Fallout: Equestria - Resistance

by tom117z

Chapters

2 - The Legacy of the Lightbringer
3 - The Enclave
4 - The Resistance
5 - Catching Up
6 - The Factory
7 - Plan of Action
8 - Into the Wastes
9 - A Watcher's Fate
10 - Reunions
1 - Prologue
11 - Machines of War

2 - The Legacy of the Lightbringer

Chapter Two: The Legacy of the Lightbringer

“War Never Changes. But the world has.”

Darkness.

Massive, solid, all-encompassing darkness was all I could sense.

A darkness that seemed to fill me from the inside out; to flow through me and repress my entire being.

A darkness that felt… familiar, yet strange at the same time. Like it had been there all my life yet was new.

I couldn’t remember anything outside of this darkness; I didn’t know if there was anything out there at all. All I knew was this ever-present darkness. A darkness that felt so soothing; so … comforting.

A darkness that was only occasionally broken by… images. Images seen through the eyes of a pony; a unicorn mare.

Images of that pony would pop up in the darkness every now and then, most of them vague and barely more than rough, blurred shapes.

Sometimes I saw that pony walking through a deserted landscape, accompanied by one, two, sometimes three other shapes. Sometimes I could hear them talk, though their voices sounded blurred and utterly unintelligible.

There was, however, one clear image. And that was the only image that had appeared more than once, and that would repeat itself over and over again.

The pony was standing in the middle of a ravaged town – burning houses, ruins and rubble. Big, hovering machines filled out the sky, accompanied by flying ponies in thick, black armor. The unicorn mare, accompanied by several ponies on the ground, was exchanging shots with the ponies in the air; a furious, merciless fight of life and death.

I saw that pony running across the battlefield, a revolver held in her magic grip as she struggled to find cover against the fire from above. I had seen this memory often enough to find out that she was heading for a blasted ruin across the road that divided the small village, her eyes darting from the armoured ponies filling out the sky to the battlefield surrounding her. I had noticed a limp in her step, which I could eventually conclude belonged to a bullet wound in her left foreleg; based on her heavy breathing, she was already nearing the end of her power reserves.

I noticed her bite her lip, gathering up what power reserves she had left as she was approaching the safety of the house… then stopped abruptly.

A pegasus, hulled in jet black power armour, had dropped from the sky and blocked her way into the house. Panicking, the mare slid to a halt, watching with horror as the tips of the magical energy rifle integrated into his armour lit up.

Then came a flash of red light, filling out her entire vision. She let out a scream of pain, then there was silence.

And it was back to this ever-present darkness.

I don't know how many times I had re-lived this memory. I don't know where it had come from; I don't know where the battle had taken place, and I don't know who this pony was or who she was fighting against.

All I knew was this darkness.

This time, however, something seemed off.

The darkness seemed… incomplete. It was… interrupted by something. Something that looked like… a light?

Slowly, gradually, I could feel the world around me light up, the omnipresent and all-encompassing darkness replaced by this incredibly bright light.

I forced my eyes shut, covering my face with a hoof. I was feeling so … exposed! So… lost without this familiar darkness surrounding me.

Even now, the light just kept growing. I could feel it flow through me, replacing any darkness I might have left within me, blinding me with its excruciating brightness.

I clenched my teeth, giving a groan as my eyes grew tired of being pressed shut so tightly. My body convulsed, protesting against the light, before I finally opened my mouth to scream, felt it getting flooded with air… and woke up.

I awoke with a gasp, choking and fighting to breathe as my lungs struggled to provide my body with the oxygen it needed so desperately.

Slowly, I could feel how my bodily functions began to pick up again, my ragged and hasty gasps gradually turning into a more balanced breathing cycle.

Still breathing heavily, my bodily instincts kicking in and fighting hard to pump air into my lungs, I lay there. It took me a few moments to realize that I couldn’t see anything. My eyes were open, but all they could see was this wretched, blinding light.

I cringed, pinching my eyes shut again, and blinking wildly. I raised my hoof to cover my face and-

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move!

I felt panic overcame me as I realized that I had no feelings whatsoever in my body. I could blink, and move my head ever so slightly, but anything that went beyond that felt completely numb.

With a sigh, I closed my eyes again as my breathing started to calm down.

I could feel my mind drifting off again, but I perked up as I felt a twitch go through my right foreleg.

Seconds later, one of my hind legs moved by half an inch, and slowly but steadily I felt the feeling in my limbs return.

I could hear my mind give a groan as my head drifted to the side. Slowly, carefully testing out the limits of my newfound ability to move, I tried rocking my body to the side. It seemed to work, and I could feel my torso roll to the side by a few inches. I clenched my teeth, still keeping my eyes shut to protect them from being blinded again. Biting my lip and gathering up what little power I had in my body, I gave it another try, convulsing my body to make it roll to the side ever so slightly.

It worked, it worked it worked, it work-

I could feel my heart stop for a second as my body’s centre of gravity shifted, and I noticed with horror that whatever I was lying on had ended about two inches ago.

Instinctively, my mouth opened to scream, yet all that came out was a raspy hiss, barely louder than a polite cough.

My body fell for a bit less than a second before I belly-flopped right onto what felt like a cold metal ground.

Luna fuck me with an iron rod, that hurt...

I gave a groan, annoyed by the ache spreading over my belly, yet at the same time somewhat relieved that I could actually feel the metal against my fur.

Slowly, carefully, I rolled over, forcing my hooves underneath my body in an attempt to push myself back up.

As it turned out, my legs were nowhere near ready to support my full body weight, and they merely replied with a dull pain shooting through my body at my attempt to apply pressure to them.

Instead, my other hoof blindly tapped my surroundings for something to hold on to, and finally got a hold of the ledge of whatever it was I had been lying on. Slowly, very slowly and carefully, I pulled myself up, tentatively increasing the stress on my four hooves until I finally had a safe stand again.

Still panting heavily from the immense stress, the simple task of getting back to my hooves had put me under, I supported myself against what had served as my makeshift bed, and lowered my head, directing my gaze at what I suspected was the ground in front of my hooves.

Let’s try this again…

Carefully, I cracked an eye open, relieved to see that this time around, there was no glaring light blinding me, but just a gentle darkness greeting my eyes.

I blinked a few times, then slowly let both my eyes drift open as my vision began to clear, and my eyes focused.

As expected, greeting me was a plain, simple metal tile.

Taking a deep breath and daring to turn my head to the side, I carefully cast a look around.

I seemed to be in a small chamber of sorts. Plain, grey walls were right in front of me. A table to my right, along with a closed door and-

My breath caught in my throat.

Hung on the wall, less than a foot away from where I was standing, was a large mirror. And standing in that mirror and staring right back at me was… was me.

Only that that pony there didn’t look one bit like me. Granted, I had no real idea of what I looked like. Or even what I used to look like, for that matter… Hell, I didn’t even know my name. But even then, the pony I saw looked nothing like any of the ponies I had seen in my dreams, and I swear it was as if there was a complete stranger staring back at me.

The pony in the mirror was a unicorn mare. Pearly white fur and a long, bright yellow mane surrounded her green eyes that were looking me over in the mirror, before finally travelling back upward and locking with mine again.

For a whole minute, I just stood there in a staring contest with what I guess was… was me. Then, slowly, I could feel myself sink back to my haunches, then onto my back, needing a moment to just rest still and… breathe.

Where was I? How had I gotten here? And most importantly, who was I!?

I could feel my body begin to tremble as my breathing became ragged. I was… I was in the body of a stranger, in a place I didn’t recognize, brought here by ponies whose intentions I didn’t know.

I opened my mouth, closing my eyes and drawing in a shaky breath to calm my pounding heart. As my eyes drifted open again, they slowly wandered over to whatever it was I had been lying on before falling, and I could feel another rush of adrenaline flood my veins as my eyes, slowly getting used to the ambient light that filled the small cell I was in, recognized just what that thing was.

Slowly, hesitantly, I fought myself back to my hooves -which was easier the second time around, but still quite the challenge-to stare at the device.

A metal contraption, its shape and form similar to that of a futuristic bed, but the dome-like structure on top of it made of a clear synthetic material, was all too quick to give away the real purpose of the device in front of me.

I was looking at a cryogenic stasis pod.

And even though my mind was still feeling drowsy from shock, I could feel myself being thrown into ice water all over again as it became clear to me: I had been locked in there. Comatose in an artificial sleep, for how long I could only guess.

My lips began to tremble, shortly followed by my legs, and soon enough my entire body was shaking.

I had been locked away for… for Celestia knows how long! I had no idea where I was or who I was, and anypony I might have ever known could just as well be long dead.

And once again, I could feel my legs wanting to give in, making me sink back to the ground again. I could feel my mind race, overwhelmed with thoughts, feelings and emotions. However, it seemed to stop as that memory popped up again, and the images of that unicorn mare being shot filled my mind, blocking out anything else.

I still didn’t quite know who that pony was, but just seeing how she was the only clear memory I had left I had hoped that she might help me answer at least some of the many questions floating around my head. But now I could feel another jolt run through my body as the realization finally hit home: she was dead.

Hell, I had seen her get shot in my memory! I had seen her die right there!

And even if she hadn’t died, for all I knew this had happened a thousand years ago, so she had probably died a long time ago anyway.

Bearing that realization in mind, I let my head fall back against the stasis pod, watching the only straw I could have ever grasped at go down in flames.

Now, I realized, I was truly alone.

It wasn’t until a few moments later that my eyes had finally adjusted to the lighting in the room, and I, blankly staring into the nothingness, spotted something else in this small chamber I had spent Celestia knows how long in.

There, right next to the mirror I had spotted after falling out of the stasis pod, was a small table, and on it a small colourful orb, as well as a strange silver tube.

Breaking out of my trauma-like stupor, I raised an eyebrow, my curiosity awoken. With a light groan, I pushed myself back to my tired hooves, walking over to the table in a somewhat shaky manner.

I narrowed my eyes, leaning forward and inspecting the orb. That thing… did ring a bell, but I couldn’t put my hoof on it. Was it a weapon? A tool? Or just some form of pre-war toy? My eyes went to the ceiling, my mind straining to produce an answer.

Then, finally, it became clear to me, and I could feel my jaws move, mouthing the term now dominating my mind.

“Memory orb.”

It took my still-tired mind a few moments to compute, but I quickly realized just what that meant: sitting on the table in front of me was the memory of somepony! And try as I might, I couldn’t help but to think that I would find maybe not all, but at least some answers to the countless questions on my mind in there.

So, I clenched my teeth while narrowing my eyes again as I focused on the orb. Gradually, I watched an aura of magic form around the round object, and after a strained groan coming from me, it slowly lifted off the table and floated over towards me.

I levitated it in front of my eyes, reflecting. How were these things activated again? Did you need to… push a button or something, or…

Thinking, I turned the orb in my magic. Was it a good idea to activate it right now, anyway? I didn’t know where I was, and who might come for me while I was out of it. Just because I had been here for a while didn’t mean it was safe now, did it?

With that resolution in mind, I shook my head, levitating the orb back to the table. Trying to carefully put it down and not break it, I focused on the orb, only realizing what a fatal mistake that had been as the world around me turned to bright white, and I could feel myself lose consciousness.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

Well, crap. That didn’t work out as expected.

The memory I found myself in a few moments after was that of a stallion; a suspicion quickly confirmed by that… strange feeling of something being where there was supposed to be nothing.

In any case, I found myself in the body of a stallion; a stallion that looked… strangely familiar.

The unicorn pony was standing in front of a full-body mirror, focusing on himself in it. His coat was white, partly concealed by something that looked like a doctor’s coat, and his mane appeared red with a pink streak to it in the semi-dark room he was standing in.

Looking at his own reflection, I felt him give a brief sigh.

“Hello, Littlepip,” I heard my (or rather, his) mouth speak, seeming to address his own reflection. “I’m not precisely sure how much you will remember after all this, so allow me to re-introduce myself.”

The stallion took a curt, polite bow.

“My name is Life Bloom, I am… was the assistant to Doctor Helpinghoof of the infirmary at Tenpony Tower.” He paused, then wanted to continue, but... He hesitated, doing a double take.

“I… know you must be confused. That’s perfectly understandable after everything you’ve gone through, trust me. If you can see this memory, it means you have successfully spent the last forty years in a cryogenic sleep; an artificial coma, so to speak,” the pony continued to explain. Helpless as I was, being trapped in his memory, I just listened, trying to understand just what he was telling me.

“You probably don’t remember, but you were severely wounded in the battle of New Appleoosa. A magical energy rifle based on the severity of the burns....”

He paused for a second, slowly shaking his head in what looked like he couldn’t believe it himself.

“Really, you were this close to being disintegrated,” he said, before he cleared his thoughts, continuing: “Your friend, Calamity, managed to bring you to me before you bled out. Your life was hanging by a thread, but… we managed to bring you back. However…” His face darkened noticeably. “It wasn’t safe out there anymore, especially not for you. The Enclave knew where you were; they knew how to track you down, so it was only a matter of time until they would find you and end your life once and for all.”

Again, the unicorn shook his head, his face going back to its regular expression. “So, I made a decision to spare you from that dim fate; at least for now.” He bit his lip, seeming to hesitate, but then continued. “I decided to put you in here, allowing you to rest safely from the Enclave, until things looked better for us. Which, as a matter of fact, is now. At least, I hope so.”

“Look, I don’t have too much time. A lot of things have happened since you passed out in New Appleloosa. Far too many to explain them all here and now. Next to this memory orb you should find a PegWing, it's similar to a PipBuck…”

He bit his lip again, seeming to search for the right words. “It's basically a glorified version of a PipBuck; though it should work similar to yours, really.” Again, he looked over his shoulder, seeming to get increasingly nervous. “All you need to know is on there. Just put it on like a normal PipBuck, and it should answer all your questions.”

A loud, resounding crack came from somewhere in the room behind him, and I could feel a jolt of shock go through my… through his body.

“Fuck,” he cussed under his breath. “Sorry, I really need to go. We’ll see each other again… hopefully. Just… remember, they all think Littlepip is dead, so please follow the instructions on your device. Don’t let this plan fail!” he finished, his eyes seeming to beg with, well, himself.

Seconds later, I noticed him turning away from the mirror, and felt how that familiar wave of bright light washed over me again, indicating that the memory was over.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

Coming back around, I found myself lying on the cold metal ground. My head was feeling dizzy, my vision swimming, but I still felt relieved that apparently nothing had happened during the time I was in the memory.

I pushed myself back to my haunches with a soft groan, blinking as the words of … what was his name? Life Bloom? As his words echoed in my mind like ominous thunder.

I couldn’t remember everything he had said. In fact, most of it felt like a blurred pile of mush in my mind. However, one word… one name seemed to stick out like a light in the darkness.

Littlepip.

That was the name he had called me. What he had addressed me as. Of course, there was the chance that this memory has not been addressed to me at all, but looking at the integrity of things, that possibility just seemed too unlikely.

Besides, just recalling that name… it gave me a really weird feeling. It sounded so familiar; so… intimate.

With a gentle moan, I closed my eyes, pressing my hooves against my temples as I repeated the name in my mind. Gradually, I noticed images popping up. They were blurred and vague at first but becoming clearer with every time I repeated that one name.

I saw various ponies use that name to address somepony I couldn’t see just yet. A charcoal unicorn mare, whose gentle and caring voice seemed to fill me with a calmness I hadn’t felt since waking up. A rust-colored pegasus stallion who looked weathered and toughened from years in the wastes. A stallion in thick, heavy metal armor who looked, for lack of a better term, threatening. A zebra mare, scars across her body indicating years of hardship, who gives wisdom whenever it is needed. Then a steel-grey unicorn, whose mere memory caused an all-new wave of emotions to come over my mind.

All those ponies… all those ponies I saw use that name, addressing somepony whose image I was now struggling to rebuild in my mind.

I gave a groan, rubbing my head as if it would help me remember. I saw… I saw a unicorn mare. She looked a bit like the one I had seen before, yet different at the same time. She was standing in the middle of a battlefield, her magic aiming a large, heavy-looking revolver at something I couldn’t see; her face contorted in a mixture of bloodlust and determination.

She looked… she looked exactly like…

I was standing in New Appleoosa, just as the Enclave’s final, devastating attack had begun. Half the town was lying in debris, the other half seemed to be on fire; Sky-tanks and Enclave soldiers filled out the sky almost entirely, exchanging shots with those residents of New Appleoosa that were willing and able to fight back.

And in the middle of all was I. Stressed, exhausted, and at the end of my tether, I dashed from side to side, doing my best to dodge the fire coming from above. The ground around me was barely visible anymore; mostly debris from surrounding houses that had been blown to bits, and from one crashed Sky-tank, but also... blood, and the remains of those unfortunate enough to have been turned to dust.

Even I had been struck a couple of times. My barding had held off most of the damage, but I was limping on one leg an Enclave soldier had gotten a lucky shot on. It was clear that I couldn’t stay out here for too long; the Enclave had the better technology, the better technique, and outnumbered us by a long shot.

“Littlepip!” I could hear a shout tear through the air, making me look up. Up ahead, in an only partly-destroyed house, was Calamity, waving his hooves to get my attention. “Get over here, we need to go!”

I groaned, panting, but realized he was right. Even in the short amount of time that had passed, the dozen or so ponies around me had been reduced to a mere eight, and with the at least three dozen Enclave soldiers above our heads, the battle seemed lost.

Shaking my head and muttering a curse, I turned to the side, limping over to the building Calamity was in. If he has any healing potion left, he could heal my leg, I could go back out there and turn this thing around after all!

Time seemed to run in slow motion as I made my way over to her, dodging fire from all directions. I saw the building coming closer with every step I took, but then stopped abruptly as the ground in front of me shook. A solid mass of black power armor had dropped from the sky. No, not dropped. Had landed right in front of me, standing safely on his four hooves.

My eyes widened and without thinking about it, I floated Little Macintosh into his direction, pulling the trigger without so much as thinking about it.

The shot missed.

In turn, I saw the soldier’s magical energy rifle light up in a menacing red glow.

“Littlepip, watch out!” I could hear Calamity shout from behind the soldier as he quickly began aiming his Spitfire's Thunder at the soldier.

Then there was a flash of red light filling out my vision entirely; an excruciating pain spreading over my entire body before my world went black, and I fell to the ground.

The horrified shouting of my name coming from Calamity was the last thing I remember, then everything went dark.

Petrified, I sat there as the memory repeated itself in my head, hammering the conclusion into my mind.

I… am Littlepip. The Stable Dweller. The Lightbringer. The Hellmare.

And I died forty years ago.

An intense shiver ran through my body as my mind drew the inevitable conclusion. But… but this was impossible! I… I had seen myself die! How could I be back again just like that? Fully restored? Without any restrictions? And most importantly, alive!

My body continued to tremble as my mind struggled to cope with that realization, and it took a few minutes until I had finally calmed down enough to raise my head again.

My look went back up to the table where I had found Life Bloom’s memory orb, and my eyes rested on that other device standing on the table next to it.

Looking up, I reflected, struggling to remember everything the Life Bloom had told me. I looked at the device… the word PegWing was engraved into it. And it was supposed to work similar to a… to a…

My thoughts came to a halt as, instinctively, my gaze went down to my right foreleg, where I remembered my PipBuck had been almost all my life.

Only that there was nothing now.

A new wave of shock overcame me as I looked at my… my blank leg.

But how!? Where… where had it gone!?

I could feel myself wanting to panic again. Hell, where was I? How did I get here!? Why was I looking… so different!? And how was I still alive?

However, just as I felt confusion get the better of me, my look went back to the… PipBuck-thing, and Life Bloom’s words echoed in my mind, saying that it should answer all my questions.

I hesitated for a few moments, but ultimately couldn’t stand the tension, and had to give in to curiosity. Slowly getting back to my hooves, I walked over to the small table and picked the device up in my magic.

Eyeing it sceptically for a few moments, it looked more like a long steel cuff bracelet then an actual computer, I wondered if putting it on just like that was a wise idea. It… really didn’t seem too trustworthy.

However, curiosity beat caution like it did so often, and I soon found myself slipping my right foreleg through the strange device. It seemed to lock in place in the very same spot my PipBuck had been before, and I gave a startled gasp as I felt it tighten around my leg, the metal-like structure moulding itself to perfectly wrap around my hoof.

“What the fuck…?” I muttered softly, bewildered by this new technology.

However, to top things off, the device sprang to life a few seconds after it was done adjusting around my leg. A soft ping came from a hidden speaker, and a computerized voice squawked from the device.

“Initial configuration - complete. Welcome, Sparkplug,” the voice declared, gaining a raised eyebrow from me.

Curiously, I lifted my foreleg to inspect the device, but felt myself flinch and backpedal hastily as a bright cone of white light shot from the device around my ankle, lighting up a square of sorts in front of me, similar to a holograph.

On it, (after getting over my initial shock and looking back at the holograph) I could see a small orb of bright light, that quickly grew to fill out the entire screen. Seconds later, it vanished, replaced by a video, showing an idyllic-looking city made of clouds - pre-war Cloudsdale, I presumed. The sun filled out the sky in all its glory, a rainbow was looming at the horizon, and happy, cheerful pegasus ponies fluttered about. A jolly soundtrack served as ambience.

“Beautiful, is it not?” the voice of a stallion spoke up as the camera slowly moved to the side, capturing all of its surroundings. “The city of Cloudsdale, almost three hundred years ago - a perfect city in a perfect Equestria. Of course, the great war has affected us all, and even a civilization as glorious as the Grand Pegasus Enclave could not escape from the effects of such a devious, spineless attack.”

The pictures on the holograph changed, now showing what I quickly identified as the crashed, burned remains of Cloudsdale, lying on the ground somewhere out in the wasteland.

“However, we have not been sitting idle during the past two centuries. After withdrawing from the surface to gather our resources, we, the now Grand Equestrian Enclave, have now returned to the surface to share with you our blessings.” Again, the screen changed, now presenting the ‘blessings’ in broad, pompous letters. “Peace, technology, food, and so much more! Thanks to our combined efforts…”

The screen changed again, this time showing what looked like a… fairly well-rebuilt city. A settlement based on the ruins of a pre-war town, filled with ponies in Enclave uniforms - not only pegasi but also unicorns and earth ponies were wearing the sleek, futuristic uniforms.

“We have managed to grant tens of thousands of ponies formerly living in misery access to not only basic requirements like water and food, but also secure jobs, and a regulated life in a safe environment.”

The music silenced abruptly, the screen going black all of a sudden.

"And you are now among them," the voice declared boldly. “You are seeing this educational video because you have applied for a job as a…” There was a brief cut in the audio recording. “Technician. In… New Appleloosa! And it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Grand Equestrian Enclave. Welcome to a better life.”

The screen flickered for a second, then showed a cartoon pony presenting me its... PipBuck-thing.

“Applied to one of your front legs, you will find your very own PegWing 6000. This engineering marvel is just one of many great inventions brought to ground-dwellers by the Grand Equestrian Enclave. Similar to the so-called ‘PipBucks’ used by the company Stable-Tech before the great war, it serves as your own personal assistant. When started up by a simple tap with a hoof…”

The pony on the screen did just that, causing its device to start up and project a holograph similar to the one I was looking at right now.

“It will show you all important information - your health, radiation level, and your current position. It also has a built-in radio receiver, so you can always stay up to date with recent events happening in the Grand Equestrian Enclave, or just listen to your favourite tune,” the narrator finished with a light chuckle; the pony on the screen did a little dance to confirm that last part.

“So what are you waiting for? The first day in your new job, and your new life within the Grand Equestrian Enclave is waiting for you! Just follow the marker on your map to your nearest superior and report back to them to get your first assignment in your new job as… Technician.”

“Once again, welcome to the Grand Equestrian Enclave... Sparkplug.”

The camera zoomed in on the pony’s face, showing it give me a broad, beaming smile.

“And welcome to a better life!”

With that, the movie faded, leaving me looking at, what I suspected, was the… PegWing’s main screen, of sorts. A simple menu coloured in various shades of grey and blue greeted my eyes, revealing that, indeed, the PegWing had a lot in common with a PipBuck. In front of me, I saw three different subitems at the top end of the screen - stats, items, and data.

I looked at it blankly for a few moments, wondering how I was supposed to access this thing, as the actual device around my foreleg didn’t seem to have any interface whatsoever.

Cocking an eyebrow, I slowly raised my left leg, leading my hoof to a point in the holograph, as if I would push it like a button. This felt more than just a little stupid, but…

It worked!

I couldn’t contain a surprised gasp as I was now looking at my inventory - unsurprisingly, it was empty.

I cocked an eyebrow, eyeing the PegWing sceptically. So, this was what the Enclave was capable of? Damn…

For a brief moment, I found my inner PipBuck technician surface, wanting to take this mysterious device apart and figure out its secrets, but that thought was quickly overwhelmed by a far more intense desire: I wanted answers!

Quickly shaking my head, I focused my attention back on the holograph in front of me, my hoof instinctively going to the 'data' tab, and felt my eyes widen as I found an audio recording titled 'R.I.P. Littlepip'.

I swallowed, fighting with myself for a moment, but then felt curiosity prevail like so often before, and lightly tapped the air in front of me with my hoof, covering the ‘PLAY’-button on the holograph.

“Dear Calamity, dear Velvet Remedy…” My ears perked up as I again heard Life Bloom’s voice.

“What I am about to tell you is… really not easy for me.” He swallowed, sounding genuinely nervous. “I’m sure by now you both know of Littlepip getting wounded in the battle of New Appleoosa. I was able to treat her injuries quickly thanks to Calamity’s help, but…”

Again, he hesitated.

“Her injuries were… really quite severe. The weapon she was struck with is some kind of prototype laser rifle that I have never seen before. I…” he cut himself off, and I heard a faint sob. “I’m so sorry, but… I couldn’t save her. Littlepip is… she’s dead.”

I heard him choke back a sob. “I am so very sorry. I know she meant a lot to both of you, and to others as well. I swear I did everything in my power to save her, but…” He swallowed, gasping for breath. “I couldn’t do it. I’m so sorry. Feel free to come see me if you want to talk, but I’m afraid you won’t be able to… see her. I know this must be hard for you to take, but her remains were incinerated due to Tenpony Tower’s strict health guidelines. Once again, I am so very sorry, but sometimes there’s nothing I can do.”

The sound of the audio recording faded with a click, and for a few moments, there was nothing but silence as I stood there, motionlessly, letting the fact sink in that I had just listened to my own declaration of death.

I could feel my mind reeling.

So… Life Bloom had saved me after being shot; had put me in here, and had led not only the Enclave but also my closest and best friends to believe that I was dead.

…But why?

I closed my eyes, lowering my head. Thinking wasn’t easy when you’ve spent four decades in a cryogenic sleep.

So… the Enclave… had won?

I thought back to that video I had seen, my look going down to my new PipBuck. That thing had been addressed to a certain Sparkplug. Who that pony is I still wasn’t sure. That PegWing I was wearing seemed to belong to her, and through the video I had found out that she had started working for the Enclave, but…

Really, who was she?

But that aside, what that narrator had said… about the Enclave having dozens of settlements on the ground now… so they actually had won!?

I screwed my face up, giving a sigh of exasperation as a feeling of deep discomfort spread through my guts.

But… but how? How could it be that… my friends; Applejack’s Rangers, hell even Red Eye’s army… they all lost to the Enclave!?

I sank back to my haunches, feeling tears form in my eyes.

The Enclave had won! The Enclave won!

And that means I… and all those ponies I was fighting alongside with… had lost.

Again, I could feel my head sink in sheer exasperation, only looking back up as my eyes spotted the PegWing’s Heads-up-Display in front of me I saw that the single audio file in my PegWing’s data-centre had been replaced by a new note. A text message titled ‘Instructions for Sparkplug’.

Raising an eyebrow, curiosity overshadowing any exasperation for the moment, I once again raised a hoof and tapped it against the message.

Dear Sparkplug,

Congratulations on being accepted into the Grand Equestrian Enclave’s workforce. I am positive you will be of good use to us and all of Equestria in your new position as a technician.

In order to finalize your employment and deploy you on your first assignment, please see me at the Big Hoof Diner at your earliest convenience. You will find it in the Upper District. If you are unsure where to find it, I’m sure you know you can use the map on your PegWing to guide you.

Best regards and Glory to the Enclave!

Your instructor, Steampunk

I read the note again a second time, then let my head sink. I had been hoping to get some answers out of these documents, but now I was even more confused than before!

Who was this Sparkplug, and why did I have her PipBuck-thing? And who had left that note for her?

It took me another moment to think before a new resolution popped up in my head.

Whoever these ponies were, that stallion wanted to meet with whoever pony’s PipBuck I was wearing at the moment.

Granted, I didn’t have the slightest idea of where that was -or where I was to begin with- but if that pony was right and that… PegWing had something like a GPS integrated, I could simply let it guide me there.

And maybe, just maybe, I would finally get some clear answers there.

Shaking my head and taking a deep breath, I turned to the side, my look going over to the single door that separated the room I was in from whatever was out there.

I felt a slight weightlessness rise in my guts at the realization that I still had no idea just where I was. Even worse, that door appeared to be made of thick metal and heavily secured-what… what if I was locked in here!?

Feeling my pulse quicken, I took a step forward, resting a hoof on the door and giving it a gentle shove.

Nothing.

My breathing quickened gradually as the thought of being locked to die in here cast itself over my mind like a black cloud.

However, I felt myself perk up as my eyes went to the side, and I spotted… some form of device hanging on the wall next to the door.

Cocking an eyebrow, I took a step closer, casting a sceptical look at the thing. I was sure I had seen one of these before. It looked like a… scanner of sorts.

Could it be that…

I gave a groan of disapproval. No, that would be too easy.

Still, I couldn’t help it, as curiosity led me to slowly raise my right hoof and place it on the smooth glass surface of the small device.

I flinched as a green light flashed over my hoof for a second, and with a gentle ping, I could hear a click come from the door as I watched it slide open.

My look rested on the… hoof-scanner for a few more seconds, before it went over to the now opened door, and I could feel my mind getting overwhelmed with impressions as, for the first time in decades, I could feel a gust of fresh air hit my face.

Well… time to get some answers… right?

Swallowing, I looked over my shoulder one last time, casting a glance over the room I had been in for so long to see if there was anything I should be taking with me.

My gaze lingered on Life Bloom’s memory orb for a few moments, before I picked it up with my magic and took it with me. With everything that had happened, it felt good having something remotely familiar with me.

Confident that I had, if not everything I needed, but everything I could take from here, I turned back around again. I then took one last breath of the musty air in my chamber, and then I stepped out into the unknown.

Footnote: Game Over.

Start new game?
Yes/No

Author's Note

New chapters shall be released over the next few weeks, up to chapter six. From there, there will be a longer wait as new chapters are written.

3 - The Enclave

Chapter Three: The Enclave

“All hail the new Equestria! All hail the Enclave!”

I could feel my senses getting overwhelmed with impressions as I stepped through the door.

I don't know what I had been expecting to find on the other side of it.

Part of me was expecting an Enclave base, of sorts. The realization that they had... won was still heavy on my mind, and a certain, especially pessimistic part of my mind was anticipating that they had already captured me; that I would be their prisoner and serve them for... whatever crazed ideas Enclave scientists had in mind.

Part of me saw me standing in the battle-scarred ruins of New Appleloosa, simply because this was the last place I remembered myself in, and as odd as it may sound, it felt a little more soothing than expecting to wake up at the other end of Equestria.

And a small... a very small, foalish part of my mind was hoping that, behind the door, I would find the familiar walls of Tenpony Tower; just go through the next best door, and find all my friends -Calamity, Velvet Remedy, SteelHooves, Xenith, and of course Homage- sitting together, just waiting for me to return.

I'll admit, this wasn't particularly likely, but words couldn't express how much I wished for just that to happen.

However, as I stepped through the door, I was met by something... rather sobering.

A dark hallway; a cave of sorts, with thick, uneven stone walls.

Partly relieved, partly disappointed, I let my head sink as I carefully stepped out the door. Walking had gotten noticeably easier since I had woken up. It still was a bit of a challenge, as my eye-hoof coordination wasn't back at its full power yet, but with a bit of effort, I carefully set one hoof in front of the other and stepped out into the dark cave.

My look went to the PegWing around my ankle, my face turning into a frown. If this were a PipBuck, I could just push a button and-

Suddenly, the device around my foreleg sprang to life, and from what I guessed was a hidden lamp, of sorts, came a beam of light that cut through the darkness with ease, lighting up the way ahead of me in a bright, light-blue light.

Well... that worked.

Eyeing the now brightly-gleaming device with a curious glance, I cocked an eyebrow, once again feeling the temptation to find myself a workbench and force this mysterious thing to tell me its secrets.

But the sense of urgency prevailed… at least for now.

Eager to find out just where I was, I cautiously turned my head to the left. The PegWing's bright light shone onto the rest of the cave-like corridor that went on for a few yards before it ended in a set of wooden stairs that led upward.

So... I was in a bunker, of sorts?

A subconscious shudder ran through my spine at the thought of being locked in a subterranean prison.

However, I quickly stopped my mind from drifting too far off, and after casting another cautious glance at the set of stairs, started walking towards it, determined to finally get some clarity.

The first couple of seconds that passed after I had pushed open the latch-like door at the top end of the stairs were… surreal.

Deep down I might have expected some form of a flashback to when I had left Stable 2 for the first time, simply because the circumstances seemed almost similar.

This, however, was nothing like my first venture into the Wasteland all those years ago. Back then I had been greeted by darkness, and a still, silent night.

Now, all I felt was the sun mercilessly burning down on me. Even if the Enclave had won, I didn’t know if they had removed their cloud curtain, but at least in this moment, it felt like they had not only removed it entirely, but also cranked up the sun’s power output to eleven.

Giving a groan and shielding my eyes with a hoof, I looked down. Getting my eyes to adjust to the sparse light in whatever cell I had been in had been hard, but this was an entirely new challenge altogether!

Slowly, gradually, I could feel my heartbeat slow down. I didn’t know what I had been expecting upon leaving my underground hideout, but from what I could tell now, there was nothing and nopony around here.

Other than the burning light still blinding me, all my ears picked up was the distant howl of a gentle wind that lightly ruffled through my coat.

Despite all confusion and uncertainty, I could feel a weight fall off my back at that. At least from what it looked like now, I was indeed not in some form of Enclave hub.

Slowly testing the waters, I cracked one of my eyes open. It still burned ever-so-slightly from being in the dark for so long, but I gave a sigh of relief as my vision slowly cleared, and I was looking at the dusty ground in front of me.

Carefully, I raised my head, looking first to the right, then to the left, but never up so as to not overexert my eyes. Around me was… well, was nothing.

Nothing save for the barren, dusty wasteland I had come to call my home throughout recent years, and… wait, what was that?

I narrowed my eyes as I looked into the distance, blinking from the exhaustion. There, a couple miles away from where I was standing, was what looked like a silhouette of sorts. A silhouette of a city, no doubt. I couldn’t exactly tell due to the distance, but… it had an enormous wall right in its middle.

...Fillydelphia?

Cocking an eyebrow, I looked around again, hoping to find any indications on where precisely I was, but coming up empty once again. Behind me lay nothing but even more empty wastes, along with what I now recognized as the hatch I had crawled out from, cleverly hidden between a bunch of unsuspecting dust-coloured rocks. Beyond that was nothing but the ever-grey sky, which -as I noticed now- was still covered in the all-too-familiar cloud curtain, the sun only visible by a single dull bright spot.

So much for cranking it up to eleven.

Shaking my head, I was about to begin walking towards the settlement to begin looking for clues there, as the memory of that video I had seen popped into my mind again.

Remembering what they had said about that mysterious device on my foreleg, I raised a hoof, giving it an inspecting look. Well, if this thing really had at least roughly the same functions as a PipBuck, it should be easy enough finding my location, right?

Sceptically, I raised a hoof, tapping it against the device’s invisible display. With a gentle sound, the heads-up-display appeared in front of me, and just like I had always done it with my PipBuck, I navigated myself towards the map-partition, and soon found myself looking at a… surprisingly high-resolution image of what I suspected were my surroundings. Really, it looked almost like a photo.

Once again narrowing my eyes, I leaned my head forward to get a closer look at where I was. The PegWing, however, seemed to detect my intention, and as soon as my eyes had narrowed, the map zoomed in on a small red square that I suspected marked my current position.

“Wow...” I mouthed silently as I looked in awe at the futuristic technology. Did that thing… sense that I wanted to zoom in or something? Hell, I really, really wanted to take this thing apart!

However, my thoughts came to a halt as a notification popped up at the top end of the screen, informing me that a new location had been found, and I felt my eyes widen as the map revealed the city; well… that part of it visible on the picture, to be… I swallowed, flashback images rushing past my mind’s eye as I read the name.

New Appleloosa.

Slowly, my look went up again towards the enormous silhouette.

This… this was New Appleloosa? The small trader’s town? This was it!?

I swallowed. If I had had any doubts about whether or not I really had been out for forty years, they were cleared away now.

But… but…

The Enclave video I had seen replayed in my mind. If what had been said in there was true, I could only imagine what the once small town looked like, now that the Enclave had done… whatever it was they did with Wasteland cities.

That thought caused an all-new wave of doubts to pop up in my head.

The Enclave, and with them almost everpony in Equestria, it seemed, thought I was dead. Of course, I doubted that I was public enemy number one to the Enclave, but looking at our shared past, I doubted I’d be too welcome in an Enclave-ruled city.

Then, however, my look went downward, falling onto the set of two white hooves in front of me, and I was reminded that… well, I didn’t look like the Littlepip they knew anymore. In fact, doing a quick measurement of myself I could see that I’m now the normal height of my age! If anypony were still searching for me, I doubted I’d stick out too much.

I thought about that for a second, then felt a mischievous smile form on my face as I got an idea.

I was wearing the… PipBuck-thing of a pony called Sparkplug. I didn’t look like Littlepip. So, who was to say that I couldn’t simply slip into the role of Sparkplug if anypony were to ask me about it?

It seemed more reasonable than walking around shouting “Hey, look at me! I’m Littlepip and I’m still alive!” in any case, really.

But I shook my head. Assuming that name was an option, but nothing I wanted to take for granted. Better to put that thought off for now.

Instead, my look went back to the map still hovering in front of me, and I noticed something else.
A small arrow of sorts, sitting at the far-left end of the map. I looked over to it, once again narrowing my eyes, and the futuristic device around my ankle, somehow seeming to detect the notion, zoomed in on it, and a small window popped up, reading ‘Meeting with Steampunk - Big Hoof Diner’

I cocked an eyebrow. How… How did that thing…?

But again, I shook my head. Too many questions on mind, waaay too many questions.

I needed to get some answers. And right now, as much as I wanted to just turn away and go anywhere, New Appleloosa seemed like the most dependable place to go to for answers.

Keeping that in mind, I looked over my head again, before directing my attention back on the enormous city ahead of me, took one last deep breath, and began walking.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I got closer to that massive city ahead of me. And really, the closer I got, the more impressive it seemed to me. I had been to Canterlot and even Manehatten, but this place overshadowed them all. In size, in sprawl, and… well, in decay as well.

Surrounding me were buildings; buildings that looked like they had served as residential houses once, but similar to most buildings in the Equestrian Wasteland… well, that wasteland I knew, anyway... were largely decayed and all seemed at the verge of collapse.

That normally wouldn’t have surprised me too much. Because really, decaying buildings were a more than common sight in the Wasteland.

Besides, if this place really was New Appleloosa, it was obvious that these had been built after I had… disappeared. But why were they this rundown already? Had the Enclave already left these parts of the city behind?

It was these thoughts that were on my mind as I stepped through the surprisingly intact, but all the more neglected streets of what must have been some sort of suburb of whatever New Appleloosa had turned into now.

However, my thoughts came to a halt as my ears perked up, and I heard something.

A voice. A mare’s voice, that sounded truly horrified.

“Help!” the scream caused my ears to twitch as my head shot around, searching for its origin, “Somepony help me!”

Feeling my heart rate quicken, I looked around again, my thoughts finally coming to rest on a dark, derelict alleyway that literally had ambush written all over it.

“P-please! Someone! Anyone! Help me!”

I bit my lip, nervously pacing on the spot. It took me a few seconds before my mind finally overrode my common sense, and I started running, dashing towards the shady-looking alley.

As I came closer, I could roughly make out the shape of two ponies - a small, slender unicorn mare, and a buff, muscular earth pony stallion.

The mare was lying on the ground, clinging to a small, rusty piece of pipe as a makeshift weapon of self-defence, her eyes wide in primal fear as the stallion loomed over her like a predator about to strike.

The mare’s eyes widened even further as she saw me approaching. “You!” she shouted as I was about ten yards away, “Please! Please help me!”

I opened my mouth, clenching my teeth in uncontrolled fury.

“Step away from her!”

I slid to a sudden halt, my ears perking up at the shout.

That had been a voice I had never heard before.

Which, in all seriousness, wouldn’t be such a big deal if I didn’t know exactly that I had just opened my mouth, intending to shout these very words at the attacker.

Instantly, my head shot around, searching for any other ponies that might want to intervene, but finding nothing but the deserted streets behind me.

“What the …” I muttered as I quickly turned my head back towards the attacker and his victim.

In exactly that moment, two fundamentally important things became clear to me.

First, the voice I had heard before was indeed my voice. I didn’t know what exactly had happened to me, but for some reason, my voice sounded nothing like I expected it to sound - a fact that would have almost thrown me off my hooves if it weren’t for what I saw in front of me at that moment.

Because second, I now found myself staring into the barrels of a loaded shotgun and a rusty submachine gun; the shotgun was held by an aura of blue magic, and the submachine gun being attached to a battle saddle respectively.

“Nice and slow now,” the once so distraught mare, now back on her four hooves, said with a wicked grin on her face, kicking the metal pipe she had clung to like a lifesaver moments ago behind herself. “Don’t want anyone to get hurt, right?”

It was at this moment that I knew I had screwed up.

I was defenceless. I had no armour, not even clothing, no weapons, no ammo, nothing at all.

And I had run into that ambush like a naive little foal.

Why did this feel familiar?

“Yuh heard her,” the stallion grunted past the mouth trigger in his muzzle. “Empty those pockets.”

“I… uh… what?” I stuttered, partly because shock still dominated my mind, partly because I couldn’t believe what he had just said. Seriously, couldn’t he see that I didn’t have any pockets!?

“You heard me!” the petite mare snarled with a surprisingly strong voice, motioning with a hoof towards my neo-PipBuck. “That thing there! Empty it!”

“...What!?” I asked again, legitimately confused now. Either they knew something about this device I didn’t, or the Enclave had managed to create even dumber raiders than those I knew.

“Quit fucking around!” the mare hissed again, floating the shotgun towards me and pressing it against my head. “Do it! Now!”

“I… I’m sorry, I-” I stuttered, my look now going down to my PegWing, my hoof frantically tapping the device’s interface, pretending that I knew what I was doing. My look went behind the raider mare for just a second, and a new idea struck my mind.

“Just… just one second! Please… please don’t shoot!” I begged in that strange new voice of mine, my horn lighting up, an aura of magic forming around the device, “I’ll… I’ll just take it off! Okay? You can have it!”

“Quit playing stupid you dumb cunt!” the stallion snarled at me, his submachine gun still pointed at my head. “Just empty your storage compartment and-”

He fell silent abruptly as the mare’s lead pipe collided with the back of his head, knocking him out cold. The mare followed only split seconds after, her magic field around the shotgun vanished in an instant, and I was able to let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding onto as their unconscious bodies fell to the dirt. They were then shortly followed to the ground by their weapons.

I looked at the two ponies for a few seconds, feeling my heart rate gently calm down again, then let out a long, relieved sigh.

“Good to see old tricks still work in the future,” I quietly said to myself, but flinched ever so slightly at the still alien sound of my own voice.

Hell, if I’d ever get my hooves on Life Bloom again he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do!

But these thoughts aside, my curiosity was piqued by something else the raider had said.

Slowly, my look went back to the device around my foreleg.

From what they had said, it almost sounded like this thing had a storage compartment of its own.

Of course, inventory sorting spells were nothing new for me, having worked with PipBucks all my life, but a PipBuck with an inventory of its own … that sounded surreal, even to me.

Still, I couldn’t help it. Tapping the PegWing again, I accessed the device’s main menu, and indeed, after a few moments, I stumbled over a partition titled ‘Inventory’.

I cocked an eyebrow as a new window opened, and two images appeared in front of me. One was what looked like an overall of sorts. The other one was -thank Celestia- something familiar I could easily recognize for once: a revolver-plain, basic and simple.

But… if that was my inventory, where the hell were those things? I wasn’t wearing any equipment on me whatsoever, so the only possibility would be…

Hesitantly, I reached forward, tapping the image of the pistol with a hoof.

I flinched, barely holding back a squeak as, suddenly, a bright cone of light erupted from a partition of my PegWing. Similar to a flashlight, it focused on the ground in front of me for a few seconds, causing me to quickly turn my eyes away so as to not get blinded again.

The glaring light lasted for a few seconds, before, with a confirming beep it suddenly faded again, causing me to carefully turn my head back and look at the spot where the light had lit up the ground.

My eyes widened.

There, lying right in front of me, was that very same revolver I had seen in my inventory mere seconds ago. Likewise, it was now no longer on the PegWing’s screen.

Hesitantly, I picked the freshly produced weapon up with my magic, holding it in front of my face to examine it.

Really, it seemed like any other revolver. A quick look into the barrel revealed that it was fully loaded as well.

But… did it work?

“Only one way to find out…” I muttered to myself in that still strange voice as my magic slowly turned the gun around, pointing it at the wall in front of me, and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

Well … that worked. Cringing, my ears folding back from the sudden noise, I stared at the almost hoof-sized hole gaping in the wall opposite to me.

“Wow…” I mused, but I couldn’t contain the smallest of grins forming on my face. It sure felt good knowing that I wasn’t completely naked anymore.

With that said…

My look went back to the inventory-partition, now with only one item remaining. Less hesitant this time, I tapped a hoof against the image of the overall, expecting it to materialize in a similar fashion to the gun before.

This time, however, I flinched again, as this time the bright light engulfed my own body, and I felt myself wanting to panic.

But just as abruptly as it had started, it was over, and as the light faded, I found myself fully dressed in that very same overall I had just selected.

“Mother of…” Again, I couldn’t contain my confusion. Confusion that increased even more as I spotted another button at the side of the screen reading ‘Add new item’.

Confused, yet with my curiosity awoken, I tapped the button with a hoof and watched the mysterious light cone appear again at the same spot it had been before.

Raising an eyebrow, I looked at the pump-action shotgun the raider had dropped.

This felt… all kinds of stupid to my logic-loving mind, but…

I swayed my leg to the side, so that the light cone was shining onto the shotgun, and I couldn’t contain a gasp of surprise as I watched it rest on the gun for a second before, right before my eyes, the weapon vanished in the bright light, and with a sound of confirmation, an image of that very same shotgun appeared in my inventory-menu less than a second later.

I stood still for a few moments, my look resting on the weapon this mysterious device had just … assimilated.

Seriously, I was gone for forty years?

Because it felt like a thousand to me right now.

Again, I shook my head, forcing my mind back on track. Standing here and being confused wouldn’t answer any of my questions. I had to get to that Big Hoof Diner-thing and see if I can find whoever this ‘Steampunk’ guy was. Anything else wouldn’t get me anywhere.

With that in mind, I was just about ready to get underway again, but I hesitated as my eyes fell onto the two unconscious ponies’ remaining weapons and armour, and I gave a shrug.

Better take what I can get, right?

A few minutes later, slowly but steadily, I approached the great wall I had spotted in the distance before. Well, what I could see of it, anyway.

The scenery around me hadn’t really changed. Decaying, derelict buildings surrounded me. Occasionally I would see ponies looking my way from the shadows and alleys, but I suspected the gun I was keeping with me did scare off most potential assaulters.

Slowly, I let my gaze wander upwards, looking up at the enormous wall.

How in Equestria was I going to get in there?

Really, it felt like Fillydelphia all over again.

However, concluding to delay the worrying until I had actually reached the wall, I shook my head and continued in my walk, but stopped abruptly as I was alerted from an alarm coming from my PegWing.

‘WARNING’ appeared in bright red letters on the holograph suddenly popping up and flashing menacingly. ‘APPROACHING OFF LIMITS AREA’

I cocked an eyebrow at that, raising my head and looking around.

Just like before, I was surrounded by slowly decaying suburbs, with the giant wall looming ahead of me.

Carefully, I took another step forward, then another one. The warning flashed a couple more times, then fell silent again, the projected screen vanishing in an instant.

“What the…?” I muttered silently, wondering where precisely that had come from, but perked up as my ears picked up noises coming from somewhere to my right.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my ears perking up.

Were those… shouts?

I could fear my heart pound as my ears picked up another wave of noise, this time definitely shouts. My head shot around, searching my surroundings.

My eyes widened as I spotted a group of ponies standing in the distance, about fifteen meters away from where I was, in a smaller side road.

My first thought had been that I was about to encounter another group of raiders looking to, well, raid me, but that thought was quickly overshadowed by a frightening realization as my still weary eyes spotted the uniforms, as well as a few sets of sleek power armour.

I was looking at Enclave soldiers.

These Enclave soldiers looked different. The soldiers that weren’t in power armour had black and grey combat uniform that covered them from the neck to hoof, their heads were also covered with a sleek combat helmet and a type of gas mask, with the eyelids glowing a yellow light. The power armoured soldiers shared a similar design as well, all with a white strap around each of their left shoulders.

But something else I noticed. The Enclave soldiers… they weren’t all pegasi. Six were earth ponies, two of which were in power armour and the others in combat uniforms, which included five unicorns in the same combat uniforms as well. The remaining four soldiers were pegasi with their own type of power armour with the same design as the others.

Despite wondering why other ponies are in the Enclave’s military, but for the moment I could feel my heart sink as they moved towards my direction, my instincts telling me to take to my hooves and make a run for it before they could see me. Sure, I might not look like the pony they’re looking for anymore, but Celestia knows I’d be doing good avoiding any contact with soldiers whatsoever at this point.

Then, however, I noticed something.

The soldiers stopped and were now standing in front of what seemed like the only somewhat inhabitable house in the area, weapons drawn and barking orders at something or someone I couldn’t quite make out.

I cocked an eyebrow, hesitating for another moment, before I carefully took a step forward, sticking to the ruined buildings’ facades so as to not cause any attention as I carefully inched closer to the group of soldiers.

It took only a few moments until I was close enough to be in earshot, and only a few seconds later, I saw just what was happening.

A smaller group of ponies was led out of the house at gunpoint. They didn’t look like soldiers or even raiders though.

Hell, they weren’t armed, and their torn clothes and malnourished bodies made them look like … well, like regular wastelanders, really.

I kept my head low, eyeing what was happening with a sceptical glance. Why were they harassing simple scavengers? By all means, it didn’t seem like-

That train of thought was derailed as I watched the group of three soldiers in armour raise their magical energy weapons at the civilians… and fire.

My eyes widened as I watched their shapes engulfed in a bright red glow, and I could feel myself sink to the ground as they fell to the ground as a small heap of ashes.

For what felt like an eternity, I just sat there, watching numbly as the remains of the ponies were blown away in the wind.

It took me a bit to come to my senses again, and when I did, the desire to draw my newly acquired weapons and give those soldiers a piece of my mind was overwhelming, but thankfully, the reasonable parts of my mind prevailed for once, knowing that I wouldn’t last five seconds in an open battle.

Instead, I decided to lay low for now; I needed to watch and wait for the right moment to pounce. Having limited possibilities really didn’t leave you with too much to choose from.

A few, awfully tense seconds passed, and I could feel the temptation to just go out there and do something after all rise up within me but fall silent abruptly as I watched a new group of ponies being led out of the house.

I gasped, my jaw dropping. Two of these ponies were awfully young! One was dark blue unicorn filly with her red mane in braids, and the other was a tiny green earth pony foal less than a year old who was in the other filly’s magic while fearfully crying.

And just like that, I could feel a new wave of anger rise up within me. No, not just anger. Pure, unfiltered rage!

However, just as I was about to access the inventory of my PegWing to pull out my shotgun, I froze in place as a loud, resounding voice came from behind me.

“Hey!” somepony barked at me, their voice unmistakably aggressive. “What are you doing there!?”

I spun around, my eyes widening as I saw three ponies in armour walking up to me, their weapons at the ready.

I bit my lip, my mind kicking into combat mode. I had to think! I had to think fast! I had to act!

Feeling my body tense up, I got ready to fight -or run, whichever would seem like the better alternative, expecting the soldiers to shoot me on sight any second now.

However, what I didn’t expect was for one of them to walk up to me, plant himself in front of me and shout. “Let me see your ID.”

“...What?” I asked, a little dumbfounded by the fact that he hadn’t fired at me yet. “ID?”

"ID." I couldn’t help but to flinch with a barely contained shriek as, accompanied by a mechanic-sounding female voice, the device around my foreleg sprang to life yet again, presenting not me, but the pony in front of me with a small, holographic window where, gradually, text appeared, being read out aloud by that same voice.

“Name: Sparkplug. Race: Unicorn. Occupation: Mechanic. City of Birth: Las Pegasus. Age: 21. Rank: Honorary Citizen of the Grand Equestrian Enclave.”

That last part was, as I noticed, written in slightly bolder writing. He was still reading it, or at least I think with his eyes hidden away behind the glowing eyelids of his mask.

He looked away from the PegWing’s impromptu screen and instead looked me in the eyes. The screen also showed a photo of me, or at least the pony I looked like. But apparently, he had nothing to complain about in this regard.

“What are you doing here, citizen?” he barked at me bluntly. “This is a restricted military area. Off limits for honorary civilians.”

“I, uh…” I stuttered cluelessly for a few seconds, then shrugged innocently. “I was just trying to get into the city. Must have gotten lost on the way.” I explained, giving him the most innocent, sheepish smile that I could muster.

The soldier looked at me in silence for a few long moments. The longer the silence dragged out, the more worried I became that he wouldn’t buy it, but to my very relief, he merely shook his head.

“You’re damn right you got lost on the way,” he replied snappishly. “City’s this way,” he said, tilting his head into the direction I had come from. “Now move along.”

“Uh … alright.” I nodded hesitantly, pretending to turn around and be on my way, but then stopped. In a voice that I hoped sounded innocent and inauspicious, I asked: “Uhm, what are you doing here?”

“None of your concern,” he replied, turning around and getting back to…that.

Every inch of my body wanted me to kill them. Kill them all and make it painful. I had two guns, a couple bullets for each, no armour, no backup… no friends. I’m… I’m alone.

Again.

It hit me like a sledgehammer that I have no idea where my friends are. Velvet, Calamity, Xenith, Homage… My Celestia, if it has been forty years… Are they… still alive?

As I was about to turn around, an explosion came near the Enclave. “Resistance! Formation!” One of them yelled. I quickly looked back, seeing one of the captives shoved the two foals to the side before picking up a… rather different looking magical energy rifle.

I ran, grabbing the foals in my magic and ran with them some building down, taking cover around a corner. The foals clung to me while I squeezed them back. From the angle I sat at, I could see the battle. The Enclave was fighting a group of ponies who wore various pieces of clothing but, under them, I could see bits and pieces of armour. Combat armour like the Talons, one was wearing what I swear was stable guard armour under a rather baggy looking dirty shirt. Some had energy weapons, one had a grenade rifle, and the others had regular firearms.

Strange, the sound of gunfire is… relaxing?

Let’s not look into what that means for my psyche.

“For the Resistance!” one of the attacking ponies yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to the battle before me. They were losing. Badly. Already the ones with lesser armours were nothing more than ash piles, while the others were taking whatever cover they could.

It was for nought, however, as what I can only call a mechanical monster arrived. It walked on four legs but was built to resemble some sort of crab, bearing two massive guns, if you can call them that, on each shoulder and what I recognized as a souped-up plasma weapon mounted in the center of its front hull. While its shoulder mounted weapons looked stationary, meaning the thing will most likely be looking at a target to fire, it’s magical energy weapon looked free to move around if needed though, and it did just that. It targeted a pony that was still shooting at Enclave soldiers and fired.

As fast as my old zebra rifle could shoot, that’s how fast the green orbs of magical energy moved, the pony instantly turning into a pile of green goo that melted into the cracks and rubble they once stood on. I needed to get these foals out of here. Still levitating the foals, I ran deeper into the ally way. Desperately, I looked around while finding only a window open rather high above me.

Looking around, I found a dumpster and managed to push its rusted wheels over under the window. Luna, being the size of a normal pony rocks! With that done, I carefully floated the foals into it and hopped the dumpster, before hopping again into the window. I made that in two jumps, thinking how at my old height I would have had to crawl my way up here! Being normal height is the best!

Once in, the foals huddled near me with the area around us being a half rebuild factory of sorts.

Bang.

I'd recognize that sound anywhere. That was the sound of a weapon I had when I got out of the stable, got captured, survived a firefight and used it to avoid both death and being robbed of everything. A shotgun.

I looked over the railings. There were other ponies there, dressed in ragged clothes, tied and blindfolded…

Bang.

And an Enclave soldier was shooting them each in the head one by one. Murderers. Forty years… and they’re still murdering innocent ponies!

“Hey, you!” the soldier yelled, pointing the gun at me. “Move over, I can’t get a clear shot of those two!”

“Oh, SCREW YOU!” I yelled, my magical aura appearing around his head… and quickly forcing it too far around, an audible crack echoing in the rather large and empty building.

There was a stairway leading down, and the foals followed me down it. I quickly grabbed the soldier’s weapons, his shotgun was… different from what I was used to. It was a double barrel but looked… well, new. In my travels I never have seen a weapon like this, closest being a magical energy rifle or sniper rifle.

It has a strange clip on it, I quickly took it out, seeing it was two clips acting as one. Each had four shots left in the- Huh. So, four shots either way. Weird gun. I searched his body still, finding a familiar sight, a combat knife, and smiled. I quickly unblinded everypony was wasn’t killed and cut them loose. There were five ponies in total, and when I looked... nine dead.

Forty years, technology advanced, Celestia knows what else did also... and yet the world hasn't changed a bit. Not really. “Thank you.” I turned around, one of the ponies I freed said: “We were goners for sure.”

“Oh… No problem,” I replied. “So, where are we?”

“The outer Districts. Where death is daily.” He said, giving a half effort chuckle.

“Outer Districts to…?”

“New Appleoosa,” he said, my mind trying to process that the train scrap-built town I saw so long ago has... Districts. “Passage to the Upper Districts is a ways from here. You can only get in if you're a citizen of the Enclave.”

“And these foals?” I asked. I then felt a nudge at my side, looking over, I saw the oldest one still clinging to the infant foal.

“We can find our home miss,” she said.

“But-”

“It’s okay, here,” she insisted, motioning for me to give her my ‘PipBuck’, which I did. She then did some things and placed a marker on my map, it being set for a place a bit of a ways from here. “This is our home, my sis and I have an older brother there, we all live with our mom.” She looked at her sister. “I was just letting her get some fresh air when the Enclave saw us. If you stop by there, please, take a rest. I’ll try and have some goodies for you.”

“Oh no, that’s not-” I started, before the little filly pecked me on my cheek, trotting off saying.

“You’re my hero, Miss.”

I stood there for a time. Hero… Forty years, at least that hasn't changed about me. I put the strange new shotgun into my PegWing and headed towards where it was leading me to. The map detail on this, I hated to admit, was better than the PipBuck ever was. I decided to help the time pass and check the radio.

There were four stations. Enclave News, Enclave Radio DJ, Enclave Stock Market, and Enclave Sports News.

“Let’s just stick with music for now,” I said to nopony, tuning in the music station. It was a familiar song, one I am glad is still on the air. Actually, I think this is the first song I ever heard after leaving the stable… Wow, the irony.

The song quickly ended though, and what came up was… what the?

"And now, my ponies, an Enclave original," the DJ announced.

"From the sky they fell to protect all the land,"

"The Enclave! The Enclave!"

What the hay? I thought- Wow. This song was just… bad. Not just in the fact it’s about the Enclave but the lyrics and tune of the music, in general, was just bad. I lifted my PegWing, ready to turn it off when…

New Radio Station Found: Resistance Pirate Radio.

Hot damn, so good music then. I tuned in.

"Greetings ponies, griffons, and everything from here to the unreached Zebra lands, I am Caine Atch, and I am here to tell you to join the resistance. Forty years have passed since the Lightbringer Littlepip fell in battle and in those forty years the Enclave have hunted down every surviving participant of that was, executing them publicly, branding them terrorists, and for what?"

"They treat the earth ponies like dirt, making them farm the soil without rest. They make the unicorns work day and night, developing new weapons, technology, and maintaining the city. And the pegasi, they sit fat and happy, up in the clouds, and the honorary citizens are treated like royalty in the first district. Foals born from Dashite parents marked at birth and are forced to do the gruelling work of ‘Maintaining Mutant Populations’ by being thrown into the pre-war train tunnels and are only given cheap armour with a single gun with just a single clip."

The venom in the DJ's voice was almost infectious, he wholly meant every word he said.

"They throw their own to die and those who obey their sadistic rule live in luxury palaces atop a foundation of blood and corpses. Well, we will not stand for it! We, the resistance, will carry the torch of the Lightbringer’s ideals, her legacy and we will tear down the district walls and slaughter the mindless soldiers of the Enclave’s army, and we will behead Death Scythe, and place it on a spike for all her so-called ‘glorious Enclave’ to view."

He took a moment to collect himself, but then he continued. "If you see our mark, and you feel hope as you look at it, then join us, or give aid in any way you can. Aid, hiding places, ammo, guns, any little thing you can my friends, we will take and repay when the Enclave falls!"

"And now, a personal favourite of mine, The Last Love, the final work of one Velvet Remedy, and co-sang by the Lightbringer’s lover, Homage."

My ears perked up at that.

"From deep underground, she walked out that stable with fear and regret."

That was Velvet’s voice that sung...

"Tricked and deceived she still searched for me, with love and concern, just wanting me."

"With all of her strength and all of her weaponry she found me… and I said:"

“Don’t want to be rescued, don’t want you to help. I just want to be free.”

Right... at Old Appleoosa. She left the stable willingly, and she was willing to help slavers just so she can heal ponies. Medicine was her true passion, singing was more of a hobby to Velvet…

"But she kept on and fought on, and from her bravery and trust, friendship grew. While I loved another, she was forced to move on, and found a one to love. A one, who loved her too."

"Selfless and beaming with beauty she walked into my world, and all of the pains of the past just melted away."

Homage…

"Without question and with an unknown reward, she brought me a trinket and her reward was my heart."

"I cared, and I worried and now… Now… My love is gone… but my heart says no."

I turned off the song. Homage… You felt it, that I was still alive? “Homage, if you still feel this… I will find you. Heh, guess it’s a good thing I like older mares,” I joked, trying to make myself chuckle, but it half worked. Out of all of them, Homage… You must have hurt the worst.

Life Bloom… you saved me. But why lie to my- our friends? Why let all this happen? Why do this to me? Why go through all this? Was I that bad? What was the end game here? My body healed, then altered. You change my body and name, all so I can pass as dead. Then I get frozen for forty years. Was it longer than you thought, or am I early?

“Gah!” I huff, stomping my hoof on the metal walkway. “When I find you, Life Bloom, I will thank you, then I will hurt you,” I grumbled, all sorts of emotions stewing in me.

I took a deep breath, calming myself before I did something stupid. After a few minutes I’m calm enough to think clearer than I just was. “Okay… First off, get to this First District and learn all I can about what happened and see if any of my friends. To see if they are alive or not…” I shook that thought out of my head. My friends are alive. If they kept onto anything from being around me, it would be to be too stubborn to die. Stubborn and lucky.

Finally getting off my flank, I exited the building and saw markings along the sides of the surrounding structures that led me to what looked like an armoured and fortified version of the underground tram entrances. There were cameras watching and when I, despite every instinct in my body telling me otherwise, walked into their lines of sight. Then a voice spoke from...the camera?

“Please present PegWing,” a robotic, lifeless voice spoke.

I lifted up the leg I had the PegWing on, and then one of the tram entrance looking things made a ‘pop; sound, a hatch opening up on it. I walked over to it, and it had a slot in the exact outline of the Pegwing’s underside. I placed it in, and all sorts of lines of what I recognized as code were streaming across my Pegwing’s screen. Finally, after about a minute, the robotic voice spoke again.

“Access granted. Residency verified, welcome to First District honorary Enclave citizen,” it said as a metal door opened in front of me.

I walked in, a sudden cattle-like feeling washing over me for some reason as I entered. Once in the door closed behind me and I yelped at the slamming sound it made. Part of me expected something like that but I didn’t see how it made such a loud sound until I saw it from this angle. Heavy, thick metal sheets and concrete were stuck to the back part of it. Gonna take more than a grenade or two to break through that. Then… I saw myself looking at a clear, chain link fence with the other side being all green and sunny… Okay… the hell just happened?

I looked up, then noticed the clouds further in were… open. Sunlight. Real sunlight. I made myself keep a brisk trot towards the inner city. As I looked at the walls I noticed they were all mostly made up of sheet metal or bricks that were kept together with concrete. And maybe some wonderglue for good measure. As I realized I was reaching another door, I stopped, turning to two posters that were resting on this particular spot of the wall. Before my eyes, were two ponies, I knew them both, one I want to hurt, one... Well, she grew up.

Wanted: Life Bloom. Race: Unicorn. Age: 67. Wanted dead or alive for crimes against the Grand Equestrian Enclave. Rank: Terrorist. Reward: two million bits and honorary citizenship.

Wanted: Silver Bell. Race: Unicorn. Age: 52. Wanted dead (preferable) or alive (optional) for leading, conspiring, and acting on illegal activities all targeted against the Grand Equestrian Enclave. Rank: Terrorist. Reward: fifty million bits, and honorary citizenship.

Damn filly, what did you get yourself into. I found myself chuckling at this. I don’t know why, really. But looking at her in this wanted poster, is she… doing what I would have done? No, that’s not it. Well, half it. I guess I influenced her…

Maybe a little.

I remember when I first met her. She was painted pink and, though I didn’t know that at the time, obsessed with Pinkie Pie, and for all the wrong reasons. She sawed off her own horn, had an undetonated megaspell for fireworks and lost her family to raiders just because she couldn’t keep her magic under control. It’s not her fault. It never was. And there I was, half paying attention to all of that and trying to break into her safe where a recipe for special Mint-als was kept.

I guess we both were pretty bad back then…

Looking at her in this poster, I think I see how other ponies saw me. A symbol and act of hope and freedom.

Forty years... Glad to see somepony is keeping the ideals and morals I unintentionally spread while ‘alive’. I took both posters down, carefully rolling them up and storing them in my PegWing. If anypony asks I can just say I might get lucky one day, but I am keeping them for just in case I find them. And as memoirs. Oh, wait!

I took Life Bloom’s out, finding I had a pencil in my PegWing and graffitied his poster, giving him googly eyes and a dog-like tongue sticking out under a stupid looking moustache. With that out of my system, I stored it back into the PegWing and continued on with my trot. When I finally exited that hallway, of sorts, I found myself in a rather... odd machine, I think.

“Radiation detected,” another robotic voice spoke, the door behind me that I entered closing as…

I got wet, some kind of smelly water slashing me from everywhere. It stunk. Not as bad as some of the things I was forced to breath, but pretty bad, like… week old trash bad. Finally, when it was over, some nicer smelling water followed. It smelled like soap, no distinct smell, just plain soap. Then just plain water splashed me, then air blew at me from under and over really hard! That felt REALLY unwanted. There was then this… blue light for a moment.

“Resident radiation free and dry, please enjoy the upper districts,” it said as a door opened in front of me and the light almost blinded me some. Letting my eyes quickly adjust, I trotted out of… whatever that was. Though, I felt… slower for some reason, like it was hard for me to move.

I was in… well, a street. Ponies of all kinds were lined up in front of me, cheering and celebrating something that I couldn't see. Having to force my way through the crowd, I saw what was going on.

A parade. Celebrating the Enclave…

In the stable, we read all about pre-war parades and the big floats, bands marching and other amazing things they portrayed. Seeing one was amazing… even if it’s for the Enclave. Big moving stages… floats, right. The floats moved through the street, all carrying Enclave soldiers while in between each ponies of varying races walked through. Mares, mainly pegasi, were throwing batons and twirling them in all sorts of fashions. Earth ponies were carrying flag poles, the design of the flags being the same plain white with a black circle in the middle with two yellow lightning bolts over the circle forming an ‘X’. Huh, I guess they got bored of the 'E with stars' motif.

Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say the parade was kinda nice to look at.

There were those… things like what I saw earlier too, moving along in the parade, several of them. Then I heard this fast-moving wind sound. Everypony around me was looking up, and I did too. Pegasi in outfits that were the same colour as the flags waving were flying around, leaving trails of smoke and performing what seemed to be aerial stunts… and I gotta say, it looks awesome! They did twirls, loops, and finished with an explosion of colours followed by a loud explosion of the same white, yellow, and black colours. I have no idea what that is, but it was amazing.

Looking back down I saw the floats, and more of those weird tanks… and rows of Enclave soldiers in what I think are power armours made to match those tanks and regular infantry troops in similar colours, all marching down the street. There was a mare with a megaphone on one of the tanks, and she was about to speak.

“Hello everypony! As you all know, our Cerberus Tanks were HIGHLY improved remodels of the pre-war Ultra-Sentinels. They feature better mobility, extreme firepower with two 8.8cm cannons mounted at each side and a magic plasma minigun at its center. Best of all, it also has a special programmed AI that can tell enemies from allies, even if a pony can’t tell, it can. It's always updating its software via wireless terminal links to the Central Data Hub, this is also how it tells allies from enemies, as all Enclave personnel and civilian data, including facial data, are stored there.”

Hot damn! It has all that!? No wonder Life Bloom or… whoever got me this PegWing and citizenship did that, these things are crazy!

“And now everypony, it’s time for the main event!” As she said that… the ground shook. “It’s been in the making for over ten years, but here, finally, the pinnacle of the Enclave’s weapons and Technology divisions, Fillies and Gentlecolts.” The earth shook again. “The big, the bad, the Hades Tank!”

We all turned our heads and… My jaw dropped. Walking down the street looked similar to a Cerberus Tank, except it was bigger… way bigger. It was eight stories high, had huge gatling cannons on its right and left sides, what I realized were modified balefire egg launchers in rows to shoot, what else?! BALEFIRE EGGS! And in the center some sort of larger weapon.

“It features sixteen-inch gatling cannons on both sides, twelve modified, fully automatic balefire egg launchers for those pesky crowds of rebels, and a fifty-inch railgun turret in the center that is able to break apart buildings and even damage a stable’s door. Which reminds me, the armour of the tank is just as strong as a stable door! So, no worries there. Unlike the Cerberus Tank, the Hades Tank is pony operated, and it takes ten brave soldiers to operate and drive it effectively. But to be honest, I’d rather be in that than on the battleground. So far only two hundred have been made…”

Two hundred!? Only!?

“...but it is predicted that more than a thousand will be produced by the end of this year!”

I gotta get out of here… take a break… I almost fell over when I finally moved. My legs were weak and my breathing hard. I just walked until I found myself in the nearest building. It was a tavern of sorts. It was all wood, the seats with stitched in cushions. It looked… classy. I took a seat in a booth and tried to calm myself. As if those Cerberus Tanks weren’t bad enough… those things… how in the heck are we gonna…?

We…

Right, alone right now. Got just a few weapons, no allies, no friends… and little to no idea other than what feels like a pipe dream goal of taking down a power than now seems to control most of the world. Celestia, Luna, if you two are watching, please help me… you probably watched me since I left the stable and did all that crazy stuff, cause, let’s be honest, I should have died long ago from all that crap I did…

“Um, miss?” I looked up, my prayer halted by a stallion speaking to me. “Mind if I have a seat? I hate sitting alone.”

“Oh, um, sure,” I said. He took a seat, though, with a stool between us, he seemed to be keeping to his own devices. I just sighed, crossing my hooves and just watching the ponies in the tavern. Some were colts, young mares just hanging out and enjoying milkshakes… those mares looked fine~

No! Bad Littlepip! Homage is alive, and despite the age difference physically, she is still your love, and it’s a love I am determined to rekindle! AGH! Why is my life always hard!?

I just continued watching the ponies in the tavern until I saw an Enclave pony walk in. He was dressed in some sort of black trench coat uniform, a black peaked cap on top his head, and medals covering his chest area. He walked in, his eyes scanned the diner until he noticed the stallion and I. Gazing at us, he smiled and walked over to us. As he got close, I noticed on his upper left forehoof was a white hoofband with the same design as the flags I scene outside. I also notice his features, he looked like an above average fit stallion and his coat was a rather light brown and his mane was a darker brown.

“Greetings zer, Fräulein, you look new to town.” He then looked at the stallion. “You both do, in fact.”

“I just got my citizenship,” the stallion said.

“Yeah, me too,” I said.

“Well zen, zis is cause for celebration. Indeed, I'll go order us some milkshakes, vat would you like, Fräulein?”

“Um...” Who is this guy, and what was with the broken Equestrian? Must be an officer, but he’s an earth pony? Guess they aren’t as racist as they used to be. “Chocolate please.”

“What’s a milkshake?” the stallion asked.

Wow, that level of un-education is still a thing. Well, I can imagine outside this place the wasteland is still the same as it was when I left it, well, maybe more hectic with the Enclave everywhere.

The Enclave officer, meanwhile, just looked at him before shrugging.

“I’ll take zat as vanilla.” He then called for a waitress who came over. He ordered one strawberry, one chocolate, and one vanilla milkshake. He then sat next to me… yay… “So, mind if I zee your identifications?” he asked.

The stallion next to me brought out a PegWing and showed his... profile, for lack of a better word, and I did the same. He looked at them for a while before motioning for us to close them, and we did. “Wonderful,” he said, our milkshakes arriving.

Then I heard a small mechanical sound, and he passed our shakes to us… His hoof!

His right forehoof was no longer a hoof, now it was a metal claw, like a griffon’s almost. Moved like it too, but it’s metal and looks like it’s either part of, or hooked up, to the rest of his foreleg. “Ein toast! Jawohl!” he said, chugging his milkshake down.

I just sipped mine from the straw and stared at his claw hoof thing. He stopped his chugging at half the glass then took a breath. “How is the Uber District? Oh! How rude of me! I didn't introduce myself. Well, mein name is First Lieutenant Erdnussbutter.”

“...Sparkplug,” I say, using my cover name. Best get used to it until I can use my real name again. Pretty sure even saying mine or any of my friend's names would get you thrown in jail or executed in this nut house. “And, so far… it’s like nothing I have ever seen before.”

“Glad to hear. Ja, zis place has been good to me, so I hope it's good to you,” he said, taking a sip from the straw of his glass this time. I looked at the stallion next to me, he was really enjoying that milkshake. I looked back at Erdnussbutter, sipping a bit until he finally finished his milkshake with him slurping up the rest. Noticing the sound, he stopped and looked at both of us. “Sorry about zat.”

With his claw, he brought the empty glass up close as his eyes examined it.

“I just love strawberry milkshakes…” He was still looking at his empty milkshake… he had this smile… it was this, joy, or enjoyment. It was kinda creepy… Does he like strawberry that much?

I nearly did a spit take at what came next. He swung his glass and it smashed against the stallion’s head! It shattered, and his face got covered in a whole manner of cuts as he fell to the ground.

“Now, I know vat you must be zinking miss, but zee here,” he said, grabbing the stallions PegWing… and crushing it. “It's ein fake. Been getting lots like him lately. Cheaply made copies. A most frustrating affair, I assure you! Most likely from tin cans and old computer parts. Sadly, the Resistance or some other group found ein copy of zee bucking software. But, spotting ein fake is rather easy. Resolution isn't as clear, and it can have ein dent and scratch. Arh! Something ein real PegWing can't have.”

Erdnussbutter then dragged the stallion out of the stall, some more Enclave soldiers came in also as he cuffed the stallion. “Let zis be ein lesson to any false citizens zat may be in zis room. The Enclave does not tolerate acts like zis. It's why less and less of you are being approved for citizenship when you go about it the legal way.”

He then grabbed the stallion by the muzzle, making him look him in the eyes. “Now, don't be so sad there, little parasite. At least you got to taste ein milkshake before being found out,” Erdnussbutter said, leading the others in escorting the stallion out of the bar and likely back into the Equestrian Wasteland. He then stopped and looked back at me. “Auf Wiedersehen Fräulein!” he said with a wave, finally leaving.

I just sat in my booth, alone again with half a chocolate milkshake. Erdnussbutter’s smile… it didn’t leave his face throughout that whole event. I sighed, almost laying on the table now. “This is not gonna be easy.”

“Ah! There you are!”

I looked up, seeing a red-maned stallion with a leaf green coat. He was a unicorn, goggles on his head and his cutie mark was a gear with a wrench tightening it. “Um, sorry but who are you?”

“I’m your instructor, Steampunk.”

Steampunk… right, from the PegWing message. “Oh right… Wow, walked right into the right place without knowing.” I chuckled.

“Heh, yeah. Well, glad to see you’re here. Come on, I got to show you your place of work, how to do your work, then where you’ll be living. Until you have enough money to pay the rent and utilities yourself it’s free.”

“Heh, cool.”

“Come on, I’ll show you your workplace first,” Steampunk said, leading the way through the Upper District. It was a long trot, and we took some rather odd shortcuts and paths.

Then everything all went… grey? And it also smelled a lot like chemicals.

Oh shit!

I was freaking out, trying to get this bag, at least I think it was a bag, off of me. But no matter how hard I struggled, it wasn’t coming off! Somepony pulled it tight, and I felt myself being pulled violently to the ground. My horn sparked, but I couldn’t concentrate, neither could I grab for my guns.

Oh, come the fuck on!

I bucked out, trying to get the bastard off of me! Why was he… Ugh… Everything was…

Every breath made me feel sleepy. It got to the point where I was now laying on the ground, my strength to struggle fading even while I still tried to pull the damned thing off before the chemical smell knocked me out cold entirely.

And yet things began going dark, and I really felt quite tired. I… I think it was about time for a nap…

I woke up with gasp. Looking around, I saw that Steampunk was sitting next to me. But that knocking-out-and-kidnapping-me bastard was only one of the reasons I was suddenly feeling very alarmed! I was on a bed, and there were two other ponies here holding guns up at me. Oh, great.

My instincts screamed at me to draw any weapon in reach and defend myself. Can you blame me? They just kidnapped me and are now holding weapons to my face! Fuck. That.

But immediately on seeing my alarm Steampunk waved his hooves and tried to give me a placating smile. Emphasis on the 'tried'.

“Sorry, sorry, they are just here to make sure you don’t do anything rash,” Steampunk said.

“Yeah, and knocking me out was logical?” I say sarcastically, refraining on getting up for the time being given, you know, the guns…

Still, let's hear this guy out...

“Well, Silver Bell and Life Bloom wanted me to bring you here.”

Silver Bell! Life Bloom! Revenge! “Uh… and what do they want with me, exactly?”

“I don’t know. They said that you would be invaluable to the resistance. Come on, promise to behave and not pull any tricks and we’ll let you up. I think we even have time to give you a quick tour along the way and then I’ll leave you at their office.”

Revenge! “Lead the way.”

He frowned. “Wow, just like that?”

“Yeah... I’ve seen how bad it gets out there so if they think I can help at all I’d be happy to.” REVENGE!

“Well… great. Oh, and the pony on my right holding the Tri-Beam Magic Laser rifle is, well, we call him Coffin.

I looked at the pony in question. From the build it was a stallion, unicorn, levitating the energy weapon. He was adorned head to hoof in what looked like an armoured trench coat, his head was a power armour helmet, though. A red painted old Enclave helmet, to be exact.

“Hi,” he said, taking his weapon off me.

“And the pony to my left is Psycho. We know nothing about him, other than that Silver recruited him after supposedly taking out ten Enclave soldiers and a Cerberus Tank with just a ten-millimetre pistol, and knife. Don’t believe it personally, but he doesn’t talk and… his attire is, well, don’t ask.”

The pony on the left was wearing a raider mask I had seen many raiders wear plenty of times, and he was wearing the lower half of what I think was a giant teddy bear, the stuffing was still in it with him. He nodded, putting his laser pistol away. He must be an earth pony or something because he was holding it in his mouth through the mask.

“Nice to meet you…?”

“Well, come on then, let’s show you the place. Well, Coffin and I will show you around, Psycho has to go and acquire supplies.” I looked and saw Psycho nodding, and then leaving.

I got off the bed and the tour began. The room I woke up in was the barracks, no male or female barracks but just one large room full of beds and bunk beds. A locker or two around for personal items. “That bed you were on is yours, by the way, we’ll find you a locker or something to keep your personal items later, though most of us keep everything in our PegWings and only really put things like spare clothes or books in them,” Steampunk said as we left the barracks.

The next room, understandably, was the Cafeteria. The smell of food was rather good. Better than all the canned food I ate. “How about we eat now, it’s lunchtime anyway,” Coffin suggested.

Steampunk and I agreed and got in line. Coffin got some beans, small salad, and two cookies with a Sunrise Sarsaparilla. Steampunk got a large salad, a slice of apple pie and Sparkle-Cola. I wasn’t paying much attention, so I got a mystery sandwich, some jello and my own Sparkle-Cola.

From there we just ate and talked.

“So, where you from Sparkplug?” Coffin asked.

“Um... Not really sure, travelled a lot.” Half lie. That’s a half lie. I saw Coffin take off his mask, he had a light brown coat and a dark red mane. “What about you?”

“I was born here,” he replied simply.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Mum gained citizenship when she was young. My dad was a pegasus, so he was an officer. They were some of the few pegasus non-pegasus mixed couples back then. I came along four years after their marriage.”

“So, how did you end up in the resistance? Being the son of an Enclave officer must have…”

“Brainwashed, they tried.” He chuckled. “That’s actually where I started realizing they weren’t so grand as they are always saying. Growing up I heard the stories, read the history books, but then I looked closer… they didn’t quite add up. Everything I learned, what the Enclave taught us as foals was from their perspective. Then I learned about Littlepip.”

Oh… this might be interesting.

“She was portrayed as some savage, but that… that didn’t seem right. I wanted to know the whole story, so I began looking for things in terminals. Well, then I ended up hacking them.”

He gave a wry laugh, leaning back in his chair with an almost… nostalgic look on his face.

“I got my cutie mark hacking into the restricted files of the Enclave’s records, and I didn’t even get caught. Got away with it by also imputing a virus that created a distraction for me. First, to best hide my tracks, it opens a shit ton of IP addresses and rerouted the one I used to appear as one of them, and all those IP’s were from within the Enclave military. Then it messes with stuff. Makes terminals turn off and on, security items get activated… Heh, made any robots connected to their wireless routers ask for sex," he claimed, looking rather proud.

"Anyway, I found what I was looking for and closed the operation. Officially they said it was a technical error, but when I went back in their firewalls were tripled. They knew they got hacked.”

“What was in the files?” I asked.

“Truth,” Coffin said, levitating a book out of the inside of his cloak. The title read as ‘Lightbringer’. “It’s her life… I guess before she died, Life Bloom had all her memories put into a memory orb and was working on making it into a book. Other files I found said during a resistance base raid they acquired it and shredded all written works but left the digital version and stored it in their secure files," he explained, not stopping in his tirade.

"I read this thing and knew, then and there, that Littlepip was no savage. She was a hero fighting for a just cause. She got strong through friendships and by trotting through all her pain. She found meaning in what she did and through others’ responses towards her actions… Then it ended. Stopped at some point when she was in the old Canterlot ruins, hiding in a maintenance closet from the pink fog stuff. I was ten, and I wanted answers. I wanted to know what happened until the end… So, just a foal, I searched and searched… then found them.”

“I was young, so they denied me entry,” he continued. “Wouldn’t even talk or admit they were resistance but I was a stubborn little shit. Managed to sneak in through garbage chutes. Snuck around and when I saw Life Bloom and Silver Bell I ran, got tackled by Steampunk here back when he was just a rookie. Knocked me so hard the pages that were written on the terminal I printed fell out. Life Bloom picked one up and looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Asked me where I got them while I just kept asking how it ended about, about what did before she died. Silver Bell just took one look at me and asked me how I got them.”

“And what did you say?

“I said I was the one that hacked the Enclave’s Records facility, at hearing that she said to find them again in five or six years when I was old enough join. Not sure what happened next, but I woke up back in my bedroom at home. Kinda spooky how they knew where to drop me off. But for a while, I went about normally until I came home a month later, and this book was on my bed. Read it all the way, front to back. Dad always said there’s honour in dying in battle for what you believe in… I’d say she was the one with the most honour that day.”

“Kid’s always reading it, over and over again since he joined,” Steampunk said. “Treats it like his holy book and talks about Littlepip like she was Celestia and Luna’s mother.”

“She did more in the few weeks she was out of her stable than the princesses did in their whole rule.”

Well, I don’t know about that… Was I blushing?

“Ponies shouldn't just get respect because of titles or privilege… The princesses were ignorant, thinking the war wouldn’t get as bad as it did, let six mares with no military experience manage Ministries without any real guidance. We got what should have been expected. A weapons and armour factory, a weapons and science lab, a surveillance agency, a poster factory, a medical decision that made the damn spells that ended everything, and a layabout that didn’t do anything with their ministry until the war was nearing its end."

Not a fan of the Ministry Mares, then...

"Heroes they were called, but when real violence came down, they all split up and everything went to hell,” he spat, his eyes squinting angrily but then softened with a grin. “Littlepip, Silver Bell, Life Bloom, they deserve respect. And respect I give them, along with a few extra gifts.”

“Extra gifts?” I asked, taking a sip of my Sparkle-Cola.

“Heheh, this punk is the one who copied the PegWing operating system,” Steampunk explained. “Was easy for him given he works for the Enclave’s Technology Division.”

“Wait, seriously?” I asked, shocked.

“Yeah. I’m technically just an intern, but I reprogrammed my access card to let me access to the more restricted files and areas of the workshop. Got a copy of the OS, and the blueprints to make them. Sadly, the metals and other hardware are hard to come by and are enchanted, so all the replicas we make can’t withstand much, but they get new recruits in and out of the city walls. Mostly in.”

“Wow. You’ve done a lot huh?” He has such a... he almost worships me. I’m trying not to blush madly, rather diving into my sandwich, which turned out to be grilled cheese and tomatoes. “So, what rank is your dad?”

“Second Lieutenant right under my uncle, Erdnussbutter, First Lieutenant.”

I nearly did a spit take and ended up settling for just choking on what little soda I was sipping. “That crazy stallion is your uncle?!”

“Oh… I guess you met him… Yeah, he’s my mother’s little brother, though not very little considering they were born nearly a year apart.”

“But… the accent…”

He shrugged. “Don’t ask me. Guy was always a nut.”

“So… how did he get that metal hoof thing?”

“Oh… I designed it, showed it to my boss a few years ago, got a small bonus, and uncle Erd got a new hoof. Been missing his since a couple of years after he joined the Enclave. Some battle for something or other when I was a foal.”

“Is there anything you can’t do with machines?”

“So far, nope.”

We finished up and went on with the tour. Next room was the armoury and shooting range. Coffin hooked me up with some more ammo for my shotgun and a few special rounds. Incendiary, and EMP pulse slugs, for the soldiers in power armour and robots.

He also gave me something… different. It was a revolver, like Little Macintosh, but the bullets were… glowing green. “Acid rounds, crap eats away at anything, power armor and flesh included. The bullet is enchanted not to break when fired but to break on impact when it hits something. Sadly, Cerberus Tanks don’t melt easily when shot with them. Damn things even can take hits from the EMP slugs cause of some lead lining their interior wires. Protects them well from EMP stuff, which sucks for us.”

With that done Coffin also showed me the showers, which were separated for mares and stallions. They also had the restrooms, and some extra rooms that were used for close quarters combat training, storage, and then the med bay, which was fairly large.

“And lastly is the factory slash main office of Silver Bell and Life Bloom,” Coffin announced as we entered a large room where ponies were all sitting at workbenches, repairing, building and designing weapons, ammo, and armour. “The manager of an Enclave weapons facility manages to sneak us parts and extra supplies to work with off the records, her supply line to us keeps up in stock of munitions, and up there is Life Bloom and Silver Bell's office.”

Revenge! “So… why are you located here?” I asked. “I mean you get all this neat stuff, but don’t you think it's too risky?”

Steampunk gave a huff. “Yeah, it is a bit risky… But...” With a smirk on his face, he continued. “It is the last place the Enclave would expect to find our Resistance HQ.”

“Hm, I suppose that does make sense…” I said, then I finally looked up, seeing the office was some sort of metal square kept above the floor via metal supports on the ceiling. There was no ladder or stairway up there. “How do we get up there?”

“I am glad you asked. Crainlift!” A massive gust a wind came from behind us, I turned around to see what had to be the largest griffon I have ever seen, he was easily three ponies tall; his wings created a large shadow over Coffin, Steampunk and me. His feathers were midnight black, his beak cracked, eyes… white… is he blind? “Crainlift is the grandson of the old merc leader Blackwing, after his mom and dad died, Silver Bell and Life Bloom raised him. The resistance is all he’s ever known.”

This is Blackwing’s… grandson... “What happened to Blackwing herself?”

“She fled the war after Littlepip was killed, lived a good amount of her life still fighting but died from cancer when Crainlift’s mom was barely ten. Supposedly, she then died laying his egg.”

“How did he…”

“Lost his sight in a fight seven years ago. Shame, he was a damn good sniper. Silver put him to work moving large cargo and bringing ponies up and down from her and Life Bloom’s office.”

“...Does he talk?”

“No, never spoke a word from what I’ve been told. Life Bloom said something about his vocal cords having not developed properly. Welp, anywhos-it, Crainlift, take her up please.”

The large griffon nodded, somehow grabbing me and holding me like a newborn foal in his claws and, in just a few flaps, brought me up to the ceiling-mounted office, opened the door, and placed me inside. Rather carefully and gently I might add. Before me lay Life Bloom and Silver Bell. I did a double take, as the posters did not do them justice. Sitting next to a large round table was a much older Life Bloom, older than what the posters showed, and Silver Bell, who had some grey in her mane, which the posters did not show.

Old pictures, or were they making them look young and imposing?

“Ponies, leave Life Bloom and I to tend to this new recruit personally,” Silver said, all other ponies in the room heading to the door behind me, hopping on Crainlift. Once the last of them was gone and the door shut, Silver walked up to me… and hugged me. “It’s good to see you again, Littlepip.”

I tad surprised, I hugged back. “Same, when did you grow into an old mare?” I chuckled.

She broke the hug. “Hey, I am not that old!”

“It’s so good to see you awake, Littlepip.” Life Bloom trotted up to me. Once he got close enough I grabbed him in my magic, quickly turning him around and delivering a swift buck between his legs. He gave off a rather loud whinny then laid on the ground gripping his smashed stallion bits. “I guess you’re pissed then…” he muttered weakly.

“Yeah! Why did you tell my friends I died!? Why change the way I look, the height increase is nice, but the rest of me, come on! And why was I frozen for forty years!?”

“I best explain this part as best I can,” Silver said, putting a hoof on my back and sitting next to me. “Pip, you got hit with some new kind of Magical Energy rifle the Enclave deployed last minute during the fight in New Appleoosa.”

“That brings up another question,” I interrupted, looking at her. “How… did the Enclave win?”

Silver let out a sigh. “Well… you see, before Operation: Cauterize was put into effect, the Enclave High Council was considering one of Calamity’s brothers, Colonel Autumn Leaf, to lead the operation as a new rank of Commander in Chief, but then another colonel named Death Scythe convinced the Enclave council otherwise. And so, she was instead appointed into that role instead of Autumn.”

Silver looked to the ground. “With her leading the fight... That is where things took a wrong turn for us. She used one hell of a strategy to kick our flanks to the curb, using some experimental tech, the same kind that nearly killed you. It also didn’t help that they found out about Celestia One from the old documents found in Canterlot ruins, took Tenpony Tower and then used it on Red Eye’s army.” She then looked back to me. “After the Battle of New Appleoosa, your friends recovered you and that’s when Life Bloom decided to put a new plan into action.”

“Yes,” Life Bloom said, getting up while still looking in some pain (Ha!), but he quickly composed himself. “I knew if you were alive the Enclave wouldn’t lighten up until you were found and killed, so I declare you dead, to even your friends, in case worst came to worst and they were captured and tortured into giving the Enclave answers. The only ponies in the room with me at the time were Silver and Ditzy, helping me tend to you as best I could.”

“Wait, if Ditzy was there, where is she?” As I asked that, they looked down… no…

“The Enclave caught Mum. And being a ghoul, they killed her then and there,” Silver said with venom in her voice. “It’s why our symbol is her cutie mark, and why I started this Rebellion and put it in full swing as best I could.”

“Before Ditzy died, she was the one who managed to find us a location where we could heal you and hide you until the time was right. It was risky but with effort and luck, we acquired a pre-war cryogenics pod. It was to keep you alive by freezing you; not cold enough to kill you, but enough to slow your bodily functions to be like a lizard in hibernation.”

“So that’s what happened…” I muttered, letting all this sink in. So much death… “Are there really no others left from before?”

“Some of us are left,” Silver Bell responded. “Though the Enclave spread quickly. The Security Mare was supposedly spotted in the Hoofington Core, though the Enclave sent their entire fleet of raptors and thunderheads to level it. It’s an enervation filled junkyard now.”

“She’s dead?”

“Missing, officially. But who can say…” Life Bloom said sadly. “The other factions didn’t last long up there. Zodiacs, Reapers, Zebra Remnant, it didn’t matter. They even destroyed one of their own cities and several of their own ships when they refused to kill innocents.”

“I… see.” I missed a lot… “But why forty years, and why and how did you change me so much?”

“That’s where I step in,” Life Bloom spoke up. “You see, when we acquired the pod it was in need of repairs, we got it working but, there was an error. The timer on it was malfunctioned. When we put you in, it had only been a year after the war and the timer was set for a hundred years, but, thankfully, we managed to hack it. Sadly though, the digital timers were corrupted, and the least amount of time we could set it to was forty years. We were only supposed to have you in there for two, more than enough time for your body to heal fully.”

“Okay, so wonky pre-war tech, nothing new there… But how did you do this to me? How did you change my coat, mane, eye colour and even my height!?”

“I am rather proud of that actually. You see, while healing you I discovered that your DNA was heavily mutated from taint. But, by applying radiation in special amounts to specific genes, I could alter your entire body. Sadly, that new energy weapon’s damage wasn’t as easy to fix, but I did what I felt I had to hide you. I changed your mane colour, coat colour, made you the height of an average mare, I also made you faster than a normal pony, not by much, but enough to dodge what you should need to. I also made you strong, you’re no Xenith, but you can crack a rib or two if needed.”

At least I still had my cutie mark...

“Then how come your stallion bits aren’t in pieces?”

I swear I saw a sweat bead drop from his mane. “Well, sadly those additions to you only occur when you are irradiated. At least three hundred rads to make them work at their fullest.”

“Wait… is that why I felt funny after getting out of that weird machine when I entered the city?”

“Yes, it removes any and all radiation from those entering the Upper District.”

“Oh… but, when I blew up the alicorns…”

“That’s actually something interesting I discovered about your DNA mutations,” Life Bloom cut in. “You see, a sample of your DNA, when compared to one of the alicorns, revealed a sixty-three percent match; meaning that if you were irradiated to the point of killing a normal pony, you’d survive grenades, bullet wounds, regrow limbs... I saw those marks, it’s quite fascinating.”

“But, there’s a catch to being a freak, right?”

“Well, yes. If you are that irradiated and not healing, the radiation will alter your brain and you will be more aggressive, dumber… primal.”

“How’d you figure that out?”

“Simulations. Ran them at least a hundred times, all results came back the same.”

“Simulation… like in a computer?”

“Yes.”

“Oh… well, alright. So, where are my friends?”

Life Bloom and Silver shared a look… I didn’t like it. “Well, we know Homage is helping run a pro-rebel radio station somewhere outside in the wastes. Calamity we last heard was in hiding, Xenith is also in hiding, though we think she’s been sighted along the Las Pegasus Ruins, and Velvet was last heard being a member of what was left of the Applejack’s Rangers,” Silver explained. “After the Steel Rangers joined the Enclave during Operation: Cauterize…”

Those metal tin can fuckbots!

“...the less douche of them defected to Applejack’s Rangers, and while they still follow Steelhooves’ ideals, they only take in newcomers if they have some value to the chapter as a whole.”

“That explains why they took in Velvet, she must be a medical master by now,” I said, thinking about how they will react to seeing me again. “So, when will I see them?”

“Sadly, not anytime soon… And for now, they can’t know you’re you, Littlepip.”

“WHAT?! I didn’t get frozen for forty years and wake up in a world run by the goddesses damn Enclave to NOT find them and tell then I’m okay and ALIVE!”

“Pip, calm down! We know, and in due time, but for right now the world still needs to think you’re dead. For now, you’re Sparkplug, age twenty-four, technician, and honorary Enclave citizen.”

I growled. I came this far and to reach my friends I still have to go so much further. Damn it, I just want to see them again… Even after all this time… Nothing has changed. Not a damned thing. “Fine. But when the time is right I’m telling them myself, and I know I can prove it to them all.” I took a deep breath. “So… what is it I’m gonna be doing first?”

“For now, rest, we got a lot of-” There was a flash on the table. “Huh, Enclave is broadcasting something over all channels.” Silver said, looking surprised.

“Channels, like radio?” I asked.

“No, Enclave figured out how to rebuild televisions and such so now there’s TV for all to see again.”

“Seriously? Wow…”

“Yeah, most is propaganda or pre-war movies though,” she said, pressing a button on the table as a projector on the ceiling, an image of a pony dressed in Enclave general attire stood on stage, Enclave banners of the same flag from the parade and soldiers lined up in rows to fill ten hoofball fields, all looking forward to the stage. “That’s General Grim Gallop, Scythe’s top subordinate.”

And then the General spoke.

“Citizens of the Grand Equestrian Enclave! I stand here before you to remind you all of how we brought Equestria back from a festering swamp of radiation, bloodshed, and violence, so peace, harmony, and most importantly... order would be re-established. At this very moment, in locations all over Equestria. Groups plot to destroy our very ideals! Our ways of life!"

"The Resistance in all its factions will learn today that we do not tolerate any of those who wish upon the downfall and destruction of the Final Reich. Before us the Reichs of the Princesses fell, they failed to achieve supreme dominance and so were pushed back and exterminated! The First Reich of the princesses ended when Nightmare Moon rebelled! The Second Reich of Princess Celestia ended with the Great War! Then the Third Reich of Princess Luna ended with the Last Day! But unlike before, the Enclave will be the Final Reich, the last and true era of rule for Equestria!"

"This day, the Resistance will learn that their days are numbered! They will not succeed in ending all that we have achieved. At this very moment, our war machines are already marching along the scorched and blood-soaked soils of the Wasteland eradicating any and all Resistance strongholds they come across. More and more are being built and soon nothing the Resistance does will matter, because... We! Have! WON! Their petty squabbling and fighting will be nothing more than hoofnotes in history!"

"And when all the Resistance leaders are found, they will get a terrorist's death. Slow and painful. Then whatever remains of the Resistance will have no choice but to BOW before us!”

He then pounded his right hoof on his chest.

“LONG LIVE THE ENCLAVE!”

At that, every Enclave soldier facing the stage also pounded their hoof to their chests causing a thunderous sound and repeated what he said in sync.

“LONG LIVE THE ENCLAVE!”

“LONG LIVE THE ENCLAVE!!”

“LONG LIVE THE ENCLAVE!!!”

The screen cut out, and we all shared a glance. “So… where do I start?”

“Sleep?” Silver suggested, rubbing her head.

“Wha…? Sleep, but they-”

“We know Pip, and it’s nothing we weren’t already expecting,” Life Bloom cut in. “For now, you’ve been through a lot already. Head to sleep in the barracks and we’ll call for you when you’ve awoken.”

“So… we’re just going to do nothing right now?!”

“Not nothing… just, wait. We have a plan but, well, we know how you can get when things are getting bad, you pull yourself through hell, put your body through hell. It’s been a long enough day for you as is, so for now, just go to sleep. We’ll need you at full strength to give us some of that Lightbringer magic,” Silver said, chuckling a bit.

“But…”

“Pip, they’re already out hunting bases, probably killed several factions by now. There’s nothing we can do about that, but the majority of the better resistance factions are rather well hidden, and if the other less hidden factions get word they have evacuation protocols. We just gotta have faith they hold out till we launch the plan tomorrow. We need the Stable Dweller at her best.”

“And that plan is?”

“Taking out the Hades Tank factory.”

“...That is a rather big mission… Alright, I’ll rest up then.”

“Good, also, stop by the medical clinic in the morning, I wanna run a few tests, you’re forty years late for a check-up after all,” Life Bloom said with a chuckle.

I laughed. “I guess I am. Alright then, I’ll stop by after breakfast,” I said, heading to the door and Crainlift taking me down.

I then walked all the way back to the barracks and to the bed Coffin said was mine. It wasn’t too hard to find, it was the only one without any personal touches on it, though there was now a pillow and folded blanket on it. As I walked in, a bunch of other resistance members also seemed to be getting ready to hit the hay, padding out their covers and sliding into them for the night.

And I was about ready to join them. I approached my assigned bed and studied it for a moment. It didn't exactly look like a Tenpony Tower quality bed, but it probably beat the hard ground. I placed the pillow by the headrest and was unfolding the blanket. A piece of paper fell out and I opened it.

Welcome to the Resistance, try not to die, get found out, or set off a gun in the Workshop.

-Coffin.

P.S: You now have a hooflocker under your bed and I put something in there for you.

Confused, I pulled the hooflocker out from under my bed and opened it. Inside was a copy of the book Coffin carries of my life, a Stable-Tec Stable Colt plushie, and a holotape. I uploaded the holotape, and saw that it was an audio recording…

“Records show that this one mare, an Appletonic, according to the Stable 2 records, is that 'Lightbringer’s' mother. Yeesh, how did that filly survive growing up with her? Well, Colonel is scheduling her to be executed, her crime, birthing the Lightbringer.”

I felt sick… they killed my mother… for having me… My PegWing beeped, and there was a new note.

I wanted to share this with you cause it’s a reminder, she was innocent, and they killed her for being Littlepip’s mother. I found her grave, coordinates are marked in your PegWing now, I visit her often, whether she cares or not, and I tell her about all her daughter inspired. She’s the only link to my hero I have. If I see you there, bring hard cider, hear she loves it.

I gulped, getting under the covers and thinking. My friends are alive, and my mum is dead… because of me. No, because the Enclave wanted all traces of me gone. Sour Malt Apple Cider was always her favourite.

I’ll bring her one last bottle of it.

Footnote: Level 1

Character Customisation Saved

New Perk: Lightbringer Reborn - You have lost all your previous levels and perks, but gain +20% experience whenever new experience is earned, and an extra point to your SPECIAL.

Author's Note

Yes the milkshake thing was a blatant Wolfenstein reference, well done for noticing.

4 - The Resistance

Chapter Four - The Resistance

“The Enclave, they're not who they say they are... Get out while you can, before they get you too!”

When I woke up, Stable 2 was burning.

I tried not to breathe in all the smoke, but it was everywhere. Pouring in from every corridor, every ventilation unit. What was even happening!? Why in Celestia’s sunny nipples was everything on fire!?

I rolled out of my bed, crouching down low to try and get some decent air. My PipBuck was showcasing all kinds of warnings… PipLeg.

My PipBuck was still fused to my leg, as it had been since Canterlot…

Ugh, why was everything fuzzy? I remember Canterlot, I think I blew up the Goddess to high hell…

How did I get here, though?

It was getting harder to breathe. Fuck, I had to get out! I remember the code, CMC3BFF. And if there were any other dwellers still in here…

Goddesses, I hope most had already gone to Junction R-7!

My door was already open, so I ran out of it and into the smoke-filled hallway. I… have no idea where the fire is coming from. All I can see is the smoke, and the orange haze filling the fallout shelter. I had to move, to get out! I remember the way, and I bolted in the direction of the atrium, I could get to the stable door from there.

But first, I had to find my mother.

The last time I saw her, Velvet had nearly broken her nose. But whatever was… broken between us, she was still my parent. I couldn’t leave her in here!

So, I ran, pushing my legs as hard as I could. But fuck my life, I don’t remember the corridor being this long! Come one! Just a turn here, and another there…

There it is!

Mum’s door was locked.

“FUCK YOU, STABLE 2!” I shouted in anger, why did this have to happen now of all times!?

Fuck it, I ripped off the control panel and took the utility cable from my PipBuck, inserting it into a compatible socket. Green text passed by on the screen, and I moved quickly to access the door’s control system. I hit the emergency override, and the door slid upon with a hiss.

I yanked my PipBuck free and jumped inside.

Only to find a grave.

Executed for the crime of birthing The Stable Dweller.

“What…” That whimper came from me. I… just what!? What the fuck was happening!?

The grave was just sitting on the metal floor, nopony could be buried here! This had to be a sick fucking joke! Yes, mum was already at Junction R-7, she had to be!

I turned from the room, and I ran. I was tired, but I didn’t care. Nor did I care for the smoke filling my lungs each second. I had to get out, to find my friends. Nothing else mattered.

And when I emerged into the equally smoke-filled atrium, I found one.

Steelhooves’ armoured head was stuck on a pike, behind which stood a snarling, hungry hellhound with my friend’s blood staining his claws.

N-no…

They’d killed him… After the Goddess. The hellhound had come out of nowhere…

And now it eyed me, and I suddenly felt extremely exposed without my weapons. It crouched, and I couldn’t move! I couldn’t defend myself, and was going to-

A loud crack filled the atrium, and the hellhound’s head exploded.

“Lil’Pip!” Calamity shouted from the opposing doorway, smoke trailing from the barrel of the recently fired Spitfire’s Thunder. “Git moving! Now!”

And then he turned and ran back through the doorway.

“Hey! Calamity, wait!”

I ran after him, though my pegasus friend had already vanished into the smoke. But he’d been heading in the direction of the entrance, the others had to all be there!

I took off running again.

Like before, these corridors seemed to stretch on for eternity. I couldn’t see Calamity ahead of me, and I quickly gave up on calling out when I nearly choked to death from the smoke on my first attempt.

I just had to reach the door, it was right ahead…

“Littlepip…”

It was the Overmare, hunched over in the doorway leading to the main entrance. She was holding a hoof tightly on her chest, which I realised was nursing a bullet wound.

“Overmare…?” I whispered in shock, quickly scooching over to her side. “I… I can help! My friends are nearby, Velvet can save you!”

“You… You could have saved us,” the Overmare weakly chided, coughing up blood. I… I couldn’t have done anything! I don’t even know what’s happening! “They came, and you failed… us…”

Her bar on my E.F.S. blinked out, and she went limp.

I… I couldn’t do anything.

FUCK!

I left her corpse behind, fighting back my tears. Later, Littlepip! Just get out! Now!

The stable door was already open, though I could see smoke filling the cave beyond. But I didn’t pay it any mind, I just ran out into the rocky expanse all the way up to the apple cellar it led to. I bolted up the rickety old stairs and burst through the hatch into the wasteland.

I found the fire.

Equestria was… burning. Everything was. The entire sky was orange, and the cloud cover seemed to be funnelling the smoke all over the surface. Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, I could even see distant flames that must have led all the way to Manehatten…

And the culprit was certainly those raptors in the sky, dozens of them, a thunderhead position in the centre of the fleet. Hundreds, if not more, vertibucks were being deployed from the fleet as I looked up in horror. And there, directly ahead of me, were my friends.

They were knelt down before a squad of pegasi in fill power armour, their landed vertibuck behind them. The Sky Bandit lay nearby, a smouldering heap from magic weapons fire.

Calamity, Velvet and Xenith all looked towards me, meeting my eyes.

And then the Enclave gunned them down, and I watched as their bodies turned to green sludge.

No… NO!

Everything just unravelled before me, I… I couldn’t think! THOSE BASTARDS. I screamed, and I charged them, picking up the discarded Spitfire’s Thunder in my magic and turning it on the nearest soldier. I didn’t even give them time to react as I pulled the trigger, and even though the immense recoil sent the gun hurtling from my grip the bullet still cut the soldier down in an instant!

Only, as the soldier fell the armour faded away, and Homage took the pegasi’s place.

That… how… no… no…

I fell, crawling to the side of the mare I love. She was still. Lifeless. Her eyes open with one final look of fear.

Fear of me. The Hellmare. The one who had slaughtered her way across an already broken world and failed to make anything better. Failed to protect anypony, even her own friends…

So, I just cradled her. I had no tears. I had nothing left. I felt… dead. I just let the Enclave surround me, and I did nothing as they all fired their weapons.

Only to scream as I woke up in the barracks, deep in the resistance base. I… what the fuck was that dream!? Looking at a hoof, I saw it was indeed the pearly white that Life Bloom had engineered. My coat was laced with sweat, and I could see the other ponies in the barracks shooting me looks a mix of annoyance and concern.

Goddesses…

I had to remind myself that, aside from Steelhooves, my friends were alive. Homage was alive, out there, somewhere… But Stable 2 was long gone. I had failed them, I know. But… I had a chance to make up for that now! To stop the Enclave, even if it is forty years late!

...Right?

I fell back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. And I knew full well I would get no more sleep that night…

The morning couldn’t come soon enough.

I was out of that bed the moment the other members of the resistance began to rise themselves, I did not want to be alone with my thoughts any longer. Seriously, my head was a fucked up place. Give me a hellhound any day of the week.

Still, contemplating in silence does build up an appetite, so I made my way back to the cafeteria. I had yet to see Coffin, Steampunk or any of the other resistance fighters I’d met the day before. But then again, they were probably busy doing… resistance stuff.

One thing that hasn’t changed over the past forty years, the food.

I ended up having an old box of preserved Dandy Colt Apples, along with a Sparkle-Cola. Damn, never thought I’d miss our homegrown apples back in the stable, but here we are.

No, not thinking about Stable 2 again. I’ve done enough of that.

I distracted myself by trying to see what other ponies had to say for themselves. Yeah yeah, eavesdropping is bad and all that. But I really didn’t want to hear what I had to say to myself, so let’s compromise on this one.

Actually, a lot of the talk around me was disappointingly boring. One mare was talking about how her sister was, and I quote, “A spotlight hoarding cunt”. Because we all want to hear your family drama, lady. Another group of ponies were talking about… art? Seriously?

Yawn.

Oh, there was at least one thing of interest. I heard a couple of armed resistance fighters talking about somepony named ‘Liberty Bell’. Apparently, she was one of the stars of the resistance, having one of the largest mission success rates and an Enclave body count through the roof!

Oh man, now I was imagining a pony in pimped out power armour sporting a few gatling guns while towering over everypony in the room! And with a name like Liberty, you have to imagine she’d be all noble and patriotic to the cause, dedicated to delivering a free Equestria! Guess forty years later had to have its own heroes, huh? I hope I get to meet her at some point.

I finished my meal quickly after that, Life Bloom was still expecting me in the medical bay. Who knows? Maybe his modifications have gone wrong, so he’ll have to revert me to my old short self?

Never thought I’d think that line.

As I walked, I took the time to appreciate just how many ponies were actually in this resistance movement Silver Bell has got going. All these ponies, fighting so they could be free again someday.

All because I had failed them.

DAMN IT BRAIN, SHUT UP!

Ugh, let’s just get this medical exam over with. If there are needles involved, I am not going to be happy.

I also didn’t exactly know my way around the place, so I had to ask for directions. I wish this PegWing would just show me a map marker, call my an old-fashioned mare (well, I am technically in my fifties, isn’t that strange to think about...) but I preferred my old PipLeg. Still, the ponies I asked pointed me in the right direction.

When I turned down a corridor with a door helpfully marked ‘infirmary’, I saw a collection of ponies waiting outside who I didn't really think were patients. There was Coffin, I’d recognise that painted power armour helmet anywhere. But there were also two other ponies outside I didn’t recognise.

Actually ‘ponies’ isn’t really the right term since one of them was a glum-looking zebra.

The zebra mare was a little shorter and far less scared than Xenith, also sporting blue eyes instead of green. She was wearing some leather barding over her body, a sniper rifle slung over her shoulder with… Yes, that’s definitely a PipBuck on her hoof. Though the PipBuck looks a little different from the model ponies from my stable wore. The PipBuck technician in me was wondering if I could get a look at it later…

As for the other pony, they looked a lot like Silver Bell. Her coat and mane colours were nearly identical, maybe a slightly different shade? Though her eyes were a light amber instead of blue. She wasn’t currently armed or armoured, and I could clearly see her cutie mark. It was shackles being torn from a wall.

And now that I looked, she was actually kinda cute. I mean, I was trying not to stare at her rump, but it’s hard! Okay!

“Ah, there you are,” Coffin said as he saw me, and I was knocked from my eye candy before quickly trotted up to the group.

“Yeah, uh… what’s up?” I glanced between him and the others. “And who are your friends?”

“Huh?” Coffin glanced at them. Who did you think I meant, Coffin? “Oh! Right, you haven’t been introduced.”

Coffin first gestured towards the zebra mare, who gave me a look of caution. I suppose I couldn’t blame her, I was the ‘new girl’ after all.

“This is Stripe,” he introduced. Stripe? A zebra named Stripe? Oh come on, I refuse to believe that’s her real name. “Not her real name, obviously.”

Called it!

“Uh, then what is?” I asked.

“None of your concern,” Stripe responded. “Ponies have always seen fit to refer to me as ‘Stripe’, so you shall too.”

Okaaaaay…

“She’s a little slow to trust,” Coffin explained. “Stripe used to travel the wastes with a group of friends, but she lost them all.”

“And it is not your place to tell such a story,” Stripe scolded with a frown.

Coffin raised his hooves defensively. “Sorry. But if we’re going to be jumping into hell, shouldn’t be honest about yourself? And I mean, you are Zencori, so stories are kinda your thing.”

Stripe looked at me and seemed to study me for a few moments. As much as this zebra was making me a little… nervous with the glares and distrust she was displaying, I could empathise with her losing her friends. I just hoped her distance wouldn’t be a problem…

“...He speaks the truth. I once travelled with friends of my own,” Stripe admitted, looking away. “But they were taken one by one. All the good we did, the Enclave undid it all. And now it is just me who lives to tell of it…”

She seemed to absentmindedly rub her PipBuck as she spoke. Did… that belong to one of her friends?

“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I’ve lost friends. I know how much it hurts.”

“Then understand my position, little pony,” Stripe stated. “You are an unknown, and I will speak no more of it.”

Well, fair enough, I guess.

Coffin coughed awkwardly and then gestured to the cute mare.

“And this is Liberty Bell.”

WHAT.

“Hi! Sparkplug, right?” The decidedly not super huge gatling gun wielding power armoured mare said cheerfully. And goddesses the way she smiled was adorable. “I’m Liberty Bell, as Coffin said. You’ve already met my Mum, Silver Bell, she leads the resistance. I’m happy to meet you!”

Silver Bell was her mother? Well, I guess that made sense.

“Hi, i-it’s nice to meet you!” Oh dear Celestia, I was staring at the ass of Silver Bell’s kid! “Um, I’ve heard a bit about you…”

“Oh really?” she questioned.

“Yeah, about your body count and, you know… all that stuff.”

“Oh, that…” She snorted dismissively. “I just do whatever Mum wants me to. Ponies are really weird and try to make a big deal out of it, but I just want to help out, you know?”

She gave me a sweet and sincere smile and, for some reason, my insides turned to jelly.

Coffin chuckled. “Yup, she’s the Boss’ bundle of over cheerfulness. Some of the others find it annoying, but I think it can be endearing.”

Liberty Bell puffed up her cheeks. “Just because I want to make people happy, doesn’t make me annoying! They’re just miserable jerks!”

She definitely reminds me of how her mother was when she was a filly. A follower of Pinkie Pie once upon a time, and inspired by Pyrelight to make New Appleoosa full of colour and life.

She may not have been what I was expecting, but… I think I like her.

“Life Bloom is waiting inside, so you’d better not keep ‘em waiting any longer,” Coffin advised. “We’ll wait out here.”

For what? Why were they even waiting?

Well, I guess I can just ask Life Bloom.

I gave them a nod and quickly made my way into the infirmary. The room was filled with equipment, some of it looked like stuff scavenged from various Ministry of Peace hospitals while others looked new, probably taken from the Enclave. Life Bloom was sat at a terminal next to an examination bed, and Silver Bell was with him talking in hushed tones.

I coughed loudly, getting their attention.

“Ah, Littlepip!” Life Bloom greeted. “I hope you slept well. Come in, take a seat on the bed.”

I did as I was told, Silver Bell just watching me while Life Bloom gathered his stuff.

“So, uh… what’s with the others outside?” I asked Silver Bell. “Your daughter is really sweet, by the way.”

The ghost of a smile appeared on Silver Bell’s lips. “Yes. Mum would have been proud to know her. As for while they’re there, they will be accompanying you to the Hades Tank Factory.”

“Ah, right…” That made sense. “What about Psycho and Steampunk?”

“Psycho has other tasks,” she responded. “And Steampunk is running extraction. We’ll talk more at a prior meeting. Though it might be a couple days, we’re making sure we’ve got what we need.”

“Well, I’m glad about Liberty and Coffin coming along,” I answered, before adding: “Though Stripe doesn’t seem to trust me.”

“She will, after working with you out in the field,” Silver Bell assured. “But she doesn’t make friends, more so trusted acquaintances. You saw that PipBuck on her leg?”

“Yeah. Looks different to my old one, but I saw it.”

“It belonged to one of the ponies she travelled with.” I called that one too! “They were… more than friends. But he died, as did all of her friends. Then with what’s happened over the last forty years, well… You’ll have to forgive her for being distant. She’s one hell of a sniper though.”

I figured as much. I just hope she warms to me.

“Alright, ready!” Life Bloom announced, approaching me with a small ring attached to a bunch of wires. “We’ll start with a simple test of your magical strength.”

Well, here goes nothing.

The next Celestia knows how long was a flurry of every fucking test Life Bloom could think of. Hay, I think he made a few up off the top of his head! And even when he assured me I was not his little lab rat, I was even more sure than ever that I was exactly that!

Ugh, but what was I to do but sit through the tedium? If I had to stare at the same blank wall for several years, I could get through a couple of mundane health checks.

Apparently, my blood pressure was fine, as was everything else, barring the immense mutations I had inside. Though with regards to that, there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger of sprouting wings and acting all ‘Great and Powerful’.

My magic was also pretty much how I left it, so that was good. At least it was still green, I’m lucky Life Bloom can’t find a way to change that since, according to him, the colour of a pony’s magic is connected to their soul or something. Same with a cutie mark, which is why he couldn’t permanently change it, only deface it. And if he’d done that, I would have punted him off a building.

“It can’t be permanently dyed, tearing it off magically could cause immense damage, and I’m not sure such a spell even exists,” he rambled after he finished checking my blood pressure. “A cutie mark wants to be seen. It’s not even truly part of a pony’s fur, it’s completely magical in nature.”

I shrugged. “So?”

“So, somepony could recognise you because of it,” he pointed out as he began to pack his equipment away. “We need to hide it, put a falsity, a decal, in its place.”

“I thought you just said it couldn’t be dyed?”

“Not permanently, no. The dye will fade over time,” LIfe Bloom explained, before extracting something from a medical crate. “But this decal can be reapplied every day or so. Don’t forget to, or there could be issues.”

“What is it?” I asked as I took the decal.

“A PegWing, I thought it was a suitable stand-in.”

Looking at the design, it did seem to be a PegWing version of my own PipBuck cutie mark. Still, when I looked down at the mark on my own rump I felt… reluctant to part with it.

Damn it, I didn’t have a choice, did I?

Life Bloom noticed my sour look. “Pip, I know it’s not ideal, and I know you’re attached to your mark-”

“My cutie mark is a part of me, so yeah!” I shot back.

“-but you aren’t losing it,” he continued without stopping. “It’s just hidden. In private, there’s no issue. Just when you’re among the Enclave.”

“It’s for the best, Littlepip,” Silver Bell supported. Gah… “If they realise it's you, at this stage of the rebellion… They’ll come at you with everything they have. You made an impact forty years ago, with what you did to the Goddess and their fleet at Maripony.”

“And at Friendship City,” Life Bloom added. “You did more damage to them during Cauterize than entire armies were able to.”

“Same deal with the Security Mare, when she destroyed Shadowbolt Tower and defended Thunderhead,” Silver Bell said. I wasn’t sure what either of those were, but I remembered Security from Homage’s broadcasts… “Point is, they fear ponies like you. The unstoppable forces of nature who could bring down a nation.”

I snorted. “Unstoppable… I feel pretty stopped, after what happened at New Appleloosa.”

“Maybe. But more than anything, you’re a symbol of hope,” Silver Bell stressed. “One we can’t let die. Not again.”

“Alright, I get it!” I suppose I could deal with it. It’s hardly the strongest blow I’ve been dealt recently. “I’ll wear the decal.”

Life Bloom sighed. “Thank you, Pip.”

“Yeah… So, we done here?”

He nodded. “For now, yes. We have some time before we’ll be ready to brief you and the team on the factory, so until then you can do whatever.”

“We might have a few ops for you to do. You could also explore the city, see what the Enclave is doing above our heads right now,” Silver Bell suggested. “But we’ll leave that up to you. What do you feel like doing?”

There was only one answer I had for them.

“I want to see my Mum.”

I emerged into the industrial sector of the inner city. Hard to believe the resistance managed to construct their base right under the Enclave’s noses. I suppose that’s what happened when most of the factory workers are planted resistance supporters.

I was going alone, my new decal on my backside and the map marker Coffin provided showing on both the PegWing’s map and my Eyes Forward Sparkle. Her grave actually wasn’t that far from New Appleoosa, out there on a hillside in the Equestrian Wasteland where the resistance members who’d seemingly recovered her body had buried her.

We’d never gotten along in life. But still…

This was one thing I had to do.

I was saddened that mum was dead, but what do you expect? Forty years, and with her drinking habits, I’m shocked she didn’t...ya know, a lot sooner. I always wondered why Mum drank so much. No pony ever told me, those who talked to me more than a few commands anyway. Mum never talked about it, the why and how of it. I mean, heck, no stallion in Stable 2 even came up as my father. Makes me think he either died before my birth, which would explain her drinking a bit, or he was just one of the many jackasses in there.

Or maybe there was a party, everypony got super wasted and Mum later discovered she was pregnant with me and never knew the father…

Still, a DNA test would have been nice. I know all the Stable 2 genetics and family trees were on file, yet nopony ever performed said test on me, and that sucked.

Still, growing up wasn’t too bad, I guess. When I was younger I remember Mum didn’t drink as much, and we even had some fun. She’d play this file on her PipBuck, an old pre-war song, though it was just the music, no vocals, and she’d bring up a separate file with the lyrics and we’d sing Karaoke. We both couldn’t sing to save our lives, but it was fun regardless. It wasn’t until I was… seven, I think, when she really began her binge drinking diet.

I really don’t know what happened. I was in school that day and when I came home the whole ‘house’ smelled of booze and mum was passed out on the coffee table. Well, the rest after that is history really.

Crap. Now I’m thinking how things could have been different again, how I fucked it up... Stupid thoughts, just stay happy for a while!

Whatever.

While in my internal rambling, I seemed to have walked myself to the front gate on autopilot. Good thing I took notice, because the guard was giving me a really weird look. Still, they checked by PegWing ID and let ‘Sparkplug’ through into the slum outside, even if they questioned why I would ‘subject myself to the unclean rabble’. Assholes.

I left the inner city, and the wall, behind as quickly as I could. It may look all nice and shiny, but everything about that place just feels wrong. Who knew the area that looked the most like the wasteland could appear more comforting to be around?

Doesn’t change the shitty conditions the Enclave has these people living in. Really, they were probably better off before the Enclave came along. If that’s even possible, seeing how the wasteland was back then.

At least most ponies had been free.

Taking in my surroundings, I saw the area and I quickly remembered it. This is where I saved those foals. Huh, I wonder how they are? I know they said their home was nearby. Maybe I should visit.

I walked around a bit before deciding to knock on the doors. Most didn’t answer, I guess since I looked every bit the Enclave citizen. Sigh. Still, after several attempts, I got a result! It was the eldest foal who opened the door and, unlike everypony else around here, greeted me with a warm and cheerful smile.

“Hey! It’s you! The nice mare who saved my sis and me!” she said. “Mama! Big Brother! It’s the nice mare who saved Glass Cup and me!” She called out, turning around to get the most audio inside.

“Wait, really?” an older mare, her mother likely, said. Her voice sounds… “Well let me personally thank-” She stopped dead in her tracks and I tensed up…

Celestia’s monthly fucking mood swings. You have got to be kidding me.

She was… the female raider who tried to mug me! She was cleaned up and out of that… rather crappy scrap armour now that I think about it, but it was her!

“You?!” we both shouted, shock in my tone and anger in her’s.

“You… You knocked my son and I! We out cold for five hours!”

“You tried to mug me!” I countered.

“You-” she started, before looking down at the little one, looking confused at her mother. Finally, the mare sighed, motioning for the filly to move aside as she walked up to the door. The two of us now face to face. “You saved my foals… thank you for that…” she reluctantly thanked, her body language telling me she had to force that out.

“Heh… Sorry for knocking you out for so long… Guess I don’t know my own strength…?”

“I’ll say. If it wasn’t for that horn on your head I’d say you were an earth pony or something to hit that hard,” she remarked, letting herself chuckle a bit. “So... what brings you by here again? You got a PegWing so I figure you must be some kind of decent worker inside the walls.”

Well, at least she was trying to be civil this time. I guess it’s because the kid is here. “Oh, well I… Yes and no, well… it’s complicated.”

“Well, I guess in the end it all worked out. Hearthfire here showed me where those Enclave jerk offs were going to… Anyway, you left their armours and a few weapons around there so I sold them. I guess I owe you for having food on the table for a good while. Resistance pays good for their tech to use against them.”

“Heh, glad to hear that worked out.”

“Even if you stole our original weapons,” she added with a grit of her teeth. “I quite liked that shotgun, you know.”

Well, don’t mug ponies!

“Yeah… So, uh… I’m Echinacea, you know Hearthfire here, and my youngest, Glass Cup, is napping in the basement.”

“The basement?”

“It’s the only room with a fortafiable door. We all sleep down there and really only come up here in the main house to cook and enjoy some sun, not for long though. Enclave see anypony out here these days and it’s certain death.”

Especially known raiders. Or is ‘bandits’ a more suitable term, considering I don’t see any flayed pony decorations.

I didn't say that out loud.

“I figured. So, where’s your… son, was it?”

“Yes. Scrap Iron is out scavenging. Just cause we have food today doesn’t mean we’ll have some tomorrow, know what I mean?”

“Heh… yeah…” That was a lie. In Stable 2, there was always food, even before, after I left and before all of this, my friends and I managed to keep well fed, or at least fed enough.

“So… I take it times were really hard when we first… encountered one another.”

“Y-yeah, you could say that. My husband recently passed, and he brought in the most income for food, water, the basics. Most of what I made went towards bullets, but when he died his gun was… Well, we had to sell it.”

Along with pretty much everything else, I would guess.

“When you came along we knew it was either starve or eat,” she continued. “I have a family to think about and sometimes morals and the high road has no place in this world. It ended up working out though, rationed the food we got from selling that Enclave gear should last us a solid week, but ya gotta think long term.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Even if I didn’t agree. You should work with other ponies, not rob from them! Otherwise, that’s how you become a Monterey Jack. “Isn’t there anyplace… safer than here?”

“Not unless we can get inside the walls, but the price is… not cheap. A single adult is over two thousand bits, young adults like Scrap Iron are about the same, while the little ones are only around five hundred bits cheaper. In total, we’d need at least six thousand Enclave bits, and the exchange rates are rigged as hell.”

“Exchange rates?”

She gave me a deadpan look. “What? You grow up in a stable?”

Well...

“It takes twice the amount in caps to pay for it all, and even then there’s the high chance they don’t accept us. And if they do, we’d likely end up in different working and living sectors. And if we can’t get in, earth ponies get put to work in the farms and unicorns are hooked up to machines that drain their mana ‘til near gone, fuel for their energy weapons batteries. It’s not bad pay, if you have high mana reserves.”

“And let me guess…”

“The pay still isn't nearly enough to get in the walls. Caps are still good outside the walls but inside they’re just about worthless, nobody will take 'em. So you need to exchange, and it's two caps for a bit. Plus a fee for the exchange itself. It’s only worth it to exchange, like, fifty caps or a hundred cause the fee is typically seven to ten caps.”

So, if you want in, but they have no interest in you, they’ll extort everything they can for you to ‘earn’ your place. Lovely.

“So, where you heading?” she asked, giving me a look of suspicion. “Most inner-city gals don’t tend to wander this shithole.”

“Oh. I’m just heading to… see some family…”

“Family, huh? Yeah, I understand. Best not keep them waiting. Even the dead get impatient.” She chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess. I… suppose I’ll be seeing you?”

“Sure. Hopefully, it’s not under any bad circumstances,” she said with a shrug. “And… Dammit, I’m sorry about what happened. You seem like a decent enough mare, Miss…?”

“Sparkplug,” I answered, no matter how alien it felt on my tongue.

“Right. Well… try not to get killed. My daughter seems to like you.”

I left with some goodbyes, and we parted ways. The gravesite wasn’t too far away, only a little beyond the borders of the slum. I hurried through the rest of the settlement after leaving my attempted mugger-turned-acquaintance behind, ignoring the glares many ponies gave what they probably saw as an Enclave affiliated unicorn. And I really didn’t want any trouble based on a misunderstanding, so I got out of New Appleoosa as quickly as I could.

And then it was back out into the Equestria Wasteland. The hill was a short hike from there, I didn’t even run into any mutated critters along the way. I suppose the Enclave had nipped that in the bud, at least in the immediate area around the city.

Still, this made it easy to reach my destination. And as I walked up the hill, I finally saw it.

The grave was simple, a wood post with some engravings probably done with a knife. Even more curious, it held a pony’s long since decayed skeleton resting atop of it, battered clothing barely hiding the bleached bones of whoever it once had been.

Whoever they had been, and why they’d died here, that didn’t really matter right now. What did matter was what was engraved into the wood.

Here lies the mare named Hard Cider, resident of Stable 2 and Mother of Littlepip, AKA the Stable Dweller.

Executed for birthing the most dangerous mare in the Enclave’s history.

So… my nightmare wasn’t wrong. My attention was drawn to the skeleton. “But… who are you?” I asked out loud.

I saw they had a saddlebag, which was far more intact than the barding it wore. I leaned down and opened it, extracting its contents. Inside was a single, half-empty vial of sorts. Beyond that, there was a large pistol, semi-auto, and some bullets. I stored the pistol into my PegWing’s, uh… ‘storage’ right alongside my revolver and shotgun. Rummaging through his bag again, it showed only three holotapes. Quickly, I placed the oldest looking on into my PegWing.

The message was labelled: Memories.

“Hehehe, Double Tap~”

My ears did not want to hear that voice… It was… Mum’s. She’s not drunk here, that's clear, but it’s her… What the...?

“Ha, now come on Hard Cider, you and I both know you love this~”

A stallion’s voice started. I looked at the skeleton below me… is...is this him?

No… No, it couldn’t be. Maybe this guy found these recordings? But how? My father was just someone in the stable my Mum fucked for fun.

But now that I think of it, I don’t recall ever knowing a ‘Double Tap’ from Stable 2...

“Yes, but not when you’re recording!”

“Oh hush, I know your fetishes by now.”

“Oh, you are so wrong!”

AH! MY EARS! MAKE IT STOP!

“Hehe, maybe. So, how’s the cider coming along?”

“This batch is going to be my strongest yet. I just wish the apples grew more plump and round like in books, rather than the wrinkly raisins we get, but what can you do?”

“Heh, yeah…”

“...I know that look, Tap. You’re thinking about the outside again, aren’t you?”

“Can you blame me? The stories we heard about the pre-war world. The Sun! Perfect to grow apples in. The Moon, keeping the night’s darkness in check, and the sky! Can you imagine such a vast, endless blue?”

“I can, it’s in old pictures and books, love.”

Love?

“But it has to still be out there now!”

“Even if it is, there’s radiation up the ass out there! We’d be dead the second the doors opened! And if the legends are true, inside this stable is all that’s left! You heard the stories!"

“I heard what we were told, not what was found.”

“Please Tap, not this again.”

“I... alright. For you…” I heard a sigh from the stallion. “You are the only one who can make me shut up and stop when I’m so close, you know?

“Yup! That’s why I’m the dominant one in this relationship.”

“Oh ho! Care to prove it~?”

“Gladly~”

The audio cut out and I was left, puzzled, confused… and more than a little embarrassed. Was this pony from Stable 2? Why didn’t I ever meet him? And… who was he to my mother? I entered the second holotape into the PegWing. It was labelled: Judgement.

“Greetings, Double Tap.”

That was… the Overmare’s voice. She sounds younger, but it’s her…

“Hello Overmare. Been a while.”

“Yes, it has.”

It’s that stallion again… he’s speaking with the Overmare?

“I came to ask of you a favour-”

“The answer is no, Double Tap. Head of Security or not, we have one founding rule in this stable and that’s that the door never opens. The radiation out there is still likely lethal.”

“It’s been hundreds of years, Overmare. With all due respect, aren’t you being a bit foalish in your paranoia?”

“Foalish!? I am upholding a rule unbroken for generations! The doors don’t open and that’s that!”

“Then why have a door? Why keep that terminal in the main room linked to it to open it… why keep that password passed from your predecessor?”

“H-how do you know about that?”

“I didn’t. It was a hunch.”

"Y-you!”

Click.

Boom!

“Gah! You...You shot me!”

“It’s a .32 round, Overmare. Not lethal, least not where I shot you. Your rib cage would have only cracked when stopping that bullet. But we both know I’m not named Double Tap for nothing.”

“Grr… What are you planning?”

“Nothing much, just a simple task. We are going to take a small walk to the stable door. You are going to open it, we will walk outside… and we’ll see who is right. If our PipBucks go off, saying there’s radiation, then we run back inside and close the door. If there’s just a void like you swear by, then that’s all we see. But if I am right and there is a world out there, you break the rule and let us interact with it!”

“...Fine. Not like I have much of a choice right now anyway…”

There was a long semi-silence, only hoof steps were audible. Finally, there was a new sound… tapping, the kind from a Stable-Tec terminal…

“You are going to get us killed…”

The Overmare hissed.

“We’ll see,” the stallion said amidst the ever familiar, and for me, life-changing sound of the stable doors opening. Heavy metal screeched and creaked open as the door slid aside. I remember when I first heard it...

“I… didn’t think they opened.”

“Well, come on then.”

“I am no-”

Click.

“...You’ll be lucky to be placed on janitorial if we live through this…”

“Yeah yeah, come on.”

There was the short sound of hooves trotting along the metal, before finding stone, and a small crunch.

“What was that?”

“Hang on.”

The sound of a PipBuck’s flashlight turning on came up, followed by a scream and a shocked yelp.

“YAAAAAHHH! I knew it! It’s just death! We’re going to die not even a leg’s distance from the doo-”

The sound of a slap rang from the audio… Did this stallion… slap the Overmare? Respect.

“Calm the fuck down! It’s just those who didn’t make it into the stable. For Celestia’s sake, you are such a coward.”

“At least cowards live.”

“Yeah, but for how long?”

“Where… Where are we?”

“This looks… like a pre-war apple cellar? Our stable was built under a farm?”

“That would make sense. Ministry Mare Applejack is buried in our orchard, remember?”

“Look, there’s a hatch. Now can see who was right, got it?”

“R-right…”

I could hear them opening the hatch, and then some gasps.

“It’s so cloudy...” the Overmare muttered, just barely audible on the recording. “It’s like a really high ceiling- Oh stars, I’m gonna throw up!”

“Gross… Just gross…”

“Oh, shut up! Well, there’s… a surface, I’ll admit that. But is there anything alive up here?”

“Look, trees. Even in this place, those apple trees are still growing.”

“...Fine. Double Tap, you were- SWEET MOTHER OF CELESTIA WHAT IS THAT?!”

“Huh?”

WHACK!

“Gah!”

Thud.

“I… I’m sorry Double Tap… I can’t… I just can’t. I can't risk the stable, or the lives depending on me, for your fucking whim. I can’t risk it… And you have to leave.”

There was a fast pace of hooves trotting, quickly followed by the sound of the stable doors closing. It was a bit before he regained consciousness, from what the audio sounded.

“Gah… damn it, what hit me- No… NONONONONONO! You...You bitch! CUNT, COWARD, FUCKING BACKSTABBER!”

Fast trotting quickly ended, followed by loud, repeated banging, likely against the stable’s doors.

“I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! WHEN I GET BACK IN THERE, I’LL BREAK YOUR FUCKING HORN OFF AND SHOVE IT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS IT COMES OUT YOUR MOUTH!”

His banging slowed, and then finally, came to a stop, sobbing replacing the violent anger that overcame his voice earlier. I heard a small thud as the stallion likely hit the ground.

“I… I just wanted to give my wife the chance at her dream. Real apples, like in books, that she can brew… Was that too much to ask? WAS IT?!”

Silence answered him.

“Overmare…?” he whispered. “Open this door! OVERMARE!”

He continued shouting, and after a moment the audio clicked out.

Wife…? Mum was… but… I looked at the skeleton. From Stable 2… was… apparently married to my mum…? was left behind by the Overmare…?

“D-dad?”

Is this… is this skeleton my father’s?! Or was this just some random scavenger who took my father’s things from his lifeless body? WHO ARE YOU!?

I was hyperventilating. My whole life everypony told me my mum was just a drunken slut who slept around and some stallion in the stable was my dad, but they never came forward, nor wanted to. There was one holotape left. Maybe… Maybe it would have some answers?

I put it into the PegWing. It was labelled: I Still Love You.

”Hello there, Double Tap,” Mum’s voice came from the audio. “It’s been nearly a year… The Overmare told us that you left, held her at gunpoint and ran off into the outside. But I don’t believe it. The others have bought into it, but I’m not. I know you would never abandon me… Ouff!”

“Heh, I know you hate it when I’m sad, little one. But please, Mummy can’t handle your kicks. So small, not even born yet and you’re bucking like an apple farmer.”

Mum was pregnant with me...

“Doctors say it’s a filly, hun. I’m calling her Littlepip. Don’t ask why, it just… came to me in a dream. It’s short for Pipsqueak, which I think is quite cute, don’t you think?”

I heard Mum sigh sadly.

“The Overmare is firm on that door never opening. Everypony is taking a vow to never speak of this, your records are even being erased from the system. It will be like you never existed here. The only proof that you ever did exist is here, growing in my belly.”

I… never realised...

“I miss you so much, and… it hurts, Tap. It hurts so much knowing that our daughter will grow up never knowing her daddy. I can’t even tell her about you, because of the Overmare’s decree. You always wanted to be a father, and now you are…”

“Cider, stay calm. At this stage you can still risk a stress-related abortion,” a second male voice urged.

That voice… that was the stable’s doctor. I remember cause I was there a lot. At least when I was little.

“I know, I know, I just- Gah!”

“Cider?”

“I- I don’t… Fuck. Doc, I think she’s coming now!”

“Crap, cut transmission! If the Overmare asks, just say that she was here to listen to some relaxing music. Come on Cider, the medical wing is just a few turns, you can make it.”

“Doc, it hurts!”

“We told you to lay off the drink!” he scolded urgently. “Damn it, get a bed ready!”

The audio clicked out. Premature birth... Well, that explains my size issue.

Former size issue, I guess.

I looked down at the skeleton of the long dead stallion. Was this actually him? My father? But if so, how did he survive out here? Goddesses knows it wasn’t easy for me that first night. And that final tape was… Mum’s. Maybe the tapes were all laid to rest with her, like they found his remains and gave them to Mum before she died? And this guy tried taking them from here, only to get killed?

I just didn’t know. I suppose my father’s story was forever lost to the wasteland.

I couldn’t stop myself, and I just cried. I cried, and I cried. The tears wouldn’t stop for anything. I don’t know how, or when, but I found myself on top of my Mum’s grave, clutching the skeleton gently, afraid that what’s left of who could potentially be my father would break into pieces if I hugged him too tightly. Maybe this wasn’t him, and this was just a scavenger, and I was hugging some random pony…

But if it was Double Tap, I wanted my Dad to know that I loved him.

“I-I- I always wondered where you went. I always wondered why you were never there…” I cried out, gently petting the back of his skull. “I-I thought such horrible things about you… Everypony told me horrible things about the kind of pony you must have been… I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

Double Tap or not, I suppose I chose to believe it was him. I would never know otherwise, so there was no reason not to believe. To believe that, after all these years, he found my Mum again as his life drew to a close. That he found her tape and died knowing he was a father.

I chose to believe that, for this single moment, we were together again.

I returned to the resistance base almost unnoticed, on autopilot the entire way. So many thoughts plagued my mind, and too few of them were good.

I needed something to do. Something to… just not think about it. Someone to talk to, maybe. Resistance stuff, talking about the Enclave. Anything not about my parents, Stable 2 or how badly I fucked it all up.

But first, I dropped off the holotapes into my locker next to my bunk. I made sure to lock it up tight, I… didn’t want anyone else to see it. I suppose I could rationalise it by saying it was about keeping my cover. But really… I just wanted to lock them up. To keep them private.

Ugh, I’m all over the place. I see… Aha! Coffin! Maybe that’s just the distraction I need right now. Maybe Life Bloom was also ready for that meeting. The sooner I was on the move again, the better.

“Coffin!” I called over to the stallion, who was sitting on his bunk with his power helmet by his side.

He looked up at me. “Sparkplug. You’re back.”

“Um, yeah. Had to stretch the old legs, you know?”

“You saw the grave?” he questioned, and I couldn’t hide my wince. “That’s a yes then. What did you think?”

“Well, I…” Dammit, Coffin, this was not the conversation I’d been hoping for! “It was nice of the resistance to do that for her.”

He hummed, though looked a little… sad. “Truth be told, I’ve heard that the resistance never recovered her body. Goddesses know what the Enclave did with it, the burial was more symbolic than anything.”

Oh…

“Still, it was the best anypony could do for her,” he concluded. “But you came back in the nick of time. I think the Boss is about ready to brief us on the Hades Factory. You ready for that?”

He had no idea how much. “Let’s get moving. I don’t want to sit around doing nothing.”

“I know that feeling,” he responded, though I was sceptical. “Come on.”

I nodded, following on. We didn’t talk much on the way to the meeting, though I tried to focus on what was ahead rather than what was behind me. So… I was expecting a lot of Enclave soldiers. I mean, it was a factory meant to create ridiculous tanks of uber death or something, so it wouldn’t exactly be a stroll through an apple orchard.

But if I’d faced a giant insane magical head and lived, then I could do this. Probably.

Think happy thought…?

In truth, I’d feel a lot more confident with my friends by my side. Calamity would be excited to loot everything in sight before we blew the place up. Velvet is a smart pony, she’d have a plan of action. Homage would help, and she always had a way to make me smile when I was down in the dumps. Xenith would be… Xenith. And Steelhooves would just blow up any Enclave soldier who got in our way.

But right now, they weren’t here. I was alone with ponies I barely knew. I didn’t even have Little Macintosh on me, such a simple comfort and familiarity I wished I had holstered to my leg. Maybe… Maybe they had some Party Time Mintals I could-

Coffin gave me such the odd look as I slapped myself. Dear Celestia, I’m a fucking moron! Just because I’m in a shit spot, doesn’t mean I’m going back on those demons in tablet form! My friends would freak out, Velvet would be on my tail twenty-four seven if she even knew I was considering it! All my friends would.

Goddesses, I miss them.

And now I knew I was going to blow of this factory. Because I had to find them when I was done.

“Ah, you’re a little early but come on in,” Life Bloom said to the two of us as we entered the meeting room. When had we even arrived? “Take a seat. We’re almost done here, then we just need the others.”

We did as we were told, both sitting by the large wooden table with a map of Equestria already laid out on top. The map was pre-war, though they’d scribbled a lot of notes and position on it from modern day. Canterlot was crossed out, and a note that said ‘Cloud Ship Shipyard’ was scribbled beside the old capital. There were a couple of patrol routes for both the resistance and the Enclave, some bases for both factions… I even saw Junction R-7 on the map. Why was it marked as ‘ground zero’?

Shortly after my study of the map, a couple of resistance guards brought in both Stripe and Liberty Bell. I couldn’t help but flush as Liberty Bell gave me a happy little smile and wave, before sitting down next to me. Stripe, meanwhile, sat opposite to the rest of us.

Once we were all seated, the doors were closed and locked while Life Bloom and Silver Bell stood at the head of the table.

“Right, I think everything is in order…” Silver Bell began. “So, I’m not going to beat around the proverbial bush. The Enclave has a developed one bitch of a new tank, and we’re going to destroy the lot of them.”

Well, she’d become hadn’t she become rather blunt as she’d aged.

“Uh, yes… exactly right,” Life Bloom agreed with a sheepish chuckle, the red mane unicorn taking in a deep breath. “The Hades Tank Factory is located in Red Eye’s former base of operations, Fillydelphia. I don’t need to tell you that the Enclave has put all of his industrial capabilities to good use over the past four decades, and this is the fruit of that labour. They are amassing an army of these tanks, and if they are all deployed then we’re pretty much doomed.”

“Hull as thick as a stable door, and enough firepower to cause the Last Day all over again,” Silver continued. “Two hundred have already been produced, and they have plenty more on the way. There’s a slight chance we can deal with what they have now, but any more and we don’t have the resources to fight that kind of force.”

"They're all waiting for their first missions in the factory," Life Bloom added. "We can set them back so much if we take them out. Even if they have one or two prototypes already out in the wastes. You all saw one of those during the parade."

"But, if we do this right, that's all we'll be seeing."

“They will rebuild the factory, you know,” Coffin noted.

“Ah, but it would be many years before they succeed,” Stripe pointed in. “They spent far too many of their resources on this and other projects. Even their considerable amount has its limits.”

“How has the Enclave been able to build so much?” I asked. “It’s been forty years since they took over, sure. But still… All of this seems a little too soon to me, like it should have taken longer for them to have built up so much.”

“You’re not wrong,” Life Bloom agreed. “Cities, armies, new fleets of raptors and other classes of ship. It should have taken at least a century of work to get to this level, but they did it in under half that time.”

“We’ve looked for where they’re getting such resources, but we’ve never found it out,” Silver Bell replied. “Whatever it is, they’re keeping it well hidden. So one thing at a time, the Hades Factory is our priority.”

“The Enclave will have a really big force there,” Liberty Bell stated. “I’m thinking troops. Cerberus Tanks, Vertibucks. The lot. Just four of us wouldn’t be able to shoot our way in, even if we are really good at it.”

“Well… couldn’t we get some help from Junction R-7?” I asked, and…

Why did they all suddenly look at me why I’ve mutated a second head.

“...What? If anywhere is going to have a resistance cell, it’s gotta be there!” I defended earnestly. “And it’s on the way.”

“Um… Sparkplug…” Life Bloom coughed awkwardly. “During the early days, Gawdyna Grimfeathers united the cells and tried to take the base the Enclave had built over the town. They dropped a balefire bomb on their heads, wiping the entire thing out.”

They… got Gawd?

“Killed Colonel Autumn Leaf in the process as well. I think that was Death Scythe’s way of clearing the competition as well as showing they have balefire bombs,” Silver Bell stated. “Place is a crater.”

Shit. That was… Well, I guess I expected Gawd to still be around. The old scarred griffon, nice ass and all, always seemed really strong and damn near indestructible. The way she led her talons and turned Shattered Hoof Ridge around… Hearing that the Enclave had killed her was disheartening.

So many people I’d known, from the stable and after, gone...

“You didn't know that…?” Coffin questioned, looking at me oddly.

I blushed. “I… haven’t left the area, really.”

Stripe gave me a deadpan look. “Should we not have somepony with more experience accompany us?”

“Trust me, we want Sparkplug with us on this,” Silver Bell defended. “Now, we clearly can’t just walk up and knock on the front door. So, we’ve scoured high and low for a solution…”

As if it was planned (and it probably was) the door opened up at that exact moment and in strolled Steampunk. He had a rather smug smile on his face and carried two saddlebags on his back.

“Which is where these come in,” Silver Bell concluded.

Without a word, Steampunk undid the bags and brought out four rather dusty cold cloaks. He set one out in front of us, and I gave the garments a confused look. What exactly were these going to do…?

Then I noticed Stripe’s wide eyes.

“Where did you get Zebrican stealth cloaks?” she asked in shock.

“We have some contacts in the old Empire, though it wasn’t easy to get these to us,” Silver Bell explained. “It cost us a leg or two. Literally. But we got them, and that’s how we’re going to get in.”

Ah… I remember these. Heh, Xenith is going to be jealous when she hears about this.

“So, we’re sneaking in?” Coffin asked for clarification.

“There are shipments regularly in and out of the factory, by both air and land,” Life Bloom said. “When you arrive, you’ll hitch a ride into the factory while invisible. From there, well… We’ll be in contact with you the whole way. We don’t know what’s inside, so you will tell us and we will advise your course of action.”

So, in other words, we were making it up as we go along.

Business as usual. My plans usually sucked anyway.

“You’ll be leaving first light tomorrow,” Silver Bell announced. “So, rest up and be ready to move. You’ll be walking the entire way, so make sure you’re prepared for the long haul it’s safer this way. Steampunk will be ready to get you out of there once the mission is complete should you need it.”

I wanted to ask how, but I halted my question as they went to conclude the meeting.

“You know what we’re doing, so get to it,” Silver Bell ordered. “And good luck.”

And with that, the meeting was done. We knew our target, had a way in… And now we just had to hope we didn’t explode somewhere along the way. Knowing me, and I like to think I do, I’d probably end up unconscious at some point.

Welp, no time like the present! Forty years later!

Stripe got up from her chair and vacated the room along with Steampunk. The door opened, and a few other ponies came in to help put away the map and get back to whatever work they did normally.

But the two either side of me remained seated, and Coffin shot me a smirk.

“Hope you’re ready for this, Sparkplug. This is going to be a tough one.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “I know how to handle myself. Most of the time.”

“Mum seems really fond of her, so that’s a vote of confidence I can trust!” Liberty Bell supported. “I don’t know what you did to make that impression though, she can be hard to impress sometimes.”

I… found that hard to imagine for some reason.

“Well, I hope I live up to that impression.” I chuckled sheepishly. “Really though, as long as I can help I’m happy.”

“You and me both!” she chirped. “And if we do this, can you imagine all the lives we’ll save from the Enclave? Those new toys of theirs are… well, really nasty.”

“I saw one in the parade,” I said, biting my lip. “They put on a show for them. I can see why we don’t want them to be a common sight.”

“Yeah. They’re always making new weapons to use against us, like the ones that took my Dad…” Her usual cheerfulness fell, and I suddenly found myself trying to give her a comforting smile. “Have… you lost anypony to the Enclave? I know you’re an honorary citizen and all, but…”

“I’ve lost people,” I replied sadly. Fuck, now I was thinking about it again. “My Mum. Pretty much everpony I knew growing up. I’ve… well, I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately.”

She looked up at me. “Yeah? You miss them, huh?”

I closed my eyes. “Yeah… It’s my fault they died.”

She gasped, giving me a sad look. “Oh, don’t say that! That’s… not a nice thing to think about yourself. I’m sure with whatever happened, you couldn’t stop it.”

If I hadn’t been hurt and missed out on the war… Then who knows?

“I’m not so sure, Liberty. But thanks, anyway.”

Then she gave me a hug, and I froze.

“I don’t know how it happened, but it’s not your fault, Sparkplug,” she cooed. Wasn’t I the one supposed to be comforting her!? Ugh, now I was blushing… “You seem like a really nice pony, and I don’t want you to think like that. So please smile?”

Celestia piss on my rump, how could one mare be so adorable? My cheeks felt like hot stoves, I… Oh fine! I gave her the smile, as long as it made her happy…

When she saw it, she brightened up. And her glee made my smile a little more genuine.

But then her smile became more… embarrassed and- She was blushing. That was definitely a blush! She averted her gaze and started tracing a small circle on the table with her hoof, looking like she was trying to find the right words to say.

“So, I… Uh…” she muttered. “Are you… doing anything tonight?”

What?

“It’s just, well…” she stuttered. “You seem really nice, and kinda pretty so… I was just wondering if, you know… a date?”

“Oh, this is going to be good…” Coffin muttered in amusement to himself, deciding to use that moment to get up and make himself scarce. “Have fun, you two.”

Up yours, Coffin!

But if I was blushing before, now I was positively burning up! I mean… I hadn’t expected that! I hadn’t even known she was into mares! And now… I mean, yeah. She was cute, and also seemed nice and her cheeriness was adorable…

Dammit, I didn’t want to hurt her. But…

“I’m sorry…” I said slowly. Dammit all. “I… already have somepony.”

Her ears flattened. “Oh… I’m sorry I… didn’t know.”

“Not that I’m not flattered!” I chuckled sheepishly. Luna, now I was feeling both flustered and guilty… “But even though she’s not here right now, I hope to meet my special somepony again soon.”

Liberty Bell sniffed. “Yeah, I… Dear Celestia, I’m an idiot.”

“Nonono! I mean, I think you’re a nice pony. And cute! And if I wasn’t already in a relationship, well… But I am. And I love her.”

Why did I have to find myself in these situations!?

She gave me a small smile. “I’m glad you have somepony like that. I guess I was just hoping…”

She sighed sadly.

“We can be friends though, right?” she asked nervously.

“Yeah! Awesome friends!” I quickly assured the mare. “Definitely!”

“Yeah, great I, uh…” She got up from the table and started to back away. “Well, I should go get some rest for tomorrow. See you around, Sparkplug…”

And then she exited the room, her ears still flattened to her skull.

So, in all… I’d found myself forty years in the future. My friends were who knows where. My Mum and fellow stable dwellers were all dead. The Enclave had won. I looked different and almost nopony knew who I was. And now I had upset a really cute and nice mare who liked me.

I found an odd sense of satisfaction in the large bang that came from my face meeting the table.

Footnote: Level 2

New Perk: Swift Learner - +10% XP whenever XP is earned.

5 - Catching Up

Chapter Five: Catching Up

“Welcome to Ground Zero.”

My PegWing’s alarm woke me up early the next morning. The sound got a few grumbles from other resistance fighters in the barracks, but I guess they just had to deal with it.

Coffin took seconds to grab both me and my stuff, with sleep still sealing my eyes half-shut, and thrust me in with the rest of the group as we prepared to head outside. I’d be leaving with my revolver, combat knife and that quad-shot shotgun I’d picked up from the Enclave soldier, along with my Enclave overalls with some leather barding strapped to it, alongside a couple bits of miscellaneous stuff. The rest of the guns I’d picked up had been taken from my PegWing’s inventory to the armory in the base.

That was fine with me, I’d make good use of my current loadout.

When I was able to clear the sand from my eyes, I saw that the group was gathering in the heavily fortified entrance zone of the resistance’s bunker. Two turrets hung from the roof, while two barricades had a single guard each sitting before an armoured metal door that was currently open, said door leading into the rest of the bunker where we’d just come from.

Ahead of us was another metal door that would lead into the factory’s sub-basement, where up above ponies of both Enclave and resistance affiliations worked, one of the two groups completely oblivious about what was beneath them.

Silver Bell and Life Bloom were also there to meet us, along with Steampunk who was packing some saddlebags.

“You have stealth cloaks, supplies, ammunition… Everything you need for the trip,” Steampunk announced, closing up the last saddlebag before hoofing over one to each of us. “Anything else you need I’m sure you can scavenge out in the wastes.”

“And take these,” Life Bloom interjected, hoofing over some odd little devices. “Stick them in the base of your ear and activate, they’ll automatically connect to your PegWings, or PipBuck, and give you a direct line to us."

I took mine, giving it a look over. It was a small thing with a single button and was shaped perfectly to fit in a pony’s ear. I gave the button an experimental push, and my PegWing lit up. Checking it, I saw a new radio station had been found.

“That’s the one,” Silver Bell confirmed, looking over my shoulder. “Just connect with it, and we should be able to talk via those earpieces.”

“Neat,” I commented, turning the device back off and pocketing it. “Any more toys I should know about?”

“Not as many as the Enclave, sadly,” Life Bloom replied with a shake of his head. “We can give you direction, but you’ll be alone against an army.”

“Yeah, what else is new?” Coffin said with a smirk I just knew he had behind his helmet.

What else indeed…

“Well, I think we have everything here,” Liberty Bell noted, rooting through her own pack. “Enough for the trip. And yeah, we might find some stuff… Maybe around the R-7 ruins?”

“Good thing we packed Rad-X if we’re heading through there,” Coffin mused.

“The radiation keeps other elements at bay, even the Enclave,” Stripe pointed out. “Despite the radiation, going around would be even more dangerous for us.”

“I know the reasons, Stripe,” Coffin shot back. “Just not interested in ghoulification is all. I doubt the Enclave would let me keep my job.”

“Wait, what does the Enclave have against ghouls?” I asked.

Coffin gave me another odd look. “What? You don’t know?”

I shook my head. Gah, I hated being in the future!

He just shook his head. “Right… Well, ghouls to them aren’t even ponies. And are treated the same as all other non-ponies.”

Not very well, if I were to guess.

I wanted to ask some more about the Enclave and their stance on non-ponies. But Life Bloom gave me a look that both silenced me and contained a promise to explain more later. I guess my ignorance on a lot of common stuff nowadays would raise questions…

I wish I could just tell them who I was. But Littlepip would just paint a giant target on all of our back, wouldn’t she?

“You really haven’t been around much, have you…?” Liberty Bell asked sympathetically, and I gave her a lying shake of my head. “Wow, you really weren’t kidding when you said you never left the area. Well, don’t worry. Just stick with us.”

“No shit,” Coffin drawled. “So I get you’re a good technician. But how’s your shooting?”

“Just fine,” I shot back. “I may not know much about what’s going on outside New Appleoosa, but I know enough to say it’s bad and we need to stop it.”

Coffin chuckled. “Fair enough. I guess we can fill in the blanks.”

“No experience like work experience!” Liberty Bell quipped.

Those butterflies Liberty Bell put in my stomach were an odd feeling mixed in with the frustration. You all try being an ice cube for four decades! Dear Celestia, I could tell being Sparkplug was going to drive me insane!

“So, uh… is there anywhere friendly we could stop off on the way?” I asked, swapping the subject matter and hiding my irritation.

“Not unless you come across one of the other cells,” Silver Bell noted. “And we only know where one of them is right now. And the Applejack’s Rangers are off the beaten path.”

Applejack’s Rangers? Okay, I had to visit there when I got the chance. If any group was going to have familiar faces…

If Homage was going to be anywhere, I’d think it’d be there. I hope.

“So, do we all know what we’re doing?” Silver Bell asked, getting only looks of confirmation in reply. “Good. I’m going to make this brief, and then you’re hauling your flanks up to Fillydelphia.”

She took a breath. “For the past forty years the Enclave have ruled Equestria with an iron hoof, and in order to maintain that grip, they have invented weapon after weapon to try and pacify us. But what the Enclave don't know is that we can deal with a new rifle, cannon, or a new model of power armor, that only means that we are much stronger than they realize. But these tanks, they could change everything. The entire future of Equestria may ride on this, and it’s going to be dangerous. But that never stopped Littlepip, did it?”

Real subtle, looking at me when you said that! I mean, come on! Ugh, fortunately, I think the others were too busy listening to notice my blush.

“The Stable Dweller also faced difficult odds. Deadeyes, Topaz, the Goddess. The reason for her good deeds was to not only make things better for the ponies she helped but to make a better future for all of Equestria. Unfortunately, in an instant, the Enclave smashed the future she was building and replace it with their own future ruled by them. But just because something is smashed doesn't mean it can't be put back together, right now, the ideals of the Stable Dweller guides, even now…” Luna damn it, Silver Bell! “Fights with us. And with her spirit and her tenacity fueling your own, I know you can stop these things from rolling on over us. I know that now, more than ever, the Enclave has a reason to be scared because we are going to bring back the Stable Dweller's future.”

“Damn straight!” Coffin proclaimed in agreement. “So, we getting this show on the road?”

“Yes. Good luck, you four,” Silver Bell replied, pressing a button to open the metal door in front of us. “Goddesses guide you.”

And with that, I was forced from an underground bunker into an unforgiving and entirely hostile wasteland. The story of my life.

If there was any nostalgia to be had travelling the wastes with two ponies and a zebra, it was short lived. That was probably partly to do with it only being a couple days ago from my point of view, and partly because it was still a massive shithole.

But Goddesses, I was glad to be on the move again.

We’d left the sand of the Appleoosian Desert behind, returning the dried dirt of the rest of the wasteland. It would be a few days of travel before we reached Junction R-7… or where it used to be, I guess. And some days more after that to get to Fillydelphia.

Fillydelphia. Last time I was there, it was a slave run hell lorded over by a mad pony with an admittedly cool metal eye. I had to wonder how much of Red Eye’s legacy remained, and what the Enclave had done with the place in his absence.

But I guess it doesn’t matter. Even if they’ve replaced the slaves with their machines of war, one hell has just replaced another.

I always visit the nicest places…

Since leaving the city we hadn’t seen many of, well… anything, really. The usual critters. Radroaches. Bloadsprites. That sort of stuff. But there weren’t any traders roaming with their caravans, or even any raiders looking to take your stuff. It was eerily empty even by this place’s standards, the only pony life we’d seen so far was the occasional Vertibuck flying overhead.

We just hid and waited for those to pass us by, and then it was back to walking.

There were plenty of ruins as well. A few that ticked the back of my mind, so I think I must have passed at least a few of them back when. Old towns the Enclave hadn’t bothered rebuilding, I guess they focused only on the large cities for the most part. Coffin seemed to indicate as such in our talks.

Manehatten was also a big hub for the Enclave as I found out. I suppose it had to be if they had Celestia One under their control. Friendship City had been turned into a massive military base, and they even had a statue commemorating the Enclave on it.

But what made my blood boil the most was the idea of some Enclave jerk sitting in Homage’s radio station and speaking their bullshit over her channel!

Something on the list of things to fix.

Aside from that, they had rebuilt a lot of Baltimare, Trottingham, Vanhoover. Any major city that was remotely fixable, they did. At least according to my new friends.

“There’s even talk lately of a ‘New Cloudsdale’,” Liberty Bell had mused during one part of our trip. “Not sure how’d they manage it, though. They haven’t finished rebuilding their current lot yet.”

So yeah, a lot of Manehatten was apparently also still rubble, just as I remembered it. I guess it takes more than forty years to rebuild a country in its entirety.

Goddesses I’m glad I woke up when I did. I mean, earlier would have been far better. But could you imagine what I would have found if two hundred years had passed me by?

The shudder down my spine was cold and foreboding. I did not want to see what these bastards could have achieved in that time.

I mean, just look at Canterlot.

The very city that the Enclave had blown off the side of the mountain at the start of all this… They’d rebuilt it. After they’d murdered all those innocent ponies. Destroyed Stable City. Murdered Twilight Sparkle’s mother. They’d rebuilt it on the corpses of everypony they’d slaughtered.

But I wasn’t so sure it was a city anymore…

The entire complex where Canterlot used to be seemed to now be industrial, the structure that replaced the city containing docks for cloudships reaching out around it. And even from here I could spy dots around the former capital that were undoubtedly Enclave Raptors.

“How many ships you think they can pump out in a year?” Coffin asked casually, seeing where I was staring. “I mean, I know you’ve been living under a rock your whole life. But please tell me you’ve at least heard about the Canterlot Shipyards.”

“O-of course!” I lied. “Who wouldn’t know all about where the Goddesses used to live?”

The stallion snorted. “Yeah, and imagine how they’d react to it now. Raptors always in and out, not to mention whatever new class their eggheads and engineers can come up with.”

“Like what, exactly…?”

The stallion shrugged. “Eh, they still maintain Raptors for the most part. But every now and then you’ll see ‘em fixing up a scout or one of those Victory Class warships. Now those are mean puppies…”

“Good thing they don’t have many of those, huh?” Liberty Bell chimed in. “They always seem overeager, the Enclave. I mean… cities, killer tanks, new ships. They can’t just settle on one thing for five minutes.”

“And they have more behind the scenes, I’m sure,” Stripe spoke for the first time in forever. What is it with zebras and not saying much? Or was it just me?

“Sure gives them a variety of things to smash us with, though. I wouldn’t dismiss what they have managed to build,” Coffin pointed out. “Imagine how many more they’ll make in the next Celestia knows how many years. Bet they’d phase out Raptors entirely for those things given the chance.”

“I mean, they can’t be as bad as, say… a Thunderhead…” I said with a not at all nervous chuckle. “Right…?”

“Naw, I don’t want to imagine them making more of those.” Oh, thank Luna for that. I guess those titans are still a little beyond their ability to reproduce. I hope it stays that way. “Still, with the way their construction methods seem to get better and better each year, especially with these new Hades tanks, I wouldn’t bet against them trying to produce some soon.”

Thanks for immediately bursting that bubble.

He caught my glare. “What? You want me to sugarcoat it? No point lying, there never is. Just another reason to hit ‘em now. Might delay things a bit, yeah?”

I couldn’t argue with that.

“Still, Canterlot is a big no-go zone for us,” Coffin continued. “Before even building their shipyard the Enclave raided it and sacked the place for all it was worth, including the existence of Celestia One. Then they blew it to hell, a blank slate for them to work with.”

Yeah, I’d never forget that day. Just as we had been saying goodbye to Steelhooves, the great crash of a city collapsing down a fucking mountain. And with it, my last promise to Applesnack went up in flames.

“There might be cell up there though,” Liberty Bell stated.

“Bell, you know that’s just hearsay,” Coffin rebuked. “No way there’s a cell in that place. Next to Neighvarro or Death Scythe’s fortress, it’s practically Enclave central.”

“Which would make it even more amazing if it’s true!” she responded optimistically, her bright and cute eyes shining with hope…

It made me want to believe it too.

Coffin, apparently, didn’t share that sentiment. “I’ll celebrate if there turns out to be any truth to it. But as of right now, I doubt there’s anything up there that doesn’t want to kill us.”

Right, because nothing wants to kill us down here…

With that depressing thought in mind, we continued on. The day began to set, and we could see the orange glow of the twilight begin to appear even through the ever thick layer of clouds the blanketed most of Equestria. Nothing of note really happened in that time, not so much as a mutated insect crossed our paths. At some point, we transferred from the cracked wasteland ground onto an even more cracked and decayed road leading in the right direction.

We stopped speaking around that time, all we could hear was the clopping of our own hooves on the concrete, and the occasional bird chirping and squawking away somewhere out of sight. We passed by a flat area of old fields of irradiated, dead wheat not too far from where Ponyville sat. After that the hills began to become more frequent, darkness coming in and drowning us in the familiar wasteland night. The land became cool, a soft wind blowing as we walked.

I remember my first night under the wasteland. It had been so dark, I’d honestly thought I was in an endless void that stretched on forever. Still do, in a way. Then my eyes had adjusted when I’d turned on my PipBuck light. I saw how it illuminated the decrepit old barn and the orchard around it. How long it took to convince myself that I wasn’t going to fall off into space. Still, there was a beauty in the night. It was so calm, peaceful. Even with the dead wheat felt at peace.

We took a rest, keeping lights low and began to eat some food. Coffin opening up some canned beans, and most of everyone else having canned corn instead. I, meanwhile, had some canned tuna. It was new actually a new can, which I could tell that given the image of a pegasus mare emerging from the water, a fish in her mouth and a smile on her face. Accompanying the image was the brand name, which was in bold blue letters: ‘Enclave Tuna! Ready to cook and prepare for any meal!’

“Pegasi eat fish?” I know I’ve eaten meat out of the stable, but this was news to me.

“Yeah, something about being good for their wings,” Coffin said. “After the Enclave took over, they headed for the nearest ocean that had semi-non-tumorous fish and started up their fishing operations. The tuna’s not bad, but you rarely see non-canned fish outside the innermost sections of the city or the smaller towns that fish them. I once heard zebras can prepare raw fish in a special way that’s amazing.”

“If you’re Atori,” Stripe mumbled off to the side.

This was peaceful. Calm...

And then the red bar appearing on my E.F.S. was accompanied by a scream. We ran up the hill and all stopped dead in our tracks.

We’d first heard it through the loud crashes of gigantic legs and the grinding of internal gears. This was mixed in with gunfire and panicked shouts from an unknown source, one which became apparent as we hit the top and hit the dirt to avoid being seen.

And what a scene it was. There was a group of ponies… Raiders? Resistance? Judging from Coffin and Liberty Bell’s grimace, and even Stripe’s narrowing of the eyes, I guess the latter. But whoever they were, they were in the middle of a fighting retreat against something that I really didn’t want to see, a Hades Tank.

It slowly thudded along the landscape, each individual step causing a small tremor in the ground that sent my stomach into a deep pit. It was approaching the ponies under escort from about half a dozen Enclave soldiers in power armor, firing their weapons at the fleeing freedom fighters. The latter were all diving for cover into some kind of pre-war bunker, a security checkpoint maybe. But it didn’t really matter all the much, the building being dwarfed by the monstrous tank’s shadow.

And they were being slaughtered. Butchered. Their assorted arms did nothing against it as it unleashed what looked like minimal firepower upon the crippling group. Many began retreating away from the bunker as they began to fire a single balefire egg mortar, ripping the base to pieces as my PegWing began to detect the rising radiation levels from here. Twenty rads a second…

The ponies still outside began choking, dust and radiation that close to one another killing those who didn’t make it into their bunker or chose to flee from it, the rest being cut down by magical weapons fire.

The Hades Tank then fired it’s railgun, aiming low at the bunker as it fired, the whole ground under it practically caving in and unearthing a lower area of the small, now vulnerable structure. Some ponies, somehow, survived and tried crawling away only to be shot by the machine’s railgun yet again, the entire complement being eviscerated to the point of no remains being left behind. Like they’d never even existed in the first place.

Just as the Enclave would like it.

I here I was, just like a statue I was frozen in place as they were just… just...

“Sparkplug, come on!” Coffin yelled, snapping me out of my trance. “We have to move, now!”

“B-but...”

“Spark, there’s no chance anypony survived that thing’s attack, and if we don’t get a move on and out of the line of sight, we won’t be alive must longer either,” he stressed, and- Ouch! He hit me!

Well, more like a light tap. But still!

“Get your head in the game, we can avenge their deaths by fighting and destroying the factory making them. Now come on!” he said, almost pulling me with him as I gave one last glance back. That machine was just walking along, over their dust and corpses.

Those who hadn’t been hit by the railgun were strewn all over the place, in so many bloody chunks from the explosions that they’d practically painted the now ruined bunker a crimson red.

Almost like how raiders decorate.

Not that different are they, Enclave and raiders. Just one group is a junkie tribe of degenerates, and the other is a racist murder machine that has enough firepower to wipe all life from Equus. Forty years, the world hasn’t changed at all.

More days of travel passed, and the image of the Hades Tank slaughtering those ponies stayed with me.

Stayed with us all.

Between that one and the one back in New Appleoosa, I hoped to Celestia that the other hundred and ninety-eight were still in the factory. I mean, I killed a dragon back before all of this, and the thought of fighting one of those actually scared me.

If you were to cover a dragon in several metres of armour plating and cover it in balefire egg launchers, however…

Let’s not even go there, I wouldn’t put it past them.

If I’d learnt anything from watching those ponies get slaughtered, it’s that Silver Bell was right. Bullets had just pinged off the armour like they were cotton buds, and even an underground bunker was fucking dug up by that thing and shredded! It’d probably be a complete bitch to take down one, but two hundred?

Yeah, right…

Maybe if I had my friends.

Ugh, I need to find them. I really need to find them.

First, we still need to make sure the rest of those things don’t make it off of the production line.

How could I have let this happen?

“Stop making that mopey face,” Coffin light scolded. “You’ve been making that face since we ran into that tank. We couldn’t have done anything.”

“It always feels like we could have, though.” I am the Stable Dweller! I am supposed to save everyone! “If we’d done more than just… wait and see.”

“And what? Die with them?” Coffin snapped back at me. “We wouldn’t have stood a chance. None of us are the Lightbringer.”

Fuck, why did he have to go and say that!?

He spotted my increasingly glum mood, his expression softening. “Hey, come on. We can still make a difference here. We’re still alive to stop the rest of them.”

“I guess.” I knew he was right. It just… fuck…

And then his expression hardened again. “And just so you know… something you said has bothered me.”

Uh oh.

What had I said? Shit. I hadn’t given myself away, had I? I wracked my brain to try and think of any time he could’ve have figured out the truth but… How could he have?

“I don’t like liars, Sparkplug,” he said. “And you’ve lied at least once.”

“Coffin!” Liberty Bell protested. “Leave her alone. Besides, you lie to the Enclave all the time!”

“Not true, I simply keep my mouth shut,” he retorted. “But even so, I’d certainly never lie to my friends.”

“I-I haven’t lied!” Sorry, Homage…

“When we first met, you told me that you’d grown up ‘around and about’, travelling and the likes.” What does that- Shit. “Then, when you knew next to nothing about beyond New Appleoosa, you go and claim you’ve never left the city. What’s the truth, Sparkplug?”

Uh…

“If she wants to keep her background private, then that’s her business,” Liberty Bell defended, walking herself in between me and Coffin. “Do you, Sparkplug?”

“I’d… rather not talk about it.” Because I can’t.

“You won’t even tell us why Life Bloom had Steampunk recruit you out of the blue?”

“Sorry…”

He sighed. “Fine. At least tell me this, are either of those two stories you’ve told me the truth?”

I… Gah, I just shook my head. I mean, it wasn’t all lies but… Well, just most of it.

“Well, at least you were honest about that.”

“Silver Bell and Life Bloom would an aneurysm if I told you, sorry.”

“So they put you up to this, huh?” He sighed again. “Alright, fine. I can understand that. I’ll be having a word with those two when we get back, though. Count on that.”

Great. Couldn’t wait…

More hours passed us by, and I kept mostly in silence from there. I couldn’t help but notice some suspicious glances Coffin wouldn’t occasionally throw my way, but he’d always stop when Liberty Bell would shoot him a glare. I couldn’t blame him, though. I wasn’t built to be a liar.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons our stealth missions always turned into shooting galleries…

Still, with the occasional look at my PegWing’s map, I saw the site where Junction R-7 used to be coming up soon. Last I saw it, it’d been a small settlement with a big magical turret on top that Calamity had painstakingly set up. The other dwellers from Stable 2 had been setting up there with Gawd’s help, finally emerging from our isolation…

That image was promptly shattered when I saw the present reality.

Dead. Everything was dead. As we came across the landscape where Junction R-7 should have been, all I saw was a desolate wilderness filled with pools of undoubtedly irradiated sludge and a thick green haze surrounding everything.

Almost like some kind of glowing sea.

“Welcome to R-7,” Coffin muttered, standing by my side as we looked over the landscape. “Or what’s left of it.”

“How many nukes hit this place…?” I’d never seen anything this bad…

“Only one, a direct hit more or less. Or so I’ve been told, seeing as I hadn’t even been born yet,” he replied. “But that’s all it took. Imagine it, back two hundred and forty years ago, most of Equestria probably looked like this. The worst off areas, anyway.”

Fuck…

“Now this is what the Enclave does,” Stripe said bitterly, coming up beside us. “Death and radiation. And ponies get is easy.”

“How much easier, exactly?” I asked. “I mean, I figured they’d be a bit xenophobic, but…”

“Not much better than the ghouls,” Coffin answered for the zebra. “Death is usually the punishment for not being a pony. There are even rumors around the Enclave for an invasion of Zebrica… If we weren’t around, anyway.”

Liberty Bell snorted. “And if they get the S.P.P. working for them.”

They’re still not in that thing, huh? Good to know.

“Hell, I’ve also heard other rumours saying they’ve got deals with some shadowy elements in the old Empire,” Coffin added. “Some Legion or other, real shadowy though. Nopony knows if they really exist.”

“My people exist on superstition. But Equestria wasn’t the only one with secrets in the war, I’m certain of that much,” Stripe mused before there was a flash of… something not unlike lightning, and the sudden increase in clicking from her battered PipBuck coincided with our PegWings having the same reaction. “But enough, I would recommend we take Rad-X.”

Yeah, that was probably a good idea. Better listen to the scary zebra lady.

Liberty Bell hoofed us all a dose or two of the stuff, and we quickly swallowed the pills to lower our radiation intake. Good thing our RadAway was also good to go, I had a feeling we were going to need it.

And then into the sea we went.

We were quickly engulfed by the haze, and it obscured the wastes behind us. In combination with the Enclave’s cloud cover, things got real dark in here real fast. Worse still my E.F.S. would occasionally have red bars appear before vanishing just as quickly, using accompanied by a shadow in the corner of my vision the went just as fast.

I really didn’t like what the Enclave had done with the place…

And through it all, directly ahead of us in line with my objective marker, was an ominous shadow lurking within the fog.

“I think that’s the old Enclave base,” Liberty Bell announced. “It should be a gutted ruin, but we might as well see if anything survived the blast. I doubt this place sees many scavengers.”

I was about to respond but stopped as I felt my hoof hit something hard. I looked down, and saw…

Oh.

It was a pile of desiccated old bones, blackened and charred from the balefire. Its shape was vaguely that of a griffon, and the tatters of old talon mercenary combat armor supported that. I leaned over to get a better look, spotting an old gun under the ribcage. Levitating it out, I saw an old and rusted hunting rifle, one I barely needed to check over to know it would never fire another bullet.

I put the rifle back where I found it, giving the dead griffon and apologetic look before moving to catch up with the others.

“You’ll find plenty of those out here,” Coffin commented as I reached him. “Those who weren’t completely incinerated, anyway.”

They were probably the lucky ones.

We were now close enough to the wreck to make out details. It had been a large metal building, and some twisted junk piles outside the mains structure suggested other buildings and a wall. But they were all gone, and only a shell of the base itself remained.

The base also seemed to be sunken into the ground a little. It was tilting rather dangerously, and I couldn’t see any entrances remaining above ground. Actually, scratch that. I did spot the corner of a doorway as we got close to the building’s outer wall, but only the corner was sticking out of the ground, and when I ducked down to take a peep inside all I saw was dirt and more twisted debris filling any kind of entranceway that was once there.

“No getting in this way,” I told the others. “Actually, I’m not sure we’re getting in at all. This place looks pretty fucked up.”

“Check around the other side. If there’s nothing, oh well. We can just move on,” Coffin suggested.

I moved away from the buried doorway and followed the others as we circled around the left side of the building. There were more scraps of old armor and weapons lying around, some submerged in radioactive sludge pools while other half stuck out of the ground. There wasn’t even an inkling left of the home we’d built at Junction R-7 before all of this. No train car wall, no sign of Calamity’s turret, not even a tattered remnant of an old Stable 2 jumpsuit. Nothing but the cold metal of the Enclave where one of my homes used to be.

Home…

Stable 2. R-7. Even Tenpony Tower, since that was where Homage lived.

Two of them are gone. One no longer has the mare that made it worth considering home.

Would I ever have a home again?

We rounded the base until we came across something… interesting. One corner of the base seemed to have collapsed, and as we rounded it that assessment turned into the entire back of the building. While it looked relatively intact from the direction we’d come, now that we looked from the opposite side we realised that the entire side of the building directly subjected to the blast had been flattened completely. All the floors had caved in on themselves, and now formed something of a jagged incline all the way up to what was probably the top floor of the base once upon a time. I couldn’t even see if any of the actual roof remained where it was supposed to be.

“So... “ Liberty Bell stated. “Who’s up for climbing?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Coffin deadpanned. “No way we’re getting up that thing.”

“Don’t be like that, it’ll be easy as long as we’re careful,” she rebuked. “And I think at least some of the top floor more me intact closer to the more intact side. Could be some goodies there.”

“Don’t be-”

“I’ll go,” I volunteered, getting a bright-eyed look from Liberty and a deadpan one from Coffin. But to be honest, I was curious to see if anything had survived the blast. And when my curiosity be twitching, there was only one thing to do! “I’m pretty good at telekinesis, I can move any rubble that gets in my way.”

“See?” Liberty Bell said, moving to stand next to me as she offered Coffin a faux pout. “Come on, Coffin. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. But let it be noted that I think this is a very bad idea.”

“Consider it noted!” she proclaimed, and then she turned to climb. “Come on!”

And so up we went.

We gave the rubble some experimental steps at first but found it to be quite stable to stand on. From there it was just a matter of slowly ascending the pile while avoiding the sharpest pieces of debris in the mix. As we got close to the top I also saw a couple of twisted chairs and even a large scorched conference table just about visible among the wreckage. I swore I even spied a formerly emerald green Enclave power armor helmet just by said table…

And then a couple of red bars appeared on my E.F.S. that didn’t vanish moments later.

Liberty Bell yelped as the rubble in front of her exploded outwards in a cascade of rock and metal!

“Radscorpion!” Coffin shouted, pulling out a rifle and taking aim.

The creature immediately swung its tail and whacked Coffin with the blunt side of its stinger, sending him tumbling a little ways down the debris pile. I fumbled a moment with my magic, grabbing onto my revolver in its holster, the same gun I’d previously found in my PegWing’s weird pocket dimension thing, and pulled it free!

As I did, several more explosions occurred around us as three more of the bugs all came out to play.

“They must reside here!” Stripe shouting in alarm, her sniper rifle extracted and firing on the first creature with a loud CRACK.

Alright, let’s see if this still works!

Aha! S.A.T.S. ignited just as I hoped it would, and my perception of time slowed to such a slow rate that everything appeared to be standing still.

I targeted the tail of one of the radscorpions as it made to sting a recovering Liberty Bell, and lined up two subsequent shots straight into the face of a second. Once I released the spell, almost in autopilot my gun rang out as one bullet bit into the first scorpion’s stinger and blew the tip right off amidst a shriek of pain, before I turned and put two bullets between the second creature’s many eyes. That one instantly went limp, the corpse tumbling back down the rubble to the ground below.

There was another crack of a sniper as Stripe put more rounds into the first creature, which soon succumbed to its injuries as the last two both jumped at me!

I ducked, allowing both to sail over my head before they landed among the debris a little lower down the pile. One of them came right back at me and started striking its tail towards my face! I scrambled across the rubble, doing my best to avoid the incoming stinger as the other creature turned towards Stripe only to be shot from three directions at once! Bullets from a sniper, a rifle and a revolver akin to my own all tore the creature to bloody shreds before it fell down to join the other bodies.

Before I could admire their work, another stinger strike impaled the rubble inches from my head as I slipped down some debris and got a whole bunch of scratches for my troubles. I lifted my revolver and put two bullets into the tail before it could be pulled away, the scorpion hissing as it quickly backed away from me.

It didn’t get very far before the others all ran to my side and took aim at the mutated monstrosity, all opening fire on it as they had its buddy. It tried to dig back into the rubble for safety but barely had made a dent in it before its carapace was torn apart and the bullets hit all the mushy insides of the creature, killing it.

And then everything was silent.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Coffin muttered.

I slowly got up to my hooves, looking myself over to see whether the radscorpion had managed to get me without me noticing. It hadn’t, but I had cuts and tears in my barding from where pieces of rubble had cut into me during the scuffle. A few of them were bleeding quite badly.

“Here,” Liberty Bell offered, levitating a healing potion in front of me. “Get that stuff cleared up.”

I gave her a nod of thanks before taking the potions and taking a swing, gritting my teeth as I felt the sharp pain of the potion at work. Still, it closed the wounds up nicely. Though it did leave me with my black Enclave overalls being all torn and tattered, even some of the leather barding I’d strapped to myself before we left had gotten a bit of a beating from the tearing.

I’d have to make sure to repair those when we got out of this place.

After I was good to go, I led the way back up the debris pile and all the way to the top. As Liberty Bell had predicted, while much of the top was still tattered debris, towards the more intact wall there was still some visible flooring and even a few intact walls the made up some old rooms. Many of the walls had holes in them though, allowing access from one room to another without the use of a door. Most of the roof was gone, though one corner did have a little bit remaining, dangling down like it could cave in at any moment.

We headed straight into the more intact part of the top floor, looking around the remaining inner walls and into the rooms they once enclosed. They looked like old offices, though they had been torn asunder in both the blast and probably from years of exposure to the elements, seeing as there was no roof and half the walls were full of holes. Nothing of use seemed to have survived, beyond a couple stray bits and even some bottlecaps, which we made sure to bag for later use. All the terminals were blackened and busted beyond repair, so we left them alone.

We finally went to check out the one remaining corner that had a roof still hanging over it, even one room with all the walls perfectly intact and without a single hole nestled right against where the building angled around. The door was open, fortunately, so I carefully made my way inside.

Colour me surprised when I saw it led to a staircase downwards.

“Huh…” Liberty Bell muttered. “I wonder if something has survived further down after all…?”

“Only one way to find out,” I replied, and pressed a hoof experimentally against the first metal step. Seeing it was stable, I began to make my way down to the next floor.

One floor down was locked off, recognisably Enclave doors were sealed shut without power to slide them open. The floors after that had walls that were worryingly bulging inwards, probably from the strain of rubble pressing against them on the other side, confirmed by some bits of concrete and metal spilling in through the bulging doorways.

We quickly left those be, and then made our way down to the very bottom.

And here we found another open door and an intact corridor beyond it.

Since it was pitch black down here, both Liberty Bell and myself had our horns alight and illuminating the area alongside the lamps from all our PegWings and on PipBuck. The corridor led straight onwards to another collapse, preventing access further in. Not that there would be much to see behind there anymore but more rubble. Some of the roof was also bulging downwards from the weight of the debris above, but it was holding it for now.

There was a single door remaining to the right, and it was also wide open.

Heading inside, we saw what appeared to be an old generator that was as silent as the grave. Other bits of old tech was scattered about the room, lifeless. More importantly, though, the roof above was completely open just above the main generator and showing another intact room above.

“I’m heading up,” I said to the others. “Keep an eye out down here.”

I hopped up onto one of the old consoles and from there I managed to scramble on top of the generator. In the back of my mind I half expected it to start up and fry me then and there, but luckily that didn’t happen.

There was a bit of the floor above I could just reach, and placing a levitation spell around myself I was able to drag myself onto it and into the room.

Getting to my hooves, I saw an old armoury. Most of the weaponry was gone, and what was left had long fallen from their racks and were twisted and broken. All four of the walls around the room were bulging inwards along with the ceiling above, the room probably only surviving the collapse because the Enclave had maybe extra reinforced the room containing a lot of their big guns. It felt kind like being inside a can that had been partially crushed by a hoof.

I really didn’t feel safe inside this place and was all too aware that at any moment the debris could shift and the entire room could flood with rubble. Still, I spotted a safe behind some old weapon racks that I decided to quickly see if I could unlock and have a look through.

I carefully made my way around the hole in the floor, moving between the old racks and shelving until I was in front of the safe.

And I saw the griffon skeleton hunched over it.

And I’d known her. The partial set of rusted griffon power armour covering the bones, and the oversized anti-aircraft gun that sat discarded in front of the safe, were both big giveaways as to who this was.

“Butcher…”

Makes sense that Blackwing’s Talons had been with Gawd during that fateful day, even if Blackwing herself hadn’t been present, considering that Crainlift exists. I wonder if she’d survived the initial blast, raiding the Enclave’s armory for supplies. Was she locked in? And if so, what got her first? Thirst, hunger, or radiation?

I gingerly detached Little Gilda from Butcher’s power armor, checking it over for damage. It surprisingly seemed in decent condition, though it could use a clean to wipe away the radioactive muck. I brought up my PegWing, scrolling to the inventory menu. I located the gun with the device and, in a flash of light, it was sucked into whatever dimension it sent my stuff to.

I could carry my shotgun and revolver on my person for quick retrieval, but that thing was far too large to carry without the PegWing’s weird storage system.

She had offered Little Gilda to me once. Back when we’d saved Blackwing’s Talons from an alicorn ambush. I’d refused back then, and now…

The world has a sick sense of humour, huh?

I gently levitated Butcher’s remains off of the safe, laying them down next to the old box. Part of me wanted to cremate her, as I had done for Princess Luna. But I didn’t want to do anything to risk this place coming down on our heads.

Sorry…

Next, I retrieved a bobby pin and a screwdriver I’d brought along, which I’d also kept in my saddlebags over the PegWing. I think I’ll only be using that thing for the big stuff, like Little Gilda.

The lock on the safe was pretty basic, nothing I hadn’t done before. I gently bit down on my tongue in concentration, finding that right sweet spot as I steadily turned the lock until I heard that always-so-satisfying ‘click’.

It opened up, and I was welcomed by treasure!

Well, ammo. But that’s practically treasure in the Equestrian Wasteland.

There seemed to be a few different types inside the case, including some for my present revolver. I bagged the lot of it, I could sort through what we needed with the others later. But once I got through all those boxes, I spotted something right at the back. I reached in and dragged it out, studying the object curiously.

Actually, objects. Plural.

They appeared to be parts for a gun. A magnum revolver I think, not unlike Little Macintosh. It was definitely bigger than the smaller revolver I was currently utilising, and they included a few small parts and even a cylinder that seemed designed to carry higher yield bullets than even Lil’ Mac. It was just parts, though, no gun to go with them.

And as I said, they were a bit too big for my current revolver. I don’t think the parts would be compatible. If I had Lil’ Mac, though…

I grabbed the parts and put them safely away, just in case…

After that, seeing that there was nothing else to grab, I gave Butcher one last parting look before heading back down the hole and into the generator room. After informing the others of what I’d recovered, Coffin had been all too happy for us to finally go back up the stairs and leave what was left of the old Enclave facility far behind us.

The moment we were out, the ammo I had found had been distributed between us before we made ourselves scarce, returning into the hazy green fog of the sea until the building was lost in it far behind us.

A few RadAways later, and fortunately without any more encounters with the local wildlife, and we emerged from the fog and back into the cloudy skies beyond. Finally free of the silent grave that was once Junction R-7.

Free to walk a less lethally radioactive by no less deadly wasteland, heading in the direction of Fillydelphia.

Footnote: Level 3

New Perk: Gun Nut - +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair.

6 - The Factory

Chapter Six: The Factory

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Well, Fillydelphia. I have nothing but bad memories of that particular city. Last time I was there I was thrown into a slave pit for gladiatorial combat. I watched people fight for the entertainment of slaves and slavers alike, all in the dim hopes of earning freedom and their own lives. I watched those hopes fade as they died one by one until I myself was forced to fight one of my future friends to the death.

I choked her out, and I then saved her life. And then she saved me. That was generally how it went between Xenith and me.

From what I heard, even under new management, the industrial capabilities of Fillydelphia still ran on the power of the downtrodden and oppressed. Only they didn’t call themselves slavers, even if they did the exact same fucking thing Red Eye did when he was alive.

I was almost relieved to find out I wouldn’t be heading into the city itself. Oh, I could see it far in the distance. The glow of industry and the haze of smokestacks rising high into the sky.

But as we sat on a hill overlooking the city, we could also see something much closer, built close enough to receive the full industrial capability of the factories but far enough to be away from the normal pony, and anyone otherwise non-Enclave affiliated.

There, standing on its own a ways below us, was the Hades Tank Factory itself.

And, sitting outside, there were rows upon rows of the death machines all waiting to stomp everything good left in this fucked up wasteland down into the ground.

Dear Celestia, there were so many…

“So, that’s where we gotta go,” Liberty Bell mused to herself, before looking at the rest of us with a huge grin. “Hey, this could be fun!”

“We have very different ideas of fun,” Coffin retorted.

The mare just gave a cute pout. “Hey, I’m just being positive! So, we need our way in.”

Right, that was the next issue on our long list of said issues. Of course, we had the stealth cloaks, but seeing how our stealth missions usually went I wasn’t feeling all that confident that one of us wouldn't bump into the most heavily armed soldier in the entire wasteland somewhere down the line.

It didn’t really help that, beyond the various Hades Tanks that were lined up, there was a fuck ton of other Enclave stuff all waiting to blow up the happy-go-lucky resistance team that wants to try and get in.

Cerberus Tanks. Enclave soldiers. Veritbucks. The lot, really. The entire facility was also completely surrounded by a high fence, and the only way in on land seemed to be a few roads leading to and from some heavily defended gates.

Maybe I could levitate myself over the fence… I’d have to push my magic as far as I could, but maybe…

No, Littlepip, that would be stupid. Maybe Stripe has some of those zebra bat wing talisman things?

Nah, she would have said something by now.

“The only way we’re getting in is through one of those gates,” Coffin noted like he could read my mind or something. Why do ponies always do that? “We’re going to need those cloaks.”

“Waaay ahead of you,” Liberty remarked, levitating out the cloaks and hoofing one to each of us. “I say wait for a convey to head in, we might be able to jump on and trojan horse this bitch.”

Trojan what?

Stripe, meanwhile, retrieved her sniper rifle and started to scan the facility from left to right. This went on for a good few minutes before the zebra mare just gave a grunt and lifted her head away from the scope.

“Only a few power armour units are outside, but more are certainly within the building,” she stated. “Alas, there are plenty of other Enclave soldiers patrolling each minute. Most around the factory, only a seldom squad moves through the field of tanks.”

“Any of those smaller tanks active right now?” Coffin asked.

“Idle. But won’t remain so if we are seen. However, I do spy that each present tank is connected to a fuel line leading all the way into the factory itself.”

“A fuel line, huh…”

“Something we can use?” I asked the others. I guess that would make a big enough boom to take these things out? Though if their armour is supposed to be stable door thick…

“If their connected, a chain reaction might reach the interiors of each tank, destroy them from the inside out,” Liberty Bell noted, answering those doubts of mine. “Issue is, how do we start that reaction?”

“We’ll need a big explosion to kick it all off,” Coffin said, humming to himself. “Well, maybe detonating the factory’s reactor would do the trick? We need to take that out anyway as well as the tanks.”

“That could work if the system runs through the factory itself. Let’s call it in back to Mum.”

“On it,” Coffin confirmed, bringing up his PegWing and tuning it in. “Command, you read?”

A moment of silence, and then an answer.

“Yes, we hear you, Coffin,” Life Bloom’s voice emerged through my earpiece, and I guess through the others’ as well. “Silver Bell and I are getting a little nervous back here, how was the trip?”

“Nothing we couldn’t handle, even if Junction R-7 isn’t exactly top of my vacation spot list,” the unicorn stallion replied. “But we’re overlooking the place now. It’s as sealed up tight as we knew it to be, though it looks like all the tanks are connected to a fuel line. We could use it to blow up the entire production before they see action.”

“...Sounds good to us. We can’t let these things be used.”

“Uh, about that…” Liberty Bell chimed in. “We probably should have called it in earlier, actually. But we ran into one of these things on the way here. Some poor ponies were used as combat tests.”

“Ah, I see…” His voice paused for a moment, and I could imagine him biting his lip. “Well, that’s two confirmed out and about, then. One back here and one being tested. This is bad, we need to make sure the others don’t get out of that factory.”

“We’ll get it done. Don’t worry.”

“Do you have a way in?” Silver Bell’s voice joined the conversation.

“Stealth cloaks and hitchhiking, we’re just waiting on a target now,” Coffin informed them.

“Alright then, proceed,” she ordered.

“And be careful,” Life Bloom amended, just before the line was cut.

And those were the last words anyone said for the next hour.

We just sat on that hill, waiting in a tense silence as we watched the road leading far from the factory. Tense, and definitely increasingly boring. Still, there wasn’t much more to say. Or maybe there was, but I don’t think anyone wanted to miss spotting any incoming Enclave because we were talking about which two hundred-year-old canned food tasted better.

Oh yeah, I was getting hungry as well. I made sure to fix that as well.

It all still tastes like ass, by the way.

And then, finally, distant lights and rumbles indicated the arrival of exactly what we were looking for.

“Convey, coming up to the factory,” Coffin quietly said. “Cloaks on, now!”

I gave my assigned cloak a glance. I’d seen one up close he last time I was in Fillydelphia, though it’d been damaged and unusable, much to Xenith’s disappointment. I’d been a little curious what it’d be like to wear one.

I levitated the garment onto my back and secured the strap around my neck.

And all at once my entire body seemed to shimmer and vanish, as did the others.

Ah, I’m suddenly seeing a flaw in this plan…

“Um, how are we going to see each other?” I asked my invisible cohorts.

“Ngh, just try and stay close,” Coffin answered from nowhere. This was going to be a pain in my flank, wasn’t it? “Down to the road, jump onto the last truck. If you miss, there’s no second chance.”

Pressure, Coffin! Enough with the pressure!

Still, I’d worn StealthBucks before, and this wasn’t that much different. I stumbled my way down the hill and made it to the road, hoping I was waiting right next to the others as the small line of trucks got closer. If I was seeing right, each one seemed to be operated by exclusively earth ponies, each vehicle looking more like refurbished pre-war gear than new Enclave made stuff now that I think about it.

Nice to know they’re still having to cut corners and used some old scavenged parts.

The convey got closer, and definitely would have seen us by now if not for the cloaks. Each one had a large tarp covering something on the trailers they carried. Still, the first one reached us and passed by without an issue. As did the second and third. The fourth was the final one went by and was followed only by another scavenged pre-war vehicle, this time what looked like some kind of armoured car.

Maybe they kept the new and shiny stuff for all the important bits, and used pre-war tech for smaller roles?

Eh, thoughts for later.

The final truck reached me, and I made sure to jump just as it was passing by.

I’m pretty sure I only stuck the landing because of my magic, and dear Celestia’s pointy nipples I never want to do that again! Seriously, when I hit the truck there was a moment where I slipped and swore I was about to fall and go under the wheels of the car behind us. Luckily, I managed to grab onto one of the straps keeping the tarp secure and settled myself on the edges of the flatbed trailer.

I hope the others made the jump.

I guess I would find out, as during my flailing the convoy had crossed through the rest of the road and made it all the way up to gate.

Moment of truth, let’s see if my old luck still holds out…

The convoy pulled up to the gate, and I had to hold on tight to not be dislodged by the breaking action. Peering over to the security, one of the guards was talking to the driver of the first truck while a couple others began to circle the entire line of vehicles. I held my breath, not daring to even breath as they passed me.

Luckily, they barely gave a glance to the trailer I was on before moving on to have a few words with the escort behind us. I can’t really tell if they just saw nothing or didn’t look due to monotony and boredom. I mean, I’d like to think both. But-

Okay, that jolt just then reminded me that I should probably be paying attention. Sheesh, I’d be about as good as those bored guards…

Still, the convoy moved past the gate as I gave a sigh of relief. And then shut my fucking mouth because knowing my stealth track record this I really shouldn’t be taking chances!

Okay, maybe I’m taking it a bit far. But still, I do have a point, don’t I?

Ugh, fuck it. I just needed to see whether the others had made it okay.

The convoy was now well and truly in, and we passed by a couple of outer buildings that had various ponies all milling around doing whatever it is they do. We didn’t spend much time there to look, though, and kept going onto we reached a large open shutter that led into a big garage where a couple more trucks like these were already stored. Only they’d had whatever they were carrying offloaded, maybe our way out if the timing is good?

I guess we’ll find out.

The trucks split off, all pulling into their individual parking spots. The armoured car diverged from us and pulled up outside the entranceway, the soldiers all piling out and approaching the ponies running the trucks as they did the same.

I just stayed perfectly still. Let them do their thing and they’d be none the wiser, right? Stealth mission, Pip. No rushing in, no rushing in…

I waited until some of their numbers had departed, and then slowly edged myself along the flatbed car while feeling into a hoof.

I heard a small squeak as my hoof hit something soft, and- Shit! That’s a flank! That’s a flank!

“S-sorry!” I breathed out, hoping I hadn’t just earned a punch!

“I-it’s okay, just, um…” Oh, it’s Liberty Bell’s flank! I mean, her’s is a nice flank, but… Dear Celestia, I just made the awkwardness between us twenty million percent worse. I’m glad the cloak was hiding my blush…

Silver Bell was going to hang my by my spleen, and then Homage would just look disappointed. Or teasing. Or both. Oh, the horror!

“If you two are finished,” I heard Coffin whisper in amusement. “You here, Stripe?”

“I am.”

“Good, let’s hop off this thing and figure out our next move.”

Yes. Job. Let’s do that… thing before I… Ah, I was so dead!

Anyway, getting down from the trailer…

I hopped onto the floor, hearing a few subdued thuds next to me as the others did the same. I gave a quick glance around, the few Enclave ponies around us still look none the wiser. I felt somepony grab onto me, and I let myself be led out of the garage and around the corner between the armoured car and the wall. Said vehicle was now empty, thankfully, and we had a nice bit of privacy for the moment.

“Alright, we’re in,” Coffin said. “Now we just need a plan of action.”

Right, a plan. Another thing I wasn’t particularly great at. But oh well, here goes!

For starters, we’d talked about that fuel line, so we needed to know if that ran close enough to the reactor to start a chain event if it detonated. What kind of reactor it actually is, the shielding around it, and the explosion size would also be useful information. Yes, the old technician in me was starting to come out. I mean, a reactor is just a really large PipBuck power supply, right?

“We should probably find a terminal,” I whispered to the others. “An important one with important stuff. I can hack it, or Coffin, whatever. Something that can tell us reactor details, stuff on the fuel line, and anything technical we could use.”

“Alright then, that’s your job,” Coffin replied. “I can do hacking, but I’ll leave the schematics and inner workings to the technician.”

“See? Aren’t you glad we brought her along?” Liberty chirped, and I think it was directed at Stripe more than anyone else… “We should go through this garage though. I think a more direct entrance to the big enginey places will have motions sensors and a LOT more security than this grease shed.”

“It’s a start. Alright ponies, and zebra, let’s go,” Coffin finished.

I felt gentle movement lead me away again, Liberty I think, and something gently make contact with my cloak behind me. We were staying close enough together so not to lose one another while going into the factory, and we moved into said factory back through the garage and up through an open doorway leading inside.

I’ve got to say, every time we got near a pony I felt my heart rate spike to the cloud cover. How did those old zebra infiltrators do this as a job? My insides have already been twisted and mangled as it is, with my alicorny-ness and all, a heart problem was all I needed!

Still, we carefully began making our way through the metallic Enclave hallways. It reminded me of being back on that raptor I’d boarded alongside Ditzy and Calamity back at Friendship City. Arched metal hallways that were cold to see and touch, a grated floor beneath our hooves that threatened to give us away if we moved too fast. Blue lighting dominated the doors between us and subsequent corridors, a circular locking mechanism turning and allowing the inner machinery to slide them open for passers-by, with us following them through before they closed again.

I wonder if the base in Junction R-7 was like this before it went bang.

Still, my PegWing’s Eyes Forward Sparkle was leading us in what I hoped was the right direction. Good to see that still worked to its sheer mystical proportions. Not that it told us exactly where we were, and I dared not take the time to check the local map on the device. We just had to follow the objective marker and hope that it led us to where we wanted to go.

“You hear about Granite’s squad?” one Enclave soldier asked another as they rounded a corner and almost walked right into us. Fortunately, we were able to hug the wall and let them pass on by before that happened. “They’re gonna get themselves killed the way they’re acting.”

“Let them, there’s no room for-” The rest of the second’s sentence faded away as they vanished from view, leaving us free to move forward again.

We only went a short distance before we stopped at another closed door, waiting a good two minutes with bated breath before a pony in a full Enclave hazmat suit, that being pure white with an orange helmet that looked like a fishbowl, opened the door and unknowingly allowed us to slip through as they went in the opposite direction.

We’d appeared into some random room bathed in a gentle blue glow coming from lights and some Enclave computer equipment around the room. The room was also adorned with few tables that had scattered parts on top of them like spark plugs, magical phase capacitors from energy weaponry and other components spread around and being examined by more suited up science ponies.

“I still don’t understand why the main weapon on Hades-097 malfunctioned,” I heard one of the ponies say as we slowly moved through the room. Ah, and the door at the other end was marked with an ‘engineering’ label!

As we gently made for it, one of the others continued the conversation. “It must be the conversion matrix.”

“Can’t be, I’ve checked all of this equipment. It’s all in perfect condition.”

“Then they must have assembled the device incorrectly.”

“They swear over and over they had it right. Gr, sometimes I think it’s like these things break just to dick with us.”

“Well, we’d better get 097 up and running soon as we can. They’re going to want to rest of them deployed soon, and the last thing we need is the brass wondering if the entire line has a defect.”

“General Death Scythe has faith in them, she’s already had ten moved to her fortress.” WHAT!? “And you know as well as I do that she runs Equestria now. The council wouldn’t do anything against her wishes.”

“Point. The field test worked wonders, they wouldn’t have dished one out to each major ground city if they thought otherwise.” DOUBLE WHAT!? “Let’s get the last one hundred eighty working before we shove it to the resistance, eh?”

I heard Coffin say a subdued ‘fuck’ under his breath, and one of the ponies ask if any of the others had said something as we got an opportunity to exit through the targeted door and get out of there.

There was a storeroom down along the next corridor, and we all got pulled into it and into some privacy. Enough for Coffin to rip off his cloak and regard us with a horrified look.

“Life Bloom, Silver Bell, we have a problem,” he said over the comm as the rest of us cloaked for the time being. “Approximately twenty Hades Tanks are in deployment. Repeat, twenty Hades Tanks in deployment.”

“Twenty!? How? When!?” Life Bloom’s panicked voice returned.

“What happened?” Silver Bell then asked more calmly, if sternly.

“Seems we were too late. After the test we witnessed, Death Scythe had ten shipped to her little clubhouse and one to each major city ground side, just like the one back home.”

“Damn it,” Silver Bell swore. “And the rest?”

“Still here. We’re searching for an engineering terminal for Sparkplug to take a look at, see if our current plan to take the place out will work.”

“Keep on it. We can worry about the other tanks later, ensure the rest do not escape.”

Worry later? Weren’t these things effectively a doomsday prophecy?

Liberty Bell saw my look. “I know, one in each city is a problem. And ten at the fortress… As if it wasn’t already another death trap. But hey, if we take out this place that’s still a hundred and eighty less, right? I’m sure we can figure out a plan for the final twenty or so…”

“Yeah, sure…” I hope someone who is good at plans has something in mind. Or that they have a spare balefire bomb around.

“We are close to engineering,” Stripe pointed out. “Remain cloaked, stay focused. We are close to our task.”

She had a point. “Right, she’s right. I can still figure out a way to blow this place sky high. If it helps anyone in the short or long run, then it’s worth it.”

“That’s the spirit!” Liberty Bell agreed. “Even one less is a life saved, right? We can do this!”

Coffin nodded. “It’s what the Stable Dweller would do.”

I looked at him, keeping my stare level for a few moments. Then I gave him a smile. Yeah, this is what I would do. Forget how daunting all this future stuff is, Pip. Because there’s only one thing you can do.

“Let’s go.”

We left the storeroom behind, slinging our cloaks back on and sneaking our way down the corridor. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be many other Enclave ponies around this area. Not to press my luck or anything, but it seemed like a relatively clear shot to wherever this engineering terminal was. I kept an eye on my E.F.S. though, and there definitely were some others around somewhere, even if we couldn’t see them.

We eventually came across and intersection that split off in three different ways. One direction didn’t have a sign saying what we would find if we went down it, that one was to our left. To our right was a doorway which was marked with ‘engineering’. But ahead of us was a short corridor that led to a small staircase leading up to yet another doorway, this one marked as ‘Station Theta.”

“So…” I quietly said. “Forwards or right?”

“Don’t you know? You’re the tech gal’ ain’t ya?” Coffin breathed back at me.

“Well… the marker on my Eyes Forward Sparkle is saying ahead.” Even though it was an engineering terminal we wanted. But it’s never led me astray before…

Though that was my PipBuck 3000, and this is a weird Enclave spin-off that could be… Nope, not doubting it now!

“Forward it is then.”

I led the way, I think… Still couldn’t see the others. Still, I slowly made my way up the stairs and hit the control panel with my magic, opening the doorway.

“Huh?”

FUCK.

A pegasus in a black unarmored Enclave uniform saw the door opened and looked right at us. I almost bolted then and there, before reminding myself that we still had the cloaks on. The pegasus just looked confused, before walking towards the doorway.

I budged to the side, hoping the others were doing the same as the pony hit the control panel with a wing and watched as the door closed.

“Stupid thing, must be another surge,” he muttered to himself. “Ah, I’d better get maintenance to have a look.”

He didn’t get the chance, giving a small grunt and going rigid before falling as something hard hit him on the back of the head. That looked like it hurt, too.

Liberty Bell removed her cloak, a small pipe held in her magic that she’d hit him with. She dropped the pipe as the rest of us revealed ourselves, immediately moving to drag the pony into an empty crate nearby. It was… slightly scary how efficient she was being all of a sudden?

“...What?” she said defensively as she finished removing the unconscious pony, blushing at my bewildered stare. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to hit a pony.”

Right. I wonder if all ponies she didn’t like got hit really hard with metal pipes? And why was the thought of that cute little pony being a badass turning me on!?

Focus, Pip!

Looking around the room to distract myself from Liberty Bell, I saw we were in some kind of control station or… something. There was a table with a terminal on it, and several other monitors around the room with some diagnostic crap I didn’t care much for. There were also a couple crates, some empty and others not, with some assorted junk around them such as the metal pipe used by- Right, I was trying not to think about that whole... thing.

There was also a window overlooking a large interior space that was filled with dozens of Enclave ponies working all kinds of stations. At the end of the room, looking to the left of our station, was a giant pane of what I think was glass separating the room from a large reactor that gave off a bright blue glow as it sparked dangerously. Apparently, the Enclave weren’t big on safety standards for their main reactors.

“Look at that thing…” Coffin said with a whistle. “They have to be pumping that thing for all its worth.”

“Maybe they’ve been pumping it into overdrive to get all these tanks done for some quota or another,” I muttered, trying to get a better look from out vantage. “I mean, I’m for of a Pip- PegWing technician, but if the power source sparked like that I’d be worried.”

“Pretty sure Death Scythe cares more about the tanks than the ponies making them,” Liberty Bell noted darkly, before she walked forwards and tapped on the window. “Must be blacked out on the other side, or we’d have been spotted by now for sure.”

Ah. We should have left the cloaks on, in the hindsight of it all…

Well, we still found our terminal. I guess the pony in the box had been monitoring the reactor from up here. I hopped into the terminal, finding it unlocked and at the route menu. There were a variety of options, from the pony’s own personal logs to emails. There was also a schematic of the reactor, I opened that one and examined the image that built onto the screen.

“Alright…” I began, making sure I was interpreting things right. “Seems there are regulators for the fuel line right here in engineering, the flow can also be turned off from here at the pump station. The main tanks aren’t here, though. They’re probably outside somewhere.

“But fuel passes through here?” Coffin asked.

“Seems it’s used here in the factory for some of the tech as well as the tanks,” I answered. “Best guess, anyway. But yeah, the line runs near enough to the reactor to be caught in an overload. Looking at that thing… it’d probably take half if not all of the building with it. Especially if it’s been worked to the limit already. Much more energy to be released in the explosion.”

“Big bang then?”

I smiled, holding out my hooves as far apart as they could go just for that added demonstration. “Really big.”

“So, how do begin those chain of events. Can we do it from here?” Stripe asked.

Ah… That’s… an issue. “No. We can’t.” And if I was looking at this correctly… “I’d need access to the main control terminal to cause a malfunction big enough to make it blow up, redirecting some of the power lines in on themselves should do it. But that’s in there…”

In the big room with the entire population of the Enclave inside it.

“Ah,” Coffin replied simply. “Any way we can get into the reactor itself and just throw a grenade?”

“One, have you seen it? You’d be turned into fried pony in seconds,” Liberty Bell scolded him. “Two, pretty sure a grenade would set it off instantly. I want to see Mom again.”

“Alright! Point taken!” he conceded, before turning to me. “One of us needs to get in there and do a bit of digging through that central terminal.”

“Even with the cloaks, that terminal has a lot of traffic it seems. Someone would be bound to notice tampering,” Stripe noted. “And those stations controlling the fuel flow would need to be disabled also. If the supply is cut, then the tanks outside will not share the factory’s fate.”

“We need a way in there,” Liberty Bell mused. “Maybe a distraction.”

“Hold that thought,” I said to the others as I got a little bit curious and opened up the guy’s emails. Looking at the subject lines, it was mostly shift details and reports on maintenance. But there was a recent one that seemed encrypted… Odd, seeing as the schematic was just readily available on this thing.

“What have you got there?” Coffin asked, looking over my shoulder.

“I’m not sure,” I honestly replied. For all I knew, this could be his smutty fanfiction about Rainbow Dash.

...Okay, there is seriously something wrong with my brain. Still.

“I know you know your way around a terminal, but…” Coffin said as he seemed quite eagre to take my place at the computer all of a sudden. “I got this one.”

Well, whatever. I just watched as he cracked his hooves and got to work, accessing the route processes and attempting to sneak his way into the encrypted file. He… really seemed to be enjoying himself as well. I suppose, in a way, I was getting a look at the colt who broke into my own record biography upon a time.

...That sounds really creepy when I think of it like that.

Still, he cheered in success as the terminal beeped, and he stepped aside to let me back on.

“Thanks,” I said to the stallion, before moving in to look at the now visible email. “What the…”

Vigil.

I… am a little worried, man. I think I overhead something I’m not supposed to, so… I want you to encrypt this email after you’ve read it, okay? I don’t want our superiors finding out, but I feel like I need to tell someone I can trust. And my brother is a good bet, right? Goddesses, please don’t tell on me.

I was just loitering, you know how it is, just got off duty and had a drink or two with the lads… But I found myself where I wasn’t meant to, no idea how I wasn’t spotted. Still, I overheard one of the bosses having a chat with Grim Gallop. You know, one of the Supreme General’s right hoof generals?

Well, you know that mare that’s a prisoner down at the lab, the one we forced to design some of the Hades Tank’s components because we have her sister or something? Well, I heard that, apparently, that sister has been dead for YEARS. Some escape attempt. But that prisoner? She doesn’t know! In fact, it’s classified, so if they know that we know… Oh Celestia, we’re so dead.

But it’s not the bosses that worry me. I’ve heard a rumour that the prisoner once ran with Security, what if she finds out that we have nothing on her and she tries leaving!?

I’m thinking of transferring to Trottingham. You should come with me, before we’re both toast.

Your brother,
Valiant

A friend of The Security Mare? Okay, now I was interested.

“Well, I’ll be…” Coffin muttered.

“I recall broadcasts about Security the same time as DJ Pon-3 reported on the Stable Dweller,” Stripe muttered almost nostalgically, glancing at PipBuck. “I had a... ‘friend’, one who tried his hardest to live up to their ideals. All the way until the end.”

...One of the people she lost, I take it. I suppose that was a reality check, at least most of my friends were still out there, somewhere…

“If this is one of Security’s friends, then we have to save them!” Liberty Bell stressed. “And if they were forced to help build these tanks, she might be able to help us fight them!”

Security’s friends… I had to wonder what she would be like. And I also had to wonder why thinking about a mare I’d never met put such a pressure on my brain, like I was forgetting something by trying to remember…

I’m probably just imagining it.

“I’ll find them,” I told the others. The least I could do for Security, somepony who, if Homage’s gushing was anything to go by, had been some of my equal in wanting to help ponies. “Some of us should probably stay here, though, to keep and eye on things…?”

“I agree,” Coffin said. “Liberty and I can stay. Stripe, go with Sparkplug.”

“As you wish,” the zebra said with a nod.

Alright then. I guess this was a rescue mission now!

With the stealth cloaks back over our backs, Stripe and I backed out of the little control room place and got back into the corridor outside. I had to hope that Liberty Bell and Coffin would be fine where they were, and that nopony would stumble into them. It’d be pretty obvious if that did happen, I just had to hope no alarms went off while we were separated.

“We must find the lab,” Stripe whispered from seemingly thin air. “My PipBuck has already given a marker, what of your PegWing?”

As always, there it was.

“If you are nodding, I cannot see it.”

Oh, right.

I just decided to pretend that never happened, and we started following the general direction given by our Eyes Forward Sparkles until we found a helpful sign along the way.

The marker led us away from the engineering department and back a little the way we came, before we branched off down another corridor entirely. Signs for the labs did start cropping up, and we followed them on while passing through several other areas, giving the place marked to be the central command a wide berth for the time being. I gotta admit, I was a little amazed we’d made it as far as we did. There was never a shortage of Enclave ponies around this place, and more than once Stripe had to physically stop me from walking into some rounding a corner or two.

I’m glad she’s better at this whole stealth thing that I am.

Still, eventually, we came across a much larger doorway that was marked to be the laboratory's entrance. As we’d done so many times before at this point, we sat at the side and simply waited for it to open. And we were there for… what? Ten, twenty minutes? Dear Luna, I hated the waiting part, every second that we stood here the Enclave could walk in on Liberty Bell and Coffin!

Why did Robronco never design their PipBuck line with a time skip spell or something? You know, select a time to wait and then BOOM. You’re there.

Dream on, Littlepip.

The door finally opened with a large hiss, and a pony dressed head to hoof in one of those hazmat suits stepped out. We moved past the scientist and into… what the fuck?

I stared at the giant tube containing the alicorn. And since there was no marker on my E.F.S., I knew that she was dead.

“What is this…?” I whispered to Stripe. This was… horrific. Even to an alicorn, what had the Enclave done to them?

“We know the remaining alicorns all but vanished, but this confirms was we already knew,” she quietly replied. “The Enclave got to them after the Stable Dweller destroyed their Goddess.”

All of them…?

The entire room seemed to be largely circular and had two levels. More of these orange tubes filled with some kind of weird liquid littered the place. They all held something; some held ponies, other held ghouls that looked to have been both feral and normal. One even looked like it was holding a Hellhound.

“The marker leads us through the opposing door,” Stripe muttered, carefully nudging me forwards as another scientist walked past us. “We must not delay.”

“Right…” Still…

I glanced towards and active terminal on the front of the alicorn’s tube. There was something displayed on the screen, and I tried to read it as Stripe urged me on.

Doctor A.

Supplementary research submitted to Site Epsilon as per your request. The genome sequencing shows promise, we are confident our contemporaries working on Project Broken Unity will-

That was all I got to read before I lost sight of the terminal.

Who the ever living celestial ballsack was ‘Doctor A’? Doctor A what? Doctor A Dickface?

That’d be too good to be true.

But Site Epsilon? Project Broken Unity? I mean, I guess the project name was pretty self-explanatory as to where they got it, but… What did they want with the alicorn?

Ugh, more and more Enclave mysterious and bad stuff just keeps popping up! Something to figure out later I guess. I’ll just have to find this ‘Site Epsilon’ and it’s ‘Doctor A Dickface’ and shut it down.

Just one more thing I owe everyone after how badly I screwed it all up.

We got through the next door, and it opened up into a large room that looked like a more Enclave-y stable atrium. Maybe a little more rectangular? And the centre of the room had some stairs going down to a lower part that had a punch of scientists working consoles…

Actually, this was nothing like a stable atrium.

Around the room were more of those orange tubes, though a couple in here were empty. Not enough, though. To the left and right ends of the room were more doors that looked like they led into more smaller labs like the one we’d just passed through. At the opposite end, though was a different room that was marked as ‘Project Hades Research’. That was where the marker was leading us.

Either side of that door were some windows the seemed to have blinds closed on the other side. But Security’s friend was apparently in there, so we needed an in.

We crossed the room, circling the outside and avoiding the cluster of ponies in the middle. Getting around to the doorway we needed, we stopped to look around us.

“There may not be many ponies coming to and from here,” Stripe noted. “We must enter ourselves.”

“Right…” Well, it didn’t seem like any of the scientists were looking our way. “We should probably be quick.”

“Agreed.”

I guess it was decided.

I lit my horn and carefully took hold of the control panel, Stripe quietly counting down almost entirely under her breath. I listened carefully, and when she reached zero is hit the switched and we both slipped inside. The room inside was cluttered, tables were lined out with diagrams and pieces of technology all over the place, with even more blueprints littering the walls. But that wasn’t the bad part...

“What the?”

The voice had come from an Enclave soldier inside the lab, he having turned to it alongside another soldier and a middle-aged grey pegasus with a purple mane who had a lab coat draped over her back.

“Check it out,” the other soldier ordered as we watched from against the wall.

“Roger.”

The soldier moved towards the door, looking out of it and into the following room with his helmeted gaze. We held our breaths, just waiting as he did a sweep and looked down at the control panel I’d hit.

“Negative contact,” he finally said, and I resisted the urge to sigh in relief. “Door must have a glitch.”

“Something else for the prisoner to look at.”

“Get your own monkeys to do it,” the pegasus in the lab coat spat. “You want me to look into the energy reserves for inefficiencies in the design, which there aren’t by the way, and I’m doing it. I don’t have time for minor crap like that.”

“You do as you’re told, remember,” the first soldier warned as he closed the door behind him.

“Get your commander to threaten me with my sister’s life again, then I’ll get on it. But if you don’t want to waste either of our time on a door glitch, let me work!”

The soldier grumbled, but he returned to his companion and just stood there, watching the pegasus as she went over a schematic of the Hades Tank on a nearby table. If we tied to spring the pegasus, and those soldiers raised the alarm...

“Take them out together,” I whispered to Stripe. “You take left, I take right.”

“The signal?”

Even though she couldn’t see it, I grinned. “You’ll know it.”

I slowly made my way over to the guard on the right, making sure to position myself just to the side of him as I waited a good few seconds for Stripe to get into position. I couldn’t look to check if she was, but I had to assume she was ready after a good few moments had passed.

The last time I did what I was about to do, it was one of the worst days of my life. It had been my biggest fuck up, before letting the Enclave come into power massively trumped that.

But it would do the job.

I lit my horn, and the guard could barely let out a shout of surprise as my magic latched around his throat and lifted him off the ground entirely. Before his buddy could even realise what was happening, a zebra mare had her cloak slip away as she wrapped a foreleg around his neck and dropped him to the floor with a loud snap.

The Enclave soldier in my grip flailed his hooves desperately, but slowly his movements died down and went limp. The red bar blinked out, and I dropped the body to the ground.

The pegasus, meanwhile, stood rigid as she looked at the two dead soldiers with wide eyes. When I also dropped my cloak, she looked towards me with surprise.

“You must be Security’s friend,” I said to her, and she just blinked. I guess our entrance was a bit sudden... “Sorry, introductions… I’m-”

“You shouldn’t be here!” she shouted at us, and I shared a glance towards Stripe before I suddenly found a very angry pegasus in my face! “You’re resistance, right? Well, you’re putting somepony I care about a lot in danger! I can’t leave, but you should before the guards find you! Because I will have to call an alarm to clear myself of their deaths!”

“Your sister, right?” I asked sadly. Fuck, now I have to tell her, don’t I?

She blinked again. “Yes… You know?”

“Yeah, there was something about it on a terminal we came across…”

She frowned. “Which terminal? Actually, never mind. It changes nothing, unless you’ve saved her already. If I go with your group, Moon Shadow will be killed by them! She’s the only family I know is still alive, I have to protect her!”

I gave her a sympathetic look. “Moon Shadow was her name?” I can understand wanting to protect somepony you love, if it were Homage…

“Yeah, together we were always the brains of the family. Like me, she’s been-” She paused, and I could just feel all feeling drain from her body. And, despite her already pale grey coat, she went sheet white in a moment. “What do you mean ‘was’?”

I went to answer, but I found my tongue caught in my mouth. GAH! How was I meant to tell her this? But I had to… Come on, Pip. Just… go easy, okay? She’s… dammit.

“She is dead.”

I looked towards Stripe at the same moment as the pegasus when the zebra had said those three words.

“I am sorry, but your sister was killed by the Enclave years ago,” Stripe continued. “Their hold on you is a false one. My condolences, I know what it is like.”

“Moon Shadow…?” the pegasus muttered, her rump hitting the floor as she seemingly lost all balance. “She’s… You’re sure? No mistake?”

“W-we wouldn’t lie. Not about that,” I told her, and she glared at my judgmentally. I tried not to squirm under those suspicious eyes, but that suspicion quickly melted away to despair. “I see… Fuck. Damn them!”

“We need to go. We’re getting ready to blow this factory up,” I informed her. “What’s your name…?”

“Morning Glory.” Why did that tickle the back of my mind again? “You’re really about to destroy this place? How many of you are there?”

“Four,” I answered. “I’m… Sparkplug. That’s Stripe. Back in engineering the rest of our friends are Coffin and Liberty Bell.”

“Taking out the source of the Hades Tanks, that’s daring,” she mused. “Almost reminds me of… How things used to be when Blackjack was around.”

“So you were friends with Security,” Stripe noted.

“More than that, once.” Oh. “We travelled the Hoofington region with our friends, trying to help ponies. Blackjack was… complicated. Things didn’t always go to plan, but… Things were getting better in Hoofington, bit by bit. The Reapers were getting a little less… raidery. The Society was going to do better under Princess Grace, Chapel was becoming a beacon of life in that hellhole… Things changed when the Enclave attacked my home, Thunderhead.”

“What happened, exactly?” I asked.

“The Stable Dweller had recently killed the Goddess, saved Blackjack from Unity.” I did? “After that, we headed up to Thunderhead to find my family. The Enclave attacked us, one of their one, soon after because of our open relations with the surface, and further spurred on by a fanatic terrorist called Lighthooves.”

“As far as I understand it, Thunderhead was eventually defeated,” Stripe said.

“Not at first. Admiral Storm Chaser turned against Neighvarro along with several of her ships. With her help, and Blackjack stopping Lighthooves, we drove them back. But Thunderhead was forced to land on the surface because of the damage; Shadowbolt Tower was also destroyed and Blackjack and Boo were lost in the Hoofintgton Core. I never saw her again.”

I remember what Life Bloom and Silver Bell had told me about the core, and Security’s fate. “What about your other friends?”

“Rampage, P-21 and Scotch Tape,” she recalled sadly. “We already lost Lacunae when the Goddess died. Kinda. I have no idea what happened to Rampage, only that the Enclave ship she’d commanded in Storm Chaser’s fleet was destroyed. P-21 took Scotch Tape and fled to the old Zebra Empire when the Enclave won. I stayed with Storm Chaser and my family, but the Enclave came back. Our remaining ships were destroyed, our soldiers killed, and most of my family also perished. All of them now, I suppose.”

“I’m sorry.” Listening to her… It was just another reminder of my screw up. And what I had lost as well. “We’re trying to stop the Enclave. To do better.”

“Do better…” she muttered with a hint of nostalgia. “That’s what she always said. Talk around this place says that your resistance tries to follow the Stable Dweller’s example, right?”

Uh… “I guess…”

“I met her once, you know. She and Blackjack were so alike, and we certainly had fun with her and Homage…” Wait, WHAT!? I don’t… Oh…

Those memory orbs, the days I’d wiped out so the Goddess wouldn’t be able to get our plan against her from my head. I had no idea I’d met Blackjack and her friends. And… and… we’d... THAT’S WHAT’S IN MEMORY ORB EIGHT!?

“Are you alright?” Alright!? I guess she spotted me blushing up a storm, but… Holy shit! We’d… I…

“FINE! Just fine! J-just… dandy and… stuff… Um, so… what were the Enclave having you do…?” Please change the subject! Please change the subject!

She gave me an odd look, but thank Celestia she took the change and rolled with it!

Morning Glory sighed. “Not to toot my metaphorical horn, but I was always something of a… prodigy of science. The Enclave wanted me to design things for them. One of the more recent projects was some of the systems aboard the Hades Tanks. If it wasn’t for me…”

“You were forced and threatened,” I tried to comfort her. “And now you can help bust them up!”

She gave us a small, only slightly genuine smile. “I suppose I can. Do better, right?”

She lifted the lab coat from her back and cast it aside. Her coat was unkempt, she’d clearly seen better days. I also spotted the familiar symbol of a Dashite on her flank, where her cutie mark used to be. She the walked over to the dead soldiers, lifting the helmet from one of their heads and looking it over.

“I can’t walk around as I am. You two need to get back under your cloaks, I’ll follow on in full armour.”

I frowned. “But we’ll be invisible, how would you follow us?”

“Enclave helmets have in-build HUDS. Not as advanced or useful as an Eyes Forward Sparkle you get from PibBuck’s, PegWings or power armour helmets, only really using the vitals tracker and map function from those, but I might be able to sync it with your own devices anyway. That way I’d always be able to see you on the HUD.”

“I thought that thing doesn’t have an Eyes Forward Sparkle.”

“As I said, a prodigy,” she replied as she got to work on the helmet.

It was surprisingly quick work. She opened up a panel on the side of the helmet and briefly borrowed Stripe’s leg so she could use the PipBuck on it. I just watched with curiosity as she worked, following on with what she was doing.

Oh, that was pretty good!

If I was following, she was tapping into some underlying PipBuck code that had been stripped out of the watered-down HUD the helmets used. She was tying that system directly into the PipBuck’s compass. If I had to put two and two together, I’m guessing it makes objective markers follow the two of us. Pretty genius, and I say that as a PipBuck technician. I’ll have to remember that one.

After she was done with Stripe, she did the same with my PegWing. I had to talk tech with her when this was over!

Finally, we were set. Morning Glory lifted herself into a set of Enclave combat armour that covered pretty much all of her. And then we left the station, me and Stripe back in our stealth cloaks and moving back the way we came as Morning Glory carefully followed on from a comfortable distance. We didn’t even need to follow the signs or our map markers on the way back, I think we’d gotten the gist of the route down when we were walking in the opposite direction. Our slow crawl through the base certainly gave us the time.

But our plan seemed to work, at least I didn’t hear any alarms as we went. Unless there was a silent one, buuuut I’m not going to even think about that.

We made it out of the science labs and back to engineering, following the same corridors along until we made our way back to the station where we’d left Coffin and LIberty Bell. I crawled up to and waited by the door, looking behind me as Morning Glory cautiously trotted up behind us and hit the door controls.

“Whoa!” Coffin in shouted in alarm and- No no! Don’t raise that gun! Bad!

“Stop!” I shouted as I threw off the stealth cloak as quickly as I could. And thank Celestia, Coffin just stared at me in bewilderment instead of pulling that trigger! “Oh, good. Phew.”

“Perhaps we should have knocked,” Stripe joked… was that a joke? She’s capable of that?

Morning Glory took off her helmet, glaring at Coffin since he still hadn’t put down his gun. “Please don’t do that. If you knew just how many ponies I’ve had point guns in my face, and what happened to them…”

“I like her,” Liberty Bell quipped. “Come on, Coffin. Relax! So… gonna introduce us, Sparkplug?”

“Oh, right!” I suppose it’d help ease the random tension in the air. “Morning Glory, Liberty Bell and Coffin. Coffin and Liberty Bell, Morning Glory! See! Friends!”

Coffin relented with a sigh, putting down his gun. “Sorry, the armour put me on edge.”

“You’re one to talk,” Morning Glory noted, gesturing towards his helmet. “An old X-01 model from before all of this, Thunderhead used them extensively, albeit with Tesla modifications. All inferior to the modern X-02 the Enclave use as their go-to power armour, of course.”

“It’s decorative,” Coffin retorted.

“I guessed from the paint job.”

“I wish he had the stinger tail,” Liberty Bell added wistfully. “That’d be pretty cool.”

“Yes. And these new combat armour models are lacking in that department as well,” Glory noted, glancing at her noticeably un-barbed tail.”

“Not that the meet and greet isn't great, but we do have a base to destroy,” Coffin proceeded to point out. “Now that Ms Glory here is free, we still need to get to that terminal and start the chain reaction.”

“I assume you have a way out for us when you do start the detonation?” Morning Glory enquired.

“Steampunk is handling that. We have a small supply of older model vertibucks. Now, we just need somepony with good technical knowledge to kick the whole thing off…”

I didn’t even need to look at them to know that they were looking at me. Everypony always looks at me!

“Alright, stay here,” I said to the others as I grabbed the cloak. “When I start the thing, we can hopefully sneak out while they panic and do whatever.”

“Wait, I should also go,” Coffin decided. “You can do your thing and rearrange the power conduits to cause the overload, but we still need to make sure they can’t turn off or redirect the fuel pipes. I can still hack a terminal, or encrypt them.”

Locking them out of their own controls, huh? I like it.

“What about that distraction we talked about?” Liberty Bell asked.

Morning Glory hummed, glancing towards the control terminal in the room. “Let me see what I can do from here. I might be able to cause a few minor problems in the system to keep them busy and away from the main terminal.

“And should you be spotted anyway?” Stripe asked us.

“Well, then I suppose ya’ll should all come rescue us,” Coffin remarked. “Come on, Sparkplug. Let’s get this done.”

Alright… Get in, sabotage, get out while the place is exploding all around us and the Enclave are panicking. Easy…

Who am I kidding? It’s never that easy.

Back under the cloak I went, this time with Coffin following on. Luckily, it wasn’t so far to sneak to this time, seeing as the door to the main part of engineering was literally down the hallway. The easy part was waiting, as we’d done Luna knows how many times now, for somepony to open the damned door for us to sneak in. But like always, it happened. Some engineer leaving for a piss break or something.

Point is, it got us inside.

“There’s a slight variation in the coolant pressure valves,” I heard an engineer report, and I stole a glance at the blacked out window where Morning Glory was working on that terminal. “Nothing serious, it might be a computer glitch. But I want somepony on it, now.”

Almost as soon as he finished the sentence, all eyes turned upwards when the lights started flickering severely. It lasted only a few moments, but it was enough.

“For fuck's sake, now the lights? Please, somepony clean up the fucking mess would you?”

“On it, Boss!”

Well, they were suddenly a lot more active around everywhere that wasn’t the main console. Nice one, Glory. I wonder if she spent the last however many years getting to know this place’s computers, just in case…

I was no longer sure where Coffin was, but I had to assume he was over by the terminals controlling the fuel lines. As long as he could keep the Enclave from redirecting the flow out of the factory we were good.

And with the central terminal free, I was able to slink right up to it. Alright, Pip. Time to work the magic! Or technology… I mean, it has magic parts…

You know what? Fuck the turn of phrase, just do it!

I opened up the terminal, and it was quite relieving to see it already logged on. And there was a multitude of options for me to select, and I scrolled through them until I found something to do with the flow of the power generated by the unstable reactor. Clicking the options brought up all kinds of statistics and graphs onto the green screen that I barely gave so much as a glance at before moving on. I’m sure all the data could tell me something, but I didn’t exactly have the time to read the manual!

Fortunately, there was a big shiny highlighted button that said ‘Redirect Power Flow’.

Hitting it, another host of options appeared. The Enclave really liked their statistics! But in principle, it wasn’t really so different from redirecting the power flow in a PipBuck’s own internal power source. Just big and... potentially world ending. Let’s not think about how big this bang is going to be, and…

There we go, that’s a few of the power lines redirected back onto the reactor itself!

A message box popped up when I tried to confirm the command, trying to give me a warning about how what I asked of it could seriously compromise the reactor’s stability. But I mean, that was kinda the point, so I just closed the box and hit ‘confirm’ anyway.

The command came through, and there was a moment of calm. I closed up the terminal and looked around to make sure that I hadn’t been seen. The Enclave still looked busy fixing up Morning Glory’s distraction, and I had to hope that Coffin had-

There was a crash and a crackle of electricity, and then I was on the ground.

The world wasn’t quite where it was supposed to be… Probably because I assume I ended up on my back. Owch. Ugh, I could also hear a faint… Wait, an increasingly un-faint sound of surprised shouting as my hearing returned. That had been really loud.

With a groan I went to pick myself up off the ground, rubbing my face with a hoof as I-

Wait.

My hoof. Is it me, or did it look a tiny bit more visible than it should have done?

Oh…

The shouting had died down, and as I looked around I could see a lot of very bewildered looking ponies staring at me, every single one of them a red bar. An alarm was blaring in my ears, and a glance at the reactor showed that it was going absolutely haywire to the point where the protective glass was cracking and several of the computer consoles, including the main terminal I’d been standing at, had exploded.

Oh, and that was my stealth cloak on the floor just… laying there. Not on me.

“Heh…” I mean… what else could I say at this moment? “Hi there.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the first pony draw an energy pistol, and so S.A.T.S. was engaged.

Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! I mentally cursed. S.A.T.S. ran out nine bodies ago and while I still got bullets but they have TEN more guns on me! Fucking hell and I didn’t grab the cloak! Didn’t get the chance too, and even if I did, all this hazing of bullets and energy kept me cornered. FUCK!

“Nineteen of you can’t handle a single mare?!” I shouted from behind what little cover I had. Fuck Fuck FUCK! I looked around, there had to be something to give me an edge. Luck don’t fail me now...

Using just my magic I levitated the gun around the corner and fired blindly. “Agh! Fuck!” Sweet! I hit somepony!

No, bad Pip! Still stuck and outnumbered! I tried to take a peak around the corner, just to see their positions before ducking back, a plasma bolt streaming just past me. Too close! I groaned before taking aim at where that bolt flew from and firing another shot blindly. Luck, hold out just a little longer.

“Hey there,” a voice said from the bullet fire... Coffin? “Bye.”

The voice was followed by the sudden onslaught of gunfire loud and cluttered. And then, silence. Peeking out, Coffin, Liberty Bell, Stripe and Morning Glory were all there.

“Don’t you just hate it when your folks come home early and find you’ve thrown a party?” Coffin joked with a grin.

“Thanks,” I said with a sigh of relief, trotting over to pick up the stealth cloak. There… were more holes inside it than there should have been. That’s not great. “That was nearly bad for me.” Yeah, no shit. That was nearly as bad as my first run in with raiders… only well equipped and trained… so nothing like my first run in with raiders.

“So, where to next?” Liberty asked.

“Easy, get the hay out of here. Grab their weapons, if we run out of bullets there will be plenty of batteries laying around,” Coffin said, picking up an Enclave assault rifle.

I followed suit, storing it in my PegWing, finally didn’t almost say PipBuck, before raising the revolver. “If we are blasting the hell out of here, We need to hurry. Those gunshots will attract more here quickly.” Cause sweet Luna fuck me to the moon and back.

“It would be helpful if one of us did not damage their stealth cloak.” Thanks for rubbing that in, Stripe!

“Either way this place is crawling, we will have to make sure any bullet and battery we come across we grab,” Liberty noted.

“If we head to Maintenance we might find a way to their armory... and maybe find a way to turn their turrets against them. Who knows?” Coffin added. “Let’s go.”

With the lot of us marching off, we were careful in sneaking through the halls, given that each turn could be guarded. I wonder if the others ignoring their stealth cloaks was to just make me feel better about losing my? I hate pity parties.

Still, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the old times, even if they felt like just yesterday for me. Here we were, a ragtag bunch of ponies, and zebra, trying to bring down an overwhelming force and sneaking through their base. Nope, totally no similarities to what Velvet, Calamity, Steelhooves, and Xenith used to do.

We came across some more patrols, gunning them down quick and taking what loot was of use. Thankfully, one of them had a few healing potions that we swiped. After that the patrols came along more often, in groups of two or five. Thankfully, the more we killed the more ammo and the occasional healing potions we got. For armed guards that took over the wasteland you’d think they would be, I dunno, faster on the trigger or something?

Don’t talk up fate, you not-smart pony.

“How much further?”

“The maintenance wings, if this building follows Enclave standards, should be in the basement,” Coffin said, opening up another flight of stairs to the lower levels. We entered, and immediately saw three Enclave engineers who were working away at the generators.

“Fuck that last power surge really screwed them over,” one of them commented. “What the hell is happening up there?”

“I know, bad enough this place is like a Megaspell ticking down on us,” the other commented. “And those alarms… you think the soldiers boys are having trouble?”

“No way. They can deal with any dirt pony that think they can take on the Enclave.”

“Don’t be so certain,” Morning Glory said before shooting one in the back of the head, the others quickly taking care of the other two as they tried to go for their pistols. “Well, that was therapeutic.”

“What will happen without them to maintain these generators?” Stripe asked as the others got to looting.

“Well, things will break quicker to put it simply,” Morning Glory replied. “We DON’T want to be here much longer.”

“Then let’s be quick,” Coffin said, finding a terminal and hacking into it. “Wow, she’s not kidding. Things are heating up fast around here. Ah, here’s the armory, two floors above. Check their bodies for a maintenance keycard, that will get us in without trouble.”

It wasn’t hard to find. “Got it. Let’s move, we are on a timer now.” I said, making sure the revolver was fully loaded before heading towards the armory.

Heading up, we took out four more groups of patrols and made it to the armory. The key card worked without problem. Opening it up, we were met with a lot of conventional and energy weapons, batteries and bullets. “Sweet. Oh hell yes!” Coffin said, picking up a energy weapon that… looked like a toy. “I can't believe they have this here.”

“That thing? It looks like something you would give to foals to play with,” I voiced as I went around, collecting ammo and miscellaneous scrap.

“Heh, wait until we cross power armor or a robot,” he said, storing it in his PegWing. “Whatever you can’t hold on your person Sparkplug and I will keep in out Pegwing. No use in letting good weapons go to waste here.”

We grabbed everything, and once it was all stored away we headed out. However, the moment we stepped out into the corridor we were immediately met with yet another patrol. Only this one… this one had ponies wearing big shiny suits of power armor. Three, to be exact.

I’m going to say that Coffin jinxed us.

“Enough running, you terrorist scum!” one of the pegasi shouted. “Put the weapons down and come out peacefully!”

I quickly glanced around, looking for ways out and counting the number of guards. “Is it too late to say we took a wrong turn?” I said with a nervous chuckle.

Coffin chuckled. “A bit,” he said, pulling out a rather larger plasma rifle. “Well guys, let’s give them hell!”

Welp, I wasn’t so sure my revolver was as suited for these guys. But maybe... “Sorry boys, we are on a tight schedule.”

From the pocket thingy of my PegWing I selected the large portable gun that was Little Gilda. I like to think that their eyes widened a little under those helmets when they saw-

HOLY FUCK!

One of the Enclave was completely blown to bits, power armor be damned! Unfortunately, Little Glilda flew just as fast from my magic as I landed with a thump onto my ass.

Damn, Butcher. You were a tough bitch, weren’t you?

But with the AA gun out of commission for the moment, the Enclave let their energy beams fly! We had had space to move back and get cover behind some walls, and they only had so many shots before reloading, and while it’s short, it is enough time to fight back!

When the stream of magic stopped, the others all returned fire on the the Enclave as I dragged Little Gilda back to my position. I’ll have to figure out just how much magic I’ll need to keep that thing in my grip.

Guess I’ll switch to that assault rifle I picked up for now.

Some minutes passed before we downed the last of them, taking a breather before looking what they had and running out of the hallway. “How much longer until this place either blows or loses power completely?” Liberty Bell asked.

“Not long enough!” Morning Glory said worriedly as we ran into a longer hallway. I skidded to a halt at a window, looking outside at the rows and rows of Hades Tanks lined the large, fenced off area outside. I still couldn’t get over how many there were. Good thing they were about to blow to kingdom come.

“So you did say you have a way out, right?” Glory asked critically.

“Steampunk will be waiting for our signal,” Coffin responded. “Once we get beyond the perimeter, anyway.”

“The question remains, how do we get through the field of tanks?” Stripe asked the question on all our minds.

“Hmm… Why not hijack one?” Liberty offered with that amazing bright smile. “We probably make up at least half the needed crew to operate one, so long as we get it’s weapons working they should be more than strong enough to clear a path.”

“Only flaw, the crew,” the pegasus mare denied with a shake of her head, slightly disappointed. “Half won’t do. We’d need a full complement of nine.”

And they looked so fun to blow stuff up in, too.

“Well, we might need the help of some others. I mean, there has to be somepony in this place that we can get to work with us in exchange for, well, getting them the hell out of this place?” Liberty then suggested.

“Working with the Enclave?” Coffin asked in notable distast.

“Not everypony in here can be that bad?” she suggested hopefully. “Right?”

“All but me are military personnel in some respect. Even the scientists have served or are serving. If we tried forty years ago, then maybe. But things are a little more hardcore and vetted in the ranks nowadays,” Morning Glory again shot her down. I hated the look of a kicked puppy in Liberty’s eyes...

“Well then, where are we going to find others who not only know how to pilot these monsters, but want to be rebels, in less than a hour?!” I yelled.

“Heh, well if the Lightbringer did crazier things. We’ll figure something out,” Coffin decided. Oh, and there he goes again! I can’t say anything less it draw suspicion but I swear he keeps me on way too high a pedestal.

We bolted across the building. This was the residential area. Every room had beds, lockers, and spare weapons and ammo. We grabbed what we could and continued on. This area seemed empty.

“Ah crap,” Liberty said.

“Come on... There has got to be somepony,” I said, doing another sweep of the room.

“No, not that.” Liberty said, blushing. “I’m gonna… use the bathroom.”

Coffin about fell over. “Are you serious?”

“Hey, it’s not the best timing but I’ve been holding it since we got Sparkplug out of that mess, any longer and I’m gonna piss on the floor…”

“Fine… We’ll take a quick break to keep our guns stocked and so Liberty can… use the bathroom, then we’re out of here.”

We bunked out in one of the common rooms, beds lines the walls and center of the room and two adjacent bathrooms were connected. Stripe watched the front door while Coffin and I reloaded the guns.

Celestia’s flaming tits… how are we going to do this… I’ve been in some pretty bad situations, but if we don’t get a crew to drive those tanks we won’t stop them, at worst just delay them. “Wish they were here…” I thought out loud, thinking of my old friends.

“Who?” Coffin asked.

Oh shit! “Erm, just some old friends I had… We got seperated a long time ago. We went through alot together, and somehow we always came out, relatively in one piece. I hope they’re okay.” I said. Oh, that was too close.

“If they’re like you then I’m sure there fine. Honestly though, in this line of work… you might get used to losing friends. Since I’ve been here I’ve made and lost more friends than what should be possible. Every time another dies I wonder why I’m always the survivor. What deity above cares more for the life of one pony over others?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” I said, now feeling guilty. I lived, while hundreds of thousands died, and there is no way to bring them back. “I wish I could.”

“Well, at least I’ve learned one thing from always surviving these battles.”

“And that is?” I asked, finishing cleaning the revolver.

“Heh. When I’m left alone, all others around me gone and dead, I sift through the rubble, and learn both sides of the story,” he said, kicking the floor locker by the bed we were on. “Let’s see.”

He started sifting through it. He pulled out a pacifier, old and worn.

“I’m guessing father, with a foal long since grown up,” he mused, taking something else out. It was a worn Celestia filly’s doll. “Daughter, judging from the age she’s been grown up for a while. And for all we know, we just killed somepony’s father, brother, husband. Out of all of them we’ve killed so far, who was the one who’s daughter had these things they kept as momentos?”

Well, that got depressing. And he just held a smile on his face while mine looked of dread.

“Why do you want to learn that?” I said, guilt creeping up on me. How many have I killed by now? How many will I have killed before this is over?

Even oppressive assholes have ponies who love them. I wonder what might have been different had I not fucked up all those years ago...

“So that daughter, wife, grandfoal, whichever of whoever can find me when this is all over, and kill me. I’ll smile as they put a bullet in my head, or a knife in my neck, or poison in my booze. I know what I’ll have coming one day, and I’ll pay for it. I’ll pay for it smiling, knowing this was deserved, and justified.”

I was silent, not meeting his gaze.

“No army is wholly evil, each has families, lives. It’s why they say soldiers don’t think, we do orders without question. It’s why I’m no soldier, I’m a rebel. We call the Enclave the enemy, they call us the enemy. In the end, all you have to do is cut off the snake’s head for the rest to die. But this world is cruel, we have to work up from the tail to kill it’s head. No one in the resistance wants to think about whose father they just killed or who will be crying over that Enclave soldier’s grave. They keep focused on revenge freedom for the Equestrian Wasteland from Death Scythe and her closest cohorts. I hope I’m there to kill her personally, so all the families I’ve torn apart and broke won’t have been in vain at the end of this.”

“Well… Maybe you’re right. Maybe the Lightbringer would agree, you’ve, er… certainly got her brooding. I mean, probably.”

He chuckled. “You’re probably right. The curse of giving a shit, I guess. Of wanting to be a good pony. Maybe that’s the difference between us and them, we actually care and feel the guilt. Keeps us straight and narrow, if not entirely sane.”

Ohhh boy, don’t even go there.

“Well, whoever kills that bitch first, I’ll gladly shaker their hoof in victory. If you kill her first, then congrats, but either way, I know what I’ll do right after.”

“And I’m afraid to ask, but that is?”

“Bury her. She was still somespony’s daughter. Maybe a sister. She may have been a monster, but in the end, we’re all demons when we spill each other's blood.”

I sighed. “You do that. But sitting here, planning her death is not going to mean much if we don't get someone to drive one of those tanks soon…”

“Well, worst case scenario, and this place blows. I hope you are there to dig yourself up from the rubble alongside me. Would be nice to not be the only survivor for once.”

“Gee, what a bundle of hope you are,” I snipped before pacing around.

“Just talking from experience. I always found it funny my name is Coffin but I seem to be extremely hard to kill.” Coffin finished reloading his weapons and Liberty finished up in the bathroom.

“Alright, done!” she said brightly. “What’d I miss?”

Me and Coffin glanced at each other, Stripe and Glory just biting their lips from the sidelines.

Welp, moving on!

We then headed on to next floor below, once again nearing the bottom of the base. Here we spotted some guards blocking a door.

“Wonder what they are hiding?” Coffin pondered aloud.

“Wanna find out?” I asked, noting one of the weapons they were holding. It looked like some sort of weirdly designed assault rifle with revolving barrels… I want.

He nodded. “Might as well.”

I snuck over, trying to seem inconspicuous as I took cover behind a trash can near the door. I couldn’t see them, but judging from the lack of shots fired yet, I think-

Bang! Tink.

Son of a whorse! They began firing. Damn it, if they want to use their guns… let’s take them away then. With a strained grunt, I lit my horn and forcefully pried the assault rifle out of the soldier's battle saddle before turning it around and firing back on them. Damn this thing has some kick!

There was a crack of a sniper as Stripe hit the other guy, simultaneous to some bolts of magic from Glory’s weapons. He dropped to the ground, lifeless.

“Wow, Sparky! You’ve got some telekinesis on you!” Liberty complimented

“I-it’s nothing special.” I said with a blush. “I mean, it’s not like I carried an entire roof or anything.”

Leaving that be for a moment, I ripped the rifle from the battle saddle and compared it to the one I was using already.

Yeah, I was taking the cooler one.

I dropped the old assault rifle for the new multi-barrelled one. Inventorying, the new rifle fit right in with that shotgun of mine. It looked rather snug alongside my revolver and Little Gilda… wherever it is they all were inside my PegWing.

Loadout all sorted, I looked away from my PegWing and moved on with the others. There was another set of stairs ahead, the passageway leading down to the ground where there was another dock kinda like the one we’d entered through. A small armored car sat in the corner, sans its wheels unfortunately.

And, on stepping out of the large open door, we found ourselves back outside the the field of Hades Tanks. Alarms were blaring all across the base, some panicked pony shouting down a microphone and dishing out order across the field. It looked like some of the Enclave were beginning to evacuate, others were running back inside the building.

“I bet they’re getting the base commanders out while downplaying the severity of it all to the lower-downs,” Coffin mused dryly.

“They don’t believe in captains being the last to leave their sinking ships,” Glory agreed. “Another thing I miss about my Enclave. Storm Chaser would have a fit.”

“You lot lost?” We all spun around instantly, tensing up upon seeing a pegasus stallion in full Enclave power armor, albeit sans the helmet. A cigarette was held in his left wing’s feather tips as he took a smoke. The said missing helmet was held under the right.

There were three other pegasi with him, all in power armor as well, those these guys had their helmets on.

“Not a wise plan to announce your presence,” Stripe stated, rising onto her hind legs and raising her rifle. “You are Enclave, and yet you do no appear to be readying for battle.”

“What’s the game here?” Coffin demanded to know, his assault rifle also raised up high in his magic.

I also made sure to draw my weapon as Morning Glory charged her energy rifles. Liberty, though… She just looked inquisitive.

“Hold on, guys,” she said softly. “Maybe they’re not here to fight us?”

“We rightly should,” the pony stated. "I’m Sergeant Granite of EC Company... Enclave Control Company. We're responsible for perimeter defense, ‘usually’ that is. Lately we’ve been undergoing training for Hades Tank operations.”

“Convenient!” Liberty piped up. “We really need a pilot!”

She looked back and gave us all an ‘I told you so’ face. Well, I guess weirder things have happened…

“Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen, Ma’am,” he replied simply, taking a puff of his cigarette as his squad just seemed to lounge idly nearby.

“You’re kidding, right?” I deadpanned. What was with these guys? “So… you’re not going to shoot us… But you’re not going to help either?”

“Pretty much.”

“I’ll add laziness to the list of things wrong with Death Scythe’s Enclave,” Glory muttered.

“Not laziness, Ma’am,” Granite rebuked. “We just don’t give a fuck. Used to, maybe. Hell, we all signed up filled with the promises of the Enclave’s righteousness and glory. Maybe we believed it, too.”

“What changed?” Liberty asked.

The Sergeant just shrugged. “Not rightly sure. Maybe the Enclave wasn’t quite as heroic as we were told. Doesn’t bother most, patriotism and all that. But I sure as heck don’t really subscribe to the General’s crap. Down here it’s just assholes shooting assholes, nothing much else to it.”

“We’re fighting so we’re not systematically enslaved and butchered,” Coffin retorted.

“If you say so. Who am I to judge?”

“Look, you said you can drive one of these tanks, right?” Morning Glory asked, pushing forward to the front of our group. “Well, I helped build them. I’m fairly certain we can get the thing going and all live if you help us.”

He frowned, studying Glory. “You’re that scientist, aren’t you? The one they kept cooped up inside?”

“Not anymore,” she shot back. “Look, the Enclave wasn’t always completely bad. We had a lot of good people back in the day. Pegasi who died to stop ponies like Death Scythe from turning the Enclave into a completely fascist regime! My father, my sisters… The idiots in Neighvarro led our people down the drain, killed all Enclave civilians and soldiers who tried to stop them. But the pegasi can be better again, to do better. And that starts by toppling what Death Scythe has built and showing our people a better way!

He snorted. “A better way?”

“My city, Thunderhead, traded with the Wasteland before Neighvarro had us destroyed. We wanted to trade with the ponies below, to open up the Enclave and assist our earth pony and unicorn brothers and sisters. That’s what we should have been. And maybe what we can be again.”

He frowned. “You… actually love the Enclave, don’t you?”

“I love what we were,” she reiterated. “What we should have been, before the ponies in charge messed it all up.”

He hummed, puffing out a long tuft of smoke. “Truth be told, we could have been in a better posting if we wanted. We were put on the perimeter because it’s a slow day’s work, not much to do. We were only being trained in the operation of these things in the case of outside infiltration.”

Well, that might have just bitten them in the ass.

“Alright, I need to talk it other with the guys,” he said, turning to confer with the other soldiers.

“We might also add the base is going to explode very soon,” Liberty added quickly. “Just in case you weren’t aware…”

With the Enclave pegasi talking among themselves off to the side, Coffin turned to give Morning Glory a studious look.

“Love the Enclave?” he questioned. “The same ponies who attacked the enslaved everything down here?”

“As I said, it wasn’t always like that,” she responded. “At least… not everywhere. Our leadership in Neighvarro was always on the heavy hooved side. But the rest of us just wanted to live our lives. I spent my early years trying to extend an olive branch to all of you down here. But then Neighvarro went on the offensive, solidifying its grip on the other cities and destroying Thunderhead entirely.”

“Hard to believe Death Scythe got away with so much…” Liberty muttered sadly.

“Up there… well, they use all kinds of propaganda and fear mongering to keep ponies on team Enclave,” she mused, glancing up at the cloud cover. Even in the cities down here to some extent. Information control, keeping the real truth of their brutality from most of the populace. The cloud cover isn’t just to keep us from looking up, but to keep the pegasi from looking down.”

If only I could have found a way into the Single Pegasus Project. What would have history turned out like if the pegasi saw what Neighvarro were actually like? If support had been with Enclave factions like Thunderhead, rather than under the hoof of the leadership…

“Alright, we’ve made a choice,” Granite announced as he returned. “Your mentioning of the base exploding helped matter some, I will admit. It explains where the high ups are going in such a hurry.”

“I knew it…” Coffin muttered.

“So you’ll help us?” Liberty asked with sparkling eyes.

“We don’t have much choice but to,” he pointed out. “And maybe we’ll give you ponies a shot. See if you’re claims of fighting for freedom are legit.”

Fair enough!

“Follow us,” the Sergeant stated, motioning for his soldiers to make a move towards a nearby Hades Tank.

The nine of us moved quickly towards the vehicle, thankfully meeting no other less sympathetic Enclave soldiers on the way.

Seriously, with all the talk of vetting out ponies like Granite in the military, we probably just ran into the only friendly pony wearing X-02 power armor in all of Equestria!

At least that luck’s still holding. It’s about the only thing that’s gotten me this far.

The Hades Tank was tethered up to the fuel line, squatting in what almost looked like a crouched position with a large movable set of stairs placed alongside the thing to get into it. The stairs led up to an open hatch on the side of the main body, probably leading to wherever inside the machine the Enclave could control it from.

“Get those fuel pumps detached, or we aren’t leaving this place at all,” Granite ordered his ponies, who all wordlessly began to move around the Hades Tank and moved into a nearby shed. Even as the rest of us reached the stairs and regarded the tank, I could hear a whir of machinery as the connections to the fuel line began to retract.

“Ladies first,” Coffin offered coyly, looking at Stripe, Liberty Bell, Morning Glory and myself.

I think we all eye rolled at once as we obliged him. Not because we wanted to, but because we really didn’t have time to worry about it.

We moved up the staircase, Granite choosing to forgo them altogether and ascend under the power of his own wings. But as we reached the top, I cam to a quick halt alongside the others as a pony in an officer’s uniform exited the tank! He glanced up instantly from a clipboard he held in his wing, his eyes widening.

“What-” was all he could say, his mistake being that he was already reaching for his holstered magical energy pistol.

But all the rest of us did was watch as a metal tail struck forward from above the Enclave Officer, a barbed tip striking into his spine before lifting the pony up and throwing him to the ground below.

We all looked up at Granite, who was shaking the blood from his tail.

“To be fair,” he started. “That guy was always a prick.”

Well, that was slightly terrifying, but moving on!

With Morning Glory saying something more on the weaponised scorpion tail, we moved up again and made it through the doorway. We arrived into a short metal corridor, a door to the right being marked as an engineering bay while the door to our left seemed to lead into a control room.

The other all turned to the left, but I neglected to join them for a moment, instead I looked back out of the entrance hatch and towards the ground below us. The rest of the renegade Enclave squad was done with the fuel connection and were now flying up towards the hatch themselves. With that in mind, I pulled my head back inside and moved into the cockpit of the Colossus.

...Celestia, I have never seen so many buttons that I all wanted to press out of sheer curiosity. SO many of them were red! How could I not!?

No. Resisting. Press buttons later…

“Well, I’m already lost,” Liberty Bell commented. “This’ll be fun!”

“You’re in the pride of the Enclave’s war machine,” Granite stated, sounding rather proud of himself actually. “One big fuck you to anypony in our way.”

“I have no idea how the Council was able to afford all of this,” Morning Glory deadpanned. “You do not have this much advancement and rapid construction without economical drawbacks.”

“We let the big wigs deal with that,” the Sergeant responded. “That’s one headache I don’t want to have.”

I wonder what the Enclave could have accomplished if they didn’t spend everything on new weapons. Would Equestria even still be a wasteland by now?

“Anyway, guess I’m driving,” the Sergeant joked, walking towards a seat at the centre of the front console and removing his helmet. “Alright, let’s see if i remember…”

“Remember? I thought you could use this thing!” Coffin protested.

“Training to. Never actually done it.”

I think I saw Coffin’s eye twitch. “Right. Great! Anything else we need to know.”

“Just sit down and shut up, wastelander,” the Sergeant snapped, turning his head towards the other pegasi as they piled into the cockpit. “Ponies, make sure our systems are good and keep them that way! As for the rest of you, any of you got any technical knowledge? We need five ponies back there and four up here.”

“Since I helped design it, I think I should go,” Morning Glory volunteered, before she then turned to look at Coffin. “And you're good with computers, right?”

“Yeah, but you might want Sparkplug. I think she’s more into technical maintenance.”

She shook her head. “No, I think the Enclave can handle that. I need you to keep an eye on the on-board computer. Somepony needs to make sure it works without malfunction, and… I also need you to help me make sure nopony tried to remotely shut us down when we start moving.”

“Well, then I guess duty is a-calling,” he remarked, following Morning Glory back out of the cockpit and towards the back of the giant tank.

That just left Granite, Stripe, Liberty Bell and myself.

“So, where do we begin in piloting this contraption?” Stripe asked, examining a nearby terminal.

“No piloting. You’d probably trip us up after five inches of travel,” Granite responded, flicking a few switches that made a couple lights do blinking stuff. “As long as the others handle the technicalities backstage, I can keep us moving. What I need you three to do is man the weapons systems and correspond with the engineering sections.”

“Alright…” I said, staring at all those controls with a blank expression. “How do we do any of that?”

“Those two stations control our weapon systems,” he stated, gesturing to a couple of terminals embedded into the consoles either side of him. “The third one over there links up to the back, from there you can stay in contact with the engineering team and coordinate all our efforts.”

“I’ll take that one,” Liberty Bell volunteered. “You two should handle the blowing things up job.”

“Ah, the easiest and most fun of all the jobs,” Granite said wistfully to himself.

I watched Liberty trott over to her terminal and boot it up. I then turned to one of the two remaining computers, moving over to one at random and bringing the screen to life. Green text scrolled past before being replaced with a menu that was marked as being for the balefire egg launchers.

I guess that meant that Stripe would be using the railgun.

There were a few options on the terminal, the most pressing one being the ‘targeting computer’ option. Before that, however, I decided to select an option that brought up a whole bunch of technical statistics for the weapons. I’d need hours to begin to figure out how it all worked, this was a whole other world from what I was used to. Still, I got the general gist of what was going on. The guns didn’t seem to be ready to fire yet, and a note was telling me to contact engineering if I wanted a progress report.

“I am… uncertain as to how I am to proceed,” Stripe said worriedly. “I once had a friend who would be far more proficient at deciphering all this code. BUt I am afraid I am not as technically minded.”

“Don’t worry about all of that,” Granite suggested. “Just focus on the targeting computer. All the interface needs you to do there is aim the guns and shoot.”

“Speaking of…” Liberty Bell started. “I’m getting a message from the others saying that they have the weapons booted up, they’re no about to get the legs moving.”

“Alright then, I guess it’s-” Granite paused suddenly, glancing out of the front window and frowning. “Shit.”

I followed his gaze, looking out at the area surrounding our Hades Tank. And yeah, shit was probably an understatement. I could see several of those smaller but still fucking mean-looking Cerberus Tanks rolling up towards us alongside more than a few soldiers in both combat armor and power armor.

And I think we’d pissed all of them off.

“Hades Tank A-94,” a voice came in over the intercom. “Power down and prepare to be boarded. Comply, or you will be fired upon.”

“So… we’re ignoring that, right?” I asked the others, offering them a strained smile.

“Ugh, I’m regretting this already,” Granite muttered, but then looked up as a large clanging sound echoed around the tank. “But then again, we’re already dead either way. Rolling!”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride inside of a giant as it walked across the surface of Equus? No? Well, neither had I! But seeing as I suddenly found my muzzle smacking into the ground as the whole tank gave a sudden jolt forwards, I certainly found out the hard way!

But hey, I’m just inside one of the worse death machines ever created by ponies forty years in the future after my biggest ever fuck up while running from an exploding reactor through an army of ponies who want to kill me! I’m fine! Just fine!

Maybe I should just get to using that computer and stop thinking about it.

Wishing I had some smarter ponies doing this instead of me, I got back to my hooves and planted myself in front of the targeting computer. I quickly selected the option and watched as the feed of an exterior camera was displayed, readouts of the various launchers coming along with it as I saw through the camera the Enclave begin to scatter and open fire.

As our Hades Tank moved from its dock and out onto the road, several Cerberus Tanks scuttled around us on their little legs and point their guns in our direction. I could hear and feel booms through the metal as their cannons fired, followed by a continuous volley of green magic as their energy gatling weapons span up. This was joined as pegasi started to surround us in the air, unicorns and earth ponies on the ground moving to give their own support as small arms fire also started to pelt us.

“Let us see…” Stripe murmured as she concentrated really hard on her own computer in the corner of my eye. Then, with a shattering boom, the railgun fired and eviscerated a group of earth ponies that were running over to join the fight. “Ah. I see, I think that’s how it works…”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing, Stripe!” Liberty Bell shouted as she was nearly knocked over by a large shudder the tank gave. “Because the others are saying we need to stop taking so much fire! We’re tough, but not invincible!”

A small bang and a shower of sparks behind me was more than enough motivation to believe her!

I fiddle around with the controls, trying to get a feel for them as we kept moving forwards, one of our legs coming down onto an armored car and crushing it beneath us. Some of the controls around the terminal seemed to aim the launchers, and the closest of the big shiny red buttons…

The moment I hit it, several small objects were seen being launched on the monitor from our tank. The barrage smacked into a line of the smaller tanks ahead of us, and in a moment they were all consumed in a wave of green balefire.

“That did it!” Granite proclaimed, pressing down hard onto his controls and increasing our speed. “Keep me covered while I navigate us away from this mess!”

As our speed increased, there were three Cerberus Tanks that had crawled their way on top of a nearby building with some other Enclave soldiers supporting them and firing at us. Another shot with the railgun sent one of the tanks careening from the building and back down to the floor below. I followed that up with another balefire egg barrage, practically blowing the top of the building off!

We kept on moving down down the road and through the lines of inactive Hades Tanks. Now that Stripe and I had gotten to grips with the basics, keeping the Enclave off our backs was becoming increasingly easier. Stripe’s railgun cut through another tank ahead of us, though I tried to be a bit more conservative with the balefire bombs. Still, it was hard not to feel like a fucking dragon or something in this thing! Aside from some superficial damage, nothing the Enclave had thrown at it had barely even dented the armor.

We started pressing on ahead for a gap in the line of tanks, and from there it looked like there was a stretch of open field that led to the outer fence. From there, we just had to make a break for it before the reactor finally detonated.

I had to keep reminding myself that, despite how badass this thing was to use, even it wouldn’t stand up to the equivalent of a full-blown megaspell detonation.

Two vertibucks suddenly flew into view on both my terminal and through the front window, both helicopters coming to a hover be letting red beams loose at us.

I aimed the balefire egg launchers up and towards the two vertibucks. I let the miniature megaspells loose towards. The eggs dotted the sky for a moment, before several hit the vertibucks and consumed them in their signature green mushroom clouds. Those that didn’t directly hit the vertibucks were also detonated by the blasts of the others, and what was left of the vertibucks was scattered from one end of the factory to the other.

Granite kept us moving forward, ignoring the remaining Cerberus Tanks as they fell to the wayside and the insignificant gunfire from the ground infantry, moving us directly forward towards the gap we had seen.

And you know what? We almost made it too.

Just as we were reaching the gap and our bid for freedom, probably the worst thing that we could have ran into… well, it ran into us.

From the gap in the line of inactive tanks came another very much active Hades Tank, its massive legs cracking the concrete road beneath is as it rounded to face us.

At this moment, there was only one thing to say.

“Ah, fuck it.”

If anyone else had anything to say or do, none of them got the chance as I saw the other tank’s launchers aim in our direction and unleash a familiar group of small objects towards us. I was barely able to brace myself as the balefire eggs hit us dead on, the entire tank shuddering violently as a terrible tearing sounded all around us, pieces of the console sparking and erupting into flames. Those alarms were probably bad too…

Looking back at the still intact terminal, the display was having a small panic as it showed that seven of the twelve balefire egg launchers had been ripped from their mounts. And looking at the suddenly frazzled and frantic looks of the others, I’m guessing they weren’t doing so good either.

“Damn, where did Hades Tank A-103 come from!?” Granite shouted. “I think I still have control, everypony else?”

“Uh, yeah, not doing so great,” I responded.

“The railgun has been damaged,” Stripe informed us.

“They’re telling us the same,” Liberty Bell said, speaking of the others in the back. “One more shot will tear it apart. You should switch to the gatling cannons for now.”

“I would not worry for the moment, look,” Stripe then pointed out, gesturing a hoof out of the window towards the other tank.

And now that she mentioned it, those balefire launchers are automatic. Why hadn’t they kept firing and finished us?

“Power down,” the voice through the intercom returned in stereo. “You are damaged and outgunned. Power down.”

Ah, of course. They wanted their Hades Tank. Were they even aware that the base was about to explode?

Then again, if Granite hadn’t known then they probably don’t either. I almost feel sorry for them.

“If we move, they’re going to fire on us again,” Liberty Bell noted in worry. “But we don’t have much time left.”

“Right… how are we playing this?” Granite asked. “Gotta say, our options aren’t great. There wasn’t any training for fighting another Hades Tank either.”

I looked at the others, all of them glancing between one another in search for any bright idea anyone else might have. Getting none from them, I looked away and back towards the other tank. It was in a far better condition than ours and still had all of its weapons. Our armor was probably melted from the balefire barrage, even if it was thick as a stable door, being a stable dweller myself, I knew that stable doors were never meant to take direct hits from megaspells.

Still, given the fact we weren’t dead, there had to still be something left between us and oblivion.

Still, our gatling guns weren’t going to even dent them. Our railgun had only one shot left, though maybe if we hit the front window of the cockpit… Still, it might not be enough to take them all out in there. And even though we still had a few balefire launchers, they had more…

Shitty pissing fuck! I didn’t get frozen for forty years just to die on my first mission for the resistance!

Come on, Littlepip. Think! What would my friends do…

Calamity would want a head-on charge, going out in a blaze of glory.

Velvet Remedy would want us to surrender and try to talk our way out of this.

Steelhooves would support Calamity’s idea and go out fighting. He’d have preferred going out this way…

Xenith would just stand quietly in the corner and look intimidating.

Well, sorry Velvet. You’ve been outvoted!

“Charge them,” I said.

They all looked at me like I was a dump pony. Which… wasn’t a bad deduction, really.

“I said charge them,” I repeated. “Think of it this way, up close they can’t use their balefire eggs.”

“Neither could we,” Granite deadpanned.

“True,” I admitted. “Buuuut, we’d probably stand a better chance up there than here.”

“The reactor could go critical at any moment…” Liberty Bell reluctantly agreed. “Maybe we could topple them with a ram?”

“A ram…” Granite was really a master at looking unamused about things.

“It may be our only option…” Stripe surprisingly also concurred. “I have been a part of many foolish gambits in these long years. May luck continue to favor us.”

“Ahhhh,” Granite moaned, turning back to the controls. “Welp, tell everypony backstage to hold onto their asses.”

He sent us forwards once more.

Through the front window, the other tank was rapidly getting bigger as we approached! Another call came through the intercom ordering us to stop, the launchers on the other tank following us. But I don’t know if the gunner hesitated as we got close or what, but they failed to fire as we practically headbutted the other tank at full speed!

There was a great crash and the sound of grinding metal, a crack appearing in the front window as we collided with the vehicle ahead of us. Everything shook and rumbled as we were all nearly thrown around like rag dolls, only holding on because we were prepared for it. The other tank stumbled backwards from the impact, the pony at the controls clearly struggling to keep it upright as it moved backwards. During the chaos of the ram, they failed to fire back at us once more. And now there was once again a small distance between the two of us.

“Stripe, the window!” I shouted.

She seemed to get the message, jumping back onto her targeting computer and taking aim.

There was an even larger bang as she fired the railgun, a bang I imagined was the sound of the weapon exploding and flying from its mounting on top of the tank. But it did fire, and the shot hit directly into the front window of the other tank’s cockpit. In a moment, the green tinted glass shattered and revealed the still intact ponies within.

Stripe didn’t need any prompting to switch to the gatling cannons, opening fire into the new gap and shredding those inside. The tank seemed to stumble again, but this time there was no pilot ready to correct the movement. The Hades Tank started to list, slowing beginning its angled descend backwards.

And yet, even as it fell, somepony inside was clearly still alive. Their own railgun aimed down as it fell, and a single shot was let loose as the other tank hit the ground and fell silent.

Something exploded.

The entire structure gave an jolt not unlike the ram as something that was probably important gave way! Like the other tank, we also started to tilt to a dangerous angle, Granite working hard to keep us upright.

“What was that!?” the stallion shouted.

“Uh…” Liberty worked her terminal, probably chatting up Glory or something! Wait, not chatting up, that would imply… Mind out of the gutter, Pip, we’re probably about to die! “Right, okay. Glory is saying that last shot dislocated one of our legs. We’ve only got three now.”

“Damn, okay…” Granite muttered. “I can still do this. We can limp on outta here…”

Would we even have time to limp anywhere!?

“Celestia One lock engaged.” What did the intercom voice just say? “High profile target, precise beam incoming from Tenpony Tower.”

“Did they just say Celestia One?” Granite asked. “Damn, they must really want you dead.”

“Do you think it’s me or Morning Glory they’re specifically wanting gone?” Liberty Bell asked.

“Yes,” Stripe deadpanned.

Forget that! Abandon ship!

We all rushed back over to the hatch, Granite ensuring to grab his helmet as we went, moving out into the small corridor as I latched onto the exit with my magic and forced it open! The door to engineering also opened up, Morning Glory’s face appearing with the others all behind her.

And, looking out of the hatch, I remembered that the staircase wasn’t there anymore. Maybe I could float us down with my magic…?

“Here,” Glory said as she took hold of me. Yeah, letting the winged ponies do the work here would probably be better for all of us. “Hang on!”

Morning Glory kicked off from the exit hatch with me holding on for dear life as she lowered us down towards the ground. The other pegasi did the same for Coffin, Liberty Bell and Stripe, putting us all down onto the cracked and charred concrete below the damage tank.

Rubble was strewn everywhere, a giant metal severed leg lying nearby and a toppled Hades Tank sitting not far beyond that.

But there was no time to register that for long, or the ridiculous amount of red bars around us on my E.F.S., it was running time!

We moved as fast as our legs would carry us, heading past the two tanks and through the gap we had been trying to get through in the first place. Still, on hoof it was quite the jog to get to the edge of the fence in the distance. Forget about trying to outrun the actual incoming blast…

“Vertibuck pad!” Coffin shouted, and nearby I spotted a vertibuck that looked like it was about to take off from a nearby trio of pads. It was the only one there, the other two pads empty.

Our last chance.

We sprinted towards it, the renegade Enclave soldiers kicking into the air on Granite’s orders and rushing ahead of us. The ponies trying to board the vertibuck saw them and opened fire, probably having identified them as hostile on their own Eyes Forward Sparkles, with Granite’s squad firing back in return.

Then was a flash, and I spared a small glance at the blinding lance of pure light that streaked through the sky and collided with our abandoned tank. And just like that, in a moment, it was gone.

Celestia One in action.

I pulled assault rifle and entered S.A.T.S. as we arrived at the vertibuck, surveying the situation. Our four unexpected allies were in a brawl with the group of five soldiers who had been here already. Four of them were in combat armor, though who I imagined was the leader of their particular squad was in power armor. Granite himself was driving his barbed tail into the torso of one soldier while simultaneously firing his magical energy weapons at the doomed pony. The the others were engaging the four remaining Enclave soldiers, but one of Granite ponies seemed to be in trouble. The leader of the hostile squad had knocked one of Granite’s pegasi to the ground with his own scorpion tail, knocking the helmet from his head and preparing to finish the pony.

This would be close, but I targeted the attacking pegasus in an attempt to save Granite’s squadmate.

I wasn’t fast enough.

My bullets hit true, but not before a bolt of green magic hit the stricken pegasus in the head and turned the pony into goo, leaving only the now empty power armour behind.

Because I failed. I could almost see a small little filly being turned to ashes by Enclave soldiers before my eyes in Friendship City. I could almost see everything I had fought for being swept aside because I couldn't protect New Appleoosa. A-all the… all those ponies I had indirectly killed because I failed… And now I could add one more.

Fuck… FUCK!

I grit my teeth, giving the biggest fucking shout I could as I charged at the bastard! I unloaded my assault rifle at the soldier, and I don’t give a shit if the bullets pinged off his power armor, I was going to END HIM.

My vision suddenly swam for a moment before I hit the ground, the tail of that power armor having swung around and hit me in the barrel. The barb hadn’t stuck in me, but I had been knocked to the side.

A strange distorted pulse flew through the air, and the pony shouted in pain as the from plating of his armour seemed to distort and crumple.

I glance at where it had come from, seeing Coffin with that weird toy gun he’d snatched from the armoury.

“Pulse pistol,” he explained simply. “Told you it was good.”

Not for the soldier.

I lit my horn up, letting my green magic latch onto the pony’s armor as I lifted the fucker into the air and slammed him back down. He tried to raise his tail, but I wouldn’t allow it! From there, I raised my rifle again and let loose into the collapse section of his armor. Blood oozed from the gaps, and the pony went still.

And there I stood, just panting my breath away. His body was in front of me, bleeding out. But I hadn’t done it in time. I had failed to stop him from taking the life of one of my allies. Sure, that ally had also been Enclave, but he was one of the ponies wanting to do better! BUt I didn’t save him. I failed.

I have to stop failing.

I have to.

I felt something touch my shoulder, and I looked up at the worried eyes of LIberty Bell. It was only then that I realised that the battle was over.

“Are you alright…?” she asked slowly.

“Yeah,” I lied. “So… what now?”

Liberty Bell glanced past the newly created corpses and into the vertibuck. There, Coffin and Granite seemed to be in the middle of ‘convincing’ the pilot to fly us out of here.

That answered that.

I could still feel Liberty Bell’s stare drilling into the back of my skull as we hopped into the vertibuck. I could hear the pilot’s protests, following by his eventual resignation as he continued the takeoff.

All eight of us loaded up, and the vertibuck started to lift up off of the ground.

“Get us away from here,” Coffin demanded to the pilot. “Far from here. Don’t stop until we say.”

“Your buddies killed one of mine,” Granite added. “Don’t piss me off more.”

“OK! OK! I’m moving…” the pilot replied, turning the vertibuck and lifting us up and away from the base.

And so we flew, the vertibuck gaining altitude as it crossed the fence and returned us to the wasteland.

I watched as we gained distance on the factory, finally putting space between us and those lumbering machines. I can’t say I was going to miss it. Even if we had to leave somepony behind…

“Are you sure you’re okay, Sparkplug?” Liberty Bell asked softly. “You look… shaken.”

“I’m fine,” I lied again. “We got out. We’re good.”

“No, you’re not fine.” Why does she have to be a smart pony as well as a cute one? “Is it Granite’s squadmate?”

“Ace Wing,” Granite spoke up, glancing at us. “That was his name.”

And now I had a name to go with the face. I wasn’t sure I could feel any queasier than I was already feeling…

“It wasn’t your fault,” Liberty Bell tried to comfort me. But I knew it was. “Sometimes these things happen. I’ve… lost some ponies too. Ponies who trusted me to get them home.”

“Not as many as me…”

I regretted my word choice. Not only because of her suddenly confused stare at my slip up, but because that wasn’t fair, was it? Ugh, more guilt…

Before either of us could follow up on it, however, it was Stripe who piped up next.

“How much time did we have to spare?”

Morning Glory hummed, glancing out of the vertibuck and back towards the factory. “Hard to say. I could be anywhere between-”

There was a deafening crack as what could almost be described as magical lightning began to crackle across the factory, small explosions dotting the structure as the fuel line started to ignite.

And then death once again reared its head upon the Equestrian Wasteland.

The whole thing ignited. The reactor blew, consuming the factory as secondary explosions rippled along the lines of Hades Tanks, igniting the fuel along the line and inside the tanks themselves, blowing the death machines into pieces.

The explosions combined their strength, and the entire base, and the landscape around it, was consumed in a gigantic mushroom cloud. The deafening explosions sounded all around us as our vertibuck made to get as far from the detonation as possible, and yet I spotted the blue sparks sent away from the explosion heading towards us.

And when it hit, everything went dead.

“Fuck, EMP!” Morning Glory shouted, clinging onto to the nearest railing for dear life.

We all followed suit. Railing, each other, whatever! We all hung on as all control over the craft was lost, sending us hurtling down towards the dirt! I could just feel the forces acting us us, down and down until the ground was only-

Ugh, who put the thing and shoved it into my thingy… Or onto me, or… What?

Fuuuuck. The world hurts. Why, world?

“Pilot’s dead,” I heard some voice or other say. “Could have been worse, I think the rest of us are intact. Hey, how’s Sparkplug?”

“Hang on, I’m giving her a healing potion.”

Such a strange thing, a healing potion. It’s all… watery. And it heals. It’s pretty… Bleh!

It was like all sense returned to me in an instant, the world going from one hazy blur to a perfectly vivid nightmare! The healing potion was removed from my gullet as I sat up, unable to resist a coughing fit. Even with the potion, I still ached really badly. But I was alive, so there was that!

“Thank Celestia you’re alright,” Liberty Bell said, breathing a sigh of relief from her position sat beside me. “You hit your head pretty bad when we hit the ground.”

“Yeah, I feel it…” I muttered, looking around. The hulk of the vertibuck was nearby, the others all gathered around and getting their bearings. The shadow of the mushroom cloud hung over us like a bad omen, and who knew how many Enclave patrols were on their way to investigate what happened to their factory.

But we made it. We were alive.

“It was lucky I was wearing a helmet, or I would have caved my skull in for sure,” Coffin said as he moved next to us, removing the X-01 helmet on his head that very much had a new and very large dent in it. “We all got lucky. The healing potions helped.”

“What happened to the pilot?” I asked.

“As I said, caving in skulls,” he responded.

Ouch.

“Less lucky for us, given the power armor,” Granite stated. “The rest of you though… Yeah, you are lucky bastards. I’m glad for that, given our escape just now was pretty improbable in every conceivable way.”

“Well, get used to it,” I replied with a half-hearted laugh. “I think ponies like us run purely on hopes and dreams.”

“I prefer to think of it as the Magic of Friendship.” I blushed when Liberty gave me a nuzzle on the head that I wasn’t entirely sure was platonic…

Oh dear.

“That’s all well and good…” Granite continued. “But what now?”

Coffin hummed, turning his eyes skyward. “I wouldn’t worry about that…”

The sound of blades caught my ears, and the rest of us also turned to looks upwards as the shaped of a second vertibuck started to come into view. It didn't look like the same model of vertibucks the Enclave were using, but seemed to be an older model of vertibuck. The kind of vertibuck that would have been in service during Operation: Cauterize, and this one was definitely not flown by an Enclave pegasus.

“Need a lift?” Steampunk asked over our earpieces. “Seeing as you totalled your own ride and all.”

I laughed again, though this time it was a little more genuine.

Footnote: Level 4

New Perk: Educated - +3 skill points per level

Author's Note

I have full permission from Somber to use characters and elements from Project Horizons. A few familiar faces may yet show up in this dark and twisted future, though Hoofington itself shall not be visited due to it being, you know, a pile of rubble and enervation.

And so that brings us to the end of both the first story arc and the weekly updates!

We have a lot more to come, folks! The fight against the Grand Equestrian Enclave is far from over...

7 - Plan of Action

Chapter Seven: Plan of Action

“Good plan? Great plan.”

The Equestrian Wasteland looked so peaceful from up above.

Okay, that’s a lie. It still looks like shit.

And yet…

It did have a better look to it from the air. I guess that’s what I miss most about the old Sky Bandit, there wasn’t quite as much to worry about up here. Oh sure, the occasional raider would try and take a pot shot at you. But it never worked. Not when Calamity was the one pulling it.

I miss Calamity.

It was also a lot quicker than walking, but I could see why we didn’t take it in the first place. If the place hadn’t been about to explode, that factory probably would have picked us up from miles away. Even now I kept expecting a few pegasi to jump out after us, and so was Steampunk judging from the occasional worried glances he’d give out of the windows form the cockpit, which looked like it’d been heavily modified by the stallion to accommodate non-pegasus pilots.

The others were all letting him worry about pursuers, though, and were taking the moment to relax after our run through hell and back. Granite and his remaining squad members were silent, though, probably letting the fact that they could never go home dawn on them.

I actually hoped they wouldn’t come to regret helping us.

Stripe sat at the back, cleaning her sniper rifle and giving the occasional wistful glance at her PipBuck that made me wonder just what, or who, it was that ran through her mind. Morning Glory was also quite distant, just staring out one of the windows much as I had been, her eyes looking weathered and haunted. I wonder if mine were looking like that?

That left Liberty Bell and Coffin, both of whom were deep in discussion about the ramifications of what we’d done and just how they’d frame their report to Silver Bell and Life Bloom. I was content on leaving the official crap to them, I never was one for paperwork.

I returned to my window, watching as the dirt of the wasteland shifted to the further wasteland of the Appleoosian Desert. From deep blacks and greys to shades of brown, so not much of an improvement to be honest, but there you are. A small thought crossed my mind, however, and a frown wrinkled across my unfamiliar face.

“So, uh…” I started to say, looking up at Steampunk. “Where are we going exactly? I mean, won’t we be seen?”

“I’d say we’re fortunate not to have been already. Double so for me, seeing as I had to run the trip to get you out of that place,” he replied. “But we’re not heading back to New Appleoosa. Not directly, at least. There’s an old train tunnel used by the Equestrian military before the war, it was abandoned sometime before its end, though. The Enclave doesn’t use it, and it’s full of ghouls.”

“I thought they hated ghouls?”

“They do, but they have yet to bother to send in teams to clear them out, which works in our favour for as long as that lasts.”

“I’m sure there’s an operation for it penned somewhere, but they have bigger fish to fry than what they think isn’t a priority target,” Liberty Bell added in from the side.

“Right,” Steampunk agreed. “And it’s big. Big enough that a single vertibuck can fly through it, albeit with care, all the way to the station. We’ve retrofitted said station to hold the few vertibucks we have. It’s a squeeze, but it works.”

I hummed. “And the ghouls?”

“We try not to bother them. Besides, we have defences and barricades against them.”

“And for when the Enclave finally decides to send a team in,” Coffin interjected. “Though when that day comes, we’ll need to find a new place to store our things. Once the Enclave knows what we use the place for, they’ll send in more than we can chew.”

I had to wonder just how many times that exact thing had happened…

“Okay. Underground tunnel filled with ferals that might someday be bombed by the Enclave, got it,” I snarked. “And then what?”

“We have a tunnel dug all the way to New Appleoosa, specifically to the sub-levels of the factory our HQ is at,” Steampunk further explained. “We dug it out as a back door to escape through, and is how we found the train tunnel in the first place. It’s all worked out quite nicely so far.”

‘So far’ being the keywords, or so I’d imagine.

“We’re almost there as it is,” Steampunk then informed us. “Strap in, I’m going to need to take us in nice and carefully.”

Right. The last thing we wanted was to catch the blades of this thing on the tunnel walls.

Okay, now that I thought about it, I was starting to think I’d prefer taking my chances with the ferals…

The vertibuck made a bank, our speed slowing as Steampunk started to descend towards the ground. Keeping an eye outside, I believe I just about spotted an ancient-looking tunnel entrance between a large rocky outcropping. The tracks leading out of it were extremely dilapidated and torn up, and already I could make out shambling figures just inside the tunnel’s entrance that were probably the first of the ghouls.

And yet, with what I hoped to be great practice, Steampunk brought us down right towards it.

My stomach clenched as we passed the threshold, open sky being replaced with crumbling concrete walls that I was amazed still kept the roof up. Red bars passed by underneath us, scattering about as we passed the ferals by.

The tunnel was large, accommodating several tracks with a high ceiling clearance. But even that was barely, and I could see Steampunk’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he kept the flying machine directly central as he flew us down. Just one wrong move…

And then he started to slow down again, the tunnel opening up into a large cavernous space filled with a sudden onslaught of green bars over the red.

Looking out the window, I could tell the space used to be an extremely large station where the military kept its armoured trains and such. Now, though, it looked like most of what used to be here had been cleared out in favour of large and flat platforms that held at least three other vertibucks that I could see. Said vertibucks were being worked on by ponies and griffons in dirty overalls while armoured guards cautiously watched our descent.

There was a bump as we touched down, and I think we all must have shared a collective inner sigh of relief.

“Thank you for flying Air Steampunk, you may all kindly disembark,” the stallion quipped as he turned to regard us all with a smirk. “But seriously, you have better get moving. I need to give this baby a look over for any damage.”

“Right. Thanks for the save, Steampunk,” I said to him as I got up from my seat.

“Think nothing of it. You all did a hell of a thing. Silver Bell was right to have me pick you up, Sparkplug.”

“Yes, she was…” Coffin mused, looking thoughtfully at me in what I really hope wasn’t suspicion.

“Well, my mother does know how to pick ‘em!” Liberty Bell chirped, giving me an enthusiastic side hug that made my cheeks burn for the millionth time. “She found the rest of you, right?”

“Technically, I found her,” Coffin lightly retorted. “But point taken.”

We all hopped down and out of Steampunk’s veribuck, leaving the stallion behind to run whatever checks he needed to do on the flying machine. A few wary glares were sent at the Enclave soldiers who stepped off with us, though a quick nod from Liberty Bell set them at ease. Likewise, the mare shared a few words with a passing member of the Resistance who then asked the squad to follow him.

The pegasi glanced between one another, but then nodded. Granite shot me a glance of apprehension as he started to depart, but then turned away and vanished amongst the activity in the station.

Coffin hummed, still eying me thoughtfully.

“I’d quite like to get moving,” Morning Glory spoke up, gaining all of our attention. “I have been a captive for several decades and I think a hot bath would be the least I could ask for?”

Liberty Bell gave her a nod. “Oh, I’m sure we can find you something. Though, Mom and Life Bloom will probably want to ask you some question…”

Morning Glory rolled her eyes, but then something Liberty said seemed to register inside her head.

“Life Bloom? As in Tenpony Tower’s Life Bloom?”

“That would be the one!”

Glory seemed to pause a minute, thinking to herself. “Hm, in that case… But I still want that bath first!”

“We’ll figure something out,” Coffin said. “We still got a trek ahead of us, though. Tunnel goes a deep way before reaching New Appleoosa.”

“Well then, do lead the way.”

Coffin didn’t need asking twice, turning his back on us and walking away. We moved to follow the stallion, and I found myself taking up the rear to stay out of his way for the time being. I mean, I get it, I’d probably be a bit weirded out too if some strange mare turned up out of the blue, apparently just some random pony, but then can do the stuff I can do. That, and my many slip-ups about the whole in the future thing...

I didn’t like lying to him about who I was. Maybe I could convince Silver Bell and Life Bloom to include him? He seemed like a guy who could keep quiet, be I also knew he really didn’t like his friends keeping secrets from him. What would he do if he found out on his own? Would I still be his idol after I lied to him?

As totally weird as his worship is, the thought of being revealed to not quite be the godly figure he’s built up in his head after all this time.

No, that Lightbringer wouldn’t have let all this happen in the first place.

Goddesses, I’m really disappointing, aren’t I?

Ugh, not thinking about it anymore. I just wanted to get back to the Resistance’s headquarters and get some food in my stomach. And some sleep. Yeah, now that my thoughts had turned to it, I was starting to realise just how drained I was feeling.

Welcome home, Pip…

We moved into a small dark space dug out of the station’s wall, the tunnel beyond being mostly pitch-black beyond from the small motes of light dotted around at various intervals from small magical lamps. We had to squeeze in single file so not to get stuck, leaving the Resistance’s impromptu vertibuck storage behind and taking the underground passage back to the factory’s sub-level in New Appleoosa.

The air quickly started to thin out, a noticeable nip accompanying the dark. My coat stood on end as I even saw a bit of my own breath, and I suddenly found myself intensely disliking this passage. I guess it beats a horde of Enclave guards, but fuck me with an alicorn’s horn this place was claustrophobic.

But, after walking for quite some time, we started to incline upwards. A light made itself know at the end of the tunnel, Coffin breathing a very audible sigh of relief as trotted briskly up towards the opening.

We moved through it, a wave of warm air wonderfully hitting us as we emerged into a small room that was entirely empty beyond a single bare table and a ceiling turret idly pointing towards the only doorway leading out from here. Several green bars were already appearing on my Eyes Forward Sparkle from beyond that door, making me figure that we’d safely made it back to their headquarters.

“Well, we’re home!” Liberty Bell proudly announced. “You all should take a load off, I’ll go talk to Mum and see about getting somepony to get Ms Glory her bath.”

“That would be appreciated…” Morning Glory replied, stretching out her wings as it seemed like a world’s worth of weight seemed to fall from her back.

“I’ll go with you, I gotta talk to them anyhow…” Coffin said a little too cryptically. “The rest of ya’ll go on ahead. It’ll be a while probably before the bosses want to hear from us.”

“Then let me the first to bid you all farewell,” Stripe said as she moved forward, turning briefly back towards us. “Let us hope our efforts were enough. But do not rest easy, for with all I have seen I know the Enclave will take no time to lick their wounds.”

“At least we saved a whole bunch of ponies those tanks would have killed, right?” I said to the zebra, trying pretty hard to get some cheer from her.

She just gave me a sad, tired smile. “Little pony, just because you spend so much effort to save some souls one day, do not believe that something else won’t take them the next.”

And with that, she left.

“Forgive her, she wouldn't have come with us if she didn’t think we weren’t making a difference,” Liberty Bell assured me. “Those friends she lost? Well, they gave everything to save some… people a long time ago. Then the Enclave wiped those people out anyway.”

I stared at the door where she’d departed. “Yeah, I get how she feels…”

“One story of countless. Our cause has always picked up the lost and dreary,” Coffin dryly noted. “It’s why we fight so fucking hard.”

“Anyway, we should go. Glory, would you mind following Coffin and I?” She gave Liberty Bell a nod. The unicorn smiled in turn, before then turning to look at me. “Hey, get some rest, Spark. I think you need it.”

My everything agreed.

But first, that food…

After giving my newfound friends some final farewells, I left them behind and started moving through the halls of the base. I still wasn’t super familiar with its layout, but I remembered enough to make my way into the mess hall. Just follow the smell, right?

The room wasn’t anywhere near as packed as the last time I’d been in here. I guess most people were helping out around the place at this time of day. Still, there was still some leftover food on the counter, so I grabbed a plate and started to help myself. My stomach gave a final pleading growl as I took my reward and threw myself down at the nearest table. It wasn’t the most substantial portion, a couple of apples and a sandwich, but it was more than welcome.

With food started to give me a bit of extra energy, I started to think again. I tried my best to keep from thinking about my friends, how I got here, all of that depressing crap. It was really hard, but I tried.

Instead, I turned my thoughts to New Appleoosa itself. All the ponies up above, living the Enclave lifestyle while most of Equestria suffered. How many of them actually believed in the Enclave’s bullshit? How many just turned a blind eye because they were scared or, infuriatingly, simply didn’t want to risk their pampered lives.

I finished my meal, leaning back in my chair as my eyes drifted up towards the ceiling.

Ah, fuck it. I was going for a walk.

In the city.

Okay, this was probably pretty stupid. But I just felt a burning need to see it. The once peaceful trader town I’d stayed in fresh out of the stable, turned into a hotbed of entitled assholes who hurt innocent ponies.

I did this to them.

Argh, stop it! Focus, Pip. Just go for that walk, maybe it’ll clear your head…

I got up onto the table, absentmindedly levitating my tray back over to the counter for washing as I exited the cafeteria in a hurry. As much as I wanted some fresh air, I made a stop at the bunk the Resistance had provided me to drop off some of my gear. Anything that I wasn’t keeping in my PegWing was left behind, didn’t want to practically leave a sign above my head telling the Enclave “She’s a freedom fighter, shoot her in the knees!”.

But after I had dumped all my junk, I made straight for the exit and blew past anypony else in my way.

Heading up into the factory out of the sub-level, my ears were assaulted by the grinding of tools and the thumps of machinery, ponies working the factory not giving me barely a second look as I passed them by. I wonder how many knew about the headquarters, and how many workers were actually Enclave supporters and kept in the dark by their coworkers.

It couldn’t be all that many. The Resistance had to keep the sub-level a secret somehow.

And to have built it in the first place. Now, I’m not an expert on being all sneaky about stuff, our many ‘attempted’ stealth missions were a fucking clue in on that, but there was no way in Luna’s milky moon tits that they could have pulled it off without their support.

I guess that’s comforting? Eh. I just needed some fresh, not to internally debate who all this shit came together.

And yet I’m still doing it…

Shut up, brain.

I moved through the factory until I managed to find the door leading out into New Appleoosa, taking hold of them with my magic and bursting out into the sunlight.

Actual sunlight.

Even if this fucked up fake utopia, I still couldn’t get over how beautiful it was to see with my own eyes. Looking up at it still took my breath away, just like it had the first time I had gone up to see Watcher.

To see Spike…

Funny, I had half expected to see a Spritebot come up to me by now and preach about the Magic of Friendship. I wonder what happened to that dragon…

I hope he’s out there, somewhere. Just watching, like he always does.

Hopefully.

I wonder what he would think of me now? He put his trust in me. To lead my friends, to do the right thing…

Dammit, the fresh air was meant to stop me from thinking about how badly I messed up. Now I’m just thinking of more reasons to feel like crap.

Stupid useless fresh air…

I gave a sigh. I still had barely stepped a single hoof outside of the factory, maybe an actual walk around the city would clear my head. That is why I came out here in the first place, and it was worth a try if nothing else.

Maybe getting pissed off at the Enclave was just my go-to distraction.

I started to move again, heading down the pathway and past the impossibly green grass surrounding it towards the buildings and roads that made up the city. I still couldn’t get over how a place as beautiful as this could have been created by complete fuck heads.

I suppose I was used to seeing bad guys live in places like Red Eye’s Fillydelphia, dirty and full of radiation, disease and death.

Then again, I suppose with the beauty comes the pre-war luxury. Why would the Enclave want to live in anything less?

I just wish they were more like this Thunderhead that Glory had lived in, an Enclave that actually wanted to coexist with everyone else and share in all of this. Imagine the good that could have come our way if the entirety of the Enclave had been like that. No slavery, no racism and segregation, no mindless slaughter and genocide in the name of some bullshit idea of ‘purity’ and general superiority.

Equestria could have looked like this again. All species working together in friendship, trying to actually build something of the Equestria that existed before the war broke out. Maybe somepony could have activated Gardens of Equestria?

The Gardens… Did the Enclave find it? Could Spike protect it? If not, what would they have done with it? I highly doubt any of them were exactly worthy to wield the Elements of Harmony.

Just like I hadn’t been.

Now we just have these little Enclave-controlled oases, everything outside left to toil and die so they can maintain it for themselves.

Maybe coming out here was a mistake, as much as I hated feeling like crap, I wasn’t sure I liked the fire beginning to pump through my veins either. The last time I had gotten so fucking angry…

Arbu happened.

Goddesses, when was the exact moment I became one of the most screwed up ponies in the Equestrian Wasteland?

I stopped, looking around and realising that I had walked my way through several streets while I’d been stuck in my thoughts. And, actually, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was…

Why did the Enclave have to change the layout of this place so much?

An Enclave patrol passed by, but they didn’t give me so much as a second glance. Other ponies were walking the streets around me, not paying me any attention as they went about their own days. Some of them seemed almost eerily cheerful, acting as if all in the world was good and nothing existed beyond the giant walls around us.

Others looked more uncertain, giving that patrol nervous looks before hurrying along.

I crossed the street, moving towards a building that had glass covering most of the front to reveal a few tables and a counter which had a pony serving drinks. I knew a bar when I saw one, and I sure as hell could use a cider or something.

Just one. Never was actually overly keen on the stuff, I guess my mother put me off the idea of alcohol with what it turned her into.

But I’ll make an exception this once.

Oh! They have Sparkle-Cola! Forget everything I just said, I was having that!

I trotted over to the bartender, passing a younger couple before presenting myself before the stallion.

He looked at me critically, eyeing my apparel. “Enclave technician, judging by the uniform. Haven’t seen you around with the other work crews, when did you sign up?”

“Oh, um… recently!” I quickly answered. “I’m a little new.”

“Ah, I see,” he said in understanding. “Buy your way in or are your folks in the military?”

“I feel like I’m the one who is usually meant to ask the barkeeper questions. You know, about rumours and stuff.” Please don’t notice that I’m deflecting!

He chuckled. “Fair enough. So, what can I get a patriot to our fair nation?”

I raised an eyebrow. “So, you support the Enclave, right?”

All of a sudden, he seemed to squirm and look rather uncomfortable. “Y-yes, ma’am! Love the Enclave, what would we do without them? Heh, nothing but support our end of New Appleoosa…”

He was such a terrible liar, but I guess the uniform had him thinking I was actually some kind of Enclave authority. Even as just a technician.

Thank you, Life Bloom, for the believable cover.

I gave him a disarming smile. “Hey, you’re not in trouble. Relax.”

“Oh, okay, good,” he said in relief, sighing before attempting to build himself back up to something of a confident manner. “My apologies, the last employee your forces questioned like that got dragged away. Never saw Helping Hooves again.”

I couldn’t help but cringe. I guess even a lot of the ponies inside the inner city lived in constant fear, even without the added danger of the normal wasteland. My thoughts turned to those nervous ponies outside compared to the ones completely relaxed and happy as can be. Just how many ponies inside this place were actually supportive of what the Enclave were doing, and how many lived here simply because it was better than the alternative?

Part of me wanted to hate the latter for sucking up to the Enclave just to get a better life rather than standing and fighting for something better for everypony. But another part of me kinda understood. What if he had a family?

That actually made me feel even more on edge standing out in public. Who knew how many ponies around me were good and normal, and who actually thought the Enclave wiping out all other sapient species to be a good thing?

“Just a Sparkle-Cola, please,” I asked of him, eager to just get my drink and sit down a while.

“Oh? Not AeroFizz?” he asked, and I frowned in confusion. “I’ve heard that’s what most Enclave are being encouraged to drink nowadays?”

“I must have missed that…” I muttered.

“Really? It’s all over the radio and televised broadcasts. Replacing pre-war beverages with their own versions… Never had it myself, but there you are.”

They were even making their own soft drinks now? I wonder who came up with that one.

“Tell you what,” he began, extracting a bottle from behind him. It looked oddly like Sparkle-Cola. Both the liquid and the bottle, only with a different label. “Since you’re such a patriot, I’ll give you a free taste. If you don’t like it, I’ll hoof you a Sparkle-Cola free.”

Huh? “You don’t need to-”

“Just to assure you that I AM a supporter!” I said with almost a hint of desperation.

Poor guy.

I decided to play along, taking the bottle in my magic and loosening the lid. The smell of sugar and diabetes hit my nostril, and I hesitated for just a moment before giving the liquid a sip.

Huh…

I mean, it wasn’t ‘great’. It tasted a lot like a sugary syrup more than anything. But it wasn’t actually as bad as I was expecting from something Enclave-made. It certainly beat their taste in music. Yeah, if I had a bottle of this out in the wasteland I wouldn’t mind drinking it every now and then. And yet, it just didn’t have quite the same ‘zing’ as Sparkle-Cola. I think it was the lack of a carroty aftertaste, it just felt like it was missing something.

“Don’t like it?” he asked worriedly.

“Actually, it’s alright,” I responded. “Just no Sparkle-Cola.”

“Fair, I’ll swap you,” he said, sliding the AeroFizz back towards himself and hoofing me over a Sparkle-Cola instead. “Between you and me, I think they’re running out of Sparkle-Cola. After two hundred years, I think most bottles have been found and drank.”

Yeah, that made sense. I guess there always was going to be a time where the world lost its last bottle.

“Some pegasus company up top is trying to replicate the recipe, but I guess they’re having a little trouble,” he continued, pointing a hoof upwards. “Anyway, enjoy your drink!”

I thanked him, finding my way to a small two pony table in the corner and sitting down with the cola nestled between my hooves. My eyes glanced around the bar, seeing only a few other occupants remaining. They were all engrossed in their own drinks and meals, so my eyes trailed up to the box-shaped object hanging on the wall.

Was that a television? I’d see busted ones in pre-war homes, but never a working one.

“Welcome to Neighvarro News Network! The Grand Equestrian Enclave’s ONLY televised news channel. Sponsored by the Enclave military and High General Death Scythe herself!”

Great...

Curiously, the image of the pegasus behind the desk was actually in colour. That was… new.

“The glorious and ever-powerful High General Death Scythe has released a report showing a recent string of victories against the terrorist organisation that continues to threaten the safety of pony civilisation. These raiders are highly dangerous and deranged, and we remind loyal citizens to report any strange activity.”

Assholes.

“Death Scythe has continued to lead the Enclave’s heroic efforts against the dreaded terrorist leader, reportedly known as ‘Warlord Silver Bell’, who became prolific after her personally attempted assassination of the High General, leaving our leader severely wounded.”

Wait, Silver Bell did what!?

“Now the High General continues to lead the efforts against these vile elements and their alien allies. Silver Bell, reportedly the unholy child of a ghoul criminal, is a living reminder to us of the danger that comes from falling under the influence of non-ponies.”

I subtly lit my horn, letting my magic reach out inside of the television until… Ah, that felt important.

Yank.

Something came free inside the box, and it immediately fell silent. Fortunately, nopony seemed to notice, too engrossed in whatever it was they were doing.

But I was MUCH happier not listening to Neighvarro’s bullshit. They called Ditzy a criminal! Now, that just wasn’t going to fly.

And I notice they’re not even talking about the fact that their death machine factory just went up in smoke. I guess Death Scythe doesn’t want ponies to know about that.

Figures.

I picked up my Sparkle-Cola and took a swing. By the time I was done, around a quarter of the bottle was already empty. With a small satisfied sigh, I put it back down and stared down at my own hooves. That news broadcast was really bugging me. My Homage… She broadcasted the truth, no matter how bad it hurt. This guy was just making it up as he went along. I mean, ‘Warlord’ Silver Bell? Seriously?

It made me wonder, though. How many more ponies who had never been outside of these walls believed them? How could they now, if they have never been allowed to see the truth and make judgements for themselves?

All those pegasi up above, as oblivious as they were forty years ago while the soldiers they thought were heroes continued to stomp people into the dirt the same way raiders would. Granite had indicated as much, and he’d been one of the few to actually develop a conscience despite what their superiors had expected.

He reminded me of Steelhooves in a way. The Steel Rangers had been selfish, thinking themselves above everypony else. Then Steelhooves and the Applejack’s Rangers rebelled against that idea, falling back on the ideals of Applejack about protecting rather than dominating.

I wonder where the Rangers are now. We could use that amount of firepower.

I heard the chair opposite me move, and I looked up to see an increasingly familiar stallion sit down opposite me. He gave me a curious look, that eyebrow of his meeting his mane.

“Sparkplug,” Steampunk greeted me.

“Steam,” I muttered in reply. “You stalking me now?”

He chuckled. “Hardly. I was sent to bring you back, actually.”

“I just wanted a walk.”

“Which is dangerous when unnecessary,” he scolded. “You should have at least told somepony first. You were on that… ‘task’ recently, you never know if ponies might have gained knowledge of your face.”

Right…

“Coffin was there too…” I retorted lamely.

“He has the advantage of a father who’d shoot down such claims without hard proof, given his position,” he pointed out. “You do not, as far as I am aware at least.”

Ugh… Why do smart ponies have to have good points?

I sighed. “Alright, let me just finish this.”

He nodded. “Alright, just hurry it up. The Boss wants to talk to you anyway.”

I guess Silver Bell is ready for that debrief. That was faster than I expected.

I took another sip before I then stared right into Steampunk’s eyes. “So… I hear on the news that Silver Bell almost killed the High General.”

Steampunk bit his lip, looking around at the other patrons. “Yes… That ‘terrorist’ did almost assassinate the High General a while back. I hear that a mole in her staff allowed a small resistance force in and Silver Bell beat her half to death and damn near plunged a blade into her heart before reinforcements drove them off.”

“But she survived…?”

“Of course. Ever since, the High General has been quite… persistent in her pursuit of Silver Bell and her allies in particular. More so than any other group, even the Applejack’s Rangers.”

If that wasn’t an obsession, I don’t know what is.

I hummed, chugging down the rest of my Sparkle-Cola before I stood up, Steampunk following after me. I pulled out a couple of bits and levitated them over to the counter, the barkeeper looking pleasantly surprised. I then left the bar, Steam following right behind me.

“Alright,” I said to the stallion. “Let’s get back.”

Steampunk led the way as we walked through the Resistance HQ, the two of us safely back down in the factory’s sub-level. He’d given me a further lecture on subtlety as we went, and I just nodded and kept on going as he did.

He wasn’t wrong, but I was glad for the small rest anyway.

From what I could gather, he was leading me back towards the meeting room where we had discussed the factory previously. This was confirmed as we rounded a corner and the doorway to said room came into sight, though my ear twitched as I swore I heard some slightly raised voices inside.

That twitch quickly became a full wilt as we opened the door to Coffin’s irritated shout. He was standing opposite Silver Bell and Life Bloom, his helmet resting on a table nearby as he looked like he was about to enter a fight.

“-aren’t you telling me about her!?”

“Coffin, we have discussed this…” Silver Bell said patiently.

“That you picked her up as a fresh Enclave recruit who saw the truth, I gathered,” Coffin remarked disbelievingly. “I can tell a lie when I hear one as blatant as that. I do not appreciate being told bullshit by a friend and ally. Ever.”

Steampunk loudly cleared his throat, all eyes turning towards us as I stood there a little sheepishly, unable to meet Coffin’s gaze.

I guess the cover story was no longer as believable as it had been.

“Sparkplug, the mare in question,” Coffin said, though, with noticeably less hostility than what was directed at Silver Bell and Life Bloom, Morning Glory just standing awkwardly in one corner while probably pretending to be somewhere else. “I’m guessing they’ve gone and ordered you to keep quiet about something, right?”

“Um…”

“Don’t answer that,” Silver Bell interrupted sharply, turning back towards Coffin. “Drop it, now. You have a job to do.”

He huffed. “Fine. But if I find out that whatever you’re making her hide is gonna hurt her, I’m going to have a few things to say.”

Coffin thought that they were making me keep silent about my past? I mean… he’s not wrong in a way, but not in the same context as he’s probably imagining.

And, somehow, I doubted he would remain so passive towards me if he knew the full extent of the lie.

“Anyway,” Life Bloom interrupted. “Thank you for retrieving Sparkplug, Steampunk. You may go.”

“Alright. Ma’am,” he said with a nod at Silver Bell before leaving the room.

With the door shut behind him, this left just the four of us. Silver Bell softly cleared her throat, preparing to speak.

“Now then…” she began. “Morning Glory here has been rather informative, and I think you should hear what she has to say for yourselves.”

I frowned. “You’re not wanting to hear about what happened at the factory.”

“I know enough. For now… Miss Glory?”

Glory gave Silver Bell and inquisitive look. “Coffin is right about one thing. You are trusting a recruit with a lot here.”

“She’s reliable,” Silver Bell defended. “Just tell her what you told me.”

“If you insist…” Morning Glory began, clearing her throat. “For the past few decades I have been in the ‘employ’ of the Enclave, working towards whatever next big project they have their eyes on. Naturally, they tried to keep me away from any information no necessary for my work. But I still heard things, I had plenty of time to learn. I could overhear how they’re spread far thinner than they’d like anypony to believe, how Death Scythe’s war machine is leading to a shortage in the economy.”

“All obvious signs that the Enclave isn’t as stable as they’d like us all to think,” Life Bloom mused. “But nothing we hadn’t already surmised ourselves.”

“But what your Resistance didn’t know is how valuable New Appleoosa really is to them.”

“Valuable? The pegasi above put value on all their land cities, it’s how they control the wasteland around them,” Coffin stated.

“But New Appleoosa is the only one that so happens to be the home of Death Scythe’s most senior underling,” she pointed out. “And all his secrets.”

“Secrets that could win us the war,” Silver Bell concurred.

“What secrets are we talking about?” I asked. Gotta admit, I was rather done with world-shattering secrets. It’s what got us into this mess to begin with, at least in part.

“You don’t think that the Enclave got as big and powerful as it is through mining mountain tops, did you?” Morning Glory asked. “That they’ve managed to amass such advanced technology?”

I have to admit, I did find it strange. I only had to look at the PegWing on my hoof to see the ridiculous advances they had made in only a few years.

“By all estimates, the Enclave shouldn’t have even half the armaments they have today only forty years after a megaspell apocalypse. An increased raptor fleet, power armour improvements, more efficient weapon designs and maybe a couple of these cities at most. Easily enough for their economy back when to handle.”

“But here we are, with Enclave cities dotting the wastes,” Life Bloom added. “Hades tanks are only the tip of the iceberg. Anything from the technological advances of the PipBuck to the number of materials required to build any of this… It just doesn’t seem possible, not unless they’ve somehow got the infrastructure of the old world. Which they don’t even have now.”

“And yet they keep making advances as if they have, even if the general flow of bits can’t keep up,” Morning Glory continued. “Whatever Death Scythe found to make all of this possible, some of it is in this city. That’s why Grim Gallop is here, and that’s why they would never just drop a balefire bomb on this place if we took it.”

“Wait, you’re wanting us to seize New Appleoosa!?” Coffin baulked. “We don’t have the numbers or equipment for that! Never mind that Grim Gallop has a working Hades tank!”

I had to agree, even for me that was a little crazy!

Silver Bell noded, apparently also conceding the point. “I know. Which is why we’ll need the Applejack’s Rangers to make it work.”

Huh?

“If we take the city, the Enclave won’t want to risk losing whatever information they have stored here in a megaspell detonation,” Life Bloom explained. “And between us and the former Steel Rangers, we will have the numbers and firepower to both take and hold the city as a staging ground for further engagement.”

“You really think this information is that valuable?” Coffin asked cautiously.

“If it leads to the secret of their success? Yes,” Morning Glory answered. “We might be able to use it ourselves. And if not, destroy it. Losing whatever is getting them these materials would stem the flow, and it might even be enough to entirely force the Enclave’s economy into collapse.”

“They can’t fight us while their own cities enter the ensuing meltdown,” Life Bloom said. “It would be chaos. Nations can be felled by more than radiation and explosions.”

“Which is why Sparkplug and Coffin are going to recruit them,” Silver Bell suddenly announced.

Suddenly feeling the pressure, I glanced to see if Coffin was feeling it too.

“WHAT!?”

Oh, he was.

Silver Bell raised a hoof to halt any incoming objections. “This is important. The Steel Rangers are currently occupied in Stable 12, which was a fact only known to myself and Life Bloom. At least until now.”

A stable? I suppose they lost Stable 29 when the Enclave first rolled through, and it makes sense they found a replacement.

Though, I couldn’t imagine there were many others unraided by the Enclave.

“How come the Enclave haven’t found them?” Morning Glory asked as if she read my mind. “The Enclave received a list of most stables years ago from Stable-Tec HQ. Pried from the dead hooves of the Steel Ranger chapter there.”

“Not Stable 12. The data must have been corrupted, because this one was found long after the Enclave sent expeditions to the others,” Life Bloom answered. “The stable was empty when they found it, and they decided to make their home there. They stay hidden, we only know about it because one of their members secretly entrusted us, just in case the time ever came.”

“Members?” I asked. “Who?”

Life Bloom looked right at me. “Her name is Velvet Remedy. You may have heard of her, Sparkplug.”

Velvet! Velvet was in Stable 12!? Would that mean Calamity was as well!? He had to be, since they had both joined up!

Oh, I was SO there!

“It won’t be easy,” Silver Bell wanted. “They might still be hesitant after the last time we banded together. We lost Junction R-7 that day, almost the entire damned Resistance.”

“It’s been decades, they have to be ready to try again,” Life Bloom said hopefully.

“Maybe, but I don’t like to assume. If they hesitate, you’ll have to get them on side however you can,” Silver Bell said to us.

Coffin remained in thought for a moment, but he then nodded. “Alright. We’ll see to it. I got Sparkplug’s back if she has mine.”

I gave him an attempted disarming grin. “You bet! I want to leave right away.”

He frowned. “You seem eager.”

Oh! Right, he’s suspicious…

“Eagerness is good, this is important,” Silver Bell jumped in. “We need the Applejack’s Rangers if we want to have any hope at all.”

“I would be careful about dealing with them,” Morning Glory warned. “When I was following Blackjack, our encounters with the Steel Rangers more often than not led to bullets being fired.”

“These are Applejack’s Rangers, they left the Steel Rangers to follow a more moral code before the Enclave gained control over anything,” Life Bloom pointed out.

“I know. Still…”

“You will set out first thing tomorrow morning,” Silver Bell announced. “While you’re gaining us some support, we’ll be planning the assault. Morning Glory has already decided to set up something of a lab for both dissecting some of the Enclave’s technology and preparing to receive that data should we succeed.”

“I’ll get whatever we need. My mentor thought me something of a prodigy,” Glory claimed proudly.

Clearly, the Enclave had agreed with her mentor.

“There is… another matter,” Life Bloom then interrupted.

“Yeah, that…” Silver Bell said with a sigh. “There is a small issue. A contact in Grim Gallop’s inner circle sent us this recording…”

Silver Bell wandered over to a nearby terminal, tapping away at the keys for a few moments before my PegWing buzzed. I looked down at it, seeing a file being remotely downloaded into its hard drive. It completed quickly, and I scrolled over to the file and allowed it to play.

Rather than just an audio recording that I might have gotten on my old PipBuck, a fully coloured video began to play. The recording showed an office from the view of a security camera, a grim-faced pegasus stallion sitting behind an elaborate ornate desk while a unicorn mare that honestly looked more like a raider than any kind of Enclave pony stood opposite him while examining some of the office’s decorations.

“Sheesh, you really fucking love your pampered shit, don’t you?”

“I didn’t bring you here to discuss the decor, ‘Colonel’,” the pegasus, Grim Gallop if there voice was an indication, deadpanned. “We lost a major asset to these rebels. Our soldiers stand out, but you blend in with the rest of the filth outside our walls, Rope Gallows.”

Rope Gallows scoffed. “Yeah, you’re a cunt as well. So what exactly do you want me to do about it?”

“Your job,” he snapped. “You find these ponies and eliminate them. You do this, and the Enclave will continue to turn a blind eye to your little band of lunatics as they continue to plunder, rape and do whatever it is you savages do to the ponies in the outer cities.”

“Call me all you want, Grim. But who knows? I might have your job one day,” she taunted, getting a twitch out of his eyes and he seemed to barely restrain his anger. “You even know who these ponies are?”

“Nopony left alive saw their faces. No security footage would have survived the blast,” Grim Gallop responded, letting out a calming breath. “But I trust you can keep your eyes peeled.”

“If they came from the local cell, then they’ll probably be out on another job soon,” Rope Gallows deduced with more intelligence than I’d think from a raider. “If they make a move, me and my boys will be on them.”

“Be sure that you do. The Enclave is watching.”

“Whatever.”

The recording ended, and I was left with a single rather big question…

“Who the fuck was that!?”

“Rope Gallows,” Life Bloom replied. “One of the few raider bosses left in the Equestrian Wasteland. And those few are only allowed to be so because of how spread out the Enclave are, they often send them to do their dirty work.

I frowned. The Enclave were working with raiders now? “Right, and they give them ranks, too?”

“Rope Gallows is a… special case. Her gang’s former boss was part of this deal, but Rope Gallows is both smart and far more willing to work with the Enclave. Her skills got their attention, and she joined up. She got into SG, and eventually returned to challenge and kill the former boss to take over the gang. She helped spread her newfound training to them, and now they’re Death Scythe’s go-to gang.”

She joined the who? “What’s SG?”

“Storm Guard,” Coffin supplied helpfully. “According to Uncle Ern, they got the name from some ruthless fighting force from pre-war times. Intelligence gathering and elite operations. They used to be the Wonderbolts, but the name and structuring changed after the Enclave took power.”

“And this one has a pack of raiders at her back,” Life Bloom stated.

It’s still weird, I would have thought the Enclave ego would have stopped them from getting help from anypony. “I’m kinda surprised they haven't just killed them all.”

“It is inevitable, once their usefulness has been outlived I’m sure that ‘Colonel Gallows’ will probably turn on her own gang in a heartbeat to ensure her own survival. But for the moment, their deal allows them to raid with impunity so long as it’s not on anypony with Enclave citizenship. In turn, they help out the Enclave with their little problems when they are short hooved.”

Bastards.

“I’ve also sent the location of Stable 12 to your map,” Silver Bell stated. “Get some rest, and be prepared. Rope Gallows is very skilled at hunting down her targets, she will come after you the moment you try to leave the area.”

“You’re so sure she’ll spot us?” Coffin questioned.

“She always does.”

Well, that’s comforting. Tomorrow we would be right back at it with barely a moment of rest, running across the wasteland with not only the Enclave hunting us but also a band of raiders led by one who was actually intelligent.

But the reward?

If it meant reuniting with my friends… Any risk was worth it.

Footnote: Level 5

New Perk: Intrepid Hacker - Your companion has given you an extra hacking attempt if you get locked out of a terminal.

8 - Into the Wastes

Chapter Eight: Into the Wastes

“The Wasteland proved a cruel, inhospitable place…”

Who needs rest anyway? I mean, sure we just got back from destroying a superweapon thingy place just… yesterday! And now we’re going off to find the Applejack’s Rangers so we can invade an entire city and maybe finding my friends along the way.

It was still worth it just for that, but… I do remember Tenpony, before it was all Enclave-ey. Those few days we could spend between everything… I went to a spa, once. An actual spa. Goddesses, that was a day. Though I’d had my eyes on Velvet most of the time…

That was before she’d shot me, however. Not sure I could do that now. I bet she still looked stunning, though. She sounded it from those radio broadcasts…

But the main thing I remember from those few days we got to relax at Tenpony is Homage. It was the only time I got to see her. Where we got to… Ahem, yeah. That stuff.

But it was good. It was fun.

It was… normal.

I wish I was.

“You alright there, Sparkplug?” Coffin asked me, jostling me out of my thoughts. “You’re going from sad looking, to happy, to blushing, then to sad again.”

Bring back that blush…

“Just… thinking about stuff…”

He raised an eyebrow. “Anything particularly?”

“Um… no?”

“So that blush wasn’t about a certain unicorn with one heck of a crush on you?” he asked teasingly.

And, I mean, it hadn’t been! But now it definitely was and this was all his stupid fault!

The bastard just laughed, getting back to doing some last minute maintenance on that helmet of his. We were in the barracks, a few other ponies looking at us apprehensively as we gathered our gear. I saw Stripe walk by, giving us a respectful nod before going about whatever it was she was doing. I kinda wish the zebra was coming along. She was… a little weird and terrifying, but that’s not a bad thing to throw at something that wants to kill you.

It was definitely just a thing with zebra mares…

I was about as ready as I’d ever be. I’d checked over my own shit, that revolver, shotgun and assault rifle I was lugging around inside my PegWing’s pocket. Little Gilda, too. The Resistance had even given me some extra ammo for it, bolstering what I’d recovered from Butcher’s corpse. I had tried to see if I could upgrade my light leather barding with something a bit tougher, but it looked like I was stuck with some light leather gear done up in Enclave colours so not to raise too many eyebrows in the inner city. Apparently, it was something ponies in low-level Enclave employment were allowed to wear. It was no combat armour, but that would probably raise a few too many questions leading to bullets and explosions and screaming.

Since it was all black and stuff it blended in with my uniform anyway.

I just hope I continued to not get shot through it. But let’s face it, I’m probably fucked one way or another.

Deep breaths, Pip…

I gathered my things and looked towards Coffin. The stallion picked up his helmet and examined it for a few moments before giving off a satisfied huff. He then planted it back onto his head, gathering up his own assault rifle and that little pulse pistol he’d picked up in the factory and sucked them up into his PegWing’s inventory.

It looked even weirder from the third person.

“You all good?” he asked me, the cold glowing eyes of the Enclave helmet meeting mine. “Need potty before we shoot?”

“Fuck off,” I retorted. Stallions… “But yeah, got it all ready to go. What now?”

“Now…” he began. “Now we get going. No use sticking around here when there’s a stable out there to find. Silver Bell is counting on us.”

No need to remind me. It’s not just her…

“You’re leaving already?” a voice asked, and I didn’t need to see Coffin’s hidden smirk to know it belonged to the mare we’d just been talking about. “Please tell me you were planning on saying goodbye?”

“Uh, of course!” I actually hadn’t thought about it much and now I felt terrible. Fuck everything. “I kinda wish you were coming, Liberty.”

Liberty Bell gave a sad smile that seemed to agree with me, the usually bubbly mare looking between Coffin and myself. Her eyes looked… tired. She wasn’t that worried about us, was she?

About me?

“You have everything you need? I can get some extra supplies for you if you want?” she offered.

“No need,” Coffin answered. “We’ll manage with what we’ve got.”

“Well, alright…” Liberty trailed off, looking towards me and taking a step forward. “You will be safe, won’t you? I wanted Mum to send somepony with you, but she thinks a smaller group will have a better chance on this one.”

“She’s not wrong, less conspicuous.”

“That doesn’t make me worry any less.”

“So what will you be doing while we’re gone?” I asked her. “Preparing for our time to free the city, I guess…”

“Partly. We’re already planning on where to start up the new Absolutely Anything once all this is over,” Liberty said with a strained chuckle that made me worry. “But I’m supposed to take Stripe and Psycho to try and delay Rope Gallows and her goons for a while. Give you a head start before she catches on.”

I frowned. “If you’re keeping her busy, why are you so sure she’ll catch on to us at all?”

Coffin answered first. “Let’s just say that this bitch has a… reputation. I asked my Pa about her once. He honestly seemed uncomfortable even talking about that mare.”

“Gallows is high on our hit list, right up with Grim Gallop and Death Scythe herself,” Liberty Bell added. “She’s almost gotten us a lot in the past, killed too many friends… I don’t want you to be among them, Spark.”

The look she gave me was almost pleading, it broke my heart just to look at. Ugh, I’d already broken her own heart a while back and yet she still was this scared for my safety? Just seeing her like this made me really not want to die, and not because of me, but just because it would make her sad. It was just like Homage every time I’d left Tenpony Tower…

She really cares about me. I feel like Celestia’s rancid shitbag that I couldn’t give her much back in turn.

Maybe in another world…

But I had to find Homage.

“I’m not going to be killed by some raider,” I assured her, taking a step forward and hugging the mare. She gave a cute little ‘meep’ when I did. Even if I couldn't be what she wanted me to be, I could still be as much as a friend as I could.

She pulled away, giving a little sniff. “I’ll hold you to that. Both of you. I know we were a little awkward before, Spark, but… Are we still friends?”

“Since when weren’t we?” She’s too cute.

Wait. Was this how Homage saw me when she called me that?

Liberty Bell laughed. “I guess so. I’m just being dumb.”

“No arguments here,” Coffin commented as he trotted past us, both of us giving him a sour look. “What? I ain’t getting shot either, but we’re burning time.”

I guess he was right…

“Well, I suppose you should get on it then,” Liberty Bell stated. “Come back with a really big army with all the power armour you can manage. I kinda want my home back.”

“You bet!” I promised her. “If we can get ponies working together again, the Enclave won’t stand a chance.”

“I hope so,” Coffin said. “Because we’re gonna have one hell of a fight ahead of us, one we’ll struggle to win even with the Rangers. And that’s the honest truth.”

“It’s the best shot we have right now,” Liberty responded. “I wish we had the Outsiders, but…”

The who?

Coffin saw my confused look. “Bunch of non-ponies, about all of ‘em left that’s not dead or enslaved. But they shoot all ponies on sight, so count them out.”

“Have you tried?”

“You can’t really blame them for not trusting ponies after all that’s happened. They’re almost as worse off as the ghouls,” Liberty noted with a sigh. “But they’ll accept anyone who isn’t a pony. What zebras survived the purge, some Talons who didn’t join the Resistance... “

“Doesn’t mean they’re any safer here than they are against Enclave hunting parties in their own homelands,” Coffin remarked. “But there you are. Not much we can do about it now…”

“What about that group you mentioned was up by Canterlot?” I asked Liberty.

Coffin snorted. “Let’s not start on that one again. Near as we can tell, they don’t exist.”

“As much as I still want to believe they do, Mum would never allow us to go after help that might not even exist,” Liberty Bell reluctantly admitted. “Applejack’s Rangers are about all we can hope for.”

Well… shit.

“And on that note…” Coffin pressed.

Fine. I guess we really had to get moving…

“We’ll be back soon, alright?” I said to Liberty hopefully. “They’ll help us…”

“I know they will,” Liberty assured me back. “Go on. Do your thing, I have to find the others.”

I nodded at her, really wishing she was coming with. Going to get my old friends back with all my new ones…

I wish.

I hesitantly turned away from the mare, Coffin and I leaving her behind as we left the barracks. We moved through the corridors of the base, heading towards the exit.

“Try not to think about things too much,” Coffin said as we went. “No ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’. Let’s just get the job done. Then we can come home.”

“I know how this works.” I still hated it, though. “...Coffin, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Shoot.”

“What happens if we do get New Appleoosa back? To you? Your family…”

I grimaced as the stallion flinched, suddenly wishing I hadn’t asked…

And yet, he answered me anyway.

“I hope Dad will understand. I know my mother will, but…” He paused. “I don’t know. Maybe I can convince him. I hate the Enclave with all I have, but… Well, I have never hated him.”

“How do you lie to him about this?”

“I don’t.” Huh? “We’ve never talked about how I feel about the Enclave and the Resistance. I guess he just believes I’m like him, I do technically work for the Enclave already after all. So silence is how I get by, but if he did ask one day… I can lie to the Enclave. I hate lying, I prefer being honest with the ponies around me, makes me feel dirty otherwise. But I can… But to him? I don’t think I could.”

“...And then?”

“I don’t know.”

Fuck. I guess he’s gotten lucky so far that his father has never asked, then. I don’t envy him, but I know what it’s like to not see eye to eye with your parent, even if you still love them…

“Despite everything, he’s a good father,” Coffin continued. “Always been good to my mother, even though she’s a unicorn rather than a pegasus. He encouraged me, got me where I am. But he’s so damned patriotic. Believes that the Enclave can do no wrong…”

“Your uncle too, right?” He gave me an odd look. “I met him, remember? When I first arrived.”

“...You’ll see about him.”

Huh?

He was silent after that, not clarifying on his remark. Why was I suddenly feeling like I’m the victim of his ‘silence isn’t technically lying’ routine?

Maybe he just wasn’t as close to his uncle as he was his father.

I didn’t have too long to dwell on it, soon enough we were making out way through the doorway back into the main factory. We made our way through as quickly as possible, emerging into the morning’s light with New Appleoosa sprawled out before us.

Coffin just kept walking, not missing a beat as he casually started towards the edge of the town. I followed on, leaving the factory behind as our hooves met the streets. Eyes were drawn from the few ponies about, studying the two seemingly Enclave commissioned ponies. One being the son of an officer, it wasn’t too much of a surprise.

The Enclave loyalists beamed at us. The ones who liked to keep their heads down did just that.

We ignored both groups, making our way briskly through the inner city in the direction of the gate to the outer areas. Nopony tried to get in our way, who would step out in front of a couple of probably armed Enclave ponies? I hate being Sparkplug, but fuck if it didn’t have its advantages.

We reached a junction in the road where the parade I’d seen when I first arrived had wandered down, spouting its Celestia-screwing bullshit. There was nothing quite so overdramatic here now, though. Just more ponies, even a couple of foals…

The little ones, the children of Arbu, were huddled together behind Velvet Remedy’s shield spell. My unicorn friend had maintained the shield since the fighting started, dropping it only when I floated a new filly or colt from one of the old stores. She hadn’t fired a shot the entire time. Just stood there, inside her shield, guarding the children.

By the time I had come out of Starbucked, the colt and two young fillies in tow, the others had come out of the Clinic. They had seen what I had seen. But by then, it didn’t matter. The rest of the town was awake and they were shooting back. If it hadn’t been for Velvet Remedy, the town might have killed its own children in the crossfire.

Fuck, that was…

“You okay?” Coffin asked as we slowed up a little.

“Uh, yeah, fine!” Fuck I’m shit at lying.

He clearly felt the same way. He followed my gaze to the foals, giving a small hum of understanding.

“Little ones won’t be caught in Resistance crossfire, not if our guys do their jobs right,” he said soothingly. “It’ll be the Enclave we’re after. We’ll stay as far from the innocent as we can.”

“Good…” I didn’t want another Arbu. Not ever again…

I was distracted from my brooding by a small white unicorn filly trotting briskly by with a grumpy expression on her muzzle. She was followed by a mare I presumed to be her mother, looking equally as glum but probably for different reasons.

“They changed the books again!” the filly complained. “Last week Las Pegasus was a big dump or something, and now it is meant to be this big epic Enclave place. Ugh! History is so annoying!”

“They’re… still getting their facts straight, dear,” her mother tried to wave away. “Events before the Enclave saved the surface are a little murky.”

“It’s like they’re changing it to be annoying doo-doo heads! On purpose!”

The mother bit her lip, spotting my stare. She seemed to freeze up in alarm, quickly hurrying her daughter alone while whispering into her ear with panicked tones.

“Hearing criticism in the streets isn’t something the Enclave usually takes kindly to,” Coffin murmured. “Questions are fit only for the powerful in their world.”

“What was that about history changing…?” Did I really want to know?

He shrugged. “Just some alterations to recent histories to make themselves look better. You really surprised?”

No. Can’t say I was. Why tell ponies a random group of friends saved a town when the Enclave could have done it…

Now, I’m not a smart pony. But I think I have enough of Applejack in me to know a lie when I see one, and it makes my skin itch just as much. Ponies outside probably still had the luxury, one of the only luxuries they’d fucking get, of being taught actual facts by their parents. The ones in here? Well, unless you are good at sneaking a look at real records like Coffin did, you were fed whatever Death Scythe wanted you to see.

On the general scale of bullshit that the Enclave gets up to, not even a three out of ten. Doesn’t mean it pisses me off any less, though.

We kept moving, finally letting most of the inner city fall behind us as the wall loomed overhead. There were far fewer ponies here, though an Enclave patrol did pass us by with a curious look. I did my best to keep a straight face. I was probably terrible at it, but it looked like Coffin was at least convincing enough to prevent them from stopping us.

As the gate came into sight, the wind picked up as the sound of chopping blades assaulted my ears. I glanced up to see a vertibuck go flying overhead, moving past the wall with a whole heap of crates carried as cargo underneath the machine, the boxes suspended by some kind of cable beneath it.

“Now… what are they up to…?” I heard Coffin mutter, the stallion picking up his pace.

I did my best to keep us, staying alongside him as we reached the exit with a rather bored looking pony standing guard. We went through the motions, heading through decontamination in reverse before being ejected out into the Equestrian Wasteland like a wastelander’s shit pile.

The outer district spread out all around us. Coldly efficient, but well constructed, buildings being replaced with a mix of brick and scrap metal shanties that were one buck away from collapse. Most wastelanders seemed to be moving away from the area as fast as they could, fearful of a sizable Enclave presence gathering around the gate as another vertibuck came in.

And then, a ways along the wall was a large cloud that was shaped into a section of the wall, and over it was a third vertibuck which was suspending some… jar beneath it. It was one of the weirder things I’d seen around the Enclave’s New Appleoosa, a grey substance pouring from the container in a controlled manner onto the cloud as… Is that cloud turning into concrete!?

As more of the potion was poured in, the more the cloud structure was changing into solid matter with it mostly resembling a portion of the giant wall surrounding the inner city.

“Ah. Expanding the wall, eh?” Coffin mused. “I wonder how many homes they shot up and cleared away to do it.”

“What the FUCK is THAT!?”

He frowned, giving me that suspicious look. “Again with the knowledge gaps…”

“Just answer the question!”

He rolled his eyes. “Nopony really knows. Only that its a potion that makes a fuck ton of concrete and other basic materials very fucking quickly and with less the resource cost. Other than clouds, but it’s not like they’re lacking for those. It’s one of the reasons they’ve built up all of this so quickly. Heck, they could probably rebuild three times as much in the same amount of time if they weren’t so military focused… or broke.”

“But… what do you mean nopony knows?”

“I mean that how it’s made is a carefully guarded secret, along with most of the Enclave’s other advancements. It just showed up one day along with a lot of their advanced tech. Wherever they got those, they got that.”

Well, that was… strange. How the in Tartarus’ fiery sex dungeon did turning clouds into concrete relate to all the weird pocket dimension PipBucks and stuff? But… then again…

As I stared at the last of the pouring potion, something… squirmed. Goddesses, it was like my skin was crawling and writhing in discomfort. Some part of me, the part of me left alicornified by Maripony, the blood magic I’d inherited from the Black Book… Some sense inside me was telling me that the potion was wrong.

Okay, I’m creeped the heck out. Going now!

Almost as if sensing my unease, even though there’s no way in Tartarus who knew the half of it, Coffin picked up his pace alongside me as we made our way through the slum. We got more than a few sour looks from ponies as we passed, far more Enclave detractors out here than supporters. Obviously.

But I couldn’t really pay attention to any of it, or much else for that matter as we started out into the Equestrian Wasteland once again. My farewell with Liberty and that filly’s complaints about the Enclave rewriting history suddenly were stuck right at the back of my mind, barely a footnote as my skin continued to crawl in on itself. The further we got from New Appleoosa the better it got, but still…

I don’t know what the fuck the Enclave were really doing back there, but that shit they were carrying… It wasn’t natural. It was dark, horrifying and… very familiar.

I can deal with the Enclave’s new tech. I can deal with their cities and soldiers and Hades tanks. Rewriting history? Please, I can just find a smart pony to rewrite it back. Raider-turned-Enclave-agent hot on my tail? Ha, that’s a Tuesday. But that… stuff. Whatever it was they were using to make something as simple as concrete...

That scared me.

Days of walking the wasteland. How many does that make in all since I left Stable 2? I’ve quite honestly lost count. Weeks. Months. Sure, I had a forty-year break, but still. I guess it’s lucky that ponies can get used to the dirt, grime and radioactive sand. The latter still filled me with more of a comforting warmth than it should nowadays.

At least it helped keep my mind off the dark weirdness I felt back at the city.

Coffin was silent, keeping to himself a short distance ahead of me with the only sound around us being our hooves against the dilapidated concrete road. We’d wandered into some old pre-war hamlet along the route we were taking, around us there were ancient crumbling wrecks of buildings the Enclave hadn’t touched. My Eyes Forward Sparkle would occasionally light up with movement, mostly radroaches and maybe the odd stray dog, but nothing serious. But Stable 12 and the Applejack’s Rangers was still a long way off, we had to get across a vast majority of Equestria to reach it. Actually, the place was quite close to Hoofington’s border. Not quite there, but still in dangerous territory.

Less dangerous if you’re a chapter of power armoured self-professed hardasses, I guess.

Even more so if they have Velvet and maybe Calamity with them. I mean, I know Life Bloom had said he was last known in hiding or something, but where Velvet is Calamity had to be to, right? I mean, they’re a thing…

Oh Celestia, now I’m remembering that time I picked the lock and walked in on their… ‘alone’ time. Brain bleach! Please! Brain bleach!

Well, this seems like as good a time as any for a quick break… I wonder if that fucked up shop over there has any brain bleach. If not, a brick’ll work.

As I diverged towards the building, Coffin looked back towards me with a frown.

“What are you doing?”

“Drinking and pissing.”

“Lovely.”

“Hey, you asked!”

He rolled his eyes, doubling back and following me into the premises. I turned on my PegWing’s light to see a mostly empty ship with a long unfrozen freezer and rows and toppled over shelves. Somepony had thrown the register through the window at some point, a skeleton also hanging out of said window. Maybe they were hit with the register?

What do I know, do I look like a detective?

Still, no radioactive stone unturned and all that. I started to look through the ruin for any extra goodies, turning on the radio while I did so.

It switched to the Enclave channel by default.

“After many years of glorious service, the Thunderhead class vessel ‘Overcast’ is being retired,” the DJ began. “The Overcast has served as Death Scythe’s command ship since the death of High General Harbinger to the late terrorist Littlepip. Some of her greatest feats includes leading a squadron of Raptors against the Slaver Lord Red Eye and the nefarious Twilight Society in the weeks following.”

So, that’s how Red Eye went down, huh?

“This development leaves only three Thunderhead Carriers left in the navy, alongside a mere handful of the original fifty Raptors. This is natural for our evolution, of course, the old being replaced by the likes of Victory Destroyers and Titanis Cruisers. But as our glorious fleet breaches its hundredth addition, everypony is wondering which shall serve as the High General’s new flagship. Rumours are that there is a new dreadnought set to replace Thunderheads in development in Canterlot, but these rumours are unconfirmed at this time. But one thing is certain, if such a vessel exists, only our favourite anthem is suitable for our next tune!”

“Turn that shit off,” Coffin said with a groan.

I obliged. I didn’t want to hear any more of that music… I wonder how the Resistance’s channel is doing?

I switched the channel, a far less scripted voice coming in over the line.

“-always a song to soothe your souls,” DJ Cain Atch finished off some track I missed. “Now, the news. I know there is some concern for some would-be freedom fighters out there over the Enclave’s flagship being replaced. Now, I wouldn’t worry. Even if they are making some new big thing to replace those hulking pre-war bricks they call cloudships, just remember how that went with the Hades tank. Our own heroic Liberty Bell led a team into the heart of the enemy and blew them all to hell! Less than two dozen remain up and running, and they’re not the boogiemen they once were.”

“Hey, we were there too…” Coffin muttered playfully as he uncovered an old can of something preserved and barely edible.

“So, if you want to keep Death Scythe from getting her new toy, whether it is a new behemoth or just one of the seldom seen Argentavis types they give to the shiniest and richest of the featherbrains, remember to help out where you can. And as surely as I spread the world, Resistance Radio up north spreads the same message from the ever wise words of DJ Pon-3. Keep on fighting, people.”

DJ Pon-3…? Is that the radio show Life Bloom mentioned Homage was running?

“Say, Coffin?” I asked as some music started to play from the radio, Sapphire Shores at that. “What do you know of DJ Pon-3?”

“About as much as everypony else,” he replied. “Some guy on the radio, probably a ghoul, ironic since he was apparently a resident of Tenpony before the Enclave moved in.”

Even after all these years, Homage still kept up the illusion of being the assistant rather than the Master of Radio she was. Now that was enough to get a laugh out of me.

“Not sure why that’s funny,” Coffin remarked. “I’m more worried about this business with the Overcast.”

“Yeah, you did say you couldn’t see the Enclave making anything as big as a Thunderhead anytime soon.”

“And I stand by that. It’s all rumours,” he pointed out. “Fuck knows where they’d get the bits at this point. Though if they are making something special for Death Scythe, it might not be the Thunderhead replacement they think. Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be just as nasty, though.”

I dread to think. Those DJs were already listing off class names I didn’t have a fucking clue about. I didn’t fancy running into any of them, I already had first-hoof experience with how bad Raptors could be.

It was forty years for them, but I could still see that filly turning into ashes as Friendship City collapsed around us. The screaming, the gunfire…

BANG.

Okay, that was a little too vivid!

While we’d been talking, several red bars had crept up on my E.F.S. without me noticing! Dammit, Pip! Come on!

I ducked behind one of the shelves even as the music continued to play from my PegWing, several bullets cascading around us as Coffin also ducked for cover. I spied six, no, seven signals around us. Just who were these assholes!?

During a lull in the gunfire, I heard a voice.

“Come on, you little dipshits!” came the familiar rasp of what could only be a drug-fueled raider. “Little Miss Rope Gallows wants to have a chat! With knives! And explosions! You’ll love it!”

“Rope Gallows!” Coffin snarled. “Shit. She did track us.”

“This can’t be all of her gang,” I noted. “There’s only a few.”

“A forward scout,” he surmised. “Standard tactics.”

Raiders using actual tactics. Rope Gallows as going to be a problem, wasn’t she?

Welp, time to get back to work.

To the decidedly unfitting tunes of Sapphire Shores, I lit my horn and popped my revolver out of the PegWing’s pocket dimension, coming up from the shelving when I heard the first of the next round of reloads with S.A.T.S. already primed and ready! Time slowed to its usual halt, affording me my first good look at the Enclave endorsed raider band that was being a pain in our tailholes.

They looked… Raidery. But not too raidery?

They were different is what I mean. They were cleaner, though only a bit. Each still had the usual douchebag smirks, scars and tattoos that their lot just so loved. But rather than rags and junk armour that I would associate with raiders from my own experience, these guys were equipped with some rather decent combat armour.

Well, ‘decent’ forty years ago maybe. It wasn’t like the Enclave’s new crap, but old pre-war gear that high-end mercs and such might have used back in the day. Still, a good grade higher than I would have normally expected from raiders. And they ALL were like this, also sporting a variety of weapons both Enclave-looking and traditional.

Fortunately, this modern revolver packs quite the punch.

I fired at the first raider, my bullet flying forwards and hitting them in the neck. Time restarted, the fucker clutching their throat as they stumbled to the ground.

“Ah shit, they’re fighters alright! Throw a few more bullets at ‘em and then get your assess back to the boss!”

“We can't let them report in!” Coffin shouted, raising up from cover with his own rifle prepped.

He needn’t tell me twice.

I bolted, sprinting through the shop and straight towards the entranceway. All eyes turned to me with shock at my brazen charge, even Coffin’s eyes could be felt against my back, but that gave me a momentary pause I could use.

The next raider I saw was attempting to drag the first I’d shot to safety with a healing potion at the ready.

Denied, bitches!

The others seemed to catch up on what happened as brains were grossly splattered on the pavement, the first raider finally bleeding out without the potion.

And then there were a lot of bullets!

I dived away behind the wreck of a nearby car as the raiders scrambled back, a bullet or two scraping against my armour and one against my poor flank. But I responded by levitating up my own gun and firing back, peeking to spy the raiders starting to fall back down the street the way we came.

Then Coffin emerged, assault rifle clacking as bullets cascaded up the street towards where the raiders had been heading. They doubled back to avoid the onslaught, having made the mistake of turning their backs during their retreat.

I guess a trained dumbass is still a dumbass.

Our bullets hit one raider with a scream, though his barding seemed to take the brunt as his fellows dragged him behind some more ancient debris they chose to use as cover. He wasn’t dead yet either, five red bars still on my Eyes Forward Sparkle.

“You crazy!?” Coffins scolded as he joined me by the ruined car.

I placed my hooves a tidbit away from one another as my answer, the stallion rolling his eyes before letting off another spray of bullets. They responded in kind, a burst of rust and sparks coming from an impact right above my head.

“Well, they’re gonna try a push any moment now,” he then noted. “They’ve still got three more ponies than us, so I imagine two will flank from each side while the fifth provides covering fire.”

“What happened to simple mindless drug and profanity-filled suicide charges?”

“You listen to too many stories of the old breed of raiders.”

Please, I am those stories.

I saw the bars on my E.F.S. shift, and their positions were just as Coffin had guessed. And it wasn’t a bad idea, even if it was predicted by my friend. One to keep our asses to the ground while the other four jumped us.

But…

I took another peek, just seeing the central raider do the same. He fired a shot at me, but I had more than enough time to duck down and avoid a bullet.

And now I had a plan.

“Stay down and shoot what’s left,” I asked Coffin, not giving him time to protest as I hopped up onto the top of the car. “Sup you cunts!”

And then I jumped, casting a levitation spell that enveloped my entire body to propel me a little bit further. A sense of weightlessness overcame me, and I floated towards the dumbfounded jackasses a little more gracefully than I had any right to. Granted, a previous time I’d done something like this I had almost fallen off a floating island. And granted, I was also one heck of a target right now.

But no matter how unbelievable shit I was at all other types of normal magic, I still pride myself on my ability to make shit float good!

Besides, I just needed to get close enough to clearly see those grenades on his belt.

I released the levitation spell as the bullets came, red hot pain coming up through my torso and screaming from my PegWing as I hit the ground. Oh, at least one of those had breached my barding.

But my horn was still alight, and coming towards me was a small array of metal rings.

“OH SHI-”

Boom.

Everything behind their cover exploded, three bars immediately blinking out while the other two were thrown away. My eyes were drawn towards one of them, wounded and gushing blood as they rolled around and groaned in pain.

A small part of the back of my brain throbbed. There was a lot of blood there, easily enough to form into a nice blade…

I violently shook my head, ridding myself of that dark black book-y thought and instead shifted to trying to reach for my discarded revolver.

I didn’t need to. First, there was a clatter of bullets behind me, and I turned to see Coffin gun down the second raider who had already recovered and had actually been about to shoot me in the back. Should have checked on that…

Coffin then regarded me with a raised eyebrow, before again raising his weapons and causing that last groaning red bar to blink out from my HUD.

And with the conclusion of the last line and the fade of the closing instrumental, the music coming through my radio came to an end. A silence pervaded the dead street, and I made sure to actually turn off my PegWing’s broadcaster for the time being.

“About time,” Coffin deadpanned as he approached with a healing potion. “I was afraid you were going to make that a spontaneous musical number. The last time Liberty Bell started one of those back at base I had to lock myself in the bathroom until the noise stopped.”

Hey, we had those back in the stable! Never really realised that was still a thing out here.

I took the healing potion and gulped it down, taking relief as my wound healed up and a half-lodged bullet popped out of my barding. I then discarded the bottle and recollected my revolver, returning it to my PegWing’s inventory.

“For the record, you really are crazy,” Coffin then stated.

“You say that after we drove a Hades tank through an exploding factory?”

“...Touche.”

With that matter resolved, I looked around at the corpses of the raider scouting party. The main force had to be close behind, and I really didn’t feel like sticking around for…

Hello there.

My magic wrapped around the holotape that one of the raiders had dropped during the explosion. It was a bit charred and covered in pony bits, but it looked like it would still work.

I shared a glance with Coffin, who also looked at the thing with no small amount of curiosity, though with maybe a bit more caution that I had. He then nodded, and I moved to plant the tape into my PegWing. Immediately, the tape started to boot. It was slow, on account of the damage, but the device troubleshooted through the issue remarkably fast before a beep indicated the beginning of a recording.

“Mission report, or whatever it is the boss is having us do for the birds upstairs,” the voice of the raider leader we’d just killed came out. “I don’t really care, but it keeps them happy. And them happy is one less hoof up my ass. So here it is.”

They’re even having raiders do paperwork now? Now that I wanna see.

“Bah, whatever. Quicker I get this shit over with, the quicker we get back to having ourselves some fun. You happy, Gallows? Turning us into proper little Enclave bastards, ain’t ya? Bitch.”

Somehow, I feel like this raider was digging his own grave. He should be thankful I killed him before Rope Gallows heard this, honestly. I probably saved him a more humiliating death by… whatever it is raider bosses do to ponies who talk shit about them behind their backs. Given the displays I’ve seen out here, it probably wouldn’t be pretty.

Go me...

“Anyway, we’re now back in New Appleoosa on some new job Grim Gallop has for the boss. Something about the Resistance, but ain’t it always? We’re probably going to be on the hunt, I can get behind that. Better than keepin’ on tormenting that purple dragon, fucker doesn’t even respond to the pain anymore.”

Wait. Hold up. WHAT.

“Eh, just so long as we get back to some actual raiding. I swear, I can barely recognise this gang no more. Fucking Enclave.”

And that’s where the recording ended, just like that. But… DRAGON. PURPLE. DETAILS!? Why couldn’t you give us any details!?

“Purple dragon…?” Coffin also noted that. “What would the Enclave want with a dragon?”

He paused for a few moments, almost like he was evaluating something in his head. He then just rolled his eyes, practically facehoofing.

“On second thought, why wouldn’t the Enclave want a dragon?”

There has to be more! Come on, let’s just go deeper into this holotape and… Ah! There’s more here! That was just the latest log, though most look like they got garbled and corrupted in the explosion. But I wasn’t a novice PipBuck technician, you know! If I just remove some junk files and attempt recovery of certain sectors…

“What are you doing?” Coffin asked as I worked.

“Stuff.”

“Yeah, what stuff?”

“I’m trying to hack this tape, shut it!”

Look offended all you want! I just need a few more moments. Just a few more…

Ah! No salvageable audio, but coordinates!

“I think I know where this dragon is!” I exclaimed, rubbing my hooves eagerly together. “How ‘bout we go take a look?”

“What?” he questioned sharply. “Spark, our mission is to find the Rangers. We’re not gallivanting off on a crusade to poke a giant lizard with a stick.”

“That’s not what I’m doing!” I protested. “This dragon… The Enclave really doesn’t like non-ponies, right? This dragon isn’t a pony, and they’re employing raiders to torment them! We can’t ignore this!”

Coffin noticeably hesitated, but then he shook his head. “I see what you’re saying, but we can’t save everyone. Imagine just what it takes to keep a dragon cooped up! And right now, it’s just the two of us.”

I instinctively tilted my head. “I’m not seeing the issue.”

“Lot’s of guns. That’s the issue.”

“But we’re the Resistance! We’re meant to save people, like the Stable Dweller!”

Did I really just use the ‘me’ card? Ugh, that just doesn’t feel right. At all.

“Hey, that’s not fair,” he retorted. “I’d like nothing more if we could, but the others are relying on us. If we get ourselves killed trying to save a single person…”

“We won’t!” I tried assuring him. “We can find a way, but I feel like we should follow this lead. The Rangers aren’t going anywhere. Probably.”

He bit his lip. “Well… what do you suggest, then?”

“We can at least take a look at the place!” I argued. “Besides, I’m willing to bet that this dragon isn’t a friend of theirs. Why would the Enclave want a dragon? Why wouldn’t we want a dragon?”

“I… Ah, damn it,” he swore. “Alright, fine. We will take a look. But unless there’s a mighty big weakness that’ll allow us a way in, I doubt we can do much to help the poor drake.”

Yeah, we’ll see. I can see why he’s worried, we don’t really have a plan or know what we’re getting into with this. But this goes beyond saving some random prisoner, or even getting a dragon on our side. I mean, come on, how many purple dragons are wandering Equestria in today’s world?

And this one I really owe a lot to. It’s time to repay all that advice.

My PegWing pinged, some text appearing along the top of my Eyes Forward Sparkle. It would appear we’re in agreement!

Locate Watcher.

I’m coming to get you, Spike.

Footnote: Level 6

New Perk: Gunslinger - +25% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with small weapons.

9 - A Watcher's Fate

Chapter Nine: A Watcher’s Fate

“You’ll always be my Number One Assistant…”

We walked in complete silence as we headed towards the coordinates I’d found in the data of that holotape. As it turned out, wherever they are keeping ‘maybe’ Watcher was a few days off course, which only seemed to make Coffin’s mood grow worse by the second. I just don’t get why he- No, I do get it. We’re several days behind our trip to meet the Rangers, and also seeing my friends…

But this was Watcher on the line! Why wouldn’t he-

But he had no idea about Watcher being a purple dragon named Spike who was also Twilight Sparkle’s assistant guarding the Elements of Harmony. And if I told him, he might figure out who I am...

Ugh! Thanks, brain!

At least Watcher might know something about what happened to the Elements. Maybe he hid them before the Enclave got their hooves on probably our last hope in Tartarus’ fiery rape hole to heal the world?

I really hope he did.

Not that any of these endless fucking questions and inner freakouts were helping Coffin’s mood at all, or my own, really. Ugh, why is the world weird and complicated?

The eternal cloud-ridden greyscale sky is just perfect for this sort of thing, isn’t it?

But it was only going to be a short while until I’d find out if it was him, one way or the other. My PegWing was leading us straight to this secretive little lair the Enclave had built for themselves, maybe a couple of hours or so at most. This also meant we had to be very careful where we stepped from here on, we could run muzzle first into an Enclave patrol on a moment’s notice.

I’m figuring they’ll be wanting to keep Spike out of our hooves. I know I wouldn’t want my worst enemies having a gigantic angry dragon on their side.

If I hadn’t been made all white and stuff by Life Bloom, I bet I’d still have singed hair from our run-in with Mr Topaz. Still one of the craziest things I’ve done, and I’ve done a lot of crazy things.

The misadventures of a not-so-smart pony…

“Why are you looking so grumpy all of a sudden?”

Hey, you’re one to talk, buster!

“We’re almost at this Enclave site, just as you wanted,” he continued. “Or is my own annoyance just that infectious?”

“Yes. That.”

He shrugged. “Well, not much either of us can do about it now. We’ve come too far to change course. So… saving a dragon. Never thought I’d say that sentence.”

“It is a little weird, right?”

“I guess so. For all my misgivings, honestly, a small part of me is glad we’re doing this. But I hope our detour doesn’t have any consequences down the road.”

“You really think it will?”

“Hard to say. A lot can happen with a few days difference,” he mused. “But maybe I’m just paranoid. Or maybe I’m not. Let’s just try to make this quick, whatever it is we’re meant to be doing.”

I guess we’re going to find out.

With that in mind, we returned to silence for the rest of the trip. I was constantly shifting between keeping a close eye on my E.F.S. and thinking back on what Coffin said. Consequences… Yeah, I knew that too fucking well. Hay, I was living in the consequences of me screwing it all up.

I’m a dumb pony, I don’t need reminding. But what else am I meant to do? Not try to save my friend? Leave him to be tortured and Celestia knows what else by the Enclave? Nah, that isn’t happening.

I’m really fucking scared of messing it up again. I failed everypony and let the Enclave do this, I don’t want it to happen all over again. If it did…

I can only keep going, trying to do the right thing. What can anypony else do but that? Homage would want that. Velvet. Calamity. Even Coffin here, even if it makes him uneasy, just admitted he wants to help. That’s the point of the Resistance, right? Helping ponies? Helping all creatures?

I can’t stop. Maybe that’s my biggest issue, I don’t shitting know. But I can’t. Ever.

It’ll probably kill me. Again.

But I have to try.

Eventually, as the light poking through the cloud cover started to dim a little, we were coming close to where my PegWing’s map marker was leading us to. We were on an incline, heading up a hillside with her hooves crunching against the dirt and rocks. My Geiger counter made a brief bleep as we moved, passing by a pocket of radiation clinging to a collection of wood scraps. Fortunately, it was alone as we quickly approached the top of the hill.

And then Coffin stopped me.

“Alright, I take it this is the place,” he noted.

“The coordinates would agree,” I replied. “Any last doubts or brooding?”

He stared at me through his helmet. “I don’t brood.”

“Not what you should be focusing on,” I deadpanned in turn. “We taking a look?”

“We’ll need to be careful, but yeah. Let’s just hope we’re not about to run into one of those remaining Hades Tanks…”

Oh, wouldn’t that just be supremely typical?

We both crouched low, crawling out way along the final few metres until the ground levelled out beneath us and afforded us a view of the other side of the hill.

Yup. That’s a base.

Beyond the hill was a small and largely enclosed valley, surrounded on all sides by hilltops that greatly concealed the building. Like the factory near Fillydelphia, it was surrounded by a large fence that had several visible Enclave patrols roving around it. I could also see one or two Chimera tanks, stationary within the fenced-in area, but thankfully none of their larger cousins were waiting to step on us.

And then the sound of chopping blades met our ears, both of us practically trying to sink into the ground as our eyes turned upwards in time to see a vertibuck go flying by overhead. It headed straight for the building, a large landing pad on the roof containing a few more light vertibucks and what looked like a larger gunship with four helicopter blades. It stopped over the building, coming down to a gentle stop before the rotors cut out.

And then the door opened up, an unfortunately familiar pegasus stallion departing with two guards at his back. Both guards were in full power armour, though said armour looked a fair bit different from what most Enclave power armour looked like nowadays…

“Storm Guard,” Coffin muttered with a whistle. “Full X-03 Hellfire gear, an all-round upgrade to the normal power armour you see the Enclave using. Only SG and some big wigs make use of it. For the moment.”

“Never mind that,” I whispered, though the super power armour was kinda a big ‘oh shit’. “What’s Grim Gallop doing here!?”

“No idea,” Coffin replied. “Nothing good… But now we have another reason to stay.”

I blinked. “Wha…?

“If you really want us to spring this dragon of yours,” he continued with a dark frown. “Then there’s no reason why we can’t pay that particular pony a visit as well.”

Oh.

“Well well, what do we have here, boys?”

OH!

We both shot up immediately, Coffin drawing his rifle while I pulled my revolver. We both faltered, however, when we came face-to-face with a very raidery unicorn and a piss load of her grinning gang members.

How the absolutely shit on Celestia’s toast did they sneak up on us!?

“You shouldn’t be here,” Rope Gallows said with a low chuckle. “And you’re a pain in the ass to track, you know that? Nice of you to leave those ponies back there for us to peel off of the pavement.”

“They didn’t exactly leave us much choice…” I muttered, ready to jump into S.A.T.S. as I examined our odds.

Not great…

The raider boss/SG soldier shrugged. “True. Morons were only meant to report back to me about where you were, but I guess they decided they could take two simple Resistance ponies easy enough. You are stubborn for rebels, but I guess you have to be to have blown up that factory.”

“So why the fuck are you talking to us now?” Coffin growled. “You really should have just jumped us while you had the chance.”

“Probably,” she admitted. “But I wanted to see exactly who you were. I don’t recognise either of you from anywhere, but whatever. You know who I am, I suppose?”

“Rope Gallows, the Enclave resident raider for hire.”

“Guilty,” she said gleefully. “It was a nice arrangement, it really was. We get to fuck up the day of random dirt ponies and such, plus a nice bonus of equipment and training, while they get a new force for whenever they don’t have any usual tin cans up and about. Great, right?”

“Just stop with the monologuing,” I deadpanned. Why do they always do that? “You’re a raider, that’s enough for me. Gonna shoot us or what?”

I readied myself to target all of my first bullets right at her smug little face…

She, meanwhile, just rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, don’t be like that. And here I thought we could be friends.”

“You’re deranged.”

“Very,” she agreed with a grin. “But maybe you could use that around now, that really is a nice base I have over there, right?”

Huh? Now what is she talking about? Gah, I had half a mind just to cut to the fiery chase.

But, because I’m a not smart pony, I kinda wanted to hear where this was going.

“Uh… Boss?” one of the raiders asked, seemingly confused themselves.

“Quiet,” she commanded sharply, before then turning back to us. “Now, where was I? Oh, right. Violence, mayhem and profit. Now… Here’s my problem. You’re making a mess, right? I’ve been asked to track you down and make you a mess. Still following?”

Coffin just gave me a perplexed side glance, even the other raiders seemed to get more bewildered by Rope’s rant by the second. What the hay was happening?

“And here you are, given to me on a platter. And yet…”

Click.

“...You’re more useful to me than these dead idiots.”

A series of panicked and heavily surprised shouts echoed around us before they were violently followed by a quick succession of booms that I simply couldn’t process. The looks of surprise on the faces of those raiders as, in one moment, Rope Gallows had lit her horn and pulled the pins on the grenades they were all carrying!

And she just kept looking at us as her whole gang went up in smoke, completely unphased as we just… well…

“What. The. FUCK!?”

“Surprise!” she said with mock joy. Or was it real joy…? “So, now how about we-”

“What is your problem!?” Coffin shouted as his gun’s muzzle found itself almost forcing its way into Rope Gallows’ mouth. “You’ve been chasing us since we left Appleoosa, and now you just… KILL you own guys!? Why? What are you doing?”

She rolled her eyes again, calmly batting his rifle aside.

And I thought I was the crazy one!

“I’m switching side, dipshit,” she explained calmly. “I’m not going to say it’s out of any sort of ‘kindness’, you wouldn’t believe it anyway. I think the Enclave is going to lose this war, as bloated and overconfident as they are. I’ve gotten the gear and training I need from them, and now I am jumping ship. Your ‘Resistance’ could use somepony like me, assuming the pay is right.”

“Pay!?”

I was getting a headache.

“You just murdered your own gang for caps?” I asked her incredulously. I don’t care if she’s switching sides, she’s a mega-bitch. “Seriously, you are nuts.”

“Fucking insane more like,” Coffin agreed. “No. We don’t need you, Gallows. So how about you run away before things get ugly.”

“So dramatic…” she purred. “But you do need me. You want into that building, right? I’m still part of the Storm Guard. You want in or not?”

...Ah.

Okay, so… What was I to do now? She wants to help. She’s doing it for profit. She clearly uses everypony around her until she gets what she wants and then bails. No reason she won’t do the same to the Resistance, right?

But…

“She… might be helpful?” I suggested sheepishly.

Coffin gave me a deadpan look. “You have gotta be kidding me, Spark.”

Never mind, I’m still the crazy one. “Hear me out. If we want to sneak into that place, I guess she might actually be able to get us in. And…”

Goddesses, what was I doing? But… Maybe she could change? Maybe time with the Resistance could do some good for this mare? I don’t know, maybe I’m grasping. She’s a raider. Ruthless. Selfish. But I know ponies can change. Shattered Hoof Ridge had been a raider stronghold before Gawd turned it into a friendly town.

I don’t know. I was getting a second, or third, chance myself. Granted, I’ve never been a raider. But I’ve fucked up to far worse consequences.

Part of me was wanting to give this pony a chance. Maybe I could actually do what the Ministry Mares used to before the war? Heck, maybe this was all stemming from the remnants of the spirits inside those statuettes whispering into my head. Friendship and shit…

This was still stupid.

But just maybe…

“Can we really choose to be picky right now?” I asked Coffin. “Better with us than the Enclave, right? And maybe we could teach her a better way?”

Rope Gallows glanced at me. “What?”

“Come on, Gallows. You want to join us for profit? That’s the only reason.”

“Uh… pretty much, yeah. Need a chart for it?”

“You never wanted more than that?”

“Look, I don’t know what you think I am, but I’m a killer. A fucking murderer. I’m offering something you need, and you might have things I want in turn. Take it or leave it, little pony.”

“You’re wasting your breath, Sparkplug,” Coffin said distastefully. “She’s a born and raised psycho.”

“Nice of you to notice.”

I guess we’ll see…

“We still need her,” I reluctantly pointed out. “She wants to help, let her help. Let’s just… wait and see. And watch. Closely. With a zoom function.”

Coffin gritted his teeth, but he nevertheless seemed to hesitantly relent as he looked back at the heavily fortified facility. As uncertain as I was about this whole bout of weirdness, Celestia knows how he was feeling inside.

Calamity would be having a fit over working with a raider like this. Velvet… she would support the redemption idea. Not sure what Steel Hooves and Xenith would have thought, probably something intimidating.

But… well, here we are.

“The places you are taking me to, Sparkplug…”

I am the worst, I know.

“So, it’s a deal!” Rope Gallows declared. “So, names are in order. The plucky little one there is Sparkplug, then. And the gloomy one in the helmet is…?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Hard to get, eh? I can work with that. I’ll call you Bob.”

Coffin groaned.

Now that all that was more or less decided, for better or most likely for worse, I tried to ignore the mess of exploded raider corpses and turned to face the base again. We seemed to have gone unnoticed during all the commotion, thankfully, and the patrols continued on their way just as they had the last time I looked.

“So then, Gallows, what’s your big game plan?” Coffin asked with absolutely no faith. Deservedly.

Rope Gallows hummed, the turncoat Storm Guard officer rubbing her chin as she ran through some crap or another in her mind.

“We walk in.”

What?”

“They don’t know about this lot, yet,” she explained. “And nopony really know your faces, helps that Bob is wearing a helmet. Since this is my base, I have clearance to walk right in. You pose as a couple of my gang members and they won’t look twice.”

“That’s your big plan?” Coffin questioned. “That easy?”

“Getting in. Getting out? Well, that’s another matter, depending on why you’re in there. I would gather it's the dragon.”

I’ll give it to her, she’s good.

“That thing is in rough shape too, I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” she continued. “But that’s your problem. For now, let’s get this show on the road. Unless you want to talk about it in circles some more?”

I hate stealth missions.

...Does it count as one if you are seen but posing as something else?

I still hate whatever this is.

“Fine,” I decided. “Get inside, and then we’ll see what happens. Just so long as this works…”

“Oh, it’ll work,” she assured. “Try to keep up, Resistance.”

And then she was off, leisurely trotting down the hill and towards the base as Coffin and I watched her go.

“...Please tell me you realise how absurd all this is?” Coffin asked me.

I didn’t answer, I just felt conflicted about the whole thing. But at this point, we were a bit deep down this weird-ass rabbit hole to escape again. What else were we to do? Watcher still needs me, and Rope Gallows just gave us a ticket in.

But it was a gamble, a big one. And as I thought about it, I swore I could hear a deck of cards shuffling from inside my own head.

I’ve never even played poker.

Ugh, whatever. Just one more suicide mission to do. And so I found myself following Rope Gallows, Coffin lagging a short distance behind.

I really hoped I wasn’t going to regret trusting her.

It had been a short walk over to the base, though the Enclave clearly had us in their sights long before we reached the front gates. The only reason we weren’t immediately blown up by one of those tanks, I gather, is because they immediately recognised the dubious mare leading the way.

So far so good…

Yet I still started to feel a little bit shooty, or maybe like I was about to get shot, as the gate guards came out to greet us. Their faceless visors glared out in a very hittable way, glancing between us as if looking for the smallest reason to turn us into bullet-ridden bodies. Fortunately, they seemed to settle their eyes on Rope Gallows and immediately let their guards down.

“Colonel,” one of them greeted coolly. “We haven't received word of your arrival, not since you and yours were called to NA. And I don’t recognise the two with you.”

“Like you take the time to get to know every member of my little gang,” Rope Gallows dismissed tauntingly. “These losers are with me, that’s all you need to know. Now, are you going to grant me clearance to enter my own base or am I going to need to blow one of you?”

“That… won’t be necessary…” the guard replied with an uncomfortable cough. “But I do need your identification. You know it’s procedure, Ma’am.”

“Right, Enclave and their rules…” she said with a roll of her eyes, pulling up her sleeve to reveal a PegWing of her own and, like in the diner, it produced a hologram of the necessary documents. “I also see that Grimmy has been making himself at home when I was gone.”

“Also standard procedure Ma’am, General Grim Gallop wants to make sure everything was secured for his arrival.” The pegasus soldier was glancing over the hologram only briefly. I really doubt he even read the words, pretty eager to get us in I’d guess. I don’t really blame him.

“It’s all in order,” he said after a few passing moments, with Rope Gallows closing the hologram document. “Open the gate! The Colonel has the necessary clearance.”

“Much appreciated. I’ll follow up on my offer later…”

“Please don’t… Ma’am…”

Coffin gave a noise of disgust as we passed them by, the gates opening for us and allowing us through into the grounds of the base.

That went a lot smoother than I would have made it, I’ll admit.

We ignored the various patrols, tanks and all the other random crap they had lying around here and proceeded towards the central building where Grim Gallop’s vertibuck had landed. We stayed as close to Rope Gallow as we could, and I tried to keep my eyes glued to the ground to sell the story.

I didn’t mean to glance up that one time at her ass, I swear…!

Um, anyhow, the lack of alarms or soldiers coming in to question us seemed to say that our plan was working for the moment. Pretty soon Rope Gallows was casually throwing aside the doors leading into the building and taking us into a metallic corridor similar to what I’d seen in the factory back near Fillydelphia.

“In here,” Rope Gallows indicated, nodding towards a side door.

We followed her direction, finding ourselves in a small locker room that was empty for a moment. Some Enclave jumpsuits not unlike mine were scattered about, there were also some towels and other random discarded garments. Nothing really important, though.

“Kay, we’re in!” the raider then announced. “Ta-da! You’re welcome! Save your applause, please.”

“Gladly,” Coffin deadpanned. “But you did get us in, so that’s one point in your favour. Now, where’s the dragon?”

“We keep him in the subterranean part of the base,” she explained. “He’s fucked up, but the last thing these guys want is Twilight Sparkle’s little assistant getting loose and starting fires.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh? You didn’t know?” she asked curiously. “I thought that was why you were here.”

“Spark got the idea after listening to a recording of one of your dead gang members,” he explained. “She just wanted to rescue him because she’s a saint or something.”

Okay, one, I really am not a saint. Two… I knew what he was already, but damn it all I can't tell him that!

“Huh… that’s dumb,” Rope commented. “But alrighty then. Yeah, he’s Spike, or Watcher if you prefer. He killed a few Enclave squads via lots of fire, destroyed a raptor when they finally captured him, and also helped the Stable Dweller back in the day. A lot of generals wanted him executed via entrail hanging, but Death Scythe has had him here for years, even before I entered the frame, trying to get information out of him based on some old ministry pre-war secrets.”

The Gardens of Equestria…? Or something else?

“He helped the Lightbringer?” Coffin asked, his eyes wide with surprise. “He was one of her friends?”

“A guide, more like. You get why the Enclave find a lot of fun in tearing his scales off every other day.”

“They’ve really been torturing him…” This is all my fault. Dammit, he’d believed in me! I did this… “H-has he told them anything…?”

Rope Gallows shrugged. “Nah, fucker’s tough. But then, he is a dragon. Decades of pain and he hasn’t said shit.”

Of course not. He’d die before telling them any of Twilight’s secrets.

“Anyway, this is your show!” the unicorn then suddenly announced in an overly chirpy cheerfulness. “I’ve got business of my own to tie up. I’ll meet you back up here when you’ve gotten the dragon on a rampage. If he lives.”

“Wait, no,” Coffin shot back. “You’re not going anywhere! Why would you even split with us at this point!?”

That really does seem not so good…

“There’s a lot more here than just that Watcher guy,” she retorted. “I wanna make sure your boss knows just how valuable I am. So I’m going to steal all their shit while you do your thing. And no, you don’t have a choice, we’re in the middle of the base already. Fucking. Deal. With. It.”

Coffin growled, but he seemed to relent. We really didn’t have much of a choice.

Ohhh this could go so horribly wrong and explodey.

“Please try not to bring the base down on us…” I asked of her. “And try not to die. You’re good in a fight.”

“Glad you realise that,” she replied with a blush-inducing wink, promptly taking the moment to dramatically leap from the room and out into the rest of the base.

And that left… us. In here. Alone. And I had so many questions.

Would Spike be able to leave with us?

What is Death Scythe after?

How fucked are we?

That last one is the story of my existence.

“I still don’t trust her,” Coffin said, and I kinda had to agree. “She’s apparently doing this for money, but the Resistance isn’t exactly able to hold a bank account! We absolutely cannot pay her whatever the Enclave is.”

“So long as she thinks we’re the winning side, she might stick around…” I suggested hopefully. “She has to know, she doesn’t seem as retarded as other raiders I’ve seen.”

“That’s what makes her dangerous. And unpredictable. Never mind her garbage motivations, she’s fucking evil. I’m not sure being with us will change what she is. Or that it will do the Resistance any good to make use of her.”

“Maybe…” Ugh, my head hurts! “But we should try, maybe…? Though I’m going to keep my revolver ready, I think.”

“Yeah, same. I suppose, if she pulls through here, it will be up to Silver Bell and Life Bloom anyhow…” he noted. “I know what I’ll tell them. Unless she really surprises me. That mare is bad news.”

I want to hope he’s wrong, but a huge part of me also knew he was right.

Please let us just be paranoid about this…

Still, we’re here now. Not much else to see in this locker room aside from lots of old dirty clothing and the smell of pony sweat. Reminds me of hoofball practice they made us do in the atrium back in school, that and whenever they got us to try out apple bucking. Never really was one for all that crap back in the day, computers and mischievous lockpicking was more my speed.

Probably not a good thing, the latter, but hey, I got my cutie mark between both.

I peered out into the hallway, banishing those stupid old thoughts. They’re all long dead, anyway…

Fuck.

There was no sign of Rope Gallows, she’d made good on her retreat. Luckily, there weren't any other real sign of other ponies wandering about, so we were clear for the moment. I didn’t want to see if our raider guises would hold up without Rope there to vouch for us.

So… where exactly do we go now?

“Not getting any maps on my PegWing,” Coffin remarked as we stepped into the corridor. “Makes sense the Enclave wouldn’t allow unauthorised taps into their computer systems.”

I miss the days when my old PipBuck would just take whatever it wanted from wherever the fuck it got half its information from.

“I say this way.” I pointed a hoof down the only real other direction to go, just to illustrate the point. “You’d think the entrance to a big dragon torture cage would be obvious.”

“One way to find out…” he grumbled, following on behind me.

We started our way through the base, peering down side corridors and into the odd room as we went. There wasn’t too much to see, a few currently green bars appeared here and there indicating guards and whoever else was currently working here. There were also banners of the Enclave Flag in a corridor with busts and portraits of a snowy white mare with a black mane with a yellow lock of it in the middle, the mare was also wearing an officer's uniform. I can guess who that might be. We used the E.F.S. to avoid most of them, only seeing a couple of Enclave soldiers in passing.

I suppose the dirt, grime and cobbled together barding makes us look the part…

I have mixed feelings about that, since the last time I was dressed event remotely like a raider…

Oh, I miss you, Calamity. You crazy shooting-your-future-friend pegasus…

Finally, however, the corridor seemed to open up into some kind of huge chamber at the end. And, still hearing these shuffling cards for some annoying reason, we stepped out into the chamber to see a rather large atrium-like thing. The chamber was rectangular, several metallic catwalks hanging overhead with more of the Enclave’s fancy doors with their blinky lights leading off to Celestia knows where. There also seemed to be a maintenance pony working on some busted up computer terminal, and then there was-

“Spark!”

I was immediately yanked back after Coffin’s hiss, the wind briefly taken out of me as I suddenly found myself back in the corridor. Yet, before I could even give the guy a dirty look, I saw the reason.

Grim Gallop, well-armed escort in tow, walking across one of the above catwalks while talking to another pegasus in a white hazmat suit with an orange fishbowl helmet kinda thing.

“-don’t suppose the creature’s talked?” he finished asking the pony.

“I’m afraid not,” the other one responded. “He is as right lipped as ever. It’s honestly amazing he’s continuing to take the punishment he has. Though our own medical science has assuredly helped the matter.”

“How long can you keep that up? The High General has already cut considerable funding to your task, despite the high-level intel the beast contains in that putrid little mind of its. I would hate for it to have all been for nothing, you and your team more so.”

“W-we won’t let that happen. We are exploring alternative options, new methods of extracting information from the brain for instance. But the beast is strong, there’s a reason progress through the years has been so slow. But I’m confident that, as he nears his end, so do we.”

“Let us hope you’re right. Now, I wish to inspect the more fruitful of your endeavours here.”

“Of course, General Grim Gallop. I think you’ll find our studies on the weaknesses of draconic specimens most-”

Whatever else was to be said was lost as Grim Gallop and his entourage vanished through and doorway and further into the base.

“Extraction from the brain? How has this guy survived and stayed quiet for all these years?”

“Dragon?” I suggested simply.

“Well, whatever the case, let’s spring him before they can actually make good on this decades-long project of theirs. I didn’t like the sound of this other research neither.”

I didn’t even want to know how they’d been using Spike to discover the weaknesses of huge fire breathing lizards…

We stepped back into the chamber, the maintenance pony paying us little mind. Getting a good look around, I could see several currently idle turrets dotted around the room alongside some more computer terminals and other bits of tech I had no clue about.

But what really caught my eye was the big door at the end of it all marked as ‘Containment Elevator’.

Now that I looked, the roof also looked like it could open up. How they got him down here, I guess. I never wanted to say anything to his face, but holy shit Watcher is huge.

“Think I’ve found how we get underground.”

Coffin hummed to himself. “I think you’re right…”

Nice to know we’re on the same page!

Trying to look like we were actually supposed to be anywhere near this creepy place, we started to move towards the giant door while the maintenance pony continued their work. I tried not to look at him at all, but I could just about see the guy out of the corner of my eye. Fortunately, he seemed either oblivious and uncaring to our presence and continued to work, swearing to himself as he tripped something in the terminal and elicited a few sparks.

Come on, dude! Do you even know your way around one of those things! Of course it would trip!

Uh, down there, part of my brain that is the stable PipBuck technician… Ahem.

Annnnyway…

The door seemed to be sealed up tight, irritatingly, a computer console sitting just off to the side not unlike the kind used to open up a stable door. Which, even more annoyingly, probably also meant…

“Uh, you might wanna hang on a moment…” I told Coffin as he started to trot towards the console. “It’s probably password protected. You know, like all important shit.”

“Hm, you’re probably right…” he admitted. “But you know I’m good at getting into things the Enclave don’t want me to, and you know your way around terminals and such. Between the two of us, I’m sure we find out whose birthday makes up the code.”

My caps are on the base commander.

“Yeah, but…” I quietly trailed off, nodding towards the maintenance pony. “Kinda not alone here, Coffin.”

He hummed. “Maybe we can-”

One of the other doors opened, two Enclave soldiers in power armour trotting in.

Celestia fuck me with a sun mallet!

“Hey! What are you two di- Er, gentleponies doing here?” one of the soldiers asked in a not so friendly way.

“Uh…”

“We want in,” Coffin said truthfully and confidently. “We want to see the dragon.”

It really hurts when my own hoof smacks into my muzzle, but I needed it anyway.

“What the- You can’t just…!”

“Relax, their boss probably wants them on torture duty,” the second soldier suggested.

“Uh, yes! That! Slit and… stab and… raider things…” Fucking hell, Pip! Lie better!

The first grumbled. “I wish that Rope Gallows would actually give us more of a heads up any time her goons want to have some fun with the VIP.”

The second shrugged. “You know how it is, but the powers that be says we play nice, so we play nice.”

Rope Gallows… I recall the recording we found about this place did mention the raiders helping ‘gather’ information from Spike. Thinking back, she was rather careful to say it was the Enclave responsible earlier. Fair enough, since the thought she hurt my friend makes me want to break her face. But still…

Feeling uneasy…

“Alright, clearing the door for guard rotation!” one of them announced, heading over to the panel and tapping against the keyboard rather clumsily with his armoured hooves. “Thirteen… seven… Bet the head egghead is real smug that we never forget his birthday…”

Eh, close enough.

There was a loud CRUNK as the doors gave a small jolt and then started to part. Lights came on inside, revealing a sizable chamber, big enough to allow a dragon through I guess, that was entirely empty save for a giant circular platform I assumed to be the elevator. Two more Enclave soldiers appeared atop of it, the two wordlessly exiting and allowing for the guard exchange.

“Cargo lift to dragon hell, going down,” one of the soldiers mockingly said to us, barely even giving a glance as they both started to enter the chamber.

I moved to follow, as did Coffin, the both of us keeping a nice distance between us. We stood a little behind them, the two nonchalantly setting the doors to close up again behind us and for the elevator to begin descending.

This was it. Once we reached the bottom, we could rescue Watcher and then… blow up everything in our path, I suppose. I hope he can muster up enough energy to breathe all that fire of his…

Of course, there was one more issue to deal with.

“So, uh… I take one, you the other?” I whispered at Coffin, preparing to use S.A.T.S. to take them out.

“Nah, I got just the thing.”

I gave the stallion a frown as he walked forward, just barely seeing his horn light from the drilled out hole between the cold eyes of his old Enclave power armour helmet. He swiftly walked between the two of them, a small object fabricating from his PegWing’s inventory system.

“Howdy!”

Bzzt! Bzzt!

In two loud buzzes, the helmets of both advanced suits of armour just crumpled like tissue paper, crushing the heads within! As the bodies hit the floor, Coffin turned back to regard me with his stolen pulse pistol twirling in his magic.

“You know, that thing is scary.”

“That’s why I kept it, Spark. Now let’s get your dragon friend and scamper on outta here before they notice what’s gone on.”

Hard to argue with that.

The elevator groaned as it reached the bottom of the pit, which was actually quite a good way down into the dirt. Before us was another set of doors identical to the ones up above, each giving the same noise as they began to open up in a painfully slow manner.

Oh…

Fuck…

The chamber beyond was massive and domed shaped, more inert turrets decidedly larger than the ones upstairs scattered about the room alongside two guard towers either side of the doorway the soldiers had presumably meant to stand at. Giant glowing emitters fitted with weird magical crystals were littered around the room, encased in metal and covered in wires and tech. Each one gave off a spread of magic that coalesced around the centre, blocking all but a small pony-sized entryway at the front off with blue shimmering shields.

And there, entrapped by all that and great chains that were fused into his scales, was Watcher.

Spike…

He looked… Fuck, it was bad. Even as we first walked in I could see just how much damage the shithead Enclave had done to him. There were huge patches where his purple scales should have been but just… weren’t. His wings were entirely absent, leaving only jagged stumps that looked like they were never allowed to properly heal. His colours looked faded in this light… or maybe they really were.

But he stirred, his head barely moving an inch as an eye opened to weakly stare at us. One eye, the second was missing. As he briefly opened his mouth to gasp for breath I could see that many of his once terrifyingly sharp fangs were broken and blunted, few remaining remotely intact.

But that single remaining eye still glared with the primal fury that, coming from a dragon, would make you want to brown your barding.

All these decades and he still held on… All for his loyalty to protecting the secrets of the Ministry. The Elements of Harmony. The Gardens of Equestria…

His loyalty to Twilight Sparkle.

“Well…” Coffin shuffled uncomfortably. “He’s big…”

“Astute…” Spike croaked, his voice as damaged as his body. “Raiders… Do what you will, I’m beyond used to it. Admit it, it got stale a long time ago. Or maybe it didn’t. It no longer matters.”

“Watcher…” I muttered sadly. Enclave cunts…

His remaining draconic eye narrowed. “Now, that name hasn’t been used in a while. Not much to watch inside an overcomplicated cell. And certainly not by one of Gallows’ goons. Then who…?”

My eyes met his, green on green, and I almost felt a… understanding. I don’t really know how to describe it, but…

I think… he recognised me.

“You…” he muttered in hopeful disbelief, almost like he hadn’t been able to speak that way for a long time…

I suppose he couldn’t have.

“I know those eyes. You are different, but… How…?”

Uh, Coffin is glaring at me again!

“I…” I gave a nervous chuckle, glancing between the two. “I mean, a lot of ponies have green eyes. And I’d remember meeting a… uh… big guy. Right…?”

He looked at me curiously. And yet…

“I see. My mistake. But I assume you are Resistance nevertheless. I would advise one of you to watch the other’s back. Perhaps the tough-looking one in the helmet…?”

Right. Getting rid of Coffin. Nice to see he is catching on.

“You good to do your thing?” Coffin asked me.

“I can try,” I replied. “Just give us a minute or three.”

He hummed, glancing up at Spike and then back to me. I could tell the eyes behind the helmet remained suspicious of his slip, but he nevertheless retreated back to the elevator and left me with my friend.

Though, him finding out is inevitable, isn’t it?

Problems for later.

“Spike…?” I gently called up to the dragon, keeping my voice down.

“Littlepip,” he correctly recalled. “Heh… new mane?”

“And everything else…” I replied sheepishly. “Got a glamoured cutie mark, kinda sucks. But…”

“You don’t wish the Enclave to know the truth. Smart. How did you find me?”

“Killed some raiders…”

“The usual, then. Oh, Littlepip. I am very glad you are alive, it’s… Maybe Equestria has a chance.”

“I fucked it all up, Watcher…” Dammit, now my eyes are getting wet for some reason… “Luna’s fucking- Gah, I failed my friends. The Wasteland. I… I…”

“I couldn’t protect the Gardens, Pip,” he said sternly. “After you ‘died’, the Enclave came for me in force. I really tried, and I like to think I gave them hell. But there were too many. I only lived thanks to Death Scythe’s lust for the information I hold.”

“Didn’t work out so well, huh…?”

“It… was tempting at times. Just to make the pain stop…” He sighed, closing his eye as he rested his head back onto the floor. “But now I’m just tired, but Twilight’s secrets are safe. Go figure they can’t make the Gardens work for them, so I don’t think they’ve corrupted its usage yet. I hope not.”

“Corrupted?”

“It’s a megaspell, Pip. Perhaps the strongest ever devised. You think it couldn’t be used to kill if nudged so?” he stated sharply. “For Twilight’s work to become… that! No, I couldn’t speak. Not about anything. I can’t guide anypony anymore, but I could do that at least.”

“But you’re still here…”

“I think Scythe knows I’ll never talk. But… the information is too valuable to stop trying, I guess. Ministry secrets, the Elements… They could take what I know and use it to try and devise a way into the Single Pegasus Project. Could you imagine them with total control of the weather everywhere at once!? No, I chose to die first.”

“But… you’re still alive!” Bright spots! Focus on them! “We can get you out, back to the Resistance! We need Watcher back. I need you back! Please, Watcher. Come on.”

Get these shields off will be no biggie I think. The chains can be broken, and then-

Why is he shaking his head?

No.

Nonononononono!

“Spike, you’re a fucking dragon!” I protested. “Big, lots a fire for melting faces! Work with me here!”

“Littlepip,” he replied with stupid dumb seriousness! FUCK! “Look at me. Seriously, look at me. I have drugs and tech inside me, mixed with the magic all around us, keeping my heart beating. Decades, Stable Dweller. I have been in their ‘care’ for decades. I’m not leaving this place.”

“No. I’m not leaving you! You’re my friend, Spike! You started me on all this crazy bullshit the day I left the stable! You owe me this!”

“Sorry, Pip. But I don’t owe anypony shit anymore,” he denied. “Well, except maybe my Ponyville friends. Especially Twilight. But she died getting close to three hundred years ago. When I die, if the Everafter exists, I intend to see her again.”

Twilight…

Guilt started to rip at my heart. He never learned the truth. He still believes that stupid lie from…

Dammit. I can’t let him down now. He needs to know…

“No, she didn’t…” I muttered.

He frowned. “What?”

“She didn’t die that day,” I finally told him. “The Goddess… Twilight was the start of all the purple alicorns.”

His frown deepened, a small snarl escaping his lips. “What…? You… lied to me…?”

“I… I just wanted you to be happy! Happier, anyway…” I tried to defend, but I couldn’t even meet his glare. “But then she saved me! After the Goddess died, it was like she hijacked one of the surviving alicorns. A purple one, it had her cutie mark. She and Derpy found me in the rubble, worked Goddesses knows how long to dig me out. I even got to show her a message from Pinkie Pie she never received the day all the shit happened before she… passed.”

He blinked. “She saved you? You met her? Twilight was… alive?”

“Until I blew up Maripony, yeah. She gave me a chance to keep going. Another pony I failed to live up to…”

Spike was silent. Staring. Judging. I wouldn’t blame him for incinerating me right then and there. It was all I deserved…

And then he laughed.

“So what you said was not entirely a lie, then.”

“Huh?”

“You told me she died saving ponies,” he responded. “And so she did. I bet she gave Lulamoon hell inside that Unity of her’s. Always trying, until the bitter end…”

Yeah. I suppose she always did try. Despite what happened, she never just sat and surrendered…

“Do you remember one of the first pieces of advice I ever gave you? When we met?” he asked me.

“That’s vague,” I deadpanned back. “But, uh… Make friends?”

“Bingo.”

“Not that we lived up to your expectations. We couldn’t wield the Elements of Harmony.”

“No. You couldn’t,” he agreed. “Not then. But… who knows? Find your friends. Make new ones, which you seem to be on top of. I can’t tell you how things will work out, Littlepip. But so few heroes left, you might be the one spot of hope we have for this place.”

“Look how well that worked for us last time around.”

“Then don’t let it be like last time,” he shot back. “Keep fighting. Keep the ponies you love close to you. Maybe, just maybe, the Elements of Harmony will find you worthy after all. Not like they can be picky at this point.”

“You didn’t need to add that last part!”

He gave a pained chuckle. “Perhaps. But still, I believe in you.”

“And all those secrets you’ve been keeping to yourself?”

“Can die with me,” he answered. “You won’t need them, let them be buried. There isn’t time to pass them over, more to the point. You need to leave here, and I want you to turn these damned machines off. Let me pass.”

“Spike…”

“You need to do this. Promise me. Promise!”

Dammit. He wants me to… kill him? I can’t! Can I?

But he wants this. He’s asking. Begging. I…

I hate this world.

“I promise,” I choked back at him. I can’t believe it all has gone so… GAH! “I’ll do it.”

“Thank you… There is, also, one last thing.”

The dragon then began to wretch, almost like something was lodged into his throat. I saw Coffin glance with worry in our direction as he did so, it almost looked like he was going to choke to death right then and there!

But then, instead, he coughed up a small spherical object.

He had swallowed a memory orb!?

“A researcher here got sympathetic some years ago,” he explained. “He passed me this before he was caught and disintegrated. I don't know what’s on it, but I know you have a killer curiosity.”

I do like to jump into things just to see what’ll happen…

“Thank you. I… Damn you, Watcher. For all of this… But I’ll do it. I’ll kick their asses. I won’t stop. Ever. I can’t…”

“And that’s why you’re a good pony, Littlepip,” he said softly. “What you’ll do. Your sacrifices. Just to help those you can, because you can. You are like her in a lot of ways, yet different in so many more.”

“I guess it’s the Applejack in me, maybe…” I tried to joke.

“You do have her eyes,” he agreed. “She would be proud of you. You’re an Apple through and through, among other things. I know you’ll be worthy, you have to be. But now…”

“I know…” Dammit. I want to talk more. To do more. But… “We’re out of time.”

“You know what to do,” Watcher said, looking up at me sadly. I can’t help but recall when we would only talk with a Spritebot between us. And now… “Goodbye, Littlepip. Do them all proud. Do us all proud.”

“I will…” Watcher… “Goodbye… Spike…”

I started to look around. There had to be a quick way to turn off all this Enclave machinery. A terminal to hack? A switch to press? Something.

And then I saw it.

It was none of those things. Rather, it was just a big important looking cable as thick as a car leading into the wall. That had to be providing power to a lot of the things down here, I could only imagine how much electricity was running through that thing. Enough to keep a dragon trapped for years on end, apparently. Which meant only one thing.

I lit my horn and tore it free of the wall, its bindings no match for my special brand of telekinesis.

And then, like a bursting bulb, all the generators went dead.

“What did you just do!?” Coffin asked in alarm, sprinting back over. “Did you free him?”

He…

I glanced back over at Watcher, the great dragon resting down his head and letting his eye close gently. His breathing was steady, his breaths low and few.

“Hiya, Twilight…” he muttered. “Your Number One Assistant stands ready, whatever you need…”

And then his breathing ceased, his bar on my Eyes Forward Sparkle blinking out.

Dammit…

“What happened?” Coffin asked in shock.

“He gave us all he could,” I answered, showing him the memory orb. “But yeah, I freed him.”

Coffin was silent, staring at Spike’s body for the longest time. I just wanted to cry. To scream. I’d watched another friend die. Another I couldn’t do anything to save.

I had to win.

I just had to.

“Dammit, I hope there’s something good on there,” Coffin said. “Poor guy. Gah, come on. Let’s get out of here before we’re found out.”

And now we just had to leave him here?

But what choice did I have?

I hate the Wasteland.

I silently followed Coffin back to the elevator, stashing the memory orb away for use when we got out of this place. I kept my eyes on the first friend I made after I left Stable 2 for as long as I could, but the dragon finally vanished as the doors shut and the elevator began to rise.

Watcher was dead.

That fact rang around in my head over and over, and each time it just didn’t sink in. All this way…

I had to find my friends. Bring them back to my new ones and… Well, if I couldn’t wield and Element of Harmony then maybe some of them could. If we could get the Gardens back before they ever find a way to use it, we could restore Equestria. More than that, with the Elements we’d stand more of a chance against the Enclave than ever.

A goal to strive for.

At least, after I’d helped Silver Bell take New Appleoosa back.

“Alright, top floor,” Coffin spoke. “Come on, out the way we came in.”

Of course, why would it ever be that easy?

“Dammit!”

Coffin’s shout was mixed with him attempting to pull his pulse pistol up as we saw what awaited us on the other side of the giant doors leading back into the base. He barely got it free before a green bolt of magic shot it out of his grip and sent the singed weapon hurtling across the floor.

“And there’s the culprit. Or ‘culprits’, as it were,” General Grim Gallop proclaimed, flanked by four other Enclave soldiers and all the now very much activated turrets in the chamber! “Big mistake killing the drake, of course this base has monitors for if his heart ever flatlined. Not that you savages could ever think beyond what’s in front of your muzzles, of course.”

I entered S.A.T.S. in order to survey the situation between his monologuing. He had his two guards in that nasty X-03 Hellfire gear with him, alongside two much more mundane guards in standard combat barding.

But we were caught in the open, no cover to speak of and our only exit blocked by these guys. And those turrets looked mean.

This was bad.

“Permission to execute the mutants, Sir!” one of his personal guards asked after time restarted. “For all those these two killed when they lit up our Hades tanks!”

“Patience,” Grim Gallop retorted. “This base has lost its primary asset and is now in need of a replacement. These two will almost certainly have knowledge our foes in the ‘Resistance’ do not wish us to. Take them, alive, and strip them of all their worth. You do not need to be delicate.”

“You really think we’re going to let you take us? Huh? You Enclave fucks!” I shouted, rage bubbling through my blood at my friend’s murderers!

“I expect nothing of you, except to tell us all we require before your disposal!” he snapped back. “Your surrender isn’t necessary, take them!”

“Yeah, imma take a rain check on that?” a voice said from the catwalk above.

All eyes turned up just in time to see a perky unicorn giving a rather psychotic smile while leaning over the railing and staring madly down at the Enclave.

Rope Gallows seemed to be looking pleased with herself.

“Colonel Gallows!” Grim Galloped barked. “You seem to have failed in the mission I assigned. Expected of your ilk, for all your SG training you’re still a failure of a raider!”

“Love you too, Grimmy!”

Death Scythe’s second-in-command seemed to bristle at her reply. “My point stands firm. And now you have let them infiltrate this base on your watch, for which the High General shall be informed. Be grateful I don’t have you hauled off with them as an incompetent traitor!”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry, I misspoke. What I meant to say was ‘go fuck yourself you feathered cocksleeve’.”

There was silence for a moment, the General seemingly lost for words at such a brazen response. But hey! Maybe this means that she’s going to come through for us after all!

“You…” Grim Gallop said in a low and dangerous tone, brimming with anger. “Loyal soldiers of our glorious Enclave, the Colonel is charged with treason! Execute her!”

“Nah!”

And then she dropped something from the catwalk.

“Get down!” Coffin bellowed as he suddenly tackled me to the ground, followed by a giant PBZZZT that accompanied a blue static-y flash.

I rolled up the moment it had passed, looking up to see Grim Gallop glancing around in alarm as his two bodyguards froze up, their armour locked by an EMP!

I summoned my assault rifle as Coffin retrieved his pulse pistol, a quick hop into S.A.T.S. making quick work of the bewildered soldiers in combat armour while they were disoriented from the shock as my friend gunned down the disabled soldiers in the Hellfire.

Good thing, too. Wasn’t keen and going hoof-to-hoof with those things!

And this left, of course, Grim Gallop.

The turrets also seemed oddly silent. Weird.

“Damn you…” Grim Gallop muttered. “You muties think you can best us? You tried and failed, your heroes died for it. You won’t leave this base.”

“We’re rather tenacious,” Coffin retorted. “So, who is who’s prisoner now? Wanna fess up now or what? Honesty is rather fulfilling, trust me.”

“Don’t count on it,” Rope Gallows deadpanned from above, accessing her PegWing. “Target the general, eliminate.”

“What-”

In but a moment, General Grim Gallop was cut down in a hail of bullets from the surrounding turrets, each reacting to Rope Gallows’ command without question. He was torn apart, blood and viscera flying and painting the floor and walls and the bullets cascaded through his body.

Just like that.

“What did you just do!?” Coffin shouted indignantly. “He could have told us things!”

Rope just shrugged. “I didn’t like him.”

“How did you even do that?” I asked her, admittedly slightly taken aback by the display of power.

“SG access has boons. What do you think I was doing while we were apart?” she stated. “Uploaded my command codes, took control of the interior defences. Handy.”

That… is quite useful. Maybe she is-

Wait a second.

“What happened to finding something valuable to prove yourself to the Resistance? You know, a science thing?”

“Ah… yes, well there is an issue…” she said, bringing up her PegWing once more. “Colonel Rope Gallows to all base personnel, two intruders have just murdered General Grim Gallop and are now making their escape! Shoot on sight, full alert status!”

Oh, you sneaky little bitch!

Alarms started to blare all around us, the turrets starting to move in our direction though holding fire for the moment. I could only imagine an army was on its way to deal with us.

“Why!?” What the actual fuck!? “Why help us then!?”

“The dragon was pointless, and I needed a scapegoat. Luckily for me that Gallop decided to confront you himself,” she said with a little asshole laugh. “I wanted his job, now I will probably get it. Death Scythe gets a new second, I get your heads, winning for all! Oh, except for you.”

Fuck.

Nothing even needed to be said as Coffin and I immediately started to sprint towards the exit as the turrets opened up around us!

The bullet cascade behind us was insane! I didn’t even need to look back to know the floor behind us, and the bodies strewn around it, were all torn up and ripped to shreds! My E.F.S. was filled with red from both the turrets and who knows how many Enclave incoming, shrapnel flying all around us with more than a few pieces sticking into my barding.

At least I hope that was all shrapnel.

“Come on!” Coffin called out as we barrelled through an open doorway, barely making it ahead of the hail of bullets. “Crap, if we started running a second later we’d be goners.”

“Good thing we didn’t wait until after they started shooting, then,” I said back.

“Looks like you got a few bullets in your barding with the debris.”

Damn it, I’d hoped not. My PegWing was looking a little annoyed at me, but it didn’t seem any of them had gotten through the armour. I suppose I should count my Luna fucking lucky stars that those guns didn’t have higher calibre bullets or they’d probably have ripped through a lot easier. Or that I didn’t get shot with a lot more of them, as with Grim Gallop.

As if to punctuate on that thought, another bullet came through the doorway and hit Coffin’s power armour helmet. If that had been me, my brains would have redecorated this hallway!

“Alright, we’re leaving!”

I used my magic to grab the door’s control panel on their side, pressing the button for it to close before telekinetically tearing it from the wall! With a few moments hopefully bought, we started to move again as quickly as our hooves pleased through this stupid Enclave base! We bobbed and weaved through the corridors, heading through unknown parts of this place, though hopefully in the general direction of the outside.

Another turret came down ahead of us, S.A.T.S. slowing us down on pure instinct.

Thankful for my wasteland honed reflexes, I targeted an array of shots up at the thing and let loose! My assault rifle moved and unleashed a fully automatic barrage of bullets at the bastard thing, reducing it to sparks and metal shards before it could retaliate.

We dived around another corner, finding ourselves at an intersection with-

Well, we found an exit. But also a large group of what I presume to be the outside guards all storming in with what looked like a Cerberus Tank outside the door just waiting for us.

Not that way!

Coffin had the same idea, hitting the controls for the door ahead and taking aim with his pulse pistol, firing it at the frame and watching as it contorted and twisted.

Nice, hopefully that has broken the gears. Maybe it’ll delay them longer than my telekinesis trick!

It had better, I was seeing a lot more red heading out way.

“Up here!” the stallion the shouted, gesturing towards a stairway leading to an upper level.

I followed his lead, move up the metal stairway with the blinky blue lights and quickly finding us back in another identical-looking corridor leading to fuck knows where!

“Halt!”

Dammit.

I turned to face the three new red lights on my Eyes Forward Sparkle, finding three more Enclave troops skidding to a stop down the hallway behind us. Only these guys looked a little different, like in their armour detailing and such. The lead one was in power armour, Hellfire a lot like the former General’s equally dead goons. The two behind him were in Enclave combat gear, each one sporting a battle saddle with nasty glowing energy weapons. Their barding also contained various lightning decals, so what…?

Right. Storm Guard.

Crap.

“In the name of the Enclave, the SG and the High General herself, sit your asses down and prepare for swift execution!”

Convincing.

S.A.T.S. was engaged, and something told me both Coffin and they themselves were thinking the same thing. Here’s hoping I was quicker on the uptake than the latter!

I targeted the guys around the big one for a couple of bursts each, hoping to get rid of the support so tackling that fucker would be a little easier. When time resumed, I opened up with everything I had in my clip!

The head soldier stepped forward, deliberately placing himself between my bullets and one of his buddies! He absorbed the lot, the second that I did actually hit barely grunting as his combat armour absorbed most of the damage.

Not good!

Then, in what was one hundred percent a S.A.T.S. shot of their own, the third protected Enclave asshole appeared back from behind his boss and fired a snapshot at Coffin before he could react. One bolt of superheated red magic hit his helmet, which seemed to take the impact, while the second hit him straight in the chest and sent him sprawling.

His bar was still active on my HUD, but I really needed to keep it that way!

Drastic times calling for stupid methods, I lit my horn and took a hold on the injured and now heavily protesting SG guy I’d hit a moment ago. I yanked him forward at speed, turning him around and using him as an unwilling shield in an attempt to stop them from firing at us for the moment.

It seemed to give them pause, so I followed up by also taking ahold of Coffin and dragging the unicorn into an open room a short distance away. It was… an office! And it had a window! Showing all the lovely death outside! Blow me!

“You… scum…!” the captured pony said as he kept struggling.

“Coffin…!” I hissed urgently. “Take a potion and back at it!”

“Ugh…” he groaned, retrieving one and lifting his helmet to chug it down as quickly as possible.

And just in time for the one in power armour to storm around the doorframe and barge straight into us!

My magic fizzled out, my ass hitting the metal floor as my hostage came sadly free of his restraint. Nothing else for it, I made a quick access of my inventory and brought out my revolver and my shotgun ready to go!

With the new duo peering over at Coffin as he scrambled back and ducked behind the desk as fire came his way, I put my own sights on the guy I dropped and pulled the trigger for all the barrels of my shotgun!

His armour didn’t absorb that at close range, splattering as his red bar blinked away.

The other Storm Guard in combat gear stopped his firing, turning back to me. I fired my revolver at the guy, his barding taking the hit as his friend also stopped and started to move around the smouldering desk. That thing was sturdy!

I wasn’t so sure I could say the same about myself though as, at the very moment I noticed all of this go down, I found myself staring down the barrel of that other soldier’s energy rifle.

Fzzt!

The soldier gave a scream of pain as his back right hind leg just crumpled after receiving a dose of Coffin’s pulse pistol! Limbs should not distort that way!

Coffin followed this up by giving a battle cry and leaping at the guy. But, to be honest, it’s about as bad a plan as we usually come up with. The power armoured pony didn’t even budge at the physical assault, picking Coffin up in his hooves and slamming him painfully to the ground! His cannons started to glow, his stinger tale likewise rising into the air with a readiness to impale its victim!

He was going to die.

Knowing I had to do something, anything, I grabbed the second soldier that had just been crippled. Continuing with our string of terrible plans, I brought the pegasus around and aimed his guns in the general direction of the other Enclave pony.

Hope this works!

I tugged at the trigger with my magic, feeling quite happy with myself as I forced Enclave to shoot Enclave! The magic bolts stumbled him and caused his shots to go wide. Unfortunately, they came in this direction and hit his own friend, knocking the soldier from my grasp and depriving me of my cool new toy!

That actually sounds really bad now that I think about it. He’s still a pony, after all.

Moral questions later, the big one is looking at me now!

Still, with the soldier distracted, Coffin got the chance to make another clean shot with his pistol! Like a ripper on a radroach, the pony’s torso twisted as he gave a shout of pain. I took a moment to reload my shotgun while simultaneously firing a couple of shots from my revolver. The latter seemed to do little, but as he began to stand up again I shoved my shotgun forward and pressed the barrel against his visor.

I don’t care how good your gear is, that amount of force at point-blank was always going to break through and spread the inside of your brain throughout your helmet.

No rest, though, as something sharp and horrific burned into my side! Only a moment later did I realise it was a knife from the last remaining soldier, having crawled his way over and dug it into my hind between a gap in my barding!

I bucked out, catching him in the jaw and sending the Storm Guard back to the floor.

“Gah, fucker!” He better not have disfigured my cutie mark!

“You good?” Coffin called out to me, shakily getting to his hooves.

“You won’t be…” the soldier muttered in defiance.

Ting.

Oh shit!

I grabbed Coffin with my magic and charged the window, hoping to dear Celestia and back that it wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact! It wasn’t fortunately, us clearing it and sailing through the air just as an explosion of green plasma went off behind us from the grenades that SG soldier just pulled in some kind of fucked-up suicide run!

And it was then I noticed the flaw of this flight, below us standing the Cerberus tank that was coming closer very fast!

The next thing I knew, I was groaning in pain in the dirt with a throbbing headache. I could only guess I’d been knocked out for a few brief moments when I’d face-planted the tank…

The tank!

I jumped to my hooves, looking upwards despite my head’s protest as the tank finished its turn towards me. There was a crack and a crumble as it accidentally kicked the doorway we’d seen the Enclave soldiers enter through earlier, causing it to collapse a little and hopefully seal them inside for a while.

Little comfort as this big robot thing’s big green glowing minigun started to rev up!

“Watch out!”

Coffin’s shout was a prelude to another buzz of his pulse pistol, a small explosion of green magic going off as the minigun exploded. I raised a hoof to protect my eyes from the detonation, but once it was gone I looked to see that the gun was no longer functional.

“I… like that thing…” I muttered, the blood dripping down my forehead convincing me to neck a healing potion and some Med-X while I was at it.

“So do I! It’s a keeper!”

But it wasn’t done, the tank looming over us like the Enclave cloud cover!

“Stay close so it can’t shoot us with the big guns!” he shouted. “And dodge!”

Dodge?

Dodge!

I rolled to one side as one of its four legs came crashing towards me, looking to turn me into a stain beneath its mass! Coffin did the same, but it followed up on him with another attempt!

How could we deal with this thing? We run and it blows us up. We stay close and it turns us into pancakes. How do I…?

Butcher, time to continue your legacy once again.

I dived forward as another leg tried to spell my doom, landing on my side and rolling onto my back. Little Gilda materialised around me as I put away my other weapons, putting the stupidly big AA gun at the tanks soft underbelly.

Turns out being this close was the solution when you are armed with overcompensation!

Little Gilda opened up, the sound almost deafening my ears and the metal above me was torn and shredded by the barrage of rounds! I must have hit something important because there was a huge bang as the tank started to sag.

Time to move!

Half propelling myself magically, I turned to leap out from under the tank as it keeled over with the AA gun dragged behind me. The machine crashed down, silent aside from the new fire ongoing within.

And then there was silence. The base seemed to go eerily silent, even the bars on my E.F.S. seeming to be out of sight and out of mind. I used this time to reload my assault rifle and revolver, putting them and Gilda away as I brought my shotgun forth ready for reload itself.

“I knew this was a bad idea…” Coffin said between breaths. “We go, now. And don’t divert until we reach the Steel Rangers.”

That had been a little hectic. And then some.

But for Watcher, it had been worth it.

“Target sighted.”

“Oh! What now!?”

I turned, looking around to see which red bar had managed to get out of the building and catch up to us. But… I could see…

I looked up at the window that we’d barged out from and the office very much on fire. And yet I could see a silhouette standing amidst the flames completely unphased, watching us silently.

And then it jumped down, a suit of completely red and definitely modified X-03 power armour crashing down and advancing towards us. Whoever this pony in the sprayed up Hellfire was, he clearly meant business!

“Hello,” he spoke eerily casually as he came closer at a slow pace. “This is your stop, I’m afraid.”

“And what are you?” Coffin asked incredulously as he looked that armour up and down.

“SG Tartarus Unit,” he replied. “You won’t have heard of us. You won’t live to.”

And then he charged.

Coffin brought up his pulse pistol as I likewise brought back my shotgun and loaded in some more slugs, my friend firing first.

The soldier ducked under the blast with more agility than he had any right to hold, some kind of rockets or something emerging from the sides of his armour that then sped forth his charge by a stupidly large degree.

And was that a ripper coming out of his hoof? What the fuck is with this one!?

I tried to fire a shot, but he swatted me aside with an insulted backhoof as he skidded to a stop, my shells going wide as I stumbled to the side. As I did, I heard the sound of his ripper coming to life and embedding itself in Coffin’s helmet, starting to cut through the metal as he gave a shout of alarm.

Not having time to reload, I fell back on pulling out another weapon held inside my always useful PegWing’s inventory space, selecting the assault rifle this time. I brought it up and fired a barrage of bullets at this strange Enclave soldier!

All it did was create sparks and get him to tilt his head towards me.

It was enough.

Coffin used his distraction to yank the pony’s hoof free of his helmet and duck to one side. A nasty gash was left in his helmet, but now he was free to dive for his pulse pistol and twist this cunt a new asshole!

Or the Tartarus guy could just stamp down on the weapon and crush it.

Farewell, awesome pulse gun…

He then looked back towards me, his orange visor glaring menacingly as he took a step forward with what I could only assume was a hateful glare.

“You don’t know what true loyalty is,” he boasted. “We SG are the best of the Enclave. And those of Tartarus are among the best of the SG. We give our lives and our bodies for the cause, you could never understand.”

Fanatics, more like.

Wait, their bodies?

“Anyway. Playtime is over.”

He lifted his hoof, his ripper glinting as he… It just ignited. His ripper just set on fire and was now glowing and hot! And I think he has another undrawn one on his other hoof…

What Cadance ball licking pre-war comic strip did they get this guy from!?

My internal debate as to how he rated in the strangest things I’ve seen in the Equestrian Wasteland was interrupted as he struck forwards again, this time under the power of his own hooves over the rocket pack that was hopefully recharging, me deciding that it might be time again for ol’ Gilda!

First, dodging!

I ducked, the heat passing by my cheek as I scrambled myself away. Bullet seemed to ping off of him from what I assumed to be Coffin’s newly recovered rifle, but the asshole seemed dead set on coming for me!

I gave a burst of my telekinetic to get some distance, trying to use the moment to retrieve Little Gilda as quickly as I could!

But I was struggling to get the chance as, despite my hopes, out came the rocket boosters!

Still in the process of getting my biggest weapon out to play while that guy was bearing down on me with red hot death, I kept my horn alright and moved the nearest thing I could get my hooves on between myself and him!

As it turned out, that was the Cerberus’ leg.

As I dragged the stray limb of the downed tankbot out, the Tartarus Trooper’s blade slamming into the metal and went through it with devastating each. Fearing what it would do to me, I finished extracting Gilda and prepared for his next attack.

Did I mention he was fast?

He pounced over the limb with unnatural grace so that I was too late on even S.A.T.S., the soldier in my face by the time things slow to a halt. Still, my use of the spell was still a good opportunity to not die! Rather than line up some shots, I decided to instead look at the angle the blade was coming from and not be there when it did!

Time restarted and I dropped down low, the blade again just missing me by the barest inch.

“Stay. Still!”

He batted Little Gilda aside with ease, the weapon sliding away before he turned and delivered a mighty buck straight to my barrel!

My ribcage screamed and protested against the power armour enhanced blow, several definitely splintering as my PegWing screamed for me to take a healing potion. Even through the shearing pain spreading throughout my body, or maybe because of it, I knew that if I took another hit like that I’d be needing some serious surgery. Surgery I wouldn’t get out here.

Another hit and I was simply fucked.

“That’s better.”

“Fuck you, you Discord whoring shit stain!”

“Quite the mouth on you…” he noted. “Let’s fix that.”

He didn’t get the chance, a cascade of bullets striking the stallion and sending him flying as Little Gilda opened up! She certainly did the trick, blood flying free from the stallion as he went sprawling to the ground.

“Coffin!”

“Spark…” he said, rushing to feed me a glorious health potion that fixed my ribs before they ended up in a position they couldn’t help. “We gotta get outta here, this place is all kinds of messed up!”

Ugh, that Med-X was no longer doing the trick for the pain. But… I’d bear it for the moment.

And then I heard a pained laugh from the Tartarus Trooper, despite his hellfire being little more than a hole-ridden mess. Despite all odds, he seemed to get back to his hooves and wobble over towards us.

“Not done yet, Missy…”

“Oh come on! What is with you!?”

“Death Scythe’s finest. Terrorists like you cannot win.”

“There are several things wrong with that statement.”

“Tell me about it.”

Oh no.

That new voice belonged to Rope Gallows, there was no mistaking it! A quick look around revealed her to be standing high above us on the roof of the base, peering down with a gleeful expression.

“I see you met the Enclave’s latest freaks of nature. Aren’t they great?”

“Colonel,” the trooper coldly addressed.

“You don’t look so good,” she said with mock sympathy. “Was a couple of wastelanders too much for such a great example of the SG?”

“I will finish my mission…”

“Yes, dear, you will…” she remarked cheerfully, pulling out… Oh crap, that’s a balefire egg launcher! “You’re in the line of fire, but you die for the cause, oh well.”

And then she fired.

Everything went white.

I was so sure we had died. I saw the egg coming down at us, nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from a weapon that powerful. I couldn’t deflect, S.A.T.S. hadn’t recharged yet… I couldn’t do anything. All the while, the trooper didn’t even seem to flinch, almost like he was happy to accept what Rope Gallows had done.

I’d failed again.

But then, inexplicably, I wasn’t there anymore. I was suddenly elsewhere, in the Wasteland… Back on the hill where we’d first spied the base!

My ears registered an explosion, and I turned my head to see a green mushroom cloud rising from within the confines of the Enclave compound.

How did we…?”

“Oh, crap…”

Coffin?

The stallion ripped his damaged power armour helmet from his head, revealing a charred horn and dazed over eyes. Did he do that? A teleport? I didn’t realise he could do that!

“Not doing that again…” he muttered. “Argh, that stings. Never done that before.”

“What!?”

“You heard me!” he shouted back. “I… I just tried very hard and… I did it! I actually… Owch…”

“Alright, just… d-don’t use magic.” Magic burnout, it was clear as day. As somepony who has suffered it, I know how much it sucks. “We need to go.”

I replaced his helmet back onto his head for him, gathering our helpfully also teleported weaponry and ensuring they were all back in storage. Coffin didn’t argue or offer any other words of anything, he just nodded along and shakily started to plod along with me as we moved away from the base.

Goddesses, my head was a mess. Watcher’s death. Rope Gallows murdering Grim Gallop and… that trooper. He’d been vicious, unnaturally so for somepony in power armour. And how he’d happily accepted what Rope did…

At least maybe she would think she killed us…?

I don’t know. All I knew was that I wanted to be as far from this place as possible, we had to move for as long as our battered and bruised bodies could manage.

All the while, I could feel the weight of the memory orb I carried. And so too could I hear the shuffling of cards from some distant place.

It was some time before we were far away enough from the base that we even remotely felt safe enough to slow down to a crawl before finally stopping to make camp. All light had faded, leaving the Equestrian Wasteland in pitch darkness beyond the crackling of our campfire and the lamps on our PegWings.

There was still hope that they would believe us dead after Rope Gallows’ little light show. But I wasn’t just going to sit around and wait to prove her wrong in the worst way possible.

Rope Gallows…

Coffin had told me, but I wanted to… I wanted to believe that maybe we could actually turn her! You know, spread the Magic of Friendship or some shit like that. There was a time that Twilight Sparkle and her friends could have! Velvet probably could have. Maybe Homage too.

But no, I fucked that one didn’t I? Again. Not only did I fail to convince her but I didn’t even realise I had until bullets were flying at us a million miles a minute!

And now my friend is dead, and all I have to show for it is…

Is a memory orb.

I glanced over at Coffin, the unicorn completely passed out by the campfire, his helmet held close in his hooves almost like a teddy bear. It was… cute? Oddly so. But yeah, cute, why the fuck not?

Still, he needs the rest. That burnout of his is bad. I was a little afraid he’d just drop dead before now. Still, he seems okay. His PegWing has stopped complaining so much and he took one last health potion before bed. He’ll probably be okay in the morning. A hell of a headache, but okay.

I was supposed to wake him in a couple of hours for second watch. But I need time to think while he needs as much sleep as he can get. I’ve had worse injuries anyway, and stayed up for longer, so I will make do tonight.

But that brings me back to the memory orb. The area seems clear enough, I couldn’t see any red bars on my Eyes Forward Sparkle, and just thinking of it was filling me with that familiar feeling of burning curiosity…

What had that pony wanted Watcher to know?

I retrieved the orb out of my saddlebag and examined it. It would probably be safer inside my inventory spell, but… I don’t know. I’ll probably stick it in there afterwards, less chance of it breaking than jostling around with the spare ammo magazines and meds I’ve got in my bags for quick access. But first…

I can’t wait anymore. I need to know!

I lit my horn, feeling the familiar connection begin to form as-

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

-I ended up now looking up at a completely cloudless blue sky!

I could only hear a slight gust of wind as whatever pony I was in stared up at the sky, seemingly as enamoured with its emptiness as I was. I’ve only seen it a few times, like whenever I’m in New Appleoosa, but it still manages to catch me off guard sometimes.

“Guardspony!”

My host jumped at the indignant shout, jumping to attention as their hoof flew up and into a salute.

“My apologies, Major Harbinger!”

Harbinger!?

“You would do well to keep your wits about you, soldier,” Harbinger growled in annoyance. “How do you expect my rise to General, and even to High Councillor from there, when those under my wing daydream on duty. I catch you distracted again and the consequences will be severe, understood!?”

My host gulped. “Yes Sir, Major Harbinger!

“Outstanding. Now get moving. The Council will not wait for our report much longer.”

Yeah, it was definitely Harbinger. He was younger and in different barding, but the voice was familiar as his dusk coloured fur. This was the same future Councillor killed when I blew up Maripony, the Enclave General and head of their military who wanted to use the Goddess in the first place. But he was only a Major here, so this had to be years before I left the stable. Probably, anyway.

My host started to follow on behind Harbinger, a standard Enclave stinger tale briefly drifting into my view before swaying back again. It looked like the owner of this memory was wearing the old set of Enclave combat barding from before their takeover, minus a helmet. Harbinger, meanwhile, was adorned in a pre-Death Scythe Enclave Officer’s garb.

All of this was pre-Death Scythe, the Enclave I fought before it all went to hell. I suppose back in this time the Enclave Council was actually still in charge, long before Death Scythe wrapped her hoof around them.

Not that this Harbinger had any idea of what would happen one day…

Three ponies in Enclave Armor stood blocking the doorway. In front of them, a stately dusk-coloured pegasus flew forward, dressed in sophisticated grey barding with a sleek military elegance.

“Greetings, Goddess,” the pegasus called out, staring up at Trixie’s light show, seeming unfazed. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Harbinger, and I am here on behalf of the Enclave.”

It’s an Enclave experiment all right, Calamity had said about the science project we had found in Old Olneigh. Under orders of Harbinger, one of the Enclave High Council.

The Goddess had more important things on her mind…

I shook that memory from my head, or as close as I could without actually being able to shake the head of my host, trying to focus on what the memory orb was actually trying to tell me over the day I signed Equestria over to the Enclave by accident.

They were walking across a cloud city I could only assume to be Neighvarro, the streets being eerily empty aside from the two Enclave ponies walking down it. The buildings were blue and largely also made of cloud, though I could spy a few rather lavish-looking houses made of what looked like marble or something. The building I would guess to be the location of the Enclave’s council was up ahead on a higher piece of cloud, a large circular building made out of the same marble-ly stuff covered in pillars and looking fancy as all shit.

Looks like they’d have to take a small flight to get up there. Pegasus cities are weird.

And then something strange happened.

Up ahead, careening out of an alleyway as fast as her little wings could carry her, was a pegasus filly. Her white coat was as dirty and unkempt as my own, as was her brown mane, even the gold stripe going through it seemed discoloured. Her green eyes seemed to dart about frantically, locking on to the two soldiers with great fear as they stopped and studied the foal curiously.

And then another pegasus mare, this one a plump grey pony a mane that was also messy albeit in a strangely more deliberate way. But what do I know about mane styles?

Still, whoever this older mare was, the filly gave a shriek as she bolted towards Harbinger and my host.

“HALT!”

The fierce nature of Harbinger’s command alone caused the child to screech to a halt, her eyes locked into the stallion as she quivered beneath his searching gaze. It was only now she was closer that I could see… bruises? Cuts? This kid was hurt, badly. Her body was littered with them, some looking older than others.

My stomach churned. I think I know why she was running…

The other mare stopped, catching her breath. “Pardon me, Sirs. A little runaway situation from the orphanage. Thank you for cutting it short.”

Harbinger frowned. “This is quite the disturbance. We are supposed to be at the council building at this very moment!”

She took a step back. “I’m very sorry! It won’t happen again, the little bastard will get what’s coming to her I promise you that!”

“I can see that. The bruises are your handiwork?”

“Just a little discipline, this one is quite the rebel.”

“They starve us and lock us in our rooms most days!” the filly protested. “T-then they use us. Not all the adults are wanting to adopt but they… I don’t want to go back! They’re horrible! Mean! Don’t make me!”

“That’s enough!” the mare shouted, taking a step towards the filly. “You’ll come with me and- GAH!”

She recoiled back as the child lashed out with a buck and struck the mare right across the muzzle!

“No! You can’t hurt me! Fuck off!”

“Ma’am, I recall my ponies have already had reports of disturbing activities within your establishment,” Harbinger said cooly. “Does this filly speak the truth?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” she shouted back, raising her hoof as if to strike the trembling filly. “A little discipline and this one will be back in line!”

“Children are a resource too few in number and vital to the Enclave’s survival,” the Major retorted. “If you are lying and endangering that future…”

“Nothing of the sort,” she growled. “Now excuse me, Sirs. But this one needs a time out.”

Her hoof struck down.

Only for her eyes to open wide with shock as Harbinger stepped between them, her hoof striking across his chest instead, barely even causing him to stumble.

“Wha…?”

“Guardspony, you saw her attack an officer, correct?”

My host nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Then act on it.”

My host spring forward, his wings flaring as the hapless mare gave her own shriek of fear. The soldier’s stinger tail struck! The barb pierced straight through the mare’s neck, the force of the strike half embedding her into the cloud layer as her lifeless eyes continued to stare out in horror.

The stinger was extracted, blood seeming to drop straight through the cloud layer as my host turned to look back at the Major and the filly, the latter of which now held a blank expression.

I have many mixed feelings about what they just did. I mean, Goddesses know that I have killed a lot of horrible ponies like her, but… Aren’t there might be better ways of dealing with things like that in ‘civilised’ places?

But he did probably just save that kid.

But this was Harbinger, the power-hungry genocidal maniac who paved the way for all of this.

Many. Many mixed feelings.

Still, probably basking in this one good deed he did actually do, Harbinger turned to look down at the filly with a raised eyebrow.

“Now that that unpleasantness is dealt with, who are you?”

“I… I’m Death Scythe.”

What.

This was Death Scythe? The current head of the Enclave’s military and ‘unofficial’ head of state who controls all the Enclave council and all of Equestria through fear alone? This scrawny and terrified filly? What the fuck happened between point A and point B?

It also occurs to me that this… this is the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on the pony I’m supposed to be taking down. I’ve heard all about her, sure. But I’ve never seen or heard her in pony before now. And for it to be like this… I had no idea the former General of the Enclave and the current High General were even acquainted, for one. Maybe this leads into why she got the position during Operation: Cauterize over Calamity’s brother?

Still, I feel like I’m missing a lot here.

“Death Scythe? That’s dramatic,” Harbinger noted with humour in his tone. “I imagine your parents were officers?”

“They died on a trip to the surface when I was very little,” Death Scythe replied sadly. “I grew up with that horrible mare! I’m glad she’s dead.”

“You’re a tough one, aren’t you?”

“None of the other fillies and colts were brave enough to try to escape!” she claimed proudly. “I promised to find an adult with a gun and come back for them.”

“Well, Death Scythe, you found one. Guardspony, she’ll come with us to the meeting. Look after her in the lobby until I return, then we shall take her back to my estate.”

The filly blinked “Huh?”

“I’ve been looking for a promising protege, though I thought they would be older,” Harbinger stated. “I have great plans for the Enclave, Death Scythe. I need capable ponies, especially promising ones who, with a little training, could prove quite valuable.”

“Are… are you adopting me?”

“In a sense. Though I suppose there will be official paperwork for your custody…” he mused. “But I expect the best from you in turn. A true patriot of the Enclave, and a capable soldier.”

“Yes! Yes! I promise!” she said excitedly, beaming joyfully. “I won’t let you down! Ever!”

“A good start. Now come, there is much to be done.”

He started to walk again, Death Scythe falling into step beside him with the corpse already forgotten about. My host started to dutifully follow on, the scene beginning to blur and fade.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I felt more than a little groggy as I came to, my mind swimming with what I’d just seen from the eyes of that guard and-

Death Scythe.

Harbinger.

I’d barely met the latter, only when he’d been annihilated at Maripony. I had no idea he was her father. Well, sort of. Adoption isn’t really a thing that happened in the stable, but there were sometimes accidents and other family had to look after a filly or colt. That’s life, I guess.

Still, to think what that orphanage was doing… Children have it hard in the wastes, but in a place that was supposed to be civilised and safe?

I suppose even boogymen have soft spots, for Harbinger to do what he did. A redeemable side, maybe, had he lived. Not unlike what I tried to do with Rope Gallows, but maybe it would have worked better with someone like him…

Or maybe it wouldn’t. Who can say?

Still, I can’t help but think that I’m missing a large part of a bigger picture. How do you go from being that sweet and innocent filly to a dictatorial maniac far outshining even Harbinger himself?

“That is the question, but like so many things its answers lie within ourselves, Lightbringer.”

That old, gnarled and dead voice might have made me pee myself a little! Well, nearly! But I settled for a yelp and grabbing my gun, whipping around to find a… Was that a ghoul?

There was a pony sitting by the campfire, Coffin blissfully unaware and sound asleep while said pony shuffled a deck of playing cards. How long had he been there? Ugh! This is why you don’t go into orbs when on watch, Pip!

“Quite the fascinating player you are, perhaps I should have attended to you long ago, especially since my previous patron has… tapped out.”

The pony turned to look at me, his milky eyes staring out from beneath a large hat that complimented his tattered brown duster. He almost looked like a skeleton, he was desiccated even for a ghoul!

And… why was nothing appearing on my Eyes Forward Sparkle?

“Who and what are you?” I asked.

“Ah, something many have asked even when the realisation stands before them,” he cryptically answered. “I suppose you might call me the Dealer, that seems popular. I handle the cards, even if the responsibility of playing our little game falls to those such as you.”

“Okay, are you a ghoul? Because if so I get that you might be confused…”

My blood ran cold when that... thing grinned. It was an unnatural smile, one that seemed to make the air itself feel lifeless.

And then he took some of his cards and glanced at them.

“An interesting hand for an interesting play. Though you failed to call the bluff of your opponent…” He held out a card, a Queen, the picture being that of an abstract raider standing atop a pile of corpses. “And in doing so, lost a card valuable to many for so long.”

Another card, this one a joker. It showed a purple baby dragon crouched in fear as a skeletal unicorn embraced him from behind, rotting books threatening to claim them both.

I watched, dumbstruck as he tossed it into the fire.

“You… You’re crazy.”

“And yet you entertain me still,” he replied with a chuckle. “Shall we see our remaining players, hm?”

In a flourish he sent a flurry of cards to the ground, each one face up and clear to see.

What the fuck!?

That card had my friends on it! All were separated, standing apart, looking almost spiteful. Homage had one of her own, a weeping skeletal version of her that sent me nearly into a panic!

Then there was Life Bloom and Silver Bell, facing a horde of shadows looking to overwhelm them. Coffin was there, standing with some other ponies I didn’t recognise. Except for… Erdnussbutter? Why does he matter? Another was an alicorn, and there was one looking oddly like Morning Glory, but not quite. The final one was a pegasus mare, and she was quite the looker at that.

And then there was my card. Only… it was shared. I stood one side, in my original body, battered and weary. The other held a white mare with a black and red mane, she just looked angry about everything.

“Yes, still an array. Though not what it once was,” Dealer stated. “But as it is always, more players will drop out as the game progresses. And with your playstyle, I don’t think it will be long now.”

“Shut up!” I snapped, throwing the cards aside and striding up to this crazy asshole! “Fuck off! Now! Really, you’re nuts! Just go! I don’t want to hurt you, you can’t help being all ghoul-like and fucked up by rads, but this is crazy!”

“Then I am perfect for what you have become. You could just lie down and let the inevitable pass, but you choose to keep going until all around you have died for your decisions. So, as long as you keep making these choices, I will keep presenting them.”

Three more cards, each one flipped up and revealed to me.

The first was a balefire cloud, pretty clear and simple. The second contained Homage once again, only this time she laid prone on a bed looking… Was she ill? The third, meanwhile, showed what I think was Death Scythe surrounded by green flame.

“And so you shall choose.”

“Choose what!?”

“You walk blindly down your path, hoping to make some difference. So choose, Stable Dweller. Choose and be damned.”

My everything screamed to wake Coffin and chase this crazy pony off! To tell him no! That this was insane! But…

I felt drawn to Homage. Why was she like that? My heart ached just wondering. And before I could even stop myself, I felt my hoof touch the card as I brought it up for a closer look.

“Ah, most curious. An interesting choice. So it shall be.”

I dropped the card, shaking my head and pinching my eyes shut. Why had I even selected!? This is dumb, and it needs to stop.

“Listen, you fucking-”

He was gone.

I looked around, but there was no sign of this pony anywhere. Even the cards had vanished.

All but for the lone card of Homage sitting alone, a grimace held tightly across her face.

Footnote: Level 7

New Perk: Inherited Devil - You’ve attracted the attention of a Zebrican spirit, congratulations! Do be careful which cards you pick...

Author's Note

Big chapter this time around! Between what happens with Watcher and, finally, Littlepip's meeting with Death Scythe... (Sort of)

Oh, and Dealer. Thanks to Somber again for permission to bring that whole bag of worms into this.

Ah, Death Scythe... Dead parents, abused as a kid, raised by a would-be dictator after that. You would assume that it is quite defined how she ended up as she is. But as Pip's gut is telling her, more of the story has yet to be told...

10 - Reunions

Chapter Ten: Reunions

“Our paths will cross again someday, in time to reunite...”

Turns out my insatiable curiosity is at least partially satiable. At least when you’ve been searching through the same looking ruins over and over. I’m not kidding, for a moment I thought I had accidentally gotten us turned around and trotted miles back down the road. At least we were on a road now, we’d eventually decided that we had walked far enough away from that whole thing with Rope Gallows that we could safely walk these old pre-war pathways again.

We hadn’t been exploded by a vertibuck yet, so I’d say we were actually right about that for once.

We were also getting closer to Stable 12, about a day out by this point. I could feel my friends, kinda… Well, not literally. But they were stupidly close and I couldn’t wait any longer! Just past the next junction, or over the next hill… Would the stable by in another apple cellar? A barn? A random rocky outcropping?

Just another day…

Coffin had recovered from his first time teleportation experience, though I could occasionally hear him mumbling about headaches. The first time you burn yourself out is always the roughest… Unless you do it so much you drop dead, but that hadn’t happened yet, so no need to worry too much there.

I’m just going to stop talking it up now.

“Almost there,” I informed Coffin. “The map marker is getting really close now. Here’s hoping Silver gave us the right one.”

“It’s the right one,” Coffin assured between laboured breaths. “They’re too meticulous to screw up that badly.”

Just imagine if they did? Actually, given what we went through to get here, I’d rather not.

“Maybe we should talk game plans for when we get there,” he then suggested. “Somehow, I doubt the Rangers will be on board right outta the barn. Never mind the stubbornness I’ve heard so much about, they’ve taken one hell of an ass-kicking since the Enclave took charge. Down to a chapter and, what, a couple of outposts? Maybe none now, who the fuck knows?”

Life Bloom and SIlver Bell had made that much clear to us back in New Appleoosa. I wonder who was Elder nowadays? Crossroads? Somepony had to… had to take over from Steelhooves.

If I hadn’t let him die, maybe he could have done something about all of this…

I miss that stoic ghoul. He’d been more than my friend, he was literally family. The only family I’d had after leaving the stable. I wonder if that was why he always stuck with me. Maybe he saw Applejack in my eyes, given they’re her green and all. I don’t know. I’d never told him, but he had been one kickass grandfather, plus a few generations.

But…

…

Hm, speaking of my old friends…

“I’m sure we can manage,” I told him, forcing my regrets back down into my own inner stable. “I have some, uh… That is to say, they told me of a couple ponies who might help with that.”

Coffin raised an eyebrow. “Really? I don’t remember this.”

“Oh, well, Life Bloom mentioned it to me. Alone. Without you…” Am I getting better or worse at lying? I can’t really tell. “But their names are Velvet Remedy and Calamity, they’re-”

“The Lightbringer’s friends, anypony who knows anything about the war knows about them,” Coffin interjected. “And the former was the one who gave us the Stable location, as I recall. You really think they’d actually help us? Besides, Calamity supposedly left their ranks a while back.”

What?

Oh, right. They did tell me he was meant to be in hiding, didn’t they? I forgot about that. But… It’s Velvet and Calamity, him being all lucky and getting Velvet all to himself. I still remember chasing after her… You know, before she shot me.

Them joining up together just makes sense. Why would they ever part? No, it has to be bullshit. Rumours and crap. They’ll be together as always, I know it!

We can be together again. Fuck whatever Life Bloom says, I’m telling the shit out of them!

I want my friends back. I need my friends back.

“I can be persuasive when I want to be!”

He gave me a doubtful look. “Uh-huh… Well, you're not doing a good job of convincing me right now.”

Oi! “Have some faith, Coffin, for fuck’s sake. If anypony will listen, it’ll be those two. I just… I have to believe that.”

There’s that odd look again. “I would endeavour to agree simply on the grounds that they’re heroes and all, but I’ve never took you to be a fan of the Stable Dweller as I am. Why do you think so much about ponies you’ve never met?”

Of course I’m not a fan. I know me too well to be one.

“Just because I don’t drool at the thought of the ‘Stable Dweller’ like you do, doesn’t mean I don’t think her friends are heroes. I mean, ‘if’ I were her, I wouldn’t have made it that far without them…”

He shrugged. “Point taken. Still, even with their support, it’s the darned Elder we have to convince. From what I heard, she’s very hard to convince.”

We’ll just have to find out…

The hours started to pass, passing through a shattered hamlet along the way that was empty aside from a couple radroaches that kept their distance. Just a couple ruined homes and a single little shop that had been looted years ago, just some unimportant place that didn’t even show up on my PegWing’s map, forgotten a long time ago.

Past that, we were left completely open country roads, cracked and dilapidated as they were, nearly buried by dirt in more than a few places. This stable was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, seemingly only surrounded by a few small locations that weren’t even worth calling a village and some isolated farms. Still, I guess all those farms and isolated homes added together to make a good bit of the shelter’s population. Maybe a few came in from wherever the closest established towns and villages were, something the ponies of the past actually gave enough of a shit about to mark down on a map.

Looking at my PegWing… Tall Tale, maybe? Though that was caught between the border of the Hoofington region and Vanhoover, a little bit of a journey further up Equestria from here. Maybe…

Eh, what does it really matter in the end? Stable-Tec would have put ponies in wherever they saw fit. I don’t even want to imagine the spreadsheets showing the specific ways they would fuck with people’s lives when they were meant to be saving them.

What horrors did Stable 12 deliver…?

A rumbling started to reach my ears, both twitching as I turned my head skyward. I saw Coffin do the same, our eyes peering into the grey roof above us.

What the Luna’s puckered ass was that?

“Hide!” Coffin then shouted, frantically looking around for a place. He seemed to settle on a shallow ditch, about the only place there was out here. “Come on!”

I moved to follow, looking up one last time.

And then I saw it.

I saw the Thunderhead flying our way.

The giant floating platform was… gigantic. The anvil-shaped behemoth was something else to see in person, and a pit opened in my stomach as I imagined them leading a fleet of Raptors against Equestria while I was too busy napping in a pod.

‘Overcast’ was the name imprinted on the side.

And it wasn’t alone, another huge vessel, one I had never seen before floating alongside it. At first glance, it almost seemed the same size of the Thunderhead, though a second examination showed it to be notably smaller, and from here I could see the ridiculous amount of large guns strapped to the cloudship. And even dwarfed by the Thunderhead, I could tell it was a fair bit meaner than a Raptor.

I got moving, ducking down into the ditch with Coffin as the two ships started to get closer.

“Shit, the Overcast,” Coffin swore. “Must be on one last lap around its prize before retirement.”

Well, good for fucking it.

“Must have deployed that Argentavis Battleship to protect it. Make it a less tempting target for us.”

“Never seen a Thunderhead this close before…” I muttered. “Never mind that other one.”

“Not surprising. I’ve never seen more than the occasional Raptor refuelling after a patrol or a Victory dropping off some important assholes.”

“That one has a loooot of big guns…”

“Yeah, well, it’s a ‘battle’ship,” he pointed out. “Slow and lacking in anything good for stopping vertibucks or enemy fliers, but fuck if you don’t wanna be on the other end of those cannons when they fire.”

I can imagine…

“Still, the Thunderhead has more than enough anti-air and hangar support to make up for what the Argentavis lacks there,” he continued. “No way anything we got would put a dent in those two together.”

“I… don’t want to think about how the wasteland felt when they first took over…” How many ponies had to have died trying? No wonder they were able to take out Red Eye.

Coffin snorted. “Hell, that was just the Raptors. Fast and nippy but little in the way of the big guns, kinda like that Victory cloudships that replaced them. Now, pair those and the big ones together, maybe some Titanis cruisers as well seeing as they are kinda a mix of both, and we got problems.”

I think I’ve heard those classes mentioned a couple times, glad to know they were just as deadly as every other fucking thing out here. “I never knew you were so into ships.”

“Nah, it’s more Steampunk’s thing. You know how much that pony likes tinkering and engineering, studying stolen schematics for those things was a holiday for him,” the unicorn remarked.

I blinked. “You have schematics for those things?”

“Yeah, inside source got ‘em. Lotta good it does us, not like we have any way to build them. Maybe they gave the bosses some idea as to how to hit them, I don’t know.”

“At least Steampunk had fun.”

He chuckled. “That he did.”

Oh shit, they were actually really close now.

“Enough chatter, down!”

We ducked as low as we could as they started to pass overhead, the shadow of the two vessels almost entirely turning the wasteland around us into night. The sound of even more engines reached our ears, small specks coming into view as a squadron of vertibucks escorting both ships started to fly on by. The hum was almost deafening, some crazed fucking chorus of death that could quite frankly get screwed by Luna’s plush horn tip.

But they did pass by, the two ships crossing the land and moving on back in the general direction we’d previously come up from. The last to go were a few of the escorting vertibucks, several flying uncomfortably low to the ground a short distance away from us.

“Look at them all…” Coffin lamented. “Let’s hope they don’t finish up the Overcast’s reign of terror by targeting anypony.”

I didn’t reply, instead watching on as all those big flying death barges sailed off and into the haze of a bland wasteland day.

And so too did I watch as one of the vertibucks, literally the last one that had passed us by I think, randomly seemed to break off from the others and turn around. In one swift movement, it was now heading back in our general direction.

Ah fuck.

“I think it’s-”

The world erupted into a volcano of kicked up dirt and shards of rock as a barrage of magical energy fire cascaded around our ditch, my head instinctively pressing firmly against my little safety spot as I lost track of Coffin amidst the storm! His bar remained on my E.F.S., so I took that as a good sign!

The sound of rotor blades became briefly deafening as the vertibuck passed by a scarily short distance overhead, passing us by and flying off somewhere behind our position.

You’d be butt fucking kidding me if you thought it’d just leave, though!

“Spark!?” Coffin shouted out as the dust started to clear.

“Not sludge! Yet!”

“Good! I’m picking up a few bars on my Eyes Forward, you getting that?”

“No fucking shit!”

Sure enough, several bars were on the move away from the big red splodge that was the vertibuck. If I were a smart pony, which I’m not, I would say that that thing had just dropped off ground troops.

Cunting fucking shit DAMN IT!

We both turned, peering out of our unnervingly shallow cover out at the hovering vertibuck sitting there. Sure enough, four Enclave soldiers had dropped out of the transport and were readying their weapons. Three combat armour-clad soldiers and one in good old X-02 gear. Freaking marvellous

And they were all turning in our direction, the vertibuck raring to take off.

“Wishing I still had my little death pistol right about now,” Coffin mused wistfully.

Oh-ho, but I have a death anti-aircraft-

Shitting fuck! A bolt struck right next to my head the moment I tried to access my PegWing! Really hating the lack of space to move about, here!

“I need Little Gilda!”

“Get it then!”

“Try to stop them from blowing my head off first! Please? Thank you?”

“Trying!”

Coffin levitated up his gun, firing off randomly at the Enclave soldiers. Still, judging by their bars, they were marching towards us at a leisurely pace.

Dicks.

But even as I looked around us, I saw just how screwed we were. This ditch was about all the cover we had, the area was almost entirely flat. The spot where the Enclave were advancing was just an old burnt-out field. Behind us was a cracked road and, annoyingly, yet more burnt-out field. And now that vertibuck was reorienting itself back towards us in a bid to turn us into a smear! Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and any attempt to get my big guns would probably get me shot quicker.

Come on, Pip! Don’t tell me you’re out of tricks now you dumb fucking unicorn bitch!

BOOM.

And just like that, as if the Goddesses themselves had answered my typically vulgar prayers, the vertibuck detonated in a green cloud of radioactive energies.

“Balefire eggs! Scatter!” one of the Enclave soldiers bellowed in alarm, those red markers on my Eyes Forward Sparkle.

And, weirdly, there were three green ones joining them now too.

“For the Ministry Mare!”

Wut?

I peered up, and holy shit those three bars only fucking belonged to three Knights of the Applejack’s Rangers! Heck yeah! Never been so happy to see these tinned ponies in my life!

Well, except for one…

One of the knights did indeed have a balefire egg launcher equipped on their battle saddle, though that one took a step back as the other two bounded in with miniguns blazing.

The slowest of the Enclave soldiers to react was cut to ribbons, turning into a pile of blood and meat as the wreckage of the vertibuck continued to rain down around them.

Suddenly, caught by surprise, the lack of cover was now the Enclave’s problem too.

“Where did they come from?” I asked aloud.

“That’s the question,” Coffin remarked as he used the moment to pop off another shot at the Enclave. Another bar blinked out. “Huh, see that burnt out storehouse across the field? Maybe they were cooped up in that.”

I briefly glanced out, and I did catch sight of the old building. It was a piece of shit, looked like it was barely standing. But I didn’t see any other way these guys had remained undetected by the Enclave while we’re been spotted.

But it was a brief glance, my mind more focused on the last two Enclave soldiers as they tried to back away as they traded fire with the Rangers. They seemed to be trying to use some of the newly fallen wreckage for cover, but it wasn’t working out particularly well.

The third soldier in combat armour fell, leaving just his power armour clad buddy left.

Noooot great odds for that guy, huh?

I pulled my revolver free, firing a couple of shots at the said pony. They unfortunately just seemed to ping off his armour, the 5mm rounds from the Rangers having a similar effect.

Until the lead Ranger with the balefire egg launcher charged forward, dipping down and heaving the startled Enclave pegasus onto his back. Said pegasus gave out an alarmed shout as his mechanical stinger tail struck out and pierced into the Ranger’s armour. Barely discouraged, the Enclave soldier was thrown haphazardly away from the debris and towards the other two Applejack’s Rangers. Now in close proximity and flailing around on the ground, the two massive earth ponies stood over the pegasus and let loose with their miniguns point-blank. Against that kind of punishment, his power armour proved to be a little crappier as it was torn to shreds along with the pony inside.

No more red bars remained.

“Sir!” one of the minigun Rangers shouted to the injured one in alarm.

“My suit is distributing healing potions and antitoxins. I’ll live,” he barked back. “Check on the civies. Carefully.”

“Yes, Paladin!” the Knight responded. “You two! Asses front and centre, weapons away! Don’t give us a reason!”

“Hey! We’re friendly!” Coffin shouted back indignantly. “Resistance!”

“And getting shot at by the cocking Enclave!” I added.

“The Enclave shoot at many things. Get out here if you’re what you say,” the Paladin in charge commanded, barely even acknowledging the hole in his armour.

“Ugh.” Stupid Rangers and that stick shoved up their buttholes… “Yeah, we should probably do what they say.”

“Ya think?” Coffin snarked. “Come on, revolver back in the PegWing. We’re coming out!”

I did as he said, slowly rising out of the ditch until we were both face-to-face with all three Steel Rangers and their big nasty guns.

How many of those were shooting at me when they attacked Stable 2?

No, Pip. That wasn’t them. These idiots probably were foals then themselves. Besides, the original Steel Rangers weren’t around anymore. Just the AJ’s variety and the Enclave now…

Still, attitude hasn’t changed all that much. Still grumpy as shit.

The Paladin approached us, his helmeted head glancing between us curiously.

“Not many civilians come this far from the cosy Enclave cities anymore. Looking at your barding, mare, you’re an Enclave technician.”

“Technically, yes.” Thanks to Life Bloom, anyway. “But he’s the son of an Enclave officer, yet we’re still Resistance anyway!”

Coffin’s eye were definitely incredulous behind that helmet of his. “You didn’t need to reveal that much, Sparkplug!”

“Hey, you like honesty!”

“Yes. Incredibly. Even more so when it’s not likely to get me shot.”

The Paladin groaned. “Stop arguing. Sheesh, wastelanders… Alright, you claim to be Resistance. The Enclave were shooting at you, so that is an indication that you are being truthful.”

“Like I said. He likes honesty,” I remarked.

“Stop talking,” he shot back.

“Honesty, huh?” the Paladin mused, standing directly in front of Coffin. “Alright. I’ll start with you. Why are you out here, Resistance or otherwise, and why shouldn’t we send you back the way you came?”

Coffin nodded. “We were sent here by the leaders of the New Appleoosa cell, Life Bloom and Silver Bell. We have business with your Elder.”

“A tall claim. We have no business with your failing Resistance.”

“Not so failing, actually. I’m sure the great and mighty Applejack’s Rangers heard about Fillydelphia,” Coffin rebuked. “We have a proposition for the Elder. I think whether or not what we have to say is her business to decide whether it is or isn’t worth pursuing.”

“Sir, if they’re being truthful, the Elder will likely want to know of it. Scribe Remedy has said something like this might happen,” one of the Knights said.

Scribe Remedy? Look at you, Velvet. You have a rank now.

“If they’re being truthful,” the Paladin reiterated.

Coffin sighed, his horn lighting up and removing the helmet from his head. He looked the Paladin dead in the visor, his expression completely sincere.

“As much as she speaks out of line, my friend here is right. I am the son of the Enclave office. But I am also greatly appreciative of honesty. Something I’m sure the followers of Applejack can relate too.”

“...We can.”

“Then you’ll have to trust me when I say that I am being truthful with you now. We have a plan of action to hit the Enclave, and it is something for your Elder’s ears specifically. She will want to hear it.”

“Besides, you have the big guns,” I pointed out.

The Paladin hummed thoughtfully, tilting his head. “I do sense a truthfulness about it, I can say that much at least. Alright. We will take you back to our base of operations in Stable 12. However, I must insist that you be blindfolded for the remainder of our trip.”

Oh, what? Seriously?

He must have seen the look on my face, the earth pony moving to me. “The secrecy of our order must be maintained. There are too few of us left to risk exposing our headquarters to two ponies we just met.”

“Alright… I guess that makes sense…”

I guess that cuts out the ‘us having to find the door’ part of this trip.

“Very well,” the Paladin declared. “Knights, restrain these two. Then we move out for Stable 12. Ad Victorium.”

Ad-vica-what?

It seemed like a lifetime before the blindfold was finally removed. Let me tell you, wandering the wasteland with only your E.F.S to give any indication about what lay beyond the piece of fabric wrapped around your eyes is really not fun. I lost track of how many times I saw flickers of red somewhere around me for it to just vanish again.

Probably roaches. But still, fucking freaky.

But we made it. Here we were… and… and…

...Fuck. Goddesses… Fuck.

You know, in all this time, I never even thought what it might be like seeing one of these stupid dumb cog doors again. But here it was, a great big yellow ‘12’ emblazoned right in the centre. I can… can almost imagine the ‘1’ not being there, you know, leaving just a single ‘2’...

The cave system around us, the remnants of pre-war signs of those beginning to be let in… All that was missing was the bones, but they’d probably been removed a long time ago.

Of course, the biggest difference of all? Stable 12 is still here. As far as I know, Stable 2 is just a hole in the ground, scrapped for parts. This isn’t my stable, and it’s probably not even how stables are… well, what I thought they were supposed to be. It was probably more like the one Calamity and I explored by New Appleoosa once upon a time, filled with horror and experiments that Stable-Tec and the Cutie Mark Crusaders thought was a good idea for fucking idiotic reasons.

I already hate it here.

And Goddesses it hurts to look at.

Annnd yet I’m going anyway. Good job, Pip.

“Open up,” the Paladin barked out. “Clearance level Alpha-Pi-Eleven.”

Uh… Pie? What’s that about-

Alarms started screaming into my ears, a red light flashing above the door as the familiar sound of scraping metal echoed through the cave. Behind the door, the accompanying arm was undoubtedly moved into place before the door was dragged backwards and rolled aside, the ghost of my past that was the entranceway coming into full view. No rust, not blood, just a clean and pure stable entrance.

And just like that, the Rangers were leading us into Stable 12.

“And who the heck are these guys?” a pony in a… stable security garb of all things. “Didn’t realise you were on a recruiting run.”

“Show some respect for the chain of command, Initiate, this doesn’t concern you,” the Paladin rebuffed. “Call this in. We have visitors from the Resistance.”

“Resistance? Oh boy, Elder’s gonna love this,” the pony replied sarcastically, throwing the switch that started the door’s activation sequence before hopping over to an intercom as the entrance sealed itself once more.

“So, who is this Elder anyway?” I whispered over to Coffin. Probably should have asked earlier, but fuck it.

“You don’t know? Ah, I suppose on this particular knowledge gap you can be forgiven. It’s hardly public information, unless you are in deep with Silver Bell.”

“Yeah, I figured. We talked about them a short while ago, but never told me their name.”

“Her name, to be exact,” Coffin replied. “Her name is St-”

“Well, I got some orders for you, Paladin,” the Applejack’s Rangers Initiate interrupted as he returned from the intercom. Shit timing, jackass! “Elder wants to see you in the Overmare’s office, but you are to head to the orchard first.”

The Paladin tilted his head a little. “The orchard? Why would- Ah, that Scribe?”

“That Scribe.”

The giant pony sighed. “Well, she always has had the Elder’s ear. Alright, civilians. Keep close, no detours or we’ll consider you hostile infiltrators. Understood?”

“Clearly. You don’t have guests much, do you?” Coffin quipped.

“And mind your manners while you’re at it, too.”

“Fine. Take us to this scribe of yours. Coming, Spark?”

“Yeah… right behind you.”

Scribe…?

The Rangers took the lead, opening a door that led into a typical stable corridor. As we walked, my eyes noticing signs for the ‘Cafeteria’, ‘Infirmary’ and ‘Atrium’ as we went, I started to take notice of the odd other pony walking around the place. A few in combat gear, less in power armour, and a good amount in stable jumpsuits.

Speaking of the power armour, now that I looked, the Paladin was wearing a different model to the two knights. It was… bulkier, the shoulders seemed to have two layers overlapping each other. Not like the T-51 model really, they were a lot bigger. The knights were unmistakably in T-45, the kind Steelhooves used. But this other one I’d never seen before.

“So, what’s with the gear?” I asked him.

“What?”

“The power armour. I’ve never seen that variant before.”

“And you’d know.”

“I’m, er… A technician. I like tech, okay?”

He grunted. “Well, with the Enclave making upgraded from X-01 to X-02, and now we’re getting reports of an X-03 model, we also saw the need to upgrade. Meet the T-60 model power armour. It may not have the tails of an Enclave model, their advanced gizmos or the flexibility, but I guarantee it can take a punch more than theirs.

“I had no idea the Rangers were expanding,” Coffin noted. “How’d you manage to produce something like that?”

“That you can know if we can trust you. Not before,” he answered. “But, with luck, the Enclave will be seeing a fair few more of these in the future.”

“T-45 isn’t the powerhouse it used to be,” one of the knights commented. “And with the lack of T-51 suits in storage, we needed something new.”

Any further questions I had were stopped by our arrival outside a door that clearly led into the orchard, you know, if the windows showing a field of trees and a sign saying ‘orchard’ on it were clues or something.

But I’ll figure out this new suit later, the technical curiosity of my old, and new, profession demanded it!

“Step inside,” the Paladin commanded.

Not waiting to gain the angry face of a T-60 guy, Coffin and I slipped through the door as it opened and made out way into the field. The sudden shift in scenery was… nostalgic. Memories flooded back to a time from my fillyhood, sitting in the grass under the apple trees, surrounded by apples both pure and… less pure. Not every apple was perfect, only so much the artificial lighting could do. But… grass! Actual grass, green and everything.

Now, this was how I pictured stables.

We pressed deep into the trees, looking around to see industrial carts filled with newly collected apples ready to be shipped off to… Huh, I was noting a few more industrial pieces of equipment around that my stable didn’t have. Weird…

But we continued, being led right into the centre of this underground forest until…

What the Cadance shitting heck?

There was a tree planted right in the middle, hooked up to all kinds of machines that looked really weird and… medical? I don’t really know, medical stuff wasn’t really my speciality. But this tree… its trunk was yellow, its branches holding long pink leaves that almost looked like strands of hair forming a mane.

But… but…

Fuck the tree. What about the ponies under the tree!?

“Oh? So you’re back for five minutes and already dishing out orders?” Velvet Remedy demanded to know, the dabs of grey in her mane doing little to… Well, we may never have happened, but she’s as wonderful to look at as I remember. “Deadshot Calamity, where do you get off?”

“Ah ain’t given’ any orders, honey,” Calamity drawled, covering his eyes with his hat as he shifted uncomfortably within his suit of X-01 power armour that had been painted with Applejack’s Rangers stuff. “But you ain’t seen what’s going on out there, ah have. It gets worse all the time, they’re slaughtering anything that so much as looks the wrong shade of the rainbow to be a pony. And a lot of ponies to while they’re at it.”

My friends… They’re here! Both of them! Together! And… and why the fuck are they glaring at one another like murder is about to happen?

Oh… crap.

“Do you think I’m ignorant of that?” Velvet shouted in anger. “I know what’s going on! You know I want so badly to help them!”

“So why don’t you?”

“I’m a doctor, not an army! I have ponies who need me here.”

“So, you’re really not gonna raise a hoof to help the outside? You really drunk that Ranger Sparkle-Cola, huh?”

“Don’t you dare!” she screeched. “I am helping your degenerate cowpony! They’re the help!”

“Uh…” Did my voice sound squeaky there? Fuck, as if this wasn’t bad enough I now look like a complete ass! And now they’re looking at us, my friends, and what the fuck am I meant to do here? Dammit, guys!

“Uh, okay, didn’t see ya’ll there,” Calamity said awkwardly. “Uh… how long…?”

“Long enough,” the Paladin groaned. “Scribe Remedy, your ‘guests’ are here.”

“Oh good, I was hoping Silver Bell would come through someday,” Velvet said, shooting Calamity a smug smirk. “I take it she’s sent you two here to form another alliance?”

“That’s about the breadth of it, yes,” Coffin confirmed. “Um, is this a bad time?”

“Naw, we’re just fine,” Calamity lied. “Name’s Calamity, Deadshot Calamity. I run with this group.”

“Not recently. You run off until a couple of days ago,” Velvet said bitterly.

“Somepony had to go out rescuin’ folk.”

“Okay, I see there’s an issue there,” Coffin interrupted the argument. “But can we focus for a moment?”

Velvet signed. “Right. Sorry. Yes, if you two are here to negotiate with the Elder, you picked a good time for it. I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be a tough sell, but she trusts me. I know we need this alliance, but she’s rightfully afraid of the effect another direct attack on the Enclave might have if it doesn’t work out.”

“She’s Velvet Remedy, by the way,” Calamity introduced. “Best voice this side of Equestria, even better doctor, and a right prissy pony when she wants to be.”

“Yes, that is my name…” she confirmed with a glare. “Sorry, my manners have escaped me. You two are?”

“I’m Coffin.”

“Uh…” FOR FUCK SAKE! VOICE! WORK!

“...And this is Sparkplug. She’s new, but she’s one hell of a fighter.”

“I see. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Velvet said. “I work as a senior scribe here, as well as the Chief Medical Officer. I wish I could offer you a room and time to rest, but now that you’re here we shouldn’t waste time. If there is anything you would like to ask me before we go to meet with the Elder, please do so now.”

Oh, where the everliving cunting shit do I begin? Why are they fighting? They’re not together? Calamity has only just returned, so Silver Bell and Life Bloom were right about him wandering off on his own? Where do I start?

“What’s with the tree?”

Apparently, that’s where I start. Thanks brain.

“Huh? Oh, right. She’s not a tree.”

“What?”

Velvet turned towards the yellow tree, a sad look on her face. “This… This is Ministry Mare Fluttershy. Or what’s left of her.”

...What?

“I know you think it sounds crazy, but it isn’t. During the last days of Cauterize, when the Enclave were razing Everfree Forest, we found her. She’d been hit by Poison Joke, it turned her into this. She’s alive, stuck, watching the world she tried so hard to heal burn around her. We moved her to save her, it was quite the effort. I’ve been trying to find a cure, but the Elder has often placed our resources elsewhere.”

“Like that armour there,” Calamity said, pointing at the Paladin. “Whole factory ready to pump ‘em out.”

“Factory?” Coffin questioned.

Velvet nodded. “Stable 12, like many of the other stables, had a social experiment. Not only does this place have an apple orchard, but it has a full production facility designed for canned goods. It was advertised as having limitless resources, until eighty percent of the machinery lost power, including most of the lights in the orchard. No factory, few growing apples, the stable population eventually started to die of starvation and a lot just fled from the stable. When we found it, it was almost empty. Under a third remained.”

“Wait," Coffin questioned, "Silver Bell said that when Applejack's Rangers found the Stable, it was completely empty."

“Standard protocol," the paladin beside us answered. "We try to keep as much information about ourselves a secret to outsiders, even allies. If we tell too much about us to other cells, and if those cells are captured, they could crack and tell the Enclave our secrets." Then his gaze went to Velvet. "That's why the Elder was furious when Scribe Velvet informed Silver Bell of our location."

Velvet rolled her eyes at the Paladin's comment. “I know Silver Bell, if the worst ever comes, she would rather die than reveal Stable 12's location."

"Anyways..." Calamity interrupted, “When we came along, it was easy enough to get things back together, turns out the dwellers’ technicians couldn't get around un’ fix anything because all those machinery were shut off on purpose on a separate grid. That and they didn’t have one worth shit, on purpose ah reckon,” Calamity mused. “Now part of it is being converted from food to weapons and armour. Got a giant door, hidden from the outside, for vertibuck deliveries as well.”

“It’s been useful for storing vertibucks of our own,” the Paladin commented.

Wow. This place should have been a powerhouse, the ultimate stable almost. Too bad Stable-Tec doomed them from the start, huh?

"So… what’s the deal with the dwellers now?" I asked.

"After a while, we began to integrate them into our ranks," he answered again. "That helped us a bit to bolster our ranks, especially after the Junction-R7 disaster."

Calamity nodded. “Yeah. Ah stayed here for quite a while… Even though every wall reminds me of friends ah failed.”

C-Calamity…?

“You’re the Stable Dweller’s friends, right?” Coffin questioned, removing his helmet as he stared them down inquisitively. “Velvet Remedy and Deadshot Calamity, like in the stories, like Silver Bell said.”

“Huh, guess we’re still famous out there,” Calamity quipped. “Or infamous, maybe.”

“So…?”

“Yes, we are,” Velvet confirmed. “But that was a long time ago. Littlepip and Steelhooves were murdered, Xenith is out fighting her own fight somewhere, and we… do what we can.”

“...What was she like? I’ve got records, hearsay…”

“Silver Bell never tell you?” Calamity asked.

“Of course. But… I want to hear it from her friends, the complete honest truth of those who knew her best.”

Velvet bit her lip. “Littlepip was… complicated. She had the mouth of a pre-war sailor, lacked in total common sense at times… But… She tried so hard to be good. To help others be good. She fought for Equestria when others gave in, even if we had to keep her on track sometimes.”

“And then she died,” Calamity noted sadly.

“Yes. She died. She was out here because of me…”

“Don’t blame yourself, you know that’s on me,” Calamity chided. “Ah saw her go down, right in front of me. That fucker came outta nowhere and… ah wasn’t fast enough, she got gunned down before I could kill ‘em in time.”

“No!” Fuck that, they are not blaming themselves for my fuck up! “I… She wouldn’t want you blaming yourselves! That’s… stop! Right now! Please?”

My friends just… stared at me. But not at me, at Sparkplug…

“And how would you know that?” Velvet whispered.

“I…” Damn you, Life Bloom. “She was… a hero! Right? So…”

The charcoal unicorn snorted. “Hero? Maybe… She wasn’t perfect, Goddesses she made me angry at times. Too curious, too… Agh. But to me, Sparkplug, she wasn’t a hero. She was just… Littlepip. My friend.”

Velvet… I’m… I’m right here…

Damn it…

“CAW!”

What now!?

I looked up and… Ah, there’s the missing piece! Right there, flying above me, was Pyrelight. The green glowing phoenix circled above, something held in her beak, before she began to descend and dropped that something onto a nearby table.

“Ah! There it is! Good girl!” Calamity said, trotting over and retrieving the object. “Back from repair, good to see it.”

“Good girl, Pyrelight,” Velvet complimented as the balefire phoenix landed on her outstretched hoof. “This is Pyrelight, or Philomena if the old records we found are to be believed. But she’s just Pyrelight to us.”

“CAW!”

Pyrelight’s eyes locked onto me, I felt the bird scan me as if… Wait, does she…?”

“CAW! CAW!”

She gave one large beat of her wings, closing the distance between me and Velvet in a single moment before coming to land contently on my back.

“CAW! CAW!”

“Huh… She… Really likes you…” Velvet said with a confused frown.

I looked up at my friend. She… Fuck, she knows me! Ha! Hahahah! Screw you, universe! One of my friends still knows me!

“Good to see you too, girl,” I whispered up at Pyrelight, getting a happy nuzzle in return.

“She’s… certainly something,” Coffin said in awe. “You don’t see many balefire phoenixes anymore. Let alone a friendly one.”

“She’s special,” Velvet explained. “You must have heard of her, right?”

“I mean, yeah. I’ve studied all that’s to do with the Lightbringer. But seeing it here…” Coffin trailed off, glancing at the item Calamity was looking over. “Wait, ain’t that…?”

“This?” Calamity returned. “Oh, this is an old keepsake. Lil’ Macintosh, I’m keeping it warm for a friend.”

I… wha… Huh…

Little Macintosh!?

Oh, this is so unfair. That’s miiiine!

If I could get my hooves on the old girl again, with those revolver upgrades I picked up in the Junction R-7 ruins…

“I think that’s enough history for a little while, we still have work to do,” Velvet said, reaching out her hoof for Pyrelight to return, which the phoenix did dutifully. “So, Coffin, you really did your research on Pip, didn’t you?”

“She’s an inspiration to many in the Resistance, ma’am.”

“I see. Huh, even now, Pip… We could use that spark about now. What about you, Sparkplug?”

“Um…” I mean… “You could say that…”

“Good enough,” Calamity said with a chuckle. “You did contact Sapphire about this scheme of yours, right?”

“Got her on the intercom just after they turned up, and before you started your complaining,” Velvet shot back passive-aggressively. “She’ll meet us in the Overmare’s office.”

Sapphire? Who the heck is Sapphire?

“Paladin, you and your knights can leave us. Get some rest,” Velvet said compassionately.

“As you wish,” the Paladin agreed with a nod. “Come on, grunts. A fresh glass of purified water on me.”

“Ad Victorium!” the knights echoed one another.

The three power armoured ponies stomped off, leaving me with my old friends and new one standing in the orchard.

“Alright then, let’s see if we can get anywhere this time,” Velvet said hopefully. “Follow me. We’re going to see Elder Strawberry Lemonade.”

Strawberry!?

The Overmare’s office was… identical in almost every way to the one I remembered. Behind that horseshoe-shaped desk, sitting in that chair, I could almost imagine the Overmare chewing me out for crossing a wire or two in her last PipBuck maintenance session…

But instead, sitting behind it in a rather dashing airpony’s coat, with a full suit of classical T-51 power armour sitting in a rack in the corner of the room, was a familiar pink mare from the old days. She was a little more scarred maybe, more serious, but damn she looked good. Good enough that my stomach was doing backflips as I tried to develop x-ray vision as my latest mutation so I could check out that flank…

Think of Homage, Littlepip. As pretty as that flank may be…

But despite the differences, that was definitely the Knight Strawberry Lemonade that Steelhooves once had in his ranks during his short-lived days as Elder…

And then there was the blue pegasus mare next to her, shifting uncomfortably in the corner as she stared at us. Or… at least, I think she might be looking at those angry glances Velvet and Calamity keep giving each other. Really need to fix that… Somehow… Probably…

Uh… At least the blue mare is also pretty cute! She looks younger, though older than me. Or, well, older than my body is. I guess I was napping for forty years. But they! She looks like her… later twenties? Maybe early thirties? I don’t know, but she definitely looks good.

I’m just going to stop thinking about anything around me now before I explode.

That, and Strawberry has really been working on her death glare.

“And what have you brought me now, Scribe Remedy?” the mare asked, crossing her forehooves and leaning forward onto her desk. “I receive reports of two strangers wandering over to our secret chapter like they owned the place. This is why you were forbidden from giving out our location.”

“Can we not start that old argument again?” Velvet deadpanned. “We need allies, Strawberry. Friends. Like the mare that put you in that chair would have done.”

“A dead mare. But as it is…” she trailed off. “I am Elder Strawberry Lemonade. Leader of what’s left of the Steel Rangers, the true Steel Rangers that still serve under the sigil of Applejack, Bearer of Honesty and our Ministry Mare.”

“Unlike the jerkasses who defected to the Enclave,” Calamity added.

“Precisely,” the Elder said with a nod. “The Applejack’s Rangers are all that’s left of the Ministry of Wartime Technology, all that’s left of Princess Luna’s Equestria. We look after our own, safeguard our technology and history so it may never truly fall. And yet here you are, outsiders that threaten to tip the balance we so carefully maintain.”

“Hey, the old Steel Rangers hid away and did nothing to help the wasteland, look where that got you!” I snapped. I take it back, this is not the Strawberry I remember! “Steelhooves didn’t die so you could shut yourselves away again!”

The Elder’s glare turned to me. “Excuse me?”

“Applesnack thought you were better, Strawberry! Applejack wouldn’t have just hidden herself away when Equestria is dying outside!”

The mare flinched as if struck, sitting up in her chair as she took in a hesitant breath. “...How did you know Elder Steelhooves’ true name?”

Oh shit. They were all looking at me now…

Coffin was glaring at me from behind his helmet again, I know it. “Yes, Spark, how do you know that?”

“Uh… Fuck! Never mind that!” Why am I so shit at this!? Stupid dumb mare with a stupid dumb face that’s not even mine! “Point is, we came here to get your help. The Enclave are cunts! We all know that! Why can’t we face them together?”

“Because the last time we did that, we lost the majority of our ranks in a balefire explosion,” Elder Strawberry Lemonade seethed in response. “Junction R-7 was a complete military disaster! We committed so many of our own to taking both the town and stopping Celestia One from activating, and for our efforts, the Resistance was crushed into near-nothingness, Gawd’s faction was entirely eradicated, and we were reduced to a single chapter of the ageing knights and far too young initiates! It’s taken decades to rebuild to what we are now, a single stable and a scattering of outposts.”

“But we have rebuilt!” Calamity came to my defence. “She’s right ‘bout Steelhooves, y'all know that! And we can’t rightly rebuild much further with the Enclave keepin’ their grip on things.”

“We? I recall you left our ranks, Calamity.”

“I’m back, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh yes, we noticed,” Velvet half-hissed. “But yes, he has a point. We should at least hear Sparkplug and Coffin out.”

“Silver Bell wishes to retake New Appleoosa,” Coffin explained. “The city is where Grim Gallop… well, he did hold his seat of power. We believe he holds a lot of data critical to the Enclave, it’s the centre of most of their operations on the surface.”

“Outside of Death Scythe’s elusive holiday home,” Calamity quipped.

“The fortress aside…” Coffin continued. “It’s so important they won’t want to lose it all in a giant explosion. That gives us a chance to hold the city and use whatever they have there against them.”

“Sounds fine to me. If nothing else, gives us a big ol’ city base to fight back from,” Calamity concurred.

“Or you’re wrong and history repeats itself,” Lemonade retorted. “Velvet, surely you see the risks.”

She bit her lip. “Y-yes, I do… I think we need more ironclad details, but Silver Bell could give us those if we reach out to her. And just think! A whole city being free of the Enclave? That’s hope. Something that died forty years ago, Elder.”

Strawberry sighed, sitting back in her chair as she entered deep thought. She was quiet, I’m not really sure she was that convinced, despite how persistent we were being...

And then the blue mare spoke up.

“Um… Elder?”

“Yes, Scribe Sapphire Wing?”

“If they could solve that problem of ours… I mean, that would help us, right? Make us more prepared? Plus, it’d prove the Resistance can handle themselves.”

“Handle ourselves? You do know about Fillydelphia, right?” Coffin asked incredulously.

“But to see what you can do first hoof…”

The Elder sighed again. “Alright, you have all made your case. I can’t in good conscience commit my ponies to a cause that may lead them to their deaths. Not yet. But if you do something for us, help us to both prepare and prove your worth in the process, I might reconsider.”

“Alright, what have you got?” Coffin immediately volunteered.

More busywork. Fucking amazing.

“Sure. I guess we can help each other, then,” I relented. “But, uh… Why do I suddenly have a really bad feeling that it’s something so shooty even your big bad Rangers were having trouble?”

Strawberry gave a wry smirk at my comment. “Well… I must admit, while we haven’t attempted it yet, the proposed mission is extremely dangerous.”

“We’re really sending them on that one?” Velvet asked nervously. “Are you sure that’s a good idea…”

“If the Resistance can blow up that factory, I’m sure they can handle this,” the Elder refuted.

“Do what exactly!?” I stressed out loud.

Sapphire awkwardly scuffed the ground with a hoof. “Uh… How do you feel about stealing a Hades tank?”

What was that shit now?

Coffin tilted his head. “...A tank? You want us to steal one of the remaining Hades tanks…?”

I mean, we HAVE done it before, but… Uh…

Fuck it. We’re all crazy here, right!? Eh-heh…

“Elder, is that really necessary?” Velvet asked desperately.

“Ah think it’s a great idea!” Calamity supported.

“Oh, of course you would!”

“It’s no more crazy than taking an Enclave city,” the Elder pointed out. “There’s an Enclave outpost not so far from here. They have a Hades tank there, one they’d had wandering the wastes picking off random targets for testing purposes.”

Oh, it’s that one. We’ve met that one. It really gets around, huh?

“I’m sure I don’t need to explain to Silver Bell’s hoof-picked operatives as to why this is a unique opportunity,” she continued. “One in every city, several in Death Scythe’s personal care. At least according to our intel. This is the only one out in the open, the most vulnerable of them all. But soon we believe it will join the Death Scythe group. Our window is slipping away as we speak.”

“So you want us to hijack the giant Celestia piss fucking mech before it’s too late? Great…”

“That’s right, I do.”

“If that’s how it must be,” Coffin agreed. “But we’ll need to make a call. Last time we had a defecting Enclave soldier and his team drive the darned thing. We can’t alone.”

“Then have the Resistance fly them up here.”

“Uh… yeah, they didn’t fly us up here because they thought it was too dangerous,” I pointed out. “So I’m not sure Silver will suddenly be like ‘Sure, why not!’ or anything.”

“She will if she wants our support, Ms Sparkplug.”

“If you send one of your birds to meet ‘em halfway, I’m sure something could be arranged,” Coffin suggested.

“Less distance for each to travel, less time out and waiting to be shot down,” Velvet concurred.

The Elder nodded. “Fine. If they agree to those terms, I will abide. You can wait in the stable until they arrive, then you’ll leave immediately to locate the tank.”

“Um… Elder?” Sapphire spoke up once more. “I think I should go with them.”

“What!?” Velvet splurted out. “No. Not at all, young lady!”

The mare levelled her a deadpan look. “I’m hardly a filly anymore, Mum.”

Mum!? Then...

“Ah beg to differ! Y’all better listen to her on this one!” Calamity rebuffed. “Ah’m not letting my daughter get snuffed by the Enclave before ah do!”

Oh, Celestia. She’s Velvet’s daughter. Calamity’s daughter…! And I was looking at her flank! No! Ew! I’m practically her aunt or something! I had the hots for her mother! That makes it worse! Brain bleach! Brain bleach! Fucking Tartarus shitbags!

“I’m going,” Sapphire announced with a determined expression. “Somepony needs to be our eyes on this mission, and somepony who can keep a low profile might be better than a stomping suit of muscles and armour. Besides, I know my way around a surgery kit. I don’t see any other medic with them, do you?”

“Alright, Scribe,” Strawberry agreed swiftly. “You wish to go? I won’t stop you.”

“No! No!” Velvet protested wholeheartedly. “I forbid it!”

Sapphire shrugged. “Sorry. Definitely going.”

The unicorn’s eye twitched. “Calamity… This is all on you.”

“What? How did ya figure that?” he protested.

“She’s stubborn as a rock, like her father!”

“Look who’s talking, Songbird!”

“So!” Sapphire interrupted, trotting over to us as her wings twitched eagerly. “A pleasure to meet the both of you! I’m Sapphire, though you probably heard that! I can patch up your wounds, can shoot a pistol and probably hit my target, or can just sing you a pretty good tune to pass the time. I got Mum’s voice, you know.”

“At least there’s that…” Velvet dejectedly muttered from the side, Pyrelight giving her a comforting nuzzle.

“A pleasure. Welcome to the team of misfits and explosions,” Coffin greeted in turn. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted while waiting for Granite’s team to catch up.”

“Right! And you, Sparkplug! You really laid it in thick to the Elder back there. I had no idea members of the Resistance were so interested in our history!”

“Uh…” This is their daughter. This is their daughter. Please go away flank thoughts… “I guess I heard a thing or two… But, uh, you sure you wanna come along? Things around me tend to... “

“Die horribly?” Coffin ‘helped’ out.

“Suuuure. That one.”

“That’s fine. I need to get out of this stable, I can’t just keep myself safely locked up all my life…” Sapphire lamented, gaining a rather distant expression. “I… need to get out and help. I know the other members of the chapter practically worship Applejack as a deity, but… I don’t know, Fluttershy teaches us kindness. And the kind thing to do is to get out there and use my skills to help as many people as I can. Whether that’s with my medical training or… well, just alleviating the wasteland with a nice song.”

“What about shooting ponies? The Enclave?” Coffin questioned. “There is something to be said about Applejack. So answer honestly, please.”

She bit her lip. “I… I’m not so much a fighter, really. But I’ll help defend the innocent if that’s what it takes. But I just need to help, the Enclave is hurting too many innocent people.”

Velvet’s heart, Calamity’s stubborn proactiveness. Plus the wings. I can see both of them in her, but I think Velvet maybe a little more. There was definitely a softness to her…

Fuck. Something else the wasteland is about to ruin, I’m sure.

“If we really can’t talk you out of it…” Velvet started up reluctantly. “Then please be careful, Sapphire. I… If…”

Sapphire hugged her mother. “I know, Mum. I’ll watch my back. Don’t worry, please.”

“It’s my job…” Velvet noted with a small sob. “When did you grow up, Sapphire?”

The mare gave a small smile. “It had to happen sometime, right?”

“It did,” Calamity agreed, tipping his hat to his child. “Sure ya don’t want me to come with?”

“You’re not exactly the stealthy type, Dad. Everypony knows this as gospel!”

She’s not wrong…

“Well, shucks. Don’t need to say it aloud…” he replied bashfully. “Alright, give the Enclave a lickin’, ya hear? And come back quick, safe, and with a new toy for us to play around with.”

“Then it’s decided,” the Elder announced. “Get some rest. It’s about to be a very busy day.”

I guess so. Straight back towards a giant death machine that was probably going to kill us. And now I had the daughter of my two best friends with us, her life in my hooves…

I have to keep her safe, or I’ll never be able to face my friends again…

I won’t fail again. I can’t. Please.

Goddesses, Celestia, Luna, please help me out here….

Footnote: Level 8

New Perk: Hope’s Balled - Your companion and her inherited voice has given you an extra +5 to your speech skill.

1 - Prologue

Chapter One: Prologue

“Small butterfly. Big tornado.”

War. War Never Changes.

The magical land of Equestria was once a paradise of friendship and harmony, the beacon of hope the enveloped the whole world. But one simple change diverted one world’s course from another, leading to a war for natural resources against the Zebra Empire. A war that would never have happened in the other world, and never did.

For that is the nature of the butterfly effect. One simple change, despite the seeming insignificance, and the world you thought you knew… is no more.

Two hundred years passed in the war trodden world, and everything had come to an end. Balefire scorched Equus, bringing the apocalypse to all.

And then The Stable Dweller came. She fought for what was good, to bring back the old world while crafting a civilization to learn from its mistakes. The slaver lord Red Eye and the monstrous Goddess were among her enemies. She and her friends fought valiantly, bringing the latter to her demise, saving the world.

And here, once more, is where everything changes.

Death Scythe. A ruthless, but relatively unknown and unimportant, colonel in the Grand Pegasus Enclave. In one world she departed to meet with the Goddess alongside her superior, Harbinger. Here she met her demise at the hooves of The Stable Dweller, who unleashed a balefire blast that consumed Goddess and Enclave alike. Enclave leadership for the war to come thus went to Autumn Leaf; Littlepip then led Equestria’s defence against the fascist regime, defeating them and returning the sun, and hope, to Equestria.

But what if this unnoticed and unimportant colonel never made it to Maripony? What if her transport malfunctioned, and so she was left behind?

What if Death Scythe lived?

War Never Changes.

But the world has.

Footnote: Load Previous Save?

Yes/No

Author's Note

Welcome to the resistance!

A collaboration with Twilight is the BEST and BioQuillFiction.

The original concept is by Twilight Is the BEST. I work as the primary writer, and BioQuillFiction works alongside me as the secondary writer.

Make sure to check out the three prequel stories:

11 - Machines of War

Chapter Eleven: Machines of War

“I take it back, you can totally pick up chicks in a tank!”

We didn’t have to wait long for Granite to come flying in.

Strawberry was really not messing around with this, the moment the call had been made by Coffin back to Silver Bell it had all been set up with the efficiency of a stable full of Steelhooves… ses. Steelhoovesi? Lots of stoic Ranger people!

And, uh, I don’t particularly recall her being too happy about things. Sending Granite and his squad up here would be a huge thing, and Steampunk wasn’t any more enthusiastic about being spotted and shot down acting as a delivery colt for the Applejack’s Rangers. But I guess we really need those big guns, because she eventually agreed after lots of passive-aggressive sighing.

Kinda hard to picture her as the half-insane Pinkie Pie fanatic with a balefire bomb in her shed that we met all that time ago. Or even the happier filly Ditzy was raising. It’s kinda like I remember three different ponies in my head. A bit of a harsh reminder that I’m not the only pony permanently warped by the wasteland.

But still, even if it wasn’t long, there ‘was’ a wait before the Rangers’ vertibuck retrieved the ex-Enclave Sergeant and hauled them back here. So, for most of that time, we were stuck into a spare room in the Stable’s residential area and ‘advised’ not to stray from it.

And oh Celestia, I forgot just how boring these mural-less walls were!

“Come on, you can stop pacing now,” Velvet chided me in the way she always did, even if she doesn’t know it’s me. “Sheesh, what is it with heroic wasteland mares and restlessness.”

“Um, you probably count there as well…” Sapphire sheepishly told her mother.

“I know. But at least I don’t pace!”

“I would stop if I had somewhere to walk!” I retorted.

“As annoying as ya being.” Coffin took a moment to glare at me from behind his helmet. “I get it. The quicker we make your boss happy the quicker we can do something productive and kick the Enclave out of my home.”

“You heard the call, the vertibuck is coming in for its final approach,” Velvet pointed out, gesturing to the nearby intercom. “And if you’re really bored, don’t those PegWing’s have in-built games or something you can use?”

Games? PipBuck’s had various holodisks, like ‘Zebra Menace’ and ‘Balefire Defence’. I had the former when I was a filly. Not that my mother ever bought it, seeing as she spent most of our ration cards on booze. No, that was one I… acquired from another foal whose name I’ve kinda forgotten since then.

Feel a little bad about that now. But breaking and entering helped get my cutie mark, so…

“No, not as far as I know,” Coffin denied. “A lot of the software is just ported over from the PipBuck 3000 models, with extra gadgets and blinking lights added on top, but they took out the ability to read game disks. The Enclave sees it as a bit of a waste of time.”

Killjoy wanking fucktards.

“Aw, shame,” Sapphire lamented. “Dad introduced me to a couple in the library before he, uh… went away for a while.”

“You mean before he abandoned his family for a personal crusade,” Velvet hissed.

“Please don’t start…”

Fucking Luna, this really is not how things are meant to be…

Pyrelight gave a sad chirp from her spot on a nearby table, giving what can only be described as birdy puppy dog eyes to the charcoal mare.

Velvet sighed. “Oh, you… Okay, I’m calm…”

Of course, she still listens to Pyrelight above all else. I mean, that bird is great, she did recognise me when nopony else did after all. But come on!

I let out a groan, wandering over to a nearby bed, stood up onto my hind hooves and just fell backwards onto the mattress. Well, that is one advantage of these familiar grey walls, the beds aren’t rotten and full of lice. A nice change. Shit, having a bed at all. Nice, comfy mattress…

And it was then that I heard the door to the apartment open up, Calamity giving a loud cough of attention-getting as he stepped inside.

I guess I really should stop pacing as Velvet keeps badgering me every damn time, apparently stuff actually happens when I just relax for a change.

...Actually, no, that sounds crappy and terrible. I’ll just keep pacing.

“Mornin’, y’all,” the pegasus greeted. “Been locked down all this time, huh?”

“Yeah, but we kept them company!” Sapphire stated.

“Heh. Good to hear. But ah think your Ranger hospitality is ‘bout over, vertibuck just tucked its hide into the hangar. That guy you wanted should be on board, they’re fueling up and waiting for ya. Gonna take you part-way.”

“And then we’re hoofing it,” Coffin noted. “Straight to the biggest ground-based death machine the Enclave have. Huh. Well, what are we waiting for?”

I could taste the deadpan. And I didn’t think you could taste an expression.

“At least you’ve done it before! Right?” Sapphire offered.

“Kid, what makes you think it was easy or fun the first time?”

“Um, I mean… I guess it wasn’t, so…”

“Give her a break, Coffin,” I told him. “Just in and out. No mess. Right?”

The deadpan didn’t go away. “Sure. Because it will clearly be that simple.”

I hate when people snark me, but I hate it even more when they’re right. It’s not my fault things explode when I just so happen to be nearby!

“Well, let’s not get all ornery about it,” Calamity said. “Quicker you get it done, quicker ol’ Strawberry will give up the help y’all need for freeing up New Appleoosa. Now, I’m all ‘board for that. But ah’m just one handsome pegasus with a gun, gonna need a whole lot more for that one.”

“No kidding,” Velvet spoke up. “Short of Death Scythe’s Fortress, it’s one of the most well-defended ground-side cities that the Enclave controls. And one moron with a gun isn’t going to cut it.”

“Still a handsome moron with a gun.”

“Don’t push it.”

Okay, sort-of flirting is an improvement. As… ‘passive-aggressive’ as it seems.

“W-we should probably go,” I suggested in a hurry. I’ll deal with their issues when I have any fucking clue where to start with that shit! “Wasting time and caps and all that…”

“Miss ‘plug over there is right. Now, you sure ‘bout this darlin’?” Calamity asked his daughter.

“I’m sure, Dad,” she replied, picking up a saddlebag of supplies and trotting towards the door. “Mum, try not to worry too much. We’ll be back before you know.”

“You’d better,” she replied. “Just remember what I taught you. And make sure your health potions are-”

“Sealed, safe, secure. I know,” she assured. “And please, to the both of you, play nice while I’m away.”

Velvet and Calamity glanced at each other. Then, in a freakin’ creepy mirror of one another, each huffed and looked away.

Great. Good. This went well.

“Sooooo…” I trailed off, walking past Calamity and out into the hallway. “Vertibuck. Granite. Right…”

Calamity nodded, pulling away as the rest of us made to follow. We left Velvet in the room, looking a little downcast as the door closed behind us.

Not the reunion I’d imagined.

“So,” Coffin started. “You were away from the Rangers for a while?”

“Yeah. Leavin’ wasn’t an easy choice, but ah had to,” Calamity explained, looking back guiltily at Sapphire. “Ma girl was safe, so was Velvet. But ponies are still dyin’ outside, and nopony here was doin’ much about it. I couldn’t sit by.”

“I know, Dad. You don’t have to justify it to me…” Sapphire said with a sigh. I’m not a smart pony, but I think she probably missed having had Dad around. But my own was apparently locked outside the stable and died on a hill, so what do I know? “And Mum does too, even if she doesn’t show it. I wish you too could just get on with the bygones already.”

“Yeah. Ah know, darling’. Ah know.”

“What exactly did you do while you were out there?” Coffin continued.

He shrugged. “Anythin’ ah could. Shot up any Enclave patrol ah might’ve come across. There was a slave camp, some raiders in their pocket collectin’ up ponies and non-ponies alike. Spring ‘em. Not sure if they made it or not after that. Hope so.”

Raiders, huh? I can figure who had a hoof in that.

“Did some runs for a couple of resistance cells while ah was at it. Just anythin’ ah could to make life a little more bearable. Too many years it seems.”

“Sounds like you. Never could pass up a fight with raiders, could you?” I laughed.

He looked at me funny. “Eh, yeah… Guess ah… do…?”

Oh shit. “SO! Um, why did you come back?”

The look remained for a moment before he thankfully shrugged it off. Phew. Shut you fucking mouth when you need to, Pip. As much as it still sucks.

“Things are comin’ to a head. Figured ah could get things rollin’ around the Applejack’s Rangers,” he answered. “Plus…”

“Plus it was nice to get my dad back,” Sapphire said, trotting forwards and nuzzling him. “And he got to see my aim had actually improved since he’d been gone.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed proudly. “That ah did.”

D’aw.

“Still, ah’m here to stay now. Seems the fight is finally comin’ on down to the stable door,” he then noted. “You get that tank and we can finally start to kick my ol’ ‘family’ back to the clouds and down into the nearest pit of radioactive pig crap.”

I can get behind that.

We moved a little further, going through the typical samey-looking stable corridors and up the odd staircase or two before things started to look… odd, odd for a stable at least. The grey walls started to look a little more industrial, and the door we ended up stopping at looked more like one you’d see in a subway tunnel than the usual doors inside these bunkers. It had all little tech-y bits and pistons and other such industrial stuff.

I guess they went full ‘factory’ with their factory.

“Docking bay, up ahead,” Calamity declared. “Vertibucks are kept inside.”

“They used it to ship in supplies pre-war,” Sapphire noted. “Now we… pretty much do the same thing, but with extra firepower.”

It would be the Steel Ranger way if they didn’t do everything with extra firepower.

The door opened with an ear-raping screech, letting us into a… Holy shit, this is in a stable!?

The hangar was… well, an actual hangar! Vast, open, built into the rock and is easily larger than any stable atrium I had ever seen. Vertibucks were docked inside, facing gigantic doors with the stable number painted on them in big yellow letters.

All we had was a fucking orchard!

“Ah assume he’s ya guy?” Calamity asked, pointing towards a group of three ponies in X-02 power armour.

Granite and his squad. They looked like they’d done up their gear since I last saw them, spray painted some symbols of the resistance onto their armour. I suppose that’s so we don’t accidentally shoot them, but there goes trying to use them to blend into any Enclave bases or the likes.

Eh, our stealth sucks anyway. They’d probably have us pinned with or without.

“Sparkplug, Coffin,” Granite greeted as we approached. “Made some new friends?”

“Hi, I’m Sapphire! Scribe Sapphire!” Sapphire greeted brightly. “This is my Dad, Calamity.”

“Right… A pleasure…”

“You’ve been busy,” Coffin mused, gesturing at the graffiti.

“Seemed prudent, though I would’ve held off had I know Silver Bell wanted me to go high tailing it to a goddesses damned base…” he complained, mirroring my own thoughts. Guess he’s psychic or some crap now. Pfft. As if we’d be that lucky.

Would be pretty cool, though. Though I am the weird part-alicorn mutant with somepony else’s face saying that, so whatever.

“Y’all ready to take it on?” Calamity asked him. “From one Enclave escapee to another…”

Granite seemed to study Calamity for a moment, especially his armour. “Your armour is X-01. Dashite?”

“Yup.”

He whistled. “That’s a classic. Stopped being a need for branding ponies Dashites when we came down below the cloud cover. Now the Enclave’ll just shoot ya and be done with it.”

“Ah guess they took things up a notch. Still, here ya are.”

“I guess I can consider myself an honorary Dashite, huh? Still, my team and I and ready to get back to work. Be nice to fight for ponies we like for a change.”

He likes us!

“Where is this base, anyway?” Coffin asked.

“From what the pilot told me…” Granite began, glancing back at the vertibuck over his shoulder. “The Galloping Gorge, north of here.”

“That’s right,” Sapphire confirmed. “It’s deep at the bottom of the chasm. There’s an old stable they’ve stripped for parts, Stable 77.”

“Stable 77, huh?” Coffin said with an inquisitive hum. “I think Stripe went there once. That’s the rumour, at least. She never says much.”

“Well, whatever the case, it’s pretty bare now,” the mare continued. “The main draw are the mines they are running there. It’s a very radioactive area, so they’re using ghoulified slaves. They work until they die. Or until they turn feral, at which point they’re executed.”

Their cunt-ness never ceases to amaze me…

“Also, Sparkplug,” Granite spoke to me, using a wing to hold up a… holotape? “Life Bloom wanted me to give you this. There’s been a development in New Appleoosa that you might find interesting.”

I frowned, sharing a glance with Coffin. I took the tape, looking it over. It didn’t have a title or anything, it was just a pretty standard-looking holotape.

“Well, ah’m all ears,” Calamity offered. “Plug the thing in, I’m all curious now.”

Well, here goes…

I placed the holotape in the slot, letting the PegWing register its presence and boot up the file. What I found was a… video? Just a solitary video file and nothing else, a security tape by the looks of it. A security tape of what and where?”

“Wow, I recognise those code digits,” Coffin remarked, glancing at the string of numbers making up the video’s title. “This is a security tape from inside the governmental building in New Appleoosa.”

“Inside? Do you have a mole or something?” Sapphire asked.

“We get intel every now and then. Play it, Spark. This has got to be good if Life Bloom wants us to see it so bad.”

I selected the video file, which immediately started to load up before the screen switched to that of a lavish office space. Another portrait of Death Scythe hung on the wall, along with a portrait of Grim Gallop that looked recently defaced. The desk was some kind of polished wood, a terminal sitting silently on it as a pony lounged quite casually in the chair behind the desk.

And that pony…

That fucking Celestia’s nipple twisting bitch.

I’m not going to forget Rope Gallows anytime soon!

The former raider-turned-Enclave loyalist looked annoyingly pleased with herself. She sat smirking to herself, idly hitting keys on the terminal like she wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing before doing a little spin in her chair. Rope Gallows chuckled darkly to herself, getting up and facing the wrecked picture of the last pony to sit in that chair.

“Aw, don’t worry, Grimmy,” she taunted the portrait. “I’m taking such good care of your city. Shame you’re too dead to see it, I would love to show you what I’ve done with the place. Ah, but don’t worry your pretty little dipshit head. I’ll do a better job than you ever did.”

“I would certainly hope so.”

That voice… It sounded older than the last time I heard it in that memory orb, but it still resonated with me. And with the way Rope Gallows, the absolute bitch of a raider in all her ruthless arrogance immediately froze up with actual fear told me everything I needed to know.

Death Scythe.

I saw on the recording as Rope Gallows whipped around, a… robot walking into the room? It was a weird thing, had a lot of wires sticking out and around a base exoskeleton. There were several arcane gems mixed in among the machinery, each one sparking occasionally as if trying to form something and yet sputtering out right after. The technician in me was both curious as to its design and appalled by the craftsponyship. C’mon, I could do better with a PipBuck, a piece of gum and a paperclip!

But what really got my attention was not the patched up bot, but rather the translucent face of a white pegasus mare with a black mane with a yellow stripe. And now that I looked closely, the thing seemed to be struggling to form the shape of a pegasus around it, only the upper half really succeeded at it. But just like her voice, she looked a lot older than the last time I laid eyes on her. Actually, she looked pretty dead on for her portraits I’d seen every now and then.

But that was definitely Death Scythe.

“High General, I wasn’t aware you were… ‘visiting’,” Rope greeted nervously. “I would have-”

“Cleaned up? I realise you didn’t exactly get along with your predecessor, but dispose of that image rather than tarnish it. It looks most unprofessional of my new right hoof.”

“Right. Yes. On it.”

“Good. And we wouldn’t want to give anypony the wrong idea. After all, it was the Resistance who killed him, as you so ‘reported’...” the High General of the Enclave said in a way that made me think that she just knew what Rope had done. “Do not give me a reason to doubt your suitability for this office… or believe you a traitor, Rope Gallows.”

“You know I answer only to you,” Rope defended. “And now I have this office, the title of both Governor of New Appleoosa and General of the Grand Equestrian Enclave, I will do what I must to root out your enemies. Grim was ruthless enough, but he lacked… imagination.”

“I suppose your past gives you that imagination?”

“Indeed. Let’s just say that the precious little ponies the resistance seeks to save from your brand of order are going to have an even more difficult time from now on…” she informed the pegasus. “Though, as imaginative as I may be… Is that a new holo-bot?”

“This? An advanced model, still in the prototyping stage. Supposedly, it's to finally fix the... problems with it. But… this will have to do for now,” she mused before her eyes narrowed into a glare.

“Yes, those bots should be upgraded…'' the former raider replied, clearly unnerved. And now that we both looked, there was something definitely disturbing about the bot occasionally sparking and seeming to form a patch of pony hide or some other such feature before vanishing again.

Creepy.

“I hope you do, for your sake,” Scythe then threatened. “For all that supposed imagination, I had better see results…”

The ex-raider just gulped.

“Now, the Resistance has been a thorn in my side for long enough. They are growing bolder, as their attack on my new Hades tanks has proven. More than that, Twilight Sparkle’s little assistant was killed alongside General Grim Gallop. As stubborn as he was, his loss has made it all the harder to reclaim old world secrets.”

The robot approached the desk, getting close to the new general as Death Scythe glared authoritatively at the mare.

“No more mistakes, Rope Gallows. Squeeze the population until somepony reveals their location. Start with the outer city, increase the raids alongside whatever colourful examples you plan to make of them. If nothing comes up, start putting pressure on the inner city too.”

Rope raised an eyebrow. “You’re really allowing me to go nuts on the citizens?”

“Starting with those deemed likely to be collaborators to the Resistance, yes. Traitors lurk in every corner. We must route them out, lest the scourge of the wasteland, and the non-pony filth that yet infests my Enclave, regain strength. Only once the Enclave has total control can this world rebuild and never fall again. A world of ponies, united by our flag and control. That is how we save the surface.”

“Oh, I know. And you do let me have the fun tasks in achieving that,” she responded, seemingly easing out of her nervousness. Or attempting to, anyway. “I’m sure that father of yours would be so proud.”

Death Scythe snorted. “Harbinger? He wished to burn the surface until nothing remained, the Enclave free to reclaim what remained after dealing with the Goddess once she’d done the dirty work. I never agreed with that, you know. Ha, though I may have been too naive and foolishly idealistic back then. But I realised he wasn’t entirely wrong. The surface should be saved for the Enclave, but most of it did need cleansing. Especially of those not of our own kind, we can never live in peace with them. I learnt this the hard way.”

“Well, we still have a lot of burning to do before that happens.”

“So you will burn them,” Death Scythe coldly stated. “Every last stallion, mare and foal who would cling to their ways over the Enclave. By whatever means.”

“Oh, you’re kinda sexy when you’re all ruthless,” Rope Gallows bravely flirted.

Death Scythe’s glare hardened for a moment, long enough to make the General shrink back and seem to regret her attempt. But then, while not softening, it did seem to gain a hint of amusement to it.

“Hm, we shall see. If you’re a good little filly.” Well, she goes for mares. Not sure I needed to know that, but at least I can relate… If I wanted to relate to a megalomaniac. “But such… brief distractions will have to wait until after the final plan has been enacted.”

Final plan? The fuck is the final plan?

“All-powerful and ready to kick some ass. All the sexier,” Rope agreed. “So, any more threats, orders or anything in between?”

“Only to not get too friendly, or comfortable. You still have much to prove,” Death Scythe warned with renewed annoyance, the glare hardening once more. “So for now, General, I expect you to act professionally. Get to work. Contact me should you find anything.”

“Eh, yeah! Right, of course….” She coughed awkwardly into a hoof. “Understood, High General.”

“Good,” Death Scythe turned away to the door. “Though, one last thing... Are you certain the two ponies that killed the dragon are dead?”

The question took Rope Gallows by surprise, but she answered. “I can guarantee you that we won’t ever be seeing them again.”

Death Scythe stood there for a moment before she replied. “I see, that will be all.” Death Scythe then cut the transmission, and so too did the recording end.

This final plan of hers… I just know it’s nothing I’ll like. Big plans in this place tend to lead to mutant alicorns or a world-ending apocalypse.

Still, my mind was trying to figure out how the little filly I saw in that memory orb became the thing I just heard speak. I mean, the filly had shown some signs, but come on, that mare Harbinger killed had abused the shit outta her.

...Harbinger.

I mean, he’s a big red flag. Not exactly a good influence. Though her comment about being naive once struck me as odd. She outright said she wanted to save the surface in her own demented and xenophobic way. But I feel like there’s something more there, something I’m missing from the bigger picture of what makes Death Scythe tick.

I might be a dumb pony, but I should probably try to figure that out. What exactly was she like before I made her dad explode? Accidentally. But I did make her dad explode.

“This ain’t good,” Calamity stated. “Big ol’ plans tend to go bad for everypony.”

See? Calamity knows what’s up.

“All the more reason to get the Elder on board as quick as we can, right?” Sapphire noted. “And it sounds like things are going to be getting rough back at your home.”

“Yeah, but Silver Bell and Life Bloom have seen this, they’ll handle whatever ‘General Rope Gallows’ dishes out,” Coffin replied.

“They’re doing what they can. Can’t believe I worked for these jackasses,” Granite lamented. “As you can see, the High General’s fucking nuts.”

“Her moral compass broke a long time ago,” Coffin agreed. “Though I’m, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, somewhat glad it’s her and not Harbinger who took control.”

I suppose there’s that. At least she wants something of the surface left to rule. Even if it comes at the end of the barrel of a gun.

Unless we can figure out a way for everyone to actually get along and not fucking suck, the wasteland isn’t going to go anywhere.

“Heh he he… Such things are never meant to be…”

The fuck? Was that the Dealer guy? Great. Now I have a voice in my head.

"Ugh, and that bot thing. I hate those things." Calamity sneered about that strange robot. "Ever since the Enclave introduced those, it's been a lot harder to kill high-ranking officers."

I, for one, have never seen that particular brand of wasteland bullshit. Always a new thing around the corner, isn’t there?

“So, what’s with that, exactly?” I asked.

“Well, like what you heard, there ‘holo-bots’, at least they weren’t at first. They were inspired by how Mr Horse used securitrons to communicate to ponies, but physically, they’re more based on those pre-war assaultrons.”

What now?

"Giant laser faces and a mean streak. But after Silver Bell's assassination attempt, Death Scythe started adding magic holo-crap to them to impersonate herself to still have that intimidating factor when speaking to her generals," Coffin interrupted.

"Yeah... But eventually, other high ranking officers also began using them to communicate to troops and create fake targets in case of a fight. Ah have dealt with these things enough time to know how to tell the difference, though," Calamity explained. "Mainly it's the environment they're in. Like it's in a place where it's windy yet their manes aren't blowing with the wind, that's a holo-bot."

“But she said this thing is a prototype,” Coffin mused worriedly. “Maybe they’re fixing those bugs.”

You know, I wish I hadn’t asked. Why the ever-living fuck did I ask?

“Y’all better get movin’,” Calamity then said. “This is fun and all, but time is wastin’.”

“Yeah, right. You ready, Spark?” Coffin asked.

“I guess so,” I responded. Not that there was really any choice, as usual. “I want to help Silver Bell, we can’t just leave them in the hooves of that psycho raider.”

“I know. You’re a good pony, Sparkplug.”

I looked away. Still not really confident about that…

“Hop aboard then,” Granite announced. “We got a tank to steal.”

I looked one last time towards Calamity. My friends… I’d just found them, and here I was leaving again. And only one of them even knew it was me. I couldn’t make the wasteland better, I’m just the dumb pipsqueak screw up ponies seem to look up to for some reason I never quite got. But them…? They can do it. I know they can, if I can just get them there.

I was going to come back from this. And when the time is right, I’m going to tell them.

I need to tell them…

Our vertibuck was making good speed across the Equestrian landscape. Though my thoughts strayed to some of the prior times I flew, like the time I was with Ditzy Do on that exploding Raptor…

I miss that ghoul.

Still, this thing was even faster than our old Sky Bandit. Kinda less roomy on the inside, but I got used to it sitting in Steampunk’s after we blew up the factory. And crashed the other one. Yeah, I’ve flown, and fallen, in a lot of these metal coffins recently. Here’s hoping this one isn’t made out of explodium.

“You look worried,” Sapphire observed. “You guys been in these before?”

“Recently,” Coffin replied. “The guy who brought Granite here, Steampunk, he acts as our go-to pilot.”

“Ah, his rides are bumpy,” Granite complained.

“At least he doesn’t crash,” the unicorn rebuffed.

Give him time.

“Maybe I’ll tell him what you said, and he might just leave you the next time you need an evac,” he then joked to the Sergeant.

“Well then hotshot, how about next time you can personally see to it that he drops us off at Death Scythe’s Fortress so we personally end her tyranny.”

“Ha, ha, ha, I’m not that crazy!”

Well, they definitely have good morale, though about their conversation. “Can you explain more about this fortress of hers?” I asked as they now looked at me. “Just to know more when we get to that point.”

“If you really want to know, her fortress is the most heavily guarded place in Equestria, hell maybe in the entire world,” Coffin brought up his PegWing and it then projected a holograph picture. “This was taken by a vertibuck scout before being shot out of the sky.”

While the image was taken afar, it showed a large pyramid-like structure that reached up all the way up the cloud layer. On the corners of it, there were what looked like massive gun batteries. Around the pyramid itself, were tiny silhouettes which I’m guessing were cloudships.

“That’s her Celestia damned fortress,” Granite spoke. “A fort big like a mountain, lots of heavy gun emplacements, her own personal cloudship fleet, and an army surrounding it.”

Ok, that would be a lot harder to blow up. “So, that's where she lives…” Maybe attacking her head-on isn’t such a good idea. Taking her out when she’s out of it is better. “So how often does she leave?”

“Never.”

What?

“Ever since Silver Bell’s attempted assassination, Death Scythe hasn’t left her fortress since.” Steampunk explained as he turned off the image. “In fact, that’s why she had those holobots created, so she could stay in her comfy fort without a care in the world.”

Like usual, everything has to be the hard way all the time. Not wanting to continue this conversation any longer, I instead focus on Sapphire beside me.

“So, uh…” I looked towards the oddly attractive daughter of my two best friends. The curves down to her- Bleh, stop brain. Stop! “Um, you ever been on one of these before? I mean, I guess you maybe have, being a Ranger and all…”

“...No, actually.”

Wah?

“I’ve never really stepped more than a few feet out of the stable before…” she admitted. “Spent pretty much my whole life in there. Mum never wanted me out, stopped the Elder from sending me far into the wasteland. Most I’ve done is take radiation measurements after a storm, not much else. Boring work for a scribe.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly describe gunfights as a cure for that. Unless you really get off on mortal terror and new holes in your hide,” Coffin warned.

“I can handle myself,” she shot back. “I’m rather looking forward to seeing the inside of the Hades tank model. All the gadgets and gizmos I could dissect…”

“Well, don’t do that before we get it back to ya folks. Can’t rightly drive something that doesn’t have a control panel.”

“Heh, don’t worry. I’ll indulge myself when we’re not facing down a dozen energy rifles,” the pegasus assured us.

That would be good, yes.

More time passed us by, more wasteland shooting past our vertibuck as we continued to make good time. The others said a few things here and there, but I didn’t really pay all that much attention. Nah, my thoughts were elsewhere…

What was I supposed to do to fix Calamity and Velvet? They’re broken. It’s my fault they’re broken. How do i fix it? It’s not like I can take a fucking screwdriver and pry them open for reprogramming like I would a PipBuck. That would be weird if I coud… and royally screwed up. So, just another day in the wasteland. But not by me. Stop thinking about that shit.

There had to be a way, right? Maybe I could ask Coffin? Ha. Like he knows anything about lovey-dovey crap. I wish I could say that I knew anything about lovey-dovey crap, but Homage is the one that kinda takes the lead. I mean, I like it that way sort of and… um…

Mind moving away from that before they see my blush…

Damn it, why is this so hard!? Sapphire could help I suppose. She’d probably do it in a heartbeat. She did seem pretty bummed out that they are still fighting one another. So I can put that on the ‘probably’ to-do list. Plan with Sapphire a way to get them smooching again so I can stop feeling like a massive cunt.

“We’re approaching the drop off sight, some ways south of the gorge,” the pilot announced. “I’ll set you down and head back to base, you’ll have to make your way back in the tank.”

Yeah yeah, something something mission, busy planning! Stupid Steel Rangers…

Okay, so Sapphire is a must. Maybe I could get them to express their feelings? How the hay would I do that? I’m not a freaking matchmaker, why do I think I’ll have any idea where to start? Maybe I could get us together on a good old wasteland adventure to get all nostalgic about nearly dying next to one another or some shit.

And on that note!

When could I tell that I was me!? You know, actual me rather than fake Sparkplug me. Silver Bell and Life Bloom really didn’t want me to do that but fuck them! This sucks. Everything sucks. Can everything stop sucking yet?

Celestia bloody-

BANG.

Explodium. Pure. Explodium.

At least that was my thought when my face met the ceiling, and then my ass against the floor once the massive jolt had finished.

The. Fuck.

“Gah, what just hit us!?” Granite shouted out as he checked on his two ponies. “I hope you’re about to tell us that it was a mutant pigeon!”

“‘Fraid not!” the pilot denied. “We’ve got Cerberus AA batteries right by our LZ! We need to-”

BANG! The Sequel!

Oh, we were on fire now!

“Damn those things!” Coffin swore. “Put us down! We’re not staying in the air with them targeting us!”

The pilot didn’t respond, but the vertibuck jolted again and the world became a dizzy mess as we took a very fast give! Grabbing hold of a railing, I managed a glance out the window to see one of our rotors full engulfed as we span towards the surface!

I could feel the sick rising in my stomach as we struggled for control, more explosions rocketing outside as the Enclave lobbed shell after shell of death at us! My vision was still a little shot after hitting my head, but I could tell that we were in massive trouble! It felt like our ‘putting ourselves down’ was less of a controlled landing and more of a freefall with the occasional bit of control coming back for a couple of seconds before we started to plummet again.

We’d already been hit twice, one more and we were so screwed!

Fuck, we were there already!

As I held on for dear life, dearly wishing my PegWing had a parachute function somewhere in its weird bigger on the inside-ness, I saw the others doing much the same as the helicopter span and flipped and did every trick under Celestia’s sun that it didn’t mean to do.

We jolted from another near miss, suddenly gaining some height as the Ranger pilot pulled against the controls.

“I… can’t… hold h-”

There was another detonation up front, and suddenly we had no cockpit and the pilot was jam!

Annnnd we’re dead!

Air was now ripping around us and the vertibuck really WAS falling with no control. There was just a big hole where the front used to be, flames all around us as I spied the ground coming up quick!

“Out!” Granite shouted in alarm. “Pegasi, carry the non-fliers!”

He’s doing wha-

FUUUUUUUUUUCK!

I’m falling! Falling! Dying! Falllllliiiiiing!

Something grabbed me, and suddenly I was not doing any of those things and my mind caught up to the Celestia fapping shit face heck just went down!

In a scarily fast motion, the former Enclave soldier had pulled an emergency release that blew open the door next to me and blew me out into the air! I remember the falling, that I’ll never forget ever oh Goddesses! But then, right after, somepony had grabbed me and slowed my descent. Looking up, I saw the face of Sapphire as she gritted her teeth in an effort not to drop me!

Don’t drop me! Don’t drop me!

Looking around, we were still descending as the tanks below us continued to shoot! The vertibuck fell faster, getting hit again before crumpling against the ground and going up in a gigantic radioactive mushroom cloud! My Geiger counter started to go nuts as we all flew fast down to the ground. Coffin was being carried by one of Granite’s soldiers while the pegasus himself flew with his other buddy alongside us.

But now those special Cerberus tank bastards had finished chewing up our vertibuck like it was nothing, it looked like they were turning towards us!

“We need to dive!” Sapphire shouted. “Go for a fast and rough landing! Go!”

We picked up speed, shooting down towards the surface as more explosions went off above our heads. I hoped to Celestia and Luna that none of the shrapnel hit us, or the explosions themselves, as the ground got close and closer until it was right there!

Okay. Landing. Roll? Face first? No, okay, shit…

It was right there.

Oh cra-

Ugggggh…

My heaaaad…

My everything, but especially my brain, throbbed as consciousness returned to me. Or at least I assume I went under, I didn’t remember actually landing. But that was wasteland dirt beneath my battered body, so I was still alive…

Unless hell was the Equestrian Wasteland MK II. Which wouldn’t surprise me at this point.

Well, my PegWing’s avatar looked pissed off at me for doing this. So I was probably alive.

“Spark! Thank the Goddesses…” Coffin said as his face came into view above me. The far prettier Sapphire was with him, urgently forcing healing potions down my throat.

Oh, so that was the healing potion taste. Neat.

Ack!

Ow! So, that’s my everything now popping back into place. Ah, and now everything was suddenly feeling a lot more real again. Can I go back into not hurting quite so bad? It still hurt before, but fuuuuck.

“Come on, get up!” Coffin urged. “We ain’t outta this yet!”

“We’ve got incoming!” I then heard Granite call out. “My E.F.S. is showing the tanks and a platoon coming in over that mound. Given what happened to our bird, they’ll peel through our power armour like a candy wrapper!”

I rolled onto my front, wiping my eyes to better clear my vision before shakily getting up and onto my hooves. My own E.F.S. was also showing some very angry red dots on the move towards us. I guess it was too much to hope that they’d believe we’d all gone up with the vertibuck, huh?

I moved up the mound towards where the others were peeking over. Setting up alongside them, I could see the Cerberus tanks moving across the landscape towards us. Unlike the previous Cerberus tanks I’d seen, with all their cannons and plasma miniguns of death, these ones were outfitted with large flack guns similar to Little Gilda that had flying targets in mind. Though I don’t think they were going to differentiate too much when they reached us…

They must have set them up here to protect the Ghastly Gorge and their operations there. Wish we’d known that sooner, we'd have landed further out and just walked in! Probably would have been smarter, and we would be on the cusp of being trampled beneath the stompy legs of those freaking things!

Maybe Little Gilda could be of help? Anti-air versus anti-air? Ah, I’m not so certain any of the weapons we were carrying could actually penetrate the armour of those tanks. Scratch it maybe. Or tickle it, make the Enclave laugh. Laughing shits…

I guess we were doing this the old fashioned way.

“Get on top of it, pry open a hatch and shoot anything that looks important?” I suggested, retrieving my assault rifle and laying it down in front of me.

“Open up some of its armour to access the innards, throw a couple grenades inside and that’ll do it.,” Granite agreed.

Neat!

“Only other way out of this is running. But those are long-range weapons. This mound is keeping us out of their sights, but the moment they spot a single hair on our manes…”

“Boom,” Sapphire finished with a shudder, her wings ruffling in discomfort. “How do we get close to them to do this? There’s three of them far as I can see, and as you said, they’ll shoot the moment they spot us.”

“We’ll have to take all three of the tanks out at once to have a fighting chance,” Coffin mused. “Else the others will just blow us to hell and back.”

“Alright, so this is what we do…” I spoke up. Right, time to see if I can still butt miracles out of my hat I don’t have. “Sapphire, if you drop me on the lead one, we can take it. Granite, you do the same with Coffin. You other two can then go after the third. Go in fast and shit them up before they know what hit them.”

“Risky, but we don’t have many options,” Granite concurred. “Alright, let’s do it. On your word, Spark.”

Right, on my word. I always end up in the leadership position for some reason. Why does this happen? I have the leadership skills of a radroach juiced up on Party Time Mint-als. And I know how those things can mess you up.

Don’t get them killed. Don’t get them killed…

But the tanks were almost at the mound. They weren’t travelling at the fastest speed in the word, but in less than a minute they’d been right on top of us.

“Alright, crap, let’s-”

BOOM!

Hey, that wasn’t me!

Whoosh!

BOOM!

One of the Cerberus tanks shuddered as it was hit by the rocket, my eyes following the trail of smoke off to one side to find the missile launcher that fired it. New green blips were appearing on my Eyes Forward Sparkle, running towards the tanks with a recklessness that impressed even me.

“Kill the smoothskins!”

Ghouls! A horde of non-feral ghouls were rushing the tanks in force, a couple dozen of them! They were equipped in largely scavenged armour, some even having strapped on pieces of X-02 to their hides. Actually, some of it might’ve even been fused into their hides, kinda like my old PipBuck had been thanks to the pink cloud in Canterlot. But the issue of my old PipLeg behind, and whether these ghouls were pink cloud or just radiation created, they ran towards the Enclave position with wild abandon while firing their mismatched array of weapons at the vehicles.

I saw their turrets all turn towards the ghouls, immediately rushing whatever advantage their flanking manoeuvre might have given them, and fire. They scattered, but six lights blinked out in the forest barrage as weapons fire tore up the landscape around the poor mutated bastards.

“Alright, fuck, now!” I shouted.

I felt Sapphire’s hooves wrap around me as I was lifted into the air, the mare giving a large bat of her wings that sent us shooting forwards towards the first tank. With the robotic whatever's inside those Enclave tanks entirely distracted by the ghouls, they didn’t even turn towards us as I was dropped down towards the thing.

I lit my horn, encasing myself in my own magic to levitate gently down onto the hull. Sapphire landed next to me, looking rather impressed.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Hey, it’s about the only magic I can pull off,” I told her. “Let me have it.”

“Hey, no complaints from me!”

I smiled at her, turning my attention to the hull as I shifted my magic from myself and to it. I can’t do combat spells, teleportation or anything that’s actually versatile. But fuck if I can’t lift shit and lift it good!

Using my S.A.T.S. I found a spot where part of the armour can be pried off, so with all of my strength, the piece of armour strained against my attempt to pry it open, but with a satisfying POP I pulled it free and threw it casually aside.

There was a bunch of sparks and a flash of flame as something came out with it, but the tank didn’t really seem to notice. I shared a glance with Sapphire, levitating up my rifle over the exposed systems and pulled the trigger.

There was a chorus of pings and bangs as my bullets ricocheted around the insides of the tank, then a few seconds later, another wave of sparks and flames shot out of the trashed components I’d left behind. The tank stopped shooting and immediately started to shake and fucking buck as its legs swing widely like a jittery spider in an attempt to shake us off! The metal beneath our hooves went wild as my legs gave out from under me and I face planted the armour plating, not even having time to grab onto anything before the tank reared back and I started to slide off the side!

With not enough time to even channel mana through my horn, I went rolling off the edge as I saw the bare ground beneath me, fully expecting to be trampled beneath those gigantic rampaging metal legs below!

But I just hung there, and when I looked up I saw that Sapphire had bitten down onto my barding, her jaw straining from my wait as she used her wings to keep herself steady in spite of the tank’s attempts to loosen us.

“Thanks!”

Her reply was muffled by my gear, my horn finally lighting in another levitation spell to help her bring me back up. I gripped onto a metal bar by the section we damaged, resisting its continued attempts to send us flying from the chassis.

Then, finally, it stopped, and as I peered down below I saw several ghouls were now below the tank and shooting up into its belly. The tank tried to peer down at them, but with a lot of its circuits fried, it wasn't getting a good shot as it resorted to trying to stamp down on the ghouls. It succeeded, its gigantic leg thrusting down onto one of them who didn’t vacate in time and turning him to paste.

“Hey, smoothskins!” one of the ghouls shouted up at us as they dodge another attempt. “Catch!”

Something small was thrown up towards us. And it was a very good throw, I’d clap my hooves if I wasn’t holding on for dear life.

But I caught it in my magic anyway, bringing up a small satchel charge that-

Crap, it’s timer was active!

“Out out OUT!” I shouted, throwing the charge down the smoking hole as I threw myself from the tank while Sapphire followed quickly behind me.

I slowed my descent, but the subsequent explosion behind me sent me hurtling forwards and towards the ground!

Not this shit again!

The impact took the wind out of me, but didn’t knock me clean out this time, but I did feel something hit my left hindleg as I landed, and something even more sludge-y splatter against my barding. Goddesses knows what, but I was more focused on the fireball passing over me as I stuck to the ground.

But then it dissipated, and when I looked up I found the Cerberus tank was no more. All there were four severed legs clattering to the ground, the hull and AA guns were little more than scrap metal flying through the air.

I looked to the side, relieved to find Sapphire nearby no worse for wear. Well, her feathers were a bit charred, but that’s just wasteland fashion really.

Whew. But we’d done it. Tank zero, us one! And as I looked around beyond the wreckage, I saw the other two start to go down as well. There… well, I couldn’t see quite so many ghouls as there had been to start with… Dammit. Ugh, I hope my other friends were okay in this mess, I couldn’t see Coffin and Granite and his ponies anywhere…

Huh? Why was Sapphire looking at me like that? You know, wide-eyed horror like I’d deserved after Arfu or something?

“Spark…” she spoke shakily as our eyes met. “Your leg…”

Huh?

Oh crap.

I only now became aware of the blood pooling around me, soaking into my barding and fur… My blood. My own blood. The adrenaline wearing off, I could feel a sharp pain coming from one of my back legs. I shifted myself, and I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing…

Oh no. No no no…

I looked down, finding my barding covered in green goo that had probably been from the tanks engine or something. My PegWing’s Geiger counter was going nuts over it, but that didn’t matter. When I looked past that, my leg…

It was gone.

Well, not gone, but… Fuck. Severed. Through most of the muscle and the entire bone, my hind leg was barely held to the rest of my body by a torn flap of skin.

Dammit dammit dammit!

Dammiiiiiiit!

“Hey, uh, hold on…” Sapphire ran up to me, and I saw some of the remaining ghouls also approaching with great interest. Glad I was putting on a show for you fucktards! GAH! “Looks like a piece of debris when clear through the bone, only a little bit of muscle keeping the leg on… I wish I had some hydra, I could regrow the lost tissue and reattach no issue. Ah… what to do…”

I just laid there, my eyes glancing up at the clouds dominating the sky. Was I going to be stuck like this? Maimed, unable to walk properly? What was I supposed to do then!? Get fucking crutches!? Universe, for once in your SHITIING and CELESTIA SPANKING life could you cut me a break!? Fucking once!?

Ah… Looking back towards Sapphire, I saw a panicked look in her eyes as she retrieved a healing potion and tried to think of something.

“Okay… Dad told me this story once…” she started. “Mum lost a leg while with the Stable Dweller. Clean off, but they held it back on and a healing potion healed most of the damage. Left a nice scar, but… She was lucky, but it’s a chance. If your body doesn’t reject the reattached limb then- Wha!?”

I started to feel a tingling sensation from my left, and I became aware of a warm glow throughout my body. I frowned, looking down and watched in morbid fascination as my mangled limb started to warp and twist like it had a life of its own.

Ohhhh.

Oh.

I spared a glance at my PegWing. My radiation levels were rising fast thanks to the gunk on my barding. And that meant…

Before our eyes, my leg started to stitch itself back together. The muscle tissue that was still attacked dragged the limb back to the cut and brought it back in line. It barely even hurt as the bone fused back together, the muscle reformed and soon enough even the fur around the cut began to sprout as good as new.

I lit my horn, removing the radioactive whatever from my and throwing it aside. I experimentally bent my leg, and it felt… normal.

Just like Maripony. Only then I’d lost a leg and grown an entirely new one. This time, I got to keep the original… Or what was left of it, after Life Bloom altered me.

But it worked. The newly crown coat around where the break happened was a pearly white, as good as new in contrast to the dirtied and bloodied fur around the rest of my body. I looked from it up at Sapphire, giving her a sheepish grin.

“Uh… lucky, huh?”

“That was… that’s…” She gave me a concerned look. “That’s not normal. At all. That’s…”

“Vert ghoul-like…” one of the ghouls said, and his hat signified him as the leader. It was very leader-y. “But your skin is as smooth as anything, interesting… Your mother an alicorn or something? I thought they were barren.”

“Uh…”

“Eh, whatever. You can call me Rot, everypony else does,” the ghoul introduced himself. “Good fightin’ back there. We had it ourselves, but the explosions were worth the intrusion.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you…” I replied slowly.

“No. Wait. Time out…” Sapphire interrupted. “Nice to meet you, Rot. But Sparkplug, you do not get to dodge the issue here. What was that!?”

Uggggh, why was keeping my identity a secret so hard!? How was I now meant to say I was partially mutated into an artificial alicorn by the Goddess’ potion when I blew her and the facility that created it to kingdom come?

“Sapphire…”

“Bah, alright, tell me later. I guess we have bigger things to worry about now…” she said, glancing off to one side in what I assumed was a search for the rest of our group. “We need to find the others, maybe Coffin has some answers.”

“Wait! No!”

She glared at me. “What?”

“Please, don’t say anything to the others!” I pleaded with her. “I’ll explain later, but in private. Please…”

She stared at me for a moment, seemingly looking for something. Or at least I guess that she was, her glare was eerily similar to the one I was used to receiving from Velvet when I’d done something stupid and very me. But, after a few moments, she relented with a sigh, looking like she was ready to reluctantly drop the matter.

“I’ll hold you to that. At least you’re okay…” she said, her smile turning a lot more friendly for a moment before it morphed into a look of concern. “But the others… where are they…?”

I got to my hooves, carefully putting weight onto my restored leg as I moved next to the pegasus mare to overlook the battlefield. Rot joined as, giving a shrug as he directed over to a specific spot.

“That them? I certainly didn’t bring them,” he pointed out.

Oh, thank the Goddesses!

We rushed over to Coffin and the others as they emerged from among some of the wreckage, accompanied by some of the ghouls that had been fighting. In all, there looked to be around half their number left, maybe just under that. One of Granite’s ponies also looked like he’d taken a bit of a beating, his helmet off as he limped over with the help of his buddy.

“Spark! Sapphire!” Coffin greeted in relief. “Good to see ya made it. Was touch and go for us, but we managed to take out the last two.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Sapphire commented. “We… nearly didn’t succeed.”

Coffin regarded what was left of ours, giving an impressed whistle. “And yet yours is toast. Legs and scrap, eh? You don’t do anything by halves.”

“Rot’s the guy who threw a live bomb at us…” I deadpanned.

“You survived. Mostly,” Rot defenced himself. “You Smoothskins are too fragile.”

“You in charge of this group?” Granite asked the ghoul.

“You’re a perceptive one, aren’t you?” the undead pony remarked. “Yeah, I head up this ragged up team, we’re part of a larger freedom fighter group. We used to be captives, slaves, at the Enclave mining operation near here. We got loose, been fighting ever since.”

“Mining operation? In the Galloping Gorge?” Sapphire wondered.

“That’s the one,” he confirmed. “Lots of eels and other critters ready to eat ya, all while the Enclave sit back and make sure we’re the ones getting eaten as we deliver them the irradiated materials. Nothing there but death and a gutted stable.”

“Never mind Stable 77, is there a Hades tank there?” Coffin asked urgently.

Rot gave us all a suspicious glare. “...There might be. What I want to know, Smoothskins, is what’s it to you? I see some very Enclave-looking ponies before me, even if you helped us with those tanks, so what are you after here?”

“Former Enclave,” Granite corrected, his barbed metal tail twitching in irritation. “I would have thought the Resistance sigils would have given that away.”

“Anypony can paint up their armour,” Rot rebutted. “Could be a trap for all I know.”

“It’s not,” Sapphire assured. “I’m a scribe with the Applejack’s Rangers, we’re here to take that tank away from Enclave control.”

“Aw, and here I thought just maybe you’d actually come to free the slaves still held here.”

“Hey! It’s an objective! But we need that tank to help a lot more ponies,” Sapphire shot back. “We want to use it to pry Enclave control from Equestria.”

“Yeah, right,” he dryly doubted. “I know you Steel Ranger types, met a couple back before the Enclave moved in and made everything worse. And they did not exactly like my kind.”

“The Applejack’s Rangers are different, we were founded to follow in Applejack’s original ideals for the Steel Rangers. By a ghoul,” she informed him. “I’m sorry if you thought by my words that we didn’t care about the people still trapped there, that’s not the case.”

“Really now?”

“Yes. The tank may be our mission's primary objective, but I promise we will do whatever we can to help those that need it,” she pledged softly and kindly. “I’m out here because I want to see things get better for everyone. Of all species.”

Nicely said…

She does take after her parents.

“Hm, well then, I guess we can put that to the test…” Rot decided. “We took some casualties today, but there are more of us out there. We’ll lead you to the gorge and get some reinforcement on the way. Then, you’re going to help us take it.”

“You intend to attack the place outright?” Coffin asked worriedly. “That’s brave, but we have the firepower?”

“You want a better plan, come up with one before the attack begins,” Rot told us. “You can deal with your tank problem, but I’m freeing those slaves. You can come with, or you can do this by yourself. Your choice.”

We all glanced at one another. Attacking the Enclave’s operation there head-on did seem a little risky, but what the hay, I recently ran into a high-security research base to try and rescue a dragon. What room did I have to talk?

“I say we do it,” I said to the others. “I mean, what the hell, right? Maybe if we grab the tank before the rest of the fighting starts, we could use it to stomp out the Enclave?”

Coffin hummed. “I don’t know, there is still the chance we can screw this up like at Rope Gallows’ compound.” Thanks for rubbing that in. “We need to play this smart. Sapphire, Granite-”

“Bugbear-1, report your status?”

We all looked towards where that voice came from. It was towards the pile of dead Enclave soldiers the ghouls must have got while we distracted the Cerberus tanks. I suppose they’d had an escort at the back somewhere. Or a group of technicians… Whoever they were, the ghouls had stomped them pretty hard.

But now their bosses were trying to say hi.

“Bugbear-1, do you copy?”

The voice was coming from one of the bodies that had a radio attached to their helmets.

“Don’t worry, I’ll smash it.” A ghoul was walking up, but Granite stepped in and stopped him.

“Let me deal with it.” He walked up to the dead soldier, took off his helmet and cleared his voice and bit before speaking. “Roger, Ma’am, we were in a dead zone for a bit.”

“Status on potential hostiles?”

“All targets eliminated.”

“Alright Bugbear-1, resume patrols and program Cerberus AA Tanks back to position.”

“Roger ma’am,” Granite said, but then I could see that an idea was forming in his head. “Ma’am, requesting to send fifteen soldiers back to base.”

“For what reason, Bugbear-1?”

“Battle fatigue, I need the rest up to resume patrols.”

“...Permission granted Bugbear-1.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. Roger and out.”

Huh… So, stealth mission? This sounds like another disastrous stealth mission. We should really stop doing those…

But we’re doing it anyway.

“So, what, a group of us walk in pretending to be them?” I questioned. “Seems legit. But, uh… I think they’ll have to wear helmets.”

“That’s fine, we have plenty to choose from,” Rot noted, gesturing to the Enclave corpses. “You six and nine of mine. Get your tank before we start shooting, because we will start shooting.”

Understandable.

“Okay, let’s go with it,” I decided. “Uh, unless someone thinks this is a terrible idea and tells me just how terrible I am for voting for it.”

“So long as we can get what we came for and help those slaves, I’m good for it,” Sapphire agreed.

Granite nodded. “It’s what we’re here for. Though we could use some medical attention over here, we have an injury.”

“I can help with that.” Sapphire quickly started to move off towards the injured former Enclave soldier. “And anypony else that’s taken a knock or two.”

“We could do with a rest and resupply before we head out,” Coffin suggested to Rot. “You okay with that?”

“Sure. And save your healing potions for yourself, we have the radiation to patch us up,” the ghoul confirmed. “Twenty minutes, then my boys and I are heading out.”

Rot and his ghouls moved away, making good on their words and searching our more piles of radioactive sludge they could use to power themselves up. Sapphire tended to the injured pony’s wounds, and I was left to look around at the devastation around us.

Another day, another fight. Only this time I’d outed myself as a mutant to Velvet and Calamity’s daughter…

“You okay?” Coffin asked as he walked up beside me.

“Yeah, fine,” I lied. “Just fine…”

Pretend to be Enclave soldiers. Get the Hades tank. Save the ghouls. Leave. Then we’d have Ranger support and could free New Appleoosa from Enclave control…

Simple…

The first thing I noticed about the canyon was the broken bridge that once spanned across the middle. It had collapsed in the centre, sending cars and tanks into a crumpled heap in the middle of the Galloping Gorge. There might’ve even been a bent Sky Bandit down there, but I couldn’t be sure from our position.

But down there… Yeah. That was what we were after.

I could see it, several buildings in that normal boring black and grey style the Enclave had a tendency of using. For a group of dudes who came from the literal sky, they were really uninspired with their designs. Pre-war pegasi might have used marble, clouds… Ya know, flying fluffy shit.

But I suppose that doesn’t inspire ‘har de har fear us for da evilz’ quite as much.

At least, that’s what I assume they’re going for. Because if they’re trying for something else they’re fucking something up really fierce.

But the buildings, as well as being flanked by the walls of the gorge, were surrounded by a probably electrified fence that had a single checkpoint in and out. Inside I could see Enclave troops roaming around, even more of them patrolling the exterior side of the fence as the ghouls slaves Rot mentioned dragged the Enclave’s loot from the mines. There was even a normal Cerberus tank standing in the middle of all of that, I suppose watching for any excuse to turn a ghoul into bubbling green goo.

But as wonderful as another of those bastard things was, the towering Hades tank was far more obvious. It was set down inside the compound, the lights were off and just waiting for somepony to steal it.

Or it would wake up and stomp us into paste. Either or.

“Well, there she is…” Granite mused, dusting off his recently un-graffitied power armour. “I think I’m all clean. You ghouls got your helmets on?”

There were various responses of scaling vulgarity, but the ghouls we’d taken with us were completely obscured by the armour they’d scavenged from the dead soldiers earlier on. So long as they didn’t lose a helmet or something, nopony was going to be able to tell that they’re not normal ponies.

“I’m set,” Coffin remarked from inside a scavenged set of combat gear, having stored his usual X-01 helmet into his PegWing and replaced it with that freaky helmet the lighter soldiers wore. At least on the other helmet, the eyes only glowed when the lamps were turned on…

Creepy cunts.

“What about you, Spark? Still not into wearing these?” he then asked me.

“Well no, I was already in a technician’s jumpsuit!” I retorted.

“What about those armour pads you added?” Sapphire stated.

“It’s the WASTELAND! What, are they wanting their fixer ponies to be munched on by a mole rat?”

“Even so, it's for the best that we all go in as soldiers,” Granite said. “I know you seem to come up with a lot of the plans, but let me do the talking. I actually know what to say to stop them from opening fire too quickly.”

Ugh, fine.

I levitated the helmet over my head, and I immediately noticed that my E.F.S. was gone and replaced by a digital version of my E.F.S. would show. Making sure it was on tight, I equipped my revolver and gave a nod to Granite.

“Ready.”

Another I don’t like was how these helmets altered a pony’s voice to sound more menacing. If it had an off switch I would press it, but what can you do.

We started to move off from the edge, moving out way along towards a pathway down that seemed to have been carved into the cliffside. I guess by the Enclave since the bridge and the catwalks near it were out? But either way, our group started to descend into the pit and towards the outpost.

And so far, all the bars in the helmet’s E.F.S. were green…

Knowing us, that won’t last long.

...Sheesh, when did I become a massive pessimist? I swear I used to at least try to look for the bright side? No? Never? Come on, I’m all about making shit better and stuff. Even if our plans normally ended in half a city falling apart.

Okay, Pip. Try to focus and not argue with yourself. Okay, thanks.

I’m such an idiot…

Hrmg, anyway… Now that we were getting closer to the bottom of the gorge, the activity down there started to become a lot clearer. The Cerberus tanks attention remained on the ghouls, I could see the poor bomb collared people hauling mining gear into the shafts and pulling crate loads of radioactive materials out again. Some looked a little worse for wear, missing limbs, bleeding a mixture of blood and irradiated puss…

It wasn’t just pony ghouls either. I see a couple griffons, maybe a zebra...

Fuck, I wonder if some of them were even ghouls when they arrived here.

...And we’re just supposed to be here for the tank. Screw that, the Rangers can get their tank whenever. But Rot is waiting somewhere up above for the shooting to start, and then he’s bringing in his crew to free this place. What kind of pony would I be if I got into the Hades and then just left them to it? No, I can’t leave these guys. Slave owners are the fucking worst, Enclave or not, I don’t care what Strawberry actually wants me to do here.

I’m supposed to be fixing shit, right? Then let me fix things. I don’t care what Life Bloom, Silver Bell or anyone else might say. I can’t put one death machine over the lives of all those slaves.

I can’t.

I can’t be that pony.

Because then I really would deserve being called the Hellmare.

...On another note, WOW that’s a big hole!

“Do I want to know?” Coffin asked, also seeing the big tunnel a little ways above the trail that didn’t look like it had been dug… well, but ponies.

“Oh, just a giant eel tunnel. No need to worry,” Sapphire commented.

Well, that’s good.

...GIANT EEL!?

“Oh yeah, no worries, why would I worry about a fucking giant eel!?” Was I being too lad? Screw it. EEL!

“Calm down,” Sapphire shot back. “As far as we know, they don’t really come out here much anymore due to the Enclave moving in. They tend to get shot, you know.”

“That’s a big tunnel for something that doesn’t come here…”

“It’s an old tunnel, was here before they dug this path, and they just dug through it. The creatures have lived in this canyon since before the end of the world. Now they probably stay burrowed…”

“And eat the poor sods digging around in these rocks,” one of the ghouls commented.

Sapphire shivered. “Yeah… I didn’t really want to think about that, but yeah. Poor guys…”

“All the more reason we need to get them out of here…” I muttered.

“Whoa now, that’s Rot’s job, remember that,” Coffin said. “We promised Elder Lemonade we’d get the tank, and I don’t make a habit of goin’ back on my word.”

“Come on, she’ll get the tank, but these guys need our help more. Back me up here, Sapphire. Like you said back there, we need to be helping people.”

“I know what I said,” she responded. “And she’s right. If we can, we should help them out. The Rangers could get all the weapons in the world, but it won’t mean anything if the people we’re meant to save with them are already dead.”

“Huh… Yeah, I know…” he replied. “You’re an odd Ranger, though. I always thought technology trumped everything with you ponies.”

“That’s not what the Applejack’s Rangers stand for. At least, it’s not meant to be,” she retorted. “We split from the Steel Rangers to get away from that mindset. What’s the good of getting all this tech if the world has to suffer more for it? There are kinder ways to operate in this world.”

Yeah. Yeah, there is…

“Whatever you want to do, I’m following you,” Granite said as we reached the bottom. “But talk philosophy later, right now we need to get inside.”

I shut up, looking around at the fence looming ahead of us. Already I could see the various patrols eying us up, but so far they didn’t seem to find anything particularly odd. We were just another group returning from a little trot in the wastes, no big deal…

Up ahead I could spot a gate opening to great us, the guards outside remaining so still I could swear they were statues. Or maybe their armours had just locked up. Or maybe they were asleep? It’s hard to tell behind those helmets.

Oh, and there was a little shed just beyond the entranceway. You keep goodies in a shed, right? Guns? Loot? Things to poke and prod? Huh, anything could be in there really. I wonder if I could sneak away for a moment and take a look?

Ah, but here I am, stuck in the middle of the group and, yup, there it goes, passing on by…

Ugh! What does it take for a mare to satisfy her insatiable curiosity around here!?

Maybe next time, little shed…

Stupid shed…

Oh look, we’re at the gate.

“...Bugbear 1, reporting back for relief,” Granite spoke to the gate guards. “Requesting permission for entrance, reports from the field come back all clear.”

“Copy that,” the guard confirmed. “Permission granted, we were informed of your arrival. You, Sergeant, plus fourteen others?”

“That is an affirmative.”

Blah blah military jargon blah…

“Visual confirms that. Okay, you're clear for entrance. Make your way inside and wait for the second set of doors to open once the all-clear is sounded.”

All clear? For what?

Even Granite seemed to pause a moment at that.

“...Understood. Bugbear-1, fall in behind me.”

We did so, following Granite inside. I could feel the stares on our backs as we passed, and I suddenly felt the need to tuck in as tightly between the larger power armoured ponies as possible to obscure myself. If I ever thought I’d miss being… ‘below average’ in height, that unlikely day has come…

But we made it inside, the doors closing up behind us. We were inside a little tunnel, an airlock or something I guess? Checkpoint? What would the word be? Whatever it is, we were… pretty stuck in here. There were a couple of lights on the walls and roof letting us see, and a terminal in the corner by the doors ahead of us. For debugging the security system, maybe? Something maintenance-related the technician in me had to assume.

Well, whatever the case… we were now waiting. Waiting for what, though?

Then an amber beacon started flashing, and a blue wave of magical light started to wash over the tunnel!

“Scanning in progress,” a female robotic voice that was strangely sexy remarked from all around us. “Searching for biological impurities.”

“Impurities?” Sapphire asked. “...Do they mean ghouls?”

“Crap,” Coffin swore. “This is a facility that deals with ghouls, of course they’d have countermeasures to what we’re trying to do!”

“Our reports didn’t indicate anything like this!”

“Well, then it’s clearly new!”

Shiiiiiiiit!

The ghouls were already backing up towards the sealed door behind us, but there was no way out back there. We were contained, and the magical blue stuff was slowly coming at us!

“We’re all fine…” Granite noted, gesturing to us six non-ghouls. “But them… There must be a way to turn it off, try the terminal over there!”

“Spark?” Coffin said questioningly at me.

I guess I’m doing a hack!

I began moving off towards the terminal, lighting my horn and readying my PegWing’s interface. No way it’ll let me just mess with it, especially during this whole party. But history has proven I can deal with that, so I just need to figure it out before the light reaches the others and-

Huh, now that I’m walking into it, it’s kinda tingly.

“Unity alicorn mutation detected! Emergency incineration initiated!”

Uh oh.

Alarms started to blare all around us, and I knew I’d messed up bad. How could I forget!? I just had a demonstration today! And now…

The others were staring at me.

Agh, as tempting as incineration was right now, I had to focus on that problem first!

I shot forward, sliding into the terminal and activating the device. As expected, the terminal was locked down and not about to budge for any old hacker. But hell if I’m going to let that stop me, so I plugged in my PegWing and got to work!

“Spark…” Coffin said urgently as fire started to spit from some nozzles that had just emerged from annoying little hatches in the walls.

Already some of the ghouls were beating on the door out of here, but that wasn’t going to work. But that’s their business, I was more focused on the numbers and letters floating around my PegWing’s screen. But all I had to do was re-adjust a line of code here, activate a sequence there, and…

Ding!

The terminal granted me entry, bringing me to the password screen. And, seeing as I don’t have a password, I need to hack that as well. At least that’s more standard operation, so I pressed the keys to bring me into the system menu and got to word cracking the protection.

It was starting to feel a little hot in here.

“Spark…!”

Working on it!

Muffin? No, that’s a dud. But I think those two fs are about right, so that rounds it down. Three attempts left. Puffin? No, not that either. Ah, a sequence here. Tries reset. And another, dud removed…

“SPARK!”

Guffin.

Password accepted.

Open!

And then my flank was fire.

An inferno was spilling into the tunnel, the others retreating towards the opening inner door as the unleashed firestorm cascaded towards us! I could feel the burning as I joined them, jumping through the door and out of the sudden furnace!

I was among the first out, several of the ghouls being caught in the blast, and yet they stampeded out only mildly toasted thanks to the protection of their stolen combat armour. And yet my PegWing screamed at me to check my backside, and the combat armour had definitely caught alight back there!

How annoying!

I patted it out quickly, not having time to check for damage on my now partially exposed ass before red bars started popping up around me! The fire also damaged my helmet as well, so I threw it off my head.

“Um… I think the jig is up…” Sapphire noted solemnly, taking her helmet off as well.

“You think!?” Coffin shouted. “Alicorn!?”

I winced. “L-later! Shoot now!”

“Shit!”

If Rot was waiting for a signal, this was it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an Enclave soldier rushing towards me with, of all things, a nightstick. Given the fact that they were only in their undersuit, without the extra bits of barding that made up normal combat armour, I guess we’d caught them at a bad time.

Good.

I pulled out my revolver, ducking away from a swing of the baton before raising my pistol and unloading a single round into the pony’s skull. They dropped, but more soldiers were now funnelling towards us to take his place.

And a few of them did actually have their gear on.

To make things worse, I heard the inferno stop and the outer doors begin to open again, likely about to let in the Enclave we’d passed by outside.

And then I heard a scream only a ghoul could manage, the shout echoing all throughout the canyon and probably a ways beyond.

Looking up at the walls of the gorge, at the very top I could see gunfire begin to spray into the canyon. Rot and his crew had very much chosen this moment to join in, and now the Enclave were scrambling to deal with them too!

“Verdammt! Vat is going on in this Scheißloch!?” a strangely familiar voice shouted out, and as the fighting continued around me I turned to see a light brown earth pony stallion walk out of what I assume to be the command centre, raising his metal claw to irritably scratch his cheek. “Zis is a birthday for ze Private, party must be had and ein- Oh.”

What was that about parties? From my last experience, Erdnussbitter didn’t seem much like the partying type.

I stared at the pony, our eyes meeting as he seemed to recognise me.

“Ah… Zeems a bit of bad timing, Fraulein Sparkplug, was it?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coffin do a double-take at the sudden appearance of his uncle, but I couldn’t worry about that, right now he was standing between us and the freedom of every slave here!

I charged.

“Oh dear.”

He took a step back as I ran straight for him! I saw a couple more Enclave soldiers make a go for me, and I rolled beneath one as his rifle shots went high and used the fucker for cover against his friend! Staying behind the soldier, I opened fire on the second and forced them to stumble backwards before he was pounced upon by one of the power armoured ghouls! The said ghoul’s stinger tail punctured into the Enclave pony’s armour, and as that was dealt with I jumped onto the first soldier’s back, pressed the barrel of my gun into a gap in his gear and pulled the trigger.

Two more bars down.

I released quickly as I turned back to Erd, who seemed to decide fighting was not in his favour today as he backed his way into the building behind him.

Not so fast!

I jumped through the door as he moved to close it behind him, tacking into the stallion and sending us both to the ground. But before I could do anything else, I felt his metal claw, balled into a fist, meet the side of my head as the world became stars and I was now on my back staring up at the ceiling.

Owwwww…

“Wait! Zis is not as it appears!” he shouted out sheepishly, rolling onto his hooves and hopping over a table. “Zer is really no need to fight.”

“Yeah, tell that to the milkshake!” I shouted back at him, bringing up my revolver and-

Where did that confetti come from!?

I lost sight of him there was so much! And then, like lightning, he was next to me with his claw taking hold of my gun as my next bullet went wide! My magic struggled against his grip, but damn that prosthetic was strong!

“Ja, I do quite like milkshakes. Yet I realise last time wasn’t an… ideal demonstration,” he remarked in what I almost mistook for a genuine apology. “But I had to-”

“To what!? Drag an innocent pony to his death!?”

“Well, you see-”

I bucked him. Hard. Hard enough that he released his grip and fell to the ground, though before I could follow up another explosion of confetti again allowed him to roll away, overturn a desk and use it as cover.

“Stop doing that!”

“Most amusing, yes?” he said with an odd squee. “Good for running away, bad pony emergencies and making surprises, well, surprises!”

Surprises, huh? I kept my distance from the desk, something telling me this guy had a few more tricks up his sleeves.

“But you are no bad pony, ja?” he continued. “But fate be have it, we are fighting. Zis really is not necessary. Friends could be had, just walk away.”

“Friends!? You’re an Enclave officer, you hunt down ponies and take them to be tortured!”

“Ah, from where you stand, das may be true. But you do not know me, but I know you. Heh, I do like to know ponies…”

Yeah, to get information out of them, maybe.

“Yeah, you seemed real friendly the last time. A little different now someone else holds the gun, huh?”

“Nein, zis is different as we are alone,” he replied cryptically. “Ze watchers mean I must be what you see me to be, a depressing lack of fun and laughter I feel. Yet here we are, though I can hardly spill all my little secrets, I can say I am no enemy.”

“You’re overseeing a slaving operation. Oh, you’re my enemy.”

“Ah… If it were that we could have talked in a more… controlled environment, I think you would have come to see me most… differently…” Now what did he mean by that!? “But I know when zis will end with bullets. If reason cannot be heard in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, zen I will do what I have to do, Fraulein…”

He threw something! Duck and co- Huh?

As a sack of… something hit the ground and rolled next to me. I couldn’t help but feel… confused? Underwhelmed? What was the point of that?

I looked back up towards the overturned desk.

He was there, and some kind of tube had emerged as a literal trick up his sleeve, pointed straight at my face.

He fired.

My world became confetti.

I spluttered and fell to the ground as the stuff entered my eyes, nose and everywhere else it could enter!? Who fights with confetti!? Who does this asshole think he is!? Pinkie Pie!?

I cleared it as quickly as I could, rushing back to my hooves as I expected a bullet or a knife to the back, or maybe a claw to the face, at any moment! And yet… nothing happened, and when I finally looked around, Erdnussbutter had gone.

...What the hell was any of that?

There was no sign of him anywhere, I couldn’t even see his bar on my E.F.S. anymore. He was a slippery one, though I guess that helps him in his particular line of work. Ugh, I can’t believe he got the best of me like that! What was he even trying to do before? Win me over? Just distract me more while he got ready to escape? He seems to be good at the ‘playing nice’ routine to get what he wants, as that stallion I met in the diner found out...

Ah, forget him. What was it he threw at me? I am SUPER dumb for letting it distract me, but the heck is even in the sack?

I gently kicked it open with a hoof, and… What? That’s… a memory orb? Why, of all things, would he use one of those to distract me? What’s his game? Or was it just desperation on his part?

I wonder what’s inside it…

The door opened behind me, and I pocketed the memory orb for later as the others ran inside with gunfire following them in.

“There you are!” Coffin shouted, taking cover behind the doorway and firing back at the Enclave outside. “Where is my uncle!?”

“Ah, he ran off,” I responded. “But he’s here somewhere.”

“Well, can we leave the family drama for later?” Granite asked. “That’s a problem we do not need right now.”

“...Yeah, if he recognises me that’s going to be a problem,” Coffin agreed. “We should avoid him.”

“Are you alright?” Sapphire asked sympathetically.

“I’ll be fine,” he assured. “Now, Rot’s people are giving the Enclave a big fight right now. If we move now, we should have a shot at the Hades tank.”

“Is it still turned off?” I asked. “Because I don’t want to explode the moment we go outside. That would be bad.”

“It looked like they were readying it for departure,” Sapphire explained. “So if we want to take it, we need to go now. If we have it, then we can actually use it to help free the slaves while we’re here.”

Coffin nodded. “She has a point. From last time, I can say that’s a lot of firepower.”

Yeah, that definitely is.

“Okay, let’s go get it!”

I reloaded my revolver, retrieving my shotgun for good measure and holding them both in my magic. I took in a breath, preparing myself as the others fired at a group of Enclave outside to make them scatter.

And then I went for it.

I burst out into the upon, spotting one soldier scrambling out of the way just to my right as my hooves hit the bare dirt. I lifted my shotgun as the helmeted pony looked towards me like a radroach down a sniper’s scope. As a blast from my gun turned his insides into his outsides, I dropped into S.A.T.S. to better survey my surroundings.

Rot’s ghouls were still tackling the Enclave defenders, and I could even spy a couple of slaves getting in on things. Or at least those that had already managed to pry the bomb collars from their necks, picking up whatever weapon they could carry or just ducking for the safety of cover.

But they were still a group of ragtag resistance fighters against the Enclave war machine, and what ground out little surprise attack had gained was already being lost.

My eyes glued to one stallion, a unicorn, who held a detonator in his magic that was in the process of being armed.

The bomb collars.

Shit!

I aimed three shots from my revolver at the stallion and a single blast from my shotgun at another pony who was bearing down on one ghoul with a super sledge. I let go of the spell, my revolver opening up at the first pony as he dropped the detonator in pain. He remained standing, however, his armour actually taking the hits.

My shotgun blast, meanwhile, hit the other soldier’s sledge and sent it flying.

I’ll grab him first.

I charged forward, headbutting into the bastard as his would-be victim scrambled away. I fell over, crashing to his side as I placed my revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. I raised it up again, firing a few bullets at a squad of Enclave a short distance away before pointing the final couple at the detonator pony as he tried to recover the device for which I have decided to name him not-so-affectionately.

I jumped from the corpse, rushing for the detonator as I lifted a hoof and stamped down on the thing before it could be used again!

...Okay, so it’s crushed, didn’t think that through. That’s not actually going to set it off, is it?

…

So, no heads popping, that’s a good sign.

“Why, you…!”

Oh crap, yeah, he’s still alive!

BLAM.

His body fell into a heap mid-swing of a retrieved super sledge, my eyes locking into Coffin as he grabbed onto my shoulder and yanked me forward!

“Come on, Spark!”

Sheesh, I’m coming!

I rejoined the others in running for the Hades tank, the sound of fighting all around us as I moved wide to avoid the coming explosion of a clattering grenade that then exploded behind me. A piece of shrapnel might’ve even struck my barding, but problems for later!

I reloaded my empty revolver as we went, using my shotgun to ‘discourage’ anypony trying to be clever and slow us down.

The tank was right there, but I could see several ponies loading themselves into it. Hey, you guys are NOT getting that thing rolling without us, because that would be really bad for us so no thank you!

I jumped over a section of fallen, battered and twisted fencing as I made note of the five red bars directly ahead of me. Celestia knows how many are behind, but I can’t exactly worry about now, can I?

I locked my eyes onto the first pony as we got the jump on them, unloading another shotgun shell into his back before moving onto the second. Granite and Coffin teamed on another guy, the latter putting a bullet into their kneecap while Granite reared up and stamped down onto the now jellified pony with his power armoured hooves.

Out of the corner of my eye, meanwhile, Granite’s buddies found themselves grappling with one of the Enclave’s one power armoured ponies. Sapphire, however, decided to take to the air and go for one who was in the process of climbing into the tank’s hatch. The pegasus grabbed them from behind, sending him rolling back down towards the ground where I spied Coffin and Granite turning their heads towards him.

And then there was me.

I lifted both my guns towards the next guy, but both guns actually missed as the fucker dropped down and rolled his ass towards me! Suddenly, my face was all Enclave as I gave a shout and tried to step back!

And then I saw more stars, covered hooves striking me in my irritatingly white snout. I could feel the blood dripping free as I suddenly forgot which way gravity was and rolled away from the shithead. Ugh, but hey, I wasn’t dead yet…

Yet.

Hey, that was my shotgun he was now picking up! Not cool!

I dropped into S.A.T.S. again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was doing the same. My revolver was just next to me, my horn already wrapping my magic around the handle to lift it back towards the stallion.

But he was already aimed, so…

Crap.

Well, let’s try this!

I abandoned S.A.T.S. and instead lifted my revolved in front of the shotgun’s barrels! It went off, and my revolver exploded into scrap metal as all the bullets inside it detonated and created a small explosion that sent us both scrambling in opposite directions!

Ugh, and that’s another gun I’ve lost. That is so lame!

Screw you!

I rolled onto my hooves and charged forward with a very cross shout! I scooped up my, blasting away the rest of my shells into the soldier as he exploded into all kinds of little bloody giblets! I didn’t stop to admit and/or throw up at the sight, following the others as we climbed up the boarding ramp and squeezed into the tight interior of the tank.

“Hey, what!?”

Coffin punched out the pilot that had been powering the tank up, dragging him from the control console and throwing him clear of the hatch.

“All good here!” he shouted in satisfaction.

Okay, Hades tank! This again. Oh boy…

“Okay, let’s see to this baby…” Granite commented as he replaced the pilot and continued to press all kinds of blinky buttons. “Starting her up. Weapons are green, the reactor looks good…”

“This looks so complicated,” Sapphire noted. “I could spend so long in here cataloguing every control and their purposes…”

“You’ll get the chance back at yer stable,” Coffin pointed out. “Come on, we need to get this thing going.”

“Almost there,” Granite confirmed. “Spark, the door!”

Right, we probably should close that.

I trotted back to the hatch, taking hold of it just as something big, red and very mean ran full speed up the hatch straight at me.

“Oh sh-”

For the millionth time today, I saw stairs as something punted me away from the hatch and into the back wall. The others all shouted in alarm as something bright and hot flashed in my vision, the sound of a chainsaw revving coming with it as the blur slowly faded, my PegWing complaining as fucking usual, and I saw just what it was that had so rudely shoved past me.

I am really starting to hate these Tartarus troopers.

If the deep red X-03 Hellfire power armour wasn’t a dead giveaway, the flaming ripper built into his gauntlet certainly was! The weapon was already cutting into Granite’s own armour, sparks flying everywhere as he simply ignored the bullets coming from Coffin and Sapphire! I shakily raised to my hooves, grabbing a healing potion as I did so from my PegWing’s inventory. The pain died away with an extra helping of Med-X, and I was acutely aware of just how much of the stuff I must have used in my life. Goddesses that can’t be good for my health.

Well, neither is being a half-mutant alicorn, so…

There was a clash as Granite’s squadmates grabbed onto the soldier and pried him from their leader, who let out a gasp of relief as he clutched onto the smouldering gash in his helmet. But even as I retrieved my shotgun to go and help, the trooper headbutted one of the pegasi away before somehow flipping the other one over and chucking him towards Coffin and Sapphire! They ducked before they were squashed beneath several tonnes of pony-shaped armour plating, but it did cause a momentary lull in the gunfire.

But I think that’s all he needed.

“For the SG!” the Enclave soldier shouted as something appeared before him, a green sphere of contained balefire straight from his own PegWing inventory! “For the Enclave!”

I didn’t even think, I just expanded my magic to tug the others all towards the hatch as I jumped out of it and rolled dizzyingly down the ramp! I didn’t even see if the others had followed as I heard the explosion, the sky tinting green as my Geiger counter erupted into furious clicks alongside the mushroom cloud rising up into the air.

The balefire egg had done its job, and as I came to a stop and looked up at the result, I found the Hades tank but a burning wreck.

“Oh FUCK!” Coffin swore out loud. Good, the others had all gotten the idea and bailed before the detonation. Phew. “That was… FUCK!”

“Ugh, fanatical idiot…” Granite seconded. “I guess asset denial became the most obvious solution. Consider ourselves lucky that the explosion didn’t detonate the balefire eggs stored for the tank’s own launcher.”

Damn, that’s a point. Now that I looked, most of the tank was largely intact. Or, at least the aft end of the thing was. But the cockpit was completely gone, not so much protective armour on the inside…

“We can’t wait around, or else they MIGHT go off!” Sapphire then shouted out. “That fire is spreading… Forget the tank, we can still help the slaves here!”

The Elder ain’t gonna be happy, but at this point what the heck does she want us to do?

Ugh, what a bust.

We got to our hooves, and I dusted off my shotgun as I saw Granite seem to look around in contemplation. I could still see plenty of bars on my E.F.S. as he did his little think, both green and red, so we far from done yet!

“Continue you,” he told us. “My ponies and I have something else we can do.”

“What you thinking, Granite?” Coffin asked.

“No time, go!” he urged. “You’ll see!”

He ran off before Coffin could protest again, the others following until the disgruntled unicorn was alone with Sapphire and I.

“Agh, what a disaster!” he complained. “Spark, what’s the play, here?”

I looked towards the bulk of the fighting, which seemed to have moved towards the mines. Just beyond the fences and general chaos, I could see the other local tank of the Cerberus variety grinding up a group of slaves who were trying to flee.

“That thing!” I pointed it out. “It’s going to tear the ghouls apart! We need to help them out.”

“Right!” Sapphire confirmed. “But… there has to be a lot of wounded I could tend to. Do you want to do the same plan as before? I could fly you up, but there’s a lot of people out here that could use me too…”

Flying would be the smart thing, but… She wasn’t wrong, I could see plenty of wounded resistance fighters and slaves alike from here. How many would die if they didn’t have the medically gifted Sapphire coming to their aid…? Velvet would do it any day, and I wouldn’t exactly stop her, so why would I stop her daughter either?

“Go,” I told her. “Coffin and I have this.”

“You sure?” the stallion asked doubtfully.

“I can do more back here,” Sapphire argued. “These people need help, so I’m going to give it. Go! Take that thing out… Just… Be careful, okay?”

“We’ll try. But no promises!” I replied, making sure my shotgun was fully loaded as I nodded to Coffin to follow me. “Come on! We have a tank to blow up!”

“You’re crazy, just for the record.”

Ohhhhh yes.

We ran back towards the fighting, Sapphire accompanying us for a short time before breaking off to help up a wounded ghoul who was newly missing part of their leg. Now with just Coffin, we barged our way towards a group of ghoul fighters, including Rot, who were ducked behind the burning remains of one of the outer buildings. I wasn’t sure if the tank got it or the ghouls themselves, but didn’t think too hard as we skidded to a halt.

“Ah, the smoothskins return!” he said too cheerfully as he traded fire with some Enclave soldiers. “Shame about the tank, we all saw that pretty little firework. But maybe now you can focus on, you know, helping those who actually need it.”

“Yeah, we’re on it!” I shot back. “So, other tank?”

“Riiight, our favourite little problem right now. Yeah, we need that thing gone if we’re going to last. The guards are pretty scattered, if that thing goes, we can probably overrun them with numbers alone. But we’re losing too many so long as that thing is up.”

“Not going to just rush them again?”

“Those were AA variants, they struggled to hit ground-side targets,” he shot back. “This thing is very much designed to kill ghouls like us. It’ll take somepony truly insane to want to rush that thing head-on.”

I raised my hoof into the air.

“...Seriously? We could dodge missile pods with enough motivation, but those plasma cannons and railguns? It’s like the Hades tank’s baby cousin of fuck you.”

“Yeah, and I have some big guns too!”

“We really should have kept our resident pegasus…” Coffin sourly remarked.

“Probably,” Rot agreed. “Flight would be another story, but we’re fresh out of pegasi ourselves. At least at this cozy little spot, so if you actually want to get in close, you’re going to have to run.”

Oh, what fun…

“Hey, unless anypony has ANY other way we’re going to take it out?”

Silence.

Yeah, thought so.

“Really wishing we hadn’t lost our Hades…” Coffin said with a sigh. “Okay, if we’re doing this-”

BOOM.

Oh, that railgun shot was close by. That thing seems… uh, eager…

“...Ugh, like I was saying, if we’re doing this we should split up,” Coffin suggested. “Maybe one of will make it close enough to clamber up.”

“Rot, give us some covering fire? Maybe get its attention?” I asked the ghoul.

“Sure, so long as we’re not the ones on the suicide run,” he agreed. “Alright, my little ghouls! The smoothskins wanna play hero, so we’re gonna sit tight and give ‘em some cover while they die like badasses!”

Why do others always have so little faith in our dumb ideas!

“Ready?” I asked Coffin.

“...Sure. Fuck it. Let’s get this done.”

I peered around the corner and glanced towards the tank. It was kicked away some poor slave as they, whether through desperation or pure rage, tried to hit it with a sledgehammer of all things. I waited a moment, counting my own breaths as its turret tracked around in search of targets. I saw some other ghouls move in from the other direction, firing assault rifles at the death machine. The bullets just pinged off of its armour as the thing’s giant guns turned around the eviscerate the attackers.

“Now!”

I moved around the corner and spirited towards the next piece of definable cover, a piece of wreckage a short run across the rocky canyon floor. Gunfire erupted in force behind me, sending the few Enclave soldiers in my way scattering as I rolled into my destination. Coffin also reached his one bit of cover, trading fire with another pony as he pressed himself up against some large metal crates left abandoned in the middle of the battlefield.

I heard some explosions and a stream of magical plasma fire as the green bars of the ghouls I’d seen a moment ago blinked out. Peeking out, I saw the Cerberus tank reposition to fire back at Rot as he and his ghouls ducked back down to avoid the incoming fire.

Okay, shotgun not gonna work for this…

I put the gun away, swapping out to Little Gilda for the added firepower. Holding this thing when it fires is always a challenge, but I should be more ready for it this time…

Okay… now just to get under it…

As I prepared myself, I saw an unarmed slave break cover and make a run for it. As he did, I became aware of another red bar on my E.F.S. moving for them. I looked up, but could do nothing but watch as I saw a power armoured Enclave pony with some kind of large metal boxy-device strapped onto their battle saddle. Its barrel was glowing a bright red, and then in a moment a fucking HUGE red laser erupted from its end and cut across the area in a line. Everything in its path, the slave included, was cleaved in two before the beam cut out with a hiss and a sizable power core was ejected from the weapon.

A rock, a crate kinda like the one Coffin was hiding behind… All cut in two. That thing was like a gatling laser on Party-time Mint-als!

Oh, that had to go.

I lifted Gilda up, pointing the powerful AA gun at the soldier and opening fire! The round cascaded towards the pony, ripping through the power armour with ease and shredding them before they could even reload the crazy weapon! I almost lost my grip on the few moments the thing fired, but I grit my teeth and flared my magic to keep the recoil in check until the deed was done. Maybe I need to fire that thing in shorter bursts...

And then the tank noticed me.

A stream of green magic came my way, and I was forced to drop Little Gilda and fall back behind my little piece of debris to not get melted into sludge! But my cover wasn’t so fortunate, sizzling away and opening me up.

“Spark!” Coffin shouted, making a move to my aid before a burst of bullets from another shoulder ended those plans. He grunted as he ducked back, helpless watching as the tank loomed over me.

Maybe I really should have brought Sapphire in for this…

Fwoosh.

Whatever the death the tank would have given me next, the attack went wide as the vehicle was knocked aside from a sudden barrage of rockets! A gust swept over me as I looked up to see a large quad-turbine vertibuck flying overhead, guns firing and picking away at the tank’s armour!

“That’s right you mothers! Run!” Sergeant Granite’s voice emanated from the vertibuck, amplified by onboard speakers or something! “Spark, get on that PegWing and link to the targeting system! Paint me some hostels!”

Huh?

I opened my PegWing and, sure enough, the vertibuck was attempting to link up with it. Specifically, it wanted access to the on-board S.A.T.S. spell.

Okay, I can work with this.

I accepted, engaging S.A.T.S. and bringing the world to a halt. Things were… a little different than usual, but familiar enough that I got the gist pretty quickly. The interface in my vision seemed to want me to select targets for each of the gunship’s weapons. I selected as many missiles as I could for the tank directly ahead of me, rather keen on finishing it before the tank could recover from the first barrage.

And then I started highlighting ground targets. I saw a group of soldiers attempting to flank rot, so I had one of the guns target the entire group. I selected a few more individual targets, members of the Enclave either fighting with more ghouls or trying to hunt down fleeing slaves.

I used up every option available, targeted as much as I could until the spell reached its limit.

And then I engaged it.

Missiles flew free from the vertibuck, smashing into the Cerberus tank and beating it down in a flurry of fire. It tried to move, but the gunship let loose its whole payload into the collapsing machine as its armour ruptured and the cabin exploded into metal shards and fire. The pilots inside stood no chance as its legs gave out, the tank crashing down into a heap that was never to rise again.

As it did so, the gunship’s side turrets also opened up, unleashing Tartarus onto any Enclave soldier that was standing in its path. Red bars blinked out all around me as I backpedalled towards Coffin, grabbing Little Gilda as I went and placed her pack into my PegWing. Coffin covered me as I came, gunning down one panicking soldier that tried to shoot me in the ass on the way back. When I reached him, I tackled him to the ground and stayed low as hell continued to pass all around us.

Granite did not mess around and, assisted by my S.A.T.S. target lock, the gunship snapped from target to target with supernatural efficiency. Dirt and rock were kicked up by the constant fire, and I had to scrunch my eyes and fold in my ears just from the noise of it all! It was deafening, vibrating the very earth beneath us as the assault seemed to go on forever!

But then, just like that, it ended.

The wasteland became silent again.

I slowly looked up, all gunfire having stopped as Granite’s new toy just hovered above us. What few red bars remained blinked to green as the Enclave ran for their lives, the ghouls all giving victorious cheers as the battle came to a close.

...We’d won. The camp was liberated, the slaves were free.

But I looked around at the bottom of the gorge… And once again the accusations of a filly screaming at the Hellmare rang in my mind. Enclave corpses littered the ground, but so too did a not so small number of ghouls. Slaves and fighters alike, torn up and spat out by the fight I had started.

Started for something we didn’t even get.

Ugh… I feel sick…

And the memory of the Dealer’s laugh just rang in my ears.

“Shit…” Coffin muttered. “Did… did that just happen?”

“Yeah…” I replied, ripping my Enclave combat armour free and tossing it aside. It was pretty fucked anyhow… “Why am I always messing up? Coffin… WHY!?”

“Whoa, Spark. Calm down there…”

“No! In, out, use a tank to clear out the Enclave. Easy! Quick! But no! We got caught, we started a fight that we dragged Rot’s group into and we didn’t even get the Hades tank! I got them killed! Those slaves… more could have lived, but I fucked up! I ALWAYS fuck up! Everything! All this! It’s my FUCKING fault!”

“...What are you-”

“Well, would you look at that…” Oh, and here comes Rot. Doesn’t he look peachy… “You smoothskins actually did it. Nice touch with that vertibuck…”

The ghoul whistles in appreciation, gazing up at the gunship with an approving nod.

“Now THAT we could use. Maybe hit some of the larger mines up by the Badlands. That would be a sight to behold.”

“Oh, well I’m glad YOU are fine with this!”

He just gave me an odd look. “What’s with her?”

“I’m wondering about that myself…” Coffin mused, but then he seemed to stiffen after a moment of studying me.

Ugh, now wha-

“Spark?”

Sapphire…

The pegasus mare approached me, a look of concern on my face. “I heard shouting, are you okay? Injured? I can help…”

“No, not injured, just…” I let out a sigh. I guess there’s no point in just shouting about it, is there? We all know I’m a fuck up. I keep telling myself I can’t fail them again. But I do. Okay? I just do! “Just… How’re the others…?”

“I… I’ve done what I can, but some still need urgent attention,” she answered. “Spark, you don’t look so hot. Really, do you need help with something?”

I sighed. She truly is her mother’s daughter, fussing over me like that… Even when I’m not worth fussing over.

Dammit, and now I’m worrying her over this. I guess I-

“It’s you…”

Coffin?

I looked towards the stallion, the unicorn having removed his helmet and was staring at me with wide, shocked and betrayed eyes…

“You’re her…” he said slowly. “I knew they had gone and hidden something from me. Things didn’t add up… Your skill for being a newbie, but I just figured you were some special operative they’d been hidin’. But… that…”

He pointed at my flank.

Why was he-

Oh.

Oh no.

The fire. It had burned straight through both my armour and my jumpsuit. But that hadn’t been the only thing it had burned away…

On my right flank, my cutie mark decal was gone.

There was no PegWing, just a familiar PipBuck for all the world to see.

Sapphire stared at it, her own eyes going wide as her gaze then shifted to me with renewed understanding.

Oh, Silver Bell is going to kill me…

“You… But… You died. Dad told me, he was there when you died.”

Coffin shook his head. His glare hardened quite significantly for somepony who supposedly idolised me…

“She lied to us. They all did. Just one big lie,” he spat. “Sparkplug, huh? You had us going, but… Why? Why couldn’t you tell us the truth?”

Coffin…

“Why couldn’t you tell, huh? You’re Littlepip. You are the Stable Dweller.”

Footnote: Level 9

New Perk: Quick Draw - Makes weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster.

Author's Note

In case you're interested...

Cerberus Tank:

AA Cerberus: