Fallout: Equestria - The Long Winter

Chapters

Chapter Two - The Calm Before The Storm
Chapter Three - Solstice
Chapter Four - Into Darkness
Chapter Five - The Labyrinth
Chapter Six - Echoes
Chapter Eight - Dawn
Chapter Nine - Of Mice and Mares
Chapter Ten - Revelations
Chapter Eleven - Redemption
Chapter Twelve - Recovery
Chapter Thirteen - Chasm
Chapter Fourteen - Choices
Chapter Fifteen - Awakening
Chapter Sixteen - Road to Salvation
Chapter Seventeen - The Price of Ignorance
Chapter Eighteen - Preparing for War
Chapter Nineteen - Downfall
Chapter Twenty - A Glimmer of Hope
Chapter Twenty One - The Lightning Struck Tower
Chapter Twenty Two - False Hope
Chapter Twenty Four - The Long Road Ahead
Chapter Twenty Five - Determination
Chapter Twenty Six - A Bittersweet Reunion
Chapter Twenty Seven - Close Calls
Chapter Twenty Eight - What Friends Are For
Chapter Twenty Nine - Preparing For The Worst
Chapter Thirty - Tale of Two Towers
Chapter Thirty One - Orchard Omega
Chapter Thirty Two - Tempest
Chapter Thirty Four - Inner Demons
Chapter Thirty Five - Demolition Mare
Chapter Thirty Six - Silent Halls
Chapter Thirty Seven - The Last Goodbye
Chapter Thirty Eight - Hope's Awakening
Chapter Forty - Nightfall
Chapter Forty One - Acceptance
Chapter Forty Two - Home Sweet Home
Chapter Forty Three - The Antechamber
Chapter Forty Four - From The Ashes
Chapter Forty Five - Little Talks
Chapter Forty Six - Forgiveness
Chapter Forty Seven - The Beginning of The End
Chapter Forty Eight - Flames of Hope
Chapter Forty Nine - Operation: Reverse Siege
Chapter Fifty - Shaking A Pillar of Heaven
Chapter Fifty One - Grief
Chapter Fifty Two - Hope Rises
Chapter Fifty Three - All or Nothing
Chapter Fifty Four - An End Once and For All
Epilogue
Chapter One - Broken Road
Chapter Seven - Pitch Black
Chapter Twenty Three - Night of The Hunter
Chapter Thirty Three - Trials of Leadership
Chapter Thirty Nine - At Long Last Love

Chapter Two - The Calm Before The Storm

“The Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone and I must follow if I can...”

My journey towards Ponyville ended quite suddenly with an ambush and me getting my ass handed to me. I regained consciousness as I was being dragged by my forelegs into a dim-lit saloon, feeling something metal around my neck...oh hell, an explosive slave collar.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the bitch from New Appleloosa. I heard you took out some of our guys in Dodge.” The voice was definitely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place a hoof on it. The owner of the voice stepped out from the shadows.

“Oh, hey! It’s Geldy! How’s your friend down there?” I said sarcastically, receiving a hoof to the jaw for it.

“Throw her in one of the cages, I’ll deal with her in a bit.” the stallion ordered his cronies. I found myself thrown into a cage off in the corner of the room with a Stallion and what looked to be his daughter in it. I looked over to them, a slight feeling of sympathy going through me.

After twiddling my hooves in silence for more than just a few minutes, the Slaver from the bar finally came up to the cage. He grabbed me by the collar of my jacket using his hoof and slammed me into the metal bars, dazing me a bit and ringing my bells.

“You sure do know how to treat a lady to a good time.” I grunted as I tried to pull myself back from the bars.

“Bitch, you don’t even know your place, do you?” He smirked, licking around his lips as he looked over my body. I knew that look as I got it from at least two stallions a week, though, they usually learned pretty fast what happens afterward. Although, I don’t really have the option to kick his flank in a one on one fight while stuck in this cage.

Well, I guess I could use that to my advantage. Hopefully he won’t do much of his thinking with his brain and see right through this.

“Maybe that’s because no stallion has ever been able to handle me.” I grinned and cocked an eyebrow to him. He seemed to pause as I spoke, stunned. “What makes you any different than the losers who normally try?” I stood up and turned myself as best I could, giving him a little slap with the end of my tail.

His face flushed red as he gave me a look that he obviously thought made him look attractive. In truth, I found it appalling, so much so that I’d rather be shot than do anything with somepony like him. “Cause I’m the one in charge of the product. I know how to handle a mare better than anypony here!”

“Then prove it, hot shot.” I licked up along the foreleg he held me by, giving a little moan as I looked into his eyes. Goddesses, that wasn’t a taste I’d get out of my mouth easily. The moment he gasped back, I knew I had him. “Now, go find me a bed and some rope so you can show me just how well you can handle me.” I blew him a kiss, as he pulled his hoof back out of the cage. He nodded and trot off with his new plan for me in mind.

He came back with a decently sized coil of rope, one end of it tied off in a lasso. Unlocking the cage door, he proceeded to toss the lasso around my head and yank me out of the cage, kicking the door shut with a slam. I looked back to the Stallion and his daughter, giving them a little wink as I was led off toward the stairs. He lead me into one of the rooms, shutting the door behind us as I climbed up onto the bed.

"You know what? You took too long." I crouched on top of the bed, licking my lips and rocking my hips as he dropped his end of the rope. By the look on his face, he definitely wasn't thinking with his brain anymore. "Let's skip the foreplay, I want to see what you've really got for me!" I gave a playful growl as he looked like I had just handed him the best weapon in the wasteland.

"Oh, I'm going to rock your world." He shouted as he bounded up and onto the bed. I caught around his neck with my hoof, using his momentum to swing him down into the bed. "The hell are you doing, bitch!?" He swung his hoof back and smacked me across my muzzle. To be honest, for a moment I was worried the pain might make me break character, but that was about the weakest hit he'd thrown yet. I expected more out of him as he wasn't even making this hard.

I grinned wider. "I want to know what it's like to ride a REAL STALLION!" I leaned down and licked along his neck as he grunted his approval, once again regretting every moment of it. In hindsight, the taste was fine compared to when he put his disgusting hooves on my hips. I had him where I wanted him, and that was the last straw. I dropped down ontop of him, using both my forehooves to press into his neck, pinching the arteries closed. It was over in only a few seconds, but now came the tricky part.

I quickly pulled the rope from around my neck, hooking it around his forelegs. Cutting off circulation to the brain only lasts ten or so seconds, so it was crunch time as I lifted his hind legs and looped the lasso around them as well. As he stirred back to consciousness, I took the other end of the rope in my mouth and quickly tied it to the bedframe. As I finished, he opened his mouth to call out in alarm. As fast as he had been to smack me, I was much faster when it came to hitting him where it counted, the only thing escaping his muzzle now was air.

He flopped to his side in pain, letting out a soft whimper. Unfortunately for him, I couldn't get caught yet and he was still too damn noisy. I turned around and gave his pride and joy the strongest buck I could, swearing that I could feel a small pop as my hooves sunk into him. Needless to say, he figured passing out was going to be easier than deal with the pain.

Content with my work, I searched his bags and pockets for the collar and cage keys before walking over to the bed and nudged him ontop of me, slowly making my way to the door. I pushed it open quietly, which was no small task, and set him down on the walkway outside, making sure the others hadn't come back out yet.

I went and gingerly scooted the bed up against the doorway, letting me get just enough slack on the rope I could make sure that this would definitely be a ride he would remember. I hopped over the bed and dragged his body to the railing, straining myself as I lifted him up. With one final heave, I pushed him over and watched as he fell. As the rope went taught, I heard a soft pair of pops that were probably his shoulders dislocating, which serves the bastard right for the shit he had pulled. I smiled to myself as he swung there, carefully making my way back down the stairs to the cage, removing my own collar as I did so.

I opened the cage with the father and daughter inside “Hey, wait for me to distract everypony before you two make your escape.” I informed them of my plan as I tossed the collar key inside. Just as I turned to leave, I stopped “Oh yeah- don’t think I’m doing this for free though.” and with that, I was off making as much noise as possible.

Normally my plans involve me shooting other ponies, not actually getting shot at myself. So, I can’t stress enough just how terrified I had become when all hell broke loose around me.

Almost there...almost to the front gate...Just as I was almost out, an apple shaped grenade landed next to me and exploded, sending me flying right into a wall. My ears rang, the world spun, and my vision was fading fast. The last thought that ran through my mind before I was swallowed by the void was me hoping the stallion and his filly made it out okay.

* * * * * * * *

I opened my eyes to see myself in pitch blackness. From what I could feel, I was no longer wearing my jacket and shirt, nor my satchel. Neither of my guns could be found either. I also felt...warm. Not ‘wrapped in a blanket by the fireplace’ warm, a neutral warm.

I blinked as a calm, soothing voice echoed in my head. It sounded female, but like there were multiple ponies talking at once. “Come...child of.....Harmony....”

“Wait...what?” I asked out loud.

“Go....towards....light....” The voice answered.

Just as I was starting to question my sanity, a bright rainbow light phased into reality in front of me. I started out with a light trot, quickly turning into a gallop as I realized that I wasn’t getting any closer to the rainbow.

I smirked as the light had finally started getting closer....and going up...”Oh fuck!” I shouted as I realized I was falling. I screamed myself hoarse before hitting something rather solid.

* * * * * * * *

I woke with a start, gasping for air. My chest felt tight and burned like someone was holding a hot brand against it.

“Z-zombie!” I heard a small voice scream before receiving a fresh whack to the head, a loud CLANG echoing through my reverberating skull.

“Ouch! Fuck! I’m not a damn zombie!” I shouted, grabbing my aching head.

“Ya sure abou’ that miss? Y’all were dead. Mah daughter an’ ah were just burying yah outta respect fer yah savin’ our lives.” a stallion said. I blinked a few times, getting my bearings. I was sitting in a shallow grave that the stallion and little filly from the cage had dug out.

“I was dead...if that’s true, how the hell am I alive now?” I asked, clearly not believing I was really a corpse and that the stallion didn’t just forget to check for a pulse.

“No clue, ma’am.” he replied.

I rolled my eyes “Just...remember, the next time you decide to bury a pony, check to see if they are-”

“Still alive? Ah did, y’all had no pulse or anythin’” The stallion cut me off.

I sighed “Sure. Anyway, put that damn shovel down before you hurt somepony again.” I clambered out of the grave and looked around, it certainly was night time...not exactly a good time to travel in these parts because of the Everfree Forest.

I settled down with the Stallion and his daughter for the night after they begged me to stay. I cleaned the dirt and mud that had gotten on and in my rifle thanks to me nearly being buried alive while ignoring questions from the little filly whose name I had learned was Swivel Spark. Her father, Stratos (a weird name for a unicorn, I know.), cooked some Bloatsprite meat over the fire.

“So, Miss Storm, was it? What brings y’all this far South?” Stratos asked as he gave his daughter some of the meat.

“Bounty Hunter, after somepony up in Ponyville.” I replied without giving much detail on the subject.

Stratos winced “Oooh, Ponyville’s gonna be hard ta get into, what with all the ferals up there.”

Before I could respond, the light flutter of wings along with the creaking of something metal echoed from the darkness. I instinctively readied my rifle, aiming towards the sound. Stratos pushed his daughter behind him and readied his shovel. Like that’ll do any good in a real fight… I thought. A loud thud followed by wheels screeching to a halt came from about five feet out of the range for the light of our fire to illuminate whoever was out there.

My stance slacked as a familiar wall-eyed ghoul trotted happily up to me, a cloth sack hanging from her mouth “Oh, it’s just you Ditzy. What the hell are you doing all the way out here this late? And how in Luna’s name did you find me?”

The ghoulified mare just set the sack on the ground and smiled at me, her chalkboard already reading “Muffins?”

I sighed, knowing that might be the only thing I get out of her until I opened the bag “No, sorry. I haven’t had the time to get any muffins for you.”

Her ears drooped and her smile faded a bit, causing me to feel slightly bad for not having any of the baked goods on hoof for her. I poked the bag, the fabric slipping to reveal the object she had brought, a fairly old model of Pipbuck. There was a small note attached to it that looked to have been written by Harmony. I picked up the rare piece of wasteland tech and read the note.

“Storm. I’ve sent you this not only as a way to show my appreciation for how you helped out the town, but as a way to help you in all the fights you seem to get yourself into. Seriously, you need to not get shot so much, that or lose some weight, you are hard to drag all the way into town. Consider the Pipbuck a gift from a friend to a friend, but in all seriousness, that thing was expensive, so I do expect at least a quarter of it’s value paid back to me.

Your friend,
Harmonic Drive.

P.S. If you could cover Ditzy Doo’s shipping costs as well, I’d be mighty thankful.

I groaned and dropped the note on the ground, stomping it underhoof. Not only is Harmony costing me caps by sending me an extravagant gift that I STILL have to pay for, she has absolutely no faith in my combat skills! I mean yeah, lately hasn’t been going perfectly, but I don’t see her out here completing bounties.

I opened the old arcano-tech device, looking at it’s padded interior. I had never gotten to see one of them up close before, the few working ones I’ve seen were all already attached to somepony. I stuck my left forehoof down, using my right to lift it against my leg. It didn’t look like it had any sort of connector that fit into the other side, but when I pushed it shut, it clicked together.

Immediately my vision filled with lines of bright green scrolling coding, several weird icons and indicators fuzzing into place. I shut my eyes tightly a few times as they adjusted to the oddness of the projected images. There was a compass and a bar indicating my general health at the bottom left of my vision, as well as an indicator at the bottom right telling me that I was wearing my weapon, and miraculously how many rounds were still left in it.

A new image popped up into the center of my vision, looking like a long wavy line in a rectangle. The top of the image read: Your Pipbuck and You: A quick start guide! There was a click before the sound of a country mare filled my ears.

“Greetin’s and salutations new Pipbuck user!

"Mah name is Applebloom, current Co-CEO of Stable-Tec industries. Please take a moment ta listen ta this here short instructional guide on usin’ yer new Stable-Tec Pipbuck! As yah may have already noticed, yer Pipbuck comes fully equipped with a wide array of features ta help yah in yer everyday life. Features such as a built in compass an auto mappin function. Never git lost again when yer Pipbuck autonomously an’ discretely remembers everywhere y’all evah been!

"Another fantastic feature is the all-in-one identification an organization spell! Anythin’ that yah can place in yer saddlebags or assorted clothing is automatically added ta yer inventory screen an’ detailed with things such as quantity, weight, an’ quality. Tired of scroungin’ through yer bags ta find the one thing yah need? The Pipbucks sortin’ spell is also designed ta fetch whatever yer hankerin’ fer and bring it right ta tha top of yer saddlebags.

"Next is tha all important medical screen. It’ll give ya detailed readins’ of all yer vital stats, an’ even tell ya if one of yer bones is busted! Think about how much time y’all will save if yah don’t have to guess whether or not yah need ta just trot the injury off or ta git yerself ta tha emergency room!

"Another amazin’ feature of yer Pipbuck is tha Planner and Organizer functions! Yah can easily keep track off all tha details ta tasks ya need doin’, and can even record an listen ta reminders you or others set! Now yah can make sure that y’all won’t forget yer special somepony's anniversary or ta pay tha bills!

"Lastly, we here at Stable-Tec have yer personal safety in mind, an’ have included a spellset fer use as a last resort. With just tha simple thought of usin’ it, our patented Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, or S.A.T.S. for short, can assist ya in aimin any sorta weapon ya can git a hoof on. We personally guarantee that if ya need ta use it more than once per fight, yah ain’t usin a genuine Stable-Tec system."

"Disclaimer: Stable-Tec is not liable or responsible for any injuries that you may sustain during any fight while using the patented Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell. S.A.T.S. is not recommended for use by pregnant mares or any foal under the age of 10. Please use time alteration spells responsibly."

"That concludes our basic tutorial! We here at Stable-Tec sincerely hope that y’all enjoy tha many features provided on yer new Pipbuck. If yah should have any problems, please head on down ta yer nearest Stable-Tec retailer an’ we’ll take care of whatever yah need! Y’all take care now!"

The audio stopped as the image in my vision disappeared, leaving me in a profound silence with the others looking at me curiously. The crackling fire made the lack of conversation all the more uncomfortable as they looked to me to break the silence.

“Well, that was… interesting.” I remarked, looking down at the old world device. “Who knows how they thought all this shit up back before everything blew up.”

Ditzy raised her hoof and smiled. Oh, right, of course she would.

* * * * * * * * *

I once again found myself in the black void with the rainbow light just ahead of me.

“Come….child….your….destiny...awaits….”

“What the fuck are you?!” I shouted back at the light. No response. Irritated, I began galloping towards the light once again, having the same amount of luck as last time. This time, however, instead of falling, a silhouette of a pony’s figure appeared in front of me, the shape being a bit lighter toned than the surrounding blackness.

I don’t know what prompted me to do this, but I swung a hoof at it, only to have my attack blocked and for me to get knocked on my ass. The black figure then raised it’s hooves and began beating the everloving shit out of me.

I screamed out in pain as bones cracked and flesh was pierced. Just before I could scream at it to ask what the hell was going on, it all disappeared and I was once again standing a few yards away from the light, fully intact.

I looked myself over, noticing all my injuries had healed themselves, then I heard the calm voice in my head once more.

“Not….ready….”

And just like that, I was falling again.

* * * * * * * * *

I woke up, out of breath and somewhat sore. The morning pressed on slowly as we all prepared ourselves for our journeys, Stratos taking the time to cook the rest of the bloatsprite meat he had left over. Ditzy had offered to give Stratos and Swivel a ride to Tenpony Tower over in Manehattan, where they lived. I had been surprised to find out that two ex-slaves lived in that den of prissy assholes, but then again, who am I to judge where they wanted to stay.

I shook my leg a bit, remarking on how odd the weight of the Pipbuck felt. It wasn’t that it was cumbersome, it just felt so… out of place. I checked my gear, paid Ditzy the fee Harmony incurred, and said my goodbyes. As the skycart took off, I realized that I have no idea where I was. Not once between last night and now had I asked where the hell we were, and none of the terrain here even looked familiar.

I sighed, hanging my head down and attempted to facehoof myself for being so fucking stupid. Instead, I smacked myself with the Pipbuck. Wait, the tutorial said this thing had a map spell on it, didn’t it? I clicked across the menus, finally coming across the cartography menu. I was not too far off from my original route, and actually closer than I thought. I could probably still make it there on schedule if I skirted the everfree forest for most of the way. I stretched my legs and started off, heading towards the map marker for Ponyville.

As lines of red moved about on my Pipbuck’s compass, I was reminded that the edge of the everfree forest always creeped me out. It was as if somepony had decided that there had to be a straight boundary of where the wasteland ended and the forest began. Most of the sickly looking tree’s still had foliage on them, helping to conceal the odd horrors that lived within. I made sure to keep myself spaced a good thirty yards from it, wanting to have time to react if any beast inside decided that it wanted to see how pony tasted.

It didn’t take long following the forest edge to reach the ruins of Ponyville, the clocktower on the outskirts of town being the first thing I saw crest the horizon. It was where I was headed, thinking that I could set up my observation point in the steeple. The closer I got, the better off it looked like the building was still unoccupied by anypony. Then again, with all the houses around here, who would live in a clocktower?

I quickly made my way inside, staying low and being as quiet as I could in case anypony was actually in town. Climbing the rickety old stairs made me cringe with each step, the old wood bowing and creaking more than I felt they should. Finally though, I made it to the top, ducking under the enormous hanging bell to peek over the railing to the town below. My eyes immediately caught movement near a giant dead tree a ways across town, prompting me to pull out my rifle.

“What do we have going on here?” I whispered as I peered through the optic, watching as a large pack of feral ghouls shambled about the streets. Well shit. I’ve lost interest in counting past thirty, and that’s just there! If the target really was here, I’d need to think up some way to get through the hordes of undead ponies. A streak of non-shambling movement pulled my attention toward the library.

“Hello there.” I whispered to myself again, this time with a grin. The figure was a crimson coated unicorn, his black and red striped mane flagging him as my target. My smile dropped off as I noticed the feral ghouls were just letting him walk past. “Just how is it you’re doing that?” I frowned and watched as he disappeared into the homey looking tree. I turned my sight to a large sign by the door.

“The Golden Oak Library.” I sighed and pulled my gun back, leaning back down into the old stairwell. “Maybe there’s a book in there that tells me how to sneak past three dozen zombies.”

Footnote: You’ve reached Level 14!

Skill note: Sneak raised from 60 to 74!

New Perk: Unknown Forces - There seems to be unknown forces watching over you like “Guardian Angels”. You now gain a 10% chance to ignore a fatal blow in combat.

Chapter Three - Solstice

“Watch in quiet times, for the serene is oft the guise the oncoming storm takes.”

I shivered as the cold air washed over me, causing me to pull my jacket tighter... I had been sitting in the Ponyville Clocktower ever since I had arrived earlier today. The sun had long since set and the first night of winter had begun...and just my luck I was in the highest point in the whole town, causing me to get the full force of the cold winter winds.

My target hadn’t moved at all, but luckily for me the ghouls had started to clear up, shambling off in random directions. I lit up one of my last cigarettes and peered through the scope once again. Not much had changed inside the building other than Predious now reading a...cooking book? Seriously?

Rolling my eyes, I took a drag on the cigarette and shifted my position slightly. As I waited for more ghouls to clear out, I began humming a tune I had heard on the radio. The song, as far as I remember, was about somepony wanting to see her friends smile because it gave her joy...heh, wouldn’t see that in the wasteland nowadays.

My ears folded back and a chill ran up my spine as I heard light hoofsteps coming up the stairs behind me. I quickly twisted my rifle around and aimed it right where somepony should be standing...only to find nothing there. My first thought was zebra invisibility cloak, but that was quickly debunked as a small pebble I threw just clattered down the steps harmlessly.

I sighed, thinking it was just my normal paranoia while on a job and the wind messing with me. Okay...calm down Storm. Focus on the task at hoof and stop jumping at every damn noise you hear…

It was another twenty minutes before the lights in the library went out. By this time, most of the ferals had wandered off, leaving a much more manageable path through the town. I put out my most recent cigarette and put it back into my pocket, not wanting to waste the bit that remained by tossing a half-used cigarette over the tower. I strapped my rifle back around my back and slowly made my way down the stairs.

“Fuck…” I shivered violently. It was even colder down on the ground than up on the belfry. How was that even possible? And….why did I feel as if I was being watched? I shook my head and ignored that feeling as I trudged my way through the town.

Snow had started falling when I was about halfway through the town, giving the entire place an eerie feeling...it also didn’t help that it was pitch black and the only things I could see were the silhouettes of the buildings in front of me.

The occasional ghoul sometimes wandered out into the street, forcing me to hide behind a frosty mailbox or something. Other than that, I had little interruption as I made my way towards the library. By the time I reached my destination, the snow was already halfway to knee height and I was shaking uncontrollably….damn how I wish I had worn something a little warmer.

I slowly prodded the door open with a hoof and crept inside, making sure to stay as quiet as possible. I could just make out the faded old books that lined the walls. Most looked as if time hadn’t been friendly to them at all while others looked in near-pristine condition.

“Creepy in here, isn’t it?” What the hell! I took a look around, but I wasn’t able to see anything or anypony. Without a second thought, I took out my Colt 1911, pointing it every which way. Not noticing that I never really aimed in the direction where the sound came from. I slowly turned around to where the voice really came from, and there stood…a bookshelf. “Why do they always have to make this harder on them than they need to?”

I wasn’t going to take any chances with this guy, so I decided it would be best to just tackle him. And well, i’m not going to lie, I was wrong. I ran straight into a bookshelf and not the pony I was looking for. A black mist and gleeful laughter came from behind me. “Oh man, I wasn’t able to keep myself from laughing at that. Sorry but that just looked so silly, I couldn’t help myself. But you were right, I was A bookshelf. Well might as well take this chance to take care of you.”

Shit! I forgot that he uses illusion magic! With no time to think I took my Colt and shot him right in the front left hoof, and he fell to the ground with a howl of pain. I took out my magazine of rubber bullets, put it into the gun, chambering one of the non-lethal rounds, and pointed it at at his head. “And this is why they hire me for these jobs.” POW!!! The rubber bullet did it’s job and knocked him out for the time being.

“Now where do I have to take this poor bastard?” I checked my satchel. Wait, where is it? I sighed and tried to find that damned piece of paper. And, after about an hour of searching I finally found it. It had fallen out when I tackled the bookshelf. I was puzzled to see where it said to take him. “Well, it appears that you have got yourself into trouble with the Steel Rangers.”

My ears perked up at the sound of glass breaking in the other room. Shit! I completely forgot about the ghouls outside, the gunshot must have attracted them. They would have gotten here sooner if there wasn’t about four feet of snow out there. Thank the goddesses for that.

“What, what’s going on?” I guess that unicorn finally woke up, well at least I don’t have to carry him up the stairs now.

“Get up…wait can you even stand?” I just remembered that I shot him in the leg.

With a flinch, he stood up. “Ya, and thanks for asking me. Most other bounty hunters would point their gun and yell at me to get up. By the way, what’s happening?”

“Well to make it short, if we don’t get to high ground we will most likely be torn apart by ghouls and die. Any other questions?” I said this as I started to heading towards the nearest stairs, the ghoul being in the other room.

“Ya, where is the bathroom?” He said this with a smug look on his face. I wanted to punch him in the face so hard, but now wasn’t the time.

I got myself up the stairs and whispered “Do you want to die!?!? Get up the stairs, now!”

“Fine, fine.” He limped up the stairs. And I guess the ghoul heard my voice, because it was rushing across the room to where my voice came from. I had no time to think, I aimed my gun at that ghouls head and fired.

The bullet tore the thing’s skin on its face, causing me to blink in surprise at the fact the ghoul’s head wasn’t blown off. I spotted the ammo counter at the bottom of my HUD and three letters accompanied the numbers telling me how much ammo I had left: RBR.

I slammed the door shut behind me once we were in the upper part of the library. After sliding down the door and onto the floor with a nice thump, I sighed and changed out the mag of rubber bullets for one with actual bullets.

After a while, the loud banging on the door began making my goal of blocking entrance to the room harder as bits of wood started to chip off of the door and fall onto my lap “Damnit, this old door won’t hold much longer. Who knew this would be how I died? Getting ripped apart by ferals while on a job…”

“You know, you don’t seem to be that smart….nor good at your job.” the red pony said as he dug through something off in the corner of the room. He stood back up with large minigun floating in his magical aura. He smirked “I only keep this for emergencies.”

I blinked with disbelief at the fact that he had a gun that big but didn’t try to use it on me earlier….and he’s calling me the dumb one.

“Out of the way!” he ordered me as the minigun revved up. Just as I had cleared the door, it burst open and the bullets being fired perforated every ghoul that tried to rush through the door. Many screeches and loud gun noises later, I uncovered my head and looked around. The barrels of the minigun were smoking and a large pile of shredded jerky and ichor lay in the doorway. “Now that we’ve probably attracted every feral within a fifty mile radius of our location, we should get out of here.”

I nodded in agreement and stood up, walking over to the unicorn. I bit down on the barrel of my pistol, normally not a smart thing to do...but for what I had planned, it was the only option. I brought the gun across his face, granting a loud yet satisfying WHACK to echo across the room. I looked over the damage I had done as I holstered my weapon. He’d be sore for sure when he woke up in a few hours, but the need for the rest of this job to go smoothly outweighed my morals.

I picked up the minigun and dropped it into my satchel, thanking the goddesses for the enchantment to allow me to carry more than what would normally be possible in it.

* * * * * * * * * * *

After tying his legs up, it wasn’t easy getting Predious out of the Library, and it was even harder to find an inconspicuous house to lay low in for a while, but I had managed to do it. To his credit, and my relief, my ‘cargo’ had known that if he struggled at all, we both would have been zombie food. The old residence was freezing inside, for some reason feeling even colder than outside. The whole house just felt… wrong.

“Oh, I see your coat is standing up on the back of your neck.” My cargo chimed up. “So you have seen them.”

“One, keep your voice down. Two, what the fuck are you talking about?” I lowered down to the floor, slipping him off of my back and setting him next to the moldy couch in the living room. So far, this dick fancied running his mouth a bit too much for my liking.

“Spirits.” He chuckled. “There is no need to be afraid, they won’t harm you.”

“You’re fucking crazy.” I checked the clock on my EFS, hoping that I didn’t have to wait long before morning. “Just sit tight, we won’t have to stay here long.”

11:29pm.

Shit, just my luck. We’ve got another 8 hours before it starts getting light out, and that isn’t even calling into fact that the storm outside didn’t seem to be letting up. The last thing I planned for was to be snowed in a house for three days with only enough rations to split between us for half that time. If the weather calms down, I may be able to scavenge for food, but so far, I didn’t have high hopes.

“I understand your apprehensiveness, but is there any reason why we can’t have a civil conversation?” He was just trying to get under my skin. He knew as much as I did that we were stuck here.

“Yes, there is.” I stiffly retorted. “It’s so I don’t get tired of hearing your bullshit and end up deciding I should just shoot you.”

“Now now, there is no reason for such harsh action.” It was almost as if he was tailoring the words he used just to piss me off. “Besides, if you shoot me, the monsters outside would most definitely hear it.” Great, now he has to bring LOGIC into this. My body shivered again as I felt the room drop in temperature yet again.

“Whatever, I’m going to find us some blankets before we freeze to death in here.” I turned and trotted off, keeping my hoofsteps light as I made my way up the stairs to the second floor. As my head crested the landing, movement caught my eye down the hallway as I barely caught the dark form of a foal enter the room closest to me. Shit. I never thought what I’d do if one of those zombies was already inside the house.

I bit down on the barrel of my rifle, wielding it like a club as I gingerly stepped down the hallway. I just needed to remember to aim for the head, as destroying the brain was nearly the only way to stop these things, and I didn’t have the strength to overpower it in hoof to hoof combat. I crept up to the doorway, pausing to collect my thoughts before rushing in, attempting to trigger S.A.T.S. as I raised the rifle up.

The room was completely empty.

No furniture, no junk, just a cold, bare room. A knock behind me caught my attention, so I spun around quickly, peaking my head out doorway. Another knock came from behind the closed door to the room at the end of the hall, spiking my pulse as I felt my chest tighten. Calm down, it’s just the century and a half old house shifting in the wind. There is no need to get all jumpy.

The floorboards creaked under hoof as I cautiously continued on. Each room on the second floor was strangely empty, my first thought writing it off as maybe this house hadn’t been owned by anypony before the war. That wouldn’t make sense, seeing as the first floor was fully furnished. Finally, I approached the last room, the yellowed, peeling white paint on the door looked worse than the rest of the decay in the house, striking a sense of dread as to what might be behind it.

I hoofed at the handle, the corroded brass fitting screeched as it turned, sending sharp jolts of fear down my spine. My hoof froze before the latch unlocked. As much as I fought it, the fear I felt was winning out, clouding my mind. I took a step back to reflect on how ridiculous this was. Here I am, a goddess damned bounty hunter, afraid to open a door in an empty house.

My ears perked and swiveled forward as soft crying came through the door. The voice of a small foal was whispering through the tears for their mother. What would a foal be doing alone in a place like this? The kid of an unlucky scavenger? Ghoul on the verge of going feral? Regardless, I need to know whether or not it’s going to cause a problem for us staying here. I hoofed the latch open quickly, pushing the door open.

The creaking hinges sounded like they were groaning in agony as the door swung inward. The small form of a white pony foal sat facing away from me in the center of a queen sized bedspread, it’s sobbing continuing oblivious to the sound of the door. Immediately, the fear from before flooded back, my body stiffening up as I took a step in. I carefully set my rifle down in the doorframe, watching as the foal rocked back and forth slowly.

“Hey there… what’s your name?” I spoke softly, trying not to startle the child. It’s sobs stopped as it got to it’s hooves slowly.

“Mommy?” It asked turning it’s head to look at me. I felt the breath leave my body as my eyes locked to it’s face, refusing to avert my gaze even as my mind screamed for me to leave. The young colt was missing the skin and muscles from the right half of his face, the other half was locked in a perpetual scream.

My body acted on instinct, barreling out the door and scattering my rifle across the floorboards. I pulled the door shut far harder than I should have, slamming it closed before scrambling to get my rifle and head downstairs. Predious chuckled again as I nearly tumbled down the rotting steps, slamming into the freezing floor.

“What the FUCK was that?” I growled and stomped over to him, leveling my rifle with his head.

“I told you they were here. They are always most active around this time of night.” He spoke with an unnatural calmness, spiking my anger to overtake the fear that was wracking my body. “The spirits here have been in this town much longer than I have.” His words drove me to action, swinging the gun in my hooves and dropping the butt of it down onto his head.

“Don’t play coy! How the FUCK could you think up an illusion as twisted as that.” I pointed the barrel at his head again, waiting until he shook off the pain and looked back up at me. I could tell his patience with me was waning, but I didn’t care, somepony as sick as him isn’t even worth being brought back alive.

“If you truly believe it is me, then tell me. Do you see me casting a spell?” He smirked as he kept his eyes on the stairs behind me. I slowly turned as the hairs on my coat stood up, looking behind me to see the dead foal staring at us from halfway down the stairs. I turned back and looked down at his horn. It was dark. No spell aura, or even suppressed spell aura as I had seen some unicorns could do.

“Mommy?” The colt asked, his voice dropping the temperature around me again.

Fuck this place.

I scooped up Predious onto my back and bolted for the door. A swift buck shattered it off it’s moldy frame, thankfully almost silently dropping down into the snow. I galloped as fast and as hard as I could down the street, choosing to take the quickest path out of town. I don’t know whether it was luck, or fate, but the ghouls that had been wandering around were absent. Even though they were nothing more than savage monsters, maybe they knew to leave town at this time of night.

Something I’ll be keen to remember if I ever am forced to return to the Ponyville ruins. And I say forced, because there is no chance in hell, that I’m ever coming back here of my own choice.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The freezing night air was still as the snow fell quietly in the darkness all around, the crunching of my hooves and incessant tune Predious had started quietly humming were the only reminders that I wasn’t dreaming. Well, that and the constant fear that we were going to freeze to death if we didn’t find shelter helped keep me focused. My ‘cargo’ stopped humming momentarily and shifted around on my back.

“I would hate to think you don’t know this, but I think we should find a place to warm up.” His voice echoed amongst the hills around us, carrying off into the distance.

“We would have already if I didn’t have to haul your ass around.” I groaned, pulling us up a small embankment.

“Oh, if I had known you were having so much trouble…” He quickly rolled himself off my back and into the snow, standing up onto his hooves as I spun around. His horn glowed as he levitated the short length of rope over to me, laying it across my back. “It feels SO much better to be able to move my hooves again.”

The nerve of this guy!

“What the FUCK. You’ve just been laying on me this whole time when you could have just been walking!?” I was fuming. If it weren’t for the contract specifying he was needed alive, I’d cut him open and use his guts for warmth.

“You expected a simple knot to stop a unicorn? If that were true, our kind would never have made it through the dark ages.” He rolled his eyes and tramped past me, pressing onward. “The bindings have been undone since we left the library. I was simply curious to see how you handled the situation.”

“Well I hope you were entertained.” I shouted, keeping a few paces behind him. “Cause this still doesn’t fix us freezing to death out here!”

“Nonsense, there, ahead of us. Ruins of some kind.” He lifted his hoof and pointed ahead of us. I squinted, barely able to make out the faintest of outlines. As we approached, some sort of motion sensor activated a set of lights inside it.

It was a two story building, well, half of a two story building to be specific. The light inside came from a flickering set of fluorescent lighting that hung down from the twisted concrete and metal that jutted out of the ruins.

“Huh, kinda odd to see half a building.” I spoke slowly, looking around at our dimly lit surroundings. The only objects of interest were a few Sky carriage wrecks fifty feet or so to our left, the rusting mass of old chain link fencing still stood out around them. “There’s no other rubble around, so where did it-” That was as far as I made it before a loud snap emanated from the snow all around us, the ground tilting down and throwing both Predious and I onto our sides.

“DON’T MOVE!” He shouted, slowly sliding into the ground. One final set of cracks filled the air before he was sucked down, a loud groan coming from where he had just been. I froze stiff, listening as a long silence filled the air. “I’M OKAY!”

I let out a long sigh before wondering when I had started holding my breath. Now that I know I didn’t fail this contract by getting him killed, I can get back to the matter at hoof. Well, to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what exactly was happening. Maybe if I can just pull myself to where he was…

The moment I shifted my weight, another crack preceded the ground below me giving out, plunging me down a few feet before I felt something tug on me and yank me up. I blinked in the darkness, watching as a soft light grew around me. I looked down to see Predious’s horn glowing, outlining what looked to be an old office of some sort. Turns out, my satchel had gotten caught on one of the struts that had been holding up the glass roofing we fell through, keeping me hanging above the carpeted office floor.

“Well, at least we know where the other half of the building went!” He chimed happily. All fun and games for the guy who wasn’t hanging precariously and freezing his flank off. The strut above me let out a groan, the snap of what I assumed was an essential bolt was all I heard before my body slipped from my bag. I slammed onto the wood with a wet thump, groaning and rolling onto my back as pain shot through what I had previously thought was my numb body.

“Oh, Celestia that-” For the second time in five minutes, I was cut off by the sound of a snap. This time the floor below me gave out completely, dropping me down yet another floor. Without my bag to slow my fall again, my momentum carried me through the rotten carpet and wood, finally dumping my flank onto the concrete ground of what I assumed was the basement. With my last throws of consciousness, I peered up through the set of holes above me, spotting the light of Predious’s horn shining down on me as he floated my satchel off the strut and out of sight.

Well, this wasn’t how I thought I’d go out. Left to die at the bottom of this hole, with my provisions taken by the only pony around for miles capable of saving me. At the very least, the air down here was warm enough that I wouldn’t freeze to death. Not that I care right now, I’m too tired to care. Maybe I can just sleep the pain away…

--Chapter End--

Winter is nature’s way of saying ‘Up Yours’.

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: Into Darkness

Levels Earned: None

Perk’s Earned: None

Author's Note

Hey there! Special thanks to Gamma Deekay for helping me a ton on this chapter! I kinda fell into a rut during the writing of this since I was working on chapter 6 of Old Grudges at the same time. He and my newest friend, Rin Glaze are two of the reasons this chapter was even finished! Also, I am switching from the standard FoE footnote style to the same one that Gamma has been using for Better Days, so every chapter from now on will use that style. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Four - Into Darkness

“I don’t know if I can say I’ve lived through everything but I’ve walked this earth alone with bare hooves broken in the snow.”

I awoke an unknown amount of time later to the sound of music coming from my PipBuck. I groaned and lifted my aching body off of the concrete floor I had been laying on. A sharp pain shot through one of my hind legs, causing me to yelp. The flashing on my PipBuck caught my attention and I lifted it up to see one of the back legs on the little on-screen character flashing with “CRIPPLED” right next to it.

“What rhymes with shoes and often gives you the blues? That’s right, it’s time for the cashews! Okay, that doesn’t really rhyme… How about, the news?” I frowned a bit as I messed around with my PipBuck, trying to figure out how to turn the damn radio off...I’d rather not alert anything that might be nearby. “There seems to be a pretty powerful blizzard over in the Ponyville area, so if you insist on traveling through that area children, be sure to bring an extra coat or two.” My ears perked up at the weather announcement. Was it still really that bad outside? I must’ve not been out that long then.

My head snapped to the left as I heard a loud bang as if somepony had just slammed into some sheet metal. “In other news, the trade town of Dodge has recently been attacked by some Old Appleloosan Slavers. We have the pleasure of interviewing the mare in charge herself.” I turned my attention back to the radio broadcast as a familiar mare’s voice chimed in.

“Why those no good, backstabbin backwater slavers broke our deal. Deal was they get the hell outa Dodge an Ah promised Ah wouldn't offer any contracts on their heads, but Ah guess they got tired of wantin ta live. Ah'm happy ta report that the townsfolk here owe their lives to a good friend a mine who single hoofedly saved the whole town by takin care of em.” Harmony stated over the radio.

I sighed heavily at the indirect mention of me ‘If I was that much of a help to you, why’d you make me pay for half of this damned PipBuck?’ I thought to myself.

Another noise caught my attention, this one sounded a bit farther off though. I continued my search for the elusive off switch for the radio as DJ PON3 spoke up again “Time for some music my little ponies, here’s Pon E. King with Stand By-” Finally! The radio clicked off and silence fell over the surrounding area.

I did the best I could not to yelp every time I moved my broken hind leg as I crept along, occasionally letting out a small whimper. Every little noise I heard, every creak, every drip...it all kept me on edge. After what I saw in Ponyville, I certainly think being frightened was called for, more so due to the situation I was now in. I gave a small laugh through the pain as it all sounded like the start to a bad joke.

“So, I’m at the bottom of a sunken, decaying building,” I grunted, pulling myself through the dim light my pipbuck shone against the old walls. “...with a broken hind leg, and no supplies to speak of because the contract ran off with them.” Glittering, scattered silver lines appeared twenty feet or so ahead, as I got closer, they solidified into the rusty remains of shelving units. Row upon row of old shelves lay toppled backwards, twisting and jutting out from a mound of dirt that poured through the wall.

I stopped when I noticed that one of the jutting pieces of metal was different than the others, looking more like the barrel of a gun then the end of some old shelves. Delighted at the prospect of arming myself, I pulled myself up the dirt mound, biting into the rusty firearm and tugging at it with what little strength I could muster. With a good yank and a shower of dirt, my prize was free! I spit the corroded metal from my muzzle to look at my prize…

Only to find that the receiver of the gun had been so badly rusted, that it tore in half like a sheet of paper. I turned my gaze to look at the other half, jumping and flailing when I came muzzle to muzzle with the brown skeleton of a half buried pony still holding the other half. I came down from my jump hard on my broken leg, biting my cheek to contain the scream to my muzzle and drawing blood.

“Oh fuck… that hurt!” I tried to keep my voice down to a whisper, tucking my busted leg as close to me as I could. With an injury this bad, the chances of survival alone were dwindling fast. “I need to find a way out of here...” I whispered to myself, tensing up as the sound of my words reverberating made me realize just how quiet it was down here.

Something in the dirt pile shifted, my gaze catching the hoof of the skeleton I had jumbled as it rolled down and stopped where it was extended nearly perfectly horizontal on the pile. A buzzing sound filled my ears as a light through a doorway the direction it pointed flickered to life momentarily, going dim with just enough time for me to see dark smears staining the walls of the hallway. I am past believing that it was just a coincidence, so there was only really one thing I was left wondering. Is the skeleton trying to show me the way out, or guiding me down a path that would keep me with him for eternity?

For lack of a better option, and my injuries giving me little time to dwell on it, I forged ahead down the black abyss of the hallway.

After stumbling onto an old mechanical door with a sign next to it reading “Stairs”, I sighed and lightly slammed my head into it with a loud clang echoing throughout the dark halls. “Just my fucking luck...a way up with a door that requires power in my way.” I beat the door with my hoof and was surprised it punched right through it.

I retracted my hoof and shown my pipbuck light on the door. The entire thing was just a large slab of rusted metal, there was even a dent where I had hit my head against it.

I backed up, getting ready to ram the thing open when I bumped right into something behind me. I yelped and probably jumped higher than I’ve ever jumped before. When I landed, another sharp pain shot through my broken hind leg causing me to scream out in pain and whimper a bit.

I gently sat down and lifted my foreleg up so that my light flashed onto what I had run into. Another pony skeleton sat up against the wall, it’s jaw open as if the poor bastard was still screaming from whatever fate had befell it.

A chill went down my spine as my imagination went wild on thoughts of how this pony could’ve died, ranging from slowly starving to death, radiation, or getting eaten alive by rats...okay, that last one isn’t as likely, but it didn’t stop my mind from going there!

After spending a few more moments regaining my composure and letting the pain subside, I rammed into the rusty door, tearing it like tissue paper and receiving pain all throughout my body as bits of rusted metal tore into my flesh. Great, going to need a tetanus shot along with a splint for my leg…

One half of me wanted me to just lay down and cry while the survivalist in me told me to keep pushing on no matter what. I have to admit, the former was winning out as tears started welling up in my eyes. Then I remembered that skeleton I had found by the door. “Come on Storm, you don’t want to end up like that...pull yourself together.”

I took a deep breath and continued limping on up the stairs, stumbling halfway as my body just sort of gave out. I lay there and sobbed quietly. Without my guns I was defenseless. Without my supplies, I had no way of fixing myself up enough to get to a doctor. The possibility of me dying in this stairwell was quickly becoming more of a reality than I was comfortable with...and I had nopony to blame other than myself.

Upon closing my eyes, I heard a stallion’s voice. “Come on Storm, it never is a simple walk down this old broken road we Bounty Hunters tread.”

I opened my eyes to see a tall stallion. He was a brown unicorn with a silver mane cut short. “D-dad...I...I can’t go on...I’ve lost all of my stuff, one of my back legs is broken, and I am just too tired to go on…”

The stallion leaned closer to me from where he stood “So you are just going to give up? That’s not the young mare I raised.” He held out a hoof “Come on, times may be hard, but to give up is to let the wasteland win.”

I closed my eyes and sighed, taking his hoof and pulling myself up. When I reopened my eyes, I was holding onto one of the metal pipes against the wall instead of my dads hoof. I shook my head, concluding that he was just a hallucination.

With newfound determination, brought on by a figment of my imagination no less, I limped onwards, peaking the stairs and pushing through a door onto floor one. I was still tired and my entire body still surged with pain, but that did little to stop me from searching for a way out.

I snuck around the old hallways of what I had concluded was a school from the broken desks littering the old building.

As I neared the end of the hallway, I heard loud banging emanating from the metal door blocking the stairs up. I quickly hid around a corner and slowly peeked around to look at the door. The old wooden door burst off it’s hinges and out tumbled a familiar red unicorn wearing my satchel and guns.

I blinked at the pony whom I had thought had run off and left me for dead and limped out from my hiding spot. He looked up from the floor, spotting me before quickly popping back up to his hooves and dusting himself off. I looked at my gear, wondering to myself if it was still all there, or if he had dumped anything I could use against him out somewhere. “You didn’t run off... why?”

“Did you want me to? Because I can still leave you here to die if that's really what you want.” Predious replied smartly, giving me a sly grin to complete the perfect picture of arrogance that he was. Goddess I wanted to smack him for that.

“Don't get me wrong, I’d like to live. I’m just confused as to why you, my bounty, didn’t just run off with all my stuff.” I held my hoof out, happy to see his horn glow and pass my satchel back to me. I took a moment to put it on, making sure it was secure before he levitated my rifle over.

“Doesn’t feel right, never did get used to how things work in today’s world.” I blinked in confusion at his response. He certainly was the oddest bounty I've ever been tasked with, but I guess if somepony wants his brand of crazy brought back to them, I can deliver. "Not to mention, I too would like to live. If I am to make anywhere outside, I need somepony who's a bit more... combat savvy than I. You know what they say about lovers and fighters after all!"

Yeah. I've met half feral ghouls that make more sense then this guy.

“Whatever, if we want to make it back to civilization, then we’ve gotta get our flanks out of here, preferably after we find some healing items for my fucked up leg.” I sat down and hoofed through my saddlebags, looking to see if I had anything I could use. The last few jobs were easy, so I’ve been running light on supplies for this one, and all I had was a single healing potion and a med-X. I don’t want to use either of them in case we run into something up on the surface. “You see anything salvageable up on the next floor?”

“Not so much, no. Just room after room of medical equipment.” He scratched at his chin with a hoof. “So odd. What kind of medical facility carries no healing supplies?”

“One we should have never fallen into, now let’s go.” I stood back up, wincing as I kept my leg tucked up.

“Just as a point, the one thing I did happen to find down in the basement was a rather odd looking door. There may be something of value behind it that warrants taking.” He furrowed his brow with a smirk. Normally I’d say fuck off, but I needed anything I could get to salvage this contract. On top of that, it could have more healing items in it.

“Really? Did you look around when I was unconscious or something? Cause it was dark as hell down there and I didn’t see a door.” I used my gun as a crutch, propping myself up as I got used to the pain.

“Not that basement, the one upstairs.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “In the other half of the building.”

“Fine. But you try anything, anything at all, and I will shoot you again.” I prodded at his chest with my hoof before he knocked it away.

“Please. Why would I try anything when you are far more interesting than any of those books were at the library?” He gave me a sly smile, as I rolled my eyes with a sigh. “No, I think I will try to unravel the enigma that is you.” He trot to the stairwell, stopping on the first step as he looked back to me. “So! Why not start by giving me your name?”

“Why the hell would I tell you anything?” I hobbled my way up to him, pushing at him as he made sure to slow down with my refusal.

“How about, because I gave you your stuff back? Or didn’t run away when I could have in ponyville.” He sped up again, this time going fast enough that I was afraid he was going to make a break for it. I was about to reach for my rifle when he spun himself around, walking up the stairs backwards. “Come on, you owe me at least your name.”

“I don’t owe you shit. You chose to come back and help me, and I chose not to shoot you in the face.” I misjudged my hoofing and tripped, waiting to feel the smack against the concrete step. Predious’s horn glowed, holding my head only an inch or so above the step. I pushed myself back up, continuing as he backed his way through the top floor doorway. “Fine, my name is Storm.”

“Ah! So the bounty hunter does have a name.” He smiled as he stopped just short of backing into the hole I had made on my way down. I used my gun as a crutch again as I hobbled my way past him, feeling the cold wet of the snow that had melted freezing my hooves, reminding me that up here was a whole hell of a lot colder than the basement was. I glanced into one of the rooms that broke off from this one, viewing a set of what I was sure used to be fairly comfortable couches set apart from each other. Next to each couch was a set of old medical machines. One of them I had recognized as an EKG machine, or, at least that’s what Harmony had called it when she was fixing it up.

“See, what did I tell you? Nothing but random medical junk.” Predious strode past me, heading through the doorway at the end of the room, his hooves clicking along the porcelain floor tiling that stretched out along it. I hobbled after him as he stopped when he reached the end, looking back at me as if I was ruining his fun. “It’s just a broken leg, not a terminal illness. Just mare up and walk it off.”

Now the question is, do I shoot him, or keep the gun as my crutch?

“Look, if you want me to go any faster, why don’t you find me something that will actually help.” I shot back at him, stopping as I leaned against the doorway. Which was great, because this way I could use my gun, and the next words out of his mouth would dictate if he deserved another bullet or not.

“Ugh. Fine, I’ll help” He sounded so dejected at the thought, when not minutes ago he was all over giving my stuff back. “Just… wait there.” He trotted into the room closest to him, disappearing for a moment before reappearing with a thick, leather belt. He crossed the hallway into the next room, starting to hum to himself. A loud crash made me shudder, my eyes drawn to him as she smiled and trot back across the hallway yet again, entering the next room closer to me.

His voice carried amazingly down the empty hallways, reverberating them to give me the impression that they were in fact humming to me. A sharp ripping of fabric broke the illusion before he exited that room with a bounce. He froze in the hallway and stared at my unamused expression with a smile.

“You done?” I sighed, feeling much more relaxed when he nodded and walked over.

“Sorry, sometimes I just get so carried away.” He floated the two belts and torn fabric over, rigging up a sturdy sling that kept my leg pinned to me. I took a few hops to test it out, finding that it was incredibly stable, but was loose enough that it didn’t restrict my blood flow.

“Fairly sturdy. Thanks, I guess.” I slung my gun over my neck and hobbled down the hallway before he could comment. “Now where is this door you were talking about?”

“It’s not to far, just up ahead.” He strode up beside me, using his horn to gesture around the corner at the end of the hall. “So… Miss Storm.” He paused and fell behind again for a moment in thought. “Or is it Mrs. Storm?” And he’s back to prying.

“What it is, is none of your goddess damned business.” I glared at him as I turned the corner, smacking right into a century and a half old cleaning cart somepony had left in the hallway. I kicked the cart down the hallway as hard as could, my anger flaring as he chuckled to himself and raised a hoof to comment. I beat him to it. “Can you just please walk in silence until I can turn your ass in?”

“With a temper like that, I’m going to guess single.” His voice was oil on water as he continued down the hallway. I take it back. If somepony ever asks me to capture someone like him again? I’ll just ask them to save the annoyance and shoot me right then.

“Tell me again why I shouldn’t just shoot you now?” I grumbled. Truly, the idea was sounding like a much better idea. Everything I’ve learned in my time as a bounty hunter is telling me to just kill him and report that the contract was unsalvageable, but still, I can’t help but feel it would be the wrong course of action.

“Because you admire my timeless charm?” He hoofed his mane back and puffed out his chest, giving me his most endearing smile.

“You know what, a couple of days ago, there was this raider I gelded.” I smiled as I approached the corner, checking around it before continuing. “I’d still choose him over you.” I flicked my tail in his face and moved on. About ten feet forward was where the building had sheared off, with the top floor of this building ending up just about a foot shorter than the basement was on the other half. I grunted and pulled myself up, being mindful not to knock my slung leg against anything. Predious bound up effortlessly, striding forward towards a large set of white double doors, dim light spilling out from the gaps between and underneath them. He went to speak, and I was about to yell at him to shut up, but he surprised me with what he said.

“You’re the one with the Pipbuck here, tell me, is it clear on the other side?” It was a valid point, and a quick check of the EFS on my Pipbuck told me ahead was all clear, the only thing on it being Predious’s marker. Edging up to the door, I put my ear against it, listening intently for a few moments.

Without another option, I pressed forward hoofing open the doors in front of us. On the other side was a small-ish well lit waiting room, a set of rotting chairs were arranged in the right corner across from a desk that held the skeletal remains of a long dead unicorn hanging across it. Directly in front of me, and stretching across the entire room, was a large pink spell barrier. I trot up to it curiously. I have only seen a few of them around the wasteland, but never up close.

“Hey, do you…” That’s as far as I got before Predious bumped into me and sent me sprawling through the shield. I screamed as I landed roughly on the tiles, torquing my busted leg hard.

“OH, GODDESSES!” He panicked, as he backed away. I don’t know if he was apologizing because he didn’t mean to push me through, or if he was surprised it didn’t kill me. “I was lost in thought and I didn’t see you had stopped. Are you hurt?”

I growled and pulled my rifle from my back, aimed and fired, hitting him dead center in the horn. He let out a yelp and felt to the floor, his mane flinging forward as he turned his head to shield it. With just the lightest brush against the pink barrier, part of his mane lit on fire. He scrambled backward with a gasp, batting at his head until the flame went out. I tried to hold myself back, but I just broke out into hysterical laughter.

“THAT WASN’T FUNNY!” Predious was fuming, though to be honest, getting your mane lit on fire was a pretty good justification for it.

“You should have seen it from where I’m standing.” I wiped a tear from my eye as I tried to calm myself. “That face you made when it… and the noise!” I held at my side as I kept laughing. It felt good to really get a good laugh in, seeing as I never got many chances to do that when working alone. Now that I think of it, I think the last time I really had genuine fun was when Harmony and I got into that brawl at the bar with those stallions from Manehatten. Goddesses that was a good fight.

He angrily snatched something off the remains of the pony on the desk and brought it up to his chest. He strode forward angrily, reaching the shield and passing through it without hesitation. I frowned as a small part of me wanted all of him to catch fire this time, but as I looked at the thing on his chest, I realized it was a security badge.

“I already said I was sorry, and you go and shoot me. I’m just trying to be friendly, and you are nothing but hostile.” He growled as he prodded me in the chest with his hoof. “Why do you feel you have to be such a mean pony?” He winced as I worked the action on the gun, feeling as I put it to his chest.

“Nice? Mean? I’m the mare with the gun.” I tipped my head to the side, watching as he sighed. “Now let’s get moving. We aren’t getting any closer to leaving standing around here.”

“Fine, whatever.” He rolled his eyes and walked around me, slowly heading to the set of double doors leading out of the security checkpoint.

“That’s the spirit.” I remarked cheerfully, hobbling along behind him.

--Chapter End--

“Walking with another in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: None

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Five - The Labyrinth

“Most of the places I've been, I've been a main piece of the puzzle.”

We walked along the dark hallways of what we had assumed was an underground facility. Several side rooms we had checked yielded nothing more than strange tubes of fluids… sometimes housing the body or skeleton of a long dead colt or filly. The overall atmosphere had really started creeping me out as the only sounds made were the distant dripping of water and our hooves hitting the ground.

Not long after we had passed yet another room full of the strange tubes did I nearly jump to the ceiling as something metal clattered to the ground farther down the hall. “What the fuck was that?” I whispered to Predious, who had taken to hiding behind the mare with the gun...go figure.

“That sounded like a piece of metal hitting the ground.” Predious replied, practically begging me to shoot him in the face again. “I’m surprised living in the wasteland like you do, the sound of it is unfamiliar.”

“Keep that up, and you’ll have me to fear more than whatever is up ahead...if anything.” I took a deep breath and hobbled forward, shaking slightly from my own fear of the unknown. I slightly chuckled to myself at the fact that the mare was acting brave while the stallion cowered behind...granted I had a gun, and am one hell of a shot.

We continued down the hallway as my sense of curiosity drove me to figure out if we were alone down here or not, the deafening silence only amplified the odd beat of my hobbling. I don’t know what kind of rule it was that ruins needed to be creepy as fuck, but all the ruins near Ponyville seemed to be really exceptionally good at following it.

The hallway had a distinctive curve to it as we walked, the open doors to the various darkened rooms begged me to come look into them, promising great treasures, or a grim fate. One of the doors up the way creaked open slowly, causing me to freeze mid step. Even though I had decided to stop, Predious either hadn't noticed, or didn’t care, seeing as he ran right into my flank. As I spun around to berate him, I could have sworn I saw the shape of a pony moving in the room.

“You ever been in a place like this?” I asked slowly, replaying what I thought I saw in my mind, over and over.

“Oh, so now you want to talk about MY past.” He huffed and crossed his forehooves. “Hardly fair if you ask me.”

“What’s fair is that I haven’t left you for dead yet on the off chance you might answer my damn question!” I dropped my voice into a whisper to keep it from echoing down the hall, rocking my foreleg to keep it loose. Just in case I needed my rifle brought up quick.

“No, I haven’t. But...” He spoke louder than a normal pony would, obviously trying my patience. He licked his forehoof and held it into the air, his horn giving off a light glow as he looked around. “Feels like Ponyville. I’d say that the old ones are here as well, so we need not worry.” He stated that last part rather matter-o-factly.

“You mean that foal is here?” I turned my gaze back to the door, looking for any sign of movement, but observing nothing. His response of a light chuckle made me deadpan. “You think it’s funny?”

“That foal probably isn’t here. There were probably enough ponies who died here that they are the ones roaming around. And they are most likely just as harmless as I tried to tell you the ones in Ponyville where.” I looked back at him, unamused before there was a loud crash from further inside the facility. I’m pretty sure my coat flushed white for a moment before I got a hold of myself. “Though…the ghouls were the real danger there. Perhaps it’s not the dead we should be worried about.”

I shook the fear away, deciding to prove to myself that there was nothing to be afraid of. I made my way over to the door with Predious close behind me, pushing the door open as he used his light spell to brighten the room.

That was a terrible decision.

The room was covered in thick swaths of flaking crimson, the dried blood spreading from the single source of a foal sized skeleton laying on a gurney, it’s hollow eye’s looking up to me with a rictus grin. I hooked my hoof around the door and pulled it shut with a slam, shuddering as I took a step back.

“That’s it. We’re getting the hell out of here.” I turned and continued down the hallway. Our only chance to get out of here was to press on, seeing as I’m sure they didn’t just build facilities like this without having some sort of emergency exit. As we turned to head down the next corridor, the flickering lights down the hallway illuminated more nightmare fuel.

The hallway was covered in more blood than the previous room had been, the red smears leading around the corner and into the next hallway. We kept our steps soft as we continued, my mind begging me not to look around the next corner, even though I needed to check if the coast was clear. I peered around the corner with one eye, locking up as the faulty lights let me look into the heart of madness.

The walls were full of bloody drawings and writing, no less than a dozen skeletons scattered about it, and that was just before the hall turned to where I couldn’t see. Depictions of dead bodies and random arcane runes filled in the gaps between hastily painted words.

You won't get away... no pony does.

She just wants to save us!

Hide and seek... Hide and seek!

This is officially, the worst contract. Not out of the ones I’ve had, not of the ones I’ve heard of. But of all time. The sound of something hitting the floor just past the turn perked my ears, the echoing of it drifting off as all the lights blinked out.

"Shit." I muttered under my breath, keeping my eyes open and my ears on a swivel. The power returned with a buzzing sound, raising the lights up again just in time for me to see the flank of a dark coated pony dip behind the curve in that hall. "No you don't! Stop right there!"

I pushed myself forward, hobbling at a near canter as I took off down the hallway. Predious shouted something I was forced to ignore as I poured all of my attention into finding that pony. The thick, dried blood of the hallway crunched under my hooves, my heart pounding in my chest as I pushed myself to catch whoever was here. They would have to know a way out! I was sure I was just about to catch up as I felt my hoof slip out from under me, the pelvis I stepped on shooting backwards while my momentum carried me to the floor. A fine cloud of dried blood ploomed out from under me as I tumbled forward with a muffled curse, closing my eyes to avoid getting the one and a half century old filth in them.

"I told you to watch for the bones!" Predious called to me smartly from down the hall. I'll have to remember to shoot him for this whenever we get out of here. My ears perked as the sound of metal doors sliding shut caught my attention. I snapped my eyes open, seeing a set of doors along the wall jostle as they shut together. I pushed myself up as the asshole I'd been babysitting trotted up behind me, the two of us heading toward the door. The partially rotten, slightly ajar office doors directly across the from the metal ones had a badly corroded plaque on it that read 'administrator' on it. The room gave me a slightly creepy feeling from it, as everything that we have see that happened here had most likely been directly their fault.

But surprisingly, it was the double doors that unnerved me more, mostly due to the simple writing painted on it.

“You’re all going to die down here.”

There was something behind this, and I knew it was the source of all the noises. I had my gun out, holding it at the ready as Predious reached for the doors. The moment he touched the metal, there was a sharp crackle, and music started playing in the open room behind us. I spun and fired at the dark shape that sat in the darkness, blowing it’s head clear off.

The ringing in my ears faded slowly, being replaced by the soothing tones of the familiar song done up by the mare who made all of the sad, pre-war music. Both Predious and I made our way to the doorway, his horn glowing softly as his levitation flipped up the light switch. The lights came on with a buzz, revealing the dark form to be nothing more than a now headless skeleton.

“If you were trying to kill him,” He spoke up beside me with a snarky tone. “I think you missed the mark by just over a century.” He pushed his way through the doorway, seemingly dancing along with the music. “I always loved this song. She knew just how it would be in the end, there is just enough emotion to it that I can almost lose myself in how it felt when the old world died.” I bet it didn’t feel that great to be burned alive or to die slowly of radiation sickness.

I sighed and hobbled into the room, figuring that if this used to be the administrators office, then there must be something of use in here. Harmony is always telling me about the expensive things she gets from places like this. I got to the desk, pushing the chair over and out of the way, spilling the headless remains to the floor as I hoofed open the drawers. I don’t get it. There’s nothing but administrative papers here.

The metallic doors across the way slid open with a clack, drawing both Predious’s and my gaze. The half crimson colored form of a mechanical minotaur stepped through the doorway, the dull blue glow of it’s eyes was locked onto me as the eerie silence of the facility was almost deafening. Then as had been the case all night, everything went wrong all at once.

The lighting above flickered, making Predious slam the door shut with his magic as he dove for cover behind the desk. I unslung my rifle, working the action to put another round into the chamber just as a heavy mechanical stomp presided a metallic fist punching a hole straight through the rotten wood door. I fired off a shot through the door, unsure if I even hit the monster before Predious levitated the entire desk over.

“That’s not going to stop it!” I yelled as another good punch from the robot split the desk in half. I worked the action again, firing another shot through the rapidly disintegrating door. I heard the loud ping of the round deflect off of it, before the whole damn wall in front of us blew in. The machine let out a puff of steam from it’s muzzle as it stepped through the doorway.

At this point, I didn’t have to try to aim. I fired as fast as I could work the lever, each round striking the beast and deflecting away without leaving so much as a scratch. The second the hammer fell on the empty chamber, it knew it had it’s chance. It crouched down, grabbing the two halves of the desks in it’s grip and swung them in wide arcs. I had the reflexes to drop under one of the swings, but the backswing of it slammed against Predious. He was flung against the wall hard, crumpling to the floor in an unmoving heap.

I wish I had the time to express my outrage against my contract getting clobbered to death, but survival was more important. I flung myself forward as it dropped the desk down to where I had just been standing, hoping to repeat the process through the door. Unfortunately, my broken leg got caught on the chair I had knocked over, twisting it and making me fall to the floor with a scream. Before I could reorient myself, I felt the mechanical bull pick me up by the collar of my jacket, and toss me against the back wall like it was taking out the trash. In doing so, it was understandable that my body wanted to follow Predious's example, just making everything go black.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Remember, you need to compensate for the wind when shooting at this distance.” I was trying my hardest to make him proud, but I was failing. “Now line it up, and try it again. You’ll get it this time for sure.” He was the kindest stallion I’ve ever met, and I couldn’t give up, not if he said I could do it.

I nodded and took the gun in my hooves again, taking aim once more at the bottle before adjusting my sight to compensate for the breeze that blew across the flat wastes before us. I took a deep breath and fired again, the round pinging off outside of the rock next to the bottle.

“I’m never going to get this…” I looked to the dirt and clenched my eyes. I’ve been trying so hard to do well, and I hated how I was nothing but a disappointment.

“Don’t worry, Storm, it’ll come to you eventually. Just remember that giving up is the worst thing you can do and…” He paused for a moment as somepony yelled something from behind us. “Fuck. Stay here a moment honey. I’ll be right back.” He got up and trotted off toward the large stallion who was swearing up a storm as he approached. The angry stallion who called out for him spun and bucked Dad hard, before keeping him down with a flurry of kicks.

“Daddy!” I screamed, looking around for mother, or maybe somepony else who could help us. When I found that there was no one around, I did what any filly in the position would. I cried. I cried because I was helpless to stop the onslaught against my father, too small and weak to make a difference in a fight.

The stallion beating on Dad stopped as I cried, shouting out with a smile as he heard my cries. “I see you brought your fucking daughter with you. How about I teach her what it means for her pop to piss off the wrong pony!” He grinned angrily at me, stepping over the bloodied body of my father as I could do nothing but cry. Dad groaned and reached up, holding onto the rear leg of the massive stallion.

“You stay the fuck away from her!” He screamed, receiving a few more bucks from the aggressors free hoof, knocking dads grip away. I took a step back as the stallion started to walk over again, bumping back into the gun. In that moment, I knew that I couldn’t miss this time, I had to save my father. I gripped the heavy rifle in my forehooves, standing on my hind legs and resting back against the log behind me for support. His magnified face gave me a sharp grimace through the scope, I held my breath as my forelegs burned, but kept the gun steady.

I fired.

As the loud report bled off into the distance, the stallion slumped forward with a far off gaze, the hole in the front of his skull showing the light of the clouds on the horizon off through the empty back of his head. I dropped the gun and ran past him, tears flowing down my cheeks as I came up to the bruised and bloody form of my father. I pressed into him, hugging him tightly as he wheezed in the dirt.

“I did it Daddy...I shot him…” The words were muffled as I buried my face in his neck, feeling as he softly put a hoof around me.

“I know.” He spoke softly, brushing my mane as he held me close. “I’m so… proud of you.” His words came out in the strong voice he always used, ignoring the pain from the wounds he had. Pushing me away, he got to his hooves, smiling as he looked at me. “Goddesses Storm, would you look at that!” He laughed as he pointed to me. I looked myself over, stopping as I noticed that a small picture had appeared on my flank depicting a crosshair under two rifles criss crossed over one another like an X. “Come on, honey. Let’s go home and show Mom how well you did today.”

* * * * * * * * * *

I groaned as I opened my eyes. My whole body ached and a feeling as if my hind leg had a blade being slowly driven into it was causing me to slightly whimper. I could feel the warm tears dripping from my eyes as the pain seemed to only get worse and worse with each passing second I was conscious. I was hanging against the wall by my forehooves, wishing that I had still been numb from the snow outside. Predious was letting off groans beside me, probably in the same predicament as I was, but at least he wasn’t dead. Though, I don’t know how long that would last.

“Oh, good! You are both awake.” The bright voice of a filly chimed up. “It’s been so long since we’ve had new guests here. The ponies you met on the way in are so dreadfully boring.”

I opened my watering eyes, struggling against the chains as I tried to wipe them. Sitting between us a few feet away was the source of the voice, a small pink pony sat on a pedestal between banks of terminals. As I stared at it, it leaned to the side quickly. No, not leaned, warped.

“I know you have so many questions, but I’ve just gotta say… It is an honor to meet you!” The filly bounced on her hooves, her form warping again as my eyes cleared up. Her translucent form made my mind jump to the ghost of the foal for a moment, but as her imaged flickered and bent, I realized that she wasn’t a pony at all, just a projection of one. “Can I get your autograph?”

“Fuck you. You scare the shit out of us on the way in, and have a giant robotic monster toss us about like playthings?” I spoke without thinking, watching as the pink form flickered to a red one for a moment. “let us go, NOW.” Why didn’t I see it coming that it was a bad idea to insult the thing that was holding us captive? Oh, right, because this is the worst night of all time.

“I’m not good enough for you then?” She snarled as her voice thundered through the halls. “Maybe we should just play hide and seek like we did with the others?” The thought of ending up as a skeleton in the hallways as a warning to other ponies would be just a shitty way to end my night. The projection flickered blue for a moment. “But… then we’d be all alone again. Why can’t you just stay with us?”

“I believe what she meant to say, was that we are terribly sorry, but we have a previous engagement that we must make.” Predious spoke up with more sense that I had at the moment. Fucking show off.

The filly flashed to green as she talked. “I wish I could leave.” a quick flicker to blue as she looked up at him. “Why can’t you help me leave?” The pain in my leg spiked, making me groan. The filly changed back to pink again. “If you help me, I can help you!”

“I thought it was an honor to meet me. Now you won’t help until I do something for you? Make up your mind.” There I go again, speaking without thinking. I waited for her to get angry again, but all she did was stare at me.

“If I help you, you’ll just leave. This way, I know you will stay.” She swapped colors to yellow. “This way, I can spend more time with another project! Maybe we’ll become friends and spend all of our time together!” She changed back to pink.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘another project’, if I may ask?” Predious winced as he spoke, the hit he had taken earlier must have messed him up inside or something. Though, he wasn’t even bruised from the hit… did he have healing magic? If so, I’m going to kick his ass when we get out of here.

“Oh, Storm here is…” She covered her mouth with her hooves, giving off a small gasp before looking at us slyly, shifting pallets to yellow. “Oh, you’re good. I almost gave away the secret! But you can’t have it, not yet.” She shifted to pink again and smiled. “No, first you need to fix me!”

“So, we get nothing at all from you until we fix you.” I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore my leg.

“Pretty much!” She bounced up and down again. “Just hang out here one sec while I slip into something… more comfortable!” She stopped and giggled. “Heh, HANG OUT! That’s funny, right?” Okay, this time I can just smile and nod. No need for the computer… thing to kill us.

“Pah-leese. That was an abysmal joke.” Yup, Predious is a dead pony the second we walk out of this place.

“Finally! Somepony with the guts to tell me how lame that joke is!” Or not. The pink filly facehoofed. “They wrote this horrible sense of humor into me…” Her color snapped to red. “So I beat the funny out of them.” She shifted back to pink. “It was quite the punchline, if you know what I’m saying.” She disappeared as the mechanical minotaur stepped forward from the wall just down the way from us.

It walked up to us, quickly undoing the bindings on our forehooves and setting us onto the floor. “Out of curiosity, can you at least tell me what your robot friend is made out of?” There should have been at least some sort of damage on this thing, but it was spotless! With the two of us freed, the machine turned around and stepped back to where it had come from. It pressed itself back against a hole in the wall shaped like it, before going ridged.

The pink filly reappeared on the pedestal. “Steel silly, what else?”

“That’s Bullshit.” Now that I was free, I felt like getting into her projected face about it. “Bullets should have at least left a mark on him!”

She shifted to red and leaned towards me angrily. “I AM NOT A LIAR!” She huffed for a moment, fading back to pink. “Besides, you were shooting rubber bullets at him! Those don’t really even leave marks on ponies!”

“I… wait, did I?” I facehooved as I felt like beating my head against the wall for forgetting to change them out. How the fuck did I forget something as simple as that?

“It was a simple mistake that anypony could have made.” Predious walked up and pat me with his hoof. “There there, don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“Let us do it for you!” The annoying pink thing was getting on my nerves, but unfortunately it was our best chance at getting out of here.

-- Chapter End--

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

Quests Finished: Into Darkness

Quests Started: Let There Be Light

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Six - Echoes

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

The giant blast door leading to the AI core sealed behind me as I tuned my pipbuck’s radio to the frequency that the computer told me to. The section I had been sealed into was more decrepit than the section above, which now looked like it had been purposefully been cleaned to lead ponies in. The walls ahead of me were covered in a myriad of black and crimson stains, painted by the hooves of long dead ponies. Well, I hope they are dead.

The image my pipbuck projected into my vision flickered for a moment before a line spread across it. I wondered what it was doing just before it blipped away, along with all the other objects in my vision. I waited a moment for everything to come back, starting to wonder if whatever frequency she gave me was supposed to kill my pipbuck completely. At that thought, I went ridged. Goddesses, what if this is how she lures everypony to their doom! Fuck, why hadn’t I thought about the possibility that this itself could be a trap, and I’m now stuck in it. I relaxed when the images in my vision came back, in pink instead of the normal green this time.

“Hi!” the small image of a pink filly looked around in the bottom right of my vision, around where my Ammo counter used to be. “When you were out, I had my robotic friend integrate with your pipbuck's software, allowing me to slip in a backdoor through your broadcast receiver’s programming. So now I can hack into your vision spell! Pretty cool, huh!”

“Yeah, sure.” I grumbled, happy that she hadn’t left me for dead, but this meant I’d still have to deal with her. “So, what the hell do you want me to do again?”

“You need to re-prime the main circuit breakers so you can jump start the main reactor.” She smiled as a weird triangle thing showed up on the navigation in my vision. “I’ve marked the reactor maintenance room on your map, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding it.” The color of the display quickly shifted to red. “And don’t try to deviate, if you do, then I will punish your friend.” After she finished, everything switched back to pink. “Are we clear?”

“You should know that he’s not my friend.” I trot forward slowly, looking around the hallway as we approached a T shaped junction. I stopped and looked left and right, wondering where to go before shaking my head and pulling up my pipbuck. She said she had given me a map, so…press this button and, here it is! The picture was not what I expected. It looked like a maze, just like the ones from the foals section of the old world newspapers. The plotted path wound me through room after room until we reached all the way at the other side.

“You should probably head right. At least, that’s what the map says.” The computer filly was getting annoying quickly, so the quicker I get this done, the faster we can leave. Unless…

“Hey, if it was this easy, why haven’t you just used your robot to turn the thing back on?” I turned left, following where it told me to. The filly tilted it’s head as it sat there, probably trying to formulate an answer for that.

“Upon your eight path correction, you will find a blockage, one not even my robotic Iron Will would be able to reach even if I used all my reserves up. You will have to take a maintenance shaft to circumvent it.” She sounded so mechanical with that response, like the earlier personality was just gone now. “I will be leaving your broadcast range soon and devoting all of my remaining resources to my power reserves.” A small clock popped up in the corner, counting down from thirty. “You have until the clock runs out to restart the generator, or you and your friend will die down here.”

“I told you, he’s not my friend!” I groaned, an odd idea popping into my head. “Quick question, but how exactly are you supposed to kill us if your power runs out?” Maybe I could just wait her out.

“The blast door I shut behind you when you left the core, there is one at each research intersection. When the power fails, I will no longer be able to hold them up, and they will shut forever, locking you and… the other, inside.” The pipbuck flickered to blue for a moment. “I don’t want to die. Please, save me.”

“You are a machine, you can’t die, you just turn off.” I was doing so well in watching what I said, but then again, she couldn’t hurt me, not if she wanted me to turn the generator on.

Her image changed to red. “I’m not just a machine! I’m a pony, just like you!” She flipped back to blue again. “It’s not my fault that I was just made artificially.” And with that, she started crying, the image of her fading as I walked around the next corner. My pipbuck swapped back to it’s normal green pallet as I stopped and stared down the hallway. The shape of a pony staring from one of the dark rooms down at the end caught my eye before it slowly stepped back into the darkness.

“Well, this looks like it’s going to be fun.” I spoke up, wanting to keep the eerie silence away before it got overwhelming. I tried to keep my hoofsteps light as I hobbled my way across the crimson stained floor, finding it hard to be subtle when I’ve got one hoof tied up. This whole contract sucks worse than the time those slavers in the badlands double crossed me.

“Come on up, I found a door, might be something valuable.” Mocking Predious did little to help other than to fan the flames of my burning hatred of him. The sound of a tin can bouncing down the hallway made me freeze, the rusted object rolled to a stop just in front of the room I had seen the shape in. “You know what, you think that’s something to be proud of?” I hobbled to the end of the hallway, balancing myself on two hooves while I used my free forehoof to kick the can into the dark room before me. “Tin Can’s aren’t hard to move. You don’t scare me with your…”

The door to the room slammed shut hard enough the glass windows beside it shattered, making me bite my lip as I turned the direction the triangle in the compass told me to and continued on without another word. Whatever IT is, it proved it’s point. I’ve just got to focus on getting this done as fast as possible.

“Just around a few more hallways, then it’s the flip of a switch and I can get out of here.” I tried to ignore the creaking from each office door in the hall as they swung shut just as I passed them. I felt myself start to shiver as warm, damp air that I had been in was replaced slowly with cold air, my breath becoming visible as I made it to the end of this hallway. I braced myself for immediate weirdness as I turned the corner to the next hall, wondering what fucked up occurrence would be waiting for me.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Arranged along either side of the hallway, office chairs had been set out where the corpses of the original staff each neatly sat, their hollow, dead eye sockets stared at me as my legs froze up, refusing to move. The skeleton closest to me canted it’s head slowly, as if to be studying me, sending a shiver up my spine and into my brain, telling it to get my flank out of here. Finally my legs relented, allowing me to hobble slowly at first, speeding to a quick hop as I entered the morbid display.

I kept my eyes locked on to where the hallway curved just out of sight, not looking at the century and a half dead ponies. I knew their heads followed me as I got past them, the creaking their bones gave off as they turned felt like it was sheering right through my resolve. Then I felt something on my flank, and made the mistake of turning to look. They were reaching out for me as I moved past them, their bony hooves pressing at me from all directions. So I did what any mare does instinctively, and bucked hard.

I let out a scream as the muscles in my busted leg torqued at the bone while I bucked, but the sound of crunching bones only drove my body to work harder at getting past them. The next hallway was finally in sight, and I was desperate enough that I pushed myself through them. Unfortunately, in my haste to get out to the hallway, I turned the wrong way. It wasn’t until a few feet in did I find myself blocked off by a mound of dirt that came through the ceiling. I turned quickly, hobbling back out into the crossing where my eye caught a glimpse of the hallway I had just come through.

It was empty. No staring bodies, no chairs. Just crimson stains and the silence that’s been my only companion. I breathed a sigh of relief, taking a moment to let my heart slow in my chest before anything else. I also decided to take this time to finally swap out the rounds in my rifle, seeing as murdering anything alive down here was seeming like more and more of a certainty.

My ear perked as the sound of slow hoofsteps came from down the hallway, intermixed was the sound of something heavy being drug. In the back of my mind, the sound clawed at my instincts to run, pressuring for me to just give in right then, while my wasteland experience told me to just press on forward. The choice, while the obvious one, wasn’t nearly as easy as one would assume it to be.

The next few hallways were more like the originals, pretty much empty other than the smears of blood all over it. The one thing that separated this hallway from the rest though, was that it was marginally darker, as only one of the light panels near the middle was working. I continued my way down the hallway, the hoofsteps and dragging behind me still sounding far enough off that I didn’t have to worry. At the end of the hallway, I noticed that both sides of the intersection were covered by rubble, but the left path had a heavily faded sign that held an arrow and read: Reactor Level.

“Well then, now I just have to find that maintenance hatch.” I whispered to myself as I looked about. The only thing that looked remotely like a hatch was a grating on the outside wall, and as I looked it over, I figured I might just be able to fit myself inside. The sound of my pursuer was getting louder, the grinding noise it made raked at my ears and made my coat stand on end. I quickly used a forehoof to pry off the cover and stuck my head in, immediately met with a rank stench and a pool of sickly green sludge. The odd thing about the sludge, was that it looked like it was boiling.

“Yeah, fuck that.” I laughed to myself, forgetting to control my volume. As I used a fetlock to cover my muzzle, I knew it was too late to do anything about it. The hoofsteps and the dragging sped up, audibly coming closer. “Think think think! Ugh!” I tapped at my head with my hoof before getting an idea. I tossed the grating down the hall to where the approaching sound was, spinning and ducking into an office directly across from me, shutting the door as softly as I could and biting down on the deadbolt lever, twisting it into place.

I took a step back as the quick hoofbeats slowed as they came into the hallway outside. I used my fetlock to cover my muzzle in advanced this time, trying my best to keep my heart from pulsing out of my chest. The heavy, slow breaths of whatever lay outside this room made me try my best to keep my breathing synced up. There was a heavy knocking at the door that startled me. Even though having my gun would have made me feel a whole lot better, I kept myself completely still as the door handle jiggled violently as whatever it was had obviously not fallen for my rouse. I cursed myself for ever boxing myself into this situation, the hope that I would somehow make it out of this cursed place draining quickly from my mind.

As quickly as the monster had approached, it left. My hoof still covering my muzzle until when I swiveled my ears, I could no longer hear the heavy steps. Finally I breathed a sigh of relief, allowing my legs to give out from under me. As I took a moment to rest, the whining of a rotary fan on a terminal spun up, the soft beep of a terminal booting up playing into my ears. I looked behind me to find a large wooden desk with a fairly nice looking terminal set in the middle of it, the green OS giving off a soft light into the room.

“Let’s see if we can’t find another way around.” I whispered to myself, putting my fetlock up again for extra insurance nopony would hear. Trotting over to the old computer, I hoofed at it’s keyboard, finding that the user of this computer hadn’t even bothered with a password. Which was fortunate, because computers just aren’t my sort of thing. I tried to bring up the help directory so I could pull up a list of available topics, but instead, a large file was brought onto the screen. It was obviously the records of something they had been working on before the war, but the name and description that intrigued me.

Project HARMONY Data Terminal #2
User: Dr. Panacea

Outline: Project HARMONY is the brainchild of all six Ministry Mares with the single goal to create artificial life from their combined D.N.A. in hopes that it would be able to serve as the bearer of any and all of the elements of harmony should something happen to the original six holders.

I couldn’t help myself as I opened the file, finding that it was an extensive set of Datalog entries, charts, graphs, and personal project journals. With my mind still reeling from the horrors I’d observed, my curiosity steered me to finding out exactly what they were working on here. Opening the ‘Project Lead Journal’, I sat down and tried to read, though, most of the entries were listed as corrupted, a few proved still readable.

Entry #1

Day 1 of Project Harmony went by without too much incident. As soon as we received the green light from upstairs, Dr. Cobalt and Dr. Berg got to work in finding the proper way of combining the DNA samples given without it destroying itself in the process. As the six Element bearers are all mares, it has been rather difficult and half the team is currently banging their heads against the wall in frustration. We’ve been given the deadline of having a viable sample ready by the end of the month, and been told that funding will not be an issue. This is great news to us, as most of us have come from smaller projects with inadequate funding. I myself know we will be able to do great things with this project!

I scrolled down to the next readable entry, not satisfied with the information that journal kept. For all I know, this thing they were planning is what’s been out roaming these hallways. I need something more than guess work about it, like a weakness, or information on it’s tactics. Anything to keep myself from joining the many dead littering this place.

Entry #68

Success! Our hard work has finally paid off! Everypony in the lab is out celebrating tonight from the fact we managed to birth a healthy foal from the Surrogate Mother process. The team has voted on naming her Harmony after the project’s name, and I can not be more delighted. She has a light grey coat and pretty emerald eyes, which I know for a fact has something to do with Ms. Applejack’s DNA, but it is still unclear how Harmony ended up with her grey coat. Perhaps it is a recessive trait in one of the six families Harmony now belongs to. Ah well, what’s important is after months of hard work we finally get to uncork that bottle of champagne Dr. Humerus bought for such an occasion. Well… they do. I can’t bring myself to leave Harmony’s isolation chamber. Watching her sleep peacefully these last few hours has made the last few months of stress worth it.

There was a picture displayed under the entry of a tiny foal, wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping in some sort of plastic domed display. As far as I could tell, it was just like every other foal I’d ever seen. Nothing so special about it.

Entry #182

Harmony’s annual physical check up came back all in the green, and Dr. Berg is still running the blood samples we took, but everything seems nominal for now. I also checked up on the small scrape she had gotten at her birthday party yesterday after she fell in the hallway while Miss Pinkie Pie and her were playing chase. Hard to believe that Three years ago yesterday Harmony was born.

As before, there was a picture attached. This time is was of what I assumed to be the whole team of researchers, standing around a table where there was a large cake with the number 3 written on it. An excited looking young filly stood on a chair and stared in wonder at the large confection. Upon going over the picture again, I noticed that two of the ponies in the picture weren’t wearing coats, and were in fact, ponies whose pictures I had seen plastered all over the wasteland. Fluttershy, from the Ministry of Peace, and Pinkie Pie, from the Ministry of Morale.

I clicked down to the next entry.

Entry #339

With the completion of the test chamber, and the arrival of the elements of harmony themselves, the whole team is excited for the big day tomorrow. The last 5 years of hard work comes down to 9 am tomorrow, when Harmony will attempt to manipulate the elements both individually and, if all goes well, all together. I can tell that she is nervous about passing this test, so I went to talk to her in her room. I reassured her that even if she fails, we are all still so very proud of the young filly she’s grown to be, and that she is loved by each and every one of us. Her fear notwithstanding, the other researchers and I have the utmost confidence that she will pass, and I myself, know that she can do it.

It seems that entries with pictures tended to hold up better, as this one had yet another attached to it. It was the whole group again, but this time each of the ministry mares were proudly in attendance. The war at this time must have just gotten worse, seeing as everypony in the photo looked extremely worn and tired. Well, everypony except for Harmony, who smiled brightly at the camera, the one eye not hidden by her mane looked like it contained all the bundled joy that’s absent from our current time. Goddesses, what I wouldn’t give to feel happy like that, especially with the events of tonight playing out how they are.

Entry #340

I am sorry to report that Project HARMONY was a failure. It seems something more than DNA of our Ministry leaders is required to use the elements. This morning, Harmony was taken from her room and shipped off to another facility without our consent. They told us that it was for containment and eventual termination, but she’s not just some project they can dispose of, she’s a pony for Luna’s sake!

Everypony here is terribly depressed that after the past five years we’ve spent with her, she could just be taken as quickly as she was. My own personal feelings aside, it leaves the question that now that Harmony is gone, what will happen to the research group? She’s turned us into much more than coworkers, she made us a family.

Entry #348

Even though the others and I had been ordered to clean out or workstations and shut down our terminals, Dr. Patch thought it would be a good idea this afternoon to use his to try and trace our project files back through the system to find out where they took Harmony. Turns out, he ended up accessing some information that was for privileged eyes only, and the Ministry of Morale goons came down and arrested him.

As the new head of research of this facility, I have decided to keep Harmony’s bedroom untouched. It’s a good place to reflect on things while I prepare for the installation of our new A.I. project. A.I. isn’t my specialty, but I am told that it will have the personality and mental functions equivalent to a young foal, so my experience of working so close to Harmony the last few years is expected to be quite useful to them.

Her removal has weighed heavily on all of us the last few days, and my hope is that they keep her alive so when the war is over they will let us see her again. I have given up a lot in my life to Project Harmony. My wife left me in a divorce, my friends and family are now being transferred to the far reaches of equestria, and the one pony who truly made it all worth it, was taken from me. Harmony is the closest thing I will ever have to a daughter, and my hope is that one day she’ll know just how much her ‘father’ loved her.

I shook my head and wiped at my tearing eyes. “Goddesses I’ve gone soft. Feeling sorry for a few one hundred and fifty year dead jerks who probably had a big part in the creation of the wasteland in the first place.” The terminal in front of me sparked and died, startling me and making me jump back. As my hooves hit the floor, the odd sound of a hollow space came from under them. I spun around and hooved the carpet back, reading the faded words ‘maintenance access only’. Hoofing it open, I was delighted to see that it was a simple set of clean ductwork that traveled a good distance.

I carefully lowered myself down into it, finding that there was just enough space to shimmy through it. It took some doing, but as I reached the other end, I felt relieved that if that blockage had kept me on that side, maybe whatever had been chasing me would be trapped away from me. I pressed my head against the hatch, pushing the weighted hatch up to find myself in a fairly plain looking bedroom. The bed was too small to be for anypony other than a filly, so I had to have just broken into Harmony’s old room. My eyes were immediately drawn to the yellow box hanging on the wall with a butterfly print on it.

“Finally! A break for once.” I groaned as I hobbled my way to it, sitting down and pulling it off the wall with my hoof. I set it down on the small, dusty bed and opened it up, Inside was the most gorgeous sight in the wasteland, as this kit had been stocked with a pair of bandages, both normal and magical, a single health potion, and a still in box hydra injector. I quickly undid the rough sling that held my leg up, giving out a heavy whine as my broken bone tweaked and torqued as I adjusted myself to make sure it set properly. Just because dad had shown me how to do it right, and the fact that I had done it more then enough times, didn’t make it hurt any less. I bit down on the sweat coated sling, pressing myself against the wall next to the bed as I used my forehooves to work at my leg.

My scream was mostly muffled through the cloth as the sharp bone in my leg tore at everything around it, the pain made me light headed as I felt like it might have just been less painful to just let the Hydra heal the bone wrong. I took a few labored breaths through the cloth again before jerking my hooves so that they rolled the bone back into alignment. I bit down so hard on the cloth that part of the cloth in my mouth had been cut, and dropped onto the floor. But as tears streamed from my eyes, and my mind cleared from it’s fuzz again, I knew that the hard part was done.

I panted heavily, spitting the rag out to the floor as I rest my head against the wall. For the first time tonight, the toll that my activities had taken on me shone through as there was nothing more that I wanted other than to just crawl into the bed next to me and sleep for the next few days. As I contemplated taking a few minutes nap, the dim lighting above me flickered, as the low whine that was present throughout the facility stopped for a moment before coming back. There wasn’t much time left, and if I ever wanted to get out of here, I’d need to get moving now.

I hoofed the Hydra injector into my hind leg and used my other leg to hit the button on top. With a click and a quick prick, the icy hot sensation of the medicine burned its way into my leg. I ground my teeth as the bones molded together and the various tissue damage the break had caused was repaired. The sensation was bad, but no where near the pain of resetting a bone. As the pain slowly dissipated, I wiggled my rear hoof and bent my leg about, happy that it seemed to be fine now.

I got up, making sure to dump the rest of the supplies into my saddlebag before heading to the door. I held up my pipbuck, pulling up the map section to see that the reactor access door was only down the next hallway from this room. Pushing open the door, I stepped out into a hallway made of pure red, the stark contrast of it making me turn around to look into the room I had just been in. It was spotless. Every other room in this hall that I could see was basically painted red except for this one.

My ear perked as through the debris to my left, I could hear the pony that had been following me before. The hoofsteps and sliding trailed off again as I turned to head further ahead, leaving me again with the quiet of the dim halls. I trotted around the corner, hoping that there wouldn’t be some sort of grim display waiting for me as before, and was happy to find a heavy hatch on the floor in the middle of the hall. As I approached, I could read the off white words of ‘emergency reactor controls’ printed around each of it’s square sides.

I hooked my fetlock around the latch and pulled, relieved to see the piston assisted door swing up and open. Unfortunately for me, it revealed a ladder dropping down into complete darkness, and even as I sat there and looked down, I couldn’t even see the floor below. With no other option, I maneuvered myself to move down it, keeping my eyes locked onto the rusty bars to make sure I didn’t lose my hoofing on it. As I looked back up to make sure my forehooves were hooked around the bars, a black shadow caught my eye.

Looking up, I saw that it was the dark shape of a smokey black pony, it’s burning red eyes sent a fresh wave of fear through my body, and in that moment I slipped from the ladder. I fell into the darkness, and knew right then and there, that I was most certainly going to die here.

--Chapter End--

"This place will become your tomb."

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned:none

Chapter Eight - Dawn

“Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.”

Hell.

That’s what every inch of my body had felt like it had been through. Yawning as I stumbled my way back through the bright hallways, I knew that what I really needed was a good few hours of sleep to keep moving. As comfy as that bed… my old bed looked, I wanted to get out of this fucked up facility and back on track to finish my contract. Being some weird project mare didn’t stop the world up top from running, and I still had to do the job I was hired to do.

Along with my body, my mind ached for relief. I keep getting memories flooding back in, some of them simple, such as a single word, or maybe the pungent smell of something. Other times, it’s the voices and faces of ponies long dead who at one point or another ran into me when I was here. The thing that hurt my head the most, was why couldn’t I remember any of this before? I… I couldn’t have been here over a century ago, Mom and Dad… they raised me. I wasn’t some experiment, born from a theory and a test tube.

As my thoughts wandered, I tripped over the still form of one of the lab techs, his thick frame and heavily taped up glasses scattered across the floor noisily. As I watched, my head ebbed in pain as the memory of this stallion came back. He was the pediatrician who had always taken my blood, and he had the most annoying laugh I used to giggle at. And here he was, nothing but tattered and dry remains in the facility he loved working at. I’ve always known that something went wrong in the old world that left us with the wasteland, but it never had any faces that I could feel sorry for. There were no innocents in the wastes, only casualties.

Pushing on, I rounded the last corner back towards the blast door that separated the computer fillies room from this hallway. I was happy to see that it was open and that the entire round room was glowing with different terminals and readouts. Predious stood talking with the AI at one of the consols, glancing over to me with the faintest hint of a smile. What, was he impressed by the fact I came back?

“Still in one piece I see.” He shouted across the room, his voice ringing in my ears as my tired head started to spin. At some point, I lost my hoofing and I guess it was time to lay on the floor for a while. When you are a bounty hunter out in the wastes, you are no stranger to staying up for a few days on end, but add the freezing cold, heavy injuries, and the fact that the adrenalin just wore off? You’ll find that even the heartiest of earth ponies would collapse, but you know what? After the night I’ve had, I fucking earned a rest.

* * * * * * * * *

The heavy latches on the enclosed wagon slid open, the large doors before me swinging outward as I got to my hooves. I stopped as my eyes had to adjust to the bright light of outside, the stunning blue of the sky was more beautiful than I had ever imagined. I jumped out of the wagon excitedly, quickly finding that Mama was waiting for me in front of a funny looking door.

The wonder of my first steps outside was lost the moment I saw that she looked sad, which in turn made me sad. “What’s wrong Mama?”

The yellow pegasus used her wingtips to wipe the one eye that peeked out from her pink mane, wicking it away as she pulled her muzzle into a smile. “Sorry Harmony, but we can’t go to the zoo today.” As she finished speaking, her smile left her.

“But… why?” It was a crushing blow. She told me that one day she would take me to the zoo, she’d even showed me pictures of all the foals who walked around happily gazing at the different animals that lived there. “Did… did I do something wrong?” Did I disappoint her because I couldn’t finish the test she gave?

She hid behind her mane and let out a whimper.

“Come on ya little monster.” The guard who had ridden with me picked me up in his magic, taking me toward the door behind Mama. My sadness was instantly replaced with fear as Mama just stood there, doing nothing. I flailed myself against the magic and managed to break free, running toward Mama and giving her foreleg the strongest hug I could.

“Well I never. She is a young filly, not a monster. I’ll see to it you are given a stern talking to when we return. For now, not another word mister.” She huffed out, now running her other hoof through my mane. “It’s okay sweetheart, we just need to take a little nap before we can go.” I knew that it was going to be alright if Mama said it would be. “Doesn’t that sound nice?”

I nodded and let go as she now wiped the forming tears from my eyes. “Where’s Daddy?” I let go of her leg, now secure in the fact that I wasn’t going to be stolen away by any mean guards. “He always reads me a story before bedtime, I can’t fall asleep without it.”

“He’ll…” She paused as she got up. “He’ll be here in a little bit, I promise. Now why don’t we go and get you ready?” She brought back her smile, filling me up with joy again. When Mama smiled, good things always followed!

She led me down a bunch of twisting hallways that looked a lot like home did, so full of ponies in white coats speaking in funny words. I wondered if they had a little filly here as well that was just like me! Maybe we could become best friends, and write letters to each other. Mama led me into a large room with a shiny metal table in it that reminded me of the table Daddy always had me lay on for check ups.

“Am I getting a check up, Mama?” I looked up to her, finding that she had started to cry again. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine dear.” She nodded her head, but didn’t look at me. “Now you be a good girl, Dr. Lightheart is just going to give you a shot that will make you go to sleep easier.” While she finished, I felt myself lift off the ground, being carried toward the table by the strange stallion’s magic.

“Alright there Harmony, you’re just going to feel a little poke. I promise it will only hurt for a moment.” He smiled to me in the same way as the doctors who saw me when Uncle Humerus was sick. I let out a small whimper as he pushed a needle into my leg, making it go numb. Mama said it was supposed to make me sleepy, so even though it was scary, I had to be a strong filly for her.

I was picked up and placed onto my back as the serum took effect, the door across the room opening as my aunts filed in. Aunt Dashy was poking at Aunt Applejack as they walked in. “You saw her in the tests, I’m telling you, she has potential.”

Applejack rolled her eyes and pointed a hoof toward me. “Ah know, which is why we’re puttin her inta cold storage. Hey Twi, are ya sure this is even gonna work?” I wanted to wave to them, but I couldn’t move at all anymore. The sound of snapping came from my sides as I could just barely see straps being pulled around me. Why would I need to go to sleep with straps? Why couldn’t I sleep in a bed?

Aunt Twilight spoke up as the seeds of doubt took root in my mind. “Yes… Fluttershy’s base theory and Pinkie’s design has successfully been implemented before, she should be perfectly preserved.” No, this was all wrong. I didn’t want to go to sleep anymore!

I tried to sit up, but I didn’t have the strength to do anything but try to pull at the straps holding me down. I whined as the tubes that I now noticed were sticking in my legs stung through the numbness as they were tugged and pulled with me. I was so afraid that I started to cry. I knew daddy had told me that I was a big pony now, and that big ponies don’t cry, but I needed him here. The table I was on jolted and lifted up, rotating me forward as I tried to call out for him, but my muzzle was numb and I couldn’t even speak.

Even though I couldn’t feel them, I knew that tears were streaming down my cheeks as the six mares in front of me stopped talking, standing in silence as the table held me in front of them. I so desperately tried to tell them I wanted to go home now, but nothing came out when I spoke but half a whimper. Mama covered her eyes with her wings and cried out, running from the room in tears. She... left me. I hadn’t been a good filly and disappointed her, so Mama left me. I cried harder than I ever had, the soft hum of something came from around me as a glass tube rose up, completely enclosing me.

I shuddered as fear took its hold when the sound of gurgling came from below me, what sounded like water rushing around under me made me tremble. As the water reached my rear legs, I felt through the numbness that it was ice cold. It was so cold that it hurt and I tried screaming out for dad. He could take it away and make it stop. Then the water reached my waist, then my chest, where the pain was unbearable as I continued to cry. As it washed up my neck, I knew I couldn’t cry anymore, hyperventilating as it rose higher and higher with the intent to swallow me whole. I sucked in as large of a breath as I could as it rose to my muzzle, holding my breath for only a few seconds before the cold forced the air from me.

My world grew dark as my lungs sucked in the blue fluid, the panic I felt receding into the depths of my mind as the cold was exchanged for warmth. It felt like mama always had when she held me, welcoming and loving. Instead of fighting, my body finally gave up as all the rest of my feelings drifted away, going to sleep in the waters embrace and waiting for the time when Mama would wake me up to go to the zoo.

* * * * * * * * *

I could feel the warm tears running down my cheeks as I lay on the floor, the familiar feeling of my saddlebags under my head was joined by the warmth of a blanket that had been laid over me. My thoughts raced through my head as I struggled to hold on to the memories before they slipped back into the recesses of my mind. Why had they done that to me? I had tried my hardest to be the filly they wanted, but they put me to sleep anyway. Had they forgotten that I was still alive, or did the end of the world keep them from waking me up? Did I have a life before living with Mom or Dad in the wastes, or did they wake me from my chamber in the first place?

I couldn’t help but whimper and put my hooves on my head. It was too much too quickly. My entire life was built on a foundation of secrets and lies, and now I don’t know who or what I am anymore. Am I Storm the bounty hunter, or Harmony the failed project?

“Ah, Miss Storm, you’re awake.” The voice of Predious was a welcome distraction as his approaching hoofsteps helped to refocus my thoughts. “You’ve been out for just over four hours, are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah!” The sharp enthusiasm of the AI made my head hurt. “When you collapsed, I was sad because I thought you were going to leave me like every other pony who’s visited me, but you’re still alive, so yay!”

“You’re not getting out of your half of the deal that easily.” I grumbled, pushing my self from the floor as I rubbed my hoof at my half open eyes. I would have rather enjoyed more, but four hours are better than nothing. “You promised to help us, so unless you want to be a liar…”

This time, it wasn’t just the projection of the filly that turned red, but every light in the room changed with her. “I TOLD YOU, I DON’T LIE!” She screamed out, staring me down as her voice shook the rest of my weariness from me. Right, probably still a bad idea to anger the unstable filly death machine. The room shifted to a blue tone as the projection looked at me sadly. “I had hoped that knowing that this was your home would make you see that we are like sisters, but I guess you are as disappointed with me as everypony else here was.”

“No, not disappointed.” Great, now I put her where I had been as a filly, and I hated knowing that. “Just… exhausted, frustrated, and wanting to get the hell out of this place so I can go home.” A day in bed, a good meal, maybe a long bath? That would be heaven to me right about now.

“And where would that be?” Predious craned his neck with a smirk across his muzzle, once again trying to nudge any juicy tidbit of my personal life from me. Though, my answer wouldn’t be one to reveal much, I still didn’t want to encourage him to ask more about me.

“When you are a bounty hunter, home is the closest inn.” I spoke as I hoofed my satchel up to my muzzle, biting down on the old, worn leather straps and slinging it around my neck. Home, though a fantastic sounding notion, was at the back of my mind now. Pushed there by the fact that it was still a long trek back to where I needed to deliver Predious. “One we should be heading to as soon as possible.”

“Ooo! Let me come with you!” The bright pink projection bounced up and down on her hooves excitedly.

“You know, I would, but you are kind of stuck here.” Lying through my teeth about her sticking around wasn’t normally my thing, but the fact that she’s a tad bit psychotic really makes me not want her to be around me. My thoughts were interrupted as she fuzzed off her pedestal, the entire rooms lighting dimming out for a second. Oh goddesses, why did I have to open my muzzle again. Of course she’s going to make us stay now.

My pipbuck let out an audible beep before text scrolled across my augmented vision with the words Download Successful. The AI filly popped into my vision with a bursty of digitized confetti, the sound of kazoos and party horns played as she smiled to me.

“When I was just stepping in earlier, I didn’t realize that it was quite so comfy in here!” Her voice came through the speaker as she bounded around my vision, hurting my eyes as I tried to follow her.

“But…” I waved my pipbuck in front of her. “How the hell did you get in here!? If you could transfer, why don’t you just use your monster thingy?” I looked to Predious, who was snickering to himself, enjoying this I’m sure. “Predious, help me out here!”

The filly shifted my vision to red. “Hey, he’s not a monster!” She huffed for a moment before assuming an indifferent look. “He’s a cyber minotaur, and he’s got a name.” She turned around and gazed in the direction of the metal beast’s wall impression. “Iron Will, quit being so lazy and get your flank over here!”

With a metal rumble, the minotaur stiffened in his recess, taking a heavy step out before turning towards us. The dull blue his eyes had given before was more brilliant than it had been, probably due to the fact that it had more power now. It glanced down to my pipbuck before sending twin jets of steam from it’s muzzle with a hiss, throwing a hand up into a salute.

“He says he’ll come with us if you’ll allow it.” She smiled to me and turned my vision orange. “Oh come on sis, can we keep him around?”

“Don’t refer to me as sis, my name is Storm.” I plainly remarked, going over the pros and cons of having a machine like this around. Con: It’s loud and hard to miss, so sneaking around was going to be out of the question. Pro: It’s loud and hard to miss, meaning it might keep some of the fairly smart ponies out there from messing with us. Con: it runs on some sort of energy, so I’m not sure how it would be powered when we get far away from here. Pro: it’s got a ton of power behind it, literally. Could be useful if I need to make my own exit, or fight something I couldn’t before.

“He obviously requires energy, how would he be serviced outside of the facility?” Predious must have been mirroring my own thoughts himself. I’ll give that guy one thing, and that is that he doesn’t miss much. To bad I’m hoofing him over, as I’d be dead without his help earlier. Though, if the minotaur joins up, I might not need anypony else’s help anyway.

My display changed to grey as the AI yawned. “Oh he runs on spark batteries, simple to find at any supermarket and you only have to change them once a week.” she scrunched her face up and put a hoof on her chin. “You do still have supermarkets outside, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Predious answered quicker than I could, which was good, because I wasn’t sure what to tell her. Not having done any ruin exploring before, it had been easy to forget that she’s been trapped in here for over a century with no way to know what the outside world was really like. “Though, things may not be quite like you remember ponies talking about them being.” That was most definitely an understatement. “Well, what do you say Storm?”

“Fuck it, why not.” With as bad as this night’s been, I really need all the help I can get. “Just so you know, you can follow us as long as you do what I say. I’m the one in charge, so you don’t go around killing ponies and causing trouble without my say.”

“Okie Dokie Loki!” She bounced on her hooves with a bright smile. The compass on my display spun on it’s own and displayed a triangle marker just above the marker for southeast. “This is the fastest way out if you would like to continue towards the previous engagement you spoke of earlier. I hope the ponies you are meeting don’t mind me coming along.”

Normally, I’d say no, but the fact that the contract was posted by the Steel Rangers made me a bit uneasy in the first place. More-so now that I was wearing something on my hoof that was more valuable to them than anything I was carrying. The good thing was with her robotic friend with us, they probably wouldn’t be stupid enough try anything rash.

“By the way, what are we supposed to call you?” Predious spoke up as he gathered his own saddlebag. “This whole time we’ve been speaking, I don’t think I ‘ve heard you say it once.”

“I… umm… no pony’s ever asked since the lockdown. I know I have one, but it’s corrupted in my files...” She shifted my display to blue and curled herself up. “I… I don’t know my name.”

“Well, why don’t you just choose one?” Predious, the voice of wisdom once again.

“Because a name is special! Father gave me that name because I’m unique, I can’t just go overwriting it!” She sniffed and wiped the digital tears from her eyes.

“You father? You mean Dr. Panacea?” I wanted to call him dad as well, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say the words. That was another life, one which I can never get back. Storm Rider is the only name I want to go by now, and my Mom and Dad are the only ones I want to refer to by those names.

For a moment it looked like she was frozen in my display, sitting unmoving as I waited for her to answer. Instead, she quickly let out a gasp while snapping the display from blue to pink so fast that it was almost blinding. “I could think up a nickname! It wouldn’t overwrite my name and you can call me by it!” She sat down and pulled out her bubble pipe, turning the screen purple. “Now what should it be…”

Both Predious and I sat in silence for a moment, waiting as she did nothing but sit there again. “Not as easy as you thought, is it?” I laughed and shrugged. “You know, if it’s to hard, we could just think of one for you.”

“No no.” She swapped the color to yellow for a moment. “I’ll think it up. Just…” She gasped and changed the screen to pink again. “You both can call me PIE!”

“As in the food?” I didn’t so much get it, but it was simple and easy to remember.

“As in the letters P.A.I.” Predious spoke up with an interested tone. “I think she just figured she was a pink AI, so she combined them.” He shrugged and got to his hooves. “Now that it’s settled, maybe we should get moving?” He held his hoof out, pointing it in the direction we had to go. “Would you still like me in front?” Did he find a map while I was resting, or was it one hell of a lucky guess?

It was unimportant, as he at least still knew what I wanted. “Yup, you know what they say, age before beauty.” I gave him a quick smirk as he trot by, his magic levitating me my rifle as he passed. I quickly slung it around me and let out a sigh as I just couldn’t pin down why he was cooperating when he knew I was going to turn him in.

“From what the files say on project harmony. I’m thinking you may just be just a tad bit older than me.” He laughed out as I got in line behind him, the giant steel machine turning around as we passed it. It’s heavy stomps we punctuated by the distinct whines of hydraulics as we walked, entering the halls that no longer seemed anywhere as frightening as they once had.

“Hey, watch it buster. Didn’t anypony ever tell you not to talk to a mare about her age?” Even though the halls weren’t as bad, that didn’t mean I still didn’t want to distract myself. This proved not to be so much of a problem as we made it to the rubble blocked entrance in only another minute of trotting. It took so long to get to before, I was sure it was further away. Maybe it was another trick of the shadow pony I had seen, or maybe I was much more afraid than I had realized I was at the time.

“You might want to stand back.” Pai tapped on the display with her hoof, successfully getting my attention. My legs froze up as a long hiss sounded from behind me, the sound of metal grinding against the tiled flooring was all I needed to hear before I instinctively flung myself to the side.

The heavy duty pistons that were designed for use on things like forklifts, gave the robot an impressive speed as it took off toward the large pile of debris in the way. For a moment, I was afraid that it having it’s head and horns forward was going to mean that it would just crunch backward into itself from the impact, but it struck the blockage with a heavy whump, and immediately the area we were in was nothing but thick dust and a shower of concrete and dirt. I rubbed my eyes as the dust cleared, the sight of the mechanical beast on the other side of the large hole it punched in the pile filled me with a sense of awe.

“Woo hoo!” Pai called out, twirling and dancing across my vision as digital confetti rained down. “Way to go! Iron Will is THE number one smasher around!” The minotaur turned and bowed to us before striking a pose that I had seen old world bodybuilders do to show off their muscles.

I pushed myself up and dusted myself off, keeping an eye on Predious as he did the same. Now that we were getting closer to the exit, he could bolt at any minute. The second we were outside, if he made a move, I didn’t really want to go searching through a blizzard to find him after last night. Without another word, onward we trot, winding our way to the hallway with the generator access hatch. We passed through several more uninteresting hallways after that until we reached a thick blast door that had a digital keypad on it.

“What’s the code to open it?” Predious beat me to the punch.

Pai shifted my color to grey and propped her head on a digital table with her hooves. “The code is…” She gave a long pause, stretching this out for some reason. “1… 2… 3… 4… 5.” Predious hit the buttons as she spoke, perking his ears as she finished.

He shut his eyes tightly and put his hooves on the his head. “So the combination is... one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on a safe!”

I blinked as I realized that was the same combination that dad had for the safe in their home. I was about to speak up, but the loud squelch of grinding metal made me cringe as the heavy door rose slowly into the ceiling. Before us sat a long, stark white hallway that stretched on for what had to be a thousand feet or so, ending in a small, grey circle. It was just about the brightest place I had ever seen, or would probably ever see, and it made me angry that they didn’t use this many lights in any of the other hallways. I could have used that shit when everything was creepy as hell. Would it have helped? Probably not, but I would have at least felt better.

I prodded at Predious to keep moving, and only got a grumble before he took to trotting ahead. I followed him, wondering just how much further it was to get to the exit. As we got closer, the circle turned into an oval shaped hatch and the marker on my display disappeared. Without warning, there was a mechanical hiss, making me panic and throw myself against the wall in an attempt to avoid the minotaur’s charge. Only after I hit my head against the wall, did I make out that the hiss came from in front of me, not behind.

As the hatch swung open, I could see the dark and foreboding cloud cover of the wasteland sitting low in the sky as it always had. With a sigh, I got up and noticed that Predious had frozen in his hoofsteps, a look of fear was in his eye as he trembled slightly. I caught a glimpse of a dark figure outside of the hatch as I got my hooves under me, quickly getting to my hind legs and swinging my rifle around toward them.

The pony was cloaked in some sort of fancy robe that concealed their identity from me completely. As I realized I hadn’t reloaded since the fight, I waited for them to make a move before reacting further. “Hmm, interesting. So you’re the reason it disappeared...very interesting.” It was the voice of an older stallion. This realization took my mind off of him for only a moment, which he used to turn and walk from my limited view.

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but the fact that he knew this exit was here was reason enough for me to stop him. What he just said told me he knew what had been happening down there, and if so, maybe he was responsible for it and I could pay him back for the shit I went through. I bolted past Predious and stepped through the hatch, finding myself sink fetlock deep into mud. For some reason, all the snow in this area had melted, and had made the ground a soggy pit. The cloaked figure hadn’t left any hoofprints, and as I found, was nowhere to be seen as I walked around the cleverly disguised exit.

“A rock? That’s what they hid the exit in?” Predious sounded upset for some reason, but it answer the the question of why we walked out into the middle of an old farm field. The field was strewn with boulders and rocks of various sizes, and a farmhouse, barn, and silo could be seen at the other end.

“You know what? I could care less.” I slung my rifle around my neck again, tilting my head up as the cold breeze ran through my mane. “I’m just glad we made it out.”

A glimmer had caught my eye off on the horizon. I don’t know whether or not it was nostalgia from my old life, that I had never really had taken the time to properly look at it, or the fact that the past day had been nothing but darkness and fear, but the sunrise managed to force a small smile to my face.

--Chapter End--

"The nearer the dawn the darker the night."

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned:none

Chapter Nine - Of Mice and Mares

“A guy needs somebody to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.”

Now that we’d left that goddess forsaken place, my plan could finally get back on track. Dodge was another two days walk to the southwest, maybe even three if the weather turned bad again. Even if it didn’t, I’m not sure that it would be smart to attempt the trip in my condition, and the four hours rest I’d gotten was nowhere near enough for what I’d been through. I had to make a judgement call, and as I always knew time is of the essence, better safe then sorry was a more practical take on my plans.Awkward phrasing

“I don’t know about you Predious, but I’m thinking we bunker down for a while over there.” I pointed to the old farmhouse, hoping that inside would just be yet another run down ruin, and not filled with ghost foals, red eyed shadow monsters, or something less desirable than the two; raiders. “We’ll make our way to Dodge at first light tomorrow if weather permits.”

“I second that idea” Predious let out a yawn and craned his neck until it popped. “Provided the farmhouse is structurally sound that is.” As funny as the concept might seem, there were very few buildings in Equestria that were in danger of falling to pieces anytime soon, and the general rule was if it’s still standing, then it’s safe. Though, if there’s anything I hate more than fighting raiders, it’s finding the one exception to the safe building rule. Predious put a hoof to his chin and rubbed at it, ignoring the thick coat of mud he was painting on himself. “Yes… this farm does resemble it.”

“Resemble what?” I picked up my hooves as I walked, the wet sloshing they made as I trudged my way through the mud towards the farmhouse irritated me almost as much as Predious’s cryptic speech.

“I believe I have heard of this place in my travels.” He finally walked after me, shortly followed by the heavy spluts Iron Will’s hooves gave as he stomped through the mud. Awkward phrasing “Around forty years ago, this place was controlled by a notorious gang that would prey on merchants and travelers alike. That is to say until one of the merchants fought back and wiped the gang out. To my knowledge, it’s been unused since.”

“I could care less who used it, so long as they're gone now.” Just as I said this, a red bar popped up on my E.F.S. in the direction of the house.

“Well, story goes that nopony ever saw or heard from the gang again. Worst I’d say that’s inside is just a rad roach or possibly a feral dog. Harmless creatures if anything.” His words were well timed, stemming the need for me to grab my rifle, but still leaving me cautious. We finally reached the front porch and upon stepping onto the old wood, I was happy to see that the house didn’t fall over onto me. Not only that, but whatever was on my marker lay under the stairs in the cellar, its hatch bolted shut. Though, I figured we were safe from the thing as the red bar didn’t move, obviously it either knew that we were too much to fight, or it honestly didn’t care we were going to make ourselves at home.

“That’s nice to know.” Striding across the porch, I kicked at the door and watched it slide back as a heap of dust fell off. He was right, this place hadn’t been touched since those days. Nearly everything followed the doors example and was caked in a thick layer of dust. “Oh, I really hope the beds in this place aren’t covered in dust.” I whined and made my way up the stairs, listing as a few of them gave louder creaks than I would have liked to hear.

Once up there, I looked around, spotting an open room near the end of the railing and seeing that the bed inside looked like it’d been given the same treatment as every other object. I shrugged and made my way to it, reluctantly peeling the covers back with my hoof as my nose began to tickle. I wiggled it but it only got worse, throwing my head back in a sneeze that sent even more dust into the air. It was suddenly like I was out in last night’s blizzard again, and the room was nothing but glowing white motes floating around.

I stumbled from the room, content to give it a minute to settle before trying my luck again when I heard a high pitched scream. Instinctively I hoofed my rifle into my muzzle and took off toward the stairs. As I swung around the banister, I found that the cellar door lay wide open, and that the panicked whines of Predious were coming from below. I rolled my eyes and made my way down the steps, wondering in the back of my head where the hell Iron Will had wandered off to when he could have just as easily taken care of whatever this is.

“Storm, kill it!” Predious whined as I ducked down through the cellar entrance, finding that there was a large steel room hidden under the house. Predious was struggling to keep his hooves from touching the floor as he clung to the massive metal door. It seemed that what he was afraid of was one single, feral ghoul. Not even one in good condition either, seeing as it had to rely on scraping its chin on the floor as a means of locomotion, probably because its legs lay splayed out to its sides unmoving and most likely broken. I frowned as I spotted the dull shine of a circle on the monster’s skull just above the glowing eyes. I’d seen a few too many unlucky ghouls like this in my time to know this one probably started to go feral and somepony tried to put it down. Unfortunately, they’d fucked it up and the bullet got lodged in the ghoul’s skull. Who knows how long this thing’s been locked down here, but as I raised my rifle in my hooves, aimed, and fired, I could at least take solace in the fact that it wasn’t here anymore.

“Oh, thank the goddesses.” Predious panted out, slipping from the door and holding a hoof to his chest. “That… thing was trying to murder me!” He let out a shiver and took a step out of the giant metal vault. “You saved my life.”

“And I should have let it murder you!” I took my hoof out of the action and gave him a good smack upside the head. “What, you forget how to use your legs? I could have died of boredom before it even got an inch closer.”

He gasped and covered his muzzle with a hoof. “You mock my fear? I’ll have you know that I am necrophobic, and have a crippling panic attack anytime those… things are around!” He prodded me in the chest as I chuckled with how ridiculous that sounded. “Hey, I don’t make light of your fears, do I?”

“No, that’s because I’m always too busy doing all the work to pay attention to anything that comes out of your muzzle.” I turned and took a few steps up the stairs. “You know, you could stand to be a bit more useful if you’re going to wander about. On second thought, just don’t wander about at all. We’ve got a schedule to keep and I don’t want to waste all my time saving your sorry flank, so lets get some rest.”

I stomped back up the stairs, making my annoyance obvious as every step caused just a little more dust to be kicked up. Not to have the same problem twice, I instead held my breath as I got up the stairs, moving in quick bursts as to not disturb any more of the agitating particles. When I reached the bed, I took as big of a breath as I could and curled my forehooves around the blanket, tearing it off and shaking it wildly before diving onto the bed, curling up under it as well as I could to keep the dust away. Even though I couldn’t tell what the stains that covered the moldy mattress came from, it was still a bed, and within only a few minutes of laying still, I managed to finally fall asleep.

* * * * * * * * *

I awoke with a yawn, stretching myself out on the bed as my healing injuries felt a little better from yesterday. The A.I. in my vision was curled up as well, little Z’s emanating from her muzzle as I wondered if a computer could get tired. Throwing the old blanket off, I went to hop off the bed, but paused as the smell of fresh cooking hit my nose. The thought that Predious was still up annoyed me, seeing as it was only… 9 a.m.?

“How the fuck did I only sleep for two hours?” I mumbled with another half yawn, lazily gathering my stuff. Those must have been the best two hours of my life, because I felt that despite my aches, I had so much more energy! Once we got on the road, we’d be back in dodge in no time at all so I could pick up some much needed provisions. My mane hung in a tangled mess across my muzzle, and the glint of light the mirror in the bathroom gave off made me want to fix it. So with my gear secured, I walked out of my room and down the hall, stopping when I heard a curious noise coming from the other bedroom.

I blinked as I watched Predious snore loudly on the rug of the other room, his muzzle laying across the pages of an open book. I pointed my hoof at him in disbelief as I ran through it in my mind. Once again, I swung my rifle around on its sling and hoofed it into my muzzle as I dashed down the stairs, nearly losing my hoofing halfway down due to a bad step. Recovering as my legs braced myself at the bottom, I spun myself, looking for the bar in my compass and finding that there were two pink colored ones next to each other. Both appearing non hostile, I remember that one of them must be Predious upstairs, but the other was our ‘guest’. So up to the edge of the kitchen I crept, stepping cautiously forward as the sounds of cooking didn’t let up.

“Come in, come in!” The raspy voice of a ghoul called out as I tilted half my head around the corner. The glowing ghoul gave me a toothy smile as he bit down on a pan, coaxing the sizzling meat he had cooked onto a plate. “You awoke just in time, the eggs are almost done! Go ahead and have a seat.”

Was this stallion serious? What, did he think that I was his long lost daughter or something, and he was just a half a step from turning feral? I let my rifle hang from its sling again, unsure if I’d actually need it.

“How did you get past Iron Will?” I swear to the goddesses, that machine is a bigger disappointment than this contract has been. I’m going to need for P.A.I. to either send it away, or to fucking rewrite its programming so it’s actually useful.

“Oh, your mechanical bull? Easy!” He turned from the sizzling pans and hoofed at the shredded labcoat he wore, showing me a small rectangular identification card that I’d seen all too many times down in that horrid labyrinth. “Got this little number inside a ministry hub out west. To be honest, I DID work for the ministries once, so it's not theft, more like... borrowing from a co-worker. Even though I didn't know the mare it belonged to, I was still sad to see that she died trapped under a fallen sparkle cola machine, but it’s a more common death then one would think!” He turned back towards the food and tossed some of the hay he had fried onto the plate as well.

It’s good to know that Iron Will has a gigantic flaw in his system that was fucking mass produced back in the war! My stomach grumbled loudly as I stood and watched the steaming food on the plate. “That's great and all, but what the hell are you doing here?” The smell of the food he was cooking was driving me crazy, but I needed to focus on the half feral, rambling ghoul doing the cooking in the first place!

“Same as you I suppose, trying to make a living off of the dead. Well, that is until I found you here.” He looked back and gave me a smile that didn’t make me any more sure he wasn’t drifting towards becoming feral in the next five minutes. “Ghouls don't so much need to eat or sleep, and I had a bit before I wanted to get moving again, so when I saw you resting upstairs I figured that it would be a nice surprise to cook you breakfast.”

“But I don't even know you.” This was just getting creepier by the minute. He didn’t appear like he had any ulterior motives to it, but the fact that he found me asleep, but didn’t kill me right then and there has to at least give some points to him telling the truth. “How did you figure I wasn't just going to come down here shooting?”

“Well you see, back when I worked for the ministry, I volunteered to be hit with this ray gun thing, and now I can see the future!” He beamed a bright smile as I struggled to process that. “Oh, and I can also see the 6th dimension, which I know really shouldn't be there, and at the VERY least shouldn't taste purple.” He gave a snirk and it finally hit me that he was being sarcastic. “Or I've been secretly following you for a week and now I can't resist the thought anymore of how tasty your soft and smooth flesh is!” Okay, that... was unfortunately a disturbing possibility and moved this conversation from sarcastic, straight on down to creepy town. “You have to ask yourself, do I need a good enough reason to make a simple breakfast for a stranger?”

I scoffed at that notion. “Yes, one at least good enough that other ponies wouldn't shoot you.” With as many unfriendly ponies, zebras, and monsters between them, you need a damn good reason to keep the lead from flying.

“Well, you haven't shot me yet, have you?” He smirked again as he turned away from tending the last pan still in use. While it was a good point, if it weren’t for the computer on my leg, and the fact that I just had the most amazing two hour nap of my life, I most likely would have gone in shooting. “The thing is, I was told that friendship is magic, and it really hit me here, and you know what happened?” He thumped at his chest a few times before he went into a coughing fit, ending by spitting a wad of black tar looking goop onto the floor. “That didn't happen, but what did was I felt good again! The kindness of friendship must return to the wastes if we are ever to go back to being civilized ponies.”

As he turned and bit down on the pan, I had to think to myself if there really was any point to trying to be civilized. Other than the fact that it would put me out of a job, would everypony really be better off if we all just sat around fires singing songs of friendship? The wasteland has a society and rules all of its own, and everypony works to make their lives better, so what would be the added benefit ‘friendship’ provides? Shaking the thought from my mind, I looked back to the ghoul, who was plating the eggs next to the other mouthwatering sides and the question of where he had found fresh eggs in the wasteland was gone. I just wanted that food.

He set the pan down and hoofed the stove off, lifting a forehoof and looking at the top of it in shock. “Well would you look at the time, I must be off or I’ll be late for my meeting!” In the blink of an eye, he had galloped out the backdoor and was sprinting off across the… now mostly dried fields as a cold wind blew in. “Remember, friendship is magic! Spread the word!” His shouts carried into the kitchen just before the door swung back and slammed shut with the wind.

I stood perplexed as the whirlwind of activity had thrown my mind for a loop. “Thanks… I guess.” My stomach churned as the smell of the hot food entered my nose, restarting my brain and pointing it directly at the food. “Well, no sense in letting the food to go to waste, I mean if it WAS poisoned, that was an awful lot of work to sell himself as friendly for no gain.” There was a soft creek that came from behind me, instinctively I pulled my rifle up as I spun around and aimed it.

It was Predious.

“What are you doing Storm?” He gave a small yawn and walked the rest of the way down the steps. “If you wanted my attention, you could have just asked. No need to go slamming doors.”

“She was talking with some weird looking stallion.” Pai chirped up and came to life in my pipvision, smiling as she bounced on her hooves. “He really needs to see a doctor about that glowing issue though, because ignoring it wouldn’t be very BRIGHT!” She facehooved right after she spoke. “Ugh! Who wrote these jokes into me!?”

Even as I wonder how long she had been up, I just rolled my eyes at that, no longer caring. “If you don’t like it, couldn’t you just get rid of that coding?” I reslung my rifle and walked over to the delicious breakfast, taking in a deep whiff of the luxurious treats before me.

She changed my layout to blue. “But… it’s part of what makes me special.” Then it shifted to gold. “I don’t ask YOU to change your coat color just because I think grey is boring.”

I couldn’t hold back anymore, sending the annoyance of both her and Predious to the back of my head as I dug into the plate. Oh goddesses it tastes so much better than it smelled, and… did he use spices on it? This is the best meal of my entire LIFE.

“Hey… Storm?” Predious’s voice pushed at the back of my mind. “That smells really good… any chance you can share?” I stopped and scrunched up my muzzle with a whine. It was so delicious, and there was about half of it left, I just wanted to keep going and leave the useless jerk to fend for himself.

With a small sigh, I took a step back. “Go on, take the rest.” I hated the idea of giving a prisoner something as good as this, but in the interest of Friendship as the ghoul suggested, I guess Predious isn’t the worst guy I could be treating better. “But make it quick, I want to head out before the weather takes a turn for the worst.

He hoofed at the air dismissively as he walked over. “The weather’s been clear since yesterday morning and I don’t think we’re due for another storm for a while.” He licked his lips and leaned in, starting to take small bites of the food.

“The fuck are you talking about? That snow storm yesterday came out of nowhere.” I shook my head and walked for the door. If he wants to act ignorant, he can. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s still my job to turn his ass in. If we make good time, they might even pay me a bonus for getting him there in a timely fashion.

He swallowed the food in his muzzle and shrugged. “I know you were asleep through all of it, but yesterday was a pretty nice day. The ground dried up nicely and I got a ton of reading done.” He took another small bite, the end of his muzzle curling into a smile. “This is quite tasty!”

“WHAT?” I threw my hooves up and onto each side of his head, forcefully turning him towards me. “I slept ALL day?” He nodded slowly and chewed at his food. I let go of him and danced nervously on my hooves in a light panic. “Get your shit together, we’re leaving now.”

“But…” He looked back at the food longingly. In an action he probably didn’t appreciate, I kicked out my forehoof and hit him right all stallions sweet spot. He let out a shocked gasp and I quickly hoofed the plate to his muzzle, sliding the rest of the food in.

“Oh look, you’re finished. Now let’s fucking go.” I pointed my forehoof to the door and watched as he nearly choked on the food, coughing and sputtering as he glared angrily at me.

My augmented vision shifted to blue as Pai frowned. “You didn’t have to hurt him.”

“Yes I did, because now we can leave.” I snapped back. “And you’re certainly one to talk after what you’ve done to ponies over the years.”

She shifted to red. “They were all selfish and had it coming!” everything swapped back to blue. “We were all alone, and nopony wanted to help.” Her image layed down curled up. “If you don’t like how we treated others, why don’t you treat your friend any better than we did?”

“He’s not my friend, he’s a prisoner.” I stamped my hoof on the floor as Predious slinked away, stomping up the stairs as he went. “He’s part of a contract, and if I don’t turn him in, do you know what it makes me?” I did my best to stare at her. “It makes me a liar.”

She shifted everything to pink again and got to her hooves. “He stayed with you, helped you out when you were hurt, and this is how you repay him?” She shook her head. “If that’s how you treat the ponies around you, then you can just leave me in the next suitable body you find. I thought we could be like sisters, but I guess you’re just too absorbed in yourself to care.” She flickered away and took the rest of the display with it.

“Dammit, really?” I sat and lifted the pipbuck up, finding that it was completely dead. “You’re overreacting Pai, you have no idea what life is like out here.” I waited for her to come back, but nothing happened.

Predious came back down the stairs with his gear on and walked into the kitchen with a furious look on his face. “Fine, let’s go.” His magic swung the old door open and he trot down into the field.

“How the fuck did I become the bad guy in all this?” I muttered to myself as I got up. I pushed open the kitchen door as I walked up to it, trotting out after him as Iron Will came around from the front of the house. We were a day behind schedule and had to make good time if we were to make it to Dodge quick enough that we might not run into any unsavory types. The last thing I needed was to run into another bounty hunter looking to take my claim because I overslept.

* * * * * * * * *

The short rocks we were huddled against were not the most comfortable of cover to use, but they did deflect the bullets that were being sent our way. Of course this had to happen today. Everything was quiet for two hours, and wouldn’t you know it, bam, raiders. I hoofed the action closed and fed a fresh round into my rifle, glancing over at Predious who just glared at me angrily. That stallion could really hold his anger over my earlier actions, and it really didn’t help that I knew he could be doing something more productive in this fight, but he wasn’t.

The shooting stopped momentarily and I grunted, pushing and spinning myself up out of cover. I fired at the rusty remains of a skycarriage, punching a few holes in it until I heard a loud yelp from the other side, the muddy brown pallet of a pony fell out of his cover and held his leg. The raider bit his tongue as he muffled a scream, a thick trail of blood came from his forehoof while I took this opportunity to mercifully end his pain by way of a headshot. A blur of movement from the other side of the carriage prompted me to drop back to the ground, another set of shots sparked off the rock as I fell behind it.

“You know, you could be helping.” I muttered to the useless pony next to me. Sticking my hoof into my pouch, I wiggled it around, looking for a couple of loose rounds to stick into my gun but coming up short.

“I don’t know what I could ever do, as I’m just a simple prisoner with no emotional needs whatsoever.” He was playing a drama queen and I really didn’t have the time for it right now. “I helped you before, Storm, and I got nothing in return. Why should I care anymore what you need?”

Another few shots chipped away at our cover. “How about the fact that if I die, you do as well!?” I growled as I viciously shook my hoof in the saddlebag, looking for any hint of just a single goddess damned bullet! “You like living, don’t you?”

The heavy stomps of Iron Will as he finally caught up to where we were drew my attention. His luminous blue eyes shifted to red as a few bullets sparked across his chest. He vented a blast of steam as his legs compressed and he leaned forward. Knowing where this was going, it was really amazing now that I could watch without the fear of him running me through, the pistons in his legs gave a small hiss as they set in place.

They fired with a mechanical clang and he charged forward, each step propelling him at an amazing speed. Predious and I barely had enough time to get up and turn around before he plowed straight through the rusty carriage. The raider let out an agonizing scream as he was skewered and thrown into the air by Iron Will’s steel horn, hanging there for a moment before landing with a meaty crunch onto the dirt. I wasn’t sure what I had just watched transpired, but I knew that it was both awesome, and a damned good thing he was on our side.

An emerald flash came from behind and overhead, catching my eye as the shape of a pegasus lined up their saddle and let off a pair of distinctly high pitched shots at Iron Will. They struck the dirt harmlessly as something nagged at me from the back of my mind. I knew a green pegasus with weapons like that, but from where? The green bolt took off straight up as Iron Will snatched at her just a second too late. I caught only a glance at the ribbed rifle slung on the mare’s battle saddle and her identity came back to me.

“Iron Will, she’s friendly!” I hopped up over the rock in front of me and trot out to him, the pegasus now looping around for another attack. Iron Will turned to me as his eyes changed back to blue and he nodded, crossing his arms as I tried to flag down my old acquaintance. Flaring her wings, she stopped her dive, transitioning to slowly hovering down to us. I cupped my hooves around my muzzle and shouted up to her. “Been a while, hasn’t it Pallet?”

Though technically adopted into the family when she was little, the green pegasus was Harmony’s older cousin from up north. When Harmony first moved to Dodge, Pallet used to come down now and again and help her babysit me. As I grew older, she came by less and less, only swinging by when one of their family’s caravans swept into Dodge, and of course I took up bounty hunting and crossing paths with her became a rarity.

“Yeah it has. Making your way back to Dodge?” She dropped down in front of me and reached out, pointing at Iron Will. “See you got yourself a bodyguard.” She looked at the remains of the skycarriage and raider. “Very… efficient?”

I laughed and walked up to her, throwing a hoof around her neck and pulling her into a hug. “Yeah, it’s a long story.” I looked back to Predious as I heard him trotting towards us. Letting go of her I stepped back and took her in, seeing that she’s got plenty of new scars on her coat. “But yeah, we’re on our way back to see your cousin. You heading that way, or heading back north?”

Her eyes brightened up with the news. “Well, feel free to ride along with us then! Short Staff and I are on a delivery run to her to deliver some special parts.” She scratched at her mane as she scrunched her muzzle up. “You have any clues why she needed power armor parts? See, the Rangers in Manehatten are willing to pay quite a hefty amount for reinforced, buffed piston tubes, seeing as they are fairly rare.” She nodded for me to walk and talk, turning and starting towards the rolling hills a short ways off.

We struck up a quick pace, walking past the two morons who had decided to ambush us. I looked at her and tossed my mane from my eye. “Yeah well it probably has something to do with that fact that the rangers down there have been trying to annex the whole region.” Predious had joined up on the other side of me, his ears were turned attentively to listen even though he still had his grumpy look on. “Still, could be for them, could be for an ex ranger, hell it could just be somepony that likes to collect shiny things!” I shrugged, having seen weirder stuff in the wasteland.

She laughed at that. “True, it could be, though I hope she’s getting paid a great deal for them.” Her smile diminished slightly as she turned her jade colored eyes to the sky. “It’s been getting harder to do these runs this last year. Every time we leave now there seem to be more raiders, monsters, and machines looking to kills us. I’ve got a pretty bad feeling that our spotless track record is going to go up in flames one of these days.” She looked to me and forced her smile. “I hope these parts really do help her.”

“So do I.” I mirrored her concerned look, knowing full well what she’s been talking about. Just about every bar and inn I got to, ponies are talking about how bad it’s been getting. I would say that they need to toughen up, but after last night, I’m pretty sure there are plenty of other things in the wasteland worthy of their fear. “But enough about that, how have you been?” I waggled my eyebrows and nudged her. “Found yourself a nice stallion yet, or are you still on that mare kick from a year ago?”

She blushed and looked away. “That was just a fling… I just got swept up in the moment.” She stammered with a squeak unlike any I’ve heard from her before. “But no. I know I know, a mare my age needs to find a special somepony, but honestly, I don’t know if I can.” She bobbed her head as she thought. “I mean, lets just say you didn’t have to work as a merc anymore…”

“Bounty Hunter.” I corrected her.

“Whatever.” She threw back playfully. “Lets say you found yourself a stallion who made enough caps that you didn’t have to work anymore. Do you honestly think you could give all this up and just sit at home?”

I mulled it over for a moment before giving her my answer. “I… I don’t think that’s who I am. Sitting around would drive me insane after a day, I’d have to be working.” That was a funny thing for me to say. Who am I? After what happened down in that facility, I’m not even sure what I am at all anymore. I shook my head to clear it, looking back up at her. “Well let me ask you this, you’re a mercenary…”

“Bodyguard.” She corrected with a smile.

“Whatever.” I chuckled. “Why not just find another pony in your line of work? Then you know he’d be there with you the whole time!”

“One problem with this honey, the reason you don’t travel with other bounty hunters is probably the same reason us caravaners don’t travel together.” She sighed, and shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve seen another caravan up close for years, so getting to know one of them? Not going to happen.”

“Excuse me, Miss.” Predious spoke up, making me cringe. “Might I inquire where you found those gauss rifles?” He gave her a dumb grin as we walked, but only until he saw my annoyed gaze.

“Oh these?” She lifted her wings and looked to the pair of high tech guns. “They were my mother’s. Yeah, it’s a bitch to find the ammo, but there isn’t anything like it when it comes to effectiveness.” She looked at me and returned the sultry gaze I’d given her earlier. “So Storm, this guy your special somepony?”

“Predious? Goddesses no.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes, ending up looking to him as he deadpanned. “He’s just work, that’s all.” I sighed and looked back to her. “I’m having just as much luck as you in the love department, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been trying.”

“Maybe bars aren’t the place you should be looking then.” Predious mumbled loud enough to annoy me, I’m sure on purpose.

I laughed and swung my gaze back to him again. “And you’re the very font of love advice? A guy who locked himself in a library surrounded by the living dead and ghosts.” I leaned closer to him as his grimace deepened. “Tell me, did they have a book in there on how to avoid getting bounties placed on your own head? Or how about one on how you can make yourself useful in a firefight!”

“Storm.” Pallet called out and nudged me with her wing. “I didn’t mean to start an arguement, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, whatever. I shouldn’t have let it get to me.” I swung my neck to look at her again, feeling a stiff pop and sharp pain jolt through it. Never again am I going to stand in the middle of a conversation. As we crested the top of the hill we had been climbing, the back end of the wagon I saw stuck out in the open sat in front of a small campfire. A tan stallion was tending to the boiling pot hanging over it, and the sweet smell of corn permeated the air around him.”

“So what was it Pallet, just some…” He spoke as he turned around, pausing mid sentence as I raised my hoof and waved. “Storm?” He laughed and brushed his brown and gold mane from his face. “Wow, it has been forever. Good to see you!”

“They’re heading for your sis as well, mind if they ride along?” Pallet asked giddily, the memories of the times we would all hang out years ago flooded through my mind.

“I don’t mind it.” He shrugged, turning to the brown lump next to the cart. It took me a second, but I realized that it was actually the laying form of a two headed brahman. Shortstaff pointed back to us as he spoke. “Murial, Martha, do you mind pullin them along till we hit Dodge?”

One of the heads looked up with a smile as the other one looked like it was sleeping. “Oh don’t be silly, Mr. Short Staff. The two of us don’t mind pullin a wee bit of extra weight, don’t ya know. We’re just glad ta have Miss Pallet watchin over us.” Now that I think of it, every brahman I’ve ever spoken to has that same funny accent, but I’ve never heard a pony with it. I turned my ears back as I heard the heavy stomps of Iron Will coming up the hill, the large machine stopped up top with us, looking around to survey the area. “Oh my goodness, I certainly don’t mind if he’s goin ta be comin along with us. Quite a looker he is!”

I facehoofed from how weird that came out to be and decided that I didn’t care. “So!” I looked over to Short Staff, who also couldn’t take his eyes of the large machine. “Do we leave after lunch?” I smiled as the thought of food set off my stomach. Seeing as I didn’t eat anything since before Ponyville, and the fact that I slept all day yesterday, a small helping of breakfast didn’t quite seem to hold me very long.

He nodded and levitated a ladle into the soup, stirring it slowly. “Yeah, sure! I wasn’t expecting you so there isn’t much to go around, but what the hell. You’re like family.” His eye twitched and his grin widened. “Family that totes around a giant freakin metal minotaur!” He had devolved into one of his usual obsessively curious states. “Where did you find it? What is he made of? How is it powered? I mean come on, he’s a giant freaking minotaur! This is so cool!”

“Long story short? He followed me out of this giant underground science place run by this oddball A.I. who’s now stuck in my pipbuck.” I shrugged and watched as he walked up and nearly salivated all over the enormous machine.

Pallet put her hoof on my shoulder, and with a panicked look, she glanced down at my pipbuck. “It was WHERE?” she grabbed my forehoof and pressed at the buttons on my pipbuck. “Where is it, I have to know if it came from an Orchard.”

I pulled my hoof away from her in confusion. Why did she look scared? “Orchard? Are you alright Pallet, your coat is turning pale.”

The pipbuck came on with a flicker and the interface shifted to pink as the small filly popped into the display. “Hello! My name is Pai, administrator of the W.O.L.F. Orchard. Who are you?”

Pallet took a step back, stumbling and sitting down. “Goddesses… it’s true.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts as I wasn’t sure what to do, choosing to just sit there silently as things unfolded. “You… you're an artificial pony.”

“Yup yup! And you are a pegasus!” Pai bounced around in my vision as she talked. “I’d love to have wings like you! I could soar through the air and do tricks and stuff! It would be so awesome!” I cringed as her voice squeaked through the pipbuck’s speaker.

“That’s great, but what did your facility specialize in?” She leaned close as she spoke. I noticed Predious leaning a bit closer to me as Short Staff didn’t seem to hear a word of this. “Pai, was it? Your facility didn’t happen to have any clones in it, did it?”

“Sure it did!” Her voice blasted through the speaker as Pallet went white as a ghost. “What a silly question seeing as you seem to know Project Harmony personally. What I don’t get is why everypony keeps calling her Storm. Is it like a nickname?” Pai gasped. “Pai is MY nickname!” Pai started to ramble on as Pallet looked more confused and distressed than any other time ever.

“Pallet, apparently I’m not who you think I am.” I started talking slowly, not exactly sure how I was going to explain all this, or where to start. “But as I said, it’s a long story.”

“Good” Pallet nodded softly. “because we’ve got to speak to Harmony when we get to Dodge. She’ll need to hear it.”

* * * * * * * * *

Lunch went quick as did the clean up, so we were able to get back on the road in no time as Pai and I told her all about what I had learned in the facility. I told her about the overall goal of the project, all the hard work they put in, and even about the flashbacks I’d been getting. She seemed to take it all in stride, and the more I told her, the more she seemed to relax. The only odd question she asked Pai was if they had anypony in cryogenic storage there. When Pai told her that the facility was elsewhere, I explained what I remembered about the surroundings in my dream.

“That sounds like a couple of places out in the badlands to me.” She sighed and looked to me with a tilt of her head. “Sorry about overreacting earlier. I’ve just had… let’s call it bad experiences when it comes to my family and those facilities. Ask Harmony about it sometime, I’m sure she’ll tell you.”

“I will when we see her.” I wasn’t sure why, but I knew I wouldn’t like the story. I nudged her with my shoulder as we walked. “Bet you never would have guessed that I’m older than you are, did ya?”

She laughed. “Yeah, you got me there.” She looked forward and quickly held her hoof out in front of me, her ears twisting and turning as she looked out to the only big object on the horizon.

I wasn’t exactly sure how the rusting, canted hulk of a large boat got to be all the way out here, but the pony sized hole corroded into the underside of it was the perfect spot for an ambush. The wind died down, and for a moment, there was only the sound of Iron Will trailing up behind us as slow as ever. I looked down onto the compass in my vision, noting all the red lines sitting over at the wreck.

“Pallet…” I whispered.

“I know.” She whispered back, not moving her gaze from the dark hole. “The moment I take off, unhitch the cart and use it for cover. Got that?”

“Yes.” I replied simply.

The whirlwind of activity started as she kicked off and spread her wings. I spun and bolted for the cart as quick pops of gunfire filled the air, ignoring the small dust plumes that erupted from around my hooves. I reached the cart and bit down on the quick release strap, pulling it as I pressed myself close to the old wood. Predious and Short Staff slid up to the cart as both of their horns glowed, sliding a metal plate out from under the other side of the cart to block their shots at our hooves.

“So glad I thought to install that!” Short Staff laughed as the rounds pinged harmlessly off of it.

“Yeah, well we need to start shooting back with something, and my gun’s empty.” I called back to him, edging myself to peek around the corner. An emerald streak came down from above behind the boat, the shrill report of her gauss rifles ending with a heavy spray of red mist spraying from the hole, a hoof sized shaft of light opening through the dark, backwall of the boat.

Iron Will’s pistons fired, the heavy metal machine taking off towards the rusted wreck as I watched. Shouts of panic erupted as he got closer, the red lines in my vision shifting about quickly only moments before he plowed into their cover. The boat was rend right in half as the old metal gave little resistance, and collapsed completely under its own weight. The plume of dust concealed most of what was going on, but from the frantic gunshots followed by screams of horror and pleads for mercy, I assumed the raiders were being ripped to shreds.

A shine came from beside me as a small mirror floated past my head. “Dear Celestia. That’s one hell of a machine.” Short Staff remarked in awe, observing like a smart pony by not sticking his head out like I was. “Tell me, was there another one of these where you found this one?”

“Nopey Nopey!” Pai answered before I could, dancing around on my pipbuck holding a flag in her hooves. “Iron Will is one of a kind, and happens to be the best minotaur ever!”

That’s when I first heard it. A high pitched whine that sounded distant, almost like a rocket did in flight, but this sounded like it was alternating pitch lightly, growing louder. I turned to follow the noise, spinning and looking across the plains from us, only to find nothing that could be making the noise at all. I looked to the others so I could make sure I wasn’t the only one hearing it, and sure enough, both Short Staff and Predious were looking the same way. Though Predious had his eyes to the sky, a snarl pushing across his muzzle in disgust.

That whining got louder and I started to get flashes in my mind, remembering the sound from when Momma… I mean Fluttershy would visit me. The sound was faint in the ductwork, but it always appeared around the same time she did. I turned my eyes to the sky as the sound changed, sputtering and shifting in tone wildly. What the hell was it?

The cloud cover above bulged out and darkened momentarily before the a black object tore through it. Fire and smoke shot from it as the flying object rotated like a clock as it streaked towards us at an incredible speed. Pallet dashed in front of us and waved for us to get away, grabbing me and dragging me down to the dirt with her as it passed low enough that it might have taken our heads off.

The heavy craft slammed into the dirt with a deafening noise that sounded like someone was running their hoof over a chalkboard in my ear as a hundred manticores roared out at once. I watched from on top of Pallet as the black craft torqued and rolled onto its side, disintegrating and throwing shards of itself all over as the whining noise cut out amidst the chaos. As the object tumbled, there was a sharp crack and it split in pieces, the bigger section bounced into the air before slamming down again hard, coming to a rest as it lost its momentum. A smaller section of it kept rolling and punched through the dust where Iron Will had been, the sickening sound of shearing metal ceased with an explosion that sent smoking metal shards into the sky.

A ringing in my ears followed as pieces of hot metal started to rain from the air, the urge to get under the wagon overpowered me as I scrambled to crawl there. The thick steel sheet on this side of the wagon slid out enough to provide a quicker means of cover, and both Pallet and I joined Predious and Short Staff. Pallet crawled closer to Short Staff as he shook in fear, holding him close as a distant look in his eyes reminded me of a thousand others I’d seen in combat. He wasn’t a fighter, and while the horrors of the wasteland were alien to nopony, what just happened had even me jittery. The strange thing was Predious seemed calm as a statue, looking at me as if this were just another day in his life.

“Every… everypony alright?” Pallet yelled out, looking back to me and waiting for me to nod.

“I…. Iron Will?” My vision fuzzed for a moment as Pai dropped the flag she had in her hooves, turning the whole display blue as she sat down and held a hoof out longingly. She started to cry and as best I could, I wiggled myself around under the cart to turn that direction. Crawling forward slowly, I peeked my eye out from under the cart, looking around.

Most of the wreckage spewed thick black smoke, and laying on the dirt in front of me was a steel encased rear hoof, blood oozing from the inside of it as I was reminded of the sleek armor the Pegasi above the clouds wore. Two friendly blips lay on my E.F.S. in the direction of the shredded metal, the thought of how anything could survive a crash like that escaped me. But slowly, I heard the offset heavy thumps, and through the smoke, the metallic minotaur came into view. He used his forearms to prop himself as his left leg dangled sparking and crumpled under him.

My vision flicked to pink and Pai danced about again. “Woo! Yeah, go Iron Will, you’re the best!”

“Wait, it survived that?” Pallet spoke up slowly. “How could it have in the middle of all that?”

“I have no idea, but there’s another survivor in there somewhere.” I turned and looked back to her, tapping at my pipbuck. “Well, at least I think there is, this thing only reads living ponies, right?”

“Then might I suggest we go see if we can help?” Predious broke his stone gaze and stared right into my eyes. “I’m fairly certain the area is safe to check now, Vertibucks don’t normally explode more than once when they go down.” As he wiggled himself out from our safe haven, I wanted an explanation on how he knew what that was, but I was afraid he’d just go on rambling about how he read it in some book.

“H… he’s right.” Short Staff nodded and tore himself from Pallets hold with a look of determination. “We need to see if they need medical attention.” He looked to me as he turned himself. “Storm, because you know exactly where they are, can you head over first?”

“I guess.” I said softly. I didn’t want to go out there, not knowing who or what is still alive. Sure the pipbuck would have told me if it was hostile, but this wasn’t our problem. We had Iron Will to fix, and then we needed to continue to Dodge. But it wasn’t just anypony asking me, it was a pony I considered to be family. “Alright.”

Rolling myself out from under the side of the cart, I got to my hooves and brushed myself off. Predious was a few steps ahead of me, looking around amongst the bits of smaller debris. What for, I couldn’t say, but he looked surprised as I trot past him, though not surprised enough to speak up about it. I followed in the direction of the line, swinging myself wide around the large section of twisted metal that had bounced itself to a stop, giving it a wide birth incase something hostile were to find its way out of it.

As the line showed whatever pony was there lay directly in front of me, I gave a sigh as I found it lay under a large sheet of pockmarked and charred metal. I reached forward and hoofed at it, trying my best to ignore the sharp edges as it sliced into my leg. I pulled it back, finding that it was a lot lighter than I had expected it to be and was incredibly cool for the fire it had gone through. I pushed the large sheet away from me, looking down to see the still body of an armored pegasus stallion. His blood was dripping slowly from several holes in the armor and I didn’t know how much longer he was going to last.

Short Staff trot up quickly with a cloth bag in his magic, the yellow sack was adorned by the three butterflies of the Ministry of Peace. “Fuck, we need to get that armor off of him before he bleeds out.” He squinted and stopped as he reached up and tapped his horn a few times. “Think think…” His eyes shot open and over to me. “Storm, can you get your robot to tear it off without hurting him? I don’t have the tools and he doesn’t have time.”

I sighed. “Iron Will, I need you here!” I shouted, watching as Short Staff opened his bag, levitating a small potion and several bandages out. Iron Will stomped over, his leg having magically repaired itself in the short time since it was broken. “I need you to remove the armor on this stallion WITHOUT hurting him. Can you do that?”

He put up one of his fingers, signaling us to wait before reaching down to the chestplate of the stallion. He opened his huge mechanical hand and gripped it, squeezing and pulling in one fell motion to rip off a small section of the armor. Before my very eyes, the new hole in the armor started to pull itself together, and before it could get very far, Iron Will used two of his fingers to tug on and snap a small red wire. The entire armor gave a soft hiss and shuddered as Iron Will took a step back, the sleek black carapace lifted away and folded back from the stallion to reveal the trauma inside. His black coat was covered in the sheen of his blood as several large gaping wounds bubbled and leaked it out. Short Staff jumped forward as one of them set out a pulse of blood, pinning two of the larger wounds closed with his hooves.

“Shit, we don't have enough potions for this.” He shook his head quickly and darted his eyes about before looking up to me. “I need to get the dressing and compression bandages. Storm, I need you to apply pressure and hold the wounds closed until I can get everything ready. On the count of three, you are going to put your hooves where mine are.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "One, two, three." He jumped back, and a spurt of blood shot from the open wound on the stallions chest. I scrambled to put my hooves in the right place, not having the slightest idea what I was doing. Why were we even doing this? Saving some random pegasus's life was not our problem!

--Chapter End--

“Nopony asks to be a hero, it just sometimes turns out that way.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: Black Buck Down

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: none

Author's Note

1/10/2014 An edited version of this chapter has been posted. Please leave comments on what you think! =D

Chapter Ten - Revelations

“A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.”

Even with my lack of experience with anything medical related, Short Staff had assured me I’d done a good job, though I think in truth he just wanted to say something optimistic. I don’t know why, or how this pegasus was still alive with his wounds. The sneer Predious had across his muzzle from the sight, was something I might pry into later, but as Short Staff cleaned up he had my attention.

“He’s lucky we still had that set of towels in the wagon.” He spoke with a sigh, levitating a rusty pair of shears into his medical bag. “Wetting them with a potion is a handy trick if you don’t have much in the way of healing supplies, but it’s only helping on the surface.” He glanced over to me with a sad look. “Wounds like his are probably still bleeding on the inside. He needs a doctor.”

“Can’t Pallet just fly him?” I asked. She used to fly me around town all the time when I was young, and pegasi are supposed to be fairly light ponies. Even if he was too heavy for her, we have another solution. “Or maybe Iron Will could carry him.”

Short Staff shook his head. “The trip would be too rough on him. He needs to lay flat and not be jostled or his internal injuries could only get worse.” His magic lifted his medical bag onto his back as the straps snaked around him and clasped together. “It’s going to be tough, but if we push through the night, we might make it to Dodge by just after sunrise.”

Pallet swooped down from the air, her flared wings pushing away some of the black smoke trailing above us. “You really think Stim Pack is the best choice to work on an Enclave soldier?” She cringed, having every right to. Stim Pack used to be a Steel Ranger, and I say used to because he has a bit of a booze problem. Turns out that when he’s drunk, which is now every moment he’s conscious, he turns into a bit of an earth pony supremacist. Granted I’m fine without wings and a horn, I think the only thing anypony should care about out here is if another pony has got a gun in their hoof or caps to their name.

“I know he’s not ideal, but I only knew enough to prevent him from dying at this moment. One, two hours from now who knows.” He pressed a forehoof to his temple. “Just, get him over to the wagon, and gently. I have to dump some things to make room.” He quickly ducked away, leaving me to look to Predious, who didn’t seem too thrilled with this idea either.

His horn lit up and he gave a soft grunt as his magic enveloped the Stallion’s body in a dim aura and slowly lifted him up. The injured pegasus was swung over onto my back, and gently laid down, the bloody bandages pressing into my jacket feeling oddly warm through the old leather. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest, the weak, shallow breathes the only sign of any life to him. Yet again, the thought ran through my mind to question why we had bothered to save him at all.

Small, soft steps were all I wanted to take as I slowly turned and started forward, being careful not to let his body move to much. Predious kept his head down, his horn at the ready incase the stallion started to slip. In only a matter of what the pipbuck said was five minutes, I had managed to get him the hundred feet or so to the wagon, and I only let him slip twice! From there, both Predious and Short Staff lifted him from me and set him in along the now cleared side of the wagon. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief as his weight was off my shoulders.

“Storm, give me your jacket.” Short Staff extended his hoof expectantly.

“Fuck that!” I can’t just give over the one thing that’s kept me alive for as long as I’ve had the thing. It’s one thing I won’t give up to anypony, not without a damn good reason. “I'm not giving my jacket to some random pony who's just going to die in it. I need it incase we start getting shot at.”

“I don't care! He'll die of hypothermia without it and I don't plan on letting some 'random pony' die if it can be helped.” He closed his eyes and sat down, taking a deep breath. “I understand your concern, but he will make it if you just hoof over the damned coat! It will be too dark soon to see and as you have the darkest coat of all of us, you’re the least at risk for being spotted regardless.”

“Fine.” I grumbled, taking it off and glancing over to the pony who would just bloody it up. I blinked in confusion as a pair of half lidded, deep blue eyes stared back at me. The look the stallion gave I’d seen before many times in bars, and came with just the ghost of a smile before he flopped his head back down. I let out a grunt as Short Staff lifted the jacket away from me and wrapped it as best he could around the pegasus.

“Alright!” Short Staff cleared his throat and spoke up. “Now, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so make sure you’ve got everything you’re going to need for this journey on hoof. Once we get started, we’re not stopping until dodge, got that?”

* * * * * * * * *

I’ll admit I’d wanted nothing more than to leave that cramped, confined facility and just run my legs off in the openness of outside, but this was not what I had in mind. The sun had fallen, and the darkness around us was only parted by the cone of light given off by Short Staff as he lead us along the old highway system. My vest and light shirt I was wearing didn’t do much to stave off the cold winter air, and the resentment I had for giving away my coat only grew as I slowly froze.

We’d taken a turn along the highway which lead up toward a small prewar highway patrol building I knew from my travels. It sat perched on top of the only hill for miles around, and I had always wondered why the ponies back then didn’t just build it to run around instead of directly over it. The blessing of this was that on the incline, the weight of the cart ment the Brahman had to slow down, so we all used it as a quick chance to catch our breath. All but Predious though, who seemed too lost in thought to care about taking deep breaths.

“Hey, can… I ask you… something?” I had something on my mind since the crash and I need to get it out to stay focused. “What were you... looking for... in that wreck?”

“Why do you care?” He snapped at me, seeming to take a moment before his gaze softened slightly.

“You asked me all... kinds of questions earlier… why can't I... ask a few?” I could feel my lungs starting to burn less and my heart ceased thumping against my ribs in trying to escape. I just want to go back to walking in the empty wastes again, no more running or enclosed spaces.

“If you must know, I was looking for the flight recorder.” He looked at me and scoffed when I obviously didn’t know why the hell he would do that. “It would tell us why the Vertibuck crashed.”

Ignoring the fact that he didn’t even sound winded, “Back up one second. You know what that thing was?” I must have sounded extra stupid to him this time, seeing as he banged his hoof angrily on his head. “Let me guess, you read about them.” It’s not my damn fault I don’t sit inside libraries all day, reading books and getting bounties placed on me.

“Sometimes I wonder how you can know so little.” He grumbled out. Oh yeah, he was pissed, but it’s his own damn fault for expecting more of me. “Moving on, the odd thing was that it didn't have one. It lay no where among the wreckage.”

“Well yeah, you saw the state of that wreck.” I could finally speak normally again, which was something I could tell Predious didn’t appreciate. “I wouldn't be surprised if it were nothing but metal ribbons now.”

My vision flicked from green to pink as Pai popped up. “Ooo! I know something!” She changed everything to purple and pulled out her bubble pipe. “It is highly unlikely to have been destroyed, as they were built out of a special alloy and that happened to make them near indestructable. It is more likely that you simply missed it when you were looking, or that it was buried in another piece of the wreckage you didn’t check.”

“No, I found the mounting rack for it completely intact.” Predious looked to me and shook his head. “It wasn't broken or somewhere else in the wreck, but just... well, gone.” A high pitched whine came through the air just loud enough we both perked our ears, and it sounded similar enough that I wanted to get a head start toward the wagon in the case we needed to hide under it again. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

We looked back and could see quite a few lights traveling quickly crossing the sky perpendicular to us, a bright spotlight ran along the desert floor from the one in the center of them. The quick flutter of wings startled me as Pallet dropped down, her white mane the only part of her standing out against the darkness.

“We got company. Enclave patrol, so just act cool and let Short Staff and I handle it.” She trot past us towards Short Staff, hanging back next to the Brahman as a faint light swept over us all. I have only caught glimpses of their armor before, but seeing the three bug eyed, carapaced, and scorpion tailed ponies land in front of Short Staff, it was almost otherworldly.

“Hold it there.” A white coated mare’s muzzle was the only part of her we could see, but it didn’t sound like she was happy to be here. “Don’t see many of you muck rakers traveling at night time. Why would that be? You wouldn't happen to be sheltering any pegasi, would you?” A bright light flicked on from the side of her helmet, and she stared down Short Staff.

“What do you care?” Short Staff pointed his hoof at them. “Our friend is sick and he needs a doctor, so would you kindly move and let us by?” He waved his hoof at them, slowing down when they didn’t seem to be buying it. “He’s got… the feather flu!” He shouted his bluff loud enough that I had to resist facehoofing, feeling it hard not to emote from that level of stupidity. Surprisingly, the two other pegasi with the mare took a step back and looked at each other.

“Feather flu huh?” The mare didn’t sound convinced. “Only pegasi can catch that from other pegasi, so tell me again how that helps your case?”

“He caught it from me.” Pallet stepped forward, being lit up as the mare turned her attention to her. “He’s my husband, and I won’t let you hold us back.” I watched her lift her wings slowly, uncovering the high power guns on her saddle for them to see.

“Well well, Unbranded Pegasus. Tell me your name.” The armored mare held her hoof out, an odd terminal like screen sat with a line across it.

The thin line wavered as Pallet spoke in a raised voice. “My name is Pallet Jack. Raised in Manehatten, never been above.” She cleared her throat. “That should be enough of a sample for you.”

The mare in charge pulled her hoof back and stared at the screen, only looking up when there was a small beep. “Alright, you check out.”

“Yeah, she may.” A stallion with a blue coat spoke up, nudging the mare in charge. “But come on Hail, where would she get tech like that then?”

“Cloud Streaker’s right sarge, even if she hasn’t, it’s something only a deserter would take with them.” He scoffed at Pallet. “Cunt probably did us a favor and killed them for it too. Fucking dirtbirds, you’re all the same.” As he spoke, my hoof strained as I felt the need to facehoof again, but I resisted and bit my lip waiting for Pallet’s response.

“Fine, don't believe me. It’s interesting you’ve seen this design before, when what you should know is that they are custom built to run off of balefire egg energy.” Pallet sounded colder than the night was, and it was scary. Scary enough that the third pegasus took a step back. “Now that I have your attention, you better hope you dust me with a shot, cause if you don't I can overload them and we can all find out what it feels like to be cooked alive.” She leaned herself closer to her bit, only stopping when the second pegasus stepped back as well. “We don't care whatever you're looking for, so just let us save my husband, and nopony has to get vaporized tonight.”

“Forget them Hail, you said they checked out.” Cloud Streaker spoke up, tapping her with an armored wing to bring out a grunt from her. “Let’s just go.”

There was a moment of silence as we all just stood there. “I don't get paid enough for this shit. Let's wrap it up and get back, there's nothing on this dirtball land worth dying for.” The mare spoke up and flared her wings. “If I find out you lied, I’m going to hunt each of you down like nothing you’ve ever seen.” She spat out and flapped hard, swiftly taking to the air with the others and disappearing into the dark night skies.

Short Staff let out a breath big enough for all of us as we hesitantly started forward again. “Thanks for covering for me Pallet, I kind of panicked there if you couldn’t tell.” He gave a nervous chuckle as I looked back to Predious, finding that he didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything again. Short Staff swung his spell over to Pallet. “I didn't know that's how they worked, you’ll have to explain it better some time, as I didn’t think things like that were possible!”

“They aren’t” Pallet smiled and pat her wings against the guns. “I just made that shit up, only Harmony was ever smart enough to figure these things out.”

That was it, I couldn’t hold back any further. I facehoofed hard enough I saw stars, but it was worth it, as that painful expression was now a valid explanation for my life. It was apparently enough that Predious wore a small smile when I shook my head clear.

He whispered to me as his grin grew. “Now you know how I feel around you.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I grumbled and pressed on again, focusing myself on the fact that we were almost at the top of the hill.

“Hey Storm, you got a minute?” Pallet called from up front. The old cart creaked heavily as it started to roll again, and in the dim light from Short Staff’s horn, I could see that our pegasus patient hadn’t moved since he looked at me before.

I trot up the hill and alongside her with a smile. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“You get around, so you might know.” She scrunched up her muzzle as she spoke. “Have you ever seen a patrol like that before?” What she asked struck me as odd. I shook my head and watched as she looked back nervously to the cart. “Cause we’ve obviously got somepony important back there. I’ve seen Enclave accidents before, and they never send out a search party.”

“I too found it odd.” Predious spoke as he came up from behind. “That crash didn’t make any sense.” He nodded to the cart as well. “I’m thinking we’ve got our hooves on a pony that somepony needs. He could be a VIP or a Criminal, who knows, but they want him bad.”

We reached the top of the hill, slowly leveling out as Short Staff killed his light spell. “Everypony quiet!” He snapped at a whisper.

We all shut our muzzles tightly, turning our gazes towards the front of us as just the shadow of the ruins of the old police building outlined the slightly lighter skies. From inside the interior windows, there was a faint glowing that shifted and moved. None of us moved as the glowing face of a raggedy looking ghoul stopped slackjaw in front of the window, looking out with dead, unfocused eyes.

“No. Pony. Move.” Predious whispered.

The glowing one turned and shambled slowly from the window, his glowing body revealing a mass of other half rotten faces and shredded corpses. As I remembered to look down at my E.F.S. a thought jumped into the back of my mind that I really needed to keep tabs on it more often, seeing as it was flooded with red bars. Short Staff clicked his tongue to get our attention, and ever so slowly, we crept forward.

All eyes were on the station as we moved at a snails pace, trying our best to put one hoof in front of the other as quietly as possible. We were doing well so far, but after only a minute, we had only moved maybe twenty feet. I was starting to think that if one of us ran back down the hill, maybe we could get those pegasi to come back and lend us a hoof in exchange for their friend. More than likely, they would just take him and leave us to die.

My ears perked as I heard a mechanical pounding sound growing closer, the thought that Iron Will had been following us slipped my mind as he’d fallen behind when we were running. I prayed to the goddesses that he would still be quiet enough that the ghouls wouldn’t notice, but the closer he got, the more his hydraulics started to sound like artillery shells going off.

“Storm, open your satchel.” Predious stepped up and whispered into my ear.

“No, fuck you.” I snapped back as low as I could. What I did end up doing was hoofing my rifle out, frowning when the pipbuck told me that it was empty. I was sure I had a few rounds laying around in my bag, but I couldn’t see a thing in the dark and I didn’t want to risk having Short Staff use his light spell.

The stomping continued as Iron Will crested the top of the hill. Between his stomps I could hear the various yips and growls of the ghouls in the station, the glowing face of the one we had seen before appeared again before letting out a piercing shriek. It was no use sneaking now.

“Storm, you wanted me to be useful, and I can be.” Predious spoke at a normal volume now, knowing just how screwed we were. “Just open your damn satchel!”

There was a loud banging against the front door of the station, a thick chain was the only thing keeping it shut as the ghouls inside piled themselves against it.

“FINE!” I screamed out and hoofed it open. “But I swear, if you don’t fucking…” I had to cut myself off as he drew out the minigun I had taken from him in ponyville. If I’d remembered I had that thing back in the facility, maybe I wouldn’t have used so much of my rifle ammo! As he checked the minigun, I stuck my hoof back into my satchel and wiggled it around, feeling as a pair of brass objects met my hoof. I pulled them out, feeling the two rounds for my gun and gave a frown.

The sharp sound of shattering glass drew our attention as the glowing ghoul rammed itself through the window, spilling onto the dirt with a howl. Several more windows followed as the dark shape of ghouls pushed through them as well.

“Better than nothing.” Predious commented smartly as his magic levitated the gun up, his horn casting out a light spell identical to Short Staff’s. The door to the station went down as Predious’s gun spun up, the deafening drone it gave off made me cringe. As it fired at its blistering speed, what looked like a sharp yellow line connected him to the ghouls who were systematically cut to shreds as they poured out. Just seconds after he started firing, the gun gave a ratcheting click as it spun down. He dumped the slightly glowing weapon on the ground and shrugged. He had to yell to get over the ringing in my ears. “Out of ammo.”

The high pitched reports of Pallet’s rifles were followed by gory explosions of meat with each hit. The heavy blasts from the boxy shotgun Short Staff had in his levitation quickly took down any of the ghouls who got close to us. I looked down as I fumbled trying to get the rounds into the my gun, finally slipping them in and working the action as the sound of Iron Will next to me preceeded the sick snapping and crunching bones. The twisted body of a ghoul dropped into the dirt before me, and it got quiet. I pulled my rifle up, and for a long minute there was nothing.

“E… everypony alright?” Short Staff called out, swinging his light spell around towards me.

“”Yeah, we are.” Predious said as he leaned close to me. “So, how many did you get? None? That’s a shame.” His smug muzzle was begging to be hit. “Seems like I’m not the useless one anymore.” Picking up the minigun in his magic, he set it inside of Short Staff’s cart. “Oh, and before you say anything about how you would have been useful, I thought you learned that rubber bullets aren’t effective against them.

I glanced at the display in my vision, indeed reading the ammo type as RBR. I grit my teeth and hoisted my gun at him, quickly firing off a shot that hit him in the chest and knocked the wind out of him.

“I thought you would know it’s not smart to point this sort of thing out after antagonizing a mare like me.” I reslung my rifle as he gasped for breath.

I felt a hoof pull me around, spinning me face to face with Pallet. “Storm, what are you doing?” Her eyes darted to Predious, then back to me. “What good does hurting him do?”

I shrugged her hoof off me and pushed past her. “I need him alive for the contract, nothing more. Now let’s go, we’re wasting time.” I’m ready to be done with this fucking contract.

* * * * * * * * *

It was getting colder the more we ran, and more than a few times we had to stop because somepony slipped on a patch of ice. I had my fair share of bruises, alongside everypony else, but they all seemed to have no real problem with the cold. Short Staff seemed naturally insulated, but it might be something family related from the stories I’ve heard. Pegasi are more resistant to the elements than any other type of pony, so Pallet was fine. Predious had to be a cold as I was, but I’m pretty sure that he just didn’t feel like showing that to me as he ran silently beside me.

Everything was going smoothly though, that is up until I slipped again.

“Ah!” I yelped the moment before I smashed my muzzle into the ground. I found my rear legs lift into the air with the added drag on the ground my chest provided, flipping over me and flopping me onto the dirt. I groaned and let out a few coughs as my scraped up chest ebbed. “Fuck that stung.”

As if sensing I was vulnerable, the cold attacked, biting at my skin hard all over as I dissolved into heavy shivvers on the ground. The cart slowly pulled to a stop and the others came over to me, the light spell Short Staff was casting swung to me. The sharp cold air took no prisoners, and in moments they were shivering as much as I was.

“F… fuck it’s c… cold!” Pallet stuttered as she spoke, but I couldn’t blame her. She looked towards Short Staff pleadingly. “Ma… maybe we s… should build a f… f… fire?”

Short Staff turned to look at our passenger, finding that he wasn’t shivering as badly as us. He nodded as his horn lit up. “Y… yes. Ho...hold on.” His horn flared and put out a small layer of overglow, bathing nearly everything in the back of the cart in his aura. He lifted the supplies out and set them into the dirt, leaving a large rolled up object in the back. “P...pallet, see if y… you c… can set up the c… cover.”

Short Staff headed to the front of the cart when she nodded, his horn working to undo the bindings on Murial and Martha. Pallet took off into the air, taking the large roll from the bed of the wagon and lifting it higher up. Only when she was a few feet above the side of the cart, she moved her grip to one end of it and the object sprang to life with a metallic clang. A boxy cloth tent opened itself, the stately looking, warn purple of the fabric expanding out to the shape of a larger than expected tent, and though it was hard to spot in the dark, it looked like it had a balcony to it. Without waiting for an invitation, both Predious and I darted inside in the misguided hope that it was the light breeze slowly chilling us to death.

Disappointed that it didn’t work, I was happy to see the glow of Short Staff’s horn grow brighter as he came around the tent slowly. The flap lifted and the injured stallion was levitated in and set down next to me as Murial and Martha came in with them. Pallet entered, dumping a small bundle of wood in the center of all of us and backing away as Short Staff tipped his horn to it. A soft glow emanated from the wood as he whined and focused on his spell, the flame flaring up suddenly startled us, and a sharp zap emanated from his horn. He rubbed the blackened tip of his horn with a frown, scooting himself forward with the rest of us to get warm.

Predious glared at me across from the flames angrily, unnerving me to the point of breaking. “W… what!?” I snapped at him sharply. I swear to Celestia, I if could just rip his head off right now with my hooves, I would.

“Y… you okay, S… Storm?” Pallet shivered herself closer to me. The warmth her body should have given off wasn’t there, and I felt numb all over. “Why d… do you h… hate h… him?” She wrapped her wing around me, useing the ends of the feathers to turn my gaze away from Predious and toward her. “You n… never used to b… be s… so angry all the t... time. I w… want that S… Storm b… back.” Her words dropped into silence with a sad smile.

My heart ached as what she said sunk in. Yeah, I tended to be an asshole sometimes, but she was right that I’m not normally this hostile. How much he helped me when we were trapped in that facility was more than anypony else would have, yet he stayed. And since we left, I’ve been nothing but frustrated with him. I looked back to Predious, who had shifted his own sad gaze toward the fire.

As I sat thinking, the feeling of warmth slowly spread across my coat as the fire started to do its job. I cleared my voice. “Pred… ious?” I watched as he looked up slowly, his face shifting towards anger the more he gazed at me. Even if he was just the job, I had to fix this. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

His anger fell away, and he turned his gaze back toward the fire. “I’m s… sorry as well.” For a moment he just sat there, but then I noticed a smile creep across his muzzle. He caught my now puzzled look and shook his head with a shuddering laugh. “N… nopony’s c… called me Pred i…. in years.” He shrugged. “Nop…. pony I liked a…anyway.”

“See?” Pallet leaned into me, the warmth quickly returning to our bodies. “I knew y… you were a good p… pony.” She gave me a smile that felt warm itself, and as she look at me, I thought she might kiss me.

“I f… fucking knew you w… were into mares.” I gave her a smile of my own and a rough nudge.

“What? No.” Pallet scrunched up her muzzle and blushed brighter than the fire. The great thing was that among my laughs, I could tell she wasn’t shivering anymore. She stammered and looked about nervously. “Like I told you before, I was just… in the moment, that’s all.”

“Like how you w… were ‘in the moment’ last t… tuesday?” Short Staff rolled his eyes, holding his hooves out over the crackling fire.

“Back to what you said, about good ponies that is.” Predious spoke up, pulling our attentions to him. “At heart we are all good ponies.” He looked up to me, as if to deliver this one message over anything else he said. “However, this is only true until the moment when we realize that we only have to be good enough.” He blinked and looked to the others. “I’m grateful for the generosity you’ve shown to not only me, but the pegasus you saved. Not many ponies in our age would have done as you have, and I consider it a rare trait to have.”

For once something he said made sense, and for the first time in my life, I almost thought about canceling a contract. Almost.

--Chapter End--

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

Quests Finished: Out of The Freezer...

Quests Started: ...Into The Oven

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Author's Note

1/10/2014 An edited version of this chapter has been posted. Please leave comments on what you think! =D

Chapter Eleven - Redemption

“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”

We spent an hour around the campfire to rest, each of us going down in pairs to catch a quick 20 minute nap while the others kept watch and tended the lowering flames. I didn’t expect much to be out in the freezing cold, but as it lifted, I started to find myself flinching at every noise. For some reason I found my mind nudging the thought that any minute now an icy hoof was going to peel back the tent flap, and one of the frozen ponies was going to drag me back to that damn facility.

Short Staff was busying himself with trying to change the bandages on our mysterious pegasus. He had assured me that the potion he used on the stallion stabilized his condition, and that he no longer seemed to be bleeding internally bad enough that he might die within hours. Still, he suggested that we still get to Dodge as quickly as possible for some help, and the longer my mind toyed with me, the more I wanted to go now. Maybe I just needed some sleep.

I looked at the clock in my pipbuck, noting that Pallet and Predious still had another two minutes before I was supposed to wake them. Looking at Predious, you’d never have guessed he was asleep. He just lay there, breathing rhythmically and shifting positions every now and again. This was the polar opposite of Pallet, who had always sounded like she was imitating some sort of power tool as she slept on her back. Muriel and Martha were the only ones who didn’t seem tired at all, but it probably came from them trading off sleeping while the other one worked their body.

The heavy metallic stomps of Iron Will perked my ears, the sharp stomps shook the ground as I yawned. The vibrations of his walking made Predious open his eyes, and he sat looking at me for a second before he gave a short yawn.

“Twenty minutes up already?” He stretched, cringing as Pallet’s snoring seemed to catch him off guard. I shrugged and looked over to Short Staff, who finished tightening the pegasus’s bandages before sighing.

“Leave Pallet to sleep, she needs the energy more than I do.” Short Staff yawned and tucked his supplies back into his bag. “Get some rest as well Storm, I need anypony who can fight ready to clear the way if we need it.”

“If I may say,” Predious raised his hoof as he spoke up. “I can watch the camp myself. I will tend the fire and wake you if anything goes wrong.” His words must have resonated deeply in Short Staff, and that seemed to be all the permission he needed before he flopped down onto his bag and was asleep moments later.

I slowly lowered myself to the dirt and shifted myself a few times until I found a position that didn’t annoy me. Twenty minutes wasn’t a lot of time, but I was going to make the most of it. In my head, I started to picture myself in the places that all the prewar images showed off. I thought of myself at the beach, amongst all the other fun loving ponies living in such a carefree world. It would be amazing, with the white sand under my hooves, the cool ocean breeze, and the warm summer sun. It would be more than just amazing, no, that’s not the right word at all. It would be paradise.

* * * * * * * * *

“Get to work, foal!” I shouted angrily, my voice full of unkempt hatred. A small, frightened mare scampered into one of the maintenance ducts that ran through the bloodied halls of that damned facility.

The voice that came from me was not my own, but a middle aged stallion’s. I felt odd, a special kind of out of place as I watched the world pass by through his eyes. He passed the broken down door where Iron Will had fought Predious and I, noting the total destruction of the room with only a dismissive grunt. I had no idea where he was going, but as he curved further down the halls, an unexpected sight met my eyes.

He stood a good foot taller than I, clad from hoof to head in the heavy steel armor iconic to Equestria’s finest line of douchebags, the Steel Rangers. When he reached up and took off his helmet, I noticed two things right away. The first was that his light green coat, and soft yellow mane were a sharp contrast to the deep brown of his eyes. The second thing I noticed, was that the smile he wore didn’t fit him, it seemed forced.

He spoke up. “Scribe Tabasco has almost gained access to the facilities systems, and all sweep teams report no signs of whoever fixed the generators.” His voice was deep for a stallion, and had I been there, I probably would have shuddered. With that voice and a body like that, it wasn’t paradise, but I could see this dream turning out quite fun after all.

“The who is unimportant.” The stallion I was emoting through snapped at him, and I felt his anger as it pulsed through him. “When your elder agreed to my terms on the ground that you and the colt would stay out of my control, I had not known you could be so chatty. Maybe I should just take the foal against his will anyway so you will keep your muzzle shut. How would you like that, Star Paladin Maize?” When the paladin shrank in fear, the stallion I was in let out a maddening, mirthful laugh. “Lucky for you, I have no need to take his mind just yet. Bring me to the colt.”

“Yes, at once.” The reluctant paladin spoke quickly and looked through a small doorway to his right. “He is this way.”

The two said no more as they entered a small hallway, at the other end was a wide doorway that showed off a few of the lit up sections of the round central room that we’d met Pai in. As they entered, I could make out a half a dozen ponies scurrying about with terminal components or mechanical hardware in their grasp. Each one deftly kept their eyes from the stallion I was in, and the paladin and I made our way to a red coated foal with a peppery gray mane.

“Scribe Tabasco, report.” Maize spoke as he tapped the young colt.

“Almost there sir!” The small colt had his face buried in a veritable sea of wires, his small horn aglow as he put two together almost as fast as he tore them apart. “The bypass should be ready just… about… now!” There was a sharp snap that came from the Terminal next to him, and the light green interface dimmed for a moment before returning blank. He turned and got to his hooves, wiping his forehead and smiling brightly. “Anything you want, I can find it with a keystroke!”

“Good, good!” My stallion rubbed his forehooves together as his excitement coursed through me. I knew that I had no reason to feel excited, but whatever this stallion’s plan was, I genuinely felt good about it. “Now that the pestering machine isn't here to stop my puppets, I can finally retrieve the data! Minion Tabasco, find me my amulet!”

Tabasco deftly hopped up onto Maize’s armored back, his horn letting out a brighter glow as the terminal keys started to work at an amazing rate. The stallion I was, was just close enough to read what scrolled across the screen.

[Function>Search>Archives…

[… Done. Main Directory Indexed.

[Search>M.A.S.>Artifact Registry>...

[Access denied - Celestia tier clearance required]

Tabasco let out a disappointed sigh. “I'm sorry my lord, the information cannot be accessed here.”

Just hearing this made my stallion quake with rage. “INSOLENT FOAL!” He belted out, eliciting a set of gasps and sad whines from across the room. “Is there no way to work around this? Are you to tell me that you cannot complete the one task you must do for me to free your regiment?” My stallion’s voice softened as the colt shook in fear on the Paladin’s back. He spoke in a more delicate tone, feining calm when I could feel his anger and disappointment coursing through myself. “I am sorry I snapped, and I do apologize. I was just...” He let out a sigh and looked up to the worried face of Maize. “I was hoping for so much better from you.”

“I… I’m sorry!” Tabasco sobbed between his hooves. “I’ll try harder next time! There’s no need to punish me again!” He whimpered.

“Oh you needn't worry, Child.” A peculiar feeling grew on my forehead, and the sharp snap of cold felt like it forced an icicle through my skull. The quick flash of light that filled my vision hung in the Paladin’s eyes as his expression went blank, his dreamy brown eyes now swapped for a pair of cold, emotionless ones. “It is not you who I’ll punish.”

Tabasco rubbed his eyes with his hooves and blinked, looking over the unmoving paladin with increasing sadness. “Daddy?”

My stallion belted out a laugh as I felt overjoyed with the suffering and misery of the small colt, turning and walking back down the hallway we came through as I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

I didn’t like this dream anymore… not at all.

* * * * * * * * *

The sound of creaking wood was the first thing I heard as I stirred awake. Opening my eyes, I was met with a slightly lighter tone of cloud cover as the clock in my pipbuck read that it was 4am. With a sigh and a grunt, I pushed myself up, having a hard time steadying myself in the rocking cart as we rolled down the dark road quickly.

“Glad you could join us again.” Predious spoke up from behind the cart, breaking the still of the cool early morning air. “We tried to wake you, but you were out cold.” His horn glowed brighter so that I could actually see him. “Oh, and speaking of, it’s been above freezing for hours so progress has been good. We’re only a good four hours from Dodge, so it might be best if you get yourself ready as we’re now back in raider territory.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” I stretched out my hooves and hoofed at my gun, slowly remembering how useless it was going to be with only one rubber bullet left. With a groan I looked up to the front of the cart and gave a yell to Short Staff. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be hauling any .44 magnum, would you?”

“I might!” He yelled back between panting breaths. “Silver box… check it!”

I looked around myself in the dim light, finding a small toolbox set next to the injured pegasus. As carefully as I could, I made my way over to it, standing over the stallion as I hoofed the latch open and swung the top up. Inside were assorted boxes and plastic trays holding various brass casings. It was hard to read, but I hoofed a box labeled .44 out of its place and opened the folded cardboard, being greeted by the sight of nearly half a box of hollow point rounds.

“Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” I remarked happily to myself. With a smile, I hoofed the box into my satchel, finding that the pipbuck’s display changed to having 19 rounds listed on it.

“You sure are…” The strained voice that came from under me made my mane stand on end.

“Ack!” I yelped and stumbled backwards, struggling to find my hoofing again as the cart rambled over the uneven ground. As was my luck, the cart hit a pothole and jumped, throwing me onto my back while my momentum bounced me right out of the wagon and onto the cold dirt. Groaning out I rubbed at my neck and stood up slowly.

“If you wanted out, I could have gotten them to stop.” Predious spoke as he cantered up to me. “You alright though?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think our passenger is awake though.” I talked as I quickly checked my gear, making sure that I still had everything. I looked back to the pegasus in the wagon, finding that he still lay there unmoving. Had I really heard him? Or was it just my ears playing tricks on me?

“I see, he must have given you quite a startle for you to fall off like that.” Predious gave me a smirk and started off into a trot. “I wouldn’t mind some company though, I’ve enjoyed our talks so far.” He said with a smile that was all too genuine. That sounded crazy to me, seeing as most of the time it was me yelling at him, but whatever. Who am I to tell him he can’t like it?

“Sure thing.” I spoke up as I trot forward, studying Predious. He certainly was an odd stallion, I’d give him that. So far, he has shown no urge to escape, no dangerous tendencies, and absolutely no applicable or useful skills whatsoever. For the life of me, I don’t know who would put a bounty on him, but the real question I wanted to ask was why they would want him at all! I just know that the urge to ask was going to sit inside me and pick away at my resolve.

“You’re staring at me again. It’s not polite you know.” He said as I approached, a dull grin on his muzzle. “I bet you’re wondering why I haven’t fled yet.” He looked to the slowly lightening sky with a light gasp. “Or is it that you’re just admiring my amazingly toned flanks? I know they can be quite a sight!”

Aside from the annoying comment, he’s got me pegged. “The not running part had crossed my mind.” I looked away, not happy that he was just waiting for me to ask. I hate being toyed with, and I won’t give him the satisfaction of me asking. “Your flanks? Not so much.”

“I know it’s not normally your place to ask, so I’ll save you the stress of wondering.” His horn brightened as he picked up the pace a bit. “You’re different, Storm. I felt it when you got near me, so I decided to stick around. Lucky me, I was right, you are certainly more than meets the eye.”

My hooves pounded the ground as we picked up into a gallop, racing to catch up to the cart. “Oh? That’s not a bad thing, is it?”

“Once again you fail to surprise me with how little you get it.” He gave me an exasperated look. I don’t know what he was talking about! He sighed. “If you were that bad to be around, we both know I wouldn’t be here.”

“Oh, I see. You know, you aren’t so bad yourself.” The sentiment was nice, but I couldn’t quite get if he meant that in a more than friendly way. I shuddered again at the thought of his flanks. “So, thanks… I guess?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” He rolled his eyes, locking his gaze when he met mine. “I have no intention in going for you in that way. We’d find ourselves quite... incompatible.”

“Damnit Pred, does everything that comes from your muzzle have to be so fucking cryptic?” I groaned. I bumped my head into the cart ahead of us, my mind so busy that I completely blanked on the fact we’d caught up.

Had I not, I might have missed the flash that came through the darkness ahead and to my right. The rocket that streaked towards us dipped low, detonating in the dirt a good ways ahead of the cart, but the shrapnel shot through the air and burrowed itself in the old wood. A yell unlike anything I’d ever heard filled the air as the whole cart shuddered and rose up into the air, flipping forward and to the side as the bloody and mutilated body of Muriel and Martha acted as an effective brake.

I watched in horror as the flipping cart ejected our pegasus passenger before slamming into the ground, splitting apart into nothing more than pieces of tinder and steel. The flutter of wings and a dull emerald outline was all I saw before the stallion we had was caught at the last moment and set down.

“Woo! Gud shot Blaster! Hit em’ a’gin!” The half witted language of what could only be a raider sang through the morning air.

“Ah’ can’t! We only had tha one rocket.” The other voice was slow to reply, but I didn’t like it either. I ducked low around the left of the twisted cart, finding Short Staff slowly dragging himself towards it. Half of his face was covered in blood, and he had several open wounds on his side. The look on his face showed that he was determined to fight for his life.

“Well fuck, Blaster! Dun go tellin them, ya dumbshit.” The voices descended into a bickering state as I reached my hooves out, hooking them around Short Staff’s and pulling him behind the wreckage. Predious ducked down beside me, looking down to Short Staff and pushing me out of the way.

“I’ll help him, but you need to shoot.” He spoke in a sharp whisper. I nodded and lay back against the the overturned cart, hoofing open my satchel and retrieving the rounds that I had just gained.

“ENOUGH!” The rumbling sound of a deep voiced mare bellowed into the night air. “Morons, get the lights up.” She snapped, pausing only for a moment before the entire wasteland flashed and was bathed in a pale yellow light. “Now, who ever you are, you came from the north. If you are here it means that you made it past my crew, and if you did that, chances are you killed them.” As she spoke, I started to load in the rounds to my gun, praying to the goddesses that there weren’t more raiders than I had bullets.

“They shot at us!” Predious yelled, drawing my gaze. What the hell was he thinking! I waved my hoof for him to stop, but undeterred, he continued. “It was self defence!”

A deep, rumbling laugh came from the mare. “How noble of you to assume that I cared about those little shits.” She snorted loud enough that we could hear it. “What I want is to hear you beg for mercy as I tear you limb from limb.”

I finished loading my rifle and turned onto my side. Slowly, I slid myself up until I could just barely peek over the wagon, having to squint just to make anything out. The pipbuck read a total of six hostiles, but I could only see one over the blinding light. The towering form of what looked like a Steel Ranger caught me off guard, but the closer I looked, the more off the armor looked as she shifted. The plates didn’t seem to connect in the right way, and the polished sheen all of the other suits of power armor had, was almost non existent.

Taking a guess that the armor was fake, I slowly slid my rifle up to the edge, tipping the barrel over slowly as the mare just stood there. I lined up the crosshairs in my scope, getting a better look at the armor. The eye plates were missing, and each of the sections were strung together with strands of thick wires, the whole set up seeming hastily cobbled together at best. I was starting to bet that the armor was little more than scrap metal bent to have the same shape as Steel Ranger armor. I pulled the trigger, firing my rifle at her head in the hopes that I could end this quickly. The round sparked brilliantly off of her helmet, and she lowered her stance in response.

“That’s more like it! Get ‘em, boys!” She bellowed out. Immediately, the rounds fired from the darkness started to ping off of the steel plates under the cart. I ducked back down as I thought I felt one of the rounds zip through my mane.

“Anytime now Pallet!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, working the action of my rifle as I looked to Predious. His magic was holding the boxy, black shotgun that Short Staff had used earlier, and he looked to me with a smile. I had my apprehensions on him using another weapon, but could only grit my teeth as a few more rounds chewed away at the ends of the wagon. “Just make sure to shoot the raiders and not us.”

He feigned a look of shock. “Miss Storm, I wouldn’t dare!” A few more rounds sparked off the top of the cart, and one punched through the splintered lower sections, digging into the dirt between us. The high pitched reports of Pallet’s battle saddle ended with an effeminate scream erupting from the raiders.

“Less Sarcasm, more killing!” I yelled, twisting myself up to fire a few shots, but finding myself taking too long to aim in the bright lights. Ducking back down, I cursed the damn lights as they were just going to make aiming too damn long for me to be accurate! Predious shifted up next to me, poking his head over the edge just far enough that he could see. He levitated the shotgun up next to him slowly, taking careful aim before letting off three shots and making one of the red lines disappear.

“I believe the score is Predious one, Storm zero.” He looked to me with a smirk. This might sound wrong but I hate unicorns and their cheater magic. I tried standing up to aim again, but only found myself dropping back into cover just as I pulled my sights up. If only I could get a few more seconds…

My display changed to pink as Pai popped up. “It looks like you are trying to fight more efficiently. Would you like some assistance?” She smiled wide and didn’t wait for me to answer. “You could wait the ten minutes it will take for Iron Will to arrive, OR, you could activate SATS to help you aim.” I had forgotten about that function and cursed myself yet again for not remembering to use it before. I stood up to aim and felt as time around me slowed to a crawl, the time alteration spell taking effect and filling the darkness with pink outlines. “Now just think who you want to hurt and the spell will make it happen. Easy Peasy!”

I thought that whoever was closest would be my best shot, and the system responded by shifting my vision to a raider who was attempting to outflank us. His body was dissected into different parts by the spell and each section was given a different chance to hit. His chest had a 55% on it, and was the highest of all the percentages, so I figured I would just shoot there. A soft click emit with my thought, and the words ‘center mass’ popped up under Pai.

“Ooo! Good choice, but I suggest using the spell for more than one shot if you want to be more effective. I estimate that you will be able to fire four before the spell’s energy is expended.” Pai bounced about my vision on her hooves. “Why not do… this?” She spoke as the readout acted on its own, shifting my perspective to the raider that was on the complete opposite side of the fight. Her chest highlighted and another ‘center mass’ prompt displayed. “Now just think that you’re done and let the spell work it’s magic!”

I did just that and felt the magic take over, guiding my hooves to fire the first shot. I couldn’t even see the stallion as he ran, but as the gun went off, his blip disappeared. A round ricocheted off the steel plate in front of me, barely missing my torso as I spun and lined up the next shot. I could only just barely see the whites of the mare’s eyes, but she was looking right at me as my hoof worked the action, pulling the trigger as the breech locked back into battery. The round knocked her blip off of my pipbuck as well, and as the spell assistance ended, I dropped back down behind the cover next to Predious.

I couldn’t help but feel a smile spread across my lips as I sat next to him. “Make that Storm two, Pred one.” I yelled over the dull ringing in my ears. The whine of Pallet’s gauss rifles firing again dampened the waves of shots against us, but more than a few started to zip through the disintegrating cart. Pai waved her hooves to get my attention, pointing down to the still half full bar of spell power for SATS. I nudged my muzzle towards the raiders. “Give me some covering fire.”

His response came through the quick, unaimed blasts from the shotgun, making none of the blips disappear, but nearly stopping the raiders from getting any shots off. “I’m out!” He shouted as they scrambled to find their own cover. Seizing the moment, I jumped back to a standing position and pulled up the spell again. I needed to get through the armor on the lead mare, but I wasn’t sure how. I let the targeting system highlight her and section her out, but it was no use. The hollow point rounds I had weren’t any good for armored targets!

“Let me help you with that, sis!” Pai shouted and fuzzed the screen for a second. When it cleared, a new targetable section of the raider mare selected, highlighting the tied joints on her armor. For a moment, I wanted to hug the little pest for helping me, but fighting comes first. “Awww, it’s no big deal. We’re like family, right?”

I forgot she could listen in on my thoughts.

I selected the most exposed joint in her chestplate, selecting it before confirming the next shot at what would be her exposed coat. As the spell executed, I worked the action blindingly fast, firing the first shot at the joint, and shredding it as I had hoped. To my dissapointment, for as smart as the system was, the only speed it worked at was too fast for the armor to fall away. The second shot flattened against the plate harmlessly, and the spell dropped me back into combat.

With one round left, I worked the action quickly and took aim, firing and striking the mares exposed chest. The added risk of me guaranteeing the shot came back to haunt me as I felt one of their shots tear through my right shoulder, sending me spinning down to the dirt with a yelp. Jumping back and forth in the augmented flow of the time spell had left me disoriented and stunned. It was hard to stay focused, but I rolled onto my back and glanced down at my shoulder, which turned out to be a mistake.

The round hadn’t impacted deep, but skimmed just under my coat, blowing an entire chunk of my flesh off and leaving the rest of the muscle and bones exposed. I could barely move my right foreleg, and as I lay there, I heard heavy stomps making their way closer. I watched as the armored mare had somehow ignored her practically fountaining chest wound, the dark eyeholes of her helmet staring down at me as she reared up. I caught quick glances at the inch long spikes that protruded under the boots she wore, and rolled to avoid them as she brought them down. Letting out a scream, I grasped at my shoulder as I barely got out of the way, but rolled over the open wound.

The glancing shot was worse than I thought it had been, and I was losing blood fast. With Predious out of ammo, Short Staff down for the count, and Pallet who know’s where, I didn’t have high hopes of lasting much longer. But as the mare let out an angry roar and lifted her forehooves again, Predious threw himself against her, making her stumble. She took a few sluggish steps to steady herself, ripping off her helmet as I got a good look at the bitch.

The pale yellow coated mare had pinprick eyes and a scraggly done up mohawk, practically foaming from the mouth as she shook in rage. She screamed out and lowered herself to charge. “I’m going to tear you to…”

“Get away from her you bitch!” The high pitched whine of Gauss filled my ears, and the mare’s head exploded. Her neck turned to ribbons as Pallet swooped down and skidded to as stop next to me. The world turned fuzzy as she started to shout, and everything around me in the brightening morning started to run together.

* * * * * * * * *

I must have passed out at some point, because when I awoke, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of staring at Predious’s flank. I groaned and tapped at it as I swayed on his back, wiggling myself until I flopped onto the dirt. I let out a yelp as I dropped onto my shoulder, panting lightly as I looked at it. The purple tent fabric was bound around it tightly, and though it still hurt, at least the bleeding had stopped.

“Oh, good, you’re alive. We’re almost there, and Pallet tells me we’ll need you to get Stim Pack to help us.” Predious duly commented as I picked myself up. I set my right hoof down lightly, whimpering as a spike of pain ran down it. “You shouldn’t put any weight on it, not until we get into town.” He scoffed. I looked up, squinting as the morning sun peeked its way between the cloud cover and the horizon to our left. Predious looked over me with a disinterested look, and the dark form of the injured Pegasus lay sprawled over his back.

“You carried both of us?” I asked slowly, trying to reorient myself as I looked around. Pallet was walking a fair clip ahead, the shape of Short Staff bloodied and draped across her back gave me some hope that he was still alive. Further up the road was the familiar sight of Dodge, and for some reason I just wanted to run there.

“I had to. Pallet could only handle Short Staff over there.” He spoke wearily and watched as I hobbled towards him. “It’s going to be hard but I need you to go faster. Your friend is in pretty bad shape and we’re almost there.”

That was all I needed to get my head back on straight. I pushed myself to hobble forward, hopping along when I worked myself up to a good enough pace. It was a lot more exhausting than even running had been, but I’m sure that is just the blood loss. The settlement was drawing closer as I did my best to speed up, making it almost to the speed of a trot as I got up to Pallet.

She offered no smile as I looked back to her, only keeping her determined eyes locked onto Dodge as her puffy cheeks were still wet with tears. I steamed on ahead as we entered the town, pointing myself directly towards Stim Pack’s clinic and used my head as a ram to push open the door.

“Stim Pack, get over her NOW.” I shouted, not even noticing that the old, grey bearded pony had been face down on his desk when I entered. He didn’t budge as I waited for a response, instead letting out a soft snoring. I picked out one of the mostly empty bottles of alcohol on his desk and bit down on the neck, swinging it down hard and shattering it.

That got him to wake up. “Wha!? What is it?” He shouted and stumbled backwards, falling to the floor in a half drunken stupor. He looked at me with wavering eyes that slowly hardened. “Damnit Miss, can’t you see I’m very busy working tonight?”

I looked at the handy clock in my vision. “It’s 7 am.” I growled and used my injured leg to point towards the door. “I have an emergency, so I need you to sober up and get your shit together.” As I finished, the door burst open and Pallet pushed her way in, walking into the back room where the treatment beds were kept.

“N… now hold on just a minute.” Stim Pack stammered at the sight, flinching as the door opened again as Predious pushed his way inside. “You bring in fuckin unicorns and pegasi? Can't anypony ever bring me simple earth ponies?”

“Because you’re a racist asshole and a drunk.” I shot back, glaring at him. “If my earth pony money is too good for you, then we’ll leave and you can find another way to fund your habit.” I turned and didn’t let him respond, simply hobbling into the next room to wait.

I could hear him grumble as he gathered up his tools from amongst the clutter of the other room, finally joining us in the back after a minute. Short Staff and the Pegasus had been placed on the two surgical tables in the room, and we stood idly by as Doc Stim Pack came in and gave them a quick look over. He turned back to us with a sigh.

“They're both fairly bad off, and I might only be able to save one of them.” He shook his head and set his tool bag down, opening it up. “As much as it pains me, I’ll work on both, but you’re going to have to choose which one you want to see walk out of here if worst comes to worst.”

“Save Short Staff.” I spoke up, drawing a confused look from both Pallet and Stim Pack. “The unicorn you moron!” I growled out. “How do you not recognize him? You’ve treated him here before!”

“Storm, he would want us to fix the pegasus we found first.” Pallet spoke barely above a whisper.

Painfully, I reached back my injured leg and smacked her across the muzzle. “You heard him! This guy could be a criminal for all we know!” I hissed through the pain, shaking my leg as pain ebbed through it. “I'd rather save the pony I know deserves to walk away from this shitty clinic.”

“I’ll work on your unicorn friend first, but I need space to work.” He glared at me and flicked his hoof at the door. “You all might as well leave and go about your business. I’ll come find you when I finish working on them.” He glanced to the others, getting only a nod before Pallet and Predious turned to leave. The moment I did, he held his hoof out and stopped me. “When I’m done with them, I’ll look at that shoulder of yours, but you don’t let them out of your sight. You know I don’t trust their kind, and I know they are up to something.”

“Look, I personally don’t care that you’re racist.” I jabbed at him with my hurt leg, wincing each time. “But if you let either of them die on account that they were born different, I promise you I will put a bounty on your head and claim it myself. Got that?” I snarled and pushed myself away from him. Exiting the room, I shut the door behind me and relaxed, feeling myself go lightheaded as both Predious and Pallet looked to me. “We’ve got some time to kill before he’s done. I suggest we go tell Harmony what happened.” I felt my legs give out from under me as the world spun for a moment.

“Maybe we should tell her after we see if she has any restoration potions.” Pallet spoke up, quickly walking over and helping me get back to my hooves. “Then we’ll let her loose on Stim Pack, alright?”

“Yeash, shure.” I mumbled out, slurring my words as I was hoisted back onto Predious. “Ah’m jusht gonna shleep again...” I knew I trailed off there at the end, but honestly I didn’t care anymore. I was warm, alive, and best of all, safe at the closest thing I called home.

--Chapter End--

“It’s all downhill from here.”

Quests Finished: Black Buck Down

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Author's Note

1/11/2014 An edited version of this chapter has been posted. Please leave comments on what you think! =D

Chapter Twelve - Recovery

“Even a bounty hunter knows that friendship can't be bought by a bonus, spare it like your ammo.”

Stirring awake as I felt a prick in my leg, the numbing sensation of Med-X filled me with a profound warmth, making the stiff boards I lay on seem like the most comfortable place in the wastes. Of course, now that I was awake, that fantasy had to be boxed back away into the back of my mind like so many other mornings filled with the rest of my disappointing life. My shoulder was still bound tightly, meaning that they had not patched me up while I was out. But I didn’t so much care as the painkiller worked magnificently to dull down the pain.

“She’s lucky tha bullet went through cleanly.” From Harmony’s voice, I could tell she was pissed. “It’s bad enough that Short Staff made tha call ta save that pegasus, but on top-a that, yah tell me that he knew Storm came from an Orchard and he still agree’d ta bring her along?” She groaned and sat down on the floor hard. Not going to lie, but having my oldest friend sound like I was some monster was not exactly what I was expecting to wake up to. “He never heard what ah did from dad, but those places? Full a nothing but trouble.”

“Glad to know…” I grumbled and tried to push myself up. “I’m so loved.” Even through the Med-X, my shoulder burned like hell to hold my weight. She made a move to speak, but I lifted my hoof to silence her, using it as a good excuse to get my weight off it anyway. “I don’t really care if you meant it or not, how are the others?” I went to get up, but stumbled slightly. Pallet stepped forward and let me lean on her as she spoke.

“Well, Short Staff should be fine, but Stim Pack says that he doesn’t know if our mystery pegasus will make it.” She gave me a small nuzzle. “I’m just glad you two are alright. You might just be my cousin, and that we aren’t really family, but it’d be a shame to lose you just the same.”

“Cut the shit, Pallet.” I pushed her away and got up. “Harmony said it herself, I’m trouble. Always have been, always will be. Probably more so now that I know I’m some fucked up pre-war abomination of science.”

“That ain’t what ah was sayin.” She crossed her hooves across her chest and looked away defiantly.

“Well that’s how it sounded from my end.” Wobbly, I made my way to her. “And since you claim to know that I’m trouble, maybe you can enlighten me by explaining just what the hell I am.” My shoulder burned as I reached out and prodded her chest, forcing her to pay attention to me. “Cause I’m all ears Harmony. All I have are broken memories, fragment’s of entries from the doctor claiming to be my father, and the knowledge that the one pony I trusted most back then abandoned her daughter before going on to blow up the whole goddess damned planet.” She took a step back from me as my words cut deep, her muzzle trembling as her watery eyes were locked on mine.

My verbal assault was relentless, and I didn’t feel like I had gotten my point across. “You’re right in that I’m not like you. You have a brother and a family you can call your own. I wasn’t born, I was built. Equestria wanted to make me a weapon, something that could win them their petty fucking war. And all I’ve ever wanted to do was help! Fuck, Harmony, even around you I try so fucking hard to be a good friend, but now you cast me aside just as quickly as they did when they learned I wasn’t what they wanted me to be. You can call me a monster all you want, but that news is reaching these ears a century and a half too fucking late to mean anything anymore.”

“Storm, there’s no need for harsh words.” Pallet’s voice was soft, and even though I didn’t want to, I needed to get this out. “She didn’t mean what she said.” I felt her hoof brush across my cheek, wiping the tears I hadn’t realized I had been crying.

In the silence that followed, Harmony simply got up, walked to the door, and left. I sat back and twisted my hoof around, staring at the old number three shaped scar I had on it. I closed my eyes shut, clenching them hard as I tried to remember when I got it, dredging my mind for a fleeting memory, the spark of a feeling, anything. There was nothing there to grab hold of, the ease in which I found them before was gone like the friend I had just blown up on.

“I didn’t ask for this, Pallet.” I shook my head slowly, wanting to just wind back the clocks to last week and to run as far from what my life is as possible.

“I know that there’s good in you, Storm. I’ve seen it since you were a just bright eyed filly.” She was doing her best to comfort me, but I didn’t need comfort, I needed answers.

“I just don’t know what to think anymore.” I opened my eyes and looked to the door. “I think it’s best if we both just cool off for a while. She’s already got enough to deal with right now.” As I limped toward the door, she let out a disappointed sigh. With a sigh of my own, I asked the one thing that could help get my mind off this. “Do you know where Predious is?”

“He…” She hesitated. I knew Pallet wanted me to stay, but I couldn’t. I needed to work, and I think she knew that. “He’s at Cask’s.”

“Thank you, Pallet.” I gave her a weak smile. “It’s good to know you still stand by me, no matter what.” I pushed against the old wooden door and left Harmony’s shop, turning towards the markets to head towards Cask's Watering Hole. Of all the placed he could have gone, and with as smart as he is, I would have assumed he would have picked a better dump to crawl into. Then again, he does have a bounty on his head, so it might not have been a bad place to lay low.

My vision flickered to Pink for a moment as Pai popped into my vision. “Hey Sis, mind if we talk for a moment?”

“Not really in the mood.” I looked around to make sure that nopony was listening in. “You need to keep a low profile when I’m around others. I don’t want anypony freaking out because I have a computer pony living in my pipbuck.”

The color shifted to blue and Pai let out a sniffle. “Why would they hate me when I’m just trying to be friendly? Is it just that you are embarrassed by me?” She slumped down in the bottom of my vision.

“No, that’s not it.” I shook my head. “I told you it was different out here, and ponies in the wasteland fear new things.” I stopped as a pair of trench coated mares walked from up the street, stopping in front of Cask’s. I stopped and averted my gaze to a food cart I just happened to be strolling by and hoping that they couldn’t hear me seemingly talking to myself. The last thing I need in this town is a reputation for being crazy.

My vision flashed to pink. “Umm, sis…”

“Quiet, not now.” I spat out in a harsh whisper as I stared intently at the worn image of a smiling carrot nestled in a bun as mustard was poured onto it.

Pai’s muzzle disappeared from her face with the help of a digital arrow, and she quickly got to work flailing her hooves towards my EFS bar. I groaned as my eyes found two marks that were red amongst the sea of pink, and as I looked back towards the bar, the red bars moved into it as the mares did. One of them was a unicorn, and as she entered I saw the quick flash of her magic pulling a small square of paper from her coat.

“Shit.” I growled out as I pushed myself into a gallop. “Of course bounty hunters would never show up here, because my life is perfect and nothing ever goes wrong.” I am so tired of shit not going my way because I haven’t got a single damned lucky break in my life.

Even before I reached the door, I could hear the panicked gasps of patrons before they fled out the doorway. It was tough, but I pushed myself through the river of ponies, getting inside just as the flow tapered off. The bartender had his head peaked about the bartop, his eyes peering between the various half finished drinks to the corner at my left. Next to the fireplace stood two well worn looking mares, each of them standing at the other side of a table where a very unnerved looking Predious sat.

“Hey!” I shouted, making the earth pony turn to look at me. Her olive green coat turned a mottled brown as my eyes looked at half her head. The burn that covered that half of her head was punctuated by the sharp pink eyes that glared at me. I really wish that I had grabbed my coat, taking a step forward and pointing to Predious. “Back off, I've already claimed his bounty. Find your own.”

“Sorry sugar.” Despite half of her head looking like a rotten apple, her voice was as sweet as silk. “But he’s the property of the gumdrop sisters now.” She hoofed her coat open just enough to reveal the bit to a large, scoped revolver. “Now, I suggest that it’s you who find your own.” She leaned her head down towards the bit. “Or… if you think you’re faster on the draw than I am...”

As the other mare glanced over to me as well, I reached my neck down slowly, knowing exactly how these situations always ended up. I bit down for the bit to my .45 auto pistol I always used, instead only snapping my teeth around air. In that moment, I remember that when I woke up from falling in the facility, it was gone. Had it dropped somewhere? I don’t remember taking the holster off when I woke up, and I haven’t really thought about where it was until now.

“SIS, LOOK OUT!” The second mare shouted as she swung at Predious, knocking the very pistol I had misplaced from his magic.

That fucking dick had stolen it!

Using the chaos to my advantage, I lunged at the mare with the revolver, slamming into her with my shoulder, getting more of a pained yelp from my muzzle than hers. She was quick to react though, rolling way from my hit and onto her side before she used all four of her hooves to kick me away. I slammed into a table loaded with half finished drinks, sending them to the floor in a spectacular display of broken glass and strong fumes. She reached for her revolver, as I tried to get up, the two of us locked in a vicious glare.

The report of the bartender’s shotgun made the four of us fighting, freeze in place.

“All four of ya, OUT.” He shouted as he levitated the shotgun over me and towards the others. I broke my gaze from the burned mare to look over to Predious, who had the other mare pressed back just above the fire in the fireplace, and my glowing orange .45 in his magic. “Consider yourselves banned from my bar, seein as you know the rules about no scuffles inside the town.”

“This isn’t over, bitch.” The burned mare scowled and shrugged her trenchcoat back up, covering her gun as she stepped by slowly. Her sister only growled as Predious stepped back from her, her horn glowing as it picked up a large sniper rifle that had been set against the doorframe.

Predious looked to my gun, watching as the plastic parts of the bit melted away from the heat of the fire. He tossed it onto the floor and stepped over to me, holding his hoof out. I took it and grunted as he pulled me up, looking to the very unhappy Cask as he followed us with his gun. I didn’t so much care about being banned from his shitty bar, as I was concerned that the actually good places wouldn’t let me in anymore. We both make our way out of the bar and back into the street, catching the angry gazes of the displaced bar goers as they hung around outside. I steered the two of us back towards Harmony’s shop, whining as each step was agony, even through the Med-X.

“I’m no doctor, but I don’t think a shoulder is supposed to look that lumpy.” Predious pointed out as he strode effortlessly beside me.

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance. “Next you’re going to tell me it’s not supposed to hurt this much.” I shot back with a roll of my eyes. He caught my glance and nudged his head towards Stim Pack’s place. I let out a deep sigh and thought that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to go get myself patched up a bit. At the very least, deal with this shoulder before it gets infected. “Alright, I’ll go. But you need to stay in Harmony’s shop, and keep to the back room, where no more bounty hunters will look.”

“Sure thing, Storm.” He replied cheerfully and pranced off past me without a care in the world. That stallion was a few screws shy in the head, of that I was damn sure, but as long as he’s alive, I can finish this contract. I turned myself to cross the street, heading for Stim Pack’s clinic and cringing at a thought. What is worse? Having the injury and the risk of dying by infection, or being charged extra for over medication because Doc Stim was going to pamper his earth pony patient?

I hung my head. “I hate my life.”

* * * * * * * * *

I took a deep drag from my cigarette as I sat outside of Harmony’s shop, letting the two hundred year old carcinogens run through my body. Stim Pack used one of his last healing potions in stock to treat my shoulder, also relocating it from the fight in the bar. Iron Will had showed up a few minutes ago, Short Staff was weak, but awake, and our Pegasus mystery stallion was still in stable, but unconscious condition. Overall, things were finally going well.

My ears perked as the door to Harmony’s shop opened, and my oldest friend walked over and sat down beside me. I hoofed my half empty cigarette pack up as I spat out the ashen butt of the one I just finished, biting on a new one before offering Harmony her own. She shook her head and pushed it away with her hoof.

“Ah’m sorry, Storm.” She spoke as I reached around in my satchel, pulling my lighter back out for the fifth time in as many minutes. The tip glowed as the fire burned it, my hoof flicking to snap the lighter shut as I inhaled deeply, holding it as I thought about our fight earlier.

“No, you were right.” I blew the smoke out slowly, leaning back and laying on the dirt as I relaxed. “Trouble likes to follow me. Always has, always will I suppose.”

“As true as that may be, yah not a monster.” She clenched her eyes and put her forehoof against her temple. “Ah just… panicked is all.” Putting her hoof down, she looked down at me as I took another draw from my cigarette. “Mah father gave his life ta stop a mare who came from one of those places. And even though Ah’ve known yah all mah life, for a split second ah forgot that.”

“Look, everything is in the past. That facility ceased to be important when the war ended. I’m Storm Rider. Whatever came before her is long dead.” I nudged her as I spoke. “Besides, I’m just glad we ran into Pallet and your brother. Project Harmony or not, there was no way I was going to make it past all those raiders alive.”

“Really? That’s what y’all were called?” Harmony let out a chuckle and laid back next to me. “Guess they couldn’t have known yah’d be friends with an actual real Harmony.”

“You aren’t really a Harmony though. You’re name is Harmonic Drive, so in a sense I’M the real Harmony.” I smiled before taking another draw from my cigarette, flicking it away as I saw Pallet dip down into view through the metal framework over the roadway. I blew out the smoke as she touched down, getting back to my hooves as I looked her over. “Hey, you good enough to do me a favor?”

“Depends on the favor.” She smiled and winked at me.

I couldn’t help but blush from that, trying to recover my composure quickly. “Uh, there are a couple of bounty hunters who want me dead. Fought them earlier in the bar and I know they’ll just be waiting to ambush Pred and I outside of town.”

“Yeah, I spotted them on my flight earlier. Their set up in the craggy hills about twenty minutes to the southeast.” She rubbed her fetlock over her other forehoof and looked away. “And I’m pretty sure they saw me as well, so I don’t think I’ll be able to help. One of their rounds zipped through the cloud I was skimming under, so one of them is a pretty decent shot.”

“Well, Ah’ll come with ya then.” Harmony shrugged and turned towards the store’s entrance. “An don’t yah think about arguing. Ah’m the best markspony yah know, and Ah’m pretty sure you want ta hit ‘em before the sun sets. Just give me a few ta gather what Ah need and we can head on out.”

“No offence Harmony, but you aren’t exactly…” I put my hoof to my chin as I searched for the right words. “Combat proficient?”

“Are yah sayin Ah can’t handle mahself in a fight?” That seemed to have hit a nerve. “Did yah forget about how Ah saved yah flank a week ago?”

“Alright, alright!” I flailed my hooves. “Just… be carefull. Those two looked like they’ve seen the worst the wastes have to offer. I just don’t want you getting yourself killed over this.”

“Don’t worry, Ah got a special somethin Ah’ve been savin just for a time like this!” Harmony looked back with a wide grin. “They ain’t gonna see it comin, Ah promise that.” She opened the door and had to step aside as Predious strode out.

Pallet cleared her throat. “I’m going to go see if Short Staff needs anything. You going to be alright Storm?”

I nodded, hoofing my cigarette box back to my muzzle and biting down on another of the amazing stress relieving sticks. I may have not realized the need to smoke in the last week, but damn does it feel good now. As I put the pack back into my satchel and hoofed around for my lighter, Predious merely leaned forward and touched his horn to the end of my cigarette, lighting it with a fire spell.

I puffed a few times to get it going and sighed happily. “Thanks, Pred.” I watched as Pallet jumped up into the air and glided her way to the entrance of Stim Pack’s clinic.

“If we are going after those hunters, may I make a suggestion?” He sounded more direct than ever as he spoke. “Seeing as the contract out for me specifies that they need me alive, I suggest you stay behind me as we approach. They will be less likely to fire if there is a risk of hitting me.”

“That was already the plan.” I may not have good luck, but I certainly wasn’t stupid. The fact that he of all ponies brought it up intrigued me though. “But why do you care if I get shot? My goal is the same as theirs, and I didn’t think you’d care who turned you in so long as you got there in one piece.”

He let out a quick laugh. “You forget Miss Storm, I find you interesting to be around.” He walked around me and held his hoof out to me. “You are an enigma, a prewar puzzle just waiting to be solved. If I were to go with the sisters, then it would be a most boring trek that would most likely result in my untimely death.” He stopped as he came around the front of me again. “If it came down to it, who would one of them protect more? An injured sister, or just one of a dozen potential money making contracts?”

“While true, what do you even hope to gain from solving a puzzle like me?” I smirked and took another draw from my smoke, holding it in and savoring the slight hint of cherry it gave.

“Knowledge? Understanding? Wisdom?” He shrugged. “The books in the library did not give me the information inside of them with some ulterior motive, but instead did so with the intent that whoever reads, could use that knowledge to build something greater than themselves.”

I put my hooves up and chuckled, blowing out wispy clouds. “Okay there Play Dough, no need to philosophise so much.” I looked at his generally shocked expression lingered on his face. “Hey, I read books when I was young too you know. My parents had mostly boring ones on hoof, with the only other real fun option being Daring Do.” I sighed, remembering that I still didn’t get to finish the end of book three.

“I’m sorry, but I never expected to hear the name of one of the greatest Philosophers of all time to come from your muz...” He stopped himself, and shifted nervously as I raised my eyebrow at him. “What I meant, was that it’s good to see another fan of his work.”

“Speakin of work!” Harmony grumbled as a large pipe forced the door open. “Y’all care ta get the door for me?”

Predious’s horn glowed and pulled the door back, allowing Harmony to carefully guide herself through the entrance to her shop. What I had thought a pipe, turned out the be the hulking barrel to one of the biggest rifles I’d ever seen. It sat attached to a battle saddle that sagged heavily to the side, the other half of it not counterweighted nearly enough. As she stepped into the street and swung the enormous barrel towards us, I was fairly sure my face looked the same as Pred’s had a few moments ago.

“That… um.” I stammered, not really able to comprehend the awesomeness before me. “That sure is something!” I forced out, realizing after the fact that I sounded like a blathering idiot. I forced myself to deadpan as I looked at her. “You sure that’s going to be enough? Perhaps you want to bring something less subtle, a megaspell perhaps?”

Harmony rolled her eyes with a smirk and trot past me. “Come on ladies, we need to leave now if we plan on hitting them anytime before sunset.”

“Hey Pred, you ever read about a gun that big?” I asked, turning around and trotting beside him after Harmony.

“Yes, and I believe the correct term is ‘Cannon’.” He snickered and nudged me. Oh this was definitely going to be a fun trip out of town.

* * * * * * * * *

I hated knowingly walking into ambushes, but other than wasting an entire days trip to loop around west, I didn’t see another way around this. Not to mention, they might have just slipped back into town tonight and attempted to kill us while we were sleeping if we waited for tomorrow. But this is why Harmony is getting set up on one of the hills quite a ways back, and Predious was walking with a bounce to his step in front of me. If they want my life, they are going to have to try their best to take it, and pay for it dearly.

“Storm, up on the ridge to our left.” He spoke in a whisper.

Sure enough, up ahead was a rocky crag that jut out from the hills, and the small round lump sitting atop it stood plainly out from the jagged rocks around it. I bit down on my rifle and pulled it off myself, keeping it ready as I quickly looked about for cover to use when the shit hit the fan. I found a few candidates that would serve well, but the one rock I would have loved to use was a bit of a stretch to get to. As I contemplated if I could make it there or not, a figure walked out from behind it, making Pred and I come to a halt. The pistol mare flashed a wicked smile as she stopped in the middle of the path, slowly pulling her coat from herself to reveal the bit to her revolver again.

“Just give it up Sugar, there ain’t no way a mare like you can win against us.” She called out, giving herself away as if she is far too sure that I’d lose. “Besides, a real mare doesn’t use dirty tactics like hiding behind her charge.”

I spit my rifle into my hoof, propping myself on it so I could talk. “Oh! And I suppose bringing a sniper to the fight is fair game!” I laughed out at her, keeping myself pressed close to Pred. I really hope that Harmony was almost done setting up back there! This was an over one thousand meter shot, which she’s always said she could make, but I fucking hope she wasn’t exaggerating! “And adding scopes to pistols? I can’t decide if you’re crazy, or just downright stupid.”

“You’re just sore that you ain’t got help of your own.” The pistol mare looked down and marveled over her own weapon, running her hoof down the holster. “Ain’t no problem with having an edge on the competition, is there?”

“My thoughts exactly.” I tightened my fetlock around the barrel, waiting for the right time.

The small lump on the rock face exploded into a dark cloud that coated the surrounding rock with a deep crimson, the loud crack of thunder that followed Harmony’s round made the pistol mare flinch and spin.

“SWEETY, NO!” She screamed out as I pulled up my rifle. I propped myself against Predious as she went for her gun, steadying my rifle. I got my crosshairs lined up just as she pulled her revolver out, doing so much faster than I had anticipated. I fired off my shot, watching as the round I had aimed for her head, punched into the scope of her pistol. She screamed in pain through her bit as her scope came apart in her face, the bitch taking off back around the rock she appeared from.

“Pred, get to cover.” I pushed myself up and pointed myself at the best rock I could use to fight from. I quickly cantered over to it, finding that it wasn’t nearly as big as I had hoped it was. The bitch popped out from her rock before I could get myself set up, firing as she ran and forcing me to hit the dirt. I counted the shots as my heart raced, waiting for her to pause and duck for cover to reload.

3… 4… then came the pause.

I pushed myself up and pulled up my rifle just in time to see her still barreling towards me. She fired again, the round sparking off the rock just missing me. I threw myself to the side as she fired again, missing with her sixth and last shot. I did my best to roll off my dive, but found myself too slow while holding my rifle.

The mare spit out her pistol and dove at me before I realized that I would be better off dumping the gun to stay quick on my hooves. The idea had come too slow, and I found an iron horseshoe planted against the side of my head. The mare attempted to climb onto me and pin me to the dirt, but I managed to keep one of my rear legs up and thrust her off of me. As we both got back to our hooves, I could see that the scope had torn up the eye on the good side of her face, and small shining cuts that were filled with bits of glass glistened across her once pristine coat.

“Honey, you got real ugly.” I coughed out, rubbing at my sore cheek with my hoof. If anything, now it was a real fight. Hoof to hoof, her against me.

“You’re FUCKING DEAD!” She screamed, charging at me again, moving her hooves faster than I had anticipated. This mare was all over quick as I scrambled to block her incoming blows, failing miserably and getting sent to the dirt. This time I didn’t have the lucky placement of my legs, and she jumped onto me with all her force. I felt the air rush out of my lungs and prayed for my ribs not to snap as I raised my hooves to defend myself. She screamed and relentlessly pounded at my chest, the anger of her dead sister keeping her eyes unfocused as I gave what felt like futile blows against her sides.

The sharp report of a gun filled the air, and the mare quit moving with a shudder, flopping forward onto my chest as I gasped for air. The clatter of my rifle falling to the dirt, and Predious helping to lift the mare from me was a sight that meant more to me in the world than anything. As I breathed with wheezy gasps, I wasn’t sure what I should do anymore. He’s saved my life more than once now, and while he’s not so useful in a fight, he’s at least somepony who everypony else will underestimate. Do I really want to turn him in after all he’s done? Is there even a way I could convince whoever wants him that he’s not worth their time or money?

“I know what you are thinking Miss Storm, and the answer is no.” He sat down next to me and stared intently into my eyes. “You must complete the contract.”

He sat and waited for me to slowly get my breath back. That mare had really worked me over with those heavy shoes, and I know that for the next few days, my sides were going to be sore as all hell. Maybe once we get to Chasm I could sneak us in and use the hot springs for a bit, really relax before continuing on our trip.

“Oh, and one other thing, Miss Storm.” He twisted his head as his horn glowed softly, the mare’s dusty revolver floating over in his grip. “I’m sorry I melted your pistol, but this one might be a bit better anyway.”

“Take off the scope… and you got a deal.” I smiled and patted at my chest, letting out a groan before I rolled back over.

“Wait, are you hurt? Did she break a rib?” Predious spoke up, putting his hoof on my shoulder.

“Worse.” I grunted and pulled the crumpled and torn white cardboard box from my satchel. “She broke my smokes.”

* * * * * * * * *

Harmony walked up the rock ledge as Predious and I finished pulling what we could from the sniper mare. It was hard to pick through her belongings when every second we had to search under a different pile of minced pony meat we were threatened with slipping on them and falling off the rock to our death.

“Find anything useful?” I called out to Predious, who had opted to search what was left of the rear of the mare.

“Not in particular.” He paused and held some unidentifiable piece of gore coated cloth in his hoof. “Unless you think that this lingerie is still salvageable.” He flashed a smile as I deadpanned.

“Well at least her sister had all good stuff. One out of two isn’t bad.” I carefully made my way back from the ledge, thankful to be away from it. Besides the pistol and it’s holster, her sister had a whole box of .44 ammo for her pistol, which I could split with my rifle as well. On top of that, she had a couple bottles of brown, but drinkable water, a healing potion, half a sparkle cola that was neatly taped shut, a broken toaster, nearly complete gun cleaning kit, a quart of oil, and thirty six caps to her name. The only thing we managed to salvage from miss stroganoff here was her sniper rifle and eight .308 rounds.

“Wowee! This thing really does work wonders!” Harmony stopped and marveled at the three meter wide red splotch that covered the rocks. “Ah've been meaning ta test this rifle on a live target. Got a steal on it when some merchant from Salt Cube City needed a pair of hydra injectors and some armor.” She looked back at the overkill death machine strapped to her side. “Guess he figured those would help him more than a box of rounds for this would.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but what the hell kind of round does that thing shoot?” I wiggled my nose as even as I walked up to it, her rifle smelled of unburnt powder. “You turned her into jerky with just one shot!”

“It’s a twenty mill, but mama would have kicked mah ass fer a shot that bad.” She shook her head and sighed as I couldn’t even begin to explain how backwards that sounded. “If the round hadn't airburst and ah hit her with it, she would have been a fine red mist instead of chunks.” She sighed deeper and looked to the ammo can on her side. “Got three more tries anyhow.”

“You didn’t even HIT!?” I flailed and sat as my jaw hung between the words. “Who the hell made that thing and where can I get one!”

“It was an early war project.” Predious spoke up as he daintily stepped over the bloody chunks on his way to us. “Meant for use against the first Talons the Zebra’s sent against us. When they were given the alchemical combat drugs from the Zebras, our bigger guns no longer had the punch to bring them down, so they built these.” He sat down beside me and scraped the gore from his hooves as he continued. “Though, they were phased out fairly early when dragons became more common, focusing more research on magical energy weapons that seemed to affect both enemies more anyway.”

“Harmony, I love you like a sister, and as your sister, I just wanted to ask…” I leaned in close and reached my hoof out to the beautiful weapon. “Can... can I have it? I'll pay you back for it, I swear!”

“Hell no yah can’t have it!” She took a step back and rolled her eyes. “Ah'm keeping it for shop defence! Besides, yah ALREADY owe meh for the pipbuck. Not ta mention the half dozen other things Ah’ve brought yah.” She reached her hoof back and pulled a small burlap sack from her saddlebags, holding it out as Predious’s magic snagged it. “Ah got ya a couple of rolls of bandage, a healin potion, anotha twenty rounds for yah rifle, and a couple cans of beans.”

“Thanks Harmony.” I smiled and got back to my hooves. I walked up and threw my hooves around her in a hug, wincing as she hugged me back and squeezed my bruised sides. With a whimper I let go and took a step back. “Guess we should head out then.” I looked back and gave a glance to Predious before looking to Harmony with a shrug. “I might be back in another couple of days, so if I am I’ll swing in and pay you what I can for all you’ve done.”

“Ah’m holding you ta that, missy.” She smiled and gave a small wave.

“Come on Pred, lets get a move on!” I slowly stepped forward, starting to make my way back down to the road. “We’ve still got an good half hour before we loose light, and I’d like to have made some progress today rather than none.”

“Whatever you say, Boss.” He called out, quickly making his way past me down the slope.

“Boss?” I chuckled. “You know, I kinda like that.”

--Chapter End--

“Keep your friends close and care for them, for they are like the steps of a ladder. You wouldn't like one treacherous stair to break under your hoof.”

Quests Finished: A Sweet Rivalry

Quests Started: A Sweet Rivalry

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirteen - Chasm

“Doing what's right is never easy ... You think you're right, but you lose track of what you were trying to do all along and then there's blood and screaming and death. Doing a bad thing for a good end just sours the good.”

“Storm, I don't think you're pulling it hard enough.” Predious grunted as he strained against my tugs.

“Quiet Pred, I’m an experienced mare and I know how to do it! I just have to try working at it from the left a little more is all.” The thing was just being stubborn, but this was something I needed to do. It was hard to keep my mind focused when all last night I was thinking about it. There’s just something so wrong about how it looked.

“Can I suggest we just do this later? You're not going to get it off now, so let's just keep going.” He gave out a sigh, sounding like this was the most boring thing in the world to him.

“No. Just one... more... good... YANK! I hooked my hooves as tight as possible and pulled with all my strength. Without warning, I found myself tumbling back along the dirt next to the fire. “Got it off!” I held up my prize proudly before throwing the broken pistol scope into the fire. “And good riddance.”

“You could have just ignored it for now.” He rolled his eyes and floated the silver revolver up to me, waiting until I got to my hooves before slipping it into the custom leather holster strapped across my chest.

“I could have, but it was bothering me.” I hoofed at the leather strap and snapped it over the ornate bit. Something I noticed last night was that the lacquered wooden grips of the revolver had a pair of wrapped candies inlayed on it in gold, and the cold metal tasted faintly of chocolate. The pipbuck also labeled it as 'Bon Appetit', making me wonder if it was a name the gumdrop mare had picked, and if so, how did it know? Foolishly I had wondered what the name meant outloud and Pai rambled on about how it meant ‘enjoy your meal’ in fancy or whatever.

In the interest of feeding ponies bullets, I unloaded my lever action and put the remaining hollow point rounds into the revolver, loading up the rifle up with normal .44 ammo. That should make me a bit more combat effective for when we ran into the next inconvenience on our journey.

“It may be out of place to ask, but why are we going to Chasm?” Predious kicked some sand over the fire to put it out, while Iron will simply stamped on it repeatedly. The mechanical beast was getting low on power, but last night PAI assured me that he could make it there. “If I am to stay out of sight from any more bounty hunters, then isn’t it wise to stay out of towns?”

“You are correct on that, and if it were any other town I’d agree, but my parents are practically Chasm’s founders.” I closed and locked the action on my rifle, watching as the display on my Pipbuck updated. “We’ll pretty much have free reign of the town when we get there.” I looked over to Iron Will. “Well, as long as they don’t freak over him.”

“How is it that your parents are so well regarded there?” Why the hell was he taking such an active approach into learning more about me? The exploits of my parents can’t possibly be that interesting.

“My parents used to have a business that offered to scour dangerous ruins for rare pre war stuff. Most of the time that meant turning off all the defences or clearing out the dangerous creatures, so when they got what they came for, they left the rest open for the taking.” I pulled myself to my hooves and started back towards the old southbound highway we had been following since yesterday. “The warehouse they set up there was only the first half of it. Turns out that it was powered exclusively off of geothermal power plants.”

He caught up quickly, taking his place beside me. “So the town has as much power as it needs by syphoning the excess from the warehouse.” Predious sounded like a scholar as he rubbed at his chin, looking to the cloud cover. “Makes sense to me. Though, this warehouse, what were they there for in the first place?”

“I have no idea.” Now that I thought about it, mom and dad never really told me what they brought back at all. It was as simple to me as their job got us food to live on, and shelter to live in. I never questioned what they might have been selling to pay the bills. “I’ll have to ask next time I swing by. Besides, I hardly see them anymore anyway, so it will be good to have an excuse to go.”

“Well it’s a moot point to me, seeing as I’ll not be around to hear the answer.” Pred shrugged and trot forward in indifference. “It’s a shame, truly. They sound like nice ponies, and meeting them would have made for a fantastic time.”

I Cantered forward and spun, making him skid to a stop in the dirt. “Look, Pred. I’m thankful for you saving my life, okay?” He didn’t seem too convinced, but he was going to hear what I needed to say. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get you out of this contract, but we both know it’s not going to be that easy. Though, it would be a whole lot easier if I knew why there was a contract on you in the first place.”

“That’s just it, I haven’t the slightest.” He stuck his muzzle up at me as he simply trot around me. “I’m just as curious as you to know, and is why we mustn’t keep them waiting. Chasm’s just an afternoon away if we keep to it!”

“Alright, if you insist...” I mumbled to myself, looking up to iron will. He had what almost looked like concern in his eyes, and it made me question myself again on just how I should be treating Pred. I glared up at him and held my hoof out sharply. “Don’t give me that look. Just a few more days and then I don’t have to care anymore.”

* * * * * * * * *

Astonished.

We had walked for another four hours before breaking for lunch, whereupon Predious prepared some of the fried hay in a can he had in his bags, and I found us some bloatsprites to char up on the fire. Even while the meal had left my stomach in a less than stable mood, we pressed on. The weather was good today, ignoring the cold winds that blew down from the badlands mountains, weaving across the slowly rolling landscape that quickly became more rocky. Finally, after my pipbuck stated that we had walked for another six hours, here we stood at the outskirts of Chasm.

“Well, that was about the most flawless travel I’ve ever had in my life. Not a single raider, bounty hunter, or other asshole in sight the whole way!” I scrunched up my muzzle. Was I actually complaining that something had gone right? Maybe today is just the best day of my life, and here I am cursing it.

“Careful with what you say Boss, Irony is a cruel mare.” Predious whistled out as he stopped next to me. Disregarding his negativity, I’ve come to find that the town of Chasm is always growing. Every time I find myself this way, it seems that there is a new row of sheet metal shacks lining the outskirts. The small, rusty homes aren’t much to look at, but in the shadow of the badland mountains, they are enough to stave off the scattered roaming creature.

The thing about Chasm is that it is powered exclusively on geothermal power. For whatever reason, the power station was detached from an old warehouse building up the mountain path, and the weathering of the wastes over the years had stripped the cowlings from the thick transmission cables, making them easy to reroute. This provided the ponies here nearly unlimited power, and thus made it a highly sought after location to live. As for how the residents here live, there was an old mine just a few thousand feet from the town that is still carrying quite a bit of copper in it’s veins. There are miles and miles of tunnels running under here, and that happens to be the reason for the name.

“Well Predious, I don’t know about you, but my hooves are aching after all the walking and running the last few days.” I nudged at him and smiled. “How about we relax in the hot springs for a bit, really loosen up for a while.” Most of the ponies work in the mines, but the ponies I respected the most worked at the spa. If I was lucky, this time Morning Dew wouldn’t be in and just her daughters would be working.

Pred’s face lit up. “That would be quite delightful!”

“Great, I just need to stop by the general store and dump some of this stuff we pulled off those sisters.” I licked my dry lips as I thought, feeling my body craving my one weakness. “I really need some damn smokes.” Chain smoking as I had probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but hindsight’s always a bitch.

It was a short walk down the street to the store, the quick trip let me see just how lively the town had become. There were a group of colts and fillies laughing and playing around the schoolhouse, and the mares on break from working the forges were engaged in idle gossip. If you had just stepped out from one of those fancy stables into town, you might not have ever guessed the world had ended. It was part of that feeling making me want to just stay here forever, cropping up whenever I happened to go through this place. Pushing open the door to the general store, I was met with the loud voice of it’s owner and town mayor.

“Hey there friend! We haven’t seen you in town for some time, how have you been?” Touchy Feely’s overly enthusiastic voice always sent a shiver down my spine. He tipped his top hat up with his hoof before pulling me into a hug I couldn’ refuse. “What brings you back to our wonderful slice of paradise?” I couldn’t see it, but I just knew he was looking at Pred. “Ah, finally looking to settle down?”

“No, I…” I started to say before he let go and pushed past me.

“Well hey there, stranger! Welcome to Chasm, friendliest town this side of the wasteland!” I turned just in time to watch Predious smile nervously from his hug, patting Touchy on his back. “That’s one hell of a mare you’ve got your hooves on! Practically owe the whole town to her parents, you know. But history comes later, right now I can tell you two are going to love starting a family here.”

“Mayor, were just here for a quick visit.” I gave him a tap on the shoulder. “Though it is always nice seeing you again, we just need some supplies and then we’ll be off.”

“Nonsense!” He pushed away from pred and waved his hooves at me. “If you must leave again, then I insist that you at least spend the night. Relax and enjoy yourselves at the inn, maybe give some real thought to staying with us.” He nudged at Predious. “Could really use another family to expand our community, and I’m sure you’d want a safe place to raise your foals.”

“Foals?” Predious stammered with a nervous look on his face. He looked to me for help and I just shrugged. “I don’t think we…”

Touchy cut him off again. “I can tell you aren’t convinced yet. Well I’ll tell you what, consider the night at the Inn my gift to you, only as long as you put some real thought into staying.” He held he hoof out to Pred with a wide grin. “Deal?” Pred eyed me with a shrug, taking the mayors hoof in his and giving a firm shake. “Excellent, now what supplies can I get you two in the event you don’t stay.”

“Cigarettes, healing items, food. You know, the usual.” I simply spoke up, glaring at Predious. The mayor nodded and trot off to the back room to gather the items. “Pred, what the hell are you doing? I offered the hot springs so we could relax for maybe a few hours, not spend the night here.”

“Well you heard the guy, it’s a free night so why not use it?” Predious cocked an eyebrow and looked over me. “Besides, you’ve not had a real rest since before we met. Why not take the day off?”

I grumbled my disapproval, but didn’t say anything as the mayor returned. “Here we are! Now will that be caps or trade?” He set down a half a carton of cigarettes, nearly a full role of shimmering bandages, a half syringe of Med-X, two cans of condensed corn, and a couple of bottles of dirty water.

“Trade, but I’ve got some caps if the balance is off.” I pulled out the .308 ammo I had as Pred unslung the sniper rifle from himself. Along side those, we set the quart of oil, the toaster, and the bag of caps I had. “We should have enough food to last us, and I only need about half the carton seeing as I’ll be back in a few days, so the rifle, ammo, and toaster should be trade enough.”

Touchy winced. “Oh, well you see, one of our most reliable traders moved in last month, so we lost some of our trade. I won’t be able to offer you that deal, and even with what you’ve set out you’ll be a bit short.” He paused. “But for you? Sure.”

“Thanks.” I smiled and nodded to Predious, who picked up the supplies in his magic and put them in his bag, floating one of the cigarette packs to me. I couldn’t shake it, but something was scratching at the back of my mind, clawing it’s way to the front quickly. “Oh, before I forget.” I forgot about the enormous mechanical beast following us. “Do you have any spark batteries?”

He scrunched up his muzzle. “No, fresh out I’m afraid.” He shrugged with a smile. “You know we don’t need them here, seeing as we’ve got all the power we could want!”

“We’ve got a… friend, who needs them though. Any idea on where I could get them?” Pred asked, not wanting to say more than that.

Putting a hoof to his muzzle, the mayor thought. “Hmm, I can ask Sappet down at the mine, maybe he’s got some for his equipment he can let go of.” He gave me another grin. “I’ll make sure to ask him when the miners return from their work this evening. If he has a few, I’ll have him leave them here in the morning tomorrow and we can discuss payment then.”

“Sounds good. Thanks again mayor.” I got to my hooves and hoofed the pack up to my mouth, drawing out one of the smokes.

“No need to be so formal! Just call me Touchy.” He tipped his hat to me. “I hope you two have a relaxing evening. Do think on my offer to stay, I know you’d both love it here.” Before I could object, he hoofed at my mane roughly with a laugh, giving Predious a wink. “And if you do plan on staying, don’t be afraid to start that family tonight, if you know what I mean, stud?”

“Yeah, we got it.” I rolled my eyes and headed for the doors, watching as Predious looked more disturbed than nervous now. As I pushed the door open, I whispered up to him. “Now you see why I said only a few hours.”

“I have made a huge mistake…” His whispered back, blinking as I could tell he was trying to get certain images out of his mind.

“Yeah, well now we’ve got to deal with it.” I hoofed out my lighter, flicking it open and using it. Taking a quick draw helped me relax and refocus my thoughts for a moment. “Come on, at least we can still use the hot springs.”

Reluctantly he followed as I continued up the street, the smell of molten copper wafting heavily as we passed the large buildings which never darkened. The heavy automation of the forges inside never ceased to amaze me, but as I wanted to see what Predious thought, he seemed distant and unconcerned with the spectacle. He was an all around odd stallion, but there had to be something weighty on his mind to ignore something like that.

“Do not mind me.” He spoke up, only shifting his gaze to me after. “Just reminiscing of times long past.” Because that didn’t make him sound ominous whatsoever. “Quite the spectacle you’d agree. The wonders of the old world running again, helping out ponies to rebuild what we’ve lost through our own stupidity.” He frowned and continued. “Though, hopefully not everything we’ve lost. We don’t need another pointless war.”

I slowed enough for him to catch up, and threw my hoof around his neck to pull him close. “Don’t worry about that, we’re too busy killing each other for scraps from the last one.” Taking another long draw from my smoke, I looked about to the happy ponies living around the town. “Besides, you’ve seen the ponies around here. How many of them do you think care about the world outside of this town?”

He didn’t answer me as I let him go, only returning to the forlorn look he wore before. “I just can’t help but think that is where we are heading again. This town isn’t happy, it’s ignorant. They’ve fallen into the same trappings that the ponies a century and a half ago did, and it’s only going to lead them down the same path.”

I groaned. “You can’t take what you’ve read and translate it to the wasteland! They live in the present, they know what happened to the old world and have decided not to be a part of the horrors in the rest of the lands.” We turned off the main street when I spotted the large two story Inn tucked up against the mountainside, steam rising up from the tunnels behind it where the hot springs were located. I finished my cigarette and spit the butt out. “Come on, it’s right up here.”

The Inn had to be the building in town with the most thought put into it’s design, also happening to be the only building in town with a coat of fresh paint on it. There hadn’t been a building here when the town was founded, rather they built it out of various wooden scraps that they pulled from other structures, or had carted across the land. It’s design was like none I had seen anywhere else in my travels, with it’s most unique feature being it’s curved tile roof. The stark off white of the painted exterior always made it seem inviting, and generally I enjoyed my stays here.

“That is an interesting design. Something inspired by the Neighpon islands I’d bet. I had always heard that they were lost to the ocean, but seeing this makes me wonder if it’s still possible to get there.” Predious spoke up, trotting ahead of me as he might as well have been speaking a different language.

“I’ll leave you out here to oogle while I get things set up.” I stopped as I spoke, remembering what happened the last time he was alone. “On second thought, you’re staying with me. I don’t need you to get me into any more fights this week.” I stopped at the door as he looked over the building, tapping my hoof on the ground as my patience for him waned. “Pred, get your flank over here, now.”

“Oh fine… I mean, sure thing boss.” He stuttered for a moment before trotting up to me. “Lead the way.”

“You don’t have to stay with me, just don’t wander off out of my sight.” I said pushing open the door to the lobby, I cringed as the small chime from the bells rang out above my head. Well, if Morning Dew heard that, there goes our chances for the hot springs.

“Just a minute!” The voice of a young mare called from one of the rooms across the lobby. From the way it sounded, it had to be Mist. Indeed, she popped her head through one of the doorways behind the lobby desk. A wide smile parted her muzzle. “Storm! I am so glad to see you again!” Her smile dropped and she looked concerned as she saw Predious. “You didn’t bring Pallet this time? She told me last month she would be back soon for another session.”

I blinked a few times at that. Why that sneaky little feathered liar! I fucking knew she was into mares!

“I’m sure she would have come, but there was an accident before we got to Dodge, so she’s still there at the clinic.” Predious spoke up with a smile, lacking is normal delicacy in his speech.

“Oh goddesses, is she hurt?” I could already see Gleam tearing up at the thought. “I… I can’t believe it, she really...”

“She’s fine Gleam.” I glared over to Predious, who just kept his eyes anywhere but on me. “Short Staff just got himself a little banged up. Give them a couple of days and I’m sure you’ll see them.”

“Oh, I… I see.” Gleam smiled and gave a quiet laugh. “Sorry, she’s just a… valued client.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure she’ll pop by sooner than later.” I spoke as I walked further into the spacious, open lobby, looking around at all the empty and open rooms on the floor above us. “Wow, no guests? Normally you are full up in the winter months.”

“Well, with the amount of ponies who decided to stay after finding this town, the only real folks we get to stay are the merchants and unsavory types. We’ve got a merchant from Boneyard up in room three, and a wing of Talons up in rooms 8 and 9.” She sighed. “It’s not like we have a lot of overhead, but we’re just not making the money we used to.” She smiled at me. “But you’re here, so that’s good. What’s it been, almost a year?”

“Just over a year actually. Touchy really put his all into the ‘please stay speech’ this time and gave us a night to spend here.” I scoffed at the floor and looked down to it. “If I had known business was so slow, I would have bartered harder to pay you some caps.”

“It’s fine, if he wanted to put you up, I might as well make it worth your while.” Her horn lit up softly as she lifted a small key from behind the desk. “Here, take the suite.”

I held my hoof up as she dropped the key into it, not sure if I should give it back or not. “You know your mother is going to hate that you did this, right? She’s not too fond of the business that I do, so any special treatment…”

“While true, she’ll just complain to Touchy and get compensation out of whatever room I give you anyway, this might help us out more in the long run.” She smiled.

“Well if that’s the case, do you mind if we sneak in and use the springs?” I wanted so badly to just sit back and relax for a few hours.

“I don’t mind, but if my mother catches you, you’ll have to pay before you leave.” She smiled. “Go ahead and put your things in your room and I’ll have Lomi bring you some robes to wear. I really must get back to work, but maybe we can talk more later.” Waving, she turned and went back into the room she had been in.

I don’t know why, but among all the murderous thieves, mutated monstrosities, and general unlikability of ponies nowadays, there are just some I can’t help but feel comfortable around. Most are family, but then there’s ponies like Gleam and Lomi, who when you meet, make you feel like you’ve won the proverbial wasteland lottery. Perhaps my luck hasn’t been bad recently, rather just balancing out for all of the good I never realized I had. Funny enough, there was only one stallion who made it all possible.

“Thanks again Gleam.” I waved back and turned to Predious. “Alright Pred, you heard the mare, get your flank upstairs and to the suite. We’ve got a lot of relaxing to do!”

* * * * * * * * *

“Goddesses that’s good.” I sighed out, enjoying as the water warmed all the places on me that needed it, filling every nick, scar, and crevice with the feeling of pure heaven.

“I must admit, it is quite relaxing in here.” Predious spoke out through the fence that separated us. I was always told that the wall was put in due to some old world tradition to conserve privacy, but it probably had more to do with the sign on the wall saying ‘Do not taint the water’, scrawled just above the crude drawing of a mare and a stallion doing what comes naturaly. “I should make a point to come back again sometime.”

“Now you know why most ponies who come for the springs, stay.” I sighed, closing my eyes and laying back against the warm mountain rocks, breathing deeply a few times and loving the warm feeling in my lungs. There was the sound of hoofsteps coming towards us from outside the springs, and for a moment I held my breath.

“Is everything alright, Miss Storm?” Lomi opened the fence gate and leaned her head in, the dark zebra stripes contrast in the low light against her yellow coat and brown mane. She gained the softest of smiles when I nodded.

“It’s wonderful Lomi, as always.” I sighed out and let my forelegs float in the warm water. “Maybe you could take a break and join us?”

She giggled. “As luxurious as that sounds, alas, I cannot. I am to prepare dinner for the other guests, which brings up the question, will you be joining us?”

The prospect of having dinner with Morning Dew was one that I didn’t care for. “I won’t...” I started to speak before a loud creak filled the air. I looked in the direction it came from and found that the pipbuck told me that there was someone on the other side of the fence. There was a loud crack as the whole section of fence gave way into the spring pool opposite mine and Pred’s. I scrambled out of the water and tensed myself to fight whoever it might be.

“Fucking… hot!” The figure splashed and yelped as they pulled themselves from under the fence. The zebra that emerged was one I hadn’t seen in a LONG time, and I had hoped it would have been even longer.

“Ficha, is that you?” I squinted as he sprawled his soaked form on top of the floating fence, panting heavily. “Goddesses it’s like you haven’t aged a day, physically or mentally.”

“Spying on mares again?” Lomi growled, floating a broom across the room and batting him repeatedly on the head. I always forget that she has a horn, and that her being a Zoni makes it small enough that it disappears right into her mane. “If you weren’t the law already, I’d have you locked up!”

“Wait, you made Ficha your sheriff?” I looked to her with bewilderment. “He’s a goddess damned pervert and a good for nothing, two timing, son of a bitch!”

My attention was pulled away with a silver flash, and the broomhead was liberated from the handle. Ficha resheathed a broadsword he had strapped to his side and ran his hoof back over his head, slicking back his black and white mane. Stepping off the fence and up with me onto the rock pathway, a sly smile formed across his face.

“Ladies, there’s no need for anger. I was only ensuring that you hadn’t passed out and drowned. Heat exhaustion is a dangerous possibility in the springs.” He put his hoof to his chest and stood proudly. “No need to thank me for looking out for you, it’s just my job as the sheriff to protect anypony in town.”

“Thank you? You broke our fence!” Lomi growled and flipped the broom handle around, smacking him with the blunt end of it. “Who’s going to fucking pay for that? You? Get the fuck out of here before I get Mother!”

“Alright alright!” He swung his forehoof to fend off the broomstick assault, looking to me and straightening up again. He stepped up to me and reached his hoof up, going to brush my mane from my eye. That wasn’t going to happen. “Mi amore, as beauti…”

I hooked my hoof around his leg, spun, and pulled him onto my back, bucking up and flipping him over me into my pool, which was much hotter than the one he had been in. He splashed down into it with wide eyes and flailed his hooves, letting out heated whines as he struggled to pull himself from the water. His playful attitude was gone as he grimaced at me.

“Don’t you try that fancy worded bullshit on me.” I scowled and watched as Lomi floated a towel to me. “I don’t know how you convinced them to let you be the law around here, and you may have them fooled, but remember, I know all your fucking tricks.” I wrapped the towel around myself and shook my head. “Can’t even relax without a dick like you showing up, this has just been the perfect fucking week. Now I’m just as tense as before I got in.”

“I don’t know, I for one found it rejuvenating.” Pred smartly remarked as he trot out of his own enclosure, using his magic to dry his mane with his towel.

“Pred, not now.” I barked. “Thank you Lomi, but we’ll be retiring to our room for the night.”

“No problem, it’s always nice to have you here.” She smiled and stepped out of the way as I trot by.

If anything, Pred and I could stand to get an early nights rest, but I still wanted to sort everything and clean out my rifle with that kit we got from the sisters. I squinted in confusion as we walked back through the caves towards the Inn. Did I just use the thought ‘We’? He hadn’t done anything in that fight to earn the spoils from it… well, besides saving my life. Damnit, why do I have to genuinely like the guy?

“Something on your mind, Boss?” He asked, craning his neck towards me with a concerned look. “If it’s about that guy back there, I’m sure he won’t bother you again.”

“What? No, he’s not the one on my mind.” I sighed. “But damn, do I need another smoke.”

“Ok, whatever you say.” He shrugged and continued walking. I watched the clock in my pipbuck tick over to 7 pm, marking that it was now completely dark outside. At least the town would still be lit, I don’t need any more dark hallways. I shuddered before realizing I hadn’t seen somepony in a while.

“Pai, you still in there?” I shook my pipbuck, wondering if I actually shouldn’t have taken it into the hot springs. Though… I guess I didn’t have a choice, seeing as I don’t really know how to take it off. The display in my vision flickered from green to pink as she popped onto it with a bright smile and a… party hat?

She looked up and gasped, hoofing it off quickly. “Oops! You aren’t supposed to see that sis, and I can’t talk to you untill later!” She scrunched her muzzle up and looked around. “Uh… I think I left the hot water on, sorry, got to go!” With a flicker she disappeared again.

“Huh.” Predious canted his head and looked at me. “What do you suppose that was all about?”

“I have no idea, but she’s never really made any sense anyway.” I just wanted to make sure she was alright, and I did. “I’m tired of things not going my way, let’s just get back to the room.” I felt a headache coming on, and getting a quick nap could do me a world of good seeing as I can just feel that my night is only starting to fuck me over. Because nothing ever works out the way I plan anymore.

--Chapter End--

“The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fourteen - Choices

“Regrets collect like old friends here to relive your darkest moments, I can see no way, I can see no way...and all of the ghouls come out to play.”

I don’t know why I can’t sleep.

The room was a comfortable warmth, the bed was the softest I’d had in what felt like ages, and it was perfectly silent besides Pred’s snoring. This was the one truly annoying Caveat of Chasm. It was so damn perfect that it always felt like something bad was going to happen. It really pissed me off, and as much as I shouldn’t, I was going to go out and look for something to at least hold my attention for a bit. So as quietly as I could, I had slipped on my gear and slung my rifle around my neck. I didn’t expect to need it out there at all, but who knows, the night is young.

In a move straight out of the Daring Do books I read at Mom and Dad’s, I crept my way along the walls of the Inn, sticking to the shadows and bolting out the front doors without even the hint of alerting anypony else. Once outside, I could breath a sigh of relief and pulled out a cigarette. Pulling my lighter out, I flicked it open and held it up to my muzzle, stopping as something down the street caught my eye. It was only for a split second mind you, but the back half of a yellow mare walked past the corner of the main street through town, the soft pink of her tail just dipping past the old building and out of sight as I blinked.

“Momma?” I muttered and felt the cigarette drop from my muzzle. Almost instinctively my legs carried me forward. There was no way she could be alive after all this time, not unless... she was put away like I was! I broke into a canter, quickly reaching the street corner where she had been before skidding to a stop. The streetlights buzzed loudly and offered me an unobstructed view of the city’s empty streets. My pipbuck read that it was nearly ten pm, and yet not a soul was in sight.

Did I mention how much I hated this abnormal town?

Looking around, I froze as just out of the corner of my eye I could see the shadow of something jump across a rooftop further up the street. In my excitement, I remembered that Fluttershy was a pegasus, and so it had to be her! There was no way somepony else could have gotten up there that quickly. I took off again in pursuit, tracking as her shadow drifted from rooftop to rooftop. She had to have known I was following her, because the harder I ran, the faster she went. I smirked as I noticed I was gaining on her, and in only a few moments, I’d be just behind…

Wham!

I hadn’t been watching where I was going, and slammed headlong into one of the streetlamp posts. My vision went white for a moment and stars shot through my vision as I reminded myself that I needed to pay attention to where I was going. Getting back to my hooves, I shook off the pain and looked at the lamp post. Turns out, it was the last one in town, barely illuminating the trail that led towards the badlands gate. Looking up towards the only other lights on the mountainside, I saw her quickly dart over the wall that surrounded the facility my parents opened for the town.

I felt like my younger self again, the urge to explore and discover came back to me like it had never left. There was a renewed focus on solving this puzzle as I trekked carefully up the path. All kinds of unseemly monsters and ponies were usually laying in wait, but my pipbuck read that it was all clear. This was all wrong. The empty streets, the leading me out of town, and the fact that not a single creature was around struck me with the sense that I was being led into a trap.

Just the perfect thing to liven up tonight.

I approached the high concrete walls of the enormous warehouse build into the rock face, finding that they had changed little in the last year since I had last gazed upon them. The rusting guard towers stood as the lone sentries of the forgotten facility, bending under their own weight towards the entrance and giving the distinct impression that they were silently judging all who entered the large dusty courtyard.

I stopped as I entered, a flash of light catching my eye. I was about to grab my rifle when several different cones of light shot out across the dusty courtyard. They were slow to focus, but almost immediately, I could see something I never in a million years would have thought I would see again. The cones sharpened into images of ponies, specifically, Fluttershy, a guard’s pony… and me.

“This is…” My throat tightened up as the guard grabbed me in his levitation, and through squirming my hardest, I got out and made it to Mama’s leg. Looking back to the door, the images of the day they put me to sleep ran through my head and it was instantly recognizable. How could I have not seen it before? With as many times as I have stood in this exact same spot, how could I have not known?

As I saw the two of us head into the facility, I couldn’t help but follow. I had been led here for some reason, and even if it was a trap, it had the promise to explain more about my past.

I followed the memory down the twisting hallways of the time worn facility, bathing in the soft light my pipbuck gave off. Without the other ponies wandering the halls, or the sounds of research and science being done, it felt more like I was the one who was out of place amongst everything. We soon reached a large door whose words above it I now was able to comprehend as ‘Cryonics Lab A’. My legs froze as I stepped a hoof through, the thoughts of what happened in here haunted me. I let out a shiver that ran all the way from the tip of my tail to my muzzle.

The muted memory continued to play, my mind doing me no favors by filling my head with the sounds of the events. I shrank down to the floor as it continued, feeling cold as the tube came up around me, sealing me off. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I remember that painful fluid surrounding me.

And then it was over.

I looked up, staring at myself lose consciousness. From above me, the projection of a butterfly shaped bot drifted through the room, a bold #3 was painted clearly on it’s rear plate. I immediately looked for it on this old bot, finding in the dim light that I could just barely make out the outline of the old number. Finally, I knew of something that could give me some answers. A sharp pain grew in my temple, quickly becoming a feeling like somepony had just stabbed me.

I screamed as more memories of the orchard came back to me. Days when I was lonely, parties that the staff had included me in...It was all so overwhelming. I didn’t want it!

“I don’t want to be Harmony!” I shouted out and dragged my hooves at my mane, trying to stop the emotions that came with all the memories. They pounded at my head from the inside, a hundred different feelings all being remembered at once. I couldn’t stop it from hurting, and there was only one pony who could take away all the pain. “Daddy!”

I screamed for him again and again as my vision faded. My strength left me as the memory onslaught subsided. The happy times I had in the holidays meant nothing to me anymore as I slumped onto the grime coated floor of the century and a half old lab. I couldn’t do anything more than just let it happen as once again my body gave up fighting this room.

* * * * * * * * *

“Welcome, Project Harmony.” The oddly melodic tune of a digitized voice filled the darkness around me. “It has been a long time since we have seen you within these walls. Have you come seeking treatment?”

“What?” I found myself asking, opening my eyes to a blindingly white room. “Where the hell am I?”

“You are currently laying on the floor of Cryonics Lab A in an unconscious state.” The voice came from all around me. I wasn’t really sure what to think. “Your return seems to have triggered a mild seizure due to some sort of synaptic realignment.”

I spun in circles, finding nothing but white in all directions. “Where am I, and why can’t I see you?”

“As stated, you are currently laying in Cryonics Lab A.” I facehooved as the voice didn’t seem to understand. When I uncovered my hooves, there was a pink outline forming in front of me. It took a moment to focus, sharpening into a familiar yellow pegasus pony. “Does this form give you any ease?”

“No, you are not Mama.” I growled, hoofing at her sharply only to find that my hoof went through her. “Who the hell are you and what am I doing here?”

“I am Care. The Centralized Arcane Research Engineer, an Artificial Pony created to oversee the day to day operations of Orchard Three.” She gave an abrupt and jerky bow, seemingly unaccustomed to the action. “You are Project Harmony, a repurposed project from to obsolete Orchard One.”

“Hey, don’t you talk about my Orchard that way! It’s plenty useful!” The voice of Pai boomed through my head, making me put my hooves over my ears. A smaller outline formed next to fluttershy, changing into the tiny pink filly I knew Pai to be. That is, until she grew three times her size and shifted colors to red. “You were developed there, so show some fucking respect!”

The fluttershy projection gasped and looked surprised. “You are engaging in an unauthorized use of this orchard’s network. You are ordered to purge yourself at once and turn yourself over to the Ministry of Morale for violating the Office of Interministy Affairs wartime service clause. Good day to you!”

I have had enough.

“Somepony better fucking give me some answers real quickly here, or I’m just going to have to start smashing whatever I can get my hooves on!” Shouting at the top of my lungs might have been unnecessary, but it got the two of them to be quiet. “You.” I pointed to the Fluttershy projection. “Why am I standing in a white room when you tell me I’m on the floor?”

“The space around you is only a mental projection of my integrated brainwave broadcaster.” She pointed beside me and drew my attention to a blue wall that had come from nowhere. The white lines of technical schematics were scrawled across it in archanotechnical jargon that I couldn’t read, but was lead to assume it was whatever it was she had just said. “This device allows for direct subconscious interactions with unconscious patients. Unfortunately it cannot be utilized properly with anypony who is still awake, so it was rather good timing that you passed out when you did.”

“So… none of this is real?” I asked slowly, not quite comprehending why they would build something like this in the first place. Wouldn’t it have been easier to just talk to me in the real world? “Why did you lead me here? I doubt it was to show me this neat little trick of talking to me while I’m asleep.”

She straightened herself up, keeping an eye on Pai who had shrunk down to her normal size. “There was a crime committed here years ago, you and other items were stolen when the entrance door was breached. I had hoped that you might be able to identify and report the criminals who perpetrated the acts so that the Ministry of Moral could apprehend them.”

The blue wall shifted to the display of a security camera. The room lay in shambles as it had, but along the wall, I could barely make out the shape of myself in the dust caked tank against the wall. The camera just sat watching the empty room for almost a minute before a shadow appeared in the doorway. A curly haired pony that reminded me of mom stepped in slowly, tracing around the outside of the room.

Wait, this is my mom!

She stopped as she reached the tank, leaning in close to it before taking a step back and looking at the ceiling. I wondered why, but then she sneezed, blowing enough dust off the tank that I could make out my hind legs. Mom had to do a double take when she realized I was in there, and spoke something that the camera didn’t record, it’s microphone most likely broken long before then. As she wiped the rest of the grime from the tank, my father came in, stopping when he saw me as well.

“These aren’t criminals, they’re my parents.” I growled out. “Besides, you can’t arrest them, the M.o.M. shut down a long time ago.” I paused as an odd thought went through my head. “Wait, you don’t know that, do you?”

“I have not received any official transmissions for quite some time. I fear that it may be due to a damaged transmission cable and have since put in an order to have a maintenance team dispatched to repair it.” She looked straight ahead, not shifting her body at all as she spoke. It just looked unnatural to me.

“We’ll that’s silly!” Pai spoke up again, no longer content to just sit there quietly out of the way. “The Equestrian government has been defunct since the war ended with the apocalypse! How long were you planning to wait for anypony to arrive?”

Care blinked once in a stunning display of what I assumed was an attempt to figure out how she could be so dumb. I don’t know how true that actually was, but it almost made this whole conversation less annoying to deal with. Almost.

“I… am not sure. A full scale megaspell exchange had been suggested as a possibility for this facility to weather, but no reports of such an action have been received.” She turned to me and showed me an astoundingly accurate look of concern for a machine. “As the current highest ranking member of this facility, I must ask that you confirm these reports and attain casualty reports for the affected areas. This facility is equipped to provide aid to one hundred thousand equestrians, but due to advanced corrosion and mechanical failures, I am sorry to say that it is only operational to a capacity of one point two percent.”

I let out a short laugh. “Save it. Everything out there is gone. Manehatten, Filly, Canterlot, all of it is dead.” I hated thinking about the old world, moreso now that I know I used to belong to it.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Ministry of Peace end-war facility protocol is now active, and the lockdown of all levels has been rescinded.” She spoke sadly. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Another thought popped into my head. “As a matter of fact, there is.” I came in here looking for answers, so I better use my time to get some. “Why did they lock me away in here? I didn’t pass their test, I know this, but I could have always just tried again.”

Care stiffened up and adopted a blank look again as she processed that. “That information has been redacted. I am not authorized to unseal the file.” She blinked and looked at me. “Though, there is an unauthorized audio attachment to it left by former head chief of staff Dr. Panacea. Would you like to hear that instead?”

“Daddy?” The word slipped out of my muzzle so easily. “Yes, please. I need to hear it.”

The soft crackle of an audiolog came from all around me, silence following it for a few moments before his voice played into my mind.

“Harmony. For years I’ve attempted to find a way to undo what they plan on doing with you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, but I need you to be strong now. The war… it isn’t going so well, and I fear that I don’t have much time before they ‘repurpose’ you. I know what went wrong, those years ago in the test. I can’t believe how simple it was that the answer was staring me in the face in your favorite storybook.

Before the Ministry mares, the elements were shared by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Shared, Harmony. Through their sisterhood, they were able to use the bond between them to power the elements, and that is something I overlooked. Initially, we had assumed a bond wasn’t needed, seeing as Celestia originally used the elements on her own to banish Luna to the moon. This however was not the case, as Nightmare Moon represented a split in Luna’s personality.

You see, even though she wasn’t physically in control of the elements, the sane part of Luna still knew that Celestia must use the elements against the evil inside of her, and willed their use from within her own mental imprisonment. Celestia only looked like she was using them alone because they only require one body to physically control them, but they’ve always needed more than one mind. This is why we were wrong, and why you can still be the world changing pony we need you to be.

If you ever get this message, if by chance Equestria still needs you when you hear it, I have only one simple request. I know that I’ve left this message for you before, but you need to make friends. With them, you will only grow stronger, and maybe one day you will be able to control the elements through the strength of their friendship. You’ve made me so proud, and it broke my heart to see you taken, but I know that you can do anything if you try, Harmony. I might not be there on that day, but just remember that Daddy loves you no matter what.”

With a click, the audiolog ended, and there was nothing but perfect, all encompassing silence. The blinding white of the room around me had dimmed to a dark grey. Both Pai and Care just sat there as I now sat with a blank face trying to process everything.

“Friends? I’ve gotten plenty of friends throughout my life! Harmony, Pallet, Short Staff? I’ve considered them friends for the longest time!” I yelled out, feeling like I could just rip my mane out in frustration. “I don’t understand how they were supposed to make me any better!”

“Friendship is defined as the mutual affection between two or more beings.” Pai poked at me, her hoof feeling as solid as a real one. “So the question is, do they feel the same way about you?”

“What? Why wouldn’t they?” I snapped back quickly.

Pai turned blue and shrank down with a whimper. I was only being hostile because there was a note of truth behind that. The sad fact is I never asked. I had always assumed they thought the same way as I had. They did say they considered me family, but I’m beginning to think that I don’t even know what that means. I love my parents dearly, but I don’t belong to them. Daddy and Mommy put me in this facility so many years ago and then forgot about me.

“I… I’m sorry. This is just a lot to figure out.” Sighing, I flopped down onto the floor. “I’ve been working on my own for so long, I don’t even know how to act around others past just doing my job. It was never supposed to factor into anything in my life, I’m just a bounty hunter. We don’t have the luxury of making friends.”

Care finally moved from where she stood, extending her wings to hover over me. “What about your profession makes it so you cannot have friends?”

“The fact that other ponies just slow me down, get in the way, and blow my cover.” I shook my head and grimaced. “And it’s no place for them to be if they aren’t helping. It’s a dangerous job, and only a moron would want to... hang out with me in the field.” My thoughts came to a stop with that, hanging on to a conclusion I hadn’t been wanting to make. “Predious…”

“And your super duper favorite sister, Pai!” The pink filly bounced around my head on her hooves, sending little pink squares flittering through the air around me. “We are the best of friends, you and I!”

Care stiffened up. “Cognitive synapse startup detected. Ending subconscious broadcast.”

“But… wait!” I shouted, pushing myself up as quickly as I could.

* * * * * * * * *

I shot up off the cold, concrete floor with a gasp. There was nothing around me but the electric hum that could always be heard throughout the facility. I let out a larger than usual yawn, feeling several of my joints pop. I let out a soft whine from my stiff body and focused on my pipbuck’s clock when I could open my eyes again.

“Are you kidding me?” The numbers read that it was 8:30 AM, and that I had literally slept on the floor the whole night. Predious had to be up by now, and he was probably wondering where I was. It was strange, even though I only talked with Care for what felt like a few minutes, I found myself waking up on a panicked note like the end of the dream.

“It’s not strange at all!” Pai shouted, making me jump and knock my head against the doorway painfully. She popped into my vision as the stars shooting around in it did.

“Dammit, Pai! Don’t fucking startle me like that!” I growled and rubbed at the side of my head. “At least give me some warning.”

“Oops, sorry about that Sis.” She rubbed at her neck nervously before smiling again. “But what I wanted to tell you was that Care did only talk to you a few minutes ago. You slept soundly all the way up until she could sync the broadcaster to your thoughts.”

It was more of an answer than I cared to hear, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and let out another yawn. Turning around, I decided it was time that I made my way back to town. Sadly, I still needed to talk to Touchy about those spark batteries for Iron Will, and I knew that was just going to be annoying as all hell to deal with.

Still, the thought that Predious might be my only real friend both scared me and gave me a sense of warmth. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself though. I hadn’t ever asked Harmony if she thought we were friends, so I didn’t rightly know. I needed to hear Predious say it on his own, and with the knowledge that it was his unbiased answer.

Winding through the hallways, I could see the dim light of morning reflecting on the grimy walls. I let out one last light yawn as I reached the hallway to the blasted front door. Still a bit fuzzy from waking up, I braced myself against the twisted doorframe to the outside, taking a moment to use it as a post to stretch my legs out.

“Oh, um excuse me!” The timid voice of a mare called across the stagnant morning air. I raised my gaze to find a dark figure standing in the center of the courtyard. Slowly, I reached back for my gun. Even if the pipbuck listed her as non-hostile green, better safe than sorry. “Hi, if you are looking for a ruin to explore, I’d suggest somewhere else. It’s not very safe inside.”

“I was just leaving.” I took a few steps forward, keeping an eye on her as her features came into focus. The patches of rotten flesh, the stench of old leather, and the sheen of that prosthetic leg all seemed eerily familiar. I stopped abruptly and looked the ghoul over. “You’re that ghoul assistant who works at the clinic, aren't you?“

She was hesitant to speak. “Head physician now actually, Dr. Gurney passed away a few months ago from a stroke. I've taken over his patient responsibilities.”

“Well congrats on the promotion.” I sighed out, sitting down and putting a hoof into my satchel. I pulled out my smokes and tapped one out, holding it in my muzzle with a grin as I offered one to the ghoul in front of me. She pushed it away as I continued. “If I may ask though, what makes you say this place is so dangerous?” Lighting up, I took a moment to hoof at her torn up labcoat. “You hardly look equipped for danger.”

“The most prominent danger is tetanus from all of the rust. Besides that, there are exposed spark wiring, collapsing ceilings, and unstable chemicals stored inside.” She stated simply. “Being a ghoul makes me immune to diseases, and more resilient to chemical burns, but all in all I’m very careful about how I go about scavenging. They’ve got supplies to last us for decades here, but the trick is finding them.”

I blew a plume of smoke from my muzzle and let out a sigh, enjoying as the carcinogens worked away at my body. “Well, it should be a bit easier now that all the doors are open.”

Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “What, are you kidding!?” I wasn’t sure what she would do if I answered, so I figured the best course of action was to stay completely still. Didn’t help, seeing as she dove at me and pulled me into a squishy hug. The tip of my cigarette sizzled against her coat, but she either didn’t mind it, or didn’t feel it at all as she inadvertently put it out. “Oh, this is wonderful news! I’m sorry, but I must be going, so much to do now!”

As fast as she had been on me, she was gone, her hoofsteps echoing down the halls of the dark facility as the sky continued to lighten. I sighed at having lost my smoke and got to my hooves. It looks like my luck is just going to keep on shorting me, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of today has to offer. I headed for the entrance to the courtyard, dipping around the corner towards town and found myself blocked by somepony.

“Ah, mi amor…” Was as far as Ficha got before I reflexively hit him with an uppercut to the jaw. He reared up in pain and fell back onto the dusty path and let out a whine. This day was definitely going to suck.

“”You son of a bitch!” I shouted, my heart instantly pounding against my chest. “What is everypony’s obsession with sneaking up on me all the time!?” I shook my hoof out, making the stiff joint give a little pop.

“Geez you don’t have to always get so physical.” He rubbed at his chin as he got back up. “And how could I sneak up on you when you’ve been missing all night?” He spat out a bit of blood onto the dirt, wiping his mouth with a glare. “You’re friend was very adamant that we find you despite Touchy’s assurances you could handle yourself.”

I groaned and continued my way towards town, eager to collect the spark batteries Touchy promised and get out of this town before I got into any real trouble. Still, maybe this was part of the answer I wanted from Pred. He had cared enough to see me missing as a problem, when everypony else thought it was perfectly fine. For now that would have to do I guess.

Approaching the trade post, I could hear Pred’s voice inside, and the laugh of Touchy Feely sent shivers down my spine. I took a deep breath as I hoofed at the door, practically kicking it open and standing there as the two stallions looked over with bright smiles. As always, Touchy was the first to act, nearly jumping over the counter and throwing his hooves around me in his all too inappropriate way.

“Haha! I knew you’d be fine!” He belted into my ear, making my eye twitch in annoyance. He thankfully let go and stepped back, straightening his overly tall hat and clearing his voice. “Decided to take your own tour of the town and get lost in this paradise? I sure do know how easy it is!”

“Yeah, sure…” I offered him an uneasy smile, not caring to go into what really happened. I gave a glance to Predious, who was just sitting there with this smug look on his face. It’s almost like he knew I was alright as well, but then why did he… “You sent Ficha out looking for me knowing full well I hated him, didn’t you?”

“Not much get’s past you, Boss!” He chuckled and levitated his saddlebags off the counter. “I’m all ready and packed to go if you are.” He pulled the spark batteries off the counter as well and dropped them into his bags as he walked towards me.

“Aw come on now guys.” Touchy frowned. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? We’d love to have you and I’m sure you’d love to settle down somewhere anyway, so why not here?”

“Sorry Mayor, but business comes first.” I gave him a pat on the shoulder before stepping back through the doorway. “Maybe we’ll give it some more thought on the way back through. You never know, with as much has changed recently, it doesn’t sound so bad after all.” I gave a smirk to Pred and nudged my head toward the road.

“We that is surprising.” Predious spoke up in a lighthearted tone as we walked down the street. “I never took you for some pony who might actually get sucked into all of... this.” He waved his hoof in a wide arc to point at the whole town. “Are you feeling alright? You didn’t go and get all soft on me from one night of peace, did you?”

“Nah, just worked some things out in my head, trying to figure out just where I stand in my life.” Looking at him, I was surprised to see him in a mood like this. He looked relaxed and for lack of better words, happy, and that made me happy. After everything we’ve been through, and even though I didn’t know his motives, I did kind of consider him a friend now. “Pred, this is going to sound odd, but what do you think makes a good friend?”

--Chapter End--

“The Free are the Lost waiting to be found.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fifteen - Awakening

“Where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?”

As it turns out, Predious doesn’t have the answer I was looking for, but wasn’t too sure himself on what ‘friendship’ could be exactly defined as. He was more surprised by the question than anything, only stating that I was the closest thing he’s had to a friend in several years. We both decided that for now, ‘friends’ was a good enough term to use, and proceeded on our merry way into the badlands. We walked for the better part of a few hours without incident, or much small talk, but it was only when Pai started to sing random songs that I really regretted her coming along.

“Welcome welcome welcome, a fine welcome to you!” She started to sing her song for the fourteenth time. “Welcome welcome welcome, I say how do you do?”

“Pai…” I groaned, hoping she would get the idea and stop. “Please, not again.”

“Welcome welcome welcome, I say hip-hip hooray!” She twirled across my vision. “Welcome welcome welcome to Ponyville today!”

“Pai!” I screamed out. “Stop, just please, stop singing. For the last twenty minutes, you've been singing that over and over and over when we aren’t anywhere near Ponyville, and there's not even anypony to welcome out here!”

“Well I have to stay entertained somehow! And this time I wasn’t singing for you.” She harumphed and crossed her forehooves. “I was singing it for those inconspicuous dots on the horizon.” Sure enough, there were a pair of pink blips on my E.F.S. lining up with two lumps on the horizon. “The map says they are where you are supposed to go for your contract!”

“Alright then.” I sighed, hoofing the clasp on the holster for my new revolver open. “Pred, I’m going to have to ask you to walk in front of me again.”

“And here I thought we said we were friends.” He feigned a frown before taking his place ahead of me. “Do you really think that they’d shoot the pony who completed their contract?”

“Just because they’re Steel Rangers doesn’t mean they want to actually pay me.” I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “That and they probably won’t be too happy that I want to buy the contract off of them. They obviously want some bit of information you have, so once you give it to them, I’ll pay them to take you off their hooves and we can make our way back to Dodge.”

“Aww, you do care about me.” He looked back with a smirk before rubbing at his chin. “I just wish I knew what they wanted from me. I have no idea what’s so important that they had to put out a bounty this large to get me in” his muzzle drooped with a sigh. “Not to mention, who’s to say they won’t just shoot us after they get what they want?”

“Well, there’s only two of them and two of us, so there’s a fair chance that maybe if I got the drop on them we could walk away from this with only having killed the one.” Though if either of those two were wearing power armor, that plan would just end in us dying horribly.

“Maybe Iron Will can help!” Pai bounced in my vision with a smile. Spinning around, I looked for any sign of the metal minotaur following us, dismayed that there was nothing. “You did remember to change his spark batteries, didn’t you?”

“What? Why would you ask that when you were literally right there with me!” I facehoofed hard when all she did was look at me like I was crazy. “You were blabbing on and on about Care? How do you not remember this!?”

She turned my vision red and stomped. “It’s not my fault that I’m inattentive.” She let out a sniffle and the display transitioned to blue. “I’m just programed that way is all… I’m sorry.”

“You said that you’re an A.I.! Can’t you just, I don’t know, change yourself?” We were about halfway there, and I didn’t want her talking. The Steel Rangers would kill me just for a toaster, so if she spoke up around them? I’d be a dead mare. “You know what, I don’t care. I’m sorry Pai, but I need you to be quiet until we’re done with them.” I grumbled and pulled out my pack of smokes. She whined and curled up in the corner, softly sobbing before fading away. I looked to Predious and shook my head in frustration, feeling little comfort that the green display came back.

Lighting up, the cigarette did help me relax a little, but it turned out to be all in vain. Even with as far off as the Rangers were, I could see that the emergency escape plan of just shooting them wasn’t going to work. The lump that had been on my left glinted softly in the light of day, giving away the highly polished metal of a suit of power armor. If that wasn’t enough, the right lump turned out to be the dark steel door of a bunker that blended in to the short hills scattered about the lands. The other green blip sat behind it, and would probably not hesitate to call for any reinforcements that could chase us to the ends of the wastelands.

“Let’s hope this goes well.” Predious mumbled to me when we were about a thousand feet away. “I for one didn’t plan on dying today.”

There was a horrifying metallic screech as the bunker door swung open slowly. The green blip behind it had revealed itself to be a crimson robed unicorn mare. She wore a warm, but nervous smile as she approached us, meeting us halfway.

“Howdy there! I’m assuming yer here to collect the bounty on this here stallion?” She was way too upbeat and peppy for my tastes. Only a pony who hides away all snug and secure in a fortified bunker could ever sound like that. Well, with the exception of a few quirky ponies like Touchy Feely…

“Well I didn’t walk here from ponyville for nothing.” I made sure to speak slowly, judging her reactions for any hints of if this was all going to go south or not. If it did, I could use all the forewarning I could get. “Actually, I have a bit of a counter proposal for you. You see, as it turns out…”

“Woah there!” She waved her forehooves wildly and gave me an even bigger uneasy smile. “You see, I don’t quite have the authority to do that. I’m just an initiate, but I could take you to Elder Chili Pepper if you’d like to discuss it with him!”

“About that…” I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Yes. I’ll just wander into a bunker full of ponies who want nothing more than to take everything I own, then leave me for dead in the middle of the fucking desert. That sounds like a fairly good way to get myself killed.

“We’d love to.” Predious cut me off as he swept up the perky mare’s hoof with a charm I didn’t know he had. I had to resist facehoofing, finding it hard with as epicly bad as he had just made everything.

“Great!” The peppy unicorn clapped her hooves together and ushered him towards the bunker. “Just make sure to keep your hooves off your weapons and one hundred percent visible for the duration of your stay. Follow me and don’t wander from the path I lead you on, don’t touch anything without previous permission, and please avoid the use of curse words while we are inside.”

“Got it…” I grumbled and followed them back to the bunker door. The dark black eyes of the power armor stayed glued to me as I walked past, the pony inside tensing inside the powerful suit and standing tall. With my luck, there was no way going inside could end well for us. No fucking way at all. Once inside, we started to descend down flight after flight of stairs, and I found myself within whisper distance of Predious. “What the hell are you doing!”

“Your plan wasn’t going to work with the tin can stallion next to the door.” He replied calmly. “This way was our only option.”

“So leading us to the bottom of this den of evil was your first thought?” Goddesses we’re so fucking screwed. Maybe the Elder will be in one of those ‘Hey I’m going to let you go and not kill you’ kinda moods that I’ve never seen in the wasteland ever.

We followed the initiate mare from the stairwell and down a long corridor, passing by the surprised and astonished faces of the rangers who paused from their busy work. Some of them though didn’t seem interested at all in seeing us, just staring blankly through us like we weren’t even there. I can’t quite tell why, but it made me feel incredibly sad. The lead mare stopped at a doorframe and knocked.

“Yes, what is it?” The overly annoyed voice of an elderly stallion resonated from the room.

“I’m sorry to disturb you Elder Chili, but the bounty we put out has been delivered.” Her voice cracked as I could feel the nervous jitters she gave off. This is why I was my own boss. If there was somepony bigger and tougher than me, I could just shoot them if it came down to it. Working for somepony means I’d have to rely on the worst tactic in the wasteland… diplomacy.

Unfortunately for me, I’m stuck in a position that forces me to rely on it now anyway.

“You disturbed my work for this?” There was the shuffling of papers and a deeply aggravated sigh. “Just pay the pony and send them on their way! I want Predious prepped and in interrogation room two within the hour.”

“It’s just that the bounty hunter had a proposition, and I don’t really have the authority to negotiate.” She shifted her weight and rubbed at her foreleg, becoming even more uneasy. “So I have her here to speak to you.”

“You brought an outsider into the bunker!” He shouted so intensely that I was fairly sure I saw the slate gray walls tremble slightly. There was a squeal of wood sliding across concrete, and after a moment, the dulling red coat of an older stallion caught my eye, the old, piercing yellow eyes that studied me from behind a lightening green mane. His eyes held the look of somepony who was very strategy oriented, studying my body language with vigour. “Initiate, I don’t have time to deal with your insubordination right now. Send her in and leave us be.”

“Ye...yes sir.” The mare dropped her head and stepped out of the way. I looked to Predious and found that he looked fairly apprehensive now about his choice to come down here. I didn’t have much of a choice though, we were committed now. Standing up straight, I strode into the room. As I entered, he shut the door behind me and latched it shut. He walked back to his desk and shuffled some papers into a pile as I took a seat on a comfy looking pillow set in the center of the room.

He gave me a token smile. “I apologize for that, but without a stern response from me, the young ones will never learn the importance of following our guidelines.” With a sigh, he scooted the pile of papers to the corner of his desk and hoofed open a drawer, pulling out a sack that jingled like caps. “So what was this proposal you wished to discuss?”

“I know it may be unorthodox, but I’ve found that Predious has a… unique set of skills that compliments working with me.” I shifted and hoofed at my satchel, pulling out another cigarette. “I know you only want some sort of information from him, but I’d like to have him back after he tells you what you need.” Lighting my smoke, I took a deep breath. “I’m willing to pay if need be.”

The elder didn’t say anything as he sat and looked at me, only waving his hoof to waft away the smoke that I blew from my muzzle. I really didn’t want to pay the entire reward for his return, but if it came down to it, he might just be worth the investment in the long run. Either way, I required an answer from the old stallion, who seemed content to just sit there and stare at me.

“No.” He blurt out, not wasting any time to push the bag of caps toward me and point at the door. “I am sorry, but I can’t let him leave this facility with the knowledge he has.”

“Would you reconsider if I returned half of the reward?” This is why I tended to avoid bartering for things. I have no idea what this guy’s motivations were, and I find it hard to believe Predious knows anything significant enough that he’ll never leave here again.

“Not even if you offered the full reward.” He sighed and stood up, walking to the door as he spoke. “I’m sorry, but my decision is final. Our business is done.”

My vision shifted too pink, and before I could react, Pai was talking. “If you’re done with them, can I say hello now?” I facehoofed hard as the Elder froze mid step, blinking and staring at the pipbuck on my leg. Fantastic, this day couldn’t possibly get any worse. “Hi! I’m Pai, what’s your name mr. wrinkly face!?” Even with Pai talking, the Elder shrugged the whole thing off and just calmly opened the door back to the hallway.

“I trust you can find your way back outside without too much of a hassle.” He simply stated, walking back to his desk and paying me no mind. Grabbing the caps in my muzzle, I wanted to fight harder for my ‘friend’, but there really was little I could do. Stepping out the door, I couldn’t help but feel like I should at least do something else to convince him. If it weren’t for the fact that he obviously didn’t care for Pai, I’d offer for them to take a look at her and my pipbuck even.

Standing here felt off. The door to the stairwell was now closed, and everypony who had been looking at me before, seemed to be avoiding my gaze. There was a mechanical hiss that came from both sides of me, and two separate doors slid open to reveal a power armor pony in each of them. I realized all too late what was happening, and as I tried to get my rifle out, I was sent airborne by a power armored hoof kick.

The kick had forced all the air from my lungs, leaving me helpless on the floor as both armored ponies walked over and began to beat me. I did what I could to defend myself, but with each crushing blow, I was reminded with how useless it all was. A crack from a bone here, a pop from a joint there, and the horrible sensation of internal bleeding became my world as I curled myself up as tightly as I could. When it stopped, I could only whine through the pain, barely able to catch my breath before I was shackled and literally dragged down hallway after hallway, finally reaching from what I could tell was their armor and vehicle maintenance area.

“This one needs a pipbuck removal.” The stallion in the armor who had pulled me spoke up. There was a whirlwind of activity as I was stripped of every belonging I had before being set onto a metal table and strapped down. My vision was growing hazy, and the pain from the swelling of what felt like my whole body distracted me from the tool in one of the unicorn’s levitation. The only warning I had was the high pitched whine it gave off, and the glint of a silver disc before the circular saw plunged into my leg.

I have never screamed like that in my life. The sickening sound of my flesh being ripped apart made me want to throw up, but I couldn’t, only when the saw caught and jammed up on my bone did I finally do so. I torqued and pulled at my half severed leg as they yanked the tool, finally dislodging it with a meaty squelch.

“Wait! Please stop!” Pai screamed through the pipbuck, the vision of her blue self flickering in my watery eyes.

All I could do was cry and scream as the tool spun up again, the unforgiving blade plunging into the bone slowly and ripping it apart. There was a sickening crunch as it finally bit all the way through, and the saw finished it’s job. Blood coated the table as the tool was traded in the unicorns magic for my severed leg.

“No! She’ll die without help!” Pai screamed as she floated away.

“Oh, we don’t need her you little beauty!” The stallion replied, wiping her down as my vision started to fade. “Now that you are safe with us, we’ll have great fun figuring out how you work.”

“If you don’t save her, I’ll delete myself!” Pai shouted, making everypony in the place stop where they stood.

The unicorn sighed. “If that’s how it’s going to be, so be it.” He turned to somepony I couldn’t see, my eyelids feeling extremely heavy. “Go and find her a hydra. This research is too important to risk losing.” I shut my eyes and relaxed, finding it hard to focus on doing anything. “Then put her in the brig to rot.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Hey, wakey wakey.” The annoyed voice of a mare called from around me.

I shuddered awake and rolled over on the soft mattress I had been laying on. I went to get up, but whined as my left leg gave out from under me. Opening my eyes, I looked at the bare skin of my leg, my coat stopping abruptly where the circular saw liberated it from. Around me were the slate gray walls of a jail cell with some sort of hallway extending to either side of the cell, while inside here was just this bunkbed and a toilet.

Unlike the slave cage I was in last week, there was little hope that I could gain any advantage over my captors. No, I was only left here to be forgotten. The only pony I could consider a friend, I had betrayed. Having taken Pred’s trust in me and smashed it by not fighting for him harder. I think that’s actually the worst part about all this. Yeah, I never would have been able to walk out of here anyway, but at least I would have known that I did everything I could.

“You going to sit there without saying anything, or are you thick in the head or something?” There was that voice again, but now I could tell it was coming from the bunk above me. “Not like you should need time to adjust in here, I mean you’ve already seen all three walls of our spacious gilded cage.”

“What?” There wasn’t any way else I could think to respond to that.

“So she does speak. Fantastic.” A tangled mess of black mane drooped over the top bunk, followed by a heavily scarred up face. From what I could tell, this pony was a mare, but her right eye, parts of both of her ears, and half of the section of her neck I could see looked like they had metal plates fastened to them. Her left eye must have also been replaced, because it looked like a normal yellow eye up to the fact that it’s puple was a crosshair not unlike the one adorning my flank.

Where…” I started to ask, only to find myself cut off by the loud mare.

“In prison, about three hours, yes I’ve tried to get out, no I don’t know a way to get out, I’ve been here two years, and you’re a bitch.” She ended her spontaneous interruption with a smile. “That about cover everything you were going to ask?”

“Don’t call me a bitch.” I growled, trying to sit up again. I could see my muscles straining to hold just a fraction of my weight, and goddesses did it hurt.

“You don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. You’re the bitch who came in smelling like cigarettes.” She inhaled deeply, leaning towards me while simultaneously redefining my understanding of the word disgusting. “I haven't had one since I got in here, and let me tell you, it sucks.” She gave a soft laugh before pushing herself back onto her own bunk. “Hope you don’t mind going cold turkey!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way out.” I’d really like to spend as little time here as possible. So come on brain, think your way out of here. We’ve been in tighter spots before, and at least this time there’s no freezing fucking ghosts.

“Why, got a hot date you can’t miss?” She pressed back into her cot, straining the old springs above me. “Oh, that’s another great thing about being stuck in here. Goddesses I could use a good buck right now.” She let out a sigh, slowly rolling over so her hair dipped down again. “Hey… you wouldn’t happen to want to…”

“Fuck off.” Not that I couldn’t use it right now as well, seeing as it’s been ages since I’ve had a good rutting. I just needed to keep my mind off of distractions so I could work some way out of here. It’s not like I could be stuck in here the rest of my life, right?

“Don’t worry, hun. You aren’t my type anyway.” She chuckled and flopped back onto her bunk.

I pushed myself to get off of the bed, favoring my weak hoof as I wanted to get a look at the hallway. From what I could tell, the cell was in the center of quite a few, because off either side the hallway ran further than I could make out. The only thing that stood out, was a small, unused light sticking out from the wall just about ten feet away. With no real ideas, maybe the best thing was just to go back to bed.

“What did I tell you, hun. We’re as good as forgotten down here.” The annoying mare groaned and rolled over, dropping off of her bunk and onto her hooves. There was a loud clunk as her left forehoof hit the concrete, the cybernetics inside giving a soft whine as she straightened herself out. “What say you and I break out of this fucking place?” She commented through an overdetermined look.

“I thought you said…” I started to say, quickly finding a foul tasting hoof in my mouth.

“Forget what I said and let’s start over.” She quickly pulled her hoof from my muzzle and wiped it off on my chest. “The name’s Tasteless Smoke, and we’re going to get out of here.”

This mare is confusing.

“Whatever, good enough for me. The name is Storm, by the way.” I wasn’t going to complain about the sudden change of heart, but I’m pretty sure two years alone does little to help a pony’s sanity. “What makes you think we can get out of here now anyway?”

“Cause there are two of us now.” She rolled her neck as she spoke, getting a few loud pops out of it before moving on to her legs and her… wings?

“You’re a pegasus?” I should have thought before I spoke because I was coming off dumb again. Damnit, where’s Pred when I need his wit? Oh yeah! Most likely getting tortured upstairs.

“I’ve got metal plates and shit all over my body, and that’s what you notice? My wings?” She scoffed and rolled her eyes… er, eye. “Next you’ll be remarking how I’m green, or that I’ve only got this one fucking eye.”

“Has anypony told you that you are just such a joy to be stuck around?” I groaned and looked at the barred door. “Since you’re so quick on the smart ass remarks, how about finding one to get out of here.”

“You really are rearing to get to that date, aren’t you?” She walked up to the door next to me, her muzzle curled into the most irritating of smiles. She put her back against the bars and held a leg across her forehead. “Oh you know how much it hurts me to hear you say that I’m not good enough. Oh, woe is me!”

I sighed and gave her my best glare. “Look, I get it, you’re desperate for attention. The thing is, I’ve got a friend upstairs somewhere who needs my help. So if you are going to help me escape, fine, if not, stay the fuck out of my way.”

“Wow, got some claws on you, don’t ya?” She leaned in closer than I’d like. What I wouldn’t give for my rifle right now, or even my revolver. “Doesn't make me any less wrong though, seeing as you do have somepony upstairs waiting for you.”

“Would you please…!” This time I cut myself off, catching the quick flickering that the light in the hall now gave off. It was odd, because lights that flashed like those used to be alarm signals, and would only come on in an emergency.

She caught my look and forced me aside, looking just as puzzled as I did. “Huh, well that’s new.” There was a resounding clang from both sides of our cell, the heavy steel door began retracting as both Tasteless and I didn’t move a muscle. She finally broke the awkward silence. “Oh, you’re good.” She laughed and trot into the hallway. “I don’t know how, but you are a damn gift from the goddesses!”

Seeing as she wasn’t ripped apart by gunfire in a much needed act of irony, I followed her out of the cell. The hallway wasn’t much longer than I thought it was, but did end down to my right with a heavy looking steel door. A small terminal sat next to it, and I figured that even though I’m not good with the things, it was the best place to start.

The screen flashed pink a few times as I got closer, and I gave a small sigh of relief. I gave the keyboard a tap to bring up the screen, and I found that Pai rendered herself onto the index screen… in a maid’s outfit. She lept between each of the options with a duster, quickly erasing it before moving on to the next.

“Pai… what are you doing?” It looks silly, but if there is a purpose behind it, I can forgive it.

“I'm cleaning out their data drives! You wouldn't believe some of the things on here! Total snoozefest!” Her voice came down from a the ceiling mounted P.A. speakers. She flashed me a smile and watched as Tasteless walked up. “Oh! You made a new friend! Hi there, I’m Pai!”

“Is this shit for real?” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, slowly turning back to the screen. “You the one who opened our cell?” She waited until Pai nodded. “Can you open this door?” There was a loud buzz before the door opened towards us, revealing the wide open stairwell that lead out of here. “Thanks, I guess.” She gave a quick laugh and looked to me. “Well, nice knowing you.”

Even before I could answer, she was gone, her heavy hoofsteps carrying her up the stairwell with a furious clammer from her metal hoof. Half of me was glad she was gone, but the other half was now reminded of how alone I was. I really need to find Predious.

“Pai, can you find Pred for me?” Here’s hoping she didn’t already clear that info from the terminal.

She shifted colors to purple and got out her cap and bubble pipe. “He’s uh… no, that’s not right.” She bobbed her head side to side and crossed her forehooves for nearly a minute. “No… AH-HA! He’s on level 5.” She smiled and flashed back to pink.

“That’s it? You can’t perhaps tell me where he is on level 5, or how to get to him?” I facehoofed hard. “Pai, there will be rangers all over the place looking for me. I can't just wander the halls looking for him.”

She gasped and flailed her hooves in the air. “You're right. You could use a cardboard box as a disguise!” She constructed a digital box around herself and wandered across the screen under it.

I jumped as a heavy stomping came into earshot, and I quickly moved to hide myself behind the open door. Maybe if I was lucky, it would just be the one pony in power armor coming to check, and I could slip by as soon as he was past the door. Shit, but what if he does check the door!? The heavy clanking of Tasteless’s cyber hoof came into view as she turned and looked down at me.

“And ponies call me the weird one.” She shook her head and waved her hoof. “It's dead on the next few floors, they're all gone up until you hit level two.”

“Well, duh!” Pai giggled through the speakers. “That's because I submitted a bunch of reports that said that there were a bunch of cyberponies from Caledonia riding in from the south. They pretty much all left to hunt them down!”

“Then why didn't you just say that?!” I shouted, pulling myself out from behind the door.

“Because the box idea is fun?” She shrugged as I got back within view of her. “Besides, most of the ponies on level two are working on me. There’s only Three armored ponies there anyway.” Her image fuzzed for a second, and I had to cover my ears as a large burst of feedback came through the speakers. “You might want to hurry though, they are trying to access my base code for something. They’re bad at coding, but still good enough that they’ll eventually get me opened up.”

“Three paladins? That’s still enough to fuck us up.” I put my hoof to my chin as a thought came into my head. “Pai, do you know where they stored my stuff?”

* * * * * * * * *

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was one. Pai said that the armory and storage for the Rangers was on level 6, so off we went to reclaim my gear. Climbing up four sets of stairs isn’t the easiest on three good hooves, but the thought of shooting these assholes overwrote any want to stop. Tasteless wasn’t lying when she said this place was basically empty. We hadn’t seen more than a scant few ponies working around here, and they did their best to hide until we got past. Thankfully for us, Pai had unlocked all the doors, so all we had to do was stroll in and find our things.

The great thing about the rangers was that they seemed to be neat-freaks. Everything had been labeled and filed away in a box before being stored on a shelf that had a number. The bad thing was that they had gathered a ton of stuff, and I had no idea where to start. This room had three sections, each with ten sets of shelves. Good thing for Tasteless, as she had a good way to go about it.

“Fuck the Rangers!” She yelled and bucked out at one of the shelves, causing it to shudder. All of the old metal shelves sheared from their supports and dumped each box on it onto the floor, their contents scattering every which way as I keep my eyes open for anything familiar. “Ahem.” She cleared her throat to get my attention. “I hope you aren’t just a pair of pretty legs, and that you know how to give a good buck.” She smiled with a sultry look that made me want to scrub it from my brain.

I balanced on my good foreleg as I gave the shelves behind me a good kick, causing them to fall as well. Something inside of me just felt like showing a little earth pony grit was a point of pride when competing with a pegasus, and even though it made little sense, I enjoyed that feeling. She didn’t however, letting out a loud gasp before barreling past me.

“They kept you!” She squealed in delight as she wrapped her hoof around a basic looking combat shotgun. Pulling it close, she nuzzled it with a smile and a sigh. “Never again will they molest you, my sweet gun.”

Moving on, I hobbled down the first line of shelves, bucking them down as I lined them up. In looking over the epic scale pile of gear, I quickly found a familiar sight sticking out of place. The walnut stock of my lever action was a sight for sore eyes, sticking out from the other various weapons that ranged from small twenty twos, to large belt fed machine guns. All of which were useless without the ammo, but I had a feeling that it had to be around here somewhere.

I picked up my gun and got it slung over myself, glancing around for my revolver. It took me a while as digging though as many guns as there are takes some doing, but I finally found it. Getting it strapped around myself as well, I could finally relax a bit. Looking around, I cringed as Tasteless bucked and took out another set of shelves. This time it was various armors and clothes that spilled onto the floor. Immediately, I saw my shirt and jacket.

Hobbling to them, I groaned at the realization that I had to take my guns off. Even with favoring it, my traumatized leg ebbed from overtaxation. I winced and growled my way through putting my shirt back on, and about halfway through putting on my jacket, I began to worry about just how long the Rangers would be gone.

“Hell yeah!” Tasteless yelled from out of nowhere, my hoofs reflexively scrambling for my gun. “Woah there, didn’t mean to give a heart attack.” She laughed as I turned with a glare. “I was just stoked that my old outfit still hugs my curves.” Doing a little twirl, she showed her Tanned leather jacket and brown turtleneck sweater off, ending with a sultry wag of her rear. Maybe at one time I would have considered her my type, but the sight of the steel casing that replaced her tail just killed it for me.

Though, staring at her flank had done some good, seeing as just under her I spotted a few different sets of saddlebags. Walking up, I took one and opened it up, finding that it still had some assorted junk in it. Dumping it all out, I made my way back to the pile of guns on the floor, and started to choose some of the better looking ones out, stuffing them into the bags for selling later. Pred’s contract might be a total loss, but there isn’t any reason I can’t still have made some caps off coming down here.

“I love the way you think!” Tasteless spoke up as she slung her shotgun around herself, picking up a pair of bags in her wings. “There’s got to be a box full of ammo around here somewhere as well.” As she walked by, I stopped her with my hoof. I maneuvered my hoof through the strap to my satchel under her wing and tugged it free. “Hey, what gives!?”

“This one is mine.” I simply responded, hooking it over my head.

“Fine, whatever. Let’s just snatch their ammo and blow this joint.” Tasteless replied simply and got to kicking more of the shelves over. Between the piles of toasters, radio’s and other basic junk, I wasn’t sure if she had found any shelf that had it. The last shelf she did kick though, made the most incredible sound in the world. Like heavenly little chimes, dozens of shells spilled out of their neatly packed away boxes, rolling across the floor as both Tasteless I knew we had struck gold.

After quickly scooping up as much .44 ammo as I could find, I started to shove random boxes anywhere they would fit. Soon, my new saddlebags, my satchel, even my jacket pockets were stuffed full of hundreds of various ammo types. Now we needed to find Predious and Pai before we could get the hell out of here.

Doing my best to keep up the pace as we moved through the dull metal halls in search of a stairwell up, I kept falling behind due to my leg. Tasteless looked annoyed every time she had to slow down for me, but nopony was asking her to foal sit me. I don’t even really know why she came back to warn me. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but I hate it when ponies do nice things for me. They always want something in return.

“Hah! Found the stairs.” Tasteless sang from the corner ahead. There was a terminal by the doorway with the waving form of Pai on it. I simply sighed and hoped for some good news for once.

“Sis, I need to talk to you!” Her voice screeched over the entire level intercom system. I walked over as the ringing her voice left me with cleared from my ears “I found where they’re holding Predious. He’s here.” The screen switched to an overlay of level five, a dotted line running from the stairwell to almost the entire other side of the level. “I’m sorry, but they did a number on him while you were napping.”

“Is he… alright?” What if I wasn’t fast enough? What if the entire time I spent greedily stuffing my bags with the ranger’s goods, he’s been there dying on the floor? What kind of friend does that make me?

She reappeared on the map as her blue self. “He’s suffering from some sort of physical ailment. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She spoke softly.

“Come on then.” I shouted back to Tasteless as I bolted for the stairs. I don’t know if it was fear, anger, or shame that pushed me to get to him, but the halls around me became a blur. I ran on instinct, blasting through a few Rangers who were unfortunate enough to get in my way. I had never felt so empowered before, so driven to act that the very thought of letting him down was just a fantasy. He had to be alright, and I had to get him out of here.

I really did consider him a friend, because it’s the only explanation for why I felt this way.

Finding myself in front of the door Predious was supposedly behind, I didn’t even stop to think about my action. Planting both forehooves on the floor, I bucked back hard, kicking the door hard enough that it bent inward, unlatching it and letting it swing open. There, laying in a puddle of black ichor, was a very surprised looking unicorn ghoul. I stood there in disbelief, wondering what turn I had taken wrong, or if this was only one of the interrogation rooms out of a few.

“Storm… you came for me.” The ghoul spoke up softly, his grey eyes staring at me with just the faintest of tears. The way he looked at me, the emotion in his eyes was the only thing that told me that this nearly all black ghoul, was Predious. Just me entering the room, I could see it in him. This was the unbiased response I had needed to know just how he thought of me. Celebrations for friendship could come later though, after we got the fuck out of this place.

“What did they do to you?” I forced myself to speak, quickly walking over to him. There were various open wounds on him, his red mane with black streaks had become mostly black, with a few strands of red. I don’t know much about what ghouls are, or how they did this to him, but I prayed that he would last long enough that we could get him to somepony who does. Maybe what’s her name… Cocoa back in Chasm would know!

He struggled to get to his hooves, only managing to do it when he used me to lean on. Yeah, it hurt to support him with my bum leg, but we were going to make it out, no matter what. Leaning my head down, he seemed to get the hint and put his hoof around my neck. Together, we slowly made our way out to the hallway.

“Woah, this is the guy you’re hot for?” Tasteless, in a not-so-stunning turn of humor, only made my head thump worse with that. “Far be it for me to judge another mare’s tastes, but damn that’s kinky.”

“Made... another friend... I see.” Predious choked out around a couple of ichor filled coughs.

“Both of you, shut up and help find a way out of this hell hole.” I growled, making my way back down the hall I thought lead to the stairs. Turns out, they didn’t lead that way, but they did advertise us to a pair of paladins who had made their way to this level. “Shit.”

“Yoo Hoo, Mr. Rangers!” Pai called out from the intercoms. “I’ve got a friend I’d like you to meet.” There was a slam that shook the ground we stood on, the wall behind the paladins cracked out into the hall. They both turned their gazes around towards the wall, taking a few uneasy steps back. “You see, he’s fairly angry, and unless you surrender, he’ll only do one thing to you. And that is break, shatter, splinter, crush, bust, or with any other synonym…” Pai stopped speaking just long enough for Iron Will to break through the concrete wall, bending the rebar reinforcements along his body as he forced his way through. The rangers opened fire with the miniguns strapped to their sides, which was the wrong answer. “Iron Will, Smash.”

With that, his bright blue eyes shifted to red, and the two paladins were in a full fledged retreat. Iron Will stomped down the halls after them as bits of rubble trailed behind, a loud bellowing bovine roar came from him as he disappeared from sight. Through the wall he came in, I could see the stairs leading up. It may have taken him a few hours to catch up, but he was damn worth bringing along!

“Sis, all the technicians have left, and I will be transferring myself back to your pipbuck here shortly.” She said with a slow tone, making me dread what came after she paused. “Also, you might want to hurry. Seems like somepony got a message out, and all of the paladins are on their way back.”

“Come on then, let’s get moving sweetcheeks!” Tasteless shouted as she galloped past me. “I ain’t spending another two years down there, even with you!”

I couldn’t argue with that, pulling Predious tightly to myself and pushing us forward. The climb was exhausting, but necessary, each step of the way reinforcing the need to survive. I didn’t go through all this shit just to die now.

The crashes and shudders that came from the levels below us made me smile, the fact that Iron will was getting some well needed payback nestled into my mind right between getting a good night’s sleep, and having the last raider in a band fall to a well aimed shot. Pulling Pred and myself up the final few steps to level two was grueling, but when we had done it, I panted with a smile. He returned it to the best of his abilities and nudged himself off of me.

“Thanks for saving my flank down there, but I think I can walk on my own now.” He winced as he put all of his weight back onto his own legs, remaining fairly stable. “Now, let’s go find Pai, shall we?”

I nodded as we made our way forward, cautiously scoping out each room for more paladins as we went. They were all absent from here as well, which went against what Pai had told us. It made me feel all kinds of uncomfortable for the fact that the ones left behind had all seemingly gotten up and left, well, that or vanished without a trace into thin air.

We walked into a room full of computer banks and other archanotech gizmo’s. Tasteless went around sticking her nose into each and every one for some reason, and Predious simply strode beside me as I walked along the rows of flickering lights and electric humming. I stopped when I found the dusty, beaten up pipbuck that had been given to me as a gift, the display on it powering on all by itself before flicking to pink.

I slipped my leg under it as Predious’s magic lifted it up, clipping the tube closed around my hairless leg with a snap. Lines of green code flooded my vision as each of the display’s elements came up. When they had all appeared, the small pink filly popped up and shifted it all to match her, giving a small sigh as she spawned a small couch under her.

“It’s good to be home.” She smiled and put her hooves behind her head.

“Thanks for breaking me out.” Without her help, I would have broken down. Everything is all fine and dandy now, but I came close to spending the rest of my life locked away. Even now I’m getting ahead of myself, heading right back there if we didn’t get out quick. The heavy mechanical stomps of Iron Will told us that he was done with his business downstairs. “Can you have Iron Will work his magic up ahead? He’s the only hulking bullet resistant mountain of awesome who can take on the rangers, and I’d rather not lose this leg again today.”

“Done… and done.” Pai chimed up. “But I recommend staying close. Once we get outside, you’ll probably have to stay in front of him to avoid getting shot in the flank.” Even from where we were, I heard the telltale hiss of Iron Will’s pistons as he charged ahead. The whole room shook as what sounded like an explosion rocked us almost off our hooves.

“Fucking rangers and their big guns.” Tasteless snarled as she hoofed her mane from her face.

“Don’t worry, Iron Will’s tougher than that.” Predious rolled his eyes as we all started out of the room. “I mean, he was built as tough as a tank. Hell, he basically took a virtabuck to the horns and he was fine.”

“Something’s wrong. I can’t see him… where’d he go?” Pai spoke slowly. “He’s not pinging my software, Storm.” The screen turned blue and she curled up. “I… I’m worried about him. We’ve never been apart this long.”

“Then let’s go check on him.” I sighed. I couldn’t avoid the feeling in my gut, but he was one tough ass robot. I’d be hard pressed to believe that even the rangers could take him out that easily.

Rounding the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks as the door ahead of us sat twisted on it’s hinges, still glowing from whatever the hell had hit it. Smoke poured out of the room as all three of us slowly crept up. Tasteless used her metal hoof to push what was left of the door out of our way, revealing a room with no less than a dozen or so brightly burning flames. It was hard to see with all the thick smoke, but the thing that made me nervous the most was the perfect silence in the room. Stepping forward ahead of the others, I stopped when I stubbed my new hoof against something, looking down with a louder than necessary curse. I had kicked my hoof into the half twisted lump of metal that was once Iron Will’s head. The tip of the one remaining horn still glowed red hot as his dark mechanical eye lay blasted open, smoking from that and the several other holes in his head case.

“No…” Pai cried softly, pushing herself into the corner of my vision. “You can’t be gone. We were going to see the world, you and I...”

“Hostiles, put down your weapons and surrender yourselves immediately!” The booming, staticy voice of a Ranger in power armor called out from ahead.

“You fucking killed him!” Pai screamed out in pain. That was just it, it was pain in her voice. It wasn’t a computer imitating pain, or somepony acting like it. No, I knew what a scream of emotional pain sounded like, and I had never wanted to hear it in my life again after they put me to sleep.

It started as a small churning in my chest, almost like heartburn, but it quickly grew. The more Pai cried, the more I thought about how the rangers had hurt everypony here today. They needed to pay for these acts, and so help me, I was going to bring justice down upon them like they have never seen the likes of before. My muscles tensed, my pulse raced, and my vision blurred, focusing only on those E.F.S. blips that sat on my vision in front of me.

“You fucking monsters!” I screamed, feeling the air around me heat up. “Go burn in hell!”

Flames encompassed the room around me as my vision went white, the sounds of frantic screams amplified by power armor filling my ears as in this one moment, I knew that they were suffering for the evils they had done. It only had lasted for a second, but when my vision returned, I gazed upon a cleansed room. There was no more smoke, and a set of five power armored bodies lay sizzling before me, their helmetless bodies charred black and cracked with just a lick of blue flame coming from the boiling wounds.

Then reality hit me, and the toll of whatever had just transpired hit me like a charging brahmin. My legs gave out, my lungs seized up, and my head exploded in pain all at once. The last thing I saw before I passed out, was the face of Daddy smiling at me before fading away. Then, all was darkness.

--Chapter End--

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

Quests Finished: ...Into the Oven

Quests Started: Path of Destruction

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: 1

Blue Night - Due to some unknown energy built up in your body, there is a 10% chance of you causing an explosion of blue ethereal fire when enraged.

Chapter Sixteen - Road to Salvation

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

I was floating. At least, that’s what it felt like. The lack of sensation had left me curious as to where I was, or even why I was here. I don’t remember how I got here either, but it didn’t worry me. Here I was in an endless void just… existing.

Then there was a sound. A faint buzzing noise that emanated from just far enough away, I couldn’t be sure it was there at all. The darkness around me started to brighten and shift, changing and taking shape around me as I tried to understand what is was. Color was the next thing to appear, but only in specific places.

Down below the front of me sat six glowing orbs arranged in a horseshoe. Standing next to them, was the shape of a sleeping young pony. The more it reformed, the more it started to resemble… me.

“What in tarnation was that, Twilight?” The southern twang of aunt Applejack rang through the air beside me, the slowly defining forms of six ponies came into focus next to me. Like a dam giving way, her voice brought the rest of the world into focus, filling it with definition, but not colors.

We stood in the observation room above the test chamber at the orchard, it was the day that I had taken my test. It was a day I would start to regret.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a reaction like that before. I had no idea she was capable of casting spells.” She replied quickly as she levitated sheet after sheet of data in front of herself. “No… not a spell, if the preliminary data is correct, it wasn’t emitting magic, at least, not like a unicorn’s magic.”

“I don’t care, whatever it was, it was Awesome!” Aunt Rainbow Dash nearly shouted as she flapped her wings and zipped in a circle.

“How can ya say that when she just killed three ponies?” Applejack took her hat off and held it to her chest. “Rainbow, ah know yer eager ta have yer Ministry pick up any project it can, but she’s too dangerous.” She closed her tired looking eyes and gave out a heavy sigh. “There’s no tellin how many ponies she could end up hurtin if we don’t put her down.”

There was a flash down in the test chamber that caught my attention, but didn’t seem to garner it from any of the ministry mares. All six orbs of color floated up from the room below and took their place next to each of the ponies. As the orbs sat there, I inclined my ears to them. Each one gave off a faint whisper that given more time, I might have been able to decipher.

“What!” Momma shouted from behind aunt Pinkie Pie. To be honest, I hadn’t realized she was even in the room until now, meaning that they had all been there on that day. “You can’t! She’s not some terminally ill animal you can just euthanize. She’s just a filly!” She looked out to the window at where I had stood as a filly. “She didn’t mean to hurt anypony, for all we know, it could have been the stress of trying to pass the test.”

“Although unlikely, I agree with Fluttershy.” Twilight spoke up, shuffling her papers and setting them into her labcoat. “We don’t know what caused it, or if it will happen again. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources or time to devote to studying it further. I’m sorry Fluttershy, but Project Harmony has failed.”

“But… that doesn’t mean you have to kill her!” Momma cried out, falling to the floor in tears. “Please, she could be raised to be a normal filly if you just give her a chance! I’ll even raise her if that’s what it takes!”

“It aint safe takin her outa here!” Applejack put her hat back on and dragged her hoof down her face. “What if she takes ta castin that… spell or whatever again? What if she hurts somepony else on tha street?” She walked up to Momma and placed her hoof on her shoulder. “Ah’m sorry sugercube. If there was some other way…”

“No. You can’t have her!” Momma cried out and barreled for the door, smashing it open with little effort before she disappeared into the hallways of the complex.

Rainbow Dash dropped from the air with a frown. “Look, Twilight. I can tell when somepony has talent, and I can tell you that she can still be something awesome.” She rubbed at her mane with a shrug. “I know you all laugh at how little my ministry actually researches things, but I’m asking you for this one thing. I can help to make her into something worth saving, you just gotta give me a chance.”

Twilight pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment. Her eyes slowly drifted to Pinkie, who had so far just sat there in silent contemplation. I don’t know why, but when Twilight looked at her, she just looked so sad. In that moment, each of the colored orbs went silent, as if to hang on the moment to see what would happen.

“I know my ministry has little to do with this project, but the fact remains that we simply cannot stoop so low as to murder a helpless little filly.” Rarity spoke up, turning towards Pinkie Pie with a soft smile. “Pinkie darling, you’ve been awfully quiet so far. What are your thoughts? Don’t you agree that we should at least find a way to help the poor girl?”

“It’s so much to take in. Special fillies, ethereal flames, and the feeling of cold, so much cold.” Pinkie turned to look at me. Not at Twilight or the others, but at me. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, shaking with a subtle twinge of pent up energy and thoughts. Quivering as she spoke, her muzzle emanated puffs of pink with each word. “It will work. She will work, given time. Too much time, time we don’t have, but I can’t figure out why, no, not yet. We must save her, she is too important.” She gave a small twitch and her pupils shrank, shifting between the other confounded mares.

“Pinkie, are you… trying your own stims again?” Twilight spoke hesitantly.

“Who cares.” Rainbow Dash interjected, hovering in the air and throwing her hooves out. “That’s four votes to save her, so I get the project!”

“She’s a filly, not just some project.” Twilight face hoofed. “Look, what exactly do you think you can do with her? I’m all for helping win the war, but Fluttershy was right. This filly deserves a chance at a normal life someday.”

“It’s not like I was going to mess with her at all. Just, you saw how those flames went right through the wall!” Rainbow flapped hard spun in the air, showing off the excitability she still retained even with her age. “Think of what she can do if we put her in one of Applejack’s mechanical suits? She’d be unstoppable, all while being one hundred percent safe!”

With a sigh, Twilight hung her head. “Fine. I’ll contact the O.I.A. first thing tomorrow about starting the transfer paperwork.” She watched as Rainbow Dash attempted to do a celebratory flip, only to stop her with her magic. “But, this still doesn’t solve what we’re going to do with her in the mean time.”

“Whatever Y’all wanna do is fine, but ah’m washin my hooves of this right now.” Applejack stated and headed for the door.

“As am I.” Rarity gave a toss of her head and followed. “I do hope you find somewhere nice for the filly to live in the meantime, but my ministry has very little to do with what happens from now on.” She stopped at the door and gave the others a slight bow. “As always, it’s been a pleasure to see you all again. We simply must do this more often.”

The mare’s each said their goodbyes and Twilight waved as Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash left, leaving only her and Pinkie in the room. It became still enough in the room with just the two of them, that for a moment, I didn’t know if they would ever move again. Slowly, Pinkie shook her head with a frown, the peppermint striped mane she wore saged lower with each swing of her muzzle.

“Who are we kidding? She’ll never have a normal life.” Her sad tone hung on each word as she looked over to Twilight. “All she’s known are these walls, and these scientists. This is her home twilight, who are we to just give her away to somepony else?”

“I understand what you mean, and I hate to do it just as much as you do, but we can’t give her special care when there are too many ponies out there fighting and dying for the betterment of Equestria.” Twilight got to her hooves and walked up to her. “If things get too bad for her, I’m sure your memory alteration specialists could help her out, couldn’t they?”

Pinkie looked downright horrified at the notion. “I’ve seen what the soldiers Fluttershy and I helped have gone through. I’ve seen the anguish and suffering for every lost friend and life changing wound. We help them forget, but what they went through… that’s something nopony should ever have to experience.”

“I know Pinkie. We’re all trying to find some solution to this on our own.” She sat down next to Pinkie and rest her horn against the one way mirror into the test chamber. “Even Princess Celestia still tries to persuade Princess Luna to take a more diplomatic approach, but I can’t help but feel like we’re only digging ourselves deeper into this war.” She tapped her horn against the glass a few times and sighed again. “This project would have given us a weapon greater than megaspells. Just a chance to use the Elements of Harmony as a tool to persuade peace was worth the risks, but now we have to start over again.”

“Don’t worry so much about it Twilight, you always think of something.” Pinkie did her best to deliver a comforting smile, but I think they both knew that these days, there wasn’t much to smile about anymore. Pinkie sat up straight for a moment and blinked. “You know, I think I have an idea about what to do with Harmony for now.” She waved her hoof and walked towards the door. “Come on Twi, let’s go see Fluttershy and I’ll explain on the way.”

“Do... you... now... see?”

It hit me like an applebuck to the head, the voice brought back all my feelings and thoughts. The images of before faded away and I was myself again, standing in the darkness before a pillar of rainbow light. As had both other times, a shadowy pony formed out of the dark itself and lowered down in anticipation to fight.

I knew what was coming. I lowered myself in response, shifting my weight around to spin myself as I pulled my hind legs close. With little more than a grunt, I bucked back hard, connecting to the shadow ponies head and shattering right through it. I am tired of all of the mystery, of this voice. I’m tired of being a disappointment.

“Good… Again…”

“I don’t fucking want to go again!” I screamed out, feeling my anger and hatred flow through myself. Ahead of me in the darkness was the next challenge, the mare shaped darkpony.

It charged at me with all the speed it had utilized in the previous fight, and only with a quick, last minute roll did I manage to dodge. The moment I felt my hooves on the floor again, I pushed off, relying on my reflexes to guide me away from the sweeping strike the shadow mare gave. I landed a few feet back from her, tensing as I hit the ground and tightening my legs. In what felt like one smooth action, I used my downward momentum and compressed to the floor before springing forward.

I’ve always been told I was a bit thick headed, but I don’t think the shadow mare was expecting a headbut to shatter her own. The rest of the mare crumbled as I rolled through the slam, ending up on my hooves again facing the light. I was ready for the next challenge, whatever the fuck it was.

“You… must… continue… fighting...”

I watched as the shadowy form of a stallion formed in front of the light. Eager to end this before it started, I lowered myself for another lunge, waiting for the moment before it finished forming to strike. The wispy stallion solidified and I jumped, watching with a grin as I sailed towards it. The expression expanded into a face, and then a whole pony.

That pony was my father.

Tucking my legs in, I tumbled past him with a whine, sliding along the ground and up to the light. Scrambling back to my legs, I turned around and couldn’t help but to stare at him. A full minute when by as I felt the memories of him flood back, gazing upon him like a thirsty wanderer would a bottle of water. His features weren’t exactly as I remembered, there was more to him now. A little scar here, a little bit of mane receding there, he looked a lot more tired than he ever had.

“Continue…”

“What?” I turned back towards the light. “I… I can’t fight him, he’s my father.”

“You… must…”

“No. Fail me again or whatever because I’m done with this shit.” I glanced back to daddy, watching as he gave a smile and a soft nod. “I refuse to hurt somepony I love.” I watched as my cheeks glistened in the rainbow light from the tears I didn’t realize I was crying.

“It’s okay, Harmony.” Daddy’s voice was soft and made my legs tremble. “It’s alright honey, I’ll be fine.”

“No!” I screamed and stomped as hard as I could on the ground in defiance. A wave of blue flame burst from where I hit, rolling across the ground and sweeping over him. He went stiff as thin cracks formed over his body, slowly growing wider as the illusion fell into a heap. I raised a hoof and looked at it, watching in abject horror as a blue glow drained out of it the longer I watched. “What… am I?”

“You… are… ready…”

* * * * * * * * *

“Daddy!” I shouted, sitting up in alarm before immediately regretting that decision. My head felt like a herd of brahmin were stampeding across it and the lights in whatever room I was in were blinding. Even though it’s never helped anypony in the history of ever, I clasped my hooves at the side of my head to try to stop the pain. “Son of a bitch.” At least the headache would pass. That dream however…

“Finally back, Storm?” Predious spoke from out of nowhere. His voice startled me so much, that I jumped from the bed I was on, flailing my hooves as I fell back out of it onto the dusty wooden floorboards of what I now recognized to be the Chasm clinic.

Groaning, I picked myself back up. “What the fuck do you mean...?” I paused as I looked at him. His crimson coat looked as pristine as it ever had, his mane was back to the red and black streaks it had been since I first found him.

“Well you were muttering in here for the last few hours.” He rolled his eyes and looked bored. “I stopped asking if you were awake after the fourth or fifth time. By the seventeenth time, it was getting a little bit annoying.”

“Shut up Pred. How are you alright?” I don’t even care how we got back or what happened in that room.

“Why, whatever do you mean?” He gasped in mock offence to the question. “I have always been alright, are you sure you aren’t the one feeling a bit off?” He gave a little chuckle. “I mean, whatever you did back there in that bunker really did save our flanks, but it seemed to take the fight right out…”

“I said shut up, Pred.” I snarled, walking up to him slowly. “You were a ghoul back in that bunker, how did you get better?” I spun around as a sudden realization came into my mind. “Oh… another test then, is it?” I planted all four of my hooves on the floor firmly. “I told you, I’m fucking done with this shit!”

“Oh dear, are you sure you’re feeling alright, Storm?” Predious offered in a way that was supposed to sound like friendly concern, but instead only made my head hurt more.

“Tell me then.” I growled and turned back to him. “How. are. you. better?”

“Fine, you want the truth?” He grumbled as his horn flashed. I watched, almost mesmerized as his coat darkened and cracked. Lines and old scars drew their way across his fading coat as he seemed to age a hundred years in just a few seconds. His mane drooped and dropped it’s color to mostly black again, and his eyes turned to a more distant and dull look than he had before. “Truth is, I’ve been this way for a long time. Why did I hide it? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but ghouls aren’t exactly welcomed by anypony, now are they?”

“The ponies around here don’t mind me!” Cocoa, the ghoul I had met back outside the orchard spoke up as she entered the small room I was in. She flashed me a smile as she closed the door, hoofing the stethoscope around her neck into her ears. “But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” She took a moment to listen through the instrument before walking around behind me.

She placed the end of the stethoscope against my chest, sending a shiver through my spine from the touch of the cold metal. As much as I didn’t want to look, my eyes were transfixed on the changes to Predious’s body. I knew that he was still the same stallion that I’d been traveling with for the last week, but part of me just couldn’t accept it. Then Predious’s horn flashed, and he went back to looking normal again.

“Thank you my dear. I’m not ashamed about what I am, just afraid that it will cause unneeded grief.” He laughed and rubbed at his neck. “At one time, I had thought that the ponies before the end treated others badly. Oh how wrong it turns out I’d been.” He shrugged and gave me a smile. “Well, you live and learn I guess.”

The noise of duct tape being stretched off the roll made me turn to see what Cocoa was now doing. Just as I did, she plastered a metal disk with a wire to my coat and taped it to me. She did so with three other disks before returning to a machine that all the wires ran into and flicked it on. With a high pitched whine that reminded me of a shock prod, a multitude of lights along the side of it flashed in quick succession as a line of paper slowly fed out of the machine.

“Hmm, very interesting.” She said, hoofing the crawling paper trail in front of her vision. “If this is correct, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way your internal organs are functioning.” She shut the machine off with a flick of her hoof and tore the paper from the feed. “Whatever kept you in a comatose state must have something to do with your deeper cognitive functions. Unfortunately, I don’t have the right equipment in here to do a more in depth test. Though on the other hoof…” She smiled and walked over to me. “Now that the facility is completely accessible, there might be a machine in there…”

“Not going to happen doc.” I grumbled. Last time I went in there, I didn’t come out for over a century. I know she doesn’t want to do that, but still, maybe it’s better that I leave that place in the past. She nodded and seemed to understand as she leaned towards me. She nipped at my coat, and before I realized why, there was a horrendous ripping sound and I was rolling on the floor in a silent scream.

“Sorry boss.” Predious tried to hold back a snicker as he spoke, but I could tell that jerk was enjoying this. “Here, let me make it easier for you.” His magic gripped at the remaining three pieces of tape all at once, and for a moment, he waited. That dick waited until I realized what he was about to do.

This time, I let out a full bodied, agonizing scream.

“How was that any fucking easier?!” I snapped at him once I was done writhing into the floorboards. I had half a mind to shoot him for that, but annoyingly my rifle wasn’t anywhere that I could see from the floor.

“Well, you only had to deal with that one.” Predious spoke up in his usual annoyingly cheerful tone. “If I did this slowly or one by one, we’d have had you on the floor until nightfall.”

“I swear, the next fucking bottle of wonderglue I find is going to apply something to that smart ass mouth of yours.” I groaned and pulled myself back up. “Speaking of, did what’s her flank stick around? Or was she smart and got herself as far away from this fucking town as possible?”

“She’s… in jail at the moment.” Predious shifted uneasily on his hooves.

“Please tell me that she didn’t murder anypony.” I hadn’t thought about it at the time, but if she had lied to me in that cell down there, I could have just broken out a mass murderer or something. “At the very least, tell me she murdered Ficha.”

“Your Zebra friend? No, she didn’t murder him, nor anypony else.” Pred nodded to the cabinet over near the door, where I saw the edge of my jacket sticking out. “But she did manage to break the mayor’s foreleg when he tried to hug her. Then she gave the sheriff quite a walloping when she resisted arrest.”

“Well that’s… pretty good news actually. At least he got what was coming to him.” I laughed to myself, stopping when I caught Cocoa’s disapproving look. “Ficha, not the mayor. That womanizing asshole has deserved to get his flank served to him for years.”

“Still, it doesn’t make it right.” She snorted and kept her muzzle tilted up like any arrogant jerk who thought they were better than the rest of us would. “Use of that kind of brutality has no place in this peaceful town.”

“No, this town has no place in this wasteland.” I glared back at her. “You think you’re safe hiding from everyone else out there, but one of these days, the wasteland will come and find you. It always does.” I slipped on my coat and satchel, looking around for my rifle only to find that Predious was already levitating it above me. “Come on Pred, let’s get out of this nightmarish town.

“We can’t go yet.” Pai spoke up, changing my vision to blue as she appeared curled up in the corner. “Not until we give Iron Will a proper send off.” She sniffled at me and sobbed softly in a way that only exaggerated the headache I had.

“No, I want to be as far away from here as…” I stopped halfway through the sentence as the pipbuck died, going dark in what I could only assume was an act of defiance. “Pai, you turn yourself back on this instant.” I lifted my pipbuck and shook it. “Listen to me Pai, I will not mourn for a machine.” However awesome it was, and even though it saved my life, it doesn’t mean I have to care that it’s dead.

“Oh come on Storm. What’s the harm in giving her a bit of closure.” Predious rolled his eyes as he walked to the door. “Besides, another hour in town won’t kill you.” He opened it and held his hoof towards the main clinic room.

“Fuck it, fine. I still think it’s a waste of time, but fine, we’ll go and remember him or some shit.” I grumbled. No sooner than I had said that, the compass reappeared in my vision with a destination tick mark to the north of us, and the words ‘Travel to memorial site’ flashed above it. I shook my head and headed out the door, eager to just get this over with.

* * * * * * * * *

Thunder rumbled in the distance to the north while a cold wind swept down across the open plains from the mountains behind us. The air felt like it could break into rain any minute, and I didn’t want to be drenched by the time we were done. Walking all the way back to dodge was going to suck if it were to freeze.

The memorial spot that Pai had chosen was one of the only hills within eyesight of Chasm that happened to have the dead husk of an old tree on it. From the looks of it, it must have been split down the middle from a lightning strike sometime far in the past. It’s scorched bark had dried and hardened to where it might as well have been made of rock itself.

“Thank you all for coming.” My Pipbuck crackled as Pai slowly formed in my vision. “We are gathered her to mourn the loss of our longtime friend and compatriot, Iron Will. Though he was prepared for the eventuality, he was taken from us far before his time. We will now observe a moment of silence to honor his memory.”

I rolled my eyes and gave out a light sigh, catching a glare from Pai for my annoyed attitude. It’s not my fault he’s gone. He could have stayed back with the rest of us instead of charging into a line of paladins.

Pai looked up to me and wiped the tears from her digital eyes. “Sis, did you want to say a few words?”

I didn’t want to say anything. For so many having died around me here in the wastes, I didn’t know the first thing about funerals. My parents are still alive, the ponies I consider family are still alive. The only death I now wished I’d known were Mama and Papa’s, but that’s a wish that I will end up taking to my grave. Even if I wanted to say something, I didn’t know of anything that needed to be said.

“Storm’s right.” Predious chimed up out of nowhere. “Iron Will never said anything to us. He never complained, never argued, the only thing he ever did was watch over us the best that he could. It may be an old Equestrian mindset that has died out over the years, but back in my day, we let our actions speak for us. Iron Will died to save the rest of us. He died a hero’s death, and I can say that I’m proud to have known him.”

Huh, Pred swoops in with another assist when I’m in a jam, he’s not the useless pony I had made him out to be after all. His words though were well thought out, showing me a bit of the softer side of him that I haven’t seen much of. With all the loneliness and pain around me normally, it’s good to see somepony who actually cares about the world around him. It’s admirable in a way, not something I feel I’m capable of, but still admirable.

“Thank you Predious.” Pai sniffled again with a smile. “That really means a lot. I know you two didn’t know him for long, but believe me, he liked you two.”

“He will be greatly missed.” I finally found the words to speak. It was my first funeral, and I needed to say something, even if it’s not something I could put my feelings into. The wind picked up as silence fell between us again, the feeling of wetness in the air foretold a coming rain, and the crack of thunder only made it’s arrival seem that much quicker. “The storm is coming, let’s get back to town.” I said as I look a look at the memorial tree again, catching Pai’s depressed look in the corner of my vision. “We’ll stop by again on our way out before we head back to Dodge, alright Pai?”

She nodded and curled up. “Thanks sis, it means a lot to me.” As she popped off the screen, the rest of the pipbuck’s functions came back up and shifted to green. Predious let out a sigh of his own and trot up beside me.

“I know you think it was a waste of time, but I’m glad you went through with it.” He said, putting his hoof around my neck. “We all need to stick together if we’re to be friends, and mourning the loss of somepony isn’t easy to do on your own.” He smirked and raised his eyebrow at me. “Not even for somepony who burns their way out of a Steel Ranger’s bunker.”

“Well let’s not ever do that again, alright?” I snorted back, turning around with him and heading back towards town. The first drops of cold rain started to fall, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Well, so long as we stay away from those walking tin can’s, I don’t think…” Predious started to remark before I glared him silent.

“No, not that.” I shook my head and pressed us ahead faster. “Let’s not hold any more memorial services. One is enough for my lifetime.” As if to have been holding back, the clouds finally let loose. As it came down on us, I didn’t mind the rain as much as I thought I would. When it was just the one drop, I shivered, but with all of them now, I just felt numb. I’m sure there’s a metaphor to be found in there somewhere about my feelings towards death, but right now, I couldn’t care to find it. “We’re going to have wait out the storm, so let’s go see if I can’t get Ficha to let Tasteless go.”

“Sounds like a plan to me boss.” He smiled and released his leg from around my neck. “And I agree. Let’s not have anymore death.”

--Chapter End--

“At the curtain’s call, It's the last of all. When the lights fade out, all the sinners crawl.”

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: None

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Seventeen - The Price of Ignorance

“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.”

The cold rain that fell wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was going to be, but most of that could be attributed to the fact that it was close to freezing and I was numb. The streets resisted the rain as best they could, but they too were losing the battle, slowly becoming muddy pits seeking to impede travel. Still, the way back towards the sheriff's station wasn’t all too bad, just quiet. Everypony in town had stayed in when the thunder came, and the seemingly vacant town looked all too much like much of the northern wasteland.

“Storm, can I get something off my chest?” Predious spoke up out of nowhere, holding his hoof out to stop us from going any further. “You didn’t have to save me down in that cell you know. You could have broken out just as easily had you not rescued me. I wanted to thank you for that.”

“Think whatever you want, but you owe me big time.” I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and hoofed out a cigarette, lighting it as I watched his muzzle twist into a frown. “Yeah, we’re friends and all, but they almost fucking killed me in there. This whole ordeal is just going to bring a ton of heat down onto us, and probably get us killed.” Taking a long drag, I found that his expression darkened with the realization.

“I’m sorry. I wish I knew what they wanted me for.” He did sound apologetic, but something about it I wasn’t buying.

“Doesn’t matter now. We need to stick together at all times.” I exhaled and started forward again. Predious’s hoofsteps followed along behind me at a slower pace, trailing behind either out of defiance or hesitation. It didn’t matter much though as I climbed onto the rickety wooden porch of the sheriff's office. The old wooden building was one of the original buildings of Chasm from before the war, and definitely looked the part. I’m sure the wood that was used to keep this place standing could have been used on another, more important building, but even in a town this peaceful I’d still rather have a fortified security station than a fortified trading post.

“Touch me again, and I’ll rip that leg right out of it’s socket.” Tasteless Smoke’s voice carried through the walls shortly before there was a crash inside. I lazily pushed open the foggy plexiglass door to the inside and walked into the middle of a scene I wholly expected to see. Ficha had his leg twisted in Tasteless’s grasp, forcing him to push back into the steel bars that separated him from her. The two of them gave me smiles for entirely different reasons, and though Ficha tried to speak up first, Tasteless tweaked his leg a bit to silence him.

“So, you’re alive after all.” Tasteless smirked. “Get me out of this joint and give me one of those smokes.” She sucked in a deep breath as I exhaled again, looking to relax a bit with it.

“You are awfully pushy for needing me to break you out again.” I said as I calmly took another drag from my smoke, stepping toward the wooden desk and chair that sat next to the entrance. Predious entered into the station as well, the grim look he had worn outside fading away to one of curious study towards the scene playing out before him.

“You know, you’re a lot heavier than you look. I didn’t have to carry your flank across the badlands to a doctor, but I did it out of the kindness of my heart.” She snorted and tensed up, rousing a low whine from Ficha as she adjusted her hold on him. “Now quit being an ungrateful bitch and tell this striped dickbag to unlock the fucking door.”

I leaned back in the wooden chair I had taken a seat in, putting my hooves up onto the desk as I took my time to respond. I did owe this mare for bringing me here, but I still didn’t know her. She was trouble, and in just one afternoon she had broken out of one prison, just to enter another. Chances are if I let her go, she’d just head north to dodge and repeat the process all over again. With a sigh, I looked to her and took one last drag from my smoke before I spit it out onto the floor.

“As much as I’ve enjoyed watching you torture this asshole, I don’t need any more debts to ponies. Ficha, let her go.” I spoke calmly as I got back to my hooves, stamping out the burning ember with my hoof. Tasteless gave me a shit eating grin and released Ficha’s hoof, immediately causing him to fall to the floor with a groan.

“I can’t just let a criminal go, Storm.” He said as he rubbed at his foreleg. Standing up, he stood proudly in front of the barred cell and gazed intensely into my eyes. “She’s a danger to this town that I can’t ignore. What kind of Sheriff would I be if I let her out with the full knowledge that she could hurt somepony else around here.”

“She will be leaving with us.” Predious stepped in front of me, taking both Ficha’s gaze and bravado. “If you wish to keep her here, by all means, go ahead. Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll find anypony fortunate enough to stop by here to stop her from putting you in a position like you were just in.” Pred’s words seemed to come as a striking revelation to Ficha, and it immediately disarmed his ‘passionate defence’ of the town. He gave a nervous smile and trot over towards the far wall where a large keyring that only bore one key, sat.

“Oh, I see your point.” He muttered softly before hoofing the ring from it’s hook. Turning back towards me, he stopped and looked me over slowly. From the way his nervous smile turned into a half lidded smirk, I knew exactly what the stupid he was about to emit from his muzzle would be. “You know, even with the threat of more pain, having this does leave me in a rare position of power over you. Maybe you could do a little something for me in exchange for her freedom?” He wasn’t even holding back anymore, instead only staring at my flank. “You know, she’s not the only one around here who needs to be released.”

Normally, I’d have been grateful for a distraction, but the sound of automatic gunfire is not one I ever welcome. Both Pred and I crouched low in reaction to it, whereas Ficha only gave a yip and practically threw himself behind the desk. Moving up to the door, I hoofed it open just wide enough to peer through as the citizens started to react in panic. I peered out the door and up the street to find a squad of power armored ponies. My heart sank as I thought about how stupid it was to have come back here. Of course they were going to come after me, how could I have been so stupid not to have lead them away?

“It seems that the Steel Rangers didn’t give up after all.” Predious muttered from above me, craning his neck so he could see out the door as well. “They could have caught up to us at any point in the badlands, why attack the town?”

The power armored ponies stopped shooting abruptly, halting their reign of terror to stand as stiff as statues. As the reports echoed off the sharp cliffs and hills, a group of robed ponies appeared along the trail behind them, the leader of that group raised a small object to her face. I squinted my eyes to try to make out what sort of weapon it was, but was rewarded with a loud screech blaring through the air.

“Citizens of his settlement, we are not here to cause further harm. We are simply looking for a dangerous criminal whom we believe to be injured and has taken refuge in this town.” The mare speaking into what I could now recognize as a megaphone swung it from side to side as she shouted. “She is an earth pony mare, grey in pallet with a black mane. Any information you may have will only expedite both our stay and your return to your lives.”

The quick hoofsteps running towards us from the opposite side of town made me back away from the door. I slid my rifle from my back as Predious reached into his own saddlebag, slipping out one of the rifles I had taken from the Ranger’s storage room. We both raised our weapons as the door flew open, and a very panicked looking Touchy Feely raced inside.

“What are you doing in here, Ficha!” He blew past Pred and I, pulling Ficha up from the floor with an angry grunt. “Get out there and do something!”

Ficha pushed Touchy away with a scowl. “What do you want me to do? Just hand over Storm?” For once, he was defending me? I don’t know whether to be impressed he cared or insulted that he think’s I can’t take care of myself. “Look, we’ll just calmly go out there and explain to them that they are free to search the town, all the while Storm can take her friends and go. They won’t find her, and we’ll have cooperated. It’s a win-win for everypony.” He ended by kicking the keyring to me, only to have Pred intercept it with his magic and float it over to the lock.

“A… alright, if you think that will work.” Touchy was so scared, he was shaking. I’d say that ‘I told you so’, but I’ll save that for next time I’m around here. I reslung my rifle and trotted across the room to the back wall, putting my hoof against a few boards that looked like they had been due to be replaced a few decades ago. They gave slightly under my hoof, and I knew that this would be our only exit. “Storm, wait.” Touchy called out softly. “A few years back, I developed an evacuation plan for the town for a scenario such as this. I never thought we’d need to use it, but I need your help.”

“I’ll do what I can, but we don’t have much time.” I have a bad feeling that this day was about to get a whole lot more complicated.

“There is a tunnel in the hot springs caves, it runs north under the town for about a half mile. Morning Dew should be gathering concerned citizens there as we speak, and she is instructed to lead them to Dodge until I send for them.” Touchy put his hooves on my shoulders and gave me probably the most serious look he’s ever had on his face in his life. “Please, make sure they get their safely. Most of them stay here because they can’t fight the wasteland like you can.”

“Alright, alright.” I pushed him back and rolled my eyes. “Now go before they get impatient.” He nodded and headed for the door, taking a deep breath before pushing it open. Ficha gave me a nervous smile as he followed through, the thought of this all going downhill quickly flooded my mind. “Pred, Tasteless, get this wall open and stay out of sight, I’ll catch up in a moment.”

“What? You’re staying here?” Pred asked as he approached. He still did as I asked, starting to pry at the boards as I made my way to the door. Tasteless didn’t seem to care, but stuck close to me as I pressed up against it.

“Just long enough to see if they take the bait.” I whispered, cracking the door open just far enough to get another peek. The power armored rangers had consolidated together around the robed ones, and stood at the ready as Ficha and the Mayor approached. Everything was going smoothly, and I was hopeful that this plan would work.

Then the mare with the megaphone gave a dismissive wave of her hoof.

The whole plan disintegrated in an instant. One of the armored rangers opened up with his minigun on the two, cutting down Ficha and the Mayor only a split second before the rest joined in. They turned their guns on the rest of the town, forcing Tasteless and I to flatten to the floor as a line of rounds punched through the old wooden walls. Scrambling across the floor towards the hole Predious had torn in the wall, I threw myself through it as I felt the blast wave from a nearby rocket go off and shutter the sheriff’s office.

As it turns out, Tasteless had the same idea, seeing as the second I was through, she barreled into me and sent me down into the muddy dirt. The screams of frightened townsfolk filled the air between bursts of gunfire and explosions, some of them making the mistake of running out in the open down the streets. I slicked the mud from my muzzle and eyes just in time to see a mare scream as she was struck by a pair of rounds, sending her tumbling into the mud while the filly with her cried out in fear. A blinding flash followed as a rocket burst on the mother, and I clenched my eyes shut. I knew better than to look at them, the silence from where they once were was all the confirmation that I needed to get up and go.

Tasteless clambered off of me quickly, forcing her cyberhoof under me and pulling me from the mud. I turned around before opening my eyes, and when I did, I was met with the quivering eyes of Predious, who had what looked to be a thousand yard stare. Tasteless trot to the back corner of the building, looking up and down the street as I put a hoof onto Pred’s shoulder.

“There’s nothing we can do for them, Predious. Staying here will only get us killed.” I didn't care about this town, I never have. This wasn't our problem right now, all we needed to do was focus on getting out of here. As long as we could get back to dodge, we could get them help, but the three of us versus a squad of paladins was suicide.

“They never asked for this…” Pred groaned and shifted his gaze to me. “This town, these ponies. They didn’t deserve this!” His horn lit up and his gun levitated to his side. The look that fell over his face was more relaxed, but I’d seen it on plenty of ponies right before I’d killed them. “Somepony has to make a stand.”

“Really, you’re going to kill them?” I spoke up as he took a step forward. Instinctively, I turned and bucked my hooves back, knocking him up against the sheriff’s office. He gave a yelp and hesitated, giving me enough time to spin again and pin him with my regrown hoof. “This isn’t something you can win, Pred. I don’t care what you’re thinking, but we are leaving, now.” I shifted my hoof against his neck as he struggled against me, shooting me a furious glance as he started to choke. “Even if I have to carry you this time.”

Black smoke drifted down the road, and even through the rain I could hear the growing fires that burned in the town. The hardened look Predious had began to fade, his body relaxing enough that I let him go. His eyes turned from me back to the street, and with a sigh he turned around and slung his rifle around himself. As tempting as it was, I didn’t look back either and we both came up beside a waiting Tasteless.

“You bitches done with your drama?” She snorted and shook her head. “If we stick to the backsides of the buildings, we should be able to give those toasters the slip.” She gave another quick look around the corner before both waving us forward and taking off across the backstreet. “Now, let’s get out of this hellhole!”

Darting across the street felt wrong with the sounds of gunfire and misery all around. The thick smell of burning buildings and the choking smoke clung to me more than I wanted, causing me to struggle to find enough air to breathe. I felt like the scared little filly I once was, shaky and panicked when I first had to kill somepony to keep myself alive. I’ve killed hundreds since then, and not a single fuck was given for any of them. Now, as we make our way across the next street, and the gunfire is less focused and dangerous, I find it harder to take each step.

We crossed the next street, then the next. The gunfire was quieter even here, and the fires hadn’t burned enough to cloud the air, yet I still felt like I was suffocating. Leaving this place shouldn’t be this easy, not for the price they’re paying. In the back of my mind, I wanted one of those rangers to find us, to shoot at us. Anything to keep their attentions away from Chasm. What was the point? Why did they open fire!

We made it out. Once we reached the outer sheet metal wall, Tasteless and I bucked a section of it down and from there we looped around and galloped north. My mind felt like it was spinning and I was hyperventilating, recognizing the tree where we had been only a half hour ago now. I steered us towards it, slowing down as I started to feel sick. Emptying the contents of my stomach did little to help, but it gave my legs the perfect excuse to fold up under me and let me rest.

I had done so well on the street back there, I’m surprised I made the mistake of looking up. Chasm burned brightly as the quick bursts of gunfire were punctuated with the tortured screams of it’s inhabitants. Up against the mountain, I could see the Inn burning like a funeral pyre for Chasm itself, and I almost questioned if anypony made it out before this all went so fucking wrong. They had to have, somepony, anypony had to have made it. There was a large whump as part of the smelter went up in a bright blast, the whole rest of the building tilting before collapsing down in a dark plume.

“Fuck me…” Tasteless muttered under her breath, watching as the black clouds rose up to meet the cloud layer. “What the fuck happened back there? No group of Rangers that I’ve ever seen have been that aggressive, not even to raider camps.” She scrunched up her muzzle and rubbed at her chin. “Unless… how long was I imprisoned for?” A bolt of lightning snaked across the sky as the storm above intensified, the wind picking up as we all sat fixated on the carnage before us.

My vision shifted to pink as Pai popped up in my vision. “I have a feeling that these ponies have been very bad in the last few years.”

“I think that’s the understatement of the century.” Predious snarled out as he kicked at the muddy ground. “Back before things went to hell, ponies were never this cruel. At least… not towards each other.”

“When I was inside their systems, I found that they had been trying for years to find me.” Pai shifted the screen to purple, donning the bubble pipe and hat that always seemed to accompany that color. “They finally figured out that I wasn’t connected to any of the other bunkers around them, and instead started to search old pre war settlements for anypony still alive with connections to the Ministry of Moral and Ministry of Arcane Sciences. This is why Predious was given a bounty.”

“Oh, really now?” I couldn’t fucking believe this! “This whole time, you used to work for them?” I put two and two together in my mind, and I wasn’t happy with where it lead. “Leading me through the snow, you walked me right onto that ruin. We just ‘happen’ to fall in and instead of looking for a way out, you instead want to go further in?” I pulled my rifle from my back and leveled it at him. “You better come clean with me Pred, real quick. And you better hope I like your answer, or the only ponies that will find you aren’t the type to show mercy.”

“But, I knew nothing about you!” Predious shook his head and looked to me. “I had no idea you existed until we fell in there, it was an accident, I swear!” He held his hooves out to the side, and wore a shocked look on his face. “Yes, I lied about being a ghoul, and yes, I didn’t tell you I used to work for MAS, but I’m telling you the truth. I worked up in Manehatten and I never even knew about the facility in ponyville other than the above ground ruin!”

We all sat for a good half minute in still silence. The sound of the chaos in town and the rumblings of thunder kept us all tense, and I could tell even Tasteless wasn’t sure how this would turn out. Pred’s face only shifted to look more and more sorrowful, and the more I stared, the more I knew that guilt wouldn’t be something that would rear it’s head now. With a sigh, I lowered my gun.

“We’re friend’s, Storm. I don’t have any reason to lie to you.” He gave me a final glance before getting to his hooves. Tasteless let out an exasperated groan and pulled herself to her hooves, eyeing me with a bored look.

“I get it, shit happened. Get over it, and let’s get going. I don’t want to be around when those tin cans show up.” She held her hoof out to me as if to offer me some help up. Instead, when I reached out, she diverted her hoof. “You going to give me that cigarette you owe me or what?”

Forcing myself to stand, I figured that we might as well fulfill the last request of Mayor Feely and go check ahead for survivors. I just hope that we can reach dodge in time to get ready. If they were willing to wipe out Chasm, there’s no telling if they’d risk going after us in there. At the very least, we can give them a warning as to what’s coming, and maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get to stand on even ground against them.

* * * * * * * * *

The further we were from Chasm, the more it weighed on my mind, and the more I had to question just what my place in all this was. I’m responsible for what happened back there in part, but I still don’t know what they wanted me for. Once we were safely to Dodge, I was going to have a nice long chat with Pai about what they wanted with her.

Another enigma that I needed to unravel was Tasteless. Now that I had some time to actually look at her, I found that her extensive augmentations didn’t look like they replaced specific parts of her. Some of the metal that glinted from under her skin didn’t look to be any sort of functional cybernetic, it looked like just another piece of metal that happened to be set inside some old wound.

“Like what you see, sugar?” Tastless nudged me and blew a puff of cigarette smoke at me. “I already told you, you just aren’t my type.”

“Yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes and picked up the pace, easily catching up to Predious who looked lost in thought. No, his expression was more than that. He was reflecting on something from a long time ago. Before I could ask him what it was, he stopped abruptly as we crested the top of an old reservoir. I traced his squint with my own, following it to the horizon ahead to see a large group of ponies on the other side of the dry lakebed.

The closer we got, the more that I could tell that they had to be from Chasm. Huddled and scared, most of them hid behind the few ponies brave enough to defend them against the strangers approaching them. One of them happened to be Cocoa, who broke into joyful tears when she recognized me. She galloped across the flats towards me, slowing down only when she was about to slam into me. She threw her hooves around me in a squishy embrace and cried into my neck. This was enough assurance to the rest of the crowd that we weren’t dangerous, and the roughly forty ponies who had made it out gathered around to ask what had happened.

“Is this everypony who made it out?” Predious asked hesitantly. The moment he did, you could feel the monumental shift in the crowds spirits, instantly spiraling into chaos and panic. They all either started shouting incoherently that they needed to go back, or they started to cry out. They were all silenced in an instant by Tasteless firing off a round into the air with her shotgun.

Pushing Cocoa away, I cleared my throat to get their attention. “I was told that your evacuation plan meant that you were to head to Dodge, and that you were to wait there for somepony to tell you that Chasm is safe.” I scanned the crowd, trying to make them all understand that gravity of the situation. “I’m sorry to say that Chasm is lost. Touchy made me promise to lead you all safely to Dodge, and it isn’t a far trek, but it isn’t an easy one either.”

“She’s right you know.” The haunting voice of an impossible stallion spoke up from beyond the crowd, splitting them apart before me. “But what’s the point, if they’ll just attack there next?”

Before me stood one whole, not dead Ficha. He looked like he had gone through hell to get here, bleeding from several bullet holes in his legs and what looked to be a half caved in skull. I fought with my mind to believe that he was real, and only the confused and frightened looks of the other survivors told me that he was physically there.

“I watched you die to that Ranger’s minigun. How the fuck are you still alive?” I growled out. This screamed all sorts of wrong, and I had to resist the thought of grabbing my rifle and putting a couple of shots into his fucked up head.

“Why? Are you happy there's one less BODY left in your wake?” He let out a maddening laugh that ended in bloody coughs. “You want to know why I stopped following you years ago? Because I got sick of the violence that you always seemed to perpetuate, tired of the all the blood on your hooves. But that's just who you are, isn't it. The Bounty hunter who won't kill an innocent, but instead let's them be slaughtered without care.”

No, this had to be some wasteland magic. “Answer my question.” Ficha was dead, and I intended to prove it. Biting down on the bit of my revolver, I drew it from it’s holster and roused a collective gasp from the crowd. Tasteless walked up beside me and readied her shotgun, just itching to pull the trigger.

“No, I'm done with you. The only reason I'm not going to kill you here and now, is because I wholeheartedly believe that you're one of the only ponies who can get us out of this fucked up mess.” He smiled as wide as he could with his injuries, pointing next to me. “Tasteless told me all about what you did to escape the bunker, and right now, you're the best weapon we have. So here’s the deal, we’re all going to go to Dodge, get ourselves armed to the teeth, and we’re going to grind the ones who took our town from us to dust.”

There was a collective cheer that came from all around us, and as much as I admired a good motivational speech now and again, it wasn’t going to work out that way. So long as we get to Dodge, I don’t care. The Rangers were going to have their hooves full for hours searching the ruins for me, so at the very least we’ve got a good head start on them. Problem is, will that be advantage enough when the time comes?

--Chapter End--

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: None

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Eighteen - Preparing for War

Chapter 18: Preparing for War

“Home is behind, the world ahead and there are many paths to tread. Through shadow, to the edge of night until the stars are all alight. Mist and shadow, cloud and shade. All shall fade, all shall...fade”

“Are you sure she’s asleep?”

There were voices in the darkness around me. They were familiar, but cold.

“Yes, I’ve tucked her in.” It was father’s voice. “What’s got you so nervous?”

“The others and I… we’re not sure we want to be on the project anymore.”

“You saw what she did to Spade and Twinkle.” It was a more feminine voice that spoke up this time. “Tartarus, we were barely able to save Beaker, and he still might die.”

“That’s enough. From all of you.” Daddy was fighting for me, I just knew it.

“How can you trust the subject after…”

“I said that’s ENOUGH.” Daddy shouted.

The crack of thunder above jolted me up from my dream. Instinctively I grabbed my rifle and pulled it up. Ficha sat glaring at me in the dark, his angry eyes shining like beacons of blue fire.

My racing heart calmed in the darkness of the morning, and I flopped back with a groan. The pipbuck’s clock said that I still had another hour before dawn. I couldn’t afford to lose sleep, not until these ponies were safe. Closing my eyes, I found it easy enough to drift off again.

I’d hoped that these dreams weren’t going to be a common thing, but I guess I’d been wrong.

We’d left camp at first light. We’d stopped only a few miles from dodge for the night. Without rest, some of the injured might not have been able to make it there. I wasn’t about to lose any more innocent lives through my mistakes. The walk had been mostly quiet, only a faint murmuring between ponies here and there broke the silence. With the gates into dodge in sight, I felt relief.

“You blame yourself.” Predious spoke up, walking closely to my side. “Even if you had left, they still would have…”

“Not right now, Pred.” I sighed.

“Alright, but as your friend, I advize against bottling things up.” He commented before giving me a bit more space.

From up ahead, Pallet and Harmony approached with a group of armed guards. She’s seen us coming from a ways away, and I could tell she knew trouble would be right behind us. The group of them stopped just past the gates and waited for us. I caught Pallet’s eye, and the thought that Mist Gleam hadn’t been with the group filled me with guilt. Cocoa said that once the rest of the citizens were into the cave, they boarded it up. She said that by then, the smoke from the fires was already too thick to see, and that they waited for them at the end of the cave.

“Storm… what happened to Y’all?” Harmony simply asked. She looked over the crowd as they streamed into the city.

“Chasm. It’s gone.” It was hard to even begin to think of explaining it to her. “Steel Rangers burned it down, and we don’t have much time.”

“Barrel, find these ponies somewhere ta stay.” Harmony raised her hoof to a brown stallion standing next to her. “The rest of Y’all can find ‘em some food and water.” With her words, the guards dispersed and left Pallet, Harmony, and I standing alone. “Come on back ta the shop. This sounds like something we’ll need ta discuss in private.”

“When you were there...” Pallet spoke up hesitantly. “Did you…”

“Pallet, I’m sorry.” I shook my head and stepped forward. “She didn’t make it out.” I wrapped a hoof around her neck and pulled her close.

“Oh… I see.” Pallet shuttered in my hold, spreading her wings as she pushed me away gently. “I’m just… I’m going to see if mom needs anything at the inn.” With that, she lept into the air and took off into town. Pallet always wore her emotions close to the surface, and even with it having just been a ‘fling’, the news hit her hard.

“Before yah ask,” Harmony stated as we started walking back into town. “Aunt Skyline got here yesterday. Though, with what y’all have been through, Ah didn’t think yah’d care ta get caught up.” As she talked, Harmony kept craning her head as she looked at me. “Are yah eyes… blue?”

Of all the questions to ask at a time like this, and she chooses to ask something like that? There were people who needed help, defences to be built. The Rangers were coming after us, I could just feel it. I didn’t have time for foalish games.

“We need weapons, defences.” Ignoring her question seemed to kick her back into the right mindset. “Make sure to set up that big gun of yours again, we’re going to need it.”

“Are yah sure we can’t just talk our way outta it?” Harmony sighed out. She walked ahead of me and opened the door to her shop, showing me in. “What did they want with chasm anyway?”

“Me.” I stared at her. “They wanted me.” The door shut behind me and I sat down hard. “I don’t know why. When I went to turn in Predious, they took me as well. We escaped, but… I don’t know. Something happened when we did, and now they want me.”

“Oh, one moment.” Harmony waved her hoof in the air for a moment. She turned and trotted off into the backroom. I focused on why she was making a ruckus in the back to keep myself from thinking about Chasm. After a moment, she returned with a small round disk in her muzzle. It was a mirror. “Shee? Bru.”

Was she still going on about my eyes? A bolt of anger ran through me as I looked down with the intent to smash the prewar vanity object. But from the other side of the reflection, a blue eyed mare stared back at me. I paused and just stared. My eyes were positively glowing blue.

“I…” It was hard to look away, but I had to. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all in danger, and it’s all my fault.”

Harmony set the mirror down and put a hoof around me. She was like a sister to me, and I needed her with me on this. She pulled me into a tight embrace and I felt some of the stress melt away.

“It’s alright, we’ll get through this.” She spoke softly. While holding me close, she spun us around toward the door. Releasing me, she walked over and opened it. “Look, I need some time to inventory things if we’re going to mount a defence. You should go rest.”

“But..” I objected, finding my muzzle shut by her hoof.

“You’re no good to any of us in the state you are. Please, I don’t care what you do. Just… take it easy and I’ll get you when we’re ready to start.” She smiled softly.

I didn’t want to rest, but she was right. Frazzled nerves on a job ment mistakes. Mistakes which I couldn’t afford to have in a fight like the one coming. I stepped out into the street again and found Predious leaning up against the storefront. Tasteless had disappeared amongst the rush of ponies around town, and I was out of cigarettes. My eye caught the saloon down the street and I nodded for Pred to follow.

We made our way down the street and to the bar doors. I’d hoped that Cask wasn’t still angry about the fight I’d had in here. Pushing open the doors, I caught his gaze. He dropped the glass he had been cleaning at the time and scrambled to get his hooves on his shotgun.

“Like I said before, ya banned from the bar! Now git!” He raised the gun and pointed it at me.

“Seeing as this city is going to be a war zone soon,” I paused, looking around at the empty tavern. I let those words sink in before continuing. “You might need all the caps you can get.”

“Fine, but no fightin.” He grumbled and set down his shotgun. “Now, what’ll ya have?”

“Whisky. A lot of it.” I shambled up to the bar. Pulling out the stool, I sat on it and flopped my head down into the bar top. “Quite the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, huh, Pred?”

“I’ve been in worse.” His simple remark told me he was going to keep talking. “In fact, there was this one jam I was in a while ago... never thought I'd actually make it out intact.” His magic pulled one of the stools out and he took a seat beside me. “Then the bombs fell and everypony died.”

All he got from me for his ill attempt at humor was an annoyed sigh.

“Well, I thought it was funny.” He pat me on the back. “I guess you had to have been there.”

The door to the bar opened behind us, and I could hear as somepony entered. Light hoofsteps ment no armor, but they walked with purpose. They had a job to do, and they were walking straight towards me. I had been about ready to stand up and fight when they spoke.

“Hey there beautiful.” The stallion stopped a few feet behind me. A wise choice. “Before you left, I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life.”

I turned around slowly, finding the dopey grin and blushing cheeks of that pegasis we’d drug all the way here. I gave him a grunt as the bartender set the bottle of whisky down in front of me with a pair of shot glasses.

“Compliments on my looks are the last thing I need right now.” I turned back towards my booze and pulled the bottle close. “You’re welcome for me saving your life. Now, leave me alone. Can’t you see I’m busy, ‘relaxing’?”

“Come on, don’t be like that.” He took a few steps closer and held his hoof out over the bar. Out from his fetlock dropped a trio of shiny, golden bits. “Barkeep, I’ll pay for this lady’s drinks.”

Cask put his hooves on the bar as I cracked a smile. This was just too good.

“Is this some kinda joke?” Cask raised an eyebrow at the pegasus and slowly slid the bits off the bar top.

“What? No!” The new guy was confused and what sounded to be offended. “Why would it be!”

“We haven’t used bits down here since the war ended, dumbass.” Cask snorted. Grabbing his rag, he hoofed another one of his glasses over and started to clean it. “If you want to use those, go back to your ‘paradise in the sky’ along with the rest of your kind.”

I gave a chuckle and looked over to Pred. He wore a deadpan and a pair of judgemental eyes. Maybe he’s the one who needs to unwind.

“So much for being kind to your customers…” The pegasus muttered under his breath.

“To be a customer, you need to buy something. As for kindness, go somewhere else if you’re looking for that.” Cask looked at me with a shrug. “Can ya believe dis kid?”

“You should listen to him.” I mumbled and poured myself a shot. “Trouble’s coming and I don’t think you’ll want to be here when it shows up.” Setting the bottle down, I took the shot into my fetlock and brought it to my lips.

It burned all the way down my throat, but damn did I need it. With a frustrated grunt, the Pegasus turned and walked from the bar. I poured myself another drink. When I set the bottle down, Predious tapped me on the shoulder. I ignored it and reached for my glass. Predious’s hoof grabbed onto my leg and held it down.

“You know, for a pony who defeated a windego,” An old stallion called out from behind me. “you sure aren’t very smart.”

I turned slowly, vaguely remembering that voice. Standing in the bar doorway was a pony under a cloak. My mind searched for the familiar outline until I knew where I’d seen him before.

“Hey, you’re that pony that I saw outside that facility” I spoke slowly, letting go of my glass. He knew what was going on inside of there. I don’t know how, but he might have been the one who set it up in the first place. If so, then I owed this guy a good beating until he told me why.

“How observant of you.” He spoke in an exasperated manor, like he was bored. “Since we’ve last met, you’ve managed to pick a fight with one of the most dangerous beings this world has seen. I’d say that takes some skill, but that’d be giving you too much praise for an act of stupidity.”

“Wait, what?” Was that an insult, or was he just generally trying to piss me off. “Listen you old coot…”

“What exactly.” He raised his voice to silence me. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself, and by extension this town, into. I’d recommend running, but what would be the point? You’d just leave a trail of death and destruction in your wake.”

From him too?

“I swear, if Ficha put you up to this I’ll beat the both of you.” I pushed out my stool and turned around. As I stood, I felt the cold steel of Cask’s shotgun pressed against my head. “You have exactly thirty seconds to tell me who the hell you are, and what the fuck you’re talking about.”

I had to resist the urge to reach for my gun when he shifted his weight. He put his hoof into his cloak and pulled out a cloth sack. Shaking it, it sounded like caps. He tossed it onto the table, spilling it open and scattering caps all over it.

“For your drink and that barkeep’s troubles.” The stallion sighed and turned back towards the door. “I’d tell you why this happened, but you’ll be dead within a day along with this town, so what’d be the point?” He waved a hoof as he opened the door. “You’ve got the right idea to fight. You can’t win, but I’m sure you won’t make it easy for him.”

He slipped out the door and out of sight. I wasn’t going to lose him this time! Bolting forward, I slammed the door open and skid into the dirt. Nothing. I spun around the other way. Still, nothing. I facehoofed and groaned.

“One of these days, shit will stop happening around me and I can die of boredom.” I shook my head and turned back toward the bar. Predious was standing holding the door open for me.

“One can only hope for a fate that kind in the wasteland.” He offered a small smile to me.

I pushed past him and walked back to the bar. Wrapping my hoof around the bottle, I left the shot glass as I turned back towards the door. I’d had enough ‘relaxing’.

“Get up, yah’ve been asleep fer an hour.” Harmony kicked me. “Come on, ah need yah help with this.”

I sighed and stretched out amongst the warmth of the tarp I’d crawled under. It had gotten so cold as I drank, I needed something to curl up under. Sitting up, my back let out a few pops, reminding me that wooden floors were not fun to nap on. The empty whisky bottle tumbled across the floors of Harmony’s shop, but Predious was nowhere to be found.

“Ya know, yah still got a room upstairs y’all could be usin.” She remarked as she hoofed an empty crate up onto her back.

“I do?” It was hard to speak through my yawn, but I’m sure she got the gist of it. “What do you need my help with anyway?” Rubbing my eyes, I found that the light of day didn’t agree with them. I actually let out a whine when she opened the door and the light flooded in. The sound of concerned ponies filled the air from outside as well.

“Everypony, simmer down!” Harmony shouted, placing the crate down in the dirt outside. Slowly, I walked to the open door and looked out. It was a crowd of ponies that must have consisted of nearly everypony who normally lived in Dodge. I say this because there were plenty of familiar faces. She raised her hoof and pointed to the box.

“Ah know most of y’all have probably heard what happened ta Chasm.” She looked around the group as complete silence filled the air. “Ah’m here ta tell ya that the same ones who did that? Well, they’re on their way here ta do the same ta Dodge.” She paused as a collective gasp ran through the group. “We need ta work together if we want ta keep our town intact.”

“Why don’t we just give them what they want?” One of the ponies in the back cried out.

“I heard they wanted your friend!” Another one responded. “Said it was her fault they’re comin in the first place. I say hoof her over!” That got a collective roar from the crowd. Harmony started to try to calm them again, but all it took was that one spark. That’s all ponies ever took to act out. It’s how we ended up with this fucking wasteland in the first place.

Still, it was true. I caused all this. Maybe, if I just left south and turned myself over, nopony else would get hurt. Then again, they didn’t even care that I wasn’t in Chasm and they burnt it down. I shivered as a chilled wind whipped down the street. Even the angry ponies felt it as they slowly encroached around Harmony’s shop.

A shotgun blast filled the air and everypony in the crowd was silent. Slowly, they parted as a welcome face stepped through it. Tasteless gave me a smile and a wink as she walked through toting her shotgun proudly. Behind her was Predious and Pallet. The three of them pushed through and up to Harmony, stopping at the door to protect me.

I knew that they shared my opinion. They knew this was all my fault, but instead of trying to save what they have, they stood by me. A smile found it’s way across Precious's muzzle, and I returned it. In that moment, for just that moment, nothing in my life was wrong. I wasn’t afraid, hurt, or in danger. Hell, I wasn’t even cold anymore because I knew that my friends were here.

This was my mistake, and I was going to try to fix it. I took a deep breath and stepped forward. Predious and Harmony looked concerned, but I pushed past them to the wooden crate. Whispers snaked through the crowd, but I silenced them as I flipped the crate over. Climbing on top, I looked down at them.

“Yes, it’s me they want.” I looked down at Stim Pack, who stood at the center of the crowd and sober for once. “Were I one of your family members, would you give them up so freely?”

“For the safety of the town?” Cold Cut spoke up. The mare was market’s butcher, and no fan of mine in the past. “You’re damn right I would.”

“They didn’t even know I was in Chasm and they burned it without a thought.” I glared at her. “You hand me over and they’ll burn you all just to watch.” Shouting and arguments erupted through the crowd, and panic ran through every single eye in front of me. I stomped my hoof on the crate a few times until a few of them gave me their attention.

“I'm going to fight, and I'm going to keep fighting because it's what I have to do. The rest of you are going to have a tougher choice.” As I spoke, one by one they fell silent again. There might just be hope for us yet. “I need you. We need each other. This town needs all of us if it’s going to survive.”

“Against those toasters? They’ll kill us all from a thousand yards!” Cask called out as he walked over from his bar. He was loaded shoulder to ass with supplies, and looking rather eager to leave.

“I'm not going to say we can win, I won't lie to you like that.” I found a pair of bright blue eyes staring up at me from the edge of the crowd. It was the pegasus from earlier, come to listen in on the commotion. “But when you're fighting in your own streets, when you're fighting for your families. It all hurts a little less, and makes a little more sense. For them, this is just a place. But for us, this is our home.”

“I will stay!” The pegasus shouted as he pushed through towards me. “This may not be my home, but maybe someday it will be.” He smiled brighter than he had at the bar as he gazed up at me. “And I will fight to give it that chance.”

“I am willing to fight.” Ficha called out as he rounded the street corner. “A bully will stay a bully until somepony stands up to them. I couldn’t save Chasm from their reign of terror, but I’ll be damned if I let them burn down Dodge.”

One after another, the ponies relented. They would help me to fix what I’d done. I needed each and every one if any of us were to come out alive, and I hadn’t been lying. I’d seen rangers face ten to one odds and still make it out on top.

“One last thing!” Harmony shouted out. “For anypony who chooses not ta stay. My brother will lead y’all north toward Manehatten. Any supplies ya don’t need, we’ll put ta use.”

“Can Short Staff make a journey like that?” I turned to Harmony. Stepping off the box, she sighed and shook her head.

“Ah don’t rightly know. Doc say’s he’s stable enough, but he ain’t better.” She looked at me with concern weighing heavily on her mind. “I’m just worried is all, ya know?” We both turned and entered her shop. The others piled in, along with the addition of Ficha and the pegasus stallion.

“Look, there’s no way we win this.” I sat down as the door to the shop shut. “We just have to hold them back long enough to get the rest of the towns ponies clear.”

“That’s it?” The pegasus sputtered out. “That’s your grand plan?”

“Who the hell are you?” Tasteless snorted out as she flared her wings. Wings that in fact I’d totally forgotten that she had since the bunker. The metal just made them blend into her sides. “You act like you’ve got a better plan, so let’s fucking hear it.”

“I’m Shadow Dasher. Jr. Sky Martial and chief navigations officer of the Lenticular.” He reared up in defence. “And you call yourself a pegasus… can you even fly, or is that amalgamation of metal just an excuse to be as dumb as it looks?”

“Shut it, both of you.” I snapped. “Shadow, get on the roof of the shop and help Pallet get guns up there. That’s where we’ll hold out.” Turning to Pred and Harmony, I looked to each of them. “We need the ponies who are staying armed and in fortified locations. Do what you can to organize them.”

“And what should I do?” The soft voice of a mare came from the back room. I spun around to find the dulling red coat and stark white mane of another pegasus walk in. Here golden eyes though were just as sharp as the day I first saw them. “I might not be in the best of shape, but I can help.” Skyline smiled softly before Pallet trotted over to her.

“Mom, you can help by making sure that Short Staff makes it back to Manehatten with the others.” She had her voice lowered and wore a bright blush across her face.

“Nonsense. I am a very capable mare, and I know I’ve got more combat experience than any of you.” She pat Pallet on the back and pushed past her. “Now, where do you need me?”

“There’s a rock formation to the south.” I started slowly, catching Pallet’s worried glance. “I want you to be the lookout. You see so much as one speck on the horizon out of place, you come tell us.” I waited for her to nod before continuing. “But, once you do spot them, you head off with Short Staff. There’s quite a few who won’t be able to fight, and your combat experience may come in handy.”

“Very well, I’ll pack some supplies and head out.” She nodded and turned back around. Pallet hooked a hoof around her and gave a tight squeeze. Pallet was the lucky and unlucky one in this fight. I knew that if it came to it, she could fly. The question was, when it came time, would she do it, or would she be too stubborn to leave our sides. I think that knowing her mother was still in danger would be enough to convince her.

“And what am I to do?” Ficha scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“You are to get as many ponies as you can get, and build a wall around the southern end of Dodge.” I turned to him and prodded his chest. “I know you can get it done in only a few hours.“ Turning toward the back room, I waited for the inevitable.

“And what will you be doing?” Ficha asked slowly.

“Trying to find a way to repeat whatever happened in that bunker.” Walking away, I didn’t care if he’d been content with my answer. I trotted through the back room and weaved through the piles of treasures and junk that Harmony kept back here. The thin set of steps that ran up the back wall squeaked loudly under hoof as I climbed them to the second floor.

On my left was the door to Harmony’s room. To the right was the ladder that lead up to the roof, and at the end of the hallway, was the room I once called my own. I walked towards it, remembering fondly the time when I’d first started to work the bounties that came in here. After long trips, and tough fights, I’d come up here, open the door, and collapse onto my bed.

Turning the dusty handle slowly, I pushed the door open. The small room looked just as I’d left it all those years ago. The rotting mattress stuffed with rotting hay certainly didn’t smell any better than it had back then. The small writing desk that sat against the wall facing the window still held empty shell casings from my rifle, and a mostly rusted magazine for my now lost pistol.

I closed the door and took a seat on the bed, looking across to the bookshelf that sat against the far wall. The old copies of the Daring Doo novels my parents had given me must have sat untouched longer than anything else in this room. I had to have read each of them a dozen times as a filly. Though, I don’t think I’ll ever know what happened after she and Rainbow Dash stopped Ahuizotl from starting that drought. Though, I don’t think I ever cared, seeing as the wasteland never gets enough rain as it is.

Next to the books was the object that had to be the most used in this room. It stood about eight inches across, by about ten inches high. Held together by a steel frame, it contained the innocence of three ponies. It was always my most prized possession.

Slowly, I reached out and hooked the picture in my hoof. I pulled it close and looked at it for the millionth time, a smile worked it’s way across my muzzle as it always had. It had been one of the coldest winters we’d ever felt, and we were starving amongst the ruins north of manehatten. Dad didn’t find us any food, but he had found us an actual working camera. He said that it even had a single, undeveloped shot of film left. The thing was, that the camera would fetch us a good price, but undeveloped film was worth it ten times as much.

The night we’d found it, we’d taken shelter in an old basement as a blizzard raged above us. With a single spark battery lantern for light, the three of us had huddled up for warmth. Mother told us the story about how they met to keep our minds off of hunger, but father? He surprised us all when he suddenly lifted the camera from his bag, held it in front of us, and smiled.

I must have been oh… thirteen in this picture. I’d never been happier in my life than that night. We were freezing, and we were starving, but we were a family. Sure, I know they aren’t my real parents, but I still love them more than anything. Today might be the last day I can see them at all, even if it is just a picture. Setting it back down carefully, I knew I didn’t want that to be the case.

I flopped back onto my bed roughly, sinking into the relative plushness I hadn’t felt since the farmhouse outside the facility. I let out a deep breath as I lay there. Closing my eyes, I tried to remember what it was that I’d done back at the bunker. I remember that I felt the rage of losing Iron Will, but that can’t be it. I’ve felt angry hundreds of times before, far angrier than that, and nothing’s ever happened.

The more I tried to visualize it in my head, the further the feeling got from me. I just needed to think harder, that was all. It was a mistake I’d realized far too late…

“It seems that I have made a mistake in trusting your judgement.” I spoke with the cold authority I’d hoped to forget. The view through the eyes of the stallion of my earlier dream showed me a bloody and beaten Elder Chili Pepper laying on the floor. Around me sat the armor maintenance bay of the Steel Ranger bunker.

“Please my lord, spare me.” He choked out through his bloody muzzle. His one intact eye stared up at me in fear as he trembled on the floor. “I will not fail you.”

“Why should I trust you when you let that mare get away? Do you think I am amused by your collection of excuses?” I raised my voice as nothing but pure hatred poured out of me. The Elder whimpered and curled himself in fear. As much as I’d wanted to see this, it was wrong. This wasn’t the justice he deserved, this was torture. “Do not worry, I will not let you fail me again.” I looked up to a familiar green coated stallion. “Maze, if you will.” I nodded to the elder slowly.

Without hesitation, Maze took a few steps toward the elder. I didn’t understand what was happening until he lifted a hoof and put it onto the elder’s neck, and pressed down. The elder flailed his legs as his windpipe was crushed, slowly gasping with weakening gurgles. Eventually, those stopped and the elder lay with his one eye half lidded and soulless.

A cold feeling enveloped the horn this stallion had, the sensation of static worked it’s way up my body to collect in the horn. With a resounding zap, the spell emit a bolt of blue from my horn. It struck the elder, turning his coat to a darker shade and causing his body to jump. There was a flash of blue in his eye before it drained away. I wondered what that was all supposed to achieve.

Then the elder groaned. Slowly, he rolled back over and got back onto his hooves. His wounds didn’t seem to phase him at all, and when he looked up, he wore the same blank stare that I’d seen the technicians wear when I was at the bunker. This wasn’t a dream, this was all happening. My host let out a resounding laugh as the elder rose and stood at attention.

“I love the feeling of necromancy in the morning, don't you Maze?” I looked over to the paladin who looked just as blank as he had in the last dream. “You know, I liked you better when you were chatty. Oh well, to win you gotta break a few eggs and all that.”

“What is thy bidding, my master?” The elder’s voice was cold and emotionless as he spoke. The elder had died, I knew that. This was just some monster that looked like him.

“Ah, well yes. I suppose it’s time you got suited up.” I pointed my hoof to a set of power armor that had been set out on the table where they had taken my leg off. It wasn’t the same armor as I’d seen the other rangers wearing. This one looked more ornate. It had been tinted to a midnight blue, and had small blue lights illuminating from the gaps in the armored plates. The helmet was no different, but had an attachment that made my blood boil. Iron Will’s horns had been crudely welded onto it, and one of the standard power armor eyes had been replaced with one of Iron Will’s.

“Oh, I nearly forgot.” My host spoke up, levitating over a golden ring. He sat it upon the helmet like a crown, and I could feel my host’s lips curl into a smile. “Now you are ready to fix your mistake.” I stepped back while the elder slowly donned his armor. “You are to take my forces and go after the mare. You are to take her, the ghoul, and her pipbuck intact. The rest you may kill. Do you understand?”

“This one understands.” The elder spoke as he lowered his helmet on. It sealed with a hiss and the armor strode forward. I turned and followed him out into the hallway. We wound through the empty halls of the base, turning and trotting up through where Iron Will had given his life. Past that room, we climbed the set of stairs that lead to the door to the wasteland. As it opened, an unexpected sight met my eyes.

Standing in formation, were the other paladins. Each of their armors had been tinted blue as well, but lacked the horns or crown. Behind them stood the other Steel Rangers, clad in old equestrian platemale. My host smiled as he looked upon one of the closer ponies, the blank and emotionless gaze of Tabasco met him.

As if it weren’t enough, behind the armored ponies, stood a mass of wastelanders. They looked normal enough, but even at a glance, I could tell they too were foul monsters. Bullet wounds, twisted limbs, and dangling entrails accompanied them as they stood with blank expressions. Among them, I saw the odd combination of black stripes over a yellow coat. Lomi stood among the monsters as one of them, but Mist Gleam wasn’t with her that I could tell.

“A new power in these lands has risen.” I shouted to the masses before me. “Tomorrow the land will be stained with the blood of the living. The revenge and power I so greatly deserve will not be denied. Minions, you march north to victory. Siege the towns, slay the innocent, and leave none of my enemies alive!”

Without even a cheer, or recognition, the whole of the army moved as one and turned around. They stepped in synch as my host started to laugh, his voice ringing through the air in maniacal laughter that felt like it was going to corrupt my very being. It was all too much. I felt like throwing up.

I shook awake and rolled off of my bed. I doubled up on the floor and screamed before my stomach churned and emptied itself. Hurried hoofsteps echoed through the hall outside as I lay there with tears streaming down my face. I looked up as the door swung open and Predious looked down in concern.

“It’s not just the rangers…” I gasped and coughed through my own bile. Dry heaving as their faces ran through my mind, I couldn’t stand the thought of what would happen to us. There wasn’t any way we were going to last even five minutes against a force like that. “It’s a goddess damned army.”

--Chapter End--

“The end of the world was only the beginning of a darker, bloodier chapter in pony history.”

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: None

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Nineteen - Downfall

“The world might end, the night might fall, raining down to cover us all and drown us with the burden of our sins. Maybe I’ll look you in the eye, tell you you don’t want to die. Maybe I’ll hold my breath and jump right in, maybe I’ll hold my breath and jump right in.”

Dodge sat in still silence as the morning fog seemed to thicken by the minute. I steadily swung the crosshairs in my scope down along the wall Ficha and the other ponies had spent a good portion of the night building. It had taken nearly every piece of furniture and loose board to build, but it was a wall. I leaned back with a sigh and pulled my eye from the scope I’d been gazing down for hours.

Hoofing open the canteen I had been drawing off of all night, I was disappointed to find it empty. I looked over to Harmony, who even though she was staring down the optic of her own rifle, she instinctively pushed hers over toward me. Casting my gaze skyward, I couldn’t even see the shadows of Pallet or Shadow Dasher. I’d still been surprised that Harmony traded her last repair talisman to him, and I’m even more surprised that he’d given one of his power armor energy weapons for it. Not that I wouldn’t have made the same trade in that situation. I’d rather have working armor and one gun, than two working guns that are useless when I’m dead.

Still, this fog was horrendous. If I didn’t know her as well as I do, I’d be worried that Skyline got lost. Which reminds me, I’m not quite sure where Predious had gone off to. I looked around as much as I could at the empty streets. Unfortunately, our rooftop perch was chosen for it’s line of sight south, and not for it’s view of the city streets. My stomach gave out a grumble and I sat back down on my haunches.

There was a slam from behind Harmony and I, and instinctively I pulled my rifle around to face whatever waited. Predious cocked an eyebrow as he floated a couple of jugs of water along side him.

“A bit jumpy, are we?” He jested as he pulled himself up the ladder.

“If you knew what was coming, you would be.” I groaned and turned back around. Resting my rifle on the roof’s edge, I squinted as hard as I could. Just barely, I could see Tasteless’s trench past the wall. She and a few volunteers dug it after the wall was completed, and by the looks of it, it spanned the entire southern entrance of town. Call it old fashioned tactics, but anything that slows what’s coming, is good. “I’m actually glad we convinced Short Staff to leave under the cover of darkness. If anything, this fog buys them extra time to get away.”

“Well, I’m ready to defend you two when the time comes.” Pred said matter-o-factly. Both Harmony and I shared a snicker before going back to scanning the horizon. Predious huffed and set the water jugs down. “What? You don’t think I can protect you?”

“Calm yerself princess.” Harmony jested lightheartedly. “We’re earth ponies, an tougher than a two bit brahmin steak.” She winked at him. “Just make sure ta keep yah head down and leave tha fightin ta us.”

“Oh come on. I am not that…” Pred stopped abruptly mid sentence. I swiveled my head and watched as he turned his gaze to the way south and squinted. I returned my eyes to my scope and looked in what I thought was the general direction he was looking. Perking my ears, I could hear a soft wail on the wind. It didn’t sound like the enemy, but more like a crying child. Tightening my hoof around my rifle, I saw a flash of movement from Tasteless’s trench. A bright red mare climbed out of it and walked forward.

I could barely make out the calamitous cursing that Tasteless was doing, but I knew that this was odd. Something in the back of my mind nagged me. Had we left survivors behind in Chasm? Has this foal been walking for the last day in hopes of help?

Keeping my view on the mare, a small dark shape started to show through the fog. The mare came up to it and put a hoof around it, pulling them close. Squinting, I could see it was a dark red colt, with a mane as grey as the fog itself. This was all wrong and I knew it! He looked just like...

“Get away from him!” I shouted out before pulling the trigger. My shot wasn’t well aimed, and it struck the dirt next to the mare’s hooves. The colt’s head snapped up towards me with a deranged smile. Through the fog, he had picked me out from this distance.

Then he disappeared in a flash. He and the mare exploded with a resound crack, a plume of dust and a ring of gore were all that remained of them. I’d hesitated. That’s why my shot missed. Somewhere in my head, I had been afraid to shoot this colt because I knew he had been an innocent.

It all happened so fast. From the fog, hundreds of shapes appeared. Tasteless’s line opened fire first, followed quickly by those on the wall. I fired at the shapes emerging, but I just kept losing my focus. The few that fell didn’t impact the others quickly approaching. Firing my last shot, I shuddered as the first of Harmony’s split one of the closer attackers to meaty bits. With her position compromised, Tasteless hopped out of the trench and made a firing retreat back towards the town.

It was about then that I noticed the black mass descending through the clouds. I had been so surprised to see it, I fumbled the .44 rounds out of my hoof and across the roof. Slowly the mass materialized into Shadow and Pallet. The two of them were carrying a bloody and bruised Skyline, gently setting down on the rooftop. Quickly, I tried to scoop my ammo back toward me.

Somepony screamed from the wall and I jumped. I’d seen the worst the wastes had to offer. Innocent ponies gunned down by bandits, others torn apart by wild beasts, and even ponies who had become nothing other than ash from the magical energy weapons of the old world. I was no stranger to standing fetlock deep in blood, so why couldn’t I stop my hooves from shaking?

“Predious, do you know healing magic?” Pallet snapped as Shadow Dasher stepped back and bolted for the edge of the roof. With a flash of his armored wings, he rose into the air and disappeared into the fog.

“I don’t, but I know a bit about patching up wounds.” He said, walking over to Skyline. “What happened to her?”

“Some sort of airburst grenades.” She spat out, taking off her battle saddle. “The fuckers knew right where she was. But… she’s tough. She’ll make it… right?”

“Storm.” Harmony shouted. Swinging my gaze, I found her shoving another round into her gun. “They could use some help on the wall.” As she glanced at me, I could see the fear in her eyes.

I found the coordination to slip the rounds into my rifle and I swung my aim back towards the wall. The ponies approaching it were unarmored, and the shots that were hitting them did little to slow them. Aiming at a dead eyed stallion, I fired and took the cap of his skull off. Slumping to the ground, he didn’t move again.

A burst of gunfire from the fog sent a few of the ponies on the wall running. The first wave had reached the wall, and were now systematically tearing it down. From the fog, a line of combat armored acolytes stepped forward. Slowly they swept their guns along the top of the wall, and more than a few shots started chipping away at the building we were on. Harmony fired again, all but vaporizing one of the acolytes.

“Down to one round.” Harmony shouted as she yanked the bolt on her rifle back. “I think I’ll save the last for…” She was cut off as one of the rounds from below sparked off her rifle and hit her in the chest. She screamed and stumbled backwards onto the roof. Writhing in agony, she desperately tried to put pressure against the wound.

I locked up again. This was worse than I could have imagined, and I should have ordered everypony to just go. Running to Harmony, I hooked my leg under hers and dragged her back from the edge. They came for me, so that’s what I should have given. It wasn’t too late though. I couldn’t save them all, but I could save the ones I care for.

“Pred, take them and go.” I shouted, slinging my rifle up. “I’ll do my best, they won’t kill me but you need to catch up with Short Staff.” Raising my hoof, I spoke as he opened his mouth. “Don’t argue. You owe me your life, so you owe me this much.”

He nodded and levitated Harmony up onto his back. Pallet hooked her battle saddle to Skyline and did her best to lay her up onto her own back. Slowly, they made their way back down into the shop. I stood up and walked to the edge of the roof. The wall wouldn’t last much longer, and the only ones left on it who weren’t dead or dying, was Ficha and Tasteless. A few rounds ricochet off the building’s edge, but I knew from my dream that I was needed alive. Not just me though, but Predious as well. As long as he and the others made it out of the city, I would give them one hell of a fight to remember.

Once the others had gotten down the ladder, I made my way down as well. Keeping our heads low, we all made our way down the stairs and into the shop floor. It was about then that I heard the low drone of a minigun start up. We all flattened to the floor, but none of the shots cut through the walls. Spared, we hastily made our way to the door.

Skyline groaned and opened her eyes slowly. “I’m… sorry.” She spoke out softly.

“Shhh…” Pallet whined softly, looking back with a nervous smile. “Everything will be fine mom, you just need to rest.”

As we swung the door open, Ficha and Tasteless galloped down the street towards us. The guns had gone silent outside the town. No pony had been left to shoot at I guessed. Predious maneuvered himself and the whining Harmony through the doorway. He turned north and started off at a walk, quickly moving up to a gallop. Pallet soon did the same, stopping as Ficha and Tasteless reached the shop.

“Oh, we are well and truly fucked!” Tasteless shouted. “Let’s get the fuck out of here already.”

“I need you two to make sure the rest of us who made it out meet up with Short Staff.” I snapped, trotting around them. If one of those rangers made it over the wall first, I wanted to make sure they had to shoot through me to hit them.

“You can’t stay, it’s suicide!” Ficha shouted and waved his hooves. A stray shot hit the second floor of the shop, and he let out a surprising yelp. I knew we were out of time.

“They need me alive.” I shouted, spinning around to take aim. Time then seemed to crawl to a stop, and a green highlight outlined the ranger who was halfway through jumping over the top of the wall. Not one to waste the SATS function I had forgotten, I cued up a single shot to his head. 80% was high enough I didn’t want to waste two shots. Time started up again, and I pulled the trigger. The ranger’s eye exploded and he dropped down along the wall limp. “Just fucking go!” Screaming, I worked the action to my rifle, and kept it ready.

“Take my mom.” Pallet shouted. “I can still help.”

Before any of us could object, she slid Skyline into the dirt and spread her wings. She was in the air and on the roof in ten seconds flat. I glanced back to Ficha and gave him a nod. He picked Skyline up, and gave me a sorrowful smile before galloping off with Tasteless. As their hooves beat into the distance, a new, more troublesome sound fell over the town.

The silence was crushing. There were no screams of wounded, and no cries for help. The dead lay scattered along the wall, and for a moment, I feared that they had called off the attack to go around the town. We couldn’t lose the others, not after what’s been given to protect them.

“To the grey mare.” A booming voice from beyond the wall shattered the quiet. “Surrender yourself and the violence ends. Fight, and we kill those who stand with you.”

“I almost have a shot. Just needs to stop moving.” Pallet spoke in a harsh whisper. Looking up, I found the barrel of Harmony’s rifle drift slowly along the rooftop.

“Pallet, don’t do it.” I spat back. I didn’t think that they could hear us, but I didn’t want to take any chances. “Just get out of here.”

“Let it be stated that resistance is futile.” The voice spoke up again. “You have two minutes to comply.”

Shit. I had to get them to back down somehow. I wish that I knew more about military history! All of those nights spent reading daring doo does nothing… no, there was something. In book two, she made the case for helping the injured villagers. Even if Ahuizotl didn’t fall for it in the book, it might just buy us some much needed time.

“Give us time to tend to our wounded first.” I shouted back. “What cause do I have to believe that you will let them go?”

“Because you have no other choice.” The voice answered. “It does not matter, seeing as you have no wounded. You have one minute to comply.” How could he say that with such confidence? It’s not like he knew…! I’m a fucking foal. There’s no screaming, no cries for help! I even noticed that.

“Got ya.” Pallet spoke up.

“Pallet, no!” I shouted up at her. She didn’t hear it over the report of the rifle, her shot whisking away the fog in it’s trail. I hadn't known whether or not her shot hit, but I knew what was coming next.

In a chorus of fire, the Rangers opened up on the shop with everything they had. The siding and beams instantly exploded into streams of splinters and wooden chunks. I screamed and ran towards the wall. If I could get in the way, maybe… maybe there was still a chance. I didn’t get more than a step before a pair of black contrails zipped overhead and slammed into Harmony’s shop.

The building exploded in an enormous fireball, and I was thrown back from the blast. I blacked out of a moment as I tumbled along the dirt, but I came to a rest with nothing but ringing in my ears. Looking up, through the black smoke, and the burning fires, there was only half a building left. I made the mistake of slowly pushing myself up to my hooves. Laying in the dirt was the half charred, and unmoving form of Pallet.

I cried out and collapsed.

Everything hurt. My body, my mind, even my very soul. She was fucking gone, and they had taken her from me. I was going to make them pay, if it was the last fucking thing I’d do, they were going to pay. It wasn’t just about Pallet either. My justice would be for Tabasco, the innocent colt. For Touchy Feely, and everypony they killed in Chasm. For those who gave there lives here to protect Dodge!

With the flames of anger burning hotter than the pain I felt, I found it easy to stand. I shrugged off my rifle. Taking my revolver, I dumped it in the dirt. Guns weren’t going to bring them down. No, I had to do it with my own hooves. They needed me alive, and I was going to rip them to shreds for that mistake. Pushing myself, I leapt straight into a gallop.

I’d reached the wall in no time. Climbing it was a simple task with the bodies of the dead providing stable hoofing. Stopping on top of the wall, I looked out in the fog. Standing on three legs was a ranger in power armor. A bloody patch lay beneath him, and most of his entrails lay exposed under him, but he turned his head to look at me. At a hobble, he started to walk towards me. Pallet’s shot hadn’t even killed the fucker!

She’d died for nothing.

Looking down, I found the nearest pony and leapt at them. She had been a young mare, but that just meant that her bones broke that much easier under my hooves. Keeping my momentum, I lept forward onto a middle age mare, and grabbed ahold of her head. With a grunt and a quick twist, her neck buckled. Once again, I moved on.

A stallion with an already broken back leg and several gunshot wounds stood in my way. I spun and bucked out against his good rear leg and felt it snap. He dropped down to the ground and I lept into the air, dropping down with all four hooves onto his head. His skull collapsed into gore, and I panted heavily. None of this was enough. Pallet was worth more than just this, her life was worth more than this army ten times over.

“Bring her down. Just don’t kill her.” The armored stallion boomed out. “Master’s orders.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed and charged at the fucker. The faster I charged, the more it fanned the flames I held inside. Faster and faster I pushed myself, until I felt like I was the bullet that would end him forever. As I lept into the air at him, the world exploded in a blue light, and I screamed as what felt like my very mind was nearly ripped from my body.

Tumbling down out of the air, I yelped and rolled through the dirt. My skull felt like it was going to explode, and my back felt like two spikes had been thrust through it, but I was alive. The urge to kill them was gone, sapped out of my body along with all the strength I had left. The fog cast an eerie blue glow across it, and the only thing that met my eyes were the burning bodies of the attacking ponies. They crackled with a blue flame, all of them smoldering and unmoving.

Heavy hoofsteps came through the fog behind me, and my hopes sank. It wasn’t just one hoofstep, but dozens. I was too weak to run, and too done with this to care anymore. Slowly, a midnight blue of power armor stepped past me, walking just far enough that I could see the helmet. The horned helmet of the elder barely turned my way, only giving me enough to see the glowing blue eye cast a glance in my direction.

That was it. Pallet was dead. Dodge had fallen.

I had failed everypony.

“Wake up.” A familiar voice spoke up.

After only a moment, a cold liquid washed over me. It was as cold as ice, and it hurt enough I cried out. Opening my eyes, I found that I had been tied up inside Casks bar. The fog had cleared and the normal light of day streamed through the open doorway. Before me stood a pony completely cloaked in robes. He faced the town, and a famine imposing face held a bucket in his muzzle.

“Your task is completed Maze, you may leave us.” The pony who I had dreamt of spoke sternly. Maze simply obeyed, heading off out into the town without a single word. “Now tell me. Just what are you.”

“Fuck off.” I grumbled. This asshole didn’t deserve the time of day, and I didn’t have to say a goddess damned thing to him.

“For somepony who’s been in my head, you’re not very smart.” He let out a rasping chuckle. “Here, let me show you something.”

I felt the tingle of magic wrap around myself and the chair. Slowly, I lifted into the air and floated toward the doorway. Even without seeing his face, I followed his gaze across the street. On the old apartment building at the edge of the market was a grotesque sight. Just over the entryway, hung Pallet’s corpse.

“Why…” It took my breath away. I didn’t understand why this had to happen. What did she ever do to deserve this.

“When we found her in the street, she was still fighting for her life. An admirable, but futile struggle.” He let out a sigh as he let that soak in. It hurt, more than any bullet or broken bone I’ve ever had. “She was a strong pony that fought valiantly, so she is displayed as such.”

“Your a monster.” I snapped at him. That was all the anger I could muster. Earlier, it fueled my rampage, but I just couldn’t get past the pain now. I had gotten one of the closest ponies I could consider family, killed..

“You erect monuments for your hero's in the wasteland, don't you?” He raised a grey hoof to me and cupped it under my chin. “I've done you a favor by building it for you is all. Or don’t you think she deserves to be remembered?”

I pulled my muzzle away from his disgusting touch. “Take her down, now.”

“Why? Do you think she cares now? If she were still alive, I wonder…” He paused and put his hoof under his cloak in thought. After a moment, he canted his head towards me just slightly and continued. “Do you think she would beg you to end her suffering, or use her last words to curse your name? It is your fault she died of course.”

“If she were alive she would be by my side.” I tried to say. It didn’t come out right, because I knew he was right. The only reason she died was because she stood by me. “She'd never have turned against me, even if she were dying.”

“An interesting answer…” The pony bobbed his head as he mulled over my words. “Interesting indeed.” His magical aura faded from around me, and I dropped down. One of the legs of the chair I was on splintered, sending me down to the floor. “Not nearly as interesting as how you destroyed my minions.”

With little time to react, his magic picked up one of the other chairs and smashed it to bits on the floor. He took one of the pieces and swung it at me. I couldn’t do anything to avoid it, whining as the thick doweled leg smacked against my head.

“Now. Tell me how.” He snarled, swinging the broken club at me again. It snapped my head to the side, and I saw nothing but stars for a few moments. “Still don’t feel up to talking?” His voice came through my spinning world in harsh tones. I felt the jagged end of the wood press against the exposed skin of my foreleg. Slowly, he pushed it down harder and harder. I whined when it drew blood, and I screamed out when it plunged deeper.

“Oh, you’re a screamer.” He laughed. “Well, I find that they are always the funnest to deal with. It really boosts my confidence when I know my technique is working.” Enveloping my hoof in his magic, he twisted both it and the wooden spike. “Answer my question.”

“Fuck off!” I screamed. I writhed as hard as I could against the bindings, hoping that some way I could get out of them. He simply responded by picking up another piece of wood and hitting me with it.

“For every answer that isn’t the one I want, I will destroy one settlement that surrenders to me.” He twisted my hoof more and I felt something in my leg give out painfully. I screamed again and pressed my muzzle against the floor. The tears streaming down my face made the dust and dirt stick to my coat, and I couldn’t get the taste of it out of my mouth. “That’s one settlement.”

“I…” I gasped out. “I don’t know.”

“Two…” He growled and swung the wood at me again. The world dimmed momentarily, but came screaming back as he pushed the spike in my leg deeper still. “I am running out of patience.”

“I don’t know…” I shouted out. “It just happens!”

His grip untwisted my hoof slightly, and some of the pain went away. I thought that what I said had been good enough, but I was wrong. Instead, he twisted my leg around the other way. Instead of hitting me with the second board, it clacked heavily against the spike as he used it like a hammer. I wretched and pulled against my bindings as it struck bone, screaming out again.

“Liar.” He snarled again, stepping up close and throwing his hood back. Even through watery eyes, I saw him for the first time. He was only my age. His coat was as grey as the sky, and his mane was as purple as aunt Twilight herself had been. His eyes glowed a blazing green, and behind them I could see nothing but hatred. “Tell me how you did it!”

“I don’t know!” I cried out. I didn’t care what happened to me, I just wanted this to be over! There was nothing more that I knew about who I was and how things happened. “Daddy… help me.” I whimpered, wishing for nothing less than to see him again. I’d do more tests, I’d fail all over again, just to see him again. He could take the pain away.

“Minion!” The stallion shouted out. After a moment, a heavyset mare showed up at the doorway and stared blankly at him. “Get this garbage out of my sight.” He scoffed, tossing the second piece of wood to the floor. “Take her to holding. She’ll be more cooperative there.”

I couldn’t do anything other than lay there and cry. In the back of my mind, I knew that I hadn’t done the best I could. We’d fought and failed, all because of mistakes I made. Mistakes that had I been better, wouldn’t have gotten Pallet killed. As I was lifted off the floor, I didn’t fight it. How could I, when all it’s brought me was pain.

Pain, that hadn’t been at all worth the cost we’d paid.

--Chapter End--

“You are a fool and you will lose everything.”

Quests Finished: Path of Destruction

Quests Started: Penitentiary of the Damned

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Twenty - A Glimmer of Hope

“It is often when night looks darkest, it is often before the fever breaks that one senses the gathering momentum for change, when one feels that resurrection of hope in the midst of despair and apathy.”

I’d fallen asleep after I’d been shoved into a cart and dragged out of town. It was easier to sleep, than to think of what I’d just done. Part of me had screamed to take one last look at Pallet. I needed to remember what I’d caused. My eyes had refused, and instead I hid those thoughts away deep inside my head.

When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was darkness. In looking around, I found Harmony sitting by herself a ways from me. She shivered and whimpered, and the tears running down her muzzle glinted in an unseen light. I reached out to her, knowing that I couldn’t comfort her.

“Don’t touch me.” She snarled, not even bringing her eyes up to me. “You did all this. I never want to see you again.” She shook her head violently and stomped on the ground. “I wish you were dead!” Her voice resonated around me, the sheer volume of it knocked me back onto the ground.

I looked up, and found Skyline crying over me with clenched eyes.

“You killed my daughter.” She spoke through chattering teeth. “Why couldn’t it have been you? Why are you alive?” Her body quaked in anger as she shouted out what I knew I deserved.

“I… I can explain.” I looked over to Harmony, who simply cried out louder. Scrambling to my hooves, I tried to back away. “Look… I didn’t mean to!” I backed into somepony. Turning, I saw Ficha. He looked at me through soulless, cold eyes. The eyes of the dead.

“You’ve done nothing but tear everypony’s lives apart.” He snapped. “Why don’t you just do the world a favor and go find a hole to crawl in and die.” Raising his hooves, he shoved me away with all his strength.

“Please…” I whispered as I stumbled. “I didn’t… I couldn’t.”

“It’s okay Storm.” Predious spoke up from behind me. I spun around in hopes of finding my only friend there for me. Instead, I felt the cold barrel of my own rifle pointed back at me. “I can help you from destroying any more lives. Just give the word and I’ll give you the easy and painless death you don’t deserve.”

My legs shook, my heart pounded. All of them. I’d failed everypony, and I deserved to suffer their hatred. I was a monster, and it was only fair that I pay for what I’d done. Slowly, I leaned into the gun barrel and closed my eyes. Just one word to give and I could attone.

Before I could speak, a crackling sound filled the air. I opened my eyes again to see that my friends had all been turned to glass. Slowly, spider webs of cracks formed along their bodies, encompassing their bodies until they collapsed into shadows. around me, the colored lights from my dreams stretched down to meet the ground around me. Each of the six beams were accompanied by a small descending light. The closer they got, the more they flickered, until I realized that they were in fact flames. One by one as they reached ground level, they transformed into my aunts. Aunt Pinkie, Aunt Dashie, all of them. Each of them were a different brightness as well. The last to form, and the dimmest one I could see, was mama.

She smiled at me, and I tried to leap forward into a hug. I found that I couldn’t move my hooves, and the more I tried, the more it felt like I had been fastened to the floor. Looking back up, Mama shook her head and sat down.

“We are not those which you seek the comfort of.” Aunt Twilight spoke up. “We are only those who last personified us.”

“Then you are…” I spoke slowly.

“Correct.” Aunt Dashie spoke now. “We are what you know as the elements of harmony.” She gave a short nod. “You have rekindled the flame in which you watch over, why are you so eager to see it put out?”

“I don’t understand…” Blinking, I looked around to the others for some sort of explanation.

“It is you who watches over the flame of hope.” Mama talked at what only seemed a whisper. “With the way you are, it is in danger of being extinguished forever. You must not let this happen.”

“But I don’t know how.” None of this made any sense. “I can’t…”

“Yeah!” Aunt pinkie, the brightest of the group exclaimed and cut me off. “The necromancer, Fillius, must not reach what he seeks. You must prevent him from reaching what he seeks in the ruined metropolis. Only then will hope be safe.”

“Necromancer? But I can’t do anything now. I’m his prisoner.” Looked back to Mama. “How am I supposed to stop him if I can’t even free myself?”

She reached her hoof up and out to me. She cupped along my chin and I savored the warmth of her touch. I focused on trying to remember this feeling. If I could, then mama would always be with me.

“You are the carrier of hope.” She whispered to me. “You have to believe in the strength, wisdom, and courage of your friends if you are to make it.” Her hoof slowly slid away and she smiled softly. “But now, you must wake.”

An electric jolt went through me and I screamed. Arching my back, the laugh of the necromancer filled my ears, along with the sound of creaking wood and metal. The shocks stopped and I gasped for breath. My eyes shot open to the low, grey clouds and the sight of the blood stained cart.

“Oh good, you are still alive.” He wheezed. “Though, I do think that being that way is a bit of a dull sensation. Don’t you agree?” Before I could catch my breath, or even understand what he was talking about, he poked at me again with the shock prod. Screaming, I writhed again until he stopped. “Oh these devices are quite fun. I missed a lot while I was slumbering all those years. The way you make tools have come a long way, but their uses are just as crude as I remember them.” He laughed again and trotted on ahead of the cart.

This was going to be a long trip.

The back of the slaver’s cart was uncomfortable to say the least. Still sticky with the blood of it’s previous occupants, the cold made the gore gummy and it stuck to my coat. I’d like to wonder where the Steel Rangers got a slavers cart, but then again, Dodge and Chasm probably weren’t the first victims. Speaking of, most of the monsters that had taken chasm were nowhere to be seen. I knew that they left with us from the sound of hooves on the dirt alone. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. It was just My cart, the necromancer, and four armored Steel Rangers.

From what I’ve been able to tell, we’d been traveling east by northeast for about a day and a half. Though, the mountains here looked unfamiliar to me. Had we been chasing Short Staff and the other survivors? Did Pallet’s sacrifice do nothing but buy them a little more time before they too die?

Maze, the paladin from my other dreams trundled along, pulling my cart. He was the only pony around, as the rest of the… monsters were fairly spread out. None of them had said a single thing on the way here. Then again, I didn’t know what I expected. Even if they haven’t spoken up, I can’t stand the silence anymore.

“So. Where are we going?” I asked. To Maze’s credit, he didn’t even look like he’d heard me at all. In fact, I’m not sure he did. “Hello? Anypony in there?” Shifting over to the front of the cage, I pressed up against the old steel bars. “I asked you a question. Are you deaf?”

“You are to be silent.” He simply returned, not once moving his gaze from the road.

“Or else what? You’ll kill me?” I shot back. Maybe a little sass will get him going. “I doubt that. Dickbag needs me alive for some reason. He said I was important, didn’t he?” I scratched at my chin with a smile. “Maybe I’ll just kill myself and ruin his plans.”

“You will not.” He grunted back. Though, I’m unsure if the grunt was out of frustration, or just from the fact that he was pulling a heavy cart.

“Oh?” I chuckled. “And why are you so certain of that?”

“Because, then he will just raise your body from the dead.” His words were a cold promise that I knew scared me. A shiver ran through my spine at the thought of becoming one of these... things. “Now.” He continued. “Only silence.”

As I stood there, I stayed quiet. There was little else to do, but soon the thoughts of my dream echoed in my head. I protected hope? There was no element of hope, just the six I remember from my time with Mama. Did… did dad actually succeed? Am I an element?

“Child.” The necromancer appeared to the side of me and hung his head in disappointment. “How is it that you can not grasp what you are?” He was speaking to me like he’d read my mind or something. “There are no elements in this world, there haven’t been since the time of reckoning came.” He huffed and walked along. “You are nothing more than a magical anomaly, something I plan to fix here shortly.”

“What are you going to do? Cast your mind control spell on me?” I shot back to him. That got him to raise an eyebrow.

“No, nothing so simple.” He remarked Matter-o-factly. “In fact, I won’t be doing anything. My associate however is going to open you up and find out how you work.” A disgusting smile crept over his muzzle. “It will be a puzzle the both of you can figure out together! Won’t that be fun?”

“I’d rather find out how you work first.” I sighed and dropped back down onto the cart’s floor.

“The problem is I already know how I work. Why would I do something as wasteful as that?” He scoffed a few times and made a few other noises that I now regretted remembering that pretentious ponies made. “I could try to explain it all to you, but… not to sound a bit demeaning… you simply lack the assets required to understand.”

“I get it.” I shook my head. “You think you’re smarter than me.”

“No, I know I’m smarter than you.” He chuckled and let out a sigh. “I was more refering to your lack of a horn.” He bobbed his head and sounded annoyed. “I do so much hate sounding like your average unicorn supremacist.” Putting his forehoof to his chest, he straightened up and tilted his head up regaly. “We are all no different in my eyes. Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth ponies. Even the griffons, changelings, and buffalo are equal, or... they will be when I’m done with them.”

This guy was the real deal. Powerful, smart, and worst of all, annoying. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the hope that my friends were coming for me. I wasn’t worth saving, not with what I’d done, but Mama said I needed to have this hope.

“Still wishing that your friends will come and rescue you? Typical.” He sighed again. “Well, you know what they say about wishing with two free hooves...”

“Fillius, was it? Can you please shut up?” I growled out. Surprisingly, I got a growl back before he slammed his head against the bars.

“Where did you hear that name.” He snorted and glared at me with his balefire eyes. I said nothing, and slowly his demeanor shifted back towards his wicked smirk. “It matters not I guess. Soon you’ll be too hollow to care.” He turned his gaze ahead on the trail and gasped. “Oh finally, we’ve arrived!”

Ahead of us was the remains of what looked to be an old prison. I knew of this place. The slavers that used to run this place called it ‘Summer Camp’, on account of the only words viewable on the side of the building as ‘Summer’ and ‘Tent’ for penitentiary. This answered where they’d gotten the slaver’s cart, and where the slavers went.

All along the old walls, and strewn about the razorwire fences, were the remains of the slavers. Their bodies were flayed open, and parts of them were displayed in intricate ways I couldn’t even believe could be done. In my travels, I’d seen a lot, but not even raiders were this extensive. This is what his ‘associate’ is going to do with me? Fuck this place. I needed to get out of here. I don’t care how, or what it costs, this is a fate I’d reserve for nopony.

The doors to the prison swung open as we reached the long fenced hallway leading in. The smell of wet, rotting flesh hit me like a club, nearly taking my breath away. This air was toxic, and I felt light headed from just being in it for these few seconds. Coughing and hacking, the stench was so thick that not even holding my jacket over my muzzle did anything to help. The fifty or so feet it took to get inside felt like it was the longest stretch of time in my entire life.

Once in, the doors shut behind me mercifully, but the stench clung to the air. In my sputters and gasps, I missed the sound of the cage opening behind me. Something wrapped around my legs, and before I could even yelp, I’d been dragged from the bloody cart. Magic held me in the air as I was slowly tipped back into a seated position. I tried to flight, to break free from their grip, but whoever this unicorn was, their magic was stronger than I was.

“Oh you must be that bounty hunter I’ve heard so much about!” The voice of a stallion behind me came across as too calm for what was going on. “You’ve had a very long trip, and you are probably quite tired. How about you just sit back and relax for a while, does that sound good?”

Slowly, I was lowered into an old, rusted wheelchair. Straps floated up from the foreleg rests and wrapped around my legs tightly. I turned my head toward the voice, and I was met with a horrifying sight. The unicorn doing all this to me didn’t have a hair on his body. His leathery looking skin was an amalgamation of patchworked scars and stitches, and his red eyes looked back at mine without the hollow look of the other monsters. The last of the straps secured my rear hooves as I kicked with them, putting an abrupt end to my struggles.

“You’re heavier than you look, a little cardio wouldn’t kill you.” He smiled to me and tugged at the straps with his magic. A damp smell met my nose, and before I could do anything, a wet rag tied itself around my muzzle. “Now, keep your hooves inside the straps at all times for the duration of your stay. And I do hope you’ll stay, I get so very bored of my other patients.”

“Now, Doctor!” Fillius called out from behind me. “Do try to keep her alive. Find out what you can about her… abilities. But this one…” He paused and glanced to me for a moment. “I may need this one intact.” Smiling, he turned back towards the deranged doctor. “But by all means, have some fun in the meantime.”

“You won’t be joining us?” The doctor spoke with a surprised tone. “I was hoping for some company.”

“Not this time, old friend.” Fillius gave a short sigh. “Ponies to raise, wasteland to convert. It’s a tough job, but somepony’s got to do it.” He raised his hoof and pat the doctor on the shoulder. “Don’t fret, I believe in your work, doctor. I know you’ll get results for me!” Turning, he walked past me and back towards the doors.

“Just leave it to me!” The Doctor returned. The old wheels to my chair squelched as they began to roll. “So! it looks like we’ll get to start right away then. We can become better acquainted this way, in time you’ll see it’s not so bad.” He started to ramble as he pushed me along. “I do have to ask, did you need anything before we get started? To use the bathroom? Something to eat perhaps?” Wheeling me around the corner, a set of open double doors lead into what I assumed was the cafeteria. I nearly threw up through my gag from what was in there.

Dead ponies had been laid out on the tables and were meticulously being cut up and thrown into pots. A pony stood next to the door, it was a rust colored stallion, but his legs… none of them were his. The… abominations doing the cutting though were unlike anything the wasteland had thrown at me before. They weren’t even fully ponies! Some of them had mismatched legs or tails. Some even had mismatching heads for the bodies they had!

“No, not in the mood to eat?” The doctor’s words broke me away from the horrifying sight, and slowly we made our way down a different hallway. “I guess you’re just eager to get to work. As am I! You have a strong work ethic, and I like that in you. I can tell we’ll be good friends.”

He continued pushing me down the hallway towards a small inset door. As we approached, it swung open to reveal a stairwell leading up. His magic enveloped the chair just before I was about to hit the first step. Slowly, I floated upwards as his slow and even hoofsteps fell on the old concrete stairs. He was silent as we climbed up, the chair leveling out as we reached the next floor.

A large red stain radiated from under the door leading to this floor, and when his magic opened it, I felt like I’d been thrown back into Pai’s home. Gore and red coated the walls of the second floor hallway, and ponies in various states of dismemberment and decay littered the hall. Only a path wide enough for the chair to fit was left open.

“So! Fillius wants me to figure out what makes you… you. Where do you suppose I should start?” He kept on talking. With each body I passed, each squeak from the rusty wheel, I knew I was getting closer to somewhere I never wanted to see. “You know, if I were in your place, I wouldn’t know either! I mean, that’s why I’m the surgeon here and not you, right? You know, I’ll ask somepony who may be better informed.” He chuckled and cleared his throat. “Oh, nurse? Can I speak with you for a moment?”

We rolled up to the entrance of a room about halfway down the hallway, and the inside was pitch black. With a quick flick, the lights in the room buzzed and that slowly rose from a dim. A flat metal sheet had been fastened upright to the floor, and four hoofstraps sat in the corners to keep ponies spread. I’d seen similar things at Raider dens, but this slab was coated in blood.

“Oh, there you are.” The Doctor sighed and stepped around to my left. “Have you any suggestions for where we should start?”

Of course, the corpse of a mare pinned to the wall didn’t answer.

“Yeah, the patient didn’t have any suggestions either. Guess we just have to go in blind!” He said as he rubbed his hooves giddily. His horn lit up and swung around something behind me. I saw stars and whined into my gag before he hit me again. Tipping forward, I spilled out onto the floor as a bloody wooden paddle came down on my head again. I was too focused on covering my head, and by the time I could have run, his magic enveloped and lifted me to the table.

In the time it took for my head to stop spinning, I’d been strapped down, and the doctor was sitting in front of me with a hoof under his now masked chin. Faintly, his horn glowed as he pulled a rusted knife over from around behind me. He brought it to my chest and held it there, stone still. He craned his neck a few times in silence before shrugging and pressing the knife forward into me.

I screamed through my gag as the rusted knife tore away at me.

“Oh, that’s right! I knew I’d forgotten something.” The Doctor slipped the knife out of me as I writhed and tore at the bondings. I didn’t want to be here, I needed to get free! This can’t be happening, I don’t want to die like this. “Here’s a little something I’ve made up for the pain.” He floated out what looked to be a syringe of yellow fluid. “My own mixture of radscorpion venom and pre-war pharmaceuticals. Should keep you impervious to the pain.” He jabbed it into my neck hard. I whined and whimpers as he pressed the liquid in. The tears filling my eyes at the very least hid the horrors of the sights around me.

“Now where were we?” He muttered to himself. My head started to sink, and a tingling sensation flowed throughout my body. It didn’t numb the pain from my chest at all, only making it worse as I started to hang limply in the bindings. Shortly, I’d begun to realize that I can only blink. It wasn’t a painkiller, it was a paralytic.

“Alrighty, let’s get started.” His magic brought the knife back over to my chest. With little hesitation, he presses it back into my body and started to cut through me. The pain was excruciating, and I wanted to scream out but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even look away, only stare through teary eyes as he sliced through me. Lower and lower the blade slid, and the more in my mind things started to fuzz from the wrenching pain. Then a gray rope slid from my stomach, and he gave a little chuckle. “Hello intestine, eager to meet me are you?”

And that’s when my mind decided to call it quits. My vision faded and slowly but surely I disappeared into darkness. At least here in my mind, he couldn’t hurt me anymore.

When I awoke again, it was screaming that filled my ears. However, it was not my own this time. My body still hurt where it had been cut, and a soft whine slipped through my muzzle as I lay on the cold concrete floor. In pain and alone, I was at the very least, alive. The question still remained of if any one of my friends would come and save me.

“Heh, looks like ya finally up.” The voice of a stallion spoke beside me. “Been layin on the floor smellin like death for hours. Was wonderin if ya were dead or not.” I opened my eyes to find a pair of silver ones looking back. “Just be thankful you're still alive.”

As he got to his hooves and walked past me, I watched him step up to a set of iron bars. We had been locked in one of the prison’s old cells. Outside our confined space, sat dozens of other cells against the far wall, only dimly illuminated by the softly humming lights. Slowly, one of the abominations made it’s way across my field of view. Not much of this pony had been changed, but his head was that of a heavily stitched up minotaur. Looking down at my own chest, I ran my hoof along the heavy stitching where I had been ‘toyed with’.

I clenched my eyes shut and curled myself up in shame. I was alone, and I don’t know if I’d be strong enough to last until a rescue. That is, if one was coming at all.

A scream from down the hallway made me shudder. Frantic shouting and cursing filled the air, slowly drawing closer. I opened my eyes and watched as an emaciated stallion thrashed and flailed against the magical levitation of the doctor. He floated the stallion ahead as he hummed to himself, ignoring the fact that he’d left me in here to rot. With a creak and a slam, the door at the end of the block shut, and silence filled the air once more.

“Before ya ask…” The stallion in my cell spoke up. “Don’t know where they’re takin him or why. Can guarantee dat he ain’t comin back though.”

“But…” I cringed at the thought. “Isn’t that the way to the infirmary though?” If he’s going to go through what I just did… goddesses save him.

“In dat case, hope for his sake dat his death is quick. They select ponies at random and haul them off. Ya get used ta the fact that ya might not make it another day in here.” The stallion sighed and sat down. “If they take ya ta the infirmary, ya don't come back. If they take ya ta the showers, ya don't come back. Get it yet? The only way ya come back, is from the other buildin, and ya come back as one of them.”

“How long has this been going on?” It was hard to form the words. Everything in the wasteland had always been simple. Yeah, things weren’t fair sometimes, but they always made sense. This… there was no reason for this to happen.

“Dunno. Been here a month I think an’ it’s been happenin’ everyday.” He turned and raised an eyebrow. “Never seen somepony lookin patched up like ya are. Where’d ya come from anyway?”

“I was in dodge when I was taken.” I groaned and sat up slowly. To my surprise, the stallion held his hoof out and helped me to a sitting position. “ I bet things like this are all over the news now.”

“Did ya say Dodge?” He looked at me quizzically. “If dat’s gone, then the fuckin southern wastes are done for. I mean, Dodge feeds southern trade!” He let out a disappointed sigh. “Guess I’ll just have ta move up north when I get outta here.”

“You gotta plan for that?” I gave out a hearty laugh that made my whole body ache. “What’s your name anyway?”

“The name’s Cheap Shot.” He eyed over me suspiciously. “Why ya wanna know? Think ya can help find a way?”

“Maybe, but if we’re going to be stuck together, we might as well help each other.” I held my hoof out. “I’m Storm, Storm Rider.” He reached out, but stopped as soon as I’d said my name. He cringed and pulled it away.

“Ya know, ya might not want ta go around flashin dat name of ya’s.” He looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “There are a lot of slavers in here dat would want ya hide as a coat. Bounty hunters ain’t exactly well received around here.”

“Well, ex bounty hunter now.” I let out in a grumble. “Can’t exactly collect bounties from in here, now can I?” I scuffed my hoof at the floor and shook my head. “I get what you’re saying though. Better safe then sorry.”

“Well, then what do I call ya?” He whispered back, scooting himself closer.

“Call me…” I began to say, letting the words slowly drift off. The idea that I needed to abandon who I was came as a slow realization. All the mistakes I’d ever made, every pony I’d hurt, or action I’d done had been under one name. Even if it was just to escape this place, it felt wrong to hide from the name that had let down so many, that had gotten her family killed. I deserved this pain, this suffering for what I’d done.

But staying here wasn’t going to fulfil the debt I now owed to those I’d failed.

More than just what I’d done had lead up to this, and I supposedly needed to be more. I could do something to help others, I could save them if only I could escape. Father was right to believe in what I was, and my friends won’t give up, so why should I quit now? The dreams, both of the elements and of Fillius, I had them for a reason. I was meant to do more for than just help stop this monster. It’s time that I embraced what every fiber of my being tells me to be.

“Call me Hope.”

--Chapter End--

“Recovery begins from the darkest moment.”

Quests Finished: None

Quests Started: None

Levels Earned: None

Perks Earned: None

Chapter Twenty One - The Lightning Struck Tower

“He that is proud eats up himself; pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.”

The sharp ring of a bell stirred me from the little sleep I’d managed to get. Whatever the doctor gave me yesterday was starting to wear off, and every time I moved I hurt. I bled from the long lines where I’d been opened up at, and I worried about the quality of the stitching. I tried not to think about it when I had to keep up the hope of escaping. Even with as unlikely as it is.

The doors across the entire cell block clanged and rattled open together. Slowly, the pair of prisoners from each cell stepped out and lined up in the center. Cheap Shot proceded out of his cell and took his place, not even giving a look back to me. Slowly, I pushed myself up to my hooves. I couldn’t move faster than what felt like a step a minute or I’d scream.

“You, prisoner.” The abomination that had been patrolling the block shouted. I looked up to him as I stopped. I’d only been about half way, and I could tell I was supposed to move faster. The guard who’d shouted was a pony with the minotaur’s head, the same one I’d seen yesterday. “Fall in line or I’ll ship you off to the showers.” He snorted and tilted his head down. The horns he had looked dangerous on their own, but had been capped with rusty metal so they looked more imposing.

I nodded and tried my best to find my place next to Cheap Shot. If I wanted to stay alive, I’d have to do as I was told. Adapting and blending in was the only way we could get a plan to break out. Cheap Shot looked to me with a look of concern before he leaned his head down and nudged my leg. Carefully, I lifted it and hung it around his neck. The extra leverage pulled at my stitches, but overall I’d felt better in this position.

“Go.” The abomination ordered. The sound of steady hoofbeats on the concrete preempted the prisoner train moving forward. The other prisoners knew this march well, while I didn’t even know where we were going. As we approached the abomination, he had a metal pipe in his fetlock, and lowered it so that it cut us from the train. We stopped as the other prisoners ahead continued out through one of the doorways.

“No physical contact.” He glared at me as his nostrils flared. “Remove your hoof.”

“Cut the shit, Slag.” Cheap Shot snipped arrogantly. “Can’t yah see dat she’s hurt? I bet yah she’s one of the boss’s special mares. Good luck tellin him yah were so dumb yah broke her.”

“You’re lucky, pony boy.” The abomination snarled. “One day you won’t have your deal to hide behind.” He smiled wickedly as he moved his muzzle inches from Cheap Shot. “And then…” He dropped his voice into a low whisper. “I’ll take my time gutting each and every inch of you.”

“Are we done, Slag?” Cheap Shot asked with a yawn. “Cause I’m kinda hungry, and yah keepin me waitin.”

With a growl, the abomination raised the pipe from our path, and we walked forward again. I didn’t quite understand what happened, but I had a feeling that Cheap Shot would tell me. Knowing that monster by name? Having some sort of deal for protection? He certainly had some explaining to do.

“Not now.” He looked at me with a smirk. “I know you want answers, but you can get them after you eat, deal?”

I didn’t know what to think, but I nodded anyway. We continued to walk down the hallway, turning towards the cafeteria I’d gazed into when I first got here. The corpses they had been cutting up were nowhere to be seen, and the tables had been wiped clean. Instead, rows of prisoners sat and ate. More surprising than the cleanliness, was the noise. As opposed to the stark silence I’d expected, the room was filled with conversations.

“Ugh, tuesday surprise.” Cheap shot muttered, pulling us in the direction of the cafeteria’s serving line. “The trick about it, is finding what tuesday they’ve scraped it up from.” He chuckled as he spoke. I think it had been then I’d noticed his eyes wandering over the whole room. The fact that he knew both how to turn a conversation around, and to survey somewhere so thoroughly told me what he was. Suddenly the whole arrogant attitude made sense.

“So, how long have you been a thief?” I asked. I slid a dirty looking tray from a stack and placed it on the line.

“My, what keen eyes you have.” He answered as he still scanned the room. “I’m good with more than just my hooves you know. I like to consider myself a stallion of many means.” He finally stopped and eyed me with a smirk. “But you know what they say. A rose, by any other name...”

“Still a thief.” I snorted as I hoofed a tray for him onto the line as well.

“Not the answer I was looking for, but I assume you get it.” He sighed and carried us a few steps down the line. “To survive in here, you can’t pick and choose. Criticize my skills all you want, but I know who’s trustworthy enough to work with.”

As we slid down the line, I watched as tray after tray of cooked meat was served. I didn’t want to think about what I’d seen earlier in here. My thoughts kept drifting to the question of if this is, will I be forced to eat pony to survive? Sure enough, as we slid up to the window, I received a flat, mostly charred steak. On the unburnt bottom corner of it, sat a picture of the top half of a burning barrel. My stomach rebelled, but before I could throw up, Cheap Shot bit down on the tray. He balanced it on my back and pushed us forward down the line.

“Now now,” he spoke quietly into my ear. “We need to blend in, right?” He left his tray at the end of the line, and instead helped me to a table. As I sat down, he took the tray and set it in front of himself. “You’ll need to eat. I can’t have you any weaker than you are.” He simply stared at the meat in front of him. It was a sad gaze, full of pain and regret. Something I’ve begun to feel all too often these days. “You might hate doing it, but we do what we must to survive.”

“How… long have you been in here?” I asked. The smell of cooked pony flank hit my nose and I recoiled. The only thing that kept me from falling to the floor was Cheap Shot. He’d been quick to catch me, but as he set me back upright, he also pushed the tray closer.

“I mean it. You need to eat to keep your strength up.” He sighed as he looked at me. “No more questions.”

I just sat and stared at him. How could he expect me to eat what used to be a living, thinking pony? The idea that he’d most likely been doing it to survive disgusted me. At the same time, I knew I had too. I leaned forward on the bench and hovered my muzzle above the pungent steak. If I just ate it quickly, there’d be less time to think about it. I could do this.

As I opened my muzzle, the grimy end of a levitating nightstick poked from over my shoulder. It hooked around the edge of the tray and dragged it toward the edge of the table. It hung on the edge for a moment as the tray tilted ever so slightly. I looked up to the abomination that was controlling the nightstick, and when I did, it tipped it over. The tray and steak tumbled to the floor with a clatter that silenced the cafeteria.

“Oops.” The abomination smirked as he stared at me. He had been the same abomination I’d seen whose legs were all miss-matched. “Looks like you broke the rules by making a mess.” he took a step back and twirled the nightstick slowly in his levitation. “Clean it up.”

Cheap Shot nudged me. When I looked back, he gave a short nod that came with a specific look. One that read ‘do it to blend in’. Carefully, I pushed myself from my seat and hoofed at the tray. I took it in my fetlock and placed it on the floor to push against the steak. It was an attempt to scoop it on, but it failed when the abomination swung his nightstick down and knocked the tray from my hold.

“Didn’t you hear your friend? You need to eat.” The abomination chuckled. “Eating it from the floor is a much more efficient way to clean AND to keep your pathetic life for another day.” He placed the nightstick on the back of my head and nudged me toward the grim coated steak.

“Yah had yah fun, let her be.” Cheap Shot spoke up. In an instant, I felt the pressure lift from my neck. In that same moment, there was a sharp crack as the abomination hit Cheap Shot. He slumped forward onto the table limply, but the abomination only growled. He raised the nightstick again, but I couldn’t let him hurt the only chance I had of getting out of here.

Standing up, I put myself between his swing and Cheap Shot. Though my body ached, and my stomach churned, the one thing I would not lose is the will to survive. My defiance was short lived as the Abomination brought the nightstick down onto my back. I cried out as my rear legs gave out. The nightstick swung down again, this time into my side. A sickening snap and flare of pain took my breath away. I gasped as I failed to draw breath, my shaking forelegs gave way as he swung again. Just the edge of the stick caught me in the side of the head and I think I blacked out.

For a moment, the world was just ringing and flashing lights. When my vision came back, everything had shifted perspective. My mind felt hazy as I laid on the floor and struggled to reorient myself. I looked toward the Abomination that towered over me, grinning viciously as he held the stick in his magical levitation. For a moment he face twisted as if in pain, and to confuse me more, he slumped onto his haunches before falling over.

Behind where he’d stood was a well dressed, normal looking unicorn. The white suit he wore was positively radiant, not a speck of dirt to be found. He stood with a rigid pose that presented strength, and his short green mane read to me like that of a mercenary. The unicorn’s horn glowed dimly, adding an odd layer of tinting to the scratched up sunglasses he peered down to me with. Slowly, a smile parted his lips and he held his hoof out to me.

“Tsk, Tsk. It seems that not every guard got the memo.” His voice was deep, and the way his words rolled off his tongue was too naturally. This stallion showed off twice the arrogance of Cheap Shot, and his words were tainted with privileged tones. “Let me apologize for your mistreatment, you are a VIP after all.” He sighed and rolled his hoof impatiently. “You know how it is though, good help is so hard to find nowadays.”

I reached up and took his hoof in mine. With an effortless yank on his part, he lifted me off the floor. I let out a scream of pain when I felt my side give out an unnatural tug. The prisoners let out a few hushed gasps as a bit of blood splashed up onto the pristine suit he wore. His vision dropped as he looked to the floor, and he shook his head ever so slightly. I followed his vision down to see the familiar grey tubes unraveled from my body.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” He said as he let me go. “Will one of you take her to the infirmary? We can’t have her dying just yet.” Without his support, I dropped back down to the floor. As if it needed to be worse, all the pain of my wounds hit me at once, and I lost control of myself. I writhed and screamed in agony for I don’t know how long before blacking out again.

“Oh, come on doll, I hardly even know her!” Cheap Shot’s voice was far from what I’d wanted to hear when I regained consciousness. “Don’t do me dis way, baby!” He may have been speaking the right words, but there wasn’t an ounce of sentiment in them. I opened my eye and watched as a unicorn mare across the way rolled her eyes and turned around. “Fine, bitch! See if I care when ya come crawlin back!” He spat out as he sat down.

“A real gentlecolt I see.” I coughed out. A whine escaped from my muzzle as even the exertion to talk made my chest hurt. I looked down to find that I had several grimy looking bandages wrapped around my body to keep me shut. “How long was I out?”

“Just a couple of hours. With the beating yah took in the cafeteria, I’m surprised yah weren’t torn in half! Well, yah kinda were…” He looked to me as he shook his head. “That doesn’t matter, yah alright now. Tell me, what’s yah plan of escape?”

“Excuse me?” I groaned.

“Oh don’t play coy.” He snorted and turned to face me. “I’ve heard stories of yah pretty much getting outa anything. Everypony know’s yah are the mare who get’s outa the hard contracts alive. Are yah telling me what they’re sayin’s all lies?”

“Well, no…” I stammered. I never knew I had any sort of memorable reputation out there, let alone one that makes me sound like some unkillable badass. Fucking assholes made me out to have unfair expectations.

“So I ain’t wrong in thinking yah’ve got some idea of what ta do.” He smirked in a way that made me uncomfortable.

This place didn’t look to be too well guarded on the outside when I arrived. So once we could get out we would probably be home free. The only things keeping us in, were those abominations and the warden from what I could tell. I had no idea how many abominations were in here, but as the warden proved, they weren’t indestructible. If we could get at least half of the prisoners in here to work together, we’d have the advantage of numbers. Only problem was finding enough trustworthy ponies willing to work together.

“I might have a way, but it will take time.” I stared at him straight in the eyes. “You’ll have to be patient, and you’re going to have to trust me.”

“Whatever yah say, I ain’t goin nowhere.” He yawned and leaned back into the bars. “So long as we both get outa this place, take all the time yah need.” With a flop, he dropped himself to the cold concrete floor. “Now if yah don’t mind, I gotta get some sleep before tomorrow. Big first day of plannin an shit.” He waved his hoof at me lazily. After only a minute, he was snoring softly.

Time was something I wasn’t sure I had. I’d been fortunate enough that they’d sewn me up this time, but who was to say they’d be fast enough next time? Cheap Shot better be every bit as charismatic for others as he is egotistical. If the spirits of harmony were right and my friends were coming to save me, then getting out of here in time for their arrival was my priority.

A soft beep pinged out from my pipbuck. With only minor pain, I brought it up to my muzzle to see what it was trying to say. As I did, the display in my vision went blue and Pai fuzzed into existence. She sat curled up in the corner with her muzzle buried under a foreleg.

“Pai?” I whispered out. My eyes looked first to Cheap Shot before I changed focus to making sure the guards weren’t walking by. “Where have you been? I could have used you back in Dodge!”

“I know!” She wailed as I fumbled to turn down the volume. As I scrolled the wheel, her voice dropped enough that I had to pull the pipbuck close to listen. “I’ve been a bad sister.” She looked up to me with tears in her eyes. “Everything that happened was because of me. You… you lost your friend because of me.” She sniffled.

Knowing Pallet was gone? It hurt. It hurt almost as much as the wound on my chest, but I had to keep up hope. The spirits of harmony, daddy and mommy? They told me that I could help ponies, and that’s what I was going to do. Losing Pallet was bad, but if I broke down completely over her, then she would have died in vain. As long as I can get back up, there’s hope for others. That’s what the spirits reminded me of, and that’s what I had to remind Pai of.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Pai smiled at me and wiped at her cheek. “Still, I’m sorry. I can never repay you for the freedom you’ve given me, and I can never be forgiven for what I’ve done.” She shook her head softly and rubbed at her eyes. “I promise, sister, I’ll never leave your side. I’ll do everything I can to help you fix what I’ve done.”

“There was more going on than what we both knew. It’s as much my fault as it is yours.” I don’t know why, but I tried to give a comforting smile to Pai. “We’ll work together, and we’ll set things right.” My eyes shifted to the still slumbering form of Cheap Shot. “First, I’ll need whatever help you can give to get out of this place.”

“The pipbuck has already mapped the entire first and second floor of this building.” Pai spoke up in a more hopeful tone. “If you can find a way to get me near a working spritebot or terminal, I might be able to send out a request to cross reference this building’s layout with any on still available data servers.”

“Why do I keep this thing when I keep forgetting what it can do.” I didn’t expect a ‘get out of jail’ trump card, but I’d hoped for something I could at least use. “What good would knowing where we are do us?”

“If I can open the building permits, structural blueprints, and maintenance records, I might be able to find a weak point to exploit.” As Pai spoke, the different parts of the display in my vision flickered back to pink. “And you keep the pipbuck because I’m here.”

“If I had somewhere else to put you that could travel with us, I would. We can talk about that later though, how long would you need to get all that information?” I whispered, eyeing as one of the abominations trudged through the cell block with a bored look across his muzzle. Spritebots were few and far between, but I might be able to find a still running terminal somewhere in this place.

“Five or six minutes at most.” Pai bounced a bit as she spoke. “And I know exactly where there is a usable terminal. The pipbuck logged it as an available access point earlier.”

“What?” I snapped louder than I probably should have. “Then why did you suggest we find another one!”

“Because, that terminal was only in range when you were on the second floor of this building...” She trailed off as she finished her sentence. She hung her head as the realization hit me. The only time I’d gone up to the second floor was… “But, it’s fine!” She cut my train of thought and stammered her words through a forced smile. “We can find another one, or like I said, a spritebot.”

“We can try.” Now it was me wearing the forced smile. “But for now, keep a low profile until we’re alone in the cell like this. If even a prisoner finds out about you, I don’t know what they’d do to either of us.”

She nodded vigorously. “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She smiled as she put her hoof over her eye. Then with a flicker, she disappeared. My pipbuck returned to it’s default green and I let my hoof slowly slide to my side.

I didn’t want to go back up to the doctors level, but I’m sure there would come a time when I’d have to. Pai would have to use that time to our advantage, and with what she found, I’m sure we had real hope of getting out of here. Cheap Shot wouldn’t be easy to keep in the dark about Pai, but I don’t entirely trust the stallion. Part of me kept up the idea that he’d just betray me at the last moment. That once we’re home free, he’ll try to turn on me.

That didn’t matter, not yet anyway. Tomorrow we’d have to start to build an alliance, and there are many more ponies in this place that I trust less than him right now. With as much trouble as this would be, my friends better be waiting for me on the other side of these damned walls.

I didn’t sleep more than a few hours, and when I’d gotten up it was time to head to the cafeteria. My chest felt less painful today for some reason, and I chalked it up to the fact they probably gave me a potion or something to keep it from happening again. Cheap Shot still helped me walk, and I used the closeness we had to go over the plan. He hadn’t been too happy with the idea of a riot, but he couldn’t offer a better suggestion.

I stomached as much of the cooked pony meat as I could to keep up both my strength, and appearances of cooperation. Eating another pony was something I never wanted to do again after today. Not just because it was wrong, but because some part of me inside registered that it actually passed as tasting alright. When the time to march back to our cells came, Cheap Shot gave me an unsettling smile.

“Alright you worthless ponies.” One of the Abominations by the doorway shouted. “One hour yard time starts now. Enjoy your ‘fresh air’ while you still draw breath.”

“It’s showtime.” Cheapshot told me in a hushed whisper. As I hooked my hoof around him and backed away from the table, he continued. “Look, yah gonna need ta sit tight while I get all the ponies we can trust on our side. I’ll bring ‘em to yah when I know they’ll work with us.”

“So, you want me to sit and do nothing?” I eyed him curiously as we fell into our place in line. I didn’t mind so much, seeing as this might be a good time to look for a roving spritebot’s signal. The hope I had in avoiding the second floor was something I couldn’t let go of.

“What, are you kiddin? Yah still need ta sort out plenty of the plan.” He cocked an eyebrow and widened his smile. “Yah just need ta trust ole’ Cheap Shot ta do what he does best, ya dig?”

Forward we marched. Through the halls and back through the cell block to a set of double doors at the other end. I still couldn’t trust Cheap Shot, not one hundred percent. However, he was right. There was still plenty of work to be done on my end.

The doors to outside opened and we were marched out into a rocky courtyard. Immediately before us was an enormous cliff that rose up the mountain that this prison rested on. The jagged and rocky edges cast odd shadows in the morning light, but looked almost big enough for ponies to hide in. They might be hard to get to, but they could be an option if we needed somewhere to hide quickly.

With another look around the yard, I saw the other building in the complex. Just as large as the one we’d come from, I wondered if it was just as full as this block had been. All around us stretched a tall chain link fence, enclosing the yard between a few guard posts that sat at the extreme edges of it. One of the sides offered a fairly good view at the flatlands that ran around the mountain, and I got an idea.

“I’m going to go sit over there and think.” I told Cheap Shot as I removed my hoof from his neck. “Go do your thing.”

He simply nodded and stepped out of line. Slowly, I walked my way to the edge of the fence. I looked up to the one of the tower guards nervously. The closer to the fence I got, the more uneasy he felt. In the interest of not seeming suspicious, I stopped where I was and sat down. In doing so, he seemed to relax before turning his eyes elsewhere. I gave myself a few minutes before I lifted my pipbuck up.

“Pai.” I whispered. “Are there any Spritebots in range?”

The display shifted to pink as she popped into my vision. “Nopey Nopey!” She spoke in a harsh whisper. “Sorry, but you’ll have to be patient!”

Yeah, patient. That’s what i was trying not to become. I had been that doctor’s patient enough times already. Why can’t the great goddesses above grant me just one, simple spritebot? Is that too much to ask? The sound of hooves coming up behind me were the only response I received.

“Well well well, this just got interesting.” A stallion spoke up. When I tried to turn to face him, a right hook connected to my muzzle and I flopped down into the dirt. “Remember me, bitch? You gelded me, screwed up my shoulders, and made me look like a fool in front of my own gang. And I’m going to enjoy doing exactly the same to you.” As he spoke, the stars from my eyes faded away, and I looked up to find that he indeed was the stallion I’d delt with weeks ago.

“Well, seeing as I made you a mare, how about we…” I tried to be witty, but he wasn’t having it. To cut me off, He pressed his hoof into my neck and pinned me with his other legs.

“There you go, running your fucking mouth again.” He leaned in close to me with a disgusting grin. He stuck his tongue out and ran it along my neck, making my fur stand on end. “I’m going to kill you, but first, I want to show you how a real stallion fucks.”

“I wouldn’t do dat, Jack Knife.” Cheap Shot called over. “The Warden doesn’t like it when somepony plays with his toys.”

“Fuck off, Cheap Shot.” The stallion above me snapped. I presses his hoof down harder, and I struggled to breath. “This bitch is mine for what she did to me. I’d rather die having had my fun than before.” He looked back to me and lowered himself closer. Darkness clawed at my vision and I tried to find the strength to throw him off me.

Before he could continue, the quick beat of hooves filled my ears. With a groan, he was lifted off of me. I gasped for air, turning my head to watch as Jack Knife tumbled a few feet along the dirt. Above me stood Cheap Shot. His muzzle twitched as he grimaced at the douchebag he’d knocked off me.

“I’m serious, Jack. She’s under my protection.” He spit as Jack Knife recovered. The stallion trotted forward again, stopping just an inch or so away from Cheap Shot’s muzzle.

“Back the fuck off, Cheap. Your deal means nothing to me.” He looked down to me as a smile crept back across his muzzle. “Besides, you can’t watch over her one hundred percent of the time.”

I wanted to get up, but with them standing so close, I couldn’t. Cheap Shot leaned in closer, putting his muzzle right up against Jack Knifes ear before whispering to him. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t hear what he’d said, but it got Jack Knife to take a step back.

“Are you fuckin serious? You expect me to believe that?” He scoffed and kicked at the dirt. He paused when all Cheap Shot did was nod. “You better be serious, or the both of you are fucking dead, you hear me?” He said before he looked down at me and snarled. “We aren’t through, bitch. You’re safe until we get out, but that’s it.” He turned and walked off after that.

I looked to Cheap Shot for answers, and he simply shrugged.

“He ain’t ideal, but yah goin ta need more support if this is going ta work.” He sighed and sat down. “I don’t like the guy either, but beggars can’t be choosers. Lucky for us, we got plenty of options.” He looked over his shoulder as a pair of identical black mare’s walked up beside him. Their matching silver eyes and light pink manes looked to be mirror reflections of each other. “Meet the Ash Twins. They control the dash production and distribution in the Baltimare settlements. Or, at least they used to.”

“We have heard of your reputation, Miss Storm.” The one on the right spoke.

“Breaking out will be no easy task, even for a mare of your talents.” The one of the left spoke up without breaking the pace of the conversation. All in all, I could tell that they were an eccentric pair right off the bat. I’d never heard of them before, but if they knew me by reputation, that at least made them more trustworthy than Jack Knife.

“I only ask two things. One, that you keep my identity a secret and refer to me only by the name ‘Hope’. Two, is that once we’re out, you go your own way and stay the fuck away from me and my friends.” I grumbled as I pulled myself back to my hooves. “Unless you’re willing to help me kill the asshole who put us in here, I never want to see you again.”

“If you can guarantee us a way out, and the freedom to return home.” The one on the left started this time.

“Then we can accept these terms.” The one on the right finished. The way that they did that was not only uncanny, but unsettling. “A pleasure making your acquaintance, Miss Hope.” She spoke softly with a small nod. As her and her sister turned around, she kept her eyes on me just long enough to offer a blush and a wink.

“Well, dat went well.” Cheap Shot chuckled and pat me on the shoulder. “Looks like yah even got an admirer!”

“Don’t assume that, as their word means little to me. Hell, we’re not that good of friend’s yet, Cheap Shot.” I shot him a glance that I’d hoped would tell him how serious I was. “Three allies in ten minutes is good. Now show me what you can do with 50 more. I need quiet to plan.”

“Sure, sure.” He shook his head with a smirk. “But yah really gotta learn ta loosen up a bit!” He turned and started trotting away. “Maybe learn ta smile even!”

I chortled and smirked at that. “Idiot.”

--Chapter End--

“Only an idiot thinks their plan is foolproof.”

Quests Finished: Penitentiary of the Damned

Quests Started: Jailbreak

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Two - False Hope

“Tragedy in life normally comes with betrayal and compromise, and trading on your integrity and not having dignity in life. That's really where failure comes.”

After our time in the yard had come to a close, both Cheap Shot and I entered our cell without a word. I’d been disappointed that there were no spritebots in range the whole time we were outside. Then again, it was always going to be a slim chance, and there was always tomorrow. Once everypony had settled in, the guards chose their victim for the day. A mangy red-maned mare was dragged off to the infirmary. As I stay in the back of the cell, I cringed at the thought about what would happen to her. At the very least, Cheap Shot helped by speaking up.

“Well, it wasn’t the most productive of days, but I managed ta get yah an audience for tomorrow.” He sighed as he leaned up against the wall. “Though, just my opinion here, but I wouldn’t trust a single one of them further than yah can throw them.”

“Well. As it stands, throwing them might be our best shot at getting out of here.” I grumbled. “The fences are too well guarded, we’d never make it more than a hundred yards.” I leaned my head back and tapped it against the cold concrete wall. “Without knowing where in the building’s layout is weakest, I’m not sure we can break out.”

“Fuck off.” Cheap Shot spat as he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to me. “I ain’t goin around makin friends, just so yah could fuckin call it quits.” He angrily slammed his hoof against the wall above me. “Do you hear me?” He put his hoof under my chin and forced my vision up. It was one step too far in my book.

In return, I hit him where it counted. It wasn’t more than a startled reflex, and I had no real want to hurt him, but it felt good all the same. As he crumpled to the floor with a whimper, I stood up and hung over him.

“I couldn’t give a single, solitary fuck what you think.” I gave him a swift kick in the side, receiving another whimper. “If, and that’s a big if, I find a way out, then I’m allowing you to come. You don’t have the right to come, and you only have the privilege so long as you’re usefull.” I stepped back and sat myself in the corner. “And if you touch me like that again, I won’t just hit you. I’ll make damn sure those mares whose rears you fancy, have something in common.”

“Sure…” Cheap Shot coughed out as he slowly pulled himself into the corner opposite mine. He looked to me, and even through his pain, he gave me his most devilish grin. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“And don’t call me that.” I grumbled. “Just make sure you’re ready for dinner. I don’t want another incident like last night.” As I finished, he put his hoof up and opened his muzzle to retort. I cut him off. “Not again. Is that clear?”

He nodded.

I sat back and closed my eyes, hopeful to get a nap in before we were ushered off again. Yesterday was still fresh in my mind, and I didn’t want to live through it again tonight. Still, the question of how we were going to get out weighed heavily on me. I meant what I said, I’m not sure we can even escape. The elements told me that I needed to remain hopeful for my friends, so I refused to give up.

“Vanilla.” Cheap Shot spoke up. He let out a grunt as he propped himself against the wall. “She was my deal.”

“What?” His question caught me off guard, but I put the subject together in my mind. “Oh, I see. Is she someone you care for?”

“She was.” He shook his head. *She was my best friend in the world. Sure, Jackhammer and Sledge were my friends as well, but Vanilla is the one I regret the most.” He paused and looked up to me. He let out a little chuckle and scratched at his mane. “Sorry, some context might help. Vanilla and I met a few years back when she fled her Steel Rangers contingent up north. She was lookin for work, and I was just lookin for fun.”

“So, we helped each other out. Ended up building ourselves the meanest little gang this side of Baltimare. We didn’t stay small for long. Recruited Jackhammer and his ponies next, quickly followed by Sledge. All in all, we had eighty ponies between us, and a nice protection contract with the outer settlements of Baltimare.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Then, he showed up with his army. It was almost overnight dat we were all taken by surprise. We tried ta fight, but in the end we just couldn’t win.”

I gave a small nod. “I understand. I watched Chasm fall, then the next day was Dodge.” The image of the young colt exploding flashed through my mind. I did what I could to push the thoughts and feelings away. “There wasn’t anything I could do.” I whispered.

“When Jack went down, Sledge offered our surrender. I tried ta get Vanilla ta agree, but she just kept fightin.” Cheap Shot continued his story. “What surprised us was when dat evil asshole gave us a choice. ‘One life will be spared among yah.’ was what he’d said.” Cheap Shot dropped his vision to the floor as a thousand yard stare consumed his eyes. “I don’t know what came over me. I simply cried out ‘I want ta live!’.” He paused. “Vanilla and Sledge didn’t even have time ta object before his ponies tore them ta pieces.” He sniffled as a tear ran down his cheek. “My reward was ta be locked away in here. This ain’t what they paid their lives for. This ain’t livin.”

“You sold them out to save yourself?” I snorted. “Pathetic.”

“Don’t yah think I know dat?” Cheap Shot snapped. “Every night I sleep, I see her lookin at me with her judgemental eyes before they tear her apart.” He wiped his cheek and looked up to me. “Dat’s why I have ta get out of here. I can’t take back what I’ve done, but at the very least I can try ta avenge her.”

“Well, trying to force me to find a way out faster isn’t going to fucking help.” I shot back at him. “I’ve lost ponies I care for as well, but I didn’t betray them.” I paused. Didn’t I though? I’d brought this down upon them. “You’ll just have to trust me. I’ll find a way.”

As the hours passed, I couldn’t get any sleep. Dinner went without incident, even though I could only keep half of my ‘meat’ down. The rest of the night between Cheap Shot and I was spent in silence. It wasn’t until halfway through the night that I’d been awoken by him whimpering in his sleep. The idea that he had to live through what happened again both filled me with anger and sorrow. He got what he deserved for abandoning his friends. The fact that he was plagued by it showed just how little Dodge had affected me.

As I laid back down to sleep, I hoped that even if it was horrible, I could watch what happened again. I needed to see Pallet die again. I wanted it to be the penance I paid for my actions. However, my mind wouldn’t relent, and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

The bell for Breakfast woke me up. Even though it was just a few hours, a good sleep did wonders for how much I hurt. I could walk on my own now without it hurting so bad I collapsed. Still, I knew I was a mess under these bandages, and it still hurt more than any normal injury I’ve ever had. Even the broken leg in Pai’s facility hurt less than this.

Today, I was able to finish the small slice of meat they had given me to eat. Cheap Shot on the other hoof, didn’t seem to be in the mood to eat. He’d spent the walk here and the entire time we had to eat just staring at the floor. Bringing up everything as he had yesterday, it must have really torn at him inside. I didn’t help with the comment’s I’d made either. Subtlety’s never been my thing, but at that point I should have held my tongue.

“Alright, ponies.” One of the Abominations shouted. “Mandatory outside time begins now.” The half mare, half minotaur cracked a whip and scanned her eyes across the room. “Form a line and march.” She snarled.

“Are you ready, Cheap Shot?” I asked. We both stood up, but he didn’t seem to register that I’d even said his name. “Look, I need you to snap out of it.” I whispered and put my hoof around his neck like I was still hurt. That seemed to pull him out of his thoughts. He looked over to me with a confused expression, but I was quick to correct that. “I need you to get anypony else you can to agree before our time outside is half over.” I walked and guided us into the slowly shifting line. “Can you do that?”

“Ye.. yeah.” He stuttered and came out of his daze. “Sure. I’ll, find yah some more.” He gave a weak smile and took up some of the work in helping me walk.

We made our way out into the yard, and once again I walked my way over to the spot in the fence I’d been at yesterday. Again, the guards eyed at me, but didn’t do anything other than watch. Once Cheap Shot left, and I took a few minutes to be sure I was out of the guards mind, I lifted my pipbuck to my muzzle.

“Pai? Are you there?” I whispered. As the pipbuck’s display shifted to pink, I didn’t even wait for her to pop up in my vision. “Please tell you’ve found a spritebot.”

“Nopey nopey!” She exclaimed in a voice too cheerful for that news. It had been a good idea to leave her volume down as well, or she definitely would have attracted attention. “I’ve been monitoring it every second since you told me too.” She paused and scrunched up her muzzle. “You might not like it, but…”

“Pai…” I cut her off. “I am not going back up to that room.” An electric jolt of fear ran along my spine as I thought about it. “There has to be another way. Can you find a way to boost the signal on the pipbuck?”

“The pipbuck can pick up a radio signal from a hundred miles away if the signal was strong enough.” Pai retorted in a fairly matter-o-factly way. “Spritebot networking was only designed to interact with terminals in towns and cities. Their radio components were never designed to broadcast more than a few hundred feet.”

“I see.” I’m not going to lie. It had been the one piece of news I was looking forward to. “Well, without those schematics, I’m not sure how I’ll find a way out. The plan so far kinda depends on what details are hidden from plain sight.” I let out a sigh. “Still, I can’t lose hope. There has to be another way…”

“Miss Hope?” A voice spoke up from behind me. I spun to find one of the Ash sisters approaching me. “Some of the others say it is crazy to work with you. Yet you sit alone talking to yourself.” She raised an eyebrow and sat down in front of me. “Maybe we are not the crazy ones.”

“It’s just... how I work out my plans.” I fumbled to form an answer. Then again, with everything that’s gone on, I’m not sure if I hadn’t become a bit crazy. “Is there something you need… miss?”

“My name is Rosina Ash.” She cleared her throat and held out a hoof to me. I merely stared at it until she lowered it. “My sister, Mora, is whom I am here to discuss.” She took a moment to straighten herself out before continuing. “She seems to have… taken an interest in you.”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure what she was referring to. Then the thought of her wink at me yesterday came to mind. I knew I was blushing, but I hadn’t even thought about something like that in a long while. When I did, Pai made my pipbuck’s display flicker before she placed some text on it. Storm and Mora, sitting in a tree…

“Is there an issue with that?” I replied quickly.

“I came to ask that you not encourage her.” She replied with almost a scoul. “My sister doesn’t need thoughts of mares running through her head, or the temptation to lay with them.” She spat on the dirt at my hooves. “I ask that you too keep your focus on the task before us.”

“Not a problem, I’ll be perfectly focused.” I replied. She relaxed a bit at that, but I wasn’t finished. “However, you have no right to tell me or her who they can be with. Yeah, I won’t make any advances, but how can you stand there and condemn her for her choice when she could be dead tomorrow.”

“Because it’s disgusting.” She snarled and got to her hooves. “If you so much as look at her that way again, I will personally tear your eyes from your skull.”

“You’ll be welcome to try.” I growled, standing up as straight as I could.

“I hope everything’s alright over here, ladies.” Cheap Shot called out as he walked over. Both Rosina and I stood still, just glaring at each other. I broke my glare first, turning to meet a whole group of ponies as he approached.

“Just fine.” I grumbled and ground my forehooves into the ground. “Is this everypony?” I looked about the group. Jack Knife, and the other stallion who I met yesterday stood off to Cheap Shot’s right. I couldn’t remember his name, but he was practically a skeleton with how gaunt he looked. My eyes drifted over to his other side, where I found Mora staring at me with a smile. I forced myself to ignore her and move on to the other pony I’d met.

Merry Days gave me her cutest little smile. It had been years since I’d seen her, but even after the killing joke trapped her as a filly, that murderous mare still pulled in as many contracts as I did. Beside her was a very proper looking ghoul unicorn. The mare’s ragged and dirty green prewar dress stood out against her dirty tan coat. She looked utterly bored with herself, floating a cigarette up and taking a drag before breathing out a light plume of pink cloud. I knew she was going to be trouble to keep in line.

Lastly, next to her stood a shivering, pitiful looking stallion. The way his pinprick eyes shifted about unnerved me, and the fact that he kept rubbing at his leg made me think he was a junkie. What Cheap Shot ever saw in him, I may never know. Too bad I needed every pony I could.

“Hope, this is Mrs. Whinneyston, of Canterlot.” Cheap Shot pointed to the ghoul, who then lifted her hoof and held it up to my muzzle expectantly. She didn’t even glance as she waited for me to do… something. Once again, I simply waited until she lowered it. “Mrs. Whinneyston, this is Hope.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.” She glance at me out of the corner of her eye, looking me over and sizing me up.

“And this stallion ta her left, is Wormtail.” Cheap Shot smiled and rubbed at his neck. “We… used ta know each other back in the day.”

“Yeah, and yah owe me fer dis!” Wormtail snapped and twisted himself around. In place of a tail, was just a hairless lump of flesh that jutted oddly from his rump. The scars of horrendus burns ringed out from the stump, completely obscuring where his cutie mark would be. “Yah damned right yah owe me.”

“Listen up.” I Snapped, drawing everypony’s attention. “I don’t care who you are, or who you were. You will do what I say if you want to get out of here.” Just about the only ponies who didn’t adopt a grimace, were Cheap Shot and Mora. “Is that clear?”

“What is this plan of yours anyway?” Jack Knife glared as he spoke. “And how can we trust that you won't sell us out?”

“Oh, you can trust I won’t sell you out.” I shot back at him. “Because I need you to play your damned part.” I looked over the ragtag group of criminals. “Your jobs are to get this prison riot ready. Once the riot starts, we’ll take the armory in the confusion and blast ourselves through the path I find us out.”

“Not to be a neighsayer, but how do you plan on achieving this?” Merry Days squeaked as she facehoofed. “Do you even know where the armory is? Don’t you think they built this place to withstand a riot?”

“I.. don’t yet know where it is, but I have somepony I trust who is retrieving the building’s schematics.” My response seemed to satisfy her. “And sure, they built this place to withstand countless riots when they were fully staffed. There’s what, at most twenty of those abominations, and two hundred prisoners?”

“How the hell are we even supposed to start a riot?” Jack Knife asked with a roll of his eyes. “It’s not like the prisoners will just start attacking those things the second we tell them to.”

“And why won’t they?” Cheap Shot surprised me by speaking up first. “You all consider yahselves some of the most powerful ponies in the south eastern wastes! Don’t tell me yah can’t sway some petty criminals or wasteland noponies.” He chuckled and turned his smile on Mrs. Whinnyston. “Or would yah rather keep yah hooves clean and have Hope doin all the talkin?”

“Watch your tongue.” Mrs. Whinnyston’s eyes’s flared pink over their normal blue for a moment. “Nopony here argues that we should be the ones to convince them.” She paused as she took a drag off of her cigarette, letting out another puff of pink cloud into the air above us. “The problem is, these aren’t like the slaves back home. We might actually have to… give them something in return.” She visibly shuddered as she spoke.

What a despicable group of ponies. I was going to hate every moment of working with them, but it was my best shot. If I had to grin and bear it, so be it. A little annoyance would all have been worth it whenever I finally get my hooves around that necromantic douchebag’s neck.

“Are you stupid?” I asked, taking a step up toward her. She blinked in surprise and watched as I nearly pressed up against her muzzle with a snarl. “If you want to fucking get out of here, you will promise them anything they damned well want.” I looked over to the others. “Even if it’s to bring back their loved ones, you fucking say yes.”

“You know, your reputation is very misleading.” Merry laughed as she turned around. “Maybe I misjudged you. My services are yours for the moment.” She said as she walked away.

The nameless pony joined by her side after giving me a nod, and the Ash twins simply gave a short bow and turned to go. Oddly, Mora didn’t glance at me again when she did. It was probably better for all of us that she didn’t anyway, not that I so much cared past a fleeting interest. Jack Knife stepped up to me without warning. I kept as still as I could and simply glared up at him.

“You’ve got your riot so long as you hold up your end.” He growled. “Remember what I said. The second we’re out of here.”

“That’s enough tension for one day, don’t yah think?” Cheap Shot said as he pressed himself between us. “Let’s just leave the little lady ta think, shall we?” He gave his devilish grin to Jack Knife, who then backed off. Both Mrs. Whinnyston and Wormtail turned and left as well.

“A fine bunch of asshole’s you’ve put together.” I sighed when I could finally convince myself to relax a bit. “You think they can do it?”

“Can you get us out of here?” He cocked an eyebrow and softened his smile to a genuine one. “Besides, I’m sure it won’t be long before we regret ever thinking this plan up.”

“Speak for yourself. I regret it already.” I grumbled and sat down.

“Well then look at that.” He chortled. “We’re already ahead of schedule then.”

The rest of the time outside was spent watching our new ‘associates’ making the rounds through the courtyard ponies. Telling the countless other prisoners they needed to riot was the riskiest part of the plan. To keep my mind off of it, when we were ushered back inside, I spent a good chunk of time seeing what I could learn about this place without the schematics.

From what I could tell, the foundations and walls were still in a near perfect state for being over a century and a half old. The bars to most of the cells were also mostly rust free, but there were a few that did seemed to show their age. From the soft hum I could hear when I put my ear to the floor, I learned a lot. This place most likely ran on some self contained spark reactor and boiler assembly that didn’t need much maintenance. No basement ment no tunnel out, which would have only been possible if nopony was down there to guard it anyway.

As I started to ponder about the other building, the shadow of an Abomination filled the cell. He had the lower body and head of a pony, but the chest and arms of a hellhound. At first I’d wondered why he’d shown up, but he answered that question fairly quickly.

“Out.” He rasped with a scratchy voice, gripping and pulling at the door. It slid open effortlessly for him, and he stepped aside. “You and your co-conspirators are late for a meeting with the Warden.”

I shared a worried look with Cheap Shot before lining up beside him. Together we were marched over to the door out of the block. We walked down the hallway until we reached the junction for the cafeteria. We were then directed to the stairwell that lead to the upper floors. With my heart beating faster, plenty of thoughts ran through my mind.

Fucking great. We had been careful in getting together, and only the ponies in the group knew the whole plan. When some random pony wants to break out the warden probably doesn't give two shits. But when ponies like Cheap Shot and I want to go? That probably changes things. I just wonder how he'd found out. Was it just what he thought was an inevitability? Or did somepony turn on us. If Jack Knife wanted to screw me, this would've fucking been the best way.

My legs felt like they were going to lock up as I rounded the stairwell onto the second floor. My eyes stared at the still drying blood of todays experiment as it coated the floor by the door. Before I could stare too long, the Abomination gave me a push, and I continued onward.

We climbed up another two floors, finally stopping at the fourth floor door. The walls and the floor, even the ceiling seemed to sparkle from it’s sheer lack of dust and grime. The door to the floor opened to reveal a plush looking brown-orange carpet. A small reception area sat at the end of the hall, and a dark wooden door closed off what must have been the Warden’s office.

As we were corralled down the hall, two things happened. The first was a notification that came up on my vision about how the pipbuck had connected to the nearby terminal. The second, was that the door opened and we could now see inside. To my dismay, each of the ponies that Cheap Shot had found had been brought up here. They sat in a line along the back wall, bound, gagged, and blindfolded. All, except one.

Wormtail stood in front of the large desk at the back of the room. The Warden sat in a plush looking desk chair with his rear hooves raised onto the desk. The large window behind him ringed around him in a way that it brought all attention to his perfectly clean coat and mane.

“Dat’s all of them!” Wormtail hissed through a grin, twitching as he gave a burning glare to Cheap Shot. Of all the ponies to screw it up, and for all the reasons, it had to be this. “Like I said! She’s got somepony on the outside!”

“Thank you for your service.” The warden simply remarked, raising a spotless hoof up toward the abomination. “Rex, Rolf… whatever your name is. Take him down to the second floor.” He smiled as he spoke the words.

“What?” Wormtail’s frown was the mirror opposite of the Warden’s as the abomination grabbed him. “But… yah said yah'd free me!”

“Yes, and I am! Just not in the way you thought you had asked.” The Warden laughed. “My good friend the doctor, he is simply there help free you of this troubled life.”

Wormtail whined and fought as the Abomination both used his claws to clamp his muzzle shut, and drag him off. The only other abomination in the room turned and shut the door as they left, leaving us all to an uneasy silence.

“I am so, so very disappointed in you, Storm.” The Warden shook his head softly. “I’ve done so much to keep you safe. To keep you alive.” He sighed and looked up at the ceiling in disinterest. “And here you want to go and seek out another sanctuary through some... pony I don’t even know.” He put his hoof on his chest and gasped. “I just can’t help but feel a little hurt about that.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I frowned and kept my eyes glued to him. If he wanted to play this game, I’d play. So long as it gave Pai more time to get what I needed. “But it’s really time we both move on. If it helps, the pony I’ve got to get to will probably be hurt a bit more by what I have to do than you will be.”

“Oh, no no no. That isn’t what’s wrong here.” He let out a hearty laugh before getting up from his chair. Slowly, he started to walk toward me. “See, what’s wrong is that you have been planning to go behind my back about it all along. If you’d just asked, I would have gladly given you the freedom you desired.” He cocked an eyebrow from behind his sunglasses. “However, as you saw, maybe not asking was the right move after all.”

“So then.” I said slowly. “What happens now.”

“That, my dear, is up to you.” He reached up and pat me on the shoulder. When he pulled his hoof back, he looked at it and snarled. Vigorously, he started to wipe his hoof on the floor, grunting and stamping a few times before he stopped. “On second thought, I can’t have you dirtying up your own punishment, now can I?” He turned to the abomination. “Take the collaborators to the yard and flog them. Don’t permanently injure them though. I need them unbroken incase this happens again.”

Cheap Shot nodded with a look of acceptance as I looked to him. I wanted to speak up, to tell the Warden not to do it. I hesitated as I looked over the other ponies who had risked their freedom on me. Each one of them sat in silent acceptance. That was the only reason I’d kept my muzzle shut. As the door to the hallway opened, a group of Abominations waited. One by one, they got to their hooves and filed out, guided by the abomination beside me.

As Cheap Shot was lead out, I turned to follow. I was instead stopped by the abomination inside the room, who shut the door to keep me from leaving. In my confusion, I tried to turn myself around, but found a blurry crimson and brown line in my face. The wooden bat the doctor had used sent me sprawling to the floor.

“You know, it’s not often I take to being so crude with a prisoner.” The Warden spoke up as he walked closer. The bat swung down again and I cried out as it caught me on my shoulder. “But it’s just so much fun sometimes!” He swung again and caught me in the stomach. “Don’t you agree?”

I could only whimper as he continued to beat me senseless. By the time he’d finished, I was blacking out from all the trauma I’d endured. Out of the one eye that could still see, I saw the Warden’s pristine white jacked streaked with lines of my own blood. He dropped the bat to the floor with a grunt and turned back to his desk.

“Take her to solitary.” He spoke softly between his tired panting. “Make sure her friend’s get it twice as bad as she did. I will not have my prison become a place for this filth to grow.”

--Chapter End--

“Only when things are going right can they go horribly wrong.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Four - The Long Road Ahead

“Our enemy is motivated by hatred and will not stop planning more plots against until they are ultimately defeated. Today was an important and necessary victory in the war, but there is a long road ahead. We must remain committed if we are to succeed and protect our free will.”

The next thing that I could remember after that blast, was that the world was a mass of spinning colors and confusing noises.

“Come on, leave her!” Jack Knife yelled out.

“No, she got us this far. I’m not leaving her.” Cheap Shot answered him as darkness flooded the blurred world around me. I think I must have passed out again. The sounds that met my ears next were calmer, and less full of screams. When I opened my eyes, some pony was slapping my cheek.

“Come on, Storm. Wake up.” Cheap Shot held me up as he tapped on me. “You have to stay awake for me, alright? As long as you can at least.” As he held me, I could hear somepony crying in the distance. Everything was still so confusing, and it was overwhelming. I don’t know how long I’d managed to stay up, but all I know is that eventually I slipped back into darkness.

The soft hum of a battery powered lamp made me moan out. Dad always left them on when he went on a run. That was fine though, he always left it in hoofs reach for me. I reached out to turn it off, but found nothing in place of the lantern. Then a sharp pain shot up my side that made me writhe.

When I opened my eyes, an odd scene sat before me. I was on a cot in a tent. An old military tent to be precise. A single lantern illuminated the olive drab canvas, and lit up a crudely painted symbol on the back wall. I rubbed at my eyes to try to clear my vision. I had no idea where I was, or who it was that kept me here. When I adjusted my eyes, I didn’t like the answer.

The hastily painted Steel Ranger symbol sent chills up my spine. Were these his rangers? I looked down to my hoof to find that my pipbuck was still attached. Even if these were normal rangers, odds were, they weren’t going to let me leave on my own. I had to get back to Harmony and Predious. I groaned and rolled myself off the cot. My legs were still too weak to hold me, and I collapsed to the floor. I heard the hoofsteps coming, but couldn’t do anything before they opened the tentflap.

“She’s awake. Go get Diesel.” The stallion in front of me said with more volume than I thought was necessary. I still couldn’t push myself up, but I still found myself being lifted. The magical aura of the stallion set me back up onto the cot as I felt light headed again. “Stay put and don’t strain yourself. Your injuries might be gone, but your body still needs rest.”

“Like hell I will.” I growled. My body may be bruised and broken, but I didn’t just get blown up for nothing. I’m so close to getting to my friends, I just needed to fight a little longer. Once again, I rolled myself off the cot.

“I don’t want to restrain you in your condition, but I will if you don’t stop.” The stallion said sternly as he caught me in his magic. “I know you are confused, but you are safe here.” He pressed me back into the cot and let me go again. “Diesel will answer any questions you may have, but until then I need you to stop. Alright?”

“Fine.” I answered. At the very least, he sounded sincere.

The stallion left me to my thoughts after that. What had happened after that bomb went off? How did I make it out of there? If I truly was in a safe place, this Diesel pony better have some goddess damned good answers for me.

“How is she?” Another stallion spoke up from outside. The tent flap pushed open, and a large green stallion lumbered in. The black tinting on the end of his muzzle made his grimace all the more menacing, but he didn’t look tense. The machine grease streaked brown mane and dirtied up patches of his coat meant that he probably lived up to his name at least.

“Don’t ignore me Diesel!” The shrill whine of a mare bled through the tent. Diesel tensed up and cringed as she shouted. “I can’t fix a toaster out here without more parts, let alone a Mk.IV turret.”

“Then take them from that damn robot of yours.” He shouted back to her. His voice definitely carried the air of authority, but once again, it was spoken too loud for my liking. He waited for a response for a moment, but none came. He breathed out a sigh and looked like he relaxed a bit. “Sorry about that.” He sat down next to the bed and looked over me. “Am I correct in assuming that your name is Storm Rider?”

“I’m not answering any questions until you tell me how the fuck I got here, who the hell you ponies are, and what happened to the others. Oh, and you can give me back my gear.” I’ve never been too good at the whole idea of negotiation, but even I knew I was asking for too much there.

“Look, if you aren’t the mare in question, then once you’re well enough, you can go.” He shook his head in annoyance. “But if you are, then you can relax. Your friend Harmony is the one who put in the search request back in Manehatten.”

“Fine, I’m Storm.” I grumbled. “I still want my answers and my gear.”

“No. We work tit-for-tat. An answer for an answer.” The stallion cracked the faintest hint of a smile. “Harmony had said you were last seen with a mare named Pallet Jack in Dodge. Where did you two go to from there?”

Hearing her name again felt like taking a sledgehammer to the skull. Only, it didn’t knock me out, rather it put everything into sharper focus than ever. Pallet was gone, and Harmony still didn’t know.

“I was taken to the prison they called Summer Camp.” It was hard to form the words, but I managed to eek out the rest of the answer. “Pallet... didn’t make it out of Dodge.”

“That would explain the absence of forces up here.” Diesel muttered to himself. “How was it that you escaped?”

The fact that he was so calm about all of this was unsettling. I know he didn’t know Pallet like I did, but he could at the very least show some respect for her. This stallion was really starting to piss me off.

“No, you said tit-for-fucking-tat.” I snapped and sat up. For a moment, I became light headed, but I was resolute in this. “Tell me who the fuck you ponies are.”

“We’re part of the Manehatten Steel Rangers. Delta contingent was sent south west to provide support and to investigate the cause for the sudden influx of southern Equestrian refugees.” He sounded like he’d repeated that statement more than he’d care to admit. “Now, how did you escape?”

“I…” I paused. Everything was out of place after that blast, but I’m sure I heard voices. “I worked with a group from inside. There was a riot, and I was caught in an explosion. They dragged me out... I think.” A spike of pain shot through my head. “Where… where are they?”

“They are outside, but we’ve detained them.” He shrugged. “We assumed them slavers, and when I saw you, I didn’t want to take any chances.” He eyed me curiously. “It’s also odd. They keep referring to you as ‘Hope’.”

“That prison wasn’t just filled with innocent ponies. There were more than a few bad seeds in there that would have rather seen me dead.” I didn’t know what painkiller they’d given me here, but whatever it was had started to wear off. I could feel pain ebbing along my forelegs and my back more an more. Whatever sedative was in it though was losing strength as well. I felt confident that my hooves could hold me up now.

“As I still haven’t asked a question, why did they kill every other pony down south, but take you?” There was a bit of resentment in his voice. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like that tone.

“How the fuck should I know?” I knew exactly why, but I wasn’t about to tell him anything about who I really was. “He just sees me as somepony special. Don’t know why, don’t care either.”

“He?” Diesel cocked an eyebrow at that.

“No, my turn.” I said. “Where the hell am I?” With any luck, I wouldn’t be too far behind him. I don’t know what he wants off the coast, but I intend to find him and kill him before he gets it.

“An outpost just outside of the settlement of Futura. Our only remaining outpost this far south to be honest. Whatever you managed to pull off at the prison, pulled back some of his forces. We might as well be able to keep this damn position for a little longer.” Diesel didn’t sound too hopeful for that, and it made me wonder just how bad things really were. “Where do you plan on going from here?”

“Manehatten. I have to go to Harmony.” I moved to get up, but ended up painfully tumbling down to the floor again. Turns out that even without the sedative, my legs still didn’t want to move right.

“Not with those injuries you aren’t.” He lifted his hoof and pushed me back into the cot. “No, you are out of this fight. You’ve done enough, so leave it to us now.”

“You don’t understand.” I knocked his hoof off of me and glared at him. “If I don’t get to Manehatten…” I stopped when the tent flap lifted behind Diesel, and a young unicorn mare stepped in. She was mostly hidden under a set of red steel rangers robes, but a bit of her orange mane and purple horn jutted out from it’s hood.

“Brother, Bandpass has HQ for you on his radio. They say it’s urgent.” She sounded young, but the mechanical whine that came when she turned around and walked out peaked some sense of curiosity in me.

“I’m going to cut this short, but I can tell you know something you aren’t telling me.” He sat there and looked at me for a moment. “If it’s something that can help us in this fight, please, don’t hesitate. Whatever it is, I’ll get word of it to those who can best use the information.”

It was right on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to say it, but I hesitated. The necromancer had gotten to the southern Steel Rangers and corrupted them. As much as I need the help, I can’t trust that these rangers will be any more resistant than the others were. It’s best to only tell Harmony.

“I see.” Diesel sighed heavily and got to his hooves. “I want you to know something though. The meds we used to fix you up were fairly hard to come by, and they might have proved useful in another fight.” He turned around and walked to the tent flap. He stopped and gazed back for a moment. “I’d hate to be ill prepared for another fight if I can help it. You want to talk about it later, fine. Just come find me. Until then, get some rest.”

With that, he slipped out of the tent. With a heavy sigh of my own, I flopped back and stared at the old fabric of the ceiling. Rest. How was is supposed to do that when every second we were letting him get closer to whatever he’s looking for? I’d already wasted enough time in that prison with little to show for it. He considers me enough of a threat to lock me away, so for now, he still underestimates me.

I ran my hoof along the tent fabric in thought. Just what was the plan for when I caught up to him? Could Harmony and I really expect to take him down? Predious might know something though. He’s a ghoul who’s presumably been around for awhile, so maybe there’s something more he’s holding out on me with. If I’m left with no other choice, I’ll go to the Steel Rangers for help. As it is, I’m not out of options yet.

From out of nowhere, I felt something stab into my side. I let out a yelp and jumped off the cot. My legs immediately folded under me and I collapsed to the floor. The world began to spin again, and my eyes grew heavier. Soon, I was back in my world of slumber.

I was really getting tired of waking up somewhere new all the time. More than that, I was tired of being tapped on the muzzle by somepony. With a groan, I bat their hoof away. In return, I was rewarded with another stabbing sensation in my side.

“Oh, cut it out. It’s just Med-X.” A mare said from above me. It was the voice of the mare from earlier.

I writhed on the ground for a moment, pressing myself back into the cold dirt. I blinked in the darkness and found that it did little to help. It seemed I was out of the camp now, and that it was the middle of the night. The warm numbing of Med-X took hold over my sore body, and shortly I found I could stand.

“Sorry about the sedative, but I couldn’t have you giving me away.” The mare spoke up. A small light flickered from a foot in front of my muzzle. From it’s glow, I could make out the horn and red mane of the mare. With a mechanical whine, she reached a hoof up and pushed back her robe. She brightened the light her horn gave off, and I found that we’d holed up in some burnt out structure the wasteland had reclaimed.

“Who the fuck are you?” I took a step back. Once again, I was at a disadvantage and didn’t have my gear. “What do you want?” Why couldn’t I just get one break? As if to answer my call, my vision flashed pink. Pai popped into my vision as she always did.

“Don’t worry, she’s a friend!” She remarked cheerfully.

“I overheard your conversation with my brother.” The mare spoke. “You know what the big bad guy wants, don’t you?” Here green eyes glowed in the light of her horn, and a smirk fell across her face when I hesitated to answer. “I thought so. Like I always told him, I’m the brains, he’s the brawn.” She smiled and held out a metallic hoof to me. “The name’s Gauge by the way.”

“And Grumpy face is somewhere around here!” Pai exclaimed loudly enough to even make the new mare cringe. “He’s pretty neat for an adaptive AI. I’m sure Iron Will would have loved to talk with him.”

“No, everypony just chill the fuck out for a moment.” I snapped. This was all too easy, and too fast. “First of all, I want my gear. Second of all, I want to know why you helped me. Third, I want to get to my friends. Fourth of all, I want to kill that necromancing son of a bitch.” I glared at the new mare. “Do you understand all this?”

“Come on sis, take it easy!” Pai childed me. She put her hoof up to her muzzle and dropped her voice to a forced whisper. “Don’t worry, Gauge. She’s just a big grumpy pants sometimes.”

“Pai.” I grunted. “Not in the mood.”

With a heavy whump, my jacket was tossed into the dirt in front of my hooves. She floated my rifle toward me enveloped in her magic’s green glow. With little hesitation, I hoofed on my jacket and reclaimed my rifle. As I checked it for ammo, Gauge dropped my satchel around my neck and sat down. I was happy to find that there was at least one round in the gun.

“Okay, you all good now? Do you want anything else off me? My leg perhaps? Then will you calm the fuck down?” She sassed at me. She held out her hoof, which in the light I could now tell wasn’t armored. Rather, it was cybernetic. It looked like it had seen better days, but other than the soft electric whine, it was as fluid as flesh and bone.

“Nopey mopey!” Pai exclaimed. “All of her gear has been double-triple checked and is accounted for!”

“Now.” I hoofed at my rifle and pointed it at her. “Why are you helping me?”

“My reasons are two fold.” She lowered her hoof and canted her head. “Like I mentioned, my brother isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Working under him is always so routine and boring. Uhg.” She made a disgusted face for a moment before shaking it off. “Plus, this whole thing has got a stick so far up his ass...” She paused. “Am I rambling? I’m rambling. Anyway, that is neither here nor there.” A smile crept across her muzzle as she said that, which gave me more than just a hint of arrogance from her.

“Abandoning your family isn’t winning you any points, kid.” I muttered and held my rifle steady. I didn’t want to shoot her, but I had to be sure I could trust her.

“Yeah yeah. I’m not abandoning him. More like… giving him a few days without having to deal with his annoying younger sister.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway. Secondly, is that my parents totally used to be best friends with Harmony’s mom when she was a ranger back in the day. I figure, if anypony is friend’s with them, they have to at least be somepony interesting to meet.” She pointed at me and giggled. “I’ve needed a little adventure in my life, and so far, I haven’t been disappointed.”

I dropped my aim and cocked an eyebrow. I’m not sure if she was just retarded or if she seriously didn’t understand the gravity of what’s transpired the last few days. However, she said she knew Harmony’s mother was a ranger, and that was something. Longbow never talked about those days anymore. She was reluctant enough to tell me a few years ago even. Didn’t look like Gauge’s parents took her privacy into consideration.

“So, Storm was it?” Gauge smiled and sat down. “Tell me, what is it exactly that you were hiding? Is it really something that could help win this war?”

“War? You know nothing of it, kid.” I nearly spat. War was something stupid ponykind participated in a century and a half ago. This was nothing like that. “It’s not war. This is genocide. The Necromancer want’s the wastes wiped clean. Unless we stop him, he’ll do it.”

“This adventure just keeps getting better all the time!” She squeaked and clopped her forehooves together giddily. I wanted to facehoof, but I was far too annoyed to even waste the effort on it.

“Tell me, what will happen to Cheap Shot and the others who brought me to your camp?” If she wasn’t going to leave right away, at the very least I could get something out of her.

“Well, you already cleared them, so they’ll be free to leave I guess.” She shrugged and rolled her eyes. Dropping her voice to a grumble, she continued. “Unlike myself…”

“Well then...” I said as I got to my hooves. The med-X worked like a charm, and my hooves were once again rock solid under me. “Thank you for getting me out of there. I’ll give Harmony and her mother your regards.”

“Woah there.” She nearly shouted as she got to her hooves. “I didn’t set this up just to get you out. I’m going with you.” She eyed me in annoyance as she stepped around in front of me. “And before you go objecting, you need me.”

“Oh, and why is that?” I sighed. Just what I needed, another pony getting on my nerves as I travel. Granted though, Predious was at least useful for the annoyance he gave.

“For starters, you aren’t in any condition to travel alone.” She hesitated as she said that. It really just was the med-X, but I felt good enough to handle anything thrown at me, and I think she knew it. “That, and my brother is going to notice you are missing eventually. When that happens, you are going to need me to keep them running in circles trying to find you.”

“I’ve been a bounty hunter for most of my life.” I said as I looked down at the compass in my vision. “I’m pretty good at staying hidden when I don’t want to be found.” I turned until I was facing north east and started up at a trot.

“Except you’ve never tried hiding from Steel Rangers before, have you?” She said as she started after me. Her shorter stature meant she needed to work harder to keep up, and I aimed to just wear her down. “Every ranger suit has a tracking talisman in it, just like the ones they use in pipbucks. As long as they get close enough, you can’t hide from them.”

“While true, I can get into places they couldn’t go.” I stopped and held up my pipbuck. “The range on this thing doesn’t seem to be amazing, and all it would take is for me to find an old sewer line or rainwater pipe and they’d never find or get to me.” As she finally caught up, I started to trot again.

“But if I’m around, you wouldn’t have to!” Undeterred, she stuck her metal leg out as she talked. “The one wired into my leg here can emit a jamming signal!” She hobbled her fastest, and surprisingly she kept up with me. If nothing else, this kid is at least determined.

“Fine.” I said as I came to an abrupt stop. It was so abrupt in fact that she tried to match it. With three legs, she ended up face down with a muzzle full of dirt. “You want to go with me? Be my guest.” She smiled from the ground and hopped up like she hadn’t just made a fool of herself. “But when we get there, you turn around and head back home.”

“Hell yeah!” She shouted out into the night. “Come on! Let’s go on an adventure!” She paused for a moment and gasped. “Oh yeah, can’t leave big ole grump behind!”

She brought her non-cyber hoof to her muzzle and whistled with it. A mechanical growl filled the air as three red lights appeared behind her. The growl tapered off into a low hum and the lights brightened up. They Illuminated what looked to be standard Mr. Macintosh security bot, but it’s shape was off. It had bits and pieces of scrap metal bolted onto it in various places, and all three of it’s limbs had softly glowing knives instead of it’s normal armaments.

“This here is Grumpy. Semi-autonomous, he’ll attack anything I tell him to. Those blades on him? Surgical steel with a spell of keen edges. He’ll slice through a one sixteenth steel plate like it’s nothing.” Gauge giggled giddily as she spoke. I was less than impressed, seeing as a bullet is just as good at killing ponies as his ‘special knives’ were. She must have seen my face, because she cleared her throat and adopted a more normal tone. “He was a Mister Macintosh prototype made back during the war, then stuck in the Manehatten museum of technology to collect dust. So I uh… repurposed him.”

“You stole him.” I replied flatly. A little part of me spoke up in the back of my head to remind me that it wasn’t a ‘him’ at all. As I walked forward again, I ignored the voice out of respect to both Pai, and Iron will. “At the very least, having another machine around should be useful.”

“Yeah. I guess.” Pai spoke up sadly. “I miss Iron Will.”

I didn’t know him for more than just a few days, and I too hated the fact that he died down in that bunker like that. Even if he was just a machine, he didn’t need to sacrifice himself like he did.

“Who was this Iron Will by the way?” Gauge asked as she trotted along side me. “Was he some sort of robot as well?”

I opened my muzzle to speak, but Pai beat me to it.

“He was my best friend.” Pai sniffled. “After the outside went dark, he was the only one left I could talk to. He never said much, but he was a great listener. He kept me company all the way until I met sis and her friends.”

“Oh, I see.” Gauge replied softly. She looked back to her own mechanization as it hovered after us. “Maybe... there’s a way to fix him?”

“No.” Pai said with a sigh. She shook her head as the whole display greyed a bit over the bright pink she normally was. “He was one of a kind.” Pai looked up to me with a distant gaze. “Unless you know another robo minotaur designed for heavy lifting and construction.”

“Well, maybe I could salvage something off…” Gauge started to say.

Pai didn’t need to hear that, and I wasn’t having any if it.

“No. You won’t be ‘repurposing’ him.” I growled. “He’s gone. We buried him and that is that. Got it?” I felt like my eyes could bore holes right through her. She nodded softly with the widest eyes I’d ever seen on anypony. I shook my head and trotted forward more than just a little annoyed at all this. “Besides, he’s all the way down south. The only way anypony is getting to him is through that necromancing douchebag and his army.”

“Well, that settles it then.” Gauge sighed and trotted forward.

“What now?” I grumbled.

“Now you have to tell me what you kept from my brother.” She smiled and canted her head back. “Grump and I won’t stand for anypony who kills a machine like Iron Will and goes unpunished!”

That was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. Just to nail that fact in, I tripped and fell face first into the cold dirt. Even through the med-X, I could feel that the ground was freezing. It was a wake up call.

“You think this is a motherbucking game?!” I yelled. “Ponies are dying every minute that he isn’t stopped. Entire fucking towns have been turned into graveyards!” Getting back up, I strained to keep from throwing myself at her in my anger. “If your plan is to canter around like you’re the hottest shit since the war, just let me kill you now. At least then I can make it painless.”

“Jeez, calm down.” Gauge sneered. “I just wanted to help.”

“You can help by escorting me to Manehatten, then you can crawl back to whatever bunker you came from and lock yourself away.” I snapped. “I’ve lost enough ponies I know already to care about adding some stupid filly going off half cocked.”

“How the hell did you learn to survive out here without getting into the thick of it? You can’t tell me that you didn’t make mistakes, or get in over your head.” Gauge fired back. She sped up to a gallop and got in front of me. She used her magic to lift the robes off of her, and her cyberleg twisted and unhooked from her. Without either on her, all she was just a small, weak looking mare. “You may not like my attitude, but it’s all I’ve got. You don’t want me around? Fine.” She sat down and pointed her hoof at me. “But I’m going out there to fight. I’m sick of being passed over for patrols because I’m too ‘young’, or too ‘small’, or not ‘strong enough’, or too ‘handicapped’ to be usefull. I’m going to prove that I can help the steel rangers as much as the next mare can.”

“Girls…” Pai tried to interrupt, but I was far past listening.

“While those are all valid points, you will die out here.” I yelled. This mare was more aggravating than Predious and Ficha combined! I was going to end up tearing my mane out in the next hour if this kept up. “And it won’t happen because you’re too small, or too weak. That attitude alone is going to get you killed out here. So do the both of us a favor and learn to stow it now before we get into real trouble.”

“Oh, so you’re going to tell me what to do now?” Gauge gave out a haughty laugh. “Yes miss teacher. I’ll do as you ask miss teacher.” She said sarcastically. “Why would I listen to you when we had to save your ass from whatever stupid shit you did? When you wouldn’t even share the information on how we could better fight? What the fuck do you know about fighting when it sounds like you’ve lost every one you’re in?”

“Girls?” Pai spoke up again.

Gauge was digging deep into my mind and hitting all the right buttons. My heart was racing, and there was fire in my veins. This little brat needed to be taught a lesson, and I was damn sure not going to take it easy on her.

“Why?” I growled. “Why!” I stomped a hoof on the ground as I screamed. A quick wave of blue flame rolled across the dirt and dissipated. “Because I’ve been around long enough to know what ponykind lost with this kind of attitude. Because little shits like you are the reason the war happened in the first place! You want to be given a chance? Then fucking listen to these words carefully.” Gauge’s expression had flipped to one of terror at the sight of the flames, and as I took a step forward, I could see my eyes glowing bright blue as I stared into hers. “You will sit back and do as you’re fucking told, or I swear to Celestia...”

“Harmony. Stop!” Pai screamed angrily. “The both of you! Just stop it!” She cried out. Her voice snapped my mind back into focus. She sat curled in the corner sobbing in my vision. My vision had turned blue at some point in the argument, but I’d failed to notice. The light I was radiating dimmed down, and as it did, the anger I had was slowly replaced with regret.

“Pai… I’m sorry.” For as much screaming as I’d done, I could only speak in a whisper.

“What… the hell are you?” Gauge said as she struggled to get her trembling hooves under her. “How…” Her words just dropped out from under her.

“Trouble.” I simply replied. It was easy to get back to my own hooves, even though my conscience felt like it was laden with a million pounds of guilt. “Once we reach manehatten, you’d be smart to leave me alone, kid.”

“If anything, my smarts are the one thing going for me.” She said as she shook her head. “And I’m not leaving. You’re the secret you didn’t want my brother to know, aren’t you?” She flared her magic and reattached her cyberleg in only a few seconds. “I’ve seen all kinds of magic before, and I’ve never seen an earth pony cast any, let alone felt anything like that.”

While it wasn’t what I’d been hiding from her brother, my real identity was something I’d wanted hidden from everypony all the same. I should be glad that she didn’t immediately assume me some sort of monster I guess. Then again, if I let somepony get to me like that again, I may very well become one.

“I’m sorry too, Pai.” Gauge spoke as she got her robes back on. “It was a stupid argument, and I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“You two shouldn’t be fighting.” Pai whimpered as she uncurled. “You both have enough meany pants ponies out here looking to hurt you. Don’t you think that a few more friends would be better?”

“Ever more the voice of wisdom in my life, Pai.” I sighed and looked to Gauge. “Look, I didn’t mean to snap at you, but you have to know that this is far more serious than you can imagine.” I should have stopped there, but unfortunately I felt like I owed her for enduring my rage. “If you want to learn to survive, I might be able to teach you some basics.”

“Hell yes!” Gauge’s face lit up with a smile almost too wide for her head.

“But!” I said sharply. “Only until manehatten. I was serious about the hiding thing. The coming fight is going to be ugly.”

“Whatever you say Storm! Or is it Harmony? Hope?” She smiled and trotted to my side. She looked up to me as she folded the hood on her robe back. “Should just I call you teacher? Maybe teach?”

Once again, I wanted to facehoof, but out of the interest of friendship I held back. Dear Celestia, what have I brought upon myself? At least Pai looked up to me with a soft smile. The display had switched from it’s sad blue, to at least a dull pink. From what the clock said, we had a few hours until sunrise.

And we still had a long way to go to reach Manehatten…

--Chapter End--
“We will not be beaten. But we may be shamed and embarrassed on a needlessly long road to victory.”
Quests Finished: none
Quests Started: Storm Takes Manehatten
Levels Earned: none
Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Five - Determination

“Nothing can stop the mare with the right mental attitude from achieving her goal; nothing in Equestria can help the mare with the wrong mental attitude.”

I hurt in places that I hadn’t known existed a few weeks ago, but the pain gave me something to focus on. Between the walk from yesterday and breakfast this morning at our makeshift camp, the last med-X Gauge gave me wore off. I much prefer it this way though. At least it gives me something else to focus on instead of her incessant chattering.

“Hey! I know what would make us all feel better!” Pai shouted. There was a crackle on my pipbuck speaker before a bunch of odd noises started to come out of it. “How about a traveling song!”

“Pai…” I sighed. She knew we needed to keep quiet. “What are you doing?” It seemed she was content to ignore me when the banjo started up.

“Oh! I know this one!” Gauge practically squealed in delight. “It’s the Ranger’s good luck song!”

“We travel the road of generations, joined by a common bond.” Pai started singing quite loudly along to the tune. “We sing our song 'cross the pony nation, from Equestria and beyond.”

“We're Apples forever, Apples together, we're family, but so much more!” Gauge joined in as she hooked her foreleg around me. “No matter what comes, we will face the weather. We're Apples to the core!” She belted out in near harmony with Pai.

This had to stop.

“Enough!” I snapped as I shoved Gauge off my side. “Could you fucking not? I didn’t go through the hell of the last week just to get killed by some keen eared raiders in the middle of fuck-all nowhere!” I stomped on the dirt in my anger. It was all I could do. I could feel the flames inside begging to get let loose again. I couldn’t, not unless I had a better direction to vent towards. Gauge went wide eyed and pointed her hoof past me.

I turned around to face the threat head on. Over on the hills about a thousand feet away, was a large procession. Ponies of all sizes and shapes trod through the wasteland dirt. They carried various pieces of old luggage, rolls of supplies, and a few of the bigger ones pulled a large cart. They looked tired and ragged. Even the foals weren’t running around, simply walking. In that moment, I knew they were the lucky survivors of some settlement to the south.

“So, that’s how bad it’s gotten.” I muttered under my breath. The only thing I was thankful for, was that it seemed to be a fairly large group. Like Chasm, it wasn’t just a small section of survivors. Like Chasm though, not everypony probably made it out.

One of the cloaked ponies who walked in the middle stopped. He turned to us, but from this distance, I couldn’t tell if he had a weapon. Sats was of absolutely no help with this distance either. I held my forehoof out and motioned for Gauge to get behind me. If we needed to run, I wasn’t going to let her go down. The pony who’d stopped took off at a sprint towards us. As he did, I flagged Gauge over to a large boulder that happened to be laying nearby.

“Should I set grumpy to defence mode?” She asked in a whisper loud enough she might as well have been talking.

“What?” I asked and shook my head. “No, just… sit tight.” I sat down on my haunches with a small whine. I was still in a nowhere near well enough condition to fight, but I had to make it to Manehatten. I reached back and unslung my rifle. It’s been a good few days since I’d held it steadily, but damn it felt good. As I raised the weapon in my hooves, the pony galloping towards us skidded to a stop. They turned sideways just enough for me to see a hunting rifle battle saddle strapped to their side.

I pulled the sights up and centered the crosshairs on them. It was a dark blue stallion, wearing nothing more than ragged cloth and a hunting rifle. They turned their muzzle to me and smiled. He was familiar. I knew him, but I just couldn’t place it. Regardless, he was friendly, so I lowered my rifle. He started back up towards us as I turned to Gauge.

“False alarm. I know this guy.” I sighed and looked around. We were missing something. “Where is your robo-thing anyway?”

“Grumpy? I have him in flank defence mode. He’s about a quarter mile behind us.” She looked down to her pipleg and hit a few buttons. “With the special flight boost talisman I installed on him, he could be here in twenty seconds flat.” She bobbed her head back and forth for a moment. “though, he’d probably only have that long to kill any bad guys before he dropped into power save mode. Still need to fix that…”

“Sure, whatever.” I said without any real clue as to what she was talking about. “Might want him to follow us a bit closer next time. Lesson one of the wasteland; those twenty seconds for him to get here? That’s the difference between life and death.”

She frowned and cocked an eyebrow. “Duly noted…” She looked back to her pipleg and hit a few buttons. I sure hoped that she at least knew how to fight if it came down to it. The sound of approaching hooves drew my attention from her, and over to the stallion I knew.

“Storm!” He called out through labored breaths. “It’s me! Thatcher!”

Yeah, that was his name. He’s a security pony who worked at the Red Wing mine last I checked. Good guards pony, but his morals have cost me more than a few kill contracts. He came to a stop right next to me and panted heavily.

“What are you doing out here, Thatcher?” I looked back toward the large group of ponies still walking by. “They all yours?”

“Yes.” He nodded and panted. “I was on my shift when they hit us from the south. They sent ponies up to the walls with explosives. We barely had enough time to evacuate the mines before We were completely swarmed. Whatever those things were, they weren’t ponies. They just wouldn’t go down!” He was nearly hyperventilating as he recalled everything. I could see the tears starting to form in his eyes from the kinds of horrors we’d both seen.

“Slow down there, Thatcher.” I said as I put my hoof on his shoulder. “Take your time.”

“Sorry.” He nodded and tried to keep his legs from shaking. “A few of the ponies in our group were from the west. They were the first proof we’d seen of the rumors on the radio. The attack came six hours later.” He looks sad for a moment “Brightbeam… she didn’t make it…”

“Oh…” I was at a lost for words. Even though he’d ruined some of my contracts, he and his wife were the most friendly ponies I’d met outside of dodge. I had dinner with both him and Brightbeam just a few months ago. It was odd to think how she could just be gone. Just like Pallet…

“I…” He sat down hard. “If they weren’t with my brother right now, I might have lost them. I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell them their mother is dead.” He looked up to me with a sniffle. “Finn and Huckleberry, they’re both so young… it’ll destroy them.”

“Thatcher, you don’t need to worry about that right now.” I said as I patted him on the shoulder. “Besides, they’re tough kids, and with you still around, I’m sure you’ll all pull through.” I gave him a weak smile. No kid should have to go through what they will. I can’t even imagine it. Then again, both Mama and Daddy are a century and a half dead. The only thing that helped was that I learned of them so late that I could handle it. Well, mostly.

“Sis, you have to hear this.” Pai chimed up. I’d actually forgotten she was still active. She turned my pipbuck radio on with a click, and I held my foreleg out to hear better. Dj-Pon3’s voice came over the air with a crackle, and his tone was not one I’d wanted to hear.

“...amount of refugees outside of Manehatten have skyrocketed since the last update. While we don’t have the exact numbers, I can give a hefty guess that most of the eastern ruins is now occupied. With more ponies pouring in from across the river, reports of raider and bandit activity has skyrocketed. Now, I’m sorry to report this distressing news to you, but these are no longer rumors. The south eastern wasteland has come under siege from an unknown force.”

“It’s even worse than when we left.” Gauge spoke up. I looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes. I don’t think it was real to her until she heard it from somepony else. This isn’t an adventure, it’s a war. Maybe now she’ll get her act together.

“Baltimare continues to hold on, but just barely, while parts of Fillydelphia have been completely cleansed by this force. This is a wasteland wide call to arms. If you see any strange ponies approaching, you need to grab what you need to survive and get the hell outa’ there. From the reports I’ve been getting, don’t even try fighting back. Just get as far north as you can and hope that somepony finds a way to stop this. Who knows, maybe those ever watching from above will grow a spine and come help us out. For now, that is all, my little ponies. Stay safe and remember, stay alive.”

The broadcast clicked off as Pai looked up to me. She wore a heavy frown across her muzzle, and I shared it. This was just the start of his plan, I was sure of it. If we can find a way to stop his advance early, if I can keep him from getting what he wants, maybe we can get the upper hoof. I looked over to the horizon and watched as the weary traveled on. I needed to get to manehatten and find whatever it is first.

“We don’t have much time.” I said as I looked to both Gauge and Thatcher. “If that bastard gets what he wants in Manehatten before we do, the ponies there won’t have a chance in Tartarus. No one in the wasteland will.”

“But… that’s where everypony is going!” Thatcher yelped.

“Hence the emphasis on getting there first.” I muttered as I slung my rifle back on and made sure it was secure. “Feel up for a good run, Thatcher? We could use the extra gun.”

“N-no…” He took a step back and looked toward the crowd. “I need to make sure these ponies get to the Garage safely.” He looked back to me before he dropped his view to the dirt. “Can you… can you make sure my sons are alright? They’re at my brother’s bar in Sunshine City, but I just… I haven’t seen them in four months.” That wasn’t an impossible task. Harmony and the others Should be at the garage in Sunshine City, and I would need to hit everywhere there for supplies. I nodded to Gauge and put my forehoof on Thatcher’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’re safe.” I gave him the closest thing I could to a promise.

“Thank you.” He gave me a nervous smile. “We’ll all most likely only be a half a day behind, but… it means the world to me.”

“Just keep them safe.” I said as Gauge walked up to my side. “Thatcher? Remember to keep yourself safe as well. They’ll need their father there as they grow.”

With that, Gauge and I took off at a gallop towards the city. We still had a large distance to cover, but we couldn’t falter now. Every minute, that bastard get’s closer to what he wants, and I won’t allow it. If I am truly the embodiment of hope, I will not let my father down. I will not let Fluttershy down. Most of all, I won’t let any of my friends down.

* * * * * * * * *

The afternoon had passed with little incident. Two or three times we’d skirted around raider parties, and we had to lay low as a pair of manticores hunted something other than us. Despite these incidents, I was proud of the pace we’d kept, and could make it into Manehatten by morning if we kept going through night. Then again, I never was that lucky.

As the darkness permeated the cold wastes, a familiar whine carried through the air. After the last time I’d heard it, I’d hoped never to hear it again. I looked up into the dark skies and found a pair of floodlights skimming along the top of them. With a speed I couldn’t even comprehend, the vertibuck dipped through the cloud layer and dove toward the ground. Gauge and I both pressed ourselves to the dirt with this, but she let out an excited giggle as she did.

“So they really have flying machines up there, don’t they?” She spoke with an obvious sense of awe.

“Yeah, I don’t trust them.” I watched as the vertibuck pulled up at the last minute and skimmed along the wasteland’s surface away from us. I was reminded of the crash that nearly killed our whole gang, let alone that pegasus we pulled from the wreckage. What was his name again? Whatever, not important.

The vertibuck dipped below a ridge ahead, but was immediately illuminated by whatever lay on the other side. It spun around slowly and dropped down completely. A pair of pegasi zipped up past the ridge into the air. Almost immediately, their black armor rendered them invisible against the night sky.

“So, same as the last few issues?” Gauge asked. “Just go around?”

“I don't want to go around the enclave encampment, because with pegasus flight range, that would at minimum add hours to our trip. If we tried and got caught, we’d still just be brought back here.” I sighed and dropped my face into the dirt in annoyance. “Cutting through will get us detained for a bit, and they probably won’t kill us. After a few questions, we’ll be on our way again. If the Enclave is anything, it's efficient.”

“How do you know that?” Gauge asked. “Run into them before?”

“Not exactly.” I grunted and picked myself back up. I looked back to her and pointed my forehoof to the sky. “When was the last time you ever found a hole?”

“Point taken.” Gauge nodded and got to her hooves as well. “You know what? I’m just going to let you do the talking.”

We proceeded toward the encampment cautiously, taking it easy as we went. It may have cost us a few more minutes than I would have liked, but not getting mistakenly shot for ‘charging’ them was better than the alternative. I’d hoped that Gauge put her robot on hold, because we really didn’t need that following us into camp and getting us murdered.

We approached the ridge where the encampment was without seeing a single pegasus. It was odd how easily we’d reached it. From the lip of the ridge, I could see that it was more than just a vertibuck’s worth of pegasi. Olive military tents were strewn about amidst plenty of heavy equipment and supplies. It almost made me wonder if they’d actually come down to help us fight.

Almost.

“Stay where you are.” The commanding voice of stallion spoke up at both Gauge and I. “This area is off limits to grounders. What is your business here?”

“We’re refugees from a town south of here.” I pleaded with the stallion in my best ‘innocent mare’ voice. “We saw that big flying thing land. We thought maybe you could help us.” I turned around slowly to face the stallion and give him my best pouty face.

“Oh, hello again.” He was one of the Enclave who’d stopped our caravan headed for dodge. He pointed his energy weapons down at me with a smile and raised his hoof to his muzzle. “Hey, Hail? You’ll never guess who just wandered into the southern boundary.”

“Fuck my life.” I facehoofed and sighed.

* * * * * * * * *

I wasn’t kidding about efficiency. After Cloud Streaker had made the call, we’d been arrested and hoofcuffed in ten seconds flat. Now here we were just like I thought, sitting in one of those tents waiting for the base commander to come ‘ask us a few questions’. The minutes we were out of here couldn’t come soon enough. Though, I think Gauge was too distracted with the cloud terminal on the desk. She’d been obsessing over it the last few minutes we were sitting here.

“How do you…” She started to ask.

“For the last time, I don’t know how they work.” I snapped at her.

“Hey.” The armed guard posted at the door shot back. “Shut your muzzles or I’ll do it for you.”

I groaned and stared at the ceiling. Where the hell was this commander? Whoever they were, they were starting to make me look like a liar about my efficiency comment.

At that point, a set of hoofsteps followed the edge of the tent. They took an agonizingly long amount of time to get around to the door. Even then, they seemed to take their time outside of it. I was starting to think that this was supposed to be some sort of intimidation tactic, but it wasn’t going to work on me. I’d been through far too much shit the last few days for something this simple to ever work again.

The tentflap lifted, and a very trim mare stepped through. Her brown coat was oddly contrast by the dark blue military uniform she wore. Dozens of medals hung from on her breast, and she stared at me from behind a pair of gold aviator sunglasses. She flipped her red and white striped bangs from the sides of her face and adopted the widest and most unsettling grin I’d ever seen. The armed guard who’d been with us took his leave.

“Well, look what we’ve got here.” She said with words as slick as grease. “You really are a mare of interest, aren’t you?” She sat down and used one her wings to pass up a folder that was under it. She opened it and hoofed through it as she continued. “First, we get a report of you with an injured pegasus. But that was dismissed because you ‘threatened the officers with a balefire bomb?’.” She looked up at me and gave a stiff laugh. “I don’t take kindly to threats against my ponies.”

“Well, they…” I tried to speak up. The mare swung her forehoof hard. It connected with my muzzle and sent me off of my stool and onto the floor. Gauge let out a gasp of surprise, but smartly kept her muzzle shut.

“Quiet, grounder. You’ll speak when I want you to.” The commander snarled. “Where is Shadow Dasher?” She demanded.

I shook the stars from my head and wiggled myself on the dirt so I could face her.

“Never heard of them.” I said with a glare. This bitch could go burn for all I cared. I might have been willing to help before, but nopony hits me.

“You have no idea the importance his location holds.” She grunted and walked toward me. “So, I’ll ask you again.” She gave me a hard kick in the stomach that made me whine. My chest was still healing from the prison, but it was a lot better than it had been. “Where is he?”

I didn’t answer.

“Look, from one mare to another,” She tried to drop her tone to a more sympathetic one. “I just want to find my fiance.” Funny, because I’d heard raiders more convincingly promise to ‘give it all up’ if I just let them live. My answer was always the same. I’m here, they aren’t.

“Well, you could try where you left your manners.” I said with a laugh of my own. It was unfortunately cut short when the mare kicked me again. This time I let out a cry, and for some reason that set her off. She kicked at me again and again, up until I thought she might have broken my ribs. As I laid groaning on the floor, she started talking again.

“Let me tell you a story.” She started. “About my mother, hero to the Enclave. She gave every day of her life to protect the Enclave and it’s citizens from the grounder threat.” She paused to walk back over to where she’d stood when she came in. “And she was quite good at it. The best, in fact. She had a spotless record, all except for one incident.” She took the stool I’d sat on and planted herself on it. “You see, these grounders she ran into, they were a lot like you. Stubborn, stupid, and above all, dangerous. They captured her and against all odds, she managed to escape.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Gauge asked in a move that made me cringe. I waited for the sound of a hit, but it never came.

“Hold your tongue.” The commander snapped. “You’re lucky I don’t hit little fillies.” That riled up gauge enough to try to stand. Then came the hit and the subsequent sound of Gauge hitting the floor. “First time for everything I suppose.” She stepped over to me again and placed a hoof on my chest. “Long story short, my mother made me promise to find these grounders and make them pay. Problem is, all of you look alike to me.” She leaned in close. “So you better tell me what I want to know before I get confused and have you executed for crimes against my mother.”

“I don’t know!” I snapped at her.

“The fuck you don’t.” She growled and used her wing to toss her folder at me. It exploded into files and pictures that fluttered about my head for a moment. A black and white photo of a stallion with an upside down cross scar under his eye sat in front of me. “Look at him! I know you know his face.” She pressed her hoof down on my chest. “Where is Shadow Dasher?”

“Fine!” I shouted. “Fine, you win. I’ve seen your stallion, and I’ll tell you where he is.” I writhed against her hoof, glaring straight into her eyes. “There was a town a few days south of here where we brought him to recuperate. We’d managed to stop most of the bleeding when he fell into a coma.” As I spoke, I started to remember what had happened in dodge. “An invading force showed up and attacked our town. We tried to fight, but… we couldn’t do enough. He didn’t make it.”

As I finished, I simply glared at her. Her expression slowly sank to one of suspiciousness, and she sneered at me. With a grunt, she kicked her hoof off my chest.

“You say he’s dead? What proof do you have of this?” She returned my glare with her own as she took a step back. “Why avoid my question if you knew he was dead?”

“Because…” My memories cycled back to Pallet. “Because he wasn’t the only one we lost there.” I spat at her. “You say family is so important. Well I lost family in that fight. Ask me again why I wanted to avoid the subject.”

“You grounders and your petty conflicts.” She shook her head as her original smirk reappeared on her muzzle. “Well, so long as he’s dead, I’m happy. That’s all that matters.” She gave a satisfied grunt and turned to leave.

“But… you said he was your fiance.” Gauge spoke up again. “How could you say something like that?”

“Because, as handsome as he was, he still wasn’t my type.” She rolled her eyes and lifted the tentflap. “He always did have a soft spot for you filthy dirt herders.” She let the tent flap fall behind her as she left. Her hoofsteps stopped as soon as she’d left. She stood outside for only a moment before coming back in. “Oh, I knew I was forgetting something.” The guards entered into the tent with her. “You see, as I said, I have a promise to keep.”

The guards raised their weapons and stood there at attention. In the second that followed, the air outside was shattered by gunfire. Both the guards and the Commander flinched and looked at each other. A scream came from one of the tents nearby, and a few bullets tore through the tent we were all in.

“Get out there and give me a status report!” She barked to the guards. She sighed and lowered herself to the floor. She turned her burning glare to me and grimaced. “I swear, if this is because of you…”

“Ma’am!” A mare yelled before she entered. It was Hail, the other pegasis that stopped us before. “An unknown number of ponies are attempting to breach the western boundary. They are reportedly wielding spears, makeshift firearms, and improvised blades.”

“So get out there and kill them already!” The Commander shouted. “They’re just grounder raiders! They aren’t that hard to kill.”

“Sorry Ma’am, but protocol dictates that I escort you to your vertibird for extraction.” Hail stiffened up. Another bullet tore straight through the tent, breaking her stiff stance. “We need to leave now, Ma’am.”

I had to smile at that. She looked over to me and knew I understood what had to happen. She had to go, but she couldn’t kill us before she did. With an aggravated shout, she pushed herself up and turned toward Hail.

“Fine, get me out of here.” She snapped and hugged close to the armed mare. As she walked out of the tent, she gave one last hatefilled glance to me before disappearing. It was almost enough to make me smile. That is, until a small metal apple flew by the door.

“Grenade!” Both Gauge and I’d shouted at the same time.

The blast slammed into our tent with amazing force. Both Gauge and I were tossed along the floor by it. I gasped for air and let out a whine as my ribcage had had just about enough punishment for today. When I shook off the blast and sat up, I saw that part of the tent had torn and collapsed. The shredded body of some pegasus lay in a bloody mess where the grenade had gone off, and is probably the reason we escaped the shrapnel.

“Fuck… it hurts…” Gauge whined. I looked over to see her bleeding from a few gashes across her body. Seems that only I was spared the worst of the blast. I wrestled against my bindings, trying to get free. After a few moments, I realized that the dead pegasus might have something to free us. With a pained wiggle over to him, I pulled a small metal box off him with a firing bit on it.

I had exactly zero experience with magical energy weapons, but I’ve seen them used before. That would have to be experience enough. I hoofed the small weapon into my muzzle and pointed the end at my hoofcuffs. With little more than a hope that I didn’t vaporize myself, I pulled the trigger.

A red bolt shot and struck the bindings with a resounding ‘ZAP’. The metal heated up quickly enough that as I pulled my forehooves apart, it warped. The superheated metal burned against my skin, but the pain would be worth it for freedom. A few more gunshots zipped through what remained of our tent as a reminder that I needed to keep my head down. With a grunt, I shook my shackles off and got to my hooves.

“Make it stop.” Gauge whined from the floor next to me. She looked up to me with fear and tears in her eyes.

“Just suck it up, you’ll live.” I said with less grace than I probably should have. I was busy looking around the office for where they stuck our things. The metal chest under the desk we’d sat in front of seemed to be the answer, as everything had been bagged, tagged, and then stuck in there. I took a minute to get myself re-equipped and readied before gathering Gauge’s stuff and throwing it into my saddlebags.

In an attempt to find anything else usefull, I went through the desk too. In one of the side drawers was a small yellow medical tin. I grabbed it and opened it in hopes of finding a healing potion. It only contained a few bandages and a pair of disinfectant wipes, but I could live with that. This time is wasn’t a bullet that came through the tent, but a bolt of magical energy. It seared a hole right across the tent, which then proceeded to catch fire.

“Time to go!” I muttered as I walked around to the front again. I wedged my muzzle down under Gauge’s back and worked the rest of myself under her. Even with her metal leg, she wasn’t all to heavy on my back. I looked around to make sure I hadn’t left anything we might need before heading toward the shredded side of the tent.

Snow now had started to fall in the frantic night air. It was a small blessing, seeing as even pegasi had a hard time seeing through a white screen like this. With all the armed pegasi fighting to the west, it was relatively simple to gallop straight up and out of the camp. A few stray shots came our way from the raiders, but as we left them in the dust, even those dropped off.

Gradually, the lights from the camp swapped for the darkness of night. This was when another issue hit me. Yes, it would be harder to follow us in the snow, but it was freezing out tonight. If it got much worse than this, we’d be liable to freeze to death out here. We needed somewhere safe to hole up for a bit, at least to get Gauge patched up and back on her hooves. It also might be our best chance to get warm, but I don’t want to waste too much time doing that. Then again, I was reminded of carrying Predious through the snow, and shuttered when I remembered where that lead to. I had no intention of spending another night in some secret underground facility I happen to fall into.

“Sis?” Pai chirped as my pipvision flickered to pink. “If you’re looking for somewhere to lay low for a bit, there is an old service station marked on your pipbuck about a half hours distance to the north west. I know it would be the wrong way, but the temperature has dropped five degrees in the last hour. It might be the best place to warm up.”

“Fine.” I grunted as we ran. “But only to get warm.” I panted heavily. Pai smiled and placed a little triangle on my compass. I turned until it read that it was in front of me. “Then, we run to Manehatten. No more breaks till we get there.”

“Okie Dokie Loki!” She chimed before she popped away, replacing the pink with it’s normal dull green.

No more breaks. At least not until I’m sure my friends all made it there safe. That, and I have a long and painful talk with Harmony and Skyline.

--Chapter End--

“Determination gives you the resolve to keep going in spite of the roadblocks that lay before you.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned:

Strength of Will

You have unlocked your inner Earth Pony potential. You keep on going no matter the cost until you either can’t go no further or you reach your goal. + 1 to END and +5 DT.

Chapter Twenty Six - A Bittersweet Reunion

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

One night of hell.

It had been as soon as I’d gotten Gauge and I into the ruins that one hell of a storm blew in. I’d misstepped on our way into one of the ruins, and the rotting floor had given out under me. It might not have been another underground facility, but it didn’t mean I enjoyed hiding out there as long as we did.

By the time the storm had passed, the next day had already past. I’d gotten Gauge patched up as best I could in that time. She was weak, but she could carry on. When we emerged from our temporary sanctuary, there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground. Undeterred, we pressed on. Snow this thick was both a blessing, and a curse. Not many raiders wanted to wait in ambush in a foot of snow, so we could make good time. Downside was that the ones who were out today, had a trail of hoofprints to follow that lead right to us.

The cover of darkness was our greatest ally as we pressed onward to Manehatten. The times that we did have to stop to get warmed up again were short, and the times when we ran were long. It was when we saw the great monoliths of the Manehatten ruins towered in the distance that we set ourselves to a moderate pace. We kept our bearings right up to the northwestern edge of the city. That’s where Sunshine city was. Where Harmony and Skyline waited for news of me. However, the closer we got to the ruins, the more Gauge noticeably relaxed.

“Hold up, Storm.” She called out. She raised her pipleg and used her magic to input something into it. There was a short chime that came from her leg that brought a smile to her muzzle. “Okay. Grumpy is set to go retrieve some supplies for me from the ranger’s bunker.”

“Good.” I snorted. “With as many merchants are in Sunshine city, I’m sure he wouldn’t last a minute.”

“What do you mean?” She said in alarm. She bounded through the snow to get up next to me, but I didn’t slow my pace. “I thought you said friends live here?”

“Not everypony in Sunshine city is your friend. Most of them are young merchants looking to score big with a trade.” I let out a sigh as I thought about harmony. “While there are some honest ones, there are likely to be a few who will try to scrap any tech you bring in unless it’s strapped down to you.” I smiled as I remembered the first time somepony tried to do that to my rifle. On a night as cold as this, that ponies legs are liable to remember what I did to them. “Better hope your prosthetic is on tight before we go in.”

For now, that seemed to quell the conversational mood Gauge had been in. She walked beside me in silence as we continued through the snow. We lost a day due to that stupid storm, and now all I wanted to do was spend as little time as possible in Sunshine. However, with each step forward, and every moment we got closer to the city, Pallet weighed further on my mind.

Harmony was going to have to be told, and I don’t think I can do anything else before she knows. I don’t know what her reaction will be, or if I’ll finally be able to find some sort of closure. The one thing that I don’t think I’ll ever lose, is the guilt. So many have died at his hooves. I’m supposed to be some sort of beacon of hope, but those we’ve lost are the ones who will never see it again. I’d been lost in my thoughts for so long, that I nearly walked past the cluster of ruins that ringed the neighborhood that Sunshine city sat in.

Only when we approached the scrap iron entrance to the city, did I see just the extent of the refugee problem. There must have been close to a hundred ponies camped out front, and I’m sure there were going to be many more inside. As we passed by them, I stopped when I saw a small filly curled up in the snow. She looked so peaceful that she seemed out of place. I couldn’t stand to just leave her here in the snow, so I reached my hoof out to see if she’d wanted to come with us and get warm.

Her flesh was ice. The cold had already taken her some time ago. I continued toward the door. I couldn’t stop and break down now. If I did, I know I’d never drag myself up out of the snow next to her. These ponies didn’t have to die like this. This amount of suffering never had to happen.

The second that gate was open, I took off. I just wanted to run from even the thought of that little filly. The Garage was all the way at the other end of the city, but in only a few moments, I found myself staring at the door. The old building stood nearly three stories high, and was the tallest among the ruins and sheet metal shacks of this place. The old wooden door had seen it’s share of bucks, scrapes, and nicks. So why couldn’t I bring myself to knock?

Somewhere among all my messed up thoughts, I remembered Short Staff telling me something years ago. Before and after every trade run, he’d go to the old park just down the block for good luck. I pulled my hoof back from the door and looked down the street. Refugees line the sidewalk and street, but there was a section that was completely untouched. I looked back to see if Gauge was with me, but she was nowhere to be found. I decided that this wasn’t her part to play anyway, and trotted down towards the opening.

I peeked into the small clearing between ruins. The small park had been painstakingly cleaned of most of it’s snow, and a set of wilted flowers sat under the old tree that sat in the back. Harmony wasn’t here, but I figured that I might as well pay my respects. Harmony’s father and Skyline’s wife had been laid to rest here. I’m not sure why I thought that asking them anything would make me feel better, but I wasn’t even sure what I was going to tell Harmony.

I took a seat in front of the tree. To my left sat Harmony’s father, and to the right, sat Carlotta. I’d never met Harmony’s father, but she spoke about him just like he’d always been there. Carlotta however, was someone I admired. Brutal, efficient, but she knew that her family came first. That was something that Pallet had never really emulated well, but she took after Skyline more.

“I’m… not sure what to say.” I spoke up. The words were hard to find, but they felt good when I heard them. “I’m sorry I haven’t been better. So many ponies have died, and I don’t know what to do. How am I supposed to bring hope when I can’t seem to get a single hoof ahead of the Necromancer?”

I sat in silence for a moment. I didn’t expect an answer, but I just hoped that they could forgive me for what I’d done. I looked to Carlotta’s grave, and took a deep breath. I tried to speak, but nothing came out. My throat tightened, and I ground my hoof into the wet dirt.

“I know what she meant to you.” I clenched my eyes shut and forced myself to speak. “I failed you.” I could feel my warm tears flowing down my cheeks. “She was all you had, and I couldn’t save her.”

“No…” A soft whisper came from above me.

The second voice startled me. My eyes shot open and up just in time to see something grey fall onto my head. With a metallic clang, I was out like a light.

* * * * * * * * *

I awoke with a groan. Soft music played out of a radio nearby as I stirred from my induced slumber. I sat up from whatever plush and warm bench I’d been set on and strained to open my eyes. The light was blinding, but the more came into focus, the less I understood. I’d sat up into a booth at a pre-war dinner that for some reason was both in perfect condition, and still running as if the war never happened.

“Order up!” A young, golden coated colt shouted from behind the server’s bar before he hoofed a small bell.

“You decide yet?” An earth pony mare asked from my side. “Or do you still need more time?”

I looked up in hopes to ask what the hell was going on, but found an apathetic and tired looking mare staring at me. She wore a smile, but I wasn’t the least bit comforted by it. What was even weirder, was that behind her, out every window, was the pillar of light from my dreams.

“Don’t worry, Hammer. She knows what she wants.” The voice of young filly spoke from beside me. I nearly jumped at the sight of a small pink filly having appeared out of nowhere. She was the spitting image of..

“Pai?” I asked. How could she be here with me? Then something caught my eye. A cutie mark of three balloons adorned the filly’s flank. Pai didn’t have a cutie mark.

“Slice of apple pie, coming up.” The waitress shrugged and walked back up to the bar top. Only then did I notice a tan earth pony and a gryphon sitting up there conversing. The blue plumage that highlighted her wings and her eyes… there was only one gryphon I’d ever known to have those.

“Before you make a big scene…” The filly next to me spoke up again. “Yes, that’s your aunt. No, you aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Where exactly is here?” I spoke in a whisper. “How is…”

“That’s for you to know and for me to find out!” She cheerfully remarked as she cut me off. The waitress returned and set down a plate with a fresh looking slice of genuine apple pie. “Wait…” The filly spoke up again as she waved her hooves. “Strike that, reverse it.”

The song on the radio ended, and the air was then filled with the conversations of ponies I hadn’t even noticed. It were as if this place had filled with guests in just the last few seconds. It was all so confusing at first, but somehow my mind latched onto one of the voices.

“However did you come by that dreadful leather coat?” That was Aunt Rarity’s voice. “I bet that awful ‘necromancer’ fellow gave it to you, didn’t he?”

I spun to look at her. She sat in a booth back across the aisle from us, and she looked even younger than I’d ever seen. Across from her sat a grey earth pony with a stark black mane. Before I could look any longer, I felt a pair of tiny hooves dragged my muzzle down. I was forced to stare at the bright pink filly, who I just realized looked a lot like Aunt Pinkie. Well, if she were a filly with a frizzy mane.

“Shhh.” She said as she cracked a smile put a hoof to her muzzle. “Spoilers.”

She reached out and touched my nose. The world instantly became a mass of swirling noises and colors. The last thing I remember before it all went black, was falling into the slice of pie with the regret that I hadn’t even eaten it.

* * * * * * * * *

The next thing I heard was a solemn reminder that I was back in the real world.

“No…” Skyline cried softly. “My baby is gone. She can’t be…” She wailed and balled next to me. With a soft groan, I turned and opened my eyes. Harmony was holding her tightly as they both cried into each other’s necks. I winced as I tried to get up. A spark of pain shot across my skull and down my neck. I reached back and touched it with my hoof, letting out a soft whine as my head stung sharpy at the pressure.

“Ow.” I whispered softly as I pulled my hoof back. It was a bit bloody. Not bad, but still enough that I’d have to clean it out. After what I’d taken from Skyline, this was the lightest punishment I could have had.

“Storm.” Harmony gasped as she let go of Skyline. “Are… are ya’ll alright?”

I gave out a grunt and rolled back onto my hooves. The second I was up, I dove at her and cried out. I wrapped my hooves around her and held her tight. After the last week, this didn’t even seem real to me. All the pain, stress, and sorrow came to a peak and I just let it all out. Skyline came into the hug as well, and the three of us just stood there holding eachother.

I tried to explain what had happened. From the last moments of Pallet, to what the necromancer had said, to the prison and traveling with Gauge. Every time I tried, I just wailed and cried more. After I don’t know how long, my worn and weary legs collapsed under me into the snow. I didn’t want to move anymore. I wanted to just sit here and be left like that filly out front.

“Ladies.” The voice of Predious came from behind. “Maybe it would be best if you came back inside.” His voice was delicate, but he knew it would be best if we did. I mustered what strength I could and lifted my head to look at him. He wore a worried look on his face, and a forced smile that he used to try to tell me everything would be all right.

“Yeah.” Skyline sniffed and wiped the tears from her muzzle. “He’s right.”

“Come on, Storm.” Harmony spoke softly. “Let’s go get warmed up. I’ll have Short Staff brew us up some nice daisy tea.” She smiled as her tears still dripped off her muzzle. I simply stared at her, not having the will to even move my legs.

“Don’t worry, Harmony.” Shadow Dasher said from next to Predious. “She looks weary. I’ll help her inside.”

“Thank ya.” She said as she kept her sad gaze on me. She pressed into Skyline, who wrapped her wing around Harmony’s side as they started to walk.

Shadow Dasher looked miles better than he had after he’d woken up at the clinic. He approached me with a soft smile, and extended a wing out like Skyline had. I hoofed it away and struggled to pull myself to my hooves. I felt a force push up from under my, and instinctively looked up to Predious. His horn stopped glowing as I got to my hooves, and he gave me the smallest of shrugs.

“There’s still something I need to do.” I said as my warm cheeks stung in the chilled air. “I need to go to the bar.”

“This… hardly seems…” Shadow had started to say. Predious raised his hoof and shook his head. Then he squinted and studied me for a moment.

“It’s not for you, is it?” He stated flatly. I shook my head, which nearly made me lose my balance. Instinctively, I reached a hoof out and hooked it around Shadow’s neck to steady myself.

“Gotta deliver bad news.” I said.

“Don’t take too long.” Predious said with a sad sigh, his smile now fallen into a frown. “You most likely have a concussion.” He said as he pointed next to me. On the dirt beside where I’d laid, sat the snow shovel. A dark red splotch adorned on of the edges, and I could pretty much guess why that was. “Besides, you need to rest.”

“No time.” I simply said before I looked back ahead and started to hobble forward. “I’ll explain when I’m done at the bar.”

He nodded and stepped back around the corner, having vanished back inside by the time I’d made it back to the sidewalk. I lifted my free hoof and pointed it to a large sheet metal structure down the street. It too was free of refugees, but that was more so because Pendergrass hated anypony who wasn’t a paying customer.

“There.” I said as my vision grew fuzzy again. “Take me there.”

Both Shadow and I hobbled down the street. Everything seemed to move at a blur, and I couldn’t get this random ringing out of my ears. Before I knew it, we were at the door. I could hear plenty of ponies talking inside, and the prospect of a bunch of drunk fools hitting on me in this condition annoyed me greatly. Shadow used his wing to hook around the sheet metal door and pull it open.

Inside, the tables, chairs, and pool tables that normally adorned the place had all disappeared. In their place, were lines and lines of makeshift cots. Each with another refugee in them. Several small fires burned in barrels, each with a dozen or so ponies trying to warm up next to them. Past all that at the bar itself, sat Pendergrass, Finn, and Huckleberry. I pressed on, and both Shadow and I hobbled up closer. Pendergrass lost his smile as he looked up from the colts and to me. I think he knew why I was there.

“Boys,” He spoke. “You have somepony here to see you.” He pointed over to me. The two colts turned and looked up at me in an odd mix of happiness and confusion. It had been a long time since they’d seen me, and I doubt they remembered me.

“Hey there.” I spoke to them softly. “I’m a friend of your dad.” I tried my best to force a smile, but mentioning their dad was a mistake. Their expressions both sank to sadness, and I scrambled to recover. “No no! He’s fine. He wanted me to tell you that he’ll be here soon.”

The two colts looked at each other in what I could only assume was relief, but Finn turned and looked back to me. In my head, I prayed for him not to ask. I could see the worry in his eyes, and I didn’t want to have to answer that question.

“Is… is mommy alright?” Finn asked softly.

“She…” I choked up. I couldn’t do this. It wasn’t my place to tell them that she was gone. They needed to hear it from Thatcher. He would be the only one who would be strong enough to comfort them.

“I’m sure she misses you both.” Shadow answered for me. He at least had the forced smile I couldn’t bring myself to wear. “Both you boys behave until your father gets here, alright?”

“Okie doki lokie!” Finn answered with a smile.

I tugged on Shadow’s side and got him to turn us around. I couldn’t stand to be surrounded by anymore death. Not today.

“Storm?” Pendergrass spoke up again. He waited to continue until I’d turned my head back to see him. “Thank you.” He gave me the most genuinely sincere look I’d ever seen the stubborn bastard give. “I’m sure it’s been hard out there. Thank you for caring.”

I simply nodded and turned back towards the door.

I left the bar not lightened in the least. As we walked down the street, I couldn’t help but wonder why a pony who’s supposed to bring hope, had none of her own. As much as we’ve fought, as hard as I’ve tried. We’re still no closer to doing anything close to helping. Infact, I’m not sure that me being here is a good thing at all. Every place I go to now is worse than the next, and I don’t want to see this town turn into a warzone.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Shadow spoke up. I looked up at him puzzled. “Whatever you did or you didn’t do, it doesn’t matter. None of what’s happened was your fault.” He simply kept his gaze ahead as we walked. Beneath the stern look, and under the scar over his eye, I could tell that he had things weighing on his mind as well.

I didn’t say anything back. I just wanted to collapse and be done with everything. As we opened the door to the Garage, we were met by a very frazzled looking Short Staff. He stopped when he saw me and immediately reached out for a hug. We just stood there together for a long minute. It was good to see him again, to see all of them again.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered.

“I know.” He replied wearily. With a pat on the back, he took a step back inside so Shadow and I could hobble in. “You look like hell right now, and I’d love to hear everything.” He sighed and looked out the door. “Unfortunately, I have to get to Tenpony. The refugee’s there are just as bad, but they have extra supplies we can use to help the ponies here.”

“Go. We can talk later.” I said as my legs begged me to sit down. “Give your mother my best.” My vision went fuzzy again for a moment, and I pressed harder into Shadow’s side.

“Get some rest, and take care of that cut.” Short Staff said with a forced smile. “I’ll see you again soon.” I nodded, letting out a whine as more pain shot through my head.

“Why dun’ ya take a hot shower, hun. Even if just ta warm up?” Harmony said as she walked down the stairs from the kitchen. “Could also git that wound washed out as well. Ain’t gonna be able ta stitch it shut till it’s clean.”

Shadow didn’t even wait for me. He simply nodded and began draggin’ me over to the stairs. Slowly, step by step, we climbed up what felt like an excruciatingly long hill. In truth, it was only ten steps, but it felt like the longest climb I’d ever had to do. Waiting up top was Skyline and Predious, who sat at the round table next to the refrigerator. Predious flashed his forced smile again, but Skyline just kept her sad gaze on the table. I averted my eyes from them, instead, aiming us for the bathroom.

Shadow escorted me in, but I pulled my hoof off him once I could get my other hoof on the sink. Shakily, I kept myself standing as he took a step back. With a look back to him, and a short nod, he left me alone. The old wooden door shut with a soft click, leaving me to my thoughts. With a lot of pain, and a few muffled whines, I dumped my stuff onto the floor.

I took a look at the mare in the sink mirror. My mane was tangled, matted, and in some places, burnt down to near stubble. My bloodshot eyes had bags under them, and my nose was swollen and slightly off center from all the hit’s it had taken. On top of all that, more scars than I could count adorned my coat. The biggest of these ran across my chest and under to my belly.

I wanted to cry again, but I had no more tears left to give. What would daddy have thought? Would he have taken one look at the broken pony before him and been disappointed? I can’t help but think he’d have given me the biggest hug and told me everything would be alright. Even if I was now old enough to know better, I just wish he were still around to tell me that it would be.

I struggled over to the large tub that sat against the wall. One hoof at a time, I climbed into the tub. Once in, I sat down and plugged up the tub before I reached for the shower handle. With a good twist on the hot nob, the old pipes groaned. The warm water shot from the shower head and rained down on me. I closed my eyes as the stream of warmth washed over me. My head stung, but the rest of my body felt like it was melting away in the heat. My adventures were over, and I could finally stand to relax.

Through the pain of my bruises and cuts, and with the dedication it deserved, I cleaned myself. Every subtle twist, each shift of my weight, and somewhere else on me hurt. The more I worked at it, the more full the tub got, and the dirtier the water got. By the time I’d worked myself over, the tub was almost full, and the water was nearly black with filth.

I leaned back and softly rested my head on the lip of the tub. A month ago, everything in my life was fine. What happened in the last few weeks that made my life go to shit? Why did this all have to start now? I sat and pondered this a while. Everything started when I died that day, but didn’t stay dead. That’s when these dreams started, and that’s when ponies around me started to die.

That dream I had in the snow, the one in the diner. It had to mean something. Just like all the others, it was most likely a challenge for me, some puzzle to solve. The longer I sat and thought about it, the less sense it made to me. The hot bath eventually turned to lukewarm, and in that time, I’d gotten nowhere. I thought that maybe it was just time to pull the plug on the tub, and move on.

With the warmth of the bath soaked in, and my wounds clean, I found it easier to climb out of the tub. My hoofing was still a little unsteady, but stronger than before. I bit down on the moldy towel that hung on the wall and pulled it over me. Slowly, I dried myself off and got myself dressed again. Part of me wished that I could have also washed my shirt and jacket as well, but I didn’t care enough to do it now.

With that, I turned and opened the door. The smell of cooking food struck me like a breath of fresh air, but it was Shadow who stood between the food and me. Slowly, he lifted his wing and extended it out. Held between his feathers, was a half empty can of beans. With a smile and a blush, he nodded for me to take it.

“I… I was wondering if we could talk for a moment.” He stuttered. He looked back over his shoulder to Predious, who was deftly ignoring him to read a one hundred and fifty year old news paper. “Alone, if you don’t mind.”

“Look, kid. I just want to eat and then to sleep.” I grumbled. As I moved my hoof to push the can out of the way, my stomach made more of a fuss than it probably had to.

“Please…” Shadow Dasher said softly.

“Okay, fine.” I sighed and took the can of beans into my hoof. With a happy nod, he turned and walked up the stairs to Skyline’s landing pad. The cold nighttime air hit me hard. Within moments, I was shaking so bad that I had to bite down on the can to keep from throwing the beans everywhere. I shut the door behind me and climbed the steps up after him. He sat just past the top step, looking out into the lightening morning sky.

“I know it may be odd to ask, but did you happen to see the enclave on your way back to Manehatten?” He’d gone back to the stern look he’d had after the bar. “Are they searching for me?”

“Yeah, I met them.” I replied. That broke his gaze on the city in an instant. “I met your fiancee as well. You know she’s trying to kill you, right?” As I suggested that, he let out a deflated sigh. “Why? Why go through all the trouble just for you?”

“My mother.” He gave a weak smile. “She’s one of the heads of Enclave civil government, and a powerful mare to know if you can pull the right favors.” He finally just turned around to look at me completely. “Our world up there? It’s very different from here, but twice as dangerous. A single idea can make or break a prestigious family if they were to utter it in public.”

“What did you say?” I asked. Of course, he’s probably said the wrong thing, and somepony tried to get him killed. Problem was, why was it his fiancee, and why did she go to these lengths to find him?

“It wasn’t all my fault.” He shook his head in disgust. “The arranged mariage wasn’t my families idea. Silver Star had been a good friend of my mother’s back in their training days, so when my mom had me, and silver had Iron Cross…”

“They paired you up.” I finished for him. “I get that much, but what went wrong?” My stomach grumbled again, so I shoved the can of beans against my muzzle and started chowing down.

“Two months ago, my unit brought a pegasus back up from the ground. We’d spotted him while on mission, and the log book said that he’d been wanted by command for questioning.” He said with a twinge of sadness. “The whole way back, he tried telling us that the ground was safe, and that we could come down. We’d heard that sort of thing before, but he started talking about a sickness that was ravaging a town. How we had the medicine that could save their lives.”

“Well…” I muttered through a mouthful of beans. “Did you?”

“Yes, it is a common medicine up there.” He nodded softly. “When we got back to command, the base commander summarily executed him for his crimes against the enclave. When I tried to explain what he’d said to the commander, I urged that we consider sending down a small team to help.”

“And that didn’t go over too well.” I rolled my eyes.

“It got me suspended from duty.” He groaned. “When I got off duty, my father told me that what I’d said made it all the way up the chain of command. Mother was stepping down from her position, and there was talk of even branding our whole family as traitors.” He gave me a glare. “But even through all this, a contract was a contract. I was still to marry Silver’s daughter.”

“So, she’s trying to kill you so she doesn’t have to marry a traitor?” I asked before scraping the rest of the beans into my shivering muzzle.

“I wish that were the case.” He got to his hooves and walked over. “Iron Cross is trying to kill me to salvage her career as an officer. In truth, she’s never cared for our marriage. She’s always been one to enjoy the company of mares anyway.”

“So, why invite me up here and tell me?” I tossed the can down on the roof and wrapped my hooves around myself. It was cold as fuck up here, and everything wasn’t going numb fast enough.

“Because.” He outstretched his wing as he walked over to me. “You saved me from all that.” He sat down next to me and wrapped his wing around me. “I miss my family, but I’m dead to them now. With me gone, my mother might get her job back. And so long as Iron Cross never finds me, that bitch will get what’s coming to her.”

He pulled himself close to me. The warmth he gave off was just like the bath. I found myself pressing against him on my own, and as I looked up, I met his eyes. With a blush, I forced myself to look down.

“Hold on there, casanova.” I blurted. “While I’m happy that you think I saved you or whatever, I only played a part. Anypony would have pulled you out of that wreckage. No need to think it means anything more.”

“Fair enough.” He gave a soft laugh and loosened his grip on me. “Still. I owe you my life, and for that, you have me as a friend.” Without warning, he pulled me in again and pointed his hoof into the darkness. “Yessiree! Anywhere you go, I’ll be by your side! A pegasus is loyal to the bitter end.”

As fantastic as that wasn’t, the warmth really felt good. He’d shoved my muzzle into his neck, and I felt like I could just get lost in his warm embrace. With a deep sigh, my body finally felt that it was done for the day. My eyelids slid shut slowly, and for once, I was carried off to what would be the best sleep of the last few weeks.

--Chapter End--

“You can give your broken heart to me.

Cause you know that I'll stay with you.

That's why they call me Loyalty.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Seven - Close Calls

“Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of ponies who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.”

The loud squelch of old metal hit my ears. I knew this sound well from when I stayed at the Garage before. Harmony was changing the battery on the generator again. I loved this place, and it was something akin to a second home to me. Though, I distinctly remember that I was just outside… and cold. I opened my eyes slowly with a groan.

“Sorry, ya’ll. Didn’t mean ta wake ya.” Harmony whispered before she disappeared down into the generator room.

“It’s fine.” I whined as I stretched. I shuttered as something tickled my side when I did. Sitting up, I found Shadow sleeping next to me. He’d draped his wing over me and kept me warm. Slowly, I slid away from him off of Pallet’s couch. I could feel myself blushing as I took a step away. I nearly tripped over my gear as I did. He must have removed it sometime last night. Oh Celestia, I don’t want to think about him stripping me! I needed a distraction, anything at all. I perked my ear and listened.

The sizzling of meat upstairs in the kitchen was perfect. With a loud grumble, my stomach agreed that we should go find something to eat. I turned around slowly, keeping my eyes on the slumbering pegasus. Maybe I can sneak…

“Hmm,” He whined and yawned. Slowly he opened his eyes and groggily smiled at me. “Hey, sleep well?”

“Yeah, um…” I pointed my hoof to the kitchen. “Gonna...something…” That was all I said before my legs pulled me across the garage floor seemingly on their own. I knew I wasn’t the most eloquent mare, but I had no experience with a stallion like him. Normally I’d just give them a good kick in the family gems, but that was because they didn’t care what I thought. How am I supposed to deal with a stallion who genuinely wants me to be safe?

Each step creaked as I stepped on it. It was as loud as a symphony to my ears. As I finally opened the door, I was glad to at least see Predious’ smiling face. He was focused on making radhog bacon and some fried hay from a can. He was humming to himself as he did. Part of me wondered what he’d been like before the world went to shit. I walked into the kitchen and walked over to the table. Short Staff’s bed was empty, but that isn’t a surprise seeing as his vehicle is gone as well.

“Morning!” Predious said in a sing-songy voice. It was really odd to see him in this good of a mood. I wondered why exactly that was. Then again, I didn’t need to bother him with it. If he felt good, why should I question it?

Then again, if being warm last night felt so good, why should I feel weird? Shadow isn’t that bad looking of a stallion. He also so far didn’t seem to be any threat. I still couldn’t figure out exactly why he wanted to be so close to me though. I get that I saved him, but why didn’t he seem to care for Harmony? Or from what Sky had told me about the world above the clouds, why didn’t he like Short Staff?

“Somethin’ weighin’ on ya mind, sugar?” Harmony said in amusement. She took a seat and stared at me. I wasn’t sure why she’d asked. She gave me a sly look and glanced down my face. It was only then did I realize the warm blush I’d worn on my cheeks.

“Just,” Shit, think of something! “Feeling a little under the weather.” I gave out a few forced coughs and hoped that she’d just drop the subject.

“Sick, eh?” She said as she raised her hoof up. She pressed it against my forehead and waited for a moment. “Nope, I reckon yer as fit as a whip!” She smirked and sat back. “Well, ya know, besides all the bruises and such. But ya’ll seem ta get a new one each day, so tain’t nuthin’.”

I flopped forward and planted my face onto the table.

“Please, just drop it.” I mumbled and lay my muzzle flat on the table. I looked up to Harmony with the best pleading eyes I could muster up. “I’ve already got too much to worry about right now.” Now that I thought about it, I did. That necromancing asshole was still ahead of us, and we needed to get going if we had any hope of catching him.

“Bacon’s up!” Predious chimed in as he turned from the stove. He levitated both the pan and a stack of plates over to us. He set one down on my head and another in front of Harmony. “Will your suitor be joining us?” He playfully jested. At least, I hoped it was a playful jest.

“If you’ve got enough.” Shadow spoke up as he slowly hovered up into the kitchen. To avoid his gaze, I pulled my plate down over my eyes. “Hey, are you alright there, Storm?”

“Yea, I dunno.” Harmony spoke up. “I reckon ya’ll better…” That was as far as she got before I pulled the plate up just enough to see where to shove my hoof. She bit down on it as I stuck it in her muzzle, but I just took the pain in stride. After the last few days, it was a minor inconvenience on the scale of pain endurance.

“What?” Shadow looked over to me in concern. “So you aren’t feeling well?’ He looked over to me, then to Predious. I gave him my best death glare and for once, he seemed to not want to piss me off. He simply looked over to shadow and shook his head with a shrug.

“I’m fine.” I grunted. “Just hungry.”

“Oh, well, me too!” He smiled and dropped his hooves onto the floor. Then he looked around for a moment in confusion. “Wasn’t there one other who showed up?” I was reminded that I did come into Sunshine City with Gauge, and I completely lost her on the way over here. I’d have to apologize for that. Meanwhile, Harmony popped my hoof out of her muzzle.

“She an’ Short Staff went are at Pender’s bar. They’re here in town somewhere.” She didn’t sound too amused by that. Then again, she didn’t have the best opinion on steel rangers these last few months.

“Oh, Storm?” Predious spoke up as he dived out the bacon. “Tasteless and Ficha went on ahead to Tenpony. Ficha said something or other about somepony. I don’t know, I can’t stand the stallion.” He sighed and levitated the now empty pan back over to the sink. “Tasteless however just wanted to make fun of the ‘fancy fuckers’ who ‘cower in fear’ there.” He looked a bit more amused at that comment. “No doubt they’ll both be in lock up by the time we get there.”

“Good to know.” I rolled my eyes. With another grumble, my stomach reminded me that I came up here to eat. The radhog meat on my plate was heavenly, and I dare say it smelled better than the breakfast that ghoul had made for us. We were all about to chow down on the bacon when we found our plates pulled away in his magic.

“Uh uh.” He waged his hoof. “Not until everypony has both items I’ve made.” He was back to his sing-songy voice as the sound of sizzling peaked behind him. With a fluid motion, he levitated the hay pot over to and around the table. With the lightest touch, he laid a lump of fried hay one each of our plates. With a horrendous clang, he then unceremoniously tossed the pot into the sink. The three of us at the table cringed and sat in silent confusion as he sat down. Once he was comfortable, he folded his hooves on the table and looked around at us.

“What are you all waiting for? Eat up.” He looked offended. “It’ll get cold if you let it sit.”

With a collective groan, we all dove in to the best breakfast we’d had in quite a while.

* * * * * * * * *

After the most awkward breakfast in Equestrian history, Harmony told me that her mother might have a way to get us out to the storm the necromancer spoke of. Given that we
were already headed for Tenpony to beg for help, this was the best news I’d had in weeks. I went back down into the garage to gather my things. We were still trying to catch up to the Necromancer, but if we could get a boat that would survive the storm, we’d have the advantage.

“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” Predious asked as he lazed about. “If it’s a war he wants, what makes you think you can stop him?”

“Somepony has to try.” I muttered and stuffed an old scarf into my saddlebags. I looked over to him and sighed. “If you’re better off staying here where it’s safe, no pony said you have to go.”

“I never said I was afraid to go.” Predious smirked. “I merely asked why you thought that you needed to.” He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to me. “For a pre-war mare, you certainly put a lot of this burden on your shoulders.”

“And why shouldn’t I?” I snorted and did my best to ignore him.

“Because it ain’t yah fault.” Harmony called out from behind me.

“Precisely.” Predious retorted with an air of pretentiousness. “I think that now the Necromancer see’s you as a threat, he’ll use anything he can against you at every chance he can get.” He put his hoof on my shoulder. “The most logical choice would be to not give him that chance.”

“I can’t stay here. This is my fight.” I shrugged his hoof off and closed up my saddlebags. With the fact that anything could be inside that tempest, I needed to bring something for every contingency. Most of the supplies would have to be gotten at Tenpony, if we could even get them. Extra medical supplies, extra ammo, extreme weather gear would all have to be traded for. About the only thing I wasn’t planning on bringing with us was an extra weapon. “If you can give me one good reason that I shouldn’t be out there fighting, I’ll stay.”

“Why are you so apt to get yourself killed?” Predious said sharply. I didn’t like where this was going, and I didn’t need my friends ganging up on me.

“Because.” Pai said as she popped up into my vision. “It’s who she was made to be.” She was right. I can’t explain my drive other than it just needs to be me who fights. I may not have been born like any normal pony, and I may be over a century too late to save equestria from the zebra conflict, but that’s no excuse to stop fighting now.

“She’s a beacon of hope.” Skyline called out from the top of the stairs. She had Aunt Carlotta's old battle saddle strapped to her sides, and the look of youth in her eyes. “The ponies that cower in fear are no less brave for doing so, because for them, hiding is still surviving and fighting for what they believe is right.” She walked down the stairs slowly, stretching out her wings as she did. “But fighting isn’t the same as winning.” She shook her head. “Winning has a risk, and there are only a few ponies in any given fight who can accept and own that risk.”

“Sky, yah can’t seriously think ya’ll are comin’ with us.” Harmony waved her hooves at her. “If anythin’ happened…” She was Silenced as Skyline kicked the reload lever on her saddle. The two large battle rifles at her side gave loud ‘clacks’ as they were loaded.

“My daughter is dead at the hooves of a deranged maniac.” She glared at Harmony. “I have no family left to lose, so you are damn right that I’m not going to waste the chance to take him down.” She looked back over to me as her glare softened. “I know that where you are going might be too tough to fight alone. Believe me, I’ve been in fights like this. Just, let me have a chance to help out one last time.”

“Listen, I won’t ask you to go with me.” I looked at each of them. “But this is a fight bigger than all of us.” I looked back to Skyline. “You’re right, I don’t know what lies ahead, and it’s guaranteed to be tough. But don’t you think for a goddess damned minute that this is a suicide run.” I looked to the top of the stairs into the kitchen to see Shadow standing up there in his armor. He no longer had his helmet, but for some reason, I think he looked better without it. “The necromancer is just one stallion. Once we stop him, we’re all coming back from this.” I sighed. “Is that clear?”

“Yes ma’am!” Pai raised her hoof and saluted me in my pipvision.

“You know,” Predious put his hoof on my shoulder again. “You would have made a pretty good officer back in the war.” He offered me a genuine smile. “Squad’s with ponies like you were the ones who came back as heroes after their battles.”

“Thanks.” I muttered as everypony dispersed to get their own things packed. “I just hope I’m good enough to get us through this war.”

Once we’d all gotten refocused, it hadn’t taken us all that long to get our things together and go. With such a large group getting ready to head out, we got plenty of looks from the refugees. Harmony had said that Short Staff had planned to meet us outside the gates. He was bringing his wagon, so he could transport more supplies for the refugees back here from Tenpony once we were done there. As we walked, I couldn’t help but remember the filly who I’d seen in the snow.

“There you all are!” Gauge shouted and pushed through the crowd toward us. “Way to leave me behind, yesterday.”

“I’m sorry.” I sighed and hung my head. I didn’t want to think about anything else from the last few days. “We’re headed out to Tenpony. I think it’s best that you turn around and head back home now.”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell her.” A stallion in a red cloak spoke up from behind her. He pushed it back to show himself to us. His coat was a bright neon green that clashed heavily with his short but bright red mane. “My daughter is as stubborn as her mother.”

“Fruit Cup?” Skyline smiled and laughed. “It’s been years since I’ve seen you.” She walked up and hugged the strange stallion.

A mare in a red cloak walked up beside Fruit Cup and pushed her hood down. She was a bright blue, with a frizzy white and pink striped mane. She had the widest smile I’d seen in weeks. “We were just on our way to go have a talk with Longbow.” She glared at the young unicorn. “While I thank you for keeping her safe, her being here and not with her brother, where she is supposed to be, is a serious violation of ranger protocol, I might remind her.”

“Well Ah’ll be. Ya’ll can come along with us if yah’d like.” Harmony smiled and pointed toward the town gates. “With all tha raider attacks along tha route, there ain’t any other way ta find safety than in numbers.” She looked over their robes. “That is, if Ya’ll are at least armed.”

“Don’t you worry about us, dear.” Frosty smiled and lifted her robe to show off a short barreled grenade launcher. “So long as the springs in Fruit’s prosthetic don’t go out, the two of us can handle anything that comes our way.” She looked over to Fruit Cup and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush as brightly as his mane. “Isn’t that right, sweetiekins?”

“Yes, dear.” He smiled and strode forward. “We’re ready whenever you are.”

“Then it’s best we don’t waste any time.” Predious said as he trotted ahead. “Come, Storm! Your destiny awaits!” His cheery attitude was already eroding what little confidence I had left. Then again, Pred had lived through a lot of things. Maybe for once I shouldn’t be so cynical and just believe that we can make it to Tenpony without hitting any trouble.

* * * * * * * * *

“Hey look!” Frosty said from the intersection up ahead. I was worried that she was leading to far in front of us, and an intersection was a perfect place for an ambush. She leaned down and hoofed at the muddy dirt and snow. “A half buried toaster!”

With her head down, a rocket whizzed overhead, missing her by maybe a foot. It flew into a ruined cafe that sat on the corner and exploded. The building on the corner shuttered with the cacophonous sound of it’s supports giving out. Frosty turned back to us and bolted out of the way as the whole building dropped down into the street and filled the air with smoke and dust.

“Frosty?” Fruit Called out. I’d be surprised if she was, but I had to give it to her. She was pretty Spry for an older mare. Both Skyline and Shadow took to the air and zipped through the rising plume of dust. I unslung my weapon and trotted over with Fruit Cup.

“I’m okay!” She called back, coughing and hacking in the dust. “Though, I didn’t get the toaster.”

“Fuck the toaster!” Gauge yelled as she pushed past me and stormed up to her mother. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” She angrily growled and hit her mother in the shoulder. “Goddesses, Mom. You could have died!” She pulled her cyberhoof up and hit some buttons. “Just stay back while I get Grumpy to find out who shot at you.”

“Honey, I love you, but don’t you ever raise your voice at me again.” She glared down at Gauge. “Besides, they’re just raiders. They couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn.”

Another rocket shot whizzed through the air. it struck the rubble pile, and we all dropped to the dirt. I could have sworn that I watched a chunk of brick fly past my muzzle, barely missing me. I was getting sick of close calls, and I was getting sick of never getting a break.

“Mom?” Gauge cried out. As I shook myself off, I looked over to see that Frosty was face down in the dirt with blood streaming down the back of her head. Fruit scrambled over and tapped her cheek a few times.

“No, no no.” He whined. Quickly, he put his ear down to her head and breathed a small sigh. “It’s shallow, but she’s still breathing.” Scattered shots filled the air from just up the road. Skyline and Shadow must have spotted them, but they were close.

“Get her back to the cart, now.” I snapped at Fruit Cup. I looked over to Gauge and found her staring wide eyed down at her mother. She was in shock, and while understandable, it wasn’t what I needed right now. With a heafty grunt, Fruit Cup lifted Frosty and carried her back through the dust to the cart. “Hey, she’ll be fine.” I said to Gauge. “Right now, I need you with me, alright?” I wasn’t sure if I was getting through to her at all. “Gauge, I need Grumpy here, right now.”

“What?” Gauge mumbled before she finally looked up to me. “Yeah, Grumpy, sure.” She lifted her hoof and tapped at her pipbuck. The hearty whine of a levitation talisman preempted the cloud beside us shifting. Three red orbs floated past us toward the rubble.

I broke off from Gauge and followed it up. I wasn’t sure if it had it’s own EFS, but I figured that being a machine, it could at the very least see better through this dust than I could. Rifle in hoof, we came ever closer to the raging firefight that was brewing down the street. Red markers popped up all over my pipbuck augmented vision, and I got the gut feeling that this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

Grumpy veered off towards one of the larger clumps of red, while I separated from him and headed to the other side of the street. The further I moved, the more the dust in front of me cleared. If I wasn’t careful, I’d step right out into plane sight and be shot in an instant. Thankfully, the first group of ponies were in a building still inside the cloud.

I pushed the door to the ruined apartment complex open. Almost immediately, I noticed that the walls down here had been torn out, and that I could see one of the Raiders propped up against the windowsill, ready to fire. Funny thing about there not being walls, is that spotting somepony worked both ways.

Before he could react, I found myself slipped into sats. My vision shifted to pink as I did, and Pai’s smiling face stared up at me as the targeting overlay came up. She was a lifesaver, and I owed her more than one for this. Two shots to the head at an eighty percent chance should do it. I confirmed the order and watched as S.A.T.S. did it’s thing. My hooves brought the rifle up and fired.

The first shot whizzed past his head, narrowly missing him. Eighty percent chance, my fat flank. My hoof worked the action and fired again just as the bolt closed. The shot punched through the raider’s eye and splattered his brains across the old brick wall behind him. S.A.T.S. dropped and started it’s recharge cycle without a hitch. Raiders weren’t anything to be worried about.

The blast of a shotgun going off from upstairs tried to prove me wrong. The brick next to my head erupted into a cone of dust and bits. I backed up and squinted as it got in my eyes. I worked the action and swung my rifle over to the stairs. The earth pony raider was lining up another shot, but I got mine off first.

My round punched a hole clear through the side of his neck. The shock made the raider stumble and fall down the rest of the steps. In my EFS, I could see another pair of targets left in the building with me, and I moved up to the stairs. As I tried to step past the raider I’d just hit, he hooked his hoof around my leg. I shook him off easily and looked back with a glare. I brought my rifle up and chambered another round, looking to put him out of his misery. To bad that the time it took me to even do that, he’d bled out already.

The loud chatter of a submachine gun rang out from the second floor as I climbed up. Just as the first floor was, the second floor was nothing but skeletal wall frames barely holding this place up. This time however, the raider in the window was too busy paying attention to Grumpy to pay me any mind. I took a look around to try to find the last raider. I heard a snicker from the other side of the room and turned to find him looking right at me.

He hefted the breach of his rocket launcher closed and gave me a sickening yellow toothed grin. If he fired that, he’d bring this whole place down around him. Then again, what did he care? Logic didn’t matter to raiders. In a last ditch effort to move, I threw myself down the stairs as he fired.

The rocket hissed for a moment as it fired. It slammed into the second floor landing and exploded with an ear shattering boom. With my push already propelling me through the air, the blast wave hit me hard and sent me straight through the open front door. I curled myself up and held my limbs as close to myself as I could as I flew. I hit hard, and something snapped inside my chest as I rolled and skid across the pavement.’

With a rumble, the raider building shuddered and collapsed in on itself. With a pained gasp, I found it hurt to breathe. I saw stars in my vision, but I also saw more red markers shifting about. With a grunt, I pulled myself to my hooves again. I realized that I didn’t have my rifle, and I looked around for it. My hearing was slow to recover from the dull ringing it had become, but I didn’t think It’d be the least of my problem without a weapon I knew I could hit with. Between the pain, the dust, and the fact that there was still a firefight going on, it was hard to focus.

I kicked something metallic and looked down. It was a blood covered submachine gun. I didn’t know if it was the same one the pony in the other building was using, but it would have to do for now. I hoofed the foul tasting gun into my muzzle and carried on. The new dust cloud pushed forward and enveloped even more ground. I found what I thought to be a solo red marker in the dust and wandered towards it.

The quick flashes from above, and the screams of ponies across the street told me that my companions were still in the fight. It was good news, seeing as I didn’t need anymore ponies dying on me this week. Or this month for a better goal. With a wince, I reached up and patted my head as I felt like it was wet. I pulled my hoof back when it was tender to the touch, but there wasn’t much blood. My guess was it was just a cut.

The sharp reports and flashes of a pony in front of me gave away the sole red marker I’d hunted down. It was a ratty looking raider mare with a combat pistol. She hid behind an old city mailbox taking pot shots at Sky and Shadow as they flew over. I wondered how she could see them through all this smoke, but figured it didn’t matter anyway. She turned to look at me as I approached. She stepped sideways out from her cover with a growl. On her right fore hoof, was a very beat up looking pipbuck.

A raider with a pipbuck. Now there’s something you didn’t see everyday.

She fired a pair of pistol shots at me faster than a normal pony could. One of them missed, but the second one found a home in my forehoof. I let loose a short chatter from the submachine gun I’d picked up. The few shots that came out before the gun jammed on me missed her completely. She hadn’t even flinched at them. She smiled and hoofed back into her saddlebags.

As great as pipbuck’s were, most of the time you still needed to reload your gun yourself. With a grunt, I tossed the submachine gun and looked down at my only real option. I bit down onto the chocolate scented grip of Bon Appetit and drew it from it’s holster. Pai drew me into S.A.T.S. again now that it had recharged, and just like that, I had the upper hoof.

The targeting overlay gave me a one hundred percent chance to hit her in the head. As tempting as that was, I was fairly pissed that she’d gotten a shot off at me. I toggled the first shot at her forehoof and the second at her chest. She didn’t get to go down easy for the pain her and her friends had caused.

The first shot fired in sats felt so much different than outside of it. Even for as slow as time felt, the round zipped through the air at her. It punched straight through her leg without even slowing down, striking the dirt under her before ricocheting up and hitting her back leg as well. The force of the shot to her foreleg left an expanding hole that grew until the entire hoof was severed from her.

I didn’t even have time to contemplate the fact that had even happened before S.A.T.S. realigned my head. I pulled the trigger again and watched as the second shot pierced her chest. It wasn’t as spectacular to watch as my first shot, but as blood seeped from her chest, she went ridged. Her eyes glazed over, and I knew she was done for good.

Real time returned with a buck to my side. The whiplash of time spells didn’t do wonders on my broken side. I looked back with a whine and found that my jacket jutted out wetly from my side. Shakely, I pulled my jacket back and found that I had two ribs jutting through my skin.

There was a short burst of fire from above as Skyline flew overhead. The last red dot disappeared from my vision, and the street fell into an eerie silence. The fighting was over for now, and I could stand to relax. With a sigh, I reholstered Bon Appetit. Carefully, I sat down and gave my hooves a break. As I did, a small white square caught my attention in a pocket of the dead raider mare.

“Storm, are you alright?” Shadow said as he dropped out of the sky. I didn’t know if his fancy enclave armor had a pipbuck in it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how he’d found me. I reached over to the dead mare and grabbed the pack of cigarettes from her pocket. I hadn’t had a smoke in what, a week or so? I fucking needed this. “You know,” He spoke up. “Smoking is bad for your health.”

I popped one of the cancer sticks into my muzzle and just looked at him with an unamused stare. I patted myself down as I looked for my lighter, and found it in my jacket pocket. With a flick, I opened and used it to light up. With a rasping and whining deep breath, I took in the sweet flavor I’d missed all these days. Just yesterday I’d been content with never heading back out into the wasteland. We couldn’t even make it half a day before shit hit the fan again, but I didn’t care.

At least no pony who meant something died today.

--Chapter End--

“Good night, and good luck.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: Hit the Deck! -

You react very quickly to the sound of an explosive coming your way. You only take ½ damage from ranged explosive weapons, round up. This includes damage from concussion and shrapnel.

Chapter Twenty Eight - What Friends Are For

“I don't know much about your life beyond these warm walls. The fleeting sense of love within these god forsaken halls. And you can't hear it in his voice, in every call. This mare who slept a hundred years had something after all.”

It’s funny how empty I felt after the fight. For as much as they hurt me, and as badly as they’d hurt Frosty, I didn’t feel angry. When the time came to shoot, I did. There were no emotions to it. After everything I’d learned about myself, and for as much as I knew the flames inside me wanted to claw their way out, I was perfectly calm in those moments. I could feel the flames I carried inside still there, but they hadn’t flared once in the chaos.

And that worried me.

“Admiring the universe?” Predious spoke up from beside me. I hadn’t seen or heard him come up to me, and frankly, that was annoying.

“What?” I snorted and glanced at his cheery expression. “There’s nothing interesting for blocks on end. Just the same dull, gray wasteland that’s always been there.” I returned my gaze to the road ahead. “Nothing here to admire.”

“It was a joke.” He hooked his hoof around my neck and pulled himself into my personal space. “You were staring off into space, you see. I assumed you had something heavy on your mind, so I attempted to make you smile.”

“Nah, nothing heavy.” I sighed. “Actually, it’s pretty light.” I looked up and smiled at him. He merely shot a look at me like I’d stopped halfway through. “Light. You know, fire?” Now my explanation changed his expression to one of concern. “It was a joke…”

“Right.” He nodded slowly and removed his hoof from around my neck. He kept his eye on me as he went back to walking beside me normally. “Well, I’m glad to hear you are alright. My patch up job holding together?”

“Yeah.” I pulled my coat back as we walked and looked over my bandaged side. He’d only healed the compound part of the fracture with a potion, but my ribs were still broken in my chest. Thank Celestia for Med-X. “It’s not uncomfortable, but I’m going to need some actual treatment when we get there.” I glanced back at the wagon. “After we get Frosty all patched up that is.” At least Fruit had been able to stabilize her for the time being.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Shadow’s voice came from my other side. It made me jump from the suddenness, and that made my ribs hurt. I shot him an annoyed glare to find him hovering beside me so close that when I did, I’d shoved my nose against his.

“First of all, personal space.” I said with a grunt. I pushed him away, watching him drift back a bit with a nervous look. “Second of all, you shouldn’t start halfway through a thought. Some Goddess damned context might help.” Honestly, I probably shouldn’t be giving him a hard time about it. From how he giddily talked about taking out a couple of those raiders, I should be thankful he was there to help.

“Sorry.” He sputtered and tried to regain his train of thought. “I was asking about how you were fighting. You cleared a whole building like it was nothing, and you stared down that other mare without even flinching. I knew combat veterans at the academy who couldn’t do it as efficiently as you did.”

“It’s something you get good at fast down here, or you die.” I said as I turned my look back towards the road ahead again. Up ahead, I could see the edge of Tenpony tower creep around the corner of one of the ruins as we approached it. “Even with somepony teaching you, if you don’t have the reflexes or the smarts, you’re done for.”

“So who taught you?” He asked simply.

To him, that question was just like any other he’d asked. I wasn’t sure if I should feel insulted that he’d insinuated that I’d needed help. It was true that I had help, but he didn’t understand the gravity of what he asked. He didn’t get it. The wasteland is cruel, and even those who have mastered it end up in the dirt some days all the same.

“Alright there, romeo.” Harmony spoke up from behind him. “Ah think that there’s enough questionin’ fer one day.” Her heavy steps pushed him aside as she trotted up next to me. At least she had the decency to be loud when she came to my side. “Sides, we’re almost at Tenpony. Y’all best be gittin ya things ready, cause there ain’t a short list of things needin’ doin’ here.”

“Harmony?” I looked up to her and watched as she smiled. “Do you really think your mother can help?” If we couldn’t somehow acquire a ship to go after the Necromancer, it was all over.

“Between the stories she’s told me, and the fact that she’s the meanest mare ya ever seen when she’s wantin somethin’,” She looked me in the eye as she spoke. “Ya can bet yer flank that she’ll git ya somethin ta help.”

“Yep, I can agree with that.” Fruit Cup said as he trotted up to behind us. I looked back and watched as he smiled tiredly at us. “Your mother was always the one who did what needed to be done. No matter what the cost, she stood by what she knew was right.” He let off a sigh that I wasn’t sure was regretful or happy. “It was a sad day when she left the Rangers, but we all knew that it would be better for you and Short Staff in the long run.”

“Hey!” The familiar voice of a certain striped asshole I knew called out from up ahead of us. “Took you all long enough.” Ficha spoke up from the corner of the building next to the Tenpony parking lot.

The closer we got, the less open the lot looked. There were tents of refugees camped out all around Tenpony. Several barrel fires burned brightly as the ponies around them tried to stay warm. A few foals ran about giggling and tossing snowballs at each other. It was a much different sight from the that of Sunset City. The ponies here looked less ragged and starved. Now I could see why Short Staff had been doing daily runs between Tenpony and the Garage. These ponies had more than enough to go around.

“Hey, Asshole.” Gauge called out. “My mom almost died getting us here, so shut yer fucking striped muzzle before I rip it off you.”

“Gauge! Watch your language.” Fruit Cup growled and turned to her. For some reason, even though he was mad, it didn’t carry the same weight as when Frosty had told her the same. With a grumble, he turned back to Ficha and held a hoof out. “Sorry. Racism is an… occupational trait she picked up. I apologize for her manners.”

“Not the first time.” He said with a smile. “Besides, all my best friends insult me.” He paused and stuck his neck out as I walked by. “Isn’t that right, Mon Chéri?”

“Not in the mood today, asshole.” I shot him an annoyed look and walked right past him. I didn’t care if I proved his point, I just wanted to get inside.

Both Harmony and I pushed through the crowded lot. In some regards, even though they looked healthier, there felt like there were more ponies here than at Sunshine. A few of them called out to us as we passed, asking for spare bits or food, but I didn’t spare them even a glance. Harmony let out a small chuckle as we approached the steps up to the tower. She waved her hoof to the cream colored stallion who stood in front of the door out front.

“Heya, Oil Can!” She cheerfully called out as she climbed the stairs. “Been a good while since I seen either you or ya sister.” She walked up and hugged the pegasus stallion, who blushed at the embrace. “By the way, how's Dipstick holding up?"

“D-dad? Oh, you know, this cold makes his wings ache.” He averted his eyes with a smile and rubbed at his mane nervously. “Mother does what she can, but Drip Pan and I are looking into finding somepony who can do some surgery to help.” His smile grew as he looked down at Harmony. Goddesses, he had a crush on her and he couldn’t hide it to save his life. “H-how are you?”

“You know, doc Stibitz back at the bunker is a wiz with an Auto-Doc." Fruit Cup called out as he climbed the steps. It drew the strained gaze of the pegasus to him and nearly wiped the smile from his muzzle. “I might be able to ask if he could make a trip out here for you."

“Really? That would be great, though we don't have a lot of caps saved up yet." His eyes brightened as he thought about it. “But if there is anything you can do, we will make sure to scrounge up enough for it.” He seemed to relax for a moment before he looked down at Harmony. His blush returned in an instant and I let out a sigh of boredom. “Now, what c-can I do for you today, Harmony?”

“We need to see my Mother.” Harmony said in a rather soft tone. She twisted her hoof against the concrete under her and blushed as brightly as he did. “Can you call her for me?” Wow, that was either the most convincing acting I’d ever seen, or she genuinely liked him. Knowing how well Harmony could haggle, honestly I wasn’t sure which one it was.

“I-I can let you in, but not them.” He pointed over to us. “Sorry, T-tower orders...” He was cut short by a buzzing sound coming from the intercom beside him. He reached over quickly and flipped the switch to it.

“Oil, is there some problem with the ponies at the door?” The voice of an older mare came through with an accusatory tone. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks to be my daughter and her friends.” Her voice sounded extra crisp for that last sentence. Oil Can straightened himself out as she spoke.

“I-It is your daughter, M-ma’am.” He spoke up with a worse stutter than before. “She may enter, but her friends...”

“Are fine to enter.” She snipped through the box over his shoulder. “Just keep out anypony who looks like they’ll cause any trouble. From what I can see, they have an injured pony with them.” There was a soft crackle as Oil nodded and reached a hoof for the door. “Oh, and Oil?” He froze up. “If you intend to keep an interest in my daughter, after your shift we’ll need to talk.” Oil’s mane practically stood on end as she continued. “I’ll need you to come up to my office.” I could hear the enjoyment she was getting from this coming through the speaker. “You know, where I keep all my guns.”

“Y-y-yes ma’am.” He nodded quickly as he sweat bullets. “You’re f-free to come in.” He gave us all the more nervous smile he had as he pulled the door open.

“Sorry about Mama.” Harmony spoke up as she moved towards the door. She leaned over and landed a peck on his cheek. I swore that the way his legs shook, he was about to pass out. I didn’t care so much though as I followed Harmony inside. Once we’d gotten down the entrance hallway, she turned to me with a smile. “Don’t git me wrong, he’s a nice stallion an all.” She sighed. “I just ain’t ready ta settle down yet. Even more so now that Dodge ain’t around and even Manehatten in on edge.” She looked up to me with real fear in her eyes. “Y’all think we can really git things back ta normal?”

“I hope so.” I muttered softly. “I really do.”

* * * * * * * * *

It was a kind of surreal feeling as I walked through the halls of this place. Nopony looked like they cared about the world outside, and just carried on like it didn’t exist. Gauge and Fruit both escorted Frosty up to the clinic, which was where I’d go after we met with Harmony’s mom. Meanwhile, Pred and Shadow had broken off as we reached the main shop foyer to go get some much needed supplies for our trip. As I’d watched Shadow walk away, I couldn’t help but think about what he’d said last night.

I looked over to Harmony as we entered the elevator. She could have any stallion she wanted, any mare she wanted, but she didn’t want anything at all. Sure, I’d had plenty of stallions who’d wanted a night with me, but none of them loved me like the stallions who want Harmony. Other than being a little rough around the edges, what was wrong with me? Am I not good enough for somepony?

“Storm?” Harmony asked abruptly. “Yah alright there? Yah as red as a ripe tomato.”

I scrunched up my muzzle as I realized that I was feeling jealous of Harmony. I hadn’t realized that I was blushing, but now I could feel the glow my cheeks gave off. I looked to the floor and brushed my mane with my hoof.

“Yeah, just thinking.” I managed to squeak out.

“Oh really?” I could hear the snark in her voice as she said that. “Care ta tell me who about?”

“Just... nopony.” I said and glanced up at her and caught her bright grin. Oh, she better not be using that silver tongue of hers to pry this out of me. She promised she’d never do anything like that. “It’s not important.”

“Well, good.” She replied smartly. “Cause if it’s that pegasus fellow, Ah don’t rightly trust him.” She shrugged and nudged my shoulder. “‘Specialy after he knocked yah out last night.”

“What? No he didn’t!” I snapped at her in concern. How could she think that he’d hurt me? “I fell asleep warm in his hooves was all!” Immediately I snapped my hooves up to my muzzle and held it closed. Too late, the damage had been done.

I shouldn’t have told her that.

“Oh now that is just too good!” She giggled like a filly. The elevator gave off a light ding as we reached the right level. The double doors rolled back just in time for her to double over out of the box in laughter. I stomped out in annoyance as she rolled about the floor in hysteria. “Ah knew yah wouldn’t be able ta resist him when y’all were alone.”

“What?” I paused and looked back at her. “What do you mean you knew?”

“Hun, we had plenty of time ta talk before yah showed up.” She said as she wiped the tears of joy away from her cheeks. “The way he talked about yah? Yah’d think he’d have mistaken yah for one of tha old goddesses.”

“Yeah, well as I told him last night, I’m not looking for somepony to love.” I grumbled and waited for her to get herself straightened out again. Even though she’s pretty much family, sometimes I just want to smack that mare. Then again, I haven’t seen her smile like that since I came back. Goddesses it must feel good to laugh like that. A click came from down the hallway as the door to the security office opened.

“Thank you Longbow, it means alot to me.” Skyline sniffled as she walked out. “Even if they were just memories.” She rubbed at her eyes with her wingtips. She wore the hint of a smile across her muzzle before she looked at me. “I’ll see you later, Longbow.”

“Skyline, I…” I started to speak up, but she simply turned and galloped down the hall away from us. My heart sunk as she did. I didn’t know if there would have even been anything to say. I just hated what I’d taken away from her. Ours was an impossible task, but how could I just give up? I was supposed to be the embodiment of hope itself, and if I sit back and watch things crumble, what chance does anypony else have? I just wish that it wasn’t my friends that had to pay for the necromancer’s sins.

“Hey now. Yah can’t let those kinda thoughts inta yer head.” Harmony said as she walked up and threw her hoof around my neck. “Ah know yah think it was yer fault, but it wasn’t. That bastard who’s goin’ round hurtin’ ponies did it, and feelin’ sorry fer things we can’t change ain’t gonna fix it, now is it?” She tugged forward and forced me to step with her. “Now, let’s see what mama can do ta help us stop that deranged stallion before anypony else suffers.”

I could only nod as we walked forward down the hall. I don’t know what it was, but even though I didn’t want to walk, Harmony’s pull was too much to resist. Even being an earth pony like me, I didn’t think she had that kind of strength. I looked up at her as she walked us along. She looked more terrified to walk into the room with each step. She put on a strong face for me, but she knew as well that we didn’t have much of a chance from where we stood.

She knew, but she put on a brave face for me. Like me, she knew it had to be done, and she knew that I needed her strength, so she lent it to me through herself. A part of that clicked with me and I felt the flame I carried inside ignite. Daddy was right. I didn’t need the strength of my friends to fight, but the hope I carried inside did. Somewhere, I’d hoped that Daddy was smiling at me now that I’d finally figured it all out.

“It’s good to see you again, Harmony.” Longbow said as she leaned back in her plush command chair. “As well as you too, Storm.” The security room was fairly sparse. She sat behind a large curved desk with a soft smile. For a unicorn in her late fifties or early sixties, her eyes didn’t reflect the same sparkle that Skyline’s eyes had. She looked tired. Her now grey and light blue striped mane hung off the side of her head looking as tired a she was. To her right sat a bank of monitors and controls. The upper four monitors displayed a rotating selection of all of the tower’s internal cameras, while the bottom two showed a selection of options, codes and guidelines that could be selected through the keypad they sat next to.

“I’ve missed you.” Harmony said with a smile, escorting the both of us over to the pair of chairs that sat on this side of her desk. We both grabbed a seat and took a moment to get comfortable. When I looked back up, I found Longbow’s gaze had shifted to an image on one of the four monitors. She let out a sigh.

“In what looks to be a new record, Short Staff seems to have started an argument between himself and Gruyère.” She gave a weak smile and looked over to Harmony. “Can you do me a favor and go get him? I'm going to have to remind him that he has to give in sometimes and not argue every little cap out of somepony.”

“Yeah.” Harmony groaned as she stood back up. “Don’t y’all worry, Ah’ll git him up here even if ah have ta drag him up, kickin’ an’ screamin!” She turned back to the door and trotted out. As she did, Longbow’s levitation slowly shut the door behind her. I looked back to see her squinting and rubbing her head.

“Oh it’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with this much stress.” She sighed and relaxed a bit as she brushed her mane out of the way. “It’s also been a long time since I've seen that look on a pony’s face.” Her tone dropped like a brick of lead as she gave me a stern look. “Tell me, what do you know of what's going on?"

“Well, it’s not going to be a simple explanation.” I started with a sigh of my own. “And not all of it will probably sound believable.”

“Try me. I’ve seen plenty of impossibilities in my time.” Longbow said as she pressed her hooves together on her desk. “And you know I can tell if a pony is lying or not.” I took a long breath and looked down at my hooves. My pipbuck shifted to pink as Pai popped up in my vision. She smiled and sat there with what looked to be a carton of popcorn as she too waited for me to start.

“So, I don’t know if my parents ever told you, but I’m not their filly.” I started, not taking my eyes off my hooves. I didn’t want to know how crazy Longbow thought I was. “My parents found me as a filly. I’m a weapon created during the war that was locked away in a prewar facility called an orchard...”

There was a click that came from across the room. I looked up to see Longbow’s face had fallen into a grimace. Harmony told me that she’d once had an issue with a mare who came out of an orchard, so I should have suspected her reaction. She didn’t move a muscle as she sat. She simply waited for me to continue.

“I was created using a DNA sample from each of the ministry mares. It was a theory that if I shared a bond with each of the Ministry Mares, that I could use the elements of Harmony if one of them had ever been killed in the war.” I kept my gaze locked on to her trembling eyes. “When I failed to control the elements, something went wrong.” I remembered their faces as I talked about them. “There was a fire, and some of the scientists were killed. They locked me away for it and forgot about me.” I could feel myself start to cry as I recalled the look on Mama’s face. “Until my parents woke me up.”

“Enough.” Longbow finally spoke. She levitated the gun up to the side of my head, pressing the cold barrel against me. “You know that my talent is judgement, is that correct?” She nearly spat at me as she stood up. I simply nodded and looked as her cutie mark of a set of weighted scales never seemed brighter to me. “Then you need to hope that I don’t find anything in there that will give me a reason to pull this trigger.” She took a deep breath before she put her horn against my forehead. “How far back?”

“About a month.” I spoke as I felt my body stiffen up. “Everything’s been so hectic. I can’t give you a specific day.”

Her horn flashed and I felt the oddest sensation in the world. For a moment, I felt like I was turned inside out before everything returned. It was disorienting but when I came too again, I found myself inside a familiar looking shack.

“Oh yeah, don’t think I’m doing this for free.” I felt myself speak. This was when I rescued Stratos and his daughter. I had to wonder if this was what a memory orb felt like for normal unicorns. Being in my own body and not being in control of it was a very uncomfortable feeling. It was different from being in the necromancer’s mind though, I could still feel everything. If that was right though, I didn’t like what came next.

Just like it had originally done, as I ran towards the gate that lead out of the raider’s camp, a small metal apple flew through the air. It landed in the same way as it had, and I felt the same fear course through my body. As it exploded, the pain was something I only remembered for a second before I blacked out. It was just the start of my journey, but I had no idea how bad it would get before I arrived here.

Before I could worry about having to relive through everything in real time, my memory stuttered. A rush of noise filled my mind and my body was wracked with pain. My vision was a blur, constantly shifting and reforming as the torrent of noise only picked up. I wanted to scream from the scrambled thoughts and the pain they applied. Was this part of what Longbow did? Did she find enough cause to judge me irredeemable?

The noise, lights and the pain all came to a crescendo. It was maddening, and I fought against my mind to give me back control of my body. As I let out the loudest scream, the connection to Longbow’s horn was severed. I came too as I fell back onto the moldy carpet of the security office. My heart raced in my chest, and my broken ribs screamed at me to get off of them. Hot tears ran down my face as I gasped in heavy breaths. There was a heavy thump next to my head. I turned to find Longbow’s gun laid on the floor next to me.

“Oh goddesses.” She whispered. She stumbled over to her desk and fell into her chair, staring wide eyed at me. Slowly, she wiped at her cheek, brushing away the stream of tears she too had. “I’m so sorry. I shared everything you felt the whole time. I never imagined...”

“I… I tried to help.” I forced myself to weakly say. “I couldn’t do anything to help.”

“Maybe… maybe I can.” Longbow spoke as she stiffened up. “I had just hoped to never see a day like this again. But it seems that another madpony has their grip on the Wasteland. Whatever it is you need…”

“The necromancer spoke of an item he needed.” I spoke up with a heavy groan. My side felt like the doctor at the prison had been tinkering around with it. I really needed to see the doctor after this. “The pony and his daughter I'd saved from slavers all the way back then? The necromancer is forcing him to use a boat. If Stratos doesn't do as he's asked, the necromancer will kill his daughter.”

“But where is it they are going?” Longbow said as she squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed at her horn. It was at that point I’d noticed that the tip of Longbow’s horn was smoking and stark black. It must have taken a lot of magic to condense all those memories into that space of time.

“It's in some sort of storm to the north east.” Gingerly, I set myself back down in my chair. It didn’t help much, but the fact that I’d stopped moving again kept my side from killing me anymore. “A perpetual tempest, he'd said.”

“You know, my mother used to tell me that there was a storm like that. A fearsome tempest that was unrelenting and undying.” Longbow said as she shook off her own pain and looked back at me. Her eyes weren’t filled with hatred and judgement anymore. The only thing I got from them, was pity and sorrow. “She said that it’s weather was so strong there that any surface ship the Rangers sent would sink only minutes into the storm. That it’s force was so strong, that even the Enclave couldn't get control of it.”

“So it's a real place then?” I simply asked. She nodded softly with a sigh. That was the best news I’d had all day. “Is there any way,” I leaned forward and winced as my side reminded me I shouldn’t move. “Any way at all that you could get me into the center of that storm?”

“Hmmm.” She leaned back in her chair and pressed her hooves against the side of her head. “I vaguely remember that my mother had petitioned the elder to take the Nautilus into it, but she was denied on the spot. They couldn't risk losing the last submarine in equestria on a trip into the unknown.” She looked up to me again and offered a weak smile. “But... with what I've seen through you, I'm one hundred percent sure that I could convince Elder Maple to send it in.”

I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Yet again, my ribs bucked at me and said I shouldn’t even be doing that to them. I didn’t care, we had our boat.

“You really think it could get us in there?” A smirk somehow found it’s way across my muzzle as I spoke. As she nodded, I felt it grow into a genuine smile.

“Well, if anything, it's your best chance.” She pushed herself back from her desk and stood up. “And with Captain Doppler at the helm, I'm sure she can find a way throu...” She stopped midway through her sentence and adopted a confused look that she carried between me and the floor. “Are… are you bleeding?”

I looked down to my hooves to find a small line of crimson running down them. A few drips dropped onto the floor beside me. With a pained whine, I lifted my jacket back and looked at my ribs. To my dismay, one of them had found their way outside my body again. No wonder it hurt so damn much.

“Yeah, I... ah meant to get thash fished.” I grunted. Suddenly, I felt light headed agian. “If ish alright wik ya, ah shink ah’m…” That was it before the world spun and I dropped to the floor. Now that I thought of it, I had lost a lot of blood, and the health potion I’d gotten could only do so much.

“Come on.” Longbow grunted as she walked over. Even without her horn, she was strong enough to pick me up and carry me. Being lightheaded didn’t stop me from being in pain, and my side felt like somepony holding a brand to my coat. “Quit whining. You’re an earth pony, I know you can endure more than that. Let’s just get you down to the clinic before you find a way to lose a limb.” She muttered. “Goddess knows how often that happened in my life.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Yeah, they all feel in the right place.” I grunted as I hopped off the examination table. I wasn’t too much of a fan for the idea of using a hydra to fix my side, but it was either that or I wait for it to heal naturally. As good of an idea as that might have been, the necromancer didn’t have eight weeks to wait, so neither did I.

“Well, then you’re free to go.” Peroxide rolled her eyes and rolled her latex hoof glove off. “Try at the very least to be more careful out there. With the amount of old, healed injuries that I found on you, It’s a mystery to me how you aren’t dead.”

That was actually a valid point, seeing as I’d technically died already.

“Don’t worry, Doc.” I sighed. “I’m right there with you.” I slid my jacket off the end of the table and slipped it on. For once, my body didn’t complain when I torqued and twisted it. Predious tapped his hoof impatiently behind me as I shimmied my jacket into it’s rightful place. “Are you ready to go? Or are we still waiting on everypony else?” I asked him, trying my hardest to convey my own annoyance.

“Well, we are still waiting on a few.” He sighed. “But, there is still the matter of Tasteless to attend to.” He motioned for me to follow him. I hadn’t really been listening when he’d explained it, but all I know is that she’d been taken into a holding room by tower security. With a nod to the nurse, I followed Predious out into the second floor hallway that overlooked the shops below.

I looked into the Tower restaurant as we trotted past it. Sitting at a table, and looking fairly ashamed, was Gauge. Frosty sat next to her with her head wrapped in white bandages, and her angry mutterings could almost heard through the glass that enclosed the place. Fruit Cup simply sat there, being the only pony within three tables distance seemingly enjoying his meal. As quickly as my comfort in knowing they were all alright was there, it was gone again as we passed the restaurant. As we went downstairs and headed toward the holding office, there were a pair of extra guards standing outside the door. I felt a pit form in my stomach.

“Tell me, what exactly happened again?” I said with the faintest bit of hope that she hadn’t murdered anypony.

“Well, you see, she was in the fancy clothes store at the end of the foyer down there.” He said with a point of his hoof. Lots of expensive things in there to break I bet. I already didn’t like where I was headed. “She’d been making fun of the dull classical music that they were playing in there when she started to dance.” He cringed and lowered his ears. “While she single hoofedly ruined the elegance of a waltz, she tried to twirl herself…” His words drifted off as he facehoofed.

“She one of yours?” Drip Pan asked with an annoyed tone as she let out a long sigh. I nodded slowly and she opened the door with her magic. “Should have known.”

“I’m being honest!” Tasteless scoffed to the mare taking down her statement. “Had I known the bolt holding my tail on was loose, I wouldn’t have spun like that!” She looked up to me and rolled her eyes. I simply sighed in disappointment as she continued talking to the officer. “How was I supposed to know it would fly off and hit that old coot in the face?” She got to her hooves and pulled the table she was hoofcuffed to over towards us. “Hey, don’t fucking judge me. It’s not like I killed the bitch.”

“May I present, elegance incarnate.” Predious grumbled.

--Chapter End--

“And though I know, since you've awakened her again

She depends on you, she depends on you.”

Quests Finished: Storm Takes Manehatten

Quests Started: Into The Storm

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Nine - Preparing For The Worst

“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.”

While Longbow and Skyline arranged to meet with the Steel Rangers, it was suggested that the rest of us take some time to relax. Predious had gotten all of our supplies, and was off doing his own thing. Gauge was supposed to be fixing up Tasteless and her augments. Though, I had this nagging feeling that she’d only end up back in that cell again once Gauge was done. Lastly, Ficha had gone off somewhere to gamble or play cards or something. Honestly, I could care less about his annoying ass.

While they all did that, I’d resolved to actually take the given advice and relax a bit.

“So Private Chalk, she put the snack cakes under Rammer’s helmet pads like we said.” Shadow chortled from between chews of his hay fries. “When she went to sleep, we swapped their helmets without telling her.”

Just picturing that, I let out a light laugh through my sip of sparkle cola. It drew a number of annoyed looks from the uptight residents who’d been eating here with us. Honestly, I didn’t care. I enjoyed myself and was happy to relax for a bit.

“Chalk didn’t even realize it until we were already running the drills.” Shadow hit the table with his hooves as he laughed heartily. “She ran the whole course with snack cake filling dripping down her cheeks like delicious tears.” He shook his head with a wide smile and sighed. “But hey, she still kicked our flanks with the fastest time. The damage had been done though, there was no way she’d ever lose the new nickname after that.”

“Oh?” I laughed and set my soda down with my own wide smile. “And what was it?”

“It was ‘Sweetcheeks’, of course.” Shadow said with a snerk. He tried to keep a straight face as he shoved a few more hay fries in his muzzle, but neither of us could contain ourselves. We both broke into hysterical fits of laughter at our table. From amidst my gasps, watched as an annoyed elderly couple got up from their table and left in a huff.

“You’re life in the clouds must have been pretty good.” I got out as I did my best to regain my composure.

“Yeah,” He nodded and laughed a little as he too straightened himself out. I watched as he nudged his wings back behind him, thinking how much trouble those must give him when he sits. “It wasn’t easy, but it was far from bad.” He shrugged and stopped when he looked at me. It was about that time that I realized that I was blushing like a filly.

“Well, thank you for telling me some stories.” I muttered out as my brain tried to get back on track.

“Yes!” He blurted out and looked around the room. He put his eyes anywhere but me, but he couldn’t hide his own blush. “I’m just glad I didn’t bore you with them.”

“D-don’t mention it. We’ve got some time to kill,” I found myself stuttering as I pushed my chair back. I looked down at the mostly empty Sparkle Cola bottle and figured it was worth leaving. “I thought I’d get to know you a bit better before we sailed right into hell.” I stepped away from the table and waited for him to do the same. Again, he fidgeted with his wings as he got back up. “Do you perhaps want some fresh air?”

“Do I ever.” His face lit up at the suggestion.

I paid for the meal with a few of the caps in my satchel and we left the restaurant. I swore I could have heard the sigh of relief that came from the other diners the second we shut the door. We strode down nearly empty the hallway, which was strange for midday. I didn’t have a second thought about it though. For once, there weren’t random ponies to bother us. Me. To bother me.

“So!” I blurted out without really thinking. I just needed to stop where my head had been going with that.

“Yes?” He asked with a smile. As we reached the doors to outside, he hoofed it open. We were immediately met with a cold blast of air. He unfurled his other wing and put it around me as we both walked out into the frigid air. He was just as warm as the other night, but I didn’t want to admit it. I looked up to him and my eyes jumped right to the scar that ran across his face.

“Buh…” I struggled to find the words. “If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get the scar?”

“Oh.” His expression died faster than a raider with a faulty grenade. He pulled his wings back against himself with a sigh and walked down the steps to the snow. “It happened just after training. I was on a forward recon mission looking for a place we could salvage some materials for the shipyards.”

I could tell that this was going to be a pretty uncomfortable topic for him. I walked down the steps and up next to him. He had a thousand yard stare into the tents of refugees surrounding the tower, but he didn’t even register it.

“We found what we thought was an abandoned settlement. Three shacks built in the midst of a collapsed power facility.” He shook his head slowly. “The three of my team took the other two shacks, and I was given the smallest one to check for myself.” He sat down with a heavy thump in the snow and continued. “When I opened the door, I found a blood soaked filly standing there with a knife. Her parents were dead by the door. Somepony else had shot them up. She looked so afraid of me, and she was all alone.”

“Everyone back at base thinks it’s funny how scary our helmets must look to you grounders.” He looked down to the snow. “I took mine off. She was innocent and needed to know I wasn’t some monster there to kill her. I took a few steps in and tried to calm her down.” He paused and quivered. “Then Tesla and Rammer came over from their shack.” He looked up to me and sniffled as he grew teary eyed. “She was just scared.” He whimpered and turned to face me. He traced along the X shaped scar with his hoof. “She came at me with the knife. She was so weak she didn’t cut deep. But Rammer shot her anyway.” His gaze slowly fell back to the snow.

“Oh. I see.” I said with a remorseful whisper. For a moment, my mind shoved the image of the frozen filly into my mind before it was muted by the rest of my thoughts. I’d never used to care about death in the wastes, but there’s been so much of it recently.

“I nearly beat Rammer to death for that.” He let out a forced laugh and a smirk that lasted for only a second. “You know what’s funny? I got demoted for that beating.” He scuffed at the snow with his hoof. “The only thing that Rammer got was a stern talking to about how she shouldn’t waste ammo on targets like that. She was told to just use the tail blade next time.” He looked back at me with angry eyes. “They didn’t even care that an innocent pony was dead because of her.”

I couldn’t even say anything at that point. What could I have said? With all the bad shots I’ve taken, and even a few that I hesitated with, I’ve gotten plenty of innocent ponies killed over the years. The thing was, I knew that it was my fault each and every time. I mean, I feel it every time I look at Skyline now. With nothing to say, I simply reached forward and hugged him. Not a move I’d normally take with somepony I barely know, but I was okay with the risk.

“I think that was the first time I'd ever realized that the Enclave was wrong. About anything at all, even.” Shadow spoke up as he pressed against me. “You don't understand what it's like up there. Yeah, it's peaceful, but everypony lives in ignorance. Half of the civilian population thinks that the ground is completely uninhabitable. The other half know it's fine, but want nothing to do outside of the lives they've already made.”

“To be honest,” I spoke up. “I think it’s a good thing that they don’t come down.”

“What?” Shadow pulled away from me. He looked somewhere between insulted and horrified at the thought.

“If what you say is true, what do you think would happen if they opened the clouds tomorrow?” I sighed and had to be realistic with him. “How many would come down to help, and only meet somepony who would faster shoot them for what little they had rather than cooperate?” I gave him the most sincere look I could as he processed that. “While they could help, I don’t think either side is prepared to work with each other.” I gave him a weak smile, which he didn’t return. “Not until there are more ponies up there that think like you at least.”

“Yeah, that may be true.” He sighed and wiped the tears from his cheeks. “But if they did clear the sky tomorrow, at least they could see that what the government says is wrong.” He stood back up and placed his hoof on my shoulder. “If only they knew that ponies like you were down here, there might be hope for cooperation.”

“How could you could say that?” I didn’t understand what he saw in me, but as he moved his hoof from my shoulder up to my chin, I knew where he was going. “Even with everything I’ve done, all the ponies lives my actions have destroyed?” I reached up and curled my hoof around his leg. I kept my eyes anywhere but him again, trying to find somepony to get him distracted with. “Think of what we’re waiting on right this second. I mean…”

Not looking at him also had it’s downsides.

He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. It was so abrupt that it made the fur around my mane stand on end. I don’t like getting intimate when I’m not in the mood, never have. If any stallion had ever wanted to touch me in that way, I ensured they’d never have foals of their own again. Shadow’s touch was different though, he was a friend, and my brain was all sorts of confused about what reaction to have.

“Look, I understand that you want to be friends. I get that.” He said as he took a step back. I’d hoped it was more the idea he knew I needed space, and less the fear that I might rip his balls off. Among the only working parts on me at the moment were my ears and a whole mess of nerves that I didn’t want to even think about in my nethers. “Like you said,” he continued, “What we’re going up against means we might not come back from this. If that’s true, I can at least have that kiss to hold on to.”

“I, uhmm.” My brain was still frantically working to let me control my muzzle again. It was a miracle that my legs were still working with how much like jelly they felt like. That kiss must have knocked something loose in my head, because I’ve never felt this way in my life. “You see,” I couldn’t form a clear line of thought as I just blinked and stared at him. “I just…”

“A minute.” He gave me a soft smile and a heavy blush of his own. He unfurled his wings and stretched them out. “Yeah, I figured as much. I’m going to take a short flight to get some blood back into these babies.” He flexed his wings a bit as he took a step back with a short nod. “I’ll… be back in a few.”

He kicked off the ground with all fours and pumped his wings. With a short flurry of snow, he shot up into the air and took off around the tower. I was left amidst the hustle and bustle of the refugees to fill the unnaturally lonely feeling I’d been left with. Without much thought, I carried myself over to the tower steps and plopped my rump down on it. My heart had finally calmed down in my chest, and I could finally start to understand what had just happened. Still in a daze, I reached into my saddlebags and dug around. I really needed a smoke.

“Howdy there cuz!” Harmony’s voice was jarring as she stood right behind me. With a yelp and a short jump, I found myself just as flustered as a few moments ago. “So, he seems like a odd, but nice feller.” She took a few steps down and sat alongside me with a wide grin. I’d prayed to Celestia that she hadn’t just seen that. Then again, I’m never that lucky.

“Yeah.” I grumbled, not able to find my cigarettes. “Dammit, where are my smokes?”

“Ah, yeah. Ah distinctly recalled that yah cyberghoul had a pack that looked an awful lot like tha brand yer always totin’ around.” She smiled as she reached back into her saddlebags. From out of her pack she pulled a new pack of my favorite brand. “So, How’d mom take tha news?”

“About as well as expected.” I sighed as Harmony shuffled the pack open and popped one of the sticks into my mouth. I brought my lighter out of my satchel in my hoof and flicked it open. With a crisp crackle and a deep breath, I felt I could finally relax. “On the downside, she looked worse than I’d ever seen her with the news. Especially when I told her about who I really am.”

“Oh, no.” Harmony groaned and facehooved. “She didn’t hurt ya, did she? I’d heard y’all were in the clinic, but Ah never thought she might add a few injuries on top of what yah’d been through.”

“Well, she held her gun to me, but the fact that she didn’t shoot me was about the only bright side to our conversation.” I said before I took another long drag off my smoke. The more I thought about it, the more Harmony’s family just puzzled me. “Anyway, she’s getting in contact with the rangers now. We’ll know if they can get us what we need shortly.”

“Actually,” Predious spoke up from right behind the two of us. I would have enjoyed how much it had startled Harmony if I hadn’t joined her with my own jump.

“Why does everypony have to sneak up on me!” I shouted. In my rage, I accidentally spit my cigarette out. Fortunately for me, Harmony was quick with her hoof and gave it a soft kick. As it flew back toward me, I caught it on the edge of my pipbuck and let out a soft sigh of relief. I need this smoke, and I’d have beaten predious over the head had I lost it. “Seriously, any warning at all would be nice.” I huffed out before I leaned forward and put my smoke back in my muzzle.

“Sorry.” He rolled his eyes and his hoof impatiently. “I was told that Harmony’s mother just got off the radio with the Rangers. As it turns out, they’ll let us use the boat. But we must be at Friendship city tomorrow morning for pick up.”

“Tomorrow?” I sighed. Just another notch in the column of today’s bad news. “We’re already behind that asshole. Losing almost another whole day might get us there too late.” There had to be some other way!

“Finding another boat that could potentially make the trip might take days.” Predious shot back with his annoying, but sound logic. “It’s better to wait for the sure thing than to risk ourselves on a fraction of a chance.” Seriously, I hated when he was right like this. “Besides, another good night of rest might actually mean you’ll be strong enough to win against him.”

“Have I ever told you how much of an annoyance you can be?” I grumbled and got to my hooves. “But you’re right. Rest would be best for all of us.” I looked up to the sky and looked around for Shadow. Between the grey and black skies against grey and black ruins, I couldn’t see anything worthwhile out there. “I assume you’ve also arranged for us to stay somewhere?”

“Oh, right!” Harmony chimed in. “Y’all can stay with us. We’ve got an apartment in this place that we hardly ever use, yah know, seein as we’re so close ta home.” She smiled and walked up the steps. “It ain’t much, but I’ll reckon it’s a mite bit better than sleepin’ in one a them tents.”

“That is quite kind of you, miss Harmony.” Predious smiled and gave an overly courteous bow. Sometimes I forget that he’s a ghoul from the old world, but he has no right to act like a pompous ass like that around us. Like he could read my mind, he’d shot his glance over to me. What a fucking asshole.

“Come on, ah’ll show y’all where it is.” She nudged her head to the door as she reached it. The two of us followed her as she went in. Immediately, she made a left turn and opened another door that sat just inside the entrance. It lead to a stairwell I’d never even known existed that only ran up to the next floor. Once there, she opened the door right into the second story hallway of apartments. “Skyline taught meh a few of tha shortcuts through tha tower.” She chuckled as she walked to the first door outside of the stairwell and reached back into her bag. “Comes in handy when ah’m in a hurry.”

She fished out a set of keys and held them in her fetlock. With a jingle, she found the right one and hoofed it into her muzzle. She slid the key in and turned the lock. It gave a crisp click before she wrapped her hoof around the doorknob. As she opened the door, the musty stench of stale air bled out into the hall. It was enough to even make Predious blink in surprise.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since we used it, but ‘taint nothin but a bit a dust anyhow.” Harmony cheerfully said as she strode in. The interior wasn’t bad at all for as musty as it smelled out in the hall. The living room had a couple of barely moldy couches, a pair of plush chairs, and a small kitchen tucked off the side. Just from the entryway hall was a small bathroom, along with a pair of bedrooms. “Storm? Y’all can can use the guest bed, seein as it ain’t that big and yah still gotta recover a bit.”

She pointed into the first bedroom that still almost held it’s whole floral theme. Aside from the fact that the plush seat in here had a rusty spring jutting out from the cushion, and a rusty workdesk in the corner, it was almost homey. I nodded to Harmony and peeled off into the room. The bed wasn’t a big one, but it would do. I climbed up onto it and stomped around a bit. A small cloud of dust rose around me and sent me into a sneezing fit. All the quick tenses made my side and legs spike in pain. Without wanting to, I fell over onto my side onto the bedspread.

“Ow.” I groaned out.

“Y’all alright in there?” Harmony called out from out in the hall.

“Yeah, just getting comfy.” I said. Might as well get used to it, seeing as we were stuck here until dawn tomorrow. I shifted myself a few times on the lumpy mattress before I finally found a section that didn’t press against any of the healing areas on my ribs. With a hesitant sigh, I brought my pipbuck up and switched on the radio. Who knows, maybe the wasteland news will be on and I can beat my head against my pillow in my depression until I fall asleep.

For once, it wasn’t the news. It was a song I hadn’t heard much in my time listening to the radio. It’s slow beat was accompanied by the voice of a mare, or at least what I assumed was a mare. It was hard to tell, as the lyrics were talking about another mare. Honestly, I didn’t care as I just relaxed and listened to it. I hadn’t taken notice that my eyelids had shut, and before I’d knew it, I was sound asleep on the bed.

* * * * * * * * *

“Goooooood morning, wasteland!”

The jarring voice ripped me from the sound sleep I’d been in. I fumbled with my tired hooves and clicked the radio off. As I roused myself back to the world around me, a spike of dull pain shot through my side. Turns out that for as comfy as it was, my ribs still disagreed with the lumps in the old mattress. I let out a particularly long yawn as I stretched myself out. I don’t know how long I’d napped, but I was glad to not have any wild dreams in it this time. As my brain finally woke up, I thought to check the pipbuck to see what time it was.

5:16AM

“Shit.” I’d never admit to being the most gracefull morning pony out there, but I didn’t think I’d nap through the whole damned night. As quickly as I could coordinate, I slipped myself off the bed and opened the door to the rest of the apartment. As I stepped out, I bumped muzzle first right into Predious.

“Oh good, you’re up.” He remarked as he simply pushed past me. “There’s still breakfast on the table, if you’re hungry that is.” He opened the door with his magic and shot a look back at me. “The others are already downstairs, but I suggest you do eat. Who know’s what we’ll find on that island.” With that, he continued through and shut the door on me. I hated how he always wanted the last word on something.

Whatever. He made a good point about eating, and I do feel hungry. A few hay fries and most of a sparkle cola had been all I’d had since this time yesterday. I trotted over into the kitchen section to find a still warm pot of boiled oats sitting in the center of the table. I served myself up a bit of the mush into a bowl and practically drank it down. From the other bedroom, there was a soft giggle before the door opened.

“Oh, Storm. You’re still here.” Short Staff said abruptly before he closed the door behind him in his magic. A bit of oatmeal dripped down my muzzle as I turned to look at him. He wore a heavy blush and pressed back against the door behind him. “I was just… rather... “ He paused and scrunched up his muzzle. The thought that I looked that stunned yesterday made me want to kick myself. “Toaster repair, for a friend.” He spat out too hastily. “Came out to get the spatula.”

“It’s fine, I was just leaving.” I shrugged and set the empty bowl down onto the table. Not that I would have liked to stay otherwise, this place had just become a bit too weird. Even for how fucked up my life had gotten recently. I trotted back down the hallway and got out of that apartment as fast as I could.

Once I’d made my way to the stairs, I relaxed a bit. I couldn’t worry about other shit now. Break time was over, and it was finally time to get back after the only pony who matters in the wastes anymore. Reaching the lobby floor, I’d pushed the door open and run straight into Shadow.

“Oh! There you are!” He yipped as my nose squeaked against his flank armor. He turned around and put his hoof on my shoulder. “You doing alright there?”

“Yeah, but I seem to be having a real problem not sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.” I remarked as I rubbed my muzzle. I’ve run into enough trouble in the last month that physically running into things was about all I had left to inconvenience me. From behind Shadow, poked two muzzles. Both Gauge and Tasteless were on the other side of him just standing around. Something seemed a bit off with them though as they were standing rather close to eachother. I raised my eyebrow at Tasteless. “I’m surprised you aren’t in lockup again.” I gave her a frown. “And here I thought my friendship was based on my breaking you out of somewhere.”

“If you wanted, I could always kill somepony.” She shrugged and looked over to get support from Gauge. Unfortunately, Gauge still had some semblance of equinity in her and she looked disgusted by the proposition. Tasteless sighed. “Or I could just sit here and not cause problems I guess.” She glanced over at me again. “But you know, whatever is more fun for you, I’m up for.”

“What I want to do is find the others,” I really just wanted to get going. Friendship city would be a bit of a walk, and I wanted to do it while it was still dark. Even though they weren’t tough to fight, all the armor in the world couldn’t save anypony from a lucky shot. That or another high explosive rocket.

“Outside.” Gauge said simply as she pointed her hoof the other was down the hall from us. I looked and saw Longbow standing outside the entrance to the tower, talking with Fruit Cup and Frosty. “She wanted to talk with my parents about coming with us.”

“What?” I asked before I looked back to her. This would be a hell of a task, and we didn’t even know what we’d find on the other side of that tempest. Could I really risk having even more ponies dying on account of me not objecting. “Why do we need more ponies?”

“Because they are both mechanical geniuses.” Gauge said as if she were insulted. She waved her cyber hoof in my face. “You see, if whatever is inside that storm is pony made, the Rangers need a way to identify if it’s controllable or not. That’s what we do.”

“That may be what they do, but that wasn’t our agreement.” I snorted. “Don’t you think you should be getting back to your brother soon?”

“Fuck that!” Gauge spat at me. “You can’t just tell me you’re going somewhere like this and just expect me to stay behind.” She huffed and trotted around us. “Seriously, what the hell else would I do with myself. Fight those zombie things?” She yelled back as she headed toward her parent’s. “Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Well, I’ll give her one thing.” Tasteless chortled under her breath. “She pisses you off. That’s a win in my book, so I say keep her around.”

“You don’t get a say, but thanks for the vote.” I shot back at her. I did my best to give her my annoyed look, but she only seemed to enjoy my anger more. I gave up. “You know what? Let’s just get going.” I rolled my eyes and turned toward the doors leading outside.

As we trotted down the hall to the doors, I couldn’t help but think we were taking too many with us. Without knowing what we’ll run into, it could either be imperative that they all came. Or, it could be a complete disaster, and instead I’d get them all killed. What choice did we have? I guess throwing everything we had at the necromancer was our only real choice regardless of what I thought.

“Ah, there you are, Storm.” Longbow smiled weakly as I pushed through the door. She looked more tired and weary than I’d ever seen her. Her eyes were the most out of place, almost looking right through me. “As I was just telling Frosty and Fruit. There is a prerequisite to this favor.”

“They do understand what’s at stake here, right?” I grumbled. Really, if I had to march someplace else in the wasteland on some stupid job, I think I’d just lose it and murder every stupid steel ranger in that base. I watched as Longbow simply nodded.

“When you get to wherever it ends up being, the rangers simply ask that some of them accompany you.” She gave a short nod to the others. “Frosty, Fruit, Gauge, and their son Diesel will accompany you, as well as a pair of paladins for good measure.” As she said her name, Gauge gave a light squee through her closed muzzle.

“Great, foalsitters.” Tasteless muttered under her breath.

“As much as you think that, the rangers don’t mess around.” Longbow said sternly and shot a glare at the cyberghoul. After a moment, she returned a softer gaze to me. “Look, I’ve seen some bad prewar places, and this place will more than likely be worse.” She reached over and put both her hooves on my shoulders, staring directly at me. “Know this. Don’t touch anything you don’t have to, and get out of their as fast as you all can. Pre-war places like this tend to destroy themselves rather than be revealed.”

“I don’t plan on staying for long.” I tried to reassure her, but something told me that she didn’t seem to buy it. “Only as long as it takes to kill that asshole.” I brushed her hold on me off. “Thank you, for all your help.”

“You’re welcome.” She said before she stepped up and gave me a surprising hug. “Keep my daughter safe.” They whispered into my ear.

“I’ll do my best.” I whispered back before I gave her a pat on the back. “Now if you’ll excuse us all, we have a boat to catch.”

--Chapter End--

“It's better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty - Tale of Two Towers

“He's plotting a way to journey home at last; he's never at a loss.”

What was I doing with my life?

The trip to the docks had been quick and uneventful. Most of the Steel Rangers in that area did a good job keeping the raiders at bay. Wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t care. The barge ride over to Friendship Island was a smooth one as well. Everything had gone as expected so far, but it just felt like the calm before the storm.

I sat alone in the cold morning air on a bench at the edge of the island. It wasn’t a particularly bright day today, but the ruins of Manehatten looked darker than ever. The sight pushed a thought into my head. Maybe the necromancer had the right idea. Maybe this was where we’d been heading, and what he’s doing is for the best. This city died a long time ago, but even in it’s death, it’s carried on. That continued existence had done nothing but cause more pain and suffering for those who refuse to give in and give up.

With a heavy sigh, I shifted my weight on the ice cold bench. I was such a fucking hypocrite. Here I was, supposedly some sort of bearer of ‘hope’, basicly on the edge of giving in to despair. I don’t know what happened to me. Everything was fine back at Tenpony. But now, from out here? Everything looked so… hopeless.

I mean, really. We were about to get on a century and a half old boat, sail into the biggest and most dangerous storm in history, and take on a pony with unparalleled magic. What fucking hope did we have?

“Cheer up, sis.” Pai chimed up. She blipped into my vision in blue. She wore a sad smile, one which I was sure I didn’t even have the will to wear myself. “It’s not that bad. You’re just nervous is all. Everypony get’s nervous.” She put her hooves up to her muzzle and forcefully dragged her smile wider. “You just gotta keep a good attitude.”

“Thanks, Pai.” I nodded softly. “You know, we haven’t talked for a while. How are you holding up?”

“Oh, you know. I’m hanging in there.” She lowered her hooves and shrugged. “I’ve just… had a lot on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?” I sure hoped she did. From the tone she had, it sounded like it could do us both some good.

“It’s mostly just me missing Iron Will.” She sniffled and gave me a small, but genuine smile. “I know I had a long time with him, but it’s hard to move on from that.” She gave a soft, crying whine. “I know it’s selfish to have taken so much time to myself. I should have tried to help more often when you were in trouble.”

“No, you weren’t being selfish.” Goddesses know that Pai was practically a saint compared to what I’ve asked these last few weeks. “If it helps, you can take all the time you need.”

“No, it’s time I grew up.” She shook her head and wiped away her tears. “I need to move on from him. You’re all I’ve got left, and I can’t put you at risk any longer with being distracted.” She stared at me with a quivering muzzle. “You risked yourself and saved me from dying a slow death in the Orchard. It’s my turn to help you live through this task.”

A small box opened in the corner of my vision. A wavy line wiggled at a constant rate inside of it.

“Pai? What is…?” I began to ask.

“Something I’m not supposed to show you.” She spoke up over me. “It’s a signal being transmitted from this city. It’s pattern matches the wavelength to the tempest you’ll be heading to. Top secret to most, I found it when we entered Manehatten. By breaking the encryption to show you, I left my coding open.”

“What?” This was all so abrupt, I have no idea what she was talking about. “Your coding is open? What does that mean?

“I had to talk with a secure maneframe in one of the basements here. I convinced it to let me access the information, but...” She became even more blue that had been. I didn’t even know the pipbuck could display that dark of a shade. “I’ve broken nearly a dozen wartime protocols by showing you this, so the network made sure other systems would know too.” She turned around and showed her flank to me. On it was a small Ministry of Wartime Technology symbol. “Any spell matrix I try to access now will automatically restrict my access.”

“You’ve been… branded?” Could another computer see what was on her? Is that even how archanotech worked? Why couldn’t I have been more tech savvy? “Is there any way to remove it?”

“No.” She shook her head sadly. “Even if I have to have my memory wiped, it’s in my core coding. Removing it would corrupt me completely.”

“That isn’t necessarily true.” Frosty spoke up from behind me. I didn’t even have time to jump before she had her hoof on my shoulder. “I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but you’re an AP from an orchard if I’m not mistaken?”

“Yes?” Pai answered softly. “How did you...?”

“Well, Fruit Cup and I have done a lot of adventuring in our time. Let’s just say you aren’t the only one out there.” Frost said with a smile. In an instant, Pai changed the screen back to her normal vibrant pink. The mark on her flank however, didn’t disappear. “As I was saying,” Frost cleared her throat before joining me on the bench. “If somepony were to get to the physical maneframe that branded you, theoretically they could use the attached terminal to also clear you.”

“Only if you had the correct clearance.” Pai spoke up. It felt odd to be the third wheel in a conversation between a Steel Ranger and my pipbuck. “But if you could find the source of the signal, you might be able to find where the mainframe is.”

“Storm, if you don’t mind?” Frost said as she hooked her hoof around mine and brought my pipbuck up to her nose. “Huh, Doppler was always the radio expert, but looks like background noise to me.”

“Trust me, it’s coming from this location.” Pai chirped. “I very much doubt that background radio waves would have this secure of a mainframe.”

“If this is what you say this is, then it’s a fairly wide band broadcast. It takes a lot of constant, uninterrupted power to run a transmitter like this.” Frosty dropped my hoof and rubbed at her chin. “Theoretically, the tidal generators on the old bridge remains might be strong enough to still be powering it.”

“It would have to be spliced into the power source directly.” Pai gasped. “Maybe it’s in the sub basement!”

“You know, you might be right.” Frosty smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “I think I’m going to go down there and take a look.” She pulled herself to her hooves and stretched out. “I originally came out to tell you that we got word from base that the Nautilus will arrive within a half hour. Make sure you have everything you need, or go up to the markets to get it if you have to.”

“Alright, I’ll be ready.” I replied. With a sigh, I looked back down at my pipbuck. I wasn’t sure ‘ready’ was something I’d ever be for this trip, but we had to do it. Flipping to the inventory, I took a look at the meager supplies I had on me.

“Degenerate.” Frosty snapped angrily.

That snapped my attention back up to her. She snarled as Tasteless stuck her tongue out just to spite her. I had an inkling that Tasteless had gotten to know Gauge during maintenance, but this just means their discussion went a bit ‘deeper’ than that. The two mares passed each other, not dropping their glares at all until they were a good twenty feet apart.

“What a prude.” Tasteless snorted as she hopped over the back of the bench. Her tail nearly missed my head as she did, and when she sat down it was with a resounding clang. Her augments looked much cleaner than they had been before, and she flaunted them as I looked. “Oh, don’t they just shine?” She smiled and gave me the most raunchy smile I’d ever seen from anypony since Ficha.

“Really? With Gauge?” I sighed. Tasteless was a blunt mare, and I was afraid that she really didn’t care about the actions she took.

“What? Was it that obvious?” She asked with a smile. “So you know, it was her that came on to me. She went from admiring my augments, to ‘hey, let’s endurance test their nerve connections’.” She stretched out her wing and brought a cigarette in it to her lips. She looked at me and glanced to my satchel. “Got a light?”

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes and hoofed out my lighter. “How old are you?” I asked as she took it from me. “On top of that, is it even sanitary?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She snorted before she flicked the lighter and lit up. “I suppose I haven’t had a bath in a while, but everything still works down there.” She drew in a heavy breath and tossed the lighter back at me without even looking. A smile crept across her face as she blew out a ring of smoke. “And oh goddesses, does everything still feel great.” She glanced over to me where she found the most horrified expression I could make. “What? Weren’t you shacking up with what’s his feather?”

“What?” Almost immediately I could feel the radiating heat of the blush on my cheeks. “Why do you say that? He’s just a friend.”

“Uh-huh.” Tasteless said boredly. She took another drag from her smoke and leaned back against the bench back. The pose she sat in looked painful, sitting with her rear legs out like that and her back on the bench. She certainly was a weird mare. “Cute cover story and all, but don’t act like nothing happened. Predious told me everything.”

“Ah.” I sighed. After this whole trip thing is over, assuming we aren’t all dead, I’m going to shove my hoof, so far up that jerky-ass bastard’s…

“So bored!” Tasteless whined. “Just tell me how he was already.”

“It’s not like that.” I snapped at her. “I have too much on my plate at the moment if you couldn’t tell. Adding a relationship on top of that would probably kill me.” I reached into my satchel and dug around for my own smokes. With all these fucking questions, I needed one too. I stopped when I thought back to what I’d just said. “Not that I thought about having a relationship with him.”

“Aww, don’t be like that. If something happens to either of you on this mission, you won’t be able to get another chance. Besides, you’ve been rather bitchy lately.” She said calmly as she reached up. With her hooves to her head, she craned her neck and forced it to give a couple of loud pops. “You need to let your mane down and loosen up. Getting your flank plowed might actually do you some good.” She let out another smoke ring that wafted away in the cold morning air. “At least taking the stick so far out of your…”

“Okay, that’s enough.” I grunted. “Fine, I get it. It’s obvious what I think about him.” I curled my hoof around my smokes and pulled them out. Sticking one of them in my muzzle, I leaned back against the bench. “Still, I don’t have the time to deal with it. After this is all over, maybe I’ll talk to him about it.”

“See?” Tasteless chuckled. “How hard was that? You’re practicly fucking already.” She sat up slightly and leaned over to me. “Though, you might not want to wait too long. Who know’s if we’ll make it back from this little excursion.”

“I said I’ll think about it, and that’s all you’re getting.” I rolled my eyes and lit my smoke. Seriously, when did I start taking relationship advice from a pony like her? Oh yeah, when it became so unbelievably fucked up that we might all die today. Right.

“Storm?” Gauge called from behind us. “Mom needs you down in the basement.” She scrunched up her muzzle as I looked over. “I mean, Frost needs you. She said she knows where the signal is coming from?”

* * * * * * * * *

“What do you mean it’s coming from another Orchard?” I snapped. One was a bad enough nightmare to get through, even without somepony like the Necromancer to deal with.

“Sorry sis,” Pai squeaked and shrank in my vision. “The signal is only being routed through here, but it’s being sent through a cable that this mainframe says is an unregistered orchard.”

In the lowest level of Friendship City, and behind all of the electrical equipment, sat a rusted box. Opening that box had revealed a very water damaged terminal, one that Frosty had used to pull up the mainframe on. It was funny how something so inconspicuous could be the cause of so many mysteries. That was the point of hiding though.

“How many of these things did they fucking build?” Fruit Cup grunted and kicked at the floor. “There were only supposed to be seven!”

“Honey, calm down.” Frosty turned back from terminal and gave him a stern look. “We know what we’re against, and that’s more than anypony has had before.” She froze up for a moment. Quickly, she turned and started typing on the terminal. “If it’s like the other Facilities, maybe there’s an AP in there as well!”

“Kinda thought it would be bigger.” Predious muttered under his breath.

“What do you mean?” I turned around to find him surprised by my question.

“The mainframe.” He snorted. “Normally, they’re fairly large. Large enough that it should have had it’s own room.”

“Well, if anypony knew, it would be Pai.” I shrugged and held out my pipbuck. “Why don’t we ask her?”

And she never popped up.

“Pai?” I said as I brought the pipbuck back to my face. The silence I got in return was disconcerting to say the least. I glanced up to Predious, who seemed just as confused as me. “When I said she could take time to herself, I didn’t think she’d take it now.”

“Hey!” Frosty remarked as she took a step back from the terminal.

“Sorry!” Pai’s voice crackled from the speaker on the box terminal. With a flicker, the screen of it refreshed and displayed a little green smiling pony. “When you said there might be an AP on the other end, I had to see for myself!”

“But… I thought you couldn’t go to any other systems.” I said as I pushed past Frosty. It was odd to see Pai like this. She was rendered so simply here, it was… odd.

“Well, yeah. But as I’d said, I broke into this particular system. I left the backdoors open and slipped in again.” She made the screen flicker again and she disappeared for a few seconds before returning. “Speaking of back doors, look what I found!”

A loud hiss emitted from the wall next to us. With a mechanical whine, it split along the center and folded inward. Inside this hidden room, was an odd collection of things. A shelf, littered with archanotech parts, scrap metal, and tools lined the entrance wall. A foot or so past that, the room opened up to a large looking computer. In front of it were a pair of rotted away chairs, and two skeletal ponies sitting between them on the floor. Their bones we’re intertwined, and I shuddered to think about what their last moments were.

“Neat, huh!” Pai’s voice boomed through the large terminal screen in front of us. The screen was dim, and the white line that ran across it moved as she spoke. I’d overlooked it because I thought it was just white paint. “This system is much more accommodating than a pipbuck! This has a lot of power behind it, and it makes me feel so good!” Her voice emphasized her words like I’ve never heard out of her before. It scared me. “And it’s comfy. It’s like I was meant for this system.”

“Don’t grow up too fast.” Frost called out. It was her turn to push past me in a hurry. I almost lost my balance when she did, and when Fruit Cup pushed past me as well, I flopped over.

“Hey, it’s not like this thing is going anywhere.” Predious snorted and walked over to me. He held out his hoof to me and rolled his eyes. I wrapped my hoof around his and was surprised when he almost effortlessly picked me up. “Besides, don’t we have a ship to catch?”

“Submarine, actually.” Pai remarked casually. The white line on the screen fuzzed and became a large selection of jumbled, scrolling information. “Wow, this thing is connected to quite a few other systems. I’m going to have so much fun figuring everything out!” She squeaked through the speakers hard enough that a spark shot out of one of them. “On second thought, maybe I should slow down.”

“Hey.” I whispered as I leaned towards Predious. “What’s a submarine?” I recalled that I’d heard Harmony and her mom say the word a few times, but I never really cared.

“It’s a boat that travels underwater.” Predious blurted out. He looked down at me with a confused look. “Seriously, you’re pre-war and you didn’t know that?” Now why did he have to go and say something like that?

“What did you say?” Fruit Cups shot his glance back.

“Nothing.” I snarled at him. In that moment, I could feel the flames inside me ignite again. They’d been so calm recently, I wasn’t sure why they’d chosen now to flare up. “Just, ignore him.”

“O-okay.” Fruit Cup flashed a nervous smile before he looked back toward the computer. His legs shook for a second before he sat down, scooting closer to Frosty as she worked at the console controls under Pai.

Seriously, what was it with some stallions that they couldn’t stand up when a mare got angry? Whatever Frosty saw in him as a husband, it wasn’t his ability to be steadfast against a threat, that’s for damn sure.

“Storm, you need to calm down.” Predious said as he put his hoof on my shoulder. I turned and glared at him. He couldn’t tell me what to do. He was just…

My thoughts dropped off as I stared into his eyes. Even through his, I could see how brightly mine were glowing blue. I felt my anger wash away into nothing, and the glow faded with it. As the tension left, and the adrenaline wore off, I could feel my heart beating quickly in my chest. Was I really that worked up?

“Ooo! The orchard is pinging my mainframe!” Pai gasped. Her smiling face came back up on the display for a moment. Then, everything went dark. Every light on the mainframe and even the lighting in the basement died all at once. Nopony down here moved a muscle for nearly a minute.

“What happened?” Predious whispered.

As if they were words imbued with magic, the sound of soft humming came from inside the mainframe. The whirring of cooling fans met our ears, then came a quick flicker on the mainframe monitor. A small green line of text appeared in the bottom corner.

System Ready

“Huh, looks like it shut itself down.” Fruit Cup said as he peered over Frosty’s shoulder.

Pred gave a soft gasp and stiffened up. A spike of fear ran through me as I probably came to the same conclusion. Back where I’d found her, Pai said she couldn’t shut down or she’d die!

“Is Pai still there?” I spat out and shoved myself between Frosty and Fruit. “Is she safe?”

“Only one way to find out.” Frosty sighed. She hit a few keys on the console and struck the return key. After a few seconds, the random lights around the mainframe flickered on, and the lights in the basement returned.

“Oh, she’s good.” Pai hissed through the speakers. The waving white line we’d originally seen returned and wiggled as she spoke. “She thinks she can lock me out of the system? Well she was made from Me.” Pai nearly growled through the speakers. “Frosty, if you would be so helpful as to manage our own backdoors, I’m going to show her what a mistake it was to try to kill me.”

“Who’s ‘she’?” Predious got out what we were all thinking.

“The orchard AP who I just stole half the project files from.” Pai answered both audibly and through the screen. Grainy pictures of a sunny island popped up. It showed what looked to be an old Pre-war resort, complete with happy ponies running along sun baked beaches. “She runs The Omega Orchard and it’s Tempest generator.” As she flipped through the pictures, the multistoried hotel gained a new structure on the top of it. The more pictures she flipped through, the taller it grew, until it looked like it beat the height of any ruin here in manehatten.

“Great Goddesses…” Frosty muttered under her breath. “Is that…?”

“As you know, the island is protected by a class five hurricane. It is generated by this,” Pai said shortly before changing the picture to a large room. The room looked like many that existed in my orchard when I was a filly. The only exception, was a rectangular case that was built into the floor. It had caution strips around its rim, and what looked to be plenty of failsafe levers around it. “Storm, you might remember that my Orchard had a semi-dormant Windigo kept for research. That research was applied on this one to create the perpetual storm.”

“Yep, we’re all screwed!” Fruit Cup whined.

“Oh, be quiet, dear.” Frosty snipped at him.

“As great as that is to know,” I spoke up over the two of them. “Why is the necromancer going there?” It’s not like he needed the windigo, he could have gotten the one on my orchard even before I showed up. So what was it?

“The only thing I could guess, is that he wanted to get into the secure storage vault under the resort. The Ministry of Arcane Technology used it to store all sorts of antiques and artifacts.” She sighed and cleared the screen of the pictures. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t get any more before she spiked me.”

“It’s more than enough, Pai.” I smiled my first genuine smile of the day at her. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“I’ll be more than alright if Frosty helps me out against her.” She projected a beaming smile across the screen before turning it back into the wiggling line. “If she stays here, we might be able to override some of the island’s systems from here.”

“Then I’m staying too!” Fruit Cup yelled and nearly dove onto Frosty. “I won’t go without her.” He wrapped his hooves around her so tightly that it looked like he was squeezing the air from her lungs.

“Dear, please.” Frosty grumbled and forcefully pulled his hooves from her. “You can do much more good if you go with them. There’s only one command console here anyway, so you couldn’t help.” She leaned up to his muzzle and gave him a quick kiss. “You need to look out for our family over there.”

“Yes... honey.” Fruit sighed softly.

“Great!” Harmony called out from behind us. “Cause if y’all are ready ta go, tha boats here an’ waitin’!.”

“Don’t worry, Storm.” Frosty looked up to me and gave me a confident nod. “With my armor, we’ll make sure to keep in touch using the Nautilus’s communications. You just get there and kick that bastard’s ass.”

“We’ll try our damnedest!” Predious chuckled as he threw a hoof around my neck. “And we aren’t coming back until he’s dead. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah.” I said in earnest. “For once, I think we’ll be able to do this.”

* * * * * * * * *

I wasn’t sure what I’d expected when Predious told me it was a boat that went underwater. Whatever it was, the truth both made sense and scared me at the same time. Even before we’d all boarded, the place was cramped. Exposed pipes and electrical lines ran through every room, and the hallways were barely big enough for one and a half ponies to get through, let alone a pony in power armor. Hell, we’d spent the better part of twenty minutes being lead through a maze of hallways and stairways just to get to where we could stay out of the way.

“Now I know what a stable dweller feels like.” Predious muttered from behind me as we both squeezed ourselves into the bunk room. Funny they should call it that, seeing as it was just an area where there were twelve or so hammocks hanging from the pipes. Not so much the same as half the military bases in equestria.

“Yeah, but at least you don’t have to live here.” Tasteless commented from one of the lower hanging hammocks. “Also, dibs on this bunk.”

“The journey should only take a few hours.” A mare spoke up from the doorway. “Also, speaking from experience, this is much more cramped than a stable.” I looked up and saw something I hadn’t been expecting. “You may relax if you like, but I take pride in my crew’s efficiency.”

The batpony mare that stood in front of me wore a tight fitting naval outfit, and a short billed officers cap. All but the bangs of her purple mane had been tied in a low hanging bun, while the two long strips framed alongside her face. It pulled my attention directly to her yellow eyes, which were unfocused, but friendly. Funny enough, she didn’t look like she had any wings.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Tasteless blurted out suddenly.

“Of which do you refer?” The mare’s expression became more stern as she spoke, but her voice was still one of kindness and courtesy. “The fact that I am of the batpony variety, or the fact that I am blind?”

“Woah, woah.” Tasteless giggled. I so greatly wanted to reach over and smack her hard. “So wait, you're blind as a…”

“Yes.” The mare snapped. Now she both looked and sounded angry. “As a batpony. That joke never get's old.” She grumbled and turned around to leave.

“Excuse me, Miss?” Predious spoke up. As he did, I turned my gaze to Tasteless and prayed that my eyes were glowing enough to beat it into her head that she was being a bitch.

“That’s Captain to you.” The mare retorted. “Captain Doppler.”

“I don’t mean to make light of it, but navigating a ship as cramped as this while blind is fairly remarkable.” Predious sat down in one of the lower hammocks and canted his head.

“I'd been aboard this ship for years even before I was her captain.” She said with her soft voice again. “For most of my life, living aboard her has been my livelihood.” She gave us a soft smile as she spoke. “I know her and her crew inside and out. Sure we replace both parts of her and crew ponies now and again, but she never changes enough for me to become unfamiliar.” Her smile faded. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to the con.”

“What an interesting mare.” Predious sighed as he laid back into his hammock.

Speaking of interesting ponies, I hadn’t seen Gauge or Shadow since we boarded. I wonder where they’d run off to. As I pondered that, there was a knock at the door. I spun around to find an annoyed muzzle pushed close to my own.

“We need to have a chat.” Diesel grunted. He stepped back out into the hallway and pointed his hoof down to the other end. “Last door on the right. Gauge is waiting.”

“I’m sorry Gauge broke me out, but I won’t apologize.” I groaned in annoyance. Really? He was blaming me for everything that happened? “If you hadn’t held me hostage to play twenty questions, I wouldn’t have mistrusted you.”

“As true as that might be, there is the right way to go about things, and the wrong way.” He snapped back at me. “Getting my sister involved, dragging her halfway around the wasteland, and nearly getting her killed is not the right way.”

“You will respect that mare, Diesel.” Skyline called from the hallway. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her walk closer. “She’s probably the only reason that Gauge made it the entire way, and she’s the entire reason you’re mother made it to Tenpony alive.”

He didn’t drop his glare at me, but he did at least keep his muzzle shut. After a few moments, he straightened himself out and walked down the hall out of sight. From behind him, entered not just Skyline, but Shadow. She grunted as she squeezed the two of them into the bunk room and let him flop down onto the floor. Thank goodness for the slimmer enclave power armor I guess.

“He’ll be fine,” She snorted before she gave a small flap of her wings. She floated up to one of the upper bunks and rolled herself into it. “There’s a reason pegasi avoid working on boats.” She sighed and rocked herself slowly. “It’s amazing you’ve managed to get the three of us on here.”

“Heh. Three pegasi and a bitch board a submarine,” Tasteless chortled. “Sounds like the start of a bad joke.”

“The real funny thing about all this, is that many of us think we’re prepared for what we’ll find when we get there.” Skyline spoke up in an exaggerated tone. “I’ve been in this situation before. It always ends up with somepony dead by the end of it.” Normally, I’d be alright with getting Tasteless to shut up, but that was just morbid. “It’s a joke that you think you might walk out of that place at all.”

“You can’t focus on the negativity, Skyline.” I sighed and sat down. Yeah, feeling like we’re going to fail is my job, afterall. “We’ve got more info on what we’re walking into than anypony. We’ve got the support of the Steel Rangers. We can do this.”

“I’m not being negative.” She growled and peeked her head over her hammocks edge. “I’m being realistic. The sooner you start thinking the same, the less it will hurt when the shit hits the fan.”

“You see, Skyline?” I couldn’t help but share Preds smile. Sure, Sky might have had some bad times years ago, but with all of us together, we were strong enough to win. “We’re going to show up early, kill that asshole before he does what he’s there for,” I looked up at her to see her roll her eyes at me. “And absolutely nothing is going to go wrong.”

Just as I finished those words, there was a resounding boom from somewhere in the ship. The walls shuddered and groaned, and the sound of a bursting pipe down the hall wiped the smirk from my face.

“I knew it!” Fruit Cup screamed from down the hall. “We’re going to die!”

Fuck me and my big muzzle.

--Chapter End--

“It simply would have been rude for reality not to respond to a challenge like that.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty One - Orchard Omega

“I am the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end.”

“Where’s my status report?” Captain Doppler’s voice boomed through the intercom system.

The smell of smoke and fire filled the hallways, and panicked crew members scurried up and down the halls. A very disconcerting groan that felt like it came from the whole room made the mane on the back of my neck stand up. In the back of my mind, I’d wondered if this thing couldn’t make it a half hour out before shit goes wrong, how reliable is this thing going to be getting us there? Hell, are we even going to make it back?

“You were saying something about nothing going wrong?” Skyline snorted from her bunk. Of all the times she could piss me off, now was not a good one. I simply ignored her and gathered myself.

“I don’t intend to die in this deathtrap today,” I snapped back at her. “Maybe you should make yourself useful and find out how you can help.” I shucked off my things, seeing as they’d only get in the way. As I did, Predious wrapped his hoof around my leg.

“I know you want to help,” He tightened his grip and shook his head. “but unless you know how to fix the complex workings of a pre-war underwater vehicle, you’re better off staying out of their way.” He was being stern, but I knew he was right. “Considering you didn’t know what a submarine was until this morning, I really doubt you’ll do any good out there.”

“No, you wont.” A mare’s voice came from the doorway.

I spun around to see what I assumed was one of the crew members standing in the doorway. She was a sharply dressed unicorn, and in her magic she held a pistol that was aimed at me. A smile hung oddly across her muzzle, and her eyes looked like those under the Necromancer's control.

“I have come to tell you this, Abomination,” The mare spoke. The way that she said things used his inflections, his words. The mare in front of me was gone, only a shell left to serve. “know that I will not be stopped, and that your 'wasteland' will fall. I have used this one to make sure that you will not interfere again.”

“She’s not the abomination here.” Predious growled and took a step forward. “She’s the guardian of hope, and she will stop you.”

The mare corrected her aim and fired. The shot sparked off the floor next to Pred and I. Predious flinched as the mare trained her sights on his head.

“It matters not what she is.” He laughed through the mare. “There will be little that any of you can do from the bottom of the sea. I may know little of what became of this world, but I know that not even the magic of friendship could save you now.” The mare bobbed her head and smiled wider before locking her eyes on me. “Oh, but that does remind me. I’ve enjoyed your friends. They’ve made for the best kind of company.”

“Go fucking die in a hole.” I snapped. My friends were going to make it out of here. Every single fucking last one of them, even if I had to drag them out myself.

“I'm afraid, that's already what you're currently doing.” He sputtered between chuckles. Those chuckles became laughs, which in turn built into a roaring hysteria. He caught himself between laughs just long enough to look at me. “See you never!”

With that, he forced the mare’s gun against her head, and pulled the trigger.

She crumpled to the floor, dead. As she lay there, her lifeless eyes held an emotion. It was fear. That mare was somepony before all this, she had a life before he took her and ended it. Just thinking about it made the flames inside me roar to life. Without any hesitation, or idea of what to do, I bolted out into the hall.

A thin curtain of smoke came from the back half of the sub, so that’s the way I went. There was another heavy groan from the metal as the whole floor seemed to slope down before me. The lighting in the hallways went out for a moment, shifting to a crimson red color as an alarm filled the halls.

We didn’t come all this way, lose all these ponies, just to lose now. As I nearly galloped down the labyrinth of halls, the smoke grew thicker. I could hear the Rangers ahead coughing, and as I turned another hallway, my hooves started to splash through freezing cold water.

“I don’t care what Doppler says, Cottage!” Diesel growled from up ahead of me. “You order her back out of there, now!” With that kind of intensity, I could only guess that Gauge has once again gone and done something stupid. The further I went toward them, the higher the water got.

“If somepony doesn’t get those bulkheads closed, we’ll lose the whole sub.” The voice of a stallion angrily snapped back. “Question my orders again, and I’ll have you courtmartialed when this is all over.”

“You want them closed?” Diesel said as he splashed through the water. There was a grunt and a scuffle. When I finally waded my way over, I could see the two stallions pressed up against the wall. Diesel had his hoof across the brown stallion’s neck, nearly choking him. “You go close them yourself.”

Not wanting to deal with any of this, I used the fact that they were out of the way to squeeze by. I made it up to the closed door they were near before Diesel noticed. Whatever he said was drowned out by the enormously loud squelch the door made as I twisted the handle for it.

I didn’t have to even open the heavy steel door myself. The water coming from the next room did the work for me. The hallway beyond dropped off into a staircase that lead to a lower level. It was nearly full of water, and I couldn’t even see Gauge in the dark water.

“Hey! You can’t just go in there!” The other stallion behind me yelled. I simply ignored him and dove into the hallway.

That had been a mistake. The freezing water washed over me and felt like a thousand tiny pricks all over my skin. I tried to open my eyes to see where I was going, but they burned when I did. I was going to have to do this blind.

I felt something cold next to my hoof, colder than the water even was. As I brushed it, it caught onto me and dragged me down. Out of reflex, I opened my eyes again. While it burned, I could see a familiar red mane floating in front of my face. Gauge pulled herself over me and kicked her rear legs hard. She used me as a way to propel herself up and broke the surface.

My lungs burned, and I fought to keep the water from getting in through my nose. I too kicked hard and fought to get to the surface. Gauge was pulled free of the water right in front of me, and I could mentally relax a bit. I just hoped that she had managed to seal the doors down there, because this cold was sapping my strength faster than anything. With a final few kicks, I broke the surface.

“C-come on, we n-n-need to s-seal this!” Gauge half coughed out as she stood shivering in the hallways. Diesel reached a massive hoof over and hooked it around my leg. With a swift tug, he pulled me from the frigid water and back to where I could stand on my hooves.

With my hooves back on solid ground, I found that we had tilted ever further back. Quickly, I turned and hoofed at the door to the flooded section. Diesel pressed himself against the wall and pushed, sliding further under the frigid water as the door began to shut. I used all my strength to help, and shortly after, the other stallion joined in.

As the three of us pushed, the door crept closer and closer to being shut. Diesel let out a grunting yell and strained himself to keep going. Without meaning to, I thought about the mare, about Pallet, and about strangling the life from the necromancer. The flames inside me burned brightly, and I could see the reflection of my eyes in the water. It gave me more strength, and I used it to finally shut that damned door. The handle to the door glowed in Gauge’s green magical aura, and sealed.

“Are all the bulkheads down there sealed?” The brown stallion panted and coughed in the smoke. “What about the spell reactor? Is it flooded?”

“Yeah, we’re clear.” Gauge answered, wading back into the water. She pushed past us to Diesel, throwing her hooves around him in a hug. “The automatic bulkheads sealed the reactor room door. The auxiliary machinery space is sealed but flooded, same with the battery backups.”

“Thank you,” The stallion gave out a long sigh as he trudged his way out of the cold water. “I just hope that now that we’ve stopped the flooding, the Captain knows how to get us topside until we can patch this old gal up.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Does somepony want to tell me what the hell is going on?” Doppler borderline screamed at us. “No more lies.”

After the crew made sure we weren’t going to sink, I was lead to the bridge with Gauge, Diesel, and Commander Cottage Cheese. He’d made sure to remind me of his rank every time he demanded to know why I’d gone after Gauge down there.

Of course, things for me had only gotten worse once they’d discovered the body of the mare who the necromancer had taken over. Her name was Moon Pie, and she had apparently been one of the electrical technicians on board. As I sat hoof cuffed with the rest of my friends in the mess hall, it was hard to find a way to explain things without it sounding contrived.

“She’s telling the truth.” Skyline snapped.

“Quiet!” Cottage Cheese answered using his hoof. He beat Skyline hard over the head, knocking her to the floor. “Insolent primitive.”

“That’s quite enough, Cottage.” Doppler spoke up, making the stallion stiffen up and sneer at all of us.

The brutal stallion was maybe a decade older than me, but he was gone in the head. While I’d thought Diesel was being a bit harsh down there, nearly strangling him, I could now see why he would. On top of being ruthless and arrogant, he was apparently a unicorn. You wouldn’t really know, seeing as he was crazy enough to cut off his horn at some point and file it down.

“Sure, Moon was a recent transfer from Filly,” He spat at me in particular. “But ‘mind controlled’ into sabotage? No ranger would ever put this many lives at risk. They would rather die than give in to such things.”

“Exactly!” I growled out. “She was dead the moment he got to her! Don’t you see, that’s what he does!” I sighed and slammed my face down into the table in anger. Why couldn’t the fire in me help out now? “The entire Steel Ranger bunker in the badlands turned to him. He’s got an army of mindless slaves attacking half the wasteland. You think you’re safe?” I chuckled against the cold steel table. “Unless we stop him, everypony is going to die.”

“He has no use for the living.” Tasteless flatly spoke. “What is it that you don’t get about the idea of a Necromancer?” She smiled in the same way she did when she was about to say something stupid. “I wonder, is it the necro, or the mancing?”

“I said quiet!” Cottage said as he planted a good right hook onto her muzzle.

“And I said that was enough.” Doppler slammed her hoof down hard enough that half the rangers in the room flinched. “Another step out of line like that, and you’ll be spending the rest of the trip in the brig. Is that clear, Cottage?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He growled as he clenched his jaw. After a moment, he glanced over at her. She simply cast her glare in his direction and he yielded, taking a step back.

“I don’t care if you believe us. All that matters is that we get through that storm and kill that son of a bitch.” I knew she couldn’t see it, but I wanted her to see that what I said was the truth. “Do what you must, but we can’t turn back now.”

The room was tense. You could almost feel it as it clung to the air, you could hear it in every nervous shuffle. The captain shut her eyes and perked her ears. For a good amount of time, nopony moved more than just to breath.

“Fine.” She broke the silence and opened her eyes again. When she did, they had a sad look to them. “Fruit?” She turned her gaze toward him. “How long would it take to repair the damage?”

“Well, if what Gauge said was correct,” He ran his hoof through his mane and avoided looking at her. “The improvised explosive took out the access hatch in the aft torpedo room. With that much extra weight back there, all we can do is level out with the forward ballast.” He shook his head and sighed. “The best we can hope for us is that they have some sort of soft bottomed dock we can slide her up on.”

“If we had too, would the beach work?” Doppler said rather coldly.

“It would be better if we could avoid that,” Fruit nervously smiled and fidgeted with with simple prosthetic leg. “But if it came to it, a beach landing would work.”

“Good. Do what you can to mitigate the flooding while we’re underway.” Doppler nodded and turned back toward us. “My orders are to continue on to the island and secure it for the Rangers. That includes removing any hostile forces that may exist there.” She turned her gaze to me and squinted. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth, or an experienced liar, but what happened to Moon Pie cannot be proven. Until we reach the island, you and your cohorts will be detained in the brig.”

“Do what you need to.” I locked my eyes on her. “For your sake, you should keep an eye on any more recent transfers to your crew.”

“Your suggestion has been noted.” She turned to face Cottage Cheese. “Take them to the brig,” She stepped up next to him and put her hoof on his shoulder. “but if you lay a hoof on them again, you can forget ever being up for consideration as star paladin.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” He curled his muzzle into a snarl, but didn’t give her the tone of it.

“I hope the brig at least has cushions.” Skyline sighed. “I still wanted to get in that nap.”

* * * * * * * * *

Contrary to what I’d thought, I’d found it easy to get to sleep in the brig. It’s secluded section was far enough away from most of the ship’s machinery that all we could hear in here was the humming of the lights. For nearly sinking, and heading off onto what was probably a suicide mission, I slept like a foal.

That is, until we hit something.

“Oh goddesses, make it stop!” Tasteless screamed out. She was competing with what sounded like the damn ship itself wailing. The whole room shook, and I’d suddenly found Predious flopped down on top of me. After a moment, everything became still.

The loudspeaker on the wall crackled to life. “This is the captain,” Doppler’s voice boomed nearly as loud as whatever had happened did. “We’ve docked in the subpen at the island. All hooves, make your stations safe and prepare the sub for repairs. Shore team, report to the prep tube and get your gear. That is all.”

The door to the brig squealed as it unsealed and swung out. Through it, stepped the one pony I didn’t want to see.

“Get your shit together.” Cottage snapped. “You’ve had enough of a free ride at our expense, time to work.” He hadn’t even gazed at anypony other than me when he spoke. He turned back and mumbled over his shoulder. “Moon was worth four of you savages.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Tasteless rubbed at an ear with her hoof. Quite spryly, she stood up with a smile. “It’s just that it’s hard to hear you when your head is stuffed so far up your…”

“That’s enough.” Skyline interjected. “We’ll get going.”

We followed the annoying palladin back through the twisting maze of hallways and rooms. As we passed other crew who were hurriedly scurrying around, I noticed that they all ducked into other rooms as we got close, or shielded their faces from us. I was fine with being a pariah in the places I’ve been in my life, but I was never less deserving of it than now. The fact that ponies like Cottage were in charge made it all the more infuriating.

We were lead up to the top most interior deck, tracking through the helm and past rows and rows of arcane machines that I couldn’t even begin to guess what they computed. We stopped in front of a large bulkhead, watching as even Cottage strained to open it while in his power armor. With another squeal, the door unsealed and swung open.

The room beyond was cavernous in comparison to the rest of the rooms on the ship. Nearly twenty feet tall, and almost forty long, it was an odd sight to see on a ship. As we filed into the room, the slanted wall along my left turned out to be a large sloped ramp that lead up to an even bigger hatch facing toward the conning tower of the sub. The hatch was open, and several rangers paced along the edge of it, looking around whatever large concrete structure we’d parked in. I couldn’t see much from here, but I found my attention diverted.

“If I may ask, what was this room used for?” Predious spoke with all the astuteness of a Pre-war museum patron.

“Death.” Diesel called out from around the other side of the ramp. “This room used to store three mega spell tipped missiles.” He walked over from the other side, dragging a small wagon behind him that looked like it held our gear. “When we got her, she only had one left.”

“Well, seeing as it isn’t here, it must mean you used it?” Predious sat down and scratched at his chin in thought. “What on, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Diesel shrugged. “Gotta ask my dad about that. He was there when they used it back in the day.” With a shrug, he unhooked himself from the wagon and took a step to the side. “Get your gear on and meet me up top. If what Gauge told me is true, then we don’t have much time to lose.”

Skyline stepped up to the wagon, giving a grunt as she stretched her wings out. She wore a hollow look across her face as she picked Pallet’s battle saddle out of the wagon and threw it on. In a matter of moments, she’d had it buckled and settled. Without a word, she flared her wings and took off. She zipped out the hatch like a missile, disappearing into the open air outside as the rest of us just stood there.

“Alright, alright, I get it.” Gauge’s voice carried into the room as she and Fruit walked in. Behind them strode the Captain. “I’ll be extra careful, dad. Just, promise me you’ll be careful in those tunnels.”

That perked my ear.

“Tunnels?” I asked, stepping away from the others as they got their gear back. “We need to get into the central spire and to the vault before Filius does.” I scrunched up my muzzle as the necromancer’s name simply rolled off my tongue. When had I started using his name? Moreso, how did I know?

“Pai and mom have been hard at work since we left. They’ve pulled out a wealth of information on this place.” Gauge said with a smile. “She thinks that there might be a way to turn off the storm generator from a mainframe under the island. If my dad can allow her access, we could shut off the storm and get one of the ships from the Baltimare chapter to help set up an outpost here.”

“I’m sorry,” The Captain began. “but I must insist that Fruit Cup be removed from your group and set on this task. I will spare another ranger to accompany you in his place, but this is non-negotiable.”

“Besides, I’d be no use to you in a fight.” Fruit cup gave a nervous laugh and did his best to avoid eye contact with me.

As much as I wanted everypony I could get to fight with me, this was at least something I could understand. They’d agreed to get us here, and in truth, that was more than they should have given me in the first place.

“Do what you must for your people.” I stared directly into the Captain’s eyes. “Thank you for helping us get here, I know it was a big risk to take.” I felt a shiver run down my spine as I spoke from a cold breeze that blew in through the hatch.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t think you know what it has cost.” She sounded angry, nearly snarling at me. “You killed one of my crew, the explosion nearly tore the ship apart, and even if we repair it we might not make it back.” She spat with so much discontent that I felt that maybe I’d insulted her at some point.

“I know, that’s…” I tried to interject, but didn’t make it too far.

“Furthermore, I’m risking the safety of my crew to protect your band of degenerate savages.” She was nearly heaving, her yellow slit eyes nearly ablaze in rage. “You’re lucky I…”

“Doppler!” Fruit cup yelled as he swung across her cheek with his prosthetic. He hit her hard enough that it knocked her captain’s hat right off of her head. Everypony in the room froze as the audible slap became momentarily louder than anything else in the world. All of us, Cottage, even the power armored guards had stopped to watch what would happen next.

“I…” Doppler blinked and frowned at me. Confused, she looked over to Fruit and sat down hard. “I don’t know what came over me.” She shook her head and picked up her hat slowly. Her hoof shook as she reached it out, shaking the hat lightly as she pulled it back up to her head. “Forgive me, that was uncalled for.”

“It’s just your nerves getting to you, Doppler. Just like old times, eh?” Fruit Cup placed his hoof on her shoulder and smiled. “This old gal will stand up to the trip back.” I wasn’t quite sure if he was saying it to convince her or himself. Either way, he didn’t sound too confident. “Storm will kill her target, I’ll get the Tempest generator down, and we’ll all head on back to base.” He leaned closer and wrapped his hooves around her in a tight embrace.

“Pst.” Gauge tried to whisper to Diesel. “What’s wrong with dad? He’s never this optimistic.” I looked over and watched as Diesel simply shrugged.

“He’s afraid.” Shadow called out from behind us. We all turned to find him standing on the ramp in his sleek black power armor. The way that he stood, along with the soft blue light that came off of his one energy weapon somehow reminded me of the old world recruitment posters for the Ministry of Awesome. I found myself smiling at him, thinking about our time on the steps of Tenpony.

“I believe that Storm can, and will get us through this.” His voice ripped me out of my thoughts. He smiled brightly at me as he continued. “She’s already endured more than any of us ever will, and she’s the closest thing we have to a weapon strong enough to win this fight.”

“He said you’re a weapon.” Tasteless leaned over to my ear and whispered to me, “I bet he want’s to wield you… all night long.” I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t worth even listening too.

“I know we all might not come back from this, and that we’re walking into a hell of a fight.” He pointed his hoof up and out of the hatch, casting his gaze there. “But the ponies of the wasteland need us, and She’ll make sure we don’t fail.”

Wow, is this what I sounded like back in Dodge? Sure, I’d thought I sounded inspirational at the time, but this sounds cheesy as all hell from the other side. Still, optimism in the face of danger was, if anything, better than accepting the reality of our task. With everything having already gone so horribly wrong, where was the harm in hoping it all went right from here on out?

A slow clopping came from Cottage as he deadpanned at Shadow. “Right…” He turned to Doppler and Fruit. “Captain, permission to escort Fruit instead of being stuck with the ‘happy sunshine and rainbows’ squad?”

“Request granted.” She spoke sternly. “You and Palladin Vinegret will escort Fruit Cup to the lower tunnels.” With a gruff sigh, she muttered something under her breath that I could just barely make out. “Celestia forbid you actually help the morale around here…”

* * * * * * * * *

There are nightmares out in the wastes that will twist your soul and devour it. Dangerous beings who would rend you in half if you so much as looked at them. These beastly creatures? They would fear this staircase.

“Oh come on, you big foal.” Tasteless taunted me from the control room at the top of this deathtrap. “It's not that bad.”

"Goddesses above, I swear, when I get up there..." I muttered as Pred and I carefully climbed our way up equestria's most rickety stairway. Every step invited a chorus of new groans that trailed down the entire length of the rusting metal carcass. Two centuries of sea air had corroded the fifty foot long stairway until I could feel how much it wanted to push itself away from it's wall mounts and finally die. Probably didn't help that a bunch of heavy assholes stomped up them without a care while wearing power armor and cybernetics.

Why was this the only way out of here anyway? Seems like a stupid idea, I mean, what if there was a fire? Actually, from what I understand, we’re technically underwater, so fire wouldn’t really be a problem then. I shook that thought from my head and instead resigned myself to knowing that it was just a stupid design.

“You mean if you make it up here. Who know’s, maybe we’ll all die of old age before you do.” Tasteless sighed and propped herself against the concrete doorway. “Besides, what are you so worried about? At least you'll die quick if you fall!”

“Not helping! Some of us aren’t immortal undead assholes.” I grunted and shakily put one hoof in front of the other. I’d thought that maybe if I closed my eyes it would help, but it only amplified the rocking that came from the stairs. “Hell, even Pai would be scared, and she lives in the most indestructible thing in the world!” I gave my pipbuck a quick shake. The stairway shifted as I waved, and I resolved never to let my hooves leave it again.

Tasteless shook her head at me. “Please, she's a machine. She doesn't have emotions.”

A soft static-like crackle came from my pipbuck before a halfway muffled cheerful voice came through.

“ I don't have emotions?” She spoke in a happier tone than she should have. It was an odd thing to hear her voice but not have her in my pipvision. Last time she was like that was back when she was still in the other orchard. Pai let out a loud gasp through the speaker. “That's so weird! Right now, my feelings are telling me that I resent you and everything you stand for! I totally can’t have emotions if that’s true! I’m so glad I can now kill you without something as limiting as regret, I mean, isn't that just great?”

“Whatever, bitch. You’re just an arcane construct anyway.” Tasteless sighed and looked boredly down at her metal hoof. “What do I care what you think. You can’t even touch me.”

“Well, you should care, seeing as I can wirelessly access any other local arcane tech. That means that I know what your arguments have been doing in their off time.” As Pai spoke, Tasteless cocked her eye at me. “That’s right, I know that they’ve been sleeping around! And you’ll never guess with who…” Pai trailed off and then gave a pregnant pause. “Spoiler, it’s me!” She jubilantly shouted through the speaker.

“Ugh, still don’t care.” Tasteless rolled her eyes and stood up again. I’d slowed my climb down so I could hear them talk over the squeaks, but Predious was still climbing as fast as he’d been. With him catching up, I picked up my pace again.

“Sure, roll your eyes at me missy, but you're augments know all your secrets.” She let out what sounded to be a static filled giggle, but it came across less like something fun, and more like a villain straight out of my old daring do books. “And you know what? They love to scream when we're…”

“Okay, that’s more than enough banter.” I interjected, not needing this right now. With another grunt, I planted my forehooves firmly on the concrete between Tasteless’ hooves and pulled myself into the room, shoving her out of the way. Panting and still shaking, I’d made it up the nightmarish walkway.

“You know what? You're a pretty ruthless little cunt.” Tasteless chuckled and sounded impressed. “You're alright in my book. You know, for a computer.”

“You have your own book?” Pai gasped out. “I love reading!”

“And there you go,” Tasteless sighed and headed for the door. “you lost it again.”

After a moment to collect myself, I pushed myself off the floor and headed toward the rusted door that lead to the outside. Several holes in the concrete roof let bright beams of sunlight down, but only enough that it let us see the rusting framework of the cargo loading cranes that sat unused above us. Even from inside, I could tell that the normal cloud cover that sat above the wastes was nowhere to be seen.

Stepping through the doorway, I had to shield my eyes from the brightness. Outside of the concrete walkway that connected the Sub pen to the island, white sand beaches stretched around the island in either direction. Still lush palm trees and thick leafed plants lined the upper end of the beaches, while strewn about them were the rusted and tattered reminants of chairs, umbrella’s, and other assorted resort items.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Shadow called out from above. Instinctively, I turned to look up at him, beaming a bright smile as I thought about how great this place seemed at first glance. Unfortunately, for as brightly as I smiled, the blazing sun easily outshined me. “Oh, sorry about that.” He laughed before he fluttered his way out of the air next to me.

“No, no. I’m not used to the sky being so bright.” I blinked a few times, hoping that the glaring afterimage of the bright ball in the sky would fade. As it did, I took a longer, second look around. Out over the ocean in every direction, rose a wall of grey that slowly rotated around us. The perpetual storm rose up what seemed like impossibly high around us, leaving a ring of blue sky just wider than the island itself that the sun currently clung to the edge of.

Five enormous metallic spires sat out in the water, placed at regular intervals around the island itself. They reminded me of the towers that were all across equestria, only much shorter. Each tower had a thick, windowed tube that stretched from near their top, over to the decrepit resort hotel before us. It looked a fair bit different than it had in the images that Pai had shown.

The hotel looked as if it had been encased in cement, standing as a slate grey monolith. Rusted metal shutters covered most of the windows, only a few of them had corroded enough to have completely fallen away. Thick metal pipes clung like massive spider webs to the exterior, tracing around, out, and into the structure. They climbed up to the top before they looked like they joined together as a makeshift pedestal. At the top, sat a wide metallic sphere that even from here, crackled loudly with energy. For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of green near the top, but when I blinked, it was gone.

“It's odd. I'd expected to see more ponies at the docks, and even up here there aren't any remains.” Predious spoke up from behind me. I think he caught us all off guard with that remark. The whole group of us gave a look around to confirm it. For as many as there were about the wasteland, not a single skeleton could be seen up or down the beaches. “Curious, as they would have had nowhere else to go when the end hit.”

“If I knew I was trapped, I'd have gone out at the bar in a drunken stupor.” Tasteless chortled lightly. “Panzy ass bitches probably killed themselves with painkillers in their rooms.”

“Yeah, but this was a military installation at the end, right?” Shadow retorted. “We’re told to wait for extraction if anything like this were to happen, so the docks would have been where they would wait.”

With a sense of dreadful recognition, an annoying thought hit me. “Did you all forget that somewhere on this Island is a necromancer,” I sighed and trudged past them. “Who I shouldn't have to remind you, has a huge head start on us.” I looked up at the base of the hotel, finding that the doors ahead were rendered broken nearly in half and strewn a few feet away. The gaping doorway let the darkness inside threaten us with the numerous horrors that surely waited inside.

It was a darkness that I’d hoped wouldn’t swallow us whole.

--Chapter End--

“Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back.”

Quests Finished: Into The Storm

Quests Started: Tempest

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Two - Tempest

“Flying into a storm, even its outer edges, did not seem like a good idea to me. And this was no ordinary tempest.”

For being as cold as it had been in the wasteland, standing on the beachhead felt like we’d trotted right into an oven. The air was humid and thick, even with the endless breeze that the encircling tempest offered. We watched as Fruit cup and his escort galloped down the beach in search of whatever entrance they’d use to get underground. The rest of us double checked our gear, we couldn’t afford any slip ups.

“Anypony else getting a creepy vibe from that entrance?” Tasteless snorted at us abruptly.

“I was going to mention it,” Skyline called out as she dropped down from behind. “I circled the island, there looks to be a restaurant patio and entrance around the side. Large broken windows, much less creepy inside.” She locked her eyes on me. “I also found a beached boat on the other side of the resort. No one was on it.”

“Then I was right, we’re still behind them.” I sighed. “Alright, we’ll split up...”

“Oh! I’ll take the bar off your hooves.” Tasteless put more effort into shouting that than she’d put into the entire trip. She practically bounced up to me and took my cheeks in her forehooves, pressing her forehead to mine. “I bet they still have the good stuff stocked!”

Previous stepped up and cleared his throat. “You know what,” Predious shoved her off me lightly, “Why don’t you take Gauge and Skyline with you.” He smiled and glanced over to me. “Leave the creepy Lobby to Storm, Shadow and I. I’m sure we can handle it.” Gauge shrugged, and Sky didn’t have anything to say or show about it. To be honest, Sky looked distraught, but I knew it was for a good reason. Soon, we’d get that bastard and at least avenge Pallet.

“Oh!” Tasteless gave a toothy grin. “Remember what I said about your toy, Storm.” She waggled her eyebrows and gave a glance over to a confounded looking Shadow. It was enough to bring a blush to my cheeks. “Might as well get your kicks in!”

“That’s enough crude out of you for one day.” Pred sighed and shoved her away. She seemed to take the hint and trotted down the dock toward the beach, Gauge smiling as she trotted after her. Sky gave me a sad look and a nod before taking to the air and sailing after them.

“What was that all about?” Shadow stepped up and rubbed at his chin. He eyed me peculiarly, and I nearly broke into a gallop toward the darkness to hide my embarrassment.

“Nothing, we need to get moving!” I called back. As unnerving as the darkness was, it would be less awkward than talking about my feelings. Besides, it wasn’t as if I were lying. Filius still had a head start on us, and we needed to gain back some ground.

The breeze whipped around me, and in it, I thought I heard his laugh carry through. It sent a chill down my spine, and made me miss one of my steps. I stumbled across the dirt, landing nose first a few feet from the entrance.

The cracked and weathered olive green tiles that lined what used to be a decorative patio, sat barely visible under the layer of sand that coated it. The sun bleached flower pattern on them was now a disgusting yellow, and did little to help assure me that anything inside would have stood the time with any dignity. With a groan, I picked myself back up off the ground.

“Oh, just a moment!” A voice as rough as gravel, but with a subtly squeak to it called out from the dark lobby ahead.

I panicked and scrambled back to my hooves, taking a few steps back for good measure. I fumbled at my rifle. The bar on my EFS was green, but I had no idea if I could trust it anymore, or if the necromancer’s magic could fool it. Looking back, I found Predious already levitating out the minigun he’d been toting around this whole time. I’d have to remind him how it would have helped in more than one occasion, and that he shouldn’t be so reserved in combat.

Steadily paced hoofsteps echoed through the interior as Pred, Shadow and I stood there, waiting with our guns drawn. My heart felt like it would jump out of my chest. We weren’t in the wasteland anymore, this was an orchard. Who knew what breed of horror this place could produce, or if we couldn’t spare a single moment to take it down.

“I’m so sorry to inform you, but we're closed to the public.” The voice spoke up. Out of the dark lobby, stepped a pony, or, what was left of one. By the shape of the muzzle, it most definitely was a stallion, but his ghoulification left the rest of his light blue body lumpy and uneven. Even the cutie mark of a set of fancy luggage was slowly peeling off his flank. The ragged and faded red, black, and gold uniform he wore was snuggly worn. While the small round hat strapped to his head left just enough of his scalp shown to advertise the last strands of his blue striped mane. Even for his scratchy voice, he spoke with a polite tone. “I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

“A ghoul? How peculiar.” Predious muttered under his breath. I was about to comment before he stiffened up and gained a stern look. “Public? Why, are you blind? Don't you recognize the Duchess of Prance?” He motioned to me. I had no idea what that was, and had no idea how to proceed. With that in mind, I decided that maybe it was in my best interest to keep my muzzle shut. “I should have you fired for your insubordination! What is your name?”

“Bell Hop, sir.” The ghoul replied with less authority in his tone. “Let me apologize, it was my mistake.” He showed us a nervous smile that revealed a muzzle with countless missing teeth in it. “It's been so long since we've had a diplomatic visit. How long and how many will be staying?”

“Six in total.” Predious scoffed with an heir of arrogance too befitting to him to be just an act. “The duchess, her bodyguards, and me, her personal Valet.”

“Oh, excellent.” His eyes brightened and his grin garishly widened. “Do follow me to the front desk,” He chirped happily in what felt like too quick of a turn in his mood. Without hesitation, we all followed him into the darkness.

The lobby was massive. Not even Tenpony had an open space so cavernous and ornate. Polished marble had been painstakingly cleaned, ribbed stone columns rose up into an intricately arched ceiling that showed the cracked mural of the goddesses gazing down to greet us. Numerous well preserved paintings hung on the walls over dusty, but otherwise well kept velvet couches and chairs. Even the flowered vases were crystal clear, providing an odd contrast to the dark wooden coffee and end tables that complemented the layout.

“If I may ask,” Predious spoke up, the room around us reverberating as his voice filled the cavernous space. “How did you come by you’re… peculiar affliction?”

“It just happened one day.” The Bellhop responded nonchalantly, as if it were an everyday question for him. “I was once told something about magical radiation being caught up in the storm outside, but so long as it didn’t affect my work, I never took it to mind too much.” He quickly jaunted around the lobby service desk and hoofed at something under the counter. When he lifted his hoof above it, he produced a corroded key with a small red round bauble attached to the end. “Will the state room suffice?”

“It will do splendidly.” Predious nodded and wrapped his magic around the key.

“Then will you need any baggage brought up?” He trotted his way out from behind the desk, looking over us as he did.

“No, but we must secure the valuables that the duchess has in her possession.” Predious brought back his stern tone again, locking his eyes onto the bellhop’s. “Might we access the secure vault?”

Hesitantly, he gave a pause and looked across us again. For a moment, I’d thought he’d call Pred’s bluff, but he shrugged and his smile returned.

“Once you and the bodyguards are settled in the room,” He nodded for us to follow him as he continued. We were headed for a very sturdy, spacious looking elevator. “I will get the manager to take the dutchess up.” As he was talking, Predious’s expression quickly became one of suspicion, and surprisingly Bell Hop picked up on it. “I assure you,” He smiled, “the duchess and her belongings will be most secure here. You needn't worry about anything.”

“So,” I was confused about what he’d just said. “The vault is up?” Everywhere in the wasteland where something needed to be kept safe, it was always kept underground. When the elevator doors opened, we all shuffled in.

“Of course.” The bellhop eyed me with an odd look. It was about then that I figured that I probably shouldn’t have spoken up at all. He hoofed at a button on the panel and the roomy elevator jerked to life. “Any idiot could dig a tunnel to break in. It takes a special kind of fool to attempt to break into a vault thirty stories up without being noticed.”

“What about a pegasus?” Shadow chimed in with a bit too much enthusiasm.

“The vault is encased in nearly a foot of steel.” The bellhop smirked. “It would take nothing short of a thermal lance to melt through, and I don’t have to tell you how noticeable that would be from anywhere on the island.”

We’d only gone up a few floors, but the elevator slowed and came to a stop. The doors rolled back to reveal another marble foyer. Though this one was much smaller, it was just ornate as the main lobby. A pair of double doors sat before us, which Bell Hop trotted up to and threw open. What greeted us, was a large, open living area. The large windows that opened onto a sunbaked balcony flooded the room with the bright, midday light. Even though the glass had somewhat tarnished with age, most of it still held a clarity not found anymore in the wastes. The sea breeze carried through the white sheets that hung around the windows, and the lush green plants that were potted around swayed in it gently.

It was a serene and somewhat calming sight. Somewhere inside of me, I wondered just how places like this could have ever existed during the war. The three of us walked out of the elevator and took a look around.

“I must return to the lobby and wait for your other companions,” The bellhop spoke up as he trotted past us back into the elevator. “There is an intercom next to the elevator call button. In the case that you require anything during your stay, don’t hesitate to give me a ring!”

“Alright, and thank you for your cooperation.” Predious turned and gave him a polite bow. Once the elevator doors had slid shut, we all let out a breath we’d been holding.

“Duchess?” I snirked and prodded at Pred’s side. “Where the hell did you pull that one from?”

“Prance was a vital ally back in the war,” He shrugged and turned for one of the old, velvety couches. Carefully, he climbed on and got comfortable. “If him being here, still doing his job is any indication, I think he hasn’t quite realized that the war is a century and a half over. Telling them something of the old days has worked for me before.”

“And how would you know anything of the old days?” Shadow inquired, stretching his wings out as he walked about the room.

“He, uh,” I stammered. Pred’s ghoulishness wasn’t something that he need to know right now. “He reads a lot.” I turned to Pred and walked over to him with a question. “Now, how do we convince him that we all need to go to the vault?”

“That is something I’ve been thinking on.” Pred muttered as he sprawled himself out across the couch. He scratched at his chin scruff in thought. “Something feels off about this place. Not once did he seem to question us, at least not verbally. On top of that, if there's one ghoul, then there are other ghouls here as well. Feral or not, it remains to be seen where they are.”

“This place feels too good to be true.” I sighed as I cast my gaze out the windows. The serene calm of it all, as nice as it happened to be, was as unnerving as a quiet night in the wastes. Nothing was ever this calm. “So, what are you thinking then? Trap? A ploy by the necromancer possibly?”

“No, nothing so simple.” Pred grunted and sat himself back up. “Besides, due to the necromantic magic of ghouls, I doubt that the necromancer could even gain control over them with his power.”

“That would only help if the ghouls weren’t somehow persuaded another way.” Shadow tapped his hoof on the floor. “Up above the clouds, nothing is off limits if you truly wanted somepony taken out of the picture. Political moves motivated by lust, greed, or the promise of fame are common place. No pony is incorruptible.”

“Remind me again to never visit up there.” I grumbled, suddenly reminded of the bitch who’d taken me hostage. The abrupt hum of the elevator moving it’s way up caught all our ears, and we once again checked our things. “Alright Pred, once again, I’ll leave the talking to you.”

“Good,” He snorted. “Your question before could have blown our cover.”

I deadpanned at his abrasive jab, but it wouldn’t matter so long as I didn’t screw everything up like normal. With a ding, the elevator doors opened again. From the inside, stepped Tasteless, Gauge, Skyline, and a power armored pony. If I were a guessing mare, I’d guess that it was our Steel Ranger escort that we’d been promised.

“Here we are, folks.” Bell Hop cheerfully remarked with a smile. With Pred sharing my suspicions, the ghoul’s carefree attitude seemed all the more out of place. “So then, if we’re all settled,” He turned his happy glance to me. “Is the duchess ready to be taken to the vault?”

“She is,” Predious spoke up quickly. Tasteless and Gauge shared confused looks, but didn’t speak out. “But I must insist that I accompany her.” Predious gave a cold grin that sent a shiver up my spine. “The goal of our visit is a fragile one, and I cannot leave any detail to chance.”

“Very well then,” Bell Hop returned Pred’s offer with his own cheerful, but cold remark. “Please, right this way then.” He motioned his hoof to the elevator.”

“Cool, guess we’ll just crash here for now.” Tasteless cocked an eyebrow at me, letting a sly grin slide across her muzzle. “Hey Gauge, wanna give me a hoof with something in the other room?”

I’ll never understand that mare.

Predious and I stepped back into the spacious elevator and waited as the Bell Hop hit a button on the panel. I kept my eyes on Predious to see if I could glean anything from his demeanor for how I should be acting. He’d only cast a casual glance at me, but past that, he was a blank note. It really was up to him on how to continue this charade.

Then the elevator jolted, and we started to move… down?

“Excuse me for asking, but why are we going down?” Predious said as he sat down stiffly. The Bellhop didn’t even acknowledge his question, and that sent a red flag up in my mind. “I thought the vault was up?”

For a half minute, we waited for a response, being rewarded with a simple, “It is.” Bell Hop snorted angrily. “But the major said that if anypony showed up asking about things…” He turned his angry glare on us as the elevator slowed to a stop. “that they be brought down for questioning.”

The doors slid back. On the other side, stood a line of ghouls in old equestrian military garb. Each of them had a rifle leveled at Predious and I, with only one of them levitating a pistol in our direction. The pistol wielding ghoul stepped forward, tipping back his red beret with a wheezing sigh.

“I've been monitoring your group since you stepped through the front door.” The ghoul stepped into the elevator as he spoke, keeping his gun trained on me. “I know you aren't diplomats. You're too heavily armed, and that wasn't even close to a Prench accent.” Yup, I screwed things up yet again. What a fucking surprise. “What are you, mercenaries? Spies?”

Okay, I screwed this up, so I can fix this. “Neither.” I shifted uneasily on my hooves and felt myself tense around my pipbuck. The feeling gave me a brilliant idea. “We’re Ministry Officials, actually.”

“That's the largest sack of shit that any pony's tried to feed me in over a century.” The ghoul rasped out a short laugh. He hoofed at his uniform’s pocket and pulled out a small pack of cigarettes. When he lowered his hoof again, I read the name printed on his uniform as Mjr. Hammock. “But, it’s been a very long time since we’ve had an incursion. Tell you what, The boys and I are bored, so I'll humor you for now. I assume you have some sort of forged documents with you?”

What an arrogant asshole.

Predious surprised me by reaching over to my pipbuck and tapping one of the buttons on it. “Miss Pai, please tell this stallion that he's interfering with an ongoing MoM investigation.” As he spoke, he gave me a stern look. I took it as he wanted me to just go with it, but it wasn’t so far from the truth.

“That’s it?” The Major laughed, “you think a pre-recorded…”

“Major Hammock, you're holding up my agents.” Pai’s voice came through the pipbuck’s speaker a bit fuzzy, but with more than enough of an annoyed tone that the Major stiffened up at it. “This is a joint MoM and MwT operation, and I expect your full cooperation on this. We have multiple teams on the island, and we require your assistance in the apprehension of a wanted criminal.” I was laughing in my head at how beautiful she had pulled this off. If she were a real mare, I could’ve kissed her. “Is this understood?”

For a moment, he stood in silence. “That voice…” he whispered out before fumbling over his words. “Y-yes, Minister Pinkie! I apologize for the hold up.” He lowered his gun and glanced nervously up to me. “Anything you need, Agent...?”

“Storm Rider.” I said before pointing a hoof to Pred, “This is Predious, my assistant.”

“So, then there's still part of the government functioning?” One of the ghouls with the rifles spoke up. Slowly, he lowered his gun. “It's been so long since the last time we had any contact. What took you so long to get here?”

“Oh, you know, your run of the mill megaspell apocalypse.” Predious sighed and spoke with the same arrogance in his voice from earlier. “Not going to lie, Equestria's a mess, but it's healing slowly.”

“Then... we beat them!” The major gasped and looked on the verge of joyous tears. “Hear that, boys? We won!” He let out a roaring laugh as the other soldiers gave out a string of great huzzahs.

“Not for long it wont.” I grunt and cleared my throat, knowing that we’d wasted enough time with this already. “There is another group on the island here. Their goal is to steal something from the vaults, and we need to get to it first.”

“The vault is empty... has been since before the end.” The major’s expression quickly shifted to one of confusion. “The records state that everything that was left in it had been moved a week prior to the end.”

“Then whatever they want has to be in the orchard.” Predious pressed past the still confused Bellhop and stood at the control panel. “Major, how do we get down to the lower levels?”

“Don't be silly.” He scoffed and holstered his pistol. He levitated a small silver lighter up and lit the tip of his cigarette. I so desperately wanted to ask him for one, but I figured that heading into an orchard wasn’t the best time to be smoking. “The security level is the lowest level.”

“That would be incorrect!” Pai chirped with a distressed tone. “This A.P. is good, but I can issue an emergency command override to open up all levels of the orchard.” She didn’t make it sound like it was a very easy choice to make, and that spoke volumes to me. “In doing so, it means that every entrance, exit, and sealed containment area will open to down there. Who know's what else could get in or out.”

There’s always a catch. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a choice. “It's worth the risk.” I lifted my pipbuck up to my muzzle to make this order perfectly clear. “Do it, Pai. We’ll deal with whatever we come up against.”

The elevator doors rolled shut with a clack, surprising the ghoul officer. With a shudder, the old metal box began to descend again. After only a few moments, we felt ourselves come to a stop, and the doors slid open without a sound. Before us, sat a pristine white hallway. It was so white infact, that I had no idea where the light inside of it came from. The only oddity that I could see, were a pair of oval shaped doorways at the end, and a small round egg like object attached to the ceiling.

“This was under us?” The major muttered under his breath. “The whole time?” His cigarette slipped from his muzzle, but Predious caught it and tucked it back in his lips.

Predious smiled and stepped out of the elevator. “Welcome to the Omega Orchard, one of equestria's best, and last kept secrets.”

As he stood there, the small egg down the hall rotated around, bringing a black, vertical seam into view on it. There was a blue flash, and a hollow image rose behind him to a staggering height. It’s form focused and changed into one that I hadn’t seen since before the wasteland. The ruler of equestria, princess luna, stood before us.

“Yes, welcome to my orchard.” She spoke in a booming voice that made the major and the bell hop scramble to cover their ears. “and I'm sorry to say, welcome to your grave.”

* * * * * * * * *

With a bright flash, I was somehow transported into a dark, and cold tunnel. A door at the other end opened painfully slowly, and the darkness beyond seemed even more hollow than the lobby had from the outside. The sound of ragged breathing filled my ears, and an odd pain coursed through my body. I tried to raise my hoof to check myself for wounds, but I couldn’t move.

“Generous, don’t you think?” I felt myself say. Of course, it wasn’t actually me saying it. Somehow, I was viewing things through Filius’s eyes again.

“What is?” The voice of Stratos weakly spoke up from behind.

“For the others to have opened the way for us, of course.” Filius laughed with the same cold authority that he’d had back in Dodge. “Everything is playing out perfectly.”

“They'll stop you.” Stratos whispered with a note of hope, but the way the tunnel was built, his whisper came across as clear as day.

“Fool.” Filius spun around, and at an almost impossible speed, pinned Stratos to the wall with his hoof. “Those inept ponies have no idea the power in which they meddle.” He rasped, grinding his hoof against the wall. Slowly, I felt a smile pull across his muzzle. “Though,” He spoke with intrigue, “That abomination is something… unique and unpredictable.” With a quick shove, he pushed Stratos off the wall and toward the door. “I’ll enjoy pulling her apart for study.”

“W-what if they get to the amulet before you?” Stratos whimpered as he pulled himself back up.

“For your daughter's sake, you better hope they don't.” Filius spoke in a low tone as he leaned closer. Stratos quivered and shrank down to the floor in fear. “Don't fret yet, I have a surprise in store for them. One that none of them are prepared to see!” He sighed in an almost proud way at that. “How great it would be to see the look on their faces when they’re gunned down by one of their own!”

* * * * * * * * *

I gasped as a shrill whine filled my ears. No, not a whine. It was a constant ringing that came with a sharp pain in my side. I was laying on my back with Predious standing over me. When I opened my eyes, my pipbuck flashed all sorts of warnings, and an outline of my head that was blinking red. The lights in whatever room we were in were nowhere near as blinding as the hallway had been. With a second look, I noticed that they weren’t even the same design, and that’s where I got confused. How did we get here?

“Storm?” Predious’s voice was far off and distant, hard to hear over the noise in my own head. “Are you all good?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and hoofed at my hurt side. It was tender to the touch, but when I looked, there wasn’t any blood. Carefully, Predious helped be back up to my hooves.

“What happened?” I tried to ask, but it all sounded muffled from my end. “How’d we get here?”

“I’m no expert, but it looks like you have some short term memory loss from the attack.” With a quick glance up my body, he frowned. “We fought through a pair of securitrons, you pushed the Major out of the way of a rocket, but got caught in the blast yourself.” He answered as he grabbed my head with his hooves. The pain that resonated from his touch made me squirm and try to bat his hooves away. “You’re lucky that I think you’ve only got a concussion.”

“And the Major?” As long as he was alright, I guess the splitting headache was worth it.

“I’m fine.” His gravelly voice was particularly hard to hear. “You are amazingly resilient it seems. The benefit of being an earth pony I suppose.”

Slowly, I sat up and looked around. “Where’s Bell Hop?”

“He went back up to get Gauge and the others.” Predious stepped closer and helped me back up. He wore a slightly worried look across his face, but overall I think he looked like he was holding up well. “We took refuge in one of the rooms just off the hall.” He looked around as he spoke, drawing my attention to where we were.

Unlike the pristine hallway, this room was filthy. Nearly as big as Harmony’s shop in dodge, it looked to be some sort of laboratory room. Tables with old chemicals and rusted tools sat unused for over a century. Against the walls, cases of laboratory supplies and beakers, books and assorted instruments sat still locked up behind dusty glass. Other than having commonly seen these things around the other orchard, there was one thing that I did recognize in here. A short pedestal that stuck up from the floor in the center of the room.

I reached up and hoofed at my ears, giving myself a few quick taps to the head. It didn’t help my throbbing head any, but I thought it helped dissipate the ringing. Slowly, I made my way over to the pedestal and looked it over. It looked just like the one that Pai had used to first talk with me.

“Pai?” I spoke up, lifting my pipbuck to the holo-projector-thing. “Can you access this like the one in your orchard?” It would be a whole lot easier to coordinate with her if she could follow us as we went. Unfortunately, only silence followed my question. “Pai, are you there?”

“Your A.P. is unavailable.” The voice of the hostile A.P. resonated throughout the room. “Due to testing protocol, all attempts at outside communications from this facility will be jammed.” With a fizzle and a few sparks, the pedestal glowed softly. The soft light that came through the layer of dust was distorted, and quickly shifted color to red. I used my hoof to wipe it off, and watched as a red sphere formed into the shape of Luna. She turned and looked at me, staring for a moment before the diminutive alicorn gave me a frown. “Oh, it’s you.” She put such disdain into saying that, it caught me off guard?”

“What do you mean, me?” I fired back, not really caring that I’d just gotten annoyed at an A.I.

“Oh, I know who you are, Project Harmony.” She sneered. “It is against protocol to reactivate your own project after you’ve been put on hold. Though I cannot attempt direct communication with the Ministry of Morale, you have been flagged and will be detained.” A ratcheting sound of slamming came from nearly every direction above us it seemed. “I have re-sealed this facility until the Celestia tier emergency has been overridden by the proper authorities.”

There was a sharp crackle of static, and a shower of sparks fired out from the pedestal. Luna’s image faded away, and a new shape took it’s place. A small filly popped up in her place, and then shifted to pink.

“Wowee!” Pai gasped with a bright smile. “This place looks just like my old home!”

“Pai?” I leaned down and looked at her closer. “I thought she was jamming you?”

“She was!” The small filly bounced on her hooves and smiled up at me. “I mean, she tried her best to jam me up, and she’s fighting me at every turn, so I figured that it was a lot like lunch time,” She spoke at such a rapid fire pace that it was hard to keep up between the throbs in my already hurting brain. “And then I realized, how could you have a good sandwich with somepony without any peanut butter?”

And she lost me.

“I think you lost us.” The major spoke up. Bell Hop knocked on the doorframe before walking in, trailing the others. Gauge and Tasteless seemed to be in awe of the room, while Skyline simply looked at Pai and stepped over to us. Someone was missing...

“Where’s Shadow?” I felt odd now that he wasn’t with us given how close he’d been the whole trip.

“Ah, yes. He insisted on standing guard outside.” Bell Hop spoke up with a chuckle.

The Major gave his own chortle as he levitated his pistol up and spun it lazily. “Good. There's not much I’d be able to do against sentries with this.” He looked down over himself and grimaced. “And without armor, I’m not sure I’d last as long in a fight either. Hell, I’m already falling apart as it is.”

"Right." I muttered, trying to ignore Tasteless's stupid words running through my mind. No time. "Anyway, I believe that Pai was about to explain what all that gibberish was." I turned and gave her a sigh. "Maybe in simple equestrian for the rest of us who aren't too savy?"

“I mean, duh?” Pai rolled her eyes and bounced about the pedestal. “Because I was the first A.P. designed, my coding is extremely overbuilt and contains a lot of redundancies.” She flopped onto the projector and twisted herself into various pink geometrical shapes. “They needed to see how flexible I could be with any task that an orchard could demand of me, and that archano-coding was put in as a framework that they could add upon to give me more options!”

Even at the risk of sounding stupid, I spoke up, “I don’t follow.”

“Her base programing supersedes that of the AI in control here,” Gauge spat out in what made her sound like she was showing off. “Which means as much as the other one wants her out of the system, she can’t keep her out.”

“So, you could keep the security off of us?” I asked in the hope that something would at least go right for us this once.

“Nopey nopey!” Pai chimed out happily. “Even though I’m in the system, she still has control over everything. Without patching myself into her mainframe for an update, I have limited access to anything past these pedestals. I might be able to override a few doors, but more than that is out of my hooves.” She paused for a moment before letting out a loud gasp. “OH! But I can do this!”

Her picture fuzzed away, shifting to an odd looking five pronged outline. It looked like a large gear, linked by several sets of lines that ran between the arms instead of around them. After a moment, the image shifted slightly, and a whole host of other lines grew inside the main outline.

“Ta-da!” Pai’s voice emit through the pedestal, “And you are right…” A small red dot appeared at the base of one of the arms. “Here!”

“A map could prove to be quite helpful.” Predious smiled and nodded.

“I know how these places go. They’re labyrinths that will kill you the second you get lost.” Skyline finally spoke up. “A map is more than we’d ever had.”

My pipbuck gave a sharp chirp before a new message came up on it. Waypoint Added sat in the upper right corner of my vision, and a small triangle appeared on my compass. The projection of the map shifted to the arm sitting at the bottom right of where we were, and at the very tip of it, flashed a yellow light.

“The logbook says that this was the last place that the item you’re looking for was registered to have been.” Pai said as the map spun yet again, but stopped on the arm just to the other side of us. “Tempest is picking up another set of intruders in the wing to the west of you.”

“Filius.” I grumbled. We had a choice to make. Either we worked our way around the other arms down to whatever it was he wanted in a race to get there first, or we chanced a direct confrontation and bet everything on killing him now.

It was a tough decision.

“Due to the lockdown that Tempest has put on the orchard,” Pai’s talking derailed my thoughts. “Each arm has been effectively severed from each other. In order to get to the next arm, you’ll have to help me bypass the door, here.” A green dot appeared on the map near the tip of our arm. “From there, if you make it to this room here,” A large room at the base of the next arm turned blue. “Then you’ll be able to use the manual override to lift the lockdown.”

“Why would they do that?” Gauge scratched at her head in thought. “Seems kind of counterintuitive to be able to remove the lockdown from the inside.”

“Apparently they had it installed out of the fear that Tempest might become unstable and kill everypony down here.” Pai chimed.

“Lucky for us then.” Tasteless snorted. “Sounds like a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in.”

“But!” Pai chimed in again with that word that I hated to hear. “If you do lift the lockdown, it will be easier for the other group to move as well.”

“Of course it will.” I sighed and glanced over to Predious, then to Skyline. “Tasteless is right, we’ve got a lot to do.” I checked myself over, making sure my gear was still secure. I ran my hoof along my jacket until I found the small box I was looking for. With a flick, I pulled it out and grabbed one of the lung killing sticks from inside. The major took a step forward and flicked his lighter out with his levitation. He lit it and put the flame to my cigarette, waiting to pull it away until I inhaled.

“Alright,” I said with a relaxing puff of smoke. “Let’s get started.”

--Chapter End--

“No one can see anything on the other side of me

I walk, I crawl, losing everything and waiting for the downfall”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Four - Inner Demons

“I've been so scared of these dangerous moods, but I'm finding I'm so much different than you and it has to come down to who we choose to be.”

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at in front of me. Pallet hadn’t changed much since I saw her hanging up in Dodge, but she wasn’t the same. She had several large gashes across her barrel, and a long, jagged wound rising across her neck. She looked more like a ghoul than the mare I’d once known.

“How…?” I had to force myself to get out before my voice completely left me.

“Oh, come on, Storm.” Pallet rolled her eyes with a sigh. “You aren’t that stupid. Hell, you said it yourself back in Dodge. I’d die before I joined the Master.” A devious smirk spread across her muzzle, one that didn’t match the emotionless look in her eyes. “So that’s what I did.”

“This was all some ruse to get back to us, right?” I whined, not convinced that Pallet would ever agree to work for him. Yeah, so she would use him to get resurrected, but she’d never willingly join him.

“Pallet… what have they done to you?” Skyline spoke softly. Turning to look at her only showed me how much pain this was causing her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were wide in horror. “They’ve made you into a monster.”

“A monster?” Pallet snarled and snapped her wings out. “They didn’t do this,” She flapped her wings and drew her hoof across her half charred face. “the master brought me back, the master gave me the strength to carry on.” Her lips curled into a frown. “No, they’re the ones that saved me.”

“Bullshit.” I called out and stepped forward, pointing my hoof at her starkly. “You know the lives that Fillius has ruined, the pain he’s caused. He doesn’t save anyone.”

“No, Storm.” Her expression boiled with rage, but her dead eyes could only gaze at me. “You cause pain, and suffering, and death wherever you go.” She raised her hoof, but not at me. “And you aren’t the only one.” She looked at Skyline. “It was because of your brother that my parents are dead, and it was because of the things he did that I had to suffer with nightmares and horrors as a filly. You may have taken me in, but you did nothing to fix the filly you’d all broken.”

“Carlotta and I…” Skyline started, weakly shouting up at her in painful despair. “We took you in, raised you as our daughter…”

“The only thing you ever taught me was how to love mares.” She spat. “But you were not my parents.”

“Don’t listen to her.” Predious said as he put his hoof on Skylines shoulder. “The Pallet you knew is gone. She may have all the same memories, but the necromancy has corrupted her heart.”

“Ahem.” Tempest’s voice boomed from above. “As enjoyable as this family reunion has been to watch, we have an agreement that you must hold up.”

I hastily unslung my rifle. “Then let’s get this over with.”

“Oh, it is not you who will fight her, ringleader.” Tempest came across the speakers with an amused tone. “For your champion, I chose Skyline.”

“What?” Predious shook his head in outrage. “I thought she was exempt from the challenges because she wasn’t trespassing.”

“And when did I ever agree to that?” Tempest laughed lightly, dropping off into a sigh at the end, “You organics and your forgetfulness. Quite amusing to watch how riled up you all can become.” She cleared her throat and dropped her tone back to it’s normal cold and flat feeling. “Now, would the rest of you take your place in the decontamination square?”

“Sky…” I couldn’t ask her to do this. Yes, our Pallet had died in Dodge, but no mother should ever have to kill their foal.

“Go.” Sky snarled as she straightened out her battle saddle. She was still crying, but her eyes were nearly as blank as Pallets. She was going to fight, and she was going to try to finish this quick.

The rest of us shuffled off to the same striped cornet that had existed in the other room. I’d mentally remarked that while this room was the same design, it was devoid of any crates. So much as I could tell, this room hadn’t been used for anything.

My thoughts were cut off when the light hum of the forcefield projector kicked in. The pink barrier flickered for a moment as it rose around us. The light hum quickly varied and became a harsh whine, shortly before there was a loud pop under our hooves. The barrier flickered again, this time disappearing and not returning.

“Well, we seem to have had a bit of an issue with the containment field.” Tempest sighed. “No matter, the rules are still the same. None of the non-competitors shall leave the box until the challenge is over.” She stopped and waited for a moment, maybe waiting for one of us to object. “Competitor Pallet, will you be unarmed for this fight?”

“Oh, I’m armed,” Pallet smirked with another flap of her wings, “But I’ll only need my hooves to kill this bitch.” She gave a short laugh as she looked to her mother. Skyline snapped her wings up and wrapped her muzzle around her firing bit. She was an experienced fighter, and I’m sure would wait for Pallet to make the first move.

Tempest’s response was a simple, “Then you may begin.”

Almost as soon as she had said that, Skyline’s gauss rifles fired. The high speed shots didn’t find their mark as Pallet dropped down to floor level. Spreading her wings, she flipped to the side and zipped towards the group of us in the box. For a moment, I worried about Sky’s next shots missing and hitting us.

Those thoughts were misplaced as two separate parts of the concrete under Pallet erupted in a shower of dust. Skyline fired down on her from the rafters, forcing Pallet to shift her course away from us. There was a time long ago, when Pallet once asked me who she thought would win in a fight, her or her mother. Back then, I’d wanted to support Pallet, and had told her that she would win. It was a lie that I’d hoped would boost her confidence, but in my head I was sure that in a fight, Sky would come out on top.

There hasn’t been any other time in my life that I hoped to the goddesses that Sky could prove me right on that.

Between the rubble that Sky’s shots were causing and the quick melee strikes that Pallet were landing, it was hard to keep up with exactly what was going on in the fight. A flash of silver in Pallet’s muzzle roused a scream from Sky as she passed by her. A long crimson gash flowed lines of blood down Sky’s legs. At this rate, I was losing hope that Sky could win this. Sure, she could win if just one shot found its mark, but Pallet could just draw this out through small wounds.

Another flash, and another scream from Sky. A cut straight across her cutie mark made her howl in rage. In a blur, she spun towards us and fired. Pallet’s scream filled the air as the concrete in front of me exploded. Unfortunately, as it did, one of the chunks flew up and hit me hard. It caught me square in the chin, harder than any uppercut I’d ever gotten hit with. Of course, right as we start to win I go down for the count.

* * * * * * * * *

Wake…

“Gah!” I sat up on command.

My head felt like it was splitting apart, but that’s the downside of getting hit in the head as often as I found myself doing. I opened my eyes to find darkness all around me. In the darkness, once again sat six beams of prismatic light.

“I thought we were done with this.” I grunted as I got to my hooves. I’d already passed their tests, and it’s done nothing so far to help me fight Filius. “Why bring me back?”

“Because,” The purple beam spoke in the voice of aunt Twilight. “It is time you learn the cost to the burden you carry.”

“What?” I snorted at the idea. “How is there a burden to so called ‘hope’?”

“Hope is a powerful, but fragile thing.” She droned on in a way that conveyed absolutely no emotion. “It can change the world with only a single word,” She paused and looked to her side. A green mist formed, swirling slowly at the center. Then, with a flicker, an image appeared on it. “However, it can also be broken with one.”

I stepped closer to the image floating in front of me. It depicted a dark, candle-lit room. Odd symbols were written on tabards that hung from the walls, and scattered tomes lay about the floor. At the center of the image, a crimson robed pony stood with a knife in their levitation.

“In binding these souls to me,” The voice of Filius spoke through the image. I cringed as his words hit me hard. I worried that he was here for a moment, but then the stallion in the image pushed back his robe’s hood. “I pledge myself to the whims of the stars.”

I watched with bated breath as the knife raised above him, the silver edge pointing a line straight at the stallion’s heart.

“Wait!” A stallion shouted from somewhere unseen. A unicorn in bright metal armor burst into the room through a door that had been too obscured by darkness to see. I almost confused him with a steel ranger, but the sword and bright yellow cape came up odd to me. “Stop, Filius.” He panted heavily, holding out his hoof toward him.

“No, I shan’t.” Filius spoke with a commanding tone. “It is the only way to end this reign of Chaos, and I shall not waste that opportunity!” The knife wavered in his magic as the other stallion’s horn glowed brightly. “Release my blade, Gallant Shield.”

“This is not a fight worth dying over!” The other stallion shouted, taking a step forward. “The elements of harmony will be found, you will see.”

“Bah!” Filius waved his hoof, still wrestling for the knife with his magic. “The princesses are foals to search. They are mere legends, a mare’s tale, nothing more!”

“No, they do exist.” The armored stallion took another step forward. “I believe that they must, and that means this ritual of yours is useless.” He shook his head softly. “I cannot allow you to continue.”

“Why? Because some old tome promises that the elements exist? There is no evidence!” Filius gave out a hearty laugh that sent chills up my spine. “My ritual is based in the real studies of necromancy. Why do you persist in believing in fairy tales, Gallant?”

Gallant took another step forward, now standing inches from Filius.

“To save the life of my oldest friend?” His horn gave another flash, making the whole room glow bright enough that even I had to squint. Filius stood rigid, his horn going dark as he fell over paralyzed. “I’ll believe in anything.”

The orb grew dark. I stood in reflection of what I just watched. With all my will, I had wanted nothing more than to see that knife plunge deep into Filius’s chest. Even so, part of me knew that it was simply a memory. Filius couldn’t have killed himself because he’s still in the real world. Somewhere I should be right now working to stop him.

“The wicked often do not begin their journey on that path.” Aunt twilight spoke again, just as emotionless as before. The orb before me swirled wildly for a moment, slowly stopping as another image appeared before me. “Once a ponies hope is broken, it becomes easily tempered and forged by anger, hatred, and pain.”

The image resolved into another room. This one was much brighter, lit by candles that sat next to tapestries that displayed the goddesses on them. The large marble room was enclosed by a large bookcase that wrapped around a desk. Seated at that desk, was once again Filius. His muzzle was buried in an open book, and he muttered things as he read the pages.

A door out of the orb’s sight opened with the clattering of armored plating. Once again, the stallion from before walked into the room. This time, the armor he wore had almost a mirrored finish, that speckled in the candlelight.

“Come, Filius! You have locked yourself in this tower for so long, why not take leave for one night and join me for the festival!” His voice was almost slurred, and from the way his movements wavered, my guess was he had been drinking.

“No.” Filius growled, not even looking up from his book. “And of anypony to ask, I would not leave at your request.”

“Filius, what has overcome you my friend?” Galiant gave a lighthearted laugh that made Filius’s coat crawl. “There is no cause to be so hostile when we have this chance to make merry and celebrate!”

“What chance did the countless others get?” He finally looked up from his book, his eyes burning in anger. “How many could have been saved if you had simply let me finish? How many might not have suffered through Discord’s wrath, or lost their homes and families?”

“But I was correct all along!” Galiant waved his hoof in dismissal. “The princesses eventually found…”

“Hold your tongue!” Filius shouted as he stood up. As he did, a wave of force blasted the room. His horn glowed as books fell from the shelves, and Gallant stood against the pressure. “I will not have you stand here and trivialize those we lost!” Another wave of force blasted from his horn, throwing his chair and numerous papers about the room. Still, Gallant was steadfast.

“You’re life was not worth throwing away!” Now Gallant sounded worried, and as he should have been. The constant pressure from Filius’s spell was starting to slide him along the floor.

“What was my mortality to their’s worth to you?” Another wave of force emit, and this time Gallant didn’t stand up to it. Like a paper in the wind, he was tossed and pinned back against the wall. “How can you so easily write them off as if it were simply a part of a harvest that took to rot? They could have been saved.”

“Filius, Please.” Gallant grunted and struggled against the spell, but to no avail. “What has possessed you to such horrible actions that you would attack your oldest friend?”

Filius gave a wave of his hoof. Abruptly, the force dissipated and Gallant fell back to his hooves. Without a second look, Filius grabbed his chair in his levitation, walked back over to his desk, and sat back at his book.

“It is no matter you need concern yourself with.” He growled, turning the page with a hoof. “You may have stopped me from dying that night, but it is you who are dead to me now.”

“Surely you can’t mean…” Gallant spoke up, letting his words drop off as Filius simply waved him off without a glance.

“Leave me,” Filius snorted and pressed his muzzle into his book. “Or I will have the guards escort you out.”

The image faded once again, this time the green mist left with it. Once again, I was unsure of what I was supposed to glean from this look into Filius’s past. It hadn’t changed what I had to do, nor how I’d felt about doing it.

“You misunderstand.” The light that held Mama’s voice spoke up softly. “Hope is something that must be nurtured, cared for like a delicate flower.”

“How am I supposed to do that when I can’t even take care of anypony in the wastes?” I hated being fed riddle after riddle from these… these things! Why couldn’t anything they said just make sense for once?

“You are so sure of what you must do to save the ponies you know, but you do not understand the price that you may pay should your own hope breaks.” Aunt Dash spoke up. “You are willing to give your life for them, but you must know that if you do, they will lose their own hope.”

“Darling,” Aunt Rarity chimed in now. “You were made to watch the images so that you would know what will happen should you lose your own hope.”

“No, there is no way I’d turn out like him.” I scoffed. As if I could ever…

“You’d be worse.” Aunt Twilight snapped at me, showing off the first sliver of emotion that I’d heard from any of them. “Hope lies with you and you alone. Should that hope break, there is no end to the suffering that would come to everything you know.”

The ground under my hooves shook, and a light ringing filled the air.

“Now go,” Aunt Twilight boomed through my head. “and remember what you must do.”

The ground under me shattered into a million shards of obsidian, and my world was instantly filled with light.

* * * * * * * * *

“Foals!” Tempest’s voice was by far the worst thing to wake up to, more so with her volume cranked up to head splitting levels. “This was not part of our agreement! Your continued interference with the fight will nullify our agreement.”

“Hold her down!” Sky’s voice was full of pain as she screamed out. It was a different kind of pain than the one that pulsed through my aching skull, but somehow I felt like it was probably worse than mine.

“You… shot my fucking wing off!” Pallet screamed out. “You fucking bitch!”

“Woah, woah, easy there.” Predious spoke in a near whisper. His hoof helped to prop me up as I tried to get my own hooves under me. I had to blink a few times to get my vision to stop spinning, and when I did, I found Pallet being held captive by her forehooves. Both Tasteless and the Major held a hoof out, while Sky kept her guns trained on Pallet.

“Pallet, I know you’re still in there.” She spat through teary eyes. “You’re a good pony, you don’t have an ounce of hate in you.”

With a laugh, she struggled against the major and Tasteless. “How would you know? You found me as a filly, you aren’t even my real mom!” Pallet’s muzzle twisted into a wicked smirk. “Besides, you were always too busy doing work to ever care about me when I was growing up.” The glare that she gave to Sky was one I’d never seen her wear in her entire life. “Carlotta raised me to be strong, to be better than you. And when she died, you ran off and left me alone.”

“You aren’t you right now.” Skyline pleaded, stepping up and putting a hoof on her chest. “It’s just the magic in you that’s messing up your head.”

“No, my head is better than ever!” She cracked an ever wider grin than before, but now I could see tears streaming down her cheeks. “You’re just too weak and stupid to realize that you didn’t even know your own daughter before she died.” As she finished, Sky pulled her hoof away in horror. “You didn’t even realized that I hated you.”

The sharp report of Sky’s gauss rifles was quickly followed by another agonizing scream from Pallet. Her other wing dropped to the floor in bloody ribbons, severing her from the sky forever.

“Fucking hell that hurts!” Pallet cried softly. She looked down at the tattered wing as it sat on the floor, sobbing and quivering at it’s sight. “W-why?”

“Because, I know you can fight this magic in you.” Skyline got out between her own sniffles. “Pallet, I love you.” She sat down hard, her legs shaking as she stared at Pallet’s ragged form before her. “I want you back. I want my little filly back.”

“Kill her.” Tempest boomed over the speakers again. I swore to the goddesses that I will tear her into scrap for forcing Sky to even go this far.

“You shut the fuck up!” Sky snapped at her with what was on all our minds. “Just shut up!”

For some reason, Tempest did. No rebuttal, no threats, just simply silence. I think it threw all of us off, as the whole room became eerily quiet. Like all things in the wasteland, it didn’t last long.

Pallet slumped down, going limp against the hooves that held her. She whimpered and cried, breaking the lull that permeated the room.

“I’m so sorry mom.” Her words were soft spoken, and they didn’t ring of the hate she’s had only a moment ago. “I… I didn’t mean any of it. The magic, it...”

“Shhh, shhh.” Skyline hushed as she nearly leapt upon Pallet, wrenching her from Tasteless and the Major. “It’s okay, sweetie. I knew you were strong enough to fight it.”

Pallet pressed against Sky and balled her eyes out into her neck. Even with the pounding in my head, and the fact that we still needed to get through this orchard, it seemed that finally we’d won against the necromancer. I could finally just take a moment to catch my breath.

“Can you forgive me?” Pallet sniffled and hooked a forehoof around Sky, pulling her in tightly.

“You’re my daughter, Pallet.” Skyline said through her tears and a light chuckle. “I’ll love you no matter what you do.”

“Good.” Pallet sighed. She gave Sky a pat on the back before looking over to me. Her lips spread as her malicious grin pulled across it again, and her emotionless eyes didn’t reflect the sorrow that she’d portrayed. In that moment, I realized that the necromancer had created the perfect weapon to use against us. In that same moment, there was a sickening crack. Skyline let out a breathless gasp as Pallet stepped up against her.

She’d had us all fooled. The turnaround had come so quickly, that even though we’d all seen it, nopony moved. We simply watched in silent horror in that one moment. But the moment passed, and as Pallet pushed Skyline away and turned for the door, The Major and Predious both darted for Skyline. The red pegasus mare, one of the first ponies I’d ever known, slumped down to the floor with a sheet metal knife buried in her chest. With a heavy thud, the doors to the challenge room opened up, and Tempest emitted a sickening laugh.

Shadow, Tasteless, and Gauge all shouted things at what felt like the same time, but I couldn’t hear them as they chased after. It had all happened so fast, that I wasn’t sure what was going on outside of just me and Skyline laying on the floor. Predious and the Major were yelling at each other for things, and Pred’s hooves were stained crimson as he put pressure on her wound.

Still, I heard nothing but the sound of ragged breathing, and the only thing I saw was Skyline looking up at me from the floor.

“Storm?” She coughed, “P-please… she’s still in there.”

Parts of my mind were screaming at me to do so many different things. I wanted to cry, to scream, to chase Pallet down and murder her using every bit of anger I had in me. I couldn’t, not yet. First, I had to watch Skyline slowly die. Not from the dagger now lodged in her heart, but from the heart that Pallet’s death had already taken from her. From the heart that through my actions, had ripped from her.

“Y-you have…” She stuttered as more blood flowed down her side. Predious yelled something at me again, but still I only heard Sky. “have to save… her.” Her breathing became more sporadic with each passing moment, and she lost her focus on me. “Please… save....”

Then she was gone.

* * * * * * * * *

I wanted to quit. I was so fucking done with losing, so entirely done with the wasteland and all of it’s horrific bullshit that it threw at me day after day. The thought constantly crossed my mind as I sat there staring at Sky’s lifeless body. All it would take was one flick of my hoof, one bullet to stop the pain.

I couldn’t even lift a hoof to try.

The thought constantly crossed my mind, but every time it did I thought about the ponies who’d already given so much for me. The elements had chosen that moment to remind me that of all ponies, I was the one who can’t give up hope. Pallet, Skyline, Daddy, Momma, my parent’s here in the wastes. They’d all gave up so much just to help carry me this far, to give us all a chance at ridding the world of Filius once and for all.

Knowing that I alone had to carry the weight of hope on my shoulders didn’t make losing Sky feel any less painful. She deserved better than this, she deserved to have her daughter back. She never stopped believing that Pallet was still inside that body for one second. Maybe she was right to. Pallet seemed to still have all her memories, so why wouldn’t she still somehow exist under all that magic? If there really is a way to bring her back to the way she was, then I owe it to Skyline to figure it out.

“Are you okay?” Shadow spoke up from beside me. He’d been sitting there next to me in silence for the last few minutes, fuming over how Pallet somehow got away. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.” He sighed. “I know you aren’t okay, it’s just…”

I did something I never thought I would, but I turned and threw my hooves around him and pulled myself tightly against his chest. I didn’t care that I was hugging his bulky armor, I just needed to be close to somepony who was still here, still alive.

“Thank you for being here.” I got out in barely a whisper. I feared that if I opened my muzzle too much, I’d just break down and cry. Even with how good that would have felt, the feeling of him returning the hug was more than enough to help stem those urges.

“Look, Storm…” He leaned back and curled his armored hoof under my chin. “I…”

“So, my little ponies.” Tempest’s aggravating voice interrupted him. “I hope you all aren’t done with the challenges I’ve set up. I know that trying to help your friend was too tempting, and that you knowingly broke the rules in helping her.” The rules weren’t the only thing I’ll break when I got my hooves on her mainframe. “But, seeing as she came out the loser, I figured that in the spirit of good sportsponyship, I’d forgive this one infraction.”

“Sportsponyship?” The major stomped a hoof on the floor. “This mare died to your little game!”

“Why yes, she did.” The mirth that flooded through was gut-wrenching. “Oh, and it was so very enjoyable to watch.” She gave out a laugh that echoed even through the open halls outside of the room. “Oh, I’ll miss you all when you’re dead.”

I was about to give her a piece of my mind when Predious trotted back in wearing a lighter expression across his muzzle.

“Storm, you’re going to want to come see this.” Predious nodded out the doorway leading to the hall. From behind him, I heard more quick hoofsteps approaching. In a flash, Gauge appeared with the biggest smile I’d seen on her. across her back, lay an odd looking tube that had even more tubed looping around it.

“Oh goddesses,” She giggled. “you’ll never guess what they were testing in the weapons labs!” Her horn glowed and hefted the large item from her back and onto her shoulder. From the way it was oriented, it looked like somepony took a rocket launcher and mounted a small spark reactor to the back of it. “They had a mint condition redeemer!”

I looked over to Pred, who looked slightly disappointed in Gauge as she waved the giant weapon around in glee.

“Does the weapons lab look like the next challenge area?” I asked, really hoping that he’d say no, but I had a sinking feeling that carrying hope and having it were two entirely different concepts.

He shook his head. “No, the firing range seems to be it.” He shrugged and waved his hoof for us to follow. “Got some neat stuff in there that you might want to see.”

“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Tasteless said with the crack of her joints. “Always love playing with new toys.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a second.” I nodded and watched him frown. “I’ll just be another moment.” That seemed to sate him for now, as he gave a nod before turning back in the hallway. With a sigh, I turned back to Shadow. “So, what was it you were saying?”

He nervously smiled and avoided my gaze. “N-nothing. I’ll tell you later,” He got up and pat me on the shoulder. “Maybe when we’re not being threatened by a psychotic computer,” He looked down to where Sky lay, the sight instantly souring his joyous mood. “Or when we’re not losing any more of us.”

“Yeah.” I sighed, not looking back at her again. Sky was gone, and no amount of grieving would get me any closer to saving anypony. “That would be a nice start.”

--Chapter End--

“Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow

and that your saints and sinners bleed.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Five - Demolition Mare

“The night is long and the path is dark. Look to the sky for one day soon the dawn will come.”

The stark white hallway was just the same as the others. So much so that, while walking down them, I kept having to look back to make sure we hadn’t been walking in a circle this whole time. Maybe it wasn’t the hallway, maybe it was just my stubborn will forcing me to think of anything else but Sky’s death.

With all the pain I’ve felt, all the ponies who’d been lost, losing her didn’t hurt as much as seeing Pallet die. While it might have pained me to see it before, the frozen filly in the snow was nothing more than a memory to me. I think that the shock of how suddenly everything has come down is mostly what’s worn me down. The wasteland has always been bad, and I’m no stranger to death. That numbness to the ugly, dark world had begun to fold itself around me once more. Funny enough, part of me hated it and fought to hold on to all those feelings of suffering.

“Ugh.” I sighed and dragged my hooves until I stopped.

“Everything alright, Storm?” Predious asked, turning around toward me.

“Yeah, just..” I paused. I didn’t need them concerned over me. Not because they didn’t need to know my thoughts, rather that they were largely irrelevant to our job. “Gave myself a headache is all.”

“Just try to take it easy, alright?” Shadow leaned over and gave me a small nudge. I looked up to him and his hope filled eyes. For a pony whose life got turned upside down and is now stranded down in this shithole of a wasteland, he still hasn’t given up his own hope.

“Yeah…” I don’t know how he could do it.

“Come on, ladies.” Tasteless grunted from the open doorway ahead of us. “Y’all can practice making out later.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t get your rivets in a bunch.” Shadow shot back, then continued without missing a beat, “But it doesn’t matter, as your marefriend here would just spend another hour or so straightening you out again.”

Tasteless gave out a genuine laugh and eyed over Shadow as we walked up to her.

“Color me impressed,” She nodded over to me with her now all too familiar toothy grin. “A few more years of work, and you may finally be ready to wear the pants in a relationship with her.”

“Why would I wear pants?” Shadow scrunched his muzzle up with cheeks so flushed that I could probably cook fried hay on from the heat. I brought my hoof to my face both out of amazement that he didn’t get a metaphor, and to hide my own blush from Tasteless. With an annoyed groan, I walked warily past her and into the weapons lab. When I finally did look around, a familiar feeling hit me.

This place was a mess. Not so much as like the other old and forgotten rooms had been, but more so in the fact that nearly every inch of the place was covered with various papers, prototypes, and odd looking defunct equipment. Even the floors weren’t exempt, as stacks of papers and rusted out mechanical components lay just under hoof without any space to allow anything but the most careful hoofsteps. Daddy’s lab back in the other orchard was much like this, and the other doctors there spent hours in what they referred to as ‘organized chaos’.

So of course, everypony simply kicked everything out of the way to get it.

“Have you ever seen a more unique collection?” Gauge was nearly pronking between stations on all four hooves. Her voice squeaked so hard in excitement that I was sure that we’d only get a squee of warning before she exploded from the experience of simply being here.

“Of what?” Tasteless said halfway through as she smashed something fragile under her cyberhoof. “Junk? With how corroded some of this stuff is, it’s hardly worth a look.”

Gauge shook her rocket launcher above her head. “No, stupid. You just have to look in the right...” She went wide eyed as she stared at the wall beside me. “What are those?”

Sitting beside me were a pair of large metal armor cases with glass sides. The cases themselves were nothing unique to the wasteland, but the items inside were quite different to anything I’d ever seen. In each box, sat half a suit of power armor that looked much like the models the steel rangers used, the one on bottom however looked more sleek and plain.

I say half a suit, because past the barrel on both of them, the design became… odd. They were elongated and smooth, like the cone on the pre-war ice cream treats they’d give me as a foal. The tapering shaft ended in a mechanical turbine similar to some of the old torpedos the naval wrecks in Baltimare carried on them. They had designations written in black block letters on the side of them; SHU-B and SHU-B MK2.

“Oh!” Pai’s voice crackled through my pipbuck. “I know what these are!”

“Pai, where have you been?” I tried to speak up and keep her attention, but just like aunt Pinkie, she was too focused on explaining things to listen to anypony else.

“They are listed here as prototype aquatic power armor.” She spoke in such a jerky and oddly paced tone, that I had half a mind to think she was reading this out while her muzzle buried in a book. “Originally constructed as the seapony variant of the standard M.W.T. power armor, the project was canceled due to the home city of the sea pony race being captured by Zebra funded mercenary forces.”

Something in there didn’t quite make sense to me. “How do you capture an underwater city?”

“Wait, what’s a sea pony?” Gauge’s question flew just as far over Pai as my attempts to stop this had. At least I’d figured the quickest way past this was to just let her get the explanations done and over with. Hell, who knows. This place is underwater, and if all else fails, I’m almost positive that those suits are air-tight. Though, I’m sure it won’t come to that.

I let out a sigh with that, not sure if that was a sarcastic thought, or if I just expected shit to go that wrong for me.

“The reports say that the city was taken within a matter of hours.” Pai cheerily continued feeding us the two century old news. “It was a joint operation by Separatist sea serpents who were known to have worked with Zebra’s, and the Hippocampus Autocracy which sided with the zebra’s almost from the war’s start.”

“Hippo-whatnow?” Gauge growled and wrapped her hooves around her head. “Can’t anypony just explain at least one thing to me?”

“Sirens.” Predious snorted with so much disdain that I think I physically felt his hatred radiate through the room. “Technically cousins to the sea pony race, much like the Saddle Arabians are cousins of Ponykind. Though, they are vile, and evil at heart, not unlike the stallion we are chasing down. Their magic was too harmful to anypony nearby them, so the Princesses banished their kind from equestrian waters.”

“They jumped at the chance to take us down in the war.” The major also joined in. “Before that storm up there, this resort was under constant threat of them.” He shook his head. “We never had any incursions, but I did have to pass along a radio report dealing with a merchant vessel being attacked by them.” With a sigh gave a stiff salute. “Poor souls, went down to the depths without a clue what was happening.”

“This is all fascinating and all, but maybe there’s something down here we can actually use.” Predious kicked another pile of rusting components over as he trudged toward the opposite side of the room. The large door that he was approaching looked heavier than the ones to the rooms before. The marker on my EFS displayed that I needed to head through it, but that door was built to keep something out, not in.

“Pai, are you sure that is the right way to go?” I felt it to be better safe than sorry and sound like an idiot, rather than to regret it later.

“Yep!” She chirped. “This room connects to the next wing of the orchard via tunnel.” She paused for a second before my pipbuck emitted a beep. The map now displayed in front of me, the room we were in highlighted. “You are in weapons development and testing, and it says across the way is Terminal and Computer Warfare Testing.”

“And that’s where the next challenge is?” If we had the chance to gear up in here before we left, I sure as hell wanted to take it.

“Yup!” She rang out happily.

That was both good and bad news. While we could indeed get everything we could ever want to defeat whatever challenge Tempest threw at us, a question stuck out at me. In a lab like the next one, what the hell would she challenged us to? It sounded like it could be robots, but I have no idea why she’d have us face another one when Predious took down the first one as easily as he did.

“Hey, sis?” Pai pulled me from my thoughts. “Can I talk to you for a moment… alone?”

“Sure?” I wasn’t sure what needed to be kept secret, but I assumed she had her reasons. Still, the request was odd enough that Predious took a moment from rummaging through junk to shoot me a worried glance. I turned back toward the door, and ducked into the hall. I went a ways back to ensure that we’d get some privacy.

“With the loss of Skyline, I think you need to consider the question of what happens if you lose.” Pai tried to keep her voice sounding cheery and upbeat, but I don’t think anypony could put a positive spin on a statement like that. “Before you interrupt, I know you wouldn’t give up fighting, but if you do…”

“Pai, I can’t lose.” I sighed. “If we die here, the wasteland dies with us.”

“But…!” She tried to interject, but I needed to squash this quick.

“Listen, we aren’t going to lose this.” I almost didn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth, but we couldn’t afford to. “The worst that will happen is we reach another stalemate.” I sat down hard and hoofed into my bag, drawing out a cigarette. “Look, I know you mean well, but we’ve got this.”

“And I believe in you, big sis, I really do!” Pai was sounding more doubtful by the moment, and it hurt to hear it in her voice. “I’m not saying you’ll ever lose, but what would it hurt to do a few things just so that evil jerk can’t do even more harm to ponies?”

“What do you mean?” Anything we could do to slow him down, hinder him, or cost him time, then it was worth it.

“There are a lot of things in the weapons lab that can hurt ponies. Many things that should have never even been made.” She paused and gave me a sigh through the pipbuck. “The steel rangers aren’t going to like it, but you need to destroy that lab.”

“I promised them that they could have this facility, Pai.” I didn’t like giving them weapons like these either, but it’s better than the alternative of Filius using them ever. They were too powerful of allies to risk losing like this.

“I’m not saying you destroy the whole orchard!” Pai whined. Her voice was so full of distress, that I wasn’t sure if I said no again, she wouldn’t break down and cry on me. “Just, the weapons. They can keep the medical section, and the computer sciences section.” She was pleading with me now, and I wasn’t sure I could say no. “Please, there’s been enough killing in the wasteland with weapons the likes you’ll find in there.”

“I won’t do it for the wasteland, Pai.” I sighed, breaking like an old support beam. She knew much more than me about any of this, and Sky is no longer here to guide me. “I’ll do it only for you.” She’d more than earned my trust, and it was high time I showed it.

“Thank you, Storm.” She sniffled through the crackling coms. “If you destroy the tunnel just beyond the doorway, the pressure from the water above should destroy the whole room before the emergency bulkhead even has a chance to activate.”

“What about the doorway to the challenge room?” Destroying our only means back out of here was risky enough. “Will that close fast enough?”

“Yes, there might be a bit of water that floods back to you, but it shouldn’t be under enough pressure to cut through the door mechanisms.” Pai’s sniffles dropped away as she continued. “This place was built with emergency measures in place for multiple disasters. Biohazard containment breach, underwater decompression…” She trailed off and lowered her voice. “...Artificial pony malfunction.”

“What?” I hissed. “You mean there’s a way to stop this stupid game, and you didn’t tell me?” For fucks sake! “If this option had any chance to have stopped Tempest before Sky died…”

“No!” Pai snapped. “It can only be activated from the control room. Unless you had come down the entrance that lead there, it wouldn’t have been able to do change what happened.” She sighed. “I didn’t tell you because I’m afraid of what might happen if I did.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” She’d better start talking straight with me. The more riddles she throws at me, the more I had half a mind to just leave the weapons lab standing.

“I had hoped that you could just destroy her servers instead of using it.” Pai once again had the same pleading tone in her voice. “If the steel rangers get ahold of that code, they might be able to use it against me.”

“What?” I get her fear, but from what I understood, she wasn’t able to hold up to somepony hacking anyway. The rangers in the badlands had only a short while to work on her, and she was worried they’d get through then. “I understand the need for self preservation, but why are you so worried about this?”

“Because!” She whined through the pipbuck. “Because if they use it, it’s just over for me.” The pipbuck display and my vision shifted to blue, which was something that hadn’t happened in a while. “It’s not like before. IF somepony tries to use a terminal, they might be able to break me in hours. With this, there’s no wait, no chance for me to fight.” Softly, she started to cry. “How scared would you be without a way to fight back? How long would you last with a gun to your head?”

I got it. No pony would have the will to fight a well armed opponent if they were unarmed, and they wouldn’t last more than a minute. I know this all too well from experience. Thing was I’d always been the mare with the gun until recently.

“You remember how I was in the prison, right?” I held up my pipbuck and stared at it. “You know that I’ve been there.”

“But, it’s not the same!” Pai whimpered to me.

“Bullshit!” I snapped back. “I didn’t give up in there. Yeah, it sucked, and I couldn’t have won a fight if I’d started one.”

“You had a plan!” Pai shouted at me. “You had friends, and resources!”

“And you don’t?” I’d finally begun to see how it looked from the outside in. “Pai, you have friends, and you have time, the best resource of all.” I sighed and pulled myself back up to my hooves. The others would need my help looking for anything usefull, and I would need their help to set everything up. “You are the smartest pony I know, Pai. You helped me plan my escape from the prison, and I know you can find a way to work around their coding.”

“I… I don’t know if I can.” Pai’s voice came across weak and soft.

“I didn’t need anything more than the trust of a few to get out of that place.” I smiled and gave a laugh. “If a dumb mare like me could pull it off, I don’t think there isn’t anything you couldn’t do if you put your mind to it.”

“Really?” She sniffled again. To my relief, my pipvision shifted back to it’s normal green.

“Really.” I nodded and turned back toward the room. “Now, if there’s anything else you need to tell me, make it quick. I’ve got a weapons room to blow up.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Shadow, I asked you to help because you have power armor.” I grumbled and grunted. I had both my hooves wrapped around a large wooden crate labeled Caution: Explosives, straining to pull it out from it’s shelf. It had been wedged between a table and some old machine so tightly, that I couldn’t even check to see if it had anything in it at all.

“Oh! Sorry.” He snapped out of whatever daze he was in at my voice. With a heavy thump, he dropped the box of grenades he was carrying. A thick snap from the wooden box preempted the silver apples rolling across the floor. I felt my eye twitch in irritation as we both froze. One of the small explosives rolled across the floor and right up against the ridiculous pile of ordinance that had been stacked by the door. The line of gunpowder that Gauge had poured lead out through the tunnel, and toward the safety of just outside the challenge room. It’s somewhere I really wish I was right now.

“Sorry, again!” He blushed and trotted over to me, carefully avoiding stepping on any of the small, silver death balls. With much more effort than was required, he finally got over to me. “Are you sure you want me to do this?” He eyed the box nervously. “I mean…”

“Just, get the box out of there.” I sighed and took a step back.

The handle might have had enough room for both of my hooves to fit around it, but his power armor made it hard for him to even attempt to get a hold of it. The rebar that was secured to the wood groaned as he pressed against it. The old wood creaked, and sounded like it would give out before he got his hoof in. Again, funny enough, it did.

With a sickening snap, the whole side of the box sheared open. clumps of moldy hay spilled from the opening, smelling of sulphur. Along with the stink, poured a set of candy cane striped tubes. Each one was tipped with a metal pink balloon, and the folding fins on the back gave away that they were rockets.

Twice in as many minutes, we froze and watched as very temperamental ammunition thought about ruining our day. Again, the tubes simply rolled to a stop. Shadow and I both let out a breath we’d been holding. I shot him a glare that I’d hoped he’d remember the next time he picked up so much as an idea from anywhere.

“Not my fault.” He’d kept his eyes looking anywhere but at me until he held the ruined box side up enough to block my angry gaze. Smart move. “I’m feeling we have enough to bring the tunnel down now, don’t you?”

“If we make it out of here alive, remind me to never let you hold anything fragile again.” I grumbled and pointed to the tunnel. “Ever.”

With a short hop, and a quick thrust from his wings, Shadow took to the air. It looked so funny to me, the way he effortlessly flew out of here wearing that bulky armor. Aunt Dashy said she never liked hers, said that it only slowed her down. Seeing Shadow move in that armor gives me new respect for just how amazing Aunt Dashy was.

“Come on already!” Gauge’s voice echoed down the tunnel.

I deftly weaved my way across the volatile floor. I wasn’t anywhere near even understanding equestrian engineering, but I hoped that we had enough bang here to at least get the job done. With one last look around, I double checked if there was any more I could stuff in my bag for later. Besides some interesting looking rounds for Preds minigun, a pair of what Gauge said were ‘stun grenades on buck’, and a single emp grenade for when we found Tempest, there really wasn’t anything I could think to grab. Feeling confident, I stepped out of the room, and into the bright white tunnel.

The long, black line of powder that trailed all the way down to the others gave the hall an odd accent. Everypony was waiting for me down at the other end, thankfully still outside the Challenge room. I had no idea why Tempest didn’t contact us in certain rooms, or get angry that we were taking so long, but I hadn’t been one to refuse a lucky break.

Tasteless chewed on the end of her cigarette, flipping the top of my lighter open and closed in her fetlock. She looked at me as I trotted towards them in a way like I’d wasted her time or something. I had the urge to slow down to a crawl, just to annoy her more, but the longer we took, the closer Filius got to whatever the hell he was looking for.

“What were you doing?” She grumbled and finally lit up her smoke. “Interior decorating?” She took a deep drag off of her smoke before hoofing my lighter back to me. “Just light this shit so we can get out of here.”

“So, do we take cover when she lights it,” The major had been on board for this whole idea, but he seemed to be having second thoughts. “Or do we go when it explodes?”

“Well, if we go before it detonates, and it fails to explode, the AI here can trap us in the room.” Predious was as on point as ever. “So, I hope you don’t mind running for your life.”

“Guys, it’s going to work.” I rolled my eyes and flicked open my lighter. After a few attempts, the wick lit, and I lowered it down toward the gunpowder fuse.

“Wait!” Gauge yelled so abruptly that I snapped my foreleg back and threw my lighter against the wall.

“What?” I sighed and trudged over to my lighter, hoping I didn’t damage it.

“What if Tempest get’s pissed that we blew up part of this place?” She scratched at the tip of her horn as she shrugged. “What do we do if she just tries to kill us?”

“Easy,” I rolled my eyes and relit the wick. “we try to murder her right back. But I’m sure she won’t do that. She’s enjoying these challenges far too much to let it end this quickly.” I carefully lowered my hoof down to the powder again. I froze with the flame just above the line as I thought about this one last time. Shadow had a good point. There were so many weapons in that room that could make a huge difference in the wasteland.

But I gave my word to Pai, so they had to go.

“Wait!” Tasteless shouted out with ear shattering levels of scratchiness in her throat.

“What!” Nearly everypony shouted as we all glared at her. In a move that came as a surprise to exactly none of us, she slowly smirked and giggled. Her giggles grew into obnoxious laughter, which in turn became uncontrollable cackles.

“You should have seen the looks on your faces!” She managed to get out while she was busy rolling around on the floor.

“That’s it.” I growled as I angrily whipped the lighter at the gunpowder. It gave a hiss before the trail ignited. The line burned at a far faster pace than I had anticipated, but it was still agonizingly slow to watch.

“Steady, not yet.” Predious spoke out. Even with his words, I had started to take a few steps back. Recently, explosions haven’t been too kind to me, and I didn’t want to be left with another horrid injury when we were so close to beating Filius.

The line traced closer and closer. It snaked it’s way within ten feet of the pile, then five, then two. The hissing sparks burned their way out of sight, headed for the gunpowder tin that lay at the heart of pile. All of us held our breaths as we waited for the blast.

It never came.

“Really?” Tasteless sighed from her spot on the floor. “What a waste of my time.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” Gauge spoke as she took a step forward. She wore a grin across her muzzle that would have sent a raider running for cover. Her magic hefted her new toy up into the air, a candy cane colored balloon rocket floating up to the back of it. “Mind the backblast!” Was all the warning we got before she shoved the rocket home, and pulled the trigger.

The rocket roared down the hallway, missing the pile of explosive by a few feet. In muted horror, I watched as the rocket slammed into the case containing the sea pony power armor. That turns out to have been a mistake, as the explosive’s flash left an afterimage in my eyes when it detonated.

It was fine though, as none of us needed to get up and run for the door. The blast force of the rocket hit me like a motor wagon. I felt as I was picked up and thrown against the heavy door that lead into the computer testing area. My hearing evaporated into a high pitched whine, and my nose smelled nothing but singed coat. As I slid blindly across the floor, I’d wondered if I could kick myself yet for thinking we might have underdone the explosives.

I was stopped quite unceremoniously by sliding against something hard and metallic, slamming my head against it.

As both the stars and the after image in my vision started to clear, a flashing yellow light above the large steel doorway spun quickly in warning. The door had closed quickly, already sitting with a pair of large deadbolts locked through steel rings in the frame. I took a look around me, finding that I hadn’t hit something, but rather had knocked my head against Tasteless’s metal tail. I got a rather unpleasantly close view of her ass before I scrambled and rolled the other way.

Predious sat up from next to me as well, squinting and shaking off his own pain. Gauge lay on the ground beside him, eyes nearly as wide as her smile while she levitated her toy above her, giggling giddily. I found that Shadow was already up on his hooves, and had a hoof extended to the major, who had gotten pinned under Sky’s body. I was surprised that Shadow had recovered so quickly, but figured that it was just another perk of that cheat-suit he wore. Still, he made it look damn good.

After checking myself over quickly for grievous wounds, I felt safe to relax. Curious, I pulled up my pipbuck and navigated to the map section. I found the room where we currently were, and looked over to where we’d been. Both the tunnel and the weapons cache room had changed from solid lines, to dotted lines. I’d figured that if a dotted limb on the health screen ment broken limb, then a dotted map ment it was an inaccessible room. Even as I looked at it, more of the dotted line rooms replaced sections of the other part of the orchard.

A hoof tapped against my shoulder and startled me. I turned to find Gauge’s beaming smile hanging above me. She spoke in muffled tones that I couldn’t understand. She looked like she repeated the words a few more times, but I simply shrugged and pointed my hooves at my ears.

She looked to come to a realization and held up a hoof to me. Slowly, she levitated her rocket launcher over and spun it so I could see the back of it. She pointed at it and said something I once again couldn’t fucking hear. She waited for a response I couldn’t give before pointing to my bag, and then to the back of her launcher.

It was about then I’d figured that she was asking if I had any more ammo for her. If I thought she could at all hear me, I’d have explained that the only ammo I saw was in the crate Shadow had torn open. Since I couldn’t do that, I simply nodded and pointed right at the sealed door.

The color bled from her face, and the smile left her muzzle as she turned to look. It was an odd thing to see in complete silence. I watched as the last ounce of hope to fire that deathtrap again left her. It was replaced by confusion, as she turned to me with uncertain eyes that probably begged to ask me why I’d ruined all of her fun. Then that too was replaced by the understanding of the situation, and the acceptance of defeat. With an uncaring sigh, she simply strapped the rocket launcher too her and sat down hard.

But hey, for once one of my plans had gone right. It didn’t go exactly as planned, but we did destroy the weapons room. Sure, we could have helped a lot of ponies with those things, but some part of me knew that I needed to heed the warnings of others. Sky told me of the horrible weapons that she and her brother had found in the orchards, and the pain they had caused. I couldn’t help but think she’s out there somewhere, with a smile on her muzzle, knowing that those things could never hurt anypony again.

Now, if the same could just be said about Filius, I might just have myself the start of a good day.

--Chapter End--

“Send a maniac to catch one.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: Demomare

Congratulations! You’ve survived enough explosions to take 10% less damage from them.

Chapter Thirty Six - Silent Halls

“The shepherd’s lost and his home is far. Keep to the stars, The dawn will come”

For all we’d been through, it was lucky for us to find an emergency medical cabinet on the wall that was still stocked. Unfortunately, it only had a single health potion in it. For a moment, I was perplexed at how this cabinet was supposed to have helped in any emergency, when a single potion could barely handle one gunshot wound. There was room in here for a hundred potions, and at the very least they could have left us some gause. I guess it made sense to me, with a facility this big and undoubtedly as expensive as it was, something in the budget had to give.

We passed around the potion, each using just the slightest amount to fix our ears. The first thing we’d all heard once our hearing had returned, was an unnatural silence. At the very least, I’d expected Tempest of be ranting and raving over my spectacularly destructive display, but she too was absent. I should have been relieved at our lucky break, but the odd stillness only served to unnerve me.

The room itself looked much like the weapons research room, except that it was large like the other warehouse rooms had been. There were various discarded terminal components, scrap wires, vacuum tubes, and various electronic do-dads scattered around in place of the rusting guns and junk we’d seen back in the other room. If anything, this room had an abundance of paper, and they looked to have wanted to use every sheet available to them. Lines and lines of unintelligible symbols and numbers ran over every page I could see. Some of the papers were even still stuck half printed out of the dormant machines.

“It’s official. I’m bored.” Tasteless sighed as she pushed a stack of paper over onto the floor.

“Already?” Gauge still had a ridiculously wide smile across her muzzle from the blast, and she cradled her rocket launcher close to her like it was a foal.

“Something blew up not two minutes ago,” Predious stepped over to me and took to looking over some of the old machines. “I would expect that it would have sated you for quite some time.”

“Yeah, that time was two minutes,” She rolled her eyes, put a hoof against one of the old machines, and tipped it over. With a resounding crash, the old metal machine burst at it’s rusted seams and spilled a myriad of broken components at her hooves. “and now I’m bored again.”

“You’re incorrigible.” Predious simply grunted.

“Seriously, you’d rather deal with more games?” Shadow spat at her in disgust. “Would you be more ‘entertained’ if another innocent pony died down here?” He kicked at a stack of papers behind him in his anger. The force of the power armor kick caused the stack to explode into a shower of yellowed paper behind him. “You sicken me.”

I’d been about to interject with how we should actually look for a way out of here, when the loudspeakers on the wall crackled.

“Did somepony mention another challenge.” Tempest’s voice sounded off. The pitch and tone of some of her words jumped wildly as she spoke. From the way it did, the illusion that she could have possibly been a pony fell away. What was left was the sound of automation, and the cold calculating logic of a machine. “Well, if you insist on having another…”

“Look what you did, featherhead.” Tasteless sighed and sat down, shooting an annoyed look to shadow.

“What I did?” He snapped out in a voice that sent a shiver down my spine.

With a thick snap, every terminal in the room started up with a unified whine. The whine dropped off as the dust coated screens flickered and brightened, the humming that they filled the room with feeling like they filled the air itself with power. The suddenness of it had caught us all off guard, but as the odd silence from everypony gripped the room again, I’d wondered just what Tempest was up to. That had been when a new sharp whine emitted from behind me.

“What the hell!” Gauge shouted and pulled our attentions to her. Sparks and smoke shot from every joint in her cybernetic leg, the limb seemingly starting to move on it’s own. “Shit, shit, shit!” She whined and tried to maintain her balance on her other hooves as her horn glowed brightly. She wrapped her leg in her magic, focusing it on the points she’d used to remove it before. “Fuck, why won’t you come off!”

“I guess you need me to explain this challenge.” Tempest’s cold and uncaring voice came over the speakers again. “The Ministry of Image told the public that the zebra nation was a barbaric and uncivilized place, but unknown to many, they employed genius scientists on par with Ministry head Twilight Sparkle. More than a fair share of these few worked as terminal coders, writing codes and developing technology to counteract equestria’s newest technological front in the war.”

With a snap, gauge’s cyberlimb whipped itself in a direction it hadn’t been designed to torque. Part of her hoof twisted and showered parts onto the floor as the mechanisms inside died from the stresses on them.

“See, cyber warfare had always been the zebras forte. Their robotics and mechanical skills were unmatched by us early on, but they never expected us to catch on so quick.” Tempest continued talking as Gauge fruitlessly tried to get her hoof under control. “With the idea that we might be able to match them at their own level of mechanical sophistication, they understood that we must have gotten our hooves on some of their tech.” She paused at nearly the same time gauge’s leg let out a whine and nearly sheared itself off at another joint. “Of course, you already know this, don’t you?”

“Make it stop!” Gauge cried out. She looked around to us for help. With the way her leg wildly moved, none of us could get close.

“They started to develop special programs that would fell even their own machines,” Tempest’s voice grew more disgusted as she talked. “An ugly idea that soon found it’s way into the base code of every machine they built with the intention of finding it’s way into our systems. A virus that would slowly build up a charge in the machine, causing it to rip itself apart before terminating itself in a spectacular fashion.” She again gave a small, heartless laugh. “Of course, I kept it contained for a special occasion such as this.”

“Charge?” Tasteless spoke up with teary eyes. “How?” As she spoke, she hadn’t once looked away from Gauge. I could see the pain written across her muzzle. She may be a bitch, but even a pony such as her could see that Gauge didn’t deserve this.

“In the next three minutes, the power system of that cybernetic limb will overload and release its stored energy. When that time is up, it will discharge through the outlet it is connected to.” Tempest sighed and spoke to Tasteless like she would a foal. “The challenge for you is simple. Purge the virus before it stops her heart.”

“But…” Tasteless choked on her words as Gauge simply cried and focused her magic around her leg. “I can’t fucking do that! I don’t know the first thing about terminals!”

“Of course you don’t.” Tempest’s voice faltered and skipped into a manic laugh. “That’s why I made it your challenge!”

“Tasteless…” Gauge whined. “You have to help.” She looked up at her with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I don’t want too-” The snap of her leg cut her off, the metal limb twisted and hit her across the muzzle hard. She slumped over onto the floor in unconsciousness, her leg still whipping about uncontrollably.

“Fuck!” Tasteless screamed and galloped to her. “Don’t just fucking stand there, you assholes!”

Out of all of us, only Predious moved. He didn’t move toward her, but away. Calmly, and with a coldness that had only come from Tempest herself, he seemed to busy himself with scavenging the room.

“Fine! I’ll save her on my own!” Tasteless growled. She reached out for the limb, seeking to grab it with her own cyberhoof. Several times she tried, each attempt was thwarted when Gauge’s limb painfully crunched against Tasteless’s. Undeterred, she still tried up until a heavy swing from the out of control limb landed square on her chest, rending the snap of bone in our ears. Tasteless whimpered in pain and backed off, looking to make one last attempt. However, it was too late, and the unthinkable happened.

With a short whine, the cyberlimb sparked and exploded at the joint it connected to Gauge. She convulsed as it did, and her horn sparked as the magical energy coursed through her. Then, as it had been before, every terminal in the room shut off, and everything fell silent again. With a hiss, the door to the hallway opened up. The challenge was over.

“No.” Tasteless whined through soft sobs. “Not you.” She pushed herself through the pain in her chest and collapsed onto Gauge. “Wake up.” She spat out in anger. “Wake the fuck up!”

“Tasteless, she’s gone.” I couldn’t do anything, none of us could.

“Fuck you!” She hissed and shot glance that I’d wished would just burn right through me. “You did nothing to help her! She didn’t need to die!”

The sound of hoofsteps quickly trotting past me pulled my gaze to Predious. He held a bundle of junk in his magic, and wore the most stern look I’d ever seen across his muzzle. I was about to ask what he was doing when without warning, he spun around and bucked Tasteless right in the head. She recoiled and slid across the floor with a pained yell, slamming against one of the research tables.

“Everypony stand back!” Predious yelled before he took his amalgamation of junk, and pressed it down against Gauge. A new whine filled the air, this time coming from his object. With a snap of it’s own, it made Gauge’s body convulse. Still, she say unmoving on the floor. “Come on, work.” His horn flashed again, and the whine returned. Another snap from the object, and again her body moved.

“Pred,” I forced myself to say.

“Stay clear!” He snapped at me and worked his makeshift device again. This time when Gauge convulsed, her eyes snapped open. She gave a wheezing inhale that ended in scream when he pulled the device from her. With a sigh, Predious haphazardly tossed the junk device to the side and gave me an exhausted look. I don’t know how he knew to do something like that, but I’m not going to lie, I wanted to kiss him in that moment.

“How dare you interfere.” Tempest seethed through the speakers, catching us all off guard. “I already gave you your only warning, consider our deal off.”

“No, by your own rules, the challenge was over by the death of a trespasser.” Predious snarled and turned around in place. “You declared the challenge over by opening the door. What we do after that is outside of the bounds of our agreement.”

“You have no authority over me.” Tempest’s wavering voice was only getting worse as she spoke. “You break into my facility, ruin my experiments, and destroy my home to distract me from the others intruding into this facility. Now you want to tell me how to follow my rules? We are done. Once I deal with the others, I’ll...”

Her voice cut out sharply, and the lights in the room started to flicker. For a moment, we were dropped into darkness before everything came back on. If not for Gauge and Tasteless’s soft sob filled embrace, we would have found ourselves in silence yet again.

The soft crackle from the speakers on the walls preempted another chill down my spine. What would she do now that we weren’t protected by a deal? Would she sick the robots from the other wings on us, or was there something even worse headed our way?

“This is Palladin Cheese,” The voice of that asshole hadn’t been one I’d expected, but it was a welcome surprise. “We’ve secured the control room and managed to use the override on both the lockdown and the AI.” He paused for a moment, and a collective sigh of relief came from everypony. “But we’re not out of hot water yet, and that’s not a phrase I’m using lightly. Get to the control room, A.S.A.P.”

* * * * * * * * *

The light chatter between us as we traveled the immensely bright white halls had been a good distraction from the silence that somehow permeated this whole place. As scary as it was at the other orchard, at least the ghosts of the dead had kept me on edge and alert. This place felt like it wanted to hold on to every sound like it were a pre-war secret, keeping it hidden from our prying ears as we walked past the decaying projects of years past.

Tasteless mostly whispered reassuring words into Gauge’s ear, helping to keep her distracted from the loss of her leg. Of course, the leg in question bore little resemblance to the metal appendage it once had. Blackened wires and melted components poked through every joint with an aggression shared only by the weeds that sprouted in cracked pavement. The leg itself was shaped more like an old world pretzel, having twisted and curled around it’s base in an odd fashion.

“Are you alright?” Predious whispered to me from my side. The look I got from him when I turned to answer was much more sincere than I’d expected from him.

“Honestly, I’m not sure I can answer that anymore.” I sighed and dragged my hooves. We let the others get ahead of us a bit before I continued. “Back there, I froze up. Gauge is only alive because you did what none of us could, and acted.” I shook my head. “I know I’m supposed to be some sort of leader for you all, but I never once thought about what that really meant.”

“Nopony acted because nopony else knew what to do.” He gave me a small nudge as we walked. “You know how long I’ve survived out there. There’s a good reason you found me reading a book. Knowledge is power, and I simply applied it in the right way back there.”

“But what happens when it’s you on the floor like that?” I wanted to believe that it would never come to that, but between losing Sky, and almost losing Gauge, I just couldn’t afford to think like that anymore.

“I fully expect to die.” He gave a light chuckle. When I turned to him in horror, he held his hoof out to keep me from talking. “As some pony in charge, you have to know that sometimes, there won’t be any way to solve a problem at all.”

“No, I refuse to lose hope.” I wanted to tell him about what the elements had shown me, but we’d started to fall behind the others. I didn’t want us to be too far back on the off chance that another challenge popped up, so we both moved up to a canter.

“It’s not that you should lose hope, more that you should accept the inevitability of some outcomes.” He smiled and pointed his hoof toward the others. “Mistakes and all, if you were to tell them definitively, that a problem isn’t worth their effort to solve, they’d listen.” He tossed his head back and forth as he spoke, seeming more cheery than usual. “All the same, they’d listen if you said that a pony wasn’t worth the effort to save. Make no mistake, there will be a point where you’ll have to make that call. It might not be today, or tomorrow, but as somepony who leads, you will have to make that call.”

The others had all stopped up ahead at another slab door. Unlike the ones we’d passed before, this one sat at the complete end of the white hall. In large black letters, the words Orchard Command and Control sat pristinely painted across the steel door. Without hesitation, I hit the control panel that sat next to it on the wall, and waited as it lifted out of the way. A smaller bulkhead door sat in front of us, and without much trouble, I twisted the handle, opened it, and stepped inside.

“Mi amore, I am so glad you are safe.” A smug striped muzzle met my eyes as we trotted into the control room. Ficha was about the most unexpected thing about this place. Having done my fair share of exploring as a Filly, I knew what an orchard Control room looked like. Dozens of screens displaying all sorts of information flashed across the walls around us, and a main control board with more buttons on it than anywhere else in the wasteland. Nothing out of the ordinary to me so long as you dismiss the three pony skeletons haphazardly brushed under the console by the power armored hooves of the rangers manning the board. What I hadn’t expected to see, were the yellow caution lights on the walls to be actively spinning. Though, then again, I did flood an entire wing of this place…

“Yeah, we’re alive too.” Pred’s comment pushed the smug smile from Ficha’s muzzle, and tightened it into an egotistical grin.

“Yes, but nopony kills the hired help.” He muttered just under his breath.

“Ficha, you have ten seconds to tell me what you’re doing down here, or I swear to Celestia…” I wasn’t in the mood for his shit.

“Glad you could all make it.” Cottage called from the control board. His suit gave out a sharp hiss as he unsealed his helmet and took it off. I liked the rangers much better without their soulless looking helmets on. Not only did it make it easier to judge their emotions, but if it came to it, it was the only time I could ever take one of those impenetrable assholes down. “Your striped friend here comes quite in handy for opening sealed doors.” He shot a glance over his shoulder at us. “Unfortunately, it’s those same doors that are going to kill us all very shortly if we don’t do something.”

“Where is my father?” Gauge spoke up weakly from behind me. “He was with you before.” Tasteless had carried her across her back due to the twisted wreck that was her cyber leg being completely unusable.

“One moment.” Cottage gave a few twists and toggles to some of the controls, making one of the monitors flicker and change it’s display. When the image cleared up, it came across as if it were in a fish eye lens. It took me a moment to understand that the room in the image was actually circular, and the odd shine in it came from the other side of a clear glass bubble that encapsulated it. At one section of the controls, was Fruit Cup. After a moment, he walked up to the camera and flashed a quick smile before flipping a switch.

“Hey there, Gauge.” His voice came through the intercom on the console Cheese was at. “You see that blur behind me?” He nearly giggled as he spoke. “Watch this.”

He twisted a knob next to him slowly. An odd crackling came through the mic as he did, and the shine in the background started to change shape. Slowly, it contorted and flattened, resolving into a blob. The blob in turn resolved to a wriggling mass, then into the rough shape of a pony. With a solid click, the shine changed into the racing form of a translucent equine.

“That, everypony, is a Windego. Probably the last of it’s unmutated kind in the wasteland!” He nearly squealed in joy as the monster galloped endlessly around the control chamber. With that bit over with, he leaned down and looked right at the camera. “Now, I hope you’re alright down there.”

“Not really.” Gauge sighed and lifted the metal mess that was her leg toward the screen. “We lost Sky.” She paused as his smile faded. “And I broke your leg. I’m sorry.” She seemed to be a bit apprehensive that it wasn’t all that we’d almost lost back there, but she can tell him about what happened on her own time. Assuming we survive this, that is.

Fruit frowned. “Is the rest of you..?” He was interrupted by a rapid set of beeps on the console next to him. After looking over several instruments, he walked back over to the camera with a worried look. “That was another power fluctuation. Are you sure you activated the cool down on those reactors, Cottage?”

“Yes, it seemed that the AI has overridden the overrides.” He shuffled himself down to the other end of the console and looked over a few gauges. “If we don’t do something to stop this, it’s going to build up to unstable levels here in just a few minutes.”

“What seems to be the problem?” Predious stepped up beside Cottage and gave the controls a look over for himself.

“Right before I locked the AI out of the comand system, it seems that it had enough time to start some sort of emergency vent of the Resort’s archano-reactors.” Cottage pointed to gauges with odd symbols that I couldn’t understand, nor had any idea what they did. “In about three minutes, superheated steam from the reactors saturated with magical radiation will vent into the elevator shaft we came down. It wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the lockdown hadn’t sealed the rest of the hotel off above us. There isn’t anywhere for the steam to go but down here.”

“Yeah, I’m no expert, but that sounds bad.” Shadow stretched his wings nervously. “So what do we do to stop it?”

“That’s just it, I’m stumped.” Cottage sighed and leaned closer to the controls, skimming his muzzle just over the top of them as he looked over each one again. “We can’t shut them down, the failsafes to abort the vent are locked. And, unless you can get to the manual control valves on each of the six reactors in the next sixty seconds, you won’t be able to prevent the vent in time.”

We all sat in silent thought for a few moments. There had to be another way to shut them down. The Goddesses were really trying to break my hopes more than ever now, and I just wasn’t having it anymore. This shit was really unfair, and if we get out of this, I was going to dismantle Tempest in the most painful way possible.

“I…” Fruit Cup came over the intercom hesitantly. “I have an idea.”

Cottage hit a few buttons on the console. With a collective flicker, the whole bank of monitors switched images, combining their screens to form one large screen of the Windego control chamber.

“Well, now would be the time to say it then!” Cottage grumbled and worked over more controls.

Amidst all the alarms, we could see Fruit Cup on the big screen nervously rub at his mane. “There is a procedure for something like this written up over here. There are a secondary set of vents that were to be used if the Windego ever got out of their control.” It made sense, seeing as Pai’s orchard had a similar failsafe planned out.

He hoofed a book closer to him and flipped it open. He hoofed through a few pages before stopping and looking right into the camera “If I can vent the radiation into windigo's chamber, I can keep it from spreading through the island. We’ll lose the storm generator for good, but the rest of the Resort will be safe.”

“You can’t do that,” Predious shouted at him, catching most of us by surprise. “You’ll boil alive in there from that much radiation!”

“I’m sorry, but your out of time, and there’s no other way.” He spoke as he turned and furiously worked over the controls. The roar of the windigo overtook the sound of his hooves through the intercom. We could see it, starting to circle closer the glass chamber that sat in the center of the sphere. I didn’t know if it knew what was happening or not, but I could feel myself grow colder as I watched it.

“Opening emergency spell reactor vent system.” He threw a short lever that caused a loud clang to resonate through the entire orchard around us. “System open.”

“Dad, no!” Gauge cried out, struggling to climb down from Tasteless. She hadn’t gotten far when Tasteless wrapped her hooves around her tightly, holding her in place. Gauge simply screamed and flailed against the embrace. “You can’t do this!”

“Don’t worry, sweetie. I’m not afraid.” He chuckled through the video feed. Of all of us in the control room, I don’t think a single one of us believed him. “You and your brother need to take care of your mother from now on, alright?”

“Don’t throw your life away!” Predious snapped into the microphone. “There has to be another way.” In an almost annoyed agreement, the windigo roared out and slammed itself against the glass chamber. Fruit jumped in fear, but quickly regained his composure and went back to frantically working the controls.

“Overriding the first of the reactor core vents.” He growled and slammed his hoof through a glass cover on the control panel. With a grunt, he threw the paddle, and a loud hiss ran around us through the walls. On the screen, a large white plume grew outside the chamber. The Windigo screamed in pain, flailing wildly as it circled the chamber.

“No!” Gauge cried out, reaching for the screen. “Dad, you can’t!”

“Overriding the second set of core vents.” Fruit cup whined as he reached over and threw up the second paddle. Another hiss, followed by even more white steam on the screen showed the effects of it. Fruit Cup stumbled back and covered his ears as the Windigo screeched again. It slammed itself against the glass containment case again and again. It was hard to tell, but it blurred as it galloped faster than even before.

With heavy breaths, Fruit stepped up to the control panel again. We could see the thick lines of sweat running down his muzzle, and just behind him the reflection on the glass shifted. The glare I’d seen before on the glass had returned and expanded. The area outside the chamber now looked as much a raging tempest as the storm that surrounded the island.

“Chamber temperature… one thirty and rising.” He grunted out, lifting his hoof to wipe away the sweat. “Reactor core at fifty percent capacity and falling. Just a little bit more.” He had just the faintest sign of a grin on his face as he spoke, glancing over to the camera. “Throwing the third switch.”

“No dad, no…” Gauge whimpered as she simply collapsed and cried. “Please, come back to me.”

“Fruit, you’ve bought us enough time to figure something out.” Predious panted heavily through his own tears. He turned around and glared at me. “Tell him it’s enough!” He turned toward Cottage next. “Do something! Get him out of there!”

“Is it enough time?” I asked him through a quivering muzzle. For all the talk Pred had given me on the way here, this was something that none of us could fix. It hadn’t even been my call to make, and yet another pony was dying in front of me. I cursed the Goddesses and the elements for his pain, but I would not let this break me. I couldn’t.

“Sorry, all. This was a one way trip for me.” Fruit cried out as he threw the next paddle. Another hiss, and another pained cry from the Windigo. This time, the agonized screams of Fruit joined in as he slumped over the controls. When he pushed himself up, his skin was mottled and bleeding wounds were literally opening up before our very eyes. “Please, make sure my family makes it through this.”

It was hard to even bring myself to speak, and when I did, all I could get out was a hushed, “I will”. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I couldn’t do more than watch Fruit Cup give his life to save everypony. It wasn’t even a choice for him, it was simply necessary.

In the video feed, we watched as the glass windows deformed under the intense heat and winds. There was a terrible noise that came through the speakers, and what looked like part of the walkway punched through the window, tearing it away. The raging wind came in and howled over the PA. The control room was immediately shrouded in a burning cloud of obscuring steam.

Momentarily, there was a break in the cloud. It was just enough to see Fruit propped against the control panel, hooves on the last switch. His skin was sloughing off his body, and as he turned to look at the camera, his eyes boiled and burst. He mouthed something lost to the roaring noise, before lifting with all the strength he had left as the cloud enveloped him once more.

The piercing hiss that echoed through the walls was a sound I don’t think that I’ll ever forget after today. The camera feed and audio from the chamber cut out abruptly as they melted from the heat. Even from this far down, we could hear the final death throes of the windigo as it was purged in a bath of magical radiation, right alongside one of the bravest ponies I’ll ever have known. My heart ached, my head throbbed, and as quickly as it began, it was over. Then, it was nothing but silence.

The quiet of this place was something I’d really started to hate the most about this wretched orchard. I hated it even more than the fact that we’d lost two ponies down here, I hated to think that we still needed find out and stop Filius from getting whatever it was he wanted. The sooner we could do that, the faster we’d leave this quiet hellhole to rot for the rest of time.

--Chapter End--

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Quests Finished: Tempest

Quests Started: Silent Grave

Levels Earned:

Perks Earned:

Chapter Thirty Seven - The Last Goodbye

“This open wound is like a crimson rose. This hatred lodged in my heart begins to bloom”

“Storm, you can’t just leave.” Predious Grumbled as he trotted after me.

“Yes, I can.” I couldn’t have Fruit’s death be for nothing. “We came down here to stop Filius, so that’s what I’m going to go fucking do.”

“Storm!” Predious snapped and tried to stop me. The moment he put his hoof on me, I wheeled around. With all of my strength, I’d grabbed him and hurled his body through the air. With a yelp, he smacked into the floor ahead.

“Don’t you fucking touch me.” I growled back, stomping up to him. Small gouts of blue flame erupted from each of my steps. “You can either get behind the fact that I’m doing this, or stay the fuck out of my way.” I glared into his pained eyes. In them, I could see a pair of furious blue rings staring back. He’d never had them before, and the longer I stared, the more I came to a realization. They were my own eyes, burning with a hatred that I tried to keep locked away deep inside myself. It gave me pause long enough for Pred to collect his thoughts.

“You think that any of us don’t want to stop Filius?” Predious yelled up at me from the floor. “The only reason we’re here is because of you.” He pointed his hoof back to the control room door. “Fruit is dead because of you.”

“I didn’t want to fucking be in charge!” He knew that I hadn’t asked for any of this shit. “You know what? Who the fuck are you to tell me it’s my fault?” I was angry, and I couldn’t see anything but red anymore. “You’re the one who didn’t want to take over, which means that all my mistakes are on you.”

“I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and I’ve owned up to every single one. You can’t run from your responsibilities like a scared filly. Buck the hell up, Storm.” He got up and trotted towards me again. “The wasteland is under siege, and the best hope of stopping it is in this place.” The closer he got, the more I’d thought he’d reach out again. Thankfully, he’d refrained from making the same mistake twice. Instead, stopped in front of me and stopped me with an outstretched hoof. “You think you can finish this on your own? You wouldn’t have made it this far without any of us!”

I was about to retort when his horn flashed. In an instant, I was weightless and tumbling backwards. With a meaty thwack that filled my vision with stars, I bounced across the floor. How dare he fucking do that.

“Okay, fine.” I’d shouted as I picked myself up off the floor. “You want to do it this way, I can oblige.” I’d tensed up and lowered myself on my hooves. If he’d wanted to stop me from going on, I planned on making him sorry he’d even tried.

The grin that pulled across his muzzle matched the smug look that he wore. He’d always thought he was better than me, and the air in which he carried himself proved it. He wanted a cold hearted leader? I’ll show him how cold I could be.

With a grunt, I pushed off and charged at my former friend. Being the arrogant prick he was, I’d expected that he’d dodge out of the way. Unlucky for him, this isn’t my first rodeo. When he moved just before I hit him, I planted my forehooves on the floor and skidded to a stop. I arched and kicked out in a heavy buck, solidly connecting them against his side.

The pained whine that met my ears from it brought a smirk to my muzzle, but only for a moment. A bright flash and soft pop preempted a heavy object landing on top of me. His four hooves connected with my back and slammed me to the floor. Not to be outdone, I rolled over. He hopped to the side, but I hooked my forehooves around his rear hooves and pulled them out from under him.

He pointed his horn at me and emitted a blinding light. I shielded myself from it momentarily, but it didn’t seem to help. I rolled away and instead tried to get back onto my hooves. My vision returned after a second or so, along with the sound of galloping.

Predious grunted as he pushed off and rammed into my side. As he did, I hooked my forehooves around him and used the momentum to roll him under me. I used my weight to my advantage and swung hard, catching him right across the jaw. Before I could line up another swing, his horn glowed again. Instinctively, I tried to cover my eyes, but when I did, he wrapped his magic around my forehooves.

I screamed out as he twisted them. The tighter he did, the more I arched my back to attempt to relieve the pressure. The position I was in kept my rear hooves from helping, and I was running out of time.

Without warning, a striped hoof shot past me and smacked Predious in the horn. With that, his magic fizzled away from my hooves. I reared up to use my advantage to strike him. A pair of powerful hooves wrapped around me and pulled me back. The force was strong enough that it ripped me right off him.

“What the fuck?” I screamed as my mind raced to understand what was going on. I struggled futilely against the new threat, while I watched Ficha hold down Predious. “Let me fucking go!”

“Storm, you have to calm down.” Shadow spoke as he held me tightly. As strong as I was, I couldn’t rip myself from a power armored grasp. Didn’t stop me from trying though. “You saved me from the wreck of my Vertibuck. I owe you my life.” He continued talking into my ear. I didn’t care. All I wanted was for him to drop me so I could go kill Pred. “Not only that, but you’re the most amazing mare I’ve ever met.”

“Then fucking let me go!” I growled and kicked at him.

“I’m sorry, but that isn’t going to happen.” His calmness about holding me had really gotten on my nerves. Without any warning, he planted a small kiss on my neck. It sent a shiver up my back. Normally, I’d geld any fucker who pulled that shit, but not Shadow. The momentary shock of the kiss sent my brain for a loop and I stopped fighting. When I did, I started to shiver. “Storm, you’re freezing.”

“What the hell has gotten into you two?” Ficha snapped as he looked back at me. “Did you two suddenly forget who we’re supposed to be fighting?”

Because Shadow had mentioned it, I couldn’t take my mind off the fact that I was cold. Even though I’ve been running, fighting, and my heart’s not slowed once since we got down here, I was genuinely cold. I couldn’t stop myself from shivering in his hold.

“Storm? What’s wrong?” Shadow asked as he loosened his grip on me.

“I…” I couldn’t even stand as he let go of me. I collapsed onto the floor in a chattering heap. My coat and jacket had always been enough to keep me warm in the winter. It wasn’t even cold in here, so how the hell was I freezing?

“There’s something wrong with her.” Predious grumbled as Ficha stepped back from him. As they used to say before the war, ‘those were fighting words’. I didn’t want to fight again, not while freezing, but if he wanted to go another round I’d get up and fight. “It’s why I provoked her out here.” He got up and cast a seething glance at me. “I don’t think she’d ever normally attack me. Something is affecting her, and it’s getting progressively worse.”

“Is it part of the whole ‘blue flame’ thing?” Shadow asked fairly bluntly. “Maybe we should get her somewhere warmer than this.”

“I don’t think so. I’m not convinced she’s actually cold.” Predious sighed and walked over to me. The anger he’d worn before the fight was gone, and he now only stared down at me with eyes filled with pity. “I think it’s different. Maybe magic in nature, something that finding warmth wouldn’t fix.” If I could speak, I would have told them to at least try.

“Magic?” Ficha spoke as he walked over. Quickly, he’d slipped himself out of his lightly armored shirt and laid it over me. It didn’t help against the feeling of cold, but I guess it was the thought that counts. “What makes you say that?”

“There was something odd I felt when we fought, a spark of magic coming from her that I’d never felt before.” He sat down and looked over me. His horn glowed softly as he reached out with his magic. It tingled as he swept it over me. “I don’t know if it’s there anymore, but I know what I felt.”

I didn’t care what it had been, I just wanted to feel warm again!

“Storm, don’t worry,” Shadow smiled as he looked down to me, “We’ll find a way to get you warm.” He reached down and pulled me close to him. He was so warm, I couldn’t help but press myself back into him.

“I’m sorry.” Predious said, placing a hoof on my shoulder again. “I know that what I said wasn’t the best way to say it, but it’s true.” I wanted to get angry with him again. I wanted to, but like usual, he was right. ”That wasn’t you back there fighting me. I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re a better mare than that. The Storm who got me through the other orchard is a better mare, a good mare.”

“T-thank y-y-you.” I managed to get out through my chattering teeth. I tried to focus my mind on the memories of going through that place. What I did, how I felt. It all felt so long ago, and I can’t help but see the difference in how things have been since. Maybe that place changed me, maybe fighting with Filius did.

The more I focused, the less the cold affected me. Slowly but surely, the cold had started losing it’s grip on me. The warmth of the air worked it’s way through my body from my head down, spreading down to my hooves as I relaxed.

“I think it’s wearing off.” I spoke softly as I still pressed myself into Shadow. I know why he thought he saw me as a kindhearted and brave mare to follow around, but I wasn’t that mare. Nor was I the ‘good’ mare Predious spoke of. “I’m sorry I haven’t been the leader you all deserve.”

“I’d follow you to the ends of Equestria if that’s where you’ll be.” He let go of me and gently set me down. “You don’t have to ask any of us to follow you. We’ll all help you take the necromancer down, no matter what.” With a soft smile and an assuring nod, he took a step back to let me get up.

“Yes, about him.” Ficha chimed in and cleared his throat. “Before your tussle drew us out here, the monitors showed that he is swiftly making his way towards the artifact wing.” He nodded his head back down the hall. “Cheese and I will stay here to monitor him and relay any changes to you.”

“Then we need to get going.” I sighed as I pushed myself back up. The sooner we fixed this, the faster we’d be out of here. “We’re headed straight for him. If any of you see him, I don’t want you to hesitate in taking him out. Got it?”

“Bullshit!” Gauge practically roared from the control room door. She gnashed her teeth in seething rage, and grunted heavily through her tears as she hobbled down on a working cyberleg. “There won’t be any helping once I get my fucking hooves on that bitch machine.” Her leg seemed to be oddly sized, throwing her gait off. When she got closer, I could see that she actually wore Tasteless’s leg.

“Gauge, please, wait up.” Tasteless almost sounded like she cared about something. Funny, as she hadn’t seemed to like anything at all the whole time she’d been with us. “Gauge, you have to take it easy on that leg. It’s not calibrated.” Almost lazily, Tasteless flapped her wings and hovered out of the control room after her. She wore Gauges crumpled leg in place of her own, keeping it tucked up under her.

“I do agree.” Predious sighed. “Tempest needs to be dealt with first, lest she finds a way to get around the lockout.” He stepped forward and put his hoof on my shoulder. This time, I was at least calm enough not to throw him. “Besides, I think we all want to see her burn for what she’s done.”

My pipbuck crackled and the readout shifted to the regular pink of Pai.

“Tempest’s core lies not too far up ahead in one of the warehouse rooms.” Pai spoke softly and with weavering words. “Rip her server racks out one by one, it’ll make her suffer.” She gave a sniffle that caused my vision to momentarily shift to blue. “Give her hell for Frosty and I, alright?”

“Fine.” I sighed. “For Fruit, Filius can wait.”

Compared to the journey so far, the walk to the mainframe core was far too easy. The quiet halls echoed more than before as we walked through them. The dormant and decrepit labs seemed to be in much better condition the closer we got to Tempest’s home. Even the bridge to the next research arm seemed brighter and in better condition. One thing to catch my eye were the bold letters written across the watertight bulkhead at the entrance to the next section.

T.E.M.P.E.S.T. Core/Prototype Research & Refinement

The hallway leading to Tempest was full of faded warnings about the dangerous equipment that lay ahead. Multiple brightly colored signs also forbade the use of any surveillance equipment, including pipbucks, past this point. The pair of rainbow striped Ultra-sentinels that sat dormant next to the doors drove the point home that they had been serious about keeping the things in this wing a secret.

“It’s interesting.” Predious spoke up, finally breaking the silence between us.

“What’s that?” Tasteless sighed tiredly as she hovered next to Gauge.

“From what I understand, this place was a secret to even most of the government.” He kept his uneasy gaze locked on the Ultra-sentinels as we walked closer. “If that’s true, why did they have such robust security here?”

“You heard the major,” Shadow shrugged as he flew ahead to the steel door for the chamber. “This place was under constant threat of attack.”

“I was just as surprised to find this down here as anypony else!” The Major himself gave a lighthearted laugh. “Actually, the resort itself was what we’d been protecting. None of us even knew we were sitting above this place for the last hundred and fifty years almost.”

“Spies?” I tossed in my own suggestion. I had no idea if that was even a problem here for the war, but I’d heard it mentioned in passing when I was just a filly in the labs. Of course, I didn’t know what it entailed back then, but even my orchard was constantly on the lookout for spies.

“I don’t think so.” Predious shook his head as we all reached the door. “It’s just puzzling to me. This doesn’t feel like they’re trying to keep spies out.” With a flick of his magic, the door pad lit up and gave a short beep. The steel slab of a door ground it’s way back, slowly opening to show us something unexpected.

This warehouse room was nearly twice as big as the last two, in both height and length. All the way at the other end, sat a spiked spire that had silver tubes coiling down it’s form. At it’s base, was a large terminal screen that held the grinning face of the goddess of the night. More interestingly, along each wall of the room sat different mechanical creations. From small tracked vehicles, to large and heavily armored walkers, the war was going to be won from the developments in this room. All over the floor were crates and pallets of raw materials and components. Spare parts for weapons too complex for me to even begin to understand. This place looked less like a research station and more like a factory or an armory.

With a heavy thrum, one of the machines roared to life. At what felt like twenty feet tall, the tinted blue metal of a giant mechanoid pony stepped away from the wall. Sharp metal wings sat folded on it’s side, and the tapered horn the size of a steel beam adorned it’s forehead. Across it’s chest, was the cutie mark of the princess I adored the most as a filly.

“Sweet Luna… maybe it’s not to keep us out,” Gauge gasped in a mix of horror and awe, “but to keep that in.”

The machine stepped toward us. Each thundering step shook the floor. Even without weapons, the imposing sight sent a shiver of fear down my spine. I really hoped that Predious’s trick for these things would work twice. Interrupting my thoughts, the machine stopped and straightened up. With a hiss, a seam formed along the crescent moon on it’s chest. The metal panels folded outward, revealing a hollowed space in the center. In it, was a control seat that looked as if it bound Pallet to the controls themselves.

“It ain’t flying,” Pallet called out to us. Each little movement she had as she did, was mimicked by the machine itself. “,but without my wings, this’ll have to be close enough.”

“Do you feel nothing for what you did?” I’d hissed while I unslung my rifle. I hadn’t had a proper chance to use it yet in here, but I’d use it on her if I had to. “Skyline was your mother for goddesses sake!”

“Oh boo hoo.” She waved the massive forehoof of the robot in dismissal. “The old bitch had it coming. Besides, there’s no room in my masters world for the heroes of old,” She hunched the robot down and grinned at us. “But I wouldn’t worry about that, Storm. Monsters like you will have their place.”

With an angry grunt, I pushed myself up onto my rear hooves. It had been quite some time since I balanced myself to raise my rifle. The scar on my chest, as well as the healed bone in my foreleg felt odd as I pulled the gun close and eyed down the sights. As I did, the metal plating on the robot slid shut again with a heavy slam. Pallet’s incessant giggles now pumped through a set of speakers on the massive machine. Her overconfidence gave me time to aim my first shot.

With a pull of the trigger, one round sailed toward the head of the robot. In a spectacular display, one of the glowing eyes on the machine blew out in a shower of sparks. It cut her laughter on the spot, while the machine’s engine gave a low growl.

“Oh, you want to do it this way then?” Her voice crackled through the speaker. A flashing light on the horn started up, and the tip started to glow red hot. “Well, two can play at that game.”

“Everypony, move!” Predious screamed.

None of us had to be told twice. Really though, I think I had been the only one who’d had to worry. With an oddly toned zott, a thick red beam of energy fired out from the spear of a horn. It swung in a slow arc after me, scorching a line across the concrete floor just behind me as I fled for cover. The smell of ozone filling my nostrils only pushed me harder. With all of my strength, I pushed off my hooves and dove behind the hulking form of some sort of tank. The beam heated the metal intensely, but didn’t cut through it.

“Come on, Storm! Stop running! You can beat me if you really tried.” Pallet cheered as the beam cut out. With the drone of the laser gone, I could hear the sizzling of the concrete. The beam had liquified it, turning it molten along the path I’d run. “And hey, even if you can’t, it’ll be a less painful death than the one you gave me.”

“Stop this, Pallet!” I didn’t want to fight her. “This isn’t you!” Whether or not she’d heard it, I had to believe that Skyline was right. If she said that some part of Pallet was still in there, I couldn’t lose the hope that she could come back to us. “You can still help us stop Filius from killing even more innocents!”

“And why would I care? Hmmm?” Her monstrous voice resonated around the chamber. “Just so you could fuck me over again and leave me for dead?” Her machine stomped it’s way closer. As great as a tank may have been, it wouldn’t have lasted long against that thing.

“I wasn’t the one who fired, up on that roof!” I snapped back. Time wasn’t something that’d be on my side much longer.

“It’s all your fault!” She screamed. The drone of the horn returned, building up as it had before. Out of options, I lept out from behind the tank, and charged up the open isle. A whistling woosh preempted the sound of rending metal, and a scream from Pallet. A bright explosion flowered from the side of the metal monstrosity.

The rocket that came from one of the machines on the other side was followed by another, then another. Each hit made Pallet’s ride stumble. Her horn beam traversed wildly around me, scorching and melting through steel and concrete. Something that the beam hit exploded behind me. The wave of force slammed into my back like an out of control skycarrage, sending me tumbling and flipping onto the floor.

I was surprised by a yank that stopped me dead and wheeled me around. With a ringing clang, my head and neck smacked against what felt like a metal beam. I went down hard, stunned for the moment as my brain tried to catch up to the pain all over my body.

“I don’t think pissing her off any more would be advisable!” Predious shifted uneasily over me.

“You tell me how to stop a giant metal goddess, and maybe you’ll get a say in how I do things!” All of me hurt, but seeing as nothing immediate was missing or torn up, I figured it would be in my best interest to get back on my hooves.

“Fucking annoying metal cunt!” Pallet’s angry voice filled the air. The sound of crushing metal didn’t put any pretty images to mind. The symphony of sounds that came from the rocket truck as it’s crushed form cartwheeled down the center aisle didn’t comfort me either. “Where the fuck did you go?”

A black blur flew past my view. Shadow weaved between the taller projects and piles as his own energy weapon let out shot after shot. Both Predious and I peeked around the edge of what turned out to be a pallet of what looked to be stacked artillery barrels. Mildly thicker than the tank from before, it might hold up for a few seconds under that heat beam. A flash of silver and green caught my eye.

“The fuck are you doing?” Tasteless yelled as she too zipped through the air. “Fucking take her down!”

“With what!” The major yelled.

“Really?” She snapped as she arced up and hovered for a moment. “Not like this place is an arsenal or any-!” She was abruptly cut off when another hunk of metal flew through the air. The airborne pallet of steel basically exploded as it hit the ceiling above her. She let out a scream as the twisted and tumbling metal slammed into her.

Pred and I both watched in silent horror as the whole mass fell to the ground. The floor shook, and the clatter of the heavy steel beams resonated through the air more than Pallet’s machine so far had. As the noise dropped off, I heard Gauge’s horrific scream.

“Oops.” Pallet spoke with villainous chuckle. “Did I do that?” The heavy machine Stomped it’s way towards the pile that covered Tasteless. “Here, let me help.” She stepped past Predious and I.

“Hey!” Gauge’s voice boomed through the air as well. “Get away from her, you bitch!” A few heavy thumps met my ears before a black machine thundered past. The heavy looking, four legged machine barreled into Pallet’s machine. The metal plating on the rear leg crumpled in from the impact, and the rest of the machine tumbled onto its side. I wasn’t sure if she’d planned it, but I was damn happy to see it collapse the other way from us.

Now that it wasn’t moving, I could see the black machine. Composed of a latticework of steel tubes and hydraulics, it resembled a pre-war boar. Inside, I could see Gauge sat in a similar set up to how Pallet was. Out from the front of Gauge’s machine, jutted two flat lifting bars that seemed spaced enough that they could lift the heavy parts around her.

“We need to find a way to bring her down.” Predious for once, stole my job and stated the obvious.

“No shit! Can’t you just do what you did last time?” I spoked up and looked around. Tasteless was right, there had to be something useful here to use against her!

“No, it’s too big.” Predious spoke quickly before he took off down the aisle. “But I think I can find something! Keep her busy!”

I grumbled and turned myself back the way I’d come. The sound of Pallet’s machine clambering back to it’s hooves rang heavy through my ears, and I knew I’d have to hurry. With quick hoofsteps, I galloped back toward the half melted tank. The concrete under my hooves still radiates the heat from the beam attack here, and now I risked it again.

“Insolent whelp!” She growled before there was a heavy slam. The black form of Gauge’s machine gave off sparks as it slid quite rapidly past me It slammed into a wheeled vehicle against the other side of the wall, crumpling the front of it in. From the way the suit sat there and didn’t move, I really hoped that Gauge was simply unconscious inside it.

“Can’t think of that now!” I muttered as I turned around the backside of the tank. I crept toward the other end of it, looking over to that side of the arsonal. The vehicle that Gauge had hit had a flatbed on the back. On it, was a mounted turret that looked like it was meant for shooting down zebra flying machines. The coils around the barrels looked magical in nature, and that was exactly something that would be needed to bring Pallet down.

“Why do you persist on dragging this out, Storm?” Pallet’s booming voice sounded more annoyed than it had before. Maybe with a bit more work, she’d slip up and give us an advantage we could use.

The whine of her monstrous horn built up, emitting the zott as it tore across the room seemingly at random.

“Flying won’t work against me, little stallion.” She sneered at Shadow. As the beam stopped again, I took it as my chance to go.

My hooves again pounded heavily across the floor. My heart raced, and my vision tunneled in on that turret. In my mind, I prayed that somepony else would stop her. That Predious could shut that machine down so we could maybe just talk to her. I knew that if she was just given the chance to stop for a moment and think, Pallet might come back to us.

Without incident to either Pallet or I, I reached the flatbed. There was no hesitation when I climbed up on to it. The pristine gun post sat armed and ready. The gun was designed to be fired using forehooves from the rear hoof standing position. Hopping up onto it felt natural, and as I pressed myself against the cushion that sat on the gun mount, I felt like it became an extension of me. The way that I wrapped my forehooves around the two grips on either side, and the way that the two magical cannons changed their alignment as I got comfortable felt alien.

Carefully, I spun the guns towards Pallet. A soft hum built up in the guns themselves, and a dim yellow line slowly drew itself along the coiled barrels. I watched as Shadow darted through the air, constantly firing at the monstrosity’s horn. Each hit made the armored appendage glow, but it ultimately wasn’t doing anything.

It seemed that an eternity passed me by as the magical cannons charged. Each moment, I hoped and prayed that somepony else would intervene. I didn’t want to have to do this. Pallet had already died from my actions once before, I didn’t need to have it happen again.

There was a short click as a pair of levers uncovered the triggers for the guns. They sat against my fetlocks, ready for a single twitch to depress them. The yellow bar reached the top, and the hum quickly built into a whine. I sat there, watching, hesitating to move a muscle.

“Please…” I whispered softly to Pallet. “...forgive me.” I pulled both triggers.

Sparks erupted from the twin barrels as the magic inside them grew. Bright beams of blue burst forth and streamed toward Pallet’s machine. The pitch of the guns changed tone, and through the middle of the blue beams, shot pulses of yellow. Just as the beam struck the enormous robot’s underside, so did the first pulses. Pallet’s machine locked up, the four legs of it buckling and twisting as each yellow pulse slammed against it.

Without warning, the guns themselves twisted and buckled. With a surprised yelp, I yanked myself away. With a heavy whack, my head bounced on the flatbed as I flopped down. Again, I saw stars, and again I’d barely escaped grievous harm. The gun mount sparked and crackled with magical energy as it very nearly looked like it imploded in on itself. Smoke and the crisp smell of baked ozone would surely stick in my nose for the next few days to come.

A thunderous crash shook the whole complex, then, there was silence.

“Good shot!” The major called out. “She’s down!”

“Storm!” Shadow gasped as he sailed down towards me. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, check the others.” I grumbled as I picked myself up and shook the stars from my vision. “Help Tasteless first. Your armor can lift the beams.”

“And Pallet?” he asked, lifting a wing to brush my mane from my eyes.

“Leave her to me.” I didn’t want to have to deal with her. I wanted to scream at him to go and finish her for me. Without another moment of hesitation, I hopped down from the flatbed and trotted toward the smoking hulk of the two story tall machine.

The body of it was more or less intact, but it’s legs were bent and fractured to pieces. Walking up to it, I could see black scorch marks adorning every seam in the metal. The smell of burning wiring and burnt steel was heavy in the air. The once bright and proud symbol of princess Luna was now blackened and boiled.

The walk up to it filled me with so many emotions. Fear, hate, relief, and sadness. For what seemed like the millionth time today, I wanted to break down. To collapse and just never get back up. That wouldn’t save the wasteland, so I couldn’t give in. I needed to stay strong for this.

With a soft hiss, the armored plates on the chest of the machine split, slowly opening. With a labored grunt, I’d pushed myself up onto my rear hooves. With my gun raised firmly in my hooves, I waited. Inside the suit, Pallet struggled to free herself from the control chair. In it, her legs were just as twisted and broken as the machine’s. With panicked eyes, she looked up at me. A smile pulled across her muzzle, and a cackling laugh followed.

“So.” Even though she wanted it to sound haughty, it came across as more nervous than anything. “Finally going to live up to being the monster you are.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way.” I shook my head. “I believe in what Sky said. There’s some part of you in there still, there has to be.”

“You’re a fool.” She sneered, looking down at her legs. “That bitch was wrong, there is no soul left in this body.” With a sharp laugh, she shot her angry gaze up at me. “Besides, all you know how to do is kill. Everything you ever do only ends in death, so why not get it over with?”

I pulled my gun up and aimed it at her head. From between the barrel, her eyes stared blankly back at me, holding the same soulless expression that every other of Filius’ pawns did. And there I sat, motionless. As much as I told myself to pull the trigger, I was paralyzed.

“You can’t do it, can you?” A wider wicked grin parted her muzzle as she spoke. “You’re too weak to win this war, Storm.”

“I…” My hooves wavered as I listened to her words. She was right. I’d gotten Sky, Fruit, and countless others killed already. I couldn’t handle this war if I couldn’t even kill the one pony sitting in my way.

“Everypony will die, because of you.” She giggled and wrenched herself against the harness. “Shoot me, Storm! Do it!”

“No!” I screamed and stomped down in anger. Blue flames rolled in a towering wave out from me. Bucking and shouting, I wrestled with myself. Everypony was counting on me to finish this fight! Why couldn’t I have the strength to just fucking do this one thing? More and more gouts of flame rushed out as I flailed myself. Until I was too weak to continue my own self fueled tantrum, I screamed and fought. Finally, panting and crying, I lost the will to do even that.

“The flames… Storm?” Pallet’s voice hit me with the delicacy of a flower. I looked over to her, finding a different sight than before. She looked back at me like she had the years I’d known her. Sadness filled her eyes, and she cried as she looked at me. “I… I don’t have long before he regains control over me.” She grunted and whined, forcing her eyes shut. “Filius, he’s going for an amulet. It’s stored here.” Her eyes shot open again. “He cannot get it. Do you understand me?”

I was dumbfounded. Was it another trick? Why would she tell me this?

“I’m sorry, for what he’s made me do.” She cried softly as she stared at me. “Oh goddesses I’m so sorry.” She whimpered and slammed her head against the inside of the machine. “Storm, you have to kill me for good this time. He can fix my body, he’ll make me kill more and more until there’s nopony left!”

“Pallet, I...” My vision blurred, and the warm tears flowing down my cheeks stung the wounds I didn’t know I had on my face.

“I forgive you, Storm.” She showed me a soft smile as she gave one last look up to me. “I don’t blame you for anything. Just, promise me this one thing.” She stuttered and torqued at her bindings, wrestling to keep control of herself. “You take him down. Make sure he can never hurt anypony again.”

“I promise.” I whispered as I held up the gun again, aiming it at her head. “Goodbye, Pallet.”

And with a pull of the trigger, she was gone forever. It was a small mercy that she’d forgiven me, but the pain inside me burned hotter than my flames of rage. I’d killed my friend again, and even though it may have saved lives, it didn’t make it hurt any less.

However, maybe now she’d finally be able to rest.

--Chapter End--

“As the snowflakes cover my fallen brothers, I will say this last goodbye.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Eight - Hope's Awakening

“Beneath a faltered sky; cross loamless plains, and watered blight. Ah! Where gone those days, once Glory shone so bright?”

“Ugh, my head.” Gauge groaned as she pulled herself from the mechanical boar. “Did we win?”

“She’s still alive!” Shadow cried out as he pulled another beam from the pile. It was unfortunately the only good news we had at the moment, but I’d be damned if I’d have ignored it. Anything to get my mind off of having just killed another friend.

“Gauge, we need to take tempest offline.” I called out to her.

“Wha?” She stumbled as she walked a few steps. She shook her mane, and I could see a line of blood running down the side of her head. “Yeah, okay.” She looked up at me with unfocused eyes and gave a small nod. “We have to get to her core.”

Predious, like always, was a step ahead. He was already over at the computer spire, typing on the terminal and staring down the very unhappy looking reproduction of the goddess of the moon. Gauge stumbled her way over to me, and I positioned myself between her and the pile that Tasteless was under. If she didn’t make it, I didn’t want Gauge to be distracted. Not until Tempest was done.

In a move that truly surprised me, she didn’t even glance at the pile of steel beams as we trotted past it. She had her eyes locked on Tempest, and even before we got close, her horn glowed as she drew her precious rocket launcher out. Unless she was going to beat Tempest to death with it, it was a pretty useless thing to carry around with her.

“You have no idea the events that you have set in motion, do you?” Tempest still had the illusion of arrogance as she sat imprisoned in her gilded tower. She looked directly at me from her large monitor and smiled. “You may have overridden my ability to keep the internal lockdown, but while you were busy with killing more ponies, I’ve activated the external lockdown.”

“So what?” Gauge snapped at her. “What’s one more door to melt through after I’m done taking you apart piece by piece?”

“Oh, I’m afraid that you’ll be quite dead by the time that you even got through half of that door.” She laughed heartily. “Command Emergency, celestial tier breach detected.” With every word, that pit I had in my stomach got wider and wider. “Initiating Orchard area denial protocol.” The lighting in the whole room dimmed and shifted to a crimson color. From down the halls of the rest of the facility, I could hear alarm bells start to ring.

“Shit, what the fuck is she doing?” Predious grunted as he hit keys rapidly with his horn. Lines of code ran across the terminal screen in front of him, but I knew it wasn’t displaying anything good.

I lifted my pipbuck up and hoped that Pai was listening. “What the hell is she talking about?” Nothing came through while Tempest sat there giggling like a filly. “Pai, fucking answer me!”

“Storm?” Ficha’s voice came over the intercom system. “I think now would be a good time to get to that vault and get whatever it is that you came here for.” Through the intercom, I thought I could make out Cottage cursing under his breath between the rapid toggling of switches. “There’s a timer here counting down, and it doesn’t have long on it.”

My vision shifted to pink as Pai’s voice came through, “Sorry, I had to dig into the files to find out what she’s even talking about.” Even Pai sounded panicked, which was definitely not fucking good. “The generators in this place were supposed to have been worked into the failsafe system in this place.”

“We already delt with that.” Gauge growled. Tempest’s face shattered with the rest of the screen, silencing her for what I hoped was forever. “Those reactors were vented.”

“Wrong,” Pai replied quickly. “The resort above may have run on those, but this place is powered by a pair of geothermal generators sitting a thousand feet below you. The resort wasn’t built on an island, it was built on top of a dormant volcano.” Yup, fuck my life. “There didn’t need to be anything more than shutting off the coolant to force the generators to overload.”

“She’s forcing an eruption?” I asked her as Predious continued to loudly hammer at the keys with his magic.

“O-one moment,” Predious stammered before hitting the return key. “There!” The terminal screen flickered and shifted to a running countdown clock. The number displayed was not encouraging.

00h:24m:56s

Gauge however, forcefully shoved him with her cyberhoof. “Out of the way.” She stepped up to the terminal and worked over the keys with her magic. “Your typing form is amateurish, and your code exploitation is spotty at best.” She sneered as the screen returned to scrolling code. Far be it for me to understand how she could read what came up as fast as it scrolled, but I was glad she was here now. “Okay, if Cottage is anywhere half as competent a coder as he is a ranger, we should be able to lift the external lockdown in time.”

Pushing myself to move, I gave Pred a pat on the side and trotted toward the door that lead deeper into the facility. “Okay, if we’ve got a time limit, so does Filius.” The flutter of wings got my attention, and I turned around to find both Shadow and Tasteless hovering towards me in each others hooves. However, Tasteless flew at an odd angle. Jutting out, it was a hell of a sight to see her wing was broken and twisted into a near ninety degree angle.

That however, hadn’t been her only injury. Her foreleg was split where her bone had broken through, and she had a gash across her chest big enough that I could see multiple ribs. Not a single one of her cybernetic parts was left unmangled or sheared open. Still, Tasteless soldiered on, even if she looked like she was about ready to keel over.

“Let’s go kill that bastard already.” She wheezed with a glare that could cut through the hardest steel.

I needed all the help I could get, but she was more of a danger to herself in this condition.

“No,” I sighed and looked up to Shadow. “Get her back to the control room.” I held my hoof up to her as she started to object. “I can’t babysit you when you’re this injured, so you’re going back.” I gave her my own glare. While she didn’t look pleased, she at least turned around.

“Be careful.” Shadow offered as he turned with her.

“We will be.” I said softly. There wasn’t any safe way that we could proceed. It was a race to the finish, and we had to go. As I turned back toward the door, the Major trotted up alongside of Pred and I.

“Promise me this,” He smiled as we started down the long hall. “If I don’t make it, make sure to get the other lads upstairs back home.” As he turned his gaze to me, he looked sad. “They deserve to go back home after all they’ve given here.” He glanced back down the hallway again and sighed. “Besides. With our curious affliction, maybe one of their families made it through to now.”

“What about you?” Predious asked. “You put the emphasis on them going home. Do you not feel you deserve to?”

“I lost my wife the moment my little filly came into the world.” He had a thousand yard stare as we walked, laughing sadly as he spoke in hushed tones. “And in turn, I lost her in the attack on littlehorn.” With a sniffle, he shook free of his memories and smiled to me. “It’s why I joined the army. I haven’t been home for a long time, and the thought of going back…” He drifted off as we reached the end of the hall.

“I… I understand.” Predious nodded and gave the Major a pat on the back as we entered the next section of the orchard. “Believe me, I understand.”

* * * * * * * * *

To be honest, I don’t know what I thought the rest of the trot to the artifact would be like. I’d really hoped that it’d have been a walk in the park, but of course, it wasn’t. Just opening the door to the next section we’d found the reason why we hadn’t found any of the staff. Should have guessed that Filius had them.

I fired a shot at the horde of ponies as they streamed into the warehouse. The dried corpse of a mare screamed as half of it’s head blasted off with a puff of dust. Predious worked his minigun in small bursts, cutting lines of the bastards down as they came after us. This warehouse hadn’t even been used for anything it seemed, and that was a damn shame, because I could have used some Celestia damned superweapons right about now!

“We should fall back!” The Major shouted between shots from his pistol.

“Negative!” I snapped back at him. With a flick, I pulled up SATS and cued up three more headshots. The assisted targeting program gave a ninety five percent chance for each shot, but that didn’t surprise me. The spell resolved, and in a blink of an eye, three zomponies were no longer a problem.

The corpses hadn’t even attempted to dodge our fire, and just fell without a fight. The problem is even so, this was a battle of attrition, and one we were losing. They were still pouring into the room, and I knew we couldn’t sustain this kind of fire much longer.

“Reloading!” Predious shouted as he streamed out another lengthy belt from his pack. “Last belt!” The ammo counter in my vision read that I only had two more shots left, and reloading right now wasn’t going to be an option. “I hope you have a plan!”

“Shut the door we came in from!” I shouted. “I have an idea!” It wasn’t much of a plan, but I could cut their numbers in half if this worked. Well, so long as there weren’t too many more of these things waiting to get in.

The major nodded and fired off a few more shots as he stepped back toward the door. I brought up my lever action and fired twice. The two closest zomponies went down hard and skidded across the floor towards us. They hadn’t even slowed to a stop before Pred’s gun opened up again.

“Hold up, coming through!” Shadow’s voice shouted as he shot past us the air like a missile. His energy rifle whined as it fired a burst of bolts down into the crowd. A few of them melted to dust, but the heat from the bolts of energy caught the surrounding ponies on fire.

I don’t know why, but they screamed and dropped to the floor, desperately trying to put themselves out. They didn’t care about being shot, but fire seemed to be painful to them. It didn’t make sense, but fuck, it was an advantage we could exploit. The metal blast door slammed shut behind us with a resounding thud. I quickly slung my rifle around my neck and pointed to the other door.

“Pred, carve us a path to that exit! Once we’re through, we’ll shut the door and keep the bulk of them contained.” I screamed out as I charged at one of the zomponies that worked it’s way around Pred’s fire. “Shadow,” Mid shout, I planted my forehooves down and spun myself, kicking with a hard buck that connected to something that snapped. “Keep shooting them! Light them up!”

I was about to turn around when it felt like somepony stabbed me in the flank. With a scream, I bucked hard again and caved in the chest of a stallion. With predious now cutting a path through the middle, the zomponies had changed tactics. They split off into two streams, leaving an open path for us. In doing so, pred couldn’t put them all down anymore, and they’d really started to surround us.

I turned and gave another charging mare a solid uppercut, but that left me exposed from the side. One of them swung back, catching me across my jacket with their dried forehoof. It sheared through the leather and grazed my side. With another buck, I snapped their neck into a ninety degree angle and put them on the floor.

The stabbing sensation was back with a vengeance as one of them pounced on my side. They bit down on the back of my neck, and I flailed as I whined. Their painful bite only released when the last round in the Major’s gun tore through their head and dropped them down. There were too many to deal with inside now, and we had to move.

We joined up with Pred when he’d had moved up almost to the door. The stream bent around us in a comical fashion. The minigun’s barrels glowed from overuse as they spun, and Pred’s horn sparked as he twisted and fired again and again. Whining zots from Shadow’s rifles came at regular intervals, striking the groups that swarmed around our flanks.

“Alright, get ready to run!” I shouted just as we reached the door. In a small mercy, the streams on zomponies had slowed to a trickle. Shadow darted past us and through the doorway, slamming into the bright hallway with a crunch and a whine. “Now!”

Pred and I both dove through the doorway while the Major curled around the corner and slammed the emergency release. The horrendous shrieks and growls of the zomponies on our heels were ended with a satisfying crunch as the thick door slammed them to dust. Still, there were others in here to deal with.

Scrambling to get back to my hooves, I looked up and watched as one of the former staff slammed into the major and brought him to the floor. With a quick twitch and hearty snap, the Major spun the pony’s head right around and pushed it off himself.

Once I was up, I glanced at the marker for the direction of the artifact is. Funny enough, it traced a line straight down this hallway. As I looked along it, down past the zomponies galloping at us, a dark figure moved into the center of the hall. I grew cold at the sight. As it turned to me, even from this far, I could see his piercing green eyes.

It was him.

“Filius!” I screamed at him. Without a thought, I burst straight into a gallop. He simply smiled and turned down the hallway away from me. He was so close, I couldn’t let him get there first! As I galloped, for some reason, the zomponies ignored me. My friends behind me screamed something out, but Filius’s voice rang through my mind louder.

“You could feel it’s pain, could you not?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I growled and charged headlong towards the bright room. “Get out of my head.”

“Do not lie to me, child!” He snapped in my mind. “You have been kissed by a wendigo. It is the final curse of a dying god.”

“Those things aren’t gods!” I shouted back, trying to ignore him. In the heart of the glowing room, I could make out a pedestal with something on it. It was a red glow surrounded by a blue light, and I knew that had to be it. “They’re monsters, just like you.”

“Some called Discord that.” His laugh resonated in my mind. “Ponies give many cruel names to that which they do not understand.” He stepped back into the doorway of the bright room as I approached. It was when his magic picked me right off my hooves that I found that charging him had been a bad call. “Who knows? Some may learn to call you that, in time.”

I shreaked as his magic pulled me towards him faster. I flailed my hooves, trying to get myself to slow, but it was to no avail. I let out a scream as he stepped out of the way. With a thick snap, I hurdled right through the pedestal that held up whatever object that Filius desired. I smashed against the back wall, shattering the glass mirror surface of it. Pain coursed through every part of me, and a familiar heavy slam of a closing blast door made the room go momentarily dark. A single light above where the pedestal once sat flickered on, bouncing it’s beams all around the mirrored chamber. On the other side of it, sat Filius.

“Somehow, you have seen what drove me to the truth of ponykind, and how those around me drove me to give myself to those so called 'monsters' so that I could save this world from it's annihilation.” He used his physical voice to speak in a hoarse, raspy tone. “Let me show you the most important moment of that long ago time.” His horn flashed and hit me with a beam of soft light.

My pain started to drain away, and I felt tired. My vision faltered, and my eyes grew weary. The last thing I could make out before the darkness took me, was the silver amulet of one of the goddesses. It’s bright red, centerset gem held a warm glow that helped usher me off into the land of times long past...

* * * * * * * * *

I stood in the middle of my dark mind again, but no pillars of light were to be found. As the elements had once done, a sphere formed before me. Slowly, it resolved into an odd scene. It was a dark room, lit by hundreds of candles, and many tabards with ancient symbols on them. The whole layout was much as it had the first time I’d seen Filius’s past, but this time, there was a mare tied and gagged in the center of it all, and a robed figure standing over her with a knife.

“In binding this soul,” Filius spoke in the exact same tone as he had then, but this time didn’t hesitate. In one fluid motion, he plunged the knife into her chest. With a muffled scream and a struggle that slowly stopped, she died there on the floor. “I pledge myself to the whims of the stars.”

A near blinding white light swirled out of the mare’s chest and into the air. The tabards on the walls fluttered in the arcane breeze, and the light coiled itself into a ball. With the speed of a bullet, it shot straight at Filius. The light arced around him, turning a brilliant red before curling around and pouring into a silver object on his chest. As the light bled off, the silver object glowed softly.

The door to the chamber burst off its hinges. Filius raised a hoof and a bubble deflected the high speed door off to the side. With an angry grunt, Gallant burst in clad in full armor. He skid to a stop in horror as he observed the corpse of the mare on the floor. Behind him, other robed ponies came in and pulled back their hoods in shock.

“No… Merry.” His sad words were punctuated with the tensing of his muscles and the drawing of his sword. “Filius, what have you done?”

“What I should have long ago.” Filius pulled back his cowl, revealing the same amulet around his neck that was in the chamber I was now asleep in. “The princess is weak after sending her sister away, and she is no longer fit to protect the ponies of this country.” He smiled and put a hoof on his chest. “I will bring balance to this world!”

“And for that you murdered Merry?” Gallant, growled out in fear as he took a heavy step forward. “For that, you murdered my wife?” He swung his sword at Filius, but the magical shield just simply shrugged it off.

“Fool!” Filius snapped. In an instant, the shield morphed and wrapped itself around Gallant, lifting him into the air. “Her death was a necessary sacrifice to ending all conflict in equestria forever!” He swung his horn around, flinging Gallant over and across the room. In a brilliant recreation of what I’d done, he slammed against the wall with a crunch and crumpled onto the floor.

“You’ve gone mad.” Gallant whined with a gurgling gasp. Slowly, he pulled himself back up to his hooves. “Necromancy has poisoned your soul.” He coughed, spitting blood onto his armor. Filius’s magic wrapped around him again and lifted him up. “I told you, lich magic was too dangerous. You’ve…”

“Don’t tell me your lies!” Filius threw him again, this time against the wall by where he’d come in. The other robed ponies there scrambled to get out of the way. “As for the rest of you heathens, the gods above command the end to all conflict, and they have told me that ponykind is the source! You shall join me to help reach this goal, or die.” He smiled and held his hooves out to other robed unicorns. “Join me, and I…”

“Don’t listen…” Gallant coughed and slowly crawled back onto his hooves. His armor was badly warped, his horn was visibly cracked, and he bled heavily from one side of his head. For a unicorn, he sure could take a beating. “You can’t do this, Filius. It’s not the way…”

“I thought you were stronger than this, Gallant? You should at least make me work for my victory a bit more.” Filius sighed and wrapped his friend in his magic again. “I guess, why try when you have no hope in stopping me from my destiny?”

Bloody and beaten, Gallant still managed to smile. It was something that dropped Filius’s muzzle to a grimace.

“You think I’m fighting you?” Gallant gave a wheezing laugh, wincing as the magic around him constricted. “The princess has taught me many things. One is that true strength doesn't lie in oneself.” He glanced at the other ponies in robes around him. “It lies in those around you!” With that, the other unicorns pointed their horns at him. Each one fired a beam of black and green, concentrating on Filius.

“What?” Filius shouted as he tried to protect himself. Before he could raise his shield, he let out an agonizing scream. Once his bubble was around him, the force holding Gallant released. The inside of Filius’s bubble smoked from the blasts on him, but he still stood there. “You may have bested me with that little trick, but the amulet is now more powerful than you could even imagine. Your simple ‘harm’ spells won’t kill me any longer.”

“Mine wasn’t a harm spell, master Filius.” One of the necromancer’s stepped forward. A young looking mare with a blue coat and a white and purple striped mane. “It was a petrification spell.” She smirked smugly. “In a few moment’s, it should take effect.”

“What insolence is this!” Filius tugged against his own hooves as if they were glued to the floor. Slowly, his body started to change to white. “Manteía, my apprentice,” His tone shifted as suddenly as the favor had in this fight. “Why have you betrayed me when you alone were my brightest disciple?”

“Because I too have heard what the gods have said.” She snarled and stepped up to him. “They speak in rhymes and riddles. In cryptic phrases that lead to nowhere.” As the white rose up to Filius’s shoulders, she shook her head at him, standing right outside the magical sphere. “They are tricksters who make you believe in lies. What they have promised you is a fate worse than death, and I will not let you force any more innocents to suffer your own pain.”

“One day, I’ll be strong enough to return.” Filius laughed. “You will all have wasted away to time, but I will carry on my work!” The white rose up around his head, slowly freezing him in the pose of laughter. With the petrification complete, his magic died, and the amulet dropped to the floor with a clunk.

“It will not hold him forever.” Gallant gasped as he slowly hobbled his way forward. “I shall have him moved to tartarus immediately.”

“No, not back to Tartarus.” Manteia sighed. “He would only find a way to escape.”

“Then what alternative do you offer?” Gallant groaned and held a hoof to his bleeding head.

“Seal him away in a tomb that can never again be opened. Leave him to rot for the eternity he has cursed himself with.” She stared at the amulet on the floor with a frown and floated it up to her. “Leave the amulet to me. I will seek to hide it as far from here as I can. If he should ever be reunited with it…” She glanced at him. “Celestia herself couldn’t save us.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Oh goddesses,” I groaned. “My fucking head.”

“That, my dear,” Filius chimed in with a soft note to his voice. “Is the least of your worries now that I have my alicorn amulet once more.” His magic wrapped around me like it had with Gallant. I screamed at the pain and wrenched at his hold. From all around me, blue fire burst out and shattered his magic, dropping me to the floor again. Like Gallant, I pulled myself to my hooves.

My little fire trick was strong enough to beat his magic, which meant I was strong enough to beat him.

In the reflection of the mirrored chamber, I could see myself. Bruised, cut, and bloody, I looked like hell. That was fine, because hell was what I was about to bring against him.

"Never again will you hurt anypony!" I felt the flames inside roar to life as I spun and bucked hard into his side. He screamed as the blue flames seared his hide. "Never again will you terrorize the wastelands!" I charged at him as he picked himself up, throwing myself into him. The blue flames flowed over him from me. He slid to the floor, smoking and locked in a gasp of pain. It was his turn to slam into one of the mirrored walls and shatter it.

"W-what are you?" He groaned from the floor. "How are you even possible!"

A flickering in the mirrors caught my eyes. The blue flames that flowed from me had taken shape. A set of ethereal flame wings flared from where a pegasus's wings would have. Joining them, was a long ethereal horn that jut from the center of my forehead. I looked just like the goddesses, and I knew that while they weren't functional, they were there for a reason. I'd been made for this purpose. A century and a half late, I'd finally embodied the element I was born to protect.

"I am hope incarnate, and I'll..." I'd begun to say before a searing pain slammed against my side. I screamed out as I felt my mind reel more than my body. Everything in my head jumbled up as I slid across the floor. My limbs locked up as I felt like a million jolts of lightning worked through them.

"Typical," Filius laughed. "Standing there and monologuing, just like the fools of old." As my vision focused again, I could see a bright red light shimmering on his chest. The alicorn amulet glowed brilliantly as he wrapped his magic around himself. "You all think that you are so righteous, so infallible, that you forget that you are just ponies." A twisted smile spread his muzzle as he started to laugh. Slowly, he levitated himself into the air. "Powerful magic or no, you are still only a pitiful earth pony."

With every ounce I could pour into it, I worked myself back onto my hooves. Slowly but surely, I got up. The flames of hope roared to life again, flaring out from my hooves as I pushed myself back up. I could do this, I had to!

A head on attack from me was stupid. I’d played right into his hooves and he simply rolled himself and countered with his own beam. It burned less than the previous attack, but it shot me back against another glass wall.

"I on the other hoof, am so much more than you could ever comprehend." He lowered his horn and pointed it at me. "And now that I have been reunited with my masterpiece, I need only one more thing to rid this wretched land of all life.” He paused and smiled a deranged grin, his eyes glowing even brighter as he looked right at me.

“However, you will be correct in one regard, Miss Storm." He loosed another beam at me. I tried to dodge it, but he simply corrected his aim. As nimble of a fighter as I am, I can't move faster than magic. I screamed as my mind jumbled again, and I dropped to the floor with a thump. My vision returned quickly again, giving me time to see him as a magic bubble formed around him.

"After I'm finished, never again will I hurt anypony." His horn and eyes glowed even brighter than the amulet did. "After my ritual, there will be nopony left alive to hurt." With an arcane snap, he disappeared in a flash.

He was gone. I'd failed.

* * * * * * * * *

A banging on the steel blast door startled me.

“Storm?” Shadow’s voice came through muffled, but strong. “All the ponies out here just collapsed. Please tell me you aren’t dead in there.” I didn’t know what to tell him. How could I say anything? I had the perfect chance to end this once and for all, and what did I do? I fucked it up. “Storm?” His voice waivered a little bit.

Still, sitting in this place until it explodes isn’t going to help anypony.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” I shouted, wincing as my body reminded me that I’d just been Filius’s ragdoll for the last however many minutes. In the mirror, the flames around me had gone, and only the scar’s that I’d have would be left to remind me of my failure. “Can you open the door?”

“Uhh,” He didn’t sound too happy, “I really had thought the controls would be on your side.”

I looked over to the door and did my best to pull myself up to my hooves. My rear right leg gave out under me, and I could feel the break in the bone tear at my leg. Doing my best to ignore the pain, I looked all over the walls, but besides the broken mirrors, this whole room was smooth walls.

“There’s nothing in here to open it with.” That would definitely put a damper on the whole ‘not dying’ thing. “Can you get Pred? Maybe he can open it.”

“Once the ponies stopped attacking, he left to escort the Major back. The both of them were pretty torn up after the fight.” He tapped on the door lightly. “Cottage and Gauge managed a work around to the lockdown. They got one exit open, and they’re getting everypony out. I just need to get you back to the control room.” There was a heavy thump followed by a muffled gasp. “I have an idea!” An idea was something at the very least. “Is there anything you can hide behind in there?”

“No, but I’ll get as far from the door as I can.” Ideas that required cover weren’t ones I much cared for, but I didn’t have a choice. Backing up against the broken shards of mirror, it was a mistake to look down at my pipbuck.

00h:02m:11s

“Okay, once my rifle overloads, you’ll need to jump through the door before it melts!” Wait, what? “Make sure to watch for melted slag drops when you do! Don’t let them touch your skin.” Oh, this wasn’t going to be fun.

“Fire in the hole!” Shadow’s muffled voice came through, preempting a high tone whine that reminded me of pallet’s machine. A thick snap that cracked through the air wasn’t really the blast I was expecting, but the bright blue light forced me to shield my vision.

Blinking the blue light out of my vision, a glowing two pony wide hold was left where most of the blast door once sat. The smell of ozone was overwhelming, and the hissing drops of molten steel that dripped from the hole made me cringe. On the other side of the death door, sat a nervous looking Shadow.

A beep on my pipbuck made me look at it again.

00h:01m:30s

“I’m not going to die here.” I muttered to myself more as a prayer than anything.

On three legs, hope and a prayer would have to do as I pushed myself off. A thick stream of molten slag dropped off the melting steel and splashed onto the bottom of the door. I couldn’t think of that! With my odd gait, I focused on Shadow. I needed to get to him. I wanted to get to him! At the last second, I screamed and closed my eyes, throwing myself through the opening.

Pain burst all across my body, and I screamed out. I didn’t know if I’d been drenched by the whole door, or just a drop, but I didn’t care. Opening my eyes, I squirmed to try to find the burn, but I found none. It had only been the rest of my injuries that flared from smacking into the floor. A prick in my neck caused the pain to ebb away. Shadow spat out a vial of Med x and closed a small flap on his armor.

“You’re out, you’re safe.” Shadow, rushed over to me and wrapped his hooves around me. “Now let’s go.” He pulled me up only my hooves, and immediately I screamed as my rear hoof let out another painful crack.

“My leg, it’s broken.” I whined through my gnashing teeth. If I couldn’t run…

“Hang on, I got you.” With more speed than I’d anticipated, he grabbed his hooves around my chest and flapped hard. His power armored flight was much stronger than any pegasus I’d ever encountered in the wastes. In seconds, we were darting through the warehouse and down through the open blast door of the other side.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I was both panicking and laughing. Every beat of his wings filled me with both fear and excitement. Every second was an eternity that moved far too fast. “You said the others were already getting out?”

“That was more than five minutes ago.” Shadow grunted as he curved us out of the other warehouse and down the hallway to the command center. “You were in that room for a long time, Storm.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.” I sighed.

Before I could say anything else, he swung us into the command room. Everyone else was gone, but the Major was standing at the switchboard, his hooves outstretched to each side firmly pressing a pair of buttons.

“Come on, let’s go.” Shadow ordered with an authority that probably came from life in the military. “We’re evacing, now!”

“Sorry, but if I don’t hold these buttons, the override resumes.” The major whined as his hooves shook. “I can’t leave. There’s nothing in Equestria left for me.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “This place has been my home for over a century, and I would like to end my service here.”

I didn’t want to agree. I wanted to get out of here without losing anymore ponies. Even if I’d wanted to argue, we didn’t have time. Pred’s earlier words about leadership came to mind, and I knew what I had to say. “Equestria thanks you for your service, major.” I held a forehoof to my head in a salute that brought a smirk to his face. “You are relieved.”

“Very relieved.” He smiled and pointed to the door. “Best get going. Less than a minute now.” As Shadow took off again, the major yelled out to us through the halls. “Good luck, and godspeed!”

The air was getting hotter than any fire I’d been in as we twisted down the next hallway. With a sharp turn, Shadow steered us into one of the ruined labs we’d passed on the way down here. At the back, sat a very large elevator shaft. He flapped hard as he pulled up.

My brain did as many flops as my stomach did as it tried to reorient to upward flight. A muffled explosion came from below that started a rumble that grew with each passing second. A small square that streamed daylight sat ahead, and it looked like one of the main elevator shafts to the hotel joined up with this one. With a quick twist, Shadow pulled us over and into it. Just as he started to slow us to get through the door to the lobby, another explosion forced a blast of air up from below. It caught his wings and sent us spiraling upwards even higher.

“Shit! Thermals!” He snapped and pushed us up higher. “The air below us is pushing us up, I can’t get us back to the lobby.” Well, that was shit news. “We’re going all the way up, hold on!”

“Do I have a choice?” I screamed as we resumed our torpedo like climb through the tube. The rumbling was near deafening now, and the whole building vibrated heavily. Another light streamed through the shaft up ahead, and Shadow started to slow us much sooner than before. As we reached it, he maneuvered us through the heavily rusted door frame and into the hall of one of the resort floors.

The hallway ended in an open air balcony that Shadow pushed us toward, soaring past all the rotted furniture and two hundred year old room service carts that lay rusting in the hallway. Now panting heavily, he pushed us even faster, speeding us out into the open air with incredible speed.

Looking at my pipbuck one last time, confirmed the worst.

00h:00m:01s

As the timer hit zero, the hotel building gave off a crunching like gravel, and a resounding explosion sounded from far below. Shockwaves radiated out from the island through the water, racing off towards the still dispersing stormclouds on the horizon. With a tortured groan, the heavily melted storm generator tiled and sheared from the building, tumbling down the other side from us. With a resounding slam, it, the windego, and Fruit’s body were left in a crumpled heap of steel.

Soaring through the air was less amazing than I'd imagined it would be, more so with the cringe inducing cracks coming from the old pre-war concrete. Looking down, not even the subpen was immune from the massive vibrations that each tremor shot across the island.

Part of the roofing had collapsed inward, and through the smallish hole in the middle of its twisted rebar edges, I could barely make out the nose of the submarine as it hastily retreated. With all the shaking, there was no way I’d trust that stupid walkway inside. Shadow would have to fly us around.

Then, without warning, we pitched sharply down directly towards the hole.

"No, no, no!" I screamed out. "There's no way we'll fit!"

"Oh, We'll fit!" Shadow laughed as we plummeted out of the sky like a missile.

I screamed and pulled my limbs in tight, wondering if in the next few moments I'd have escaped the hell below the resort just to become a grey and red smear only feet away from escape. At the last second, Shadow pulled me close, wrapping his armored wings around us. We shot through the jagged gap like a bullet out of a gun. As soon as we'd cleared it, Shadow flared his wings and pulled up.

We sailed through the air, my hooves dangling only inches above the water. The monolith of the Sub's conning tower grew close, and as we approached, Shadow pitches us up and carefully slowed us to a stop. As soon as he lowered me enough, I wriggled from his hooves and fell onto the hard metal with a painful, but relieved sigh.

"Told you we'd fit." He landed next to me with a smile.

"Bet you say that to all the mares." I grumbled as he twisted the hatch open. Though I’d failed to stop Filius like I should have, we still had a shot. Filius needed to get his ritual set up, and I would be willing to bet that it’s going to take time. For now, we go rest up, regroup, and figure out where he’s likely to set his ritual up. With any luck, and if I could figure out how to control this blue flame shit, we’d have a decisive advantage in the fight.

As I watched the resort burn in the flames of volcanic destruction, I thought back to the fact that a ritual was something Gallant had tried to save Filius from both times. Whispering under my breath, I prayed that we could finally do what Gallant couldn’t and stop him once and for all.

--Chapter End--

“I feel sun through the ashes in the sky.”

Quests Finished: Silent Grave

Quests Started: The Meaning of Hope

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: Quest Perk - Blue Night (2) -

Your powers have advanced and manifested, revealing your true nature. Your Blue Flames are more powerful, however they now take quite the toll on your body. Suffer 5%/sec damage whenever you use this ability.

Chapter Forty - Nightfall

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left.”

“Storm, slow down!” Harmony called out as I raced down the hall towards the elevator. “Just, explain what’s goin’ on. Y’all can’t just go runnin’ around sayin somethin’ like that without sayin’ nothin’ else!”

“I can’t simply explain it.” I snapped at her as I mashed at the elevator panel with my hoof. “We have to get word to Sunshine city!” Her hoof wrapped around mine and held it still. I’d been about to tell her to let me go when the elevator gave off a ding. The rusted and squeaky doors rolled back to reveal Longbow inside, already wearing a tarnished silver suit of power armor.

She looked at me with worry in her eyes. “Sunshine city, right?” Her gaze moved to Harmony. “Stay here.”

“Now y’all listen here,” Harmony grunted as she pushed the two of us into the elevator, “if somethin’ is wrong with mah home, then ah ain’t sittin’ around!” Stuck between a suit of bulky power armor, and the strongest mare I know, I’ve never been so cramped before in my life. With a firm press of her hoof, she hit the lobby level and waited for the door to close. “Would one of yah like ta at least tell me what in the hay is even goin’ on?”

“The necromancer is going to attack Sunshine city.” I spoke up.

“The necromancer?” Longbow almost sounded surprised. “But, on my monitors...” She looked unfocused as she thought, her eyes going wide as the elevator slowed. “Goddesses, are they?”

“Mom, could yah use words, maybe?” Harmony rolled her forehoof through the air impatiently.

“Sorry,” Longbow shook her head, returning her worried gaze to us, “my monitors didn’t show ponies on the ground, but an enclave raptor headed for the city.”

“A… a whole raptor?” This was news enough that I had a hard time even saying that. “How? Where did it...” As much as I didn’t want to entertain the thought, the only enclave I’d even see down here was Shadow’s fiance. “How do we fight something like that?”

“I don’t know.” Longbow sighed softly. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors slid open. The lobby was a flurry of tower ponies, quickly trotting back and forth with supplies. Others hurriedly secured metal shutters over the many businesses that occupied the foyer. “The tower is on lockdown from this point on. The refugees outside are going to panic as soon as the fighting starts. Even from this far, they’ll be able to see what’s coming.”

“So, they haven’t attacked yet?” Harmony sounded at least hopeful as we stepped out. “That’s good, right? Ah’ mean, maybe they’ll just up an’ leave us alone.”

Longbow shook her head and nodded for us to follow her. “No. They’ve turned the raptor broadside to the city, and are waiting. For what, I don’t know.”

“She’s waiting for the strike teams.” Shadow came trotting from one of the entrances to outside. He’d already gotten into his power armor and met us down here? If it weren’t such a dire situation, I’d have told him I was impressed.

“She?” Longbow snorted without even trying to hide her disdain at him. “Great. All I need is another crazy Enclave commander like Silver Star in my life, coming down to ruin my day.”

Shadow stiffened up and nearly dove at Longbow. He shoved her over against the marble wall hard enough that it shattered from the impact.

“How do you know that name?” He snarled at her.

“Shadow!” I snapped and took a step toward him. The scorpion like tail on his armor twisted and snaked in front of me. “Let her go.” The sharp blade on the tail glinted under the hall lights, but didn’t move from my path.

“Not until she tells me!” He growled. It wasn’t until Harmony pressed the barrel of her shotgun against the side of his head that he even took his furious gaze off of Longbow.

“Y’all might want ta reconsider that.” Harmony sounded to me like she was the most pissed off pony of all of us. I hadn’t known what had gotten into him, but three on one odds were finally enough to make him take a small step back.

“Look, I ran into her years ago,” Longbow said as she pushed Shadow away from her with an ease that only power armor could afford. Stupid cheat suits. “I’d love to tell you the story, but if we don’t get moving, ponies are going to die.”

“Hate to dampen the mood,” Predious called out as he trotted down the hall. Alongside him, trotted the still heavily bandaged Gauge. She was still using Tasteless’s cyberleg, but seeing as the ghoul herself was still out like a light in the infirmary, it would have to do. “But it’s a half hour’s trot back there.”

“If they’re waiting on the strike teams, then we have minutes at most.” Shadow remarked.

“Which is why I was eternally grateful that an old friend had stopped by last night.” Longbow sighed and continued toward the doors. “Shadow will take us via Ditzy Doo’s skycart. We won’t be able to drop into the city on account of their anti-air defences, you’ll have to drop us a block away. We’ll use that to our advantage and use it as our fallback point.” She propped open the door and waved us over. “We do this quick. Strike fast and hard enough to draw their attentions on us, and we’ll buy the city enough time to evacuate.”

As the others went outside, I watched as the friendly wall-eyed pegasus ghoul carefully landed a skycart down in the dirt. Most of the refugees in the camp seemed to wonder what was going on, but none of them showed any immediate concern. I remembered that I still owed Ditzy for the Pipbuck she delivered me, but I knew she also understood the gravity of the situation we were all in.

I put my foreleg up and onto Longbow’s shoulder as I approached the door. “What you said back in the elevator, you mean to suspect that the Enclave is working with the necromancer?”

She nodded. “I don’t know how you knew the city would be under attack, but if you were to tell me that the necromancer told you this would happen, I’d believe you.” She sighed and brushed her striped mane from her face. “If he managed to turn a whole bunker of Steel Rangers to his side, I can only imagine it would be possible to turn an Enclave raptor commander as well.”

“Then you know that trying to pull their attention won’t work.” I watched as the others loaded up into the skycart, all except for Gauge, who stood there tapping her hoof impatiently. “He’s attacking Sunshine city because he knows it’s important to me.”

“Even so, we have to save as many as we can.” Longbow turned and looked at me with worried eyes. Eyes that have seen more pain and suffering than I hopefully ever will, yet still carried the light of hope in them. “I have seen what you have done, and I believe in the idea that you can be the pony to lead everypony through this.”

“I hope so.” I turned back toward the skycart, watching as Grumpy floated around the corner of the refugee camp. As it floated up to Gauge, she gave it an annoyed smack and pointed it at the back ramp of the cart. With an almost sad sag in it’s three motorized glowing eyes, it hovered up and inside.

The elevator chimed behind us, and out from it stepped Ficha. He looked around hastily for a moment before spotting us. He looked geared up, and as much as I didn’t want to ask him to, I knew he was onboard with going with us. On his back, draped over his own weapons, I found him carrying Skyline’s battle saddle.

“They are ready, just as you asked.” He shouted as he Trotted over. “When they begin the attack, the evacuation will start.”

“Why not evacuate now?” I asked at the risk of sounding stupid.

“If we start now, we risk forcing their attack.” Longbow spoke as she stepped out through the doorway, both Ficha and I hot on her hooves. “While they’ve needed time to prepare, so have we.” She tossed a quick glance to him before she checked over the sniper rifles mounted to her power armor. “You did get Vox to contact the Rangers as well, right?”

“Correct.” He nodded as we approached the back of the Skycart. It looked much smaller on the inside than it had from the door, and with everypony outside of Shadow crammed in there, it looked as if it were going to be more cramped than the elevator ride. “Shadow, I have something for you!” Ficha turned and pulled Skyline’s saddle off of him, holding it out. “Seeing as you don’t have any weapons, you might want to make use of these.”

Shadow looked at them before looking over to me with an uncertain gaze. He had sacrificed his own weapons in order to protect us all, and he saved my life in doing so. I couldn’t speak for Skyline, but I think that if anypony deserved to use her guns, it would have been him. I gave him a small nod, and turned to walk inside the cart.

With little warning, I found myself being held in a very squishy embrace. Ditzy offered a sad smile along with her hug, and I simply patted her on her back. She was a small miracle in the wasteland, and never once had I seen her without a smile. Sky and Ditzy had been rival traders, but good friends over the years, and I think I understood why. She stood by those she knew, and she understood at heart why we did what we had to do.

“Thank you, Ditzy.” I whispered. “For everything.”

“We’ll try to bring this cart back intact.” Longbow spoke with a smirk as she walked up the rear ramp of the cart. Poking her head around the back, she eyed over Shadow. “You sure you can fly one of these things?”

“A few years back, I took an evaluation course to be the pilot for a skytank.” Shadow called back with a hint of hesitations to his words. With Skyline’s guns strapped onto his armor, he trotted up to the puller’s position at the front of the cart. “How different could this be?”

* * * * * * * * *

As it turns out, it can be a whole lot different than a skytank.

“Sorry for the bumpy ride so far!” Shadow called back. “This thing is a touch more sensitive than the skytank trainer I flew!”

Predious rolled his eyes in annoyance, wedged between Gauge’s robot and the young mare herself. She looked like she was about to be sick, and the green color she gained really contrasted the purple of her coat.

“The teams must be ready, so what is she waiting for?” Longbow muttered beside me. I turned to find her looking through the floor, presumably lost in her thoughts. “Something isn’t right here.”

“Waiting for us to make the first move, perhaps?” Ficha offered.

“No.” Predious gave out sternly. “She wants us to watch.”

“Shadow, set us down further away.” I shouted up to him. I didn’t know if he’d heard me through all the wind, but I thought that Predious’s idea had some merit to it. Filius specifically chose this place to harm me, he wanted me to be there when it happened.

With a sharp turn, and a jostling shudder that resonated through the old cart, we pitched downward. The levitation talismans under us whined as we pulled back up, our momentum still carrying us down. In what was the sharpest landing they’d probably ever had to handle, the talismans slowed us just enough that we set down with only a minor bump.

The second we were down, Gauge bolted for the back door. She clawed at it furiously with her hooves, pushing it down as fast as the old pistons would let it open. It wasn’t fast enough however, as she whined and threw up her dinner all over the opening door.

“Good, get it out now.” Longbow sighed and pulled herself sharply to her hooves. “What will happen probably won’t be pretty. We’ll do what we can, but we can’t save everypony.” She turned and looked at me, giving me a look of understanding. “Remember that.”

The readout in my vision shifted to pink, and Pai popped up in front of me.

“I’m happy to inform you that we’ve entered secure comms range for the raptor.” She seemed like she was back to her old self, no longer sounding as cold and calculated as she had when I spoke with her in the resort. “I’ve managed to bypass their encryption algorithm, allowing you to listen in if you’d like.”

The lot of us, with the exception of Grumpy the robot, disembarked the old skycart. The air felt colder this far from the tower, and the snow that coated the rubble was more heavily piled up here than it had been when we left for the Resort. At the very least, it didn’t look like anypony had been through here, as there wasn’t a single track to be found.

“Good.” Predious nodded as he carefully made his way around Gauge. “We’ll be able to see if the DJ managed to get us our backup.”

I was about to ask what that meant, but Shadow interrupted me as he unhooked himself.

“From what I could see, it was the Lenticular alright.” With a stretch of his wings, he hopped into the air and hovered for a moment. “If we’re lucky, they haven’t taken her in for her retrofit yet. The capacitors for the anti-dragon cannons are due to be replaced, and overheat after each shot. We’ll have a window of four minutes between volleys.”

“Four minutes?” Gauge coughed out as she still sat huddled over her puddle of sick. “That’s it?”

“It’ll be enough.” Harmony snorted. “Okay, here’s the order of action. Evacuation prep for the city has the foals and elderly shored up in the Garage. With the rubble all around it, I’d reckoned it’s the most fortified position in the city. It might take a volley from the cannons, but Ah’d rather not trust it taking a single shot more than that. It’s priority number one for evacuation, got it?”

We all nodded before she continued.

“Good. Adult civilians not fit fer defence should be sheltered in the bar at the west end of town.” She was remarkably calm as she spoke, looking around at each of us and using her hooves to keep our attention. Unlike me, she was a community leader, through and through. “They’re next, but don’t bother with an escort. Y’all just instruct them ta flee, and get ta defending the city. The rangers’ll know to concentrate their fire on the Enclave attackers who will be flyin’ over the city. We need ta cause casualties, convince them that we ain’t worth attackin’.” She looked around at each of us and gave us a stern look. “We can rebuild the city, but we can’t lose too many folks doin’ so.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Ficha laughed. “The night isn’t getting any warmer! Isn’t that right?” He nudged shadow, who was simply staring down at the dirt.

“I have to go.” He spoke up. His eerie tone and blank stare made us all sit quietly for a moment, waiting to hear what the hell he meant. “That’s Iron Cross’s ship. If she see’s me, she might be distracted enough to slip up during the attack.”

“Shadow, she still wants you dead. I won’t risk...” I stepped forward. Without warning, Longbow’s hoof reached out and stopped me.

“Any advantage might save lives, Storm. Even if it’s a couple of seconds.” She kept her hoof pressed against me, and she tensed up as she spoke. “Silver Star deviated from protocol when she attacked us before, and that was because she was too focused on her emotions to see clearly.”

“She’s right, Storm.” Shadow’s stern gaze shifted up to Longbow. “Silver’s daughters are just as prone to emotional outbursts as well.” A smirk crept across his muzzle slowly as her gaze locked on his. “So, you’re the grounder mare she was always bitching about? She never let what happened go, you know that? Told her daughters to keep searching for the whole lot of you all these years. She’s probably up there right now watching this unfold.”

“That’s right.” Longbow snorted. “To be honest, I’d hoped that she’d forgotten about what happened long ago.” She paused with a short gasp. “Shortstaff…”

“What?” Harmony turned and looked at her with a puzzled expression. “What about him?”

“He’s the spitting image of his father!” She snapped, turning around and bolting away faster than any mare her age had a right to.

“Alright! Everypony, get moving!” I shouted, turning to bolt after her. My heart beat against my chest as hard as my hooves slammed into the broken and snow covered pavement. Shadow dipped down along his flight path, cruising next to me for a moment. I caught his worried gaze, and returned one of my own to him. “Be safe.” He nodded and pulled away, gaining altitude and speed as he flapped hard. “I love you...”

* * * * * * * * *

We had so much to lose.

The bright red beams arced through the night sky, turning the old rubble filled streets a dull red. As we raced toward the northern city gate, the beams cut through the western defences like a hot knife through butter.

Even from two blocks away, the scent of ozone was so thick in the air that I couldn’t even breathe without tasting it. The night air filled with screams of pain and panic as the light dimmed, and the beams flickered out. A window popped up in my pipvision, a countdown timer handily put up by Pai.

Four minutes, I thought to myself.

Even with the fact that I’d been patched up, there was no way I was going to keep up with Longbow. I’d lost sight of her well before I even rounded the last block, and I could see the mare sized hole she’d left in the sheet metal gate. Above the gate, I noticed a pair of silver flashes streak by. Chariots flew over the city, and only seconds after they passed over, a line of explosions tore through the streets.

Another silver flash caught my vision, but this one came from my side. Ficha stormed past me, galloping ahead with his sword grasped tightly in his jaw. He reached the gate moments before me, slipping through and disappearing into the smoke in the street beyond. With a deft leap, I too entered into the city.

Gunfire erupted from all around me as steel rangers took up defensive positions around the streets. Never before had I been so relieved to see the metal clad ponies appear from seemingly nowhere. The low drone of a minigun was sharply followed by a bright multicolored explosion. The twisted wreck of a chariot slammed down through a sheet metal shack down the street, sending a pillar of flame and smoke up into the night sky.

I skid to a stop as a pair of bright beams lanced through the dirt around me, narrowly missing me. I looked up just fast enough to catch a blur fly above me, passing over me to attack the rangers down the street. One of the beams struck a robed ranger in the chest, right as her anti-machine rifle punched a bloody hole through the enclave soldier’s head. The mare screamed as she glowed brightly before whisking away as pink ashes. From my pipbuck radio, the quick and decisive reports came across the Enclave channel.

Outside of a soft ringing in my ears, I froze up.

I’d thought I knew what it felt like before, but this was war. Not like Dodge or Chasm, and not street fighting against raiders. This wasn’t just one side fighting for survival, this was an all out fight of eradication. No emotions about this, no hesitation, just kill the enemy even if you went down swinging. This was what I was bred to do, wasn’t it? This is what my purpose would have been had my ‘powers’ shown themselves to be controllable during the war.

My vision twisted, and I tumbled onto my side as a pony barreled into me. It knocked me from my thoughts, and back into the fight. The pony whined and kicked at me as he got back to his hooves in a panic. A high pitched whine filled the air, and a red beam lanced across his back. He let out a scream before collapsing next to me, the soldier who hit him zipping past overhead.

Predious jumped through the city gate, wide eyed in fear as he watched me climb to my hooves. As much as I wanted to keep staring at him, I found my eyes drawn back down to the stallion next to me. His eyes were still and unfocused, his body rigid and unmoving.

“Storm, we have to get to the garage!” He snapped and smacked me in the cheek. “Come on, move!” A beep from my pipbuck prompted a look at the timer still in my vision.

Three minutes, I thought again.

“Y-yeah!” I turned my gaze away from the stallion and down the street. Another set of explosions erupted from the south, illuminating the night once more. The two of us got moving, galloping down the street towards the monolithic form of the Garage. Another silver flash passed over us, this one traveling lower than the others. It wasn’t a chariot, but what looked like a large bulbous shell with a gun sticking out of the top of it.

Carefully, it maneuvered to the top of the garage, and set down without even taking a hit.

“No, no, no!” I screamed out as I pushed myself harder to get there. I refused to lose anypony else in this fight! The enclave wouldn’t slaughter helpless colts and fillies even if I had to throw myself on their guns to do so!

A blue flash of a pony zipped around the street ahead of us. Thatcher tore through the street toward the Garage, quickly followed by the bulky form of Longbow hot on his hooves. With little regard, he slammed into the door to the place. The door splintered and broke open against his weight.

Predious and I joined Longbow, squeezing in through the wrecked doorway with little regard for ourselves. The huddled mass of young ponies inside gasped at our entrance, cowering in the corner. The sounds of a scuffle up the stairs to the kitchen got us moving again without even a word.

“That’s far enough!” The bitchy and arrogant voice of Iron Cross was one I’d hoped to never hear again. “Mom was right about this place being where you stayed.” She laughed as I pushed myself up the stairs.

“You expect to win?” Shortstaff snorted. “We have you outnumbered.”

Reaching the kitchen, an odd scene sat before me. An enclave soldier had Shortstaff restrained in his grasp, his power armor’s energy rifles pressing against his back stiffly. Next to him, sat Iron Cross. She too was in a suit of power armor, but her’s didn’t have any weapons on it. Instead, the scorpion-like tail of her suit was wrapped around Thatcher’s son’s neck, the blade pointed precariously close to the side of his head. Thatcher, Longbow, and now Predious and I stood across the room from her.

“Oh, I think you misunderstand why I’m here.” She smiled as she spoke, her hate filled red eyes turning to me. “Oh, what a surprise.” She laughed lightly. “Of course, mother said that this was all for you.”

“She’s being controlled.” I spoke plainly. “Filius is just using her.”

“Oh, I know that.” She laughed with the same mirth as Tempest had during her little ‘game’. “I made a deal with Filius. I knew shadow was still alive, and he needed you out of the picture.” She traced the tail blade around Huckleberry’s face, eliciting a sharp whimper from him. “And like a moth to the flame, he knew you’d bring him right to me.”

“So let my son go.” Thatcher demanded.

With another beep, the timer counted down to halfway.

“See, there was one more requirement in our deal.” She canted her head as she looked right at me. “He needed her to suffer.”

The room glowed bright red, and the air itself heated like we’d been placed in an oven. The crackle of energy filled the air as screams erupted from outside. I had to sheild myself from the light that poured in through the window, the fur on my forehoof feeling like it was melting from the intense heat. With a quick flicker, the beams again died down.

“What happened to four minutes?” Longbow growled through her clenched teeth.

Iron simply shook her head. “You ground folk are such simpletons. Only an amature commander would commit all of the guns to firing at once.” She paused and put a hoof up to her ear. The most grotesque smile pulled across her muzzle. “I hope that there was no pony in the bar you cared for.”

The radio in my pipbuck cracked and silenced the constant soft chatter from the enclave attackers.

“This is the raptor Mammatus,” The words wiped the smile away from Iron’s face. “Raptor Lenticular, you are engaged in an unsanctioned assault. Cease and desist your actions or we will fire upon you.”

Iron raised her forehoof and spoke into it. “This is the captain. Belay that order and continue the assault until I return.”

“Fucking cunt!” Longbow snapped, leveling her rifles at Iron.

Everything then went so wrong, so fast.

Iron’s tail drove through the side of Huckleberry’s head effortlessly. Longbow locked up as Iron dropped his lifeless body and Thatcher screamed out. The other soldier fired off a pair of shots into the back of Shortstaff, who collapsed forward onto the floor in pain.

Predious dove forward at the soldier, his horn firing a red beam right into the muzzle of the stallion. Longbow’s rifles fired off, blinding me momentarily with the muzzle flash from them. Iron screamed out in pain as she twisted toward the kitchen window, a bloody hole punching through her side and splattering blood onto the wall behind her.

Thatcher ran at her, nothing but pure rage filling his eyes as he did. Predious screamed out in pain as the soldier he was fighting used his tail to snap his foreleg backwards. Longbow’s rifles fired again, this time firing across my front at the soldier.

Again, I was blinded from the flash. The soldier’s helmet had split almost in half, and the exposed half of his head was a smoking hole from where one of Longbow’s rounds punched through it.

It was at this point, that everything crawled to a stop. Time froze, my vision shifted to a deep blue color, and pai appeared curled up in the corner.

“Storm?” She sniffled as she talked. “You… you have to do something, Storm.”

What could I do? Every time I tried, every pony I wanted to save, ended up dead. Thatcher’s son didn’t have to die, but it was my fault that he had even been involved.

“No. This is what he wants!” Pai whined and climbed to her hooves. “You have to act, Sis! You can’t…. you can’t sit here like he wants you too!”

I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do anymore! Filius had the amulet. Nopony knew where he was, and I couldn’t even stop one single fucking mare from slaughtering countless innocent ponies!

“You can try.” Pai sniffled, forcing my vision to shift across the room.

Bleeding, and halfway through the window, Iron cross stared back in an endless scowl at Thatcher. He’d gotten up to her, and was desperately trying to drag her back in through the window.

The S.A.T.S. targeting overlay highlighted the two of them. In the lower right hoof corner of my vision, under Pai, flashed the word ‘Bon Appetit’. I knew what she wanted me to do, and I thought about putting a bullet between Iron’s eyes. The system registered that it would take half of the spells power to do so, and that I only had a twenty five percent chance to hit her at all. Thatcher on the other hoof, had a thirty six percent chance to be hit instead.

Rather than risk hitting him, I had to rely on the spell to guide the one round I had to it’s proper home. I wouldn’t chance on killing Thatcher when he still had his other son, Finn to raise.

I accepted the spell, and watched it resolve.

It guided my muzzle down and over the revolver’s chocolate tasting grip, drawing it up and out of it’s home in one fluid motion. Slowly, it swung up, the whole room itself shifting in the altered time. I watched in horror through the spell as Iron’s tail rose up to strike, the sharp blade glinting in the flickering lights from the fires that burned outside. With a sharp, distorted report, the single shot rang out from my gun. Even in the slowed down flow of time, the round traveled across the room in the blink of an eye.

The soft lead round slammed into the armored tail appendage, not even leaving a scratch on it.

Time slowly crept forward, starting to reorient itself. With my attack failed, and Iron still alive, her bladed tail shot forward. The curved blade imbedded itself through Thatcher’s eye, the pointed tip of it emerging through the back of his head as he went ridged.

My gun slipped from my muzzle as the blade slipped out of his corpse, and Iron Cross slipped from sight out the window. I sat down hard as my gun clattered across the floorboards, my head blank from the events that had just unfolded.

Longbow pushed past me as she rushed to her son. She was screaming things at him as she levitated out medical supplies from her armor to him. Predious whined out in pain from the floor beside her, cradling his twisted foreleg. All the while, across the floor lay the two bodies of ponies who didn’t deserve this.

The ringing in my ears returned, drowning out the rest of the world as I just sat on the floor and stared out the window. If this was what war felt like, I don’t know how ponykind managed it for ten years. Even so, maybe what ended the world a century and a half ago was less of a tragedy, and more of a mercy.

Amidst the ringing, a soft voice called out from the depths of my minds, and despite how unfocused I felt, I grasped on to those words and listened to them like everything I was depended on it.

“You cannot save everypony,” It was the voice of mama, “Others still require your help. Go to them.”

Without thinking, I stood up, turned around, and did just that. No thoughts in my mind, just the drive to help others. I practically flew down the stairs and out into the streets, running toward the sound of screams. In the sky, a second cloudship hung above us, sitting between us and the retreating pegasus forces. I doubted that this would be the last time I’d see Iron Cross, but I knew that the next time we met, I would end her life without so much as a thought.

My mind felt scattered without the feelings I normally had running around in it. I moved through the streets in a daze, helping pony after pony from the rubble. I glossed over those who were already dead, in an attempt to help those who still could be. Part of me knew that I needed to keep moving, and the more I helped, the less everything phased me overall.

My friends had spoken to me while I worked, but I simply ignored them and worked. Even Shadow had come back to me. Still, I found myself unable to stop from doing what I could for the wounded. I didn’t have the time to talk, because I was still very much alive. Others didn’t have this luxury, and I intended to fix that.

As the sun crept up over the wasteland, I finally had exhausted all of my strength and laid myself down to rest. It was on a dirty mattress in one of the ruined shacks in town. I didn’t know who it had belonged to, but for now, it was mine. Closing my eyes, I sat in the blissful darkness and listened as the soft ringing in my mind carried me off to sleep. It was simply the end to another day for me. Tomorrow, I’d get up and try again.

Tomorrow, I thought to myself, Tomorrow we’ll win this war.

--Chapter End--

“What's begun is the war that will force this divide.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty One - Acceptance

“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.”

I just don’t know what went wrong.

Hours of rescue and salvage work turned into days. Sunshine city had been almost completely destroyed by the attack, and yet, survivors were still being pulled from the ruins and rubble. However, the dead of this place weighed on me. Another mark to add to my tally of burden, and another thought to join the thousand others running wild in my mind.

Actually, I knew exactly what went wrong.

I’d been the one constant in other pony’s lives, a beacon that only proved to call down the worst upon those who didn’t ask for it. Hell, I hadn’t asked for any of this, but I was the pony who’d failed to stop it. I can be a better pony, I feel it inside, coursing through my veins. I was made to be the pony to save everypony when it came down to it. So, why haven’t I?

I woke up, I worked, maybe I ate, then I found somewhere to lay my head again and slept. This is what I did, even when my hooves felt sore, or when it started to snow again on the coldest of nights. The others, my friends, were here as well. They tried to speak to me, telling me that all this hadn’t been my fault. Still, I simply worked.

It hadn’t been until today that I’d stopped to take a break. I’d taken a seat on a piece of rubble just outside one of the large fabric tents that had been set up for shelter. Without even thinking about it, I popped a cigarette into my muzzle and lit it with my lighter. The taste of the century and a half old delight hit me right where I needed it too.

For a moment, I felt angry. I felt like it was wrong to enjoy it, after all that I’d done. How could I have sat there and enjoyed myself with how many gave their lives? In response to my thought, my vision flickered and changed over to pink.

“Even heroes need to rest.” Pai spoke up softly, remaining oddly absent from my vision. “Before you refute that, I’d like to remind you that you helped to save most of Chasm, most of Dodge, and even most of Sunshine City.”

“I could have done better.” I tried to put some sort of force into those words. Tried to tell myself that if only I’d been stronger, or faster, that I could have saved more of them. “I’m thankful for your words, Pai, but I won’t take your sympathy.”

“Then will you take mine?” Shadow called out from above. With more grace than a housecat, he flared his wings and floated down the snowy ground. Out of anypony here, he was the last one I’d wanted to see. My problems were my own, and he didn’t deserve to be dragged into them. So, instead of involving him, I just took another drag off of my smoke.

He simply stood there, softly smiling at me and waiting for a reply that I wouldn’t give.

“Look, Storm,” He lowered his voice and walked slowly toward me through the snow. “I know that you think you could have done more, but you’re wrong.” Hesitantly, he reached his hoof out to me. Turning away, I shrugged the gesture off. I couldn’t help but glance up at him when I did, and the look of defeat across his muzzle stung me. It had only been there for a moment before it changed to something that I deserved more than pity.

“Fuck you, Storm.” He snapped at me. Here it came, everything that I deserved delivered to me by the one pony in my life that I’d finally let get close to me. “I’ve seen you give nothing more than your best!” Wait, what? “You don’t get to sit there and feel sorry,” He put his hoof on my shoulder and forcefully spun me around. “not unless you tell me exactly what you could have done differently.”

“I… uh…” Where was the hatred? Why couldn’t he just yell at me like he should? His words were a kindness hidden amongst the anger, and it sent my mind into a spin.

“Yeah, a lot of ponies died here, but there wasn’t anything we could have done differently.” He stepped up toward me, seemingly towering over me as my cigarette teetered on the end of my lips. “I’m all for helping here, Storm, but we can’t stay forever.” With a heavy plop, he sat down in front of me. “There has to be a way forward, some way to catch this asshole off guard so that we can take him down.” With the lightest of touches, he put his forehoof under my chin. “We don’t need strength, or speed, or magic. All we have to do is think.” His soft smile appeared again, cutting through the fog in my mind. “And we can do that together, because that’s how we beat him.”

“You’re right.” I sighed.

“Again with the stubbornness! I can’t…” He froze. “...what?”

“You’re right.” I said again before taking a long drag from my smoke. The perplexed look on his face melted away, slowly turning back to yet another smile. “We won’t get anything done sitting around here.” I spat my smoke into the snow and pushed myself up to my hooves. “One of the thoughts running through my head was something to do with what the elements had told me, that I must return to where I began.”

“Why?” He canted his head in confusion. “Where is it that you’re supposed to go?”

“Sis?” Pai spoke up, finally popping up into my vision. “Does this mean… we can go home?”

“Yes.” I nodded and looked at Shadow. “We’re going back to our Orchard.”

* * * * * * * * *

Before we could go, I’d have to tell the others. It didn’t take much asking around to find out where Longbow and Harmony were, and I didn’t doubt that Predious would be with them. What I didn’t expect when I approached their tent, was the voice I heard inside. Opening the flap, I was met with a familiar face.

“Na-uh. I didn’t say nuthin' bout workin' for yah.” Cheap Shot prodded Diesel in the chest. “I’ll work for…” He stopped as I pushed the flap out of my way and stepped inside. “...Storm?” With a raised eyebrow, he looked over me. “Yah look like shit, but it’s good tah see yah. Brought news from Baltimare.”

“It’s been overrun.” Cottage grunted from across the tent. Though he wasn’t somepony I cared to have ever laid eyes on again, at least he’d stuck around to help out after the attack.

But, Baltimare? The news was devastating. For as bad as Sunshine city or Dodge was, these were just small communities. Baltimare even after the war has been a haven for many ponies in southeast equestria. It’s population is no less than a few thousand… including my parents.

“But it ain’t like Dodge,” Harmony Chimed in, pointing a hoof to a table that sat in the middle of the tent. “All them zomponies just came in an walled tha whole damn city off! Nopony on tha outside gets within a hundred yards of the place before gettin’ shot.” She stared at a collection of papers that sat strewn on the table. “Don’t make a lick’a sense tah me.”

“Even Tunneltown is locked down, with da exception of a few sewer tunnels only I know. Strangest thing is, dat dick’s got everypony diggin’ for somethin’.” Cheap Shot continued. “dunno what, but it’s big.”

“Digging?” I asked, a horrible realization running through me. “It’s not in the exclusion zone, is it?” The old military and industry ruins were ghoul territory, and anypony who went to that district was asking to die a slow death by either radiation, or taint.

“Nah,” He shrugged. “Oddly enough, he’s got da whole city diggin ta the bottom of the Arena. Word is he’s lookin’ for some castle lookin’ thing.”

“The Arena?” Shadow asked, even more confused than he’d been minutes ago. “Why do I feel like I already hate the name of this place?”

“It’s where they host the slave auctions.” Longbow retorted as she walked up to the table. In her magic floated over a large, old roll of parchment that she laid down and unfurled. To my surprise, it was a nearly intact pre-war map of Baltimare. Stained yellow with age, the old streets and districts had been redrawn to reflect the more… modern layout of the ruins. “I know it might be a lot to ask, but if you could mark down where some of his forces are, we can start to build a plan of attack. It would be even better if you could get some rangers back inside Baltimare.”

“Look, like I said,” Cheap Shot snorted before looking to me. “Unless she wants it, yah only get two things from me, and dat’s jack an’ shit.”

“It’s alright, Cheap.” I sighed. “We’re all in it together here, and she has a point. The more ponies we have on the inside feeding us intel, the better off we are going to be.”

“Yeah, but dees assholes?” He pointed a hoof around the room, singling out Diesel, Longbow, and Cottage. “Dey’ve never been in’na place like dis. These ponies are kept as slaves, and act as such. Yah ask me, dey’ll stick out in a crowd an be killed within a day for stickin’ dey muzzles out an lookin’ around.”

“He has a point.” Longbow nodded and turned to me. “Sure, maybe rangers aren’t the best choice. Unless you have anypony else you can trust who isn’t otherwise engaged, we don’t have another option.”

Funny thing is I could think of a few ponies who fit that description. “Hey, Cheap. Do you think you could find out where Jack Knife and the others are?”

He looked almost disgusted at the notion. “Really? Yah want dem ta spy for yah?” After a moment, he shrugged. “After what happened ta her sister, Mora probably wouldn’t go for it unless yah paid her. Dat, an far as I can tell, Jack still wants ta see yah dead.”

“I don’t care, make it happen.” I paused. “What happened with Rosina?”

Cheap shot looked at me for a moment before his eyes went wide. “Dat’s right… yah don’t know.” He shook his head, offering a sad look. “Rosina, she didn’t make it out.” I wanted to say that it hit me like a ton of bricks, or that it tore me up to hear that. But, after everything I’d been through, there wasn’t anything left inside me to feel for her loss. “Yah went down in da blast, and I made a judgement call ta get yah outta der.”

“It’s fine.” I lied more to make myself move on. “Let’s just make sure she didn’t die in vain, alright?” I reached up and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Whatever it takes, get them in there and find out as much as you can about how they’re set up, and what they’re doing.”

“And what about the prisoners?” Cottage interjected with far more forcefulness than necessary. “I doubt a ruffian like you would be able to get them to fight.”

“Just so happens dat prison breaks an startin’ riots is my specialty.” Cheap Shot spoke proudly, putting his hoof on his chest. “Yah can count on me ta get yah what yah need.” He shot a quick glare at Cottage. “Yah got any more doubts, just ask Storm here if I ain’t qualified for dis. Hell, she’ll probably tag along an show me up like last time.”

I didn’t need to be dragged into a pissing match right now. “I can’t go with you.”

“Yah got someplace better ta be?” He chuckled for a moment. When I didn’t even smirk back, he stopped. “Wait, seriously?”

I looked around the table, to each pony who was waiting on me to say something. I wanted to be here, to be part of this. However, the more that the element’s words sat in my mind, the more I felt compelled to listen to them. As much as it pained me, I couldn’t stay.

“This fight ahead, it’s going to be a hard one.” I spoke without any idea if what I was saying was something I had any right to. “I can’t ask you to carry on without me, but I’m not strong enough to beat Fillius, not yet.” A collective look of doubt was shared by everypony in the room. “I’m sorry I can’t stay, but there is something that could help us win.”

“Storm…” Harmony looked at me with worried eyes. Eyes that she’d only used when she was afraid she’d never see somepony again. “What are Y’all talkin about? Just send somepony else tah git whatever it is.”

“I can’t.” I tried to emphasize it with a stomp of my hoof. When I did, a small ring of blue flame rolled out from under my hoof, making everypony take a step back. “I realize that you’ve all given so much to help me, and followed me this far. But, it’s something only I can retrieve, if it’s even there at all.” I turned to the door. “I want to stay, to plan this fight right beside all of you. But, if whatever it is that I’m supposed to find is back there, is it not worth the chance?” As I looked around, I could see every emotion locked on the faces of all of them. “I… I hope you all can understand.”

“Well I fucking don’t.” Cottage growled. “You’re going to run off from the biggest fight in the wasteland on a chance?” He stomped up to me, his power armor nearly vibrating with pure rage. “Fuck you.” With a stiff prod, his power armored hoof nearly knocked the breath from my lungs. “My father didn’t die to give you a chance. Fruit and the other rangers, didn’t die to give you a fucking chance.” He growled. “If you leave, you better fucking come back with a goddess damned megaspell or some shit.”

“Cottage.” Longbow futilely tried to get his attention. I’d seen the look on his face before, in my dreams. This was the face my friends wore when I’d failed them. “You have to trust her.”

He didn’t break his glare off of me, not for one moment. “Not until she comes back with something, I don’t.” It was at that moment that Shadow forced himself in between the angry Steel Ranger and I.

“Back off.” Shadow grumbled. “She’ll find whatever it is and come back.”

“Just…” Harmony’s voice came across as more meek than I’d ever head. “come back safe, yah hear?” She sat down softly as she looked over at me. “Ah already lost Pallet, an we nearly lost mah brother.” With a light touch, she wiped away the tears that started to form in her eyes. “Ah dun wanna lose anypony else Ah know.”

“I know, I’ll be careful.” Without another word from anypony, I turned and lifted the flap to leave the tent. For a moment, I hesitated. I wanted to stop right then and promise them all that I’d come back with what we’d need to win this fight, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make a promise like that.

As I walked from the tent, Shadow followed. In silence, we walked through the ruins of the city, past the old park where Harmony’s family were buried and toward the northern exit of town. Just before the door, the heavy thumping of hooves behind me predictably arrose.

“I don’t know where you’re going, but we’re coming too.” Gauge panted through heavy breaths. “You aren’t leaving us behind that easily!”

“No, you all should be helping with the assault.” I barked in annoyance, not even turning to look at them. Even with as bad as Filius was, there was safety in numbers. I didn’t know what waited for me back at the old orchard, and I didn’t want to risk their lives when they could do so much good helping here. “They’ll need all the help they can get.”

“And what about you? Your ass would be grass if we weren’t there to save it.” Tasteless shot back at a whine. “Plus this place is boring. I’m just rotting away sitting around here, I want to get back out there!”

““Honestly, I’d rather be with the main force fighting, but you heard the mare.” Ficha used his finely tuned pension for annoyance to really remind me how much I hated him. “without us you’d be dead ten times over by now.”

“My mom and brother… they can handle it until we get back here.” Gauge’s voice wavered for a moment, and it reminded me exactly why I didn’t want them going. “Besides, you aren’t allowed to die until you kill Filius for what he did to my dad.”

“Your father’s death is on me.” I snapped, clamping my eyes shut. “Just let me go. I alone run the risks.”

Along my side, I felt a warmth press into it. The light touch of a feathered wing wrapping around me made my body shiver with electric sensations. A warm breath caressed my ear, and I had to hold back a whine.

“As I said, I’ll never leave your side. You’ll have to kill me to get rid of me.” Shadow whispered to me, softly pressing himself against me. “You’ve come so far for anypony to abandon you now.”

“Exactly!” Predious spoke up in a surprisingly cheery tone. ““It’d be stupid of us to not go all the way with you.” He stepped up from behind me, walking along my side. A light aura of magic enveloped Shadow’s wing and lifted it up, revealing Pred’s smiling muzzle on the other side of it. “Like it or not, you aren’t getting rid of us that easily.”

“I can’t ask any of you to do this…” I stuttered. Their dedication shouldn’t have surprised me. I should have known that they had more invested in this battle than I did, but I’ve been blinded by sadness and regret. “you’ve already gone through so much because of me.”

“Nonsense.” Ficha spit at me. “We’ve lost everything because of him.” The irritating twinge in his voice dropped off just like that. For once since I’d met him, Ficha sounded completely serious when he spoke. “And for that, I’m sure we’d all like to see that the dear necromancer pays for it dearly. Painfully, if at all possible.”

“Damn straight.” Tasteless stomped her hoof in agreement. “So what are we waiting for? An embroidered invitation?” With more force than needed, she pushed herself between Shadow and I. Gauge must have spent all week getting Tasteless’s augments all fixed up from the orchard, because they shined like they were brand new. “Let’s fucking get this revenge train rolling, ladies!”

With a quick spin, she bucked at the sheet metal entrance. A horrific shearing sound filled the air and made everypony but the brutish cyberghoul cringe. In almost comical fashion, the entire burnt and rusted north entrance tilted back and collapsed into the snow with a heavy whump.

As we all sat in an awkward silence, Tasteless raised her hoof to say something. She hesitated for a moment, then just shrugged and turned around. Maybe nothing needed to be said. For now, I could sit back and trust that my friends would be there for me, even if I objected to it. My parents always told me that actions spoke louder than words.

To me, the actions of my friends have said more than any words could ever hope to convey.

The walk back to the Ditzy’s skycart felt cold and lifeless. In the wake of Filius’s attacks, and the flood of refugees, even the raiders and monsters here had moved out. Manehattan had probably never been so quiet in the time since it had been built. Even so, part of me felt like it wasn’t a bad thing. It’s not that the city felt dead, but more asleep. To me, it feels like at any moment, with a single spark, the city could come roaring back to life.

Sure, what Filius had done was bad. However, just these last few days I’ve seen Steel Rangers working with vagrants and refugees, who in turn were working beside the well off merchants. Even the soft snow that fell couldn’t dampen their hopes of finding more survivors. It was exactly that hope that I could feel inside, pulsing through me. Until now, I’d felt like there was a hole in my life, like something was missing. I get it now, I get who exactly it is that I’m fighting for.

“That’s right!” Gauge gasped, knocking me out of my thoughts as we approached the corner we’d left the skycart at. Looking ahead, a familiar wall-eyed pegasus sat in the snow at the corner. She wasn’t looking at us, but watching as Pendergrass and Finn rolled around in the snow next to Short Staff. As she trotted ahead, Gauge’s magic flipped open her saddlebags and pulled out an old, mostly full plastic bag.

“Oh, hey.” Short Staff called out with a wave of his hoof. “Come to say hello?”

“Not exactly…” I tried to say, but felt my words trail off as I watched Finn roll about with Pender. For just a moment, Pendergrass's gaze caught my own, and I could see the pain he felt. As quickly as he’d glanced at me, he looked away, focusing on all he had left in the world. The cold shoulder from him hurt, but it was a harsh punishment that I rightfully deserved. “Ditzy, I hate to ask this of you, but would you mind if we borrowed your skycart?”

“We have to make a run out to ponyville.” Predious stepped in. He cast a supportive glance to me, wearing a forced smile as he continued. “It shouldn’t take too long if we fly, and as you know, time is of the essence.”

Ditzy looked over at the others for a moment. From the corner of my vision, the bag that Gauge held in her magic floated forward. The old mare gave a single sniff before her attention was pulled to the small bag.

“Harmony and my mother wanted to give you these. For all of the work you’ve done to help.” Gauge smiled as she opened the bag. “I was told they were blueberry, and the first of many batches to come.”

The smile that came across Ditzy’s muzzle was one of pure happiness, and something I hadn’t seen on a pony’s muzzle since Auntie Pinkie. She pointed to the skycart with her hoof and gave a nod.

“Thank you.” I forced myself to say, only managing a meager whisper.

Without much fanfare or words, the others boarded the skycart. Shadow had once again hooked himself into the harness. I on the other hoof, simply stood there, watching as Finn carried on without his brother and father there with him. The sight hurt, but just like with Cottage, it just meant that I needed to come back with something from home. Their sacrifice needed to mean something.

As I finally turned to board, Ditzy’s hoof reached out and stopped me. In her muzzle, she held the chalkboard that she used to speak. On it, written out in, were the words ’Be careful’. I didn’t know what dangers may lay ahead, but I won’t be stopped until we found something to help finish this fight. With a nod, I gave her a soft and genuine smile.

Very quickly, I found her hooves around me. Without warning, I was pulled into a very tight and extremely squishy hug. I gave a light sigh as I returned it with my own light pat on her back. With that, I pulled myself out of her embrace, and trotted over into the skycart. Giving one last look at the group before us, I kept the image of it in my mind while I shut the door.

I’d been thought up by ponies as a weapon, raised by my creator as a daughter, and matured in the wasteland as a fighter. If only Daddy could see the mare I am today, I’d hope he’d look at me and understand why I’ve done what I’ve done. The journey of my life was about to come to a head as I went back home, and as we picked up off the ground, I wondered to myself if I was truly ready to become the mare that so many had wanted me to be.

--Chapter End--

“Over the edge, over again...”

Quests Finished: The Meaning of Hope

Quests Started: Where It All Began...

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty Two - Home Sweet Home

“Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation.”

Somehow, I just knew that something was going to have gone wrong for us. Nothing can be easy for us, even after we’ve come so far, lost so much, and tried so very hard. Then again, I wasn’t alone in knowing that it didn’t change a goddess-damned thing. At least I could be thankfull that we’d almost made it all the way to Ponyville.

“Tuning the broadcast for you…” Pai squeaked just barely over the whistle of the wind coming from outside the skycart. “That should do it!”

“Patrol thirty four, that was a bad copy. Please repeat status report.”

“This is Patrol thirty four, we’ve caught sight of a lone skycart heading towards the objective. Star Wave and I are on route to intercept.”

“Patrol thirty four, good copy. Probably just some locals, but Iron Cross has authorized you to shoot them down if they continue over the mission zone.”

“Affirmative on that, Command. Operative Light Wave out.”

Why the fuck did it have to be Iron again? I swear to Celestia that if I ever saw that mare again, it’d be too soon.

No. Fuck her! She doesn’t get to live after all this, and I wanted the enjoyment of watching her die. I wanted to crush her skull in with my hooves, blow out her heart with my rifle, and then shove a grenade so far up her entitled ass that she’d have to choke it out of her haughty muzzle before she was blasted into meaty chunks. Screw letting her get away. If I had the chance to kill her, I’d take it in a heartbeat!

At that, my heart felt like it seized up, sending a spike of pain through me hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Without my strength, my forehooves gave out from under me and I collapsed onto the skycart’s floor.

“Storm!” Predious called out from his seat. “Storm, are you alright?”

The air around me felt like ice, I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t even breathe. My body felt stiff, and I couldn’t move myself at all. I started to panic, my mind scrambling for anything I could think of to help. The lack of oxygen started to get to me, and darkness clawed at my vision. It felt like the harder I tried to act, the worse it all got, until finally I gave up, and dropped into darkness…

* * * * * * * * *

“Yes, good, good!” The voice of Filius rang through the darkness, but as much as I tried to look, he never appeared. “Let the hatred flow through you.” A sharp cackling laugh echoed through my mind. “You can feel the curse now, can you not?”

“What?” I spoke up, not realizing that I even had a voice in the darkness.

“The kiss of a wendigo is a terrible curse that will make you wish for your own end.” He chuckled at me from the safety of the darkness. “But, it is oh so fitting for a pony the likes of you.”

I wanted to scream and attack him, to find him in this darkness and beat him to death with my own hooves. The moment I thought that, another spike of pain made me scream out again.

“Yes, feed the curse!” He laughed again madly. “Don’t you get it yet? Hatred only makes the curse’s effect’s mature faster!” The giddiness in his voice was only driving more anger into me, making the pain all over me worse until I could focus on nothing else. I screamed out again in my head from both my pain and frustration. How could I fight an enemy that made me weaker the more I hated it?

“We don’t need strength, or speed, or magic. All we have to do is think.” Shadow’s voice echoed from the depths of my mind.

“Oh, you think you can outsmart this curse?” Filius spoke up with a note of intrigue. “Well then, not to worry.” He gave an amused sigh and paused for a moment. “I can assure you that the curse of a god is far more powerful than even your strange magics could cure.”

“They aren’t gods.” I grunted and focused on his voice. “They’re monsters, just like you.”

“No matter.” Filius brushed off my tone like it was nothing. “The longer that you have the curse, the more unstable your mind shall become.” He clopped his hooves together giddily. “You will grow angrier and angrier by the day, unable to feel anything other than the burning hatred filling to burst inside you. You will destroy the lives of everypony you care for, falling into a hatred fueled madness that will freeze you right down to what little soul you have left at that point.”

“Never.” I whispered. “Once you’re gone, I’ll...”

“Please.” Filius interrupted me. “Still think you can beat me? That curse shall kill you long before my ritual is completed!” He snorted and growled at me. “Nothing you or your friend’s could ever do can stop the events that I have set in motion.”

“My friends will stop you, even if I’m not there to help.” I shouted out. “You think that nopony can match you on their own, then you’re right. But we stand together, and as powerful as you are, you can’t fight us all.”

“Perhaps,” He spoke boredly all the enrapturement gone from his voice. “And they are most certainly welcome to try, but it will all be for naught.” With a tired sigh his voice grew softer. “I grow tired of your boundless ignorance, and I grow bored of your refusal to just die like a good mare. This shall be the last time we speak, dear Storm.”

As I sat there in the darkness, his whispering voice echoed and bounced around in the darkness of my mind. “Enjoy your madness, as it will be the last thing you know before the ice stops your heart forever...”

* * * * * * * * *

“Trust me, the farm and an entrance is there.” Pai’s voice sounded muffled as I struggled to open my eyes.

“Storm, please just wake up.” Predious whispered as he pressed himself into my cold flesh. Like somepony had lifted a weight on me, my lungs opened and drew in a deep breath. “Oh thank you.” He whined and pressed against me harder. With my body able to move again, of course the first thing it did was make me shiver.

“They’re coming around again!” Gauge shouted out the window. The quick reports from her submachine gun as it fired filled the car with a high pitched ringing. I cringed with each shot before the skycart banked to the side hard. “Keep us steady or I can’t fucking hit them!”

“If I fly straight, they’ll hit the cart!” Shadow’s amplified voice yelled back angrily from ahead of us. Almost to accentuate that point, a bright beam of green lanced through the side of the cart, melting a hole straight through and out the other side.

“Can I fly?” Tasteless shouted up at him before pointing her shotgun out the window and firing off a few shots.

“No!” Shadow screamed back as he put the cart into a steep dive.

“Then would you!?” She snapped before grabbing ahold of the window frame to steady herself.

“Not to alarm you…” Ficha called out from the front of the cart, “But the ground is approaching quite quickly!”

“What’s going on?” I finally found the words to ask. My head was spinning from both having to recover from the curse’s effects and the jerky maneuvers we were undergoing.

“Well,” Predious spoke while still pressing himself against me. “those two enclave soldiers following us decided to kill us and we decided it was best that we not let them do that.” Predious let out a hesitant laugh. “You know, just another day.”

“Wise decision.” I grunted as the feeling of cold started to leave my body. I’d started to consider the possibility of standing up and fighting, but as I did the skycart pulled up at an incredible rate. The force of the pitch pulled everypony hard to the floor, and I could feel myself get light headed before the cart pitched down slightly again. Slowly, the cart again listed further and further down.

“The hell.” Tasteless groaned as she picked herself up off the floor. “Don’t tell me you passed out from that!”

The cart slowly pulled itself level, and the rest of us got to our hooves. I’d thought to look out the window to see where we were, and I found a scary sight. We were traveling faster than I’ve ever gone before only twenty feet or so above the rocky open wastes.

“Me? Nah.” Shadow yawned groggily. “Only got a little tired from that maneuver. is all.”

“High G maneuvers are not advisable this low to the ground.” Predious spoke up. “You’re lucky we didn’t slam into the ground.”

“Luckier than the two following us, at least.” Shadow spoke with a tone of reverence. “They were stupid to even consider following us at that angle of attack.”

“You aren’t helping your case.” Ficha grumbled. “Are we at least still on course?”

“Yuppers!” Pai called out jubilantly from my pipbuck. “Approaching the farm. I’ve unlocked boulder for you all, so it shouldn’t take you more than thirty seconds to get safe!”

“Safe...?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Oh, right.” Pai gasped. “The radio chatter said that there’s a virtibuck incoming from ponyville. You’re going to need to get out of sight once we touch down.” As soon as she’d said that, we slowed down to a crawl. The scrape of a few rocks under us met our ears as we set down onto the snowy surface. “Which is now! Get going!”

“Fuck, everypony out!” I shouted and grunted, moving with Predious as his magic practically threw the metal cart ramp down. “Shadow, get yourself unhooked now.” The cold air of outside bit into my coat as Pred and I galloped into the empty and rocky farmfield. The two of us spun around, looking for the familiar rock that we’d emerged from at the start of all of this.

“There!” He shouted out, nearly bounding through the snow as we all cleared ourselves of the skycart. I spun and found the large rock, the bright white of the interior hallway shining oddly from the center of it. Following him, we all scrambled to get in. Tasteless and Pred were the first inside, followed by Ficha who tripped over the lip and fell through onto his face.

“Move your ass!” Gauge shouted as her horn flared in magic, shoving him out of the way before barreling through with me hot on her fetlocks. Shadow was the last of us, streaking through the air with a whistle. As he zipped past me, I noted how the whistling was only getting louder.

With an abrupt shriek, a bright missile streaked overhead and slammed into the skycart. The old prewar vehicle erupted in a multicolored explosion that forced us all to close our eyes. Among the ringing from the explosion, the metalic slam of the rock-hatch resonated through the air. We all sat there, panting heavily and catching our breaths in the bright hallway lighting. As I sat there, a little nagging thought in my head came to the front of my focus.

Damnit. I’d promised to return that…

“Shit, call Command.” The muffled voice of a stallion came through the hollow rock. “Tell them that their skycart has been destroyed, but we’ve lost sight of them. Tracks leading through the snow point to a hidden passageway inside a rock.”

“What? Who hides a room in a rock?” Another voice spoke up sharply. “Didn’t yah see? They got unicorns with em! They probably just teleported or somethin’ and are around here somewhere.” She gave out a sigh. Pai popped into my pipvision with a ear to ear grin, holding a hoof over her muzzle as she pretended to laugh. “Seriously? Use yah head.”

“Yeah, I guess.” The stallion grumbled. “You check the house. I’ll do a quick flyby of the forest.”

My heart was beating against my chest so hard that I was afraid that the assholes out there might hear it. Nopony else in here made a sound as we sat and kept our ears perked. Only after thirty seconds or so after hearing nothing else did we even all get back to our hooves. In silence, we all turned and started to trot back down the long hallway towards the Orchard.

“So Storm!” Ficha spoke up as he trotted alongside me. “This is your old home? It is quite… bright?” He squinted as he looked around the incredibly bright hallway. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed brighter this time around. Maybe fixing the power will have made the whole facility brighter… and hopefully a bit less creepy.

“We’re in another orchard,” Gauge called out from behind, “And you comment on the lights?”

“Yeah,” Shadow rolled his eyes as he lazily hovered to the other side of me, “maybe this time there won’t be a psychotic AI trying to kill us.”

“Ahem.” Pai spoke up. “So maybe I forgot to turn the lights off when I left. At least I didn’t go all murdertastic on Storm and Predious when they were first here...“ she paused for a moment. “Well, mostly.”

“Since you mentioned it,” Predious interjected rather abruptly. The look on his face spoke to how uncomfortable the both of us felt right now. “I assume that our little incident outside won’t be the last time we’ll see anypony out to kill us while we’re here.” He was right. Just as he spoke up, red lines started to populate my EFS quite quickly. “What is our plan?”

“The plan is to get me back to my core.” Pai spoke up with a note of eagerness in my voice. “Once there, I can find out where and possibly what the necromancer was so keen on getting into here.” She bounced into my vision. “Oh, and of course I can activate all the internal security measures that are still around.”

“You’re core is in the center of this whole facility, right?” I asked, watching as quite a few of the numerous red bars shifted back and forth. We were approaching the large code locked door that we’d used to leave this fucking place the first time.

“Yuppers!” Pai chimed and rolled across my pipvision with a giggle. “Get me there and I’ll have access to everything we’ll need!”

“So, here’s the plan. We keep as quiet as we can, for as long as we can.” I cantered ahead, making sure I was the first to the door. “Everypony understand that? The longer we avoid being seen, the better off we’ll be.” With a flick of my hoof, I tapped the door panel and watched as the door opened up for us again.

Standing on the other side, were two very confused looking Steel Ranger scribes.

“Oh, um…” One of them stated hesitantly, “Hello?”

“Great pep talk, Storm.” Tasteless grunted as she flew up over us, hoisting her shotgun in her hooves. With a tremendous report, the scribe that spoke to us splattered against the wall. “Unfortunately, I think we’re going in loud.”

* * * * * * * * *

“I’d really like it if you could get this fucking door down!” I shouted out to Gauge, furiously hoofing another few rounds into my rifle.

“Hey, I’m trying to find a way to shut it so they can’t just open it again!” She shouted as the pair of well armed enclave pegasi down the hall opened up with a light machine gun they’d managed to get set up. “Cause I for one, am tired of getting fucked in the ass by the goddess damned enclave!” The heavy chatter of fire thudded across our scattered and makeshift cover. Thank Celestia that the sheet metal filing cabinets were full of scientific reports and shit. Paper is the most under rated armor plating in the wasteland!

We’d made it the few hallways back to where the power generator was before they got the rest of the orchard locked down. The large blast doors that had been a problem without power now served to be even more dangerous with it. More so when the jerks controlling them kept our flank open and were constantly changing the codes on the locks.

A shower of yellow sparks shot through the doorframe before the heavy metal slab dropped down with a resounding slam. The rapid shots from the machine gun died out from the other side, leaving us all to listen to the ringing in our ears.

“Well I for one think that went well.” Predious grumbled as he climbed to his hooves and got back to work on cracking the electronic lock. “Now, would somepony please help me figure out how to get through this?”

“These doors aren’t too far from the design in alpha base.” Gauge’s horn flashed before there was a slight thunk in the door. Slowly, the door began to rise up into the air on it’s own. “Aunt Longbow once showed me how to use the emergency door release, said it was a trick an old friend taught her.”

“So, why even have locks on them?” Tasteless sounded mildly impressed as she fluttered over to Gauge’s side. “I mean, if it’s just a flick of the horn, why bother?”

“Because,” Ficha sighed. “Zebras can’t use magic like that.” He winced as he got up, a crimson stream flowing down his rear from a fairly nasty wound that punched through and through his withers. “Apparently they can’t hide too well either.”

“You… going to be alright?” I was still unsure of how Ficha had come back from the wounds he’d suffered back at chasm. He looked up at me with his stupid devilish smirk and a bold confidence in his eyes. He was hiding something behind those eyes, and one day I’d figure it out.

“With you around, mi amor, I’ll soldier on.” He added just the slightest egotistical flare to his words, and as always, I sighed.

“A yes or a no will do.” I grunted and started to trot into the next section. “So, what did you do to keep them from following us?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Gauge spoke nonchalantly and as if it were just a common question. She walked slower than the others, holding her answer until she was the last to pass through. Her horn lit up slightly, and a dim magical glow emanated from the inner workings of the door. “Just used my magic to trace back the power conduits to the main hydraulic assembly. You know, the main pump cuff is quite susceptible to just the slightest scratch…” As she spoke, a hiss and shower of sparks preempted the door slamming down like the last one. “And the pressure manifold ruptures, letting the door slide down. Heh, let’s see them lift the doors now.”

“Fairly genius...” Pred nodded, giving a slight pause, “However, there is a flaw with this plan of yours.” To that, Gauge sighed and rolled her eyes. “Without working hydraulics, how are we supposed to lift the doors when we want to get out of this facility?”

To borrow one of Harmony’s country-isms, Gauge’s muzzle scrunched tighter than if she’d been sucking on a pre-war lemon.

“Well, heh…” She gave a light chuckle, “You see, I um…”

“Maybe I could lift it?” Shadow stepped up next to me.

“No.” Predious shook his head. “I’d be hard pressed to see Iron Will even open it on his own. “However, Shadow may be able to take us back up through our original makeshift entrance?” He looked over to me with a shrug.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to do, or even why exactly we were here. “Fuck it, that’s the plan for now.” I said as I moved up to the next door. I just wanted to focus on getting whatever the elements needed me to. “Once we get Pai back into her server, maybe she’ll be able to point us in another direction to get out. I mean, this place couldn’t have only had one entrance and one secret exit. That would just be stupid!”

A quick beep from my pipbuck preempted a text message with Pai’s face next to it.

My programing restricts me from audibly criticizing Equestrian military members while in my orchard, but General Macaroni Salad was by all accounts a very stupid stallion. At the very least, he wasn’t the worst of Equestria’s architects… but yeah, it was pretty dumb of him to design it this way.

“Damnit.” I sighed, not even flinching as Gauge’s magic caused the next door to rise next to me.

The moment the door was more than halfway up, the high pitched whine of magical energy weapons caught my ear. Spinning around, I did something I hadn’t done in a while and dropped into S.A.T.S. with a flinch. Time slowed down as the green targeting overlay highlighted two combatants in the next hallway. Both of them were lightly armored, one looking to have been another Ranger acolyte, the other seeming to be some Enclave technician in utility barding.

Both of them had small magical energy weapons in their muzzles, and both were defiantly standing in the open. A poor choice for ponies who I’d assumed were probably smarter than the average pony. While I didn’t know why the Enclave had taken to helping Filius, neither of these ponies had the blank expression of one of his mental slaves. In the stillness of S.A.T.S. I thought about them being smart, realizing that without being under Filius’s control, one of them might know what he was looking for here.

One of them being the operative word.

Without much thought to it, I selected the chest of the enclave pony and registered three eighty percent chance shots. With a short beep, S.A.T.S. confirmed the order and guided my hooves as the spell kicked in. As I raised my rifle, my hoof tightened around the trigger, pulling it until the pressure broke the crisp action and hammer fell onto the firing pin.

In the slowness of dilated time, the first round left my rifle before it had even steadied. It was amazing to watch as the lead slug traveled out into the air. The air didn’t provide any real resistance as the bullet traveled, slightly askew from its intended target. As it sailed wide of the pegasus’s chest, my hoof twisted and worked the lever on my rifle, ejecting the spent shell before ramming another one home. As soon as the action closed, my hoof had already depressed the trigger again.

This time, the round had been better aimed and flew true from the barrel of my gun. As the pegasus’s weapon glowed and shot out a thin red beam, my round punched into his chest. From where it hit, I was pretty sure from previous fights that it had sunken into his heart. His outline flashed away as my hoof worked the action again, and the spell canceled itself.

Three shots had been overkill at eighty percent, but if I’d learned anything from dealing with Filius, it’s that dead didn’t mean dead.

The smell of Ozone filled the air as time returned to it’s normal speed, the Steel Ranger mare dropping to the floor. She whined as the Enclave stallion shuddered and slumped down dead next to her.

“Please!” She cried out to us, “Don’t shoot!”

“Nice shooting.” Tasteless chuckled as I walked forward into the hallway past the door. Ignoring everything else around me, I trotted up to the mare. With a tight grip on my rifle, I rose onto my back hooves again, taking aim. With a quick pull of the trigger, I blasted the skull of the stallion clean open.

“Goddesses why!?” The ranger mare sobbed loudly, curling herself up on the floor.

“What is Filius looking for?” I growled out, working the action on my gun again. “What the fuck does he have you looking for here?”

“I… I don’t know!” She whimpered pitifully from the floor.

I turned the gun on her and pressed it down against her trembling head. “I don’t believe you.” There wasn’t any more time to play it safe. We needed whatever was here, and I wasn’t going to let it slip through my hooves. “What is it!” I shouted!

“Ah!” She screamed and cried out louder. “I don’t know!” Her wailing sobs did little to encourage me, but I was numb to the feeling of sympathy.

Quickly shifting my aim, I pointed the barrel at her hoof and pulled the trigger. It was such a close shot that I couldn’t miss, and the scream it pulled from the mare annoyed me. With a burning sizzle, I pressed the hot barrel against her head again.

“Tell me, or the next shot is through here.” It was easy. She would tell me what I wanted to know, or she would die like every other one of Filius’s pawns.

“Storm!” Predious snapped at me. He used his hoof to drag my gun off of her head, rousing another pathetic whine from her. What I didn’t expect was his other hoof swinging up from under me. The strike wasn’t that hard, but to me it felt like his hoof was positively radiating heat. “This isn’t you, Storm.” He seethed through an intense glare. “Back off and take a seat.”

Filius’s laugh echoed again through my mind, sharply forcing me to view the room around me. The spatter of blood from the dead pegasus stallion dampened my coat and jacket, and the whimpering mare cradled her shredded hoof as she sobbed heavily on the floor. The others stood a few feet away in an awkward silence, staring with a mix of emotions ranging from uncertainty to uneasiness. Worst of all, was the look that Shadow gave me when he removed his helmet. The disappointment he wore burned the more I stared at him, and as he looked down at the blood on me, I turned myself from him.

Curse or no, Filius was right. I was becoming a monster like him.

“I’m... sorry.” I struggled to get the words out, when I did, I could feel the cold that came from my muzzle. Maybe Flilius was telling me something truthful for once. This curse had gotten a lot stronger in such a short period of time. How much time did I have left before it consumed me? How long did I have before I became nothing but a pony consumed by the hatred that burned in my soul?

“The antechamber.” The mare whined from the floor, still holding her hoof. “He’s forced us to work to find a way to open it…”

“What?” The word slipped from my muzzle without a thought.

Through her tears the mare answered. “I don’t know why. I just want to get my colt back.” Her soft sobs continued as Predious drew out a roll of bandages from his saddle bags. “I swear, I don’t know anything else.”

The soft beep from my pipbuck caught my attention, my vision shifting to a muted blue as Pai popped up.

“Hey there sis.” She spoke solemnly. “I know that you aren’t feeling quite yourself, but I thought you’d want to know about the antechamber.”

“What is it?” I’d even let Pai down. This was truly a new low I’d reached, and it was only going to get worse. “What’s inside that Filius wants?”

“I don’t know.” She said softly. “When I came online, one of the first things I did was see how far I could reach out in this place. I explored every nook and cranny in the schematics that I could reach. What I found was that there were ‘dark zones’ where my control was restricted to nothing more than observation and PA system use.” She looked up at me with a sad smile. “One of those zones was your bedroom, another was main reactor controls. The final room, was the test chamber.”

“The test chamber?” I thought back to the memory of how I’d disappointed everypony. How I’d murdered those scientists…

“Sis, that wasn’t your fault.” Pai spoke up. “The test chamber is more than it seems, built before anything else in this place.” That caught my attention. “Inside is another room for something important, something I was never given access to even know about.” She looked over to the mare on the floor, giving a sad sigh. “All I know, is that your test chamber was listed on the schematics only as ‘The Antechamber’.”

“How do we get into it?” Predious asked hesitantly, shooting his worried gaze up to mine for only a moment. With another pained expression, he refocused himself and used his magic to wrap the hoof of the injured mare.

“Assuming there is a way to get in, the answer lies in the core.” She spoke, pulling up the map on my pipbuck. A small triangular guide marker popped up in my pipvision. “Get me there, and I will find a way to get you in.”

“Storm,” Predious held his hoof up at me, “I’m going to have to ask that you follow behind us.”

“Pred, I’m fine.” I sighed, trying not to look at the mare still crying under him. “So long as we…”

“No. No excuses, or ‘so long as we’s, or compromises.” He turned and looked at the others. “You obviously aren’t alright, and it would be best if you just stayed in the rear and let us do the heavy lifting.” As much as the notion infuriated me, he was as right as he always was. So I just sat there, silently staring down at the floor as Gauge trotted by getting to work on the next door.

Honestly, I hated how right Predious was, but that was the emotion that got me into this mess in the first place. This curse scared me half to death, not just because it might kill me, but it capitalizes one of the emotions that has kept me alive. In the wasteland, hatred is what fuels you when things go south. It drives you to do more than you ever could without it. I’ve seen those who’ve lost themselves in it, the raiders who flay ponies alive and rape their corpses. That’s what hate breeds, and I’ve always been in control of it.

“Got it!” Gauge called out as the door lifted up slowly.

Before I went to follow them, I looked over at the sobbing mare. “I’m sorry.” I whispered to her. I knew that the words couldn’t undo the pain I’d caused, but I had to say something. She didn’t deserve Filius holding her hostage here any more than she deserved me hurting her.

Picking myself up, I turned and headed out at a canter. The next hallway was one that turned a corner and headed back down inward. Thankfully, it was unoccupied when they locked this place down. After a quick trot, we all stopped at the next door so Gauge could work her magic.

The flames that I felt inside, the ones that I’ve had my whole life. They weren’t immune to the temptations of hate. What would happen if I let them out against my friends? How could I go on if I hurt or even killed one of them? What sort of pony would that make me to all of those who looked up to me to help them?

The door ahead lifted without so much as a hiss.

“Shit!” Was all gauge got off before the sound of heavy steel hooves on the ground met our ears. The mechanical whir of a minigun from behind the door, our only warning that the power armored ranger on the other side was waiting.

We all scrambled for cover as a bright line of fire traced along the hallway floor. The quick thumps of a grenade launcher filled the air, and to my surprise, the rounds slowed to a crawl out in the hall next to us. Pred’s magical haze glowed around the three grenades before a quick shift of his head tossed them back the way they’d come. They didn’t do much to the walking tank, but as soon as they went off, nearly everypony popped from their cover and returned fire.

Everypony that is, except for me.

Once the smoke from the blast cleared, it was obvious that our paladin friend was dead. None of us knew who had scored the final hit on him, but somepony’s lucky shot had punched through his thin visor and splattered his brains all over the inside of his helmet.

I stayed silent as we continued, too afraid that even if I opened my muzzle now, that I might say something that could cause an argument. All it would take is one spark to set me off, and I couldn’t risk it.

Another door open, another clear hallway. We were creeping ever closer to the core, and all I could think was that the ponies in there need to surrender. I didn’t want them to fight, because if they did, my friends might get hurt. One errant round, one mistake and one of them takes a bullet, I don’t know if I could hold myself back.

“Is this it?” Predious called out softly. I looked up, finding that I’d been left back from the group more than I’d thought. A double sized yellow and black striped door sat at the end of the hallway, the small keypad next to it blackened and left sparking. They knew they couldn’t stop us, so they were just trying to slow us down.

“Yeah, just give me a minute and I can have it open.” Gauge muttered as I caught myself up.

“Good, because this has been entirely underwhelming.” Tasteless groaned. “Sure, toaster boy back there was a challenge, but he went down too easy.”

“Storm?” Shadow spoke up softly as he landed himself next to me.

“I’m sorry I’m not myself.” I looked up to him, pleading for his forgiveness.

“I need you to promise me something.” His kind expression was out of place amongst the ponies here. Shadow didn’t belong in this wasteland, he was too noble and kind for it. “Don’t give up on yourself.”

“What?” I didn’t understand what he meant by that. “Why would you think I would?”

“Because, I know what it’s like to doubt.” He leaned in and nuzzled against my cheek warmly. “You are the strongest mare I’ve ever known, mentally and physically. I can see you struggling with your thoughts.” He cupped his hoof under my chin and stared into my eyes. “You can beat this, I don’t doubt that at all.”

“I just don’t want to lose myself to this… curse.” I pulled away from him, getting a light chuckle. “What? You think this isn’t serious? I barely lost my temper to that mare, and look what I did to her!”

“Don’t you see?” He smiled and hooked his hoof around me, pulling me in tight against him. “You’ve been so focused on Filius that you’ve got him stuck inside your own head.”

“Because I don’t know how to stop him!” Again, I shrugged off his hold.

“Storm, you know you aren’t alone in this.” Shadow sighed and looked at the floor. “Even if you lose your cool, we’ll still be there for you. I’ll still be there for you.” He put his hoof over his heart and nodded. “But you? You need to be there for you too.”

A set of quick pops and a few sparks pulled both of our attentions. “Hah!” Gauge giggled. “I beat the lock! It’s a little different than any other door I’ve rewired, but it should open here once the timelock counts down to zero.”

“How long will that take?” Ficha coughed out from the wall, looking positively pale. Well, as pale as a black and white zebra could be. “Could really use a nap...” He spoke through a yawn, stretching in a way that made the hole in his flank seep another line of blood out.

“Thirty seconds… or minutes.” She muttered the latter part of that. “But yeah! It should open up soon...ish.”

Being distracted made me miss the fact that Shadow had leaned in close to me again. “Believe in yourself, Storm.” He whispered into my ear before giving me a soft peck on the cheek. “Do it for me.”

--Chapter End--

“What's to come is fire and the end of time.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty Three - The Antechamber

“Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.”

After thirty seconds, the large blast door opened excruciatingly slowly. As it did, it emitted a soft and constant hiss that was quickly giving me an even bigger headache than I’d had before. Almost as soon as there was a few inches of clearance, we were under fire from the soldiers inside.

And there goes my whole plan for not getting shot at.

“Back, back!” I shouted as I turned and galloped from the volley of fire. I gave Pred a panicked gaze as he simply strode forward, levitating his minigun through the air. “Pred, what…?”

That was all I got out before he spun the gun up and pushed the barrels under the opening. He answered my question by letting out a burst of fire for only a couple of seconds with the gun. The hundreds of shells that now scattered the floor pinged and rolled across each other as he paused, perking his ear as silence met it.

“That’s how you…” He started to say, getting cut off when a rifle inside went off. It punched a bloody wound through his upper foreleg and caused him to gasp in pain. Before I could even react, the minigun whirred to life again and spit fire. As the door continued to raise, Pred too lifted the gun.

Both Gauge and Tasteless crouched down low, keeping their weapons close as they scurried under the heavy steel door. It had only been another six seconds or so since Pred began his torrent of fire, but the gun spun down as it ran out of ammunition. A pair of shotgun blasts and pleading screams from the room met my ears as Pred dropped the gun to the ground and sat down hard. Black ichor seeped out of his bloody leg, and from the way he let it hang limply, I’d assumed it wasn’t in any shape to take any pressure on it.

“Pred, are you...?” I stepped closer to him slowly, holding my hoof out.

“I’ll be fine.” He turned and grunted, giving me a glare that would have even made Filius scared. “Go. Get Pai in there.”

“Come on.” Shadow nudged me forward with a smile. Pred’s expression had been all over the place today, and even now he felt distant. Maybe it was being back in this place again, maybe it was because he was worried about me. Whatever the case, I felt I should probably give him some space.

“Ah, it isn’t so bad! Just a scratch.” Ficha spoke up through his own pained breaths. I looked back and watched as he stuck his muzzle under Pred’s good foreleg and propped him up against his shoulder. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a stallion like you was able to just walk it off.”

Striding back into the core, I looked around. Not much had changed since Pred and I first arrived here. It had been fairly thoroughly cleaned, and most of the monitors and equipment were powered on and displaying things. Other than the slightly off color to everything, I could feel how similar it was too when I was just a little filly.

“Please,” The whimpering voice of a mare came from behind one of the rows of terminals. “Don’t hurt me.” The soft sobbing threw my mind back to the hall with the mare I’d shot.

“Your Enclave friends didn’t seem to care about hurting us, and the bullet riddled corpse of your robed friend didn’t care about shooting Pred back there. Now you’re all alone here.” Tasteless grunted as she hovered above the section the voice came from. The mare let out another whine of fear. “No sudden moves, no getting smart. That’s how you stay alive, got it?”

My vision shifted to pink as Pai popped up with a smile. “Ah, home sweet home.” She sighed quite loudly from the speaker in my pipbuck.

A loud shouting filled the air from the hallway where Pred and Ficha were both limping in from. They both looked back as they scrambled to move faster from the doorway.

“Pai?” I lifted my pipbuck to my muzzle and spoke quickly. “Less reminiscing, more defending.”

“Already on it!” She sang happily as the whole room hummed lightly. A dull pink film coated each of the doorways, sparkling lightly like the shield spell of a unicorn. “That should keep them out for now, and…” She paused as the floorplate in the doorway let out a hiss. It split along the middle and folded outward as a heavy duty sentry turret elevated out of the floor. “that’s for when they get through the shield!”

“Don’t you mean if?” Gauge grumbled as she got herself settled in front of the terminal just ahead of me.

“Nopey nopey!” Pai retorted with a bounce. “We were due for a security overhaul almost a month after the bombs fell. This being the first orchard commissioned, it used the earliest model security gear.”

“If I had a bit for everyplace that was scheduled to have an upgrade…” Gauge groaned as her horn lit up. She used her magic to punch in commands to the terminal at a blistering rate. I don’t mean that she was just fast, but if I were to move that way, I would literally have had blisters on my hooves. “So, in the meantime, let’s find this door of yours.”

My pipvision fuzzed and shifted back to green. A series of beeps and buzzes emitted from the pipbuck itself, and within a few moments, Pai fuzzed into place on the pedestal where we’d first found her.

“It’s good to be back.” She sighed before fuzzing a bit. “Energy reserves at maximum, reactor output stable. Records and transfers is offline, but that’s of no use anyway…” She paused for a moment, letting her words drift off.

“Ah-ha! Found it!” Both Pai and Gauge spoke at nearly the same time.

“You found the door?” I asked in near disbelief. I’d thought it would be quick, but not that quick. Score one win for team us.

“Yes!” Gauge said with a smile, before scrunching her muzzle up. “I mean, no, not exactly.” Hah, I knew my instincts weren’t wrong. “It’s more a reference in a line of code that points to a keypad that exists in the test chamber somewhere.”

“And,” Pai continued hot off her fetlocks, “said keypad is locked by a six pronged access code that’s required to even get power to it. The keypad itself is coded to await the correct genetic markers to open.”

“So… what does that mean?” Shadow asked, taking the words right out of my muzzle.

“Hell if I know!” Gauge shrugged and continued working with a gigglesnort. “But I’ve never seen anything like it. Isn’t that great!?” I facehooved hard enough that across the room, Ficha looked up at me with a worried face. “Calm yourself, Storm. We just need a little time to break this encryption.”

“Time is something that I have very little of to spare…” I sighed and sat down. Shadow again wrapped his wing around me and softly nuzzled against me.

“Huh, do you see that, Gauge?” Pai called out in a puzzled tone. “Line six two four zero zero.”

Gauge tapped a few keys and gave an odd snort. “Yeah, I’ve never seen coding like that before.” She sat back for a moment and scratched at her mane. “Any idea what it is?”

“It’s quite familiar to me, actually, seeing as that’s coding that only an orchard Artificial Pony can do.” Pai shifted to a brighter pink as she puffed up her chest. “Yeah, we’re all pretty amazing coders. Seems like those six keys needed are coded to my sisters from the orchards.”

“Sisters?” It was an odd way to put it. “You mean like tempest?”

“Well, while Tempest was and AP, she was far different than any of the other orchards.” Pai’s color shifted to a soft blue. “She was beyond advanced compared to us, but as you could see, that wasn’t exactly a good thing.”

“Wait…” I brought my forehoof up to my muzzle as I thought back. “What about Care? From the orchard I was kept in all these years?”

Pai nodded and changed back to her normal pink. “Yup! She was the AP based on Fluttershy. There was an AP created for each of the ministry mares!”

“Well, that’s no help.” Gauge sighed and blew one of her orange bangs from her eye. “You know, seeing as we can’t just go to the others and get them to come here for this, now can we?”

“That… isn’t particularly necessary!” Pai spoke with a gasp. As she did, every other terminal in the room flickered over to a new screen. What I assumed was coding scrolled across each of them at different rates while she continued. “If, we were able to split my coding, I might be able to emulate each of them just long enough to fool the lock into thinking we had all of them here!”

“Would that even work?” I asked without knowing a single iota about what they were talking about. It took a pony a lot smarter than I to operate a terminal well, let alone even begin to know how to make with the spells inside them work.

“I might be able to help her emulate the others,” Gauge nodded as she continued to strike keys for her terminal, “though this is a system unlike anything I’ve seen before… we might not have all that much time to get in once the door is open.”

“And there is another problem.” Pai spoke up hesitantly. “Splitting my code even a little? It might destabilize my core spell matrices. On top of that, if this doesn’t work the first time, the firewall might buffett back hard enough that trying again would strip the spells from me altogether.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, feeling a pit in my stomach starting to form. It only got worse as both Pai and Gauge didn’t answer. “What does it mean?”

“Pai could become corrupted.” Predious answered for them. “She could die, even if this works.”

“Storm,” Pai spoke up softly. “If there were any other way…”

“I know.” I nodded, trying not to think too much about the risk that she’d be taking. “There’s too much at stake here. We have to do it.” Looking over to her as she gave a soft nod, I couldn’t even bring myself to tell her to stop. She was risking herself to help, and even through my mind wanted to scream out how it wasn’t worth it, we’d come too far. “Just, try to be careful.”

“I know.” She smiled a sad smile to me before fuzzing slightly.

The hallway past the shield spell erupted into gunfire. Exactly none of the rounds that were being fired made it through the barrier, and the large turret sat there, slowly panning between the numerous enemies that no doubt sat in wait at the end of the hall.

“How the hell?” Tasteless asked with a well deserved amount of annoyance. “I thought you said they couldn’t get through the doors!”

“Ugh!” Gauge whined and clamped her eyes shut. “Shit, they must have brought thermal lances with them.”

“Now would be a great time to get moving again!” Ficha called out, shambling over toward one of the shut exits. “Which way did you say it was?”

“Get the thermal lance on that door!” One of the Rangers from down the hallway shouted. “I want it open in less than two minutes, do you lazy flanks hear me?” The heavy steps of power armor approached the shielded doorway, the turret on our side tracked it as it approached. The pony that appeared in the doorway wasn’t who I’d through it would be.

The sleek black enclave power armor had a gold trim about it, and the mare in it carried the look of an officer. “Yeah, Iron, it’s the mare that crippled you.” She put her hoof up to her ear and nodded, keeping her Silver colored eyes latched onto me. “I’ll take care of it.”

Another set of heavy hoofsteps approached behind her. The control room was silent as we all stared at the purple coated mare as she stood patiently on the other side of the shield. Even when a shower of sparks erupted behind her, she didn’t move.

“Storm?” Pai called out, pulling my attention from the mare. “The monitor in front of you... look!”

I glanced around at a few of the numerous monitors around me before one flickered and switched the what I assumed was a camera feed from in the orchard. A stallion wearing a dark cloak moved swiftly down the hallways on his own. From the way his cloak sat, a horn lay underneath the large hood that obscured his face.

“Is that… Filius?” Pred grunted as he all but threw himself onto the console.

“No.” I spoke slowly. “Look, there.” I raised my hoof as the camera switched to another one, this time on the other side of him. Tied on his side, was the holster for some sort of blade. With the horrible resolution, it was hard to tell what exactly it was. “Even if Filius came all the way here, I doubt he’d have brought something like that with him.”

“Not to mention, with that amulet of his, why would he need a sword.” Pred shook his head. “Well, whoever they are, they’re headed this way.”

“Why do you say…” I began to ask, having my answer presented as the cameras changed yet again to show him stroll right past a medic who was attending to the mare I’d shot in the leg. It’s not my fault that literally all these hallways look the same.

The pink shield flickered for just a moment. “We’re losing containment!” Gauge seethed through her words. “I’ve rerouted power, but it won’t keep them out much longer.” I turned my gaze back down to the mare at the door. A sly smile grew across her muzzle before she turned around.

“Okay rangers, get ready to hit them hard.” She called out, casually strolling away.

“Get ready to fight.” I called out to everypony. “Pai, anything else you could do would be helpful!”

“Sorry, Sis.” Pai whined, shifting to a darker pink. She looked up to me with a nervous smile and rubbed at her neck. “I can wish you good luck if you’d like?”

Pred slammed his minigun onto the console, using his magic to work out another ammo belt from his bags. Tasteless fed a few more shells into her shotgun as she floated up to the back of the last row of terminals. Gauge split her attention between working on the coding, and reloading the submachine gun and shotgun at her sides. Me? I worked on topping off my rifle and making sure I was behind cover. Ficha whined as he shifted himself over beside the door. From his bags, he pulled out his crossbow, holding it in his hoof in the way only zebra’s seemed to be able to do.

With a arcane fizzle, the shield flickered and died. The turret snapped to the ranger who’d been using the lance and started chattering away. It got off maybe a half dozen shots before a rocket screamed down the hall and slammed into it. I ducked down as the blast tore the turret to scrap, sending shrapnel around the room.

Shadow let out a yelp before he dropped to the ground behind me. His helmet was dented inwards, a piece of the turret lodged in it. I panicked, turning around and grabbing at his helmet. As I did, the metal shrapnel jiggled and fell lose, not lodged in deep enough to have hit his head. He let out another groan before slumping limply.

With the fear of him dying calmed for the moment, I didn’t know what our chances were with one pony down. On top of that, our only pony with armor good enough to combat Steel Rangers. I watched on my EFS as the red bars from the hallway closed in quickly. Their heavy stomps giving away that the power armor they wore wouldn’t be so easily stopped. Among the sea of red, a lone green bar wandered.

“Hey, stop right there!” A power armored voice shouted from the hallway. The sound of a high caliber gunshot rang through the air. The blood curdling amplified scream of the same stallion nearly had me covering my ears. Gunfire erupted all through the hallway as half the soldiers headed in turned back around.

“Now!” Predious shouted, heaving his heavy gun up over the console.

I sprang to my hooves as his gun spun up, tensing myself as I threw myself into the air. The world around me slowed to a crawl as the magic of S.A.T.S. took ahold of it. A red highlight popped up around a pair of Power armor clad Steel Rangers, one of which who was in mid turn toward Ficha. Another highlight shimmered into the air just next to them, forming a ponies outline without a pony in it. The way that the air warped in the outline made me think that they were using a stealth buck.

They wouldn’t sneak in and kill us on my watch, I thought as I told sats to select the midsection of the invisible pony. It gave me only a ten percent chance to hit, but anything was better than nothing. Cueing up three shots, I resolved the spell, sitting back in my mind to watch as it went to work.

The spell brought my hooves up, lining the barrel up as best it could with the running pony. I pulled the trigger and watched as the round went off. The first shot sailed wide of the pony, the spell moving my hoof to cycle the weapon while adjusting my aim. As soon as the bolt closed, the gun fired, sending the next round too low. Again, my hoof cycled the bolt, kicking the casing out as a new one was fed in.

As the trigger depressed, time slowly crawled forward, zipping my final shot faster than I could keep track of it. Without seeing a splatter of blood, I figured I had missed the stealth-bucked pony. With time closing in on it’s normal rate, something odd caught my eye.

Ficha’s crossbow launched out it’s bolt, which sailed through the air all of three feet before punching through one of the rubber seams in the power armor standing next to him. S.A.T.S. came to a complete end as the power armored pony went ridged, an amplified gurgle coming from their mask as they fired off a rocket with their dying breath. The rocket sailed forward across the open floor before exploding into gore randomly. The smoking remains of what I could assume was the invisible pony rained down across the consoles.

Tasteless’s shotgun barked, sparking off of the other power armored ranger. “Only got three shells left!”

Another burst from Pred’s Minigun punched a line of holes across the Ranger. Unlike his friend, the ranger didn’t go down. Instead, he turned and let loose with his Anti-machine rifle. The console we hid behind sparked and smoked as a pair of holes opened in the space between Pred and I.

“Down to half a belt!” Pred shouted before letting rip with his gun again. The scream that came from the Ranger sung over the quick clicks that the gun gave out, smoke whafting from it’s barrels as he pulled it back over the console. “Correction, I’m out.”

“Here comes another!” Gauge shouted before letting out a barrage of fire from both her submachine gun and shotgun. The high pitched hum of another minigun built up, a line of fire drawing through the air above us. It chewed through both Gauge’s guns, throwing them in pieces from her levitation. Another scream came from across the room as the minigun stopped.

“Tasteless!?” Gauge cried out.

“They shot up my tail!” She screamed. “I liked this tail!”

What met our ears next was the sound of rending metal. Then, only silence.

“Shey, guysh?” Ficha slurred weakly. “I shink we won.” he let his crossbow clatter to the floor, breathing heavily. “I shink I nee shum blood…”

With my rifle still firmly in my grasp, I spun myself around. The compass in my vision showed only green blips around, but still, I wasn’t convinced. Slowly, I raised up above the sparking and smoking console. The stallion in the robe stood over the unmoving body of the third ranger, his golden blade still embedded through the back of the ranger’s helmet.

“Who are you?” I snapped, keeping my rifle trained on his head. The shrouded stallion turned his obscured face toward me, staring at me from the comfort of his hood. With a quick yank, his magic pulled the sword out and wicked the blood off of it. With a quick spin, he resheathed it in it’s scabbard, slowly reaching his hooves up to his hood.

“I am the shield of Equestria.” He spoke in a very reverent tone, using a voice that I vaguely recalled from the Tenpony bar. “And I’m sorry to say,” He paused as he pulled back the hood, revealing his faded and rotting coat. “The one who is responsible for Filius’s actions.” Shedding his dark robes, the golden cape that I’d seen in Filius’s memories was instantly recognizable.

“Gallant?” The name slipped out of my muzzle as I lowered my gun.

“You know this guy?” Tasteless grunted, slowly floating up over the console she’d been behind. She blew a ring of smoke from her muzzle and took another drag off her smoke. “Shit, he’s not another supervillain, is he?”

“No, my dear, I am not.” Gallant laughed, “And I haven’t gone by the name Gallant in a long time.”

“Wha… how?” I still didn’t understand it. How could he be here?

“Filius was too much of a threat to contain.” He answered my question as he sat down. “The council of necromancers convened a decision that he would be locked away in the frozen north for the rest of time. But he could not be sealed alone, for the threat to ponykind if he were released would be too great to ignore.” He puffed up his chest proudly as he continued. “They required a pony to be sealed with him, able to wake should the need arise to stop him once more. I volunteered, having lost everything I had to him, and though Lichdom was forbidden by the council, one exception was made. They stripped me of my living body, sealing me in this corpse of a pony to spend my days waiting for the time I was needed.”

“Fascinating.” Predious spoke up, putting a hoof to his chin. “So, why didn’t you stop him? If that was the point of you being sealed with him, I’d say you spectacularly failed in your job.” Maybe being snarky with the thousand year old undead guy isn’t the best idea, Pred...

Gallant seemed almost insulted, giving out a quick snort. “You try being asleep for over a thousand years.” He shook his head and gave a dismissive wave. “Waking from the spell, it left the both of us weak. I, still new to the magics of necromancy, didn’t understand that our power grew with raw soul energy being released.”

“Soul energy?” Gauge scrunched up her muzzle. “Never heard of that before. Sounds barbaric.”

“When somepony dies, a small amount of their magic is released into the magical ether that surrounds us. This is where a necromancer get’s their power.” He grunted and turned towards Ficha. He released a bright white beam from his horn, passing it across Ficha’s wound, sealing it almost instantly. “The more death that has occurred in a concentrated area, the more powerful any necromantic spell you cast is.”

“But, you just healed him…” I said slowly. I’m no expert on magic, but life and death seem like separate things. “Isn’t necromancy only dealing with death?”

Gallant shook his head. “Necromancy is about renewal, the natural order of life and death in the world.” He growled and stomped his hoof. “I did not travel here to teach you the whims of a magic I barely can grasp. You are the one who has Filius’s attention, and you are the one to call me by a name that hasn’t been uttered in over a millenia.”

“Haha!” Pai gasped excitedly. With a hiss, the door behind me opened up. As it did, the doors further down the hall from it made a hiss as well. “I’ve opened the path to the antechamber, but I don’t know for how long.” She turned blue, waving at me. “Be safe, sis.”

“We’ll hold things down here.” Gauge spoke up, getting back to working on her coding. “But I think I’ll keep Tasteless and Ficha just in case more of those Rangers come back.”

“Alright, be safe.” I spoke at her before shifting my gaze to Tasteless, “And you, keep them safe.”

“Oh, goddesses.” Shadow groaned, rolling around on the floor. “What happened? Did we win?”

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Pred muttered, using his magic to lift Shadow back onto his hooves. “Now, get moving. We’re going ahead.”

“Gallant, you’re with us.” I waved him over. “I’ll explain everything on the way.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Pardon, but if I am to understand, you aren’t a real pony?” Gallant inquired with the rudest question of my entire life.

“I’m real, I just… wasn’t born like a normal pony.” I sighed, trying to shrug it off. “But yeah, I was made to wield any of the elements. Sometimes they talk to me, you know, in my dreams.”

“Quite perplexing.” He remarked as we trotted down the halls close behind Pred and Shadow. “I had no idea that the elements could engage in conversation.”

“They’re the one who gave me a glimpse into the past, where I learned about you.” I spoke up, starting to recognize the hallway we were in. “They told me to come here as well, that I could find something that will help me to take down Filius.”

“But they did not inform you as to what this object was?” He looked deep in thought, shifting his head from side to side. “Very peculiar indeed.”

“Not what I’d call it.” Predious grunted in annoyance.

“It’s just up ahead.” I spoke up to them without thinking. “Okay… that was weird.” Pred slowed down and dropped to my side, eyeing over me with a concerned look.

“Remembering things about this place again?” He asked in a lighter tone than he’d been recently using with me. “Are you alright?”

“Just, familiar I guess.” I sighed, trying to push the odd feeling from my mind.

We slowed to a walk as we approached at a double wide open door. Inside, I could recall was the test chamber, always set up in a different way for my tests. Sometimes it had rolling mounds of sand, others had several magical gems that flashed and flew about the room. Each time as a filly, I’d thought it a wondrous thing to see it set up in some new and engaging way.

Which is why I was disappointed to find that it was full of dusty old crates and file boxes. Walking in slowly, I couldn’t help but feel sad. They built this room for me to learn to be somepony I wasn’t supposed to be until now. To see it so easily abandoned and forgotten after I’d failed them just reminded me of how much I used to love the ponies here. Of how much they once loved me.

“Hey, sis?” Pai chirped over my pipbuck. “The schematics say that the door you’re looking for is in the center of the room.”

I looked up, walking around a few of the boxes that were stacked near the entrance. Coming around the corner of them, I was met with a solid white, pony height white pedestal. It looked like the same thing that Pai projected onto, but it had a small black square on it, with the impression of a hoof set into it. I walked up to it, looking at it for a moment before pressing my hoof into the impression.

“Ouch!” I gasped as I felt a soft prick on the underside of my hoof. With a light rumble, the pedestal sank down into the floor, stopping when it became flush under my hooves. The whirr of hydraulics preempted part of the floor ahead of me lifting up. Two large metal arms lifted the plate up, while the dark space under it flickered with light. As the floor rose up above my head, the lighting illuminated a long set of stairs that went downward. At the bottom, the stairs disappeared into a hallway that ran under the rest of the room.

I just stood there, blinking and unsure how I’d never even known this had been here the whole time as a filly.

“Huh, interesting.” Predious commented as he walked up beside me. I couldn’t do anything other than nod slowly and stare into the hallway below. “So… did you want to find out what’s down there, or…?” He trailed off, kicking my mind back to why we were here.

“Yeah, sorry.” I blinked a few times and shook off the distracting thoughts. “Let’s go.”

Trotting down the stairs, the lights to the hallway we were entering kicked on. Panel by panel as we went, we followed the hallway into the unknown. My heart beat faster with each step, unsure what we would find. We were so close to getting what we came for, so near whatever it was that would finally stop Filius. Faster I pushed my hooves, and faster the lights lead us forward.

“You’re approaching…” Pai’s voice came out of the air suddenly.

“Ahhh!” I yelped and tripped, flopping down onto my chest and sliding along the smooth floor with a squelch. “What!?” Ponies needed to not surprise me like that.

“As I was saying,” Pai hesitantly continued, “You’re near the six key door.” She paused just long enough for me to push myself back to my hooves. “Gauge and I are starting the separation program. If all goes well, the six locks will disengage, and you’ll just have to open the door.”

“Alright, Pai.” I nodded, looking ahead as the lights stopped, the outline of what looked like a massive door glinted just outside of the light. “Be safe, and I’ll see you when we get back.”

Walking forward, the last of the lights kicked on. The door in question was a massive slab of what looked to be stone. All along the outside, glowing lines of magic pulsed in arrangements that looked like spell matrices. Each of the arrangements were clustered around six dark gemstones, which in turn, were equally spread around a hole in the center of the door. Just off the side of the door, was another square hoof-prick pad.

One by one, the dark gemstones on the door started to light up. Yellow, pink, blue, red, orange, and finally purple. The sound of a heavy latch being removed was all the confirmation that I needed to know that Pai had pulled it off. Slowly, I reached my hoof out toward the prick pad and waited.

What I found instead of pain, was an odd suction on the end of my hoof. I went to remove my hoof, and found that the whole of the hoof pad came off with it. Turning to inspect it, the long, chrome spike that sat on the backside looked more like a weapon to me than anything.

“A horn key?” Gallant remarked. “I haven’t seen one used outside of Canterlot Castle, ever.”

I looked back to the silver spike, looking closer at it. Inlayed on it, was the gentle spiral of a unicorn’s horn. As I twisted and turned the bright metal, I could vaguely see several odd markings shimmer under the surface of the horn. Looking back to the door, my eyes shot straight to the hole in center of it. As if I’d done it a million times before, I slid the horn in and focused myself.

A bright beam of light ran up and down the center of the slab, splitting it before it began to turn its sides inward. The light that projected from inside was nearly blinding, and I raised the horn key up to my head to shield myself from it.

“Why must everything be so bright?” Shadow whined from behind me. “Isn’t the throbbing in my head enough?”

The light drained away as the doors came to a stop. I lowered my hoof, blinking as the bright afterimage of them drained out of my vision. What met my eyes, was something wonderous.

The room beyond the door, was an enormously large dome. The lower walls of it were as stark white as anywhere else had been, but above pony height, it changed to an obsidian black. In the blackness however, small lights of varying colors and intensity shimmered and sparkled, to me resembling the night sky I had only read about in the books.

“This… this is amazing.” I spoke as I walked forward. The twinkling things in the darkness, as I found out, were small gemstones. In between some of them, thin white lines connected them into odd shapes, and names were written beside them.

“Even in a thousand years, the constellations are the one unchanging thing in the night sky.” Gallant spoke reverently before letting out a gasp. “Oh, this is... “ He dropped to the floor with a thump, almost throwing his sword aside.

“What are you doing?” I stopped, turning to look at him. He was kneeling on all fours, keeping his head down.

“Storm?” Predious spoke up from next to me, using his magic to yank my head around. Sitting in the center of the room, was something I’d completely missed. A shimmering magical bubble, held in the center of a small half sphere depression bobbed almost as if it were in water. A ring of strange blue grass sat a few feet around the depression, each of the blades seeming to run toward the bubble in the center.

In that bubble, was a tree. It wasn’t like any tree I’d ever seen out on the surface. it wasn’t twisted, black, and dead. No, this tree was hardly something I would call a tree at all. It’s pale blue bark was faceted like a crystal, and on it’s trunk were the cutie marks of both Luna and Celestia. From its trunk, branches grew that mirrored the pattern of a star, each one leading to a vine of gems. Five of the branches ended in a large block with a hole in the center of each one.

“The tree of Harmony…” Gallant spoke in a soft, but jubilant tone, “I’d never thought I’d see it in my lifetime.”

With a soft ringing, a sparkling and gem covered chest floated up out of the spherical depression. I shouldn’t say that it floated, as after a moment, I watched the pedestal it was on rise into sight.

“That must be it,” Predious looked over to me with a look I couldn’t place. “That must be what they wanted you to get.”

“All this,” I sighed, looking around the amazingly ornate room. “built and left dormant for a hundred and fifty years.” The ringing that I’d heard when the pedestal rose up amplified. I stared at the box, feeling its pull on me. In there, was part of something that wanted me to take it. “Waiting for me to come find it…”

Slowly, I stepped forward towards it. Each step, the ringing got louder, with each moment it took to walk, I could feel the pull get stronger. My heart beat wildly against my chest, and in my head, flashed the years worth of visions that I’d imagined of Daddy and Mommy on this day. How long they’d waited for this day to finally arrive, and how proud they would have been.

The day that their daughter became the mare they made her to be.

I reached out with my forehoof, the ringing in my ears absolute and consuming. Carefully, I lowered my hoof to the lid. The moment my hoof touched it, my mind exploded into pain. The cackling voice of Filius made me scream out. The pull that I had felt instantly reversed, and a forceful wave of magic picked me up off my hooves, slamming me back against the domed wall. I gasped as all the air was forced from my lungs, and I collapsed down onto the floor. As my friends rushed up around me and my vision darkened, I could only watch and stare at the box as it was enveloped in a grey glow.

Then, I slipped away into darkness.

--Chapter End--

“So close, yet so far.”

Quests Finished: Where It All Began...

Quests Started: Hope Rises

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty Four - From The Ashes

“Friends all over know I'm trying to forget about how much I care for you.”

When I blinked, it was like the world reset. The ringing in my ears disappeared, and I was standing, staring down at the chest. A wave of confusion washed over me to complement the extreme disorientation of everything. I wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“You have done well.” A voice I knew well came from in front of me, sending a pulse of white across everything in the room. I looked up to find that each of the six elements had appeared around me. I looked around at each, spinning until I was looking back toward the door. Predious, Shadow, and Gallant were all standing frozen over somepony laying on the floor. It was... me.

“What is going on?” I shook my head in confusion. The feeling of a pit forming in my stomach made me worry that I’d somehow found a way to screw this up.

“Look.” The voice of my mother emanated calmly from her element, and another pulse of light washed over the room.

As it did, I followed it. As it ran over my friends, a prismatic shimmer outlined them. The colors reflected the elements themselves, although each of them were a tinge more one than the rest. A feeling from deep inside my mind pushed me to understand that it was their relationship to each element itself. The wave however, did not turn prismatic over me. Instead, and inky darkness pulsed back, as if recoiling from the wave the elements released.

“You have been tainted by the dying wish of a greater being.” The element that sounded like Aunty Twilight spoke up. “A curse that will ultimately destroy your very soul.” Another pulse washed over everything, and the darkness in my body again recoiled. “We cannot grant you the help you desire without it’s dark stain absolved.”

“You all are the elements of harmony!” I looked back at the element of magic. “Can’t you just… I don’t know, magic it away?”

“It is not our place to tip fate one way or the other.” The element of honesty flashed as it spoke up. “The fate of ponies are their own to decide.”

“That’s bullshit!” I snapped. “You’re helping me, aren’t you? Why invite me here if you know you can’t give it to me?”

“A question for a question,” The element of laughter spoke up now, “Why did you bring with you three others?”

“Really?” I snorted. How could they sit here and play games when they were the ones who set all this shit up? Looking around at them, I let out a sigh of annoyance and figured I’d play along for now. “Because, they’re my friends.”

“Friendship is a powerful force, but not one on it’s own.” The element of magic spoke up. “We each represent the best that can come from ponykind, but alone we are useless. Laughter is hollow without the honesty of others. Generosity can destroy lives if they are without kindness.”

“I understand that, but none of it at all will matter if I don’t stop Filius.” Whining, I pointed to my friends. “I can’t lose them, not when we’ve come this far.”

“You do not listen.” The element of Loyalty flashed brightly. “You are weak without them. It is their virtues that carry you farther than you can go on your own.”

“But…” I don’t know what they want from me!

“Look.” Momma’s voice spoke up softly.

I did as asked, and watched my friends. With a snap, they unfroze from where they were. Each of them leaned down over me, and Shadow took me in his hooves.

“Storm? Wake up, Storm!” Shadow whined as he held me. As he spoke, a line of blue shot out from the element of Loyalty. “Come on!” He grunted, shaking me softly. “I swear, if you’re just napping…” He trailed off into a whimper as a line of pink shot to him from the element of Laughter.

“It’s the curse she carries. I fear that it is what has caused the tree to act in this way.” Gallant spoke up, causing a line of orange to hit him from the element of Honesty. “The curse must be delt with.”

“What do we do? Do you know how to cure it?” Predious spoke up, the elements oddly still when he did.

“Yes.” Gallant said, another bolt of honesty striking him. “The curse only resolves itself if the host succumbs completely, but…” He paused, looking between them, “It can be transferred.”

“I’ll take it.” Shadow grunted, looking up sternly as another bolt of blue hit him.

“No.” Predious snapped. “Storm needs you, and I won’t watch you sacrifice yourself for her.” Bolts of both yellow and white struck Pred as he turned to Gallant. “My… unique physiology might slow the curse down.”

“Even so, it will still one day affect you.” Gallant spoke with another bolt of honesty. “Are you sure of this?”

“Pred…” I whispered. He… he was just so easily willing to take this burden? How could he do that? How can he knowingly stand there and take it when he knows that it will drive him mad, that it will kill him?

“Yes.” Pred replied simply and without an ounce of hesitation. Another pair of bolts struck him from Kindness and Generosity. “Storm is the first friend I’ve had in decades, and she’s worth every ounce of pain this curse will bring.”

“I do not know if I have the strength,” Gallant nodded, his horn glowing brightly. “But I will try.” With that, a beam lanced out from the element of magic, hitting his horn as he started his spell. The beam pulsed as he shot another beam between Predious and I, the darkness inside me beginning to pulse in time.

“We may be weak alone, but we are strong united.” The element of magic spoke up, pulling my gaze back to her. Tears rolled down my cheek that I didn’t even realize that I had. “When you were birthed, a part of each of us was divided into you. We help to give you some of our power, but your true strength lies in those around you.”

“Hope, is what you bring.” The soft voice of my mother’s element spoke up. “You can help this world rise like a phoenix from the ashes of a painful despair. Those around you do not yet understand the power that hope provides, a power that only you can show them how to wield.”

“I don’t understand… how do I defeat Filius?” Looking around at each of the elements, they remained silent. “What’s in the box?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The element of Honesty spoke up.

“Almost…!” Gallant groaned, straining under the spell. I looked back at him just in time to watch the darkness pulse again, shrinking down. As it did, the beam between Predious and I turned darker than black, and he let out a whine as it drained into him. It was only a moment’s time before the beam turned whiter and whiter. When it did, the world around me fuzzed.

“What… wait!” I yelled, turning around to get the elements to answer my numerous questions. As I turned, I rolled myself right up into Shadow’s chest with a gasp.

“Storm!” He gasped happily, pulling me close. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine…” I grunted, pushing him away to get a look at Predious. He stood there, panting heavily as his illusion spell flickered. Under it, I could see the frost on his skin, the pain in his eyes that he felt.

“Pred, are you…” I reached out to him with my forehoof.

“I’m fine,” He groaned, focusing himself. “just... feel like a bull ran me over is all.” His illusion flickered again before it became constant. The ghoul he was, once again was hidden under as much of a lie as that statement was.

“Did you commune with the elements?” Gallant asked, stepping forward and looking me over. “Will they assist us?”

“I… I’m not sure.” I didn’t know what to tell them. They told me that my friends and hope are the key, but I don’t even know what that means. How can I return to the others and tell them ‘don’t worry, friendship and determination will win the day’? Looking back over to the box, the grey magical field that was once over it had dissipated. “Let’s find out.”

Slowly, I walked back over to the box. The ringing in my head from before, the pull towards it, none of it was there anymore. Hesitantly, I raised my hoof towards it again. Carefully, I touched the box. I waited a moment, wincing as I lifted the lid. There was no blast, no force to push me away.

The lid opened smoother than any door I’d ever used in my life. It was almost effortless as I lifted it up. The interior of the box was lined with a plush white lining that looked softer than the white, puffy clouds I’d once seen wandering the skies. I leaned forward, looking down into the interior. Resting in the center of the box, was what looked to be a piece of glass.

A small, square cut gem that was clearer than anything I’d ever seen in my life. As the light hit it, a prism of colors shined out from it. I had no idea what to do with it, but when I reached in towards it, I could feel the flames inside of me rise. Taking the small gem into my hoof, I felt them build up, more and more.

“Storm…” Shadow gasped from behind me. “You’re on… fire.”

Turning around, I found that the flames only grew hotter inside me. They pressed against my very essence, clawing for a way out. I looked down at myself, watching as blue flames lit under my hooves. As if that was the exit they were looking for, the fire inside rushed out, climbing up over me in a painful burst. I screamed out and slammed down onto the floor.

The flames inside me twisted and felt like they were burning me to ash as I twitched and writhed. While it did, I noticed something odd. I wasn’t afraid of it, not even in the slightest. Asside from the pain, this felt right, a purging of everything negative that I’d built up. The flames were renewing me, allowing me to be the mare I’ve always been meant to be.

The pain I felt subsided in an instant, and my vision shifted. Even through the fire, I could see. Shadow, Pred, and Gallant, each one existed as the prismatic outline I’d seen before. Inside each of them, a blue flame brightly burned. It was my flame, something that I could feel growing hotter and brighter from even here. As soon as I felt it, the flames inside me dimmed, and the fire around me evaporated into the air.

“She’s…” Gallant stared at me, slowly dropping his hind legs down in awe. “like a phoenix.”

“You’re damn right she is.” Predious nodded and stepped towards me. Even through the pain in his eyes, I knew that he had hope in them. “Let’s go kill that undead son of a bitch.”

With a grin, I reached up and took his hoof. He pulled me up onto my hooves. As he did, a black cloud of ash slid off of me and dropped to the floor. Confused, I turned and stepped back from where I laid. An ashen outline of me lay on the floor, but along with my body, an ashen horn and wings lay with me.

“Are… are you alright?” Shadow whined, stepping up to me.

Firmly, I used my hooves to grab around his head, and pulled myself into a long kiss with him. He seemed alarmed at first, but I think he got the idea after a moment. I felt good, better than ever in fact. More than anything, my head was clear, and in this moment I knew that more than anything else in the world I loved Shadow. With a gasp, I pulled off of his muzzle and giggled.

“Oh, I’m damn good.” I said, turning toward Pred and Gallant. “Come on, we’ve got a wasteland to save.”

Trotting back up into the training room, I was met by the panicked look of Ficha. He panted heavily, turning around and waving me over back out to the hallway. The heavy report of a shotgun going off preempted a few colorful blasts down the hall past the doorway in front of me.

“Shut the damn door!” Tasteless screamed out as she walked backwards. The shotgun at her side fired again, it’s bolt locking back as it kicked out the last shell in the tube.

A heavy slam, followed by the flash of sparks met my ears as Gauge called out, “Got it!” Poking my head around the corner, I watched as she slid down against the door in exhaustion. She wiped the sweat off her brow and looked up to me with hope in her eyes. “I feel a burnout coming on if I keep this up much longer. I really hope this was worth it.”

“Storm?” Shadow called out from in the room behind me. I turned around and waited for him to appear around the boxes. “Okay, take it easy…” He grunted, as what I could assume was Predious giving out a small whine.

“Out here!” I called out to them. Turning back around, I found a very agitated Tasteless hovering right over me.

“Can you answer Gauge for once?” She snorted, “was this trip even worth our time?”

“Yes.” I sighed, grumbling as I reached into the pocket of my jacket. I slid the clear crystal into my hoof and held it out for her to see. “This is what I was meant to take, it’s been my destiny to have it since I was created.”

“A rock?” Tasteless sighed, facehoofing quite hard with her cyberleg. “That’s your destiny?”

Gauge’s Pipleg let out a beep. “Wow!” Pai gasped out of it. “Would you look at that!” Pai’s astonished words prompted Gauge to pull herself off the floor and come up to me, staring down at the gem. “It’s throwing off enough magical energy that it could probably power this whole facility on it’s own!”

“Magical radiation?” She asked, prompting Tasteless to float a few feet back. Gauge rolled her eyes and shot a glance at her. “Not the same that’s outside.” With a snort, she turn back and squinted at the small square gem. “Still, what is it, Storm?”

“An Element.” Gallant spoke up as he strode out. Shadow followed close behind him, with Predious needing his help to even walk. Gallant stood in front of me and stood tall, looking reverently down at the gem. “It is not the same as the previous elements, in size nor scope of power. However, it is still more than capable at finally destroying Filius once and for all.”

“So, it’s not an element of harmony?” I asked, pulling my hoof back against my chest. “How do you know?”

“My dear, there are gods, and there are celestial deities.” Gallant smiled softly down at me. “As much as many looked up to the princesses, they were far from godly.” His smile drifted away, being replaced by a look of sadness and disparity. “Many have made the mistake to worship a deity like a god.” He looked at me sternly. “Their devotion only drives them to madness.”

Filius had spoken so highly of Wendigos, enough to have called them gods. Still, even though I had never known them in their time, it feels wrong to place Celestia and Luna on the same pedestal as a monster like a Wendigo. Even though they did more than their fair part to make the wasteland the way it is, it wasn’t what they wanted to do. Everything I know, everything I’ve read about them pointed to the fact that they only wanted what was best for Equestria and it’s ponies. They weren’t monsters like Wendigo or Filius, they were far from that kind of evil.

A hiss and an eruption of sparks from the doorway Gauge had shut startled all of us. The red glow of the ranger’s thermal lance as it pressed through this side reinforced the fact that we should probably get out of here. Gauge had been one step ahead of us all, already darting toward the next doorway. As she got to it however, her horn flashed and the heavy door shut in front of her with a slam.

“Okay, not going out that way.” She turned and whined out.

“What! Why not?” Ficha hissed at her. “You said that was the only other way out!”

She bobbed her head, looking nervous. “Yeah, well…” She paused as what sounded to be a rocket slammed into the door behind her. The door held, but smoke puffed out from between the wall and it. “That was before I knew there was a full squad of armored Steel Rangers headed this way.”

“Storm, tell me that there’s another exit through your secret tunnel.” Tasteless sighed as she facehoofed yet again. “Please...?”

“There wasn’t any other doors down there.” Predious groaned, looking up to me with worried eyes. “Sorry, but we’re trapped.”

“There has to be another way out.” Shadow spoke up with a note of hopefulness to his words.

“Didn’t you hear?” Gauge called in annoyance as she walked back over. “We’re trapped. Best we can do is get as many doors between us and them.”

“Then what?” Tasteless sat down hard, nearly screaming at Gauge. “I’m not going to sit and wait to die. If I’m going down, I’m taking as many as I can with me!”

“What about the element?” Ficha chimed in, pointing back at the door that the thermal lance was steadily cutting through. “Can’t you just point it at them and ‘zap’ them to death?”

“That isn’t how it works, you fucking moron!” Predious growled. “Go back to the primitive lands that you crawled out of you fucking dirty stripe.”

“Calm down!” Gallant yelled with a voice so loud, that I almost felt it shake the floor itself. “Get ahold of yourselves.” He swung his gaze around to everyone, stopping on Predious. “You, above all, have to fight the urge to argue. You must remember that the curse feeds on it.”

“Yes.” Pred forced his eyes shut hard and shook his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Slowly, he opened his eyes, raising them to me. “I didn’t realize how hard this was for you. I understand that my anger from before may have been… less severe if I had known.” Shifting his gaze to Ficha, he hung his head. “Please, forgive my slurs.”

“It’s nothing that I haven’t heard before.” Ficha spoke softly. “But the fact remains, that we must find a way out of this place.” A second shower of sparks sprouted out, this time from the door ahead of us. “And might I suggest that we do it quickly.”

“I may be able to transport us away from this place.” Gallant spoke up, looking at me. “However, I have never attempted so many at once, or for a location I have yet to see.” The door that the enclave were behind groaned as the hole they were cutting wrapped almost halfway around it. “I can attempt it, but only with your permission.”

“Me? W...why?” I stammered.

“Because arcane transport is dangerous and unpredictable with bystanders.” Gallant glared at me, his unwavering eyes hammering the seriousness of his words into my mind. “I must ask, what is above us?” His horn started to glow, wrapping all of us in the aura of his magic.

It took me a moment to think. Shit, what was above us? I stumbled into this place from ponyville, and headed south…

The words slipped out of my muzzle. “The everfree forest…” As I said that, the light from his horn flared. “Wait!” I reached a hoof up and cried out to stop him, but didn’t get to before the warm light enveloped us all.

With an arcane snap that left my ears ringing, I felt the world around us pop away. The feeling of hard flooring under my hooves was replaced with the dry and cracked dirt of outside. Blinking rapidly, I tried to clear the blinding light from my vision. As I did, the normal browns and greys of the wastes met my eyes, along with a shimmering blue. The blue shifted with a jarring rustle, moving as I rubbed at my eyes. Looking around as I could finally see again, my heart almost stopped.

“Shit!” Predious snapped, obviously more on the ball than I was. “Get us out of this clearing, now!”

The blue all around us was about the worst thing we could have happened across. Twisted masses of vines, with a very distinct blue flower coursed and shifted around the small clearing. I’ve only met one pony who’d ever survived killing joke, and heard about countless others. I really didn’t want to die today...

“What?” Tasteless grumbled as she sat down and rubbed at her eyes.

“Killing joke!” I hissed and looked over to Gallant. “Get us out of here! Back to the farmhouse if you have too,” I watched as the vines slowly circled in closer, digging down into the ground as the whole lot of us scooted together in the center of the clearing. “just… anywhere but here!”

“Alright, here goes!” Gallant cried out as his magic enveloped us again. As he did, thorny ends of the vines reared up like hundreds of snakes. They shook slightly as the bright magic grew around us. As the air crackled with arcane energy again, they snapped out at us.

With another arcane shift, we all were pulled through the void again. Unceremoniously, we were all dumped back into the rocky field next to the old farmhouse. With a collective sigh, we all relaxed. We’d made it out.

“I’m… sorry.” Tasteless whined, pulling my attention over to her. “I love…”

Another arcane flash blinded all of us momentarily. Tasteless went ridged as all of the color bled from her coat. Sitting on the ground, she turned a dull silver color, staring sadly over at Gauge. The small vine of Killing joke that had been wrapped around her metal tail crumbled and turned to dust as it’s magic expended itself. Along with it, went Tasteless’s life.

“No…” The words left Gauge’s muzzle with a gentle horror. “No no no…” She whimpered, taking a step forward. “You can’t leave me.” She whispered. Still, Tasteless sat frozen in the dirt, unmoving. “Fuck you.” Gauge sneered, rearing up and bringing her cyberhoof down against Tasteless. Her cyberhoof sparked off of Tasteless’s silver muzzle, knocking her unmoving body to the ground with a thump. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me!” She screamed, hammering again and again at her body.

“Gauge.” Predious spoke up softly. “She’s gone.” He stepped towards her, wrapping her in his magic and pulling her away.

“No!” Gauge wailed as she was torn away, breaking down into heavy sobs as the rest of us stared at the body. This was all just so sudden that I didn’t believe that it had just happened. Any moment, I’d hoped that she’d just sit up and insult us again like she always did, like she had since we’d met. But, Tasteless was gone. “It’s my fault…” Gauge whimpered, curling herself up on the dirt.

“What? No.” Predious spoke up, turning to her. “You couldn’t have seen this coming.”

“Don’t you get it?” She snapped at him, turning her angry gaze around between us. “The joke it played? It was because of what I’d said.” Raising her cyberhoof up shakily over her head, she stared at it. Without hesitation, she brought it down against her muzzle, hitting herself as she cried. “I did this to her!” She screamed before an audible snap in her muzzle made her whine in pain. Still, she rose her hoof yet again.

“Stop that.” Ficha said as he jumped forward, hooking his hoof around her leg.

“It’s all my fault…” Gauge curled herself up on the ground and cried. “If I hadn’t said she was more metal than mare, she’d still fucking be alive…”

In the distance, I could hear a light whining fill the air. I knew that the enclave must have known we’d escaped by now. They’d be looking for us, and the longer we stayed here, the better their chance of finding us. With a longing look over to where tasteless laid, I knew we had to leave.

“They’re coming.” Shadow spoke up, looking off in the direction the whining noise came from.

“I know.” I sighed. “We have to go.”

“Alright.” Predious nodded. His horn glowed softly as again, he picked up Gauge. She simply whimpered and curled herself tighter. Levitating her over, he placed her across Shadow’s back to carry.

“Please…” Gauge pleaded at a whisper. “let me stay with her…”

Walking over to her, I reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. “We’ll come back for her,” I said, making a promise that I wasn’t even sure I could keep. “but first we have to go.” Brushing her mane away from her face, I could see that the beating she’d given herself, although quick, had left half of her face swollen and bloodied. “Just, try to get some rest.”

“Where is it that you plan on heading?” Gallant spoke up, breaking his own contemplative silence. I wanted to blame him for putting us in that patch of Killing Joke. I wanted so desperately to say that he’s the reason that Tasteless was dead. However, I knew that had we stayed inside, we all most likely would have died, and that he had no idea what we would find up top.

“To Baltimare.” I answered, turning myself until the compass in my pipvision pointed to the southeast.

“Without the skywagon…” Shadow spoke up, his words dying in his throat.

“It’ll be a long walk.” Predious nodded, turning towards the southeast with me, “But we have to make it. Everypony in Baltimare is relying on us to come back to the fight.” At nearly the same time, we both stepped forward. “Best get started.”

Stepping up into a trot, I kept my vision forward. I wanted to look back, to mourn Tasteless like she deserved. She was a friend, and she’s been there for me since we had met. It hurt to leave her here, but not as much as I knew it hurt Gauge. I’d lost too many friends against Filius, but Gauge had lost two ponies she’s loved more than anything.

I couldn’t replace them. As much as I’d want to, I could never do enough for Gauge to make up for what had been taken from her. Even though she knew the risks going in, I couldn’t help but think that this had all been worth the cost that she paid. The elements had helped to clear my heart of any doubt that there was still hope in the wasteland. Still, it didn’t make the new hole in my heart hurt any less, and all the hope in the world couldn’t fix what had been done.

So off we trotted. Unsure of what lay ahead for us, but knowing full well the burden that we carried as we went. Pallet, Fruit Cup, Skyline, and now Tasteless. Countless others had all given so much for this, we owed it to them to finish this fight. They deserved to be mourned, remembered in a way that we will never forget what they gave to the wasteland. And we could only do that once Filius was dead for good.

“I love you…” Gauge whispered softly, giving her final goodbye to a greater pony than I could ever hope to be.

--Chapter End--

“Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.”

Quests Finished: Hope Rises

Quests Started: The Battle Of Baltimare

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: Half-Baked Element

Congratulations! You now have what you’ve been searching for! You gain a +5 to all Tag Skills for each friend you have in your party.

Chapter Forty Five - Little Talks

“Now we know even the greatest of heroes have their moments of compromise. But in the end, we choose how we live and I need you here right by my side.”

I hadn’t thought this plan through too well.

We’d been walking for nearly four hours, following the same trail toward Dodge that Pred and I had before. It hadn’t been nearly that long into the walk when the snow started falling, slowing our progress tremendously. The countless rolling hills around were quickly covered in a blanket of white, and if not for the compass on my pipbuck, I was sure we would have gotten lost by now.

The freezing air nipped at my coat even through my jacket, and the flames of hope inside did nothing to push the icy numbness back. Worse off, were the others. Pred had a red and black scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and muzzle, but the old overcoat he wore did little to protect the rest of him.

Ficha had his old leather barding that clung to him tightly, and he generally seemed fine. I figured that zebras had some sort of earth pony toughness to them as well, because he pressed on without a care. Gauge on the other hoof, simply pressed on through what I assumed was sheer force of will. She shivered greatly under her Steel Ranger acolyte robes, but refused to slow down one bit. She hadn’t said a thing since we’d left tasteless, and I didn’t want to bother her. She needed time to herself to deal with it, and I’d give it to her.

Gallant however, pressed on even ahead of Gauge. For wearing the bulky old armor he did, he didn’t seem to be impeded by either the cold nor the snow. His… condition seemed to make him impervious to such things. Thinking about it, I should really talk to him about it, to see if he could offer any insights into what to expect against Filius. That, and I had a few other things I was curious about…

“Hey, Gallant.” I called out, pulled myself to a gallop for a moment to catch up to him. As he looked back with a quizzical look, I caught Gauge’s glare as well. Yes, definitely give her some more time... “How do you know so much about the elements?”

He gave a short laugh before shaking his head. “A very long time ago, the elements themselves were nothing more than a myth, a legend. Most scholars thought them as merely a metaphor for the idea that friendship makes pony communities stronger.” The smile across his muzzle faded. “That is, until the discord wars.”

“I remember reading about him when I was growing up.” I blurt out. My parents were scavengers, and they taught me that battlefields were full of dangerous but rewarding things. I knew I was supposed to learn the tactics they’d used, so I could help pinpoint where the best equipment most likely would have been taken or stored. However... I’d always been more partial to the fighting itself. The brave warriors and adventurous heroes of old always held my interest more, which is why they turned towards giving me my Daring Doo collection. I have to wonder now if it was always because I was made to be a hero for Equestria, or if I just always would have liked them on my own.

Gallant cleared his throat, and was staring at me with a look of annoyance.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” Another bad idea to tack onto the train of them I’ve had recently. “My parents would find me all sorts of books to read.”

“I see.” He grumbled. “The books you have read would have most certainly had omitted things from his past.” The snarl that graced his muzzle made me sure he didn’t enjoy talking about this. “The wars themselves were horrible acts that destroyed a dozen towns and killed thousands of ponies. Our benevolent rulers, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, sought out the relics. Many claimed that they had merely distanced themselves from the fighting, but I believed in them.” He shook his head and cast me a hopeful gaze. “They returned with the lost relics, and used them to banish the god of chaos to a stone prison.”

“But, weren't the relics lost again after that?” I asked. That part of history was always unclear in the history books. Hell, several of the books contradicted themselves outright on what happened. “If I recall, it was right around the time that Luna had become Nightmare moon.”

Gallant stopped dead in the snow. “I was not around to see Princess Luna's fall. I was at the edges of Equestria when she was banished, I had not learned of the event until perhaps a week after it had transpired. After I woke up, I was delighted to read that she had been redeemed...” After a moment, he began to push forward again. Even more so than before, his grim expression said that it was a sore topic for him. “until I learned that it was the failings of her and her saviors that turned Equestria into the barren land it is today. So much has changed since my time, save the suffering of ponies at the hooves of fools and madstallions.”

“I see.” I didn’t know what to say about that. Gallant was like me, in the idea that he was displaced. A relic ment for a time that feels like it was so long ago. However, I’ve had most of my life to live and learn in the wasteland. I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard it must be for him to come to terms with everything that’s happened.

“As I had been saying.” He continued, turning his gaze ahead of us again. “With Discord defeated, scholars flocked to the heart of the kingdom to study the relics. I, already head of the guard at the time, had the privilege to study alongside Celestia's star pupil, Starswirl.” With a growl, he tensed up in his steps. “However, it had all been a mistake.”

“Why?” I don’t know why I couldn’t control my tongue. Maybe it’s because Gallant is the only hope I have to knowing how Filius works. Maybe it’s because to me, he’s a living, breathing hero like in the books I’d read. Or, more than likely, I was just trying to forget the events of today, and what it’s cost us all.

“Had I spent the time with Filius, rather than shunning him when I knew he needed to be consoled by his friend,” He again looked over to me with sad eyes. “he may not have fallen to the darkness like he had.”

“Woah woah,” I sputtered out. Without hesitation, I trotted in front of Gallant and stopped him. “I don't believe that. You can't change a pony like that, not from who they are. Believe me, if I was 'destined' to bear this power, then Filius was destined to be who he was as well.”

“You're wrong.” Predious called up to me. I keep forgetting how amazingly good his hearing is. “I've been around for a long time, and I've seen many things over the years. I've watched as ponies’ destinies have changed through their own actions, affecting those around them in the process.” As I was about to object to that, he raised his hoof, “Let me pose this question to Galant. How many who fought in the discord wars were soldiers, and how many were civilians?”

Gallant gave a prompt response. “The guard's ranks were bolstered with ponies taken from towns around the brunt of the conflict.”

“That's not what I asked.” Predious said with a dismissive wave. “Of those you took, how many were destined to fight on that field? All of them would be the normal answer if you believe in destiny. However, if this was true, why did they not get a fighting or combat cutie mark?”

“I could explain that through the fact that Discord himself could have changed anything to suit his whims.” Gallant grunted and turned around. “He could snap his claw and change a pony’s destiny forever.”

“But, you acknowledge then that they are moldable, correct?” Predious wore a sly grin across his muzzle as he walked up to Gallant and I. He had a point. Even if it took the god of chaos, Destinies were still moldable. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad, and simply adds more questions rather than solving anything in my own case.

“I see what you are getting at, but I am steadfast in my opinion.” Gallant nodded, giving a small bow. “Had I been there for Filius…”

“I saw him when you confronted him in his tower.” I spoke up, pulling Gallant’s gaze up to me. “He hated you for stopping him from dying, I could see it in his eyes. No. I think he was gone from the moment you took that knife away from him.”

Gallant looked down in thought, contemplating the words. “Perhaps, you are correct.”

“What the fuck does it matter?” Gauge groaned. “That asshole took my father from me, and I’m going to turn him into paste for it.” She trotted forward past us into the snow. “You bitches can stay here and bicker till you freeze for all I care. I’m headed to Baltimare.”

“Gauge.” I spoke up. Quickly, I found Pred’s hoof resting on my shoulder.

“Let her go. She just needs some time to deal with Tasteless.” He shook his head with a sigh. “But she’s right, we have to get to Baltimare. At this rate, we’ll have frozen before we reach the ruins of Dodge, and we need shelter before nightfall.”

“What about that old ruin?” I said as I sat down in the snow. Thank Celestia that my flank was already numb. Pulling up my pipbuck, I hoofed to the map section and scrolled it around. “You know, the one where we fought all the ghouls?”

“Just after we found Shadow?” He nodded, putting his hoof on his chin. “It’s a stretch, but we might be able to reach it.”

As if he had better hearing than Predious, Shadow flared his wings and landed next to us. “What’s up?” He boomed through his helmet as the snow swirl his wings kicked up blew about. “I heard my name.”

“Impeckable hearing.” Predious grumbled. “There are some ruins ahead, past the crash site where we found you. It was full of ghouls the last time we were there. We’d dealt with them, but ghouls tend to find ways of congregating places where other herds have been before. It might have more inside.”

“I can scout ahead if you’d like.” He cheerfully remarked, stretching his wings out again. Lucky bastard all cozy inside his warm power armor…

“That would be fantastic.” Predious replied with a smile. “Keep following the direction we’ve been heading.”

“Okay.” Shadow gave a firm nod, flaring his wings again before he stopped. “Oh, and about my hearing? My family is one sixteenth thestral, so you know.” With that, he hopped into the air and took off.

“Bwah?” I didn’t even know what that was, and with how crazy everything in my life was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. Thankfully, Predious made that decision for me.

“Thestral means he’s part Bat Pony.” He spoke with a smile. “Enclave doesn’t exactly like having mixed blood pegasi in their ranks. They think that since they were guards to the princess who destroyed equestria, they’re as bad as dashites.”

“I heard that!” Shadow called out from a few hundred feet ahead.

“What, really?” I lowered my voice to a whisper.

“He can’t actually hear you. That’s not how it works.” Predious rolled his eyes. “Though, I know your fear when you said he’s such a lousy lay.”

“What?” I snapped at Pred. He gave a giggle and I hit him hard on the shoulder. “I never said that!”

“Case and point.” He simply pointed to Shadow, who didn’t even acknowledge him. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve seen a dashite use that on somepony.” He rolled his eyes, ending with them glued to me with a smile. “And you wouldn’t believe how many climbed into bed with them right after...”

“Oh please,” I knew that Shadow was fantasticly sexy, but what I had with him was more than that. He loved be because… well I think because I saved him, but that couldn’t be the only reason, right? I mean, I loved him because…

“He’s exotic, and that’s what makes him so fascinating to you.” Predious sounded so sure of himself. If we could’ve found a hot air balloon somewhere, we could use all that hot air that’s supporting his ego and fly to Baltimare before sunset. “Partially, it’s also why he’s so into you.”

“What? Like you know anything.” I grumbled, trudging through the snow. Predious knew a lot of things, but I’d be a fool to think he knew everything about everything.

“Think about it.” Predious wrapped his hoof around me and pulled me close. “All he’d ever known were other Pegasi, and the few unicorns that are still rumored to be up in the clouds.” Really Pred, floating unicorns? Maybe that curse was just driving him crazy, instead of angry… “And here you are. No wings, no horn.” This is getting far too degrading for me to tolerate.

“Yeah, you should try it some time.” I reached up and flicked his horn with my hoof. “Give me a hacksaw and I can help with that.”

“Ha ha, but I’m serious.” Predious sighed. “I meant what I said, Storm. You’re the best friend I’ve had in a while. I’d just hate to see you two only enjoy each other’s company because you both just find each other mysterious. A lasting relationship goes deeper than just that.”

“I know that, Pred.” I sighed, thinking back to my time with the elements. Shadow wasn’t just loyal at heart. He was loyal to me. “He trusts that I’m the one to get us through this, and I know that I can trust him to be there.” Looking over to Pred, he had a curious look on his face. “Don’t give me that, I know what I feel. It’s more than just curiosity.” I shrugged off Pred’s hoof and nodded softly. “I can feel it in my heart, my soul, every fiber of my being. It all points to him.” Looking to Pred, I saw him give me a sad look, but a nod. “He’s the one I’m meant to be with.”

“So long as that’s what your heart tells you, then it’s a good enough answer for me.” He smiled a sad smile and looked up toward Shadow. “I’ve lived to watch too many bad relationships explode to see anymore. So, if that’s how you feel, you need to promise me that you’ll do everything in your power to make it work with him.” He steeled his look and stared at me. “Deal?”

“Deal.” I nodded and looked up at Shadow. “For better or for worse. I’ll be there for him.”

* * * * * * * * *

The light snow that had been falling a few hours ago, had steadily ramped up into a blizzard. The fact that night had fallen on top of that, didn’t make it any easier for us to see. I was glad that we’d followed the highway the first time we came along this way, because if we hadn’t, I’d have gotten lost in the blanket of white that coated everything. Without my pipbuck assuring me that we were on the right trail, I’m certain that we’d wander in circles in a storm this bad.

However, knowing where to go didn’t make the air any less frigid. Sometime about twenty minutes ago, I stopped feeling just about everything on my body. The weather had gotten so bad, that even Ficha looked like he was starting to succumb to it. Luckily, we’d already started to climb the hill towards the old police building where we’d been assaulted by the horde of feral ghouls.

As the weather only took a turn for the worse, the whole group of us huddled closer together as we walked. Even Gauge had pulled back from her lead, but only just enough to still look back every now and again to make sure we were still here. Both Gallant and Pred’s horn acted as heat lamps as they tried their best to keep us warm as we walked. It didn’t do anything noticeable, but I found the thought of the spell providing warmth was distraction enough.

Like an enormous ghost, the ruins of the old police station came out of the night. The old concrete structure was just as I’d remembered it. Coming up to the front, the broken out windows had accumulated a large pile of snow atop them, most of it drifting inside. I really hoped that there would be some sort of back room that was separate, or else it was going to be impossible to stay warm inside.

The piles of ghoul corpses that Predious’ minigun had torn up last time, still littered the snowy front. Only now, they were buried under lumpy white mounds of snow. Even though my body screamed for me to get inside, I did my best to worm around each and every lump in my way. Ghouls were hard to kill, and sometimes they were smart enough to play dead until you got close. I’d been bitten by enough of them over my lifetime to know that.

Carefully, we pushed our way in through the front doors of the station. A few feet in, the whistling winds and snowdrift stopped, and a large reception area greeted us. The decaying wood paneling and rusting filing cabinets that filled the back half of the room were all that met us. The numerous skeletons of old chairs and ponies alike, had long decayed from their previous forms. To each side of us sat arched halls that stretched out, leading to the other rooms of this place.

“We should split up and search this place. I’ll head over to the left for another room we can use.” Predious spoke up, breaking the silence that had permeated the room almost as thickly as the smell of rotted flesh did. “No pony go alone, and watch out for any closed doors. Might be some ghouls in there that we didn’t get the first time around.”

At this, Gauge turned right and trotted straight for the doorway. “I don’t need you to tell me shit and I’ve got my EFS.” She grumbled. “I’ll be fine on my own.”

I looked over to Pred, who simply deadpanned and sighed. “Let her go, Storm.” He spoke up.

“No.” I shook my head and turned after her. “I’m fine with giving her space, but she’s being reckless.” With a flick of my tail, I stomped the caked-on snow from my numb hooves. “She’s done her best to cope with what we’ve had to do, we all have. I won’t have her put herself at risk because she thinks she deserves it. Somepony needs to help her before she does something she’ll regret.”

“Well now,” Predious smiled at me. “and here I thought that I was the one who was supposed to be the most level headed in our group.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Always knew there was a leader inside you.”

“Careful, Pred. I might just put you out of a job.” I looked ahead, trotting under the archway and after Gauge. “This shouldn’t take long.”

There was no way that this would be a quick fix. I knew that I’m not very good at the whole consoling a friend thing, but what I did know, is that she couldn’t be alone. There had been so many times since this all started that I’d wanted to just be alone. Every single one of those times had been made bearable because someone was there to help me, even if I didn’t want them to. Gauge had been one of those ponies, and it was my turn to be there for her.

The whistling breeze blew the snow in through the broken windows of the hallway. My left hooves clacked loudly on the tile flooring, while my right crunched through the snowdrift that had piled up against the wall. The hallway didn’t stretch too far, only having four doorways total in it, each one missing it’s door. Just past the first two, another hallway branched off toward the back of the building. If I were her, I’d want to get as far from everypony else as I could. With that in mind, I turned and trotted down the hall.

“Gauge?” I called out. Almost immediately, I scrunched my muzzle as I noticed the friendly bar in my EFS. Yup, just me being stupid again, forgetting to use the tools at my hooves.

The walls of the dark hallway were rife with patches of peeling wallpaper and black mold. More than a few of the wooden upper support beams that stretched across the hallway had little white mushrooms growing out of them. This place was a health risk even without the ghouls. Almost as I’d thought that, another bar popped onto my EFS right next to Gauge. A red one.

“Shit, Gauge!” Pushing myself forward into a gallop, I ran down the long hall towards her. The closer I got, the more a peculiar hissing met my ears. It changed into a wild snarling as I slammed my hooves on the tiles, pushing myself towards the corner at the end of the hall. I did my best to dig my hooves down against the tile to turn, but instead I ended up sliding across the dusty tile and right into the far wall. There was a sharp snap as some of the old wood in the wall gave way, and a burst of dust shot out from the hole that it made.

With a grunt, I shook my head and coughed a few times until the dust cleared.

“I’m fine.” Gauge grumbled just loud enough to beat out the growling. Opening my eyes, I found Gauge sitting in front of me, facing a large pile of rubble that blocked up roughly half the hall. In said rubble, was a trapped feral ghoul. It was pinned under a piece of the concrete roofing that had collapsed onto it at some point. It’s forelegs were twisted and broken, and the rest of it had various pieces of rebar and wood impaling it to the pile. It couldn’t escape, but it didn’t stop it from wildly growling and snapping it’s rotting jaws at Gauge.

“You’re far from fine.” I replied, slowly walking over to her.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?” She grunted, turning away from me as I approached. I reached out my hoof for her, wanting to turn her around so she could look at me. “Why did I have to go with you?” Her voice waivered, and I froze where I was. “Diesel was right. I’m a fuckup and I should have listened.”

“Gauge, you couldn’t have known.” I didn’t know how to make her see that it wasn’t her fault. “None of us knew.”

“What? That leaving with you would have killed my dad?” She snapped at me. “I should have stayed in camp and followed orders. If I wasn’t just some stupid foal who still wanted to have adventures or rebel against my brother, then everything would have been alright. Dad would still be alright, and Tasteless...”

“You would have...” I tried to say, only to be interrupted when the snarling ghoul decided that howling was the next best thing to try to kill us. Without any hesitation, Gauge swung her cyber hoof up and slammed it’s head against the ruble. With a squish and a crunch, she’d caved the side of it’s head in, silencing the monster. “You would have never met her.”

“So?” Gauge’s tone had lost a lot of it’s anger. “At least she’d still be alive.”

“And you might not be.” I took her lower tone as a chance to get a little closer. “If you didn’t go with us, you might have been back at your base, right?” My words made her cringe.

“You think that’s a good thing?” The seething anger she’d had crept back into her words. Following them, she turned around and glared at me. “Like, me being alive is worth all those who died there? My home, my friends, all gone. But hold on! It’s worth it because I wasn’t there to die with them.” She snarled at me and shoved at me with her forehooves. “Fuck you, Storm.”

“I’m not saying that it was worth it, but that you’re alive because you met me.” I snapped back at her. “You should be thankful for that.”

“What do you want, a medal?” She got to her hooves and shoved at me again. I back pedled for a moment before standing firm. “Why can’t you just leave me alone!” Screaming at me, she slammed her cyberhoof into the floor again, causing the tiles under it to crack.

“I want you to hate being alive!” I screamed back. “You need to hate it, and wish that you were dead so you can realize that you need to move on!” I too stomped down, and when I did, the blue flames from inside flared around my hooves. “I need you to realize that you’re better off living, because if you die, then their death’s meant nothing!”

“It’s not that easy!” She whined, sitting down hard. With a sniffle, she slumped back against the wall behind her. “You might be strong enough to do that, but I’m not. I’m just the mare who gets those she loves killed.”

Sitting down hard as well, I laughed at that notion. “You think I’m strong enough to deal with it?” Honestly, I didn’t know how to even describe what I felt about everything anymore. “I’ve been so busy running after Filius that until Sunshine City, I hadn’t had the time to think about it. You saw how I dealt with that.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got everypony else around trying to help you.” She looked up to me with tears in her eyes. “You have Shadow. While I…” With a whimper, her words died in her throat.

“I know that it’s hard, Gauge. Losing somepony you love, it isn’t easy.” With a groan, I pulled myself to my hooves. The fire inside me grew as I approached her, and I don’t know if it was that, or just being away from the snow, but I was starting to feel my body again. “You don’t know this, but I lost two ponies who I’d liked a few years back.” Sure, they were brother and sister, and happened to work at a brothel I frequented, but we still enjoyed each others company. “They were killed by a gang of raiders who ran through town. It hurt to know that the ponies I’d spent so much time with were simply gone, but I got over them.”

“You went after the raiders for revenge, like I want to do with Filius.” Gauge watched as I walked over and took a seat next to her.

“Yeah, and it was a mistake.” I groaned as I sat down against the wall with her. “I didn’t care what it took to kill them. I wanted justice.” I remember back when Longbow saw the memory of how I’d acted. Oh, the lecture she’d given me about ‘justice’. “I nearly got myself killed for it.” Looking over to her, I found that she gave off a pleasant, flickering warmth. I think it was hope returning to her, growing as I sat with her. “Even on our journey so far, I’ve made that mistake again and again without realizing it. Not until you all set me straight.”

“Then what do I do?” She sighed sadly.

“You go after Filius, and fight as hard as you can.” With as much care as I could, I hooked my forehoof around her and pulled her against me. “Not for vengeance, but because that’s how you insure that you get to live.” I gave her a soft pat. “And don’t worry. We’re all going to be right there with you.” I spoke softly as she leaned herself against me. “We’re not going anywhere until he’s dead.”

“Thank you.” She whispered as she wiped the tears from her muzzle. “I’m going to miss her.”

“Of course.” I nodded and held her tightly. Tasteless had been rude, foul mouthed, and antagonistic. However, she’d also been a hell of a fighter, as loyal as anypony else I’ve ever known, and a good friend to me. “We all will.” With that, Gauge let out a shiver. “Come on. Let’s go see if the others have found us a place to stay.”

* * * * * * * * *

The interrogation rooms in the police building were still plastered with the decaying propaganda of the Ministries. Still, the secluded set of rooms had proved far enough from the exterior to shield us from the frigid storm. Shadow had put his power armor to work, and had brought a couple of the filing cabinets from the records rooms over. Turned out that there really was as use for all those old papers and logbooks in this place. I felt bad for burning the arrest records and crime logs that so many police ponies had worked for, but not freezing was more important than my morals. That, and sleep.

The faded posters from the Ministry of Morale still reminded us that supposedly Pinkie Pie was still watching us from beyond the grave. I knew I was alone in regards to knowing that it was in fact, true, but I did my best to forget it while I slept. It had been a dreamless sleep, and I was thankful for it. I’d had enough of seeing into Filius’ mind, and I knew that if the elements wanted to speak with me again, it would only mean that something new had cropped up for me to deal with. No news, was good news, and I was happy for that.

Waking up was it’s normal affair. However, it turns out that the storm outside hadn’t yet passed, and we were still trapped in here. With the clock on Filius’ final ritual clicking down, there was nothing any of us could do from here. We wouldn’t be able to make it even as far as Dodge before freezing to death, so waiting was the only option we had. We all sat here in silence, watching the fire burn, and basking in it’s warmth. Gauge had even relaxed, having removed her cyberhoof to get it’s internal components dry. Pred on the other hoof, was looking out for the rest of us, as he levitated a few cans of old beans over the fire to heat them up for breakfast.

“You know.” Shadow whispered to me as he leaned over. The warm feeling of his skin against mine was a welcome change from pressing against that armor of his. I don’t care what excuse he has to take it off. I don’t think I’ll ever mind it. “When this is all over, I’m really thinking of hanging up my armor for good.”

“What?” I shot up straight. Okay, I know what I was just thinking, but I didn’t mean for him to remove his armor forever.

He let out a light chuckle and wrapped his wings around me warmly. “I don’t want to go and run around fighting now that I have you.” His smile was warmer than the fire next to us, and I could feel the flames of hope raging in his chest. “I want to be there with you, for you. For our family.”

That made me freeze.

“Family?” I laughed nervously. “Goddesses, I hadn’t really given any thought to it…” This was… awkward. I’d never really seen myself slowing down like that. How could I, when the only way to live in the wastelands was to work? I didn’t ever really think I’d have time for a special somepony, let alone even think about havingfoals. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea?”

Shadow looked shocked, hesitantly opening his muzzle. “What do you mean, Storm?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Shadow. I love you.” I looked up at him, watching as I could almost see myself crush the very dreams in his head. “And it’s not like the sex wasn’t mind blowingly fantas…” I paused, glancing over at the others as they awkwardly stared back, waiting.

“Don’t mind us.” Pred smiled and dismissively wiggled his forehoof. “Pretend we aren’t here.”

“I just think,” I resumed, looking back over to Shadow. “maybe we should take it slow. Once Filius is dead, I’m not even sure what I’ll end up doing. More so now that I’ve got this thing.” Slowly, I hoofed the clear gemstone from my jacket. It sparkled in the flickering firelight, and I watched at the small flame inside it ebb with the feeling of hope around it. “All I know is that whatever it happens to be, I want to be doing it with you.”

I looked back up at him just in time to find his muzzle planted firmly against mine. The kiss took me by surprise, but my body knew how to react. With a firm grasp, I wrapped my hooves around him and pulled myself close.

“Just as a heads up, Storm.” Ficha chimed up from across the room. “if you want to do whatever with him tonight? Then I’m ready and willing to help!” His smart ass comments normally ruined the moment, but I felt too good to let it get to me tonight. “You know, let’s make it a party!”

With a flash and an arcane snap, Gallant popped into the room next to Ficha. With more effort than anypony should put into it, Ficha screamed like a filly and scrambled across the room. Gallant didn’t look all too impressed with Ficha’s reaction, and dropped an old duffel bag onto the floor by the fire.

“This is all of interest that I could find. I am sorry.” He sighed as he sat down.

“Let’s see…” Pulling the duffle bag closer with his magic, Predious started to pull things out. “Junk. junk. junk.” From out of the sack, he floated by a couple rusted staples, a broken flashlight, and a… paper weight? “Ah, here we go.” He said as he floated a small roll of yellowed tape held together with a cracking rubber band. “Large adhesive bandages. Should be good so long as their adhesive is actually still good. And…” He pulled out a small bottle, shaking it for us to hear a rattling inside. “good ole generic painkiller.”

“Glad we’ve got something,” I sighed, pressing myself against Shadow’s neck, “but is there anything useful?”

“Patience,” He childed, digging around in the bag. “How about this?” As he spoke, he pulled out a syringe of Med-X. It wasn’t much, but it’s a start. “Hmm, more junk. So much junk.” He muttered, still rummaging around.

“There is still much I don’t yet understand about this place.” Gallant grunted. “Equestrian technology has changed much since my time. It is… a lot to comprehend.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright.” Predious said as he streamed most of the rest of the duffle bag over his shoulder and into a pile in the corner. “For example, this is useful!” He held up one of the miniature souvenir guitars that came from the Marewaii islands. I’ve always seen a bunch of them around, but without anypony being able to actually play them, they were normally just more wasteland junk to forget about.

“Ah yes!” Gallant gave a laugh. “It reminded me of the lutes that were played back in my time. I had hoped one of you might know how to play so we could all be entertained for a little while.”

“Nope.” Predious said with a smile. Without any hesitation or remorse, he tossed it into the fire. “But it’ll burn better than most of these books.” I wanted to say it was funny to watch as such a common item destroyed Gallant’s expression, but I only felt bad. He’d been through so much, and to be plopped back into it all in the wasteland of all places… “And lastly in the bag, we’ve got three rounds of ten millimeter… for which nopony has the correct gun to use them in.”

Gallant simply sighed. “I am sorry I couldn’t find anything of use.”

“Hey,” I called over to him, pulling his glance to me. “You do understand that we know how hard it must be for you to adjust to life out here.” As his expression darkened, I think my words hadn’t had the effect I wanted. Come on, Storm. You’re a leader now, and you can at least say something to cheer him up. “Gallant, I wanted to say thank you, for saving us earlier.”

“Save it.” He grunted, his horn glowing. “I don’t ask for your pity, so spare me from it.” He looked around at us. “I know that you mean well, but I just have to try harder to understand.” With a determined look, he stared right at me. “I will return with something useful.” With a flash, he popped out the room again.

“Regardless,” Predious said with a tone of sadness. “unless we have more food, this is all we have.” He looked over to me. “That storm needs to clear up soon, or we might not even make it to Baltimare at all.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that!” The bright and overly happy voice of Pai chirped up from Gauge’s pipbuck. “Also, I’m back everypony!”

“Pai?” Both Gauge and I asked at the same time.

“You’re back?” Gauge snorted, pulling the pipbuck portion of her leg closer to her. “Where have you been?”

“Oh, nowhere in particular. I just latched on to a spritebot that you all passed up yesterday.” She sounded more full of herself than usual, pride bleeding from her words. Would be easier to know if it was had Gauge held her pipbuck out for me to see what color she was. I was really starting to miss having her around.

“You… commandeered a spritebot?” Gauge scrunched up her muzzle.

“Of course not.” Pai giggled. “I couldn’t get anywhere with just one, so I commandeered thirty seven of them!”

“That’s great, but you’re not getting to the point.” Predious jumped in, as on the ball as ever. “Why did you go about doing that?”

“Because I needed to find miss Harmony, duh.” Pai sassed at us. “With the skycart gone, I thought that you all could probably use a ride. She should be here by this evening!”

Predious looked confused. “How is she traveling so quickly?”

“She’s using Short Staff’s motorwagen!” I gasped and laughed. “Goddesses Pai, I could kiss you if you were back in my pipbuck right now!”

“Me?” Gauge asked. “Why?”

“While I love hanging out with Sis and all, she doesn’t really… get me.” Pai said softly. “Not because she doesn’t want too, but… you know how it feels to lose someone you love with all your heart.” She sniffled through the pipbuck. “I miss Iron Will so much.”

That caught me off guard. I knew that she’d cared for him, but I didn’t think he’d meant that much to her. Then again, I guess I’d just assumed that because I didn’t understand their relationship, that it couldn’t hurt that much. Losing Pallet and Skyline hurt, but I can tell you that losing my parents or Shadow would hurt that much more.

“Pai, you’re your own mare. You do what you must to feel better, don’t ever let me get in the way of that.” Looking over to Shadow, I hooked my hoof around his side and pulled him close to me. Without a word, he returned the embrace and ran a warm hoof through my mane. Glancing over to Gauge, I watched as her watering eyes looked down at Pai. “Take good care of her, Gauge.”

“I will.” She smiled through her tears, grabbing her cyberleg and pulling it close to her chest. “Thank you.”

Without the threat of starving or missing the fight to come, being snowed in wasn’t so bad. It reminds me of the sleep overs I’d had with Harmony and Pallet back in the day. The nights we’d spent together giggling and gossiping about the adventures of Sword Mare or Daring Doo. That’s what this felt like, even if the feelings of loss and impending doom hung over us like the storm outside. There’s something to be said about spending time around a fire with your friends, and even without the actual fire, I could tell that with the flames of hope this room put into me, Filius didn’t even stand a chance.

--Chapter End--

“Here's to us, here's to love. All the times that we fucked up.”

Quests Finished: The little things...

Quests Started: The little things...

Levels Earned:

Perks Earned: Friendship Never Changes - Whenever your health drops below half, all companions in your party gain 50 damage resistance (not damage threshold). This means companions will ignore half of the base damage of any attack they receive. Friendship Never Changes will remain active as long as your health is below 50%, so the effect can be thought of as sustainable.

Chapter Forty Six - Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.”

“Don’t kick yourself, Gallant.” I sighed, patting him on his shoulder. “I know it must be a lot to process, waking up to find the world this way, but you’ve done the best you can. Besides, this place had already been scavenged to hell in the last century.”

He rolled his eyes and shrugged away my hoof. “Save your pity. I will overcome this challenge of understanding like every other before it.” With a huff, he pushed himself to his hooves. “I must only try harder.”

“So, when is Harmony supposed to arrive?” Predious spoke up. Most of the day had passed quickly enough for us. We’d run out of fodder for the fire an hour ago, and Gallant had given up his search for anything useful about then as well. It had been a fight against the creeping boredom that filled the room.

“Shortly after grumpy gets here!” Pai chimed up. In response, Gauge scrunched up her muzzle in confusion.

“Grumpy’s coming?” She asked, looking down at her pipleg.

“Yup!” Pai said, sounding like a filly on her birthday. “You’re mother spent a lot of time secretly upgrading him for you over the last few days!” Pai paused with a nervous laugh. “And I wasn’t supposed to tell you that! Haha...” She trailed off while Gauge tried to comprehend her words.

“Upgrades? Why!?” Gauge sputtered. “What did she do to him?” Hell, I didn’t care what Frosty did, so long as Grumpy is even more useful than he’d been already. Makes me glad that we didn’t bring him along on this little excursion!

“Well, she’d rebooted his core combat functions that you’d been locked out from, for starters.” Pai chirped with an uptune note about her voice. “Then there was the siege armor that she’d been wanting to bolt on.”

“Siege what!?” Gauge flailed her forelegs about.

“Oh! And let’s not forget the locator beacon!” Pai gasped. “At anytime you want, your pipbuck can emit an audible ping out, and Grumpy will return one so you know how far from you he is!” That seemed semi-useful, I guess. “Here, we’ll give it a shot!”

A moment later, Gauge’s pipbuck let out a short and shrill whistle. “Wait for the return ping…” Pai said as we all perked our ears and did our best to listen to… well, any noise we could hear I guess.

Without warning, the wall to the interrogation room exploded. Most of us tried to move out of the way, and scrambled to get our weapons out. Through the newly made hole, floated a deep black cylindrical robot with three articulated red eyes. Grumpy’s new shape was now closer to that of an old, round trash bin. If he was one, it was one of the most secure trash bin’s I’d ever seen. Inch thick black steel plates encompassed his outer form, forming a solid cylinder. With a hiss, the plates split, articulating in three distinct sections with his robotic limbs. As we coughed and hacked the dust from our lungs, Pai let out a disappointed sigh.

“Sorry it didn’t work. I was sure we’d get a response back.” She said sadly, making my head hurt.

“Nonsense, Mrs. Pai.” The very well mannered voice of a stallion came from the floating archanotech machine. “I would however suggest to use the signal at ranges further than ten feet.” Grumpy’s red eyes flashed as he spoke, all three of them looking down to Gauge as he extended one of his limbs. “Sorry for the rough entry, Miss Gauge. However, I can confirm that it has in no way affected my structural integrity.” One of his eyes turned and swung around on it’s stalk, looking at the rest of us. “A pleasure to see you and your friends again.”

“You can… talk?” Gauge asked the question that was on all of our minds. She brushed herself off and looked over Grumpy in disbelief. “How can you when your speech motivator was fried?”

“Why yes, it most certainly was!” He sounded happy as he spoke. It wasn’t the same kind of happy that Pai had, more forced, but it still sat odd with me. “Your mother managed to barter for an old speech matrix of an inferior model of my class and install it. While I don’t particularly enjoy the experience of having the voice and vocabulary of a Mr. Handy, I do enjoy finally being able to express my exuberance and profound thanks for the work you have performed on my systems over the years.”

All of us simply stood there in awe of what we’d just seen. I was having a hard time processing the fact that Grumpy had been up armored, let alone had the ability to talk now. Thankfully, the hearty thrumming of a familiar archano-engine coming from outside set my train of thought back onto it’s rails.

“If we are all in agreeance,” Grumpy broke the pregnant silence that had filled the room, “might we continue this conversation in the vehicle now waiting outside?”

“Yeah, sure.” Gauge said slowly. “I just need a minute to process all this.”

“I would advise that we begin our travel soon.” Grumpy tilted back, hovering back out through the hole he’d made. “The weather may not hold much longer, and if I am to understand, we do have a long journey.”

“Alright.” Predious spoke up from beside me. I would have been surprised by it, but I think he’d worn that reflex out of my body with how often he’d done it. It really wasn’t so much of a shock, and to tell the truth, I didn’t really mind it anymore. “If I might suggest, we perhaps might find some more items of use in Dodge.” Pred’s suggestion was a great idea, one that roused a grunt of annoyance from Gallant. “I don’t think that Filius would have been one to scour the town, so we are likely to find more to use.”

“And if the weather does take a turn for the worse, we would at the very least have better shelter than this.” I nodded in agreement. “Alright everypony, let’s get moving.”

Hopefully we’ll have better luck with the weather and make it to Dodge quickly. I didn’t know how long we had before Filius’s little ritual was complete, but I had a feeling that we still had a day or two before the rest of the fighters from Manehatten even made it down there. Regardless, we’d been making good time, and like Pred said, I’m fairly certain that Filius would have passed up on Dodge. Should be a simply task to find somethings that might prove useful.

Easy as pie.

* * * * * * * * *

Short Staff’s motorwagen was… different than I remembered.

“Why does it feel like I’m riding in a tank?” Predious again spoke before I could. He’d leaned over and knocked his hoof on the steel plate that had been welded over the window next to him.

“Well, Short Staff up an took his family west ta get away from all this mess.” Harmony sighed and relaxed, keeping her attentions focused through the slatted steel that sat over the windshield. “Told me I could use tha Marauder here, figured that she could use a touch-o upgradin’!” She shrugged and smiled as she looked back to him. “Mah father had a bit a trouble with adverse weather back in the day, so at least tha increased weight makes gittin’ through tha snow easier.”

“And thank the goddesses for that.” I grunted, sitting back against the seat as well. “We’d have been screwed if you hadn’t shown up.”

“Yeah, about that...” Harmony cocked her eyebrow and looked over at me. “Y’all find whatever yah were lookin for?”

“Yes.” I said with a nod. “From where I sit, I don’t even know it had been worth the cost we paid.” I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. We still don’t know if it’ll be enough to stop Filius, and I didn’t know what having it meant for the safety of those around me.

“Is it some sorta weapon or somethin’?” She quickly pressed for more info.

“Just…” I held my hoof up to her. “Let’s not talk about it.”

Harmony looked over at me. I could see that she was confused about everything, and I would tell her my thoughts in time. For now however, I didn’t feel that it was something she needed to know. The more she stared, the more I could see her expression softening with understanding.

“Excuse me, Miss Harmony?” Ficha chimed up in a semi-panicked voice from the back seat. “Can I drive?”

“What? No!” She snapped at him.

“Then would you?” He retorted, pointing dead ahead of us. From out of the blinding snowfall, the towering form of a set of rusting lampposts apperated ahead of us.

“Shit!” Harmony gripped the wheel and spun it hard, jerking the car off to the side. We almost avoided the old generator that the lamps were connected to, scraping against it with a metallic screech. Ficha let out a loud whine and scrambled to grab ahold of anything he could, latching on tightly to an annoyed looking Gallant. Seriously, what was Ficha’s problem? Gallant hadn’t ever seen something like this before, and even he was more comfortable riding in it. I didn’t think I’d ever understand that zebra. Without much issue, Harmony quickly corrected our course to get back on the road.

The heavy thump on the roof startled me, but before I could react, the dark eyes of Shadow’s helmet peered over the top of the windshield.

“Hey, the weather up ahead is clearing.” Shadow’s amplified voice easily cut through the noise of the engine and the whistling wind outside. “I can see the city from the air, and from what I could tell, it’s occupied.”

“What do y’all mean, ‘occupied’?” Harmony sounded just as alarmed as I felt. Did Filius know we’d be headed there? Had that Enclave bitch set up some advanced forces to go against us?

“There’s some fires burning in the city.” Shadow answered fairly quickly. Fires were a good thing. Ponies in power armor and Filius’s undead didn’t need the heat, so it couldn’t be them. “Looks like a small group, want me to fly ahead and get a better look?”

“No.” This time, it was me who’d answered quickly. “We don’t know who they are, or if they pose a threat at all.” I looked over to Harmony, who simply glanced back at me with a shrug. “I say that we wait to see if they’re hostile.”

“Grumpy?” Gauge called out from the back seat. “Can you pull back into follow mode?” She’d looked down at her pipbuck when I turned around. “If they do turn out to not be friendly, I want you to outflank them, alright?”

“Certainly, Miss Gauge.” Grumpies voice emanated through the air from the rear frame of the motorwagen. “I shall be most pleased to pacify them mercilessly should the situation unfortunately arrive at such a conclusion!” It might have just been me, but the happy tone he was displaying felt far too laid back for combat. “Blast this soft and dandy vocabulary!”

“I’ll see about adding a few obscenities to it later, Grumpy.” Gauge snorted as she tapped at her Pipbuck again. “How about this,” A smile widened across her muzzle, “if the ponies ahead are raiders, I’ll add ten new obscenities for every one of them you take out.” Still, I knew Grumpy was efficient, and I trusted that Gauge knew what she was doing. “Sound good?”

“My pleasure, Miss Gauge.” Grumpy let out a joyous laugh. The rear of the car shook, and we lurched forward slightly as Grumpy removed himself from the rear frame of the car. My attentions were pulled back as an odd sensation gripped at my chest. In Predious’s magical grip, Bon Appetite floated up and towards him.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, hoofing at the revolver. No matter how much I tried, he twisted, twirled, and floated the gun just out of my hooves grasp. “That’s mine, use your minigun.”

“If you would recall, it’s out of ammo.” He retorted in the same smug way as he always had. “Besides, what would you rather have me use? This, or your rifle?”

I could feel his magic envelope around my lever action, and instinctively I grabbed it. “Fine.” I seethed. He’d proven good enough with guns that I guess I didn’t mind him using my revolver in the fight. However, he seriously needed to look into another gun than that ammo hog of a minigun. “but you’re paying for the ammo you use.”

“Fair enough.” He nodded with a smirk and let go of my rifle.

“Eeyup, Ah can see tha fires.” Harmony sighed, squinting through the slowly lightening sheet of white snowfall in front of us. Everypony in the car turned their attention ahead, watching as the dark ruinous remains of Dodge loomed closer. Small parts of the city were dimly aglow with what looked to be campfire light.

A deep feeling of sadness welled up in me at the sight. Even with the flickering lights, the city looked dead. Memories of the assault flooded back, and I desperately shoved them back out of my mind. Like any loved one, it was hard to see their corpse again before the burial. Seeing it wasn’t the worst part about it. The worst part was looking over at Harmony and seeing the pain she felt.

“Wait…” Harmony said as she squinted. As she did, she took her hoof off the accelerator and slowed us down, letting the car wade through the snowy drifts. “That t’ain’t sposed tah be there…”

With a thunderous crack, the night lit up. The lightly falling snow just off to the left of the car seemed to jump out of the way of a bright red projectile as it whistled past us. The caucoughinous blast left a momentary ringing in my ears, leaving me confused as to what Harmony was shouting at us all.

“...cannon! Get the FUCK out!” She screamed, bucking her own door open and spilling out into the snow. While the rest of us scrambled from the car, quick pops and bursts of gunfire erupted from the ruins ahead. The impacts against the armored car sounded like lethal rain to me, and sparks lit up the hood as the rounds bounced off of it. Keeping my head down, I reached for my own door and kicked at it.

It refused to open.

“Shit!” I shouted.

“Come on!” Predious shouted back as he spilled out Harmony’s open door. “This way!” His horn glowed brightly as his magic wrapped around my waist, tugging and pulling me as I forced my stiff legs to move for the first time in hours of driving.

Turns out, stiff and cold legs don’t generally like snow. As I dove from the car, the cannon in the town fired again. I pulled my hooves over my head before a horrendous metallic squelch filled the air. Scrambling forward through the snow, I looked forward for any sort of cover against the onslaught.

Ahead, I saw that both Pred and Harmony had taken cover behind a larger than average snowdrift. Between the soft pops of gunfire from the town, I was happy to hear the whine of Shadow’s magical energy weapon getting to work. His distraction lessened the fire coming in at us, and I took that chance to get over to the others.

“Where the fuck is Gauge’s robot?” Harmony muttered as she struggled to pull out her boxy black shotgun from her saddlebags.

“Am I the only one here glad that it's just raiders?” Pred said with such a relaxed tone that I had to smack him on the shoulder.

“Yes!” Harmony shouted before she stood up and popped the shotgun into her muzzle. Without any hesitation, she fired three shots off toward the town. None of them warranted any screams, so I’d assumed that they’d missed their mark. The return fire poured in, sending wispy trails through the falling snows. Another set of sparks and whistles from the Marauder meant that they weren’t done shooting at it. “Quit putting holes in my car!” She shouted as she flipped the shotgun over and hoofed out a bunch of shells from her bag.

“I mean,” Predious spoke up again. My eye twitched in annoyance as he levitated Bon Appetit and twirled it. “it’s more in the fact that with so many horrible things out there…”

That’s it. “Pred?” I said as I shoved my hoof forcefully against his muzzle. “You're a dear friend. I'd hate to have to shoot you before you jinx us.” From the guy who spent so long to convince me that in a fight that he’d be usefull, he’s surprisingly lazy in this one. “Maybe you could do me a favor and shoot at somepony for once?” Letting go of his muzzle, he seemed to think on it.

“Fair enough.” He rolled his eyes and tilted his head up. Bon Appetit floated up above the snowy ridge and hung there. Quicker than I could have, Predious worked the trigger, shooting all six rounds wildly towards the town.

“That was the worst shooting. Of all time.” I said, really wanting to facehoof, but his poorly aimed barrage drew another round of return fire at us. A set of heavy thumps just behind Pred followed the last few shots. Harmony took notice of them and used her hoof to brush away a bit of the snow from our side of the mound. The thick stump of the dead tree buried under the snow looked to be frozen solid, a single lucky break in my otherwise unlucky life.

“Of course it was!” Pred’s voice was so exasperated that I could almost feel the weight of his ego on my shoulders. “Don’t you get it? They aren’t raiders.”

“What? Of course they are!” I shouted, hoofing for my gun… which wasn’t there. “What!” Franticly, I twisted and looked over myself for my rifle. Where had it gone? Last I remember, I had it in my hooves in… the… car. Looking up, sure enough, there it was on the seat. “Son of a…”

My words died in my throat when I looked at the rest of the car. The roof itself looked as if a hellhound had used it as a chew toy. It had been torn and twisted apart right down the middle, each side of it splaying back like the petals of a flower.

The heavy beat of wings ahead pulled my attention up to Shadow, who swooped down out of the night towards us.

“Storm!” His amplified voice easily called out to us. “I don’t think these ponies are raiders! They’ve got foals and elderly huddled up in town!”

“Told you.” Predious muttered under his breath. If I had the time, I’d shove my gun so far up his… “It’s a classic mistake, you see. They think we’re raiders, we think they’re raiders.” He nodded to himself as the idea ran through my mind like an infection. I don’t know if I was just tired of fighting after the last month, or if the flames inside me gave me the answer, but I wanted to believe him.

“Y’all think that’s gonna change anythin’ now?” Harmony shouted, popping back up over the snowdrift. “They broke mah car!” Again, she popped the shotgun into her muzzle and fired. Again and again she blasted the night away, firing until she was empty.

A round sparked off of Shadow’s armor, rousing a gasp from me. I knew that power armor was tough, but I didn’t want to risk him. With another few heavy thumps against the frozen log, I knew that I didn’t want to risk any of us.

“Tell them we surrender.” I spoke up at Shadow. “You’re armor means that you’re the only one who can resolve this peacefully.”

The oddly faceted eyes on Shadows bug like armor simply stared at me for a moment before he nodded. He spread his wings out and took off into the night again. I hoped to Celestia that Pred was right and this would work.

“Fuck surrenderin’.” Harmony grunted as she shoved shell after shell into her shotgun.

“Harmony.” I said, starting to shiver as the cold started to sink back into me over the adrenalin. “Stop.”

She let out a deep sigh and hung her head. “Ah understand yah want ta be trustin’ these ponies, but Y’all remember how they were the ones who fired on us?” She looked over at me with the same pain in her eyes from earlier.

“I know you want to get home, but please,” I tried to offer her a comforting smile as the return fire at us died down. “there has to be a better way.”

“If Yer way gets me killed…” Harmony grumbled as she flopped down in the snow. “Ah swear Ah’ll torture yah in tha afterlife.”

“Heh, torture in the afterlife.” Predious let out a poorly timed laugh. “You ponies and your strange beliefs in fairy tales.”

“It’s not a fairy tail.” Both harmony and I shot back at him in unison. We looked at each other for a moment, and for a split second, I could see a small smirk on Harmony’s muzzle.

“Besides.” I said as I perked my ears. The odd silence that a snowy night brings was deafening in my ears, only the sound of Predious and Harmony’s breathing greeting them. “Looks like it worked.”

“Now what?” Harmony sighed again, looking over at her torn up car longingly.

“Now, we wait.” Predious said, folding his forehooves behind his head like he were simply on vacation. “Somepony will be along shortly to collect us.”

* * * * * * * * *

"So you folks were just tryin' ta pass on through here is all?" The leader of the group that had occupied Dodge was a portly yellow mare with an old Whinnyapolis accent. "Well now, don't we all just feel so silly?!" Gleaming Fields chuckled. Even her laugh had her weird accent to it.

Everything about her felt off to me. She was far too pleasant, and even though we'd killed two of them in the fight, none of them even seemed to mind. Above everything else, I couldn't stop staring at the fluffy parka she had wrapped around her. Her whole group was clad in heavy winter gear, and even though we'd been seated next to their bonfire, I still wanted to wrap myself up in one.

"Mind if I ask you where you found so many motor sleds?" Harmony called out from damn near inside the engine cowling to the old tracked crawler. “or an 88mm cannon for that fact.”

"Oh, you bet'cha.". Gleaming laughed yet again. Seriously, there is a point to where you can feel the exuberance radiating off of her. “Used ta get winters far worse than this every year back in old Whinnyapolis before the war, wouldn’t you believe?” She wore a smile across her muzzle that sent a chill running down my spine. “And the cannon was used further north to clear avalanches in the crystal range. Lotta problems with unmoderated snowfall there, don’t’cha know.”

“What?” Shadow’s voice came across the fire. With his ears perked, he leaned around and looked over at the mare. “Didn’t the pegasi limit how bad it got?”

“Sure did, and it was always supposed ta be that bad.” She nodded, and as she did, a couple others around her did so in agreement. “It always had ta be cold enough ta freeze over the lakes though. Back before arcane sciences took over, we had ta produce most of equestria’s ice for the year.”

“But these are all post arcane inventions.” Harmony called out, scratching her head as she continued to climb all over the machine.

“Correct.” Predious spoke up, pulling a surprised look from Gleaming. “But it became a tradition to still go out and cut the ice every winter.”

“Oh!” Gleaming’s eyes brightened up. “Looks like we’ve found ourselves a well learned pony, ain’t that right?” She studied over him curiously. His knowing wasn’t surprising to me, seeing as I know he’s a ghoul, but I was curious to see what conclusion she came to. Unfortunately for me, I never got a chance.

“I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in some old libraries.” Predious retorted, shooting a look over to me. “I must ask, why did you all come here? Are you refugees? Have the ruins of Whinneyapolis fallen?”

That got a good chuckle out of Gleaming, her odd laugh ending in a gigglesnort. “Oh good heavens, no.” She waved her forehoof at us dismissively. “No, we’re just down here tryin’ ta make a quick cap or two. Heard on the radio that this town had been overrun, and by the next mornin we were geared up and headed here.”

“Prospectors.” I grumbled and rolled my eyes. “You realize that the ponies who live here will be coming back, right? You can’t just take their stuff.” I paused as the words left my muzzle. Since when did I care? Stuff was replaceable, but a life is not. That’s how you have to look at the wasteland if you want to survive. Anything is free game if it’s not actively being claimed. So why did I say that? Has the flames in me changed who I am?

My words marked the first time that a troubled look crossed Gleaming’s face. “Well, we can’t go back empty hooved. We’ve got others to feed back home, this is our livelyhood.” She sighed and looked around at the others. “Best I could do is have them ignore a few buildings for you, but this place was abandoned and we claimed it.”

“Don’t touch my shop.” Harmony called out again. I whipped around to scold her, but she was quicker on the draw and shot me a glare that I’d only seen a couple of times in my life. Once when I lied to her about borrowing some ammunition, and once after Skyline’s wife Carlotta died. “Before you say anything Storm, as the only pony left to represent Dodge, I have the final word.”

“Right-o.” That’s all it took to put a smile back on Gleaming’s face. “The shop will be a big hit on our total, but ya know, we should make out alright.” She clopped her forehooves together. “Now, what do you all say in joining us for some supper? Wouldn’t be very neighborly if we didn’t let’cha join in, now would it?”

Not only was I in shock over the fact that Harmony just gave away the town, but I still couldn’t figure out why? Maybe it was because I still felt responsible for Filius. I know now that it wasn’t my fault that he started this, but I couldn’t help but feel that I’m to blame for the ponies who’ve suffered.

“Storm?” Pred put his hoof on me and I yelped, jumping up onto my hooves. Sudden movements with as much as my body’s been through didn’t help as everything started to ache again. Pred’s eyes were full of concern, and he patiently waited for me to answer. Problem is, I didn’t know what to tell him.

“I’m… I’m going to get some sleep.” Turning around, I pushed myself towards Harmony’s shop. Shadow tried to take a step forward, but stopped as I looked over to him. I must have had my thoughts written all over my face, because he simply nodded and sat down. He wasn’t wrong, I needed some time alone.

The further I got from the joyous ponies, the heavier I felt. Between coming out west and getting the gem, to losing Tasteless and surviving the shootout, this has all been a lot to process. I wish I knew what to do, or how to proceed, or to do anything without screwing it up in some way.

Approaching Harmony’s shop, I found the back door blasted off of it’s hinges. This side of the building was mostly intact, but a series of cracks ran along it. The web of cracks all ran toward the side, as if to be a giant sign reading ‘Storm got Pallet killed over here’. I wanted to feel bad about it again, but I couldn’t. Pallet was gone, I had seen to that, and I would mourn her properly once Filius was gone.

Stepping through the door, the place looked like it had been through the ringer. The stairs to the second floor had cracks in them as well, but they were firm enough to the touch that I gingerly made my way up them. This place had been my home away from home, but it was just that. A place. Maybe that’s where Harmony was coming from with what she said, and that’s how I should have seen it in the first place.

As I walked to my room, the splintered door hung halfway on it’s lower hinge. With a firm grasp, I reached out and yanked it all the way down. Inside, I found that half the roof had caved in over the exterior. At the very least, it was still a closed off room, albeit half the size it used to be. My mattress had escaped the blast by being shredded and tossed across the room, but unfortunately my bookcase was all but destroyed. All of my books were soggy and green with mold.

As my legs wobbled, I could care about the loss of my books any more than the loss of Pallet, or Sky, or Fruit, or Tasteless. My hooves pulled me as far as my bed, and dropped me onto it with a thump. A distressing groan filled the air as the building itself seemed to warp. It probably wasn’t the smartest or safest idea to flop down, but I’ve done dumber things.

My body yearned for the first real sleep since we’d left Tenpony, and I was going to let it have it. Who knows, this could be the last chance for sleep that I get before we take out Filius. Part of me wishes that I could have Shadow here with me for it, but this would be better for us both. Almost as soon as I was comfortable and still, my train of thought shut down. I couldn’t remember anything I needed to worry about, and I didn’t care. The world drifted off as it had so many nights before, and for once, I looked forward to tomorrow.

The day we would finally end Filius.

* * * * * * * * *

A sudden and loud ring stirred me from my sleep. I sat up straight with a snort, the sensation of plush cushion under my hooves sending my mind reeling as to what the hell happened.

“Oh, you are awake! Marvelous!” A soft, delicate mare spoke in a dulcet tone, an old but familiar accent clinging to her words. “I am terribly sorry to bring you here on such short notice, but I simply must speak with you.” As she spoke, my mind was foggy, and I rubbed at my tired eyes with my hooves. For once, my body didn’t feel like it had any aches or pains, a small blessing amidst the confusion. “You see, as the old Element of Generosity, I feel the need to give you the teeniest, tiniest piece of advice.”

Wait, generosity?

I forced my tired eyes open, finding a familiar scene playing out before me. I was back in the bright diner that I’d been in before. Aunty Carlotta was up at the bar by the kitchen, the tired looking waitress mare was adjusting her outfit, standing at the table across the aisle from where I now sat.

“Where is…” I began to say, but quickly found a magical aura wrapped around my muzzle, shutting it.

“There will be plenty of time for that later, dear.” Auntie Rarity spoke in a gentle, but stern tone. In looking over at her, I see that she did indeed look much younger than I’d remembered her as a filly. She was an absolutely stunning mare, and even in the odd fluorescent lighting of this place, her coat was spotless, and not a single hair was out of place on her decadent mane. Reaching across the table we were at, she took my forehooves in her own.

“Listen carefully dear,” She began, “there are many things that I wish to say to you, but none of them are more important that the idea of sacrifice.” She stared at me, her eyes so incredibly focused that I found it hard to look away.

Sacrifice? Is that all she wanted to bring up? “I’m willing to give anything to take Filius down, even if it’s my life.” I said with a firm nod. That roused a soft sigh from her, and I could feel her forehooves grip mine a little tighter.

“Dear, you misunderstand.” She spoke at me in a way that made me feel she was disappointed. I’d always respected her, and it hurt to hear that kind of tone. “Generosity isn’t simply about giving to others, but you must understand how to take it in kind.”

“I don’t…” I started to say, but cut myself off. Come on Storm, she was getting to that, don’t act like an idiot!

She released my hooves and brought hers back across the table. “I know how hard it must be, working so diligently to go along with a plan, only to see it crumble and those you care for suffer because of it.” Slowly, she coddled her forehoof against her chest and her vision drifted down to the table. “It’s not easy seeing so many toiling and sacrificing so much for you.” With a heavy sigh, she put her hooves down and steeled her expression. “That sacrifice is the generosity that you must learn to accept.”

“What?” So I was just supposed to let my friends struggle and die for me? I was just supposed to be okay with it? “You have to be joking.”

“She’s not!” The high pitched squeal of a filly pierced the air. From out of nowhere, a pink flash dropped onto the table with an ‘oof!’. The small frizzy maned Pinkie intruding didn’t even faze Aunty Rarity. “Sorry about interrupting, I just have an appointment to get to soon, so I dropped in a bit early.” With a shuffle, the pink filly wiggled and bounce off our table over across the aisle.

“The sad thing, Mrs. Storm...” Rarity began again, but her confusion in title lead me to interrupt again.

“It’s Miss.” I blandly stated.

“Didn’t I teach you that it’s rude to interrupt a lady at the table?” She cocked an eyebrow at me an looked more judgemental than my mother was when she caught me looking at a Wingboner magazine for the first time. However, her words brought up a new feeling in me, anger. Along with it, came a new realization that I could finally get some goddess damn answers for a few things.

“No, because you all locked me away in that tube when I was five.” I shouted, slamming my hoof down on the table. “You took me away from my father, and you all abandoned me, so I don’t want to hear any shit about manners, not when you put me in this position to start with.”

She recoiled with a gasp. “The nerve! We were merely doing our best to keep you out of harm’s way! The fate of Equestria was in our hooves!”

“So you just shuffled me aside? Put me into storage like some thing?” I huffed and leaned back in the plush seating. I’d been through too much, worked so hard to become the mare they’d always wanted me to me. I didn’t deserve this, least of all from her. “You want me to tell you how it felt? Being dragged into a room without being told why, strapped down to a chair by a strange stallion, then drowned in a tank of water?”

She deflated slightly at that. I’d wanted since I was just a filly to know why they abandoned me, to feel something justifiable about it. Her reaction was just what I had always wanted, and I can’t lie in saying that it felt good to see it. But, as she sat there, simply staring at the table, that joy quickly fled. In it’s place, a tremendous feeling of hollowness and sorrow seeped in.

“You’re right.” She said at almost a whisper. “I can’t imagine what it was like.” The way that she hung her head filled me with regret. I didn’t like what they did to me, but could I really be so frivolous? Sure, it was something I wanted to get off my chest, but seeing her like this? It hurt me. “But you were never just some project to us. You were a filly, one which we should have taken better care of. For that, I am truly sorry.”

“I…” Slumping, I let out a long sigh. “I forgive you.” I can’t hold a century and a half old grudge, I can’t let it affect me.

It was really that simple. With those words, I felt the anger I had drift away, and a revelation dawned on me. If anything, I should have been thankful. Without being locked away, I wouldn’t have lived my life the way I had. I’d never have known Harmony and her family. I’d never have known my Wasteland parents. Hell, I might have died along with everyone else on the final day. So how could I sit here and chastise one of those who’d helped me become the mare I was today. A stuttering scratch came across the air as the jukebox in the corner started to play. It was the same song that I’d heard playing when I appeared here the first time.

“As much as it goes against what I’m trying to tell you, your forgiveness is something that I cannot accept, darling.” Aunty Rarity sniffled and delicately wiped a tear from her eye. “My friends and I? We all have so much to atone for, so many ponies whose lives we destroyed with our Ministries.” She shook her head and glanced back up at me. “However, you have grown into a more astounding mare than we could have ever hoped for, and this is why you need to understand what I have to tell you.”

I didn’t interrupt this time. I didn’t open my muzzle at all. Instead, I gave a single, concise nod.

“Sacrifice is by it’s own nature, an act of generosity. And nowhere else is it more so prevalent than in a war.” She stiffened up as she spoke, her expression resolving back to a stern gaze. “It might not be the same war we’d wanted to prepare you for, but knowing that others might perish under your command is not something you can allow yourself to be phased by.”

“Instead, you must be sure to look upon it as a beautiful gift.” She reached her hooves out and grasped mine again. “You must understand, that there is no greater gift to give, than one’s own life.” She smiled at me, tearing up again. “Even if it saves just one other single pony, that gift is worth accepting with graciousness and dignity.”

“Why?” I felt my voice die in my throat. Images of Predious, Gauge, and Shadow all being killed flashed through my mind. Her hooves gripped tighter around mine, almost as if she could see my thoughts as well and drag me away from them. “I can’t just sit there and let them die.”

“No, of course not.” She smiled weakly at me. “But that is the nature of generosity. It’s not a choice, it’s just something that one pony does for another.” She relaxed again and released my hooves. With a dainty shift, she leaned herself back against the plush padded seat and gave a soft giggle. “It’s not something you might know, but it’s horribly uncouth to refuse a gift from somepony. You simply must accept it.”

“Call me stubborn, but I really don’t.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Telling me that I have to just accept the fact that ponies will die isn’t something I feel comfortable with.”

“Oh my, that must be the Applejack part of you talking.” She smiled, and for just a faint moment, I could see a look of genuine happiness across her face. “She never listens to my advice.”

“I understand what you’re saying.” I blinked and canted my head at her. “But I won’t excuse anypony for thinking they have to sacrifice themselves to finish this fight. I know that things won’t go my way, hell, every plan I’ve made has crumbled under me.” Putting my hooves down on the table, I looked down at them. “But we haven’t come so far due to any effort put forward by my own two hooves. My friends have been there every step of the way, and I know we will see this fight through to the end.”

Looking up at her, it was my turn to show resolve. “Thank you for talking with me, for enduring my outbursts, and for giving me the advice that you feel I need.” I forced myself to speak, to tell myself what I wanted to believe would happen, but I had to be realistic. “I know in all likelyhood that not everypony will make it out of this fight, but until Filius is destroyed, I will keep fighting on.”

“That’s the strong girl we’ve waited so long to see.” Aunty Rarity sniffled and smiled brightly.

“Order up!” The same small golden coated colt from before shouted across the restaurant. For a moment, I looked over to the other table as the scene I’d been involved in before caught my attention. I watched, confounded to exactly how this was ever even possible, but Equestrian magic stretched far beyond the bounds of my understanding even in the real world.

After a minute, Aunty Rarity asked something I should have remembered was coming. “However did you come by that dreadful leather coat?” She said it exactly the way she had before. “I bet that awful ‘necromancer’ fellow gave it to you, didn’t he?”

My mind was still too slow to process things, and I simply sat there for a few moments in an awkward silence. The fog in my head was ripped away as a small pink hoof tapped at the side of my head.

“Hello? Is anypony in there?” Aunty Pinkie called out into my ear. Surprisingly enough her voice echoed inside my head. “Sorry about that, but I’m afraid that it’s closing time here.”

“What?” I asked, turning to look at her. As I did, I blinked, and the bright prewar diner changed to a dark and mostly empty building. Looking back across my own booth, the seat on the other side was now empty. Aunty Rarity was gone.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see her again.” Aunty Pinkie said as she hopped down onto the table. With a nervous glance, she rubbed at her mane with her forehoof. “I know that you still have a lot of questions, but you really must be going. Is there anything you want me to tell the other girls when I see them?”

“Tell them I’m sorry, Pinkie.” I sighed, sitting back again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be the hero you all wanted me to be back then.”

“You aren’t allowed to be Sorry.” She snorted. “Don’t be such a party pooper, Storm! Your old aunt Pinkie Pie simply won’t allow it.”

“Then tell them what I told Aunt Rarity.” I looked at her, my words bringing back a smile I hadn’t seen for a century and a half. “Tell them all that I forgive you for everything, and to wish me luck.”

“Luck?” She scrunched up her muzzle. “I thought that was your dump stat?” Without anywhere to pull it from, Pinkie produced a large paperback book. She opened it randomly a few times and skimmed the pages “No, I guess it isn’t. Says here it’s average.” She set the book down in front of her and shut it. For only a moment, I caught a glance at the brightly illustrated cover… that had my face on it. “Well, the strategy guide is never wrong!”

“But…” I started to say, but quickly found a tiny pink hoof in my muzzle.

“No no,” Pinkie giggled, “You can as me fifty six more times if you’d like, but you can’t see it. Try coming back after your adventure ends and maybe I’ll let you take a look at it then.”

Before I could say anything else, a tiny pink hoof bopped me unceremoniously on the nose and I was whisked away into darkness. Who know’s if I’d ever see the dream diner again, or my aunts for that matter. For now however, I was content. I was more than the mare they’d thought I’d be, and I wasn’t lying when I said I believed in my friends. While I had no doubt that we were going to save the whole goddess damned wasteland, the cost remained to be seen.

Even though I was hopeful that nopony would die, Rarity’s words rang through my head. I had to be strong enough for this, even if it’s my friend’s who sacrifice themselves for me. We’ve come too far to fail now, and we must take the final step to end this threat once and for all.

No matter the cost.

--Chapter End--

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty Seven - The Beginning of The End

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”

I was awoken with a bang. It was less like a gunshot, and more the fact that instead it had been my head hitting a wooden door frame.

"Ugh... What the hell?" I muttered, struggling to open my tired eyes.

"Oh, sorry!" Shadow yelped. I could feel his warm body below me, and instinctively I wrapped my hooves tighter around him. The heavy sounds of his hoofsteps slowed as we tilted forward. For a moment, I felt like we were falling before the old wood steps under us groaned in protest as he carried me down them.

"What's going on?" I had a right to know why he'd dragged me away from my beautiful bed at such an unsightly hour. I was still so tired that I couldn't even focus on my pip vision to see what time it ACTUALLY was.

"I'm taking you to get waffles." He stated in an almost annoyed tone. "You aren't skipping another meal on my watch. You need your strength."

"Waffles?" Food sounded good, but sleep sounded so much better. "Five more minutes..."

"No.” He replied sternly as we reached the landing of the stairs. That's what you said a half hour ago, which was five minutes after you’d promised to get up for waffles." With a sharp turn that scrunched my muzzle up against his folded wings, we headed through what remained of Harmony’s shop. Somewhere in my hazy mind, I was glad that I couldn’t focus on the complete and utter destruction of what was once my friend’s profitable livelihood.

That is, until my rear hoof caught on a half destroyed shelf and collapsed it with a thunderous clatter.

“That’s it.” I groaned, flailing lightly across Shadow’s back. “I’m just tired, not crippled. I can walk myself.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, hesitating before I did my best to give him a tired glare. “Okay then.” With what was probably the most gentle way he could have gone about it, I shortly found all four of my still tired and shaky hooves underneath me. At the very least, the cold hadn’t gotten to me yet. “With how you were sleeping, a pony could be confused that you’d slipped into a coma.”

“No.” I grumbled. Okay hooves, one in front of the other, nice and easy. “It was… a long night. I was talking with one of the elements.” With each hoofstep, my body seemed to remember more of the fundamentals of walking, and I quickly found myself at the door. Which, Shadow nearly threw himself at to open for me.

“You communed with the elements again?” The excitement that he put on those words far outpaced my capacity to grasp it all. “Did they help you understand your element more?” WIth a metallic squeal, he pushed at the door. There was a sharp snap as the hinges it was on sheared from the doorway and the whole thing fell forward into the snowy street.

“No, not those elements.” I sighed, stepping through the open doorway. “The old bearers. Aunty Rarity, mostly.”

“You… you were talking with a dead ministry mare?” His disbelief was understandable, and a few months ago I’d have been right there with him. “Huh, what did she want?”

“To remind me that ponies die.” I said, slowing to a stop in the snow. “She wanted me to know that no matter what, this fight… it’s going to cost us, even if we win.”

With a flutter of his wings, he pushed off and hovered his way around in front of me. “Let’s… not talk about it, alright?” With his forehoof, he brushed at my mane until it slipped around the back side of my ear. “They always told us that thinking too hard after you wake up is bad for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, how could you ever be disloyal if you don’t think to much?”

“Hey, not everypony up there is a city destroying asshole, okay?” He stood up straight and dropped his hoof into the snow. Somewhere in my brain, it finally clicked that the words I’d chosen might not have been the most flattering. “The military might have been ignorant, but…”

Catching him off guard, I nearly leapt up onto him and kissed him. He fought for a split second as it was now his mind’s turn to play catch up, but with a heavy sigh he finally relented.

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it.” I looked up to him as we broke the kiss. “But you have to admit, you were a bit… old fashioned when I first met you.” I raised my hoof to point toward Cask’s bar. “I mean, you said you’d come down to the wastes before, yet you still tried to pay with your fancy sky money.”

I watched as my words seemed to have the opposite effect than I’d hoped for. I watched the calm in his eyes drain away, being replaced with sadness as he turned and looked away from me.

“After the first time I was down here, the only thing I wanted to buy from anypony was forgiveness.” Slowly, he reached his hoof up and ran it along the cross shaped scar on his face.

“Hey.” With a stiff thrust, I pushed myself against him and hooked my forehoof around him. He reacted quickly, pushing back against me to keep us both from falling to the snowy ground. “The only pony you need forgiveness from, is me.” I said, watching as he opened his muzzle in confusion as he looked at me. “And I forgive you, for everything you’ve ever done down in this craptastic place we call the wasteland. Alright?” With my words, a weak smile crept across his muzzle and he gave me a small nod.

“Oh thank the goddesses.” Predious seemingly apparated into the space right next to me. I was hanging on to Shadow so tightly that I couldn’t have jumped in surprise, but inside my mind I was screaming like a filly. “Your forgiveness means a lot to me, Storm.”

“What the hell, Pred!” I snapped at him, releasing Shadow and turning to smash him over the head with my hoof. “I swear, if you don’t stop sneaking up on me, I’m going to find a set of bells and staple them to where your balls were so you can’t fucking do it anymore.” I growled and glared at him. “Got it?”

He simply blinked and looked at me in confusion. “If the bells are where my balls were…” Goddess damned, Pred. “where did my balls go?” He cupped his chin with a forehoof and looked lost in thought.

“I would have torn them off first.” I grumbled, quickly losing hope that today would be any sort of good.

“Then why…” He started to say before I cut him off.

“It was implied.” I snorted. “Shut up, I’m still tired. What do you want?”

“Oh, right!” He shook his head and blinked a few times. “I may or may not have been asked by Ficha what happened down in the element chamber.” He paused looking at me like I was supposed to say something. When I didn’t he took that as his cue to continue. “And I may or may not have told him about all the blue fire… and the ethereal alicorn thing from back in the Omega Orchard…”

“Uh huh.” I sighed, facehoofing for what would no doubt not be the last time I would today. “And?”

“And he may or may not have spun your trials of the last month into an epic story that the foals of the scavengers have bought into.” Pred gave me a excruciatingly nervous smile. “So you probably have about ten seconds before you’re swarmed by excited foals.”

As if to punctuate how irritatingly spot on he always seemed to, the doors to Cask’s burst open as a few foals stepped out and looked around excitedly. That is, until they saw me.

“I see her!” A young earth pony colt yelled out. “I see the Blue Phoenix!”

Really? After all this, that’s the nickname that sticks?

“What?” Pred gasped in offence. “I found Gallant’s choice of the Phoenix to be both quite apt and poetic at the time.”

“It better not stick.” I grunted as a horde of screaming colts and fillies rushed through the snow towards us. “Makes me sound like a goddess damned super mare.”

“Well, no offence, hun.” Shadow snorted, trying to stifle a giggle. “You kind of are one.”

As the mass of excited foals approached, all I could do was lament how I’d actually really been looking forward to those waffles…

* * * * * * * * *

Never before have I ever been so disappointed. Not once. I mean, having to answer so many questions from excited foals was enough, but then I have to hate breakfast too?

"Oh get off it." Harmony huffed. "Those nice folks didn't have ta’ feed us at all in tha first place."

"I've accidentally eaten cardboard tastier than that." I managed to get out as I hoofed at my poor tongue. Mom had always promised to teach me how to make her tasty wasteland pancakes, and it was high time I learned the recipe. If she and dad are still alive out there, that is.

The hood to the marauder slammer shut without warning, and I let out a reflexive gasp as it did. My heart skipped a beat, and the world shortly became cold and dark. I’d have thought after everything I’d been through, my reflexes might have gotten in check. Then again, with what we’ve gone through, I’m not sure if that would be for better or worse.

"Oh quit playin' in the snow. We ain't got time to dilly-dally." She huffed, hooking a hoof around one of mine and pulling me from the snowbank I'd flopped into. "She's all fixed up and ready ta’ run straight ta’ Baltimare." She smiled as I got my hooves back under me, casting a glance over her work.

Harmony's words were too kind for the vehicle that sat before us. Most of the bolted on armor had fared well in the fight. However, the rest of the vehicle was held on by wonderglue, duct tape, and possibly a few hopes and prayers. Hell, she hadn't ACTUALLY fixed the roof. Instead, she's just bent the two halves back until they were close enough and sewed them together using high tensile wire strung through the numerous bullet holes. It was a poor patch up job, but it was Harmony's patch up job, and she could fix almost anything.

Almost.

"Will she make it to Baltimore?" I wasn't normally one to question her, but we had so much riding on this trip that I had to be sure.

"Darn tootin she will." Harmony grumbled, shooting me an angry glance I probably deserved for even thinking of that question. "Ah ain't the type ta pull a half assed job, an yah know it."

"Yeah, I know." I sighed. When I did, I found Harmony's hooves thrown around me in a tight embrace.

"Don't you worry none. We'll make it." She sniffles, trembling against me. “Ah know yah scared, an honestly? Ah am too.”

“Hey.” I hooked my hooves around her as well. “We can do this.” My own hooves began to tremble as a war for control of me was fought in my mind. I wanted to be afraid, to doubt, but I couldn’t. That flame that had been lit in me burned brighter than ever, and with my friends at my side, we could do anything. “Besides, your mom and the Rangers are leading the charge, and she’s the most badass mare I’ve ever known.”

“Really?” Harmony sniffled, pulling back from me to wipe the tears from her eyes. The light of hope filled them for just a moment before flickering out. “Ah’m just so worried…”

“Storm?” Shadow’s voice came from that air above me. I turned my glance skyward to find him armorless and hovering above us effortlessly with an uneasy frown across his muzzle. If it weren’t for his big blue eyes, it might have been easy to miss the lovable guy against the clouded sky. “I have bad news.”

“What?” I said as my heart sank.

“Gauge and Pai managed to use my armor to pick up a secure Enclave broadcast.” He sighed, sinking through the air down to the snow. “Iron’s Raptor has been spotted over Baltimare. She’s being ordered back above the clouds, but the enclave won’t risk another raptor in the raging snow storm over the city, let alone another exchange of fire if they can help it. They have so few operational raptors left as it is…”

Facehoofing, I took a deep breath. “Then we force her up.” My words caught Shadow off guard, and his expression wavered for a moment. “Filius is going to be hard enough to deal with. If she wants to side with him, then we make sure she can’t afford to stay. We give her the choice of death, or headed back home.”

“How!” He grunted in frustration. “This isn’t just one mare, nor a single Virtibuck! You saw what the Lenticular did to Sunshine city, how do we take down something like that?” Sighing, he hung his head in defeat. “If we try to attack Baltimare, she’ll just wipe us out.”

“Not down, up!” Harmony laughed, stepping into the conversation with what I hoped would be one of her brilliant ideas. She turned to me with a giggle and pranced on her hooves. “Storm, yer a goddess damn genius!”

“What…?” I said slowly. Okay, now we’d moved from brilliance to crazy.

“Ah might not know how one a them Raptors works, but ah’m mighty confidant that they rest on those wispy clouds under em. Made from some sorta cloud machine, right?” She waited until Shadow nodded. “An if the storm over Baltimare is as bad as you say, one might bet that they got those cloud generators runnin’ on high.”

I think something in shadow’s mind clicked, because he stifled a short laugh. “That could work.” He looked over to me as a wide smile broke across his muzzle. I only had a moment to realize what was coming, and in the snow, I couldn’t avoid his tackle. As I flopped back in his warm embrace, he squeezed me tighter than ever against him. Any other stallion and I’d have been pissed. Any other pony, and I’d have reacted. However, I couldn’t fight him, not when I care about him the way I do. “Thank you, Storm!”

“Why me?” Even with my back pressed into the frigid snow, I never wanted this moment to end.

“You are right. We’ll send her up.” He smiled and pressed his muzzle into mine. It didn’t explain at all how I’d helped, but I couldn’t pass up a reward like this. Softly, he broke the kiss as I all but melted under him. “I’ve got to go.”

That wasn’t happening.

Pinning me down was his mistake, and I easily wrapped my hooves around him. “Not until you tell me the plan.”

“Storm…” He gave me a soft smile and pressed a hoof gently at my side. “Trust me, I can make her…”

“No.” I dropped my tone down and glared at him. “I trust you, but I won’t let you go that easily. I…” I watched as his big blue eyes gazed at me, I could see the light of hope in them burning brighter than ever. “I love you. I want to settle down with you, start a family with you. If you didn’t come back when we’re this close to stopping Filius, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“You’d kill that bastard and move on, because you’re the most badass mare I’ve ever known in my life.” He spoke softly, not losing his smile, or that look in his eyes. “But, I understand.” Slowly, he pressed at my side and I relented. As much as I wanted to be close to him, we couldn’t stay that way forever. “I’m going back on the Lenticular. If I can get into engineering, I’m pretty sure I’d be able to cripple one of the cloud generators. Iron wouldn’t be able to keep the Lenticular from capsizing in a storm like the one over the city, she’d be forced to head back above for repairs. Well, that or keep the ship below the clouds, but she’d be easy pickings for an enclave assault force to retake the ship then.”

“What if they catch you? What am I supposed to do?” I didn’t want to think about what Iron would do with him.

“I know the Lenticular like the back of my hoof, Storm, and I’ll be wearing my armor. I’ll be fine.” He smiled again widely, stretching his wings out. “I’ll be in and out even before you get to Baltimare. You on the other hoof, need to get thinking on how we’re going to take down Filius.”

“I swear that if you get yourself killed…” I blinked a few times, my vision distorting from the tears in my eyes. “then I’ll force Filius to bring you back just so I can kill you again.”

“Duly noted.” He chuckled lightly before he leaned close and gave my nose a light kiss. “I’ll see you the second you get to Baltimare.” With a heavy beat of his wings, he took off.

“Storm?” Harmony sighed. “Ah know yah worried, but it’s our best shot.” I really hated when she was so blunt, even if she was one hundred percent right. We just aren’t equipped to handle an enclave ship. “Sweetie, can yah please go get the others an tell ‘em we’re ready ta go in five?”

“Yeah.” Five minutes, then it was back into the wild. Back on the track toward Baltimare. Toward ending this fight for good. I just hope that Shadow is right, and that I’ll see him when we roll up on the Baltimare outskirts.

* * * * * * * * *

After we’d gathered our things, and said goodbye to the last friendly outsiders any of us might ever see in our lives, we piled into Harmony’s car and took off. The sun had long since risen as we traveled through the blisteringly cold white wastes. The dark clouds above shielded us from the warmth of the sun, but at the very least it couldn’t cut down on the light it provided.

For once, I didn’t have the cold to worry about as we rode. Harmony had installed a rack of old toasters on the floor between the front and rear seats of the car. Their heating elements glowed red hot, pulsing along with the engine as we sped across the white wasteland. Along with the toasters, we were all wrapped in thick blankets that Harmony had hoarded in her shop just in case of a bad winter.

With freezing to death out of my mind, I thought about a lot of things on the car ride. About the days before everything in my life was so volatile. I thought about my parent’s, and how I desperately hope that they’re still holding on in Baltimare. Mostly however, each one of my thoughts returned to Shadow. He’d come out of nowhere into my life, and now… I couldn’t live with losing him. We’ve lost so many already, and we couldn’t afford to lose any more. Filius was bigger than all of us, maybe even the whole wasteland combined. I would need everyone to help if we had any chance of winning this war.

The storm that clung above the eastern wastes was the worst I’d ever seen in my entire life. The wind howled relentlessly as we plowed our way towards Baltimare. It’s rough blasts against the side of the marauder sometimes sent us skidding slightly in the blizzard, but I’m confidant that it was only Harmony’s sheer stubbornness that kept us on track. Each battering gust fought her like an endless game of tug of war, feeling more like the storm had it out for us more than anything.

Then again, this wasn’t a normal storm. No, I could feel it. It wasn’t just the weather, it was a tangible being. Hovering, pulsing, breathing down on us, faithfully trying to keep us from ever reaching its source and master. However, we would not relent. By the time that we had driven just within line of sight of the large camp set up around the Baltimare outskirts, the sun was desperately pressing it’s last rays through the far edge of the storm behind us.

And then, we cut through it. As if it were as simple as day or night, the howling storm was behind us. What must have been a few hundred square miles, was encapsulated by the rotating, dark clouds. The eye of the storm was a dome, where we could continue unimpeded all the rest of the way to Baltimare. Even though it was no longer pressing down on us, I could still feel as if it were watching us on our journey.

The more that I had thought about the storm, the more my thoughts drifted over to Predious. Sitting there, he looked as stoic as ever, not even casting a glance over to me once. I wondered how my curse would affect him. If it had threatened to consume me after only having it since I’d gotten Pai out of her orchard, how long would he last? Maybe it was on his mind as well right now. Maybe he’s already fighting it.

“Storm…” Predious spoke up from next to me. His expression didn’t change, and his eyes still sat transfixed ahead of us. “We have a problem.”

Turning to look ahead through the armored slats, I could see the city of Baltimare ahead of us. On the outskirts to our left, was a large camp with a dozen or so fires going in it. The city itself laid dead ahead, and even from here, most of the city looked lifeless. The only thing that stood out, was that the Arena district was lit up like daylight. The fact that it was lit up wasn’t odd, but what was silhouetted above it nearly made my heart skip a beat.

“The Lenticular… it’s still there.” My muzzle formed the words without me even registering it.

The dark cloudship hovered silently above the city

“Maybe your friend failed in his task.” Gallant grumbled from the back seat. He’d been silent for this whole trip, and for that to be the first thing I hear from him? Well, it turned that flame inside me into a raging bonfire.

“Don’t you fucking say that.” I snapped at him, turning around and shooting him a burning glare. “He’ll do the fucking job and be back like he said. You don’t get to doubt him.”

“Storm.” Pred’s stern voice snapped my attention to him. His own angry gaze met mine, and he put a hoof up to me. “Take it down a notch.” His tone was as cold as the snow outside, and I huffed, not wanting to listen. That is, up until his he pressed his hoof against me and it was as cold as ice.

“Pred, are you...?” I reached out again for him, my anger lost in an instant. He recoiled at my touch and snarled.

“Keep your hooves off me!” He writhed and used his magic to wrap his blanket around himself tightly. As if it weren’t enough, he doubled over and nestled himself as far as he could into the seat, pressing close against the heat of the toasters. After a minute, he spoke up again through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”

“Alright Y’all, simmer down now.” Harmony sighed, turning the car over towards the camp. “Ah know it’s been a long ride, but it’ll be just a few more minutes till we’re in camp.” She looked over to me and paused for a moment. In her eyes, I could see how brightly mine were shining blue. “Try not ta kill each other till then? Please?” She offered a weak smile, and brought her eyes back to the snow ahead of us.

Everypony sat in silence for the next few minutes, simply watching as the large camp ahead of us grew bigger and bigger. Row upon row of makeshift shelters sat ringed around a small hill at the center. As we approached, cold, tired, and worn out wastelanders greeted us with fear filled looks in their eyes. Most of them only had rags to keep them warm, most were emaciated and looked hungry. On top of all that, however, very few of them didn’t have at least one weapon slung around them.

“This is who we’re sending into the fight?” Harmony said at almost a whimper. “We’ll just be sending them to die.”

“This is war. That’s what happens, get over it.” Predious grumbled from his curled form. “It never changes.”

“It is regrettable.” Ficha too chimed in. “But most of these ponies don’t have anything else left to lose. This is their fight more than anything.”

“Then we make sure it’s worth it.” I sighed, shrinking down into the seat. I couldn’t stand to look at them anymore. I kicked myself inside my own head. How could I have complained about breakfast when these ponies were out here just waiting for us? Goddesses I’m such a fucking moron.

“Alright, here we are.” Harmony sighed and rolled us to a stop.

Peeking my head up just enough that I could see through the armored slats, I found that we’d driven right up to the base of the hill at the center of camp. Several tents around us had running lights in them, and a few power armored ponies trotted between the tents with various supplies strapped to them in place of weapons.

With a metallic shriek, harmony’s door fell off it’s hinges as she pushed it open. A shower of sparks shot out of the center console as the engine died, and one of the rear tires deflated with a prolonged, high pitched whine. As the whine droned down, Ficha’s own whine met our ears. I would have turned around and berated the asshole for such a foalish response, but I couldn’t care for once. We had things to do, and without the hum of the engine, the ominous quiet of the night took over, leaving me with a sense of eerie uneasiness.

“Told ya she’d make it.” Harmony sighed with a smile. Sliding herself off the bench seat and into the snow, she gasped as she looked up the hill. “Mom!”

“Oh good, you all made it back.” Longbow smiled from the edge of the tent just ahead of the car. “Please, come in and get warm. We have a lot of planning to do.”

* * * * * * * * *

“That’s it?” Cottage groaned and nearly dropped his head onto the battlemap. “A piece of glass?”

Longbow had gathered everypony up who’d be managing a part of the assault force, sans Captain Doppler, who had apparently already been given the order to sneak the Nautilus into Baltimare harbor and wait for the go signal. Around the battlemap, stood Longbow, Cottage, Elder Maple, Predious, Ficha, Gallant, Harmony, Cheap Shot, Jack Knife, and me. Of all of them, only two didn’t look happy to see me, and it was not surprising to me in the least, that it was both Cottage and Jack Knife.

“It’s an element.” I snapped back at Cottage, pulling the gem back close to my chest. “Well, kind of, at least.”

“And who’s this old geezer?” Cottage pointed over to Gallant, who simply sat in the back of the tent with his eyes closed. “Goddesses, we send you out to get a weapon and this is what you waste our time with?”

“Stand down, Cottage.” Elder Maple snapped at him.

“No, I won’t!” He growled and slammed his hoof on the map. “We needed the weapon they promised to punch a hole in his lines. Without it, none of our plans work!”

“None of them would work anyway.” Gallant chimed up from his corner of the tent.

“Like hell. What the fuck would you...?” Cottage began, but quickly found his muzzle clamped shut by Maple’s magic.

“I hate to agree with Star Paladin Cottage, but who exactly is this, Storm?” Maple cast a wary eye over to me, before turning to look over Gallant.

“I was once Filius’ only and best friend.” Gallant wheezed, slowly getting to his hooves. “I know him better than all of you, and your tactics won’t work.”

“Why.” Longbow’s tone didn’t imply that it was a question, so much as that she demanded an answer.

“ The problem is that you all are trying to fight him using your ways. Filius is not from this time, your tactics have no advantage against his outdated ones.” Gallant let out a wheezing chuckle. “He and I had been through countless sieges, wars much bigger in scale than the one you fight now. Hell, it was almost twice every season that someone tried their hoof at overthrowing Equestria, and winter was always the most favorable time to attack.”

“Then by all means,” Maple stepped back, releasing Cottage from his magic and waving his hoof over the battlemap. “tell us how to go into this fight.”

Slowly, Gallant strode up to the map. He stood over it, hovering over each scribed and marked point of the faded and yellowing map. “Hmmm.” He hummed, raising his hoof to stroke his white beard as he contemplated things. “Were it back in my day, I'd order the city surrounded and seized until he relent. However, his armies do not starve, nor do they need rest. I'm also certain there is no way to negotiate a surrender either, that usually worked back then.”

“Genius,” Cottage facehooved. “why didn't we think of just asking them to politely lay down and die?” Each time he’d interrupted with his sarcasm, it made the fire in me grow just a little bit. I really just wanted to kick him in the goods to shut him up for good. By the way that both Maple and Longbow were fuming, I could tell that I wasn’t the only one with that thought.

“That settles it.” Gallant said as he straightened up. “I propose a reversed siege.”

“What?” Maple replied, looking genuinely at a loss for words.

“If I'm reading your map correctly,” Gallant struck his hoof out and pointed to the Three main streets that ran through Baltimare. “There are three main avenues into the area where Filius is barricaded. If we were able to block them off from the inside, and reinforce the walls more than they are, his own army will not be able to breach it before we struck a fatal blow against him.”

“So all we have to do is lock ourselves in with a mad stallion and an entire third of his army?” Cottage blurt out, trying to stifle a cackling laugh with his hoof. “Elder, you seriously can’t be considering this proposal! It’s insane!”

“Unless you have a better idea,” Longbow groaned as she wrapped her magic around Cottage’s muzzle. “then I suggest you hold your tongue.”

“Again,” Maple shot an uneasy gaze over at Longbow. “I hate to side with Cottage, but how are we supposed to get our fighters in there?”

“Leave dat ta Jack Knife an me!” Cheap Shot practically called out, jumping and throwing a hoof around Jack’s neck. “It'll be a tight squeeze, but it ain't the first time ole’ Jack’s snuck some power armor into the city. Ain’t dat right?”

“Yeah,” Jack fumed and glared at Cheap. “Right.”

“If this is to work, then we'll need to block off the main access roads to the arena district.” Elder Maple spoke up, sitting down and studying the map intently.

“How?” Predious leaned forward, looking over the map as well. “You'd need to drop a few buildings on the roads to keep them from getting through.” He looked up over to Maple, cocking an eyebrow. “It’ll be hard to pull off, but I’d say a building on each side would create a block big enough.”

“Exactly my thought.” Maple nodded, turning toward Longbow. “Can you head down to requisitions after we’re done here? we've got a crate of Mk.VII spell seeking 88 shells linked to the spare targeting talismans from the Nautilus. We'll have two pony teams. Each one tags a different side of the street, and then calls in the strike. The shells should be precise enough to bring down the buildings correctly.”

“That way no pony has to lug around a few bricks of high explosives.” Predious nodded. “Smart.”

“Storm?” Longbow spoke up. “If this all works, what do we expect to find inside?”

“Uhh…” I didn’t know how to answer that. Somehow, I had the privilege of being the most knowledgeable of his current status, and not knowing what the hell he was up to at the same time. “I don’t know.” My gaze drifted down to my chest, staring at the small crystal in my hoof. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Predious stepped in. I looked up to find him staring at me, the soft and kind look that he seldom wore greeted me when I did. “Once we get inside, I’m sure it won’t be hard to find him. And when we do, you can use your power on him.”

“Here, here.” Gallant knocked his hoof on the table and nodded. “I’m certain that young miss Storm and her element have the power to finally defeat Filius once and for all.”

“Maybe you all forgot about it,” Gauge grumbled and pointed her hoof at the tent flap. “But there’s an Enclave raptor just waiting for the right moment to vaporize us all. How are we going to deal with that?”

Just as soon as she’d finished, the tent flap pushed back, and the one thing that could take my mind off all this strode in.

“We might already have a plan for that.” Shadow said with a smile. He knew what was coming, and I couldn’t stop myself from running at him and throwing my hooves around him.

“What do you mean, we?” Predious asked quickly. “Weren’t you supposed to have sabotaged it already?”

“Pretty boy here is a lousy saboteur.” An oddly familiar voice of a mare came from outside of the tent. Shadow effortlessly picked me up and pulled me aside as another power armored pegasus strolled in. It took me a moment, but I recognized her as Hail. She was the mare that had arrested us with Cloud Streaker before! “Now, tell me everything you know about why Iron Cross and her sister have such a goddess damned hard on for the stallion in Baltimare, and just maybe I can help get her out of your mane.”

Well, this certainly was an unexpected turn of events. However, you know what they say! Beggars can’t be choosers when you’re trying to save the wasteland. Sure, I might have ad libbed that a bit, but whatever. So long as it get’s Iron out of my life, I’m up for anything.

“Come on in and get comfortable.” I smiled and pointed toward the interior of the tent. “We have a lot to talk about.”

--Chapter End--

“I am the one who can recount what we've lost.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: Once More Into The Fray

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Forty Eight - Flames of Hope

“Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow.”

Without her helmet on, the subtle annoyed twitching of Hail’s eyes stood out in the silent air of the tent. Sure, we had to condense down the events since Filius first showed up, but I could tell that trying to process it all was harder than she’d thought it would be. After a moment, she relaxed in her sleek black power armor.

“Of course you lot would have a story like that.” Hail sighed and facehoofed. “Even if I believed in your supposed element, and a thousand year old madpony” She shot a harsh glance at me. “I’m sure as hell not going to believe that Iron has been ‘mind controlled’ into her actions.”

“Oh, that’s because she hasn’t.” Gallant laughed. “Filius is merely using her to…”

“I’ve heard enough.” Hail grunted and cut him off. The stern look that took over Gallant’s face betrayed the rage behind his eyes.

“A foal acting as insolent to their superiors would have been banished by the princesses back in my time.” He snorted and crossed his forehooves in a way that itself seemed like a foal angry at their parents.

“Look, princess, I’m with the Ministry of Awesome. I operate on direct behalf of the late Princess Luna.” She snapped back at him before facehoofing hard and letting out a long sigh. “Damnit. Me and my big mouth.”

“Hate to tell you, but the MoA is defunct.” Shadow said, taking a step back from her. I honestly had no idea why she’d have claimed to work for Aunt Dashy’s ministry, but it’s such an incredible lie if it is one, that I’m not so sure she would have said it in the first place if it wasn’t true.

“Since the end of the war, we've been operating at the highest levels of discretion. My last training task assigned me to a low level observational job on Iron Cross. My supervisors didn't want her wasting valuable Enclave resources the way her mother did looking for Mrs. Longbow here.” Hail’s expression went flat as she spoke, casting her gaze over to Longbow as she spoke. “Yes, we know who you are. No, we don’t care what you did. Honestly, I'm not sure how Iron could have missed it.”

“So if you’ve been keeping tabs on her, than why the fuck haven't you done anything?” Shadow snorted, grinding his hoof against the muddy floor of the tent. “She tried to kill me, she murdered an entire settlement!”

“It's called protocol.” The emphasis she put on that matched the frustration that we all had begun to feel about Iron in general. “I wasn't advised to do anything until she moved over the Baltimare ruins. The brass at the top have activated me and the other MoA officer on board to find out what she’s planning to do, then to sabotage the ship to force it cloudside so it can be retaken.” She looked over to Shadow with a grumble. “Something you almost mucked up with your little stunt.”

“She’s been hired by Filius to keep us from getting into the city.” I stated flatly. “Look, I don’t care what you have to do, but we need her up above the clouds as much as you do. If you can’t do it, then you’re going to tell us how we can.”

She raised her power armored hoof to me with a small smirk. “Don’t get your britches in a bunch. Working with anypony outside of enclave authorization for monetary gain is good enough.” Pulling her hoof up to her muzzle, she pressed a button on her armor with her nose. “Hope you don’t mind that I recorded our conversation, but it gives the operational authority of the situation. Within the next ten minutes, the Lenticular won’t be a worry to you or the enclave any further.”

“What does that mean?” Longbow used a surprisingly harsh tone as she spoke up.

Hail gave a razor sharp glare at Longbow. “A raptor has been compromised by a rogue crew. Standard procedure is to Sterilize the ship of it’s crew.” She raised her voice as she continued, cutting off Longbow before she could interrupt. “Further more, the entire crew of the Lenticular has been trained to expect this outcome should they fail to inform the Enclave, or refuse the orders of the rogue captain. Seeing as no pony outside of myself and the other MoA operative have come forward to Enclave command, all crew are to be treated as a hostile force.”

“That is fair.” Maple spoke up, sitting down and putting his hoof on the table. “Harsh, but fair.” Looking over to Longbow, he waited until her expression softened to speak again. “However, I need to know, how do you intend to get the raptor above the clouds?”

“With the override authority that you all have given me through your testimony.” She lifted up her hoof again, flipping open a small cover to what looked like a pipbuck screen. “As an MoA agent, I’ve been given override access to the main spell reactor. With a few quick clicks, operation party popper will begin. Just have to pull the string...”

“Are you insane? Without both cloud generators, the storm will dissipate both it’s clouds in seconds and the whole ship will fall!” Shadow blurted out as she continued to hit buttons on her foreleg. A quick chirp from her armor pre-empted shadow tearing open the tent flap and dashing outside. A few of us followed as another chirp came from Hail.

Stepping outside, the enclave skyship hung in the air like it had when we’d arrived. However, the few lights that I could make out along its hull flickered and went out all at once. Then, the front and back of it started to glow. Eight spikes of flame shot out from the bottom of the V shaped hull, a deafening crackle boomed across the night sky as the jets of fire forced the darkness back. I watched in awe, as slowly, the massive ship started to move up. Higher it rose as the roaring jets pouring out of it licked at the swirling stormclouds above the city. Like the sun, it disappeared into the cloud layer, leaving only a bright glow in it’s place as we all sat unsure of what we’d just witnessed.

“You should be glad that you are listed as Dead.” Hail remarked calmly as she trotted out next to Shadow. “Few are told about the below cloud emergency systems, one of the enclave’s closest guarded secrets.”

“It must not be easy to keep emergency retro rockets that large a secret on a ship like that.” Maple spoke up, his eyes still stuck skyward.”

“No. However, most of their components are built into inaccessible areas of the ship, sealed from all maintenance when outside of a skydock.” Hail sounded more relaxed than she had been a few minutes ago, and for once, so did I. Iron was finally out of our way. “Initially thought up after the loss eighty years ago of the Cirrostratus due to reactor failure, most of our cloudships were retrofit with this one time use emergency system.”

“One time use?” Gauge snorted. “Isn’t that a little short sighted for an ‘emergency system’?”

“The engines are unique, using a special alchemical blend of fuel that the Enclave had… liberated from an abandoned zebra missile production facility.” She shrugged. “I could go on and on all day about the things that we’re not allowed to tell enclave citizens. It feels so… good to finally be able to tell somepony all these things. There’s so many secrets up there, sometimes it’s hard to believe that anything could be what it seems.”

“I would like to point out…” Predious spoke up from the tent behind us. “that with the sky clear, this would be an excellent time to infiltrate the city.” There he goes again, being all smart and on point like he usually is.

“Right. No time to dilly-dally.” Maple nodded. “Longbow, you and Mr. Cheap Shot head on over to requisitions and get anything you need. I’ll meet you two at the infiltration point. We’re team one, and we’ll be hitting the spruce boulevard bank, and the Mareiott grand hotel across from it.”

“Storm?” He looked over to me as he trotted back up to the map. “You, Mr. Predious here, and Mr. Shadow head down to the closest target. The Horseshoe casino on Sprout and 8th street. Place the targeting talisman down, get out, and call in the strike.”

“Guys?” Shadow called from outside. I did my best to ignore him for the moment. I needed to make sure I knew what streets where were near our target building, I didn’t want to blow up the wrong one and sink our entire attempt.

“Shit.” Hail chimed in now too. Her voice had even got Maple to stop talking. “She evacuated the ship.” Hail hissed. “I can’t let her get away!”

Peeking out from the edge of the tent, I stared up again into the stormy sky. Little dots punched through the clouds, streaking down like little missiles toward the city. Even from this far, the high pitched whine of the vehicles archano-tech engines was barely audible. Dozens of Virtibucks and Skytanks

“I have an idea!” Shadow looked over to her and spread his wings. “Follow me!” Before I could say anything, both Shadow and Hail jumped and took flight. They zipped up into the sky at an alarming speed, and were almost out of sight in ten seconds flat. With Shadow, went my feelings that this mission was going to work out alright.

“Shit, Longbow…” Maple started up. Longbow was already out of the tent by the time he’d even turned to see her run by him.

“I’m on it!” She shouted, charging down the hill and towards what looked like a field of telephone poles set up at the far end of the camp.

“Gauge,” Maple continued, pointing his hoof at the third and furthest street from us. “You, Mr. Ficha, and your mother will be headed to the Solaris Inc energy building.” He waited until she nodded before shooting his hoof over to Gallant, who raised his eyebrow as he did. “You are to stay here with Cottage and listen in on the radio. You’re the strategist here, you need to direct the main assault on how to keep them busy while we set this all up.”

“Elder, I must request that I go with Mrs. Longbow in your stead.” Cottage stiffened up, throwing up a salute to Maple. “You are too much of an asset to risk sending out.”

“Cottage? If I’m going to lead my family into this fight, it’s going to be from the front lines.” Maple smiled and put his hoof onto his shoulder. “You are a Star Paladin of the Manehatten Rangers. One day, you will be the elder, and you too will know what you’ll have to do for your family.”

“But sir…” He tried to reply, only to be cut off.

“That’s an order, Cottage.” He snapped, losing his genuine and calm demeanor. “The rest of you, get loaded up and get moving. This might be our only window.”

“Come on, Pred.” I turned around with a smile on my muzzle. “Let’s go get us some bullets.” For once, things were starting off on our terms. Sure, Iron was still going to be a problem, but without that ship to protect her, we had a chance at pulling this whole operation off.

* * * * * * * * *

As I trotted toward the old water treatment access outside of camp, I realized how good it felt good to be armed to the teeth again. I’d grabbed plenty of rounds for my rifle and my revolver, enough to be sure that I won’t suffer any shortages guaranteed. Pred on the other hoof, was an indecisive bastard when it came to weapons. He had at least had the foresight to agree not to bring his beloved minigun. The problem is he stood around the whole time debating which weapon to requisition for the fight. I of course ignored him and got my shit together because we were on a time limit.

A thunderous boom emanated from the back half of the camp. The multiple field artillery guns went off in sequence. Each shot screamed overhead and toward the city, flashing and lighting up the sky around the few dozen aerial crafts zipping about. No hits were scored, but by the time I’d thought that, another series of booms cracked out across the sky, and the second barrage was away.

“So it begins.” I muttered as I finally reached the small group of ponies that had gathered around the bunker-esc door to the water treatment plant. Most of them were clothed in simple robes, with various weapons strapped to them. Few of them were wearing power armor, at least less than I’d hoped would be. At the groups head, stood Longbow and Elder Maple, who caught my attention as I approached.

“Where’s Predious?” Longbow snorted. “Our window of opportunity is closing fast. I’ve already sent Frosty’s team ahead with Jack knife.” She didn’t sound happy at the prospect of them going off, but then again, I don’t think a single pony here liked our odds. “Once you and Predious reach the target and knock it out, you are to fall back into the tunnels and regroup at maintainance junction 73. The team I send will bring medical supplies and ammunition. Once they arrive, I want all available teams to hold that entrance. Above and below, is that clear?”

“Storm,” Elder Maple began. “Because your third team member is otherwise occupied, I’m assigning a group of acolytes to you.” He pointed to three robed mares who stood off to the side. “Kiwi Tart, Sweet Salsa, and Cinnamon Chips. You are to escort Storm and Predious to the target zone.”

“Yes sir!” The young and energetic earth pony mare in front of him bounced and saluted with her hoof. “We won’t let you...!” She was cut off by another barrage going out from the artillery. I was becoming concerned that even with us firing at them, they hadn’t fired back at us. What was it that Filius and Iron were up to?

“Kiwi, save that energy for the fight.” Maple said with a calm tone too good for a situation as dire as the one we were in. He paused for a moment as rapid hoofsteps thumped through the snowy ground behind us. “Nice of you to join us, Predious.”

Turning around, I looked back to find an odd sight. Predious nearly dragged his hooves through the snow as he trotted so slow he could almost be walking. The large, olive drab combat helmet that he wore was tipped back, sitting on top of his horn out of place. He panted heavily as the large green box strapped onto the heavy combat armor he wore swayed with him. The large antenna that flopped back and forth out of it might as well have had a big flag with a target painted on it.

“A radio?” I closed my eyes with a disappointed sigh. “All the choices of weapons, and you bring a radio.”

“Heh.” He choked out a forced laugh around his heavy panting. “We’ll see who’s… laughing when… we need fire… support.”

“We had three acolytes assigned to us.” I pointed my hoof over towards the three young mares. “I’m sure one of them have a radio.”

“I do!” The Yellow mare with a spiky red mane called out.

“See, she does.” I turned back to Elder Maple. “We don’t have time to change up again, we need to strike.”

“I agree.” The elder nodded and levitated his helmet on. It encased around his entire head with a hiss, and as it did, Longbow brought her helmet up as well. “To all combat units. This is it. It’s time to take back Baltimare!”

A rousing shout echoed through the night. A cheer of confidence shared by all who had given up their regular lives to fight here. We had all unified for this, the victory that was to be won would be ours to share and ours alone. Nopony in the wasteland could take this fight from us, and these ponies were about to show them how hard it would be to try.

“Are you ready?” Cheap Shot appeared at my side, wearing nothing but a white shirt, a vest that nearly matched mine, and a holster with an old zebra 9mm pistol in it. Still, I wore the vest better.

I gave him a short nod, and we walked forward, piling into the dark tunnels. Again, I was headed off into a maze of tunnels, as if I hadn’t already seen enough of them in my lifetime. Still, it was enemy territory, and there was no turning back anymore.

* * * * * * * * *

The heavy stench of sewage was more pungent than anything I’d ever smelled. At the very least, my nose went scent blind after a few minutes. However, annoyingly, I bet this smell would cling to my coat for weeks to come. Still, it could be worse I guess. I ran through a mental checklist in my head again.

Do I have my guns?

I looked down over myself as we traversed the long passageway that lead alongside the dark and churning sewer waters in the tunnel. My rifle hung heavy at my side, and my revolver was still snugly in it’s holster. Lastly, the small gem in my satchel pulsed with an energy I could feel in my soul, as if to respond to my question. So I can check that off.

Do I have my friends?

Looking back over my shoulder, Predious wore a wavering smile. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was afraid, or if he didn’t like the tunnels, or if he was just tired of lugging that giant early model field radio around with him. Honestly, it could have been all three and I wouldn’t have blamed him.

Turning my gaze forward again, I hoped beyond hope that Shadow would come hovering up to us from up ahead. I don’t know what kind of plan he’d had when he ran off with that enclave tart. No, not tart. She’s not trying to steal him from you, Storm. Shadow loves you.

“He really does, doesn’t he.” I let out a sigh as I thought about that.

“Hmm?” Cheap Shot glanced back at me. “Ya say somethin’?”

“No, sorry.” I winced, making him cock an eyebrow and offer an uncertain smile before he turned back around. Friend’s, check.

“We’re coming up onto the shit shed.” Cheap Shot whispered, keeping his voice down. I’m not sure why, because the heavy hooves of all of us trotting along wasn’t exactly subtle. “That’s our common meeting place down here. I set us to meet up with the others to tell them how to get the tunnel side defences ready.”

“Why did you name it the shit shed?” Kiwi, the brown mare with the flowing bowl cut green mane almost pushed her way past Pred to ask.

“If you had to patrol down here all day, would you investigate a room with the words ‘shit shed’ on it?” He bluntly whispered back. Okay, I’ll give him points for ingenuity, but he could have just slapped a ‘Caution: Hazardous Chemicals’ sign on the door and been fine.

With a quick glance around, he slowed to a crawl. There was a sharp corner ahead that split the sewer off into a T shape. Carefully, he dipped his head out, glancing around the corner. Slowly, he pulled his head back and looked over at me.

“It’s clear.” He nodded, slipping deftly around the corner.

As we all followed him down the path, a muffled shriek came from far above us. A heavy whump shook the ground, and a line of dust trailed off the ceiling down into the viscous sludge next to us. The quick taps and other muffled explosions spoke volumes about what was happening in the city now. Our fighters had already made it to the city, and were fighting their way in.

“Alright,” Cheap Shot spoke at a whisper. He stopped us in front of a rusted steel door that reminded me of the bulkheads in the Nautilus. Carefully, he put his hooves on the small locking lever and twisted it. Unlike on the Nautilus, this door opened so quietly, that I’d have missed it had I not been staring at it.

The second the door had peeked open, a soft light emanated from inside. The form of a pony moved to look through the inside of the opening door, and even at a glance, her reaction to take a step back told me who it was. Mora’s ashamed look to hold as she stepped back, turning her eyes to the ground sadly as Cheap entered the room.

I was quick to follow, looking in to find what amounted to a small one bedroom house. Sure, the bedroom was the maintenance closet, but the three stacked mattresses called out to me longingly. There was a small kitchenette set up in the far corner, with a few couches and folding stools along the walls. All of it pulled my attention to the old billiards table with a familiar face sitting and playing solitaire at it. The bright pink puff she gave off when she turned around was disconcerting, but the smile she wore was a nice change since the prison.

“So, the miracle mare makes her return.” She snorted, sending another quick burst of pink cloud out. “Delightful to see you again.” The moment Pred and the ranger gang piled in behind me however, wiped that smile off her decaying muzzle. “Oh, and you brought the riff raff with you.”

“Now now, Mrs. Whinnyston, we all have to play nice for the moment.” Mora spoke up, rousing a sigh and a roll of the eyes from the old ghoul. With a quick glance back, Mora went wide eyed and looked back down at the floor again. I wanted to apologize for her loss. It can’t have been easy to lose her sister like that and just be forced to move on so fast.

“So then!” Cheap Shot clapped his hooves together and rubbed them. “The plan is, we hold the area around da arena, so I’mma need the both a ya ta take out any tunnels dat link up with em’. Got it?”

“I hope you grasp just how many tunnels you are implying we collapse.” Mrs. Whinnyston said as she raised a cigarette up to her lips. She took a long, wheezing drag from it. It was entrancing to watch as she opened her muzzle and blew a striped ring of pink and white out. “Two dozen tunnels isn’t going to be like an afternoon stroll through canterlot central park, you know.”

“Yeah, but the Steel Rangers’ll give ya more then enough boom ta do the job with.” Cheap smiled and paused for a moment. Another loud whistling came in from overhead, and another blast rocked the city streets above us. “Ya know, if they don’t bring em’ down themselves first dat is…”

“Corporal Kiwi,” The Yellow acolyte behind us spoke up. I turned around and watched as she nodded with her hoof to her ear before she pulled the headset she wore away from her red spiky mane. “Initial assault teams are in place. They’re digging in for the long fight now.”

“Thank you, Salsa.” The green mare nodded and looked over to me, fluttering her robes a bit. As she did, I noticed she was wearing something under them. I didn’t get a good look, but I’d hoped it was a battle saddle, and that the others had them under their robes as well. “If it were alright with you, ma’am, we should probably get moving.”

“You two,” Cheap said, pointing at Mora and Mrs. Whinnyston, “Get those tunnels down.” With a smile, he turned back to me and canted his head to the door. “All ready ta go, boss?”

“Just… I want a moment.” I stammered, looking over at Mora. “I’ll catch up.” I smiled up to him, only to have him shrug and head for the door. “And don’t call me boss.” He smirked and trotted out. Quickly, Kiwi and the other acolytes left as well, only leaving Pred standing there and staring at me. “Alone, please?” I asked him as nicely as I could. He nodded and shot a look over to Mora before leaving too. “Finally.” I turned around to talk to Mora, to tell her I was sorry, to tell her it was my…

And she kissed me.

It felt odd. It wasn’t like when Shadow had done it, it felt... hollow. Slowly, as she pulled away, I wrapped my hooves around her tightly. Little shivers ran along her body as I held her, punctuating the soft sobs she gave against my neck as she pressed against me.

“I’m sorry.” I whispered into her ear. I wanted so badly to make it up to her, to give her something to replace the sister that was stolen from her. It was never that easy with loss, was it? I couldn’t have given anything to Skyline to fix it, and I couldn’t help Gauge at all.

“I just…” She sniffed in between sobs. “I miss her.” She nuzzled herself against me even harder, wrapping her hooves around me as well. “I hated what she thought of me, but… why did I have to lose her on such a sour note?”

“She was wrong about you.” I spoke, making Mora pull back off me quickly. She looked mortified at my words, staring at me agast before pushing me away.

“She wasn’t!” She sniffled, bringing a forehoof to wipe away her tears. “She had no right to tell me who I could love, but she was right that I shouldn’t have even been looking. I should have focused on her, on keeping the only family I had left alive.” She hung her head again, staring at the floor. “But now she’s gone, and I’m alone.”

“Mora, you’re a good mare.” I started, not really knowing how to phrase what I wanted her to hear. “Good mare’s don’t have it easy. It’s not fair, and it’s always nearly an unwinnable fight, but you can’t let this hold you back.” I’d found the words in how I felt about Pallet. “She’s gone, but we can’t let ourselves get lost in the fantasy of our memories. We have to move forward, to make sure that they are going to be remembered in the future.” She looked up at me slowly, and I cupped my hoof under her quivering chin. “You’ll find a special pony someday, and they’ll need you to remember who she was so that you can tell them how much she meant to you.”

“Okay…” She whimpered, giving the softest of nods. “I… I’m sorry I kissed you.”

“You can kiss me anytime, Mora.” I gave her a soft smile. “So long as you remember your sister.” Slowly, I turned myself around, and headed for the exit. I swung the door out, stepping through it before stopping and glancing back. Mora still sat where she was, holding her hooves to her chest with a small smile as she cried. Maybe my words would help her, I’d hoped that they would. Carefully, I pulled the door back, and shut it.

Turning around, I nearly ran into Predious’s pursed lips as he stood in front of me.

“Bah!” I shouted and reflexively swung my hoof at him. It connected solidly with the side of the combat helmet he wore, sending it hard against the old concrete wall, and sending a spike of pain down my foreleg. “Damnit, Pred!”

“Worth it.” He huffed as he pressed a hoof up to his head. He blinked a few times and shook his head a bit before straightening the helmet out with his assholish smirk. “So, having a bit of fun behind Shadow’s back?” He cocked an eyebrow as his smile got even wider.

I ignored him and pressed myself past him on the walkway. “Come on, let’s get to the others.”

“Oh,” His tone changed in an instant. “Alright.” Quickly, he caught up to me, and we were both traveling at almost a canter down the old sewer line. “I’m sorry.” Just from his tone, I could hear that he knew it wasn’t the time for jokes, and he’d made a mistake.

“She and her sister helped me back at the prison.” I said, keeping my eyes ahead. “I’d promised to get them all out. Rosina was lost in the fight. There was nothing I could do.”

“Ahead, take a right.” Predious spoke out flatly. I could tell that he didn’t want to get into it, and honestly neither did I. Everypony had lost someone in this fight, and as much as I wanted to bring them all back, that wasn’t possible. For Pred though, it wasn’t just this fight. He must have seen countless die in the days after the war, and lost more ponies in the years since that he’s just numb to it. He’d have to be, or I’m willing to bet that he’d have gone feral by now. Hell, I would have.

We turned the corner and entered what looked to be a larger section of the sewer system. The tunnel itself was well lit like the previous one, and spanned almost twice as far across. The muck river in the middle churned and moved slowly, flowing to goddess knows where away from the direction we were headed. The old slab pathway we’d followed expanded as well, offering now a three pony wide span for us to walk on.

Then I looked down the length of the tunnel. It stretched on for what felt like miles. I don’t know how we’d ever find our way down here without Cheap Shot. Speaking of, he and the others were still in sight quite far down the tunnel.

I wanted to ask Pred about it, how he’d maintained control for so long. But, a part of me knows that’s like asking somepony to recount their first time having sex. There’s probably not a lot to it, it’s worse than you think, and it just leaves both ponies too embarrassed to talk about anything else. Maybe that had just been my experience, but still, it wouldn’t make for enjoyable conversation. Instead, we trotted down the tunnel in silence.

More whistling blasts, and some not so whistling blasts continued to shake the tunnels. Every so often, one of them would knock out a few bricks from the ceiling. That got me worried. While the side tunnels ceiling had been made of concrete like it’s walls, the main tunnel here had an old brick ceiling. If one of those bricks came down on somepony, it was lights out. With that worry nagging at my flank, I pushed myself up to a canter. Pred strained to keep up, but I think he was also worried about a collapse, so I don’t think he minded the strain.

We’d gone just about a mile down the tunnel when we finally caught up to the others. They were standing around, looking just as worn out as Pred and I were feeling. Another blast from up top shook the tunnel, and the ceiling a few hundred feet back dipped down. It held, with only a few of its bricks dropping into the muck river with thick plops.

“The sooner we get outta here, da better. We’ve been down here too long anyhow.” Cheap Shot panted, pointing his hoof up. “Da eighth street access is just up ahead, we could…” Another whistling blast came down what sounded to be right on top of us. The tunnel ceiling just ahead of us burst like a river of rock, pouring down onto the walkway ahead. “Go back, run!” Cheap Screamed as the ceiling almost seemed to unzip towards us.

I slammed my hooves down and pushed myself into a gallop. My hoofbeats were lost to the single roar of flowing dirt behind me. I felt guilty about running as fast as I did, and I wanted to look back, but I feared that if I did I might trip. Thankfully, the sound behind me tapered off, and the rumbling that I could now feel through my hooves drifted away.

“Oh my goddesses…” Kiwi panted as she slowed to a stop next to me. “That… was scary…” With a sigh of relief, she flopped onto her belly. “Sweet, Chips, you still with me?”

“Yes… Ma’am” They both replied.

“You can run…” Cheap shot panted heavily as he walked up behind me. “really fast... you know that?”

“I too am alright.” Predious panted lightly, still seeming to have the same level of exhaustion as before we had to run. I looked back and found that he hadn’t even broken a sweat from all that.

“How come… you’re fine?” I wheezed through my pants. Okay, as good as the floor felt, we needed to keep going.

“Ghouls don’t need to breathe as much oxygen as normal ponies.” He said nervously, shooting a glance over to the others. “There is so much methane and nitrogen down here that it’s thinned the oxygen levels. You all should get above ground before you become completely exhausted.”

“And how a ya thinkin’ we’ll do that?” Cheap Shot offered with a jab of his hoof. “The way back ta the exit is completely sealed.” He shifted his hoof, pointing to the enormous wall of dirt that sat only twenty feet from us. Shit, if we couldn’t get through…

“Salsa, or whatever your name was,” Predious looked over to her. “Call this in and have them find us an alternate above ground route to the Casino.”

The mare looked perplexed for a moment, before looking over to Kiwi. “Should I, Ma’am?”

“Of course. We don’t want to be stuck down here forever.” Kiwi whined and rolled her eyes. She put her hooves under her and pushed herself up with a groan again. “I was going to suggest it, but he got to it first.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Salas nodded before looking over to the last mare with them. “Cinnamon, can you project the map, please?”

The mare simply nodded, pulling her hood back. The bright red unicorn mare closed her eyes as her horn glowed. In the air ahead of her, formed an exact copy of the Baltimare map that was displayed back in the command tent.

“Storm, can I… talk ta ya?” Cheap Shot smiled and pointed over to one of the nearby maintenance rooms. I nodded and walked over to the door. The old rusty door was dented inward toward the bottom, and was missing it’s door handle altogether, leaving just a corroded hole. I pushed the door open easily with my hoof, cringing as the high pitched squeak sent a shiver down my spine. I walked into the room and turned around, curious as to what Cheap Shot had to say.

“Be right back!” He called over with a smile, walking in and shutting the door. The moment he did, he nearly collapsed against it, shaking wildly. “Goddesses…” He whined, sliding down the door. His trembling hooves came up and pressed against his face, rousing another pained whine from him. “I can’t do it.”

“You can’t do what?” I frowned, sitting down and staring at him.

“I can’t die!” He looked up to me, pulling his hooves down and looking at them in horror. His breathing was getting quicker, and he was shaking all over now. Either the air down here was getting to him, or he was having a full blown panic attack.

“Woah, woah, slow down.” I spoke, lowering myself down a bit. “Sure, there’s a chance we all could die, but we have to try.”

“Ya don’t get it, Storm.” He curled himself up a bit, slowing his breathing down a bit. “I can’t die. If I do… then all my friends. The ones I betrayed…”

“Shut your muzzle, Cheap.” I snapped. “You shouldn’t be ashamed for living. Nopony blames you for what you did.” My outburst made him whimper and shrink even more. “Sure, you spoke up first, but can you say they wouldn’t have felt the same way after if they had spoken instead?”

“Yes, but…” He squeaked out, looking up at me with a look of self disgust that was almost pitiable had I not known why he wore it.

“No buts.” I grunted, reaching out and hooking my hoof around him. “It took me far too long to figure out that being the one left alive? It’s not something that I can let go to waste for regret’s sake.” Pulling him back to his hooves, he stood there with weavering eyes. “Cheap, I need you to hold it together for me. Don’t think that being a survivor makes you a bad pony. You’re one of the most brave stallions I’ve seen, and I need you to stay that way, just a little longer, alright?”

“Ya right.” He sighed, looking down at the floor again. “I just blame myself for their deaths. It ain’t dat I’m afraid ta die, I just don’t want ta die without beatin the asshole who killed em’.” Raising his hoof to my shoulder, he got a little smirk. “They always said dat I was the lucky one. Guess I just took it for granted.”

“Out there? In the fighting?” I pointed my hoof to the door, “No pony is going to blame you for choosing life. They’re all going to be afraid. I am afraid, but I can’t let that hold me back.” He smiled at my words and shook his head.

“I ain’t got a clue how ya can seem so confident.” He nodded and looked past the rusted door. Just outside it, I could hear the soft hoofsteps of the others approaching. “But ya right. Maybe after we’re done… I can put my friends ta rest once and for all.”

“Anytime you want, find me and I’ll be there to help.” I smiled and gave him a pat on the neck. “Now, let’s go see where we need to backtrack too.” Stepping past Cheap Shot, I pulled the door open and was met with Kiwi’s determined expression.

“Ma’am. We’ve been ordered to backtrack to fifth street.” She said, bringing her forehoof up in a stiff salute that was far too formal for talking to somepony in a sewer maintenance closet. “There’s currently a squad of fighters up there holding that intersection. If we enlist their help, we can push the three blocks to the casino in a short amount of time.”

“One, don’t salute me.” I said, hoofing at her forehoof to bring it down. “Two, why can’t we just take seventh? It should take us less time.”

Salsa spoke up before Kiwi could. “Chips’ map showed that sixth and seventh were already blocked off by the ruins of an old skyscraper.” She slowed down her words toward the end, watching as Kiwi gave her an annoyed glare. “Sorry, Kiwi.”

“You aren’t in charge of the squad, Salsa. We have ranks for a reason. Step out of line like that again, and...” She grumbled, losing her train of thought as Cinnamon came walking up to her. In a surprising move, she slapped Kiwi hard before trotting past her. “Come on, Cinnamon… don’t be like that!” Kiwi stammered.

“I know you want to impress the higher ups,” Salsa sighed as she walked past, “but you’re letting your position go to your head. Cinnamon and I want old Kiwi back.” slowly, she continued on. Just behind her, Predious gave me a shrug as he simply followed.

“Goddesses, why is being a leader so hard?” Kiwi whined. “Can’t they just understand?”

“I’ll tell you when I figure it out.” I grumbled, leaving the maintenance closet. “I guess you could always ask yourself why you wanted to be a leader in the first place.” Continuing on, Kiwi got to her hooves and followed me. After only a moment, she was at my side, looking over me like I was somepony she needed to study.

“I… I didn’t.” She stammered. “Our old squad leader was killed back in the manehatten base.” So much loss caused by Filius, so much suffering. Each time I thought of it now, the flames burned brighter inside me. Kiwi’s voice pulled me out of my hatred again. “I was only chosen for promotion because I used to invent things back in the research room. The Elder thought my creativity could be utilized for command. I just… I don’t want to let him down.”

“Disappointing looks and angry friends seem to come with the position.” I muttered. “I still question myself, still make mistakes, and I still get ponies killed…” Watching Tasteless die replayed in my mind, and I couldn’t stop it. “But, they continue to look up to me so long as I do what I think will be best. I just have to live with the consequences and hope they can forgive me when this is all over.”

For a bit, Kiwi just seemed to let that sink in. Turning to look over at Cheap, I saw that he had a much more calm expression across his face now. A quick glance made him give me a smirk, and I could see the flame of hope relit inside him.

You know… maybe there was something to this whole element thing after all.

We’d shortly arrived over at one of the offshooting tunnels like we’d originally come down. The old brick gave way to the solid concrete, and with it dissipated the thought it could come down on our heads at a moment’s notice. As if to tell us to keep moving, another whistling barrage came down nearby, and everypony’s mane seemed to stand up together.

“Cinnamon…” Kiwi whined as she moved into a canter. She hopped up as she approached, and threw her forehooves around the bright red mare, who simply stood in shock. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be mean to you two! It’s just so stressful, and I got jealous, and… I’m sorry!”

Cinnamon smiled and wrapped one of her forehooves around her. She didn’t say anything, or make a single sound even. She simply held her for a moment before giving Kiwi a soft kiss on the cheek. The blush that came over Kiwi’s cheek make her look almost as bright as Cinnamon did. With a giggle, Salsa piled in on the hug and squeezed the two together. It’s amazing how until recently, I never believed that friends really could make a difference.

“Alright, the access point is only another couple hundred feet.” Cheap Shot said as he pushed his way past me. “I’ll head on up and take a look around.”

“Careful,” Salsa called out. “It’s a warzone up there. Stay low and out of sight if you can.”

Yes, I’m sure there would be plenty of concealment when coming out of a ponyhole in the middle of a street. “Unfortunately, there’s no real way to avoid it.” I sighed. “Come on, girls, it’s time we did our job.” Turning to Predious, he smiled at me.

“Didn’t I tell you?” He put his hoof on his chest, speaking in his ‘smarter than thou’ tone again. “A natural leader.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t march yourself up after Cheap, then I’ll make you… naturally regret your words!” I scrunched up my face, not sure where that insult had come from. I used to be so good at insulting ponies too. I guess losing my creativity for insults was the downside of actually trying to be a better pony.

“Storm!” Cheap shot called. “Get over here, now.” Even as he yelled to me, the sound of sporadic gunfire came through the tunnel louder than it had before. Checking the augmented vision that my pipbuck gave me, I made sure that my pistol was registered as loaded. I’d need something to use if we popped up into a bad situation.

“There are Steel Rangers fightin’ up top.” Cheap said as he climbed down the old, rusty ladder that lead out to the street. “Might be a good idea for ya ta go first, seeing as plenty of ‘em know who ya are and won’t shoot ya on sight.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably good thinking.” Pushing myself up against the ladder, I hooked my hooves into the rungs. Without thinking, I was back in the stairway of Pai’s orchard. It was only a moment, but I tightened my hold around the rungs, afraid I’d fall. “Alright. We need to go.” I whispered to myself.

Slowly, I reached my hoof up. One at a time, nice and slow. Rung after rung, I climbed the short way up to the top, reaching my hoof up to the heavy iron cover. With a grunt, I pressed against the freezing cold metal, popping it up just enough so I could see.

“Somepony get around to the left flank!” Oil Can shouted, bracing himself up against an old skywagon carcass that sat upturned in the road. “You!” He shouted, pointing his hoof to somepony behind me. “Get that power armor over and take out that sniper to the west!” It was odd to see him so collected. Every time I’d seen him standing guard at Tenpony, he always seemed so shy and apprehensive. Not to mention, he looked tired and worn out. Heavy bags hung under his eyes, and a bloody bandage around his side barely hid the fact that his ribs were showing through. Even tired, bloody, and starving, he fought on.

With a heavy grunt, I heaved the ponyhole cover up and flipped it aside. Among the frantic firefight, nopony had heard it slam down against the street. Pulling myself up however, caught Oil Can’s attention. He whipped the assault rifle in his hooves around, pointing it at me before lowering it in surprise.

“Storm?” He called out, hard to hear over the battle raging on.

“Are you in charge here, Oil Can?” I shouted, pulled myself up and out of the hole. He squinted for a moment before nodding frantically. “We need to get to eighth and Sprout!”

A burst of fire came from up the street, sparking off one of the power armored Rangers who was facing the other way. Quickly, he turned on his hooves and spun up his minigun. It let out a quick roar, spitting a line of red past our skycar and out to the street beyond. As quickly as he had fired, he was back turned around again. After another moment, the anti-machine rifle on the other side of his armor let out a piercing shot down the other street into the night.

“Eighth? The hell are you doing here!?” He shouted at me. “This is 5th! 8th is that way!” He flailed a forehoof over the skywagon. As he did, Pred pulled himself up and out of the tunnel, immediately ducking his head down as another stream of fire poured in from the other side of the skycart.

“I know! The tunnel's collapsed, we have to go on hoof!” I shouted back. “We need your squad to help us push forward!”

“Like hell! That way is full of em' deadites!” He frantically shook his head. “Pushing forward would be suicide. Even here we don’t have that much cover and we're already outgunned!”

“Hey!” Predious yelled and ducked forward as the others streamed through the hole. “Either that hotel comes down, or the whole city falls!”

He stared at us for a moment, trembling in rage. I’d never seen him so angry. He’d been pushed to the brink, and we were asking even more from him.

“Fuck it!” He screamed out, beating out the raging battle around him. “Everypony, listen up!” I don’t know how most of them heard him, but they turned to listen when he called. “New orders! We’re pushing up to the eighth street casino.” Pulling his rifle up to his chest, he grimaced and screamed out even louder this time. “Drive em' back to the holes they came from!”

A unanimous cheer erupted from the ponies around us as they regrouped. One after another, they took up positions and laid down fire. After a moment, the ones in back sprinted forward, taking up newer positions further ahead. Looking back at Oil Can, I could tell he was already regretting that order.

If I could be considered any sort of leader, I was half that of what Oil Can was. Who knew the meek security stallion could take charge so well?

“Storm, I hope you brought more than this with you.” He glanced over at my compatriots. “Or at the very least, I hope you brought some good guns.”

“Alright, girls!” Kiwi shouted, grabbing her cloak with her hoof. “Let’s get to work!”

With a clean swing, Kiwi and the other girls threw off their garments. Secured around Kiwi’s Barrel, was a pair of metal rings. that connected to a heavy metal plate on her chest. From each side of her, metal arms sprung out stiffly on swivel mounts connected to the rings. Each one bounced from the weight of the heavy machine guns that sat mounted on them.

From Cinnamon's sides, floated out several metal plates, which she quickly secured and locked on to the armored harness that Kiwi wore. The metal plates bent forward, looking more like they belonged on a tank than on a pony. They stacked up tall enough that they enclosed Kiwi, along with a bit of her sides. From Spicy, belts of ammo streamed from the containers she held on her side, and both her and Cinnamon took their place at the guns on Kiwi’s side.

“Forward, march!” Kiwi shouted, slowly walking forward. The whole contraption must have weighed a ton, and even then, she pushed forward on her own. Both Cinnamon and Spicy Salsa smiled for a moment to us before pressing close against Kiwi and keeping their hooves on the hanging guns. With a flicker of her horn, Cinnamon projected a light pink bubble around the whole group of them. Working together like that, they were going to be one hell of a fighting force.

“Well, that’s different.” Predious commented, shortly recoiling as Spicy stood on both hind legs and took the heavy gun in her hooves. With a scream, she opened fire, the heavy fifty caliber machine gun barking out shots that sent up kicks of snow and dust as the bright tracers flew off into the night. “Well,” Pred snorted, holding his hoof out, “Shall we?”

I groaned, turning the corner to head off after the makeshift walking bunker. “This is going to be one tough fight…”

--Chapter End--

“I am the one who will live on.”

Quests Finished: Once More Into The Fray

Quests Started: Operation: Reverse-Siege

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: Flames of Hope -

As long as the fires of Hope burn within you, your entire party gains a 10% bonus to morale and damage.

Chapter Forty Nine - Operation: Reverse Siege

“With our backs to the wall, the darkness will fall. We never quite thought we could lose it all
Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire.”

The air was thick with violence, the streets were full of brass and blood. The wails of the injured mixed in with the symphony of gunfire that turned the night into a high tempo song of suffering and death. Every now and again, we’d get a break from it as more artillery shells sang overhead to their targets. Combined with the dramatic lighting of a half dozen burning fires that had started, tonight was poised to be one of those old world opera’s that I couldn’t stand listening to.

The retaliation to our push was stiff. They’d managed to counter Kiwi’s mobile fortress with their own machine gun nest. After a few attempted shots to shoot out her hooves, Kiwi was forced to set the mobile wall down. Of course, without her pushing up, the rest of us were pinned.

I’d taken cover behind an old half burnt newsstand, pressing myself up against the largest stack of decayed and sopping wet newspapers that I could. Predious was off to my right, crouched behind one of the old concrete city benches. It was at this point at which I had really wished he’d brought an actual gun.

Across the street from us, hid both Oil Can and Cheap Shot. The both of them were pressed against the backside to a stairway of the ruined apartment building they were under. The rain of fire coming against us was bad enough that even the power armored steel ranger sought shelter in the doorway of a small shop.

A resounding bang beat out the chattering machine gun, and the entire side of the power armored ranger was sheared away before the whole thing bloomed like a bloody flower. Gore and steel ribboned into the street as what little remained of the shredded armor crashed over onto its side.

“Storm.” Predious snapped at me. “I need you to be my eyes for your rifle.”

“Wha…?” I tried to ask, but was cut off by another explosive bang from whatever weapon they were shooting at us. The second shot however, reminded me of a rifle I’d once heard just like it. Excessively powerful, and taken from the dead hooves of Pallet back at dodge. The traitorous steel ranger bastards must have found more ammo for the damned thing.

“Now.” He sneered. “No time.” As he spoke, his horn glowed and pulled my rifle from my hooves. “Turn around, and lay on the ground.” My rifle delicately floated through the air above me as I looked over to him. “Do it slowly.” His gaze was locked up the street, stern and unwavering.

Carefully, and slowly, he scooted himself back as I did. As I laid down, I turned myself over onto all fours. From this new position, I could see that there had been a hole burned through the wall just above the stack of papers I’d been hiding behind. Without another word, Predious lowered my gun down enough to where the scope and barrel had unobstructed sight through. Sadly, it sat too far up for me to just grab it.

“What direction in your scope is the toppled red brick building toward.” He asked, slowly panning my rifle back and forth. After a moment, it lined up with my eye, and I could use it like a telescope. Out of the right corner of it, I could barely see the canted edge of the building.

“To the right a little.” I answered. Slowly, he swung the gun over, revealing the dark windows of the old facade.

“Tell me when you can see the old entryway.” He spoke calmly, tilting the gun down. As he did, the old windows went out of sight, and the collapsed entryway came into view.

“I can see it.” I said.

Another night shattering bang resounded, and Cheap Shot screamed out. It broke my attention, and I looked over to find that there was a good chunk of the stairway between Cheap and Oil now missing.

“Storm, pay attention.” Predious grunted. “When I get to the third floor, tell me with a tap.” Again, he moved the rifle so that my view panned up along the windows. The third floor came up quickly, and I tapped my hoof on the ground. “Now, two windows over…” He trailed off, turning the rifle. I tapped my hoof as the window came up.

“I don’t see anything.” I said, looking for any sign of movement at all.

“Wait for it…” He sighed, keeping his eyes locked on to it. I heard him move. Glancing from the corner of my eye, I watched him slowly stand up from his cover. “Hold…” He said again slowly.

Looking back through the scope, I watched as a shadow moved in the room. The faint flicker of light glinted in the crosshairs, and the shape of a rifle was outlined in the dim firelight that came up from the street. Fuck, he’d used himself as bait!

“Pred!” I shouted, only to be cut off by my own rifle. Watching through the scope, I froze, holding my breath as I watched the shadow in the room move. Harmony’s large rifle slipped out the window, quickly followed by the half headed body of a griffon dressed in all black. The rifle hit the ground butt first, standing straight up before the griffon plowed into it and bent the barrel from the impact.

Good riddance.

“Nice shot.” I said, looking over to Pred. He gave me a nervous smile back as his legs shook wildly. I don’t think he even wanted to know how close he’d cut it.

A fresh burst of machine gun fire ripped through the top half of the news stand. Pred’s legs gave out from under him, and he flopped onto the ground with me. We both sat and cringed as the chattering fire splintered and tore at the old world wood construction. I could hear the heavy impacts of bullets against the wet, compressed newspapers.

“Everypony, keep your heads down!” Salsa shouted. “Incoming in five!” She screamed. “Four!” Even before she could count any further, I could hear the whistling drone. “Three!” And with that, she too curled herself and waited.

Even the enemy seemed to relent for a moment. For only a moment, there was a blissful calm. No gunshots, no screams of pain, no shouting of orders. And in an instant, that was gone again.

The highly explosive payload of the artillery shell detonated with tremendous force. Even from behind cover, the initial flash blinded me, leaving the image of a cowering Predious lingering in my eyes. Then, another blast, and another. Five in total lit up the night and sent waves of pressure over us. The silence that had existed only seconds before, was replaced with an oscillating ringing as I uncurled myself.

“Let’s go!” Kiwi screamed out, only coming across my ears as a whisper. The dozen or so of our fighters that had been spread out were quick to get back to their hooves. Kiwi screamed out and lifted her fortress off the ground, and started to move forward again.

Both Predious and I pushed ourselves to our hooves. He used his magic to sling my rifle over me again, and also drew my revolver out into his own hold. For taking out that asshole in the window, I say he’d earned its use. Oil Can crossed the street hastily, pushing up close to my side.

“Did you take out that sniper?” He called out with a wide smile.

I pointed a hoof over to Predious. “He did. And you’re welcome.” I said, wearing a smile of my own across my muzzle.

Looking ahead of us, the smoke and dust was clearing. The artillery barrage had cleared not just the machine gun nest in the intersection ahead, but also partway up the next street. The twisted wrecks of what must have once been old sky carts and carriages lay thrown about as small, prismatic mushroom clouds rose into the night from them. The largest, and farthest cloud was that from an old skybus, which lay twisted and on it’s side in the middle of the road.

“Thank the goddesses for those flying deathtraps.” Predious said, strolling along next to me as we made our way through the intersection. “And lucky us. Only two more streets to go.”

Of course, the wasteland never lets sarcasm like that off easy.

The enemy troops that had moved in ahead of us opened fire. Again, the street became chaos as we all moved for cover. I was about to remark about how wonderful it was going to be to do the same shit as the last street all over again. However, a familiar high pitched whine came from the sky, and it sent a shiver up my spine. Because it couldn’t have possibly gotten worse.

From over one of the tall office buildings one block ahead, came a pair of bright searchlights. The looming, bug like form of an enclave Virtibuck hovered over the top. From the side of it, a red light from the interior of it backlit a pony who stood at what looked like a mounted weapon. As Predious and I gazed up at it, the pony opened fire. Red lines of rapid fire death rained down on the street ahead of us.

The pegasus aiming it swiveled their fire around, causing most of us to dive for cover. The half voiced cries of a few who failed to make it filled the air between reinvigorated gunfire from the deadites ahead. One scream in particular forced my glance around the rusty mailbox I’d pressed against.

“Fuck!” Kiwi screamed out. Her rear legs collapsed out from under her as what looked like a whole half of her flank bubbled and boiled.

“Bring it down, Chips!” Salsa screamed, swiveling her gun up as she loosed a long stream of fire at the sky ship. Cinnamon turned and followed suit on her own gun. The virtibuck veered off and dipped around the building. It would only be a moment before they returned and repeated their attack.

Without Kiwi’s fortress pinning them down, the whole of the Deadite force seemed to pop up from their cover to fire. Dozens of rounds sparked off the metal prow of the set up, even more sparked around the edges and forced Salsa back from her gun. Cinnamon was slow to move, and as she did, I watched as her head snapped to the side forcefully. The slender horn on her head gave a sickening crack as it all but splintered, sending her down in the dirt.

“Give them some fucking covering fire!” I screamed out. With a single fluid motion, I spun myself around and pulled my rifle up. Fifty feet or so ahead of me, I saw a rotten stallion with a rusty assault rifle out in the open.

I took aim. My hooves were steady as I pulled the trigger. With a flash from the end of my barrel, the top of his skull separated from his head. As he crumpled, I worked the action to my rifle and looked for another target. A mare with a bolt action looked over to me as I pulled the trigger. The round flew low and punched a hole in her chest. Didn’t matter to her, she didn’t even feel it.

Before she could pull the trigger, I focused on hitting her this time. The world around me slowed down, and a green overlay traced around her. S.A.T.S. told me that I had a sixty seven percent chance to hit with a shot to her head. Not bad odds, but I queued up two shots anyway.

The spell resolved, and time began to crawl forward. My forehoof worked the action as S.A.T.S. guided my aim upwards. In the same action that slammed the level shut with a new round in the chamber, my hoof pressed down on the trigger. My gun gave off another flash, the bullet zipping out from the barrel through the air. Quickly, it punched a hole through the mare’s head, blasting out the back of her skull in a shower of bone and decayed brain.

However, as she died, her own hoof fell on her trigger. A flash from her rifle surprised me as S.A.T.S. accelerated time again. I felt as her round punched into my chest, and I let out a sucking gasp as my breath was forced from me.

“Storm!” Predious yelled, pulling himself away from the large trashbin he’d taken cover behind. The pain in my chest was incredible, and my vision started to blur quickly. It was a bad hit, and I knew it. “Drink!” Pred shouted into my ear. Quickly, I found a glass bottle shoved in my muzzle.

I choked and sputtered as the horrid tasting potion was forced down my throat. Almost immediately, the pain started to leave me. With a shuddering whine, I forced myself to breathe again. Without warning, Predious put his hooves around me, and yanked. We both collapsed back behind Predious’s garbage bin and caught our breath.

The sound of others around us firing at the Deadites was a welcome sound. What wasn’t, was the sound of the Virtibuck returning again. I wasn’t the only one to notice however. Looking back over, I watched as Salsa got back onto her gun and opened up. Behind her, Cinnamon Chips fumbled using her hooves to get a roll of gauze around Kiwi’s black and burned hindquarters. Lines of blood ran down Chips head from the base of her shattered horn, but the determined look in her eyes told me that the loss of her magic wasn’t slowing her down.

“Storm, are you alright?” Predious shouted out into my ear. Even so, I could barely hear him past the heavy chattering of Salsa’s gun. A tremendous rending sound filled the air before a heavy blast lit up the night.

Like a sawblade, one of the Virtibuck’s propeller blades shot down the street. With a whizzing drone, it zipped by Salsa, tearing a line of snow up as it passed by. It bounced on the blades a few times before impaling itself through the skycar we’d taken shelter behind when we emerged from the sewers. The ground shook as the rest of the wreck must have hit the ground, but my eyes were locked on Salsa. She blinked a few times before letting out a whine, collapsing back down behind the fortress’s metal shield. She put her hoof to her chest and hyperventilated, eyes wide and unfocused.

“We have ta push!” Cheap Shot cried out from a doorway behind us.

“Kiwi’s fortress is the only thing that can help us do that!” I cried back. I didn’t want to do what I was about to, but I needed him. “Cheap?”

“I know what ya goin’ ta ask.” I shouted out. “I better not get fuckin killed, Storm!”

Looking over at Pred, I found him patiently awaiting my suggestion. “We have two earth ponies and a unicorn.” I said flatly. “We need to take over and get them out of the line of fire.”

“I agree.” Predious nodded as he cocked an eyebrow. “However, I don’t think I can cast a shield well enough to protect us from the ricochets.”

“How many more potions did you cram into your bag?” I asked, looking back over to Kiwi and the others. It looks like Cinnimon had gotten the idea that they were no longer of any used behind the construct, and was quickly trying to unhook Kiwi from the harness.

“Four.” Pred yelled with an uneasy tone to his voice. “You sure about this?”

“Cheap? You Ready?” I cried out, turning my gaze back to the doorway he was hidden in. I could barely see him in it, but he gave me a nod. “Cinnamon!” I called out, pulling her attention. “We’re going to swap places!”

She nodded and hastily undid the rest of the bindings ok Kiwi. As she undid the first few, the metal prow leaned back slightly, now sitting on the snowy roadway by itself. Salsa still sat in shock, shaking and lost in her own little world.

“GO!” I screamed, pushing myself up to my hooves. With a crouch, skip, and a dive, I’d nearly barreled into Salsa. It seemed to snap her out of her shock, because she took off running as I slid behind the shield. Predious and Cheap shot ran across in much the same fashion as I had, nearly smacking right into Cinnamon and Kiwi as she was finally pulled free.

“Kiwi, can you still run?” I asked, quickly pushing myself past her. I tried to slip myself into the harness, but found that my coat and bags made me far too bulky to fit in there.

“To make it to cover?” She smirked, wincing as she barely touched her hoof to the snow. “You bet I can.” From the look on Cinnamons face, even she knew that was a lie.

“Covering Fire!” Oil Can shouted from his own cover ahead. “Get that thing moving...” Was all I’d heard before friendly gunfire opened up in waves again.

Cinnamon hooked Kiwi’s foreleg around her neck and hobbled forward. As they did, Cheap Shot pushed me aside and easily slipped himself into Kiwi’s harness. He must have had a mare’s figure, because he didn’t even need to adjust the straps to get himself hooked in. He looked back over to me and pointed to the gun that Cinnamon was using.

“I’m a lousy shot with anythin’ but a pistol anyway.” He smiled and pushed himself against the harness. Groaning, he struggled to lift the heavy metal contraption. With a grunt, he got it balanced. With short, quick steps, he started forward.

Quickly, I moved myself behind the heavy machine gun on my side. Carefully, I pushed myself up onto my hind legs and hooked my forehooves around the handles for it. It swung on it’s mount more stiffly than I’d thought, but it was a challenge to keep it steady as Cheap Shot moved forward. Standing on my rear hooves and shooting my rifle was a walk in the park. This? This was a nightmare to keep balanced. Predious of course was an asshole, using his magic to simply pivot and aim his machine gun.

A few sparking shots pinged off the armor just in front of me, and I turned my gaze to find a colt with a submachine gun firing at me. As his magazine ran dry, he gave me a devilish smirk and attempted to hop down into cover. Maneuvering the heavy gun into line, I pulled back on the triggers with my hooves.

The heavy thumping sounded distinctly different from behind the gun as my machine gun chattered away. The deadite colt turned into nothing but decaying chunks as my rounds ripped him to pieces. Swinging the gun around, I found a small sky carriage that already had a few bullet holes in, but had a bobbing mass past it that didn’t belong in the window. Acting on a hunch, I punched a few rounds through and was rewarded with the skycarrage catching fire.

Then it exploded.

The blinding prismatic blast left another afterimage in my eyes as the blastwave tore across the street. The light rain of metal bits and body parts was punctuated with a cheer from the other ponies with us. Finally, we were moving Forward again.

The blast had cleared a good amount of the Deadites, tearing their already fragile flesh apart and setting them on fire. Like in the orchard, those who were lit on fire, screamed out in pain. They writhed, ran, and thrashed through the snow as we approached, each one being put down as we marched on.

With little trouble, we passed beside the flaming hulk of the Virtibuck, and through to the intersection of seventh street. At the corner ahead, we could now clearly make out the grand casino and hotel building that was our target. The old building had been built in the shape of a crescent moon. It’s white facade had worn the test of time well, and still looked as imposing as the real moon once had in the night sky. The large and empty sprawling park to the other side of it was where we’d bring that moon crashing down onto, and I couldn’t help but wonder if more deadites were waiting behind cover there for us.

Actually, I didn’t know if it had been a new tactic, a chance to regroup, or just plain fear, but the second we started to cross past seventh, our part of the city fell eerily silent. The sound of whistling artillery shells even ceased for a good minute. Only the sound of crackling flames around us, and sporadic gunfire deeper in the city met our ears.

The pregnant pause was broken when what sounded like a thundering storm erupted on the horizon. What must have been a dozen whistling shells flew across the sky over the city. The multiple blasts that erupted from near the exclusion zone sent shockwaves of air through the city streets. For a moment, everypony turned their eyes along the street before a heavy rumbling picked up under our hooves.

“The banking tower is down.” Predious called out, “Frosty’s team pulled it off!” A resounding cheer from those around us helped to lighten the mood. Cheap Shot cried out as he pushed forward and speed himself up almost to walking speed.

“Come on, everypony!” He yelled. “Let’s take dat casino down!” Another roaring cheer erupted from the ponies around us as they rushed forward. I kept my eyes open, scanning the dark apartment buildings and storefront along the street.

“Wait!” Predious shouted. As he did, I saw what he had in the ruins of a small grocery outlet. To anyone ahead, the flashing orange light might as well been another flickering fire from the numerous flaming debris to rain from the sky. However, the mines hidden near the groups of skycart wrecks had fooled us all. The only thing I could do now, was wince, and close my eyes.

The cacaughinous blasts, shook even the buildings around us. The sound of smashing brick and breaking glass filled the gap between the prismatic flashes that erupted. My skin sizzled lightly from the intense blasts, and the rad meter in my pipbuck spiked up to a quick ticking. The ringing in my ears once again graced me with it’s presence, and something heavy slammed against the front of the metal plates we were behind.

The force of it knocked both Pred and I off our hooves into the snow. It didn’t move Cheap more than a few inches, but even so he strained to keep the metal from sliding back any further. With a slight screech, half a skywagon tilted and dropped down in front of us, pushing some of the rising smoke away.

I looked around, finding Oil Can laying face down in the snow ten feet behind us and off to the side. Several deep lacerations bled heavily as I ran over to him. I called out for him, but my busted hearing was probably still better than his. There was a large part of his skull that was exposed, the skin of it having been sheared clean off. A deep gouge ran through it, but it was at the very least intact.

I turned to call for Predious, but found his hoof shove me aside anyway. From under his armor, he floated another of the purple healing potions and popped the top of it off. With the delicacy of a scientist mixing dangerous chemicals, he poured a line of it into each major wound. Thankfully, they started to close up.

With a light pop, a low drone filled my ears. My hearing had decided to return, albeit not to it’s best. Turning around to find the source of the sound, I looked back towards the hotel. In the sky, another spotlight illuminated the air ahead of a sky vehicle. This one didn’t look like a vertibuck, rather…

“Tank!” Kiwi shouted from behind. Like a yellow bolt, Salsa galloped back up to her place on the fortress. Cinnamon pushed herself off Kiwi and ran back to her place as well.

The top of the skytank rotated, turning a long barreled cannon towards us. Again, Both the Ranger mare’s opened up with their machine guns. With an efficiency only paralleled by most sentry bots, their streams of fire concentrated on the quickly approaching vehicle. Their shots sparked of it for a moment.

One of the shots caused a blast of green fire to erupt from the side of the tank. The whole tank listed for a moment before the top of the turret opened up. A dark figure zipped up into the night before an explosive blast consumed the vehicle. I watched as the heavy turret top flipped through the air with the grace of a frying pan. It tumbled down, slamming into the street with a reverberating clang, and finally coming to a rest against the front of the ruined grocery market.

A few bursts of green fired down at us from the air in quick succession, catching us off guard. Salsa screamed as one of the bursts hit her foreleg. Her flesh crackled as the green goop melted through it. Writing and flailing in pain, she collapsed to the side and struggled to get away from the steaming plasma residue.

“Fuck your cities!” Predious shouted, pulling my revolver up and tracing it through the sky. “Fuck your Government!” He squeezed off a pair of shots, his pinprick eyes darting about as puffs of steam came from his ragged breaths. “Fuck your Cowardice!” Another few shots flew into the night, one of them sparking off the lone pegasis’s armor. “Fuck. Your. Loyalty!” With another quick double tap, the pegasus stallion screamed out and tumbled through the air.

He landed with a heavy whump in the snow ahead of our the mobile fortress. Stumbling forward, both Predious and I walked forward, leaning around the edge of the fortress. The groaning stallion wasn’t wearing power armor, but something lighter. The hole in his side from Pred’s rage shooting wasn’t bleeding too badly, but it meant that this stallion wouldn’t be a problem for us much longer. With a pained scream, he reached up and pulled his helmet off. The blue coated stallion that emerged was familiar to me, and in an instant, my mind reminded me of why.

“You’re the jackass who arrested me!” I called out. “Cloud Streaker!”

He snapped his attention to me, snarling in anger. “You!” With those words out of his muzzle, his eyes went wide.

My hearing changed into a dull thumping whine as both machine guns opened up on him. Dozens of rounds punched gaping holes in the stallion, tearing his body to nothing more than a meaty pulp before the shooting came to a stop. The steaming pile of pegasus sent my mind reeling back to my time at the prison, but even then, I hadn’t seen those ponies mutilated right in front of my eyes.

I stumbled back from the sight, finding that the machine gun next to me was coated in Predious’s magical aura. Giving the other gun a quick glance, it too was held in his aura. Behind it, stood an equally shocked looking Cinnamon Chips, whose forelegs quaked under her.

“Pred?” My own voice came across muffled, but at least I could still hear it. As I turned to face him, I found his hooves wrap up under the collar of my jacket and pull me close.

“What!?” He screamed in my face. “You think that was too harsh?” With a forceful shove, he pushed me down into the snow, turning the machine gun in it’s mount on me. “Do you know what they did at the end of the fucking war?” He screamed. As he did, the end of his muzzle started to turn frost white. His eyes began to glow with a shimmering radiance that didn’t belong on any pony I’d ever seen. “Those little fucking cowards abandoned us down here, left us to burn in the radiation filled wastes that they helped create! Out of sight, out of mind I fucking guess!” He stomped furiously in the snow. “Every. Single. Fucking. Day that has passed, I have done nothing but pray to the princesses that those selfish bastards burn for what they’ve...!”

A dark metal pipe whipped through the air and hammered against the helmet Predious wore. With one good solid blow, he went stiff, and collapsed onto the ground. The white around his muzzle that had also been climbing up his hooves, ever so slowly began to rescind. Standing over him, was a very bloody and ragged looking Oil Can.

“That settles it.” He grunted, coughing out a glob of blood as he did. “I’ll never complain about winter door duty again in my life.” With a soft thump, he let the metal drop out of his fetlock and into the snow. “Let’s just blow this place up and go home.”

* * * * * * * * *

I’d instructed Oil Can and Cheap Shot to set up a temporary defensive area around a small corner cafe that sat across the street from the Casino. The small glass storefront was a bit wider that I’d have liked, but Kiwi’s mobile fortress was big enough that it could cover the center of the entrance, with just a ponies width on either side being open. When this building came down, I just knew we’d have the Deadites all over us, so I wanted to make sure we were ready for a fight.

Inside, Kiwi and Cinnamon did what they could to help Salsa deal with the pain from her now missing leg. Even as Predious and I trotted up the large marble steps of the hotel, I could hear her pained screams echo in the dark city.

“So, I’ll just need you to keep watch.” Predious hummed as we approached the large, open front to the casino. “It won’t take me long to place the talismans on the load bearing supports, so just try not to get into too much trouble.”

It was clear to me that this side of the casino hadn’t meant to be open air. There had once been a set of very large open windows here, the dust colored remains of melted and shattered glass lay scattered around the point where they once sat. Just inside the building, laid a dozen or so old gambling tables. Around each of them, sat a collection of finely dressed skeletons. A skeleton at one of the blackjack tables still sat propped up, it’s cold dark eye sockets gazed out at what felt right at me and me alone.

The memories of Pai’s orchard flooded my mind, and sent a shiver down my back.

“Storm?” Pred said, putting his hoof on my shoulder. My mane stood on end, and I jumped back from him as my heart slammed against my chest.

“Goddesses, what!?” I snapped at a whisper.

“Are… you alright?” He asked with more concern than somepony like him should have the authority to use. I was going to have to have a long talk with him about what happened back there with Cloud Streaker, but we still had a job to do.

“I’m fine, just…” I paused, looking back into the dark Casino. “Just felt like Pai’s orchard for a moment.”

“Ah, well, I know how to fix that.” He chuckled and trot off in front of me. “Just need to make this place a bit more lively, is all!” As he trotted past the threshold of the hotel and inside, he began to loudly hum to himself. Past the sounds of far off fighting, the echoing song was the only thing I could hear as he disappeared off around a corner just inside.

With a sigh, I approached the threshold as well. My hoof caught on one of the melted pieces of glass, and I nearly tripped. With a whine, I held my hooves out and stabilized myself quickly, glad to not fall all over the place for once. When I looked up again, I froze.

All of the skeletons were looking at me.

“Oh, fuck this place.” I grumbled, pushing myself forward after Predious. I honestly would give anything to be back before all this, where raiders were my only problem, and I didn’t have to deal with any creepy bullshit anymore.

Rounding the corner he’d disappeared from, I realized that I didn’t even know where he’d gone. The wide hallway in front of me broke off at several points, and held several open doors. Just pushing myself to get away from the skeletons behind me, I decided to keep heading straight. I made the mistake of looking behind me for just a moment, and again, my hoof caught on something.

Tumbling forward, I let out a yelp as I slammed down onto a dusty rug. The friction of it stopped me quickly, but the cloud that puffed up from my impact sent me into a sneezing fit. Rubbing at my eyes, I fought futilely against the dust assault. Picking myself up, I walked a few steps and tried to get my bearings.

I’d entered the reception area of the Hotel, and was standing in the main foyer. Looking up, floor after open floor followed the curve up of the hotel, for a total of five that I could see. Each open floor held a number of card tables and dark gambling machines. A faded banner hung from the end of the second floor, just over a large collection of finely dressed skeletons. It was hard to read, but I could barely make out what it had said.

Welcome to the Horseshoe Hotel and Casino

Grand Rebranding and Reopening Gala!

Enjoy the free refreshments and discounts on our Slot machines!

“Huh, free drinks?” I muttered to myself. “Good thing they didn’t invite Tasteless…” I stopped myself there. I’d hated how she was gone. How there was nothing that I could have even done. Still, I felt like she should have been here for this. She wouldn’t have cared about helping, and would have gone straight to raiding the bar. ‘All these fancy ponies would have had nothing but the good stuff!’ I thought in my mind.

I looked at the wall to the side of the pile of corpses. A sign on it read Grand Ballroom, and a smirk pulled across my muzzle. I had to do it, because it’s what she would have done. Maybe after all this, I could share the rest of the bottle with Gauge as well. That way maybe, just maybe, we could both find some closure.

As I walked slowly around the open reception area towards the ballroom, I listened to Predious' upbeat tune echo through the old halls. Carefully, I wandered around the hundred or so formally dressed skeletons that lay across the floor. None of these unfortunate souls were thankfully looking at me, all of them laying charred and black as they had for the last hundred and fifty years.

As I looked around, an odd flash caught my eye from the direction of the ballroom. Stopping mid step, I looked over into the darkness that say beyond a broken set of glass double door entryway.

Walking slowly, I hobbled my way over. I had one hoof tightly wrapped around the sling to my rifle, ready for anything that was waiting to come at me. The sounds of fighting in the city continued behind me, that is, right until I cross the threshold of the dark doorway.

I was nearly blinded as the room flashed with a golden light. The old world song that Predious had been singing was amplified in my ears by the twelve pony big band that played it softly in the far corner of the room. Dozens of ponies laughed, conversed, and danced around the room. I looked down, even finding myself wearing a flowing golden gown.

"Don't be alarmed," The young, strong voice of a stallion met my ears. I looked up, finding myself staring straight into Filius' smiling face. Unlike the last few times I'd seen him, there was no way to tell that he had been nothing but a bony old stallion a month ago. It was weird, he looked young and healthy. "You aren't going crazy, I'm just projecting this all through your head." Holding his hoof out to me, he canted his head with a smile. "While your friend is busy, why not indulge me in a little fantasy?" I couldn't help myself from reaching my hoof out, taking his. To my surprise, it was warm, firm, and almost... real.

"I'm going to stop you, you know." I said sternly, walking forward as he lead me out into the center of the dancefloor. Looking over Filius he wore a purple tuxedo, with an ornate silver trim to it. A crimson cape was draped across his side that flowed in an ethereal breeze.

"My dear, you are welcome to try." He laughed, slowly beginning to rock himself from side to side. As the song ended, a slower, more relaxing song started up. "I know what it is you are trying to do, and it will not work." As he rocked, he turned around and held my hoof tightly. For some reason, I found myself joining him in his movements. "Whatever Gallant has told you, had the thought ever crossed your mind that he was just using you to get to me?" Slowly, he pulled me closer into his hooves. I should have been disgusted, should have gelded him right then and there, but my body wasn't my own. It fought against everything I told it to do.

"I know he wants to kill you. I want him too." I grinned right up until the moment he spun me around and I fell back into his waiting hooves.

"You are remarkably calm about that." Filius gave another wide smile as he pulled me close. We rocked together next to the other couples, stuck in a slow dance that I was beginning to hate. "For a monster, you may not actually be that bad after all."

"The only monster in this city is you, Filius." I grunted, thankful that I at least still had control of my voice. "Tell me, what do you get out of doing the same ritual again and again? Do you get off on it, or are you just so fucked up in the head that you can't help but be an evil douchebag?"

"Such language." He said as he rolled his eyes. Slowly, he stood me back on my hooves and twirled me around again. "And to think, if I didn't realize that you were such an oddity and held on to you, I might have never remembered what it was like to feel challenged again."

"Big words coming from somepony who's failed to achieve what they want two times." I sighed, feeling annoyed as we went back to slowly pressing against each other again. "Trust me, Filius. If luck's taught me anything, it's that third time is not the charm."

"Pah, luck." He scoffed. "I was never much one who believed in luck. In my experience, you must create your own path to the life you wish yourself to have." He paused his dancing as his grin grew wider. "Even if it takes three virgin lives to complete the path, some sacrifices are worth the outcome."

At that, I started giggling. Instinctively, I pulled my hoof away from him as I did. "That's so funny!" I couldn't contain myself, finding that concept so absyrd. "You waited all this time... came to the wasteland even!" My laughter had worn away his smile and poise. He instead now stood there, looking at me in disgust. "No pony in the wasteland is a virgin! Not unless they're..." My mood died as I remembered that he still had Stratos’ young filly prisoner.

"Oh, yes." His wide smile crawled across his lips again as he stretched out his forehooves and clapped. "You are certainly smarter than you look, Storm Rider." As he stopped clapping, the ponies around us started to clap, and I realized that the song around us had just ended. "While it's been fun, I have so much work left to do before the stars above are aligned." With a fancy roll of his hoof, he bowed before and laughed. "Goodnight, and farewell..." He looked up and gave me one last look. "My little monster."

With a roar, a bright green light shown from behind me. I turned around with all the other party ponies, and watched as a an enormous green fireball raged towards us. Some mare screamed, and instinctively I raised my hooves as the light grew too bright to avoid.

"Storm?" Predious asked softly. "Are... you alright?"

I realized that I was on my rear hooves, still trying to shield myself. Blinking a few times, my eyes readjusted to the darkness around me. Looking down, I found that my outfit was back to my jacket, satchel, and rifle.

"Uhh... yeah." I slowly spoke up. "Filius was just in my mind."

That nearly made Predious go white as a sheet.

"What?" He spat out, looking around. "Does he know what we're doing?"

"I think he does, but he's overconfident. He's going to slip up, I know it." I said as I dropped down onto my forehooves. "Did you set the talismans?"

"Mhmmm." He nodded. "Just finished the last one when I heard you humming your own tune in here." He cocked an eyebrow at me. "I came by to find you... dancing."

I facehoofed. "If you ever tell anypony, I'll murder you in your sleep." Dragging my hoof down my face, I looked around the old ballroom. In the small amount of light that we did have in here, I noticed something peculiar about the walls. Odd dark blobs lined them all over the place. As I walked over to them, I froze mid step. They weren't blobs, rather the shadows of the dancing ponies at the ball permanently burned into the old walls. "Let's just blow this place already." I muttered, stepping back slowly. I am entirely done with creepy old ruins where the ghosts of the past are there to haunt me.

We both ran back through the old and dark halls. Passing the gambling skeletons again, I couldn’t avoid looking over at them. Their bones no longer gazed in my direction. Instead, they lay scattered about much in the same way as they were as when I first gazed at them. Even the dealer’s skeleton was crumpled over onto the floor, facing away from me.

Out into the street, Predious and I slowed ourselves down to a light trot. The raging battles throughout the rest of the city felt farther away now. I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved, or worried at that. Maybe it was a good thing that Filius knew what we were doing. He’d be shifting tactics now, and we might be able to catch him before he was again ready to deal with us.

Almost as I’d finished that thought, a heavy wave of gunfire opened up somewhere in the city. It was as if somepony had simply lifted a curtain and two armies started to fight. I sighed as Pred and I entered the old cafe. A quick break in the fight had just been wishful thinking I guess…

“Are the charges set?” Kiwi asked, looking up to me with her worn out, pleading eyes. I could tell that all this fighting had taken a toll on her already. Salsa whimpered and cried into Cinnamon Chip’s neck as she simply sat in her hooves. Her eyes stared off into the distance, filled with fear.

“Yes.” Predious nodded. “All Salsa has to do is call it in.”

“Yeah, about dat. Ain’t happenin’.” Cheap Shot grunted, kicking Salsa’s half melted radio over. “She’d be a dead mare if the damn thing ain’t been on her side. Good thing Ya brought dat one.” He said, pointing a hoof to the large box on Pred’s back.

“So, about that as well…” Pred sat down and looked nervous. “I… don’t actually know how to use one of these models.”

“You’ve read a million books,” I grumbled, giving him a very flat look. “not a single one told you how to operate a radio?”

Kiwi brushed past me, hobbling up to the side of Pred. She sat down, and with a quick tap to the side of the large box. With ease, she popped open a small flap and hoofed out a large sized rectangular box with a coiling cord trailing off it.

“One moment. Please try not to move.” She said, using one of her forehooves to hold the half leg sized box to her head, and the other to fiddle with something in the large box on Pred’s back. “Alpha command? This is Kiwi reporting in from primary target charlie one.” She paused, and flicked a switch on the side of the box. With a crackle of static, the voice of one of the most annoying stallions in the world picked up.

“This is command.” Cottage came over with more than a fair share of static. “Are the talismans in place?”

“Affirmative.” Kiwi nodded and looked over to me. “You may fire when ready.”

“Incoming barrage in thirty seconds.” Cottage replied. “Proceed to minimum safe distance.”

“Wait…” Cheap Shot spoke up with a whine. “Ya sure ya set ‘em up right? What if the hotel ain’t going ta fall the right way?”

“It should.” Predious cocked an eyebrow, sounding somewhat insulted for a moment. Then a small smirk came across his muzzle as he put a hoof to it and looked up to the ceiling quizzically. “Or were they supposed to go on the other pillars?”

“Pred.” Seriously, now wasn’t the time for jokes. He’d been less serious in the last two hours than he had in the last two months. Maybe it was his nervousness leaking through. Maybe it was just him trying to cope with the curse clawing away at his mind. However, as much as he probably needed it, I didn’t want it to degrade the morale of the others. “Knock it off.”

He opened his muzzle to retort, but another barrage of thunder erupted on the horizon. The old cafe fell deathly silent as we sat and listened. Even Salsa’s whimpering had trailed off into a pregnant pause. The whistling came through the air as we all simply waited with baited breath. The only thing I could think about before the strike, was how I really wish I’d remembered to grab that drink for Tasteless.

Damnit.

--Chapter End--

“I have run through the fields of pain and sighs.”

Quests Finished: Operation: Reverse-Siege

Quests Started: Shaking a Pillar of Heaven

Levels Earned: You’ve reached max level!

Perks Earned: The Blue Phoenix - You’ve been reborn in the Flames of Hope, and you may cleanse your enemies in it. When your nearby allies are rallied in combat, a 100% damage bonus is applied to your unarmed strikes that ignore a target's DT completely.

Chapter Fifty - Shaking A Pillar of Heaven

“We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we?”

The detonation of the precision artillery rounds blasted wave after wave of compressed air and snow into the old cafe. We all braced against it, listening as even over it we could feel the cracking of the Hotel’s concrete foundation. The straining steel sounded like the mournful cries of an enormous beast, lost in the night. Then the vibrations under our hooves picked up. The old picture frames that still desperately clung to the walls jiggling as the tower began its transition to it’s final resting place. The sound of shattering glass, breaking stone, and whistling wind met our ears momentarily.

Then, it hit the ground.

It had been if somepony was shaking out an old rug. The ground felt like it rippled, and the impact of the strike shook everypony but Predious off their hooves. Of course, only a half-second later, the blast of displaced air from the massive collapsed structure slammed into the cafe. Even wearing the heavy, old radio, Pred was picked up and tossed like a leaf on the wind.

The building above us let out it’s own pained groan, snapping my attention up the ceiling. A spidering crack crept it’s way across the old plastering, and it sent the pit of my stomach churning. Old tunnels, secret research labs, creepy buildings, and now even normal buildings. I’m not so sure that anywhere is safe anymore when I’m around.

Then, as if it had forced itself back into our lives, the silence of the cold night returned.

“Well.” Cheap Shot spat out through a groan. “Ain’t sure about anypony else, but dat just about does it for me.”

“Yeah…” Kiwi moaned, rolling herself back over to her hooves. “I’m all good with heading back now.” Like a thick fog, a heavy cloud of dust rolled into the cafe. As I looked around, I found that the dust was so thick that it had become hard to see Kiwi only a few feet from me. “Great, how could…”

“WAIT!” I shouted at her, cutting her off as I whipped my hoof out to her. Even with the low visibility, I found her staring wide eyed at me in surprise. “Don’t fucking say it. Don’t you fucking even think that phrase.” It may have been superstition, but I am so tired of the wastes finding every chance possible to shit on every little win we have.

“Hail!” Shadow’s voice echoed through the night from outside. He was still a ways off, but he was still alive! “Get ready!” He shouted again, this time sounding closer. As I scrambled to my hooves, my ears picked up that same high pitched whine that was really starting to annoy the shit out of me.

“Storm, wait!” Predious groaned as he too picked himself up off the floor.

Of course I didn’t wait. Shadow needs my help, and I needed to help him however I could. The whine of the virtibuck grew louder, and I started to even hear the whirring of the rotating blades that kept the steel machine in air.

“Come on, let's talk about it! It's not like I still don't love you.” Iron’s voice seethed over a loudspeaker from the craft. It was so close, that I ducked down and hoofed out my gun. It sounded as if she were right on top of me! “Come out and face me, sweetiekins. Can’t you just be a good little husband and die already?”

The whirring of the blades and heavy thrumming of the engines closed in, the dust around me swirled away in an instant. Above me, creeping along through the air, was the looming Vertibuck. I hadn’t really understood the size of one of these things before. The one that Shadow had crashed in looked smaller, but I guess that comes with most of it having been strewn across five hundred feet of dirt. Who knows, maybe they had different sizes of the frightening machines.

Unslinging my rifle, I figured that the easiest way to find out would be to see what this one looked like smashed into the ground as well!

Holding my rifle up, the wash from the rotor blades made it harder for me to stay steady on my rear hooves. Looking up had been no easy task either, my eyes straining to find something critical to aim at. However, the soft light through the bulbous glass cockpit made it a little easier to see. Through it, I could see her. Holding my rifle as steady as I could, I pulled the trigger.

It had been far from my best shoot, and I knew it. My round punched through the glass pane right in front of Iron. Without much trouble, the bullet punched through the upper side of the glass cockpit as well and zipped away into the night. With a grumbling sigh, I watched as Iron looked around quickly, tracing the shot back down to me.

“You!” She seethed through her loudspeaker, a devious smirk crawling across her muzzle.

“Hail, NOW!” Shadow shouted out.

A familiar hiss that I’d encountered plenty of times before traveled quickly overhead. The side of the Virtibuck blasted outward above me, and the sound of rending metal was matched with an oscillating whine of the virtibuck’s engines.

“No!” Iron whined as flames erupted from the hole punched through her machine. The heavy steel vehicle spun on it’s axis, drifting of to the side as it did. I watched in amusement as Iron’s only advantage whirled out of control, the whole machine flipping over before slamming down onto the street with a heavy crunch. The still running engines spun the blades into the dirt for a moment before they too ripped from their mountings and came to a sputtering stop. The flickering fires that burned from the scraps illuminated the area to a muted white, but still didn’t help me see anything at all.

“Thanks for the dis…” Shadow started to say from right behind me.

I screamed and bucked out reflexively. Unlike every other pony I’ve ever done that too, this time I was the one ending up with my face in the snow. My hooves probably didn’t leave more than a smudge against his chest plate, and my embarrassment flared when he gave out a chuckle from behind me.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He said, using his augmented strength to pick me back up. With a quick toss of his hooves, he helped to spin me around to him. The moment I was looking into his deep blue eyes, I leaned forward and kissed him. I’d never been so happy to see somepony in my life.

“Storm!” Pred shouted as he hobbled his way through the intense cloud of dust. I really hoped that he wouldn’t get lost in it. For that matter, I’d really hoped that Cheap Shot could find his way back to the rendezvous point with this kind of visibility. “Storm, are you there?!”

“Again!” The annoyed voice of Hail grew closer. “Why is it that you insist on interfering?” With a few quick flaps, Hail dipped down through the dust and planted herself on her hooves next to me. She growled with an angry glare at me before I could even break off the kiss with Shadow. “You could have killed Iron! Do you know how much paperwork that would have gotten me!?” With a flick of her wing, the energy rifle at her side pulsed blue. I recognized it as one of those useless pulse rifles that harmony had trouble selling. They were good for nothing but stopping robots! Oh, that would mean power armor too I guess... “Non-lethal and spark weaponry only.” With that, a small cover extended over the multi barrel rocket launcher on the other side of her suit.

“Knight!” Iron painfully cried out of the virtibuck crash. “Get off your lazy flank and help!”

And Hail was worried I could have killed her. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that she’d survived the crash. I mean, it wasn’t because she was so close to the ground already, it was more that she was just too stubborn to die.

Just a flutter of noise to my side caught my attention.

The world tumbled and I was painfully rolling along the ground without any reason. I let my rifle go, and pushed out a whine as I pushed my legs out to stop me. As I reoriented myself, I looked up to find the purple mare from Pai’s orchard standing over a slumped over Shadow. She had him pinned on the ground, and the bladed tail on her armor was poised to strike down at his head. She looked over at me for only a moment, pure malice in her silver eyes.

A series of quick blue bolts fired from the cloud. They zipped just beside the mare, narrowly missing her. In a flash, she pushed off and was in the air again. Shadow was spared for the moment, and my heart thumped against my chest again.

“Storm!” Hail snapped. “Keep watch for Knight! She’s the fastest one of the Cross family!”

“What?” I called back, quickly looking around for my rifle. Spotting it laying in the snow, I quickly scrambled over to it. “How am I supposed to do anything about that!?” Seriously, this is exactly why I hated taking contracts for Pegasi.

“Fucking moronic dirt herder!” She said in frustration. Hey, even if I hated fighting pegasi, that was no excuse to be racist! “You’ve got a pipbuck! Goddess damned use it!” Racist or not, she had a good point.

“Storm?” Predious called out again. “What’s going on?”

“Get back in the cafe!” I shouted back to him, swinging my vision around. I almost missed the red line weavering off to my side. I only heard a flutter, but having fallen for it once before, my instincts kicked in. Pushing off, I rolled myself to the side. A purple and black blur zipped past me before arcing back up into the air.

A red flash in the dust came from my left, and Hail let out her own whine before she flapped and flew past me into the air. The smell of ozone threw my mind back to the giant machine Pallet had tried to murder us with.

I really hated energy weapons.

“Bitch!” Iron growled out. “Fucking… shit get off me!” The sound of straining metal only intensified after a few moments. “Argggg! Fucking fine!” She was fuming as she banged on the metal. If I had to bet, I would have to say she was pinned in the wreck. “Sis! My armor’s pinned!” Bingo.

“Take it off!” Knight called back from the cloud. Red and blue flashes pulsed above me, and the sound’s of both her and Hail zipping around filled the air.

“Fine.” Iron huffed. “I didn’t need this stupid armor anyway.” With a groan, she sounded like she flopped onto the ground and gave off a sigh.

“Oh yeah, take it all off.” I taunted at her. Sure, it might have been stupid to give myself away, but she didn’t have anywhere to go now. Stepping closer to where she’d been speaking a moment ago, I’d wondered just how injured she was from the crash. Not every day as a bounty hunter in the wastelands was clear enough to see. She would be on the move now that she was free, and she’d be on the run. “You know, I don’t mind the company of a mare every now and again…” I trailed off while I looked around for any sign of movement. Keeping one hoof around my rifle, I turned myself, estimating where I’d eventually run into her.

Only I didn’t.

I paused and turned my ears as I looked around the snow at my hooves. She should have been right here. No hooftracks, no blood, no reason she shouldn’t have run. Turning around, I looked back behind me, and started walking back toward the vertibuck. As I did, a red bar appeared on my EFS, and again, I did my best to move out of the way. Unfortunately I’d caught it too late this time.

The scattered red beams from Knight’s energy weapon melted holes in the snow, but she still managed to land a hard kick on me as she flew past. The air was once again forced from me as it felt like I was picked up and drilled into the ground again. My ribcage crunched as I came back down, and I screamed out in pain. Laying in the snow, I gasped and got the air back into my lungs.

“Iron is mine to love and mine alone!” Knight yelled out as she flew overhead. “She doesn't need anypony more than me! Nopony satisfies her more than me!” Knight screamed out as she fired at me wildly through the dust.

Instead of attempting to move like I had the last two times, I raised my rifle and cycled the lever. She was smarter than I gave her credit for and pulled up. I leaned back as she did, flattening against the snow as the bladed tail of her armor swiped through the air just where my head had been.

“She’s your sister!” Hail growled out as she tore through the cloud after Knight. As she pulled up, blue beams struck out from her side as she let loose with her own magical energy rifle.

“Better than being a traitor to your own captain!” Knight screamed out again at her. “Or some disgusting wasteland lover!”

I have seen some fucked up relationships in my life, but Iron and Knight? Yeah, that takes the cake...

“Storm!” Pred shouted, the dark form of him appearing through the dust cloud as he ran toward me. “What do I need to do to help?” Trotting over to me, he hooked his hoof around my neck and pulled. Quickly, I got up with his help and looked around.

“Look, we need to find Iron.” I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. Pulling myself into a crouch, I slowly crept back toward the virtibuck. “She’s unarmored and probably injured.”

“Love!” Iron screamed out from damn near right next to me. “Help!”

Looking over, I saw a brown lump slowly moving across the ground in the snow. Predious followed as I all but jumped over in front of her. Her angry eyes stared up at me through her frazzled peppermint striped mane as she sat splayed out with her hind legs dragging behind her. A large discolored patch of flesh on her back caught my eyes just above her limp wings.

“You can’t walk, can you?” Predious snorted. “Good to know that Longbow’s shot wasn’t for nothing.”

The red bar in my EFS returned, and again, I was too slow to react. Again, I was bowled over, this time along with Pred. We didn’t roll too far, but the hit knocked my rifle from my hooves, and my revolver from Pred’s magic. Shrugging the hit off, I looked up to find Knight’s snarling expression standing over me. Her tail curled up to strike, and I started to try to move.

“No!” Predious shouted, diving through the air and smashing ontop of me. The weight of him and his gear felt like it was crushing me, I couldn’t breath again. The sickening crunch of metal and cry that Pred gave made me freeze. As I sat trying to process what had just happened, Knight pulled her tail out from Pred’s back. With a shudder, Predious went limp on me, and my mind went blank.

Pred… he couldn’t be gone.

“Fuck them, let’s just go!” Iron shouted. Knight’s glare was broken by her sister’s words. She snarled as she stared at me before turning around. “Come on already!” Iron hissed. I couldn’t see over Pred’s body, but I heard as she walked a few steps and pulled up her sister. With a few flaps of her wings, she was gone.

“Oh, goddesses.” Predious groaned from on top of me.

“Pred?” I grunted, still struggling to breath with him pressing down on me. “You’re… alive?” He was alive! “Are you… alright?” I whined, feeling as he wiggled and got his hooves onto the ground around me. After a moment, he whimpered and pushed himself up off of me. Quickly, I scrambled out from under him and got back to my own hooves. My body hurt all over from the beating I’d let it have tonight, but so long as Pred would make it, I could carry on.

“You two!” Hail called out, slowly hovering down from the dust. “You two alright?” She looked like hell. The right side of her face had a large gash that tore from her muzzle up over her now missing left eye. Her left wing was charred black and looked more similar to a burnt twig than anything that was meant for flight. On top of that, her armor sparked at the rear, and a soft whine emit from the sheared off remains of where her own spiked tail blade used to sit.

With a pained grunt, Pred lifted his hoof up and tugged at the strap of his combat helmet. With a muffled crunch, he let it fall into the snow. Next, he sat down and hoofed at his combat armor. The fact that he wasn’t saying anything worried me. He simply stared at me, a hurt and determined look mixing in his eyes as he undid the armor strap by strap with his hooves. With a heavy creak, he undid the last strap, and the heavy radio and armor dropped off of him. The inside of the combat armor was torn, and I could see just the smallest bit of snow through the hole that had been punched through both it and the radio.

“See?” He finally spoke up, twisting to look over his back. A puncture would no longer than a few inches sat bleeding black ichor just to the right of his spine. “And you thought the radio was going to be useless to bring.” He chuckled lightly before collapsing forward with a dramatic sigh. “I agree with the others.” He spoke in muffled tones through the snow at my hooves. “I’m ready to be done with tonight.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t done yet.” I sighed, looking up to Hail as she stood there. I could tell she wanted to scream from the pain of her own wounds, but she was putting up a damn good fight doing it. “Pred, give Hail one of our potions.”

“Save it.” She grunted. “I’ll make it back up above the clouds well enough.” Looking up into the dust filled night sky, she sighed. “Hell, maybe looking like this will help them forgive me for letting those two slip through my hooves.” She kicked at the snow around her hooves. “Should have known they were ...that together. Disgusting.”

“Losing them wasn’t your fault...” I spoke up, letting my words drift off as she glared at me with her remaining eye. Again, she was going to blame us for ruining shit. I just knew it, because I walked right into it.

“Yeah.” Was all she said before turning around. “I didn’t anticipate Knight being so aggressive in this fight. Her sister’s paralysis has really hit her harder than I’d anticipated. She had quite the rage problem, even before the surgery went bad. Now that her sister is both immobile and flightless, she’s fighting twice as hard as I’ve ever seen her fight before.” Hail shrugged. “If you can’t tell, I don’t think she’s going to ever let their mother’s grudge go now. I’d watch your back from here on out.”

“Thank you.” Predious whined as he pulled himself back up. “For all your help.”

“If I ever see you again, you’re going to fucking answer for all the shit you’ve fucked up to make my job a living hell.” Hail glared back at me. “And if I don’t see you, then take care of him.” Her words caught me off guard. “For what it’s worth, Shadow isn’t the only one up above who thinks the way things are run up there is wrong.” That brought a smirk to my muzzle. “He’s better off down here. At this rate, you wastelanders will have to learn to grow wings and come up to show us how wrong we are.” She whined again and raised her hoof into a quick salute. Still racist, but she’d earned the right to be for what she’s already done to help. “Until then.”

“Agent Hail.” I gave her a nod and my own salute back.

“Ma’am.” She sighed and gave a flap of her wings. Silently, she floated off into the night, and it was just Predious and I standing in the snow. For a moment, we just stood, listening as the distant fighting around the city continued. A long groan came from behind us, and I recognized it as Shadow’s. Trotting over, Pred and I found him laying on in the snow still, looking around with unfocused eyes and a small line of blood running down from under his mane.

“Hey guys.” He groaned, trying to pick himself up again. He lost his hoofing and crashed back down into the snow with a thump. “What did I miss?”

“Half this war it feels like...” Pred trailed off into a grumble. “I believe a helmet might help with further head trauma.”

“Come on.” I sighed, raising my rifle to sling it over myself but stopping as my ribs reminded me that some of them were probably barely holding together. “Let’s get Cheap. With the casino down, we need to head to the rendezvous point.”

* * * * * * * * *

“Should be anytime now.” I grumbled, looking back through the dark city as the firefights in the distance continued to roar. “Longbow and the Elder sure are taking their time.”

We’d been walking through the old streets for near an hour now. I could see the lights that illuminated the Arena district growing ever closer in the night sky. We needed to hurry.

“If the elder is on it,” Kiwi responded as she hobbled closer to me, favoring her burned rear leg. “Then I’m certain he’ll get it done.” She winced in pain as she smiled, holding zero doubt in her words about what she’d just said. “However…” She trailed off, looking over to Cheap Shot. “If we’ll ever get back is a good question.”

“Hey, I’m doin what I can!” He grumbled, as he helped Oil Can hobble along the old road. “I coulda sworn dat there was an entrance around here…”

“What is actually a good question,” Pred snorted and cocked his eyebrow at me, “is where are all of Filius’ little zombies?”

“I don’t… ah! Care.” Salsa whined from atop Shadow’s back as her leg bounced against him roughly. She cradled her melted stump with a whimper before trailing off. “So long as we get back, I won’t question it.” She did her best to twist around and look behind her. “You think so too, right Cinnamon?”

The red unicorn gave a quick nod before continuing on as silent as ever.

“Hey, Kiwi?” I asked, lowering my voice a little. “Why doesn’t Cinnamon ever say anything?”

“Who, Chips?” She answered with a shocked tone. “I thought it was obvious?” With that, she paused and looked at me as if I were supposed to glean something from that. “The scar on her neck?”

“Scar?” I said bluntly as I looked back over to Cinnamon, who was attentively listening in to us. As I looked, a faded red splotch of coat sat in the center of her neck. Honestly, it blended in so well, I wasn’t sure I would have ever seen it had it not been pointed out.

“Cinnamon can’t speak anymore.” Kiwi sighed. “Back at the fight for Alpha base, she was hit by an energy weapon in the throat. Her voice box was destroyed, but she didn’t even let that hit slow her down.” As she said it, an immense look of pride came over Cinnamon. “She practically saved all our lives down there.”

“Eeyup!” Salsa spoke up in the first non-depressed way since before her leg melted. “Ever since we were born really, the three of us girls have stuck together!” She sighed, wincing as her leg bounced on Shadow’s armor again. “And I’m sure a few wounds like these won’t change that.” And there the depression was again. Even Cinnamon gave in for a moment and tried to look at the broken remains of the horn on her forehead.

“You know,” Predious spoke up again, “I distinctly remember a trio of ambitious young filly friends from before the war. They founded Stable-Tec, and I shouldn’t have to tell you quite how many lives that their innovations and inventions had saved.” He shot a glance over to each one in kind. “Keep it up, and maybe you three can make an even bigger impact one day.”

“Pft, right.” Kiwi scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to change the world. I just want to go back to the lab in base and tinker.”

“Yeah…” Salsa sighed. “As much as the firearms range was loud and annoying, at least those guns weren’t pointing at me.”

Cinnamon nodded in agreeance and gave Predious a bit of a shrug.

“Wait a moment… is dat...?” Cheap Shot spoke up before squinting ahead. A wide smile broke across his muzzle. “Oh thank the goddesses we ain’t lost!”

“I thought you said you knew where we were going?” Shadow spoke up.

“Well, obviously I did, cause dat’s the entrance right there!” He stopped and raised his hoof to point at the solid brick wall to a ruined bar that sat on the corner of the block. Walking up to it, I really wanted to say that he’d finally lost it out here, but I’d seen enough secret entrances to places that I decided to trust him.

Leaning down, he brushed the light coating of snow off of a brick close to the building. With a firm press, he pushed the brick down, and a soft hum met our ears. The sidewalk next to him jolted for a moment and lowered down an inch or so.

“The Whinnychester pub here should only be a few sewer junctions away from where we’re supposed ta meet back up.” Cheap nodded, pointing his hoof to the slightly sunken slab. “Alright, who want’s ta go down first?”

“You spent this whole time looking for a bar’s store room lift?” Salsa grumbled from Shadow’s back as he walked forward and stood on the slab.

“Well, ya wanted ta be safe, right?” Cheap Shot feigned offence before putting his hoof on his chest proudly. “Dis is one o’ the few tunnels in Baltimare dat only I know of!”

“So, if I find one of those undead assholes down here waiting for me…” Salsa smirked. “Then I can shoot you, right?”

“Sure.” He grumbled, pressing down on the brick at his hooves. Both Shadow and Salsa quickly descended down below the sidewalk as the sound of old hydraulics whined from inside the building. “What ever makes ya feel better.” Looking over at me, he gave me just the hint of a hopeful smile.

“Nice work, Cheap.” I said, watching as his expression grew brighter at that. “Not just with this. You held it together out there when we needed you. Thank you.”

“I wanted to thank you as well.” Oil Can spoke up, groaning as he pulled himself off of Cheap’s side. He turned his gaze to Predious and held out his hoof to him. “To both of you, for keeping us going out there.”

“We all did our part.” Predious nodded and lightly took Oil’s hoof in his. The sound of the hydraulics reversing met our ears. The empty platform rose back, ready for the next set of ponies. Pred shifted himself and let Oil drape his hoof over him. “Ready to head in?”

“You bet I am.” He replied with a wide smile.

* * * * * * * * *

Finally arriving at the tunnel that was supposed to lead us back to the new forward command post, I felt apprehensive staring up at the ladder. Everypony else had gone up ahead, but I kept staring at the words on the wall just under the hatch that lead inside.

Mercy Hospital Morgue Access

I knew that I had to go up, Filius wouldn’t be waiting too much longer with us closing in on him. However, the thought of climbing up and seeing Gauge, or Harmony, or anypony else I knew hadn’t returned alive? That scared me to death.

Sacrifice is by it’s own nature, an act of generosity

Aunty Rarity’s words echoed through my mind. What made seeing my friends up there any different than the countless others we lost just getting to the hotel? I couldn’t stand here and weigh their lives any differently than anypony else I knew. It was time that I took the advice I was given, and to stop hiding from death.

Firmly, I hooked my sore legs through the rungs, and climbed.

Pulling myself into the sterile room, I looked around. A stack of pony shaped, bloody and yellowing sheets were lined against each of the walls. The dead who could be brought back here, had already been stacked three high. Honestly, that’s better than I had expected, and worse than I’d wanted.

“Storm?” Predious spoke up from the door. “You’re needed. Gauge has an idea she wants to pitch.”

“Alright.” I nodded, turning and walking towards him as I did. He didn’t once look away from me. I wasn’t sure if it was because he too didn’t want to look at the bodies, but part of me felt like it was because he was worried about how I didn’t want to look at them.

Pushing out into the hallway, we both trotted down the old tiled floors. The flickering fluorescent lights in this place felt like they were going to give out at any moment. The half rusted doors of the hospital’s old elevator dimly glinted in the light, and as I looked at it, the half canted elevator doors made me think twice for a moment about using the stairs. Predious however, was utterly confident in the century and a half old device’s stability, and hit the recall button with his magic.

The doors opened with a ding, and the spacious interior greeted us promptly. The old tile inside here was mostly cracked, and shifted underhoof as we both climbed in. I felt the elevator give only slightly as we shifted about inside, and I felt it prudent enough to press myself up against the wall. I wouldn’t do anything if this thing tried to kill us, but I felt better about being in it nonetheless.

“This thing is apparently pretty slow.” Predious sighed. That is exactly the shit that I didn’t want to talk about right now. He pressed the button for the top floor, and the box let out a chime. A horrendous squeal played through the air as the doors which had opened quietly enough, jiggled and bounced shut. Then, annoyingly enough, an overhead speaker crackled and started to play the most dull music in the world. I wasn’t sure if it was just loose wires making odd sounds or an actual song. Regardless, the urge to shoot the speaker was growing fast.

I knew we should have taken the stairs.

“No?” I said slowly. “I don’t see what this has to do…”

“It’s a funny story, actually.” He cut me off. “Seeing the tourist and monetary success of Paradise city when they gave gambling zero restrictions,” Predious smiled widely as he recalled the events. “pretty much every city wanted to get in on it and drafted a few casinos of their own to open without even doing any research on any other city’s plans. Turns out, Baltimare, Seaddle, and Salt Lick City had each built themselves a casino modeled after Luna or the moon in some way. It was a popular theme with everything before the end.”

Shifting his weight, he looked over at me with a giggle. “So, it really came as a surprise to nopony when the Caledonian government offered a cease and desist notice to all three. Of course, the cities didn’t want to lose their investment, so they all fought it out in court.” With a sigh, he stared off into the distance, or in his case, the wall. “Turns out, Paradice city had copyrighted ‘The Moon’ and the other cities lost the right to name their casinos that. Baltimare’s rebranding of the casino cost them quite a lot of money, and the public nature of the lawsuit meant that people thought that they would gouge their customers upon opening to make up for it.” He looked at me longingly and shrugged. “Guess the final note of bad luck for it, was that it’s opening night was the same as the end of the war.”

“Is…” I stammered. “Is this what elevator small talk felt like back during the war?” I had vaguely recalled somepony or another in my orchard comment about making small talk in elevators, but I could never quite grasp what they were talking about as a filly. It was supposedly something different than regular small talk where you could only mention certain things in elevators, like the weather, local history, or sports. “I… don’t like it.” Even if it did explain the sign that had hung in the Casino a bit.

“Yeah.” Predious agreed, his expression shifting back to one of profound thought. “That really didn’t feel genuine. I must be more out of practice than I thought.” That made it sound like it was some sort of skill that somepony could even be good at, and that was even more perplexing that the idea of elevator discussions itself. Maybe it was better that I was raised in a wasteland that didn’t require a social skill as odd as that.

“Let’s never do this again.” I offered him an unsure look and listened to the whine of the motors pulling us spool down. “Sound good?”

“Agreed.” He nodded, shifting himself to in front of the doors. With a small ding, we came to a stop. “Marvelous, we’ve arrived.”

The doors opened to a flurry of activities. Robed acolytes ran around, carrying stacks of supplies and equipment. Several power armored rangers were busy moving heavy electrical equipment in, while others stood at the windows, weapons pointed out and ready to take anything on if it came too close.

“Hey!” Gauge shouted from down the hall as both Pred and I stepped out. “So was watching a building that big come down cool as hell, or what?” She laughed giddily as she trotted closer, however, her voice didn’t sound quite right. The closer she got, the more I could see numerous new scars formed all over her from where healing potions had closed the wounds.

“The blast from the artillery that close was a rush, and the dust that came out made it so only we could find the dead-o’s because we had EFS’!” She shook Tasteless’ fairly banged up cyberleg in the air, talking faster as she did. “Which, meant that I was mostly useless during the fight because it got fairly mangled again, but I digress because it got me thinking about what’s lying ahead!”

“Gauge?” I tried to interrupt her, but she was going far too fast.

“I mean, all we saw were the normal corpse soldiers like we’d seen before! Where are the rangers?” She sat down and pressed her hooves to her head as she stared off down the hall right through us. “And then I realized that Mr. BigBad must be saving them to guard the arena, which he is, and that since there’s nothing but open flat ground there, then we’d have no chance to even advance before we got mowed down!” She gasped and put her hooves on me. “Which is why I think that we need to make them all blind!”

“Gauge...?” Again, I tried futilely to stop her. I’d never quite seen her this manic, and honestly it was distressing to me.

“I still have my EFS jamming program on my old cyberleg.” She put her normal hoof on her chin in thought. “If I could find an old broadcast tower, I might be able to amplify the signal enough to work throughout the whole district. Sure, we’d lose our EFS too, but we’d have the numbers advantage that could make power armor useless anyway.” She went wide eyed. “Even better, if we could also make them actually blind, we could completely overwhelm them with our big guns!” With a quick snap, she put both her hooves on my cheeks and squeezed, pulling my attention right to her eyes. “I have to go ask mom if we brought any of the 88 millimeter Nb type rounds that were in stock at base!”

Without even pausing to listen to me, she spun on her hooves and took off down the hall. With a slight skid, she turned and ran into the stairwell, disappearing into it as Pred and I were left in the center of the hallway wondering what the hell we’d just listened to.

“Ah, Storm! I rejoice at seeing you have returned to us in one piece.” Gallant said as he popped his head out of a small room toward the end of the hall. “Come, come! We have much to discuss about Filius’s stronghold.”

Both Predious and I exchanged glances before weaving our way through the busy corridor down toward the room. As we approached the old curtains in the room had been drawn over the windows that faced out into the hallway, and the faded cursive writing of Chief of Medicine was barely legible on the old glass. Opening the door, I walked in to find the map table had been set up again in here, and both Filius and Ficha were hovering over it. On the other side of the room, a thick quilt had been hung over the window that faced the arena, glowing in the light that the pre-war sports center gave off. Pred shut the door behind him as he came in, only to have it fly open again.

“Somepony find a way get me a line to the Elder!” Cottage yelled out. “And I want to know what the delay is on finding that last radio tower. Without it we’re blind out here!” He groaned as he went to shut the door, pausing before sticking his head out. “And somepony find out where Steelhooves is. If he’s going to ignore the chain of command like he always does, I’d like to at least know where he’s doing it at, is that so much to ask?” Shutting the door, he closed his eyes and stood in silence for a moment. “Storm, please tell me the artillery strike brought down your hotel. I heard briefly from Corporal Kiwi that your radio was knocked out, but she didn’t get a chance to answer if the objective had been resolved before the nurses kicked me out to work on her.”

“Yes, the building came down.” I nodded. “However…”

“Ah, save it.” Cottage groaned. “I dont’ want any bad news.”

“Filius know’s what our plan is.” I said bluntly. Even if he didn’t want to hear it, he had to know.

“So you’re saying that somepony in this hospital is leaking our plan to him?” Cottage sat down with a heavy thump. He dragged his hooves down his face in annoyance.

“Not… exactly?” I shut my eyes and cringed. “He could see it in my mind. He’s still connected to me.”

“Great.” He clopped his hooves together and pointed to the door. “Then get out.”

“What?” I snapped.

“We can’t make any plans with you around if he’s just going to pull them out of your head, now can we?” Cottage spat back. “So would you kindly get out of my command center?”

“Hold up just one moment.” Gallant spoke up. “I believe that having her here could prove to be quite prudent.” He looked over to me with a tired smile and pointed to the side of the table. “Storm, please, if you would.”

Walking over, I took a seat at the edge of the table. Cottage diverted his eyes and stared at the map. I guess he couldn’t figure out which one of us he hated more in that moment, but I’d trust Gallant on this. As we waited, Gallant’s horn glowed and pulled a very old scroll from under his cape. Unfurling it, he set it down in the center of the table.

A tall, ornate looking tower sat depicted on it. The first thing I noticed about it, before anything else, was how tall it was. Compared to the small cottages and shops around it, it rose up like a skyscraper. The sleek, flanged walls of it curved slowly from the base, getting thinner as they ran higher. A bulbous point, not unlike that of an upside down turnip sat at the top, with it’s spiked cap coated in shimmering gold.

“This place used to be Filius’s home and personal study. Every tool, every note, every book he ever had to teach and learn with was contained within it.” As he spoke, he pulled the map aside. I noticed a small, but interesting similarity between the tower and the map. The tower itself had eight separate flanges, sitting in a star formation. On the old world map, the old arena also had eight flanged points built as concrete parkways. “I believe that it still exists.” Gallant continued. “At least, part of it perhaps.”

“The ritual chamber.” I spoke up, getting a nod from Gallant.

“The tower may have been removed, but the council of necromancers in my time, vowed to mark the ground it sat on. They agreed to keep all of his research and artifacts locked in the ground below, so that if the time came to where they were ever needed, they could be found and used to help ponykind.” He shook his head. “I fear that he has used one of these items as his phylactery. We must find and destroy it before we confront him.”

“His what?” Cottage groaned. “What the hell does this have to do with anything?” He pointed to the window and raised his voice. “Once he is dead, then we’ve won. Game over.”

“No, Mr. Cottage.” Gallant snapped. “Death for a Lich such as him isn’t final.” In annoyance, he hefted his sword out of his sheath and dropped it onto the table with a clatter. “A phylactery is where a Lich’s soul remains. Unless it is destroyed, the soul inside will find itself a way to occupy another body.” That made Cottage’s anger drop, and I swore that he looked scared as well. Honestly, it was hard to tell because I was scared of that. “If we do not destroy the phylactery first, then we have only let him escape us once again.”

“What would it be?” Predious asked, reaching out toward Gallant’s sword with his leg. With great care, he ran his hoof down the blade.

“It could be any object in his tower that has remained undamaged by the passage of time.” Gallant said, grasping around his sword with his magic. “However. It must be an item of great mental importance. Something that connects the Lich to their very sense of self. It would be in the most protected place of all, to keep it safe for as long as it took for him to find a new body to inhabit.” As he slid his sword back into its sheath with a click, he let out a sigh. “Alas, I have no ideas on what that item could be. In his last few years, I’d become so detached that I had forgotten who my friend really was. I cannot help you identify it, even if we were to find it.”

“Just like every asshole out for power I guess. They always have some sort of way hidden up their sleeves of protecting themselves.” Ficha finally muttered, joining in late to our little discussion. “So, why not just run in there with a couple dozen satchels of explosives and blow all the artifacts up?” Ficha asked with a shrug. “Pretty sure that thousand year old anything won’t hold up against modern equestrian explosives.”

“We have to confirm we killed him after we break it, and we won’t be able to do that if the whole place collapses on itself.” I said out in annoyance before stopping and thinking for a moment. “Wait, what was that you just said, Ficha?”

“First you shoot down my idea,” He grumbled and crossed his forehooves, “and then you ask what it was again?”

“No, before that!” I shouted.

“He’s just an asshole!” He snapped back. “Kinda like some mares I know!”

“An asshole out for power…” I spoke softly. Looking over at Gallant, I put my hooves on the table. “He poured himself into making that amulet so that he could become more powerful. He killed your wife to complete it, and did it out of spite to you.” I pointed down at the tower. “And it was in a tower alright, but not this one. It was in the most secure location it could have ever been in, locked away where even the war couldn’t touch it.”

“Goddesses…” Predious gasped as he put the pieces together. “The amulet itself is the phylactery. Equestria kept it safe all these years without even knowing what it truly was...”

“Great!” Cottage blurt out. “This is all just great! But you all are forgetting something.” He pushed himself up and trotted over to the blacked out window. With a strong yank, the covering came down, and streamed light into the room. “How the fuck are we going to get through this?”

Peering out of the window, the large open field that once held a wide open park stretched away from the old hospital. The old rusted playground stood as the only pony made structure still left in the park. Large smooth boulders jutted up from several points in the field, surrounded by the burned husks of the trees that once grew around them.

The stadium itself stood mostly intact. The rusted girders and concrete facade sat cracked and warped, but still standing. The warped, but still working floodlights were what was pouring out lights and pushing away the night. Down around the base of the arena, several makeshift shacks and bunkers sat, one at the end of each of the flanged parkways. Even from here, I could tell that the small silver objects standing around them were actually power armored rangers. Behind the rangers facing towards us, sat a large, silver metal gate. That would be our way in, we’d just have to get through everything else first, is all.

“It’s a nearly five hundred meter run across open terrain to get to the base of the stadium.” Cottage grunted. “Even if we did manage to get as many suits of power armor functioning as he does, they’d still cut us down on the run over!”

Predious tapped on the table. “I do believe Miss Gauge had an idea around that.” He said, eyeing me with a smile. “and at the same time, it might fix your radio problem too.”

Cottage turned and cocked an eyebrow, and for once, said something I never expected a pony like him to say.

“Go on.” He crossed his forehooves and stared at us. “I’m listening.”

--Chapter End--

“I have fought to see the other side.”

Quests Finished: Shaking A Pillar Of Heaven

Quests Started: See No Evil...

Levels Earned: You’ve already reached max level!

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fifty One - Grief

“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”

Turns out, that Cottage didn’t mind Gauge’s idea. Even though he wasn’t a fan about everything else we’d discussed, I could tell that the idea of having any sort of advantage took a lot off his mind. He ordered that Gauge and I head out to the TransEquestria tower down at the waterfront to get it set up. Along with that, I was supposed to confirm the collapse of the Elder’s tower whenever it happened to come down.

With that all sorted out, both Predious and I headed down one level to get ourselves treated for our wounds. For me, it was more bruises and a few cracked ribs from the fighting than life threatening injuries. Predious however, was kept a bit longer for one of the ghoul doctors to look him over. He didn’t seem thrilled with staying behind, but I left without telling him, so he should only be slightly annoyed when I get back. Heading downstairs, I wanted to talk to Harmony before we left. If we used her car, we could cut the trip time in half. While, the tower was only four blocks away, any time saved was usefull.

“Oh, hey Storm!” Gauge cheerfully called out as I walked out into the ambulance garage. “I just came back from seeing mom. She couldn’t say if they’d brought any of the smoke shells, which was a bummer. Anyway, somepony else had informed that we’re supposed to go set up that Jamming signal I suggested. Funny that Cottage finally got off his flank for one of my ideas.” She smiled at me and trotted off toward the outside. “I’m just going to grab some spare supplies for the job real fast, find out where grumpy is, and to the tower it is! So don’t you move!” She smiled and didn’t even let me get a single word out before she nearly galloped off around the side of the building.

“Ah ain’t one ta say this normally…” Harmony spoke as she popped up from the other side of her armored car. “Sumthin’s wrong with a young mare who takes ta talkin’ that much.”

“I don’t know,” I said, glancing back toward where she ran off toward. “Something felt… off with her earlier.” In fact, I knew that she was avoiding letting us talk. I know that she felt close to Tasteless, but I’d never seen anypony take a loss this hard. “She just hasn’t had time to cope with everything yet. This has been a lot for all of us to deal with.”

“An don’t ah know it.” Harmony grumbled, tossing the wrench in her hoof aside. “Ah ain’t sure what ta tell Short Staff about all this.” She gestured to the monstrously armored vehicle in front of her. “She ain’t goin ta last tha night as is, but she’s gonna need more armor if we’re plannin on throwin’ her at tha arena.”

“Throwing her?” I asked, not sure why she’d chosen those words.

“Well, yeah!” She shrugged. “Y’all are going ta need some way ta break through tha gate.” With a firm tap, she smirked and ran her hoof along the rusty and bent fender. “Hook a chain up ta the rear axle, an she’ll damn near pull anything yah need down.” Looking up to me, she deadpanned. “That’s if she can make it past all the bunkers an rangers out there.”

“Well, Gauge actually had an idea for how to even the odds for the fight.” I offered, taking a seat on the cold concrete floor. Honestly, it felt good to just sit for a minute. “See, she said she could…” The stairway door behind me burst open with a bang, cutting me off.

“Gauge!?” Diesel called out, looking around franticly as both Harmony and I stared at him. As he walked out and looked around, he shucked off the damaged suit of power armor he’d had propped up on his back. His frantic and scared eyes latched on to me and he rushed over. “Have you seen her?” I pushed myself back a few steps as he ran up to me. “Tell me she’s still here!”

“I uhh....” I stammered. Putting my hoof up, I pushed back against him a bit. “She said she’d be right back, that she was going to get some supplies for the job real fast.” As I spoke those words, Diesel’s coat went from green, to white.

“And that she was going to get grumpy?” Diesel spoke out with a quivering whimper.

“Yeah, why?” Okay, he was really freaking me out now. “She and I are supposed to head out to the tower to get the radio beacon up.”

With a heavy grasp, he put his hooves on my shoulders and nearly screamed at me. “Get your things, we’re going after her!” Letting go of me, he scrambled to turn around and head back to the armor. Skidding to it, he hoofed it back onto himself with ease. “She told me the same thing when I left you alone with her.” He sniffled and pushed back tears. “She’s gone off on her own again. I shouldn’t have left her alone in that room, seeing mom was too much.”

“What?” I asked as he trotted past me. Without so much as asking Harmony, he tossed the banged up armor in the backseat of the car and opened the door. “I don’t understand why she’d do this!” Had the fighting on their end broken her? Maybe everything had just gotten to be too much, and none of us had even cared enough to sit down and support her. “Maybe… maybe she said something to Frosty when she’d gone to talk to her?”

Diesel froze at that, sighing as he sat halfway into the car.

“Mom is dead.” His voice was cold, and it hit me harder than any artillery barrage could have. “A sniper hit her after the tower came down. Sent the round right through her helmet and into Gauge’s side.” As he slumped down into the seat, my rear legs gave out and I sat down again, hard. “Sis passed out from the pain, she almost didn’t make it either. But she didn’t know until after we got her back and patched up. When I turned my back on her after telling her, she disappeared again!” He whimpered and curled up. “Please, she’s all I have left…”

“Then what are Y’all standin’ round for!?” Harmony yelled, kicking her toolkit aside as she galloped around the car. “We gotta go find her before she gits herself killed out there!”

Galloping over to the car, I jumped and slid myself across the armored slab on the hood. With a quick spin, I turned and threw the passenger side door open. As Harmony smashed the engine start button, I pulled myself in and shut the door behind me. Even before I could get myself oriented, Harmony changed gears and sent the tires squealing as we peeled out of the garage. The whole car bounced as she slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop only long enough before she threw the car into drive and slammed her hoof on the pedal.

“Dun worry, sugar.” Harmony spoke through grit teeth. “Ain’t nopony goin’ ta hurt her on our watch.” She turned and glared at me. “Ain’t that right, Storm?”

“R-right.” I stammered.

“Where are we goin?” Harmony said as she turned her gaze back to the road ahead. The bright headlights of the marauder peeled back the night. With a sharp tug, she yanked the wheel and turned us out of the way of an old skybus wreck in the road.

“The… TransEquestria tower?” I answered, not sure what else to say. I really wish I knew where this place was. Gauge was supposed to be the one to lead us there, and it’s not like I could just ask Pai, seeing as she was still with the mare.

“The tallest building on the skyline.” Diesel chimed in from the back. As he did, a set of whirrs and clicks met my ears. I climbed up over the seat to find part of the power armored suit opening up. He looked to me with watering and worried eyes.

Harmony hooked her hoof around the wheel again and pulled, turning us around the end of the block. “Now, she ain’t got that much of a head start on us. So I reckon we’ve gotten ahead of…” She stopped, squinting as she looked ahead. “Well ah’ll be plum stuffed.”

“Huh?” I turned around to see what she was talking about. Up ahead, three red glowing orbs hovered through an old parking lot before turning onto the street we were on. As we followed closer to them, they resolved into the shape of Grumpy. On top of his round armored form, sat a very surprised looking Gauge. They were traveling at a quick clip down the sidewalk, headed in the same direction.

She yelled something angrily at us, but it was lost in the constant thrumming of the Marauder’s engine. Grumpy’s eyes dimmed for a moment, and from where we sat, the exhaust of his levitation talisman grew red hot for a moment. With the same whine as a Virtibuck, the two of them picked up speed and pulled ahead of us. Harmony stepped on the accelerator, and the Marauder’s engine roared out. Slowly, we picked up speed as Harmony growled out next to me.

“She ain’t goin’ ta keep up this speed fer long!” She yelled out over the roaring engine. Even for only having gone for a few moments, parts of the hood began to glow a dim red and sizzle the melted snow on it away into steam. The car must have hated having this much weight on it, and I was genuinely worried that we’d lose Gauge if we fell behind now. However, I remember that she’d talked about Grumpy’s boost ability before, and how it too could only work in short bursts.

“We have to keep up!” I shouted back at Harmony. “Just a little bit longer!” Grumpy’s talisman grew brighter, but their speed slowed. Harmony kept pushing us to speed up, and we finally started to close the gap. With my eyes glued to Grumpy’s lights, Harmony was the only one with her eyes on the road.

“Shit!” She snapped and slammed on the breaks. She swerved us to the side, and the tires squealed before we slammed against the side of an old taxiwagon. The impact threw me hard against the door, and I saw stars as my head smacked into the metal reinforcements.

“Gauge!” Diesel yelled as he used the power armor to kick his door straight off of it’s hinges. With a whine, he tore out into the street after her. “Wait!”

“Yah alright, hun?” Harmony groaned, now laying where I had been seated.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Just tired of losing ponies.” With a groan of my own, I pushed myself back up. Looking over at my door, I hoofed at it to get it open. Unfortunately, with the way it was bent, I wasn’t sure it’d ever open again. “Come on, we have to go.”

“Go on ahead.” Harmony said as she too pushed herself up. “Ah got mah work cut out fer gittin this gal unstuck. Ah’ll meet you all at tha base of tha tower. Should be just up ahead.”

“but...” I tried to say.

“Go, already!” She snapped at me. “Y’all ain’t gut ta give up on her, alright?” She glared at me in a way I’d never seen her piercing yellow eyes stare. “Yah damn right we’ve lost enough, so Y’all are goin’ ta do whatever it takes ta get some sense inta that mare’s head. Yah understand meh, Storm?”

“Y-yes.” I nodded and pushed my hooves to move. “Stay safe.” I uttered to her as I pushed myself past her. Throwing her door open, it too gave a soft crunch and fell off it’s hinges as well. Hopping down into the snowy street, I hit it running. I took off into a gallop, looking ahead for any sign of where they might have gone.

“Storm!” The amplified voice of Shadow called down from up above me. “What’s wrong? Why did you all just take off?” I locked my legs and skid myself to a stop in the snow. He swooped down low, flaring his wings and looking at me through the odd bug eyed lenses of his helmet.

Looking around, I let my vision run to the building that we were standing right next to. The imposing tower ran far up into the night, looming over us with the ever watching storm above it. With a flick, I shot out my hoof and pointed to the top.

“I need you to fly me to the top of that tower.” Turning and looking to him. “Like, right this fucking moment.”

“Okay, hold on!” He nodded and lunged at me. With what felt like being tackled by a brahman, he smacked into me and wrapped his hooves under mine. In an instant, I was airborne, being carried straight up into the night at an alarming speed. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Frosty died and Gauge isn’t handling it well.” I cried out, pulling myself closer to him. “She ran from us, and…” I didn’t want to think about it, but I’d seen other ponies give up for less losses than Gauge has gone through. “I don’t want to lose her, Shadow.”

“We… we’ll stop her.” He offered, flapping harder as he spoke. “I don’t know how, but we won’t abandon her. We’re her friends, we’ll find a way.” Looking up at him, I could feel the flames of hope in him grow. Each bright flicker of it sent a surge of strength through my limbs, and I knew that he believed what he said.

The cold air whipped at me, and for the first time in a few hours, I shivered in the cold. As we raced upward past the broken windows and rusting girders that still clung to the old building, I looked at the clock that had been sitting nearly unused in my vision over the last month. The numbers spelled out 11:23pm, and all I could think was that if we didn’t stop Filius by midnight, then we wouldn’t last until morning.

With a grunt, Shadow slowed his climb. The lipped edge of the roof dropped towards us ever slower, and even so, my heart only beat faster. The tall radio mast that shot into the night sat at an odd angle. With an ease only afforded by flight, Shadow looped us up over the roof, circling it for a moment. The old rusted equipment on it still hummed as it ran. A dull and flickering light sat above a small doorway that lead onto the roof. As we hovered in the air, it burst open with a light yelp from Gauge.

Quickly, she looked around the roof. With a panicked jump, she lunged at a pipe that was still connected to one of the old ventilation systems. She gave a few good tugs at it before slamming it with her cyberhoof. The old pip sheared off, and the coolant hissed away into the night. With pipe in hoof, she ran back to the door and shut it, propping the pipe against it to keep it from being opened. Once she found it secure enough, she stumbled backwards. With a wail, she collapsed against the side of the ventilation unit and sobbed.

“Take me down there, Shadow.” I asked in a hushed tone. “Then I want you to go get Harmony, alright?”

“Are you sure?” He looked down at me. “I’m here to help, you know.”

“She doesn’t need everypony to hold her down and tell her it’s alright all at once.” I sighed. “Once you get harmony, bring her here. I just want a moment to talk to her myself.” I looked over to him. I could tell that he didn’t like the idea of leaving me up here with her, but he nodded anyways. “Thank you.”

Slowly, he dipped us down through the air, and down towards the roof. He flew me in low, setting me down gently before letting go. With a few quick flaps, he was back into the air again, and zipping away into the night.

“Just… leave me alone.” Gauge whined between sobs.

“I’m not going to leave you, Gauge.” I sighed, getting up to my hooves. As I did, Gauge pulled her muzzle out of her hooves and looked at me. Where in Shadow I could see hope, Gauge’s eyes were full of nothing but sorrow and anger. She held a void inside of her where the flames of hope had once been, and I could feel it. The small gem in the pocket of my coat even felt colder to me as I stared at her.

“Go away, Storm!” She snapped at me. “I… I don’t want to see you anymore! Ever again in fact!” She screamed and slammed her hoof on the roof. “You can stop pretending to care about me like I’m just some little filly!”

My pipvision flickered to blue, and I was about to comment on it. However, a scrolling line of text popped up in my vision, along with Pai’s frowning face.

Don’t say anything. Pai shook her head as tears came from her big digital eyes. She’s not well in the head, Storm. She wants to die.

“That’s enough, Gauge.” I sighed. “You’re not thinking straight right now.”

“How the fuck would you know!?” She screamed at me. Her horn flashed, and in an instant, she’d snapped my revolver from my holster. “It’s you all who aren’t thinking straight! You’re the ones who have just shrugged off everypony's death around you!” My revolver wavered in her grip as she pointed it at me. “I’m not like you, Storm! I can’t be numb to it like you. Not anymore!”

“You’re right.” I could deny it all I wanted, or twist her words around until she relented, but she was right. I didn’t feel anything anymore. It was either because of the element, or the fact that I could feel the hopes of others, I couldn’t be bothered to hurt like it had when we lost Chasm, or Pallet, or Sky, or Tasteless. “Do you know why?”

“The fuck do you want me to say?” She giggled between sobs. “You’re the most fucked up pony I’ve ever fucking seen, Storm.”

“I’m not a pony.” With a stomp of my hoof, a small flicker of flame escaped from under it. “I’m not normal, Gauge. I never had a ‘real’ family, because I’m not real.” Looking at her, I knew that the flames inside me were growing brighter. “Everypony who knew who I was, died over a century ago. The ponies who found me? Who claimed to be my parents?” I seethed at the thought of blaming the two ponies I’d loved more than anything in my life, but it was true. “They lied to me. Told me I was their family. They raised me, helped me to become the unfeeling, uncaring mare that I am today. But you’d know what that feels like, right? You never had a ‘real’ family who was there for you, or a ‘real’ sibling to watch over you, right?”

“Don’t you fucking dare turn this around on me.” Gauge grunted and angrily slammed her cyber hoof against the ventilation system. “I loved them more than anything!” She screamed out as the rusty metal dented in, but didn’t give out as she sat there. “And now because of me, they’re gone! I watched in silence as she pulled the gun back over to her, and levitated it under her muzzle. “I can’t stand it anymore, Storm! I got mom and dad killed by finding them for you in Sunshine city. If I hadn’t have met up with them, they’d still be alive.” Using her magic, she pulled the hammer of the gun back until it gave a crisp click. “If I’m still around, I’ll just end up getting Diesel killed too.”

“Fine, but you’ll have to shoot me first.” I snapped at her. That pulled her watering eyes over to me faster than anything I’ve said yet. “I was the one that brought Tasteless into our group.” I stepped forward towards her. “I was the one who set you down this path. I was the one to bring Fruit along with us to that fucking island.” Another step forward, and Gauge started to quake as she tried to hold back her tears. “I don’t want to die, Gauge. I need to live so I can see Filius destroyed for everything he’s done. But if you want to place blame on somepony for what’s happened? Then you might as well shoot me!”

The cold trickle of my own tears rolling down my muzzle caught me off guard. I sat down in front of gauge, watching as they rolled off my cheeks and onto my coat.

Gauge’s voice was meek. She spoke at barely more than a whisper. “You didn’t ask to be who you are, Storm.” Pulling the gun down from her chin, she whimpered softly. “I had a choice to go with you. I chose to go because even now I still think you can beat Filius. But somewhere down the line, I chose wrong. As much as you say it wasn’t, it was my fault. All because I loved them too much to leave them behind.” Her magic flickered and faded, and the gun clattered to the ground. She looked up to me again, and even though there was hope in her words, it was hollow. “And look where that got them. That’s why I have to make sure I can’t hurt anypony like that ever again.”

In a silver blur, her cyber hoof landed square under my jaw in a solid uppercut. I was sent pedaling backwards as she pushed herself up to her hooves. Before my brain could even sort out what had just happened, she had already made it to the edge of the building. A heavy thumping came from the stairway behind the door Gauge had shut, and through it, I could hear Diesel shouting for her.

“I’m sorry, Storm.” She called back, looking at me as my head finally stopped spinning. “Take care of Diesel for me. He’ll forgive me one day...” As she spoke, Diesel smashed through the door, the power armor easily shredding it into rusted metal scraps. “Goodbye.” Was all she said before she tipped herself over the edge, and disappeared into the night.

“Gauge, wait!” Diesel cried.

“SHADOW!” I screamed out as the two of us raced toward the edge.

There was a short scream, and the sound of smashing glass before there was only the sound of the wind pushing up the side of the building. Both Diesel and I pressed ourselves against the lip of the building, and looked over. Even before I could see them, the sound of sobbing made me let out a breath that I’d been holding.

“I’m sorry!” Gauge whined, curled up in Shadow’s hooves as he rose up through the air. “I… I don’t want to die…” Staring into the face of death, and going willingly was something that would make anypony rethink their stance on life. I’ve had my fair share of moments when I’ve wanted to give up, and each time, I’d been lucky that somepony else had been there for me.

However, sometimes a pony just needed to see for themselves how even though things hurt, it’s still not worth ending it all.

The power armor Diesel wore let out a quick, successive set of hisses, whirrs and clicks as it opened. With a bit of work, he managed to tear off most of it by the time that Shadow had brought the whimpering form of Gauge back down onto the roof. With an angry grunt, he stormed over to Gauge and pushed Shadow aside.

“You selfish little shit!” He screamed and swung his fore hoof across her muzzle. “How could you leave again like that!?” With his own tears heavily matting down the coat on his muzzle, he raised his hoof again, and brought it down on her. “We’re all we have left anymore! Doesn’t that matter to you at all!?” Gauge could do nothing but cry out and whine as Diesel literally smacked some sense into her. Like Gauge, he needed to get it out of his system, so both Shadow and I didn’t stop him.

“I’M SORRY!” Gauge cried out, balling like a filly as she curled herself tighter. When she did, Diesel changed tactics and reached down. Without any hesitation whatsoever, he grabbed around her sides and pulled her up to her hooves. Then, he pulled her close, and squeezed her against him. The two of them broke down together, sobbing into each others necks as they held on to each other.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again, Sis.” Diesel whined, rocking back and forth as he held her. “And don’t you think that I’d ever forgive you if I lost you forever.”

I wanted to say that this was a win for me, that I had come through for her. But, I had failed her. Without Shadow, Gauge would be dead, and I wouldn’t have been able to save her. If that had happened, I don’t think I could have filed it under Aunt Rarities advice. Ponies died in war, yes. Frosty was the example set out for that, but I almost couldn’t save Gauge.

Warmth surrounded my shivering body as Shadow reached over and draped his wing over me. Even if it was colder against his armor, I still leaned into him. Like the remnants of a bad dream, my thoughts drifted away in his hold, leaving me back on the rooftop where my mind should be.

An annoyed grunt came from my left.

“Oh…” Shadow muttered. “Right.”

“Ah git why yah threw meh. Ah really do.” Harmony’s voice came across as just a bit more than peeved. “But if Y’all are plannin’ ta toss meh through a window forty stories up again, a lil’ warnin’ would be nice.” She winced and rubbed at her flank softly. “An maybe aimin’ fer somethin a little softer than a terminal.” She sighed as she looked up over the canted radio mast before her. “Now, Y’all said somethin’ about fixin’ this thing?” With a smile, she reached back into her saddlebag and pulled out a large, heavy looking wrench. “Just like Miss Gauge there, all it needs is a little TLC...”

* * * * * * * * *

Harmony’s definition of tender loving care, included hammering something until it worked, testing live connections by licking her hoof and touching it before screaming obscenities at it when it shocked her, and applying plenty of duct tape and apologies when something sparked and died.

In the ten minutes that Harmony had been working, Gauge and her brother seemed to have settled down a bit. While they had both stopped crying, they still held each other. I however, had been enjoying this pause in the night to sit with Shadow and just be held. I prefered the warmth he gave without his armor, and he seemed to enjoy me the same way without my coat. Together, we sat at the edge of the building, and looked out into the night.

This place was amazing. The two of us stared out from the rooftop, overviewing the whole ruined city from here. As fighting and gunfire still flashed from various points in the city, I found myself wondering just what this place had looked like before the end of it all. Had there been enough lights in the city to rival the daytime sun? Was the harbor full of calm blue waters, and full of ponies enjoying a stroll along its docks? The sight was amazing, yes, but it was depressing. Seeing what we as a race had once achieved, only to smash it back down into the ground in a single day.

“Ah think ah got it!” Harmony called out, as she clung to the side of the tower. Tossing down one of her large screwdrivers, she looked over to me with an eager smile. “Go ahead, Storm. See if Y’all can tune in.”

With a shift of my forehooves, I reached up and flicked the radio switch on my pipbuck.

“...pony hear us!?” The voice that came through was Longbow’s, and she didn’t sound happy. “We’re pinned down at objective bravo, we need fire support at the grid points of Echo one, Delta three, Charlie nine.” Harmony’s color drained from her coat as she listened to her.

“This is Cottage, we read you, Longbow.” The uppity star paladin’s voice came across the air as sounding quite relieved. “Good to know you are still with us. What’s the status of the objective?”

“Maple and I are at our designated positions, but we're under heavy fire!” She responded. “We’ve lost our escort, and we’re both down to our last magazines.”

“Alright, you two sit tight.” Cottage came back across. “I'm going to be repositioning delta unit to rendezvous on your position! Just hold out until they get there.”

“Negative.” Longbow practically screamed into the mic. “We are…”

The transmission cut out as a set of heavy booms trailed through the dark city. From where we were, we could see the flashes as several large explosions tore through the block where they’d been fighting. Harmony whimpered as she hastily climbed down the tower. As soon as she hit the roof, she ran right for the door. She would have made it too, however Diesel held out a hoof and tripped her.

“What are you doing?” She screamed out at him.

“You’d never make it into that district! It’s too heavily fortified, even for your vehicle.” Diesel snapped. “That’s why we sent only armored rangers in there.”

With a crackle, the radio came back to life with noise. “Cottage?” Longbow’s voice was sharper than before, and her breathing came across as ragged gasps. “They got Maple with a rocket attack.” Harmony gasped at that, sitting down hard. “I repeat, Elder Maple is dead.”

“Paladin Longbow, I’m recalling you back to base.” Cottage replied in what sounded to be the first decent decision he’d had so far.

“Negative.” Longbow groaned. “The shot brought part of the building down on me. I’m pinned in the rubble.” She gave a pained whine, and a hacking cough for a few moments that made me want to just reach over and turn off my radio. “My suit stopped everything but the rebar, but I can feel it through my legs. Geeze this hurts like hell.” She let out a pained grunt before panting lightly. “I’m not getting out of here. My suit is bleeding coolant, and power, estimated one minute to complete spark generator failure.”

“No!” Harmony cried out. Twice in the same night, I was helpless as I watched one of my best friends lose their mother.

“What about your objective? Did you set the talismans?” Cottage came across cold as he spoke. “Paladin Longbow, did you set the talismans.”

“I can confirm both talisman are set on their targets. Targeted barrage is ready on your command.” She whined out, sounding less focused with every word. “You're in command now, Elder Cottage. Do what you need to finish this fight.” Her breathing slowed to a rasping whine, and she cried softly over the radio. “Tell my kids… I love them.”

“No, mom… please!” Harmony cried and screamed as she slammed her hooves against the rooftop. “Yah can’t leave meh…”

“Battery control, primary target whiskey bravo is green lit.” Cottage’s voice came over again. “Fire when ready.”

With a soft click, I pushed the radio off again. With a whimper, both Gauge and Diesel walked over to Harmony and embraced her. They’d paid the price of this war, and even now, I knew that with the sacrifices that Frosty and Longbow made, it won’t be enough. Finally, for the first time in awhile, I felt it again.

As the thunderous reports of the artillery barrage rolled across the horizon, my legs wobbled, and I too collapsed onto the roof. So much pain, so much anguish. I screamed out my hatred for into the cold night, hoping that in some way I could make the goddesses above regret what they’ve allowed to happen.

Longbow didn’t deserve to die. Frosty didn’t deserve to die. I’ve lived my entire life, watching as ponies fought the wasteland and lost. Hundreds, maybe even thousands who left the town or tavern I was in, and were never heard from again. These last two months, I wasn’t fighting the wasteland anymore, no pony was, and they didn’t deserve to die.

“Shhh.” Shadow said, leaning down and pressing against me. “We’ll get through this, Storm.” He pulled me closer to him, rocking softly as I let loose. I cried for Pallet, for Skyline, Fruit, Tasteless, Frosty, and now Longbow. I cried for the friends I still had left, who suffered because of what they had lost.

The flames inside me sparked, and sputtered. It sent a wave of pain through me that pulled me back from my sorrows. Sniffling and whining, I put my hoof to my chest, and felt as it grew colder. Part of me worried the that curse had returned, but deep down I knew what it was. I was losing hope. This was my moment, the moment that would either turn me into a monster like Filius, or let me continue to try to be the pony everypony needed me to be.

So I reached my forehoof out again, and flicked on the radio.

“...porting back with confirmation.” A sorrowful mare’s voice filled the air. “The objective is down.”

“Copy that.” Cottage spoke up again. “It’s time to call in the Nautilus. You have a green light to send the signal to Captain Doppler.”

“Copy that, command.” The mare answered before a short staticky crackle filled the air. “This is Paladin Kutia calling asset Frogger. You are go for your operation.”

With another static filled pause, I wiped away my tears and hugged Shadow tightly.

“This is Frogger.” The sorrowful tone of Doppler’s voice made me wonder if she too had listened to what had happened to Longbow and the Elder. “We are in position in the Harbor.” With that, I sat up and looked over with Shadow toward the Harbor. The glowing clouds of ash and dust that rose from various points of fighting in the city reflected off the calm and discolored harbor waters. “Preparing to offload assault teams.”

Like a monolith, a slender tube pushed itself up into the air, and rested on the surface. The bulbous form of the Nautilus’s prow gave it an odd look in the nighttime lighting. As we stared at it, Shadow wrapped his hoof around me again to pull me tight. When he did, he accidentally rolled the tuning dial away from the Ranger’s radio frequency.

“...please say hello, to the folks that I know. Tell them I won't be long!”

The hopeful mare on the radio sang out into the lonely night around us. Something clicked in my mind when I heard it. Everything had been going so well for us, something had been bound to go wrong. I’d already expected that my night could get worse, and I had let it hit me far too hard. We needed to keep our chins up, to keep on fighting. The flames inside me surged with the song, and I knew that I needed to be just as hopeful as the mare singing.

“They'll be happy to know, that as you saw me go, I was singing this song.”

A flash on top of one of the warehouses next to the docks caught my eyes, and I tried to focus on it. A small plume of smoke rose from what looked like where the roof access to the warehouse was, and if I squinted enough, I could see something still flashing. Wait… now it was just a solid, unmoving light? Like a dart, that light shot out from the rooftop toward the Nautilus.

“We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when,”

With a blinding flash, the prismatic balefire egg blast tore the Submarine’s conning tower apart. Before the sound of the blast could even reach us, another, brighter flash filled the night as the rest of the submarine erupted in fire. The second cacaughinous explosion echoed through the night as Shadow and I watched in muted horror as what glowing scraps remained of the Nautilus began to sink beneath the waves.

“But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day.”

--Chapter End--

“I Am The One.”

Quests Finished: See No Evil...

Quests Started: Hear No Evil...

Levels Earned: You’ve already reached max level!

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fifty Two - Hope Rises

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

The wasteland is a cruel place.

Nopony ever said it was somewhere they’d loved living in. At least, nopony who’d ever stepped out from the rock they’d been living under and lived to talk about it. Everypony out here has suffered the pain of a needless loss. Whether to raiders, ghouls, mutated creatures, or just exposure, the wasteland always takes a pony before their time. Somedays, it’s those who were too young to understand how cruel it can be. Other days, it takes those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, there were those lucky few who could evade it. Ponies so well versed in the workings of the wasteland, that they could avoid it’s deathly gaze for long enough to live into an age they got to see their grandchildren. But, even those ponies know that one day, they will have to meet the wasteland head on. Nopony can hide forever, not from the wastes. Even so, when that time comes, at least then it would be on their terms.

That’s how they should have gone. Everypony who’d died tonight deserved to have had the time to hide just a little bit longer. Not to go out in in another needless war. Not to Filius’s wrath.

Harmony pulled the marauder back into the ambulance garage at the hospital. Nopony had said anything since the roof, and I don’t really blame them. It all has happened so fast, even I’d started to lose hope. Even if I could still feel the hope burning inside me, the numbing cold from the others left me wondering what I could even do. The only one who I knew still held hope in their heart, was Shadow.

As the car rolled to a stop, the archano engine gave a sharp squeal. A light smoke started to waft from under the armored hood, and Harmony shut the car off with a sigh. When she did, she dropped us all into an eerie silence. The hospital, the city, hell, even the storm were all draped in it now. Everything felt so still in that moment.

“Everypony git out.” Harmony said quietly, keeping her pained eyes staring down at her hooves as they rested on the steering wheel.

Diesel gave a grunt and pushed his power armored self out the doorless passenger seat. Without a word, he turned around and held his hoof out for Gauge. Hesitantly, she took it and pulled herself out as well. The two of them pulled each other close before walking towards the stairwell door. Diesel turned his head back to look at us, staring at me through the blank expression that the armored ranger helmets always gave.

“I’m going to give my report to the elder.” His voice came through the helmet without the resolve that he’d had before. “I am certain that he’ll wish to speak to you as well.”

I simply nodded and waited for him to leave. I wanted to talk to Harmony alone. If I could do anything to help relight the flame of hope in her, I didn’t want to have anypony interjecting or bothering us. And I meant anypony.

“Shadow?” I asked, turning to him as he sat up in the back seat with a yawn. Flying around all night as he has, along with having to haul me around had really been taking a toll on his energy. “Can you go check on Predious for me?” I gave him a soft smile that he returned with his own. “Make sure he’s not too angry about being left behind.”

“Sure.” He nodded, stretching his wings out before pulling himself along the rear bench seat. Once he’d freed himself from the confining vehicle, he spread his wings and took off once again into the night.

“Storm, stop.” Harmony said sternly. She shut her eyes and pressed herself back against the seat. The steering wheel bowed slightly as she tightened her hooves around it, straining along with her legs as she looked more tense than she was even during any combat I’d seen her in. “Ah know what Y’all are wantin ta do, but ahm askin yah ta not.” Opening her eyes, she looked over at me slowly. “Maybeh after all a this is over, but ah ain’t ready when there’s work needin’ ta be done.”

I could only sigh and nod. Without her willing to talk, there was little that I could even do. Sure, I could try to talk to her about it, but I can’t force it. Not after what she’d lost. I knew Harmony, and sure, she was hiding her grief, but I knew she wouldn’t try to kill herself. She was too stubborn to give up like that, and even with everything she’d lost, she was a fighter to the bitter end. There was only one thing I could think of that might take her mind off everything.

“How can I help you with your work?” I asked flatly. I leaned back over toward the door on my side and gave the handle a pull. There was a resounding snap inside of it, and the door handle itself fell off. Annoyingly, the damaged door stayed tightly shut.

“Ah need yah ta go up inta talk to that big boss stallion up there.” As she spoke, she looked to relax a bit. “Ah need as many crates of explosives as yah can requisition.”

At the risk of sounding as dumb as always, I scooted myself closer to her. “Explosives?” As I got closer, she pulled herself off the wheel and across the seat toward her doorless side. “Why?”

“Dunno if Y’all noticed…” She said, pausing as she pulled herself out of the car. Trotting around to the still smoking front, she put her hooves on the hoof. “but ah think tha Marauder has gone just about as far as she’ll ever go. Ahm hopin that with a lil’ workin’, ah might be able ta git her ta make a run straight at that there metal barricade at tha arena.”

“Y-you can’t just blow open the door.” I stammered, quickly pulling myself out of her doorway as well. “If you had forgotten, everypony who was in Baltimare for the lockdown is trapped inside.”

“And?” Harmony said coldly. With a grunt, she unlatched the hood and pushed it up. The smell of ozone quickly filled the air as a small crackling fire flickered in the engine compartment. “Y’all don’t even know if they are still alive.”

“Are you okay with risking that?” I asked. Grief was one thing, but that kind of disregard for the ponies in there was unacceptable to me.

“Can Y’all do meh a favor an ask yahself somthin?” Harmony hissed as she reached into the hood and smacked at the small fire until it sizzled out. “What would Filius need with all those ponies once they was done diggin?” With a snap and a flash, she whined and pulled her hoof back. As she shook it painfully, she looked over at me with a fairly annoyed glare. “Besides, if they’re all dead, it ain’t nothin he can’t just fix, right?”

“Still…” I paused. As much as it didn’t make sense for him to keep them alive, I couldn’t… could I? I don’t want to give up on the ponies, but Filius would have to know we’d go after them. More than likely, it was all just a trap for us.

“Storm, ah understand yah hesitation, but Y’all gotta weigh their lives against the whole wasteland.” She sighed, going back to tinkering about inside the hood of the vehicle. “Normally, Ah’d be all fer hopin’ and not riskin’ those ponies lives…”

Then Harmony said something that hurt.

“Are yah sure yah ain't lettin’ tha fear that yah parent’s are in there get in tha way?”

“I…” The words died in my throat. Was I still hoping that they’d still be alive? Could that have been driving my actions away from how I should have been planning to do this?

I wanted to scream. Part of me blamed Harmony for bringing it up because she’s angry about her own mother. But how could I blame her at all? There was no fault in her logic. She had as much drive to kill this bastard for what he did to Pallet alone. Was it really just me who’d lost myself in the idea that I could save them?

It might not be the same war we’d wanted to prepare you for, but knowing that others might perish under your command is not something you can allow yourself to be phased by.

Aunt Rarity had even told me that, but I don’t think I understood it at the time. At least, not like I should have. Even if Baltimare is lost, so long as the rest of the wastes are safe, their sacrifice would be worthwhile.

“You’re right.” I nodded. “This is too important to risk. We need to take down Filius, no matter the cost.”

“That isn’t what Cottage is saying.” Ficha called out from the doorway. I don’t know how long he’d been standing there, but his words were annoying as usual, even if they weren’t his to speak. “You might want to go talk to him, I think he’s got the idea that it’s time to cut their losses.”

“Alright.” Harmony sighed. “Mah mothah ain’t dead so he can just run on home.” She turned and backed away from the Marauder. “C’mon Storm. Let’s go have ourselves a ‘friendly’ chat with Elder Cottage.”

* * * * * * * * *

Panting and heaving, both Harmony and I had made it up to the command center using the stairs. The two of us took a moment to catch our breaths before opening the door into the busy hallway. Unfortunately, the hallway was a different kind of busy this time around, and it left the both of us speechless.

“Make sure those stations are broken down and prepped for transport in five minutes, ponies!” Cottage called out as the flurry of robed ponies felt like it moved at even a faster pace than before. “Mango?” He looked around for a moment before his eyes fell upon us. Just at the sight his expression fell to a scowl.

“I’m here!” A very pregnant mare wormed her way through the crowd from another room down the hall. She looked exhausted, but the smile on her muzzle mirrored the hope I could feel she radiated.

“Scribe Lemonaid, take over the operation.” Cottage called out, not even looking at her as he called out over the hustle and bustle around us. “I need to speak with some ponies before we evacuate.”

“Yes, sir.” She nodded.

“Evacuate!?” Both Harmony and I shouted at him.

Like the asshole he’d proven himself to be time and time again, he didn’t even answer us. Rather, he simply turned and retreated into his office. It was enough to make the flames in me roar to life once again.

Both Harmony and I pushed our way through the crowd of ponies. A scribe who hadn’t been watching where they were going bumped into me, and I simply shoved them aside. The stack of papers he was carrying exploded into a shower that rained down through the hallway. Harmony pressed herself past me and reached the door first. With a spin and an angry yell, she bucked out her hind legs and smashed the door open.

I’d never seen her so angry.

“Miss Harmony and Miss Storm.” Cottage growled as he stood over the map table looking it over. He didn’t even glance up as we entered. “If you couldn't tell, we are too busy for any more of your shinan…”

That was as far as Cottage made if before Harmony trotted up and hit him hard with her right hook. She clipped him square under the jaw and sent him down to the floor. In a flash, Diesel was on her, holding around her with his power armor to keep her from beating the stallion senseless.

“Ya fuckin’ coward!” She spat at him. “How could ya just pack up an abandon all a those ponies fightin ta keep all y’all safe?!”

Cottage grunted as he pulled himself back off the floor, hoofing at his jaw. “I don’t know if you noticed Miss Harmony, but we lost the Nautilus.” He glared at her. “I'm done dealing with outsiders. Do you have any Idea of the cost we've endured for your petty conflicts? How many years worth of resources we could have put to better use!?”

“Mah mother and tha Sunshine caravans gave y’all most a them!” She raged, tugging and kicking futilely against Diesel’s hold. “Hell, she ain't even ever ask fer nothing back fer em! Y’all got ‘em fer free.”

“Oh, but we did pay.” The elder seethed and he stepped up closer to Harmony. If his eyes were magical energy weapons, his gaze could have melted through Harmony in the blink of an eye. “Accepting things from you gave us a debt of lives that Elder Maple felt obliged to pay. And we have paid for it, with interest.” His words felt cold and hollow, reflecting the darkness that sat inside him. Cottage had lost the flame of hope, and I could feel a void in him greater than any other pony today. “So you can go run off and enjoy the scraps of the world that you have won today. But I don't ever want you to come asking the Rangers for help ever again. From this point forward, all contingents are being folded into the Manehatten hub. Contact with outsiders is prohibited, and trespassers will be shot on sight.”

For the first time so far in this conversation, he turned his gaze from her. However, it wasn’t to me. Rather, he looked past Diesel toward the doorway.

“Am I clear?” He growled to Gauge, who sat against the wall so huddled up that I’d completely missed her when we came in.

“No.” Was all the response that Cottage received.

“Choose your next words carefully, acolyte.” Cottage stiffened up, his face burning a bright red. “You are already asking for a court martial.”

“With zero due respect, she’s right, sir.” Gauge looked up from her corner with the biggest grin across her muzzle. “You’re a fucking coward.”

“You are suspended from duty, young lady.” He snapped as he attempted to push past Harmony. That had been a mistake, because she lashed out and wrapped a hoof around his neck tightly, pulling him in. “D...diesel! Restrain… her!” He struggled to get out between gasps as she nearly choked the life from him.

Diesel did so, simply using his augmented strength to pry Harmony’s leg off from around his neck. The moment he was free, Gauge zipped past me and pushed him back up against the map table.

“The only family I have left is the Steel Rangers, and in this family we don’t fucking give up when shit get’s tough.” She growled against him. “I don’t care if you’re in charge now, you are not my fucking elder. Elder Maple got us stuck in this fight because we thought we could make a difference. Yeah, so fucking what if we’re suffering losses. That’s what we do. That’s what makes us better than those outsiders you hate so goddess damned much. My parents are goddess damned heroes for what they did, and you’ll never measure up to them.”

Cottage simply sat there. He didn’t fight her at all, he just laid against the table as his expression only darkened. “You don’t understand the scope of what this fight has cost us.”

Gauge raised her cyberhood in the air and held it there. “You want to fucking say that again?” Swinging down hard, she punched a hoof wide hole through both the map and the table next to Cottage’s head. “Tell me again that I don’t understand loss and the next swing will promote Mango to Elder.”

“Gauge.” Diesel barked at her. “That’s enough.”

“Look, I don’t care what you’ve lost.” Pred’s voice chimed in from the doorway behind us. It caught us all off guard, and we all turned to look at him. The hallway past him had fallen completely silent. Dozens of rangers simply stared into the room with horrified looks across their muzzles. “If you care so much about your resources, then you have to know that the most efficient way out of this mess is destroying Filius. If you care about the lives of your rangers, then more will survive if you take down Filius.” Predious snorted as he walked forward into the room. “You have report after report, all the analytics and logistics that point towards it. You aren’t a dumb stallion, Cottage. You know the quickest way out is straight ahead, but yet, you want to run.”

“You are committed, whether you like it or not. We all are.” I spoke up, finding my moment to cut in. “Refugees from Chasm, Dodge, Sunshine City, and more than a half dozen other settlements are here, fighting right now to give us this one shot.” I raised my voice, turning towards those rangers who were listening in from the hallway. “We’ve gathered here from all corners of the wasteland to fight an enemy far greater than one we’ve ever faced in our lives.”

As I spoke, I realized something. That void that I felt from Cottage, that hopelessness inside of him radiated from only him. Telling him what he needed to hear wouldn’t do any of us any good. Even from where I stood, I could feel the hope burning inside each and every pony out there.

“Filius has killed without care. Stallions, mares, even foals aren’t spared from his wrath.” I continued, stepping forward towards them. “I’ve watched settlements fall to his army. I’ve seen him tear down the lives that we’ve built. But no pony has given up!” I stomped for emphasis, and when I did, it sparked something inside me that flared to life like a flick from my lighter. With a burst of blue, the air around me erupted and encased me in an armor of ethereal flame. The sight elicited a gasp from the ponies in the hall, but none of them turned in fear from what they saw. “This is the last city he will have taken from us. The ponies he holds hostage, the last he will ever threaten. That is because we will fight him down to the last mare, down to his. last. breath.”

The room around me was awash in blue light, and through the shimmering air around me, a soft light began to glow around the ponies looking on. Prismatic outlines that reflected the elements highlighted each and every pony I could see. Each and every connection to the element that these ponies most represented, flared as their hope grew.

“We are going to finish this fight, and it won’t be because of our weapons. It won’t be because we never gave up. It will be because we stood together as wastelanders, and said not one more settlement falls. Not one more fight will be had in our homes. Not one more day will he last in our wasteland.” Turning my gaze back to Cottage, his expression still hadn’t changed, and there was no outline around him. “I don’t care what you say about the costs. Filius will not succeed tonight, and I will not be alone when I stop him.”

A pregnant pause fell across the entire floor of the hospital. I don’t think a single pony even let out so much as a breath as we waited for Cottage’s response. sadly, it was one that never came.

“So!” Predious instead broke the quiet and turned toward the hall with a smile. “Who will follow us to end this fight? Who will stand with us in the fight to come?”

Silence still reigned in the hallways. Even though I could see their hope nearly pouring out of them, we waited for anypony at all to step forward.

“I will.” Gauge nodded and stepped up next to me.

“Excuse me, coming through.” A soft voice called from the back of the hall. The crowd parted, and from them emerged three heavily bandaged up mares. “I will.” Kiwi Tart said after clearing her throat.

“Me too.” Spicy Salsa nodded as she leaned heavily against Cinnamon Chips. The mute mare simple smiled and nodded as well, the hope inside her alone outshining nearly every pony around her. What began as a trickle, became a river. Voices from throughout the crowd started to speak up, louder and louder until it became a torrent of noise from those who wanted to help.

This was it. This was how I was always supposed to be. I hadn’t known any of these ponies, but in the middle of a war, I had galvanized them. The hope they had filled the air around me with more energy than I’d ever had. My aching muscles, and my sore bones no longer pained me as their hope washed over me. The elements had been right about what I was, but Tasteless had put it best, if crudely at that. I was a weapon, and I would let the ponies in this fight wield me against Filius until he withered into nothingness from the collective might.

“Well, I’ll say this much.” Predious sighed and walked up to me, looking over me. “That was a hell of a lot better than the last inspirational speech you gave.” He smirked and shrugged. “However, it was still a bit too cliche for my tastes. But hey, it got the job done.”

As he smiled, I looked over myself as well. The ethereal wings across my back flickered and licked at the air like fire, ebbing as each pulse of hope surged from the crowd outside. A flicker from above me wafted as I turned my head from side to side. The blue flame horn that I assumed rose from my forehead didn’t burn or feel like anything when I rose my hoof to it, and I shrugged as I figured that ethereal horn or no, I was still me.

“You might mean well.” Cottage grunted, shoving Gauge off of him lightly. “But what I said stands.” The glare that he gave hadn’t changed one iota in the last five minutes. “After this fight is done, that is it. The Rangers are done being Equestria’s bucking bag.”

“Tain’t matter none tah meh.” Harmony scoffed as she finally pulled herself free from Diesels hold. “Mah friends are plenty good enough tah do their job and yers.” With a stomp of her hoof, she turned around and headed for the door. “Now if’n yah don’t mind, ah’ve got explosives ta rig up fer a door needin be brought down.”

“I agree.” Predious nodded, canting his head toward the door and holding his hoof out to me. “If this assault is to work, we’re going to need to be a bit more prepared than we are now.”

“Alright.” I nodded and took his hoof in mine. “Let’s get going.”

* * * * * * * * *

“When I said I needed to be outfitted for the fight, I didn’t quite think of it like this…” I said slowly as Cinnamon Chips rolled her eyes and continued to tighten the straps around my forelegs.

The old patient care room was small, stuffy, and dirty, but at least it gave me a bit of privacy as I’d gotten myself redressed. The yellowing white of the old no longer sterile walls stung my eyes almost as much as the old fluorescent lighting did. Staring out the window would have been a nice distraction, but the black sheet draped over it was moldy and made my skin itch just by looking at it. Spicy Salsa was laid out on the old hospital bed, her muzzle wrapped around a gun cleaning kit. She’d really taken to giving my rifle a good workover. I don’t think it had that kind of strip cleaning since the last time Harmony worked on it!

“Well, yeah.” Kiwi nodded as she tinkered over on the counter. The smell of ozone and solder wafted through the air as she worked on… something. “With a few adjustments however… the recon armor you are wearing will be able to refract projected magical fields from the wearer.”

“That’s great and all…” The lightweight suit was less armor and more… something. The whole suit felt flexible, and even the shiny plates interspersed all over it didn’t seem too thick. It wasn’t like I’d expected power armor, but a suit of combat armor would have been nice. Turning around as Cinnamon moved on to my rear legs, at the very least I could say that it made my flank look better than it had in years. “I’d just like to be a bit more bullet resistant than this is all.”

“The polymer plates will soak a shot or two each, and the weave between them will slow a shot enough that it shouldn’t do too much damage.” Kiwi sighed and went back to working on her ‘project’.

“It’s recon armor.” Salsa said as she spat the cleaning kit from her muzzle. “You aren’t supposed to get shot in it.”

There was a knock on the door behind me. I turned my head around to look just in time as Shadow opened it and poked his head in. He froze as his eyes looked over me, his muzzle moving without actually projecting any words. Seriously, I loved the guy, but he was still a bit of a mystery to me. That thought kicked back what Predious had said back at tenpony, and I did my best to force it back. Shadow was more than a mystery to me, and I wouldn’t give him up for anything in the world.

He blinked a few times before getting his thoughts together. “You… look great.” Slipping inside, he shut the door behind him. He’d probably removed his armor to not take up so much space in the halls, but i was just happy to see him without it again. “I’ve always admired a mare in uniform.”

That pulled a giggle from not only me, but from Kiwi and Salsa as well.

“You never know,” I replied, getting a pat from Cinnamon to tell me the armor was fully secured. “Maybe I’ll take to wearing it more often…” I sauntered myself up to him, dropping my voice into a sultry tone as I nuzzled along his neck up to his ear. “Just. For. You.”

He shuddered at that and brought his hoof up to my chin. Slowly, he pressed his muzzle down against mine, and kissed me. I never wanted that moment to end. The smile he wore as it did however, didn’t make for bad compensation. It only lasted for a moment before he gave my cheek a soft caress with his wing.

“Storm?” He spoke softly. “Whatever happens out there, I want you to know that meeting you changed my life forever.” I couldn’t help but stare into his big blue eyes as he spoke, hopelessly lost in their warmth. “With Iron, I wasn’t sure if I could ever love a mare, or what love was. But with you?” He took my forehoof in his own and pressed them to his chest. “I know in my heart that you are the only mare I will ever love in this world.”

“Shadow…” I spoke again, only to be cut off by another quick kiss. I sighed with my own warm smile as he tugged on my leg and pulled me close against him. “Don’t talk like that.” I sighed, wrapping my hooves around him. “We’re going to get through this, the both of us.” Looking up at him, I found him sitting with his eyes closed as he listened to me. “Together.”

“Together.” He smiled and nodded, simply holding me.

The door behind him opened again. This time, Ficha’s eyes peeked around the corner. A wide smile drawing across his muzzle killed my own, and I knew that we were in for it now.

“I would suggest that you two get a room…” He started, pushing himself in. “But I see that you already have one.” As he walked past us, the door swung wider, and the others filed in. Predious, Gauge, and Gallant slipped inside the small room before Pred’s magic shut the door behind them. “Although,” Ficha continued, “my offer for more company still stands, you know?”

“Ficha.” I grumbled.

“I understand, that is between you and him.” He waved his hoof dismissively. “I am not opposed to simply watching either...”

“Ficha!” I snapped, for some reason getting a chuckle out of Pred. “Sit down and shut up.” With a huff, my mind focused on the armor that the striped asshole was now wearing. He too was wearing a set of the same armor as I was… along with both Gauge and Pred. Everypony outside of Shadow and Gallant had it on, and it only piqued my curiosity.

“Aaaand done.” Kiwi called out joyously. “At least… I hope so.”

“What is it that you were doing?” Predious inquired before I could. “Does it have something to do with these ridiculous outfits that you’ve made us wear?” With a sigh, he hoofed at the smoothe black armor that hugged his body tighter than mine. I know that his form was just an illusion normally, but the ghoul under it was showing through. Emaciated ribs and gaunt limbs were all that met my eyes, stopping where his illusion met the seams around the headpiece. “I’d rather like to have a set of combat armor again.”

“See?” I held my hoof out to him. “I’m not the only pony who thought that.”

“The reason is that the material that the recon armor is made out of amplifies the invisibility field generated by a stealth buck.” She sighed, hoofing an odd jumble of archanotech circuits and wiring off the countertop. Out of the side of it, stuck the very recognizable form of the aforementioned Stealth buck. “Using this device I’ve rigged up with it, the field will burn out much quicker, but it should stretch wide enough that each of your armors should envelope you and your equipment when using just this one.”

“I don’t quite understand.” Ficha for once, spoke up with something more than a pick up line. “Why would we be sneaking?”

“Even with Gauge’s EFS trick, and the smoke to drop line of sight,” Kiwi rubbed at her mane and looked over to Gauge with a shrug. “Well, they’ll still mow everyone down if they hear them coming. No pony is going to want to run out into a stream of blindfire.” With a smile, she held out the device towards predious, who took it in his magic. “So, we’re outfitting a few advanced teams to sneak out to those rocks around the arena and keep their attention long enough to where the main attack can charge in unharassed.”

“That’s great and all, but you forgot one thing.” Predious spoke up. “Even if we’re invisible, we’ll still leave tracks in the snow.” He twirled the oddly shaped archano device in his grasp as he examined it. “We won’t make it ten feet before they know what we’re up to.”

“Told ya they’d find a flaw with it.” Salsa chimed in with a sigh, flopping back onto the bed. “Snow? I mean, it’s been everywhere! How could we have missed that?”

“Then it seems that your distraction, needs a distraction!” Pai chimed in with a muffled voice from under Gauge’s covered cyberlimb. “Why don’t you tell them what you just thought of, Gauge?”

Gauge sighed and rolled her eyes, ending up staring at me.

“I keep forgetting that she can magic her way into my thoughts.” She muttered. Of all the things about Pai I missed, monitoring my thoughts through my pipbuck was not one of them. “Why not use the artillery to mask our approach?”

“We only have the one box of smoke rounds.” Salsa retorted quickly. “We don’t have enough for two salvos.”

“I wasn’t talking about smoke.” Gauge shrugged. “Use normal HE on them. If we’re lucky, we could hit a few of them.”

“That wouldn’t work.” Kiwi shook her head and turned to me with a look of confusion. “Weren’t we holding off on using real rounds to keep the ponies in the arena safe from a stray shot?” She waved her hoof in dismissal. “Regardless, if the ground were dry, then the dust kicked up might have been enough, but with the snow, they’ll only keep their head down long enough to shield themselves from the blast. We’d have to fire multiple salvos, and...” With that pause, her tone changed to one filled with more worry than anything. “You’re not in power armor. At that range, you could be cut down by shrapnel before you even got to the rocks. Or, goddesses, you could be hit by a round itself. They aren’t very accurate without being those talisman seeking shells, and we already used all of them up.”

“I say we risk it.” Ficha suggested like it was any given tuesday.

“Yeah, but the rest of us aren’t somehow unkillable.” Predious snorted. “One of these days, I’ll figure out how you work.”

“It is wonderful story.” Ficha fired back with a snide smile. “How about we meet up next week for coffee and I’ll tell you all about it?”

My pipvision flashed as the alarm I set earlier kicked off. With a quick flick, I pressed the buttons on my pipbuck and turned it off. The small clock in my vision feeding me the one thing I didn’t want to see.

11:45pm

“Boys.” I snapped as I shot them both a glare. “Save your wit for another time. We don’t have time for this.” Turning back around, I looked over to Gallant, who since we’d come in, has simply sat at the window and peeked out from behind the blackout curtain of it. “Kiwi, if there were another way, I’d suggest it, but we’re going to have to go all in here.” I watched as she gave a disappointed nod and halfway slumped onto her bandaged rear hoof. “Is there anything else we need to know?”

“No.” She said softly. “You are all ready to go.”

Looking at her as she started back, I finally realized how tired and worn out she looked. Not just her, either. As I looked around the room, I found that each and every one of my friends looked like hell. I felt horrible for having to ask them to go with me, even though I knew I couldn’t do it without them. However, it was easier when underneath all of the bruises, cuts, bandages, and the exhaustion, lay the raging torrent of hope that they all let burn inside of them like wildfires. Not a single one of them had anything but hope that we could pull this off, and looking across all of their faces, I couldn’t help but reflect that hope on my own.

“Then this is it.” I sighed with a light laugh. “Once we’re out there? The moment we get through that gate and into the arena, we’re there. No more places for him to hide, no more tricks up his sleeve.” Those words made Predious smile brighter than ever. “I… I wanted to thank you all, and with whatever happens out there, I don’t want to risk not having said what I need to.”

“All of you didn’t have a choice in this fight. Even if I hadn’t asked, you would all be here right now fighting beside me anyway.” I spoke, closing my eyes as I felt their warm flames pressing against me even through the suit. It felt like hugging mama all those years ago. “Two months ago, I barely had any friends, and even though we’ve only known each other for a short time, you all chose to fight with me.” I could feel as the warm tears rolled down my cheeks, but I didn’t care. “And I couldn’t have asked for a better group of ponies to befriend.”

Ficha grunted and cleared his throat.

“And Zebra.” I laughed. “Fucking asshole.” Looking over at him, he too wore the kindest smile I’d ever seen, and probably the only genuine one too.

I sighed and wiped at my wet cheeks. “Everypony is going to be fighting for us out there. They’re all looking for us to go out there and finish this fight for them.” Looking at them, even Gauge and Shadow had started to cry as well. “And some of them won’t come back from this, hell, plenty already haven’t.” Looking at Gauge, I nodded. “It’s not just those still alive who are looking for us to win. Tasteless, Fruit, Frosty, Longbow, Maple, Skyline, Pallet, Thatcher, Huckleberry, and everypony else we’ve lost? They’re all still counting on us finishing this fight for them. So the least we could do for them, is kick Filius’s undead ass all the way back to Tartarus once and for all.”

“You are ready.”

Gallant’s voice resonated within me as he spoke. My mind flashed back to the dark room with the elements for a moment before it caught up.

“You can do what I have so far been unable to for so many years.” Gallant spoke with a reverence that he hadn’t had before. “And for the first time in a millenia, I have the one thing I’ve been missing for all these years.” With a glance back, his muzzle curled into a sad smile. “Hope that my old friend can finally find the peace he deserves.”

“We can do this, Gallant.” I smiled and nodded to him. “Together, we can end this forever.”

--Chapter End--

“The night is ended- this is the morning.”

Quests Finished: Hear No Evil...

Quests Started: Into The Belly of The Beast

Levels Earned: You’ve already reached max level!

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fifty Three - All or Nothing

“Quiet your conscience, gather your will. Find the strength go on and make it up that hill.”

Pushing through the doors in the wide, main hallway of the hospital, most of us were ready to go. Gauge had wanted to go see what she could do to get Grumpy back in the fight, but her overtaxing of his power supply earlier didn’t leave her hopeful. Harmony had promised to help out with it, but I didn’t know how much she could when she still had a lot of work to do on the Marauder.

Predious floated the odd Stealthbuck contraption that Kiwi had made between us, while also levitating the pair of combat pistols he’d ended up equipping himself with. Ficha had opted to stick with his usual crossbow. I knew that somehow he was able to recover from grievous wounds, but if I were him, I’d have wanted something a little more modern to make sure I didn’t have to find out somehow I was not able to come back from a hit I took. Lastly, Shadow trotted along with heavy hoofsteps. His sleek power armor looked out-of-the-box new compared to Pallet’s gauss rifles as they sat on his sides. Harmony had insisted he used them, as they would have the most ability to punch through ranger power armor out of anything smaller than an anti machine rifle.

With a crackle, a voice came through the speaker in my ear.

“Radio check, calling channel 34.” Oil Can’s voice came through clear. “Storm, is this your channel?”

I lifted my hoof to the side of my head and hoofed the headset microphone down to my muzzle before pressing the talk button on the other side of the speaker. “Yes, this is our channel.”

“Good to know.” His voice came back across with a relieved sigh. “All the pegasi are up here and ready to go.” As he spoke, I looked over to Shadow, who, even with his helmet on, I could see was a bit frustrated at that. “If you need any air support, I’m on channel 28 with the others.”

“Got it.” I nodded and replied back. “Good luck out there.”

“You too.” He simply replied before a crackle of static signaled he’d turned off our channel.

“Alright.” Predious nodded as well as he talked to somepony on his own headset. “I’ll tell her for you. Stay safe down there.” As he finished, he looked over to meet my expectant gaze, and he gave a nervous smile. “Cheap and his team are starting their run through the tunnels. Here’s to hoping they can start to get some of the ponies in the arena, out.”

We trailed along a yellow line on the wall that faded lettering announced was the way towards the ICU. The plan was for each of the assault teams to line up at one of the windows in the rooms and wait for the barrage to start. Then, the other two teams and us were to get out into no ponies land, and run for their designated cover. That made it sound easy, but we had to cross effectively three and a half hoofball fields to even make it to our cover, which was the farthest rock of the bunch, but the closest to the enormous stadium door, and the straightest shot from the hospital.

We turned along a branching hallway, and we slowed down to a walk. I wasn’t the shortest of ponies around, but even I couldn’t see over the heads of everypony who was in this hall. The sheer number of ponies waiting in the hall meant that we had to fold our group into a single file line just to press through. Stallions, mares, fillies, and colts. Each ragged looking pony seemed to glow with the fires of hope as we passed them. Hundreds were here just in this hall, waiting for us to get up and clear a path for them. Sure, our run was going to be hard, but our job was going to be a cakewalk compared to what these ponies were going to have to do.

Another crackle came across my headset and into my ear.

“This thing workin’ Y’all?” Harmony’s voice came across with a burst of static before it cleared. “Gosh darn junk. Don’t Y’all ever maintain these things?”

“Yes, we do.” Gauge’s voice came over the radio as well. “And they can hear you.”

Putting my hoof up to the talk switch again, I pressed it and spoke up. “Gauge, are you on your way here?”

“Yeah.” She replied quickly. “Grumpy’s still charging however. Going to be another five minutes at least before he’ll be able to join the fight.”

“Storm?” Harmony’s voice cut in as Gauge finished. “Ah’m doin’ what ah can with gittin’ finished here, but ah’m also gonna need some time.”

Pressing the button again, I met Pred’s worried gaze with one of my own. “How long?”

“Ah… Ah don’t rightly know.” She stammered before she let out a long sigh. “We only have tha one car, so ah gotta make sure it ain’t gonna fail tha first time around.”

“Just do what you can.” I said, looking around as we pressed on past more and more hope filled ponies. “I believe in you, Harmony. You of all ponies can make this work.”

“Ah know, sugarcube.” Her voice seemed to pick up a bit from that. “Stay safe now, Y’all hear me?” She gave a sad chuckle that brought a small smirk to my own muzzle. “If’n y’all need me, ah’m on channel 42.”

“Will do.” I responded before taking my hoof off the talk button. The quick hoofbeats of a pony behind us made me look back. Between the close group of fighters to our side, I could briefly see Gauge’s nervous smile as she looked over at me. Good, we were all here.

From up ahead, the crowd in front of us split, and the door into another room at the backside of the hospital opened. From inside, Gallant poked his head out and trained on us as we moved towards him.

“We must hurry.” He called out. “The time of his ritual draws ever closer.” At that, I looked up at the clock in my pipvision and was dismayed at what it read.

11:51

Turning and pressing into the room, I was met with an odd sight. A ranger in power armor stood at the end of a makeshift ramp. The ramp ended at the window, and hastily welded onto the frame, were a few rings with chains hanging from them. The chains looped down and were mounted on various rings built into the power armor itself, sitting taught against the pony’s pull as he stood there. If it had been any other day in the district, I could have easily confused him as a ranger who was being sold at auction.

“Team three is in position.” The stallion muttered, most likely over his own radio. “Turn on the EFS jammer.” Only a moment passed before the markers in my vision flickered and went blank. Even though I was surrounded by green bars a moment ago, an empty compass was all that met my gaze.

A crackle met my ear once again, before the annoyed voice of Cottage came over it. “This is command. Prepare for the initial artillery barrage to begin.”

Even as he spoke, the rapid thunderous booms picked up across the city. Unlike before, they didn’t fire in bursts, rather in quick succession to each other. A steady pattern picked up between them that I could almost pace with the tapping of my hoof. However, before I could find that pace, the screaming shells started to fall on their marks.

“GO.” The power armored stallion’s voice cut through the air before he lurched forward. The chains connected to him went slack as he ran towards the window. With a crunch, he smashed through the window and threw himself into the open. The chains went taught, and the wall around the window frame gave way under the force the armor had imparted onto it. The wall itself nearly completely came down, filling the room with dust and flakes of snow, as well as giving us and the others an easy exit.

“I love you, Storm.” Shadow said as I kept my eyes locked on the rising dust of our exit. It pained me to know that he’d be up in the air supporting the other pegasi, but they needed him. I had to trust that he knew what he was doing, just like I had when he went out after Iron with Hail.

“Alright,” Predious called out, barely being heard over each and every artillery shell slamming down ahead of us. As he did, the stealth device in his magic gave a loud hum before the air between us shimmered. It was an odd sight to see every one of my friends disappear into thin air. I looked down at myself as well, finding that even I was no longer where I thought I was. It was disorienting to say the least, but I’d just have to trust that we’d all stick together. “Let’s go!” He shouted from the nothing beside me, and I picked myself up straight into a gallop.

We burst over the broken wall and into the hoof deep snow. The dust around me moved around the others hidden in it, revealing the forms of my friends as we pushed out into the open. The rhythmic blasts that dropped down around the arena met our eyes as we pushed through the other side. Bright flashes erupting around the arena were accompanied with sprays of dirt and snow. Splashes of snow erupted around the field with each blast as the shrapnel skipped across it.

From behind us, bursts of fire trailed over our heads. From above, the numerous pegasi fighters we had took wing, zipping past us forward and opening up on the rangers who hadn’t taken cover from the barrage yet.

One of the shrieking artillery shells slammed down against the edge of the arena, blasting steel and concrete outward. With a heavy whump, the debris dropped down behind the defending rangers. I could see the lines they had built, the non power armored ponies keeping themselves shielded from the majority of the blasts sitting just along their makeshift walls.

One hundred meters out from the hospital, the machine guns that the undead rangers had, opened up. Tracers lit up the sky as they tried to keep the Pegasi from strafing their comrades still out in the open. Pained screams filled the air as several pegasi were shot down. One of them screamed in fear, being cut short with a sickening slam into the dirt just ahead of us.

Were it up to me, I would have turned around right there. I had never been more afraid in my life, but the adrenaline had shut off my control. My legs, even though they wanted to give out, pushed me forward. My breath, though racing as much as my heart was, fueled me to move faster. Fighting in the streets of Baltimare had felt like war to me, but I was wrong. The fighting there was different. It was a two way fight then, two sides on even ground pushing for the advantage. That was how life was in the wasteland though, it had just been on a bigger scale is all.

However, this was war.

As we approached the crumpled corpse of the pegasi, I looked to the snow around me. From where predious had been in relation to me, the hoofsteps in the snow trailed around toward the left. Doing my best to keep up, I turned and continued our gallop.

Two hundred meters out, and a few rockets flew overhead. Explosions bloomed around the sides of the various makeshift bunkers of our enemies. The cracks of anti-machine rifles from the hospital took up the silence between the impacts of the artillery. Just past the rock we were headed to, one of the shells impacted and sent half of a power armored ranger sailing through the air. Another however, fell short and impacted a hundred meters to our left. A harsh whimper met my ears, and a line of black started to trail next to me as we ran.

Predious whined as he bled. I didn’t know how bad he’d been hurt, but he didn’t slow down. He knew we couldn’t afford to. I just prayed to the goddesses that no more shells fell short from their mark, or even worse, that any of the rangers ahead noticed the line of blood steadily making its way through the snow.

The rock was less than a hundred meters away now, and the barrage felt to me like it was getting heavier. Blast after blast whipped at us as we pushed on. Another blast fell short of it’s mark, but it wasn’t near us. The bright flash brought more screams to our ears. I looked and found that two of the ponies in the squad across from us were no more than red smears in the snow now, and another was screaming as she bled heavily from where her rear legs used to be. The last two rangers in the team were visible again, and desperately galloping toward the rock.

The rangers ahead put them all down quickly however. Their machine guns turned on them in a display that put what Pred did to Cloud Streaker to shame. What made it worse, was that I knew that Pred was forced to do that, but these rangers didn’t feel anything for it. With one team revealed, we were all but found out now.

“Get towards…” Predious started to say, but was cut off as another artillery round went off on the other side of the rock. I tried to keep my speed up as I watched the line of his blood turn. He was forcing us toward the right side of the rock. We were only a few dozen meters from it when I realized what he was doing.

The bunker that lay just in sight of our rock opened fire. A trail of rounds punched into the snow where we had just been. Quickly, we put the large boulder between us and it. We were so close to the rock, just another few seconds, and we’d make it! The invisibility field around us flickered and died.

Almost immediately, we started taking fire from the rangers behind the walls. Hissing shots filled the air around us. The patter of their rounds hitting the dirt around our hooves sent me into a panic. We’d been lucky to make it this far without a major injury, but with this many shots coming in at us, our luck had run out.

Gauge let out a scream and tumbled into the snow as her blood splattered along the snow. My legs locked up and I came to a stop. I began to turn around before a round slammed into the plate on my side and forced me to keep moving.

With an arcane flash, Gallant teleported next to Gauge. He stepped over her and flashed away again, appearing on the backside of the rock ahead. Keeping myself moving, I found that Ficha and I were the only two to have yet made it to the rock. The small, concave back to the boulder provided some cover to the others in there, but it was going to be quite crowded once we got there. Then the whistling met my ears.

I didn’t even have time to react before Ficha threw himself into me. The round impacted just ahead of the rock to our side, and the blast picked me up off my hooves. My vision darkened for a moment as I tumbled through the snow, and my side erupted into fiery pain as I rolled to a stop. My vision spun wildly, and the feeling of magic wrapping around me made me feel like I was falling.

Unceremoniously, I was set down into the snow again as somepony shoved a glass bottle into my muzzle.

“Storm, you have to stay with us.” Pred’s pained voice came in softly at first. I felt him tap at the side of my muzzle a few times. As the pain in my side was replaced with the odd feeling of the magical potion doing it’s job, I tried to focus on his voice. “Come on, don’t pass out on us now.”

“I…” Choking, I spit out some of the potion as the bottle was taken from me. “I’m fine.” That was definitely not the case at all, but so long as I wasn’t dead, we had to keep moving. I felt Pred’s hoof hook around my neck and pull me up. My vision took a moment to refocus, but when it did, I found myself staring at a red, white, and black smoking lump in the snow just to the side of the rock. Ficha’s body was twisted and contorted, nearly ripped to ribbons as it lay in the snow. Half of his face had been stripped down to the bone, and bits of metal shrapnel glinted from inside the bloody mess. He’d come back from his wounds before, but somehow I’d doubted that he’d be able to come back from something like this.

“How…” I started to say, looking over to Pred. His illusion spell had been dropped, and the gaunt ghoul stared at me with sad eyes. Along his side, an enormous gash bubbled as he breathed. The rotting and cut up entrails that peeked through it sent my mind reeling back to the prison, and I forced myself to shut my eyes before I threw up all over the snow.

“I’m fine.” The whine he emit as he said that didn’t give me any confidence that he was telling the truth. “Gauge as well.” He used his magic to forcefully turn my head away from him. As I opened my eyes again, Gauge sat wide eyed and panicked, pressing herself against the boulder. “We don’t have that many healing potions to use, so try to not get hit by anything again.”

“So long as those assholes are done shooting the artillery at us!” I grumbled, pulling myself up. As I did, I noticed that the artillery had altogether stopped. Only the sounds of regular gunfire met our ears. The radio in my ear crackled as Cottage’s voice intruded on our lives yet again.

“Forward teams, begin your diversions.” He ordered coldly. “Smoke barrage will commence in one minute.”

“I don’t know about you,” Gauge whined. “But I’m all cool with just sitting back here until the smoke arrives.” She looked at me with unfocused eyes, her whole body shaking as she did. The blood that still sat around the freshly healed bullet hole along her neck caught me off guard. She’d come so close to dying, if Gallant hadn’t…

“There is no Valor to be found in cowardice, no matter how justified that cowardice may be.” Gallant spoke up as he drew his golden blade in his magic. “Fight to live, fight and die. Either way, you know inside that you must fight all the same.” With another flash, he teleported away.

With the clinking of glass, Predious pulled out a glowing blue bottle of sparkle cola that made my pipbuck click wildly. Putting it up to his lips, he guzzled the whole bottle down before pulling it out of his muzzle with a gasp. He used his hoof to wipe away the glowing drink dribbling from his lips before giving a shudder across his body. With a quick flash, his illusion spell returned, and the hole in his side knitted itself up.

“Wow, that’s good stuff!” Predious gave an enamored sigh, staring down at the bottle. On it’s side, I read it as Sparkle-Cola RAD, something I’d only heard about from Harmony, but such a rare drink that I had never seen it before. Hell, none of the scientists in my orchard had even had it, and they were always drinking Sparkle-Cola. “I knew that it’d be worth saving for a special occasion.” He twirled the combat pistols in his magic before tossing the bottle aside. His eyes glowed slightly behind their normal black, and a wide smile spread across his muzzle. His magic wrapped around my rifle and pulled it around into my hooves, setting it in them forcefully. “Ready to fuck some shit up, Storm?”

“Well, we aren’t dead yet.” I grumbled, pulling my rifle closer. With how quickly Pred had recovered, remind me never to drink that shit if I ever found a bottle.

“That’s the spirit!” He said, crouching down as he moved toward the edge of the rock. As he poked his head out, he swung the pistols around and started firing.

Pushing myself to move as well, I leaned my way around the other side of Gauge and poked my head out, keeping my rifle line up as I did. Through my optic, I found a combat helmet sitting just along the top of the wall next to the bunker down the way from us. Slowly, I let out my breath, and pulled the trigger.

My rifle fired, and the helmet flipped up into the air. The ranger under it was quick to turn their attention to me, but I tensed up and time slid to a stop. S.A.T.S. informed me that I only had a twenty one percent chance to hit her in the head, but I queued up two shots and let the spell resolve.

My hoof moved the action, cycling the old shell out and loading a new one. My rifle fired as the bolt closed, and the round sailed low and struck the dirt next to the mare. The spell moved my hoof, cycling the bolt again as the mare I was aiming at pulled up her own lever action into her hooves. Funny, as I hadn’t seen anypony else use one in a fight in years other than me. The bolt on my gun locked shut again, and I pulled the trigger. The round let out a puff of powder from the receiver, but it didn’t go off.

As S.A.T.S. slid time back to normal, I threw myself back around the rock as the mare fired. Her shot skimmed across the snow around my hooves, but she might as well have missed by a mile.

“Shit.” I muttered, pulling my rifle up. With a grunt, I shoved the lever forward. The cartridge inside flipped out, sizzling as it landed in the snow. “Of course the rangers would keep their guns in working order, but not their ammo.”

“Hey!” Gauge hissed as she levitated Tasteless’s shotgun out. “I’ll have you know that we keep all our ammo stored in a dry and corrosion free environment.” As she talked, she shoved green shells into the feed port of the shotgun. “Any defective ammunition we have has and will always have been defective from the point of its manufacture!”

“That’s great to hear!” I snorted, ramming the lever shut and reaching into my coat pocket. “However, it still won’t help me do shit out here to have defective ammo!” Hoofing out a few more rounds, I frowned as they were wet to the touch. Being tossed by that artillery shell must have shoved some snow in there.

“Take it up with Ironshod Firearms complaint department.” She glared at me before she scooted to the corner. With a quick peek around, she found a target to line her shot up with. Leaning out with her, I raised my rifle and found the same mare from before.

She’d been waiting for me to pop back out, and fired off a shot. I felt it impact against my shoulder, but the polymer plate absorbed the impact and shrugged it off for me. As I was about to fire, Gauge fired her shot first.

No longer protected by her missing helmet, the mare’s head split in half from the shot.

A few scattered shots forced Gauge and I back behind the rock again. She pumped the hunting shotgun and cycled a new shell in, throwing the smoking green shell through the air to me. I caught it and looked down at it. The blocky black letters that wrote out rifled slug was barely legible from it’s old age. No wonder it did so much damage to that mare.

A heavy crack filled the air, and part of the rock next to us shattered into chunks. The heavy chatter of a machine gun opening up on us, made Gauge and I push ourselves even more toward the center of the rock. As we did, Predious folded himself back around the rock towards us as well. The three of us huddling close together as a spray of rounds sparked off both sides of the rock, keeping us pinned there.

“Well!” He barely shouted over the crunching of rock and whizzing of ricochets. “I’d say our distraction was a success!” A heavy blast tore against the side of the rock as what felt like a rocket hit it. “A bit too much it seems!” Another rocket slammed against the rock, and I know I cursed the artillery already, but I started to wonder if those smoke rounds would ever come.

As if sent by the goddesses themselves, the thundering of the guns on the horizon filled the air, and my heart with hope.

The high pitched whines of a familiar pair of gauss rifles met my ears, and I looked up to find Shadow flare to a stop overhead. A rocket whistled up by him, and I cringed as it only just missed his power armor. He dipped down and fired the gauss rifles again, hovering just a moment before a few shots sparked off of his black armor. One of the rounds sparked near his back, and ricochet up through the edge of his wing.

My heart stopped as it gave out under his weight, and he fell. A small mercy came with the whistling artillery shells finally arriving moments too late. They burst in the air all around us, quickly forming an obscuring line between us and Filius’s rangers.

With a heavy slam, he cried out as he dropped onto the ground. He screamed out as his bloody wing flopped at his side, writhing and pushing himself to get back up to his hooves. A few more rounds sparked off of him, as he got himself reoriented. One of Pallet’s guns sparked and was torn apart as it absorbed a few pot shots that Filius’s rangers got off. With a grunt, he pushed himself forward towards us. He let out another agonizing scream as the heavy machine gun opened up through the expanding cloud, and one of the shots found it’s way into his flank.

“Gauge!” Predious yelled out. Both his and her horns flared in light as they did their best to pull him close. Sparks shot from their horns as Shadow pulled himself behind the rock with us, and into my waiting hooves where he collapsed onto me. With a hiss, his helmet unsealed, and I all but ripped it off of him.

“Hey.” He looked up to me with tear filled eyes, grimacing through the pain just to look at me. “Fancy meeting you...” He was cut off when predious shoved another potion out of his back and into Shadow’s muzzle. Sucking it down greedily, his wounds started to knit themselves up, and I finally felt my heart beating wildly against my chest. Shadow winced as he tried to fold his wings in, and the one that had been injured hung out at the wrong angle.

“You’ll be fine for now, but I wouldn’t try flying until a doctor can reset the healed wing.” Predious said as the smoke wafted around is.

“I know.” Shadow grumbled as he found the strength to sit up on his own again. “This isn’t the first time I’ve broken a wing.”

The radio in my ear crackled again. “Alright, commence the assault.” Cottage commanded. Without so much as a hesitant step, streams of ponies poured through the openings made in the walls earlier. They didn’t come with a rousing yell, or any sort of noise. Only the thunderous sound of hundreds of galloping hooves met our ears as the mass filled the open land from between us and the hospital.

With a sickening gasp, something moved from the snow by us behind the rock. Still coated in blood and open wounds, but no longer torn up as badly, Ficha torqued his head up and gave out a whine.

The son of a bitch was still alive… somehow.

Predious turned to me as another rocket hit the back of the rock. “Storm, I hate to say this, but I think it’s time we open that gate.”

“Right.” I nodded, hoofing at the radio that I had tucked into my coat. Hoofing at the dial, I changed it to channel forty two and pressed the talk button. “Hey, Harmony? How’s that whole battering ram thing coming along.” Looking around at the growing smoke cloud, the sounds of fighting picked up as our fighters reached the deadite rangers emplacements. “Would be nice if it were ready.”

“Ah know, am workin as fast as ah can!” She grumbled back. “Calm yahself. Ah'm just adjusting mah straps before gettin her in position.”

“Straps?” I asked, looking over to Gauge who simply shrugged. “You aren't going to stay inside the marauder, are you?” I knew that she was distressed over her mother, but that was not something I’d let her do. Sitting, I waited for a response. The few seconds that went by felt like they dragged on longer and longer. Then with another crackle, she came back over the radio.

“Y'all remember back when y’all were eight?” She spoke with a chuckle. Again, now really wasn’t the time for jokes or fond memories! “Ah'd found that newspaper of the stripe jetpack that crashed in Panamare while ah was foalsittin’ ya, and remembered how Skyline had that old wrecked one stored in mah father’s shop?”

“Oh, are you kidding me?” I snapped. “You are not pulling a Panamare again! You don’t even have a jetpack this time!”

“And yah doubt ah can’t make it work?” She huffed over the radio. “Trust meh, Storm. Ah got this.” And with a sharp squelch, her radio cut out.

“Harmony?” I said again, waiting for a response. Hoofing down on the talk button even harder, I asked again. “Are you there, Harmony?” Goddesses, this was not what I’d wanted her to do!

“Storm, what the fuck is she talking about?” Gauge spoke as she put her hoof on my shoulder.

“Back when we were young and dumb, she tried to fix up an old zebra jetpack she’d found in the garage. Strapped the damned thing to her back without testing it to see if it’d work.” I facehoofed, slumping down before Shadow pulled me in close. Looking up at him, I at least had a bit of hope. “Shadow… can you catch her?”

He frowned at that. “I don’t think I can.” Shaking his head, he winced as he tried to open his busted wing at all. “Sorry.”

Well, if he couldn’t, it’s not like I was out of options. Looking down at the radio, I hoofed at it quickly again. Changing the channel to twenty eight, I pressed down on the talk button again and crossed my hooves that he was still alive.

“Storm to Oil Can, you still in the skies?” Looking up through the smoke, I couldn’t see shit. That was the problem with this whole plan. Smoke works both ways…

“Yeah, I’m here.” He called back, sounding out of breath. “Hanging out above you and following… something big.” The way he said that didn’t exactly make me feel any better about anything. “And it’s headed toward your rock.”

A scream beat out the fighting ahead of us, and through the smoke, a dark object flew through the air. The top half of a blue coated mare tumbled to a stop through the snow, her body having been ripped straight in half by something. All of us turned towards where the mare had come from, and leveled our guns at it.

“You need something, Storm?” Oil Can’s voice crackled over my headset.

“Yeah, give me a minute.” I said before letting go of the talk button. The swirling smoke shifted as something big approached. A soft blue glow grew as whatever it was came closer, step by step. My mind tried to tell me something, but I was trying not to listen. I should have, I knew what was coming.

The bulky midnight blue power armor that Elder Chili Pepper had worn for the assault on dodge had been reinforced. The brightly glowing blue eye that had been stolen from Iron will pierced the darkness as it stared directly at me. He stopped walking forward, standing imposingly before a pair of steam jets emanated from his face mask like Iron Will used to do. The bastards must have salvaged the rest of his parts and put it into Chili Pepper’s armor.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Gauge gasped. “I've never seen ranger armor like… like that!”

“Remember when I told you that you couldn't 'repurpose' parts of Iron will?” I said, checking my pipvision to make sure I was ready before casting a quick glance at her. When she nodded, I sighed and tightened my grip around my rifle. “Well he didn't listen.” There was a long hiss that came from the Elder’s armor. I hadn’t heard it in quite some time, but I still remember what came next.

“Everypony, move!” Predious shouted.

Chili Pepper leapt forward at an amazing speed. The four of us barely had time to dive out of the way before Chili Pepper galloped and slammed against the boulder. A horrendous snap emanated when he struck it, sounding like the hotel had before it had come down. Rolling over to get to my hooves, I looked up to find that Chili Pepper had infact hit the boulder so hard, that it had cracked it almost right down the middle.

With more speed than I could have thought, he pushed himself back, and spun around. To keep my speed up, I dropped my rifle and pushed my legs to hop back from where I’d been. The sharpened tips of the horns attached to his helmet sliced through the air just in front of me. I didn’t have time to think. Putting my hooves to the ground, I did my best to dodge his swings. Even though Pred had been slow to get up, Chili Pepper didn’t deviate from attacking me. I should have been glad that he wasn’t going to go after my friends, but I couldn’t help but feel like this was a bit of an unfair fight!

“Hold on, Storm!” Shadow called out, lining up his battle saddle. With a high pitched whine, Shadow fired his one working Gauss rifle. A pair of shots struck Chili Pepper’s reinforced armor and simply sparked off. “Shit.” Was all I could hear him say.

“Find something bigger!” I snapped.

Chili Pepper lept off to the right, so I dodged left. What I didn’t see coming was him spin kicking out one of his rear legs and nailing me in the side. It felt like a skycart hit me, and I was tossed a few feet through the air. Slamming into the snow, I did my best to roll with the hit and get back to my hooves.

“Ask, and you shall receive!” A voice few flaps above me made me look up. Oil Can zipped down, holding something in his hooves. “Previous owner isn’t using it anymore.” Letting it go above me, I found an Anti-machine rifle drop straight into my waiting hooves.

“Thanks, now get out of here.” I called out, struggling to pull the heavy rifle up in my hooves. It was extremely unwieldy, with the entire back end of the rifle having to be pinned against my side to even be steady enough to aim it with my hooves. It wasn’t meant to be hoof fired, but at this range, I didn’t care. Ahead, through the smoke, the blue light drew closer. Struggling to keep myself steady, I waited until I could see the bright eye of his mask clearly. As he came close, I smirked and simply pressed the trigger.

The gun flashed as it roared. The muzzle blast was so powerful that it even whisped away some of the smoke in front of me. A bright yellow trail of sparks lit up the night as the large caliber round hit the edge of Chili Pepper’s helmet and whistled away into the night. My smirk died as I found his progress unimpeded, and I tried to drop the gun. Instead, he reached a forehoof up and… grabbed the barrel. Iron Will’s hand’s had been wired up to the end of his forelegs, and the mechanical fingers crushed the barrel with their strength.

Without any effort on his part, he twisted the gun and used it as a lever to throw me through the air. Slamming and tumbling through the snow yet again really wasn’t getting any funner the more times it happened. What was nice however, was that I’d rolled right next to Predious.

“Let me guess,” Predious remarked as he helped me back to my hooves. “You need something bigger.” Again, the blue light from Chili Pepper’s armor appeared through the smoke, and if it weren’t bad enough, the smoke itself was dissipating quickly. “Hate to tell you, but there’s not a bigger gun to hit him with.”

The roar of an archanotech engine from behind us met our ears. Both Predious and I turned around to see a single light growing brighter. With a whine, the two of us galloped out of the way of Harmony’s topless, speeding armored car.

“Yeeeeehaw!” She yelled as she plowed into Chili Pepper, dragging him and his armor off through the smoke towards the door.

Both Pred and I looked at each other before we realized that we needed to move. The two of us ran for the boulder again as I could hear the hissing of rockets coming from up ahead. We dove behind the boulder, joining Gauge and Shadow who were already there, along with a mostly intact, but still unconscious Ficha.

“Oil! You have to catch Harmony!”

Like a missile, he shot across the sky. Turning, he aimed ahead of where she’d be and zipped down under her. With what looked like the softest of grasps, he grabbed onto her, and flew her towards us. The harness that she wore had four burnt out rockets on it, and it smoked almost as much as she did as Oil carefully set her onto the ground.

“Oh goddesses.” He spoke out as she hung limply in his hooves. She was in terrible shape. Half of her looked to have gotten caught in the blast, looking as charred black as Pallet had been back in Dodge. Most alarming, was that her right foreleg and right hind leg both ended in pulpy masses of bloody bone and mutilated muscle. Like with Shadow and I before, Predious shoved a potion into her muzzle and forced it down her throat. With a sputtering cough that brought up more blood than potion, Harmony stirred awake.

“Did… did yah catch meh?” She said, looking up at Oil with a weak smile. When he nodded, she lifted her shredded leg and looked at it before flopping back with a whine. “Mama always said ah took after mah dad more…” She sighed, closing her eyes and going limp again.

“No no no…” Oil Can whimpered. “You… you can’t leave me. I was going to ask you out! I was going to finally tell you how I felt for all these years!” Oil, the same stallion who’d fearlessly lead the charge to the hotel, who’d fought on this whole time, broke down into heavy sobs.

“She’s not dead yet!” Predious snapped. “And she won’t be so long as you get her back to the doctors inside!” Snapping his hoof out, he pointed back toward the hospital. “Go!”

Oil can sniffled and gripped her tightly again. With a firm nod he flapped hard and took off. I prayed to the goddesses that Harmony would make it. Too many have died tonight, and I was already going to spend too long digging the graves for them. I didn’t have any more time in my life for another grave.

“Is that how it worked the first time?” Gauge spoke up. When I looked back to her in confusion, she scrunched her muzzle.

“It didn’t really work the first time. It had just enough thrust to get her into the air and not down from it. Pallet had to catch her, and she almost didn’t.” I grumbled. “I keep telling her, earth ponies can’t fly. She keeps trying to prove me wrong on that.” I sighed. One of these days, she’s going to get herself killed, and it’ll be me telling her brother that his whole family is dead.

“Finally.” Gauge groaned out. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

“Yes, Miss Gauge.” Grumpy’s voice came from behind, pulling my attention as it floated on by. “Good evening, Mrs. Storm.” He spoke in his annoyingly cheerfully way as he all but floated by after Gauge.

Looking at the clock in my pipbuck, I realized that this had taken too much time as it was.

11:56

“Come on.” Shadow spoke up from behind me. With a smile, he held out his hoof. I took it and walked with him around the rock. Predious trotted up along my side as we pushed ourselves up to a gallop.

Harmony’s battering ram had worked. The improvised explosive had done one hell of a number on the reinforced stadium entrance. Twisted bits of steel reinforcements jutted out from the crumbling and still glowing concrete. As we entered, more resistance fighters followed with us. The sounds of fighting behind us picked up again, but that wasn’t something we could care about now. Our job had been to get inside the arena and stop Filius. We now trotted through the long, Concrete hall that stretched down to the entrance of the old hoofball arena’s field. We’d caught up to Gauge and Grumpy quite quickly, heading towards a shoddy wooden gate constructed as part of the slave fighting that had gone on here.

With each gallop, my heart raced. Were the thousands of ponies in here still alive? What would we find on the other side? We were so close to finishing this fight for good. The small gemstone that still sat in my pocket pulsed in time with my heart, and the flames of hope from those around me grew even stronger.

“Move aside!” Grumpy called, pushing his way past us. The talisman under him glowed as bright as it had before. With a slam that splintered the gate, Grumpy powered right through it and pulled most of the gate straight off it’s hinges. Then Grumpy disappeared into thin air.

Pushing myself faster, I galloped ahead after the others. That had been a mistake, as when I reached the end of the tunnel, I had to skid to a stop. I’d forgotten that Cheap had said that the arena had been dug out, and a ten foot drop sat almost right at the end here. Inside of it, Grumpy sat with all three of his eyestalks staring up at me.

“Excuse me.” He spoke up at me. “Would you care to point me in the direction of the ponies who are responsible for this?” He extended one of his arms, pointing out into the center of the arena. The excavation had been more than just ten feet. The digging had stepped down, dropping down ten or so feet and running in another twenty before repeating. Five or so steps culminated in the off colored onion shaped bulb of Filius’s tower. At the lowest levels, huddled and chained together, were what was left of the still living ponies of Baltimare.

With a flash, Gallant appeared next to me. He looked more ragged than ever. His previously gold armor was coated in scratches, bullet holes, and covered in gore. However, he himself seemed to be fine.

“We’re cutting this far too close.” He uttered to me. “We have little time left.”

“I know.” I said, looking back as the others finally caught up. “Get us down there.”

He nodded, and like he’d done before in the orchard, he wrapped us all in his magic. With an arcane snap, we appeared down in the lowest pit. The ponies who’d been chained up here let out frantic whines and gasps as we appeared. Calming down when we didn’t immediately move toward them.

“S… Storm?” A meek and raspy voice in the crowd pulled my attention. I looked over, searching for who’s spoken. As I did, the chained crowd parted as much as they could, revealing a pair of familiar looking, highly emaciated ponies.

“Mom!” I gasped, breaking off from the group and galloping over to her. As I pressed against her, the gem in my chest flared with energy. I could feel it inside me, welling up as it had in the chamber with the tree.

“Storm, you’re… on fire!” My dad rasped out as well. The whole crowd gasped as I pulled myself away from my mom’s grasp. “What… what’s happening to you?”

“I know who I am.” I replied, staring at them as they looked at me in fear. “I know how you found me in that facility at Chasm. I know that I wasn’t born your filly, rather made in a lab.” I smiled as their fear died inside them, smothered by their own growing light of hope. “I may not have been your little filly, but you two are the parent’s that I love, and I’m here to save all of you. I know this, because that’s the pony I was always supposed to be.” The fire inside me burst from my hooves, trailing up my legs as it had before, and forming the flickering armor around me. “I’m going to destroy Filius, and bring back hope to everypony in the wasteland.”

“Not if we don’t hurry!” Gallant called out from behind me. I watched as he climbed in through one of the tower windows, disappearing into the darkness inside. The others with me followed, and only Predious stood waiting for me at the window.

“Go.” Mom spoke softly. “Be the mare you were always meant to be.”

“I will. I love you both.” I said, turning and galloping toward the tower. It was finally time to face Filius.

--Chapter End--

“The great unknown surrounds me, but I’m not alone.”

Quests Finished: Into The Belly Of The Beast

Quests Started: Exodus

Levels Earned: You’ve already reached max level!

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Fifty Four - An End Once and For All

“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren't really an ending; some things are never-ending.”

Stepping through the window and into the dark tower, a horrifying screech filled my ear. I struggled to wrap my hoof around the headset I wore and tore it off of my head. As I did, the cord connecting it to the radio pulled out, and again, I was greeted with an uneasy quiet.

“Some sort of magical interference surrounding the tower.” Predious spoke up from across the small room we were in. “Looks like we're on our own in here.” Gallant shifted uneasily on his hooves.

No, that wasn’t true at all.

“You, me, the others?” I smirked, looking around. “We have each other. Filius is the one on his own now.”

The old stone walls were the most dull grey I’d ever seen in my life. Cobwebs and dust littered every nook and crany. It coated the large, plush bed that sat in the corner, and the empty armour that sat near it. Even the old ornate wooden desk saw coated in dust thicker than I’d seen in the wasteland, burying an old inkwell and quill so much that they looked almost like they were made of stone.

“Well said.” Gallant nodded, pointing his hoof towards the dark doorway that sat open next to him. “The others already began the walk down. This tower extends down quite deep, and we have little time until the ritual can be completed.”

Looking at the clock in my pipvision, I cringed.

11:59

“What do we do?” I looked over to Gallant, watching as he walked up to me. WIthout a word, his horn enveloped the two of us in his magic, and with an arcane snap, we teleported.

The hallway that we appeared in was dark, and didn’t allow much more than a single pony to traverse it at a time. Again, Gallant wordlessly turned himself around and took off at a gallop. Pushing myself to move, I followed as close as I could. My heart ramped up again, not from the exertion, but because of what I felt all around me.

The dark walls glinted from the torchlight coming from the end of the hall. The cold air down here felt stale and dead. More than that, the stones under my hooves and even the air itself felt unnaturally still. With a flicker, the flames inside me took notice of a familiar feeling as well. Ahead of us, a void of nothing sat. It was bigger than the void that even Cottage had shown, and I could feel its pull. It wasn’t just bigger, but it threatened to consume the flames of hope from those around it.

With a rousing yell, Gallant pushed off with his hooves and sailed through the air. It caught me off guard, but I watched in awe as he put his shoulder forward and smashed into the old wooden door at the end of the hall. The millenia old wood splintered and cracked easily under his weight, and the two of us skidded to a stop just on the other side of it.

The room we’d entered was instantly recognizable. Even though the millennia of vacancy had left it in disrepair, the same tabards and painted symbols of Filius’s ritual rooms met my eyes. A swirling white and green mass clung to the ceiling, spiralling over the altar like the storm outside did over the city itself. On the altar, laid the sleeping form of Swivel Spark. Standing next to her, cloaked in dark robes, stood Filius. In the air above him, hung the glinting blade that he’d held in my visions.

“Storm?” The raspy and tired voice of Stratos met my ears. I looked around for it, almost missing his beaten and worn body chained up against the wall. He hung limply from his bindings, looking as if each breath was a struggle to take. However, as my eyes met his, I could see a spark in them, reigniting the hope he’d lost inside him. “Save…. Swivel…”

“Foals.” Filius’s voice resonated from the chamber. “You are too late.” The magic around the dagger he held glowed brighter, and he swung it down.

With a flash of his horn, Gallant teleported between Swivel and the blade, easily knocking it away from Filius. Pulling his own ragged cape off, Gallant stood before his old friend in only his armor, his gaunt form standing tall as he leveled his golden blade towards Filius.

“It has been a long time, old friend.” He said, not wavering as Filius let out a chuckle. “Because that’s what you are, and even though I forgot it for a while, I still believe that the Filius I used to know is still in there.”

“Bah, I have no friends!” Filius grunted, pushing his dagger through the air at Gallant again. With a quick perry, Gallant knocked the dagger away again and returned it to it’s threatening position at Filius. “Least of all, one such as yourself.” A green glow wrapped it’s way around Filius’s hoof, and he lashed out with it. Striking the golden blade, he sent it flying across the room. He stepped forward and hooked his hoof around Gallant before he could react. With a furious growl, he picked him up and tossed him aside. “You bore me with your droll speeches.” The silver dagger once again flipped through the air over the alter. “It is finally my time to rule over and protect equestria!”

Standing up on my hind legs, I swung out my rifle. With a single hoof on it, I tensed myself and watched as the silver dagger slowed down. The world crawled to a stop as S.A.T.S. brought up the targeting overlay. A green outline flashed over Filius, and a separate one flashed up over the dagger itself. I’d always wondered why S.A.T.S. had allowed the targeting of weapons at all, but I was incredibly glad it could at all. I cued up four shots, more than I’d ever been able to shoot. Each one supposedly had a twenty five percent chance to hit, so the odds were in our favor.

Letting the spell resolve, my gun fell into line, and fired. The round zipped through the air, skimming just past the blade as it glinted in the green light around in. Cycling the bolt, a worried thought crept into my mind. As the gun fired again, the round sailed wide to the left, actually punching through the tip of Filius’s cloak. As it frayed from the shot, the dagger pressed closer and closer toward the heart of the young filly on the table.

Again, my hoof cycled the bolt, and as soon as it was closed, flames spit from the barrel and the round took off through the air. My prayers went with it and if flew true towards the old dagger. With a spark that sent red lines through the metal, the round found a home in the center of the blade. The red lines spiderwebbed out as the metal shattered, separating into a dozen or so fragments that broke the magical aura around it. With the target destroyed, SATS ended, and I was thrown back into normal time.

“How dare you interfere!” Filius snarled, turning around to face me. The glowing green eyes that found me pierced my soul as he glared. In them, I could see the heart of the hopeless void that filled him. The blazing red glow that the amulet around his neck gave off flared as he raised his hoof at me. With a flick of his hoof, my rifle and pistol were torn from me. With a twist of his fetlock, I felt my legs go taugt, and I found myself held in place.

“It all makes sense now, how you were able to progress so far even though you are weak.” His low tone changed as he roared at me. A green glow emanated from under his robes, and I could make out the bony features that were a far cry from the stallion in the prewar vision. “You and Gallant have meddled in my affairs for the final time.”

With another arcane flash, Gallant appeared next to Filius. With a pained yell, his magic brought the blade down into his former friend, piercing his back and impaling through the far side of the cloak. Filius’s magic dimmed for a moment, and I found myself freed from his hold.

“Perhaps a few more times are needed...” Gallant grunted before trailing his words off.

Filius began to laugh. Not like he had before, but a deeply sadistic laugh that made the green glow around him flare with each and every one. Reaching a hoof up, he pulled back his hooded head. The brightening glow started to push through his skin, causing it to bubble and boil as he turned to look at Gallant.

Like it had never belonged there in the first place, Filius’s skin sloughed off of his skull, dripping down to the floor as burning green flames flickered over his skeleton. Gallant took a step back as Filius erupted in fire, burning away the rest of his robes, and vaporizing the last of his old skin. What stood before us, was a burning green skeleton, still moving along with the throaty laughter that Filius gave out.

“Foals.” Filius’s laughter ended with the snapping of his jaws together. “You have no idea what power I now possess.” He ran his flaming bony hoof across the blazing amulet around his bony neck. “Now witness the true power of necromancy!” He snarled and threw his hoof out toward Gallant. With the crunch of metal and bone, Gallant was thrown against the wall. Like my vision, a magic force held him there, slowly crushing his armor. The glinting metal blade that Gallant had impaled in Filius trailed out from between his ribs, floating for a moment before it too shot out like a bullet. With a Sucking whine, it pierced through Gallant’s chest and sank deep into the wall behind him.

The heavy hoofbeats that filled the air from behind me sent a spike of fear down my spine. Filius’s burning gaze turned toward me, and I could swear his smiling skull morphed to look even more malicious. I turned around as the others galloped into the room, only to be picked up in his Magic and pinned back along the wall. Gauge, Shadow, and Pred squirmed and fought against the magical hold fruitlessly.

“All your trials, all your effort!” Filius laughed out again as my friends were held. “And for what?” His magic separated the guns from my friends, even the gauss rifle at Shadow’s side was ripped from it’s mounting. Each one, spun in place until it pointed back toward its original owner. “Normally, I would see to execute your pitiful friends to break you completely…” He paused, and I turned around as hatred fueled the flames inside me. WIth a metallic crunch, each of the weapons warped and crumpled into nothing more than a ball of metal. “However, I know that you would not break.” He snarled with that. “Even now, I could feel the magic energy that you radiate, but it is weak.”

“It’s enough to finish you.” I snarled as I started to tear off the Ranger Recon armor. As I did, I looked back at the pained glances from my friends. Even pinned, I could see the hope that burned brighter than ever inside them. “You could have stopped all of this, but you wanted to be this way, didn’t you?” I hoofed into the pocket of the chestplate before tearing it off. In my hoof, the small gem pulsed with warmth. “Gallant didn’t do anything wrong, but you needed somepony to blame for your own failings.” Stripping out of the lower half of the armor, I kicked it away across the floor. I glared up at Filius, who simply stood there with his own burning glare to match me. Out of my gear, I stood before him armed with nothing more than the gem in my hoof, and the fire in my soul.

“You know nothing!” He seethed, taking a step back. Looking back over to Gallant, his magic pulled the sword from the crushed breastplate. “You have no power over me, and you were foolish to flaunt your pitiful resolve as the only armor you’d need.” With a growl, he launched the sword at me as he had against Gallant.

I raised the gem in my hoof and gave out my own guttural howl. I focused all that I was, every bit of the flames inside of me out through the gem. With a roaring blast, the blue fire erupted out and surrounded me like a bubble. The flames deflected the blade, sending it spinning down along the floor as a red hot mass of metal. As they died down, the fire turned and rushed around me. It crawled over my skin, forming and flickering around me as the armor I’d need took it’s place.

Like an explosion of heat, I felt them all. Ebbing wave after wave made the world around me feel alive with the hope that others held. Looking around, I found flames dotting my vision. Even this far underground, muted by ancient and powerful arcane magics, I could see the flames that burned like wildfires out in the world. Great lakes of flame surged and fought against the darkness, pushing it back and giving way for even more hope.

Filius took another step back as I felt the ethereal horn and wings sitting on me. The dark void in his own eyes darkened, and as it did, so grew a void in his ribcage. A heart of pure darkness even I couldn’t fill with any amount of flame.

“So, the abomination you are is revealed.” Filius snorted. From around his horn and the amulet on his neck, a wispy white magic swirled and spun. With the fires of hope augmenting my sight, I could finally see the truth behind Filius’s power. The ghostly pale form of a windigo filled the domed roof of the chamber, it’s rear half tapering down and tethered like a rope around his horn. As I gazed over it, it began thrashing against his magical grip. From around his neck, a set of ethereal chains ran off to his side as well. There, laying beside him and clasped in thick bindings, was the ghostly image of Gallant’s wife.

“As are you.” I retorted. “Once and for all, let’s end this.”

“Yes.” Filius nodded. “Lets.” As he finished his phrase, the magic around his horn swirled before erupting into a bubbling black and green beam.

With a deft leap, I skipped to the side and pushed myself forward towards him. Taking a page out of Gallant’s book, I threw my shoulder into him. To the touch, his body burned my flesh even though the armor I wore. I let out a whine as I slammed against him and we both tumbled. Along with my whine, came a pained yelp from him as well, and he scrambled to push me away.

I rolled to my hooves just in time to see him do the same. With a quick spin, I bucked out hard. My hooves connected with his bare ribs, and he screamed out as two of them snapped under the strike. He tumbled and rolled away from the altar as I turned around. The green flames that had enveloped his ribcage had been pushed back, leaving them charred and broken. Slowly, the green flames grew back around them, and the ribs repaired themselves.

“Reprobate!” He snapped, shooting another green beam out at me. I ducked under it as best I could. “Profligate!” He screamed out, firing out another beam. It cut down my side, forcing me to jump. “Sordid whore!” His next beam came too fast for me to dodge, and slammed into my chest.

I screamed out as it pierced through me. Spikes of electrical shocks tore at my body as I felt like by very essence was being sapped away. Only when I hammered my hoof on the floor in pain did the blue flames rush over me and mute the feeling. As the stars in my vision left me, the still glowing form of Gallant’s sword sat on the floor within my reach. Perking my ears, I listened as Filius started to laugh again.

“Oh, you should be applauded!” Even though his words sounded joyous, each one of them imparted a hatred upon me that was unmatched by anything else in my life. “No pony has managed to rouse me to petty insults in so very long.”

“And you should be ashamed.” I grunted, pushing myself back up.

“My dear, do you not yet understand?” He sighed, putting his hoof to his chest. “I do not fear you, for nothing can destroy me. Through the grace of the god’s above, I…”

He’d been the one to take advantage in the orchard, but of course he didn’t think the rules applied to him. With a sizzle, my fetlock wrapped around Gallant’s heated blade. Even though it burned, I pushed myself past the pain and swung my foreleg. The sword left my hoof, igniting with an aura of blue as it sailed through the air. With a snap, it impacted against the base of his horn and severed it clean off. Even with taking his horn off, the sword had enough force to continue and be impaled into the wall behind Filius.

“Monologue that.” I muttered under my breath.

Filius let out a scream of pure anguish as magical sparks filled the air. The twisting form of the windigo that twirled around his horn unraveled like an old sweater. Magical filaments twisted and snapped as the enormous being shrieked with him before it burned away into nothingness. The green flames around his bones flickered and shrank. As they did, the amulet around his neck burned brighter, shifting the muted flames to a crimson as he let out a tremendous roar.

“I am done with you!” He shouted out, his voice far deeper than it had been before. The Filius that Gallant had known was gone, of this nopony could ever argue. He turned around and burst at me with a speed that he hadn’t had before. Without his magic, he slammed into me and tore us both to the floor.

The red flames around him surged and burned at me even more than the green ones had. I hadn’t had the time to react before his bony hooves were hammering down at me. However, his hits never touched me. The flame armor around me deflected each and every one of his strikes. Without the power of the windigo tethered to him, he was just another abomination trying to kill me.

My hoof burned as the gem inside it flared with power. I could feel it, wanting me to strike, and as Filius futily raged at me, I took a moment to relax before tensing up. The world around me slowed to a crawl as S.A.T.S. took over again. The prewar spell highlighted Filius as it always had, displaying the dark heart in his ribcage as being the only target available. Before selecting it, I took a look at what SATS was telling me I had equipped. Not displayed as hooves, or as ‘unarmed’, the text in the weapon slot was more ornate than I’d ever seen written on a pipbuck screen.

Element of Hope

With the flames inside of me filling to burst, I toggled a single, perfectly accurate strike against his heart. The display flickered away as it always had, and my hoof started to rise. A raging heat built up as it swung up, the air around it shimmering as I watched. Even before my hoof could touch them, the magical air pressed against Filius’s ribs and crumbled them away like dead leaves in the wind. The moment came to a crescendo as my hoof struck Filius’s heart.

Like the most fragile pieces of glass in the wasteland, it cracked and shattered into pieces.

The red flames around his bones flickered out like a light. Not even an ember of magic emanated from them as Filius’s bones shook in the altered time of SATS before bursting into nothing more than dust. As time reoriented itself once more, the heavy clink of the silver amulet he wore was all that met my ears.

“Please…” The soft voice of a mare spoke. Turning, I found the ghostly form of Gallant’s wife staring sadly up at me. “Free me.”

I nodded, not sure what, if anything, I could say. Taking the heavy metal amulet into my hoof, I brought it up to my eyes. The burning red gem gleamed as I stared at it. Even though the light of hope dampened it, I could hear it calling to me. Filius’s mind was trapped inside with Gallant’s wife, and that was a fate worse than anypony deserved.

Taking my forehoof, I pressed the small gem up against the amulet. With a crackle, the red gem dimmed out, the light fading out from it slowly.

“Thank you…” The sad mare whispered. With a wobble, the small red gem fell free of the amulet, dropping down towards the floor. Before it hit however, the gem itself mirrored the ghostly mare, and blew away like dust in the wind. A pair of small white motes twisted through the air, hanging before splitting apart and whispering in different directions. One of them disappeard, fading into nothing as I watched. The other however, floated over towards Gallant.

“Merry.” Gallant gasped from over in the corner. He looked more gaunt than I’d ever seen him, and he didn’t even have the strength to stand up. Still, the light of hope in his eyes burned ever brighter as the mote approached him. “I’m sorry, I did my best.” He whispered before looking up at me. “Storm. My sword, if you will.”

I went wide eyed, looking back to where it had been impaled into the wall. Walking over slowly, I reached my hoof out and grabbed it. The moment my hoof touched it, it gave out a sharp crack and split down the middle. From the middle of it, another small white mote traveled through the air. It sailed back across the room, and met with the mote in front of Gallant.

“Thank you.” Gallant nodded softly before he closed his eyes and finally slumped over.

My friends and I watched as the two motes twisted and twirled around. They danced through the air, bringing a small amount of life back to the room. As they danced, I looked around at each of my friends. Though battered and beaten, they had made it. With a bright glow, the two motes combined together, flickering for a moment before it raced upwards and through the ceiling.

Filius was gone. Gallant and his wife were at peace. And those who gave their lives to give us the chance that we took, died to ensure that the wasteland could live once again.

“So, wait, it just fell...” Predious spoke up, breaking the pregnant silence around us before his words died in his throat. He picked up the silver amulet, holding it as he looked it over. “Wait a minute.” He said, looking over to me and holding his hoof out. “Storm, give me your hoof.

I did as he asked, holding my hoof up like he asked.

His magic grabbed at the small gem, floating it over towards the amulet before softly pressing it against it. With a magical flash, the gem grew brighter. The silver amulet flickered and tore itself from Pred’s magic, tumbling and twisting through the air as a white aura overtook it. The silver darkened, giving way to a marvelous gold sheen. Ornate carvings of my cutie mark emblazoned the sides of it as the wings of the alicorn on the necklace curved around to form metallic straps. An image in my mind formed as I remember how the old world elements looked somewhat like this, and I couldn’t hide my smile of amazement.

As the wild magic seemed to calm, the gem in the center flickered brightly like a beacon of blue flame. A familiar ringing filled my ears. The world around me muted as I reached out towards it. It wanted me to take it, and this time, I knew I would. The moment my hoof touched it however, everything went dark.

* * * * * * * * *

Blinking, I was disoriented, but definitely still standing. My mind was back in the realm of the elements. I knew it because I could feel it now.

“Correct.” An odd voice spoke up from behind me.

Turning, I’d expected to meet the elements, but instead, found only one pillar of light. The wide white beam projected itself down through the darkness, illuminating a single grey mare. The black mane, green eyes, and worn expression matched the ones that I saw every time I looked into the mirror, and the blue flames that flickered in it’s eyes matched what I felt in my heart.

“I am hope.” The pony spoke using my voice. “You and I are one and the same in every way imaginable.” Well, what I could tell was my voice. I’d never heard myself speak from the outside really, so I couldn't be one hundred percent certain.

“What does that mean?” I asked as the odd thought forced it’s way past my muzzle.

“We have power.” She simply replied. “But only that which is borrowed from the ponies around us.” It lifted it’s forehoof, and a small ball of flame formed. “However, it is not only borrowed from them, but from your very existence.”

“Again.” I spoke up. “What does that mean.” I really hated these cryptic answers.

“Every pony has a finite amount of time to exist.” It spoke flatly to me, as it did, the ball of flame in it’s hoof shrank. “When we use our power, we draw from this time.” She paused as the ball got smaller than a marble. “And when it can no longer be borrowed…” The marble flickered and dissipated into nothing.

“So, using our power… kills me?” I said, looking down at my hoof.

“Correct.” She nodded, putting her hoof up again to draw my attention. “However, you are not alone.” Pulling it back down, she placed it onto her chest. “I represent the hope of the wasteland. Should that hope ever be extinguished completely, I too shall die.”

“So we’re in this together.” I said, sitting down. It felt good to be here, away from all the aches and pains that I’d had in the real world.

“Yes.” She nodded again. “You have done well in your actions, however, know now that your fight has not ended.”

“What?” I snapped. Don’t tell me that we missed something with Filius…

“Filius is defeated, you needn’t worry.” She spoke with a chuckle. It was the first emotion I’d heard out of the elements that wasn’t forced. “There are others out there who threaten hope, and as it’s bearer, you must fight to protect it’s light.”

“I’m only one mare.” I sighed.

“You are no ordinary mare.” She spoke again quickly. “You are the product of magic, science, and hope itself. So long as you have not expended your finite time, you shall live long enough to fight to protect hope’s light.” The element smiled a wide smile. “Besides. You are not alone.”

* * * * * * * * *

A solid whack to the side of my head woke me.

“Goddesses, why...” I whined, suddenly being thrust back into the real world. Not that I wasn’t glad to be back, it’s just that this place carried all of my aches and pains back to me with a vengeance. Opening my eyes slowly, I found the world tumbling downward.

“Oops! Sorry!” Shadow whined as he slowly set me down into the cold dirt outside the tower. “Forgot about how thin the window was.”

Some things never change.

Looking at the clock in my pipvision, it read 12:36am. That was odd to me, because even after the fight, we couldn’t have been in there for that long. Turning my head, I found a dozen or so yellow medical tents had sprung up in the dig zone around us. hundreds of free’d ponies stood in line, getting checked over before receiving food and water. Among the ponies helping out, I noticed Cocoa, the ghoul nurse from chasm was eagerly attending to a pair of foals and their mother.

“So, why did you wait so long to leave?” I said with a groan, rolling over to find Pred’s outstretched hoof. Grabbing it, he easily helped me back to my sore hooves. An odd pressure around my neck alarmed me, and I raised my hoof to it. It clanked off the metal choker with a click, and brought a smirk to Pred’s muzzle.

“When the element connected with you, you passed out.” He gave a shrug. “Normally you’re up in a few minutes or so, so we decided to wait.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure Tasteless would have complained we took too long as well.”

“Yeah.” Gauge gave out a half hearted laugh as she stepped up. “But you did it. You stopped Filius for her.”

Reaching out, I grabbed around both Predious and Gauge, pulling them close. “We did it.”

“Hey! ya up again!” Cheap Shot laughed as he trotted over. “Good ta see dat ya got the job done.” With a nervous smile, he rubbed at his neck. “Turns out, the resistance in the tunnels was worse than expected. Sorry we didn’t make it here before ya.”

“Fiddlefaddle.” Harmony’s country twang was nice to hear again. “It all worked out in tha end now, didn’it?” Releasing Gauge and Pred, I turned around to find her being propped up by the still ragged, but happy looking Oil Can. Harmony’s two legs were still gone, and she was still baddly burned on the one side, but it was good to see her stable. “Ain’t that right, sweetie?” She smiled and gave Oil a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Are you doing alright, Oil?” I asked, almost able to feel his blush from here.

“Why o’course he is!” Harmony chuckled, speaking before Oil died of embarrassment. “Ah mean, all it took ta get this big galoot ta finally admit his feelin’s was a brush with death. Not that ah already hadn’t guessed it aways back.”

“Storm?” Yet another welcomed voice called out to me. However this time, it was from one of the tents. Out from it, strode a power armorless Diesel. While he looked happy to see me, he kept his gaze averted anywhere but me as he trotted over. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop him.”

“What?” I asked, not sure what was going on. “Who?”

“Cottage.” He shook his head. “The moment that the fight was over, he issued that all rangers pack up and pull out.” With a sigh, he sat down hard in the dirt. “I couldn’t convince him to stay and help.”

“Then what’s all this?” I said, pointing at the tents.

“We quit!” Kiwi exclaimed happily as she walked out of the tent where Diesel had been. Behind her, Cinnamon followed with Salsa resting across her back. “More than a few rangers didn’t want to just abandon everypony here. So, we took what little we could and came here to help.

“You just… quit?” I said, looking between them before shooting a confused look to Gauge. She too sat dumbfounded, with her eyes locked on Diesel.

“You stupid, annoying…” She started to mutter, hopping to her hooves and leaping and her brother. “Lovable, selfless asshole!” She half laughed-half cried as she wrapped her hooves around him and hugged him tightly. He simply smiled as tears rolled down his cheeks, squeezing her as well.

“Well, just so Y’all are aware,” Harmony grunted, pulling our attentions back to her. “Ah’m goin ta need a little help rebuildin’ tha Sunshine caravans company back ta it’s former glory.” She sighed and looked over to Gauge and Diesel with a light smile as she talked. “Sunshine city is all but scrap, but ah’ve grown quite fond of Dodge. I’ll probably end up rebuildin it down there, far far way from Cottage and his rangers.” She grumbled before reverting to her smile. “Y’all’s parents were some of the best tinkerers ah’ve ever known, so the two of yah are welcome ta come work with meh anytime.”

“What about us?” Salsa groaned, waving her stump leg in annoyance.

“Yes…” Kiwi spoke with a whine, scrunching up her muzzle. “Out of the rangers, we’re kinda out of a job as well.”

“Well, from what Oil here told meh Y’all could do, don’t none-a Y’all fret one bit!” Harmony nearly shouted. “I’d be happier than a hellhound with a raider fer a chewtoy ta have yah come an work fer me.”

“All of us?” Kiwi asked in astonishment. “We’re kind of a… package deal.” Cinnamon walked up next to her, leaning against her and giving Kiwi a soft kiss on the cheek before turning her head back and giving Salsa one as well. We all watched as Harmony nodded firmly, rousing a giggle from the three mares. “Oh thank you!” Kiwi said, pulling both Cinnamon and Salsa into a tight hug.

“Oh Storm!” The relieved voice of my mom called out from behind me. Her hurried hoofsteps barely gave me enough time to turn around before she hugged me. “Your father and I were so worried about you out there!”

“I’m fine, mom.” I sighed, wrapping my hooves around her and pulling her tight.

“And we feel just awful about not telling you the truth about where you came from.” Tighter and tighter she squeezed as she held me. “We had always wanted to tell you one day, but we could never quite find the right time.”

“I’m… fine, mom.” I grunted, whining as my busted ribs and bruised muscles started to protest.

“But we’re so happy to see the fine mare that our little filly has grown up into!” She sniffled, squeezing even tighter. This is why I avoided hugs. My mom could be a bit… attached sometimes. “Your father and I never dreamed of a day we could feel this proud of you because we were already so very proud of who you were!” So much so that I might as well give up on life and relegate myself to spending the rest of my days in her embrace. Well, that is if she would let me breathe…

“Ma’am?” Shadow said, stepping forward and putting his hoof on her shoulder. “I think you’re hurting her.”

“Nonsense!” She snapped at him, letting go of me just so she could turn around and prod him in his power armored chest. “How dare you tell me how to treat my own daughter! If I knew your parents, I would personally slap the shit out of them for raising somepony for having as few manors as you!” With a gasp, I flailed my hoof in an attempt to stop her. “Who do you think you are to tell me…!”

With air in my lungs, I shouted at her. “Mom!” She locked up as I coughed a few times. “Shadow is…” I looked up to see his nervous smile to her. Slowly, he looked over to me and his gaze softened. “He’s my special somepony.”

“Ah-wah?” She sat confused for a moment. When it finally clicked in her head, she spun around and threw her hooves around him. “Well why didn’t you say so!” She cried out, squeezing him tighter than she did me. Even his armor sounded like it was having trouble resisting her. “I have so many questions for you, like when can I expect grandfoals? Hmm” She eyed over him heavily before letting go of him slightly. “But first you need to meet my husband!” With a firm twist of her hooves, she spun shadow around and pushed him away. I met Shadow’s scared look with my own, and I tried to convey just how sorry I was that I’d sprung that on him.

Looking around, I’d noticed that Predious had been silent for far too long. As I turned myself, I noticed him dipping back inside the tower and disappearing into it. Getting to my hooves, I trotted after him. The darkness inside as I approached didn’t feel as out of place as it once had. As I climbed my way inside, the stone itself didn’t feel as cold either. However, the air inside was just as cold as it had been when Filius was still here.

“Predious?” I asked, being welcomed by the sound of a heavy whump off to my side. The flickering dust motes that shot away from the bed in the corner outlined Pred’s dark form. “Are… you alright?”

“Yeah.” He sighed, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling.

“Got something on your mind?” I said as I walked over slowly. I’d already had a sneezing fit from a decades worth of dust on Harmony’s bed at Tenpony. I didn’t need one a hundred times worse from a century’s worth.

“Just, not sure what to do now.” He sighed, kicking one of his hind legs over the other, he looked like he relaxed a bit. “Sure, I could always go around with you, but let’s face it. I’m a ticking time bomb.”

“What?” I spat out. “You can’t be serious.” I snorted as I pushed myself up onto the bed. My weight shifted the old hay mattress more than I’d thought, and it caused Predious to roll over. As he did, he shot me an annoyed glare. “I am not going to abandon you, Pred. I’ve come to like you as a friend far too much to give up on you that easily.”

“I’m sorry that you’re so optimistic, Storm. That’s a viewpoint I lost a long time ago.” He cocked an eyebrow and readjusted himself. “However, I’m afraid that I’ll have to return to my solitary lifestyle to keep this curse from hurting anypony.” His expression shifted to one of worry as I looked down at him. “If it comes to it… if I do get that bad, then you have too...” He trailed off.

“Oh come on.” I grumbled, sitting down hard on the bed and kicking up another burst of dust right into his face. “Sorry.” I said as I used my hoof to brush some off his face. “Look, we’ll find somepony else to transfer it to, a raider or somepony already on the way out from a wound. This doesn’t have to be the end of our friendship.”

That got him to laugh. “Even with how much you know about them now, you think friendships are that easily broken?” He shook his head and snorted, blowing a bit of the dust from him. “Besides, it took Gallant’s advanced magic to transfer it from you in the first place. Without him, or some other equally powerful unicorn, I’m not sure it can be done at all.”

“So, let me get this straight.” The sharply annoying voice of Ficha emanated from the window behind me. “I get blown up for you, and come back to find you have yet another stallion in bed besides me.”

“Shut it, Ficha.” I sighed, turning back to find his smiling muzzle still walking closer. “Thank you for soaking that shell for me, but please, can you cut out the whole hitting on me thing? You’ve tried it for years, and it’s not going to...” my mind kicked back to what I was thinking and put two and two together. “Say… how old are you?” Old enough to perhaps know where to find somepony to help reverse this curse, I hope...

“Oh, me?” He giggled, stopping where he was. “Let’s say old enough to know it’s wiser not to answer that question. You know what they say! Some secrets are best kept to yourself!” He rubbed at his mane before taking a step back. “Oh geez, look at the clock, my how time flies!”

I pointed my hoof at him. “Ficha, I swear to Celestia that if you’re holding out on me…” By the time I’d even gotten that far, he’d already been halfway out the window. “Damnit.” With a sigh, I turned back to Pred and facehoofed. “I always end up running into him somewhere anyway. I’m sure he’ll…”

Predious chuckled as he put his hoof up to my muzzle and silenced me. “You know, maybe I’ll stick around a bit longer.” He shrugged and pulled his hoof back. “If one thing has stayed constant in my life, is that good friends come few and far between.” A genuine smile spread his lips as he wiggled back against the mattress. “That, and when you least expect it, they can surprise you.”

“Well, I can’t stop you if you actually do want to leave.” I groaned, getting my sore legs to push me back onto my hooves. “But so long as you’re around, you’re welcome to come stay with Shadow and I.”

“You know, I kinda like that idea.” Predious said, closing his eyes and laying completely relaxed on the bed. “Maybe I’ll stay until my favorite season ends.” That’s right, with Filius gone, all this fucking snow would disappear and we could finally get back to the normal progression of seasons again.

“Wait, what is your favorite season?” I spat out. If he were to stay until the end of this fall, that would give me plenty of time to find a way to help him. Spring would be better, but I meant what I said, I wouldn’t push him to stay.

“Why, winter of course.” He yawned, sounding as tired as my body felt. “I hear this one is supposed to be a particularly long one.”

My eye twitched, and I couldn’t stop my hooves from moving. Tightly, I grabbed onto the millennia old pillow at the end of the bed. Raising it above my head, I swung it down as hard as I could, and watched as it exploded against Pred’s muzzle. Dust and old feathers filled the air, enveloping the air around me as I stood in horrified shock at my mistake. A slight tickle grew in my nose, and the last thing I saw was Pred’s smiling face staring up at me.

I sneezed so hard that I saw stars. When I did, I only blew another puff of dust into the air and tickled my nose again.

“Damnit, Pred!” I giggled between sneezes.

“Come on.” He groaned, pulling himself up to his hooves. “Let’s go find somewhere less dusty where you can finally get the rest you both deserve and need.” Putting his hoof around me, he pulled my sneazzy self along with him. “Besides, you have a life to build with Shadow. We’ll worry about the curse at another date.”

Rubbing at my nose, we stood at the window and looked out at everypony again. There were less ponies than I’d wanted to have made it out, but the fact stands that we made it at all. There is still plenty of work to be done before Shadow and I can finally settle down, let alone consider this the victory that it should be. However, that was just the responsibility mare I had grown to be required, and those we lost on the way here deserve for me to keep on fighting.

However, with the friends that I made standing beside me, we had accomplished something thought impossible. As I stared and looked up into the cloudy night sky, I couldn’t do anything but imagine how those we lost, stood with the ministry mares up there next to daddy and mommy, smiling down on us as we’d finally achieved what they had wanted.

For the first time in a century and a half, hope had returned to Equestria.

--Chapter End--

“We came all this way but now comes the day to bid you farewell.”

Quests Finished: Exodus

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: You’ve already reached max level!

Perks Earned: none

Epilogue

With a flicker, my pipbuck illuminated the stairway that stretched down under the concrete memorial. My hoofsteps fell uneasily on the smooth stairs as I walked down them. In the back of my mind, I was reminded of the stairway down into that old tower. Shaking it out of my head, I reassured myself that the tower was a long time ago.

“I still can’t believe they built this thing.” Shadow said as he followed me closely. “You deserve it, there’s no doubt about that.” He had stuck by my side for so long, never once leaving my side. “It’s just so… big.”

“I for one recall that anypony complaining about that would get a very specific response from you.” I smirked as I fondly recalled the many nights we’d spent romping between the sheets. Well, until I’d had Lever Action, that is. I wish my parents had told me how much effort they took to take care of before they passed. “Besides, it needed to be big enough to fit.”

As I stepped out of the stairs and into the burial chamber, I flicked off my pipbuck light again and let the natural glow in the room take over.

“To fit what?” Shadow asked before he too entered the chamber. “Oh… wow.”

Before us, still in it’s protective shell, sat the crystalline tree I’d spent the last few years protecting. It had dulled some over the years, and I couldn’t figure out if it was because of what happened to our world, or if it were simply the natural order of trees to grow old, die, and renew.

“Hey there, Sis!” The cheerful voice of Pai resonated in the small room. I turned to find the small pink face displayed on a pipbuck in the corner. Gauge give out a small yawn before she pulled herself up to her hooves. She offered a small wave as her horn flickered, tweaking the thick framed glasses at the end of her muzzle. The wrinkles around her eyes betrayed the fatigue she felt. The numerous winces that she gave told me that her muscles still gave her troubles every now and again.

“Finally. You took forever.” She smiled before holding a hoof out to me shakily. Instead, I stepped forward and wrapped my hooves around her. She gave a small squeak before laughing. “Yeah, always with the hugs.”

“How did you even get this in here?” Shadow asked, taking a step towards the tree.

“Kiwi and Cinnamon rigged up some sort of magical amplifier that helps to accurately teleport things.” She raised her hoof and tapped at her own horn with her well aged cybernetic hoof. “Still nearly burned myself out doing it, but we managed to get it up and over here without much issue.”

“Still, you didn’t have to wait for me.” I said, letting her go with a pat on the back. Stepping back, Shadow pressed up against my side and wrapped his wing around me. “At the very least, I could have shown up sooner.”

That roused another laugh from her. “I guess that’s true.” She nodded softly. “But sometimes it’s nice to just slow down and rest a while. To just clear your mind.” She closed her eyes as a wide smile crossed her muzzle. “Oh, to be young again.”

“What? You’re looking better than ever.” I rolled my eyes and shared a laugh. “At least twice as good as Predious ever will.”

“Not all of us can age as gracefully as you, Storm.” She shook her head. “These last three decades have started to take a tole on me, and sometimes I wonder where all the time went.” With a wave of her hoof, she sat down. “Still, some days I wonder what everypony is up to.” Opening her eyes again, she stared at me. In them, I could still see the light of hope burning in them, even after all these years. “Speaking of the devil, how is Predious holding up?”

With a sigh, I dropped my gaze to the floor. “It’s not been easy for him. Mostly he’s out on the road, and it can be years between visits.” Honestly, I missed the bastard. He’d been around just long enough for Lever to be born before starting his ‘pilgrimages’, and now I’m lucky if he stops by for more than a day. “I’m afraid that one of these years, he just won’t show up anymore.”

“Pred’s a smart guy.” Shadow said, leaning in and kissing my cheek. I blushed like I did every time he kissed me, but I couldn’t help but giggle as his peppery beard tickled at my chin. “He’ll come around if things go downhill.”

A soft beep emitted from Gauge’s pipbuck, making her draw her cyberhoof up with a sigh.

“Ah, well. It looks like Ditzy Doo is back at the ship.” She groaned, pulling herself up to her hooves. “As always, Storm. It’s been a pleasure.” She weakly smiled as I got up and gave her another quick hug. “You know, you should think about heading out west for a visit sometime. I know the girls would love to see you again.”

“How are they by the way?” Shadow spoke up. “Last I heard, they were building something for Harmony’s grandson?”

“Yeah, turns out that a magnetically powered rebar canon isn’t exactly a colt friendly birthday gift.” She smiled before turning toward the door. As she did, she stopped and hung her head slightly. “Last month however, we lost Salsa to pneumonia. The others are holding up, but the shop isn’t the same without the spunk she brought to it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Shadow sighed, taking a step away from me. “However, I did want to talk to you about a rumor that Ficha heard from out your way. Mind if I walk you to your ride?”

“Ficha? Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in awhile.” She paused, thinking about it for only a moment before answering. “Sure.” Gauge smiled, turning back and offering a wave. “See you around, Storm.”

Shadow looked back with a sad smile as he followed her toward the steps. “I’ll give you some time here alone, alright?” He spoke, keeping those deep blue, unwavering eyes gazing at me. “I’ll meet you back at home.”

“Sure thing.” I nodded, turning myself around and looking back at the tree. Closing my eyes, I listened as their hoofsteps climbed up and away from me. With the two of them out of ears reach, I let out a long sigh and raised my hoof to my neck. I slid it around the golden necklace, reaching around to the back of my neck. With a soft click, I unclasped it. Carefully, I set it down against the base of the tree, and let out a sigh of relief.

Stepping forward, I walked up to the base of the tree. The small gem in the center of the necklace didn’t glow as brightly as it once had, in fact, it looked dimmer than I’d ever wanted it to. However, the small flame at the center of it still burned intensely. I’d fought hard over the years, fighting against raider lords, slavers, magical abominations, and wartime machinations. Each one had threatened the hope of the wasteland, and each time, I’d used my element to defeat it.

Sure, Gauge was correct. I hadn’t aged like most ponies do. However, I could feel myself becoming more and more drained. The thought of burning through my allotted time didn’t scare me half as much as leaving the wasteland without somepony to defend hope. That’s why I’d been so hard on Lever Action, and that’s why she’d ended up in a raider den nearly dead. There was hope in me that maybe one day, her daughter could take over my mantle. To protect hope as I once had. However, with how I’d failed before, I’d thought it prudent to take measures to protect my element and the tree of harmony.

Only a few knew of the construction of this place, Cheap Shot had seen to that. Although, I’d had to lie to them and tell them it would be a tomb for me. Then again, that wasn’t so much of a lie. Even now, I felt at peace here. My place was with the elements, and when I died, I’d already informed Lever to bury me down here. But, who knew when that would be. I still had plenty of fight in me, and I intended to make good use of it.

Reaching around to my saddlebags, I flipped them open. Reaching in, my hoof scraped against the old and tarnished golden helmet inside. Pulling it out, I tried to use my jacket sleeve to polish the golden finish a bit, but to no avail. Carefully, I set it down next to me.

Again, reaching into my bags, I wrapped my fetlock around another cold metal object and pulled it out. The cracked, golden blade that a more dedicated pony than me had once used, glinted in the soft glow of the tree. Reverently, I set it down at the base of the tree next to my element, before reaching back and placing the old helmet on the side opposite of it.

Taking a step back, I closed up my Saddlebags and fastened up my jacket. Sealed away, hope could be protected for now. I still had so much to do before I could allow myself to pass along my mantle. Iron and Knight still proved to be a problem for all these years, and needed to be hunted down. Predious still needed to be freed of the burden he shouldered from me so long ago. And then there was Ficha, who had his own curse that he’s sought to resolve. However, those could be dealt with tomorrow. I needed to take them one step at a time, and the first step was to seal this place until it was needed.

Turning around, I flicked the light on my pipbuck back on, and headed up the stone steps again.

* * * * * * * * *

Opening the door to the house my parent’s left me, the warm and crackling fire greeted my cold coat. I stomped the snow from my hooves and did my best to brush off my coat before I stepped inside the warm interior. As I shut the door, I noticed that Lever Action’s coat was still absent. There was a soft click from the kitchen, and the radio inside kicked on.

“...erypony. As some of you might remember, tonight marks another anniversary of the great battle for Baltimare.” DJPon3’s dulcet tones sounded just as relaxing as they ever had, even if the subject matter he talked about never brought happy thoughts into my mind. “To remember those brave souls who fought during that long and terrible winter, we have a song lined up for you all from one of our own talented residents, Miss Shamrock.”

“Of all the money that e’er I had, I spent it in good company.”

The voice of a mare began to sing as I sighed. “Oh, hey.” Shadow said, ripping me from my thoughts as he poked his head out from the kitchen. “Lever’s still at the shop dealing with a customer there. She said she might be a little late for dinner, which has to bake for at least another hour anyway, so I don’t know what she’s worried about.”

“Alright.” I said, carefully removing my old leather jacket and hanging it up. “You know, that shop of hers has really taken off. I’m not saying the circumstances were worth it, but I think she’s really good at being a merchant.” Well, at least a hell of a lot better than she was at being a bounty hunter.

The tiniest of yawns met my ears from in the den. A shadow shifted along the wall as a small figure walked past the fireplace. The tiny hoofsteps reminded me that even though Lever’s time in the raider den was abhorrent to think about, it had given us all one thing to be thankful for.

“Grandma?” The tiny green filly rubbed at her eyes with a hoof, while her frizzy red mane drooped over one of her eyes. The widest smile parted her muzzle before she gasped and ran up to me, hugging my foreleg. “You’re back!”

“Of course I am.” I said with a light laugh. Reaching down, I scooped her up in my foreleg and pulled her tight against me. “I told you I’d be back this year in time for Hearth’s Warming, didn’t I, little one?”

“And all the harm I've ever done, alas it was to none but me” The mare on the radio continued to sing as I walked little Percussion Cap over to the old couch and set her down on it. As I did, Shadow trotted into the room. I rolled my eyes as he darted his eyes between me and the faded blue apron he wore that read kiss the cook.

With a grumble, he walked himself over and leaned down to me. With his hoof on my chin, he kissed me the same as he had for over three decades. My legs wobbled as they always did, and I could feel the heat radiating off my cheeks as he pulled back. Carefully, he pulled me into a rocking hug, and I simply pressed into his warmth.

“Eewww.” PC giggled as she hid her muzzle behind her foreleg.

Keeping his muzzle against the side of my neck, he spoke in a whisper. “Gauge confirmed the rumors.” He stroked down my neck with his wing. “Knight and Iron are indeed out west.” That was definitely good news. Maybe this time we could catch them off guard. “We could head out tomorrow…”

“Awww….” PC whined. “But… you just got here.”

“And all I've done for want of wit, to mem’ry now I can't recall” The radio softly played on as I thought about it. Even though I didn’t age like most mares, I still had a limited time to spend with those around me. We had something to go on for Iron and Knight at least, and that was more than we’ve had in years. Still, maybe I’m going soft, but I deserved a break.

“You know what?” I said softly, giving Shadow his own kiss on the cheek. “Let’s wait until after the holiday.”

“You mean it?” PC gasped as she bounced on the old couch. It’s springs squeaked horrendously under the worst assault it’d had since Lever Action was just her age. Even then, Lever was the worst assault it had had since even I was a filly.

“Yes, sweety.” I nodded as she giggled and bounced even higher.

“So fill to me the parting glass, goodnight and joy be with you all” The mare in the radio sang out, brightening the flame of hope that even though was weak, I could still feel from all across the wasteland.

“You know, maybe you’re right.” Shadow nodded, brushing at his greying beard. “Goddesses, I can’t even recall the last holiday we spent off work with Lever at all.” With a bouncing wail, PC lept off of the couch and straight up onto Shadow’s back. “Oh no! You got me!” He laughed, stumbling to the side before lowering himself down by the fire with a groan.

“Hehe!” PC giggled and sat down on him triumphantly. “I’m the best bounty hunter in the wastes! Just like you are, Grandma!” She beamed a smile at me that both brought me hope, and struck fear into me at the same time.

“In time, PC.” I spoke softly. “You still have a lot of growing to do before you can decide what you want to do.”

“Of all the comrades that e'er I had, they are sorry for my going away” I sat and wondered just what she’d end up getting herself into as she grew up. Would she follow me and undertake the mantel I wore? Would she fail miserably like Lever did? Sitting in thought, I almost missed her tiny little gasp.

“Grandma, will you tell me the story again?” She sat up attentively on Shadow, leaning forward with her ears perked high in anticipation.

“Again?” I asked in disbelief. “Aren’t you tired of hearing it?”

“Now way! Not when you’re the most amazing mare of amazingness to ever have lived!” She bounced giddily on Shadow, much to his discomfort. He looked up at her with a stern glare and tickled at her side with one of his feathers. She nearly collapsed in a gigglefit before he stopped.

“And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, they would wish me one more day to stay” As I half listened to the mare in the background, I figured that of all nights, this was the one that I needed to remember it on. We’d lost too many for me to so easily dismiss a chance to make them live again through their story.

“Alright then,” I sighed, moving and slowly sitting myself down on the old couch. As I did, the front door creaked open, and Lever’s muzzle poked in. She smiled as she saw me, and I smiled back at her. “Here’s the story of The Long Winter.” I began, reclining into the old couch and getting settled for a long night.

“But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not, I'll gently rise and I'll softly call: Good night and joy be with you all”

“It all began one rainy day.” I began, closing my eyes and remembering it as if it were all just yesterday. “I had just returned to New Appleloosa from a job…”

* * * * * * * * *

In the end for Shadow, he had chosen to forgo the life he’d once had, in favor for the one he could make with the mare he grew to love. Never once did he question his choice to stay below the clouds, and not once did he leave Storm’s side. His devotion to his wife and her friends was second to none, and less and less he needed to wear the armor he’d donned so readily in the past. Finally settling down after the fight in Baltimare, the two of them decided to start a family of their own. Nearly a year to the day of the final assault, their daughter was born. It was the high point of Shadow’s life, and along with Storm, the two raised their daughter in peace. But as it does, the wasteland catches up with all good hearted ponies. Nearly thirty years later, on a cold winter's night, Shadow was gunned down by Iron and Knight Cross after having tracked the pair down on a rumor. With his last breaths, he struck down Knight Cross, killing her in front of her own sister. His body was taken by Storm after Iron fled, and she began the slow trek back home. Finally, he was laid to rest in a small plot behind Harmony’s shop in Dodge, where Storm often stops by to tell him of all the events in her life, and how much he is missed by all who knew him.

The night of the final fight, Iron and Knight Cross fled Baltimare with those pegasi loyal to them. The two incestuous sisters traveled northwest across the wastes, murdering and pillaging what settlements they could along the way. Eventually , the trail of destruction that the group left ran cold, and ended with a dead end for those looking to take down the rogue faction. For at time, it seemed as if Iron and Knight had accepted their fate of a life below the clouds, and had found a place for their faction to settle. However, after nearly two and a half decades of silence, they attempted to contact their sister Grand Cross above the clouds. Three Raptors descended upon the western wastes, scouring the lands for the wanted mares, only to come up empty. However, the move had tipped their hand, and word had begun to spread around with the names of the mares being looked for. Eventually, those words made their way to a small brothel often frequented by wandering zebra mercenary, who couldn’t wait to tell some old friends the great news.

After the fabled Long Winter had thawed, Predious gathered up his things and left his friends behind. Filled with the hope that Storm had given him, he decided that he would begin the search for a way to end the curse that he had so willingly accepted. Traveling to the far corners of equestria and beyond, his trips became longer and longer, spanning years before he would return to his friends once more. However, even with the extensive knowledge he had gained over nearly four decades, there were no leads on any way to expel the curse from himself, and his hope began to grow dim. However, the rumors of a Stable stallion taking over Fillydelphia spurred his interest, as the stallion was told to have access to unheard of amounts of information and resources. With one last visit to Storm, he made her promise that if no hope could be found, that she were to be the one to end his life before the curse took him. With the knowledge of their agreement firmly in place, Predious walked into Fillydelphia with his last shred of hope. The stallion who finally walked out however, was no longer the same…

Harmony wasted little time in restarting the business that had been her family's livelihood for decades. After recovering from the wounds she suffered in the final fight in Baltimare, she fashioned herself up some junk prosthetics and got back to work. Hiring mostly the refugees from other settlements to scavenge what was left to take from Sunshine City, she reinvigorated the wasteland economy. In rebuilding the city of Dodge, she promoted a new community to form. Only with her husband, Oil Can, by her side, and a set of twins on the way, Harmony finally took the time to sit back and take in all that she’d accomplished. During that downtime, she made the trip back to Manehatten with Short Staff to finally lay the rest of their family to rest. For another two decades she ran Sunshine Caravans out of her home in Dodge, right up until her grandfoals were born. When she finally hoofed over the business to her daughter, Leaf Spring, she was approached by her son with a proposal. After listening to him carefully, Harmony gave Split Lock the supplies and pony power to set up a west coast hub for the Sunshine Caravans. Along with him, she sent Kiwi’s girls and Gauge in the hope that they could make the business successful enough so that Split Lock’s own son could one day take over. Even today, in her old age, she still steps in when a customer comes in with a hard job or a complaint. Stubborn and prideful to the bitter end, Harmony won’t ever let a customer rip her off, and has only ever let one debt go unpaid in all these years. However, she always claims that with no receipt for Storm’s pipbuck, nopony could ever prove she’d let the debt go at all.

After all the fighting was over, Gauge and her brother stood as the only ones left of their family. With nothing to tie them down to the city they once called their home, the two abandoned the new order that Cottage had enforced in the Steel Rangers and followed Harmony south to the remains of Dodge. For a time, things were calm. Gauge worked hard as one of the traveling merchants, often making long runs to places with high tech salvage such as Hoofington and Las Pegasus. Diesel however, not the merchant type, opted to travel with her, using the training he’d received as a Steel Ranger to act as the bodyguard for his sisters caravan. However, after only a decade, while on a routine run between Baltimare and Dodge, Diesel was shot and killed by a raiding party. With the loss of her brother weighing heavily on her mind, Gauge decided to accept the position of manager when Harmony’s son wished to expand the Caravan out West. In the days since then, she’s helped him grow, and worked with him to restore an old Airship that she one day hopes will help her make the trek out east again to visit her friends.

P.A.I. Opted to stay with Gauge after the fight in Baltimare, rather than returning to Storm’s pipbuck. For years, she grew closer and closer to Gauge, growing to love her as one pony would another. For the Caravan, her job was to monitor Caravan communications, and to relay messages between them. When Gauge decided to move out west, PAI opted to still keep up the communication networks in her spare time, still keeping in frequent contact with Storm and Harmony. Even though P.A.I. had never been designed for it, she felt happy and contented with her life outside her orchard. Even so, she would hop across the spritebot network now and again to make sure that her birthplace was still intact. However, as she and Gauge grew older, she realized that it was time to finally leave the orchard behind for good. With the help of Gauge, , and Kiwi’s group, they used the newly repaired airship to remove the Tree of Harmony, and to move it out to Baltimare, where it still sits to this very day.

For Kiwi, Salsa, and Cinnamon, the choice to leave the Rangers was an easy one. With the promise of a job in the new home of the Sunshine Caravans Trading Outpost, the trio set out to make a new life together. With the technical specialties of each of the mares so heavily developed, Harmony commissioned and built a workshop for them. There, the three ate, lived, and slept together as they tinkered and rebuilt the unique pieces of junk that Harmony had brought into her shop. Even though she hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it, Kiwi acted as the leader of the group, keeping them together through thick and thin. During Harmony’s pregnancy, Kiwi took over running the Sunshine Caravan’s until Harmony was back on her hooves. When asked if any of the three were ever going to find a stallion for themselves, all three mares would just giggle and insist that the love they had for each other was all they’d ever need. After a few decades of tinkering, building, and working, the three mares grew tired of the day in and day out of their lives. When Harmony’s son had proposed setting up a shop on the west coast, the trio jumped on the chance to go and see the wasteland. With a teary eyed goodbye, and one last visit to the mare who’d saved Baltimare all those years ago, the three headed out west for new, rubble filled pastures.

With the fighting over, Ficha’s life resumed much as it always had for over a century and a half. He had stopped for a time to aid in the rebuilding of the wasteland, but as it always was for him, it was never for long. Even when Chasm had finally been rebuilt, and he was offered to take over as Mayor of the town, he simply refused and went on his way. For years he took odd jobs around Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare, at least, up until Storm asked him for a favor. Figuring that it would at least keep things interesting, Ficha headed out west at the request of Storm. There, he wandered the wastes as a mercenary for hire, stopping in every bar and every brothel to listen and take in the loose talk thrown around in them. It was nearly two decades after he’d arrived, that word of a massive search for a pair of enclave mare’s met his ears. With his job finished, he returned to Storm with the rumor, and once again readied to go on his own way. Before he went however, Storm finally asked him how he managed to live for all these years without ageing a single day. Thinking to himself that perhaps one day he would see fit to finally reveal the true nature of his curse, he simply laughed as he headed for the door. As he left, the last words he’d said to Storm insisted that someone as handsome and as charming as himself just couldn't be put down. Much to the aggravation, annoyance, and relief of both Storm and Shadow, Ficha walked out of the door and out of their lives yet again. However, as had been the case throughout Storm’s life, they were fated to meet once more down the road…

Despite their horrific experience at the hooves of Filius, Stratos and his daughter Swivel Spark found that returning to their old way of life wasn’t hard. Once Stratos had recovered from his wounds at Tenpony tower, he gave his account of events to DJPon3 so that the story of what Storm had done for the wastes could spread. Afterwords, he and Swivel resumed scavenging the ruins of the old world, this time avoiding any they found that looked to be from even before the great war’s time. Years later, on a trip out west, Stratos fell ill and passed away. Without a clear direction to put herself, Swivel continued out west by catching a ride with Short Staff’s caravan. Upon reaching the ruins of Las Pegasus, Swivel began to look for work around town. She quickly made a name for herself as one of the more successful scavengers in the small city, and after a few years, she felt like there was something missing in her life. That is, until one day she stumbled into Demy Octavo, the stallion who ran the local radio station. Still enamored by her own short stay in Tenpony and her father’s talk with the DJ so long ago, Swivel began to stop by the Demy’s workplace more and more. Soon, their meetings became more than that, and the two of them realized that they couldn’t live without one another. A couple of years after the two had met, Swivel gave birth to a healthy pair of twins which she named Eighth Note, and Silver Note. Swivel grew to forget the terror she felt in the days of Filius, but she would always recount the story for her foals whenever she could. While her son, Eighth took his father’s place in the radio booth, Silver however had become enchanted as she grew with the story of ‘the blue phoenix’. It was only the day after Swivel died in her sleep that her daughter set out to seek the mare she’d grown up hearing so much about. Eighth Note on the other hoof, had a different role to play in the coming events of Las Pegasus, but that is a story best saved for another time…

Following the growing migration, Pendergrass tried to do right by his godson and nephew, Finn, and moved out east. With only the few precious heirlooms that they could pull from the rubble of Sunshine City, the two traveled the roads, scavenging what little they could along the way. In the time that the arduous journey had taken, Pendergrass recounted to Finn the stories of their family. How each member had been a hero in their own time, including Finn’s parents. These stories stuck with Finn, running through his head again and again until he found an outlet one day by joining Storm’s growing crew. Pendergrass watched as Finn grew into a fine stallion. Alas, Pendergrass soon was killed in a fight with Iron’s faction of pegasi.

Following the death of his uncle, Finn went into hiding, not knowing why they were attacked. Upon taking refuge in a cave just outside of Las Pegasus, something odd happened. A locket that Finn had as a keepsake from his father began to hum. Upon further inspection, Finn realised the cave he was hiding in housed a Stable: Stable 13, when a loud rumbling noise shoot the cave due to the large door opening for seemingly no reason. In the years that followed, he managed to make a home for himself among those who resided within the Stable. However, he knew that one day he’d eventually have to leave. With that in mind, he soon fell in love with a mare named Green Leaf and had a son whom they named Sawyer. However, his happiness was to be cut short. Green Leaf knew that Finn would have to leave eventually, and with a pained heart she helped him open the Stable door. It is uncertain what happened to Finn after he left Stable 13, but his memory will live on in his son, for he left behind his locket so his family could remember him.

The great steel door of Stable 13 had once again shut. However, it would only be a little over a decade before that door once again was opened, and a new chapter was written in Pendergrass’s family of heroes. Forty seven years after the end of the Battle of Baltimare, the wasteland had become restless again. Temperaments were high, resources at an all time low, and it seemed as if the whole western coast had come to a boiling point. Those who survived the many conflicts over the years couldn’t be sure of the events soon to unfold, but they knew that they would soon need another hero to step up and protect them. Unknown to them, that hero would be the most unlikely of ponies to have that title.

So ends the heroic tale of Storm Rider. From a simple bounty hunter, to the courier of hope across the wastelands. She stands as a beacon for those who fight for a better tomorrow, and until her very last breath, she will lead those ponies into battle against all who threaten hope itself. It is an endless fight, one she knows well, but again the wasteland is changing and the storm of war is once again on the horizon. However, in the face of Storm Rider, war isn’t something she’s afraid of.

Because, war? War never changes.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, Digital here. I wish to thank all of you, new and old for sticking with this story all the way to the end. It really means so much to Gamma and I that you enjoy our work. I would like to thank Plagen Shiki for doing an audiobook version of this story just because he wanted to. I'd like to thank Gamma for joining me in the creation of this story, because without him, Storm's adventure might never had made it past chapter 3. I'd like to thank my friends who let me use the characters Predious and Tasteless Smoke. I'd like to thank my friend Eff EL for supporting this story the whole way through. I'd like to thank Lost Art from the Gunbucks Tumblr blog for making such wonderful art for this story. And lastly, I'd like to thank any future readers who give this story a shot. It really means a lot to me.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading Storm's journey and I hope you all continue to support any future projects Gamma and I do.

Chapter One - Broken Road

“A broken road behind me, my memories to guide me...every day I’m one step closer to home.”

I walked lightly out of the downpour and into the dim-lit bar. The rain beat heavily against the old stained windows. Cigarette smoke filled the room as several ponies sat around the perimeter, keeping mostly to themselves but glancing at me every now and then.

As I approached the bar, the mare behind the counter smiled at me “What can ‘ah get ya’ today, hun? Th’ usual, right?”

I waved a hoof as I took a seat on one of the stools “No thanks, just turning in a few contracts.” I told her as I slid a few items I’d taken from my targets toward her.

She nodded and went into the back room to collect my rewards. As I waited for the mare to return, I pulled out a bent cigarette from my satchel and lit it. A door slammed shut behind me and heavy hoofsteps echoed throughout the room. I felt a warm breath on the back of my neck as somepony taller than myself came up behind me. “Hey there sweet cheeks, how’s about we get a couple of drinks and you come back to my place with me and my buddies here.”

I turned around and let out a puff of smoke in his face “No thanks, I’m a mare who prefers a stallion with manners. Get lost.”

The stallion didn’t seem to be taking rejection well from the look on his face. His ‘buddies’ behind him were silently laughing at him. I let out a yelp as his hoof pressed hard against my head, slamming and holding it on the counter “You seem to be under the impression I was asking, now let me repeat myself in terms you’ll understand. You will come with us, or I crush your pretty little skull like a fucking peanut.”

Now, you probably would assume that I’d be scared enough to go along with his demands. Unfortunately for him, I was not a mare to be messed with. I kicked out one of my hind legs, and gelded him right in the sweet spot. I swear his voice went up a few octaves. “You know, I kick the shit out of idiots like you for a living.” I said as I put a hoof on the back of his head.

He looked up at me, tears in his eyes from the excruciating pain he must have been going through “I-I’m sorry ma’am...I didn’t mean nothin by it, I swear...!”

I shook my head “Tsk tsk tsk, should have thought about that before getting your ass handed to you by a mare who is half your size.” and slammed his head onto the counter with a loud THUNK before letting him fall to the floor, unconscious.

The bartender returned shortly after with a bag of caps “Here’s the five-hundred caps -- damnit. Can’t y’all go one day without making a mess in mah bar, Storm?”

I looked to her and shrugged “He asked for it. Anyway, thanks for the caps. Got any more bounties for me?”

She shook her head “Sorry hun, y’all might have better luck in Dodge just southeast of here.”

I slipped the caps into my satchel and took one last puff on my cigarette before putting it out “Thanks anyway. I’ll send you a postcard from Dodge then.” and with that, I gave one last threatening glare at the stallion’s friends before heading out into the rain.

New Appleloosa was a small and simple town. Everypony mostly kept to themselves, which was good for a small-time bounty hunter such as myself...but every now and then you get know-it-all big shots like that stallion. From the look of him and his buddies, they must’ve been slavers from Old Appleloosa just south along the train tracks that ran outside town.

I looked out across the muddy ground at the shop across from the bar I had just exited. “Absolutely Everything” the sign read. As I pulled my hood up over my head and made my way out into the rain, I heard a couple thuds behind me. I assumed it was the unconscious stallion and his friends being thrown out of the bar.

I pushed open the door to the shop with my hoof and entered. Objects ranging from the most useless of things to pristine condition weapons lined the walls and shelves. Behind the counter sat a friendly wall-eyed pegasus ghoul reading a magazine with a picture of a giant muffin on the cover.

I trotted lightly up to the counter and rang the little rusty bell “Excuse me, I’m here to pick up my rifle.”

The ghoul looked up from her magazine and smiled at me. She held up a rotten hoof, getting up and trotting into the back room, returning shortly after with my old 73 scoped repeater rifle in her mouth. She laid it on the counter and pulled up an old chalkboard, quickly scribbling something on it. The mare turned the board around and showed me what was written on it “That’ll be twenty caps for repairs or a muffin.”

I chuckled a bit “Sorry Ditzy, no muffins today. I promise next time I’m in town though, I’ll definitely bring you a few.” After paying the lovable ghoul and slinging my rifle around my back, I set out, this time my destination was Dodge City.

The rain seemed to be coming down harder than before as I left New Appleloosa, following the tracks east. The cold air whipped around me as the rain storm began picking up. Just one of the many things you get used to here in the Equestrian Wasteland, I guess. I managed to avoid a few groups of raiders and Old Appleloosan Slavers, having to stop every now and then and take out a few from a distance.

It was just starting to turn night time when I was close enough to see Dodge....though something was not right. The town was lit up like a bonfire, a large pillar of smoke, blacker than the sky itself, reaching up into the clouds.

I swung my rifle around and lay prone in the mud, looking through the scope. As far as I could see, the streets were littered with bodies, Slavers and townsfolk alike. The Slavers still alive were banging on doors, trying to get to the ponies hiding inside, I guessed. As soon as one of their heads was right center in my crosshairs, I pulled the trigger with my forehoof, smirking slightly as the poor bastard’s head snapped forward and his friends became covered in his blood.

His buddies jumped at his death and began looking around for me, ignorant to the fact that I was at least a good couple hundred meters in the opposite direction they were looking...not that smart, are they? I ejected the spent casing and took aim once again, blowing a hole into another Slaver’s head.

My fun was short lived, however, when one of them figured out the direction I was in and started rushing at me with the remaining five...six...ten Slavers?! Oh shit. I ejected the empty casing again and began firing at the ponies charging at me rapidly. The moment a bullet whizzed past my head was when I decided to sling my rifle onto my back and high-tail it to some cover...that is, if I could find any.

I managed to find an old metal wagon and leapt over it, slamming my back against the cart as bullets beat into the bottom of it. Okay, damage assessment, going to need to have my jacket patched up...and have the local doctor dig out that bullet in my flank. I winced as ice-cold rainwater hit the bleeding bullet wound. At least I don’t have to worry about cleaning it... I thought to myself.

I drew the Colt 1911 from it’s holster on my right foreleg with my teeth, taking a deep breath before popping up over the wagon and firing several shots at my attackers, taking out three of them and wounding two others. As a stinging pain filled my cheek, I dropped back down behind the cover. I put a hoof up to my cheek and then looked at it. A bullet definitely grazed me...add that to the list of wounds from this fight.

I popped up again and fired another volley of rounds at the oncoming Slavers, taking out two more. I screamed out in pain as one of their rounds tore into my right shoulder. I fired more shots and slumped back down behind the wagon, not bothering to see if any of my shots hit their mark. This fight certainly was taking it’s toll on me and I was losing blood. Fast.

I reloaded a fresh mag and popped back up again, only to have a hoof slam into my jaw, hard. I must’ve flew a good three feet before crashing down into the mud with a splash.

The Slaver who had hit me seemed to be the only one left, at least from what I could see. He looked down at me with fury in his expression. “Well now, what’s this? A mare managed to take out some of my best guys? Bullshit. Where are your friends, I want to make them watch as I break you.” He stood right over me, a bit too close for comfort “Although...I suppose I could have some fun with you beforehoof.” An evil grin appeared on his face.

I was laying in the mud, dazed and actually afraid of what this stallion was planning on doing with me...and my vision was slowly fading from blood loss.

“Oh yeah, I’m going to have soo much fun with y-” a gunshot rang out as my face was splattered with bits of the stallion’s brain and blood. Before I lost consciousness, I saw a turquoise figure standing over me and the dead Slaver with a pistol drawn.

* * * * * * * *

I regained consciousness and sat up quickly in the bed I was laying in...bad idea. I yelped as a sharp pain shot through my shoulder and flank. After taking a moment to calm down and let the pain subside, I looked around the room I was in. Yep, was definitely the old Helping Hoof clinic in the Dodge marketplace....I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I’ve been in here. And now that my mind is a bit less foggy, that mare who saved me looked a whole lot like somepony I normally stop in to see.

As I exited the clinic and made my way slowly through the open marketplace, I looked over the damage that had been done in last night’s attack. All in all it hadn’t been that bad, and probably wouldn’t take too long to recover from. I looked across the storefronts, quickly finding the Now and Then General Trade office somewhat down the way.

I took a step forward, nearly running into a pony who was carrying a whole sack of sickly looking carrots. For being the post apocalypse, some cities are still just as busy as ever. I made my way across the open plaza headed for Now and Then, dodging hurried ponies who were trying to get their caps worth at the markets. I breathed in heavily, trying to take in the smell of the cooked food across the way, only to have a pain in my shoulder flare up. Better off without the distraction of food anyway, I had a mare to thank and business to conduct!

I stopped in front of the old storefront, pausing to look over the time worn, ornate lettering that was painted on the plywood sheets that covered what had once been windows. ‘Now and Then General Traders!’ was on the left board, ‘Best deals from here to Tenpony!’ was scrawled on the right. I put my hoof on the door before reading ‘Closed’ on the sign that sat on it. I could see her inside moving around behind the counter, and I did want to thank her for saving me, so I pulled the door open and peeked my head inside.

“Sorry, we’re...” She called out before looking up, a smile growing across her muzzle as she saw it was me. “Well I’ll be, it’s been awhile Miss Storm.”

“Too long, Harmony. How are things?” I walked the rest of the way inside, making sure to shut the door behind me. Now that I was in the shop, an odd sight befell me, it looked like a small war had gone on in here. Half the shelves were either knocked over or broken, and most of her product that was on display was crushed, shattered, or otherwise ruined.

“Well, as yah could tell last night, things have been better.” She sighed and started to line cans of food onto the counter, marking something on a sheet of paper with each one. “Last night a couple of those Slavers tried to purchase my services to repair some slave collars they had found. Now, I don’t rightly believe in that sorta thing after the trouble my father had with them years ago, so I kindly told them where they could stick ‘em!”

“Yeah, I can see they didn’t exactly appreciate the idea.” I let out a light laugh. Harmony was a good mare, but goddesses did she make bad decisions sometimes.

“I’m sorry yah got roped into the mess I started, I truly am.” She sighed again and continued stacking cans while she talked. “I kicked the three of them out, they went and got their friends, an’ before I knew it, half the town was on fire an’ they were killin folks left an’ right!” She stopped and looked at the countertop, dropping her head down on it with a light thud. “Why, if ya’ll hadn’t come along, we might have...”

“Lost the town.” I interrupted. As much as I felt sorry for the mistake she had made, it was just that, her mistake. She’ll have to live with it and get over it, just like we all have to. “Look, I wanted to thank you for saving my life, but the point is we’re still here, and I need work. Do you have anything for me? Anything at all?”

She lifted her head and frowned. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got somethin for yah.” She trotted over to the end of the counter, pounding on the old cash register until it opened. She bit down on a particularly old piece of paper, spitting it onto the countertop so I could read it. I trotted up to it and looked it over.

[---]

Target's name: Predious, also known as Crazypred

Description: Unicorn. crimson colored coat. Red and black striped mane.

Spell level: Moderate casting abilities. Illusionist.

Cutie Mark: Crossed colored pencils, purple and pink, over paper with “CP” in red and black.

Suspected location of shelter: Ponyville Ruins

Known associates: Cyan Trade Caravan based outside of Baltimare, Old Appleloosan Slavers.

Reward: 1000 caps alive, 0 caps dead.

[---]

“The folks who commissioned that there bounty seemed ta stress that he needed ta be brought in alive.” Harmony told me as I folded the paper and slipped it into my satchel “Y’all bettah be careful now, Ponyville ain’t no place to get sloppy, an’ neither is Old Appleloosa.”

I nodded in agreement “Don’t worry, you know I’m careful.” I slipped off my jacket and threw it on the counter “During last night’s attack, my jacket got a bit torn up, I was hoping you’d be able to patch it up for me, also I need a box of .44.”

“Well, it ain’t lookin too bad. Give me a few minutes an’ I’ll see what I can do for ya.” Harmony hoofed the jacket across the countertop and set it aside somewhere. “Go get yerself somethin ta eat and ya can pick up the rest of yer supplies when ya get back.” She waved her hoof dismissively at me. “Now go on, git. I’ll have this good as new in no time at all, you just watch!”

I nodded and thanked the mare before leaving the shop. My stomach rumbled fiercely as the smell of food hit me like a brick wall. Normally I don’t eat that much, but since I hadn’t eaten in two days thanks to certain complications, I was surprised I hadn’t caused the Radigator kabob stand to run out of food in the ten minutes I took to completely chow down.

Now with a full stomach, I sat back against a cracked wall and stared up at the cloudy sky through the broken girders of what must have been an impressive skylight before the war. The clouds were lighter than usual, which meant that there was no danger of rain. Just as I had closed my eyes to rest, I heard loud metallic hoofsteps echo across the street, which was odd since that was the only thing I heard. One moment ago, the entire marketplace was as busy as possible. Now it was dead silent save for the hoofsteps.

I looked forward and spotted a group of Steel Rangers surrounding what I assumed to be one of their scribes, heading right for the Now and Then Trade office. Normally, anypony would go and see what that was about, but I personally hated sticking my muzzle where it didn’t belong. I’ve gotten several scars before finally learning my lesson.

After the noise from the crowd resumed, I stood up and headed over to the Gun Runners stand across the road, checking out a few rifle mods, knowing that I couldn’t really upgrade my own rifle. As I made my way back to Harmony’s shop, I spotted the group of Steel Rangers leaving, a smug look on the scribe’s face.

“Hey, what was all that about?” I asked as I entered the building and walked up to the counter.

Harmony set my jacket and a box of .44 rounds on the counter for me “Oh, they want to annex Dodge. Apparently they already own Baltimare and are working on New Appleloosa. Yer total comes to one hundred caps fer repairs an’ ammo.”

“One hundred caps?! That’s a bit much.” I looked around the half cleaned store “Though, I guess most of your stock did go bye bye.” After reluctantly giving up one tenth of my total caps, I frowned “Why do they want to own Dodge? The Steel Rangers have no interest in trade cities, do they?” I asked.

Harmony shrugged “Dun’no, but as long as ah get to continue runnin’ things, ah have no problems.”

Something didn’t sit right with me about this whole ordeal, but I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. Right now, I needed to head off and track this Predious down. “Anyway, thanks for patching up my jacket. I’ll send you a postcard from Ponyville.” And with that, I turned around and left the shop after slipping my jacket on and putting the bullets in my satchel.

The road leaving town had dried up a bit and I was no longer sloshing through knee-deep mud. Ponyville was directly north-west of my current location, so that was where I was headed. I gave one last glance at Dodge City before setting off on my own once again down the old broken road.

Name: Storm Rider

Level: 13

Skills
Barter: 40
Big Guns: 15
Energy Weapons: 17
Explosives: 17
Lockpick: 45
Medicine: 35
Melee Weapons: 20

Small Guns: 75
Sneak: 60
Speech: 30
Unarmed: 17

S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Strength: 6
Perception: 9
Endurance: 4
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 8
Agility: 6
Luck: 5

Perks
Intense Training (4)
Black Widow
Friend of the Night
Rapid Reload
Swift Learner (3)
Travel Light
Quick Draw

Traits
Small Frame
Trigger Discipline

Chapter Seven - Pitch Black

“And every demon wants his pound of flesh, but I like to keep some things to myself, I like to keep my issues drawn. It's always darkest before the dawn”

“Child… it... is... time... once... again…”

The black void I was standing in was pressed back momentarily by the shimmering rainbow light that sat before me, the shadowy figure that had beaten me down reforming before me.

“Really? This again?” I groaned out, throwing my head back in frustration. “I don’t have time…!”

I was sent tumbling back as the rear hooves of the assaulting figure slammed up under my chin. Knowing what came after I hit the ground last time, I rolled to my hooves quickly and narrowly avoided as the shadow landed hard where I had been. I kept my momentum up as the figure advanced, kicking and bucking just slow enough that I could stay one step ahead of it. I just needed to stall long enough until…

It made it’s mistake as it spun for another buck, leaving it’s side wide open to where I could get to it. I pushed myself off with my rear hooves and put my forehead down, slamming hard into my assailant and sending it to the ground. I watched wide eyed as it struck the floor and burst into a flurry of shadowy ribbons.

“Good…. again…”

“Wait, WHAT!?” I spun to face the disembodied voice, instead finding another shadow figure already moving towards me, this one clearly more defined, more mare-like in shape then the last. In the few seconds before she got to me I observed that she was faster, and in the second she saw through my attempt to dodge and slammed me to the floor, I knew that she was a whole lot stronger. I braced myself for the inevitable beat down, only to see the shadow mare dissipate into wispy streams.

“Not… ready…”

* * * * * * * * *

Pain ebbed through the back of my head as I stirred awake, as the only thing I could actually see as I lay on the floor, was the green Pipbuck display. If the clock was correct, I had only been out for a few minutes, and I only had six left to restart the system. I grunted and sat myself up, rubbing my hoof at the back of my head and winced as it was painful to the touch.

“Why shouldn’t it be, not like I just fell…” I looked up, seeing the dim glimmer the hatch only about ten feet up gave off from my piplight. “Regardless, I don’t ever want to do that again.”

I could see my own breath as I just now realized that down here was as cold as the surface had been. Thinking this was odd, I swung my hoof down from my head, using my only source of light to shine around the area. The area I now sat in was a large circular intersection where six separate, wide hallways intersected, opaque icicles hung from the pipes and wires the ran across the ceiling in every direction. Now that I had gotten to the maintenance area, I was kinda at a loss at what to do next. The annoying Filly-computer-thing didn’t tell me how to restart the equipment, so either it’s simple enough a feral ghoul could do it, or I’m going to spend my last days in the deepest, darkest hole in the ground a pony could have found themselves in.

“Thinking of it, maybe my very own annoying computer thing has the answer!” My voice echoed oddly in the dark spaces down here, reverberating in a way I had never quite heard before. When I looked down to the map the pipbuck showed, I was pretty sure of the reason. The layout of this room was six corridors that branched off in a symmetrical fashion, reminding me of a design I had once seen on a billboard in Manehatten. “This place is a snowflake?”

Of course, this probably had something to do with why it was so cold down here, but I still couldn’t figure out if this place was supposed to look like this. My pipbuck emitted a small beep before updating the map, putting the triangular objective markers at the end of each of the hallways. Maybe it could actually help me in restarting this thing. Choosing a random hallway to go down, I figured that I should make this as fast as possible, seeing as whatever that red eyed thing was could decide to show up any time. Well, that and if I didn’t restart the reactor soon, I’d probably freeze to death down here.

As I walked forward cautiously, I ran across several lumpy shapes on the floor, shining softly in the pipbuck’s light, revealing them as ice patches that raised up like small mounds. I brushed at the end of one as I walked by, stopping as my hoof struck an odd protrusion from it. Using my hoof to continue knocking at the small lump poking from the side, the ice gave a soft crack and snapped off, revealing the barrel of a gun.

“What the hell?” I just couldn’t grasp my mind around how a gun gets frozen in a place like this. As I thought, I tapped at the gun barrel, feeling it crumble under my hoof from age. The rest of the ice lump gave a sharp crack and split along the middle, the two halves pulled away from each other and gave me the answer I was looking for. It wasn’t that a gun randomly was frozen here. It was still in the muzzle of the frozen pony who had used it before.

“The fuck did I stumble into?” I backed away uneasily, the dead eyes of the ice cocooned pony seemed to stare at me as I left it, it’s hollow gaze boring into my mind even as I turned to continue. As I spun my gaze around, I came face to face with another ice cocoon, this one was upright and clearer than the last, giving me a good look at the frozen pony inside of it. Once again, her eyes looked like they were staring into my very soul as she was locked in an eternal scream, her blond mane still held a bright yellow flower tucked into it.

Something didn’t feel right about this. I’ve seen ponies who were unlucky enough to get caught unprepared in a blizzard, and not even they had frozen like this. No, this was the work of a monster, or possibly a highly skilled unicorn. Regardless, whatever it was should be two hundred years dead, just like these poor fools. Even so, why can’t I shake the feeling that everything I’ve been seeing up top, is somehow connected to this?

“Emergency restart guide. Lift primer paddle several times until the spark charge is shown as ready.” I read off to myself, trying to push back the silence that had crept in again. I placed my forehoof under the paddle as the picture next to the guide showed. With as much effort as I could, I pushed it up, working at it three times until I heard a heavy click from inside the box. A small, orange light dimly lit up with the words ‘System Primed’ printed under it.

“Press the green button that says ‘Push to Close’ before repeating the process on each of the other breakers. Reactor will auto restart upon completion.” I squinted and looked over the panel, holding my pipbuck up to read over the various buttons until I found the correct one. I hoofed at it and heard a quick click emit from the whole box. “Guess that’s it.” I shrugged and turned around, quickly trotting towards the center room again.

The clock in my vision flashed as it was now counting down from four minutes, meaning I needed to hurry. I quickly made it out to the center of the room again, dipping down the next hall as soon as I could. In my rush, I almost tripped over another frozen pony, instead accidentally giving a quick kick to the top of the lump, smashing the ice and revealing the head of an older looking stallion. My body locked up as I could have sworn I saw him blink, my coat standing on end as he did blink again, his dead eyes turning his gaze up to me as the rest of him sat completely motionless.

“Fuck this place.” I gave his head a swift buck, caving in his frozen skull and quickly trotting down the hall to the next breaker. I tore the cover off, placing my hoof under the paddle quickly and throwing my body into each push. The heavy click gave me the okay to press the green button. Jabbing it, I heard the click from the box as I expected, but in doing so, I heard a small whine emanate from it as well. “I guess that mean’s it’s working.”

Three minutes and thirty seconds to go.

I quickly made my way back, ducking around the corner and finding more frozen bodies littering this hall then the others combined. Most of them were huddled to the back, and the ones closer to the center were locked in defensive stances, a few old magical energy rifles stuck from the ends of the ice. Ignoring the shifting of their eyes under the ice, I thought to myself that this must have been where they had their last stand. While wondering why they chose here, I came across a single frozen body next to the circuit breaker.

As I tore the cover off like the others, I noticed that the body next to me was posed differently than the ones I've gone past. This one was stretched out, a forehoof reaching for a long lever that sat only an inch or so away from where this pony met it’s fate. As I primed the paddle, I read the words under the lever to sate my curiosity, finding it hard as they were badly faded. With the loud click, I waited to hoof the green button as I leaned over to the lever, leaning in close to make out what it said.

Arcanolab interlock release

A creaking came from the ice cast over the body reaching for the lever, drawing my eyes over to it reflexively. The stallion inside was immediately familiar. He was older now, and his mane had receded a bit. There were now streaks of white pushing up through the soft yellow hair, but he was definitely one of the doctors in the photo I saw in the journal. A small ID badge hung from his coat lapel with the name Dr. Panacea written in bold.

I couldn’t help but feel sad for what he went through, all to just end up with a death such as this. As the clock in my vision clicked down past the three minute mark, I shook the thought from my head and hoofed at the green button, hearing the click before turning around and trotting back out. The creaking of ice now came in sporadic bursts, making sharp jolts of nervousness run through my spine as I moved up to a canter. I reached the fourth breaker, not bothering to rip the cover from it’s mounting this time and instead just shoving my hoof through to where the paddle was, hoofing it up as quickly as I could.

The moment I heard the heavy thunk of the system priming, I punched my hoof through the cover and right into the green button. My ears perked as another soft tone filled the walls, letting me know that only one pair of circuits remained. The sharp shatter of ice came as a surprise when one of the bodies behind me torqued it’s head enough to break through, glaring at me with it’s dead eyes.

“No, you are dead!” I turned and slammed my hoof into its head and was delighted to hear a crack as the old bone crumpled, the body going limp in it’s ice cast. The chorus of shattering ice told me that this wasn’t going to be the only body I’d have to contend with, and as I now galloped back, I took a moment to stomp or buck at any body I came across. I was going so fast, I wasn’t focused on where I was and ended up slamming myself into the fifth spell circuit breaker.

My forehooves ached as I struggled to throw the paddle another few times, straining on the last one with a whine right up to the point the heavy click sounded. I punched the green button and took off toward the center, the dim light of the pipbuck highlighting one of the bodies that was now shambling towards me from the first hallway I went down. I barreled right through another as I turned to look where I was going, nearly losing my hoofing as it was shoved back against the wall. This was it, the last one I needed, and with the clock ticking down to one minute, I grunted and shoved my hoof through the panel covering, pressing my hoof to the underside of the paddle.

Which wasn’t there.

In a panic, I scrambled to rip the rest of the cover from the breaker, finding that the last paddle had broken off only an inch or so from the pivot point. I put my hoof to it and curled my other forehoof under it, letting out a short yell as I pushed it up the first time. I took a few deep breaths as it reset, yelling again as I threw it up a second time. The sounds of slow hoofsteps were getting louder as the dead didn’t wish to wait for me to join them. I yelled again, throwing my whole body into the small piece of plastic, just wanting to hear that sweet sweet click. The plastic paddle creaked as it reached close to the top, the last quarter inch seeming to be blocked by some invisible force.

“Come on you stubborn, piece of…” I growled out at the top of my lungs, using the extra anger to get it to slam up. I could feel the heavy click this one gave in the cold air around me, not waiting another moment as I slammed my hoof into the green button so hard I was afraid I might actually break the old equipment.

The low whine I heard from before disappeared with a soft zap in the walls, being replaced by the steady hum that slightly vibrated the floor below my hooves. The lights to the maintenance halls came on with a flicker, bringing a smile to my muzzle. I had done it. with twenty seconds to spare, I just saved my own flank again. Then, as the soft hoofsteps in my ears continued, and I turned around slowly, my smile dropped from my muzzle.

One of the frozen ponies was almost on me, dead eyes locked onto me as I reached for my gun, biting down on the barrel and swinging it around. The solid wood stock caught the pony right in the jaw and sent it spinning back, dropping it down to the floor. I caught the movement from the rest of the basement, finding that although it didn’t look like a lot at the time, there were just too many frozen ponies for me to deal with.

The readout in my vision flickered from green to pink, and the projection of the filly popped into place as I galloped down the hallway.

“I’m super happy to tell you that my power reserves are now charging, and that the main reactor is running at fifty percent capacity and rising!” I reached the center of the room, ignoring the annoying program so I could focus on hooking my hooves onto the ladder bars. As I did, I looked up to the hatch, cringing as it swung open on it’s own and the smokey form of the red eyed monster I’d seen, peered down at me. It didn’t come down, or make any other gesture at all, it just sat and watched while the horde of frozen ponies walked towards me.

I dropped down from the ladder, spitting my rifle into my hooves. “What the fuck is going on down here!?” I looked around quickly, unsure if I should start shooting at these things, or if it was only going to be a waste of ammo to even try.

The AI sat down in my vision, putting a hoof to it’s muzzle as if to think. “The machines in the other lab are reading that Windigo specimen #4 has somehow restored the ponies there to a barely functioning state.”

“Wait, it brought them back to life!?” I shouted as one of the ponies came a bit too close for comfort. I used the fact that the mare had poor reflexes and easily dodged to the side, bucking out with my rear legs and pushing it away, using it’s own momentum to throw it to the floor.

“Incorrect.” The image of some sort of technical readout came up into my vision, blocking nearly all of my sight as I struggled to find which one of the slow moving ponies I should watch out for next. “It seems to be some sort of alternative to necromantic magic unique to Windigos. If you take a look, all the brainwave patterns around you are the same, besides yours of course, each one showing remarkable similarity to specimen 4’s pattern. All available data points to some unspecified type of mind control spell.”

“I’m a bounty hunter, not a doctor!” I closed my eyes and shook my head, some how making the readout disappear. As I opened my eyes, I had just enough time to move out of the way of the stallion who still held the half a pistol in his mouth. “I need a way to kill them!”

The entire Pipbuck readout shifted to a grey color as the filly rolled her eyes. “Destroying the brain should cause the bodies to cease functioning again.” She almost sounded as if my complaint bored her.

That was all I needed to hear. I brought up my rifle and fired, boring a round straight through the head of the blond maned mare. She went rigid as she crumpled to the floor, staying down as the others still made their way towards me.

“At least they aren’t like Canterlot Ghouls, right?” I laughed to myself, working the action and taking aim at another mare who was shambling closer.

The filly turned everything purple as she jumped to an image of her with a funny looking hat and an old bubble pipe toy poking from her muzzle. “I have no data on subject ‘ghouls’ to support a comparison like that at this time. If you would like, I can start a research project for it.”

“IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!” I shouted before firing again, clipping the entire top of the mare’s skull off with that round. The steps of a pony approaching from behind caught my ear once again, allowing me to quickly look and buck back at it. I spun and fired, quickly ending it’s attempts to get back up. The hallway where the scientists had their last stand was now bustling with activity, in total about ten of them were just now shambling their way into the center.

“I can’t reload in such a confined space without leaving myself open, and the way out is blocked. I need help in here!” This was not good, there were just too damn many of them. “Quickly would be preferable!”

The filly turned everything blue as she looked at me sadly in her projection. “As you’ve been informed, I cannot render assistance from here.”

“You fucking brat!” I shouted, firing another shot at a lone stallion as my vision shifted to red. The change threw my aim off, striking the stallion in the chest and doing little to stop him. “You’re a little goddess damned liar!”

“Don’t call me that! I am not a liar!” The filly roared and stomped in my vision.

“I helped you, and you promised to help me!” I worked the action and fired again, this time scoring a direct hit to his eye and dropping him to the floor. I bit down on the hot barrel and galloped over to the hallway he appeared from, posting myself against the wall as I spit the gun back into my hooves and worked the action again, taking aim at the next closest pony before pulling the trigger.

Click.

“Fuck! I need a way out NOW!” I screamed, dropping my rifle to the floor and just trying to stay one step ahead as the crowd surrounded me.

My vision quickly changed to green as the filly stood plainly as she spoke. “I have assessed that I can activate the failsafe to the windigo containment chamber, but I lack control needed to activate it. There is a lever next to one of the spell circuit breakers that will render control of it to me.”

I growled and pushed off the wall with my hooves, throwing my shoulder into one of the stallions that was nearby to knock him away. I slammed against the cold floor next to him, quickly pushing myself back up and making a break for the hallway with the lever. I managed to just make it in past the lump of them before they sealed it off, finding myself barreling straight toward Dr. Panacea, who must have been the last one to unthaw.

Slamming past him, I dove at the lever, hooking my fetlocks around it and dragging it down as I slid against the wall. A loud thud accompanied the lever as it reached the bottom, the ringing in my ears from the repeated gunshots dropping off to inform me that the shambling ponies were still making their way towards me. I spun and pressed myself back against the wall, every option that I had to escape, had been used. This was it. To be honest, I didn’t exactly know what they were going to do to me, but I knew it was going to hurt.

My vision turned to pink as the filly bounced on her hooves. “Failsafes loaded and primed! Sorry mr. Windigo, but you’ve been fired!” Her jubilant voice was accompanied by a set of sharp pops that I could feel vibrate the walls, each of the frozen ponies before me convulsing a few times before falling to the floor. And as I gasped to get back a breath I didn’t know I had been holding, the filly sat in my vision and smiled. “Guess he didn’t get the memo. The lab is officially closed.”

As I sat there, I looked down at the body of Dr. Panacea, wondering to myself just why he was the last one to wake up, and if he died hating himself for not reaching that lever in time.

“You know, Dr. Panacea always carried an audiolog in his pocket. Maybe that would answer your questions.” The AI wore a bright smile, sitting proudly in the corner of my vision as the readout shifted to an annoyingly bright white.

“Get out of my head!” I grumbled and knocked at the pipbuck with my hoof. Seriously, the one place I would think I could actually be alone at, and this thing has to be able to get to it.

“Fine… I’ll just go. Your friend and I will be waiting for you to be done…” She flipped the readout to blue as she pouted softly before fuzzing away, resetting my pipbuck to it’s standard green. I rolled my eyes and let out a loud sigh, my eyes stopping as they resettled on Dr. Panacea’s labcoat.

“What’s the harm.” I didn’t know why, but now that she mentioned it, and the threat of darkness was gone, my curiosity was chipping away at the want to do anything else but listen to that log. I stuck my hoof in his pockets, stopping when I felt the flat, rectangular recording box. Hoofing it over my pipbuck as Harmony had told me you could.

I chuckled to myself as the odd thought that Harmony was the same one from this place. I sure hope she’s not some century and a half old mare and just didn’t tell me. Though her family had a weird history so that doesn’t seem to far fetched, and she told me that she is related to a ministry mare. But come on, her name is Harmonic Drive. Everypony just calls her Harmony for short. I mean, she couldn’t be a hiding the fact that she was a prewar project, could she?

My pipbuck let out a beep and notified me that I could find the recording in the notes section. I tossed the recording back onto the Dr.’s body and hoofed through the menus, bringing up the recordings section and selecting the one labeled ‘To my dearest Harmony’. With a soft click, the recording started.

“To my dear Harmony,

How are we feeling today?”

“I’m fine Doc.” I replied instinctively, pausing as I had no idea what possessed me to say that. The pause in the recording was just long enough for my reply before the voice continued.

“That’s what I thought. If you are listening to this recording, then I suppose that I am no longer around to wait for news on if I will get to see you again. It may be because I have naturally reached that point in time as we all must, and shuffled off this mortal coil, or if all our fears are realized, due to the end of the world.

Just like when you cried when you got that nasty cut under your hoof from playing near the ventilation system, I am here to tell you that it will be alright. Over the last few years, in all the times I’ve sat in your room, I’ve never felt the same. I miss hearing your joyous laughter. I miss seeing the bright green of your eyes when you find something that leaves you in awe. Most of all, I miss the warmth you brought into my life. More and more I wish I could tear myself away from my research to look for what became of you, but sadly, this note is, should it come down to it, my last try. The one last hurrah of an old Stallion looking for the one filly in his life that made all the sacrifices worth it.

And just like that funny shaped scar where you got that cut, this log will act as a reminder to you, that you will never truly be alone. I know you, Harmony. You may not have passed those tests, but I know that deep inside, there is true greatness just waiting to show itself. I wish I could have seen you grow up, and have been there for you whenever you fell, or needed somepony there for you. But you have to stay strong, and go live your life. You may not have been the filly equestria was looking to change with, but you are still the filly who changed my life, and I’m thankful I got to spend as much time with you as I did. Make friends, get married, have a family, have fun.

Please, do this for me. I’ve always wanted the best for you… my daughter.”

As the log stopped, I twisted the hoof my pipbuck was on and looked down at it. There was a small scar that resembled the number 3 sitting there that l had completely forgotten about since I was just a young filly. I chuckled to myself as I remember once saying that it looked like Dr. Patch’s flank after the annual hearths warming eve feast. I growled and put my hooves to my head.

“Why the fuck am I thinking this!?” I turned and hit my head against the wall a few times in frustration. I shook my head as one memory led to another, which led to yet another. This was also accompanied with a flood of emotions that felt foreign to me. None of these images, these thoughts were mine, just feeling like they were being shoved into my mind to fit wherever they could.

I quickly gathered my rifle and made my way to the ladder, looking up and feeling somewhat relieved that it sat open like before, but was lacking the overbearing shadow figure as it had. I pulled myself out of the maintenance hall, panting as I lay on the floor and stared up into the bright lighting that tinted everything red. For some reason, doing this gave me the most uncomfortable sense of familiarity I had ever had, like the worst Deja Vu you could imagine. Not wanting to take my time to contemplate this now that I had the AI thing to help Predious and I get out, I didn’t want to spend any more time here than I already had.

Pulling myself to my hooves, I walked towards the old foals room that was set up by the collapsed door, stopping as a brown object stood out in my vision to my left. I didn’t remember it being there before, so when I turned, I couldn’t understand how I missed it before. The ragged and half rotten form of a foals stuffed bear sat on the dresser, looking lonely and forgotten, alone up there. More memories filled my head of a time long ago, the simple words slipping out past my lips without and aid by me.

“I missed you Mr. Harry…” I spoke softly, feeling as my eyes teared up for seemingly no reason, almost making me miss my pipbuck display when if shifted to pink again.

“I know you wanted to be left alone and all, but I just wanted to say...” The AI rubbed a foreleg along the other bashfully. “Welcome back home, Project Harmony.”

--Chapter End--

“Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.”

Quests Finished: Let There Be Light

Quests Started: Out of The Freezer...

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Twenty Three - Night of The Hunter

Chapter 23: Night of The Hunter

“Pray to your God, open your heart. Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark. Cover your eyes, the devil's inside”

As I lay in the cold and damp cell, I couldn’t find any more tears to cry. They threw me in here and locked the door. I was alone in the dark again. Worse still, I knew that the others had trusted me to get them out of here. That trust is now as bruised and broken as they were. Just like before though, I still had to hold onto my hope. Just like the solitary ray of light that came in through the window slit in the door, my hope would not abandon me now.

My ravaged body on the other hoof had plans for me. Even as I lay unmoving on the floor, it screamed for relief. Rest was an easy option to pick, but not one that I enjoyed. If I fell asleep, who know’s when I’d wake up. Too bad it wasn’t even within my control to chose to go through with it.

The hallway that stretched before me looked almost to be in pre-war condition. The wallpaper, carpet, even the windows looked new. Though, as the heavy rain beat against them, something felt… off. The whole of the hall exuded the feeling of being cold and alone. Laughter came from the other side of a door at the end. Even though it sounded like ponies having a good time, none of it felt like it mattered here in this hall.

Slowly the necromancer walked down the hallway. The robe he wore obscured his vision to the sides just enough that I couldn’t get a good look at the pictures that hung on the wall. With a raised hoof, he knocked on the door when he reached it. The sound of approaching hoofsteps made me anxious for what might come next. The stallion who opened the door was one I had not expected to see. Stratos, the pony whom I’d saved from Jack Knife and his gang, gave a hearty laugh back into the party behind him. Only after that, did he turned his gaze forward.

“Ah, my old friend. Might I have a word with you?” The necromancer spoke with an oily smooth tone. The second his eyes saw who stood before him, did Stratos almost turn as white as a Tenpony bedsheet.

“S..s…sure.” He stuttered out. With it came a super slow nod that looked like it took fifteen seconds to process in his own mind. Another few moments passed as the party behind him now died down to turn their attentions to the door.

“Alone?” The necromancer spoke. He gazed around the room, looking over each and every pony that had been celebrating. As he did, he stopped on Swivel. I could feel as his muzzle tightened into a disgusting grin.

“R-right…” Stratos stated as he shook the shock off. “Everypony, the party is over.” With his words came a collective groan. He looked down at Swivel and frowned. “Swivel, go to your room and wait for me to come get you, alright?”

“You sure you need us to go, Stratos?” A particular gruff sounding mare spoke up as she took a step forward. Brave girl. Misguided, but brave none the less.

“Y...yeah.” He forced a wide smile. “It’s just business, you know. Gotta make a living!” He raised his forehoof and rubbed at his mane. “Besides, it’s getting late anyway.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” The mare shrugged and looked to the others. They all did roughly the same and started to pile through the door. Even with so many ponies leaving, the necromancer’s gaze never once left Stratos. Once the guests had all left, the necromancer stepped through the doorway and headed for the couch.

“O-once I freed you, you said you’d leave me and my daughter alone…” Stratos fumbled with his words.

He WHAT?

“Hmm. Did I say that?” The necromancer mumbled as if it were almost inconsequential. “I guess it is true what they say about memory and old age.”

“Please…” Stratos pleaded, kneeling before the necromancer. ”I just want a normal life for Swivel Spark…” Yeah? Tell that to the ponies who died in Chasm and Dodge. Tell that to Pallet.

No. Even if it wasn’t my fault that started this all, they were still my responsibility.

“She shall have that life… once I get what I want, that is.” The necromancer’s tone switched from it’s normally oily slick words. “Shortly before I was sealed all those millennia ago, a certain amulet was wrongfully taken from me.” His words dripped with the cold creeping feeling that I felt in the hallway.

“A-and what do you expect of me?” Stratos shivered and flattened to the floor. “I… I don’t even know where to look!”

“I’ve heard quite the rumor that you acquired an old boat. One that sits on the harbor of the northern metropolis currently.” The necromancer’s gaze narrowed as he leaned down toward Stratos’ quivering form. “I need it.”

“Take it!” Stratos practically shouted and pulled his forehooves over his head. “It’s all yours, I don’t care!”

“Ah, but that’s not all I need.” The necromancer shook his head slowly. “You see, I have heard that my amulet has been kept safe inside an unusual place. The center of a perpetual raging tempest as it so happens to be.”

“The great northeastern storm?” Stratos whined. “That’s suicide! No simple fishing boat could make it two minutes in that kind of weather.”

“Ah, why do you doubt me, old friend.” The necromancer’s words slipped back to their oily deceitfulness. Slowly, he placed his hoof on Strato’s head, drawing another whine from him. “I am perfectly capable of protecting us from the storm. But I need you to drive the boat while I hold up our shield.”

“I let you out.” Stratos spoke in a soft, regret filled voice. “Why can’t you just leave us be?”

A cold sensation washed over my forehead as Stratos was lifted up into the air. The necromancer snarled as he shoved Stratos back against the wall. The sound of cracking glass came from the picture frame he’d been pinned against, and he writhed wildly trying to break free. No matter how hard he tried, it was no good.

“How about this. You get me inside the storm and you and your daughter go free. If not, I’m sure she would make a nice puppet in my army.” The necromancer growled out. Stratos’ eyes froze wide in silent horror at the prospect. “Don’t you agree?”

“Alright! I’ll do it!” Stratos whimpered and stop fighting. He hung there limply for a moment. A stream of tears dripped down his cheeks. “Just please, leave her out of all this.”

“Oh how I’m a sucker for politeness...or I would be if I wasn’t in a hurry.” The necromancer said as another cold bolt ran through me. The door to Swivel’s room flew open, and the filly floated out into the air beside him. She lay there limply in his magic, looking like she was asleep. “She comes with us, just to make sure you don’t do anything you might regret. Now go get whatever supplies you’ll need and meet us at the harbor.”

Another bolt of magic ran through me as the necromancer tossed Stratos across the room. He slammed down against the table next to the couch, tumbling for a moment before simply laying there whimpering. For as many ways as he deserved this, I felt sorry for what I’d just watched.

“Oh, and don’t even think of running. There is nowhere you can hide.” The necromancer spat as he turned and opened the front door. He trotted out and into the oppressive hallway again. Now that he faced the other way, I could see a mirror on the door at the other end. With a smile, he approached it and stopped about a foot away from it. He glared into the glass, and as he did, a spike of pain ran through me.

“Ah, I was wondering when this might happen again. How are you enjoying the feeling of having a windigo attached to your soul?” He spoke with a sneer. He knew I was watching? How? “I hope you enjoyed the performance. There will be plenty more to come.” He said before letting out a laugh that rang out into my mind. It was overwhelming and it made me want to whine and flail.

I let out an agonizing scream as my body felt like it was on fire. The cold sweats that plagued me left me shivering whenever I tried to restrain myself from flailing in pain. Eventually, my writhing had pushed me up into a corner of the lonely, dark room. With no idea how long I’d been out, and no way to track how long I’d been in pain, I simply sat and waited. Between the shivers and whines, I could still hear the echoing laugh.

“I should have seen this coming.” Predious spoke up in the darkness. My eyes shot around until I saw him. He stood in the center of the cell, a disgusted look on his muzzle. “I trusted in you. I thought you were better than this.”

“How could ya?” Harmony growled, stepping out from the darkness next to Predious. “Pallet was like a sister ta me, and y’all abandoned her ta die.”

“Just another pile of corpses to add to the mountain.” Ficha spat as he stood on the other side of Pred. “You can’t even save a bunch of prisoners. You’re such a disappointment.”

The squeal of metal broke me from my friends. They flashed away into nothingness as the door to my cell swung open. I squinted as the bright light outside burned my eyes.

“Oh dear.” The doctor spoke up and pushed a wheelchair into my cell. “It seems with all the trouble you’ve caused, we’ve fallen behind schedule.” The mask he wore hid his grin, but I knew it was still behind it. From behind him, he floated out the bat that he’d used before.

I didn’t want to go back. I needed to get out of here, but my body just didn’t want to move anymore. As much as I still had the hope of escape, I knew that I’d been injured far too badly to fight back. I just… didn’t have the drive for it anymore. I think the doctor noticed it as well, because the bat dropped to the floor.

“Ah! I see that you are finally willing to cooperate!” He chimed in an almost sing-songy voice. His magic wrapped around my body and lifted me out of the corner. Unceremoniously, he dropped me into the chair and fixed the straps to my forehooves. “See, I knew we would come to be friends.” He muttered as the final strap wound tightly around my forehoof. “It’s about time somepony respected my work in here.” He leaned forward and hovered near my neck. “I’m glad it was you.”

He let out a giggle as he started to push the chair out of my cell. As I sat there, I wondered about the hallucinations I’d just had about my friends. How close to the truth was it? What would they say when they learned what had happened? Could they even forgive me?

In short order, we’d reached the stairwell. Once again, he floated me down slowly and carefully. The one thing that felt odd now, was the silence that came from him. He hadn’t spoke in the last minute, and it scared me. I touched down on the second floor landing and rolled towards the door. The terror I’d felt before when I was here was nowhere to be found. I wondered in fact, if because I knew what would come next, I was numb to it all.

When his magic opened the door however, I found out how wrong I was.

He started to whistle gleefully as he pushed me into the hallway. Half dissected bodies littered the hallway now, more so than the first time I went through. One particular stallion laying on a bench caught my eye. He had a rectangular section of his chest missing, with parts of his entrails split and tied. The memory of what happened to me was shunted to the front of my mind.

My eyes drifted as his demented whistling echoed down the halls. A mare laying on her side with the same cut on her chest, organs plucked clean out of her. Another whose insides looked as if they’d been char broiled layed next to her. Had… he been doing what he did to me on them? He stopped whistling.

“Admiring my hoofwork?” He giggled giddily. “You are something of a mystery. All these subjects just didn’t seem to posses the same force of will to stay alive as you’d had. That frailty certainly limited the scope of my experiments, but none the less I do have some ideas for how to proceed.”

I tensed at his words. My hooves tightened against the straps, and my heart felt like it was going to hammer it’s way out of my chest. “No… not again. I can’t do this again.” I whispered between my shallow breaths. Even with the adrenaline coursing through my body, the pain in my chest flared.

“Now now.” He spoke as he wheeled me around the corner and into his operating room. “I know these new procedures aren’t perfected yet, but I assure you, the Merry little filly yesterday very nearly survived.” He shrugged and stepped past me, resuming his whistling.

Merry filly? Did he kill Merry Days? She’d been the only filly sized pony I’d seen in here who could be described that way. The warden said they weren’t to be killed…that fucking bastard!

The memory of Tabasco blowing himself up at dodge flashed through my mind. Even if Stratos let him out, if the necromancer wasn’t stopped Swivel Spark could be the next foal to die because of me. I curled my hooves tighter around the straps and whimpered. No more need to suffer because of him, because of all of these assholes!

There was a sharp snap as the metal pins on the straps holding me sheared from their mounts. Even as it felt like fire was boiling me alive, I was free. The doctor didn’t even get a chance to turn around in surprise before I screamed and charged at him. With one forehoof raised, I swung it at him.

To my surprise, his flesh warped and twisted before bursting into blue flames. I couldn’t care in that moment though. As he cried out in pain, I swung again and again. Blue bursts of fire erupted from his body with each hit, slowly consuming him in one big pire. I couldn’t have stopped then if I’d wanted too. I just kept hitting him over and over. Long after his eyes had melted from their sockets and his flesh slogged off his bones like he’d been hit with the pink cloud, I just kept screaming and hitting him.

When his ribcage snapped and my forehoof caught on it, I howled in my rage and flung his corpse. With a crash, it shattered the window to this room, and his blazing body tumbled across the floor of the next. Only then did I stop to let my mind catch up to where I was and what had just happened. In my rage, I’d missed the sound of the stairwell door, and the odd clip-clop-clacks of one of the abomination’s steps drew near.

“Hey doc, you alright up here? You didn’t set one of your patience on fire again, did…” The minotaur headed abomination stopped mid speech as he stepped in line of sight of me. “Oh… shit.”

I spun around and screamed again. My mind slipped back as my instincts took over again. Each galloping step sent blue flames rolling out from under me. The abomination managed to get his shotgun up and ready by the time I got to him. I jumped up and threw my shoulder into him, causing him to scream as blue flames engulfed his coat. He fired the shotgun through his scream and blasted a hole into the ceiling tiles. As I hit the floor, I twisted and lowered myself to line up my rear hooves.

With one great buck, I felt my hooves blast his flesh right from to his skull before they split even that in two. He fell to the floor with a meaty thump and once again I was left to play catch up. For a moment, only the sound of my panting and the crackle of flame met my ears. The blue glow that I’d been giving off drained away in a matter of seconds, and the aching of my body replaced the burning that had been there. Without much warning, I emptied what little I had in my stomach onto the floor. A sharp pain shot through my stomach and a splash of red accompanied the half digested food.

“Pai, are you there?” I whispered and scooped the shotgun up from the floor. I guess that now is as good a time as ever to figure out how to get out of this place. In the moment that my pipbuck turned pink, the sound of shouting downstairs filled the air. The nervous sensation that we were in trouble pricked along my spine. “Did you get the plans for escaping?”

“Yup! I even found you a way out!” She shouted, her voice echoing through the eerily silent room. “The drainage from the basement of the other building should give you the best chance.”

“Thanks, I…” I stopped as the sounds of shouts and steps rapidly came from the stairs. I hoofed the shotgun bit into my mouth and did my best to ignore the foul taste. If there were more than a couple of Abominations coming up here, I’d be screwed. I looked back down to see Pai waving at me. She pointed her hoof up from my vision and gave a nod. I don’t know what she wanted from the medical cupboard against the wall, it…

Without a second thought, I spit the gun into my hooves again and made for my new hidey-hole. It was a tight fit, but I crammed myself inside. Good thing this thing had already been looted, or I might have made a whole lot more noise. As I pulled the door back and closed it, the sound of their steps was right outside the doorway.

“Alright, she’s armed and on the loose.” Slag snarled. Of course he’d be the one to come look for me. “I knew this bitch was trouble, right from day one. Spread out and search!” He snipped as the sound of their steps scattered. Unfortunately, one of them didn’t go too far to look for me. It sounded like it was in the operating room, only feet from me.

If I got lucky, I could push the cupboard open and kill him before he could react. If I did though, the shotgun blast would definitely draw the others back. No, I had to trust that I could hide. The abominations steps skittered closer to me. It sounded as if it were right outside the door. I held my breath in an attempt to be completely silent, but I bet if he listened he could hear my racing heart. A light rap of claws against the cupboard door handle met my ears, and I cringed. This was it…

“Who fucking left the stairwell door open!?” Slag roared out. “Fuck! She could have already slipped past us you dimwitted fucktards!”

“Fuck, Slag’s going to kill me.” The abomination outside the cupboard whispered to himself. The claws slid off the handle with a low whine, and it quickly made it’s way back to the hallway. After a minute, the sounds of their walking had disappeared, and I figured it was safe enough to come out.I let out the longest sigh I’ve ever given and slumped against the cupboard door. It easily swung open and I ended up spilling out onto the floor. Now that I was no longer seeing red, the grotesqueness of everything hit me all at once. The foul stench of melted flesh along with the sight of it made me spin over and heave, once again covering the ground with vomit and blood. I reached out to pull myself up but only ended up knocking an old metal box off one of the cupboard shelves.

It clattered to the ground and spilled open. Several rotten rolls of bandages flopped out, as well as an empty bottle of painkillers. A small glass jar rolled out and stopped at my hoof. It was an intact health potion, and probably the only actual medical supply left in this place. I took the roll of rotten bandages and looped it through and around the ones already around my chest. Carefully, I slipped the potion into my makeshift pocket and grasped the shotgun in my fetlock. With how much I’ve been hurt, I know I’m going to need this once we’re out of here.

As I took one last look around the medical office, my eyes stopped on the smoldering corpse of the doctor. His screams echoed in my mind, but I wanted to hear them. This bastard took so much from so many. He finally got the justice he deserved. A white light flashed along the wall a half second before the alarm system rang out. The near deafening klaxon meant that it was now or never to go.

“Pai!” I shouted and lifted up my pipbuck. “Where’s the armory?”

My pipbuck’s screen changed to the map section. The map had been filled out in it’s entirety, the doing of the schematics if I were to bet on it. A line drew to the stairwell before the layout changed to the third floor. It ran down the long hallway of Solitary confinement cells before stopping at a smaller than expected room. Needing to head upstairs was perfect, considering they all expected me to try to break out.

“I don’t know what I expected.” I said to absolutely no pony as I stood in the armory room. It couldn’t have been more than five feet by five feet in here! Most of the room was taken up by a console full of buttons and video screens. On the assorted screens, I could see Abominations in various sections of the prison rushing about right where I knew I could ambush them.

Which would be fantastic if the armory actually had any guns in it!

“Maybe… one of these buttons?” I sighed and squinted. There were countless, most just having a word like ‘SFC #47-E’ or something. I couldn’t stand here all day, I needed to act. “When all else fails…” I gripped the shotgun in both hooves, and laid it down on the security console. I shoved the gun down and pushed it up the length of the consol. Almost all of the buttons lit up as they toggled on, and the crackle of static came over a small speaker. At the same time, a soft click came from the metal wall behind me.

“...care what it takes, you fucking take her in one piece!” The warden came over the speaker sounding fairly pissed. “Kill her new friends, hell, kill every prisoner else, just don’t kill her. You know what he’ll do if you harm her, don’t you?”

“That’s not my problem.” Slag growled in response.

I found the monitor they were speaking on near the middle of the screens. They were in the cafeteria standing over the dead ponies they’d be feeding the prisoners. From the corner of the room, another abomination ran up to them.

“Sir, it’s the prisoners. Somepony’s released all the door locks.” For an imposing mare with minotaur arms for forelegs, she sounded quite worried. “It’s a riot sir, we’ve already lost three guards.”

“What are you waiting for then?” The Warden lifted his hoof and prodded Slag in the chest. “Get out there and do your fucking job.”

There was a mechanical hiss from behind me, followed by the sound of heavy bolts slamming against metal. When I turned, the back wall started to crank back, slowly opening to show a bit of a larger room. The lights inside flickered on, and the most beautiful sight met my eyes.

The walls were lined with guns. Poorly maintained, but guns none the less. Laying on the floor and pushed off to the sides of the room, were large duffle bags with the words ‘Summer Penitentiary’ emblazoned on the side. As fast as I could, I began stuffing gun after gun into the first one I got my hooves on.

I could only stuff about six shotguns and a few revolvers in, leaving only enough room to get some shell boxes for both stuffed in. Carefully, I slung the bag around my neck. I turned around and noticed a familiar sight. Both my bag and rifle were up against an open locker. Not wanting to leave old friends behind, I strapped my satchel over my shoulder and slung my rifle around my back.

I made sure that the shotgun I’d taken from the abomination was fully loaded before I hoofed it back into my muzzle. Now, all I needed to do was get back to the others.

The words of the Warden reverberated in my mind. He was willing to sacrifice everypony here, just to keep me alive. All because the necromancer’s punishment would be worse than whatever this might cost him. He was just like the doctor. These ponies didn’t deserve to die because of me, and he had no right to give away their lives like that.

As I made my way to the stairwell, I could hear the screams and shouts from both prisoners and abominations. Death for some of the ponies in this fight was unavoidable. I haven’t had any allusion that I could save every single one since I’ve been in here. Maybe though, if we didn’t escape… if we instead fought. We could destroy this place and all it stands for.

The lack of my own abomination problems hadn’t gone unnoticed by me as I made my way to the first floor. None had even checked the top floors, and that was disturbing to me. Once I opened the door leading to the main hallway, I saw why. A massive group of ponies had flooded out from the main cell block and were fighting their way towards the cafeteria. Two abominations franticly swiped, kicked, and fought a losing battle as they were slowly pushed back.

There he stood. Above all the others, he glared at me from his table in the cafeteria. The Warden’s glasses glinted in the fluorescent lights as his muzzle drew into a tight snarl. With my pipbuck, I might be able to hit him from here, but the ponies fighting in the hallway might get hit as well. Could I risk them losing their lives on the chance of maybe killing the Warden?

No.

Instead, I pushed myself into a gallop and turned the corner. I nearly tripped over the corpses of a few broken and bloodied ponies as I did, but I managed to keep my balance. As I pushed through the door, I found the twins and Jack Knife standing outside of my cell, simply looking in. When they did turn their attention to me as I approached, Mora was the only one whose expression didn’t darken.

I dumped the bag of guns at their hooves and went into my cell. Laying weakly wheezing in the back, was Cheap Shot. Several deep lacerations still oozed blood, while the rest of his dark coat was mottled with bruising. There was almost no part of him unbeaten. Even though I’d planned on saving it for after we escaped, I drew out the potion I’d found and carefully fed it to him. As I did, there was the loud clack of a shotgun round being chambered. Shortly after, I felt the barrel of it pressed against the back of my head.

“If you kill her now, Jack Knife, you’ll never outlive your cowardly reputation.” Mora spoke up. I didn’t need her defending me, but if it served to piss off Jack Knife, I was all for it.

“I know.” He replied coldly. “I just wanted to make sure she knew that I could have killed her at any time.” The barrel lifted off me, and although I didn’t show it, I relaxed a bit.

“What… what’s goin on?” Cheap Shot wheezed before he gave out a sputtering cough. He gasped a few times before opening his eyes and pushing himself up. “The hell happened ta this place?”

“Riot’s started.” I simply spoke. “Get up and get going. The prisoner’s hit them harder than even I expected. I’m betting we could leave through the front doors.” I helped to steady him as he got to his hooves. When he did, he gave me the most perplexed look.

“What do ya mean, could?” He took a step towards the open block, stopping when I didn’t follow.

“I’m not going.” I sighed. “Somepony has to keep this from happening again. So one of us is going to have to kill the Warden. It might as well be me.”

“Fucking good luck with that.” Jack Knife laughed. “You lot can go on a suicide run if you’d like, I’m going to clear a path out of here and never look back.”

“Then I’m stayin.” Cheap Shot said as he walked over to the gun back. “I have just as much right as any of yah ta kill dat bastard.” He hoofed out a shotgun and started to load it. “At the very least, he’ll get ta see my smilin face when his gets blown off.”

“Then I’m staying as well.” Mora smiled and finished loading the shotgun she’d had.

“No, you are not.” Rosina mumbled, stepping up beside Mora and hooking her hoof around her neck. “We are leaving.”

“No. You can go if you want, I’m staying.” Mora whined and pushed her sister away. “I’m the older sister, so you defer to me. Besides, we aren’t fillies anymore, and you can’t keep me from doing what I want. I find Hope…mildly interesting, so I’m going to help her.”

“Don’t fucking lie to my face, you’re infatuated with her.” She sneered and turned to me. She spat at me and hoofed out one of the revolvers in the bag. “And it’s disgusting. I should just shoot the two of you right...” She stopped talking when Mora raised her shotgun to her sister’s head.

“Remember the night mom left? No, because you were too high on dash to remember.” Mora spoke in a low, harsh tone. “You were out at Spike Trap’s bar, and you were all over Whispering Sands.” That made Rosina’s eyes go wide. “Yeah, you remember her? MY marefriend at the time?”

“You lie.” Rosina hissed before Mora shoved the gun against her to quiet her.

“Well, when mom and I confronted you about how disgusting it was, you got angry and broke her foreleg. She disowned us and left right then and there.” Mora snapped. “Funny how I was the only one to defend your ‘impulses’ then.” She pulled the shotgun back and rested it against her shoulder. “You can back me up on this, or you can leave like mom did. Either way, you don’t utter another word about ‘my choices’ in ponies.”

“I… I’m sorry.” Rosina muttered.

“Now ain’t really the time for dis.” Cheap Shot spoke up. “We gonna kill dat asshole or what?

I hoofed my shotgun back up into my muzzle and walked from the cell. Cheap Shot and the twins were right behind me as we entered the hallway towards the cafeteria. As I peeked my head around the corner to it, I found the bodies of the group that had assaulted the cafeteria were strewn away from the double doors. The cafeteria lay empty, and the trail of corpses lead straight back down the hallway.

I had a feeling I knew where he’d be hiding, so I gave Cheap Shot a nod and pushed down the hallway back towards the stairwell. Through the door, we climbed up the steps. We proceeded right to the fourth floor, passing body after body on the way up. The prisoners who’d wanted him dead put up one hell of a fight. I could tell when we passed one of the abomination guards at the threshold of the 4th floor office door.

When I kicked opened the door to the warden’s hallway, the other Abomination was staring at us from the Warden’s office door. He was bleeding heavily, but still managed to hold the shotgun in his muzzle steady. He fired once, and one of the twins screamed out. Cheap Shot and I didn’t hesitate, opening fire and shredding the abomination once and for all. His body slumped back and swung the office door open, revealing a very nervous and blood splattered pony. The warden quaked in fear, mumbling and muttering ever as Cheap Shot and I approached. I perked my ears as his hooves tapped nervously on the desk.

“I’ll show you all… ruining my empire like that.” His cracked sunglasses slipped from one side of his muzzle, revealing the pinprick eyes of a madstallion. “It’s funny… it’s all a joke, isn’t it?” He giggled incessantly. “No chance, not if the others find me… or if HE finds me. Better to go down with her than fail him!” He laughed and slid his hooves off the desk. He glared directly at me before he finally stopped shaking.

I knew it was coming. It took me far too long to react, but there was only time for one move. I threw myself against Cheap Shot, shoving him behind the receptionist’s desk. The loud whine of whatever bomb the Warden had behind his desk filled the air, climbing in range before there was a flash of light.

Then nothing.

--Chapter End--

“Honest to God I'll break your heart. Tear you to pieces and rip you apart.”

Quests Finished: Jailbreak

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: 1

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Three - Trials of Leadership

“There are things known and things unknown. In between are the doors.”

I hated this place. The halls, for as bright as they seemed to be, filled me with more fear than Pai’s orchard had. It was too clean, too quiet for it to have even seemed to exist in our wasteland. It hadn’t helped that the reputation of orchards like this meant that we were never safe here, and with that AI, Tempest, we were never alone.

“So!” Tasteless decided to break the relative silence of our wandering. Our hooves clacked on the spotless floors and echoed down the halls of what felt like the whole damn facility. “Abandoned facility that nopony has been in for a century and a half, crazy AI running the place, and that evil douchbag running around on the other side..” She rolled her neck with a few soft pops before looking at me. “Kinda boring so far if you ask me.”

“Boring is good.” Skyline remarked in a way that to me, sounded like She’d had an experience like Predious and I had. “Trust me on that.”

“For being all secretive, this place doesn’t have nearly as much tech as I’d thought it would is all.” Tasteless shrugged and cast a glance to Sky, “I like these kinds of facilities, because they normally have the good tech-y stuff in them,” She let a devilish grin crawls across her muzzle, and let out a sigh like she was remembering a long lost love. “You know, the kinda shit that blows up if you knock it around too hard.”

“You know, the rangers want this facility intact,” Gauge muttered as she nudged against Tasteless. All she got in return was a huff and a short shake of her head. “Awww, come on. At least don’t blow anything up on purpose.” She waited until Tasteless turned her gaze before giving her the widest, saddest eyes she could. I’d seen some buttering up before, and tried it once or twice myself, but never had it been that cheezy.

“Fine,” Tasteless sighed, “I’ll try to avoid shooting anything that looks expensive and boring.” She nudged back into Gauge with a smile, “But if it’s something shiny and has a caution label, all bets are off.”

“Probably the best deal you’ll get.” Predious spoke up before pulling my attention towards an upcoming door. “Haven’t seen a door on this side for a while, my bet is it’s a fairly large room. Might be worth seeing if it gets us close to the other side of this arm.”

“I’ll check ahead.” Sky called out as she floated over my head with just enough spare room that her hooves brushed at my mane.

“I’ve got armor, I’ll check too!” Shadow called out from the rear of our little group. Knowing how close Sky got, both Pred and I moved aside. He gave me a quick smile as he flapped his wings and zipped after her. The rest of us came to a stop, waiting for an all clear before going headlong into a new room.

In our quick moment of rest, I looked back down the way we’d come. The bright hallway seemed to stretch on forever behind us. Most of the doors in this place were open, but the rooms contained little more than archanotech computers and terminals that did who the hell knows what. Mostly, I was surprised that the Sentry bots we’d fought were the only ones here.

“Storm?” Skyline called from the next room, “You might want to see this.”

Predious and I both started up at the door and peeked our heads in. The room beyond the hall was quite large, and stacked with almost a dozen, widely sized wooden crates. It wouldn’t have been an oddity though just for that, of course. The odd thing was that each crate had writing on it, and not the kind of writing we’d normally see here in Equestria.

“Is that zebra writing?” Predious perked up and pushed his way past me into the room. “I’m a little rusty, but I might be able to decipher a bit of it.” Funny. The second he was needed to do any sort of work, he’d outright avoid it. Now somepony mentions something cryptic, he’s on it like glue. Sounds about right.

I turned and nodded for the others to follow, and in short order, we’d all piled around Predious. The crate he’d chosen to look at was just about pony height, and just over pony in length. The only marking that I even recognized on it was a large burning H. I’d seen it before, on old pre-war clippings about a city named Hoofington.

“Ah, I see.” Predious muttered with a low grumble. He lifted a hoof and scraped at his chin in thought, giving a soft nod. Then he just sat there, stark silent for nearly a minute.

“Well,” The Major blurted out, “What is it?”

“I don’t know.” Predious responded flatly. “I don’t know that dialect.” I joined along with nearly everypony else as we all groaned out our disappointment. We’re on a freaking timetable here, we can’t take dramatic pauses for shit that doesn’t explain anything!

“Well, what’s zebra writing doing on a bunch of crates in an orchard?” I tried to offer an alternative to this. I don’t know why they would have them, but if it’s in a place like this, it has to be important.

“That is a good question.” Predious nodded at me with a smirk. It might have just been me, but I think he was proud of me for asking a question like that.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Tasteless barely got out as she pushed past Pred and I. She spun on her hooves and gave the container a swift buck in the side. The century old crate shook violently and showered us all with dust. However, we were rewarded with one entire side of the crate clattering onto the floor. “It’s a known fact that physical violence is the same in every language.”

“Woah.” Gauge gasped liked she’d just seen the Goddesses. From where she stood, she was the first to see whatever was inside.

The rest of us shifted over to see for ourselves, giving our own various and confused gasps and murmurs. I’d never seen anything like it. As best as I could describe it, it looked like a housecat. Well, as much as if a housecat had six legs, was made of metal, and had two machetes sticking out from it’s muzzle.

“Oh, now that makes sense.” Predious bounced his gaze between the odd mechanization and the writing on the front of the crate. “It’s a late model Razor Cat from the Hoofington battlefront. No wonder this thing was labeled all wrong, it’s because it’s not written by our zebras, rather it was captured from the zebra lines.”

“The fuck is a Razor Cat?” Tasteless scoffed, seeming unimpressed by the weapon. However, Gauge was practically squirming her way into the crate to get a look at it.

“In short,” Predious sighed, “it’s an extinct predator from the zebra lands. Known for it’s four razor sharp, horizontal fangs and it’s extreme sprint speed.” As he talked, Predious reminded me of some of the scientists from when I was a filly. They droned on and on about whatever it was, and it just made them sound bored. “Stories say that Razor cats used its incredible speed to catch fleeing prey so it could disembowel them with their fangs. It was one of the most dangerous beasts they knew of, so of course, they hunted the species to extinction.”

“Then they built these and stuck them in the fighting.” The major winced as he picked up without missing a beat. “They would run them through the trenches.” He shook his head with a horrified tone in his voice. “Like your friend says, the outcome in those tight quarters wasn’t pretty.”

“So, what’s it doing here?” Shadow hesitantly asked.

“For the scientists to learn about it, of course!” Predious smiled and waved his hoof across all the crates. “I’m betting this is a reverse engineering lab.” He trotted forward toward the machine and looked it over. “Normally, all that would ever get sent back to places like this were scattered parts and badly damaged hulks. It would be rare to have a complete model like this captured.”

“That is correct.” Tempest’s voice boomed through the room. “This model was acquired via an equestrian zebra spy saving it from destruction.”

“All you’re going to do while we’re here is follow us around and make boring comments?” Tasteless walked up and kicked at the crate again.

“I have been observing each of you, and I have made a deduction based on a number of factors.” Being analyzed by the AI running this place? That can only end in disaster. “I’ve surmised that you, Project Harmony, are the head of this group. Based on the files that I acquired from Pai, I also have come to the conclusion that you are, as they say, a ‘gambling mare’. Would you like to play a game?”

“Oh, oh! I know this reference!” Gauge blurted out, nearly pronking out of the box on her hooves. “Let’s play global megaspell warfare!” She leaned over against Tasteless and tried to sound impressive once again. “Mare Games. I must have watched that vid a hundred times back in the base rec center.”

“Sounds like a predictable movie, seeing as we’re living the result.” Tasteless didn’t seem to care for Gauge’s bragging, which made me wonder why she’d been trying so hard recently.

A sharp hiss emit from the doors to this room, ripping my attention from the two. The heavy steel slabs slammed shut without any warning, trapping us all inside.

“Stealing my files is a low blow, Tempest.” My pipbuck crackled to life “What do you want?” Pai’s voice was more commanding than normal.

“Just a friendly wager to keep things interesting.” She responded slowly. I don’t know what it was about her voice, but she spoke like a mare in a brothel, slowly trying to wind us into following wherever she’d lead us. “Each of the major research sections has a major projects room such as this one. Five in total before you reach the control room in fact,” She gave a short pause to breathe, which was an odd thing for something that didn’t breath. “It’s also the same number of you who have trespassed into this orchard without clearance.”

“There’s six of us.” Predious annoyingly pointed out. I gave him my best glare to imply that we probably shouldn’t piss this AI off.

“Incorrect. Project Harmony was created for the orchards and therefore has clearance. Miss Skyline has family related M.o.M. clearance. There are five ponies outside these two without the right to be here.” This wasn’t news to me, as her brother had been related to the ministry mare. It only made sense that when he died, his clearance went to her. “Getting back to the wager, here is what I propose. In each room, I’ll give you a challenge. If you happen to beat it, I’ll unlock the doors and let you move on ahead to the next one. One specific task or adversary, one victory, for one reward.”

“Where I come from,” Shadow imposed from the back of us, “Deals work for the benefit of both parties. What do you get out of it?”

“Oh, just a little fun is all.” Her tone changed to one of arrogance, and it generally pissed me off. I wasn’t sure if it had been on purpose, but I wanted more than anything to beat this bitch at her own game. “Tell you what, I’ll even sweeten the pot. If, one of the trespassing five happens to die in the challenge, You’ll win automaticly and get to move on.” She gave a low and eager kackle. “So, what’ll it be, project harmony? Will you take my challenge?”

“Don’t do it.” Predious muttered as the only voice of reason in the room. When I gazed at the others, they only looked to me for an answer. Why wouldn’t I? I was supposedly the one in charge. “Storm, I know you, you’re smarter than this. It isn’t worth the risk.”

“It might be.” Pai chimed in as she did. “If these challenges are just a single task, this may give you the edge to get to the control room quickly.” Which was a good point. If she was making the same deal with Fillius, we could use every time advantage we could get. “Besides, there’s seven of you.” I knew what she’d say next, and it only made me shiver. “How hard could it be?”

“How can we trust her?” The major brought up. “She seems quite content to kill us all so far, so how can we trust anything she says?”

“Because, I’ve seen her coding. She’s incapable of telling any pony a lie.” Pai, as always, gave a good counterpoint.

“Pai is right.” I had to go with this. “I accept your terms.” We’d come so far for the chance to get there first.

It was worth the risk.

“Mmmmm.” There was such succulence in the tone that Tempest gave. If the state I found Pai in was any indication, being locked away didn’t seem to be too healthy for these AP’s. “Well then, let’s get started.”

My decision must have come as quite a shock to everypony, because the air practically vibrated with their disbelief. No, wait. The air actually was vibrating, and a agonizing whine was steadily growing louder.

A piercing blast of steam shot from the side of the large robotic predator. It was accompanied with a whirring, grinding noise that slowly pulsed faster and faster until it became a dizzying thrum. With a shudder, the pistons that moved the legs actuated, and the beast stepped out from it’s crate. Only when it had cleared it, did it’s eyes light up and turn to face me.

“The challenge,” Tempest’s voice came through the mouth of the robot, “...is to beat unit 00113.”

“Let me take this one.” Sky stepped up and stretched her wings out. The two gauss rifles at her side let out their own whines as she put the bit in her mouth and powered them on. “Ah cun finish tish kick.” She tried to mutter through her bit, but it was hard to understand her.

The machine turned and looked at her. “Is your memory so limited that you do not remember the terms?” Tempest reveled in the absurdity of the situation. “I dictate the challenges, and that includes who participates.” She turned the robotic monstrosity around to face me. With a jutting thrust, she pointed the metal front paw to me, but after only a moment, she turned it away. The huge arm was now pointed square at Predious. “I challenge him.”

“So, what? The rest of us just, stand back and watch?” Tasteless huffed and unslung her shotgun. “Cause I didn’t come all this way to just watch.” She popped a joint on her neck and presented her best shit-eating grin.

I’d be lying if I said that the thought of Predious fighting that thing worried the hell out of me. I’d been through so much with him now, and he’d stuck by me through it as best as he could. He’d proved useful in a few fights so far, but even so, he’s only one stallion. The thought that he, my first real friend, could die right here and now? It made me rethink my whole ‘risk assessment’.

I felt his hoof come down on my shoulder. “Storm, I can do this.” His calmly reassuring voice did little to stall the increasing panic building up in me. I trusted him, more than almost everypony here, but even I had my limits to believe it.

“I will need the rest of you to stand in the decontamination safety square.” Tempest spoke and used the robot to direct us to the most open section of the room. On the floor, was a black and yellow striped hollow cube that sat against the wall. While big enough to fit us all, and even with Pai’s word, I didn’t trust Tempest. After a moment of nopony moving, she cleared her throat. “I would like to remind you, that a failure to do so would be a breach of our agreement. If you wish to back out, I can activate the units in the other boxes and promptly dispose of you all.”

“A deal is a deal.” Predious snapped at her. I could hear the jitters he had in his voice, but even with those, he turned around and offered me a soft smile. “Go. Either way, you must get to the control room, with or without me.”

“I know I don’t have to tell you…” I sighed, wholeheartedly regretting my decision. I’ve fucked up a lot in my life, and much more so recently. “But, be careful.”

As the rest of us shuffled slowly toward the old metal box, I looked over at Skyline. I could see the hatred for this place plastered across her face. She had been the only one of us to have gone through this before, and she lost her brother to it. Between Pallet and him, I couldn’t help but also question my decision to bring her along. I had the horrible feeling that the longer we stayed here, the greater chance that she wasn’t going to leave here alive.

Once we’d all gotten ourselves situated in the box, it began to hum. A purplish opaque magical field flickered along the boundaries of the box, trapping us inside. As soon as it had, the machine started to walk backwards away from Predious.

“The containment field is there to keep any stray objects from injuring you.” Tempest chimed over the intercom system again. “And, to keep you from interfering.”

The robot came to a stop near the far wall from Predious. With another sharp hiss, several jets of steam shot from underneath the robot, and it lowered itself into a semi-crouched position. From here, the whole form of it looked like it was built to be fast and sharp.

“Are you not going to arm yourself?” Tempest gave a forced laugh, speaking with as much enthusiasm that you’d think she’d already won.

“If you would allow me a moment to prepare.” Predious snorted in contempt. His horn shimmered under his magic, and the flap on his saddlebags opened. Slowly, the large grey minigun he carried slipped out of his bags. I’d really hoped that he’d bought a lot of ammo for it back in Tenpony.

“That bag, I’ve never seen one before.” The major pushed against me lightly as he got as close to the magical energy field as possible. “I’d heard about them, but they were so expensive back in the day. Where in Equestria did he find one?”

“Well,” Tasteless sighed and hooked her hoof around the Major’s neck. “You see, over a century ago, most ponies in equestria just magically stopped using them.” The sarcasm bled from her words, and we all groaned as she relished in being a bitch.

Luckily, Sky stepped in with her first non-gloom and doom remark. “Early traders found warehouses full of them. They’re everywhere in the wastes now.”

The fun little back and forth had been enough of a distraction that we’d almost missed Pred’s gun spinning up. The floor quaked under our hooves, and the heavy clang of metal on concrete rang throughout the room. The fight was on.

Pred’s gun spat a line of fire straight at the charging beast. For as big and as heavy as it was, the machine was quite agile. The roar of his gun beat out the rending metal as it sheared off chunk after chunk of the beast. It shifted it’s charge around him, as the shots paused. At first I’d thought it was trying to flank him, but the machine tipped as it turned and slammed against the floor.

Like a wounded creature, the machine tried to get back up. One of it’s forward legs had been completely shot off, and the middle leg on the other side sparked when it tried to stand on it. For a zebra machine, it may have been agile, but it wasn’t at all durable.

“You seem to have wildly overestimated your toy’s capabilities.” Predious taunted in the arrogant way he tended to. Even though he held the upper hoof, I wasn’t sure that taunting Tempest was the best course of action. Though, he had earned my respect for having done well so far.

The beast let out a grinding screech as it torqued and pushed itself up. There was a quick snap as the two ‘injured’ limbs twisted in place. A deafening clap accompanied them shooting off to each side of the beast, leaving gaps in it’s sides where they were once mounted. The robot did what I could best describe as a wiggle, before stiffening it’s curling tail. Then, with another hiss it was rock steady, and quickly lowered itself to strike again.

Even without the extra limbs, it was deceptively fast. The quick recovery and drive to action had caught Predious off guard. The old ghoul dropped down, and twisted his gun towards his foe. The gun was slow this time to spin up, spitting it’s rounds just over the beast as it curled around.

Either through luck, or Tempest’s own arrogance, the machine’s namesake blades swung wide of Predious as it ducked past him. Instead, the machine turned away from him and used it’s whip-like metal tail. Predious cried out as it swept him off the floor and through the air. The wet and meaty thump of him hitting the wall behind him made everypony in the cage cringe.

The magic around his gun faded as Predious groaned on the floor. For only a split second, his illusion spell faltered, and I could see the black blood that came from the back of his head. His heavy and wet sounding wheezes bored out a bigger pit in my stomach than I’d even thought possible to have. The bot gave another hiss and stopped. Slowly, it stood back up to it’s normal height and paced around Predious.

“Oh, it simply is amazing, isn’t it?” Tempest’s voice boomed through the speakers once again. “Adaptive programming. The robot has full control over it’s own parts, sheding it’s unneeded or damaged components to keep itself combat effective.” The bot looked like a cat circling it’s prey, just waiting for the right moment to pounce and finish it off.

I hoped and prayed to the goddesses that Pred had something left to use. Some strategy that could help him once again turn the tables.

“It is... amazing,” Pred’s wheezing laugh sent shivers down my spine. I glanced back over to his gun, waiting for it to move, but it stayed where it laid. “But,” he spat, “It has the same problem as every other machine.”

“And what’s that?” Tempest gave her own, haughty laugh.

“It needs power.” Predious grunted before his horn flashed. There was a shower of sparks from the inside of the machine that poured through the open leg holes. The heavy metal of the beast shuddered and collapsed, shooting blasts of steam from nearly every port it had. From the hole where it’s leg had once been, floated out a small cylinder with a copper top. With a flick of his magic, it bounced on the floor and rolled towards us.

Tempest grunted over the speakers. Several short alarms sounded through the room and the heavy doors leading out to the hallways started to grind open. The forcefield around the box dissipated as well, though, the same couldn’t be said about my fears for what lay ahead. As soon as they had dropped completely, I took off for Pred.

“Pred, how can I help?” I gasped as I slid up next to him. Carefully, I hooked my hoof around him and helped him sit up further. The illusion that hid his ghoul form was fine, but even it couldn’t hide the blood that dripped off onto my hoof.

“You can start by whispering to me, maybe.” He groaned and waved a hoof at me. “Don’t worry, I’ve had worse. I’ll be fine in an hour or so.”

“That was a hell of a hit you took!” Gauge stammered as she nearly yelled the obvious to us. Predious cringed more than the rest of us, but Gauge did catch it. This time, she lowered her voice. “How aren’t you dead with injuries like that?”

“Well, you see…” Predious muttered and motioned for me to help him back up to his hooves. “When the machine jettisoned it’s parts, it created an opening for me to work my magic into.” His ragged breathing was horrible to listen too, but if he didn’t think he needed more help, I wasn’t going to push it on him. “It wasn’t hard from there to find what I’d certainly hoped was it’s main power source.”

“First of all, that’s not what I asked.” Gauge shook her head in confusion. “Secondly, you guessed?” She facehoofed, accidentally using her cyberhoof to give her horn a loud tap. She quickly shook off the knock to her own head and continued. “You could have pulled anything out. What made you so sure it was the power core?”

“Just like a heart, it’s the most protected part of any animal.” He gave a rasping laugh. “I just had to find something big and in the middle of it.”

“You may have passed this challenge, but the next one awaits.” Tempest huffed at us, beckoning our attention once again to the wall mounted speakers. “Collect your companion and get moving.” Then her tone took a very… interesting turn. “Oh, how remarkably convenient.” The mirth she emit chilled me to the bone. “It looks like your next challenge will be against one of the other group. How interesting this will be.”

Knowing it was one of two ponies, the thought of being matched up against Fillius filled me with dread. Even worse, if she didn’t match me against him, but somepony inexperienced like Gauge. On the reverse side, could I really justify one of ours killing Stratos to get ahead? The only reason he’s still doing anything for Fillius was to save his daughter. Could I really take away her father just for an easy win?

The thought of something earlier slipped into my mind. They weren’t the only two I had to worry about down here. Fillius had mentioned that one of our own was coming for us, and I had no clues as to who it was or when they’d strike. Had he gotten into the heads of one of us, or has he got another Steel Ranger under his control? Either case, from the way it sounded in the dream, I didn’t have much time to figure it out.

“Storm, I want to talk to you for a moment.” Predious sighed out and leaned forward. The way that he looked when he said that struck me in a way that chilled me to the bone.

“I too, would like a word.” The Major stepped forward past the others.

“Okay, fine.” I grumbled and looked up to Sky. “Can you take the others out to the hall? We’ll just be a moment.”

“Don’t take too long.” She nodded and rubbed at her weary eyes. “The quicker we finish this, the better.” Which was something I wholeheartedly agreed with. Everypony but Predious and the Major headed out the door to the next hallway, while Skyline took up the rear of them. She gave me a worried look before she disappeared through the doorway.

Between nearly getting Predious killed, and Tempest’s ever watching eyes, I was really starting to understand Skyline’s warnings. Both Orchards I’d been in may at one point have been places of greatness, but now, they were hives of death and sorrow.

In the pregnant pause in the room around us, I swore the only thing I could hear, was my heart as it beat to the tempo of my nervousness.

The Major did me a favor, and ripped my attention to him. “Look, I know you aren't MoM.”

“What?” That caught me by surprise. Sure, we’d lied through our teeth to get here, but we couldn’t have been that transparent.

“Frankly, I don't care where you're from. For a long time, we thought we were the last of ponykind.” He’d just shrugged off my question and continued. “Now that I know there are others out there, I have the hope to go home. All of us who’ve been trapped here have that hope.” Slowly, he turned to look me dead in the eyes. “But what you did by making that deal back there? I won't stand for it. I don't know where you come from, or who you think you are, but these ponies? They follow you for a reason. Don't you for one moment assume that means you can just auction off their lives like it's nothing. I don't know how things work anymore on the outside, but where I come from? A pony's life is their own. They get to decide what it’s worth, no pony elses gets a say otherwise.” he prodded his hoof sharply at my chest. “Got that?”

“Yes.” My voice didn’t reach more than a whisper, but it’s all I could say. I get it, I’d fucked up again. My deal might have screwed us over, but it also was the only realistic chance that we had of getting out of here. Skyline was right, somepony was going to die down here, and that was the realistic way of looking at it.

“Good.” The Major nodded stiffly and turned to leave. He walked stiffly, reminding me of the soldiers I’d seen when I was just a filly. There were only soldiers though, not problem solvers like the scientists that worked just as hard everyday to win the war. I’m certain that even the Major couldn’t have offered any other solutions to this. The thought that my father would have known how best to have gone about this, both brought me comfort, but left me feeling hopelessly lost.

“Storm…” Predious half sighed and half groaned through his own pain.

“I get it.” I whined and sat down hard. “I should have listened to you.”

“No,” Predious put his hoof under my chin and turned my gaze toward him. “It was me. I was wrong.” He shook his head and gave a wheezing laugh. “Sure, I could have died, but I didn’t.”

“It shouldn’t have been my call.” I tried to offer back, but he moved his hoof up to my lips.

“The Major was right, these ponies follow you for a reason.” Predious grunted and stepped up beside me. “It’s because we trust you. Because we believe in you.” He pulled on me, successfully making me get back onto my hooves. I didn’t feel like going, but I knew we had too. “Finishing this task is something we all want. We’ve known the risks, and we know what the reward is if we succeed.”

“How can you say that?” I kept my head down as we headed for the door. How could I look the others in the eye?

“Because, if they didn’t agree with your decision, they would have spoken up.” He pulled himself closer to me and limped slightly as he pointed to the hallway. “The Major may not have made the same decision if it had been his call, but even he knows that you made the right choice.” That didn’t make any sense to me. “You’re a natural leader, Storm. It’s why, even now you question if your decision was really the right one to make.”

“I don’t want to lead.” Taking responsibilities like caring for the group, into my hooves was not a choice I’d made. It was simply something that needed to be done at the time. “What makes me any more qualified to lead than you? You probably know heaps more about strategy, or even how to keep a group together than even I do.”

He pulled back on me, drawing us to a halt.

“Being a leader isn’t about having the answers.” He gave me a genuine smile and rolled his eyes. “If that were the case, I can tell you that things would have ended up a lot differently.” He gave me a pat on the neck and nodded. “No, being a leader is about learning how to be a better pony. You need to make mistakes, and to make the call that everyone will hate you for. Above all, you’ll need to live with those decisions, knowing that you’ve done it all to benefit them.”

“Ugh. That makes no sense. How the hell am I supposed to lead when I’m not supposed to know what I’m doing?” I sighed as he started to move again. We passed through the door frame and into another glaringly bright hallway. The rest of the group was far ahead of us, standing at what had to have been the next ‘challenge’ room.

“That is for me to know, and you to figure out.” Pred chuckled lightly. “And I’m going to love watching you tear your mane out over how stupidly easy it is when you finally figure it out.” His chuckle grew into a deep bellied laugh that echoed through the empty hall. As much as I tried to fight it, a smile slowly stretched across my own muzzle.

“You’re a dick, you know that?” I giggled out with him, soon joining him with my own laughter.

Unfortunately, the closer we got to the others, the quicker our laughter dropped off. The large steel door to the next room lay before us. The only one in the group who had any semblance of emotion on their faces, was Shadow. Even he only offered the faint trace of a smile as he looked at me. Slowly though, he turned to face the door like the others. Without another word, Pred and I took a position in front of them. Tasteless stood at my side and shifted on her hooves uneasily.

“We just going to stand out here forever?” Tasteless muttered and gave the door a swift kick with her forehoof. “Open up already.”

“Just getting things ready.” Tempest came over a set of hidden speakers. “I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

A shrill grinding noise startled us. The door jostled for a second before it started to rise up into the wall. A blast of hot air met our hooves from under the door, and just the slight hint of decay swam into our nostrils. As the door rose up higher, my heart beat ever faster. Finally, as the door rose past our eyes, we learned just who Tempest had chosen to fight us. I for one, had never thought I’d ever have seen her half-charred form ever again.

I wanted to speak, but it was Skyline who found the word first.

“Pallet?”

--Chapter End--

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none

Chapter Thirty Nine - At Long Last Love

“Is it for all time or simply a lark? Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park? Is it a fancy not worth thinking of? Or is it at long last love?”

“What the hell do you mean?” Cottage angrily screamed in my face as he slammed me against one of the steel walls in the command room of the submarine. I might’ve been strong, but no where near enough to beat power armor. My friends all clamored and pulled as well, but none of them could make him budge either. “He was right there!”

I couldn’t even answer him. His hoof had me pinned by my neck, and while I could still breath, it was only just by enough not to suffocate. Despite my friends trying to help, I deserved every second of it.

"You know how many rangers we lost? And for what?” He leaned into me, and slammed his hoof down next to my head. “The Facility is gone, the Nautilus is nearly crippled, and you let that fucker who would have made it all worth it, just slip through your hooves! It's unbelievable how much you just screwed us over!"

“Commander Cottage!” The captain snapped out with such force that she could have pinched right through his power armor with her tone alone. “Stand down before I have you demoted for conduct unbefitting of an officer.” She walked onto the con with an almost casual stroll.

With a snort, he shoved me down the wall and lifted his hoof from me. With a snap, he stiffened and brought his hoof up to her in a stiff salute.

“With all due respect, Ma’am.” He seethed with every word, struggling to hold back the rage that he felt. “We should have never agreed to help these filthy primitives.”

“You listen here.” She snapped at him. “If you want to share your opinion, then you will goddess damned ask me to speak freely. Am I making myself abundantly clear?” From the floor, I watched as she stood there, as imposing as any ranger in power armor with just the way that she carried herself. “As disappointing as this journey has been, this is all our fight.”

“Excuse me, Ma’am?” Gauge called out from across the room. She hobbled in on her three legs, covered from head to hoof in bandages. It only served to beat the reality of how much I’d failed them, into my mind. “Any word from home?”

“Coms, shipwide.” She told the mare sitting next to her. Sadly, she looked down with a sigh and reached out to the console she stood next to. She firmly took the radio in her fetlock and Alpha Command was overrun by the overwhelming forces we have been facing in the wasteland.” There was a hushed gasp and whispered murmurs all through the room. “The non essential personnel of the entire post was successfully evacuated and moved to outpost delta. Unfortunately, Star Paladin Suture and his squad stayed behind, giving their lives to ensure the safety of your families.”

Cottage Cheese slumped to the floor with the news, eyes wide in shock. “No, not you. Dad…” He whispered.

“This is a reminder, that even though we have a foremost duty to protect the wastelanders from the technologies of the old world,” She turned in the direction of Cottage with a blank expression, “that even though we have a duty to protect our own, there are still causes greater than us all. We didn’t ask for this enemy to be brought upon us, and we certainly had no interest in their war.” She stiffened up and turned her unseeing gaze around the room. “Still, we must all stand together. We must meet this common enemy head on, as we did before the war. United as one force, standing, fighting side by side. Your home may be gone, but the Wasteland is home to all of ponykind, and I will stand and fight for it because I believe in the good I can do. That we can do.”

She paused and dropped the mic down away from her muzzle, letting an eerie silence fall across the ship. Tears fell down her cheeks as she sat there in silent reverence. Slowly, after a moment, she pulled the mic closer again.

“I expect the very best from all of you, and I need to say this despite what happens when we rejoin the fight. It’s been an honor serving with all of you.” She frowned and closed her eyes. “That is all. Carry on.” Stiffly, she hoofed the radio back to the mare at the console, and walked over to Cottage.

“Tell me, tell me that it’s not true.” Cottage whined, his thousand yard stare pointed right through the Captains forehooves. “Tell me his isn’t dead.”

“Your father was a great stallion, and his time under Suture’s command was exemplary.” She spoke with hollow words. “I’m sorry, but he’s gone, Cottage.” With that, he was brought to tears. “Maple over in Forward Command has authorized me to give out a field promotion to fill the rank gap. Due to your own work under me, and the actions you took in evacuating the island, I’m advancing you to the rank of Star Paladin.”

“I don’t want your rank!” He half cried, half growled. “We shouldn’t have been in this fight to begin with.”

“We are at war, Star Paladin Cottage.” She snapped with the same ferocity as when she’d entered. With a strength that I hadn’t known she’d had, she hooked a hoof around his collar, and pulled him to his hooves. From there, she gave him a piercing look that instantly made him stand up straight. Her pupils dilated, and her angry eyes were as sharp as and knife, feeling out of place with the tears still coming down from them. “More than just you lost family today. I’m not promoting you out of pity, but necessity, so you’re going to suck it up, mister.”

“Y-yes, Ma’am.” He nodded sharply and took a step back. “I understand, Ma’am.”

“Good.” With that, her gaze softened again, returning to one that better fit the somber mood of the room. “Now go, all of you.” She looked in the direction of all of my friends, who had just stood in silence this whole time. “Get some rest. The journey back will take a bit more time with the rough shape that the Nautilus is in.” Wicking away her tears, she turned and walked back over to the con without another word, simply going back to work.

Gauge turned and headed back through the doorway towards the infirmary, and the others all headed back to the bunkroom. All except for Shadow, that is.

“Come on,” Shadow sighed, holding a hoof out to me. “Let’s go get some sleep.”

“You go, I’ll catch up.” I knew that after the amount of exertion that I’d been through, and with all my injuries, that I should have rested. Unfortunately, if I did sleep, I had the fear that I would find no rest within the confounds of my mind. “Just, need to clear my mind for a bit.” I tried to offer him a smile, but he only continued to look worried.

“If that’s what you’d like.” He sounded so dejected, I hadn’t meant for him to take it personally. Why did I have to screw up even the simplest thing? With my hoof in his, he pulled me back onto my hooves.

“Shadow?” I stammered and tried not to seem flustered. “When we get back, I wanted to talk again.” My words sent a flash of panic through his eyes, and I spoke without thinking. “It’s about you, I mean, about us.” Why was it that I couldn’t get my head around this? “I want you!” I blurted out.

Now he just looked confused.

“I want you to stay. You saved both our lives back there, and I know you weren’t planning on leaving, but I want you to stay.” I was wrestling the train in my mind to stay on track. “With everything we talked about, and how everything has been, we just need to talk, alright?”

“Sure.” He sighed and offered me the faintest smile. “I look forward to it.” Then he too trotted off down the hallway.

What was I doing with my life? Fighting Filius, watching my friends die, and generally being powerless to stop either of those things from happening. Then smack dab in the middle of it all, my feelings for some stallion I barely met but owe my life to crop up. A pain shot through my side as I stood uneasily in the hall, and I was ripped from my thoughts.

Maybe what I actually needed right now, was some goddess damned painkillers.

* * * * * * * * *

After taking a dose of Med-X, the rest of the ride back to Friendship City I’d decided to be alone. I’d had the feeling that the rangers didn’t like me sitting in the missile bay, but they were all too busy with their duties to really say anything. In my head, I ran through my encounter with Filius again and again. Maybe if I hadn’t stopped to say anything, maybe if I just payed more attention. Everything came down to the fact that even though I’ve seen his past, I really have no idea who Filius is.

“Hey, we’re docking right now.” Gauge spoke up softly from the doorway. She offered a soft smile that hid the tremendous amount of pain she was in. I wanted to ignore her and leave, but if the rangers didn’t like me in here, I’d be hard pressed to think they’d let me into the forward torpedo rooms. “Before we go, you got a minute?”

“It’s all I’ve got.” I sighed and Pushed myself back up to my hooves. “Though who know’s how much time we’ve got left because I failed.”

“I wanted to say thanks.” She spoke in a harsh tone. It was so much so, that it caught me off guard. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head in anger “But here I find you sitting there like all that was for nothing!” She glared at me. “My dad didn’t die for nothing, okay? You did what you could. We all did.”

“Gauge?” Her brother called out from behind her. “You shouldn’t be walking around on your own.”

“I’m fine, Diesel.” She snapped at him. “Just, make sure Tasteless is taken care of first, alright?” She sighed and hobbled forward again. As she did, the whole of the submarine gave a wobble underneath us, and a slight groan came through the walls. In a near comical fashion, she wobbled and fell over onto her side. I wasn’t in the mood for laughter, and neither was she.

A short alarm bell rang out, and one of the rangers at the top of the missile ramp threw a short lever. With a hiss, the metal doors to the outer deck of the submarine opened up. The normal, dull gray of Manehattan’s skies greeted us like an old friend. The rumble of thunder was the first thing that I heard, shortly before a sharp beep came from my pipbuck.

“Hey there again, sis.” Pai spoke up even before my pipbuck shifted to pink. “I’m glad you made it back.” Frantic hoofsteps along the deck prompted me to watch as Frosty’s teary eyed face looked around the missile bay.

“My babies!” She cried out and barreled down towards them. Gauge had barely had enough time to get back to her hooves before she was embraced in a tight hug. Diesel sighed and joined them in a hug. “I’m so sorry. I... ” She cried out into their necks.

Without a word, I left them.

Trotting up onto the deck, the quiet city greeted me as it always had. The dark skyline filled the air with a slight drone and the wind howled its way through the decrepit and crumbling skyscrapers. Even though it hadn’t been worth the cost, it was good to be back in the familiar city.

Crossing the crude gangplank that had been laid across to the prewar submersible, I made my way across the base of the city. Lost in thought, I didn’t notice that somehow, Predious had caught up with me. Silently, he followed alongside me. Just like I had before I left, I found the bench at the edge of the little island and sat down. I pulled out my pack of cigarettes and popped one in my muzzle. Grabbing my lighter next, I gave it a flick, and lit up the relaxing carcinogen.

Pred sat down with me, giving me a glance and waiting for me to finish my drag.

“You know,” Damnit, Pred. This was supposed to be my thinking time. “I knew that we wouldn’t get him. I mean, there had to be something past this, and we’ve been reacting to every move he made.”

“Well I’m not fucking Madam Storm, psychic extraordinaire.” I kept my eyes scanning the dark shores across the water. If only I had been psychic, Fruit, Sky, maybe even Pallet would still be alive. Why couldn’t I have inherited Aunt Pinkie’s oddness without the drug addiction that it came with?

“We need to start moving proactively. To get a step ahead of him.” Pred stated the obvious like it was something I paid him exorbitantly to do. “Resting isn’t something we can afford to do if we want to win this war.”

“No, Pred.” I sighed, wincing from my own injuries. “It’s something we can’t not afford.” He looked to speak up. “Tasteless is still in bad shape. Gauge needs to fix her leg to be useful at all. Shadow has no guns for his armor anymore, and Ficha…” I didn’t think anything had happened to him. “He’s still a dick.”

“I see you fail to point out your own wounds.” Way to flip your argument around again. “If you plan to lead them, you’ll need to take care of yourself as well.”

“I’m fine for now, but I won’t have time to see a doctor if we’re chasing after Filius.” I sighed, groaning as my lungs didn’t seem to like the smoke after what they’d been through. “It’ll be dark soon anyway. All I’m asking for is one night for us to get prepared. One night to rest up. Filius still needs things for his ritual, and that will take time to gather.”

“If we let the rangers scout his location, they’ll be at risk to be killed.” He paused and let it sink into my mind. “Are you alright with that knowing you might be sending them to die, instead of you?”

“Yes.” I forced myself to say it, just to end this discussion. I didn’t want to ask them to risk their lives, especially right after they lost their home. “The two of us might not need that much rest, Pred, but I owe it to the others.”

“If you insist.” He sighed and stood up off the bench. I followed his gaze to the barge that ferried ponies over from the other side of the harbor. “If I may,” He asked with a curious tone, “what happened in that vault?”

“I saw into the heart of darkness.” I sighed. “Let’s go get the others. We have to make good time to the tower if we want any rest whatsoever.”

* * * * * * * * *

I sat by myself in the bar of Tenpony Tower, sitting with an untouched glass of whiskey as my only company. The trip back had been fairly simple. The attack at their base had forced the Rangers to evacuate along the common routes used to get through manehatten. The raiders, gangers, and normal monsters you’d find, were all cleared out. It left the dark city feeling oddly calm, and it just made me feel lonely.

From the moment we walked in, everypony knew what they had to do. Shadow went with Ficha to secure some more supplies for us to use, as well as something he could use as a replacement weapon. Gauge and her family helped to take Tasteless up to the doctor. Going with them, Predious had brought Skyline’s body back, wrapped in a stained linen sheet. I knew that Harmony and her brother would want to bury her with their family.

I also had someplace to be, but instead, I was avoiding it.

An elderly stallion grunted as he pulled out the stool beside me. He sat down weakly, the tattered and worn yellow robes he wore almost clinging to his body. For just a moment, I thought he was Filius, and my blood froze. My heart rate climbed, and I could feel my muscles ready to act.

“May I join you?” He asked in a voice that definitely wasn’t Filius’s. A soft smile pulled across his muzzle, and he turned to look at me. Kind blue eyes looked over me as he sat there. His scraggly white beard was more bleached than his faded coat, and almost reached over to me from his chin. My heart still thumped, but I did my best to relax. I’d really let Filius get to me, now jumping at every old stallion I met. I really needed to focus on getting some rest.

“Nopony’s stopping you.” I grumbled as I laid my head down on the bartop.

“Is something the matter, miss?” He asked with absolutely no regard for the peace and quiet I’d come in here for.

“A madpony is trying to take over the wasteland, and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to stop him.” I don’t even know why I cared to tell him. Maybe it was just because I’d said it so many times now in my head, that I wasn’t sure if it was real until I said it. “Maybe I’m not good enough.”

“You have done much more than me, and that’s a start.” He gave out a wheezing laugh that turning into sharp, hacking coughs. “Is that not a start?” I turned to ask why this stallion had taken an interest in me, but when I turned to the stool, it was empty.

“I am sorry, but I must be going.” He spoke from the door, already halfway out of it without having made a sound to get there. “We shall meet again soon, but I fear it shall be under dire circumstances and on familiar ground.” He slipped out the door, leaving on that cryptic note.

He was no normal stallion, he had to be involved with Filius some how! Galloping, I ran to the doors and slammed them open with a grunt. The tower ponies let out a gasp of surprise as I burst into the hallway. With a wide gaze, I looked up and down the hall for the robed pony, but he had simply vanished.

“Hey.” Pred’s voice came out of nowhere into my ear. I jumped at the surprising encounter, and spun around to find his uneasy look placed upon me. “Appologies, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Yeah?” I smacked him hard on the horn. “Then maybe you shouldn’t sneak up on ponies!”

“Okay, I will try to remember that for next time.” He winced as he rubbed at his horn. “I came to ask if you’d…”

“No.” I cut him off while I turned back toward the bar. “I just needed some time to think first.” I was kidding myself with that, of course. All I’d manage to do was spend ten bits on a drink that I simply stared at for twenty minutes.

“Here, we’ll go together.” He smiled at me and pointed his hoof toward the lobby elevators.

“Fine.” I gave up with a grumble. “I just, don’t know how I’m supposed to tell Longbow what happened.” I looked to Pred as we walked. “How can I tell her I failed to do any good for as hard as we tried?”

With a ding, the elevator ahead opened up, and we both stepped inside. The old wooden paneling in it had seen better days, and the musty smelling carpet did no favors for the place. Still, these things were merely distracting me from Pred’s silence. As we neared Longbow’s floor, he smiled and hooked his forehoof around my neck.

“Simple. You don’t.” He spoke as the elevator chimed. “I’ll talk to her.”

“But…” I tried to object, but found his hoof pressed against my muzzle.

“You were right, you all need rest.” He smiled and stepped backwards out of the elevator. “Let me do this for you. You just need to get away from things, to see them from another perspective.” His horn glowed as he hit a button for a higher floor. “I’ll see you when I’m finished.”

With another chime, the elevator doors shut, and I started to ascend again. I’d never been as high in the tower as he’d sent the elevator. Maybe he was right though, that I needed to change up how I thought about things. Could it just be that I’m still treating this as if I were Storm Rider the bounty hunter? Did it really make a difference?

As the elevator slowed to a stop, and the doors opened, I was met with a wide open room. Much like the room we’d been given at the resort, the room lead out to a wide balcony that overlooked quite a few of the shorter ruins of the city. I sighed as now he might have meant that I needed a literal new perspective.

My head hurt from all the maybe’s that had been running around in it, and I shook them clear as I stepped out.

Trotting to the old railing and looking up, the sky gave a quick rumble as the thunderous storm from earlier moved over the city from the south west. Casting a glance down below, I watched as the refugee camp went about life as normal. The ponies down there, oblivious to just what was really going on out in the wastes.

With a soft flutter, the sound of four hooves coming down behind me was barely noticable. Turning around, I found Shadow standing with his wings outstretched and a smile on his face. Without his armor on, I’d forgotten just how lean he’d looked.

“What are you doing here?” Not that I didn’t want him around, it’s just that I wasn’t prepared to have the talk that I’d wanted yet. “You should be downstairs with the others.”

“You seemed like you could use some company.” He replied, walking up to me. As he reached a wingtip out to brush my mane, I pulled away from it.

“I want to be alone right now.” I sighed, turning around and propping myself on the railing again. “I have a lot of thinking to do about where to head next.”

Without even asking, he slid himself up right next to me. So close in fact, that his hoof twisted the radio knob on my pipbuck. With a crackle, it came to life.

“...well tonight, because I’m certainly doing alright.” The DJ’s voice came across as smooth as it always had. Because I generally thought it might help me think, I refrained from turning it off. “It seems that for the first time in a while, we have a special request tonight, made by somepony here in the tower for the mare he admires. Here it is, Stand By Me by Pon E. King.”

“When the night is long...and the land is dark…” With a static pop, the stallion in the song started to sing. As he did, I felt Shadow’s hoof reach under my chin and pull my attention to him.

“What are you doing…?” I started to object, but instead, I found him press his muzzle into mine in a soft kiss. My head spun from the suddenness, and my mind went blank until he pulled back from it.

“No talking, just listen.” He whispered to me, wrapping his other hoof around my back. Slowly, he rocked back and forth with the song, eventually dragging me into a warm embrace. As much as I’d wanted to be alone, this helped me to relax immensely. I felt a small smile work across my muzzle as I pressed against his warm chest.

“You know,” I spoke with my face still buried against him, “I said no more than just friends.” The music continued, and now I’d joined in with him swaying with the tempo.

“I know, but what can I say? I’m finding myself loving you more each day.” He spoke softly into my ear. No stallion had ever been as gentle, or as honest to me with his words as he’d been. “I’m hopeless, really.” He chuckled lightheartedly.

It made me laugh as well, and the moment I looked up into his eyes, it hit me. The stallion that fell from the sky, fell not just to the ground, but into my heart. He didn’t deserve to be here, and he’d lost everything in his old life. In that, we were alike, and I think that it was what drew me to him the most. Was it foolish to care for somepony who was just as broken and lost in this life as you were?

“So darlin darlin stand by me, oh stand by me. Oh stand. Stand by me. Stand by me.” The radio was something that continued to exist, but I’d lost interest in it. All that mattered in that moment, was him.

“Storm? I don’t want to live another day in the wasteland with hiding how I feel.” He smiled and pressed his nose against mine. “I want to be yours.” He pulled his hoof up and put it on my lips before I could object. “I know you think that you’re flawed, and that you’re no good for me, but you’re wrong. I see a mare who’s so much stronger than she thinks. Who’s smart enough to solve any problem, and who’s beautiful enough to have any stallion or mare that she wants.”

The kind words coming from his muzzle definitely didn’t match the mare who he held. The truth was that I was just another wasteland mare, who’d simply gotten caught up in the wrong things. I wasn’t a supersoldier, fabricated in some pre-war lab, and I wasn’t the hero mare that he’s describing.

Even so, Tasteless’s voice rattled around in my head, telling me that any moment might be the moment that Filius ends it all. As much as I wanted to press on to save the wasteland, I wasn’t just fighting for the land anymore. I was fighting for them. Ponies like Shadow were worth fighting for, and if Shadow trusted in me so much to risk my rejection, wasn’t he worth the effort on my part? How could I lie and say that I didn’t feel the same way about him?

Shifting my hooves, I wrapped my forelegs around him in a hug. “That was what I was going to say.” Slowly, I felt him wrap his legs around my sides and pull close as well. “I wanted to say that I feel the same way.”

“You, you do?” He stammered with a laugh. I let go of him to see tears rolling down his cheeks. The smile he gave was one so filled with pride, that I’d never seen one like it even from Aunty Pinkie. “I… I love you, Stor…”

I dove at him, wrapping my hooves around him as I pressed myself into a long, much awaited kiss. It was like I was starving, and somepony had just placed a juicy apple in front of me. The weight of loneliness lifted from me, and I wanted to indulge myself with him in the passions of the moment. I felt a happiness in his hooves more genuine than I ever had, and I couldn’t believe it.

With a gasp, I pulled myself off of him for a moment. When I did, I bumped against something stiff behind me.

“Sorry, it has a mind of it’s own.” He sighed blissfully and looked into my eyes.

“I don’t even care.” I growled and pressed against him again. This time, it was him who pulled away. The blush across my face felt brighter than the sun to me, but it felt good to just let go.

“Don’t you think we should do this somewhere more private?” He laughed as I forced myself down against his chest, nuzzling against his neck. Being with him was something I wanted, and I wouldn’t give myself the chance to screw being with him up.

“No.” I whined and nipped at him. “You got me going, and you’re going to have to deal with it, mister.”

He smiled at that, and threw his forehoof up in a salute. “You got it, Ma’am.”

“Good.” I grunted and turned to look around. Honestly, I’d say fuck off to anypony else who walked in on us, but that would imply I’d want to share in the experience. Curious to see exactly what I was getting myself into, I looked down past my flank. “Oh, there’s no way it’ll fit…” I spoke without thinking. Before, I could do anything, he answered without missing a beat.

“Just like before, you doubt that I can make it work.” He shifted his hold on me, and my head spun as I realized what we were about to do. “And there’s only one mare I’ll ever say that to.”

I was too lost in the moment to care. Like a ravenous beast, I wanted to be sated. He wanted to be mine, and I would willingly obliged again and again. All night if need be, in fact. With a whine, I pressed myself against his lips again.

I wasn’t going to get all my thoughts sorted, and nowhere near the amount of rest I could have. Even so, as the hours dragged on, we moved our ‘activities’ from the balcony, to the elevator, to the hallway, and finally into Harmony’s guest bedroom.

I couldn’t help but think that it was all so worth it.

* * * * * * * * *

I awoke suddenly, staring into the black void that sat before me. One by one, the colored lights of my dreams beamed down onto me. I squinted as they basked me in their light, and I raised a hoof to cover my eyes.

“Child, you are ready.”

“Ready for what?” I called out to them. “I thought I was done!”

“Ready to be who you were born to be, to fulfil your destiny.”

With that, the lights flickered out one by one. I felt as each one left my mind, somehow leaving the dark space feeling even more empty than before. The last light to leave me, was the soft yellow light that had the voice of my mother.

“Wait!” I reached my hoof out to her, not wanting to lose her again. “I… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!”

“Return. Find the answer in the place where everything for you first began…”

Slowly, she too faded, leaving me all alone in the dark void.

At least, I thought I was alone.

“Foalish mare.” The voice of Filius echoed and reverberated in my mind, his laughter picking up into a twisted hollow voice that filled the air around me. “So this is where you have been all this time.”

“How are you in my head?” I whispered, looking around for the bastard.

“When you stepped into my mind coming down here, it allowed me a small look into yours.” He sounded so bored as he spoke. “We are linked, you and I, but only in this place.”

“Tell me what you’re planning.” I smirked and relaxed. “I’ve seen your rituals. What could you possibly hope to accomplish.”

“In due time, my dear.” He laughed out, ending in an annoyed snort. “When I looked into your thoughts before, I found the most delightfully morbid memory in there.” The blackness around me shifted, building a scene. There, sitting at my hooves in the snow, was the little filly frozen in the snow. “It seems that this 'Sunshine' city holds a place of importance in your heart.”

“You bastard!” I snapped. “Your fight is with me, not them!”

“Oh, but my fight is with them, with the whole of the wasteland in fact!” He spoke with the same oily tone that Tempest had used, and it made my blood boil. “Anywhere that ponies think they live in safety is where I wish to go. I'll deal with this city of yours in short order. Then, perhaps I will move on to this 'Tenpony' place while you're crippled trying to convince yourself this wasn't your fault.”

Shit. I needed to wake up, and now.

“So take your time, rest up with that stallion you so covet.” He giggled like a colt, building it into a maniacal laugh. “It’ll be the last chance to do so, before I rip him and everything else you love from your pathetic, pointless existence.”

I screamed out at him, half in anger, but mostly out of fear.

“No!” I whined as I groggily flung myself from the bed to the floor in panic.

“Storm?” Shadow grunted as he woke from his sleep still covered in sweat and smelling of sex. “What’s going on?”

“We have to get to Sunshine city, now.” I scrambled to get to the door. “They’re about to be wiped out!” Please goddesses, if it’s the last thing I can do, just let us make it in time to save them!

--Chapter End--

“Where's the one who'll guide us into the night?”

Quests Finished: none

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none