“It’s… Well… Let's be honest… The place is a nightmare… Radiation, mutation, disease. But the worst part is: my people, some of the only survivors, are slaves. No big deal, you’re thinking? It’s a rough world. But I have the chance to free them. All I need is an outsider’s help before that chance is gone...”

Slavery.

Since the balefire bombs fell and the land of Equestria was plunged into ruin and desolation, pony kind had regressed. Raiders, cruelty, endless and senseless violence. The world that had once been beautiful had devolved into a vile, festering hellhole of uncountable, unimaginable evils.

Every pony knew this, and many fought to fight against this growing corruption, but many's attempts at creating salvation had become twisted themselves, their noble actions being rendered too little more than the atrocities they had hoped to stop. The number of ponies who had been twisted by the notion of making a better tomorrow was staggering, I had even met a few. Red Eye, Pureblood, Silver Ace, even Kamari in his own weird way, all thought that what they were doing was just. That they were the only hope for the future.

If they were the only hope pony kind had, pony kind was doomed to be forever damned.

But there was one evil that rose above all the others. It had grown and spread across the wasteland, thriving in the cruel land Equestria had become. An evil that like many others, had its roots firmly planted in the belief it was justified by the means.

Slavery.

Even the thought of it made me feel sick. How could ponies sleep at night, knowing the atrocities that they had wrought upon their fellow ponies. Was the wasteland not already bad enough? Was the radiation and bloodshed and mutated beasts not bad enough? Were we not bad enough?

No. We had to betray our very virtues and give way to greed and selfishness. We had let the wasteland corrupt us to a point where we had completely lost sight of our morals. We had let the wasteland consume the very thing that made us ponies.

I didn’t know what waited for me beyond the towering steel walls of Fillydelphia or what atrocities I would see in the fire pits and industrial factories, but I knew it had to be stopped. Because if this continued, what real hope was there for pony kind to ever be what it once was?

Golden Chestnut collapsed to the ground, the two slavers above her grinning down at her menacingly as they moved to pin her to the rough terrain. She reached forwards for her fallen shotgun, only for a third slaver to kick it aside, sending it rolling across the ground and sliding underneath the nearby carriage holding all of the slaves.

Chestnut had been trying to get into Fillydelphia to rescue her son for the past week, but too little success. The walls were too well defended, the rough landscape around the city swarming with slavers and Talon mercs. Even a few alicorns had stood between her and the vile city of slavery, though there were notably less of those since the Enclave descended from the sky. She had only managed to make it so close before the slavers were upon her. She had escaped from them a few times now, but her luck had finally run its course.

One of the slavers pinning her down looked her over for a second, a look of recognition crossing his face. “Oh shit, look who it is! Bomb Collars old bitch! Decided to come crawling back to Filly did you? Wasteland not what you had hoped it was?”

Chestnut scowled and tried to kick at him, but the other slaver knocked her back down before she could get a hit in. “Give me back my son you slaving bastard!” She scowled.

“Heh, she’s a strong bitch too,” The slaver chuckled, ignoring her demand and drawing out a revolver that had been strapped to his leg with his magic. “And a Unicorn. Stern’s going to be very happy to have you back in chains, cunt.”

Then the slaver's head exploded, bits of brain matter and skull fragments bursting outwards and coating Chestnut and other slaver holding her down in gore. The slaver's body dropped to the ground, his revolver hitting the ground as his field of magic dissipated.

The slaver that was a few feet back whirled around in surprise, their own weapon raising to aim at the new intruder that had just entered the fray. Before he could fire off a shot, his own head burst open, another well aimed shot from a shotgun ripping through his skull.

“The fuck is g-” The final slaver didn’t have time to finish his sentence when a blast from a magical energy rifle slashed through his neck. His body went rigid for a second, a small drizzle of blood spilling from where the burning beam of magical light had failed to cauterize his wound. Then he stumbled, his body glowing a bright blue as it slowly dissolved into ash.

Chestnut pulled back, trying to get behind cover before the lethal new attacker had a chance to fire off a shot at her. She managed to pull herself behind a large rock and push up behind it, bracing her legs for the incoming attack.

Something flew over her head and rolled to a stop by her hooves. Chestnut flinched back, expecting a grenade to rip her apart with shrapnel and fire.

Nothing exploded.

She cautiously peeked open an eye, making out the shape of her combat shotgun sitting in the ash in front of her. Quickly retrieving it in her magic, she pulled herself a little higher and peeked over the top of the rock”

“Amber?”

I gave her a half smile as I raised Braeburn’s Liberator in my magic and slammed the back end against the rusted lock on the slavers cage. There was a loud clunk as the near indestructible gun rammed against the flimsy lock, shattering it and letting the cage door swing open with a creak. I took a step back, taking in all the now freed slaves shocked faces.

“Scarlet, can you help them get moving quickly? We probably don’t have long before more slavers show up,” I asked, looking over to where Scarlet was digging around through the fallen slavers belongings. She nodded and quickly moved to help out the freed slaves.

I turned to the rock Chestnut was still bunkered behind and trotted towards her. “Hey, you okay?”

Chestnut gave me a shocked nod. “I am now. Thanks for the help there,” she looked Scarlet and I over for a second before letting her gaze settle on my face. “It’s good to see you, but.. What the fuck are you doing out here?”

I turned and looked at the towering walls of Fillydelphia, only a few minutes walk away. We were standing in the middle of the ruined outskirts of Filly, our surroundings consisting of little more than dunes of ash, rock and a few broken down houses. “My friends are inside. I’m here to get them out.”

“That’s going to be difficult,” Chestnut asserted, standing up and trotting towards me. “I’ve been trying to get in since we last parted out by Fetlock. Red Eye doesn’t take chances with his slaves.”

“You're still trying to get your son out of there?” I asked, looking away from her and towards the looming steel walls in the distance. I could see large smokestacks pumping black fog and crimson flame into the air beyond the walls, filling the air with a thick smog.

Chestnut gave me a stern look. “Yes. I am. And I’m not giving up until he's free of that awful place.”

I gave her as soft of a smile as I could. “Sounds like we both want to break some ponies out of there. Are you interested in helping us out? Break our friends out together?”

Chestnut looked me over for a few more seconds before returning my smile. “Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice,” She lifted up her shotgun and cast Fillydelphia a scowl. “It would be my pleasure to kill those bastards with you again.”

Scarlet trotted over to us, passing me over ten shotgun shells she had scavenged off of one of the fallen Slavers bodies. “All the slaves are on their way. I hope they can make it. They've still got a few hour walk to get back to Manehattan.”

I thankfully took the shells and loaded three of them into my shotgun. “So do I… How is your horn doing?”

“Still horn burnout,” Scarlet grumbled, giving her horn a grumpy glare. “I doubt I’ll have my magic back until we’re out of Filly,” She turned to look at Chestnut. “You must be Golden Chestnut. Amber told me about you on the way here.”

Chestnut nodded, extending her hoof for a hoof bump. Scarlet quickly moved to fill the gap with her own hoof. “I am. And you are?”

“Scarlet Dusk,” Scarlet replied simply.

“You planning to break somepony out of Filly as well?”

Scarlet grimaced. “Just Amber's friends at the moment. But let's just say that I have a personal vendetta against Red Eyes operations here.”

“You were a slave here once too?” Scarlet nodded a response, making Chestnut’s expression soften. “I’m sorry to hear that. Filly likes to break you. I’m glad you made it out.”

“You’ve escaped Fillydelphia before, right?” I asked, taking a step towards Chestnut. “Maybe we could get in now the way you got out then?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last couple of days. There’s a large storm grate in the side of the wall. Leads right into Filly, so long as you don’t mind getting a few rads,” Chestnut explained. “But it’s guarded by a squad of Talon mercs and to get there we’d have to get passed a few miles of slaver territory.”

“Is there any other way In?” Scarlet asked nervously. “I’m guessing we can’t just get through the front gate, and something tells me trying to disguise ourselves as a slave to get in would be a bad idea.”

Yikes. Pretending to be a slave to get into Fillydelphia sound like it was just asking for trouble. I wanted to avoid a plan that dangerous if I could help it.

“Don’t know, how’d you escape?” Chestnut turned and gave Scarlet a suspicious glare. “You must have found a way out somehow?”

Scarlet dropped her gaze and drew a small circle in the ash with the tip of her hoof. “I, um… They let me go…”

Chestnut raised an eyebrow sceptically. “They let you go? How the fuck did they let you go?”

Scarlet took a small step back. “Crank got them to release me. He-”

“Wait, are you talking about that cybernetic freak Amber here was traveling with?” Chestnut’s eyes widened a little in surprise.

Scarlet’s eyes narrowed in turn. “He wasn’t a freak!”

I quickly pushed myself between the two of them. “Both of you, calm down. We can talk about all this later. Right now we need to figure out a way into and out of Fillydelphia and I’m on a bit of a time crunch at the moment, so if we can do it without arguing, that would be great,” I turned my attention more directly towards Chestnut. “Do you think you and Scarlet would be able to get through the storm grate if I caused a distraction?”

Chestnut mulled that around in her head for a second. “It’ll be difficult, but possible. How are you going to get in?”

“We could ambush them from behind once we get inside the grate?” Scarlet suggested, her hostile expression fading away. “Would that work?”

“It would, but we’d have to wait for a few moments inside of the grate, and it’s filled with Radiation. So unless you two are carrying around a large stash of Rad-X or Radaway, we’re going to need to think of something else.”

I glanced over at Scarlet. “How much Radaway do we have left from the Institute?”

Scarlet smirked. “Lots. We grabbed half their supply. We aren’t going to be running out any time soon.”

Chestnut looked back and forth between us in confusion. “Wait… the Institute? I thought that place was just a myth? First the Enclave decides to come down from their comfy little lives in the clouds and now you're talking about the fucking Institute? What the fuck have you two been up to these last couple days?”

“It’s a long story,” I said flatly. “Suffice to say it's not a myth and if we don’t get my friends out of Filly quickly, the Institute is going to become a big problem for everypony in the wasteland.”

Chestnut looked at me for a long moment before nodding. “Yeah. If you make a distraction, Scarlet and I can sneak in. We’ll ambush the guards when they come back.”

I nodded and gave her a smile. “Alright then. Seems simple enough.”

Getting into Fillydelphia was many things, but being simply was not one of them. It seemed that every minute or so we would have to duck behind a pile of rubble or inside of a broken house to avoid detection from the hundreds of slaver patrols and caravans that maneuvered through the outskirts of Fillydelphia. The closer we got, the more abundant the slavers seemed to get.

After what felt like a few hours, I began to make out the large gateway into Fillydelphia that I had briefly been taken to on my first visit off to our right. There seemed to be more guards there than normal, probably due to the sudden appearance of the Enclave out by Maripony. Not that guarding a gate was going to stop an army of flying Pegasi.

“That’s the storm grate,” I heard Chestnut whisper, pulling up beside me as the three of us hid behind a large pile of broken concrete and junk.

I followed her hoof to a large hole in the wall not all that far away from us. It was a few feet above the ground, but not high enough that climbing into it would be any difficulty. A steady stream of foul, irradiated water spilled from it, sloshing down into a makeshift moat of radiation that circled the hellish cities perimeter.

Just as Chestnut had suggested, five hardened looking griffins in dark combat armour stood at attention just before the grate. Each one was armed with what appeared to be an assault rifle. I could only pray to Celestia that there weren’t more on the other side.

I gave a nod and looked over my shoulder at Scarlet and Chestnut. “Alright, as soon as they are out of sight, make a run for the grate.”

They both nodded. Scarlet took a step forward and gave me a quick hug. “Try not to die before we even get into the city.”

I gave her a smirk. “I’ve faced worse than some angry chickens,” For someone that was feeling broken and defeated only a few hours ago, I was in an oddly cocky mood. I suppose escaping the Institute can do that to you. How bad could Fillydelphia be by comparison?

I need to stop jinxing myself...

I slowly pulled myself out from behind the rubble and started trotting towards the grate in full view of the griffins. Probably not my most thought out plan, but it was sure to catch their attention.

Sure enough, they all swivelled their heads to face me as soon as I got within shouting distance. A few seconds later, I was being confronted with the barrels of five fully loaded assault rifles.

“How the Fuck did you get here!?” A large griffin with tattered looking wings growled at me, taking an intimidating step towards me. “You have five seconds to explain yourself before we fill your pink ass with lead!”

Despite my shaking legs, I puffed out my chest and did my best not to look intimidated by the array of weapons aimed at my head. “I was hoping you could point me in the direction of Stern? I have a very specific and not so appropriate hoof gesture I would like to share with her.”

All the griffins gave off a menacing scowl in unison. “That’s it bitch! You’re fucking dead! No pony insults a Talon!”

I gave a yelp as the griffins surged forwards and lunged at me, their assault rifles firing off shot after shot in my direction as I scrambled to find some cover. One of the shots whizzed past my face, only barely grazing my cheek.

I leaped behind a broken down house, landing hard on my side as I dove to avoid being turned into paste by the hail of bullets that were suddenly being sent my way. I pulled myself up and peeked around the side of the ruined building, making out the shapes of the griffins that were pursuing me. I groaned as I saw that they had left two of them to stand guard at the grate. Clearly these Talon mercs were smarter than I gave them credit for.

Fuck! Why can’t all guards be stupid like they were in my books back in the Stable?

On the bright side, I was pretty sure that Scarlet and Chestnut could take out two griffin guards. I had seen Chestnut take out far worse in the Hollow Shades and Scarlet wasn’t one to go down easily.

The griffin with the tattered wings saw me poking my head around the side of the wall and took aim at me. I yanked my head back, the stream of bullets ripping through the corner of the wall and showering me with bits of dust and shattered cement.

Yikes, time for me to move.

I reeled back, spinning around and making a beeline for another large structure a few feet away from me. I doubted I would be able to outrun griffins, but I could probably out maneuver them if I got in close quarters.

I made it to the door when the first Griffin came charging around the side of the structure I had just been hiding behind. Gunfire filled the air as their assault rifle ripped into the spot I had been standing not moments before. The griffin looked around, clearly surprised that I was no longer there.

Grinning, I stuck my tongue out at him and chucked a hunk of rubble at him with my magic. The small rock collided with his head, making him stagger to the side and let loose a less than flattering squawk. The griffin spun around and glared at me, their eagle eyes narrowing into thin slits.

I didn’t waste any time charged into the broken building as I saw the other two griffins charge around the corner. The entry room inside as it would turn out was in more disarray than I had expected. Most of the hallways had caved in and only a large staircase that led to the floors above remained intact.

Groaning that I wasn’t going to be able to lose them inside, I started rushing up the steps. The stairs had begun to crumble over the years, making the whole staircase slope at a dangerous angle. I had to put most of my effort into not slipping as one of the steps broke away as I stepped on it.

Two of the griffins barged into the building, both of their rifles already aimed at me and ready to fire. “There she is!” I opened my mouth to respond with something witty, but both of the griffins opened fire before I got the option. I dove up the last couple steps, bullet ripping into the walls behind me as the griffins attempted to fill me with holes.

“Damn it! Don’t let her escape!” I heard one of the griffins screeching. I heard the sound of flapping wings as both griffins took to the air and began speeding after me.

Funny, shouldn’t the third griffin have joined them by now?

I turned a corner and darted down a side hall, jumping over a collapsed wall that blockaded the bottom half of the hallway. I heard yells of anger bellowing after me as the griffins gave chase. As soon as the griffins turned into the hallway as well, their guns opened fire, spraying down the hallway after me.

I rolled to the ground, the griffins fire spewing over my head and missing me by mere inches. Braeburn’s Liberator floated up behind me in a field of my magic and fired off a shot of my own down the hallway at them. I heard a griffin give a shout of pain as the explosive buckshot tore through their wing.

Pushing off with my hind legs, I shot the rest of the way down the hallway and lunged for the staircase leading to the next floor. My legs ached as I began racing up the steps for all I was worth.

It was moments like these that I wished I had worked out more back in Stable 25. I was not built for running… or any physical activity for that matter. Celestia only knows how I’ve survived this long.

Behind me I heard one of the griffins growl. “You keep going! I’ll cut her off!” There was the sound of hooves and claws pounding against the ground as one of the griffins continued to give pursuit followed shortly by the loud shattering of glass.

Not bothering to look behind me, I reached the next floor and moved to ascend the next flight of steps. I quickly realized I was rapidly running out of floors. What was I supposed to do once I reached the top?

A bullet slammed into the wall next to me, making me jump. I glanced back, making out the shape of the griffin whose wing I had shredded, rushing up after me and very quickly gaining on me. I should have known I wouldn’t be able to outrun something that was half lion and had wings. Damn my short sightedness.

The griffin lunged forwards, their sharp talons reaching to slice at my hind legs. I jumped to the side, dodging the attack and bucking backwards for all I was worth. My hind legs collided with the griffin's face. I heard a loud snap and a scream as something in their beak broke.

Shrieking, the griffin stumbled back, giving me time to rush forwards and get out of melee range. I hauled myself up to a landing on the stairs and moved to rush up the next set when there was a loud smash and the second griffin that had chased me into the building burst through the window on the floor above, blocking my path.

I skidded to a halt, looking back and forth as the two griffins closed in on me, one coming down the stairs and one charging up the way I had just come. I scowled and turned to the wall next to me. It was standing, but only barely. Two hundred years in the wasteland had not been kind to it.

I spun and bucked at the wall. I felt a bit of it crumble and a large crack shot up its front. Grunting, I reeled back and bucked again, this time feeling just a little bit more of the wall give way.

“You’re not getting out of this bitch!” One of the griffins shouted. “We’ll show you what happens when you mess with Talons!”

The griffin rushing down the stairs at me fired off their assault rifle. I moved to the side, trying to get out of the way of the shots that flashed by my face. One of the shots made home in my forehoof, dropping me to the ground. I screamed, clutching at the bloody hole that had been ripped into my leg.

Gritting my teeth, I grabbed onto the wall with my magic and gave as hard of a yank as I could. There was a loud crack, followed by the wall crumbling away and giving me a view of the wasteland beyond.

Almost immediately, the third and final griffin that had not entered the structure after me shot through the hole I had just created, barreling into me and sending me tumbling to the ground. I wheezed, dust from the collapsing wall filling my lungs as I tried to take deep breaths of air. I felt a talon wrap around my neck as the large griffin lunged on top of me and pinned me down.

“Did you really think you could just waltz up to the Fillydelphia wall and not have any repercussions?” The griffin mocked, twisting their head to the side slightly and staring down at me with one of their eagle eyes.

My eyes darted out the large hole in the wall I had made, making out the shape of the storm grate down below. Both Griffin guards that had remained now lay broken and bloody, most likely Chestnuts work.

“Wait a second. Ain’t that the bitch that Red Eye put a hit out for a few weeks back?” One of the griffins asked, trotting over and looking me over closer. There was a moment of silence as the three griffins recognized me. Slowly a wide smile spread across all of their beaks. “It is! Throw her in chains! Sterns going to love this.”

“Thought the bitch would be smarter,” One of the griffins drawled, pulling out a pair of shackles and moving towards me. “With the kind of reward Red Eye put on her, I thought she’d be some sort of challenge.”

The griffin that was pinning me down narrowed his eyes at me. “She is smarter…” He cocked his head again in confusion. “Why the fuck would you be so…” Their eyes widened as a realization passed over them. “Fucking shit! She’s distracting us!”

Welp, that was my que to go.

“Gotcha,” I smirked. I craned my neck back to look at the storm grate down below, letting my amber magic flare around my horn.

“Oh no you don’t!” The griffin above me screamed. Their free talon raised, preparing to slash out my throat. The second his talon came within inches of my neck, I dissipated in a flash of amber light.

I popped back into existence a few feet away from the storm grate, my head reeling from the exhausting act of teleportation. Though my ability to teleport was getting better, I had still missed my mark, but I was close enough. I heard the griffins screaming in anger as they took to the air and began swooping down towards me.

I scrambled forwards, stumbling towards the storm grate in the wall. My wounded leg gave out from under me, sending me stumbling into the radioactive stream that ran along the base of the wall. I flailed my legs, trying my best to stay above the surging rapids as the murky water surged around me.

The sloshing water from the storm grate above poured down atop me, sucking me under the water. I thrashed frantically, trying to reach the surface, only for my efforts to seem to drag me down deeper and deeper into the murk. Radioactive fluids pushed their way past my lips, depriving me of what little air I had managed to store in my lungs before I went under.

Had I still had my pipbuck, I’m sure my geiger counter would have been click click clicking up a storm.

I felt a field of magic wrap around me and start lifting me out of the water. A second later, my head broke the surface, water bursting from my muzzle and I felt the wonderful feeling of air once more surging into my lungs.

I glanced up, making out Chestnut standing in the storm grate above, her horn glowing as she pulled me up into the grate with her. Scarlet crawled up next to her, reaching out and helping to pull me the rest of the way into the storm grate.

They hauled me up into the sewage tunnel, radioactive water rushing from my lips as I heaved and tried to dispel as much of the foul fluid from my system as I could.

“What’s going on? I thought we were going to surprise attack them when they came back?” Chestnut asked, trying to help me back to my hooves.

“No time. Turns out griffins are smarter than I gave them credit for, now run!” I sputtered between each of my coughing gags.

A few shots slammed into the edge of the storm grate as the three approaching griffins came within firing range. Scarlet and Chestnut stumbled back, trying to move away from the edge and avoid being shot.

“We need to go, now!” Scarlet stated, turning and beginning to move down the small tunnel. It wasn’t very long, only stretching from one side of the large wall to the other.

I moved to follow after her, using Chestnut as a crutch to keep from falling as pain shot up my wounded leg.

“They’re in the tunnel!” One of the griffins shouted, soaring down and landing behind us. They raised their gun to fire, only for a shot from Chestnut’s combat shotgun to rip through their neck, dropping them to the ground dead.

I ducked as the last two griffins swooped into the tunnel, their assault rifles blazing as they fired off a steam of shots towards us. I lost my grip on Chestnut, stumbling to the ground and splashing into the rushing water along the bottom of the tunnel.

One of the griffins rushed forwards, lunging at me with outstretched talons. I crawled back, their attack missing my throat by inches and their talons raking across the curved walls of the tunnel. I twisted, trying to buck back at them, but they quickly flapped their wings and moved out of my reach.

A blast from Scarlet's energy rifle lanced through the griffin's wing a second later, making them stagger in the air and drop back to the tunnel floor. It growled, snapping its beak at us, only for a blast from Chestnut’s shotgun to rip through its leg and send them toppling to the ground.

“Fuck!” The griffin shouted, clutching at their bleeding leg with a talon in an attempt to stop the blood flow. Their head snapped to the side to look at the other griffin. “Tell Stern we got us a problem!”

The griffin was silenced as a blast from Scarlet's magical energy rifle lashed through their throat, their body slumping to the ground and their blood flowing from their body and mingling with the rushing water on the tunnel floor. But it was too late, his order had already gone out.

The final griffin took a step back with a snarl, spreading their wings and darting out of the tunnel. Chestnut growled and fired off a shot towards them, the buckshot missing by inches and ricocheting off the metal walls as the agile griffin quickly dodged to the side. A second later, the griffin was gone and out of sight, flying off to alert the rest of the city of our arrival.

Mere moments later, we burst out of the far side of the tunnel, finally moving into Red Eyes industrial nightmare of Fillydelphia itself. Almost immediately I was hit with a wave of boiling heat and my already heaving lungs filled with the thick smoke. The clanking of chains, cracking of whips and agonized screams of slaves that I had heard muffled and distant from the far side of the wall suddenly hit me in full force, ringing loudly in my ears and drawing out my other senses.

The massive industrial skyscraper-like factories that comprised much of Fillydelphia were intermixed with what appeared to be a huge roller coaster and a giant ferris wheel loomed far in the distance. Far above me, I could see Fillydelphia’s trademark Pinkie Pie balloons slowly circling in the sky.

Scarlet and Chestnut paused, both of them looking up at the towering industrial factories and smokestacks that loomed before us in the thick red haze of Fillydelphia. Both of their eyes were wide, their pupils pinpricks as they took in the ghastly slaver city they had once hoped to have been long behind them.

“I had hoped never to come back here…” Chestnut muttered under her breath as she slowly took in the hellish landscape around her. Scarlet gave a stunned, silent nod of agreement.

“Come on, we need to go,” I said, trying to struggle forward despite the throbbing bullet wound in my leg and the heaving of my lungs. “We’re going to have tons of slavers on us in any second.”

Chestnut nodded and moved to lift me onto her back. I attempted to protest, claiming I could walk on my own, but she simply shushed me. “We need to get somewhere safe where we can patch you up. You aren’t saving anypony like that,” She turned to Scarlet and gave her a questioning look. “Any idea on where we might find some place like that?”

Scarlet shook her head. “I don’t think a place like that exists in this city,” She glanced around, trying to find anything of use. “We can probably take shelter in an abandoned building somewhere. I doubt Red Eye has managed to repurpose them all. Even he only has so much power.”

Chestnut nodded. “There is an abandoned section of the city that has too much radiation to stay in for long periods of time. I hid there when my husband and I tried to escape Filly a few years back. Since we have all that Radaway, that shouldn’t be much of an issue for us. We can hide there for now,” She glanced up at the sky, a worried look on her face. “And we probably don’t have long until that griffin tells somepony that we’re here. Given time, we’ll have half the city looking for us.”

“They recognized me,” I added as Scarlet and Chestnut began trotting forwards, keeping to the shadows best they could. “And last time I checked, Stern doesn’t like me very much.”

“Then we’re going to have all the city looking for us,” Chestnut grumped. She turned and gave me a small glare. “Do you ever get yourself into situations that aren’t simply the worst?”

I gave her a sheepish smile. “Nope.”

“Save them for my friends. Just wrap it up and I'll be fine,” I repeated, pushing the healing potion that Scarlet was offering me away. “My friends are going to need it more than I do. I’ve dealt with worse than a bullet wound.”

“Of course you have. Everypony in the wasteland has had worse at some point or another. Doesn’t change the fact a bullet in your leg is a fucking bullet in your leg,” Scarlet retorted, giving off an oddly uncharacteristic huff. “I don’t care if your friends are missing a limb. It won’t matter if you die of blood loss or we're forced to amputate do to gangrene before you reach them.”

“Crank fought his whole way through Fillydelphia alone and on four broken legs to rescue you. I think I can handle a single bullet. Save it for my friends, we only have three healing potions left,” I pushed again, my voice sounding slightly angry this time.

Scarlet's eyes narrowed at me. “Don’t you go trying to pull the Crank card on me. You aren’t physically as strong as he was and you know it.”

“Amber, just take the stupid potion,” Chestnut growled, moving away from the shattered window and turning back to face us. “Chances are Mirra is unhurt. Red Eye doesn’t hurt children. He locks them up in his schools and brainwashes them, but he doesn’t hurt them. His filly mines are just a myth. That still leaves two potions for Brisk and Xayah. Now take the damn potion.”

I let a frown settle on my face for a moment before groaning and drinking the healing potion. A few seconds later, I felt the itching of skin and muscle tissue regrowing over the hole the griffins shot had punctured in my leg.

I let out a small sigh of relief as the pain dissipated and I felt the strength to stand properly once again return. After a few seconds of stretching to make sure that all my parts were in working order, I turned to face my two friends. “Alright, we need a plan of attack. We have four ponies that we need to save and a whole city that wants us dead or in chains. Any ideas?”

“It’s not going to be easy,” Scarlet stated, finally pulling away from my leg and passing a Radaway to each of us. “I mean, they could be anywhere in the city for all we know.”

“Not anywhere. Tinker is most likely in Red Eyes school,” Chestnut elaborated, taking the Radaway for herself. “Mirra too, most likely.

“Assuming Red Eye didn’t want to dissect a changeling for science purposes,” Scarlet pitched in.

Chestnut gave us another surprised look. “Wait wait? A changeling? I met Mirra briefly on the train, but I had no idea she was a…” She turned and gave me a glare. “I will ask again. What the fuck have you been up to these last few weeks? Are there any other big surprises you plan on springin’ on me before the night is through?”

“In five days an aristocratic brain in a jar is going to mind rape the whole wasteland with a giant memory orb, Red Eye controls the Institute and Scarlet and I here are actually synths,” I stated flatly. “That should about sum it all up. Any questions?”

Chestnut continued to stare at me with a slack jaw. After a few seconds, she shut her mouth and took a deep breath. “Alright. Um. Yeah. Cool. Okay… So Tinker and Mirra are most likely in Red Eye’s school assuming Mirra isn’t or hasn’t already been dissected…”

I really didn’t want to think about Mirra being dissected as an option. Instead I chose to bring up a different topic. “Tinker. Is that your son?”

Chestnut nodded solemnly. “I had promised him that I would never let him get taken away from his family like I was taken away from mine… I guess I failed that promise.”

“We’ll get him back. Don’t worry,” I stated flatly, patting her softly on the shoulder. "I promised something to somepony once too. Now I'm here to break them out after I broke that promise. I'm going to make sure I make all this right... Somehow..."

“Well that means there's a good chance half of the ponies we’re looking for are going to be in the same place,” Scarlet thought aloud. “Seems like a good place to start.”

“Mirra has an incredible sense of smell too,” I added, thinking of my small changeling friend. “Once she’s with us, we can probably use that ability to help locate Brisk and Xayah.

Scarlet gave me a worried look. “And you’re ready to face Xayah again? After what happened between you?”

I found it suddenly very difficult to meet Scarlet's gaze. “Doesn’t matter what happens between the two of us after this, or even if we remain friends. I won't let her or any of my friends rot in this awful place.”

A sad look crossed over Scarlet's face. “Of course…”

“Well, as great as that is, that still leaves one rather large problem,” Chestnut grunted, drawing both of our focuses back to her. “Red Eyes school just so happens to be one of the most secure buildings in Filly. Not to mention on the opposite side of the fucking city. We still need to figure out how to get there without being detected as well as how to get in and out.”

I grimaced. The more I tried to piece a plan together, the more impossible this whole breakout attempt seemed to be. “Filly was a city before it was a slaver empire. It probably has a sewer system we can use, right? Could we sneak through those?”

A concerned look crossed Chestnut's face. “It’s possible. I heard rumors of the metro tunnels under Filly being the stuff of nightmares once. Something about creatures that smell like rot and mint? I can’t really remember, but I know that even Red Eye didn’t want to go down there. I've never heard a pony mention a sewer system, but I suppose it would be strange if there wasn’t one.”

The idea that something scared even Red Eye was a terrible one.

“Is it possible Red Eye had all the sewers blocked to prevent slaves from using them to escape?” Scarlet posed. “It wouldn’t be unlike him to make escape as impossible as he can.”

Chestnut shook her head in response. “Red Eye is always babbling on about returning the city to its former glory. Unity and all that shit. I doubt he’d destroy the sewer tunnels. I do find it more likely he's positioned guards down there though if they exist.”

“Guards that are probably going to be on the lookout for defenceless slaves, not armed wastelanders,” I annotated. “Even if there are guards down there, there’s a good chance we can take them out long before they have any chance of sounding an alarm, and by the time their bodies are found, we’ll be long gone.”

There was a moment of silence as we all let the plan sink in. I think we were all hoping somepony would come up with a better one.

No pony did.

Sewers it was.

There was a small splash as I dropped down onto the floor of the sewer tunnel. I glanced up, watching as Chestnut pulled the sewage grate above us back into position, sending us into near darkness.

I splashed around for a second in the water with my hoof. The water rose up to my fetlock, coating my hide in a thick brown slime. It reminded me a lot of the sewers I was in on my first night out of the Stable, only this one was grosser and much, much bigger.

Why is it I always end up traveling to the most disgusting places. I wish I hadn’t made such a habit out of this.

“Unless my sense of direction is more off than I think… which granted is very possible, we should need to be heading that way,” Chestnut said, illuminating the dark sewage tunnel with her horn and looking down a dark looking tunnel to our right. I nodded and began following after her as she moved to head down the passage, Scarlet following closely behind me.

We were silent for a long time as we walked, the only sound being the quiet sloshing of sewage water as we waded through the murk and the occasional cough. The sounds of distant echoes seemed to ruminate above us as the far off sounds of Fillydelphia’s horrors raged on in the streets above us.

After a few long moments of silence, I picked up my pace a little and moved in step beside Chestnut. “So your son, Tinker… tell me about him?”

Chestnut cast me a sideways glance before returning her gaze to the dark tunnel ahead of us. “He’s a good kid. Likes fixing and reprogramming robots and the like. Not something I could ever do. Got his cutie mark a year ago when Salt Water was teaching him how to fix a broken terminal. You’d like him.”

I cast my eyes down at my submerged hooves as we walked. “I didn’t know Salt Water tutored your son. You must have known him really well. I’m sorry he didn’t make it out of the caves below the Hollow Shades.”

Chestnut shrugged. “My husband and I knew him pretty well, Bolder too. Tinker knew him better. Salt Water was far from the only friend I lost in the Hollow Shades Massacre. Only one of many… I miss all of them.”

I nodded, not really knowing how to properly respond. I hadn’t known Salt Water or Bolder very well, but I had lost ponies that I cared about. I knew how much it hurt to lose friends. I could only imagine how many good ponies had died when Red Eye took over the Hollow Shades.

“Do you two hear that?” Scarlet piped up from behind us. We all paused, our ears perked as we listened to the distant echoes that reverberated through the tunnel. Then I heard what Scarlet was talking about.

Hoof steps. They were muffled by the sloshing of water, but they were still clearly there. And they were getting closer.

“Chestnut, cut the lights,” I hissed, instinctively taking a step back.

Chestnut’s horn went dead, sending us into complete darkness. A second later I heard a stallion grunt. “Fuckin’ shit. Next time I get stuck in fucking sewer duty, I want to be stationed with a fucking unicorn. Or at the very least, get a flashlight. This is fucking ridiculous.”

“Just be glad you ain't on crater duty. A little darkness is nothing compared to that shit. Even the slavers don’t like being a part of that. One rip in your suit and your fuckin’ done for,” I heard a second slaver growl back. Their voices seemed to be fast approaching as the trotted down the filthy tunnel.

“The slaves seem to survive fine without suits,” The other slaver quipped back.

There was a cruel laugh from the second slaver. “Is that supposed to be some kinda joke? Most slaves don't last three days in the crater. Not to mention the terrible blistering. They all look like a walking fucking scab after a while.”

The voices and sloshing of hoof steps grew louder, so loud I figured they must be right in front of us by this point. I quickly stepped to the side, careful not to make any noise and pulling Scarlet and Chestnut with me. The sound of ponies wading through the sewage grew, then slowly began to taper off as the two slavers passed us.

I was about to let out a loud breath of relief when the hoof steps stopped. My breath caught in my throat as I heard the two slavers come to a complete halt and turn around.

“Did you hear that?” I heard one of them grunt, this time in a much more hushed tone.

I hadn’t heard anything, but clearly they had because a few seconds later, the other responded with. “Yeah… you think somepony is down here?” another pause. “You don’t think it’s those three wastelanders that griffin reported do you?”

I heard the sloshing hoof steps begging to grow closer again. Beside me, I felt Chestnut slowly raise her combat shotgun up with her mouth to face toward the supposed location of the slavers.

“Might be some slaves trying to escape?” I heard the two slavers once more come to a stop, this time only a few inches away from me. I could feel their vile, hot breath rasping across my face as I waited in silence in the darkness.

Slowly, they began to step back. “Must have been the wind or some shit. Nothin’ seems to be there now.”

“The damn Enclave comin’ down has us all fuckin’ on edge. We’re all jumpin’ at our own shadows at this point,” The other grunted in agreement as they began to move farther and farther away. “Now lets hurry up and get this fuckin’ shift over. I heard there's a new batch of slaves and I’ve been itching for a new bitch to rut.”

The second slaver began to laugh, only for a blast of magical energy to lance through the tunnel and slash him across the throat. The slaver staggered, blood gurgling in their mouth before they stumbled and fell into the murky water, dead.

The second slaver spun around, eyes wide as he turned to face us. A second beam of energy lanced through his eye, burning off the hide from his face and causing a burst of viscera and brain matter to shoot from the back of his head. Like the first Slaver, they managed to stay standing for less than a second before they collapsed to the tunnel floor with a splash.

Chestnut and I turned in surprise, making out the grim expression on Scarlet's face as the end of her magical energy rifle slowly died down. “They should have kept their mouth shut,” She grunted, turning from us and continuing down the tunnel.

The next few minutes were spent in complete silence. None of us had anything to say and I was still ruminating on whether or not Scarlet should have killed those slavers. One one hoof, they were slavers and had just admitted to being rapists as well, on the other, that whole interaction could have gone completely violence free. No pony had needed to die.

I rubbed my head with a hoof as I tried to sort out all my thoughts. Once upon a time Xayah had referred to my virtue as morality. I hadn’t understood what she meant at the time, my lack of knowledge of what I had done to all those raider children grossly throwing me out of context. But the more I traversed the wasteland and the more I began to understand myself, the more that statement had begun to make sense.

I always knew what was right. Or at least, I used to. I had let my naive, Stable dweller mind think that all acts could fit into either good or evil, and that so long as you could justify it, it was okay.

But my time in the wasteland had made me realize something else as well. I learned that sometimes there simply isn’t a good option. Sometimes the good option is to do evil.

What a fucked up world this is...

I wondered if that virtue of morality that Xayah had casually bestowed upon me all those weeks ago still held any truth. A lot had changed since then, both in the wasteland and to me. I didn't feel like the same Amber Aura that left the Stable. I defiantly didn't act like her still. Hell, I didn't even really look like her anymore, not through all the scars and muck.

“This should be it… I think...” Chestnut grunted, stopping beside a ladder that led up to a closed storm grate. “Are you all ready?”

I glanced up at the storm grate above us. “What should we expect to face up there?”

Chestnut gave me a grumpy looking shrug. “How the fuck am I supposed to know. I might have escaped Filly once before, but I’ve never been in the sewer systems. Let alone tried to break into Red Eyes very own fucking residence. I was trying to escape in the opposite direction thanks.”

My eyes widened. “Wait! Red Eye’s schools are in the same place he lives?” Something told me this place was going to be even more heavily defended than I had initially thought.

“When he's actually in Fillydelphia, yeah,” Chestnut commented. “Last I heard though, he was out in the Everfree forest somewhere. There will probably still be tons of security, but hopefully that means there will be a little bit less.”

Slowly, we crawled up the creaking ladder and pushed open the grate above us, once more emerging into the red tinted nightmare of Fillydelphia. I spotted our destination at once, a massive black spire of metal that rose from the centre of the industrial city. A large metal wall topped with barbed wire had been built around it, blocking us off from storming the front gates. The only entrance through, a large iron gate, was protected by four rotating turrets and a squad of at least ten slavers.

The three of us bunkered down behind a crumbling wall and looked out at the metal wall between us and the massive structure we were heading towards. I had to duck down as a few slavers looked in our direction. Seeing how no pony started shouting or shooting at us, I can only assume they hadn’t spotted us yet.

“We’re going to need to find another way in,” Scarlet mumbled, peeking back over the pile of debris that had once been a house. “There’s no way we’re fighting our way through all of that.”

I scanned the wall for anything we could use to help us get past the wall's defences. Nothing seemed to stand out.

Eventually, I let my gaze wander to a broken down factory beside our target destination. The factory, as broken down as it was, seemed to have been restored to working order, a fiery red glow emanating from many of the windows and the sound of grinding machinery and jangling chains could be heard even from this distance. A few slavers trotted in and out of the structure, dragging slaves on leashes or herding them forwards with violent cracks of their whips.

I let my eyes travel up the side of the building until they came to a rest on a thick looking power line that stretched from the top floor of the factory to the side of the large tower we had hoped to enter. I quickly pointed it out.

“Would that help us any?” I asked, gesturing to the wire. When Scarlet and Chestnut gave me a confused look, I elaborated. “We could zipline down the wire into the other building. Go over top of the wall.”

Both of my friends cast each other worried looks. Eventually Chestnut sighed. “Better plan than anything I can think up. Lets go.”

We began creeping our way over to the large factory, making sure to stay out of sight as groups of slavers moved back and forth, patrolling the area. We quickly slipped behind a large metal crate and peeked around, watching as a group of slavers pulled up to the entrance of the factory with a slave pulled cart of supplies. A long line of other slave pulled wagons had lined up behind them, waiting for their turn to enter the building.

“More shipment of scrap,” One of the slavers who was wearing a dark black, full body suit and gas mask grunted to the guard, gesturing to the wagon behind him. The guard just rolled their eyes and stepped aside, making way for the wagon to move into the factory beyond.

“I think I found us a way in,” I whispered, gesturing to the wagon that was quickly disappearing from our view.

“Hind inside an incoming shipment?” Scarlet asked, sorting out my plan in her own head. I gave her a quick nod of confirmation.

Moving as silently as we could, we began moving our way towards the line of waiting wagons. I spotted the slaver guarding one of the wagons trot away to go take a piss against the wall of the factory, giving us a few seconds to slink up against the wagon and start pulling ourselves inside the barrels carried atop it. I was about half way into my barrel when the slaver began turning around again, muttering something under his breath.

I gave a small yelp of fright as I magically slammed the lid of the barrel down atop my head, forcing myself the rest of the way into the barrel. My nostrils were assaulted by the vile stench of rot as I found myself huddling inside of a nearly full barrel of what appeared to be rotting, mutated fish carcasses. I had to cover my mouth with a hoof to keep from vomiting.

It was moments like these that made me very thankful I was a rather small pony. Even at my size the fit was tight. I didn’t even want to imagine how bad of a cramp Chestnut had at this moment.

After a few moments of waiting in silence, I felt the wagon begin to shift under me. I heard one of the slaves groan about it feeling heavier, but no pony seemed to notice anything else out of the ordinary other than that.

I felt bad for adding to the slaves workload. If I could, I would have liked to free all the slaves, but there were just some things I had no hope of doing. I was going to have enough trouble breaking just four ponies out of this awful place as it was.

The wagon eventually came to a stop again, this time I was able to see the large doorway into the factory through a small hole in the barrel. I saw the slaver leading the wagon step towards the guard.

“Shipment of fish from Oasis,” The slaver grunted, gesturing behind him. I heard the guard give a halfhearted huff and move aside for the wagon. There was the sound of a whip cracking followed by a sudden jolt of the wagon, and we were once again moving forwards, this time into the factory itself.

I had thought the air of Fillydelphia had been hot. Inside of the factory was a hundred times worse. The second we were through the large entrance way, I was hit by a wall of boiling steam. I had to bite my lip to avoid screaming in discomfort. I saw the slaves pulling the wagon squirm as the burning air hit their flesh.

I was suddenly made very aware of why a lot of the slavers were wearing full body suits and gas masks.

“Unload them over there,” I heard a gruff, new voice call out over the loud banging of industrial machinery. The wagon came to a halt a few seconds later and I heard the noise of slaves scrambling to offload the barrels.

There was a loud heave and suddenly my whole world started shifting as one of the slaves lifted the heavy barrel up onto their back and began rolling it across the factory floor. One of the tails of the rotting fish slapped me across the face as the barrel continued to roll, making me flinch slightly.

At last, the rolling came to a stop and the barrel I was in was propped back up into a standing position. Unfortunately for me, I was thrown upside down, my face mushed up against the floor while my hind hooves squished up against the barrels lid.

I groaned, trying to reposition myself into a more comfortable position. Much to my dismay, no amount of squirming seemed to help me flip around in the confined space.

I waited a few moments, listening to the sound of cracking whips and labouring slaves as the slaves did their best to quickly unload the wagon. When I was sure they were gone, I shifted a little and tried pushing at the top of the barrel with my hooves. I pang of fear jolted through me with the barrels lid refusing to move.

Shit! They must have put another barrel on top of mine!

I began squirming a little more, trying to get into a better position to buck at the lid, when I heard Scarlet's voice whisper something at me through the side of the barrel. “Amber? You in this one?”

I gave a furious nod, only to remember that she couldn’t see me. “Yup. Um… A little help please?” I hushed back, blushing a little and still squirming around inside the barrel full of fish.

I heard the sound of something heavy being pulled off the top of my barrel, followed by the lid being pulled off the top. Chestnut and Scarlet poked their heads over the edge of the barrel to look down at me, only to reel away almost instantly, clutching at their muzzles with their hooves.

“Sweet Celestia, you had to hide in… in that…?” Chestnut gasped, waving her hoof before her face in a futile attempt to disperse the foul stench.

I gagged a little as I tossed a few fish aside and pulled myself out of the barrel. “Y-yeah… did you not?”

Scarlet and Chestnut exchanged a look that appeared to be a cross between disgust and amusement. Scarlet turned back to me and helped me the rest of the way out of the barrel. “There were three empty barrels. We thought you got in one of those like we did.”

I felt my blush growing and slapped my forehoof across my face. “You’re telling me I didn’t need to cover myself in dead fish…” I groaned and turned to face the rest of the factory. “Let's just get this over with. We’ve been her less than an hour and I’m already done with this fucking city.”

Moving away from the barrels, we began moving our way through the factory. The inside of the building, as it turned out, had a large main room that towered far above our heads. Railless catwalks that looked like they violated over a hundred safety laws traveled along the exterior of the room, gradually leading upwards to the floors above. The centre of the room held large vats of what I could only assume was gasoline that was connected to a large array of pipes which fed into smaller machines that slaves worked at. The slaves seemed to be filling up fuel canisters, no doubt to be shipped off to the Everfree forest to aid in Red Eyes continuing battle to burn the place down.

As I watched, a pipe burst open, spraying a scrawny looking slave with gasoline. I never saw what started the flame, but the next thing I knew, the slaver was rolling across the floor screaming, their coat blazing with dancing flames. No pony moved to help them. It wasn’t until they had finally fallen limp, the last few embers burning out under their now charred corpse, that a few slaves were forced to drag the body away, dumping it into the corner of the room where a pile of dead slaves seemed to be growing by the hour.

“I want to get out of here,” Chestnut whimpered, wincing as she watched a slaver’s whip crack across a slave's back, drawing blood. She shut her eyes, forcing herself to look away. “Please…”

The factory was large, but with the exception of a few crates of supplies pushed against the walls and the large machines that took up the main floor, there was little to hide behind, making our progress painfully slow. The farther up the catwalks we went, the less there was for us to take shelter behind as groups of patrolling masked slavers trotted past us. A few times we had to act like slaves as well as we caught the attention of a few of the slave masters. Thankfully, we were so coated in muck and scars that looking like a slave wasn’t hard.

By the time we reached the second floor, my coat was soaked with sweat, both from the boiling heat of the factory and the stress of sneaking around. We stumbled into a side room that looked as if it had once been a bathroom, trying to get out of the main area as yet another group of slavers trotted past us.

“How many floors do you think this place has?” I asked, resting against the far wall of the grimy bathroom. Most of the toilets had long since been destroyed, the only remaining fixture in the room being a cracked sink that dripped what appeared to be some sort of radioactive slime.

“My best guess, five,” Chestnut said, resting down across from me. “We’ll probably have more places to hide the farther up we get, but I think we’re out of the slave area, so we aren’t going to be able to pass as slaves anymore.”

I grumbled, giving a nod to show I understood. Just being in Fillydelphia was exhausting. I had no idea how the slaves survived in this place doing all that work. I remembered their blister coated hides as the growing pile of corpses in the corner of the room and realized they probably didn’t.

“I think we have more ponies coming,” Scarlet hushed, glancing out of the room for a second before ducking her head back. She quickly began searching around the room for somewhere to hide. “Five slavers coming this way.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in concern. “Wait, like… coming into here?”

Scarlet nodded quickly, glancing up at a large hole in the ceiling that led to a crawl space between the floors. “Yes, now hurry up and hide before we’re spotted.”

Chestnut and I moved to help hoist Scarlet up into the large hole in the ceiling, both our magics working overtime to lift her up the rest of the distance. Scarlet scrambled up, turning around quickly and reaching down to help pull Chestnut up with her.

As soon as Chestnut was up they both extended their hooves to help me. I could hear the approaching hoof steps of Slavers now as they speedily approached the bathroom. I tried to jump up to reach their outstretched hooves, only to meet air as I failed to jump the distance. I tried again, this time my hoof only lightly bumping against Chestnut’s as I failed to find purchase in their grasp.

Damn. Curse my tininess.

“Get in there you fucking shit,” I heard one of the slavers growl at his companion. The context to the statement was lost on me, but I knew I was running short on time. I wasn’t going to make it up before they came barging in.

I waved my companions off, telling them to hide while my eyes darted around the room for anything to hide behind. I found nothing. Just a sink and a few piles of rubble where toilets had once been that were far too small to conceal my bright, pastel pink form. I considered trying to teleport up into the hole with my friends, but the sound and flash of light would alert the slavers and my magic was still not quite strong enough to preform such an exhausting spell from when I needed to teleport away from the griffins.

I took a step away from the door as I heard the slavers getting closer. There had to be something I could hide behind… anything?

My memory clicked to the alicorn that had attacked me below the Manehattan metro. It had turned invisible. Maybe if I tried to do that…

The door creaked open. I panicked, igniting my horn and trying my best to emulate what I had seen the alicorn do. I stifled a yelp as pain flared across the crack in my horn, making me take a staggering step back, my rump bumping up against the farthest wall of the bathroom.

Two slavers stormed into the room, both with angry looking expressions on their faces. I shut my eyes, expecting them to charge and attack me.

“What the fuck!” A slaver shouted, their voice flaring with rage. I winced. Looks like our cover was blown. So much for… “What do you mean you fucking lost him?”

Wait… what?

I peeked an eye open, making out the shapes of the two slavers in the bathroom with me. One of them was snarling, practically foaming at the mouth with rage as they pinned the other to the slimy wall with their fore hooves. Neither of them were looking at me.

I glanced down at my body, looking straight through me and into the floor beneath. I… I did it!?

The invisibility spell wasn’t perfect, a far cry from what the alicorn's spell had managed to achieve in the Manhattan Metro. I could still see a faint outline of my form if I looked close enough. I could feel my energy quickly getting sapped away with each passing second as I tried to maintain the spell. It wasn’t like teleportation where a whole bunch of my strength disappeared in a flash as a result, but rather I felt it slowly disappearing with each passing second, at first hardly any effort at all, but with each and every moment thereafter feeling harder and harder to maintain the spell than the last. A stealth cloak would have been much more effective, but I’d take what I could get.

Thankfully, these two slavers seemed too focused on whatever argument they were having to notice the thin, shimmering outline of a little pony huddling in the corner of the bathroom.

“Do you have any idea how much shit we’re going to be in if Stern finds out!” The slaver continued to rage, a low growl escaping his lips as he stared the other slaver down. “That slave was fucking high priority! Red Eye him fucking self wanted that Green asshole in chains!”

Wait. Green asshole? They weren’t talking about…

“Brisk knocked me the fuck out, Okay! Get off my back!” The other slaver retorted, trying to push back. I felt myself grinning. They were talking about Brisk Spark! He had somehow managed to escape! Perhaps not Fillydelphia itself, but he was away from his guards at the least. I was shaken from my thoughts as the slaver continued in his gruff voice. “The damn shit stole my gun too, but don’t worry. We’ll find him. He won't be getting far. I mean, how is a single pony going to escape Fillydelphia?”

I grimaced. I hadn’t even started trying to figure out a plan of getting out of Fillydelphia. Something told me that was going to be even harder than getting in.

The first slaver growled again, finally releasing his grip and letting the other slaver drop to the floor. “Then pick yourself up. We need to find him before Stern does. If that griffin finds out we’re as good as dead as he is,” He pulled away, gesturing for the slaver to follow. The two quickly trotted out of the room, both of their weapons drawn.

The moment they were out of sight, I let my spell diminish, popping me back into view. I collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as I tried to regain my energy. I could feel a headache coming on and there was a painful throbbing in my horn. I was lucky I hadn’t pushed myself into horn burnout.

I heard Scarlet and Chestnut drop down next to me, giving me a worried look. “I didn’t know you could do that?” Scarlet asked, helping me back up to my hooves. “Are you alright?”

I groaned, my legs wobbling a little as I tried to stand. “Never been better,” I grumbled, rubbing my forehead in an attempt to numb the pain. The pain refused to dissipate.

“Sounds like one of your friends is already free,” Chestnut commented, glancing at the door the slavers had gone through. “But they’re right. I doubt Brisk will make it far in Fillydelphia. No ponies does.”

“Give Brisk a little bit of credit. For somepony that can’t shut his mouth, he can be quite sneaky when he needs to be,” I said, feeling a little proud for some reason.

Chestnut gave me a halfhearted glare. “Ponies much sneakier than him have tried to escape Filly and failed. One doesn’t simply escape Fillydelphia.”

I gulped. “Uh, right… How are we planning on escaping Fillydelphia by the way?” My question was met with silence. I gulped again, an unsettling feeling forming in my gut. I glanced at the door leading back into a factory and took a deep breath. “Well then, should we get going?”

The rest of the floors were rather uneventful. Twice we had to duck to the side as a group of slavers trotted past us, but the higher we went, the less ponies seemed to be around.

After only a few minutes of searching the top floor, I found the window above the electrical wire I had seen. The wire was a few feet below the window ledge, making me need to climb through the window and shimmy myself down to rest on the wire below.

My legs trembled as I looked down at the street below me. One slip and I knew I’d be falling to my death. There was no teleporting to safety this time around, not after using up most of my energy to stay invisible. Despite having grown accustomed to the sky outside the Stable, I still wasn’t the biggest fan of heights. I doubted any Stable dweller was.

Well, maybe any Stable dweller except Brisk. That crazy pony could have been a pegasus in another life I swear.

I looked up at Chestnut and Scarlet who were watching me from the window curiously. I gave them a comforting smile that I in no way felt. “I’ll go first, make sure it’s safe. I’ll wave to you when you’re clear to cross over,” I said, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

Scarlet gave me a nod, trying her best to match my smile. “Good luck.”

Turning my attending back to the wire, I wrapped my fore hooves around it and let myself dangle beneath it. The wire was sloped downwards at a rather steep angle, meaning I should be able to zip line all the way across, assuming I didn't fuck this up some how.

I really hoped I would be able to do that anyway. I really wasn’t in the mood to splat against the ground and become a pancake at the moment.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed off from the wall with my back legs and began speeding down the wire. I bit my lip as the wire cut into my hooves, giving me rope burn. I felt blood dripping down my hoof and staining my coat as I struggled to maintain my grip on the wire.

It felt like it took longer to cross than it did, the wire constantly slicing away at my hooves the whole way across. I let a sigh of relief out of my muzzle as my hooves finally made their way onto the wall of the building across from us.

Lapping up the blood that tickled down my hooves, I pulled myself up to the adjacent window and bashed it open with the handle of Braeburn's Liberator. The glass shattered, making way for me as I pulled myself forward and rolled into the building. A few of the shards cut into my flesh, forcing me to grit my teeth.

Two slavers, one earth pony, one unicorn, lay in the middle of the room rutting, locked tightly in each other's embrace. They gave a shout of surprise and spun around to face me as I came crashing through the window, their faces a mix of shock and horror. My quad barrel shotgun was up and firing before either of them had a chance to move. The first shot ripped through a slavers face, sending them reeling back and slamming into a wall, the flesh on the front of their face ripped apart and showing the now broken bone beneath.

The second slaver dropped to the ground, a round of burning buckshot blowing out his forehoof. He crawled back, trying to evade a second shot and reach for his revolver, only for my shotgun to ram across his face, knocking him back down and shattering his top row of teeth.

I trotted forwards, my gun aimed at the slavers head as he once again tried to stagger to his hooves. My magic wrapped around his head and slammed him into the wall, knocking him completely unconscious.

I took a second to steady myself, rubbing at the deep cuts the wire had dug in my hooves. They hurt, but the bleeding seemed to be minimal. When I was sure no more ponies were going to attack or had heard the gunshots, I stalked over to the window I had shattered and waved at Scarlet and Chestnut on the far side, signalling them to come over.

Scarlet came first, followed quickly by Chestnut, both of them rubbing at their hooves in a similar manner to me to stop the bleeding caused by the wire.

“Alright, we’re in. What’s next,” I asked, addressing the two of them.

“We find my son,” Chestnut said flatly, giving the room around her a dirty glare as if the walls would simply part for her and lead her to Tinker. “We should be on the right floor. The bottom floors security, the top belongs to Red Eye.”

Scarlet trotted over to the door and pressed her ear against it. “I don’t hear anypony. We should be free to exit.”

I nodded, moving up beside her and pushing the door open with my head. I cautiously stuck my head out, scanning the hallway beyond with my eyes. Almost immediately, I yanked my head back, my gaze having landed on two power armoured griffins standing guard at the end of the hallway.

“We have to power armoured griffin guards at the end of the hall,” I whispered to my friends as they gave me concerned looks. I thought crossed my mind, making me raise my voice a little. “Wait… how did they not hear my gunshots?”

Chestnut let her magic aura surround the walls around us for a second. “This room was magically soundproofed, and recently too,” She looked down at the two slavers I had taken out upon first entering the room. “Looks like they were up to something that didn’t want the guards to overhear.”

I blushed, remembering exactly what I had interrupted when I had initially burst into the room. Awkward as that was, I’ll take what luck I could get. Something told me I was only going to have so much of it here.

Chestnut drew out her shotgun, moving closer to the door. “Good chance those griffins are guarding the school area. Red Eye doesn’t want any slaves being able to break in and reclaim their foals,” her face twisted into a snarl at that and I could see the muscles in her neck and legs tensing as she readied herself.

“We’ll still need to get past the guards,” Scarlet pointed out. “If our time getting into Filly taught us anything, it's that griffins don’t go down easy. Especially if they’re in power armour. And as soon as we start firing shots outside this room, we’re going to be in trouble.”

“I don’t suppose either of you have any shock grenades?” I suggested. “Worked well back in the Institute,” Both Scarlet and Chestnut shook their heads sadly. I sighed. “Alright, what else do we have?”

“We could leur them over here?” Scarlet suggested, sounding uncertain of her own plan.

Chestnut gave a shake of her head. “That's a risky move. And even if we did successfully get them to investigate this room without calling for backup or simply attacking, it’s unlikely they would both leave guard duty. If he second one were to realize something was wrong, we’d have a whole lot more slavers than just those two to deal with.”

I looked down at the two slaver bodies lying on the floor next to us. “Alright then, who’s interested in doing a little bit of infiltration?”

I stepped out into the hallway, Scarlet slowly moving out behind me. The slavers armour was a little too big for me, sagging around my barrel and dangling limply around my hooves, but it was good enough that no pony would notice if they didn’t look close enough. I had covered a bit of grim on my face, hoping to hide how vibrant pink my coat was.

The last thing I needed was one of the two griffins recognizing me.

The slaver armour fit Scarlet a bit better. It was still too big for her, but even up close I had trouble telling. Like me, she had rubbed some muck into her hide. Not that it was necessary, we were all filthy from our time in the sewers.

The closer to the end of the hall I got, the more I realized Chestnut was right about what the griffins were guarding. Above the door hung a steel sign reading, ‘Red Eyes School for gifted ponies’ and a few toys scattered the hallway. I wondered if the rooms we were passing were the foals dorm rooms. If they were, then Red Eye was honestly treating these foals better than most places in the wasteland would. Those rooms made the room I had stayed in at Tenpony tower look like a hovel.

Both griffin guards drew their assault carbines at our approach, their eagle eyes glaring daggers at us through their visors. “Fuck off. This area is off limits!” One of the griffins barked, snapping their enclosed metal beak at us.

I put on as confident and gravelly of a voice as I could muster. “We’re here on behalf of Stern. She wants to see two of the foals being kept here.”

Neither of the griffins removed their unblinking gaze from me. “I didn’t hear anything about that,” One of them snarled, one of their armoured talons scratching violently at the ground. “What foals does she want?”

“Uh… Tinker and Mirra,” Scarlet said, her voice trembling slightly with nerves. “She wants them…”

One of the griffins took an advancing step towards us. “Do you have proof?” there was a click as their assault carbine readied to fire. “We’ll need written documentation to prove Stern has ordered this.”

I gave a nervous chuckle. This was not going the way I hoped. Trying to muster up more confidence, I puffed out my chest and took a step towards the griffin, coming almost muzzle to beak with them. “Are you really going to get in the way of a direct order from Stern?”

The griffin to my right dropped into a battle stance and snarled. “Our contract belongs to lord Red Eye, and Stern respects the contract. Now unless you have documentation, I’d recommend you back off before we tear you to shreds.”

Welp, that was my que to enact plan B. My horn glowed and disconnected the ammo magazines from both of their carbines. The magazines dropped to the ground with a clatter, the griffins guns clicking as they both attempted to open fire on us.

“What the fu-” One of the griffins scowled, their gaze dropping down to their now empty gun. They looked back up just in time to see Braeburn’s Liberator slam into their visor, shattering the glass and causing the shards to rip apart their eyes beyond.

The griffin staggered back, talons clutching at their face as they screeched in pain. The second one lurched forwards, their talons extended to slash out Scarlet's throat.

Scarlet dropped to the ground, the swipe missing her by inches as the griffin soured over her head and crashed into the wall behind her. She spun around, her magical energy weapon raising in her mouth and blasting a nearly silent beam of blue energy through the exposed wing of the griffin. The griffin squawked, blood oozing down their side and dripping to the floor.

The griffin I had blinded made a lunge at me, slashing at my face in an attempt to gouge out my eyes. I stepped back, the sharp talons nicking my cheek and splitting the skin. I spun around and bucked them in the face. I wasn’t strong, but a buck by a pony was a buck by a pony. The griffins head lurched back, their body slamming into the wall and slumping to the ground.

The second griffin pulled themselves back up and whirled around to face us, their beak twisted into an enraged growl. Their talon raised, reaching for the intercom on their helmet to call for help.

Before the griffin could alert the rest of the building of our presence, Chestnut jumped out of the door from behind her, dragging the griffin backwards and into the magically soundproofed room. I never heard it, but there was a flash of light as Chestnut's combat shotgun fired off three shots directly into the griffin's head, silencing them forever.

The griffin I had knocked down staggered back up, glaring daggers at us. I glanced down, my eyes landing on their now fully loaded assault carbine.

Shit! Things were about to get loud.

I rolled to the side, the griffins assault carbine spraying the hallway with a steady stream of bullets. I saw Scarlet and Chestnut do the same. Two shots found a home in Chestnut’s leg, dropping her to the ground with a scream.

In the distance, I heard yells of surprise as the slavers on the floor below heard the gunfire rip through the hallway.

I quickly rolled to my hooves and shoved Braeburn’s Liberator against the side of the griffins helmet. The griffin gave a squawk of alarm, only to be silenced as a round of buckshot burst from my powerful shotgun, tearing through the griffin's helmet and embedding itself in its brain.

The griffin dropped to the ground dead, blood oozing from the holes that had been ripped in its helmet. But it was too late. I could already hear the pounding of hooves as groups of slavers charged up the stairs to investigate the sudden gunfire from above them.

“Shit, we need to get them out of here now!” I shouted, rushing over to the door and pulling. The door was locked! Because fuck me apparently. “We’re going to be getting company in a few seconds! Any pony want to try their hoof at lock picking?”

Chestnut stumbled towards me, her leg still bleeding from where the griffin's shots had pierced her. She spun around, not wasting any time and bucked the door right off its hinges. I winced, splinters of wood flying everywhere as Chestnut's powerful buck made way for our approach.

Behind the door, I heard a few foals give screams of terror, moving to cower behind anything they could. A mare that looked to be taking care of the kids stepped in front of the foals protectively, trying to get between us and them.

Chestnut stormed forwards, her shotgun raising to point at the mare. Scarlet and I quickly followed after her, our stride not nearly as confident.

“Where is my son!” Chestnut growled, her eyes blazing with rage as she towered over the cowering mare. “Tell me where he is now or I will blow your fucking brains out!”

“Mom?” A small colt's voice piped up from the crowd of cowering foals.

Chestnut turned, spotting a beige unicorn colt with a white patch on his muzzle looked up at her with a wide grin. Her eyes lit up as she saw him and a few tears raced down her cheeks. “Tinker!?” all of a sudden, she dropped her shotgun and rushed to Tinker, wrapping the small colt in a tight hug. “Oh goddesses, I was so scared I wouldn’t see you again!”

A warm smile crossed Tinkers face and a few tears of his own seeped from his eyes as he embraced his mother. I could see his body shivering as he wrapped his hooves around Chestnut as tightly as possible, not wanting to let go. “I knew you’d come get me!”

I saw the trembling mare moving to grab Chestnut's dropped shotgun. I quickly swept the weapon up in my own magic, re-aiming it at the mare. I glanced around, trying to spot Mirra in the crowd of foals. I couldn’t see her anywhere.

Turning to address the mare more directly, I scowled. “Where is Mirra?”

The mare cowered, ducking her head between her fore hooves. “Wh-who are you ponies!?” her eyes widened as a thought hit her. “Oh goddesses… You’re those ponies I was told to look out for! The ones Stern said would be coming after the changeling filly! Goddesses, please don’t kill me! I didn't do anything, I swear!”

I lowered my head so that I was level with her and growled. “I won’t if you tell me where that changeling filly is.”

The mare looked up at me, her eyes wide and fearful. There was a loud shout from somewhere behind us, drawing her attention away from me for a second. The slavers were getting closer. A few more moments and they would be upon us.

Stealing herself, the mare pulled herself up to her hooves and snarled. “I… I won’t tell you anything. I made a promise to Red Eye that I was going to protect these foals, and he’s a lot scarier than you are!”

I tapped both Chestnut’s combat shotgun and Breaburn’s Liberator against either side of her head. “I’m going to ask this one more time. Where. Is. Mirra.”

The mare huffed, a small tear rolling down her face. “Red Eye can do a lot worse to me than death. How bad can you do.”

I bared my teeth. “Is that a fucking challenge?”

“Wait!” Tinker’s voice called out, drawing my attention to the small colt who was still tight in his mothers embrace. “You’re looking for Mirra? You mean the weird changeling filly?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Do you know where she is?” I paused as his words fully sunk in. "Hey! She's not weird!"

“The smart ponies took her upstairs an hour ago,” Tinker responded, giving me a grimace. “I think they were going to do something to her…”

I felt my heart skip a beat. I exchanged a terrified glance with Scarlet. “We need to get up there now,” Scarlet said with a stern expression, taking a step back towards the door.

I nodded, pulling the two guns away from the mare and following after Scarlet. The mare collapsed to the ground fully, finally no longer frozen with fear. “Come on Chestnut, we need to get out of here.”

Chestnut looked up from Tinker for the first time since finding him, suddenly realizing every eye was on her. “We… We can’t just leave the rest of the foals here. We need to get them out too.”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing we can do for them. There’s no way we can sneak through all of Fillydelphia while harbouring over fifty foals,” as much as that broke my heart, I knew it was true. There was no way we could get all of them out. Some things were simply beyond what we were capable of doing.

Chestnut looked at me for a moment, confliction strewn across her face. Finally she nodded solemnly and pulled herself up, lifting Tinker up onto her back. She gave the still cowering mare a death glare as she retrieved her shotgun from my magic. “Don’t you dare let these foals get hurt.”

The mare nodded, giving a terrified gulp.

Limping on her injured leg, Chestnut followed after us, Tinker still atop her back. I watched her leg warily, before glancing around for a healing potion. I spotted one on a desk against the far wall and floated it over, passing it to her.

I didn’t like taking healing potions from foals, but by the looks of it, Red Eye had no intention of letting them get hurt anyway.

“I think they’re up this way!” I heard a slaver shouting. Across the hall, I saw the shadows of numerous slavers rushing up the stairs to find us. We needed to hurry.

“Tinker, do you know the way?” I asked, quickly sprinting out into the hallway. We only had a few seconds to get out of here or we were dead.

Tinker gave me a fearful wide eyed shake of their head. “I-I don’t know. They just said upstairs… that's where they take the ponies that get sick.”

“They must be taking her to the medical wing, assuming this building has one,” Scarlet surmised, rushing to the stairway leading up to the next floor. “Come on, we gotta go!”

I nodded, bounding forwards and up the steps after her, Chestnut and Tinker followed quickly behind me. As I sprinted up the steps, I saw the first slaver reach the top of the stairs behind us, their gun already raised and their hoof pointing us out.

“There they are!”

Bullets whizzed past me as the slaver opened fire on us. Chestnut’s shotgun raised, blasting out their leg and sending them tumbling to the floor screaming. More slavers were beginning to reach the top of the stairs now, their own guns firing as we ducked away and continued rushing up to the next floor.

“Shit! Don’t let them get away!” I slaver yelled, their screams almost entirely drowned out by the stomping of hooves as the slavers stormed after us.

We burst onto the next floor, finding ourselves in another long hallway, this one filled with numerous branching off rooms. At the far end of the hall was the room we were looking for, a large set of double doors with the words ‘Clinic’ printed neatly on a sign above it.

“Go go! Now!” I shouted, bounding forwards towards the end of the hall. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Scarlet and Chestnut quickly do the same.

The slavers came charging up the stairs after us less than a moment later, their guns blazing as they sent round after round after us. I zigzagged, dodging side to side in an attempt to avoid being gunned down.

I rammed head first into the doorway, slamming the doors open and charging into the room. Scarlet dove through with me, spinning around to slam the door shut behind us the second Chestnut made it through. I telekinetically grabbed a chair resting beside me and shoved it under the door handle, blocking off the door.

The chair was knocked aside almost immediately as the slavers on the far side slammed against the door with their full weight. I grabbed the chair again with my magic, holding it in place as I tried to keep the slavers from bashing through the door.

“Chestnut! Help!” I yelled, sweat dripping down my brow as I tried to hold up my spell. I had overexerted my magic enough today, my spells were starting to fail me and the last thing I needed was to go into horn burnout.

Chestnut’s horn blazed as she wrapped the whole door in a field of magic, holding it still. The banging on the far side continued, but the door shuddered less. Clear the door wasn’t going to give due to brute force, the banging lessened and the gunshots began. Round after round of bullets pierced through the door, slashing past us as the slavers tried to blindly fire upon us. Chestnut grit her teeth as she tried to concentrate on keeping up her spell while getting out of the line of fire.

“What the fuck is the meaning of this!” I turned to see two unicorn ponies dressed in lab coats glaring at us from the other side of the room. Between them lay a medical table with, to my surprise, a filly Rainbow Dash sitting atop it. The pony that first spoke took another step forward, reverting my attention from the tiny Rainbow Dash. “I’m going to ask you again, what is going on here!?”

The filly Rainbow Dash’s mouth twisted into a wide smile as she looked at me. “Amber!?”

I squinted, suddenly feeling very confused. “Wait… Mirra?”

The filly Rainbow Dash glanced down at her body for a second before rolling her eyes and letting a swirl of magical green fire flare around her, a few seconds later, Mirra sat in her place. She jumped off the medical bed and rushed over to me, wrapping me in a big hug. She looked over at Scarlet and grinned. “Hiya miss Scarlet. How did you get here?”

A bullet lanced through the door, missing my face by inches. “Let’s just say a lot has happened these past two days. I’ll explain everything once we’re somewhere a little safer,” I elaborated, letting go of Mirra and taking a step away from the door. “Why were you Rainbow Dash?”

Mirra groaned. “These ponies are stupid and have stupider ideas. I’ll tell you later.”

The two unicorns were staring at us still, now looking more confused than they had previously. “Can somepony stop ignoring us and explain what the fuck is happening!?”

“Just blow the damn thing off its hinges!” I heard a slaver on the far side of the door shout. That sounded bad.

Chestnut flinched, another bullet blasting through the door making her stagger slightly and threatening to make her lose her concentration. “Amber! We need to get out of here now!”

“Mirra, is there a way out of here!” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the booming gunfire.

Mirra looked around, trying to spot a way out. “I-I don’t know!”

Scarlet turned to the two perplexed unicorns who were beginning to look progressively more terrified as the gunfire continued to rip through the door. She raised her energy rifle at them, making them both flinch. “We need a way out of here!”

“Th-there’s a back door,” One of the unicorns said, cowering back and trying to get out of the sights of Scarlet’s gun. They pointed to a side room to our left, their hoof trembling. clearly they were not as well trained and cool under pressure as the last mare had been. “It leads to the top floor.”

“That’ll have to do! Let’s go!” I spun around, racing towards the side room.

I was knocked over by a massive shockwave as the double doors to the clinic burst open, blasted apart as an armoured slaver with a rocket launcher barrelled through the opening. Chestnut’s magic imploded under the force of the blast, sending her staggering backwards, her horn steaming.

“You’re going to die bitch!” The rocket launcher welding slaver screamed, rounding on me and letting another rocket flash towards me. I reached out with my magic, grabbing onto the rocket and sending it careening into the wall. It detonated, blasting apart the wall and giving me a view of the hellish city beyond.

More slavers began charging in, their weapons already firing. We darted forwards, rushing into the side room. As advertised, a large staircase lay to our right, leading higher up into the building.

“Go go go!” I screamed, rushing for the stairs as fast as I could. Another rocket flashed past me, tearing apart a medical bed and sending bits of debris flying.

Scarlet rushed up the steps first, Mirra close behind her, the changelings delicate wings buzzing furiously as she tried to avoid the incoming hail of bullets. Chestnut rushed up next, scooping Tinker up onto her back to keep him close as she charged up the steps.

The rocket launcher slaver rushed ahead of the group, their massive weapon firing towards me as my first hoof reached the steps. The rocket exploded only a few inches away from me, sending my flying forwards and landing on my front. Shrapnel slashed at the side of my body and I could feel a large patch of fur sizzle under the explosive heat.

Braeburn’s Liberator swivelled up in my magic, sending a round of buckshot into the slaver's shoulder. The slaver staged, blood spilling down their side and pooling around their hooves.

I staggered up the steps as another slaver with an assault rifle fired upon my position. I heard the rapid cracking of the weapon as it tore apart the steps behind me. I spun around a turn at a landing on the stairs, bolting out of the slavers firing range momentarily as their assault rifle blasted holes in the wall behind where I had been standing.

“Amber! Hurry!” I heard Scarlet shout from up ahead of me.

I raised my head to see Scarlet, Chestnut, Mirra and Tinker already at the top of the stairs, Scarlet quickly pushing a box to the top step. My eyes widened as I saw that it was a box of grenades.

I jumped forwards, bounding up the last few steps and reaching the next floor of the building. Not a second later, Scarlet pushed the box of grenades down the steps, letting it tumble into the approaching slavers. Her magical energy rifle was out in a flash, firing off beams of deadly light into the box.

Boom!

The walls shook as the stairway exploded in shrapnel. The slavers reeled back, screaming as the box of explosives detonated, many of them having their front halves ripped apart in the blast. The ceiling caved, cracks streaking across its surface before it collapsed downwards, blocking off the stairway entirely. I heard a few shrieks of pain as the avalanche of debris crashed down atop a few slavers heads, crushing them.

I took a deep breath, letting myself collapse to my rump. That had been way too close.

Chestnut walked up to me, nudging me with her hoof. “We can’t stay here. I don’t know how long that will hold them and I highly doubt that that stairway was the only way up to this level. Given a few minutes, they’ll be on us again.”

I groaned, pulling myself up to my hooves and looking around at my friends. “Everypony alright?” I asked. None of them seemed to be hurt, only out of breath and a little bruised. I turned to face the new hallway, finding yet another long corridor full of side rooms. How big was this building?

I felt Mirra tapping on my shoulder with her twisted hoof. I smiled at the contact. It was good to be back with one of my friends again. I looked down to see what she was trying to get my attention for. “Amber, what do you think that room is?”

I turned, following the direction of her pointed hoof until I saw it. A large door painted black with the dark red symbol of an eye engraved into it. I had seen this door before, in a memory back in the Hollow Shades.

Clearly Tinker recognized it too, uttering it before I had the chance to speak. “That’s where master Red Eye stays…” I could see Chestnut wince at Tinkers use of the word ‘Master’, but she didn’t comment on it.

I knew it was probably in my best interest to search for a way out, but my curiosity would not allow me to do anything other than slowly move towards the door. I was surprised the room wasn’t guarded, but I suppose it didn’t need to be seeing how Red Eye was currently away at his cathedral in the Everfree forest.

My hoof raised and pushed on the door. Nothing. It was locked, and by the look of the lock, it was locked well. I scowled, glaring daggers at the door. It would be a really nice time to have Brisk with me right now.

The door behind us burst open with a loud bang, causing us to jump and spin around. I spun, finding myself staring down the multiple barrels of a large mini gun. I gulped, my eyes focusing in on the weapon as it began to whir to life.

“Where’s Mirra you slaving bastard! You have five seconds before I fill you full of holes!”

Wait… What? I knew that voice.

I blinked, staring back at Brisk in awe as he glared at me from the other side of the mini gun. After a rather long feeling second, he blinked his own lone eye in shock as well as he suddenly realized who he was pointing his gun at. “Amber...? How did you- I thought you were-” Brisk glanced around, lowering his gun and taking in the five of us for the first time. His gaze finally settled on Mirra, who was currently in the middle of grinning up at him like an idiot. “I’m guessing I’m a little late to the whole rescuing you thing, huh…”

Mirra gave him a playful nod, her smirk widening. "Mmhmm"

Grinning, I rushed forwards and wrapped the green buck in a tight hug. “You’re just in time, bro!” I pulled away after a few seconds, looking Brisk over. “I heard some slavers say you escaped.”

Brisk nodded, still looking a little confused. “I, um… Yeah. Of course I did. No cage is going to keep me away from my freedom,” He gave us all a smug smirk. “I can’t say this was how I imagined my rescue attempt to go though. Seems like you already did most of the rescuing.”

"Not quite. we still have an entire building of slavers currently on their way up to come kill us. probably a whole city of slavers too soon if we don't hurry," Scarlet said, taking a step forward and glancing behind her for a few seconds before looking back towards us. “We can all catch up later, but right now we need to find a way out of here.”

Brisk turned to look at her, his brows knitting together in confusion as if trying to recognize her face from a distant memory. “I’m sorry, have we met? You look strangely familiar…”

“Brisk, Scarlet, Scarlet, Brisk,” Chestnut said, her hoof swinging back and forth between the two of them as she made the quick introductions. “Now as Scarlet said, we need to get out of here, and fast. Waiting around is just asking to get caught.”

Brisk nodded thoughtfully, turning to the door he had just burst through. “Yeah, I know a way out of here.”

I bounced slightly on the tips of my hooves, feeling slightly anxious. “Before we go escape and stuff, you think we can… I don’t know… check out what's in there?” I pointed at the big door that led to Red Eye’s room. My curiosity was going through the roof. And in my defence, there might be some useful stuff in there.

Everypony turned and gave me a flat glare. Mirra slapped her face with her gnarled forehoof. “Amber, this probably isn’t the best time to go exploring. Slavers are hunting us down, remember?”

“Just a quick in and out,” I insisted pleadingly, giving them all a rather sheepish smile. “We need to know the kind of things Red Eye is up too.”

Brisk sighed and quickly moved to the door, sliding a few bobby pins out and sticking them into the lock. Less than a second passed before the door clicked open, letting us into the room beyond.

The room was much like how I remembered it from Crank’s memory. It was fairly large, with a big window at the back overlooking the whole of Fillydelphia. Not all that far away I saw what appeared to be a massive crater, most likely where the city had been hit by the balefire bomb. From this height I could see all the way to the huge wall towering over the city. Beyond the walls, I caught sight of Enclave raptors slowly heading in the direction of Manehattan, who knew what they were doing.

The centre of the room held Red Eye’s large desk, a single terminal resting atop it, a green glow illuminating the room around it, making the whole area feel strangely ominous.

I trotted over to the terminal, clicking it on. It was locked, as expected. “Give me a second, I need to hack the terminal,” I said to my companions, turning my gaze to the screen and beginning to search through the computer's data for the right password.

“You have one minute,” Chestnut said, placing Tinker down and standing guard at the door. Scarlet moved to stand guard next to her while Mirra and Brisk went to look at the terminal screen over my shoulder.

“You really think he has anything of value on there?” Brisk asked, his eyes scanning over the lines of coding that I had pulled up on the screen. From his expression, I could tell he didn’t understand any of it.

I shrugged. “No idea, but Red Eye seems like the kind of pony that not only holds all the cards, but makes sure to know what everypony else's cards are too. We can’t pass up that kind of information…” I paused as I found the right password. “Haha! Got it!”

The password had been ‘Littlepip’. Creepy that he would use her name as a password, but it made hacking the terminal fairly easy. No way that combination of letters would have just coincidentally been in the coding.

As soon as I successfully logged into the terminal, I was assaulted by a plethora of different files. Far too many to read in the short amount of time I had. I let my eyes roll across the long list of files, looking for one that might prove useful to me. Most of them just seemed to be files regarding the inner workings of Fillydelphia or progress out in the Everfree forest. There were a couple that involved different factions and events out in Manehattan, but little that mattered to me much in the here and now.

Then my eyes landed on a very specific file. I don’t know what drove me to choose that one specifically, but the second I saw it, I knew it was important.

>ASCENSION - SINGLE PEGASUS PROJECT

>Equestria must be rebuilt. It was a beautiful place once, a land much better than this one I live in now. The evils that are committed here in my city are monstrous, unforgivable, and yet I see no other way to rebuild the magical world that once was.

>But simple infrastructure is not what made Equestria great. It was Celestia. It was the sun. It was Luna. It was the moon. Under these, Equestria could once more become the land I know it can become. Agriculture, and yes, even peace and unity with the Pegasi must be returned to the ways of old. Silver Ace is certain of this. His thoughts on the matter I did find to be rather insightful.

>It is for these reasons that my most important objective must be on reclamation of the Single Pegasus Project. The Enclave has held onto the S.P.P. Control tower and dominion over the sky for too long. It is time to retake control of the weather, and once more return Celestia's sun to the wasteland.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I read through the file. The Single Pegasus Project? Something that could control the weather itself?! It seemed almost impossible.

Another thought hit me. Pureblood hadn’t been lying about Red Eyes plans to ascend to godhood. He was literally planning to take control of the weather and the element themselves. I didn’t even want to think about what Red Eye would be capable of if that plan ever became a reality.

Who would be able to stand up against something of that magnitude? Maybe Littlepip could have, had she not been killed in a mega spell explosion out in Maripony.

I quickly read over Red Eye’s brief mention of Silver Ace again. I wondered if he had any more on his terminal about the strange pony. If anypony did, it was Red Eye.

“Amber, are you almost done?” Chestnut asked, glancing back over her shoulder at me. “I don’t know how much longer we have.”

“One more second, I want to see something,” I snapped back quickly, scrolling through Red Eyes files until I found what I was looking for.

One of the last files on the terminal had simply been labeled as ‘Silver Ace’. I pulled the file open, trying my best to read through it as fast as possible.

>SILVER ACE

>The pony is, for lack of a more tactful turn, quite the anomaly to me. I remember meeting him as a very young colt. Even then, I was uncertain of his exact intentions. I am not a fool like Pureblood. I am well aware that Silver Ace has intentions that do not line up entirely with that of my own, but I have so far been unable to pinpoint his exact endgame.

>One does not live for over two centuries without leaving a large trail of breadcrumbs, especially one as integral to the war effort as Silver Ace. And yet, I find a shocking lack of information on his movements and actions. He has done a startlingly good job of covering, destroying or otherwise erasing all traces of his involvements to the point where creating a clear picture of his intentions is more akin to reassembling a shattered glass in a raging sea than a puzzle.

>In my visit to Canterlot to reclaim many of its secrets and treasures, it was brought to my attention in a terminal belonging to Princess Luna, that Silver Ace was incredibly interested in multiple forms of magic, but most notably in the creation of Soul jars. Luna denied him any information on the subject, though a terminal entry I discovered in the Ministry of Image suggests he may have found alternative means to learn the creation of such things.

>It is also paramount that I mention his involvement in the Utopia program, both in his large role in its creation, but also in his endless obsession with it. He hides it well, but no pony plots for over two hundred years about something without losing passion without intense obsession. It is obsession and devotion that leads to completion. Over my years I have learned that if something is not completed to its entirety, it is not completed at all. This Silver Ace knows.

>Whatever Silver Ace’s end goal is, it is of the utmost importance that his activity is monitored. When the time comes for him to enact what he has long since envisioned, I need to ensure that his actions are a benefit to me and the rest of Unity.

That was less than helpful. Practically all he said was that he knew next to nothing about Silver Ace! I could have told him that.

The only thing that was news to me was Silver Ace’s interest in whatever these Soul Jars were, but I didn’t have any clue what that was and as far as I could tell, he was interested in a lot more kinds of magic than just that.

“Okay, snooping done. We really should get out of here,” Brisk said, trying to pull me away from the terminal. “As much as I love snooping, we really shouldn’t be wasting this much time.”

I nodded, forcing myself away from the terminal. I cast one last look around the room. My eyes landed on a large gun resting on a side table. I quickly trotted over to it, looking it over.

It was an Anti-material rifle, a really nice one too. It had a dark red coat of paint, with a few areas of black to make even the dark red pop. The scope was enormous, clearly one of the most advanced ones I had ever seen, and a sturdy looking forward bipod mount. A large pile of .50 BMG rounds sat next to it.

It reminded me a lot of the rifle Stern carried around, only much, much nicer. I picked it up, finding a note that had been pinned underneath.

A parting gift for when I ascend to Godhood. Take care of Fillydelphia in my stead, Stern. -Red Eye

That would explain the similarities to Stern’s style of weaponry. Red Eye had intended to give it to the griffin as a gift. Not the kind of gun I would usually fight with, but I didn’t really feel like letting Stern take it simply out of spite and I knew Xayah would be ecstatic for a sniper upgrade.

I snatched it up and quickly exited out the door, joining up with my friends. Chestnut whistled as she saw the large gun slung across my back, looking almost envious.

There was a bang from somewhere down the hall, signifying the slavers had managed to find a new way up to us and were getting closer.

“Alrightly, sounds like a good time to run,” Brisk said, turning to the door he had first come through and beginning to lead us through.

“What is this exit?” Mirra asked, fluttering above him as we raced forwards. “I’ve been trying to find a way out since I got here. Nothing has worked.”

Brisk looked up at her and gave off a smug, yet slightly nervous smirk. “You are not going to like it.”

We rounded a corner, leading to, surprise surprise, another hallway. At the far end I could see a window that had been smashed open, presumably by Brisk when he had snuck into the building.

“Wait! We’re going out the window!? We’re five or six stories up!” I screamed. Brisk didn’t slow stride, charging faster and faster towards the opening in the wall.

“We gotta jump!” He shouted back, his hooves pounding against the ground as he picked up speed.

Tinker’s eyes went wide from atop Chestnuts' back. “What! Are you crazy!”

“There they are! Give ‘em hell!” A slaver shouted from behind us as he and about fifty other slavers rounded the corner and began stampeding towards us. Bullets whizzed past my face, forcing me to charge ahead even faster out of instinct to avoid being blasted apart.

Three more slavers turned into the hallway, each one carrying a massive rocket launcher strapped to their battle saddle.

Fuck, how many rocket launchers did they have in Fillydelphia!?

Three rockets flashed down the hallway at us all at once. I could feel the air behind me being ripped apart as the massive missiles tore down the hallway towards us.

“Out the window! Now!” Brisk shouted, leaping forwards and diving through the shattered window, dropping out of sight.

No time to argue. I rushed forwards, blindly flinging myself out into the open air of Fillydelphia, my friends lunging out with me as we began to descend. Less than a second passed after we leapt when the three rockets flashed out above us, soaring out into open air.

I slammed into the nearby rooftop of the building adjacent to us, the air being knocked from my lungs and making my whole body shudder. Scarlet and Chestnut landed next to me, Chestnut using her body to cushion Tinker’s fall.

“Get up! Hurry!” I heard Brisk shouting. I looked up, seeing him already back on his hooves and urging us to keep running.

I glanced back skyward, seeing the slavers now reaching the window we had just leapt from. A few began jumping as well, whips and knives raised as they prepared to cut into us. The slavers with rocket launchers skidded to a stop, their massive weapons aiming down at us and firing.

“Shit!” I pushed myself back to my hooves, rolling to my side quickly as one of the slavers fired, a rocket soaring and detonating in the spot I had just been lying. The shockwave knocked into me, sending me rolling head over hoof across the rooftop before coming to a stop at the edge of the roof, my head hanging over the side and giving me a clear view of the city below.

I gulped, fear gripping me. We were really high up!

I pulled myself back up and began rushing after my friends as they scurried across the rooftop. The slavers wielding melee weapons were fast approaching us, having landed on the roof and beginning to charge.

Scarlet spun around, running backwards as fast as she could while firing shot after shot from her magical energy rifle. Only one slaver fell to her assault, their body turning to ash as the deadly energy weapon lanced through them.

Up ahead, I saw Brisk jump from the top of the building, his hooves outstretched as he tried to land on yet another adjacent roof. He barely made it, his hind hooves swinging freely over the edge before he managed to pull himself the rest of the way.

“This is crazy… you ponies are all crazy!” I heard Chestnut saying to herself as she wrapped her hooves as tightly as she could around Tinker and leapt across the gap between roofs.

The gunfire was beginning to attract other slavers as well. I saw a squad of griffins swoop down and begin keeping pace with us as we rushed along, their weapons out and trying to get a shot on us.

To my displeasure, I spotted two Pinkie Pie shaped hot air balloons slowly moving in to cut us off, slavers manning massive looking turrets sitting inside.

I jumped, my hooves flailing in the air a second before Landed heavily on the second rooftop. Mirra quickly fluttered down beside me, her mouth wide and heaving as she tried to get air into her overexerted lungs.

Two more rockets flashed past me, one detonating only a foot away from my location. I was knocked backwards, bits of debris from the blown apart roof slashing into my hide and making hot blood spill down my side.

I had to tuck my legs against my body and roll to my right as one of the overhead flying griffins fired at me with their sniper. The shot pierced the ground in front of my face, sending a small burst of dust and plaster shooting up into my eyes.

Scarlet wrapped a hoof around my neck, hauling me back up to my hooves. I was surprised she found the strength to lift me up, though I suppose I didn’t weigh very much.

The slavers behind us were gaining. Every few moments I heard the loud crack of a whip as one of the slavers lashed forwards. A few took aim with their guns, filling the air with smoke and the sound of booming gunfire as they tried to gun us down.

One slaver managed to catch up with us, tackling into Scarlet from behind and sending her stumbling to the ground. Scarlet fell, her hooves giving out from under her and her head slamming hard into the concrete factory roof. The slaver reared up above her, a machete held in his mouth as he readied to plunge it into Scarlet’s chest.

Mirra buzzed past, her mouth spewing a vile stream of green mucus. The slaver was knocked down their head cocooned and stuck to the rooftop.

“Brisk! What’s the plan!” I shouted, wobbling slightly as the blood loss from the lashes in my side started to make me dizzy. “You do have a plan, right?”

Brisk gave a forced laugh, sprinting forward and jumping to the next roof. “Of course I have a plan…” He looked up at the griffins circling above us and the hot air balloons that were quickly starting to close in. “Maybe it's not a very well thought out plan, but I still have one…”

One of the slavers in a hot air balloon fired down at us with their large turret as they moved into range. I jumped backwards, the area in front of me being ripped apart by a line of fire. I quickly jumped to the next rooftop after Brisk, trying my best to stay ahead of the barrage of bullets.

“Into the Ferris Wheel! Go!” I heard Brisk shouting.

I glanced up, making out the sight of an old crooked Ferris Wheel within jumping distance of the roof's edge. I had seen it dotting the Fillydelphia skyline earlier, but it hadn’t been until I got this close that I began to realize how large it actually was.

“That’s going to get us trapped!” Chestnut shouted back, dancing to the side as one of the slavers fired at her with a sawn-off-shotgun.

Brisk growled and jumped into a cart of the ferris wheel, his hind legs kicking as he tried to pull himself all the way in. “Would you all stop questioning me and just do it!? We’re kinda short on time here!”

I braced myself and jumped forwards, my fore hooves wrapping around the lip of the ferris wheel cart. Brisk rushed forward and pulled me the rest of the way in, before turning and helping the rest of our friends into the cart with us.

“Okay, we’re in a cart in a broken ferris wheel. What next brainiac?” Chestnut scowled, firing a shot from her shotgun and taking the wing off a griffin that swooped in to attack us.

Brisk smirked. “You kidding? I’m the opposite of a brainiac. That’s Amber's thing. I’m here to make a mass,” he spun around, aiming his new mini gun at the ferris wheels supports. His gun flared to life, forcing all of us to cover our ears as the rapid fire banging berating us.

There was a crack as Brisk’s shots tore through the already rusted and flimsy supports holding up the ferris wheel. I felt the whole structure teetered, the cart rocking violently as the whole ferris wheel threatened to collapse.

Brisk turned to us, a playful smirk across his face that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was almost good to see him smile. I wish I could have seen him smile like that in a less emotionally traumatic and stressful situation. “I’d recommend you hold onto something.”

My eyes shot open as I finally caught on with what was about to happen. “Wait, Brisk! Don’t-”

His hind leg bucked backwards, slamming into the side of the cart. There was a snap, and suddenly the whole ferris wheel lurched forwards, breaking free from its supports and bounding across the Fillydelphia streets.

“No! Don’t let them-” I couldn’t hear the rest of what the slaver said as we rolled farther away, faster and faster, their voice being drowned out by both our screams and the booming sounds of the ferris wheel crashing away.

I screamed, grabbing onto the side of the cart for dear life. Beside me I could see Mirra wrap all four of her legs around a pole of the ferris wheel, her wings pressed tightly against her side and her eyes wide with fear.

Brisk gave out a wild whoop of joy, his mane flying hectically in the wind as we spun end over end.

The ferris wheel hit a large bump in the road, sending it shooting upwards for just a second. I felt my stomach lurch and bile fill my throat as we temporarily lay suspended in the air. Then we crashed black down, the whole thing thudding heavily and sending a shock shooting through my whole body. Scarlet lost her lunch beside me, vomiting over the side of the cart.

We were going far too fast for the Pinkie balloons to keep up with us, but the griffins were having no problem. One of them darted past us, trying to get ahead of the rampaging ferris wheel. I saw glimpses of their sniper raising as I was thrashed about.

“Sniper! Down!” I shouted, Pressing myself as flat against the floor of the cart as I could. The definition of down to us was relative as we were constantly spun around and around, but my friends seemed to get the idea.

The griffins snipers began to fire. Bullets ripped through the side of the cart, a few grazing the sides of our bodies or ripping out a few hairs in our tails.

“Do you have a plan to stop this thing?” Scarlet asked, ducking a little lower as one of the snipers blasted a hole in the cart just above her head.

Brisk gave her a sheepish grin. “I did say being smart was Ambers thing, right?”

The ferris wheel crashed into the side of a structure. The concrete wall crumbled, breaking away as the massive ferris wheel bore into it. Slaves and slavers screamed and moved to get out of the way as the huge wheel smashed its way into their work area.

I was slammed into the side of the cart as the broken amusement ride skidded to a halt, half lodged in the side of a building. The cart rocked, the wheel tipping slightly until we rested gently down on the ground.

Brisk hopped out on slightly wobbly legs, turning to face us with a shit eating grin. “Ha! Perfect landing.”

“Right perfect…” Mirra fluttered her way off the cart, sagging in the air as he dizziness impaired her flying.

A bullet slashed down from above us, missing Brisk’s head my inches. He flinched back, moving under some cover and readying her mini gun. “Right… Griffins. Any of you know a place we can hide?”

“Not one close to here? Do you?” I asked, stumbling out of the cart and bunkering down beside him, my shotgun drawn.

Brisk gave me an amused glance. “You think I thought that far into this plan? I’m flattered, really.”

Another griffin swooped down, this one firing at us with a rifle. I saw Chestnut, Scarlet and Tinker quickly duck behind a broken section of rubbled caused by our crash for cover. In the distance I saw the Pinkie balloons getting closer. We had managed to get a good distance away from them, but pinned down, they were beginning to make back the distance.

“Do you think we can make a break for the sewers again?” Scarlet called over to me, ducking back as a griffins fired upon her position.

I glanced over the pile of rubble I was behind, spotting the sewage grate resting in the middle of the road a few feet away. There was no getting to it without being gunned down by the griffins… unless.

“Give me a second, I think I have an Idea,” I shouted back, letting my horn glow with amber light. My magic wrapped around the sewage grate cover and began working.

Brisk popped out from behind cover beside me and fired up at the griffins with his mini gun. The griffins swerve and scattered, maneuvering away from his shots with surprising accuracy. One of the griffins did a quick flip, spinning out of the way of his shots and firing down at him.

The shot ripped through Brisk’s leg, dropping him to the ground with a yell of pain. Blood spilled down his leg where the griffins shot had punched into him.

Damn, it. I was out of time.

I ripped the sewage grate from the ground with a mighty heave of my magic, sending the metal disk skyrocketing. It crashed into the griffin that had just shot Brisk, snapping their wing and sending them plummeting from the sky.

A second layer of magical over glow burst around my horn as the rubble around us was pulled from the ground and sent flying at the griffins. The griffins swerve, trying to stay airborne as they were pelted with chunks of cement.

I pushed forwards with my hind hooves, charging toward the now open sewage grate. “Go! Into the sewers! Now!” My friends charged after me, a few of them shooting up at the griffins as they continued to try and evade the flying rubble.

I dropped down into the sewers, the murky water splashing around my hooves as I hit the tunnel floor. Brisk tumbled down after me next, blood seeping from his leg and colouring the already foggy water a dark red.

Scarlet came next, Mirra quickly fluttering down after her. Chestnut came scampering down less than a moment later, her hind hooves keeping her on the ladder while her fore hooves reached out to help Tinker down. Her hoof had only just made contact with Tinker when a griffin swooped down and snatched the colt up in her claws.

Tinker screamed as he was yanked upwards, the barrel of the griffin's gun pushing up against the side of the young colt's head. The griffin leared down at us, their face bloody from a gash caused by my flying debris. “Don’t move or the runt gets his fucking brains blown out!”

Chestnut growled, pulling herself back out of the sewer to stand before the griffin. “You let my son go you bitch!”

The Griffin snapped their beak at her, their talon tightening on the trigger. “Oh yeah? And what are you going to do cunt?” The rest of the griffins were shaking off the last bits of flying rubble and began to turn to face us, refocusing their own weapons to gun Chestnut down.

“Chestnut, you’re going to get us killed! We’ll find a new way to save him!” I shouted, rushing for the ladder out of the sewage tunnel. “We won’t leave him here!”

“You leave and the boy dies,” The griffin clucked, baring her teeth. “Now give yourselves up!”

Chestnut's horn had begun glowing dangerously with magic. She took an advancing step forward, her combat shotgun held steady at her side. “I said let my son go. I'm not giving you another warning!”

The hot air balloons were almost within shooting range again. A few more moments and they would be upon us.

The rest of the griffins had aimed their guns at Chestnut now. I could see a dozen different red dots hovering over her form from the laser pointers strapped the the ends of the griffins guns. The griffin holding Tinker gave a small chuckle. “You have until the count of three... One!”

Chestnut braced herself, her horn growing brighter and brighter. I could see the muscles in her neck tensing as the griffin’s talon tightened around the trigger.

“Two!”

I rushed forward, trying to get to them before it was too late. I heard Chestnut scowl, her eyes burning with rage as she stared down the griffin.

“Three!”

The final shout hadn’t come from the griffin. It had come from Chestnut.

There was a mighty boom as Chestnut’s magic ripped all the griffins straight from the sky. The air was filled with shrieks of pain as Chestnut’s magic wrapped around the griffins wings and reefed them clean from their body. Blood splattered against the cracked pavement and I was knocked back to the wet ground of the tunnel as the shockwave caused by Chestnut’s magic slammed into me. Bolts of deadly energy lanced through the air, stringing the few griffins that had failed to fall from the sky down. I heard Chestnut’s shotgun firing, each shot bringing down another griffin as they one by one crashed to the ground in a broken heap.

Tinker slowly drifted to the ground, another one of Chestnut’s magical fields surrounding him and holding him aloft. He clung tightly to his mothers neck as she set him down atop her back, shivering and soaked in the dark blood of the now dead griffin.

Chestnut quickly spun around, lunging into the hole after us and landing in the gunk filled water beside us. She stood there, her horn glowing, her expression determined, her posture heroic. Then her body quivered and she collapsed, falling to the water with a splash.

Tinker gave a yelp of surprise, pulling on her head to keep her mouth above the foul water. He looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Is… is she going to be alright.”

I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. I moved up to him and hauled Chestnut’s unconscious body up onto my back. Scarlet quickly moved to help me carry here. “She’s going to be fine Tinker. We’ll make sure she’s fine.”

“We need to get going,” I heard Brisk say from beside me. I looked up to see him slumped against the far wall, wrapping his shot leg with a few dirty bandages. “Those griffins might be gone, but those balloons and the rest of those slavers are going to be on us any second. Last thing we need is to be in these tunnels when they get flooded by slavers.”

I nodded, looking to Mirra who was currently fluttering a few inches above the sewage water. “Mirra, do you think you can find us a place that's slaver free with your nose? We need somewhere where we can heal up and plan out what to do next.”

Mirra gave me a quick salute before taking a big sniff. She cringed as her nostrils were flooded with the foul stench of the sewers before she finally asserted herself and started down a tunnel to our right. “This way. I think I can find us somewhere safe.”

“So let me just try and summarize all of that incase I missed something,” Brisk said, sipping from the healing potion and letting the wound on his leg heal over. “These two pre war ponies named Pureblood and Silver Ace, who happen to work with Red Eye, are secretly the directors of the Institute, which they took over, and they plan to use this Utopia thing we were talking about to mind control all of Equestria and trap us all in some kind of virtual reality in less than five days?” He glanced over at Mirra who gave him a casual shrug. “Did I miss anything?”

“He replaced me with a synth to keep his fetus safe,” I added.

“The mysterious Stranger that helped you guys out is in the Institute as well,” Scarlet chimed in.

Brisk sat back a little and looked up at the broken ceiling of the abandoned factory we had taken shelter in. “Well fuck me. Things just got a lot more difficult,” He opened up his lone eye and looked back at us. “So you both are synths? You don’t seem like robots.”

“Neither did Pyre,” I pointed out. I saw Mirra’s head drop at the mention of our power armoured friend.

“That’s the nasty thing about synths. Can’t tell them apart from ponies,” Scarlet agreed, straightening her back a little. “We can’t even tell ourselves apart half the time. Not unless the Institute wants us too.”

I took a deep breath and looked my friends over more closely. “I really missed you guys. What happened to you when they took you into Fillydelphia?”

Brisk grimace. “My worst nightmare but worse,” He said flatly, casting an angry glare out at the slaver city outside. “Assholes threw me in chains. Nasty bitch named Wicked Slit tried to get me to work pulling steel scrap. I managed to whittle down a piece of scrap until it was small enough to use as a lock pick.”

“And the mini gun?” I asked, gesturing to his rather impressive gun that was now firmly attached to his battle saddle.

Brisk smirked at that. “Took it off a Slaver that tried to bring me back in. Since it’s mounted on this battle saddle, I can use it easily even with my lack of magical ability,” He glanced up at his hornless forehead. “And lack of horn… I still forget that's not there anymore sometimes.”

I let my gaze drift over to Mirra who simply rolled her eyes. “They wanted to see if I could pass through a specific forcefield or something like that. See if my changeling magic could work as an alternative to a bypass spell.”

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “Can it?”

Mirra stuck out her tongue. “Of course it can't. Changing shape doesn’t change my DNA. If it did, then I’d never be able to shape shift back.”

“What kind of shield did they even want to get through?” Brisk asked, giving the small changeling a sceptical look.

Mirra shrugged. “No clue. Something about the Ministry of Awesome I think. Only Rainbow Dash could get through it apparently.”

"The Single Pegasus Project," That had to be it. And if so, there was a good chance that meant the Enclave didn’t exactly have access to it either. “With any luck, Red Eye never figures out how to get through a shield like that,” I said, pulling myself back to my hooves. My side hurt as I moved, the cuts that had been ripped open in my side by shrapnel stinging terribly.

Scarlet quickly pushed herself over to me, trying to get me to sit back down. “Amber, you need to take it easy. We only have one healing potion left, and since you’re refusing to not drink it, you’re going to have to let your wounds heal.”

I shook my head. “We don’t have time for that. We have five days till Utopia activates, probably only four now actually, and Xayah is still out there in Fillydelphia somewhere,” The pain in my side grew to a point that I had to sit back down. “Ponies don’t treat zebras well in the wasteland. We need to save her before slavers do something terrible to her.”

“Am sure you know this already, but that’s not going to be a cake walk by any means,” Brisk pointed out. “There are only six of us, two of us are foals, two of us are unicorns with horn burn out, one of which is unconscious, I can’t do magic regardless of horn burnout and you keep refusing to take a healing potion so you’re not going anywhere fast.”

“Plus we don’t know where she is,” Scarlet elaborated, picking up where Brisk left off. Fillydelphia is huge. Mirra and Tinker were easy because we at least knew where to look, and Brisk was crazy good luck, but I wouldn’t know the first place to start looking for Xayah.”

“I heard some slavers talking about how a zebra used to be the champion in their arena called the pit. Maybe we should check there?” Brisk suggested.

I was about to respond when Mirra stood up. “No. I know where she went,” All of us turned to look at her, interested. Mirra gulped and looked away. “Stern had her personally sent to the crater.”

The crater? I had heard the slavers in the sewer tunnels mention it when we were sneaking in. What was it they had said? That it was dangerous?

From Scarlet's face, I could tell the crater was bad news. Clearly Brisk could tell something was up well. “What exactly is the crater?” He asked, glancing back and forth between all of us.

“The Fillydelphia Crater… It’s the place the balefire bomb that hit Filly detonated. It’s got enough rads in it that it might as well be a death sentence to go there. Most ponies don’t last three days in the crater,” Scarlet explained, her face a mix of disgust and fear. “When I was a slave in Filly, they told me that if I worked in the crater for two years, I’d earn my freedom. I almost died after only a few hours.”

“Then we need to go. And fast,” I said, forcing myself to stand up again. This time I ignored the pulling pains in my side. “We can’t let Xayah stay there any longer than we can help.”

“And what about Chestnut?” Mirra asked, looking across the room where Tinker had curled up against the body of his unconscious mother. She was too weak after using her magic like that with the griffins. I doubt she’d be able get back into the action any time soon.

I took a deep breath. “We’ll leave her and Tinker here. I don’t really want to bring Tinker into the crater if I can help it anyway,” I turned to Brisk. “Do you think you can stay here and keep them safe?”

Brisk gave a smug smirk and a quick nod. “You can count on me, chief.”

I turned back to Scarlet. “How are we doing for Radaway?”

Scarlet grimace. “Less than I would like. We had a lot, but we’ve been going through it faster than I had expected. Probably enough to get us into the crater, but we won’t have enough to get all of us out.”

Damn. Things just had to keep getting worse. I took a long, deep breath. “Alright. I’ll go into the crater alone and bring Xayah out. Do you think you and Mirra will be able to find and lead me to the crater?”

Everypony quickly began objecting. “What! You want to go in there by yourself!” Brisk sputtered. “That’s suicide!”

“Amber, that's insane! We won’t be able to help you inside!” Scarlet protested. “The radiation inside the crater is bad, but not that bad. Some slaves go a few days before they die of the rads. We can handle an hour or so.”

I shook my head. “Xayah has been in there for almost two days, and I can’t remember the last time I saw her take a Radaway. When she’s out, she’s going to need as much Radaway as she can get.”

All my friends fell silent at that. They all knew I was right, and they hated it. After a long moment, Mirra took a step forward. “What do you need us to do?”

I smiled. “We’re going to need a way to escape Filly as soon as I get Xayah out. Something tells me that Stern isn’t going to let us escape the way we got in. Once I’m inside the crater, I need you and Scarlet to find another way out, then meet me back here.”

“Do you need me to do anything except look after Chestnut and Tinker?” Brisk asked, glancing out at the industrial city beyond the window.

“If you can, look around for some healing supplies. Anything that can be of use to us. I get the feeling we’re in for a hell of a fight,” I answered honestly. “Plus, we’re going to need to get Chestnut back on her hooves. If we need to make another run away attempt, we won’t make it carrying her on our backs.”

Brisk looked at me for a second, his eyes scanning over me as if expecting to notice some small detail. “And what about you?”

I looked at him, a little confused. “What do you mean?”

He hesitated, as if unsure if he should vocalize what was on his mind. Finally he let a deep sigh escape his muzzle. “Are you ready to see Xayah again…? I know you two didn’t exactly part on good terms.”

I felt my body lock up a little at the question. Was I ready to see Xayah again? After I had betrayed her? After she had shot me? Was I ready to save her after the hell her actions had put me and my friends through?

My hesitation dissipated faster than it arrived.

I planted my hoof and puffed out my chest a little. “It doesn’t matter what happens to us after all this. If we’re still a couple or if we’re even still friends. No pony deserves to be stuck in Fillydelphia, and if we’re going to save the wasteland, then we’re going to need her…” I took another second to collect my thoughts. I could feel my heart pounding a little in my chest as I spoke. “And besides, I don’t care if she’s trapped in the heart of Fillydelphia or on the fucking moon. I’m going to save her because I love her, and that’s all that really matters in the end. You need to fight for what you love. Because in the wasteland, love is hard to find. It's harder to keep. Some ponies might try a lifetime to save their love and never succeed. I'm not going to let that happen to us. If Fillydelphia thinks it can stand in my way, then I'd like to see it just try and stop me.”

I took a step back, my eyes drifting over to Scarlet who gave me an approving nod. I saw a tear glimmering in the corner of her eye, but she quickly blinked it away. I gave her a small smile in return, looking back out the window at the city of Fillydelphia. Far in the distance I could see what appeared to me a large crater. Even from here, I could see it’s baleful glow.

It was calling to me. Egging me on. Daring me to make the first move. I would not be one to disappoint it.

“Hold tight Xayah. I’m coming for you.”

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

For those of you that didn't notice yet or didn't get the memo, I updated the old cover art. I felt the old art was rather lacking and in desperate need of improvement.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat.

I hope you all have a great day.