What happened thereafter was a blur to me. I awoke once only a few minutes later and could hear muffled gunfire and explosions reverberating through the concrete, but I drifted back into the darkness before I could call out. Then again, but this time everything was quiet, I couldn't hear anything and nothing moved. I screamed with all my might and tried to move, but pain exploded through my hind legs. I couldn't see, but I reach back and felt to see what was wrong. I was horrified as I felt a metal bar going through one haunch and out of the other. I cried out again and passed out. The third time I heard something above me give way and a bright ray of light showered me. I strained to look up, but before I could see the daylight my strength left me. From there, all I can remember are voices. I heard many voices, but I could not cling to consciousness long enough to register what they were saying. By all accounts, I felt like I was experiencing death, but at a speed slow enough I could ~~enjoy~~ process it.

(^~^)

Death must have preoccupied that night, or else I assure you that that would have been my end. Instead, I woke up and found myself in a bed. Well, not a bed, but an old army cot with a paper thin blanket and surrounded on all sides by a patchwork green curtain. Given the pain that I still felt in my legs and the severe lack of pearly gates, I was pretty sure I wasn't dead. However this did raise the question of just how the hell I was alive.

I lifted the blanket to look at my legs and found them all attached and functional, though they were bandaged heavily. I pulled up my eye display to get an idea of what was going on, but the compass looked like it was being jammed and the E.F.S. was gone with it. However, it was kind enough to tell me that I had made a complete recovery. Now, I had different issues. I was by myself in a room I couldn't fully see, put here by ponies I didn't know and without any of my equipment. I was almost naked in every sense of the word. Like I said, almost. I had hidden a bobby pin and a small bit of a knife I broke in my hair before the assault. Mainly they were for if I ever got captured and had to pick my way out. More than ever did I feel like past me had done present me a pretty big solid. Did I forget to mention that I was missing all of my lovely mane? Because when I reached up to pull out the items, my fucking mane was gone. Well not completely gone, but I was cut down to a scruffy little splotch that pissed me off. I wasn't so much angry that the bobby pin and blade were gone; those I could scavenge. But my mane, the mane that I enjoyed just as much for its looks as for its ability to hide things, the loss of that is what made me angry.

I hopped off of the cot as quietly as I could and got ready to leave. I didn't know who or what was on the other side of the curtain, but I wasn't going to let them come to me. Even if they had been nice enough to fix me up, I wasn't about to go trusting ponies so easily after Maremoros. I crouched down and crawled underneath the curtain on the side opposite of the opening in it. I thrusted a glance in all directions and saw nopony around me before looking at the rest of my surroundings. From what I could see, I was in a large interior or underground room with concrete walls, low ceilings, hanging lights and five other little curtained areas around the room. I turned my head to look at the other side of my area and saw a unicorn mare, sitting at a desk wearing some odd red robes and looking down at a clipboard. Behind her was a door that I assumed would get me out of here. However, with the lack of shadows and low ceilings, I had no way of getting to that door without her seeing me.

Then I had an idea. I slipped back under the curtain and gave the cot a once over. The entire thing was made of rusting iron with the fabric more or less draped over it, but it was solid. However the thing about cots is that they need to be able to be packed and moved which meant that some of the places where the metal had been impacted or bent when moving were closer to breaking off. I bent down and grabbed on to the rubber end of one of the legs and gave it a hard pull. At first it didn't want to budge, but a couple of more pulls and the rubber end pulled off, taking with it some of the weaker metal. Celestia is kind like that. The next part was the tricky part. I took the end back outside the curtain and looked at the light hanging on the far side of the room from me. I had no confidence in my ability to throw things neither far nor accurately, however, I figured that a broken light might be enough to draw the mare's attention long enough for me to slip through the door. I prayed for mercy and threw the damned thing as hard as I could. It flew through the air like a brick and landed halfway between me and the light with a light clanking. I often wished I had been a unicorn.

Right as I was about to begin wallowing in my defeat, I heard hoofs beating on the floor and a small 'oh shit' from a mare. The gray mare trotted past where I was without a sidelong glance at me. I had no clue how somepony who was supposed to be on guard could be so imperceptive, but I took it at face value and flew over to the door before the opportunity was lost. The door worked the same as a vault door and opened when I hit a small pressure plate. I was out before she even knew what was on the floor.

(^~^)

Stupid. On so many levels was I stupid. The moment I slipped through the door I found myself face to face with a pair of hulking metal... ponies. They dwarfed me by more than half a foot and stared at me dumbfounded, but their heads were definitely pony. They were completely encapsulated by a metal shell of armor that looked like it would break a normal pony's back with only half of its weight. I only knew they were like me from their heads protruding from the top. It took me a minute to even realize that I was being talked to.

"Hey, you alright? Lookin' a little jumpy." One of them, a beige earth pony stallion, asked me and I realized I had been shaking.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine, just a little hard walking right now." I held up a hind leg feebly.

"Well hell that does look like a pretty big fuck up to be dealing with. What's your name?" He asked, poking at the leg.

"Crimson Glow." I responded without thinking and cursed myself. Fake names should have been second nature, but I still wasn't thinking entirely clearly.

"Yeah, but what's your rank? Initiate, knight..." He trailed off and I stared at him blankly. At the time, I had no clue what initiate meant or what a knight was, but I knew I had to say something.

"Initiate, just initiate."

"Really," he moved up to me and even more did I feel small compared to his hulking frame, "because I was pretty sure we didn't have an initiate by the name of Glow." He looked right into my eyes and I did my best not to shrink back at him. "But, I guess even an elite like me can't notice every little initiate in the works. Little old for an initiate though aren't, ya?"

I breathed finally and noticed just how much I missed it, "I'm a bit of a late bloomer, sir."

"Well you get one now and again I guess," he held out a hoof, "Crusader Gatling and my friend here is Knight Fryer." I shook the metal hoof and smiled shyly. "So, why don't I walk you back to the initiates' barracks? Just to make sure you don't fall."

"No, no, that's fine. I can make my way back myself." I quickly started to walk off, but a metal hoof stopped me.

"Oh come on, you're not even going the right direction. I'll walk you back and then you can brag to your friends about how your got hurt and about how you met an elite like me." He forcibly pulled me between him and Fryer and between the pressure on either side I was unable to move.

I descended further into the belly of this beast I didn't know. What I did know was that I was scared. As we walked through hallways and down stairwells I saw more ponies, some in robes, some in jump suits and other in the same faint metal husks carrying weaponry I didn't even have names for yet, like a mini gun or a machine grenade launcher. Yet through it all, my hosts were telling each other jokes and poking at me to laugh. Whoever these ponies were, they were well armed and psychotic, which scared me more than anything. The entire facility had low metal ceilings and lights built into the floor which gave off a dim hum like those of the vault. The humming grew louder as we went deeper in and eventually we arrived at a giant blast door. Gatling walked up to a terminal and punched in a few things before the door opened.

The inside was completely dark and the sounds of metal rattling and the humming both intensified fivefold. Before I could protest they had pushed me out into the darkness and I heard the door slam shut behind me. At that moment I knew two things, they hadn't bought my shit for a minute and this was not the initiates' barracks. I wasn't given time to think about that though, because a moment later the lights turned on and I found myself surrounded on all sides.

Behind me were Gatling and Fryer blocking the door, two my left and right were two more armored ponies with mini guns with the barrels already spinning. In front of me were three old ponies in robes and behind them was a giant generator that took up more than half of the room, which was already big enough to hold the entire bar I grew up in.

"Fuck me." I groaned and looked at the three in front of me, "so what do you want from me?"

"Excuse me?" The one in the center of the group, a smallish teal unicorn mare with a hood hiding her mane, asked.

"Well you obviously don't want to kill me or else you already would have, but you also aren't going to be taking no for answer based on these two," I gestured to the two guards at my sides. "So what do you want?"

"Don't act so entitled prisoner, you're only alive because of her." The one on the right, a volatile green stallion named Axeheart, barked and pointed to the teal one in the center.

"Oh shut up Axeheart. Everyone here knows that we couldn't have gotten through those slavers without his distraction."

"An operation for which you had no approval. Our job isn't to clean up some wasteland trash heap."

"Nobody died and now we have more weapons at our disposal. I hardly see an issue here." The mare huffed and looked at me for a moment. It felt like she was trying to be reassuring, but it only lasted for an instant.

"The issue here is that we've got an asshole on the radio spitting out the story like it's going out of style. Our goals are to remain hidden, not to be the hot topic of every bar from here to Canterlot."

"Look; we left in the dark, he doesn't know where we are, and it's not the first time we've been on the news."

"But this is the first time it's been about something this close to home, and that is the problem." The mare on the left of the group finally spoke up, "and bringing back him wasn't on the agenda at all."

"He was dying in a pile of rubble. Were we going to just leave him there after giving us such an opportunity? That really sends a good message about us, Pins. Steel Rangers: Abandon your friends!"

"I'm not saying you should've left him to die, but you didn't need to take him with you. Now we can't let him leave without anyone with more than a ten second attention span asking him about what happened." Pins, a rather old red mare with streaks of gray in her green mane, shut down my only benefactor quickly which set me off.

"Excuse me, but I don't like how you're all talking about me like I'm not here." I finally spoke up, but Axeheart didn't miss a beat.

"You shouldn't even be here. The moment you wake up, you try to sneak out and you insult us by claiming to be one of our own. Someone like you doesn't even deserve to be in our presence."

"And yet here I am. So why don't we get down to what you want from me?"

"We don't want anything from you except for a reason to keep you alive." Pins said and I turned to her.

"And I don't want anything from you except my stuff. If you give me that, I can be on my way to and nobody has to know about you."

"Normally we would do that, but there is the problem of your equipment." The teal mare, who I later learned was named Ripper, said and I made a face at her. "You know what I mean; your blade, your implant and all of the other implants you were carrying with you. These aren't the types of things that we can just set you loose with."

"I really don't see why it's any of your business what technology I do and don't have."

"Actually, it is our business. We specialize in finding and confiscating items that would be too dangerous in the hooves of normal ponies."

"Forgive me, but that all sounds like a crock of shit." I spoke my mind and the old mare looked at me, aghast, "Sure, we shouldn't have somepony out there running around with a mega spell halfway up their ass, but an old half-broken sword isn't going to destroy the world. So why don't we get down to the real issue here." I pointed to Ripper, "She saved me when I supposed to die and now you're trying to think of how you can control this situation and get rid of me with some petty reasoning. Am I in the ball park?" Nopony said anything or would even look at me, but I did hear snickering behind me, "I'll take that as a yes. So here's what I propose. You give me all of my stuff back, except for the neck implants and in exchange I'll tell you everything I know about them before you sneak me out of here. You get the best of the tech, and you get to act like you did the right thing for your Celestia damned guidelines."

I took a big gulp of air and looked at the three for their response. Axeheart still looked like he wanted to tear me limb from limb, Pins still looked like she was thrown for a loop and Ripper was smiling devilishly. I've learned one thing in my life, having people smiling in negotiations isn't a good thing unless the deal has already been closed. She turned to both of her colleagues and whispered something to them separately and I saw both of the opposition look more content.

"We'll accept, but with one small condition." Ripper looked me in the eye and I sighed.

"Which is?"

"We're going to need you to do something for us in exchange for the value of the tech that we're letting you keep."

"Again: which is?"

"Nothing much, we just need you to go somewhere and get something."

"What? Do you want me to go to hell and back for a kettle?"

"Well, it's a bit more like I want you to go to Crenimare for a little folder."

I didn't know where Crenimare was or else I never would've accepted, but like an idiot I blurted out, "agreed."

(^~^)

Afterwards I spent a good half an hour telling Ripper in more or less exactness as to what had happened to me from my home burning to why things had gone south in Maremoros. I didn't mention the stable and concocted a lie about the raiders being camped out in the hills, but that I found no record of where they got the implants from. She didn't look like she was buying it, but she did agree to keep the enclave part of my story to herself until I could verify the information. From there, Gatling led me to a small metal room with a single table in the center and gave me a file of information that would serve as my briefing.

Crenimare. If you were going to compile a list of places you didn't want to go in the south, Crenimare would probably be just shy of the top five. Before the war it served as a base of mega spell launching and could control the detonation of the spells remotely and guide them to the correct location. And while none of the mega spells that leveled entire cities were housed there, that didn't mean it was safe when the control station was hacked into and remotely destroyed. The entire town harnessed energy from a controlled mega spell under the center. But without the control station to keep the mega spell contained, it grew rapidly and eventually engulfed the town, forever changing the inhabitants and eventually dissipating about ten years ago. This meant that things previously unobtainable were now open for any would brave enough to fight through the inhabitants. After all, the prewar maps still served as perfect guides since no buildings were ever destroyed. The only reason it fell from being in the top five was because so little was known, and three of those places are megaspell blast points that would cook you before you could get to them. The things that survived in Crenimare are not like any normal wasteland creatures.

Reports varied about the details. Some said that the ghouls there could disappear into thin air, others that they could all levitate objects that would take a group of ten unicorns to even attempt lifting. However, there was one thing that all the reports agreed on; they were fast and they didn't go down easy. Besides that nothing was known for sure.

Thankfully, my 'mission', if you could call it that, was to go to the abandoned control center which meant that I was going to be far from the center of town where most of the heavy shit was. The plan was that I would get in, make my way to the top floor where the controls were, and recover a folder detailing different launch locations and codes for them. The codes were worthless, but the locations could still hold dormant artillery and other materials. It sounded easy, but the severe lack of details in the mission plan made me more than uneasy. I wish I had never accepted the task.

"So what do you think?" Gatling asked from across the table and I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I hate it. It lacks details, there's no concrete idea of what I'll be fighting except that they're fast and frankly I feel like I was given this so I would die trying that way and you wouldn't have to deal with me anymore."

"Well, you're not exactly wrong. As far as Pins and Axeheart are concerned that's the entire point of sending you there."

"Then why not just shoot me and be done with it?" I asked and put the various papers back into their folder. I had more to read, but there was still a day's travel ahead of me.

"Because while Elder Pins and Star Paladin Axeheart are two of our three leaders, Star Paladin Ripper still has a large amount of support among ponies like me who do the actual fighting. Pissing her off isn't a good idea."

"And yet she's the one who suggested this idea. If she wanted me alive I'd think she would've tried harder."

"She's confident in your abilities. Not to mention that if she didn't at least do that much they wouldn't have agreed."

"Well it's not like I have much of a choice if you're going to be stuck up my ass the whole time. Now let's go get my stuff." I moved for the door, but he cut me off.

"Look, I've been nice because you're not really familiar with our system around here, but I can't have you mouthing off to me the whole time. You address me as Crusader Gatling from here on and you give me all due respect. Are we clear?" He was still smiling, but his tone gave off more weight than I thought him capable of.

"Clear." I didn't like it, but it wasn't in my best interest to piss him off.

"Good, then let's go get your crap, outsider." He led me out through the door.

The base was much less confusing after seeing a map. The exit was a single, quarter mile long, tunnel that ran only a few meters under the surface of the desert. The tunnel was filled with traps and automated security to get rid of any uninvited guests and reinforced to prevent forced entry. At its end was an elevator that went down to the main atrium. After that, it just split into three wings that each housed a different department. The east wing for research and development, the central wing for barracks, offices and the generator and lastly the west wing served as the armory and storage area.

"How did you all manage to build this place?" I said aloud as we walked about the facility and added as an afterthought, "Crusader."

"We didn't build it, outsider. This was an artillery launch site before the mega spells hit, but we've converted it into a usable base. The fact that the elevator once housed a missile large enough to wipe a zebra village off the map is what lets us haul in larger pieces of technology." Gatling rattled off in a matter-of-fact tone as we walked into another small room with my things spread around on a table and Ripper standing behind them.

"Glad to see you could make it, outsider. I've taken the liberty taking those implants from your items already." She said, but I noticed that my blade, the microchip, the body suit and the magical energy battery were all out on the table.

"I also see you've helped yourself to looking through everything else." I said slyly and got a glare from Gatling, "Star Paladin."

"You're going to have to start watching that tone if you get around Axeheart or Pins, but yes, I did look through the rest of your things and I have to say, I wish I had asked for the blade instead." She said, flicking some of her black mane out of her face.

"And why is that?" I asked while I sorted through the things that had been left in my saddlebags. Honestly, I wanted to just grab everything and slam the door on my way out, but I knew it wasn't smart to piss off my only lifeline in this place.

"Well, I haven't had time to properly inspect it, but do you see this?" She levitated the green striped battery in front of me and I nodded, "This magical battery isn't like the other ones you'd find in a normal magical energy weapon, it's been made to harness a different type of magic. And this blade seems to utilize that type specifically. Sure the normal energy cells will work, but whatever energy it is that the blade uses causes them the break soon after," she opened up the blade and I saw that the two energy cells I have moved to make it last longer had both busted, leaving hollow husks. "The odd thing is that both of these different batteries have no charge in them at all."

"Then where is it getting energy from? It stops working after a few seconds of being drawn, but I thought that was just a wiring issue." I asked.

The mare shook her head, "I'm not sure. I already tried using the normal methods to recharge the cells, but they don't respond to anything and there's no form of generator in the hilt itself." She quickly pieced the hilt back together, removing the broken magical energy cells and adding in the new one I had gotten in Maremoros, "Try using it like you normally would, I want to see it."

I didn't really want to indulge the little mare's curiosity, but she seemed much more technically inclined than I was and I needed that knowledge. So I took the blade in my teeth and drew it the usual way. It worked like a charm. The same red energy blade came out and I accidentally made a small cut in the side of the metal table with it. Before Ripper could inspect it, the blade had already faded away.

"Amazing, when I tried it nothing even came out, but for you it works." She proceeded to prattle on about how odd it was because of that fact that the blade lacked any DNA coding materials while I took to ripping off my bandages. As it turned out, it had been three days since Maremoros and because the doctors had simply given me a dose of Hydra, I was already perfectly fine. The doctors did recommend that I not try it on myself though and that they had only done it because I had rebar stuck through five different parts of my hind legs and little blood left. "What an odd cutie mark."

I turned back to Ripper since I hadn't heard her, "Hmm?"

"Your cutie mark, what's it even for?" She clarified and I turned back to it.

My cutie mark was always something that confused me, but I had become complacent to it. It was a burning black heart with small red cracks running through it. I had had it for as long as I could remember and my mother said that shoe couldn't remember when it had shown up, which I believed to be true after I had learned in Maremoros.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"You mean you don't even know what it is?"

"Not a clue, Ripper. Last I checked my heart wasn't burning." I pulled the black body suit from the table and started to try and slip into it.

The material was slick and water resistant, with zippers along the chest and legs bordered with a silver lining. It fit quite snugly around me, but given that it was a water tight suit, I guessed that meant it was a perfect fit. There wasn't anything in the way of a helmet with it; so I wasn't going to be diving anytime soon, but I would at least stay dry up to my neck. In the center where the zippers came together on the chest was a silver metal ring where something was supposed to fit into it, but I didn't pay any mind to it because as far as I could tell the suit was in perfect condition. I grabbed my harness and fit it over the suit along with my remaining armor, though the only remaining pieces were the combat armor guards. The rest had been lost somehow.

"Somepony is eager to get going." Ripper smirked, eyeing me up and down in the skin tight suit, which I will admit was probably not going to give me any added protection or stealth, but it made me feel more professional and if it was important enough to be locked away, it must have some benefit.

"If you keep staring I'm going to blush." I shot back and started fitting my weapons back into the harness. It felt good to have the blade back into its proper spot on my chest.

"Oh please, the last thing I need is some outsider fawning over me." Ripper blew off the comment and looked again at my equipment, "You don't think you'll need a gun?"

I glanced down and noticed that I was again without a gun. The submachine gun had been crushed by the rubble, rendering it unusable. I felt painfully naked without a gun, and if it wasn't for the daggers digging into my back as Gatling starred me down for my lack of military respect, I might've had the nerve to ask for one.

"I'll be fine. I can't handle the kick of most guns anyway." I waved her off with an idle hoof and scooped the microchip back into a pocket in my saddlebags for later. I noticed Ripper eyeing the piece heavily and sighed, "No; I don't know what's on the chip and no; you can't look."

"Fine." The mare deflated a little and pulled out a small folder from the folds in her robes, "take this. It has some information that I think you'll find more helpful than what Axeheart was able to scrounge up for your file."

I grabbed the folder and set it into my saddle bags by the other folder and my remaining caps.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I decided not to prance around the question because I needed to get a move on if Gatling and I were going to reach Crenimare by daybreak. I could fly there in only a few hours, but again I had an earthbound pony holding me back.

"Because unlike Elder Pins, I think that somepony who had the balls to go hoof to hoof with a town of slavers, essentially by himself, is somepony we need with us. A lot of ponies disagree because of what happened to the slaves and how foolhardy it was and I can see their point. However, you did by yourself what no group of ponies has been willing to do for years now and you almost made it happen." I cringed a little at the mention of the slave ponies I had tried to save, but I pushed the feelings aside. I had almost succeeded, but Chains had outplayed me. Nopony could blame me for what had happened. Or at least, that was what I told myself to keep me going. "Not to mention half of the ponies around here are sticks in the mud like Gatling or stuck in the old ways. We need a little fun now and again." Gatling bristled a little at the comment, and I almost smiled.

"So your idea of fun is sending a greenhorn pegasus into a hellhole, by himself except for a single Crusader meant to retrieve any of my tech if I die. Hell, he's not even allowed to step one hoof into the city until I'm dead." The Rangers had been so kind as to implant a small chip into my fore hoof that kept an eye on my vitals. If I died then Gatling would know and his suit's guidance systems would lead him to my body. However, they assured me that even though it was set by the bone, the chip could be easily removed on my return. It also came with the added benefit of being able to produce enough electricity to kill a manticore if I tried to run.

"Yeah, something like that." Ripper smiled innocently and I left the room.

(^~^)

"You should really learn your place here. If it wasn't for the fact that Ripper likes what you did, you would've been beaten for insubordination." Gatling prattled on as we rode the elevator to the exit. He was right, that thing was big enough to haul a pair of tanks if they needed to.

"Look Gatling, I know that your whole ranking system is important to you, but I'm not part of your group. I can try to be polite, but don't ask for much because I'm still fairly pissed about the whole situation." The larger pony slid his helmet on and I shivered a little at the sight of a complete metal pony. With that armor he could quite literally stomp me into paste, ignore most radiation he came across, and enjoy almost complete protection from most bullets and melee attacks.

"You and me both." His voice sounded dull and deep through the face plate and before I could react his armored hoof flew into my chin, knocking me out cold.

(^~^)

When I woke back up, I found myself on the ground by the same rock outcropping where I had eaten before Maremoros. I quickly looked myself over and found all of my equipment was still there. I looked up and saw a hulking metal pony staring me down with grenade launchers on either side of him. I jumped off my hooves and hovered away before I remembered who it was. Once I remembered I was on him in an instant. I did my best to beat him with my hooves, but you'd need to be a master of martial arts to even think about hurting a steel Ranger with your bare hooves.

"Calm down. I only did that because we can't have you knowing where the entrance to our base is." I managed to hear him explain about ten seconds before I was planning on slicing off a leg.

"You could've warned me at least you fucker." I screamed into his faceplate and a hoof sent me to the ground.

"If I had warned you, you would've dodged. Now come on. We need to get moving if we're going to get this done." He actually started dragging me by my tail before I clambered back to my hooves.

"I'll walk on my own, thank you." I trotted alongside him and he said nothing.

We didn't go far though. We had walked for an hour in almost complete silence when both of our E.F.S. indicators lit up with red. The steel ranger turned up the brightness on his helmet's torch to where it illuminated a complete cone in front of him. Manticores, fucking manticores with poisoned stingers and claws made to rip through flesh and bone alike and we were surrounded by five of them in the dark. Well, I was in the dark, but Mr. Crusader Gatling had a perfect cone of light and grenade launchers.

The first manticore lunged while I was still trying to figure out just what the hell they were. I remembered vaguely their mention in a book about wasteland survival just in time for a well placed shot from Gatling to blow the thing into shreds. The sudden deafening sound of the explosion brought me back into the fight. I would've liked to stick to Gatling like glue, but I knew that even with his firepower fighting off the remaining four would be difficult without help. I stood back to back with him and used my E.F.S. to gauge their general location. My goal wasn't so much to kill them as it was to just keep them from ganging up on Gatling. Another shell exploded and for a brief moment the night around us lit up and I could actually see the two I was fighting in time to dodge out of the way from a stinger. The appendage drove into the ground where I had been standing and became stuck for a moment. I used that moment to severe the stinger from the manticore before taking a dive at where it had come from. A mighty roar rang out just before the red marker disappeared from my radar. Another grenade went off and I was able to see a manticore claw just in time for it to send me flying.

Pain erupted through my side and skull as I landed, but thankfully I had been hit by the back of a paw instead of the front. This didn't mean that I wasn't writhing pain when another explosion went off and the last manticore was obliterated. Gatling did a quick 360 to confirm out safety before turning back to me.

"Clear."

"What the hell were those?" I asked, picking myself up off the ground.

"Young manticores. Nasty little assholes, aren't they?" Young; those were only adolescents and they were still one and half times as large as I was. I didn't want to ever see a full grown one.

"Very. So are we gonna get moving again?" I stretched and felt the aching in my bones, but getting a move on seemed more important.

"We aren't moving until morning. If we keep going we're just going to get into another fight in the dark."

"Then are we just supposed to wait here?"

"Look, you can sleep if you want to, but I'm not moving until I can see without the flashlight." He said matter-of-fact-ly and I considered my options.

If I wanted to, I could try to escape by flying away, but with how good of a shot Gatling was with those launchers, I wouldn't make it. That basically left me with nothing to do but try to convince him or give up and get some rest. To be honest, I gave up without a fight. The hit had reminded me of just how tired I was and next time I might not be so lucky. However, I didn't go straight to sleep because I figured that that would be the only time I'd get to use the microchip and go over the rest of the folder.

The contents of the folder were less than stellar to say the least. Mostly it was just general knowledge of how the Steel Ranger hierarchy was constructed and different merits that might be required for advancement. It did give me more of a reason to show respect to the different ranks, but that didn't mean I was just going to change on a dime. Though Gatling would've wanted otherwise. The extra information Ripper had given me was small bits of her background and the background of Pins and Axeheart. Where the last two had risen solely through military efficiency and adherence to the code to preserve technology, Ripper had risen more through technical work and making improvements to the overall arsenal and base. This at least told me that what she had said about the blade and the magical energy cell was at least trustworthy.

It took me a few minutes of tinkering around with the implant before I finally found the option to, as it put it, 'insert additional devices'. It seemed oddly named, but when I select it a set of small frames ejected from the bottom on the implant. I put the chip into one of the slots and pushed them closed. From there the programming took over as text rapidly cycled in my vision. After a good thirty seconds it finally ended on a single line of text.

Initiate Software Playback: Y/N? (Warning: All senses and perceptions will be disabled for the duration of the event. Proceed with caution.)

I already knew about this from the terminal and given the abilities of my current watch dog I felt safe enough to accept. Again the text rapidly flew by my vision until finally everything went dark.

(^~^)

My blood ran cold as my body fell into the pseudo sleep and I couldn't move. I tried to look around, but the darkness was everywhere and I couldn't even crane my neck to look around completely. Panic was beginning to set in when finally something happened; my mom appeared in front of me. Before I could scream she appeared, but not like I had ever known her to be. She was wearing the same type of suit I was wearing, with a blade strapped into a leather harness. Where once she had had a luxurious lavender mane and a beautiful rose coat, there was just a short scruff of her mane remaining and the fur was marred with blood and dirt. And she was looking at me with a deep disappointed stare that reminded me it was her. I wanted to scream and yell out to her, but I couldn't even speak within this space. That and she beat me to it.

"So you fucking went and did it, huh? It wasn't enough for you to just live the life I left for you; noooo you just had to go and see what I left for you." She sounded much more pissed off than I could ever remember her sounding in my entire life. "And yes, I know you can't respond, so let me give it to you like this. I didn't want you to do this. I didn't want you to go on some forsaken journey just to find what's at the end. However, I can't guarantee that the me after the memory wipe will feel the same and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," she inched toward me and for a moment I actually felt like I could feel her breath on my fur. If it wasn't for the fact that she was so intimidating, I think I would've been crying just from seeing her again. Instead she just sighed and looked away.

"Look kid, I'm gonna give you some advice, because I know what you've gotten up 'til not probably hasn't been that great. Go home if you value your life and if you don't then keep going. There's nothing good to be found here. But I know you probably didn't come this far without wanting some answers and I'll give you what I can." She turned back to me, even though I doubted she could see me given it was a recording, "You probably already know this, but, yes, I was with the Enclave and, no, I don't know what I did for them. What I do know is that it involved you as its center and that the only way to ensure the safety of the ponies down here was to keep you away from the Enclave. Myself and five others worked to escape from them and they all went their separate ways afterwards. You and I were assumed dead afterwards because we had been crushed underneath the base we were in, but I survived and found the rest. You'll have to find the three that are left from here since they have the rest of my memories, but I'll give you a few warnings." A clipboard suddenly appeared next to her and she read quickly, "Stay away from large bouts of radiation. I know that should be common sense, but it goes dou-no- triple for you. Don't even consider turning on that Enclave beacon unless you want everything I've done to be for nothing. Eat a proper diet. I worry about you. Lastly, you should be able to find Duster somewhere in Crenimare. I know I said that radiation was very bad for you, but you should be able to find him somewhere around the edges, or at least a note from him. If the radiation layers haven't receded by the time you get there, get a rad suit and be careful. If they have receded then move quickly. If nothing else, remember this: Duster is putting quite literally his life on the line living in an irradiated hell hole just because he doesn't want anypony to come looking for him there. What we did was important." She stopped and the clipboard went away, "I don't even know what you're like, but please be safe son. If things get hairy then just stop. It's not worth your life."

With her monologue finally finished, she looked to me and smiled halfheartedly. She didn't say anymore, but came up and put her head forward slightly to where it rested on my shoulder. I was just standing there trying to process everything I could. Crenimare, the hellhole I wanted to avoid was the next stop on my journey and my mother was speaking to me when I thought I would never see her again. I couldn't move to cry, but I wanted to with all my heart. I ached for the times when I could complain and cry to her and be done with it. Now I lived in a world where I had nobody to complain to and nobody to cry on. A world where I had been responsible for the deaths of so many ponies and the indirect cause of the death of so many slaves because I couldn't be bothered to plan ahead. A world where I was about to walk into a death trap she would rather have me avoid. I tried to weep for a good five minutes while she just sat there comforting me. Just before the simulation ended I heard her whisper, "If this doesn't look right when he watches it then I'm coming back to haunt you, Chems." That at least got me to laugh a little.

(^~^)

I woke up and saw the morning sun rising ahead of me through blurred eyes and clouds everlasting. I brought a hoof to my face and wiped around my eye, removing the tears and removing my drowsiness. It wasn't the same as before, but I was able to cry on her shoulder again and that made me feel better than the full night's sleep. I did take note of how long the session took for future reference. The conversation may have only taken ten minutes or so, but the effect had lasted more than six hours. I stood and saw Gatling looking down at me, the frozen expression of his helmet glaring at me.

"Bad dreams, outsider?" He asked and actually did some sympathetic despite the metallic reverberation of his voice.

"No, just... I had a dream about someone important to me. It made me feel better, Crusader." I added the title without thinking. My mind felt like it was working much faster than before and things weren't completely feeling like a drag.

"Ready to get moving then? We've a lot of ground to cover if we want to reach Crenimare before midday." He reminded me and I nodded, motioning for him to lead the way.

As we started walking, I noticed a small indicator flashing in the corner of my vision. When I selected it I found that the hacking subroutine of the device had been enabled. With it I could hack terminals without access tools, but I would still need some level of proficiency to divine the password from the machine. Still, a very worthwhile trait given that any basic level terminal could be hacking into without the need to even mess with the code. The sound on my radio suddenly picked up as a robust voice broke through the music. I currently had it set to increase the volume when the news came on.

"Hello, hello, and hello naughty little wastelanders. It's me the one you know and love. The jockey of discs, the player of hits, and the teller of tales tall and short, all of these are my titles. And of course, Papa did come with some news. Now I know you're all chomping at the bit to hear more details about what happened in Maremoros, and I've got them for you. A short recap: our little Colting survivor finds a water talisman, trades it to slavers for some weapons, gets hated on by yours truly, goes back and fucks those slavers up the ass while the rest of us were too busy sleeping, gets the slaves released, gets played by the slavers, who proceed to kill the slaves and topple the building he's in, with their leader inside and then the Steel Rangers show up and wipe the place clean save for a few escapees. Got all of that? Cause here's what's new. Of the slavers that survived, one was the previous right hoof man of the old boss and now the new boss, Chains. If you see him, kill him and next time prioritize your targets Steel Rangers. I know you only came there for the weapons you self righteous pricks, but do us a solid now and again will ya? Second, the total survivors of the slaves that were able to actually get free of their collars in time now numbers to fifteen out of the sixty released. It's not great, but hey, it's more than the rest of us ever did. And lastly, and you're all going to love this, he's still alive. The little prick from Colting who loves to make me look bad has just been spotted with a steel ranger in a location I won't disclose. I know you all don't like when I do this, but I'm not about to piss off the Rangers. The important thing is that he is alive, though maybe a prisoner. If you can hear me kid, and I've got a feeling you can, don't let them get to you. You're doing an ok job, you little hell raiser. That's all for this morning and I'll leave you all with a tip: if you choose to eat manticore, remember that it's best served rare and with a side of snack cakes."

The volume died again and the voice was replaced by music, and again I found myself surveying the area quickly. I say nothing but a bloatsprite a mile away, a few hills and the ever looming towers to the sky. I did not see a single place where somepony should be able to spot us easily. Gatling didn't pay me any mind because he still had his head up his ass worrying about manticores. Given that they usually hunted at night and we had radars that could see them coming, I didn't share the concern. Nothing else happened on our way to Crenimare except a few grenades destroying some bloatsprites beyond dissecting, but I did take swift looks over my shoulder now and again to check for anypony trailing us. I didn't see a thing though.

(^~^)

Crenimare was an oddly constructed town. Your average building was maybe two stories high and would've been used for housing or maybe a small store and some larger buildings strewn about such as the town hall, libraries and police stations. However, the war had been the start of rapid changes in the town. Every so often there would be a hole in the neat array of homes, filled with military barracks, arsenals or officers buildings. Even from my current distance I could see road blocks blocking entry and even more were in the town proper. It was still a fairly large town and I couldn't see anywhere near the center without having to fly and I'm now grateful for that because I would've been too curious to avoid going there.

From our position about a mile away from the edge of town, Gatling and I had a clear view of the control tower I needed to get to. It was eight blocks into the city according to Gatling and he had been kind enough to give me a map of the town to navigate with. The shortest route had been planned out, but since reconnaissance in that area was terrible at the time, there was no way of knowing what I would run into. He also mentioned that if I wanted to be nice, I could mark any particularly dangerous areas I came across and any obstructions to my path. After he had opened a radio connection to my implant, he sent me on way, leaving the details for me to iron out.

To be honest, I had no clue how to even begin ironing out the details. As I walked up, I still didn't see a single ghoul, on the ground or in the sky and a storm was coming on. For the moment I would just have to follow the oath and role with the punches. Needless to say, I hated that way of doing things, but without more information there was nothing I could do. When I finally go to the first building I noticed the entire town was tinted a slight shade of yellow. From the asphalt to the wood to the broken down carriages, everything was at least dimly yellow. As soon as I stepped onto the soil I knew why; a small radiation monitor popped up and warned me that I was gaining a minute amount as I stood there. I remembered the message's warning, but then ignored it again and chocked it up to motherly over protectiveness. I did pick up my pace though; radiation poisoning was hardly in style.

Between glances at the map and the E.F.S., I noticed that the doors to almost every home were boarded up from door to window, and none of it was the shabby work of wastelanders. I had no idea why the town would've been closing homes so fervently, but as I went deeper it began to make more sense. Around the first turn was a dry crater with the wreckage of a military carriage in the center and the skeletons of the soldiers close by. Instinct told me to find a different way around, but I still went up and looked through the wreck. A few rifles were there, but they were mangled beyond even salvage and every bit of armor on the soldiers was irradiated to the point where it was unusable. I did manage to pull a small recording from one of the bodies nearby and stow it away for later. I considered stopping to gather the bodies together for a light funeral, but the fact that I was soaking up radiation and still not even a quarter of the way to my destination kept me from it. The rain was now starting to fall.

I turned away from the wreck and froze in my tracks. Only two blocks away was a lone, glowing yellow pony jerking its head sporadically around the area. Before I could hide, it turned to me and began staring me down with pure white eyes. I could see that it was wearing a half mangled set of combat armor and that its left hind leg was just a hideous growth. Then, without warning, it charged me. When the report said Crenimare ghouls were fast, it was lying. This thing was almost supersonic. I saw the hooves move and a half second later I was reeling on the ground from the impact.

"Celestia fuck me." I coughed and looked up to time to be sent flying again into the wall of a building.

I felt my ribs start to give and quickly flapped my wings to get airborne. The ghoul slammed right into the wall and popped out the other side of the building looking dazed. My problems weren't over though. Two more ghouls came out of the building afterwards in civilian clothing, both unicorns. They both looked to me and I felt lighting crackle onto my body, dropping me from the sky onto the roof of the home. For a moment I thought it was real lightning, but the magic of Crenimare ghouls was on a whole new level. They didn't have to charge a spell and the force of it seemed significantly stronger that what a normal unicorn might manage.

I spammed for a few minutes before I regained control of my body, thankfully my attackers lacked a pegasus and lacked the constraint to properly jump to my position, instead just trying and overshooting the landing or firing more wild lightning bolts into the sky. The roof had a flat top and kept me hidden from their vision. I could hear Gatling screaming into my head as I came to, but immediately shit him off. These things were fast, but they were stupid. I could use that.

I thought fast and started ripping shingles from the roof. Once I had about five of them together, I wrapped them with a small string and threw the bundle over the edge of the left of where the lighting was coming from. I heard the spells crackle again and my ears ringed. I did not lose my focus though. As soon as I saw the light, I leapt from the roof and dived at one of the unicorns. Before he could react, I drew the blade and sliced through his face. I turned and finished the mare unicorn, but not before another spell hit me in my chest. If it wasn't for the fact that the suit was fairly nonconductive and her spell ended as soon as her head was separated, I think I would've died.

I took a moment to breathe, which was a bad idea considering that the remaining ghoul used it to slam into me at full force. I hit another wall and felt three ribs finally break almost completely. It was safe to say I couldn't take another one of those and survive. I thought fast and looked around. I couldn't risk have another building open given what had happened to the first one, so dodging wasn't an option. My blade was sitting over by the ghoul's hooves so I couldn't counterattack. I glanced to my left and saw the broken carriage sitting alone about twenty feet from me.

"I can make it." I heaved, though it was more like I 'had' to make it.

I ran as fast as my hooves could carry me and dived behind the carriage just as the ghoul attacked again. The entire wreckage was knocked over my head with ghoul in tow, landing about ten feet away from me. I knew it had to be stunned based off of what the other building had done and ran to my only weapon. I picked it up and shoved it into the sheathe just as the ghoul managed to stand up again. It was bleeding from its right fore hoof and had a large piece of metal protruding from it. However, this did nothing to stop it from rearing up for another charge. I grabbed the blade and got ready to draw it when the attack came. I wanted to fly away, but the rain and wind had picked up so much that it wasn't a feasible option.

The glow around the ghoul began to grow as it stood there until it was almost blindingly bright. Then it happened. I saw the light flicker for an instant and heard splashes moving toward me but most of all I could actually see the ghoul coming at me as a blinding yellow blur. It wasn't much, but all of these at once gave me the quarter second I needed to draw the blade. I was exhausted, but still managed to strike out at the blur. A moment later I heard the head and body drop into separate puddles more than thirty feet from where I stood. I looked ahead and my eyes widened in surprise. The blade had always been as long as I was, but this time it had extended to more than double my length. The blade was cracking pleasantly in the air before it finally receded after almost a full minute in the open air. I looked at the ground by the two unicorns and saw small, but deep cuts in the pavement. I knew it wasn't a result of the new battery, but I also couldn't think of anything that would've caused it. I heard the radiation meter clicking again and remembered where I was.

Setting aside the issue of the blade, I went over to the body of the ghouls I had killed and stripped it of its combat armor. I wasn't a fan of wearing armor that was going to constantly irradiate me, but I knew I would need the added protection when I saw another ghoul. I threw away my old, almost broken, pieces of armor and put on the full set of irradiated combat armor which was in great condition given its age. There still wasn't a helmet and my Geiger counter informed me that I was taking slightly more radiation than before, but I was nowhere near a critical point. In fact, the one thing that didn't cross my mind, even as I took a healing potion and adjusted the ribs somewhat back into place, was that that my radiation level had been reset to zero when that fight had ended.

(^~^)

I waited a few minutes for my body to recover before I went into the house that had been opened. To be honest, I didn't like the idea of going in there where there might be more enemies, but at the same time my curiosity forced me to check the place for anything valuable. Light was no issue given that everything in there, my armor included, was glowing. There was only one story to search and not much of it was worth looking at. The kitchen had nothing but spoiled food, the living room seemed almost perfectly kept, but with nothing of value and the bathroom was, well, a bathroom. The only thing I managed to find was another recording to look at later in the bedroom. The thing that struck me about the place though, was the perfectness of it. Nothing was broken, torn or oddly placed. It was as if the ghouls hadn't even been there for the hundreds of years they must've been there. Hell, there was even a half eaten breakfast in the kitchen. I didn't have time to think about it or look at the recording though, my radiation levels weren't getting any better and the rain was beating down harder. I braced myself for the worst and struck back out into the town.

(^~^)

It was the work of another half an hour to make it to the tower. In that time I had seen another ghoul, but I hid myself and watched it. Like the other it was jerking its head rapidly to look for anything that might interest it, but without anything around to set it off, it didn't move. It seemed oblivious to the pouring rain and the lightning overhead, but when I threw a rock into the side of a far off building, it rammed into the concrete wall immediately, killing itself on impact. It was like they were just sentries trying to guard their home.

The radio tower was deserted on the outside thankfully. According to Gatling it should've been free from ghouls given that it was near the edge of town and actually had some defenses against radiation. It showed given that it was the only building that wasn't yellow. The outside was clear of any ghouls and I took an option rarely available in the wasteland, the front door. Given the lack of radiation in the building, I hoped the inside would be safe. It was a dumb hope I now know, but as I stepped into the lobby which was clear of radiation entirely I figured I was safe. I was still taking a small amount of radiation from the armor I looted, but I was negligible enough for me to keep it on.

The lobby area comprised most of the first floor and was in moderately good condition. The door had been broken down some time ago, but it seems to have been weathered slightly, so whatever broke it should've been gone. Around the room were various benches and flower pots around the room, long dead flower petals around them. A desk was on the far end with a staircase behind it. The terminal on the desk was busted, but I did manage to collect a few bottle caps out of the trash bin underneath and found one of the drawers to be locked. I activated the lock picking program in my implant and it floated out a bobby pin and think knife for me.

The system lacked the ability to do any more than levitate the items for me, but I could freely manipulate them to make the task easier. I spent the better time of three minutes raking across the lock before it opened. I had lost three bobby pins, but it was worth it for what was within. The contents were a civilian grade laser pistol, some energy packs and a set of keys. The pistol wasn't very strong and probably wouldn't be able to punch through much armor, but without a gun of my own, it was like a gift from Celestia. I also took the keys on the off chance I found what they were for. Satisfied with my looting, I went up the staircase to the second floor.

The second floor was the offices of the building with the stairs to the third floor where the codes were held in the CO's office at the back. I still didn't hear anything and assumed I would be safe to check out the cubicles for anything good. I was disappointed to find that almost all of the drawers were entirely empty and those that had anything left were just filled with scraps of paper. The terminals were all useless and to be honest it was hard to believe it had ever been an office of any level. I decided to do one more sweep before opening the door to the CO's office just to be sure. It was then that I started to notice a trend.

I accidentally knocked a terminal off of a desk while trying to reach for a bottle cap underneath it and the back popped off when it landed. Inside the terminal were the various general issue components, but it was missing a few key things. The power supply had been removed along with the main memory gems used to store the data and all of it had been done quickly based off of the bent and mangled fittings. A few more disassembled terminals and I found the trend was common among all of them. Even the daily agenda that was once on a whiteboard in the office had been erased in a half assed way. I didn't know who, but somepony didn't want anything to be learned from this place. Whether it was the original military forces or looters, I didn't care, but something was fishy.

With curiosity driving me, I opened the door to the office with the pistol drawn just in case anything was in there, but again there was nothing. The office was basic with a desk and terminal, some wall paper peeling off the concrete underneath and a cabinet on the back wall with the stairway behind it. As expected, the terminal wasn't working and had the same missing parts from the back. However, this one was a sloppy job. It had everything gone that the others did, but this one was a more advanced model. Whereas the old ones relied on separate memory crystals to hold data directly, the new models made use of an intermediary crystal held by the operating formation. More than once, my mom had had to get data back for the mayor when he fucked up his old terminal and I picked a few things up; so I knew that I should be able to access some small bit of data through the crystal as soon as I could find a proper terminal. Thankfully, I knew just the people to ask.

The desk was worthless, so I tossed the crystal into my bags, making sure to wrap it slightly to keep it at least in an o.k. condition. The locker was just filled with two hundred year old dust and spaces where weapons should have been. Whoever had left had done it in a hurry, but mostly not by halves. Given that there was nothing left to loot and that Gatling was probably about ready to start asking what the problem was, I moved up to the third floor.

The walls there were glass facing toward the outside of the city and concrete again around the other three edges. The stairs came out into a small intermediary room with all glass walls meant to act as a buffer in case an intruder tried to get to the codes and the glass was reinforced to where nothing short of a charge of C-4 could crack it. Outside the rain kept beating down on the roof, but the lighting was still off in the distance. Cabinets lined the walls, and in the corner was a sleeping bag with a small terminal set up nearby, the screen still working and plugged into the larger launch panel. However, I didn't notice any of this immediately, and nowhere in my mind did I even thing about stopping to take a look around.

The reason I noticed nothing was because just on the other side of the glass wall from me, was a group of fifteen glowing ghouls that were ready to kill and they were all looking right at me.

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Lightning Hooves(1)- You're a little faster on your hooves than most ponies. Hell, a lot faster. Movement speed outside of combat is increased by 10% and in combat speed is increased by 20%.
Quest Perk: Hacking Subroutine- Ability to access all standard terminals acquired. Terminals relating to Zebrican technology or those of non-pony species must be analyzed properly before being available. Terminals of very easy rating unlock instantly.

Author's Note

Round 5. Will he make it out alive? Well probably, I'd be dropping a the story pretty suddenly if he just bit the dust I guess. As always, go ahead and tear me a new one in the comments.