The thunder overhead announced the coming rain as we collected ourselves post fight, where I had requested a couple of minutes to myself which the others hesitantly agreed to. I deftly grabbed some supplies out of Sky's saddlebags before riding the elevator down to the lower level one last time. I wired up the few bricks of C4 that we had purchased while in Tenpony to a makeshift timer and attached it to the elevator call board so that once I reached the top the explosives would prime, then when the elevator got back down, they would blow and seal this hellish cave forever.

The Ground shook as I met back up with the others, sending looks of confusion around as I shook my head and smiled. Carlotta was finished strapping in as I shoved the last of our spark batteries into the undercarriage of the skycar. Brass and Pallet were already inside waiting as I looked over to the detached trunk of the Marauder sadly. Walking over to it I grabbed the Tire Iron, which was really the only useful tool I could take, and placed it into my saddlebag before boarding our cargo pod and latching the door shut.

The first drops of rain spattered against the car when Whinny was finally back in sight. I stiffened up as I felt Brass stick me with another Med-X, immediately feeling the pain from my head and chest dissipate. He smiled as he levitated his helmet back on, slipping the empty needle into my bag. We did a circle around the four buildings to look for any sign of 42, which of course there was none, just the lonely feeling that now permeated the small settlement.

We came in for a landing from the south and parked in between the two closest brick buildings. I opened the door slowly and peered out into the deserted center. Pallet gasped excitedly and burst out the door, bolting at a small teddy bear on the corner, which seemed out of place, I don't remember it being there from before.

"Something's wrong..." I said before the back of my eye stung, my brain now connecting the two points together from my experiences at both bunkers and the video of her. My eye seemed to sting whenever 42 or her likeness was near, which meant she had to be close. "42 is here." I said loudly before I slipped into S.A.T.S. and pulled up the inventory, equipping Heartstopper before exiting the spell. The sleek shotgun appeared in my mouth with a purple flash as Pallet grabbed the stuffed toy.

Brass and Sky seemed to stare oddly at me after the firearm magically appeared, perplexed at the mention of 42. I'd have to explain it later because I knew what was coming as I slid easily back into S.A.T.S. while 42 bolted at the filly. Fuck, I was too slow. the 2% chance over every section of her was too low of a chance for me to fire, if I missed I might hit Pallet. I opened the inventory instead and unequipped my shotgun, watching it flash away while dropping from S.A.T.S. and letting time return to normal.

42 grabbed the filly in one hoof and pulled her close as she struggled. Pointing her revolver at Pallet as she smirked. "You are a lot tougher than I gave you credit for, kid. Even though it's normally the villain who looks better needing an eye patch." Sky and Brass lowered themselves, getting ready to shoot it out. "Tut tut! I just pulled this trick 2 chapters in a row, you won't shoot me, not when I have her... now BACK OFF"

"Do what she says." As much as I had wanted them to shoot through me, I won't let them do it to Pallet. I ignored 42's infuriating randomness, curious as to why she was here. "What do you want then?" I said with a stern voice, growing tired of having to play her stupid games. She seemed to stand for a moment, rubbing the barrel of the gun under her chin in thought.

"It's not much, but the world will do for a start." She smiled and tightened her hold on Pallet. "Tell me the code you used to wake me and I'll give you the filly, I won't blow the good ponies of Whinny to smithereens by telling you where they are, BEFORE the bombs I set go off." She looked immensely proud of herself as she spoke. "But wait, there's more!" She paused for what I'm sure was supposed to be dramatic effect. "If you act now, I'll throw in the bonus of telling you where I'm heading next..." She cackled loudly, seemingly amused.

"No, I won't give you the code." I said with a painful stomp of my injured hoof, watching as Carlotta flew down a few feet behind her. 42 sighed and smiled.

"Because of your feather brained friend behind me and your refusal, you have lost two of the prizes. Only one remains. Tell me the code and I'll let you save the nice ponies who lived here." She pulled the hammer on the revolver back as she spoke. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sky shaking in rage, and if I didn't do something soon, this was going to end badly for all of us, I had to make the call.

"The code is 42." I said with a sigh. It doesn't matter if she has the code. We'll just follow her wherever she goes and find a way to separate her from Pallet Jack. 42 choked back a soft laugh, thoroughly enjoying every moment she had us under her hoof.

"Thank you Backlash! You've been such a good sport about all these games, I'd say you've earned the bonus prize back!" She started to walk towards the collapsed entrance of one of the brick buildings. "You see, not only am I going to tell you that I've hidden the ponies of whinny in the Factory behind you, I'm going to tell you where I'm going!" She stepped through the broken brick hole and disappeared into the darkness of the interior of the building, still holding Pallet. "I'm going to go find and pay a visit the stallion I spent good money on to kill you. In my new wasteland, there won't be room for any failures like him."

The engine of the marauder roared to life as 42 shifted into drive and pulled out of the building, slowly driving away with her head out the window. "By the way, you have 15 minutes to disarm the bomb at the factory! I just know you'll have a BLAST!" She yelled back at us before speeding off in maniacal laughter.

"I WILL KILL YOU 42! YOU HEAR ME!?" I screamed and stomped at the soggy ground before my ears heard Sky's wings floof out. I didn't think as I reacted quickly, leaning over and biting down on her tail just in time, straining through the pain to hold her down as she tried to go after the pink mare.

"LET ME GO! SHE HAS PALLET!" Sky screamed as she kicked me hard in my injured face, sending me sprawling to the ground in pain. She took off into the air before Carlotta slammed into her, pinning her into the third story brick of the building next to us. She struggled and kicked as Carlotta hugged her tightly, relaxing and crying softly as I saw Sky's rage melt away.

"We'll get her back." The normally gruff griffin sounded like she had just been shot from the amount of pain in her words. "It will be alright." No, not we, I needed to get her back. I should have seen this coming but due to my ineptitude, I've lost the one pony who couldn't protect herself. Even with all that, the last statement of 42 was running through my mind over and over, reminding me that we could still save the towns ponies.

"Carlotta, we need to get to the factory. We need to save the others." I called up to the two fliers, knocking Brass out of his own thoughts, making him stiffen up before turning toward me with a nod. "Get hooked up and lets get going, the faster we save them, the less catch up we'll have to do to 42." The griffin nodded and let go of Sky, drifting down and hooking herself into the harness.

Skyline wiped her eyes and flew down in front of me. "I'll fly ahead and see if she has any surprises for us." I climbed into the skycar as Sky took off into the air, Brass climbed in and stood in the open doorway, the rain starting to pick up slowly.

"Fly low over the roof, I'll search from the top down." Brass's voice called out as we lifted off, skimming low over the terrain as we raced toward the imposing building. As it grew closer, I could make out a set of smoke stacks and open topped water tanks along side it, the tall tan building seemed to melt into the browns and greys of the wasteland as we came up over the top. I watched in amazement as Brass stepped out the door while we skimmed the rooftop, skidding on all fours before turning to head inside the roof access.

Carlotta swung the car around to the front of the building, landing in the parking lot before going to unhook herself. I stopped her. "I need you to circle the building in case we need you to meet us on the rooftop." She opened her beak to complain, but I was already slamming through the front doors, charging through the small gift shop inside. I skidded to a stop as I saw the flicker of a pink, shielded case in the corner. Quickly trotting up to it, I read the inscription on the empty case, thinking anything kept behind one of these has to be important.

"Oh fuck." I looked up at the empty case for a moment and realized that I knew what 42 made her bomb out of, and I needed to tell the others we're sitting on a Celestia-damned megaspell! I turned and ran for the next door, plowing through a stand of souvenirs and a rack of 120 year old, moldy hats. As I tore onto the manufacturing floor, I quickly noticed the elaborate catwalk system hanging 30 feet above my head. (Not quite sure why every factory in prewar Equestria needed so much literal oversight.)

"Backlash!" I heard Brass boom from high above on one of the walkways. "They're up here!" I looked around for a way up, spotting a set of steep, winding, circular stairs heading to the catwalks. I galloped up them two stairs at a time, turning to meet Brass as he ran towards the offices at the other end of the factory, our hooves slamming down the rusty walkway as it gave sharp groans of protest.

"Oh Luna, please let these hold..." I said under my breath as the entire catwalk rocked slowly side to side. Brass hit the old wooden door to the conference room at the end with enough force it seemed to explode into splinters, the shards raining down on me as I heard the sharp twang of a tripwire snap as he broke it. The loudspeakers roared to life with a series of small pops on the shop floor, small fires quickly spreading along the walls and windows on ground level.

"Hello Backlash! The old foreman here was kind enough to have died with his audiolog recorder in his hoof and a stack of blank tapes next to him! How thoughtful, don't you think? Anyway, if you are hearing this you have just triggered the short backup timer for my little balefireworks presentation! I do hope you and the good ponies of Whinny can make it out in time because by this point, you have just over a minute and a half left! I really wish you would stay and enjoy the show, I really want you to be a BIG PART of it!"

I looked to the far end of the room, finally noticing the bodies of the ponies from Whinny. They were arranged in various positions around a table, seemingly frozen in ridiculous activities. Each of the seven ponies had been executed by a shot to the back of the head, the grotesque scene made me feel like I was going to throw up again. "I couldn't save them either..."

"Backlash, we need to go, NOW." Brass's anxious voice stated, as he walked over to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. "We can't do anything more for them now, I'm sorry. But we need to leave." I nodded and headed out through the door, racing down the catwalk as the fires below licked at my quickly beating hooves, heating the metal and burning me as I ran. The pain momentarily distracted me from the fact I could only hear myself running but I didn't want to stop, so I turned my head and yelled out for Brass.

As I reached the other end and sat by the stairs to the roof, I looked back as the fire rose up through the walkway, and to see Brass was charging at full speed down the red hot catwalks. The heated metal stressed and buckled under him as he ran, plunging him into the fiery hell below. I panicked and called out for him.

"OH FUCK! BRASS! WHERE ARE YOU!?" I coughed and choked on the thick black smoke, straining my one good eye to look for him but coming up empty. "BRASS?! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME GET OUT OF HERE! BRASS!?" I wheezed and coughed harder as the flames rose to my section of the walkway forcing me to run up into the open air of the rainy rooftop. I saw Carlotta coming around in a wide pass towards the factory but she was too far away and knew there wasn't enough time. I galloped along the roof as fast as my injured hooves could carry me, pushing every ounce out of them as they screamed in protest.

I hit the edge of the roof and pushed off hard, sailing through the air as the burning factory roof groaned out with a deep shudder and collapsed onto the production floor. I hit the slightly rainbow tinged water of the nearest water tower hard, sinking before I heard the deafening roar, feeling as the shockwave from the Balefire eggs blast ripped the water tower from it's foundations. I felt the tower list before completely tipping over, sending the water and myself rushing out onto the desert dirt. I coughed up a throat full of water and gasped for breath, looking over at the rising green cloud pouring up from the twisted remains of the factory.

My pipbuck started clicking quickly as Carlotta and Sky came down beside me, my eyes clenched as I sat in the mud without Brass. I struggled and got to my hooves. He's not dead I thought, he got out in time, he's just on the other side of the factory or something. Sky and Carlotta were trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear them. The voice of reason in my head drowning them out as it told me that he's gone. I couldn't save any of them. 42 had managed to screw up every aspect of my life, save for my friends. But now? She just took Brass Tacks from me, she just stole the embodiment of the innocence of ponykind from me.

I wrestled against Carlotta and Sky as they tried to drag me back out of the mud. I screamed and flailed against them as hard as I could, but my body had finally decided enough was enough and refused to move anymore. As they drug me in the rain to the skycar, the world seemed to come back into focus a bit. They both bit down and ripped open packets of rad away, each guzzling three of them down before passing one to me. I looked down at the rad meter on my pipbuck, seeing the needle wavering halfway through the red as it still clicked softly. I didn't want to, but I choked down the horrid, tangy liquid as I got back to my hooves.

"I'm so sorry... Brass..." I quivered sadly and I spoke softly. "He fell into the fire and I lost track of him." I put my hooves up onto Skylines shoulders. "He must have gotten out... I know it." Sky's eyes streamed tears as she pulled me into a tight hug. "Oh Celestia I'm so sorry..." I looked up with water filled eyes to see Carlotta's shocked gaze locked behind us. I pulled away from Sky and turned around to see the familiar power armor walking towards us slowly, shining a brilliant white with clouds forming behind it, looking like an armored angel as the figure walked closer.

The rad meter on my arm ticked faster as he approached, a small, dead bush he managed to brush into lit on fire. I reached out and quickly grabbed another rad away, gulping it down. FUCK his armor was bleeding white-hot heat from the radiation he was giving off, steam drifting up with a soft hiss as the rain came down on him.

"BRASS! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" I yelled out, cutting through the silence. He stopped moving forward abruptly, canting his head slightly in confusion. "Your suit is giving off absurd amounts of radiation, you need to stay back until you can cool it off a bit." He looked himself over before giving a small nod.

"Are you ok in there?" Carlotta called over, her voice more curious than worried.

He nodded vigorously, bringing up a hoof to flex it. Well, apparently while I was pining over his loss, he was basking in the explosion because the suit could handle it. What a jerk...

"Yup, he's a ghoul." Carlotta spouted out abruptly, knocking me out of my thoughts. "only way anyone survives that much radiation is to become a ghoul, which then reverses it's effects." I turned slowly to her with one eyebrow raised.

"And how do you know this?" I asked slowly. I should have known the answer, but I couldn't think because I was being a dumb pony. (It's not my fault, I was delirious from all the trauma over the last twelve hours. That's the only reason, I swear!)

"Because I did a few jobs protecting Ditzy Doo? You know, it's why she loaned me her Skycar." Carlotta said matter-o-factly. "You could learn a lot from her, she knows a lot more about the wasteland than you think, at least a little bit about pretty much everything."

"REGARDLESS..." Sky raised her voice at us. "We are glad you are still with us Brass." He nodded and sat back in the mud, making a large cloud of steam rise before hopping back up, turning and heading towards town.

"He's right you know, we need to get inside before we become ghouls as well." Sky said as she jumped and took off after him. Carlotta harrumphed and hooked herself to the skycar, waiting until I slumped inside before taking off. As we banked and headed into town, I stared at the brightly burning factory as the sun started to dip below the cloud cover, trying to remember the faces of the dead ponies inside. She had stolen seven more, seven more innocent souls, and the weight of them were firmly on my back with the others from Ponyville.

My body yelled and fought me as the last of my Med-X wore off, the full brunt of the day finally weighed down on me. I closed my eyes for just a moment, listening to the wind as we flew. I swore I could hear the underlying tones of my mother's song, so I filled in the blanks in my head, slowly drifting away with the notes into the increasingly familiar darkness.

I awoke softly in the Skycar, opening my eyes and looking around. The sun had set and we were back on the roof of the building we spent the night before on. I swung the door open and stepped out slowly, wondering where my friends had gone. I called out for them, standing and waiting to hear a response from the darkness, but nothing answered. I perked up when I heard a noise behind me.

I spun around to meet the mutilated face of a green unicorn stallion, his right eye and side of his face had been torn off by the impact of something heavy. He stood silently as his lifeless other eye stared quietly into mine, making me back away in fright, bumping into something else behind me. I looked back to see the slack jawed face of a light green mare who was missing the top of her skull, the blood and brain had dripped down her face as she too stared with dead eyes at me, grabbing my foreleg so hard I thought she was going to break it.

I screamed out for my friends to help me as a familiar blue pegasus grabbed my other forehoof. Pallet's dead father helping hold me out over the edge of the roof, dangling me over the black nothing below that I knew would surely devour my soul if it ever got ahold of me. The green stallion walked over with lifeless steps before stopping in front of me. He had no breath when he spoke out.

They let me go, dropping me into the wispy, black darkness below. I reached out and yelled, not wanting to be taken completely as the darkness wrapped around me. I felt a sharp pain in my chest as I panicked and was snapped awake by Skyline, hyperventilating and sweating profusely as my heart raced.

"Are you alright? You were sleeping quietly the last few hours before you just started screaming." She stared down with the eyes of a concerned sister, I could feel her body was tense with worry. I looked around for a moment, noticing that we were inside on the bottom floor of one of the brick buildings, a small fire lit in the corner where Carlotta was curled up in a bunk next to.

"I'm fine, It's just the pain from my injuries." I said quickly, hoping that as I lied through my teeth, this one was at least believable. Sky brushed my mane out of my good eye before giving me a small frown.

"You sure? We could talk about..." She started before I pushed her hoof away with a soft smile.

"I said I'm fine, and really, I am." I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, watching as it visibly relaxed her. "Besides, you should spend more time with Carlotta, I think she really adores you."

She blushed through her coat, somehow getting more red, while scrunching up her muzzle a bit before turning and looking over to the sleeping griffin. "I think... I really like her as well." She leaned forward and hugged me softly before floating back over, laying against Carlotta's side as the griffin put a talon around her.

I smiled and turned to look out the window next to me, the storm was raging which was nothing new for this time of year in the wasteland. The wind howled as I spotted a dark red figure pacing in the streets, wisps of steam still bellowing off him as the wind and rain cooled his armor down. I wondered to myself for a moment when we would be able to get close enough for Brass to ride with us in the skycar. I flipped on my Pipbucks radio.

The soothing tone of Sweetie Belle quietly filled the room as I stared out off into the rain. I let the slow song seep into my aching flesh as I relaxed, trying to clear my mind of the nightmare from my sleep, but failed as the faces of the dead ponies flashed into my mind over and over, I couldn't stop it. I felt my heartbeat pick up as they whispered to me from the back of my mind.

I was about to scream again before I was pulled back into the real world by the voice of DJ Pon3 coming over the radio.

"That was Sweetie Belle trying to remind all of you that no matter how bad it get's, your friends will never let you down. Now onward to the news! First off, some upsetting news as the settlement of Whinney has gone completely dark in the wake of our last report of the Pink menace heading their way. Here's to hoping they are all just hiding below the floorboards and forgot to come back out again."

My mind shot back to the factory's conference room, the residents each laid out as part of a sick joke 42 was playing. Their deaths nothing more than part of her game she was playing with me, the game I kept losing.

"Now for some alarming news. The Rock gang had stepped up raids on local settlements, seemingly in response to an act of humiliation towards their leader inside the ruins of Ponyville. So if you are trotting through that area, it might be best to keep your head down or gallop through as fast as you can, because they are on the warpath and shouldn't be taken lightly."

Shit, Crankshaft really DID run a gang. But I gave him his life back with the condition that he would stay away from us, and I didn't have any interest of stopping his gang. 42 was the only problem I had, and she was going... to go kill Crank. My mind raced between the pro's and con's of this, ultimately figuring that if 42 only killed him, she's have a small army to command. Fuck, I was going to have to intervene, wasn't I? I groaned and slumped to the floor.

"Lastly, I report to you that the scourge that is the Pink mare has once again been spotted heading east toward ponyville again. More when I get it, but until then, you stay safe my little pon...." I clicked the radio off again, listening to the rain as the distant thunder boomed in the night sky. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do anymore. I thought at first we needed a plan, but every plan I have is destroyed by 42 seemingly coming out of nowhere. By the time we got to Ponyville, I'll have figured something out. I got to my hooves as I felt a familiar pain in my gut and walked quietly to the door, slipping outside as Sky snored happily on Carlotta.

I quietly snuck around the side of the building and to the other side of a pile of rubble, splashing through puddles with as much grace as a steamroller. While I wound through the skeletons of demolished houses, I cringed, hoping that it wouldn't attract Brass. I ducked under the semi intact roof and danced lightly on my feet before relieving myself over the edge in the dirt. My ear twitched as I thought I heard music for a moment, abruptly cutting out in the heavy rainfall as I finished up.

I sighed and checked my pipbucks compass, a single pink bar appeared on it to my right. I leaned out of the half collapsed house carefully, looking for what it was when a small floating sphere appeared through the rain. The sprite bot bobbing softly as it headed for me silently.

"Need something watcher?" I asked as it slowly floated inside, stopping next to me.

"I wanted to see if you had found what became of the residents here, I've been worried they were killed by Pinkie..." the bot abruptly cut itself off, floating for a moment in silence before continuing. "I mean if the Pink mare had gotten to them."

"42 was just toying with me. She killed them and set me up to find them as some... sick joke." I said with a grimace. I don't care how many times I had that nightmare, even when I deserve it. But it would only ever be worth it if she was the one in my dreams, her dead eyes staring at me as she threw me into the darkness. I would meet her like an old friend on the edge of that roof, if only I could kill her.

"42?" The Sprite bot's voice sounded slightly puzzled amid the speakers normal distortion.

"That's her number. She was the 42nd clone of Pinkie I guess." I shrugged and suddenly remembered back to our first conversation. "What did you mean before? You said you knew 'it was a bad idea.' which sounded to me like you knew something about all this. Are you a pre war ghoul or something?"

"Something like that..." A cough came out of the mechanical sprite as it bounced slowly in place. "I need to go, these things don't la..." He was cut off by a burst of static, the loud crashing of a marching song sounded out before the bot bobbed through the doorway and off into the cold, wet night. I heard the heavy stomps of Brass's armor splashing with loud hiss's as he walked closer.

"Just came out to take a leak!" I called out as he drew close, stopping and backing up slowly as I exited back into the rain, my pipbuck slowly clicking as he stood maybe 10 feet away. At this rate, he would be safe enough to be around in another day. And as much as I didn't want 42 to get that much of a head start, we all needed the rest anyway. My body felt like it was barely holding itself together as it is.

"Look, Brass. when we were running, I..." I started as he raised his hoof. He levitated a stick from the ground through his helmet and started to write in the mud.

I stomped my hoof in the muck. "No, it was my fault you fell, you should have gone first before the walkway heated up so much."

Brass wiped the words away with his hoof before writing again.

His point was solid, it was better one of us fell than both. Wait, what am I thinking?! No, neither of us should have fallen. We wouldn't have even been there if I hadn't stood around so damn long.

Wait...that hurt my brain. I had thought that with all his knowledge from the Steel Rangers, he would know more about ghouls than even Carlotta seemed too. "How much radiation did you absorb?" I asked slowly as my wet mane stuck to my eye, causing me to wipe it away as Brass thought before writing in the mud.

I nearly fell over as I read the muddy message. I don't know if it worried me more that he really didn't know about ghouls, or that he seemed oblivious to the fact it's literally the only way he could have survived that. I went to tell him, but was interrupted when a sharp scream filled my ears. Skyline was in trouble.

In a moment, I had bolted past Brass and was rounding the corner toward the door of the brick building, only to find Skyline's hoof slap across my face. I stumbled to the mud as she knocked me off balance, angrily staring up at her as she turned to walk inside. The muffled voice of Carlotta coming through the rain to greet my ears.

"I told you if you screamed the next time he gets away from you, he'd be back in 10 seconds flat. Now hold up your end of the bargain and do that thing you did last time that made me..." The door slammed shut and latched as I sat confused in a puddle. Brass strode around the corner and tilted his head, wondering what that was all about.

"They just need some time alone." I said as I shrugged and got to my hooves. Looks like I was spending the night in Ditzy Doo's skycar yet again. For it being so small, it was surprisingly cozy to sleep in. Not Marauder back seat cozy, but still more than you'd think it would be.

I was awoken suddenly when a knock came from the skycar hatch. I opened my eyes and looked out the window, relieved to see it was light outside and the rain had stopped. Mostly I was glad this wasn't another one of my fucked up dreams, Carlotta's voice calling out from outside.

"Is your lazy flank just going to lay around all afternoon? Come on, lunch is ready." She said as she pounded harder on the door, making me groan as my head throbbed with each sharp bang. "Don't make me use my claws..."

I sighed and covered my muzzle with my hooves before calling back. "Just... 5 more minutes... I swear..." I yawned and closed my eyes as I heard her walk to the front of the skycar. She can fly me in circles if she wants, I'm not moving.

"You asked for it!" She called out.

The noise that followed can't really be related with any real words, but I'll try. Her claws, as they ran along the hollow tube, sounded like the high pitched voice of a screaming filly who'd been hopped up on dash and given a chainsaw to cut through the metal walls with, all while a whole squad of power armored paladins kicked my head as hard as they could. I think I might have screamed, but with all the noise, I couldn't be sure.

"OH SWEET CELESTIA MAKE IT STOP! I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!" I yelled as I slammed the door open, bolting out and around the campfire outside before collapsing in front of Sky, face planting in the mud as I tried to stuff my fore hooves into my ears.

"Morning, sunshine." She said as she laughed softly and pulled my hoof back. "Hopefully my sweetie-kins didn't damage your hearing too bad."

Sweetie-kins? Really? I glared up at her as I got to my hooves.

A wide smile grew across her face. "Now don't give me that look. Carlotta and I talked about it and we want to give being together a shot, so from now on, she's my sweety-weety shmoopy-doo." I cringed visibly with every word.

"What did I say about using pillow talk when we were around others?" Carlotta said with a blush as she walked over and handed me a strip of unidentifiable, cooked meat.

"Oh, you thought that was pillow talk? I thought you just didn't want to have to call me Master in front of everyone else..." Sky flung Carlotta back her most seductive voice.

Carlotta grumbled past us as her cheeks got bright enough I was sure her blue plumage would turn red as well. "I'll be in my bunk." She cooed back as she disappeared back into the brick building. Skyline sat for a moment before she got to her hooves and walked over as well.

"I'm just going to make sure she's alright..." Sky said with her own blush.

"She just walked in there fifteen seconds ago, I'm sure she's fine." I replied with my mouth full as I tore into the juicy meat.

"Well with your track record for injuries, I'm sure she's lost a limb by now." She said as she stopped and pointed her muzzle up in a huff.

"Not that that's a bad thing. Besides, you'd probably just find that even more kinky anyway." I snidely remarked and smirked as she went in, slamming the door shut behind her. The loud bang breaking Brass out of his thoughts as he sat next to the fire. Wait... since when did Brass get here?

I nearly tackled him with a hug, my pipbuck chirping softly as he froze up for a moment before relaxing. I sat back and looked him over. "You ok buddy?" I asked slowly as I looked over his now dark black armor. He nodded and pointed to his helmets muzzle piece. As I looked under the dark, unmoving eyes , I noticed the speaker had melted inside the frame of the helmet. It was a quick fix, but I needed to find something to replace it with.

"Don't worry bud, I can fix it. Just give me a few minutes to find something I can replace it with. Then we'll get that helmet off and it will be good as new!" I got to my hooves and patted his shoulder, noting that the black wasn't coming off. I brushed at forcefully with my hoof, but the color seemed to be baked into the metal. Shrugging I trotted off into one of the other buildings to look for parts and tools, leaving brass to look over his armor.

I found the speaker pretty quickly in an old travel radio someone had kept, but the soldering iron and other assorted tools took quite a bit of searching for, taking the better part of ten minutes. As I strode back up to Brass, I noticed Sky and Carlotta were sitting back out next to each other. They looked over at me as I dumped the tools on the soggy ground.

"Ok Brass, we'll have you back to talking in your helmet in no time! I'm even going to upgrade you're old system to..." I reached up to grab it when Sky stopped me.

"Wait, what if he's badly burned under there? The air on his skin could do irreversible nerve damage." She looked down to me with pleading eyes, floating gently in the air next to me.

Brass used his floating stick to write in the ground.

"But what if you are? You'd feel like you were on fire if your skin touched the air!"

I hesitated for a moment before I could hear Brass softly laughing through his armor. I reached up and unlatched his helmet, letting the soft hiss bleed away before lifting it slowly. A shrill scream coming from Brass as soon as the helmet came off.

"OH LUNA, IT BURNS!" He thrashed his hooves and threw the helmet into Sky's grip as she panicked.

"BACKLASH! HOLD HIM STILL!" I heard her call out to me as she frantically tried to put the helmet back on. I of course couldn't do that because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. "BACKLASH?! I NEED..." She stopped and hovered in the air for a moment before noticing Carlotta was just as debilitated as I was, Brass's laughing sealing her worry away.

"I'M FINE SKY!" Brass shouted up between gasps as he fell onto his side, rolling around in the mud laughing hysterically. "I TOLD YOU THAT!"

"That's not FUNNY!" Sky leaned down and punched Brass's chest plate. "I thought you were really in pain! How could you joke like that?" She crossed her forehooves and pouted softly.

I rubbed the tears from my eyes as I got back up, my chest screaming at me from having laughed so hard. "Hey, I was worried as well, but if he said he wasn't burned, I trust he's not burned." I slowly drug his helmet over out of the mud and turned it over, listening to steady chirps on my pipbuck reminding me that I needed some rad away soon.

Sky jabbed the side of my head with her hoof. "You're one to talk. Every time I ask you if you are alright you LIE to my face."

"Well why don't you say anything about it?" I quickly said as I finished stripping the old speaker from it's mounting, moving on to unwiring it from the main control board. It was a fair question in my book, as much as I hated lying to keep her from worrying, she didn't question me until something broke the lie, and something ALWAYS broke the lie.

"Because... Well, I mean I would...." She stuttered and tried to find the right way to answer. "It doesn't matter, the fact that you do it to me is wrong."

"Calm down you two." Carlotta called over from the fire, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"YOU. Don't even get me started on how disappointed I am in you." Sky floated over slowly, making Carlotta grin nervously and shrink down a bit before Brass spoke up from the mud and saved her.

"Don't worry Carlotta, she'll just 'punish' you for it later tonight..." He said before laughing again, making me laugh and causing me to drop his helmet.

"ARGH! you ponies drive me CRAZY!" She flew into the building quickly, slamming the door behind her. (Personal note that when I got home, I needed to reinforce our door frames.) I gasped and caught my breath before hoisting the helmet back up and soldering the new wires in place. I heard Carlotta get up and stretch out her wings.

"I'm going to take a quick look around and let little miss feisty in there cool down for a bit. I'll let you know if I see anything." She called out as she took off and banked around the building, heading up and out of sight.

I sighed and continued working as Brass got back to his hooves, watching me install a nob next to his rebreather. "So you said you were installing an upgrade?" He asked quizzically.

"Yeah! I'm adding a volume switch so you can either be really loud or..."

I looked up to continue but froze as I stared at his face. I didn't get a good look at him when he pulled it off, but I could see it now. His gold coat was dry and flaking, slightly discolored in dark patches as it ran down his mane. A large slash across his face where the skin split was a deep red, his body now unable to fully heal it. His eyes filled with worry as He saw me stare.

"Oh Luna, something's wrong with me, isn't it." he said with a note of panic, prancing nervously in place. "Oh Celestia, I knew I felt too good to not have something wrong. What is it? Some sort of gross tumor or piece of shrapnel I didn't notice?!" He quaked softly as he shrank to the ground. "Cut it out, whatever it is, cut it off me!"

I sat there unsure of what to say as he broke down in front of me. He had been wearing the helmet so long I had forgotten how young he was. I mean, I couldn't just tell him 'you're a ghoul' because he might freak out. Actually I'm pretty sure he wouldn't believe me, I know I wouldn't if someone tried to tell me that. I remembered that there was a mirror in one of the bathrooms on the floor Sky was in, and figured that showing him would be the best solution.

I grabbed his helmet in my mouth and nodded for him to follow, which he promptly ignored and whimpered back at me. I kicked him in the side until he got up and followed. We swung the door open just as Sky was walking towards it, making her freeze in place as I lead Brass past and directly into the bathroom. He closed his eyes and sat in front of the mirror.

"I don't want to see it. Just tell me if I'll die from it or not." He said as he sat there with his head lowered.

"It's... not that simple, you need to look." I said as I set down his helmet next to me. "Just trust me, it's the only way anything will make sense. You'll be fine."

Brass sniffled and looked up into the mirror, widening his eyes as he saw the large gash, whimpering softly. "Y...you said I'd be fine!" He closed his eyes and started to cry softly as he sunk down to the floor.

I lifted the black helmet and lay it against his open wound for a minute before removing it, the gash was now visibly smaller and less red. He seemed to look up as I took the hunk of black steel away, sitting back up and looking at the mirror.

"I... I don't understand..." He stuttered out softly.

"You're a ghoul, Brass." Sky said as she slowly put her wing around him. "Normal ponies die when exposed to that much radiation, but a special few can become ghouls."

He looked down to the floor again sadly, I visibly saw when all of his hopes left him. "I'm... a monster."

I smacked him on the back of the head, drawing a look of shock from both Sky and Him. "No, you are still you. Yes, your body is different now, but not your mind. You are still the Brass Tacks I met and became friends with. The same Brass Tacks who has stood beside me through everything 42 had done. And the same Brass Tacks who will help me take her down."

He stiffened up, an angry scowl contorting his face as he glared up at me. "You can't just say that! I've seen what ghouls are. Even the ones who last still lose their minds and become nothing but murderous cannibalistic FREAKS. You're wrong, Brass Tacks died in that factory. I'm just the shell of what's left of his body, and not even Celestia is going to stop me from destroying that pink cunt.

And just like that, the innocence of the Wasteland was gone, replaced by the endless fires of vengeance incarnate.

I sat next to the fire in silence as I finished working on Brass's helmet, not quite sure what to say to him. I didn't think he really felt the way he said, but I've only known him for a week. Can I truly say I understand how he feels? I've been through more with him in the last forty eight hours, than anypony else I've known, outside of Sky of course.

Carlotta came back as Brass left to go brood somewhere, so with the sun starting to set, Sky and I filled her in on Brass's condition. Since that point thirty minutes ago, we all sat around the now dimming fire with minimal conversation.

"So he said he's not Brass anymore?" Carlotta asked out of nowhere for the third time, feigning confusion. "Then what do we call him?"

"For the last time, I don't know. He's still Brass, he just needs time to sort himself out." I said frustratedly as I facehooved. "Look, we'll give him his space and he'll come to his senses."

"If you say so..." Sky said softly as she leaned into the Griffin with a long yawn. "I think it's about time for this mare to hit the hay." She stretched her wings and fluttered softly into the brick building as Carlotta stretched and walked in after her.

"Gotta get some sleep so we can get up early and catch that bitch." She said as she closed the door with a yawn of her own, leaving me alone by the fire again. I sat there tired and staring into the shrinking flames as the cold night breeze blew around me. I Iet the fire die before heading into the Skycar, curling up before just staring at the roof. There is no way I'm going to bed again just to have those dreams again, even if I deserve to suffer through them.

As I layed there alone my body felt better, but I still ached all over. I listened as the wind whistled through the open car, hoping to hear the wind speak again and tell me what to do next. But as usual, it wouldn't answer me. The last thought I had that I can remember was that I'm not going to leave my bed for a week when I got home, even if I have to remember the faces of all the ones who haunted me.

I must have fallen asleep sometime because I awoke to the sound of Brass stomping by. Looking up to the window, glad that there were no dreams, I stretched out and could see it was still dark. I opened the hatch to the silver pod slowly, looking out as Brass added more wood to the now rekindled fire. I went over and stood in front of it as he sat down next to me, giving me the sternest gaze I'd ever seen, his eyes had a serene stillness as I looked back into them. It was like the spark of life was gone and he was staring out with the dead eyes of the ponies in my dreams, it felt... wrong.

"I don't blame you Backlash." He said slowly, his voice as calm as Carlottas normally is. "What happened in the factory was Forty Two's handiwork, She made this... monster I'm trapped inside." He turned his gaze to the fire, the orange flames softly reflecting off of his golden eyes. "I'm still your friend and you can count on me to back you up. I know that she has done so much wrong to each of us, but I'm asking you. YOU. That you promise to save that final blow for me. I need to see her tremble in fear as the monster she created ends her pathetic excuse of an existence."

"I can't promise that." I said softly, watching his face slowly twist in rage as the words sunk in. I couldn't promise because I wasn't even sure that we could ever get the upper hand on her. She had beaten us at the research center, she beat us here, she beat us at the factory. Who's to say we'd ever get the upper hoof?

"Fuck you. She took EVERYTHING from me!" He stood and started to yell, tensing up. I knew how he felt, how quickly the anger 42 caused built up, but I needed him to understand what we were up against. I needed him to listen to reason. But as Brass yelled on, I could see that the rage had consumed his every word, and he wouldn't even be able to understand anything without this ending as a physical altercation. So then that's what I'll do.

I tensed up and slipped into S.A.T.S., closing the combat menu I quickly selected Heartstopper, watching the flash of it as it popped into my jaw. I scrolled over to the ammo section and told the computer to dump the four shells out of the gun, watching as they flashed in front of my face, hovering in the still air. I checked and made sure that the large shotgun was empty before bringing the targeting overlay back up, thinking for the system to blast off his head.

I watched Brass's eyes widen as time caught up. The assisted targeting swinging the gun to rest just under his chin before emanating the loud clack of an empty chamber. He froze as the four shells hit the ground softly and I turned my head and spit the gun out into the mud.

"H..how did you d...do that...?" He stuttered and quaked in fear for a split second. I noticed in that short moment, I saw the spark briefly return to his eyes before fading away, leaving them cold and unwavering again.

"How did I do that? How has she been a step ahead of us the entire time? I'm so sick and tired of always playing catch up, so I'm sorry to say that when she finally slips up, I expect everyone to tear her to pieces TOGETHER. I will not wait for you to satisfy your need for misguided vengeance to take that bitch out, and I expect the same from Sky and Carlotta." I growled as I leaned in. "What makes you think you get special treatment for killing 42? You are still alive. What about the twenty eight dead ponies in ponyville she murdered? What about the seven who used to live here?"

"I will render judgement for them. I share more in common with them now than any of you." Brass huffed out as he shifted uneasily on his hooves.

I was doing my best to contain my rage but could feel myself slowly failing. "WHAT ABOUT PALLET? DOESN'T SHE DESERVE TO KILL 42?" I slammed my hoof into his black chest plate, watching his anger falter as the words sank in. "WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 42 KILLS HER INSTEAD?"

"SHE...she won't..." His voice grew softer as he gazed to the ground, his anger draining away, replaced with the sour notes of sadness.

"AND WHAT IF SHE DOES." I said as I lost myself in rage, rearing up and bringing my hoof down onto his head, sending him to the ground. "WILL YOUR VENGEANCE BRING HER BACK? WILL IT MAKE HER DEATH WORTH IT?" I raised my hoof to strike him again before speaking in a low voice, the full force of my anger bleeding from my words. "You told me once that you couldn't live with yourself if you had killed me at the bunker, and you knew what you did to me was wrong. If that Brass is truly gone, I might as well kill the pathetic pony shell you claim you are."

As I reared up, Skyline slammed into me, tackling me into the mud before pinning me down. Her hooves pressed into my neck as she screamed out, the tears slowly flowing down her cheeks, glinting in the firelight as she tried to choke the life out of me. I struggled against her, but she was always far stronger than me, my vision darkened as I felt the anger drift away slowly.

"Sky...you need to stop. He's had enough." I heard as Carlotta came over and put a talon on her shoulder.

"What happened to you?" Sky said quietly, panting lightly over me. "I don't even know the stallion I'm looking at anymore. You are just as bad as Brass thinks he is." I gasped and heaved as she lifted her hooves off, struggling to breathe. "Forty Two has warped the both of you into thinking you are monsters, but I still see the good in you two."

She turned to face Brass. "I knew it was someone in power armor who injured him, and I knew it was your fault when Backlash was covering for you that morning. I hate it when he lies to me, but I saw what he was trying to do by it. Even with everything from the last week, You are the same stallion who lost his friends on a mission gone bad. The same stallion who did the right thing and brought Backlash to Tenpony."

As I caught my breath and listened to Skyline speak, I stared into the cold eyes of Brass, watching as they grew bigger with every example. I could imagine that the old Brass was fighting his way back into control of his mind, and when Sky finished, he blinked one last time as I could see it all flood back to him. He dropped down in tears of his own, curling up as tightly as he could in his armor and wept.

Nobody moved a muscle for the next few minutes as Carlotta and Sky stood next to me while I lay in the mud and listened to Brass sob. The sun was cresting over the horizon as we got moving again and packed away our things, all of us deciding to skip breakfast in order to get moving faster. Sky had joined Brass and I inside the car as We flew off towards Ponyville, the three of us sitting silently as the cold wind whipped through the pod.

She turned to me suddenly. "Look, Backlash. You need to remember you are my brother. The same pony I've spent my life next to as he helped the good ponies of the wastes. The same pony who never cheated a customer." Her eyes were locked into mine as she spoke from her heart. "Don't let 42 get under your coat, that's what she wants."

"OH SHIT!" Carlotta yelled out suddenly.

A loud twang emanated from the side of car as we went into a dive, twisting and leveling us out as we skimmed just feet above the ground.

"They are shooting from the treeline, we need to set down!" Carlotta called back through the broken window, another ping sounding off the back of the skycar as I looked around the landscape, spotting a small group of buildings surrounded by rocks. That would be the best we could get I thought, before two holes opened behind brass, the bullets failing to punch into his armor.

"Head to those buildings over there!" I yelled up as I heard the autoloader whirr and his minigun spin up, Brass stepping over to the side hatch and throwing it open.

"Fly us by the trees low and fast when you do." His speaker boomed out easily through the noise as the extra volume setting did it's job perfectly.

"Are you crazy?! They'll just stand and shoot us to pieces!" Carlotta yelled as she banked up and around towards the settlement I saw.

"Just trust me!" He said as he braced himself on the doorway. Carlotta yelled out an expletive that was lost to the wind, doubling back and flying us low along the tree line of the everfree forest. Brass's minigun roared to life as we sped past the thick foliage, the air filled for the next ten seconds with a single persistent drone as the forest was perforated by the blistering rate of fire. Sky and I watched in awe out of the window as entire trees cracked and fell as Brass's fire cut the forests' edge down, drawn out of the sight only by loud clicking as the spent gun ran out of ammo.

"I have got to get me one of those!" I yelled excitedly as Carlotta pulled around to the back of the small collection of buildings. I noticed it was an old rock farm, consisting of a decent sized house, a barn, a listing old silo, and A weather vane off in the distance. The rocks scattered about the property ranged from anywhere between small rocks the size of my hoof, to boulders the size of the skycar.

We pulled inside the back of the open barn, setting down hard as Carlotta threw the straps off her, speaking quickly as she strode back to the open car door. "We only have thirty minutes before the main group gets back here, I say we try to hold out in here. Make some makeshift barricades."

"How do you know all that?" Sky said as we filed out quickly.

"Because I wasn't riding all cushy in the back. I saw a whole gang of them heading this way from across the wastes. So unless you want to be surrounded, I suggest we make this place defensible!" I watched as Carlotta seemed a bit more nervous than usual, her pupils seemed to jump around as her voice wavered ever so slightly. Shit. If she was worried, then what the hell was on it's way?

Brass used his suit's amplified strength to push one of the pony sized boulders sitting inside the barn against the closed doors in front of the skycar, effectively barring it shut. "Ok, one side down, just..." Carlotta's words were cut short when three holes punched through the front wall of the barn, one of the rounds biting deep into her flank. She let out a loud growl as we all dove for cover, Sky helping to drag her behind the skycar as whoever had survived in the forest opened fire on us.

Brass was forced to hide behind an old safe when what sounded to be an Anti-Machine rifle tore a large hole straight through the upper hull of the skycar. Whoever we were dealing with weren't amateurs and had the means to deal with Steel Rangers. As we sat there, I looked at my pipbuck's map function to see if we could make a break for the forest. I was sure if we could get through there, it was only an hour's trot to Ponyville.

My eyes froze as a small notification flashed in my pipbuck enhanced vision.

The map on my pipbuck updated and put a small marker over our location that read Pie Family Rock Farm. I sat in stunned silence, not believing this is the farm mother wanted to take us to all those years ago. It couldn't be considering that the pipbuck knew about it, could it? How could it know about my journey nearly twenty years previous? The resounding ping of a round off the rock I was hiding behind killed my concentration.

"Right... back to getting shot at." I said under my breath just as it grew silent, the reports from the guns in the forest echoing off into the distance. I looked over at Sky as she was busily wrapping a magical bandage around Carlotta's rear. I could hear the hoofbeats of four or five ponies as they rounded the back of the barn slowly, my compass confirming four as they got around us, sitting just around the open sides of the rear barn doors.

"Lay down your arms and we will spare your lives!" A gruff voice of a mare came from around the corner. I listened to it carefully in my head as none of us moved, the voice seemed to sound slightly scared, but truthful.

"Do as she asks." I called out to the others. "I do believe she's telling the truth."

Carlotta rose up with a groan. "Are you kidding me? I'm not..." She froze as Sky took off her own battle saddle and let it thump on the ground. "...you have got to be joking."

"I trust Backlash when it comes to talking to others. If he says we need to disarm, we need to." She said as she sat back down. Carlotta rolled her eyes and glared at me as she unhooked her saddle, tossing it in front of herself with a soft growl.

"Brass, can you even take off your weapons?" I said as I looked over. He nodded and shuddered softly, letting a soft hiss emanate from his sides, the weapons popping off before dropping to the ground with a clank.

"We are completely unarmed!" I called out to the mysterious mare. "What are your instructions?"

There was a long pause as we waited to see what their next move was. Finally a large unicorn mare levitating an anti-machine rifle stepped out into view in front of us. She was at least two or three hooves taller than any Stallion I've ever met, her light purple hide was nearly completely scarred up with long lines, with where her cutie mark had been was burned off, leaving her skin twisted and brown. But most importantly, around her neck she wore a metal collar with a soft red light that blinked, denoting the fact that she was a slave.

"We will hold you here until the master returns." I noticed the small amount of shock on her face from our surrender as I listened again to her voice, She wasn't as worried as before it seemed, but still not sure of her actions. It sounded like she was almost sorry for holding us here. "Master Crankshaft will know what to do with you."

"I FUCKING CALLED IT!" Sky yelled out, making the large mare jump, her hold on the rifle wavering for a moment. "I knew we should have killed him back in Ponyville, but you just had to be nice!" I turned and noticed my three compatriots were all glaring at me before a soft murmuring broke out among the three outside the barn doors, the large mare stepping towards me, leveling the rifle at my head slowly.

"You were the one to humiliate the Master?" She said with words sounded like they were cut from stone as I nodded slowly, staring into her light pink eyes. She relaxed as a small smile crept across her face, her magic slowly swinging the rifle up and off my head. "Then maybe you can help us kill him."

I felt my heart skip a beat as she spoke, the three other ponies outside the door striding in slowly to join us. The set of unicorn mares and a pegasus stallion were all in worse condition than the large mare, looking to rally behind her, each one with a blinking collar to match.

"Quickly, gather your weapons. We must get inside before they arrive." The mare said as she turned and guided the others out of the barn. "Master Crankshaft has a small arms cache hidden under the house. Your injured friend will be safer there." I nodded and followed as the others re-equipped themselves.

"Why are you helping us?" I asked as we walked out of the barn and up to the front of the old house. Even though the well kept house was of modest size, it's two stories seemed to tower among the open land of the farm, making it look more like a memorial than a landmark.

She spoke without a moments hesitation of thought. "I used to live here with twelve others. We got by as we could, tending the fields and trading gems for food. But three years ago, and led by him, a gang of roughly fifty came from far in the wastes, needing a place to hole up. We didn't want any trouble so we agreed." Her words were soft and full of resentment. "That night, they gave the six earth ponies in our group the option of joining the gang. Spitshine was the first to choose. He was the stallion I'd loved for as long as I can remember, and when he refused, Crankshaft beat his head to a pulp with his power hooves."

She lead me into the house through the back door, the interior was clean and orderly. It was almost as if the same family from before the war still lived and worked here. One of the pictures hanging on the wall caught my eye. An older, black-hatted, tan stallion with a grey mane and gold eyes stood next to an off white, old mare who was smiling brightly. At their hooves were three small fillies, two of which looked to be negative pallets of each other's different shades of greys. The third was a bright pink, blue-eyed, frilly maned young Pinkie Pie.

I stood in awe for a moment as it sunk in that the filly from my dream was the same in this picture, her bright smile seeming to radiate the same pure joy she had in my dreams. "She really is..." I said under my breath before the sound of a trap door opening at the end of the hall made me jump slightly.

"We must go down here." The mare said as she walked down the steps. I trotted over and caught up to her, walking in silence into a small brick cellar.

"So what happened to the rest of you?" I asked as she clicked on a small light, showing off the large, steel door set into the red brick of the walls.

"The rest of our group wanted to join him instead of getting killed, which was a smart choice, but he informed us that he only let the best of earth pony kind in, and that a refusal by one tainted the rest." She walked up to the door an hoofed a large blue button, making the door swing out slowly. "So he killed the other earth ponies in our group and enslaved the rest of us, putting these collars on us to keep us from running or fighting."

As the door opened up, I looked in to see a large store room that looked to be thirty feet by thirty feet and at least half that high, stacked full of numbered crates. I strode in and looked into the closest open crate, my eyes lit up as I saw it was half-full of grenades. I used my hoof to push the lid off the box next to it, my eyes met with a rack of eight pink missiles set above an unassembled missile launcher.

"When you said small, I thought you meant in size! There is enough ordinance in here to bring down Tenpony tower AND Friendship City!" I moved from box to box, looking giddily over the weapons and ammunition, only stopping when I reached a large wooden crate with what looked like one of those jabs-your-hoof panels hooked into a bunch of steel cables strapping it shut. I reached to use it, but stopped as I remembered we needed to get ready, hearing as Brass's heavy steps thumped on the stairs. I headed out of the small vault, giving the large crate a parting look.

"They are coming. I suggest we get..." He stopped and stared into the room behind me, slowly turning to the large mare. "You said small cache...." He stated slowly as I could hear how his voice wavered in excitement, barely giving me enough time to squeeze out of the way before he barged in.

"I'll gather the others to hide in here while the fighting goes on." The mare said as she headed for the stares. "You gather everything you need and meet me back up top."

"Wait!" I called out as she stepped up the first step. "What is your name?"

"My name is Harmony." She said as she stood on that step, her gaze locked up out of the cellar. "You remind me of him, you know?"

"Of who? Your stallion friend?" I asked, taking a slight step forward.

"You're eyes remind me of his, they always brought me the hope that one day we'd be alright." She said as she slowly climbed up and out, leaving me standing in remorseful silence as Brass collected supplies.

Brass Shooed me off upstairs as he went through the crates for the weapons, assuring me he would find what we would need. Sky thought that we might as well use the few minutes we had left to barricade the lower floor windows and doors, and with Carlotta out of the moving game, it fell to me to help hoist the heavy furniture up.

"Do you even have.... a plan?" Sky said as we thrust the kitchen table up against the back door, it's heavy weight was enough to make it hard for the two of us to move, so we figured it would be good enough to hold the door shut for a while. "Or is this another think on the fly situation?" I panted heavily from all the exertion, sweating profusely as I waited to reply. (I'm not even going to deny it anymore, I know I'm fucking out of shape. There, I said it, you happy?)

"By the time... they get here... I'll have one..." I finally got out between gasps.

"So... no then." She said as she crossed her hooves and floated next to me. "Why do you get to make the plans again?"

"When was the last time... you didn't just think... we should shoot them?" I said as my lungs cried out, feeling like they were ready for that retirement I had mentioned earlier.

"I guess..." Sky said as she glanced up and rubbed a hoof under her chin. "But when we get home, I'm making you a fitness plan. You are way out of shape, mister."

I nodded softly and dropped onto the floor. "Deal." I didn't want to have to work out, but honestly I was even surprising myself on how bad I'd gotten. Harmony trotted back up from the cellar with Brass on her heels, a small smile growing across her face as she saw me on the floor.

"So, you're a stallion who likes to slack off I see." Her words held a note of playfulness amid the sarcasm that seemed to drip from them. I could see what she meant, even the way she carried herself down the hall reflected the hope now in her eyes. "Show them what you found, tin stallion."

Brass levitated an odd looking set of tubes over, I'd never seen anything quite like it as the silver bars were about as long as a pony and set in a horseshoe shape. A small box with a pneumatic plunger sat at the opposite end from the grip. My reply of a simple "Huh?" made me sound every bit like the not smart pony I was.

"It's a B.E.L." Brass said as prideful as he's ever sounded.

"HUH?" I replied. If I had no idea what it was before, why did he think I'd realize after telling me the name?

"It shoots balefire eggs?" He finally said flatly, the wonder in his voice as lost as I was.

"WAH?!" I said as the gears in my head brought up the plaque from the factory. "That thing shoots THOSE?! Is that even SAFE?!"

"It's a weapon, it was designed to be unsafe on purpose." Brass facehooved his helmet before striding upstairs. "I'm going to go upstairs and wait, join me when you unbreak your brain."

Sky giggled softly and rubbed my mane before floating off down the hall. "It's ok, I'd never seen one before either."

"Celestia, just kill me now." I said as I got to my hooves. "Did you get Carlotta and the others down in the vault?" Harmony nodded and went to go shut the trap door, surprised when I held it open. "Good, get inside and let us handle the fighting. You've done enough for us already."

"No, I will stand with you." She said as she wrenched the door from my hoof and slammed it shut. "I stood back last time and watched as you died..." Her words drifting off as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean you..." I put a hoof to her muzzle and smiled back.

"I understand why you want to, and I won't stop you from doing it, but I don't want you to think you owe me anything. I owe you for everything you've done in just the last half hour, you shouldn't have to suffer because..." I was cut off as the shrill tone of a megaphone blared outside.

"Hello? Is this thing working?" A now familiar stallion's voice permeated the air. "Backlash, I know you're in there. Give yourself up and I might spare your friends."

I galloped up the steps into the room where Brass and Sky were waiting. I peeked out the open window to see a band of forty or so earth ponies hiding behind the various rocks in the field. Crankshaft stood out in the open, speaking through the megaphone as it sat on a nearby rock. Sky pushed me aside and tried to line up her Gauss rifles, too hastily letting off one shot that ended up in the dirt a foot in front of him. I shoved her back out of the window as a sniper round whizzed past her head before sinking deep into the back wall beside Harmony with a thunk.

"Now now Backlash, is that any way to treat family when you are a guest in their house?" His voice seemed to quiver noticeably as he recovered from the close call. "I really don't want to destroy my home, but if that's what it takes to kill you and your friends, I will. I'm giving you one minute to exit the house and give yourselves up before we turn this place in to strips of firewood."

"I can use the B.E.L. against them, but we only have the one shot." Brass said with the volume low on his helmet, the multicolored egg shaped explosive shimmering as he levitated it up and loaded it. "Their sniper rounds can't get through this armor and I can take them all out."

I thought about it for a moment. It was our best chance of making it out alive, yes, but we would be risking exposure to a lot of radiation. I nodded to Brass as I hoped that the vault downstairs was lead lined. "Wait to fire until we are all downstairs, the radiation won't hurt you. You can get us out of the weapons room when it's safe to come back out."

Harmony and Sky slipped out of the room before I did, making sure to stay low as we got to the stairs. The soft crunching of rocks near the back door gave away the small set of ponies before I remembered I could see them on my pipbuck compass. "Fuck, some are coming from the back of the house..." I stiffened up and turned my head back to Brass. "Fire now, Brass! FIRE!"

I shoved Harmony and Sky down the stairs as the soft thump of the pneumatic piston forced the egg out the window. Brass and I ducked down as the world outside turned a brilliant shade of jade. The roar of the explosion throwing us back from the windows as they blew out. I felt the glass shards cut deep gashes into my skin as the blast wave threw me down the stairs on top of Harmony. I watched in a haze as Sky got to her hooves and looked back at me.

"Where are they?" She shouted as the roar of the blast died down. I woozily looked towards the back of the house, seeing three red bars moving below the blasted out kitchen window. I raised a hoof towards it to point it out before noticing my hoof wasn't on the end of my leg anymore. My vision went dark as I screamed and plunged back into the world of painless black.

I shivered to life as I felt myself floating on my back, opening my eyes slowly. I was greeted with a million pinpricks of light surrounding a bright white orb in the sky. I searched my mind for an answer as to why it was so familiar, closing my eyes again as I drifted into my memories, letting it all come back into focus.

It was late while we were traveling to one of the tall white spires that reached above the cloud layer. It was only two days into our journey from Hoofington and we had decided it would be safest to spent the night around it, so we made camp and relaxed after a long day on the road. The night was calm as we all sat around the fire, watching it dance in the warm summer breeze. Mother had curled up under her blanket as the two guards ate and got drunk. The trader slowly got to his hooves and walked over to me.

"I want to show you something no one else gets to see in the wasteland." The old man whispered to me. "It's a sight more valuable than all the items on this wagon." He lead me to the tall spire, pressing himself to the side while looking up and telling me to do the same. Whispering so softly I could barely hear, he spoke as we pressed into the building. "This is also a secret, so you can't tell anypony else, not even your mother. Do you promise?"

As I looked up, I nodded. I could see through the thick clouds that blocked out the sky, the sides of the tower almost pressing the oppressive layers away. As I looked up, I could see tiny points of light, twinkling and shining down on us and it instantly became the second most amazing sight I had ever beheld. I was stunned at how beautifully peaceful it seemed.

"Now if you pray to Luna, you might be able to see her..." He had told me. "She's shy to us ground ponies and doesn't come to see us very often, so you need to ask really really nicely for her to show herself. Can you do that for me?"

I opened my eyes again. Staring out of the black sea I floated in at the large white sphere, the shadow of a unicorn mare now shone lightly on it, the mane of hers flowed on it's surface. "Luna, forgive me..." I said as I reached my hoof up to her, closing my eyes and slipping into yet another memory.

"Look, I know you mean well, but you can't just set me up on a double date like this!" I had complained. Sky was sitting sadly in a fancy red pre-war dress as we argued inside the hotel room we'd rented in Tenpony.

"Why not?" She yelled back, her soft eyes filled with sadness. "It's been 2 years Backlash. You need to let him go."

"Why should I?" I had screamed as I knocked over the coffee table. "I can't lose anyone again. I won't..."

"I won't just sit here and watch you pass up the chance to be happy again." Sky said as she hugged me softly. "I can't stand to see you so lonely anymore."

"I'm so sorry Sprocket..." I had collapsed and lay on the floor for the rest of the night, paralyzed in sorrow. "Maybe if I didn't show you... If I had kept my promise..."

Opening my eyes to the sea of stars, the moon no longer held the shadow of the mare. I laid with a sigh as I felt myself start to sink, pulling me down into the dark depths while the stars started to blink out until only the moon remained, it slowly growing dim as well. I could feel myself begin to shrink away, until the once bright moon looked only like another star in the sky.

"OH LUNA! FUCK IT HURTS!" I screamed and thrashed on the floor as both Carlotta and Sky were holding me down. I came back to a world of pain as my eyes shot open to see Harmony. She was applying a tourniquet to my right foreleg above where my hoof should have been, cinching it down tight.

"HOLD HIM STILL OR HE'LL BLEED OUT!" Harmony's voice called out as my vision faded again temporarily, the needle from the Med-X Sky just injected shining in the vault's bright florescent lighting. My muscles relaxed even when I tried to flail. I screamed out and shut my eyes tightly. The pain killing drug just wasn't going to cut it.

"Hand me the bottle of Wild Pegasus!" She yelled as I whimpered, my leg feeling like it was being ripped apart muscle by muscle. "Now hold him tightly..." I felt as the bottle neck was shoved into my mouth and I choked down the burning drink, trying not to breathe it in before the pain dulled down and I felt really heavy. The pain went away completely, replaced by an odd fuzziness as I was surprised at the thought of how good I felt all of a sudden.

I felt the softest prick of a needle slide into my leg before I regretted ever thinking that. My leg felt like it was exploding, the pain was somehow worse than before, even through the drugs and the whiskey. It hurt so badly that I wanted to beat my head into the floor just to stop the pain. But after what was an eternity, the pain subsided, and I felt better than before. Opening my eyes, I watched as Harmony poured the rest of the alcohol over my hairless hoof, letting the cool liquid flow over it.

"He needs to take it easy on his new hoof, the hydra just reforms the old parts, but not the wear it had before, so it's going to be weak until the muscles strengthen up a bit." She said as she washed her bloody muzzle and hooves off in a small bucket. "He's lucky we keep it stocked up here in case there was an accident with one of the rocks."

I laughed softly on the floor as the feeling of the Med-X and whiskey hit me again, hard, sending my vision into a whirling series of colorful lines. "I love you guys." Is what I tried to say, but it didn't sound right to me as it came out of my muzzle, so I tried to say it again. I felt as Carlotta shut my muzzle forcefully with her claws as I giggled out from around it. I wrapped my hooves around her neck and pulled her into a hug. I know she spoke in angry, slurred words, but I couldn't make them out before I passed out again.

I didn't know how long I drifted between consciousness, but I assumed it was at least six or seven hours. When I could finally sit up, the others had gone to bed, leaving me to sit in silence alone. I looked down over my new hoof, remarking how odd the fur looked as it cut off at the angle my original had been cut from. I looked over the rest of myself, noting the healed scars of near two dozen separate lacerations.

As I sat there, I thought I might as well listen to that audio log that Sky had found in Whinny, and with a grunt, I slipped into S.A.T.S. I looked over and found the lone audio log titled: "To my dear Rose."

"I leave this message to you, Rose Thorn."

"Your mother and I just received our emergency recall signals on our pipbucks telling us to head to stable two. We didn't think much of it until the radio reported that Cloudsdale is gone, the Pegasi are nowhere to be seen and that the end is really upon us. I'm leaving this message here so that if you ever make it back from Salt Cube City, you can know where we went."

[There is a sudden, soft roar. Slowly growing louder and shaking the windows in the background]

"We... Oh Celestia... was that in Ponyville..."

[the voice of a mare is softly crying in the background]

"No, don't cry Tulip, I'm sure She'll be fine. We'll just have to go somewhere else and wait for her. Oh Rose, I'm so sorry. We love you."

The audiolog cut out abruptly. I dropped out of S.A.T.S. and lay there, thinking about how terrifying it must have been to watch that happen. I was depressing myself as I thought about how Rose probably never even got the message. The sad 120 year old story who's happy ending never came.

I felt my ear twitch, breaking my thought process as I reached up to scratch it. There was a knock on the steel vault door, startling me to my hooves. Even as I favored it lightly, I felt my new hoof strain to hold me up as I limped over to the door.

"BRASS? IS THAT YOU?" I Yelled, both making my head throb and startling everyone else awake.

"YEAH." I heard his voice boom through the door. "ALL CLEAR UP TOP, YOU CAN OPEN THE DOOR NOW."

I hoofed the big button on the wall and stood back as the door slowly opened. "Guess who decided to up and become a ghoul as well?" Brass said and strode in with a charred black stallion slumped over his back, dumping him on the floor before turning his guns on it. "Fed him some rad away while he was out, I figured that it probably would make him weak enough he couldn't run."

The Stallion coughed up a gob of deep crimson as he sat up, his blue eyes the only bright feature left on his body.

"Bravo on the excessive force! Killed everyone but me out there." The familiar voice spoke out. "We're not so different you know brother." Before I could even say anything, Harmony pushed past us, towering over the subdued ghoul.

"Where is the Detonator?" She pressed her massive hoof against his side. Crankshaft just coughed out a laugh. "WHERE IS IT?"

"I'll never tell you, slave BITCH." He spat in her face as he writhed under her hoof. Harmony grunted and leaned forward, pressing down on him until he started to scream. "OK! I'LL TALK! CELESTIA, STOP HER!"

She leaned back, letting him catch his breath. "It's in the safe in the barn! The key is taped under it, just don't hurt me anymore!" He stared up at her with wide, pleading eyes as she smiled and put her hoof on his shoulder, leaning forward this time with all her weight as he screamed out again. A series of loud snaps and pops emanated from Crankshafts back and midsection before she stepped off him, leading the other slaves upstairs.

"YOU BITCH! I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!" He screamed in anger from the floor, his rage filled eyes and words seemed almost unimportant from down there. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Going to gnaw her hooves off? Give up already!." Sky replied with a soft laugh. "You deserve worse than this you son of a bitch." His face seemed to twitch and seethe at that comment before curling into a wide grin.

"Backlash, are you really going to let your little whore insult mother like that?" He said with a wide smile, arching his neck up as high as he could. I could tell from his words he was desperately trying to grasp at any topic to rile us up. The last attempt of a truly broken stallion.

My words were soft, I wouldn't let him break me. "She was there for me when mom died. She's been more of a sister to me all those years than you will ever be my brother. As far as I'm concerned, my brother died the day he left us to pursue his own selfish ambitions." I said, leaning down close to him.

"You think I don't regret that day? You've never made a mistake like that?" He said as he flopped his head back down. "Tell me again, you said it was YOUR fault mother died? What were you doing that put you in such danger as to force OUR MOTHER to save you?" His words cut deep but I couldn't kill him, I needed to let this bastard suffer. Death was a gift that I would not bring him.

Brass stepped forward and pushed me back. "You know, as a ghoul, you don't have to eat. So when we leave you here in this vault, you'll continue to lay here, fully aware and alone." He spoke as he twisted his helmet off, levitating it over before dumping a small piece of metal out onto Crankshaft's chest, making my pipbuck click slowly.

"I picked this up after my change, but I think you need it more. The radiation will keep you alive, but won't fix your back. You will never walk again." Brass leaned down close, and smiled. "This room will be your own personal hell, so close to ending it all, but no means of carrying it out." I tapped on Brass's shoulder to get his attention.

"What do you mean by that? We're taking all of this awesome stuff with us." I said as I looked over the numerous crates.

After a few hours, we had loaded up the skycar with as much ordinance as possible before strapping Carlotta in. She had recovered a fair bit in the vault with help from a few healing potions and could actually carry things again. Harmony suggested that we take the other slaves back to Manehatten first, having Brass, her and I stay back for a return trip with the rest of the crates.

"You keep my sister safe, you hear?" I whispered to Carlotta as she rolled her eyes with the same exasperated sigh she loved to give.

"It's only a few hours flight there, we'll be back in the morning for you and the rest of the stuff. I'm more worried that you'll find a way to get yourself killed before then." She said as she took off, dragging the heavy skycar behind her slowly into the air. I turned and gave Skyline a long hug before she had to go and catch up, streaking off out of the barn and into the horizon as the setting sun dyed it red.

I turned around to walk out, but inadvertently smacked my muzzle right up against Harmony's flank as she stood looking into the open safe, making both of us jump.

"OhCelestiaIamsosorry!" I blushed as I backed away, my eyes darting up to see a smile grow across her muzzle. "What are you uh... looking for in there?"

"It's fine. But I am a bigger gal than most, so I shouldn't be hard to miss..." She chuckled as she leaned into the safe, grabbing a small piece of paper in her mouth, dropping it onto one of the crates near us. "I was wondering what this was. I don't know what it means or if it's important and expensive enough to take."

I walked over to it, reading over the small sheet and noticing it seemed to be a list of chemical compounds required to make the drug Party Time Mint-als. It would bring a fairly high price to the right buyer, but the wasteland already has a huge problem with addicts as it is. Not to mention some of these chemicals are hard to find and would make it an expensive drug. I took the note in my mouth and placed it back in the safe.

"It's not anything useful. Just lock it back up and lets find Brass to help you get that big box out of the basement." I said as I shrugged.

The large steel-laden, wooden box was apparently so heavy Brass and Harmony had to take three twenty-minute breaks just to get it out the front double doors. (Two of those times were also to make sure they didn't kill Crankshaft as he insulted us from the floor.) Once it was in the corner of the barn, I hooved at the black box, unsurprised when it gave me a soft prick. The small rectangular metal box made a high pitched whine before releasing the steel straps and dropping to the ground with a crash.

I rubbed my hooves together in anticipation. Hoping for a shiny new protectapony, or some amazing medical machine that would put Dr. Fitz in my debt for the rest of his life. I drug the cables off the box and used the Marauder's tire iron to pry the front of the box down.

I stared inside at my prize, only to be confused. It seemed to be a multi faceted object that sat on a pedestal. In the center of the clear object was a swirling mass of colored gasses. To be honest, I was really disappointed.

"What...is it?" Brass said as he stared at it, reaching out to touch it before Harmony smacked his hoof away.

"It's a weapon." She said sternly as she stared at him.

"And how do you know that?" He replied, more than just a little annoyed.

"Because it was in the back of a room full of other weapons." She stated very matter-o-factly. I shrugged and couldn't beat that logic before picking the wooden crate lid back up and sealing the shimmering object.

"Well, I've seen a lot of weapons, but never anything like that." Brass remarked as we left the barn and headed inside. "I don't know how we're going to transport it though..."

"We won't." I said as we came in through the front doors. "Honestly, I have no idea what it does or what it's worth. So we leave it." I let out a yawn and latched the door shut before trotting over to the living room, flipping the overturned couch off the window with a loud bang. "Anyway, I want to relax a bit before bed. Got any more of that whiskey lying around?" Harmony nodded and trotted off to the kitchen, leaving Brass and I in the living room.

"Thanks. For not killing Crankshaft I mean." I said to Brass as he started to remove his suit using his telekinesis, laying the black armor out against the wall piece by piece. He sighed as he stepped out of the hind boots and set them down with a thud. He looked bigger than before he became a ghoul, not anywhere near an adult stallions size, but bigger none the less. I wondered to myself if the radiation was actually making him grow.

"Look, you were right. I'm not a different stallion from before." He walked over and jumped up next to me on the couch, sighing as a strand of his green hair fell out and landed between us. "But I'm not as useless as you all think I am."

"Useless?!" I said as I flailed my hooves. "You are positively the most BADASS steel ranger I've ever met! What made you think that's how we viewed you?"

Brass looked away and crossed his fore hooves on his chest. "Everyone treats me like a colt! I keep telling them I'm just short for my age, but nopony believes me!" I snickered at that, not helping by thinking how true it was, he was damn small framed. "That's exactly what I'm talking about! I always had to prove myself around home by taking the bigger jobs on base! That's why I signed up first to..." He trailed off for a moment.

"Hey, you made it out when the others didn't. You've fought harder and proved tougher than any other stallion I've ever known." I said as I raised his chin with my hoof. "You don't ever let somepony tell you that you are weak. If they don't believe you, just come get me, I'll back you up one hundred percent."

Brass smiled wide and jumped up to hug me tightly, his flesh was oddly soft and squishy enough that it was slightly unnerving. Harmony came back from the kitchen with a basket full of booze which she set down on the floor, staring in confusion between Brass and the set out armor.

"Wait, you fit inside there?" She said slowly. "But you move as though the suit fits you perfectly, I don't understand..."

"Well, you see..." Brass started to explain with a long arduous rhetoric that I don't remember because I reached out for a bottle of Stalliongrad's finest and popped the top, letting the rest of the night run into a series of blurs. I didn't drink normally because I am told I become a completely rowdy party pony. I even had once spent our entire months earnings in Paradise because I took them up on their offer of a free first drink. Also, I'm pretty sure that Skyline is only still angry about that because I gave her mare friend of the time a lap dance as they were trying to eat dinner.

I must have passed out sometime shortly before being able to make it to the bathroom, because my insides felt like they were trying to murder me in my sleep. It got bad enough, it woke me up while bright sunlight streamed through a hole in the cloud layer. Lucky me, it ran into the glassless window of the upstairs bedroom, and right into my eyes.

As I tried to cover my face with my hoof, I found it was pinned down. I felt the weight lift off me as the bed shifted suddenly, letting me roll over to stare into the still tired bright pink eyes of Harmony as she stretched and yawned.

"Hey there, you." She smiled and kissed my nose, making my muscles lock up. "Hell of a fun ride last night, I might have to stick around to bunk up with you more often." I let out a deep sigh as she got up and strode out of the room, smelling of whiskey and sweat.

"Oh Celestia. What the hell did I do last night?"

---------------

LEVEL UP!

+ 15 Doctor (You were drunk enough that you poured your points into a skill that's not even around anymore! Now that takes talent!)

New Perk: Rad Max - You truly are a badass warrior of the wastes when around radiation. If you have more than 200 rads, you absorb half as much radiation as normal, but below 200 you suck up twice as much.

Author's Notes:

Again I'd like to thank Kkat for thinking up such a fantastic world. Somber for not giving in to peer pressure when it comes to the amazingly awesome Project Horizons. No-one for building the story that inspired me to write a FoE story in the first place. Mimezinga for making Puppy an unforgettable journey that stole all my Feels. And thanks to Stonershy for making a damn entertaining side story that makes me wish mine was anywhere near as cool as it.

Thanks to Bad Pun again, who constantly surprises me with how much of my bullshit he puts up with! (And is reminding all you out there that tonight's story is brought to you by the letter: Beer.)

But Lastly, to you, the reader. Thanks for taking the time out to read my story. You are all the best.