace to slow as Rose gets further ahead. The feeling of claws nipping at my hind legs makes it clear what will happen if the situation doesn’t improve soon.

Pulling out another mine, Rose glances back before dropping it below her, giving me just enough time to teleport past it. Roxie barely manages to avoid stepping on it just as S.A.T.S. kicks back in.

Targeting the mine, I shoot at it, causing it to explode and send shrapnel into Roxie’s leg. While a second shot from behind slams into her other leg, abruptly stopping the wounded hellhound for the moment.

As the corridor takes a sharp turn, Rose slows to a hover before looking ahead. With a sly smile, she shouts “Watch your step!”

“I know!” I shout back before passing by her. Sweat runs down my face as I practically dancing around the piles of rubble littering the floor; Every hoofstep sending another jolt of pain through my shoulder.

Just a little longer now. I just need to hold out a little longer. Just until we get to the room and then this nightmare will finally have a chance of ending.

A glimpse of red peering through a crack in the wall causes me to skid to a stop. Right as Lupa bursts through the wall. Without thinking, I fire my rifle and, for a moment, seemingly knock her off-balance as the bullet strikes her shoulder.

Then, in one effortless motion, Lupa digs into the opposite wall and hurls a large chunk that barely grazes my head before slamming into Rose’s wing.

Panic sets in as Rose hits the ground hard. My horn barely begins to channel the magic needed for another teleport spell when Lupa slams me into the ground.

I cry out in pain and desperately try to free myself from under Lupa’s paw when Winona walks into view. Blood stained bandages cover what remains of her claw as she approaches Rose with a cold expression on her face.

Lupa leans in close to me. “You stubborn little unicorn. I wouldn’t have had to resort to this if you had simply given me what I wanted in the first place.” She says in mocking sympathy while I watch in horror as Rose struggles to her hooves; Winona’s good claw fully extended and raised like an executioner’s axe over Rose.

“Rose!” I shout out as Winona strikes.

Flashing a smile, Rose jumps aside at the last second, dodging Winona’s claw as it cuts into the ground. Winona immediately tries to catch Rose with a backswing, knocking her rifle to the side just as she fires it off before she leaps back.

Winona and Rose circle each other as they wait for the other to attack; both carefully avoiding the rubble on the ground.

In an instant, Winona feints right and, as Rose aims her rifle in that direction, strikes from the left. Rose barely jumps back as Winona’s claw slices her leather armor apart and cuts into her chest before firing off a shot.

The bullet strikes the side of Winona’s body, forcing her to take a step back in order to keep her balance. As her paw presses down on a pile of rubble, metal jaws burst forth and bite deeply into her leg. A yelp escapes Winona’s lips and at that moment Rose draws her knife and swiftly cuts into Winona’s leg as she runs past.

Winona growls as she turns to face Rose, only for Rose to effortlessly jump onto the hellhound’s back. In rapid succession, Rose buries her dagger into Winona’s neck, causing the hellhound to cry out before grabbing Rose and throwing her off.

Despite the force at which she was thrown, Rose manages to roll into her fall, clenching her teeth as pressure is placed on her broken wing, and lands on her hooves again.

With rage and anger, Winona tries to strike at Rose once again, only for the chain securing the trap to the floor to pull on her leg and throw her aim off. Rose barely manages to dodge, clenching her teeth as Winona’s claw barely grazes her foreleg, before another hidden bear trap digs itself into Winona’s arm.

At this point, I grab my rifle with my magic and press it against Lupa’s stomach. Pouring enough of my own magical energy into the weapon, I pull the trigger and shut my eyes tightly as pain sears through my horn and head.

The sounds of gems cracking, wires frying out, and bones cracking fill the air. Feeling the weight lifted from my body, I quickly rub the blood from my eyes to see my rifle in pieces before me. Lupa stumbles back a bit before dropping to her knees, her arms instinctively hugging her stomach as she coughs out blood.

My eyes fixate on the blood leaking out of Lupa’s stomach as that dark feeling once again claws at my mind. ‘End it now,’ The dark pony quietly whispers. ‘You’re not going to get another chance like this again.’

Rose leans heavily on my shoulder, snapping me out of it and prompting another set of teleports that sends us past Lupa and down the adjoining corridor at the end.

My head aches and I fight back against the nausea while quickly trying to get my bearings. It’s a dead end with one small gutted room in front of us. A room with damaged walls, precise cuts into the studs along said walls, and a sheet of plywood covering part of the floor inside.

“So far so good, right?” Rose says as she looks up to me. With one of her wings dragging along the ground and deep cuts along her legs and face, her bravado seems almost ludicrous.

“If this is good, I don’t want to know what bad is,” I say before glancing over my shoulder, looking down the hallway we were supposed to have led the hellhounds down as part of the plan. But of course plans don’t always go as expected. Even backup ones.

Rose smiles. “We still managed to make it here despite the detour. And you thought those bear traps weren’t going to be useful.”

“They almost weren’t,” I say before a blood-curdling howl fills the air.

My heart almost stops as Lupa emerges from the hallway, dripping a trail of blood behind her as she sniffs the air before snapping her head in our direction. With a snarl she swiftly drops to all fours and charges; her claws tear up the ground as she propel herself forward like a vengeful wolf.

At the last second, Rose pushes us apart and away from Lupa. However, as Lupa charges past, her claw rips through my saddlebag and armor to cut into my side. I clench my teeth as blood seeps from the new wound while Lupa digs her claws into the ground, trying to use her momentum to turn herself around for another attack.

This works against her, however, as Rose quickly takes aim and fires into Lupa’s shoulder, throwing her balance off and instead sending the hellhound tumbling onto the small room.

It only takes seconds for Lupa to get back onto her paws and ready for another charge.

It also only takes seconds for an ominous sound to go off beneath her.

*BEEP*

The sheet of plywood shatters into splinters as the mine secured underneath explodes. Lupa barely manages to dig her claws into the edges as the floor beneath her gives way to a giant gaping hole.

Rose takes one look at my bleeding side before approaching the hole. As the hellhound finally pulls her head above the crumbling edge, Rose calmly presses the muzzle of her rifle right against Lupa’s forehead.

“Winter Rose. Remember it.”

With a loud bang, Lupa whips back from the force of the shot as her body finally falls through the hole in the ground. Rose backs away while a chorus of beeps fill the air, allowing me to quickly grab onto her before teleporting us a safe distance away.

The ground shakes violently once we reappear, forcing us to the ground as the room simply collapses in on itself. Then everything above that room comes crashing down to fill the void left behind and completely buries that small part of the hallway.

Nopony, no matter how seemingly invincible they are, can survive the amount of explosives we packed into that trap. Nor avoid being crushed under the weight of all the concrete and other materials that just filled in that hole. Not even a hellhound.

And yet that dark feeling within me screams out for blood, just like it did when Max was bleeding out days ago. I press my hooves against my head and try to push that feeling out of my mind. It will go away eventually, just like it did when Max finally died.

A hoof nudges my good shoulder. “You ok?”

“Headache,” I look over at Rose and offer a meek smile. “Nothing to be concerned about.”

Rose gives me a skeptical look before nodding her head. Then she looks back at the cave-in that covers most of the hallway. “Well, there goes one thousand, five hundred caps down the drain. Can’t say it wasn’t worth it, though.”

I nod before opening up the remaining pouch on my saddlebag. The four tapes that we fought and bleed for are still in my possession. Sighing in relief, I open my mouth to say something when Rose turns around and readies her rifle.

It doesn’t take long to see why as Winona scrambles past, completely ignoring us as she eventually reaches the edge of the rubble. There she stands, staring in disbelief while slowly shaking her head at the sight before her. Seeing the tears welling up in her eyes as it finally dawns on her what has happened is too much to bear.

“Come on, let’s leave her be,” I say while placing a hoof on Rose’s shoulder. “We have what we need anyway.”

Rose looks conflicted as she glances between me and Winona. Then she turns and walks away. I give one last look at Winona before walking away myself. Despite knowing what Lupa and her pack would do once they got their paws on Smarty, I wonder if my anger towards them justified my actions here; if maybe there might have been a better way to resolve this.

Hearing Winona whimper behind me, I find myself wishing that there was.

It has been hours since we left Winona to mourn at the impromptu burial site of Lupa. Yet, a part of me still refuses to believe that Lupa is dead. That, even after all we did, she still somehow survived and is planning on killing us. And even if Lupa is dead, that the other hellhounds will come after us for revenge. But I push that thought out of my mind. It’s over now, there’s no point in going after them any longer; I’ve already taken much more away from Winona and Roxie than I feel was deserved. And after seeing how broken Winona looked when we left, I don’t think they have the will to come after us anymore.

And yet, I still can’t shake the feeling that they’ll attack us at any moment. At least the pain from overcharging my rifle is finally gone. That is one thing to be happy for as I eject a tape from my PipBuck; the third one from the collection of four I got from Lupa. Setting it down with the others, I take a moment to look at my surroundings once more. It feels like yesterday that I was hiding behind the door to the robot recharging station over there. Listening in on the hellhounds that would be hounding me for the last two days. It feels rather poetic that Rose and I are resting in this same intersection where Lupa vowed to gut Rose. Or maybe it is ironic. Considering how close we are to finally being done with this adventure, I’m not sure I really care.

Grabbing the fourth tape from the group, I look it over once before inserting it into my PipBuck. The data that it pulls up is the same as the others: formulas, trajectories, and other things that barely make sense to me but still feel like they might be useful to a rocket scientist. I download all of it into my PipBuck and glance back at the pile of tapes sitting next to me. The labels don’t match what the tapes actually contain: Raina’s commendations for her team, recording of the first annual company picnic, Hay Bale’s letters to her grandson. And of course the label on the last tape: Rocky Shores’ confession to Silky Stars.

All those memories forever lost because an uncaring hellhound needed to make room for cold numbers and calculations. As if the ghouls didn’t have enough taken away from them.

No, this is the wrong way of looking at it. As sad as it is that parts of the past have been lost, the future is still there; the ghouls can still look forward to finally having their dream come true. And I got to help them achieve that dream. After all these years, I can finally point to something in my life and say that I did that right. Or as close to right as I can get.

“So do we have everything?” Rose asks as she finishes bandaging her broken wing in place with some old fabric she found along the way.

“As far as I know,” I say before leaning my back against the wall. “Once everything is backed up, I’ll let you have the tapes and we should be good to go.”

“You really are worrying too much about this,” She says while getting up and moving to face me. “Lupa is dead and if the other two are smart, they’ll stay far away from us. It’s smooth sailing from here on out.”

“Still,” I say. “Had I placed them in the wrong side of my saddlebag, they might have been destroyed or buried under some rubble right now. So forgive me for taking some precautions.”

She sighs and then smiles. “Alright, that’s fair. So, you got any plans for your share once they’re done showering us in caps for doing the impossible?”

I thoughtfully glance up at the ceiling for a moment before shrugging. “Honestly, I haven’t put much thought into it.”

Rose nudges my good shoulder. “Come on, you have to have something you want to spend it on.”

“Alright, Ms. Rose, then what are you going to do with your share of the caps?” I ask.

“Me?” She asks before brushing her mane back. “I’ve always wanted to own a dress. Some sexy little white thing that I can wear while standing on top of the bodies of everypony who kept shoving my face into the dirt. Maybe I’ll get a white flower for my mane while I’m at it.”

This takes me by surprise. Something that Rose no doubt notices when she asks “What? I like feeling pretty sometimes. And imagining the look on somepony’s face when a mare in a dress soundly kicks their hide.”

“It isn’t a normal occurrence, I’ll admit,” I say before looking down at my PipBuck and muttering “Not like anything that has happened in the last few days would qualify as normal either.”

Rose wraps a foreleg around my neck and pulls me in. “What would make it even better is if you stood with me in a maid outfit. Just spend a few caps on one and we’ll be the talk of the wasteland!”

“Not happening,” I push her away before taking the now ejected tape and putting it with the others. “If I have to do something with my caps, I’d send half of it home as an apology to my parents for disappearing on them for the last few years.”

That apparently surprises Rose. “They’re still alive?”

“Tenpony Tower is still standing last I checked,” I say before hoofing over the four tapes over to her. “So I’m pretty confident that they are both still alive. Unless they decided to leave for some reason. I can’t think of any reason that would compel them to leave, though.”

“They might leave to look for you,” She says while taking the tapes and placing them in her bag.

“It’s… not entirely unlikely, I guess,” I admit. “I hope they don’t, though. I left behind a note explaining what I was doing specifically so they wouldn’t worry about me,” I then stand up and look over my damaged gear. “And if they are looking for me, I’d rather not have them see me like I am now.”

Even if I am finally moving in the right direction, I’m still not the kind of pony I want to be. At least, not yet. Not while these dark feelings continue to claw at the back of my mind. Urging me to bloodily murder every pony whom I hate for one reason or another.

Rose nudges my good shoulder again. “You know a maid outfit would fix that, right?”

“Again, not happening,” I say as I nudge her back.

We both smile and Rose opens her mouth to say something when her ears twitch. She swiftly moves in front of me and points her rifle down the corridor. “Looks like I was wrong,” She whispers before motioning me to get behind her.

For a moment, the air grows still as the corridor remains void of anypony other than us. Then Roxie appears, parts of the skin on her legs having been torn off to reveal the cybernetics underneath. No doubt the only thing allowing her to keep moving in spite of her injuries. I quickly move behind Rose and activate my E.F.S. to try and see if it can’t help me spot the others. Only to be confused when the spell marks the hellhound as green.

Wait, green? Why green? Isn’t she hostile?

This could just be yet another bug with the E.F.S. spell; After all, there isn’t any reason for us not to be kill on sight with her at this point. Not after all we put them through. But a part of me isn’t satisfied with that answer since Roxie isn’t being threatening at all. All she’s doing is calmly walking towards us.

The feeling that something is off intensifies as Rose levels her rifle right at Roxie. “Stop right there.” She commands and, surprisingly, Roxie listens. No defensive position, no threatening pose, not even an angry growl. Roxie just stands there, staring at me with a tired expression on her face, as she cradles an object in her claws...

Rose raises a hoof when I start to approach Roxie and asks me “What are you doing?”

“Following a hunch,” I say before glancing at Rose’s knife. “Can I borrow that for a moment?”

With a worried look on her face, Rose glances between me and the knife before finally giving it to me. “Just don’t do something reckless with it,” She warns. “And don’t get cocky just because you can teleport out of- Okay, now what are you doing?”

“Relax, it’s just an old duster,” I say as I take the knife to the torn parts hanging off of my duster. With the leather straps hovering next to me, I return the knife to its sheath and teleport to the halfway point between Rose and Roxie.

Admittedly, that probably wasn’t the smartest decision ever as Roxie takes a step back at my sudden appearance near her, which in turn causes Rose to point her rifle at Roxie’s head.

I quickly hold my hooves up, silently hoping that this doesn’t end with my head rolling on the ground. “R-Roxie,” I manage to say in a tone approaching calmness. “I… Y-You have every right to be angry with me. I hurt you and Smarty like those winged ponies you hate. But Lupa would have killed more innocent ponies had I not done that and… “

A nervous chuckle escapes my lips. “It doesn’t matter what I say, does it? You’ll still hate me all the same. But,” I look Roxie in the eye. “I meant what I said about Smarty. Please, let me fix this one mistake and make her whole again.”

Roxie stares back at me for what feels like an eternity. Then, reluctantly, she reaches out with the burnt remains of Smarty in her claws. I’ll take that as a yes.

I move closer, taking the remains in my magical grasp and wrapping them in leather strips in front of me. Then I cast my mending spell and watch as the pieces meld together and transform into a perfectly crafted Ms. Smarty Pants doll.

Taking one last good look at Smarty, I hover her over to Roxie, who, with tears in her eyes, quickly grabs the doll and lovingly hugs it. At such a display, I can’t help but say “I’m sorry for making you hurt Roxie too, Smarty. Even if it was the only way to keep them from killing more ponies.” It is silly, but, well, I am a very silly pony.

Rose quietly walks to my side as Roxie holds Smarty up to her ear for a moment and then nods. “Smarty forgives you,” Roxie says calmly. “And if Smarty forgives you then… maybe I can too.”

I can’t help but smile at that. “Thank you.”

Roxie glares at Rose before looking back at me. “But only you. And if you or that thief ever hurt Smarty again-”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” I say with my hooves up before glancing at Rose. “Right?”

“Only if you don’t give me any reason to,” Rose says while glaring at Roxie.

Surprisingly, the hellhound just nods her head in agreement. “There won’t be. There never was a point to all of this killing anyway. And with Lupa finally gone, maybe I can convince Winona to go join the other hellhounds in the NCR.” And with that, Roxie turns around and calmly walks away.

A wave of relief instantly washes over me as I take in a deep breath. “Finally, I get a resolution where no one gets hurt or killed.”

“That was completely reckless, you know that right?” Rose asks as she watches Roxie leave.

“Yeah, I know,” I say before I turn around and start to walk away. “But this is just another reason why I’m an incredibly poor fit for the wasteland; I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t at least try to make amends for the horrible things I put her through.”

Rose shakes her head and walks up to my side. “I don’t get you, Intrepid. And I’m not sure if I’ll ever get you.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” I say before my smile disappears. “Once this job’s done, we’ll go our separate ways and you won’t have to deal with this weird unicorn anymore, eh?”

It actually hurts to say that. These last few days with Rose have been, well, horribly nerve-wracking and frustrating. But also the best few days I’ve had since leaving Tenpony Tower. So much so that the idea that this is the end of us working together is just... well, I don’t want to accept that. At all.

But Rose was clear that that is how she operates when we first met: One job and that’s it. That just makes things easier for everypony involved. Besides, I doubt she’ll want to continue traveling with a high-maintenance pony like myself anyway.

“Treppy, about that,” Rose says as she rubs the back of her neck. “I… well, I was thinking and-”

Claws immediately tear up from the ground in front of us as Winona bursts through. We quickly back away, Rose leveling her gun at Winona as the hellhound takes one look at us and lets out a howl.

Suddenly the ground beneath us gives way and pain sears through my left foreleg before my body is tackled into a wall.

Slowly, I look around as my mind tries to understand what is going on. Rose hugs her stomach as we lie on the floor, her expression is full of pain as blood soaks her leather armor and trickles to the floor.

Shifting my body in an attempt to stand only causes more pain to shoot through my foreleg; the bone and flesh showing through the gashes that split the three still attached pieces of my leg.

The sound of my PipBuck hitting the ground somewhere snaps me out of my daze and I look up to see… see…

Dear Luna, what am I looking at?

Blood seeps from the tears in the skin of the creature looming over us. What’s left of its skin. Metal plating shows through the large missing patches of skin, either covering exposed muscles they were grafted onto or simply jutting out of the arms and legs in disturbing angles. Small patches of blood drenched fur still exists in places, but it isn’t enough to even attempt to guess at what this thing might be.

It isn’t until its red eyes pierce through me that I instantly recognize who this is.

Lupa.

The roar of thunder echoes through the hallway as a bullet lodges itself into Lupa’s disfigured body. Blood smears across the surface of Rose’s rifle as she tries to reload it for another shot.

Lupa doesn’t even flinch at the wound as she meets Rose’s defiant glare with an unnatural smile. She picks Rose up and her smile widens as Rose attempts to bury her fangs into the hellhound’s paw.

“Not happy to see me, Winter Rose?” Lupa asks mockingly as she watches Rose draw blood. “But I came all this way to thank you for the fireworks you set off for me. The least you can do is show some respect!”

Rose cries out in pain as Lupa begins to crush Rose in her claws. The cry only makes Lupa laugh. “What a beautiful song you're singing! I might forgive you just for that alone.”

“Stop it. Stop it!” I cry out. Then I notice that Roxie is still nervously standing down the hallway and immediately point to her with my good hoof. “Lupa! I fixed Smarty, ok?! Just please! Stop hurting her!”

Lupa stares as Roxie meekly shows Smarty off. “Smarty?” She asks, loosening her grip just enough to allow Rose to gasp for air.

O-Ok, think. Think! T-There has to be a way out of this. Just get Rose free so she can run and then… and, umm…

‘What are you waiting for?!’ The dark pony screams as that dark feeling from before comes back in full force. ‘You know already what you need to do in order to save her, right?!’

“You know, it was in this exact same spot that I said I wanted the honor of tearing this winged thief apart,” Lupa says as she looks around the place. “It would be a shame to go back on that. But since you gave Smarty back to us, I feel like humoring you this time. I’ll stop hurting her.”

Whatever moment of relief instantly flees when Lupa extends one claw on her other paw. “Slicing her head off quickly won’t cause her any pain, right?”

Time slows down as Lupa raises her claw to Rose’s head while Rose struggles in vain to pry herself free.

No, that wasn’t what I meant! Stop! STOP!

‘You already know she won’t stop,’ The dark pony points out.

BUT SHE HAS TO! If she won’t then-

‘Then Rose dies,’ The dark pony continues. ‘All because you refused to use your power to end this.’

No, it’s not my fault! That power is evil and I can’t control and-

The dark pony just glares at me. ‘And it is the only thing that will save her now.’

I force myself onto my good leg as Lupa’s claw hovers over Rose’s neck.

‘So what matters more to you?’ The dark pony asks. ‘Her life or your own moral comfort?’

Lupa blinks and stares as her paw is pulled back by the blood blade I’m driving through it.

“Put. Her. Down,” I say calmly while glaring at Lupa.

That grin. That grin of pure twisted joy that appears on Lupa’s face as she looks in my direction. It kindles a hatred for her that the dark presence in my mind greedily feeds off of, empowering me the more I let that hate grow.

“Finally,” Lupa whispers before casually tossing Rose aside and adding more fuel to my rage. “I was starting to wonder how badly I had to push you before you would finally do it.”

Ripping the blade out of Lupa’s paw, I hover it back to my side while using some more of my own blood to bind my left foreleg together.

“I have to admit, I like the fire in your eyes,” Lupa says while watching the blood drip from her paw. “They really make you Come Alive!”

The ground shakes as I teleport out of the way of Lupa’s strike. Appearing behind her, I strike my blade down in between the plates and drawing out enough blood from the wound to form another blade.

This only seems to excite Lupa as she swings around to strike; her claws barely scraping against my cheek before I once again teleport behind her and repeat the process again, forming two more blades of her own blood.

“You know how long it’s been since I’ve had this much fun?” Lupa asks, digging her claws into the wall before throwing a chunk at me. I dodge out of the way only for her to ram right into me.

“‘Our pride and joy’ they called me,” Lupa stares right into my eyes as she presses my body against the wall. “Every hellhound in my pack was tortured and ripped apart just because they couldn’t risk an experiment on me going horribly wrong.”

One blood blade narrowly misses Lupa’s eyes before I drive the rest into her arm, cutting under the plating and drawing out more blood to turn into blades.

Lupa tries to throw me into another wall but I manage to teleport before hitting it, reappearing near the floor as my body skips across it.

Strangely, whatever pain that was coursing through my body fades away, replaced with a growing feeling of quiet rage and bloodlust. Along with another familiar feeling I can’t quite name.

I manage to stop right next to Winona, who quickly backs off at my presence. Not that it matters. My anger only has one target right now. Getting back onto my hooves, my body trembles as my eyes lock onto Lupa’s smiling face.

“But even after they finally had their weapon, they wouldn’t let me go out and play,” Lupa says before charging at me.

I jump to the side and duck under her arm as my blood blades rake across her side; some scraping along metal while others cut into flesh, allowing even more blood to be violently yanked from her body.

There’s that strange yet familiar feeling again. It’s almost like my very soul is being invigorated somehow. What is it?

“Sure, they’ll let me out if there was a pony in some power armor or another hellhound that needed to be put down,” Lupa continues while turning around, her body swaying as she does so. “But never anything challenging enough to justify my existence. My loved ones horribly tortured or dead, and I didn’t have anything to show that it was all worth it.”

Forming a long scarlet stream out of all of the blood blades I have, I whip it towards Lupa, watching as it slices off a couple of metal plating from her arm as she dodges.

That warm energy once again sends shivers down my spine as my focus is drawn to Lupa’s bloodied arm. Only to go just as quickly as it came, replaced with an overwhelming sense of wrongness inside of me.

Suddenly, my hooves are swept out from under me as Lupa scoops me up and slams me into the ceiling. “Kill, kill, sit, kill. That’s all I ever heard,” She says before throwing my body into the ground hard. “Then, when the winged ponies started killing each other, they told me to die.”

“But Smarty told me not to die,” Lupa raises her claws to strike down against me. “So I decided to do what I was always told to do: Kill.”

A bullet slams into Lupa’s face, throwing her aim off and causing her claws to barely miss my head as I teleport to the side. In one swift motion, I rip enough blood out of her arm to create another blade and cut it off.

In that brief moment, as that energy once again surges through me, something clicks in my head. Whatever this energy is, it is clearly inside of her.

Lupa stumbles back before staring in shock as I lift the severed arm in the air and drain it of all the blood it has in it, forming it into a long spear.

And if I have to rip it out of her, so be it.

With a laughter that only fuels my hatred towards her, Lupa strikes once again. I dodge and immediately run my blood spear through the spot where I shot her with my rifle.

Lupa coughs up blood as the spear bursts through from the other side and swings around to strike at me. Her claws barely cut into my good foreleg before I get out of the way, ripping out more blood from her new wound as I do so.

The more I cut into her and the more blood I rip out, the better I feel. Everything fades away as I desperately try to claw my way towards the source of this wonderful energy inside of Lupa. A task made easier as Lupa slowly becomes more and more sluggish with each strike.

Soon Lupa simply slumps onto the floor, that stupid smile still on her face. Something in my mind feels off as I continue to coldy tear into her. As if some part of me is telling me to stop. Why? After everything she’s done, after almost taking my only friend away from me, she deserves this.

My body shakes as more of that warm energy rushes through me. I’m so close now! I can already feel it! Soon I’ll finally stop feeling like something is wrong and… and…

Wait, no. No! Where did it go?!

The energy fades away, replaced with that crippling sense of wrongness inside of me. I rip out all of the blood from the body in front of me and look through it all. But no more energy comes out.

I-It was here a second ago! Why is it gone?! It can’t be gone!! I needed that for… for… why did I-?

My ears flicker at the sound of somepony falling to the ground. My head snaps in that direction to see another hellhound. My eyes focus on the bloodied bandage covering one of her claws.

A small trace of that energy that was inside of Lupa is coming from there.

The hellhound scrambles to her feet and tries to run before two blood spears pierce through her legs, pinning her to the ground.

No, no, no. Where do you think you’re going? Did you think I forgot about all of the pain you’ve caused too? You don’t deserve any pity from me.

Right, there’s nothing wrong with tearing it out of you too. You don’t have this horrible feeling gnawing inside of you. You don’t need it. You don’t deserve it.

The hellhound tries to cut into me with her claws but I sever them from her body before they can reach me, adding more blood to the torrent already circling around me.

Once again this energy surges through me as I rip into the hellhound. More continues to pour out the deeper I go. Then it suddenly leaves me before I can find the energy source inside the now torn apart body.

Why? Why can’t I hold onto this? What am I doing wrong?!

I cast my eyes around the place, looking for more sources of this energy that I desperately crave. And find yet another hellhound cowering on the other side of the hallway.

Our eyes meet and the hellhound panics, scrambling against the floor as I approach. It presses its back against the wall, pure terror on its face. Like it matters. After all the death it caused, it deserves this. Suddenly it begins to dig into the ground, trying to escape. Not that it can escape, I can simply teleport to it and-

A bullet flies past my head, causing me to stop dead in my tracks.

“That’s enough, Intrepid,” a voice calls out to me as I look back at my attacker. Not a hellhound, but willing to help them. And bleeding too. The energy inside of it is slipping away.

“Look, I’m sorry for shooting at you, but you weren’t listening and… w-why are you looking at me like that?”

I take a step towards my attacker.

“Intrepid?”

That other hellhound can wait. I need this one now.

“So this is what you were warning me about,” My attacker says before pointing its gun at my head. “I’m warning you now, another step and I’ll shoot.”

Slowly, nothing rash, can’t risk losing this one too.

As I continue to slowly walk towards my attacker, its aim wavers and it shakes its head. “Why? Why does this happen every single time I partner up with somepony?”

It doesn’t take long to get to where my attacker is lying on the ground. My mind focuses in on its stomach, where the source of energy is leaking from.

“Well I’m not accepting it this time!”

Just need to be careful here. Soon I’ll have what I need and this gnawing wrongness inside will finally disappear forever.

As I prepare to rip my attacker apart, it screams “SNAP OUT OF IT, TREPPY!”

Treppy? Why does that feel familiar? No pony has ever called me that except…

Rose…

Rose!

The dark presence loses its grip on my mind as the memory of Rose bleeding out appears in my head. I shut my eyes and press my hooves against my head, desperately try to shove these evil feelings and urges out.

Dear Luna, what was I doing?! Why was I obsessed with something so stupid while Rose is dying?! Ugh! Just get out and let me think clearly for once! I said get out! Out!

With one last push, the dark presence disappears, leaving me feeling light-headed but finally able to think normally again.

“Oh thank Celestia that worked,” I hear the familiar voice of Rose say.

“Rose?” I ask as I open my eyes and look around. “What happened? My head feels like it went through a blender and-”

My eyes widen as I notice the bloody piles of torn up flesh and metal strewn across the floor, before seeing Rose’s badly injured body in front of me. Feeling some magic coursing through my horn, I hesitantly look up.

And see the dozen blood blades hover above Rose. All poised to strike down at a moment’s notice.

In a fit of panic, I shake my head violently, causing the blades to dissolve and splatter harmlessly against the floor and walls of the hallway.

“No, no, it happened again!” I say as I quickly back away. “Dear Luna, why did it happen again?!”

Just when I start running away, Rose shouts out ”Treppy, wait!” She tries to stand but immediately collapses in pain and hugs her stomach.

Snapping out of my state of panic, I immediately rush back to her side and try to assess the extent of her wounds. It doesn’t look good, her stomach is cut open and there seems to be some internal bleeding as well.

Rose coughs up some blood before smiling. “Heh, you actually came back.”

“Of course I did! Now, stop moving while I treat you!” I say as I try to use my blood magic to stop the bleeding and seal up the wounds.

“It’s nice, you know,” She says while looking up at me. “Having somepony that actually cares about what happens to me.”

“Come on now, you’re the great Winter Rose! Don’t tell me you don’t have a fan club somewhere that would kill themselves if you were to disappear.” I say in mock disbelief to hide the ever growing worry mounting in my mind. Dear Luna, why does she look so pale? I stopped the bleeding in time, didn’t I?!

She chuckles a bit before wincing in pain. “You’d think. I grew up thinking that all I need to do to get some attention was to tease and boast about myself to every pony I met. But I’d always overdo it and end up alone in the end.” She then lays her head onto the ground. “At least now I won’t die alone like I thought I would, right?”

Tears run down my cheek as I frantically shake my head. “No, you’re not going to die! Not if I have a say in this!”

Come on, think! There has to be some way to save her! I know there is! Like a drug or some potion or something! Wait, potion! That one recording about the accident! Thundering mentioned something about Rocky receiving some kind of special potion!

Spotting my PipBuck nearby, I retrieve it and find Rocky’s office on the map. Glancing over at the hole Lupa made in the floor, it should be a simple matter to get there and back in time.

A scared look flashes onto Rose’s face as she lifts her head up to look at me. “Treppy, wait-”

“I’ll be back, I promise!” I say to her with as much of a reassuring smile as I can give her. Rose reaches her hoof out and begins to say something but I teleport away before hearing it.

Fatigue and pain nearly overwhelm me as I reappear; the lightheadedness from before steadily gets worse and my vision becomes slightly blurry while I try to keep my balance. It is an understatement to say that this isn’t good.

Shaking my head to regain my senses, I glance down at my PipBuck before teleporting a few more times towards Rocky’s office. With each reappearance, I have to fight to keep myself from fainting as it gets harder and harder to focus.

Eventually I slam my body hard against a door as sweat rolls down my face. Noticing the sign reading ‘Rocky Shores’ on it, I try the doorknob only to discover that it’s locked.

No, no, no, don’t you dare do this to me now, Luna! Not after all I’ve been through to get this far!

An idea suddenly pops into my head and I hastily rummage through my saddlebag before pulling out the set of janitor keys Rose gave me earlier. Each key that refuses to go into the lock only serves to make me panic more.

Come on, work!

Please! One of you! Work!

Work!

Finally a key slides into place and turns with a satisfying click.

Slamming the door open, my eyes scan through the place before finding a glass display case with different trinkets inside; among them is a flask with glowing yellow liquid inside. The case’s door won’t open and the lock to it is too small for any of the janitor keys to fit inside.

My body slumps against the case as I cough up some blood. The pain and fatigue throughout my body and mind is starting to become too much to ignore now.

There’s a safe on the wall, but nothing inside is going to help me. The drawers in the oak desk? One by one they prove to be completely empty. And nothing else in the room would contain a key inside of it.

In a fit of frustration, I rip the blood from my mangled foreleg, breaking apart the blood cast around it, and form a blade to break the display case apart.

As shards of glass cut me, the flask in the case falls over. Quickly I dive to grab it before it can shatter on the floor and hug it tightly. My vision, however, is too blurry to clearly make out what it says on the label; though something resembling the word ‘healing’ seems to be engraved on it.

It will have to do.

Holding the flask between my teeth, I start to limp over to the door when my legs give out; the glass shards dig into my body as it hits the carpet floor of the room. Placing the flask in my mouth, I bite down hard as I try to will myself back up. But my legs simply give out and I fall back onto the floor again.

No, I can’t fail now! I promised I’d come back, Luna! You hear me?! I promised!

Slamming my hoof into the ground, I summon enough strength to stand in place. Although my body shakes from the strain of even doing that. My vision continues to become blurry, making it difficult to even pick a point to teleport to. My mind drifts over to where Rose is now as regret from leaving her alone in her final moments hits me.

I shouldn’t have left. Everything always falls apart in the end. I’m not sure why I thought this would be any different. If only I could just go straight there now. Now I can’t even see clearly enough to make the attempt.

But I can picture it clearly in my head.

Focusing on the memory of the corridor Rose is in my mind’s eye, I pool every ounce of magic into one last teleport spell.

Soon the room disappears and my body collapses into the darkness that replaces the soft carpet floor. The flask falling out of my mouth and my vision gives out as consciousness slips away from me.

I failed.

Like I always do.

Why? Why can’t I keep my promises when it matters the most?

Why does everypony around me keep dying like this?

I’m sorry, Rose. I tried. Dear Luna, I tried.

In the end, I couldn’t save you. I can’t save anyone.

I’m sorry.

I’m…

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Quest Objectives Completed:

Deal With Lupa.Retrieve Data Needed For Rocket Launch.

Current Quest Objectives:

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