Author's Notes:

Important!

---

For those who don't know, the author's note of the previous chapter is retconned, meaning it is no longer cannon. I wasn't thinking straight and was too eager to end this arc so we could move forward to the next one (which I am really excited about) and shouldn't have tried to rush through it. Thanks to coming to my senses with a little help from dedicated readers like Mix-Up, I have made it a point to return to my roots of quality over quantity. I would rather have three brilliant Dead Spaces over twenty mediocre battle royale games. From now on all story points and events must be in the actual story and not in an author's note. So if I can't do that, it won't appear at all or I'll make it fit. Bottom line is, no more half ass shit on my end.

On a more positive note, this is a chapter that I am really excited about. It's probably the best one quality, length, and plot-wise since the previous Ponyville arc started. There are a lot of little things that are important to the plot in this chapter, so if you can catch them then the key to foreshadowing is in your grasp!

That is all. Enjoy another chapter!

Boom!

Another explosion shook the ground beneath the hooves of Storm Surge and Rainbow Dash. Debris and dust from the wooden ceiling above was sent all over the room, creating a fog-like atmosphere around the two pegasi. The force of the blast alone was enough to shake the limp corpses of Rarity and the would-be Scootaloo as well.

Suddenly, the dim lights above went out and submerged the entire room in darkness.

“Shit…” The stallion of the two muttered before the whirring and snapping of metal could be heard as his helmet assembled around his head. A purple glow coming from the visor faintly illuminated their surroundings which was assisted by the flashlight on his weapon.

“Sounds like an army up there!” Rainbow remarked, suddenly out of her shocked state after seeing the remains of her sister end up on one of those things. “What does your diary say to do about this?!”

The mare could feel his glare from behind the glowing visor, but the hailstorm of gunfire above killed any further conversation right before it reached the metaphorical gate. Whatever was happening above sounded nothing like what she had seen in the movies. Each explosion of every single firearm was louder than the next and had a fade to them as if the bullets were whistling their last breaths, but it wasn’t the firing itself that caught her attention.

It was the screaming.

Both pony and Damned alike were screaming in pain and anger as they slaughtered one another above. Some of the closer gunshots would abruptly stop when a mare or stallion’s voice croaked out its final cries or a demonic gurgling would be heard signaling one of those things had fallen instead of a living counterpart.

In her daze, Rainbow didn’t even notice that Storm hadn’t shared her interest in listening to the show above. Instead he had his shotgun aimed directly at the ceiling latch - which had a ladder leading up to it - his flashlight acting as a perverted spotlight for whoever found them first.

Rainbow hoped it was the guards. At least they might not open fire right away when bigger problems were at stake.

“Fall back!” A mare’s voice ordered from above. The two below almost missed it with everything else going on, but the proximity made it possible to hear. “Get the mayor into the-”

She was cut off by the crashing of glass and concrete as the ground started to shake above. More dust flew into the room below, causing Rainbow to avert her gaze and swipe at her eyes to get it out. Now Storm’s attention was above as well despite his shotgun and flashlight still focusing on the door.

“What the fuck is that?!” A stallion’s voice - which was Bristle’s - cried from above.

“Does it matter?” The mare responded harshly and with authority. “Just kill it before it reaches the mayor!”

A storm of bullets erupted from above, but the ear splitting sound was nothing compared to the earth-shattering roar which followed in its wake. The ground began to shake once more as something above advanced into the building, smashing all sorts of support beams and furniture as presumed by the destruction which the two below were hearing.

“Fuck this!” Bristle yelled before one of the gunfire’s sources halted and the barely audible clop of hooves running against wood was heard.

“Bristle!” The authoritative mare called out angrily. “Get back to the line!”

“I’d rather live to see tomo-” The colt tried to respond only to be cut short. “Help! Get it off-!” He started screaming until a sickening sound of snapping bones overpowered the fighting.

The scene above continued like this for some time with something stomping around and gutting anypony it could reach until the firing stopped completely. So did the stomping and roaring.

It all just went silent.

Rainbow and Storm shared looks of uncertainty at the sudden change but neither knew - or wanted - to say it.

Then they heard it.

“P-please… don’t…” The same mare’s voice from above begged. Her authoritative tone was reduced to that of a whimpering animal in suffering and her throat sounded like it had blood in it.

A gradual growl from the thing above started to rise from it’s throat and then the mare started pleading more desperately.

“No! Plea-”

Her screams were cut short when something powerful slammed into her, crashing through the ceiling and falling into the basement where the other two stood.

A twisted mass of corpses - which was balled up to resemble blunt fists - had pushed the mare’s body through the wooden floor and into the basement, or rather the bloody pulp which used to be said mare.

Equestria’s fastest flyer didn’t even have time to process or react to what she was seeing, but lucky for her, a hunk of metal slammed her into the corner of the room and out of sight of whatever made the hole.

Storm quickly and quietly got off of her as he spun around to lay prone with his back against the wall and shotgun aimed forward. The stallion switched off his flashlight and put a hoof to his visor to hide it, but left a little crack for himself to see through.

This small viewing window gave him the perfect show of that huge fleshy appendage being lifted up and out of the hole as the owner of the limb let out a victorious roar, which was answered by many smaller ones with different distances away respectively.

The thing above stomped away from the building as Storm and Rainbow sat huddled and facing the hole while awaiting their fates. By this point, the grey pegasus had removed his hoof and was in ‘full combat mode’ as he got up and slowly walked around the hole.

Aiming his weapon upwards, he checked all possibly angles of the hole in case whatever created it might still be around. Meanwhile, on the other end of the room, Rainbow Dash had gotten to her hooves and was locked on the same point of interest.

“I got-” A mare’s voice suddenly filled the center of the room, but was cut off as a flashlight and shotgun barrel were swung straight at her face.

The mare - who turned out to be Planning - fell backwards and placed her hooves in front of her face as if they were titanium shields against the boomstick currently in her face.

Once he realized who was in the basement with them, Storm lowered the shotgun. Planning peaked out from her forehoof fortress to see that her head was not about to be splattered on the wall.

“I got all of your stuff.” She stated, lowering her forehooves and gesturing to a huge saddlebag with a golden suit next to it. “We need to get out of here fast!”

“Yeah, no shit.” Was Storm’s response as he was busy helping Rainbow with the suiting up process. “How the hell did you get here in the first place?”

“Teleportation spell.” Planning answered matter of factly. “It’s short ranged and hurts to use, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.”

“Can you get us out of here then?” Rainbow budded in hopefully as the final straps were tightened on her suit.

“No, it takes time before I can use it. I’m new to this kind of stuff.”

“For fucks sake…” Storm muttered at the extinguishing of the potential escape.

“Sorry…”

“Guess we’re fighting our way out then.” He stated indifferently, as if the high likelihood of death above wasn’t a factor to him.

“Wait!” Planning intervened. “That’s your plan? Just run out there and hope we make it?! There's hundreds of them up there!”

“I know.” The stallion replied coldly while tossing Rainbow her machine gun. “We make a break for it, avoid the big crowds and the fucker that did this…” Pointing a hoof at the huge hole above, “and then head for a barn not far from here.”

“What good will a barn do if a solid wall couldn’t stop them?!” Rainbow asked, loading her weapon.

“It’s a chokepoint.” Storm informed. “We control the entrances and funnel the stragglers who will follow us. Once they are taken care of, we can head to the lighthouse.”

“Uh, one problem with that, genius…” She continued. “The boat floated off, remember?”

“And guess whos fault that-”

“Guys!” Planning interrupted the potential hostility with a wave of her forehooves. “We need to focus! I’m with Storm on this. Let’s head to the barn and by then I should be able to teleport us to… wait - where is this lighthouse?”

“South Luna Ocean’s bay.” Storm responded.

“Los Pegasus?! That place is heavily irradiated! I can’t last ten minutes there!”

“My place is safe from all that. I’ve got a half mask, so that’s covered. Can you teleport us outside the city or at least close?”

Planning nodded uncertainty, but it was better than nothing.

A purple tethered appendage grabbed Rainbow’s pistol from her flank and levitated it to Planning.

“You know how to use one of these?” The owner of the appendage asked.

“Sort of.”

Loading the pistol slowly, he continued. “Now it’s loaded. And…” Then he switched the safety off. “-now safety’s off.” Then the mare took the weapon.

By now, the trio had gathered at the ladder with Storm volunteering to go first despite no vocalization. As he placed a hoof on the wooden rung, the stallion turned to look down at the mares.

“Make your shots count. We don’t have a lot of ammo to waste. If it’s blue and glowing then shoot it. Got it?”

Both mares nodded, the suited one more enthusiastically than the unarmored one. With that, the stallion reached the top of the ladder and peaked out before scanning around with his shotgun.

With a grunt, he vaulted up and out of the hole, landing on his hooves in a defensive stance and sweeping the weapon’s flashlight around. After deeming the immediate building safe, he motioned for the girls to follow.

Another explosion and more screams filled the night just as Rainbow - followed by Planning - ascended the ladder and joined him on the surface.

“Quickest way to the gate is around the diner and through the cottages.” Planning informed as the trio began their journey. “The only problem is from here to the diner is wide open and we’ll get spotted for-”

CRASH!

Out of nowhere, an interruption in the form of a guard’s corpse smashed through the remains of the office lobby’s front window. The stallion and both mares quickly slammed themselves into crouched positions against a fallen support pillar of concrete.

Removing his camera, Storm tethered the device around the pillar and opened the holographic menu for it, and that's when he saw it.

Standing on the far end of the market square was the biggest Damned he had ever seen. It stood just above the height of the two story cottage the thing was currently pulling it’s ‘arm’ out of - the same arm which had crushed through the ceiling just moments prior as well.

The thing was made of more corpses than he could - or care to - count, with all of them fused together by rotting biological matter and another dirty white material which looked like bone. These white parts sported jutting spikes and ridges which would be nasty to get swiped or impaled by no matter what armor or suit the victim had on.

As for the shape of the creature, it was odd but that didn’t lessen the threatening aura coming from it’s presence. It looked like one of those tripod cameras that Storm had seen in the window of an electronics store from the old world as the creature had three large arms made up of bodies and that white matter. For it’s actual body, a thick string of more corpses and matter ended in a bulbous head with over two dozen squirming blue orbs and a mouth that could swallow three full grown ponies at once.

This thing was now standing in the middle of the action as the smaller variants swarmed the rest of the fleeing and fighting townsfolk. It was looking directly at the corpse it had just impaled on the window bar, but Storm felt as if it somehow knew a camera was watching it.

But thankfully, the thing stomped off to the next cottage and began its latest assault on whatever poor family was probably huddled in there to be sa-

A group of blood curdling screams from the home and a hunting roar from the creature confirmed his guess.

“Shit…” He muttered, apparently loud enough for the others to hear.

“What is it?” Rainbow whispered, starting to get up as to peek over the debris, when an armored hoof roughly shoved her back into a crouched position.

“Can you not paint a target on my head for five fucking minutes?!” Storm hissed but not before his hoof was angrily swatted away. “We need to get around the market area and preferably without that fucker noticing us!”

“And how do we do that?” Rainbow asked, clearly angry at being reprimanded like a foal.

“I think I’ve got an idea…” Planning added, pointing a hoof at the discarded corpse that lay just a few steps away.

Storm followed her hoof to where on the corpse it was pointing at. Just above the dead stallion’s flank was a utility belt made from rags and clips, but it was the contents of said belt that interested him more.

Three faded white canisters with chipping labels of a smoke cloud forming next to a group of equine-like figures.

Smoke grenades.

Using his Tethertech, the stallion unclipped all three canisters and levitated them to his concealed position and passed them out - a grenade for each pony.

“Here’s the plan…” He began. “On the count of three, we sprint out that hole in the front. I’ll pop a smoke between us and the market while you two make a break for the cottages. Try and save the other grenades - we’ll need them to escape unnoticed.”

Rainbow nodded confidently while Planning gave an uneasy nod.

“Okay. Good.” Storm continued, switching to his Sweeper and loading it in the blink of an eye. “Just follow my lead and if all goes to hell, head for the farm right outside of town.”

“Sweet Apple Acres.” Rainbow corrected.

“Right. Here we go…”

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

“Go!”

The trio shot up from their crouched positions with the stallion leading and the mares hot on his heels. They rushed through a hole caused by the big Damned - who thankfully wasn’t finished destroying the same cottage to notice them - and entered a warzone.

Many buildings were in ruin and some were even on fire. Bodies littered the streets of both Damned and ponies alike. A few survivors were positioned on top rooftops and were shooting at Slicers, which dive bombed them from above as their ground-restrained brethren made literal walls of flesh to reach the roofs.

But now was not the time for sightseeing. Storm quickly pulled the pin on his smoke grenade and tossed it into the street, which earned the attention of a hoof full of Damned judging by the confused growls, but on the bright side, they hadn’t seen who did it.

Not yet at least.

The stallion made sure both mares were through to the back of the diner before he started behind them. Upon catching up, Rainbow was already at the far corner of the diner’s back wall and peeking around for any danger.

“It’s clear, let’s g-” She stated, taking a step into the open when a forehoof roughly slammed the mare back into the wall.

Though it took all she had not to verbally - and physically - lay into the stallion who had just done that and was holding her against the brick wall of a building, she knew there must have been some reason for it.

And there was.

A gesture of his head nodding to where she had just been planning on heading into was only her answer. Rainbow peeked down as subtly as possible but saw nothing. The blue pegasus was about to ask what it was when she finally saw the two floating blue orbs at the end of the alley.

A Hunter - one of the few she actually remembered from his catalog.

“It’s not alone…” He whispered, while looking around and seeing more pairs of orbs scanning the battlefield for any stragglers.

Besides the one at the alley’s end, there was one inside of the nearest cottage on the left - as shown by the blue glow which passed by the window momentarily. The third one was inside the diner and just a brick wall away from them judging by the sounds coming from inside.

“I count three.” Storm stated, pointing to each one’s estimated position. “We alert one and the others will all know.”

“How do we avoid them then?” Planning asked, trying her best to conceal herself behind a nearby dumpster.

“Guess we’re gonna have to use another smoke. It’ll draw their attention away long enough to sprint through.”

“I’ve got it.” Dash offered, clutching her own smoke in her tethered grip. “Tell me when!”

Storm waited until the predatory gaze of the blue eyes were out of their direction before giving the order.

“Now!”

Rainbow Dash tossed the smoke directly at the one in the alley adjacent to the trio, causing the now concealed creature to let out a call for it’s kin. The diner Hunter smashed through a window and joined the first while the cottage one simply crawled out from over the window and charged into the smoke with it’s sharpened tail held high.

“Go!”

All three ponies rushed through the alley, past the smoke and confused beasts, and continued down the alley where - according to Planning - they would be only a few cottages from the main gate to the-

A screech filled the air directly above, causing Planning to cover her ears, Rainbow to jump back a bit, and Storm to raise his weapon up towards the noise.

On the roof of the nearest cottage was a fourth set of angry blue eyes which were looking directly at the trio. The creature uncloaked, revealing that it was hanging from the roof by it’s currently dug in tail spike.

Dropping to the ground, it let out a series of calls which were answered right around the corner. Both mares spun around to see that the three Hunters from before were now slowly approaching from behind.

Storm, however, was locked in a staring contest of hatred with the fourth one. A contest that would be considered for dominance of the alpha back in the uncivilized world - er, the original uncivilized world that is.

The Hunter’s concave maw twitched as fresh crimson droplets escaped only to find salvation on the ground below it’s sharpened hooves. It’s blue eyes were squirming at their ‘stems’ but the very tips focused calculated hatred and hunger on the armored stallion before it. A low growl was emitting from the creature as it sized up it’s latest prey.

Suddenly, Storm heard a strange noise from one of the flanking Hunters. Normally the Damned made sounds like demented birds or insects with their signatures growls and roars while hunting, but this was different.

It sounded… happy - if one could even imagine a hellspawn as such.

Then the other two behind him started to make the same sound, causing the one in front of him to perk what was left of its ears up. The hungry orbs removed themselves from him and stared past him instead.

Normally, Storm would have never dared to turn his back on these fuckers, but this was different. This was wrong. What the hell are they so infatuated with?

With his weapon still aimed straight ahead, the stallion turned his head around to see that the Hunters were all focused on the girl’s position. The unicorn of the bunch was clearly trying to keep it together as she shakily held her pistol at the creatures.

But they weren’t focused on her. They seemed to gaze past her as if the small insignificant mare was nothing compared to what they wanted more.

Then it hit him.

Not a physical attack, but the realization.

They were looking at Rainbow Dash, who was glancing from each creature to the next and changing which one her machine gun was on frequently while shouting threatening phrases he doubted they understood or cared to heed.

RAAAAARRRRR!

An earth shattering roar pierced through the warzone backdrop before the sound of stomping strides replaced it. The Hunter in front of him started it’s ‘cawing’ again, prompting the others to stop their more happy noises and ready their tails - all of which were directed at Rainbow.

“Get down, now!” Storm ordered the two mares who followed his command without question.

Rainbow grabbed Planning and flung them both into a prone position just in time to see five oversized rivets fly over their previous position and nail the three beasts in the face.

The ones on the right and left dropped instantly as four of the rivets hit them directly on both blue spots, but the middle Hunter made it out with one ‘eye’ remaining. This Hunter was momentarily stunned as it fell backwards but caught it’s mangled body mid-fall.

Storm was in the process of swinging back around to the front Hunter when a tendril wrapped around his throat and cuffed it with a vice-like grip. Even with his draining oxygen, the stallion could still see the scene before him somewhat clearly. Rainbow had just opened fire at the remaining Hunter and had killed it, but she had not noticed what was going on behind as the massive Damned from the market suddenly appeared from the alleyway’s entrance.

Through his slightly fogged visor, Storm could see the Hunter’s tail point which was aiming a bone-projectile where his brain would be inside and was preparing to fire. In a flash, the stallion activated his blade and slashed upwards, severing the tail just as the projectile fired, which made a CLINK sound as it grazed the metal and flew into a nearby window.

Using his thrusters and raising a hoof, the grey pegasus unleashed a furious right hook to the Hunter’s face, breaking it’s rotting nose and caving in one of it’s now smashed eyes. Right now all he could think about was reducing this filth of the Earth to a bloody pulp.

And he was going to do just that.

The rear gunfire coming from Rainbow and Planning who were trying to hold back the giant Damned - which was currently shoving aside buildings to get inside the alley - was nearly drowned out by Storm’s own bloodlust for this unlucky Hunter before him.

Digging his blade into the creature’s throat made it spurt out a crimson bath that splattered onto his helmet, partially smearing his visor, but the pained wheezing and screams were worth it to him. His hoof plunged deeper as the unseen veins on his muscles began to bulge at the strain.

More blood. More screaming.

Storm could feel his left eye start to twitch but paid it no mind as all of his attention was on snuffing this thing’s ‘life’ out. Once and for all.

“Storm!” A distorted and distant female voice echoed.

Tighter.

“Storm!”

The blade was all the way in now.

“Storm!”

A rough shove to his shoulder knocked the stallion out of his trance, making him realize two things. One, the Hunter had been dead for a few seconds and two; Rainbow Dash was frantically shaking him and pointing behind where-

RAAAAARRRR!

Oh shit!

The titanic Damned was now almost to them and it didn’t look pleased. Getting to his hooves, Storm retracted his blade and joined the other two mares in their mad dash for the alley’s exit. The creature watched them for a moment before violently digging it’s body out of the alley and around the corner, presumidly to flank it’s prey.

“To the left!” Planning shouted, nearly tripping over her own hooves in the sudden change of direction.

The trio was now sandwiched between two cottages and were running for the now visible gate that was just a stone’s throw away. The only thing blocking their path was a rusted fence that stood at about two and a half ponies tall.

Storm slid past the mares and turned around to face them. Crouched on his hindlegs and putting his forehooves in a cuffed position, the stallion motioned for them to step on. Planning was the first who quickly stepped onto his hooves and was lifted over the fence, falling on the other side clumsily before composing herself.

A chorus of smaller roars of normal sized Damned started to come from around the alley’s corner where the Hunter fight had taken place just moments prior. Rainbow and Storm shared looks upon hearing their doom approaching, but the stallion’s position never faltered.

“Go!” He ordered. “I’ll look for a way around.” His hooves were still cuffed while he waited for the armored mare to accept his help.

But she didn’t.

Instead all he got was a head shake. “No way! I’m not leaving anypony behi-”

“Celestiadammit, Dash!” He interrupted harshly like a stern parent. “This isn’t up for debate! I’ll make it out, I swear! Now go!”

Rainbow looked back at the alley wall, which was lit by faint torchlight - revealing half a dozen ganguly bodies approaching the corner.

With a frustrated sigh, the mare stepped onto his hooves and rather gracefully vaulted over the fence while landing next to Planning. Once she was over, Dash turned around and placed a hoof on the chainlink as she watched the approaching slaughter.

Storm got up and began sprinting toward the advancing shadows but just as the first mangled muzzle rounded the corner, he jumped to the left and through a window, shattering the glass in the process and alerting the remainders to his position.

“Rainbow, we’ve got to go!” Planning reminded while turning to run for their close salvation. “He said he’ll be back now let’s-”

The same thundering roar from before resounded out to the center of the town, where the colossal creature was now looking down at Rainbow with it’s seemingly hundreds of ‘eyes.’

“Rainbow!” She continued while making a break for the gate herself, but none of the Damned paid her any attention.

Even the ones who had seen and heard Storm smash through the cottage’s window were now piling on top of one another at the fence as they tried to reach Rainbow Dash before the bigger one did.

Rainbow finally started to run towards Planning. She hated doing this. Running away from danger was not her style, let alone leaving a friend behind, but she had no choice. As awesome as she knew she was, Dash understood she was no match for the giant beast - which was now bull rushing her.

The fence-climbers had gotten half of their ranks over the minuscule obstacle and were also charging from behind as the two mares ran for their lives. Rainbow blind fired into the crowd behind her, even hitting a couple of the creatures, but they didn’t stop or falter as they steadily gained.

When it became clear the creatures would never reach the more athletic mare, the huge one used it’s third appendage to grab a smaller Damned - which seemed to not show any signs of stress or resistance - and flung it at the mare.

Rainbow barely had time to register the growing shadow on the ground before she turned and was hit dead center by one of the Damned, and causing her weapon to go flying in between her and Planning, who hadn’t even seen her partner fall to the ground. The creature in question was one of the recently converted and basic ones with only sharper teeth and claws that the catalog had called a ‘Spawn.’

It’s basic status meant jack shit when it was on top of the pinned mare and trying to get at her neck. Rainbow used all of her strength to keep the beast’s jaws at bay, with one hoof on its forehead and the other on it’s chest.

Though she couldn’t see it with her pinned position, Dash could hear the stomping of both the huge Damned and it’s smaller brethren - all of which would be here for a prismatic buffet soon if she didn’t do someth-

A bloodstained blade pierced the side of the Spawn’s head, puncturing both blue orbs, stopping their squirming and glow in the process as well, before the creature’s corpse was flung aside. Rainbow’s blue drool stained visor was met with an ‘x’ shaped purple one.

Storm pulled the blue pegasus to her hooves just as another Damned - a Slicer - had begun it’s dive bombing descent onto them when a chorus of gunfire and a spray of bullets clipped it’s wings and grounded the creature directly at Storm’s hooves. The stallion wasted no time in stomping the Slicer’s head in and with one single downward thrust, it’s brains were splattered on the ground in a puddle of gore.

Both him and Rainbow took off towards Planning - who was holding Rainbow’s smoking machine gun - with the remaining horde on their heels. The unicorn tossed the weapon back to it’s rightful owner before the sprint to the gate resumed once more.

“I’ve got the gate,” Storm called, starting to sound slightly fatigued. “Dash, cover me!”

With that, the armored mare spun around and began firing into the approaching crowd as her stallion counterpart grabbed the crank for the gate and put all of his strength and metallic weight into opening it. Thankfully, the large Damned was at the back of the group, giving Rainbow better shots at the smaller ones.

She had managed to take one down and was almost done with another by the time the gate was halfway open. Planning slipped through the gate and motioned Storm to follow. Realizing that the gate wouldn’t hold on without him, the stallion activated his blade and plunged it into the crank.

Then he detached it from his hoof slot and called for Rainbow to follow. Both pegasi dashed through the gate and just as the horde reached their position, Storm raised his hoof and retrieved his blade while slamming the gate in their faces all in one motion.

Planning had a hoof on her heart as she breathed heavily, looking like she didn’t believe they had made it out in one piece. Rainbow Dash’s heart was also pounding. This was a familiar feeling for Equestria’s most death-defying stunt mare but it was different this time. Normally, her heart was pumping at the exhilaration but now it might have been fear of being so close to death. Storm’s chest rose and fell rapidly but his gaze never left the gate where a whole choir of angry beasts roared from the other side.

“T-think that’ll hol-” Planning didn’t even get to finish her sentence as a huge dent by a presumed colossal creature was made in the gate.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here…” Was Storm’s only response as another hole was pounded into the gate.

“Great… more running.” Planning panted, earning a snicker from the other mare.

The trio continued to move through the outskirts of desolate Ponyville for about ten minutes as Rainbow Dash led them to Sweet Apple Acres. Throughout the entire journey, Storm felt uneasy as they had not encountered a single Damned. Judging by the time, which read five till midnight, the horde should be out in full force by now.

He didn’t exactly know how many were left after all these years, but he knew enough to determine that the assault on Ponyville wasn’t all of them despite it being an assload. And another thing - why did those Hunters and the big fucker have it out for Dash? They started getting excited upon seeing her like a puppy seeing it’s owners returning for what felt like the longest twelve hours of a work day ever.

Answers later, focus now! The stallion mentally scolded himself. Just because he saw no more Damned doesn’t mean they weren’t out here. For all he knew, that assault was merely the door greeters and the real party was elsewhere.

By this point, the group had found themselves halfway down the path of dying apple trees from earlier. Until now, nopony had spoken a word and the only sound besides crunching leaves were the respective breathing of each runner.

“There it is!” Rainbow exclaimed with her typical enthusiasm. “The barn!”

“How far can you get us from here?” Storm asked, side glancing at Planning while they continued sprinting.

“The main road - I think.” Planning said, quickly adding the last part.

“Works for me. Let’s get-” The stallion stopped mid sentence.

His hooves also stopped working, causing him to halt to a stop. The other mares turned to question but once they followed his gaze straight ahead, then they understood.

Over the hills - where the trees had died out completely - was a wall of blue.

Glowing blue.

The only way to tell those were individual Damned on those hills were the faint gaps in between each pair of dots. There was no swear in Storm’s vocabulary to describe how fucked they were now. The wall spanned the entire discernable horizon - at least from the trio’s point of view - and was only growing closer by the second.

“Please tell me that spell is ready!” Rainbow hoped aloud, causing a stunned Planning to momentarily snap out of it and reply nervously that she needed a few more minutes. “What now?” Dashed added, looking to Storm, who still hadn’t removed his gaze from the wall of death approaching them.

Storm blinked, and saw the rotted stage of Salvus where Nourish was about to be snuffed. The same seemingly hopeless but determined feeling that was present when he and Maverick liberated the mare returned.

“We fight…” He finally replied.

The barn door slammed shut followed by the screeching of a nearby couch which was placed behind it by the two armored pegasi. Once the appliance was in place, the blue suit’s owner tossed a half-mask to the unicorn of the group.

“Put this on and teleport us the second you are ready!” He said, taking inventory of his surroundings. “And preferably the sooner the better.” He muttered soon after upon hearing the clattering of sharpened hooves and army outside.

The trio were now in the main room of the barn. The front door was barricaded by a couch, leaving two windows on either side that were exposed to the approaching horde. One wall led into the rest of the house, where Planning was busy shoving rubble in its opening to prevent any excess intruders. Across from that wall, two more windows taunted the group’s safety. And to top it all off, the back wall across from the door had a single window as well.

Two entrances blocked off, but five were still open. Not very good odds.

“Pick your places, everypony.” Storm ordered just as the glowing eyes became visible from outside the windows.

“I’ve got these.” Rainbow declared, taking the long wall opposite from the barred off rest of the barn.

“I’ll take the front.”

“Guess that leaves this one…” Planning gulped before checking her pistol and positioning herself in front of the singular back window.

Just as everypony’s defense point was decided, the first scarred head of a Spawn appeared in the left front window but was quickly reduced to a corpse by Storm’s Sweeper.

More Damned appeared at the windows following the original. On Rainbow’s side, a Slicer flew in through the window and landed inside. After letting out a blood curdling scream, the creature put it’s bone-like wings up to it’s face just as the armored mare started unloading on it.

“What the hay?!” Rainbow yelled over the gunfire. “It's not working anymore!” She whined over the past strategy failing.

“It evolved, dumbass!” Storm shouted while pummeling a Hunter into the wall of the room’s front. “Find a new way to take it down!”

Rainbow was running out of time as the newly armored creature started advancing towards her on it’s hooves. As far as she could tell, the Slicer’s bone-like matter had only hardened on the wings, making the hooves fair game.

Lowering her weapon, Dash shot into it’s hooves and sent it to the ground with a pained cry. The Slicer’s wing bones flailed as if trying to hit her even from it’s downed position, giving her a chance to get it’s face.

And so she did.

“Ha! Check me out now!” The blue pegasus boasted just as two more Damned replaced it in her windows. “Oh, buck me…” She added while repositioning her gun.

Even Planning got some unwanted action in the form of a Spawn that she had just barely shot down which now lay dead at her hooves.

The fighting continued for what felt like hours as endless variants of Damned replaced their fallen brethren. For every two that fell, four more took their places.

Rainbow aimed at a Mimic which was struggling to enter through the tiny window and pulled the trigger to have nothing happen. Nothing besides an annoying clicking sound, signaling that she was out of ammo.

“Horsefeathers! I’m out!” She announced to the others.

“I’m getting close too!” Planning responded, trying to hold a shelf against her window. Multiple spiked hooves and appendages stuck out from it, but with assistance from her magic, the mare was holding her own somehow.

“Dash!” Storm called, tossing the mentioned mare his shotgun.

Rainbow snatched up the weapon with her Tethertech and pumped it, allotting a satisfying CLICK from the weapon.

In his second long distraction to toss his partner a firearm, Storm was grabbed by a Hunter at his front, forcing him up and on his hindlegs. The beast and stallion alike looked like they were about to start slow dancing as both were standing and grappling with their forehooves. The Hunter’s maw opened and wrapped around Storm’s helmet, leaving scrape marks as it attempted to pry the device off of his head.

While it was focused on his head, the stallion used it - literally - to shove the creature off of him before harshly kicking one of it’s hindlegs, snapping the bone, and forcing the screaming beast onto its knees. In one swift motion, Storm swung the downed Hunter around and with one hoof around its neck and the other on it’s chest - to prevent it’s claws from being raised - all the while holding the creature in a standing position.

Using his Tethertech, Storm grabbed the Hunter’s tail and aimed it at a Slicer crawling through the window. Finding a pressure point in the fleshy appendage, the stallion forced the tail to fire the bone-projectiles back at it’s own kin. The Slicer dropped after two of the shards pierced it’s blue orbs and sent it to the ground.

“I’m ready!” Planning finally announced, removing herself from the shelf that fell the second she was away.

“About time!” Rainbow snarked after blasting a Spawn in the face. A literal mountain of corpses was formed on both her and Storm’s side of the windows which assisted in slowing down the rest.

After hearing their departure was moments away, Storm flung the Hunter to the ground and turned its head into pulp, making his hooves look like they were stained with cranberry sauce.

No sooner than the three had grouped up in the room’s center, a huge arm of flesh smashed through the front door, making a hole for the horde to come through.

“Anytime now, Planning!” Storm commented while throwing the remaining smoke at the hole, hoping to at least confuse the creatures outside.

What he got in response was a series of bone-projectiles rocketing through the smoke and into the room.

“Shit!” He subconsciously roared while positioning himself between the girls and the shards.

The stallion raised his armored hoof over his helmet, deflecting two of the shards, but a sharp and sudden pain in his abdomen confirmed that one had made its mark. Luckily, the rest of the projectiles missed anything living and scattered onto random furniture and the back wall.

Planning’s horn was now glowing brilliantly - even brighter than a Plexer would - enveloping the room in a white glow before said glow burst.

All three ponies were coated in her magic and transported out of the barn, leaving a very angry horde - and even angrier titan - behind. The huge Damned had opened enough to see inside for the trio’s final disappearing act and it wasn’t pleased. In a fit of rage, it swung at the barn, smashing the building and a few unlucky Damned in the process.

Nearly an hour had passed since the small group of exhausted ponies had teleported to the outskirts of Los Pegasus, ran through the surprisingly monster-free city, and arrived behind the magically sealed gates of the bay’s lighthouse. The moon’s comforting embrace gave off a faint outline of the residential living quarters, the tower itself, and the walled off yard where seven makeshift graves stood against the mostly barren scape.

Besides the spectral glow of the moon, one source of light stood out. Located further down the bay, a soft yellow glow came from the workshed at the docks. The yellow light peeked out from the boarded up windows, only allowing small pinpricks of it’s rays to escape into the outside world.

Inside the faintly illuminated workshed, a mess of parts, tools, and weapons littered the central workbench. Propped up against said bench was a recently cleaned Sweeper Rifle that was missing it’s pneumatic air tank and rivet canisters - both of which were the center of focus on the bench. A purple telekinetic appendage just finished loading a batch of freshly made rivets into a previously empty canister before being slid next to a small pile of its brethren.

Upon finishing the third rivet canister, Storm Surge leaned back in his chair and stretched his well-worn limbs that had been bothering him even an hour after his adrenaline and boiling blood had settled. Taking a rag and wiping the oil from his forehooves, the stallion then proceeded to them to rub his eyes and let out a sigh.

A few hours from now would mark the second day he had gone with no sleep and barely anything to eat. Luckily, he had scrounged some leftover canned goods, and after giving the girls first pick, he took his own can and retreated to the shed for some much needed maintenance. But even with the hunger problem solved, the fatigue still nagged at him without relent.

Sleep could wait. This was more important.

Being alone with the same tools and devices he had kept up for nearly three decades was easy for the stallion. Thinking about how royally screwed his newfound group was however wasn’t. They weren’t even a group but rather three strangers forced to retreat together under harsh circumstances come to think of it.

Which is exactly why he had to be ready. Ready for when death decided to pay them yet another visit. The recipe for survival had been simple to him until now. Stay one step ahead of everything else and you made it out. But once again, the rules had been broken and they had evolved their ways once more.

All the while his kind stayed the same.

The kindness, decency, and everything else that living creatures still held onto was dangerous. Damned didn’t have or need those elements. They lacked empathy, morals, or even fear.

That was why they were on top and equine-kind was scavenging to stay alive at the bottom.

But now the demented fuckers had purpose. Ever since the world became a wasteland and a hoof full of communities were formed, the Damned ranks scattered all around the planet as opposed to their organized attacks of the first few years. Back then, they had purpose to reduce the population as quickly - and brutally - as possible while creating chaos so nopony could plan a coordinated attack back.

When only the few stragglers remained, there was no purpose in moving that clustered and they dispersed to enjoy their spoils like a corrupted king does after a war. They avoided the communities which had put everything into safety measures such as walls, ranged weaponry, and suits. Instead the Damned drug out their game of cat and mouse by picking off scouting patrols and stragglers such as himself which would eventually hand the ashes of the world to them.

All of this changed today. They willingly charged into harm’s way, broke down walls and sacrificed so many of their kin just to do what? Finish off Ponyville?

It didn’t add up.

A community that had stood mainly untouched for decades was just suddenly attacked for no reason? There was something going on here. Something Storm didn’t want to find out, but had a feeling fate wasn’t done with him just yet.

While the sudden attack on the community was odd enough, the way those Hunters looked and acted upon noticing Rainbow Dash was straight up bizarre. Hunters were one of the most common fodder types in their ranks, so Storm had plenty of experience in documenting their habits, but what they expressed at Ponyville was unlike anything he had seen before.

They seemed happy or excited to see her as if she was the last box of chocolates on the supermarket shelf during Hearts and Hooves Day, which would help them avoid a sound verbal beating from their special somepony. And in addition to that, when the rest of the horde noticed her, they had ignored Planning and him for the most part unless they were strictly in between the path to the blue pegasus.

Maybe they got bored of the slow and steady approach? Maybe they decided to place a bounty for sports sake? Could Damned even know what a contest was?

The more he thought, the more the stallion’s head hurt. Whether his injuries from earlier had anything to do with that was irrelevant. If shit kept up like this, then he would find the ugly truth soon enough.

And he was going to be prepared to unload on said truth when the time came.

Moving on the next task - which was changing out the pneumatic tank for the Sweeper - replacing the old charge for harder hitting and more accurate shots. Storm unscrewed the valve which sealed the air inside the canister and placed a rag on a stick before digging around inside, clearing out any buildup inside. Once that was done, he removed the stick and resealed the valve.

Reaching a forehoof over to the side of the table, the stallion grabbed a hoof-held air compressor made up from spare parts. After unscrewing a small cap, plugging the device in and pumping to the desired level of pressure, he removed the compressor and resealed the cap. Following this, a quick wipe down of the outer tank marked the end of it’s maintenance and the part was reattached to the weapon’s stock.

Storm lifted the Sweeper up with his Tethertech and dry fired it a couple of times to test the pressure quality. It definitely sounded stronger than the previous two days, signaling it was back in mint condition - or as close as a wasteland weapon could get. After his satisfaction was guaranteed, he tethered one of the rivet canisters to the loading chamber of the Sweeper.

Luckily, his suit would require no further attention as it was the first thing he had worked on upon getting home. The damage was identified, fixed, and the scratched parts were repainted with the last drops he had left. As an added measure, Storm even removed the hoof blade, checked it for damage and cleaned the dried gore off of it.

Once the realization that his work was done for the night hit, the grey pegasus was also hit with a heavy yawn - a reminder of his losing battle with sleep. Maybe it was his battered body whispering in his ear like a metaphorical devil on his shoulder telling him that he needed to sleep, but right now all of his self-taught survival instincts were actually considering risking blowing off the whole new Damned customs for a few z’s. But before any decision could be made, he pressed a hoof to his recently bandaged abdomen, checking if his work would stick.

“Long day?” A familiar stallion’s voice asked from behind.

Not familiar as in the good type, but familiar nonetheless.

It was the voice of the hospital group’s leader. That same condescending and slightly smug tone retained despite the semi-serious question.

Storm ignored the voice as he continued the cleanup of his workstation, placing tools in their respective spots and throwing away old wires, rags, and rivet casings. But as much as he really didn’t want to turn around, the only exit to the room was in the same direction as the voice.

“That bad, huh?” It continued, followed by a playful scoff. “I really don’t see what's got ya down. You’re still alive, are slowly rebuilding your little empire, and to top it all off - the first two in that empire are some fine females...”

Tethering his Sweeper, the stallion walked it over to a hook-rack on the wall where his shotgun was stationed. After making sure the weapon was in its proper place, Storm’s eye was caught on the engravings he, his best friend, and his grandfather made into the rifle.

“You got it pretty good, sport. They’re the best at a young age - when they’re scared of what the future holds and need a big strong stallion to hold them at night - then you’ve got yourself a good time. If only I’d waited a bit longer then I could have gotten a piece of that action myse-”

“Get to the point.” Storm interrupted coldly, still not taking his eyes off of the engravings.

Momentary silence filled the room and the stallion could imagine the leader’s mouth agape as if in slight shock at the boldness. But like the monster-filled night, the fucker’s irritating voice returned as it always would.

“I see what's going on here.” The leader resumed after a moment of contemplation. “You may not realize it - or want to realize it yet - but your hope is coming back. You spent your entire life trying to keep others alive that even when all is lost that is all you can think to do. When you can’t fix your own problems, helping others is a way out and benefits them as well, right?”

No response.

The stallion continues anyway.

“Now you’ve got others and no matter how much you try and deny it, you are starting to enjoy their company. It’s better than nothing, huh, Stormy? That Rainbow one reminds you of your pain in the ass griffon friend, doesn’t she? And the unicorn, she is the more rational and gentle natured of you all. Remind you of Ivory? Of course she does!”

In the recently polished exterior of the Sweeper, Storm could see the bastard sitting in a random chair by the door with his four hooves crossed on the chair’s back and supporting his front half. It took the stallion a moment to register the pain in his clenched jaw that his teeth were creating, but he bared through and listened for wherever this was going.

“I’m trying to warn you that this will end no differently than it did when I was around. Think about it, sport - two pretty and healthy mares in a world of degenerates, beasts, and harsher elements than anything imaginable. I’m no chef but that is a recipe for disaster if I ever heard one. The shy one is bound to slip up and get you - and everypony else killed for sure. And then there is the rainbow-maned one. She’s got spunk and fight in her. Name one stallion out here who doesn’t like that in his latest trophy. But that’s not even the biggest problem with her…”

Echoes of Damned roars, screeches and cries of agony started to build up in Storm’s ears by this point.

“Those things really have taken a liking to her. Think that’s just a coincidence? Well, it ain’t, sport. By saving her from being a fish out of water, you started something that there is no going back from. Not unless you stop it now.”

“What do you mean exactly?” Storm finally spoke up, turning to face his late nemesis.

“Think about it.” The leader added, getting out of his chair and standing up while using his hooves to emphasize certain points. “Ever since you found her, everything has gone wrong. Your wonderland with your buddies disappeared, the painful memories are coming back, and everything she does ends in skin being ripped off your own back. Like I said, it's not a coincidence that everything is getting harder. Her presence upset the balance of things-”

“Balance of things?” Storm interrupted, raising a brow. “There is no balance or winners out here. No matter who comes out on top, the monsters will win. Whether it's from out there or right here.” With that last line, he gestured to the leader with a hoof.

“Wow, you got to my point before I could even get to it. Bravo, sport!” The leader chuckled, earning an unamused expression from the other stallion. “That’s exactly what I am getting at. The monsters - as you say it - will always win. Your spunky bundle of joy out there doesn’t stand a chance in this mission of hers and you know it. It will end in misery and a painful death at the claws of those things unless you do something about it.”

“Do something about it, huh...” Storm replied, clearly beyond irritated at the whole ordeal. “You want me to join her suicide run? Is watching me foalsit enjoyable for you or something?”

“A little.” The leader shrugged admittedly. “Not much else to do when I’m just a figment of your imagination after all. Anywho, as much as that would be entertaining, I was thinking of something more… generous - ya know, in the spirit of that unicorn mare you blew to bits earlier.”

Still not amused.

“If you really want to stop her from experiencing the same pain you’ve already gone through, then you have to make sure she never gets the chance to come into contact with it…”

Storm’s electric purple eyes widened slightly, but it was enough for him to notice.

“That’s right. You have to stop her.”

The smallest of amused grins remained on the leader’s face as the two stared in silence. When it was clear nothing more was to be said, the leader let out a fake yawn and stretched his hooves.

“Well it is getting late, so I’d sleep on it if I were you, sport.”

Then he was gone.

All it took was a blink of Storm’s eyes for him to vanish.

The stallion had no idea how long he stood there, rooted to the spot, as he was lost in the sea of his own thoughts. The worst part about it all wasn’t even seeing his face, but rather that he was right about it all.

No, this wasn’t right. Rainbow Dash was free to make her own decisions and some trauma-induced voice in his head shouldn’t interfere with those choices. Another yawn broke his train of thought.

Fuck. This can wait till morning… Storm thought as he began to close the short distance in between his position and the door when his hoof hit something.

Looking down, he was greeted with the saddlebag that Planning had given him as a token of thanks for allowing her to come with them. Storm’s focus, however, wasn’t on the bag itself, but rather what was inside the bag.

Reaching into the saddlebag, he fished around for the one item that was still inside. The leathery texture skidded across his hoof tip, signaling that he had found it. With no further doubt, Storm pulled out the sliced off face of the mare he had heard labeled as Scootaloo.

For a couple of moments, he couldn’t do much more than gaze into the hollow sockets of the orange mare. Storm didn’t know much about this mare other than she meant something to Rainbow - and whatever that Rarity bitch was trying to do with her remains - wouldn’t be a proper burial for this pony.

But this can’t… Storm’s train of thought resumed as he sighed, tethered a shovel to his side and exited the workshed with the face in his grasp.

Meanwhile, up at the top of the lighthouse balcony - where the gentle breeze assisted by the crashing waves below - two mares looked over the landscape of what used to be their world. For the blue pegasus leaning against the concrete railing, the apocalyptic sight before her was almost unbelievable. Had she not ventured out and nearly lost her life twice in it, the reality of her situation would have been long lost in the hope that it was all some nightmare.

A nightmare that didn’t seem like it would ever end.

Even if her makeshift plan to find the elements was just a sliver of hope, it was possible. Now with one of the element bearers rotting in a basement as a demented corpse, that sliver was no more. Her hope was no more.

Planning could only watch from a folding chair by the door - which had empty bottles littered the side that she had scooted away upon getting up to the balcony - as Rainbow defeatedly stared into what they had just narrowly escaped from. Years of being the mayor’s assistant trained the mare to read others. Things like their expressions, intentions, and thoughts from their body language alone could form a pretty good idea of what that pony was feeling.

There were many things she could read from the pegasus’ own body language. Regret, sorrow, anger - a whole bunch of nasty and painful emotions that were all fighting for the top spot in her attention. Planning half expected her to break down the same way she had when her own sister was presented like that, but it never came.

She just stood there. Staring.

But eventually, all silence must be broken.

And hers was no different.

“I’m going to die out here…”

Upon hearing those cold, yet broken words, Planning’s muzzle subconsciously drooped downward into a frown. The mare got up from the folding chair, knocking over a bottle in the process - not that it disturbed the sulking pegasus across from her - and walked over to the railing.

“...You don’t know that.” Planning attempted to reassure while leaning on the railing like the other mare. “I… overheard your talk with Miss - er, Rarity, and actually became giddy myself at hearing a chance to change all of this.”

Rainbow didn’t respond. Instead she just kept staring out into the night.

“You know, I never got a chance to see the old world. Not like you and Storm. But it sounds great. Fun, free, and safe…”

Just as the grey unicorn finished her sentence, a volley of light flew by the night sky, piercing the inky abyss and stars in its wake.

A shooting star.

“Did you guys really used to make wishes upon those things?”

“...Yeah.”

The uncomfortable silence resumed after that short if not delayed answer. Only the bay wind whistling through their manes kept the world from total silence.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Scootaloo?” Rainbow finally asked. Her voice was distant, almost indifferent. Even despite her tone, Planning could hear the anger. She could feel the anger.

“I…” She started, but caught herself before making any verbal mistakes. “I-I don’t even know where to begin. It’s complicated an-”

An agitated snort came from the blue pegasus upon hearing the last bit. It sounded like a cross between a ‘bullshit’ scoff and an attempt to shrug off a hurtful joke directed at her.

Then she turned to face Planning for the first time.

“Complicated?” Rainbow repeated on the verge of hysteria. When her tear-stained magenta eyes met Plannings, then the unicorn knew she had screwed up. “What was my sister’s fucking face doing on that thing?!” She roared, causing Planning to flinch slightly.

“S-she was just trying to help you-” Planning choked out only to be cut off.

“She? You mean Rarity?” Rainbow asked, earning a series of rapid nods. “W-what do you mean ‘help’?” The fight slowly draining out of her tone upon hearing that.

“When Mayor Mare passed, Rarity was her heir to the town. She tried to make Ponyville more of an appealing place by removing the guard towers and armed sentries everywhere - and instead masking them as regular townsfolk. She did this in the hope that travelers would be able to recognize the ‘little slice of the old world’ - as she put it - so violent outbursts, scuffles and other brutish occurrences could be defused before they even started. Something about it sparking memories in a pony’s brain that makes them remember how things used to be.”

“What does any of this have to do with Scoots?!” Rainbow inquired, running out of patience and her cool.

“I-I’m getting there.” Planning defended before continuing. “Everything was going well until her sister was killed…”

“Sweetie Belle?”

“You knew her?”

“...long story, just… just continue.”

“Okay…” With a clear of her throat, the grey unicorn did just that. “Sweetie was one of our ‘runners.’ We would send small teams of two out to scavenge for supplies, look for survivors and potential newcomers, that sort of thing. Her and Scootaloo usually signed up as partners for the same routes - which were getting further from the town each day with resource drainage - so the danger was increasing with each run…”

“Why would Scoots sign up for something like that?! That’s like signing a suicide pact!”

“She said something along the lines of it’s what you would do…”

Rainbow’s heart dropped.

“Scootaloo was always making her decisions based on what she thought you would have done. She took the most risky assignments and always made sure a random family got their share of the run’s stock before she even touched her own. She was the most loyal pony Ponyville had even including Rarity.”

“H-how did she… she… ya know…” Rainbow stumbled to ask, but couldn’t finish her sentence.

“We aren’t exactly sure even today.” Planning replied, discerning the question. “We found her and Sweetie in a shack on the other side of the Everfree. There was no sign of forced entry, bullet holes, or struggling at all…”

Rainbow’s brow raised, which Planning took as a sign to elaborate more clearly.

“I-I’m only going off of what another runner group told me here, so I don’t know how accurate it is. Rarity and that group are the only ones who have seen the bodies before the transition. They said that Sweetie’s eyes were removed - surgically precise too - with no trace of where her eyeballs were. She had the words ‘I see it now’ carved on her abdomen. She died from infection.”

The blue pegasus had an increasingly mortified expression beginning to grow on her muzzle.

“Scootaloo… Scootaloo was… different. She was still alive. The runners said her wings were cut clean off, taped to her forehooves and had shards of steel from her destroyed rifle stuck in them. She looked like one of those flying monsters but you know… alive. Her abdomen also had a message carved into it that read ‘Take me now.’”

Planning could no longer meet Rainbow’s eye, so she continued looking out into the night instead.

“She charged us… Stumbled towards the group on her hindlegs and those… appendages while screaming about us being blind and that we needed to see… The runners said she gave them no choice. They dragged them back in body bags and requested an audience with Miss Rarity.”

Imagines of a mangled and rabbid Scootaloo started playing in Rainbow’s mind while she attempted to process the new information Planning was giving her.

“Rarity was never the same after seeing what was left of her sister. She would retreat into her office for hours and never talk to anypony except for my sister - who was her receptionist, and that was only to thank her for bringing food to the closed door. Rarity finally allowed others to see her when a group of stallions with power tools and heavy looking equipment came in to work on the storage room. I didn’t know they were really adding that basement until my sister found out.”

A sniffle from the unicorn snapped Rainbow back to reality for the time being.

“She tried to stop Rarity. Thought what she was doing was… insane - dangerous even and threatened to have her exiled when the public found out. That’s when she was…”

“You don’t have to say it. I know…” Rainbow finally said, her voice dry as the rotten apples she had left an hour ago.

“Rarity wanted to… spread her tradition and give ponies one last chance with their loved ones before saying goodbye. She split up the runners into two categories. Half of them actually did their job by scavenging while the other half were forced to try and capture those things, declaw and dismember them until they were ‘safe’ and place them in holding cells at the back of the basement for what she called the transition. So many good ponies died in the first attempts at caging them… but eventually she got enough to make it work. Anypony that had a sibling or family member pass away would have their faces removed and stuck to one of their bodies - giving an illusion that they were alive. The family member would be forced to have one last act of remembrance with their dead other before they transitioned on to the greater beyond. It was enough to break most ponies into fearing Miss Rarity. Over time it became normal - or rather, they became demoralized to it and followed her out of fear. Not respect.”

“I-it’s still so…” Rainbow started, facing the landscape herself. “Unreal. Why would Rarity do something like that? That doesn’t sound like the Element of Generosity I knew at all!”

“This world changes us.” Planning sighed. “We either conform to what we have to be or it kills us. There were many mornings I woke up thinking to myself if it was even worth it anymore. I became the assistant to a psychopath that had hurt my family just as she hurt others.”

Tears were flowing from Planning’s eyes now.

“At one point, I-I stopped thinking that the bullet in my gun was for her but rather more deserving of me. I killed just as many ponies and made more suffer mentally because I was too afraid to do anything about it…”

Nothing more was said as the two mares stared out into the night. One was lightly sobbing as a wing reached over to wrap around her back in a gesture of comfort. Rainbow knew she shouldn’t be taking her anger out on this mare. Planning was just as scared - if not more - that she was. Another victim to a lifetime of mental abuse from both the world and a psychotic influence.

She knew first hoof what fear did to you. No matter how tough you thought you were, true fear beat any fight out of you like the strike of a hoof.

Rainbow knew that very well.

There were some nights she still woke up freaked out thinking she was still in that house. Her muscles would be hurting from how tensed up she was, sweat would be dripping down from her mane, and the dropping pit in her stomach would be growing larger until she calmed down and realized where she was.

Just something as simple as a comforting embrace was enough to snap her back to reality when she needed it most. During the earlier days after it ended, the moments of panic and disorientation wouldn’t be limited to occasional dreams but occurred in bursts of waking moments and Fluttershy would have to gently snap her out of it.

After a few minutes, Planning’s sobbing died down and she sniffed before speaking.

“I-I’m sorry…” She choked out, barely audibly.

“It’s not your fault…” Rainbow trailed off, removing her wing at last.

The silence momentarily resumed before Rainbow decided that the next thing the mare needed - which also helped herself in a lot of stressful cases - was a nap.

After being assured that everything was ‘awesome’ between the two and that there were no hard feelings, Planning agreed to lay down on the couch downstairs, leaving Rainbow Dash on the balcony alone with only her thoughts to torment her.

In the walled-off yard below, a shovel pierced the dirt for a final time but remained embedded in the soil - a sign of a job well done. Normally, the stallion who had just discarded said shovel would have looked over his work once more before continuing, but a now throbbing cut in his stomach prevented any thought of that. Instead, he pressed a hoof to the bandage to make sure it was secure despite his previous movements and additional sweat build-up.

When it became clear his makeshift medical job would hold, he shrugged off the nagging in his sides while looking up towards the lighthouse balcony. With an exhale through his nostrils that produced a brief cloud of vapor, he looked back down at the newest addition to the graveyard.

An eight patch of recently disturbed dirt topped off with a cross.

Now there was only one thing left to do.

A couple of moments later, Storm found himself in the living room of the residential building - where a familiar grey unicorn was attempting to sleep on the couch. Her forehoof was draped over her eyes as if trying to hide them from a nonexistent source of light or to prevent somepony from seeing something in them.

Deciding not to disturb the slumbering mare, he moved past her and into the building’s main hall on his quest to the balcony. A sturdy wooden door - that he had seen thousands of times - led up to the top point of the structure on his left, but Storm couldn’t bring himself to open it just yet as another door at the very end of the hall caught his attention instead.

Like the balcony access, it was wooden and faded but not as thick or sturdy to keep the elements at bay. The stained carpet and chipping walls didn’t even register in his mind or vision as that door had his full attention.

Swallowing the lump in his throat and wetting his bottom lip, Storm tore his gaze from the door and returned it to the entrance to the intended destination. The second his hoof wrapped around the doorknob, he heard it to his right.

A foal’s cry.

Not the typical ‘feed me’ or ‘change me’ cries, but a sound of genuine fear and discontent. It was slightly muffled by the closed door at the end of the hall. Storm had half expected to hear a familiar motherly voice attempting to comfort it.

But it never came.

Instead the crying resumed - uninterrupted.

That same damned sound echoed in his head just as persistently.

Once his vision started to swim is when the stallion decided to get the fuck out of there. Practically throwing open the balcony access door, he shoved himself inside and slammed the door behind himself.

As if it would stop the noise gnawing at his ears, Storm slid back-first down the door to keep it out. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that it might have been visible from his coat if he was in a cartoon.

But he wasn’t. This was real.

Too real.

The wailing grew in volume.

It forced him to cover his ears with his forehooves. Somehow, this action didn’t make the noise let up even one bit. It was still assaulting him full force alongside a new ringing that faintly began to drum in the background.

Just when he thought the foal’s vocals couldn’t possibly be strained anymore, everything stopped.

Completely stopped.

The crying - recently turned wailing, the dull ringing, everything stopped suddenly.

BANG!

A single gunshot replaced the chorus of suffering right before the noises returned to silence. No matter how hard he tried not to, the mental image of Raine’s headless and lifeless corpse dominated his vision.

Storm had no idea how long he stayed like that - propped up against the door with his hindlegs curled and forehooves on his head. Nor did he care. All he knew was that he had to get away.

At any cost.

So doing just that, the stallion got to his hooves and began the process of ascending the spiral staircase until he reached the top.

The balcony.

The second he stepped onto the open surface of said balcony, the breeze of the ocean’s wind hit him full force. It wasn’t enough to take anypony - let alone a pony of his size - down, but it did ruffle his unkempt mane and tail just like it was currently doing to the prismatic pegasus facing away from him.

Speaking of which, the mentioned mare was leaning against the concrete railing and looking out onto what was still a surprisingly Damned-free landscape. The shimmering white orb above cast an angelic effect around her body in the form of a white outline. Just looking at her now made him realize just how… off she was from the rest of the world.

The world was stained - tainted even. Besides a semi-messy mane and a wing injury, she was clean. The world was cruel and took no care in whose light went out, she tried to make it work for everypony. The world was ruined - destroyed ruins of civilization everywhere while it grew further and further distant each passing day. She still had hope for that old world which was so far away.

But right now, the world and the mare did have something in common…

Both were broken.

The world was broken literally. A breed of monsters that came out of seemingly nowhere followed by solar strikes and decades of neglect left it that way physically. Rainbow was broken spiritually.

He couldn’t blame her.

Seeing one of your best friends turn into a husk of what they used to be followed by a monster wearing your sister’s face on the same day would do that to anypony. The way she distantly stared off into the ashes said it all for him as he had done the very same thing so many nights after too much cider or bullshit in general. Hell, he came to this very same balcony to do what the sulking pegasus was doing right now.

Well, the hallucinated fucker was right about one thing - sort of.

He had to stop her…

Not from trying to fix what was already broken, but from this.

Seeing it as the only option, the stallion decided to make the first move.

“Hey…” He said dryly - not because of lack of care, but because of the previous events that had taken a toll on his throat.

A quick and small flinch in the mare’s entire body let him know she had not been expecting him nor knew he was there until this exact second.

“Hey…” She replied, sounding distant and refusing to turn around.

When it was clear the conversation would go no further on her end, Storm moved to the railing a couple steps down from her - but where he still had a view of the landscape - and placed his own forehooves on it in a similar fashion to her own.

With seemingly no other way around it, he knew where it had to go next. Clearing his throat, he continued.

“We need to talk about today.”

Initially, he got no response. Each pony kept gazing on their respective spots of the land in silence as he finally heard a gentle sigh from his left and shifting as a hoof kicked against the pavement.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t waste that much ammo ever again - I know.” She huffed, not even sounding like the usual pain-in-the-ass fighter from before.

“That’s not it.” Storm calmly corrected. “You… did pretty good out there actually….”

No comment.

“But that’s not the point. I… I saw what you had to go through. I know it’s not much, but I’m sorry.”

Still nothing.

“I didn’t like or trust her, but Rarity didn’t deserve that. Neither did Scootaloo…” He would have continued, but the muffled sound of quivering lips holding in an oncoming breakdown from his left interrupted.

The sound itself was nowhere near loud enough to actually interrupt, but the notion of it was. Storm didn’t even have to look at her to know what her face looked like right now. Clenched eyes trying to hold in fresh tears, clenched teeth and set jaw holding back sobs or a string of curses, and quivering lips assisting to hold in sobs.

And just like that, the dam broke.

While the blue pegasus let out all of the build-up of stress, loss, and a mountain of emotions she was forced to go through in just a few horrible hours, her good wing went over her face as to shield her from embarrassment of showing weakness around another pony.

Storm just stood there - head down and stance still as a statue - a few steps away and let her pour everything out in silence. He contemplated trying to say something or raise a wing to wrap around her back - even lifting said wing halfway across but retracting it when the realization that it could make things worse despite the intent - not that she noticed.

He waited for however long it took until the sobs became faint sniffing before trying again.

“I need to show you something.” He blurted out, not sure how to approach it from there. “Can you do that?”

A series of subtle nods facing away from him was his answer. And so with the distraught mare in tow, Storm descended the stairwell and exited the front door to the residential part. He didn’t need to turn around to check if she was still following. The light sniffing and faint clop of hooves confirmed that much.

The duo arrived at the makeshift grave site and stopped in front of the eighth cross. When it became clear that she didn’t notice the object of the journey’s purpose immediately, he pointed a hoof at it. The total number of graves began to click in her head, allowing the blue pegasus to discover that the eighth one was new and not one of his own.

“I snatched what was left of her - the actual parts I mean…” He elaborated, cringing upon realizing how that sounded when talking about a severed face of somepony. “It… just felt fitting instead of… the alternative.”

Silence.

Not even the sniffing broke it.

Pure silence.

“I’ll just go if you want to say a few words to her…” He finished, refusing to meet her eyes while turning to leave.

Storm got a couple of steps away and was in the process of heading in the general direction of the workshed when he heard it.

“Thank you…”

It was faint, barely above a whisper even.

But he heard it. Clear as the wind whistling.

Her tone still had vague traces of the breakdown from moments earlier in it by the increase in pitch and occasional breaking or voice crack in such a short statement. But it was genuine. It was sincere.

That didn’t matter to him though.

It was done.

He had done his best to ease her pain. Just as he had spent a lifetime trying to do for his family, but now she was a part of that family, whether she - or he for that matter - liked it.

Whether he didn’t respond was for his own sake or hers, Storm didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to get out of there.

At any cost.

So he continued walking to the edge of the bay, down the path, and onto the docks where the workshed stood against the clashing waves below. Opening the door and turning on the lightswitch revealed the same old haven he had come to know - now more than ever - in recent times.

Storm was never good at describing his own feelings. Even before all of this. He took things as they came and went but this was different. He felt the usual - the sense of fault in responsibility, the anger in the day’s events and what could have been done differently, all that was the same.

For reasons unknown, the stallion’s eyes drifted to the Sweeper rifle on the wall. More specifically, the three engraved letters on the side.

His throat was becoming more parched by the second but his body was not entirely devoid of liquids as a single tear rolled down his right eye, riding his cheek and being snuffed out in his forest of a beard below.

He didn’t even notice it as his full attention was yet again on some object which demanded and deserved it.

*STATIC*

“...H-el-o?” An extremely distorted voice rang out from his suddenly activated Tethertech.

What the fuck?

“...e.llo? Ca- you h--r me?” It continued.

Suddenly, an extremely radiant light broke through the cracks in the boarded up windows as a bellowing horn resounded throughout the night.

Shit!

Without even thinking, Storm was already suiting up as he accidentally tightened the straps too taunt in his haste to gear up, grab his Sweeper and burst out the door.

That was when he saw it.

Floating about a block away over the South Luna Ocean - and shining enough spotlights to be a Damned diner neon sign - was a huge vessel of wood, steel, and other materials that stood out against the moonlight above.

The stallion knew this device all too well as his grandfather - one of the few fond memories that remained in his survival racked brain - worked on many of these in the old world.

The titanic object before him was an airship.

A fucking airship.