“The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; he is powerful. An ordinary pony keeps reaching for power and thus never has enough.”

Chains.

Every second spent inside of Fillydelphia felt like the chains were closing in tighter and tighter around me, as if I were an animal trying to escape a doorless cage that was slowly shrinking. If the heavily radioactive air didn’t kill me, the ever growing legions of slavers searching each nook and cranny for me would.

My whole body was about ready to collapse. My sides screamed in protest from the shrapnel that had ripped apart my already battered and cut hide and the radiation poisoning that was rapidly seeping into my pores was beginning to make me feel light headed.

And yet I knew the worst was still to come. Getting into Fillydelphia was near impossible, but getting out was something else all together.

A long time ago, Golden Chestnut had told me that no pony ever truly escapes Fillydelphia. Having finally made it within the hellish border of its massive metal walls, I was beginning to understand just how true that statement had been.

Even as I slowly crept along the side of a crumbling skyscraper after Scarlet and Mirra, I could see mounds of brutalized, burned bodies of slaves that had met untimely fates. Even in death, there was no escaping the industrial nightmare Red Eye had concocted.

“I think we’re almost there,” Mirra whispered, taking a large sniff of the air. She winced as the smog filled air filled her nostrils and made her gag.

I nodded, keeping my gaze forwards. I didn’t need Mirra’s nose to locate the Fillydelphia crater anymore. Just over the crest of a small stretch of rubble, an ominous green glow illuminated the ghastly red, smoke filled air around us.

We made our way towards the crater, briefly ducking into a broken down house to avoid detection as a group of slavers marched past. Scarlet took the opportunity to climb to the top of the structure and get a better view of our surroundings. A few more minutes passed, and she climbed back down to inform us on what was going on.

“We’re only a short walk away from the wall surrounding the crater,” Scarlet explained, drawing a map of the surrounding area in the dust on the ground with her hoof. “There doesn’t seem to be any slavers between us and it, save for four guards standing sentinel at the entrance to the crater. There's probably more inside.”

I nodded, looking over the map she had drawn. “It's probably best to find a way in that doesn’t involve needing to cross the guards. The whole city is on high alert for us right now, and taking out those guards would not go unnoticed,” I studied the map a little harder, then pointed off to a spot she hadn’t yet drawn in. “What would be over here?”

“Not sure,” Scarlet replied, drawing in the area to the best of her knowledge. “I doubt there would be another entrance, but there might be a vent or something we can crawl through.”

“What about an observation area?” Mirra asked, looking up at us. “You know, so slave masters could overlook the slaves working or something.”

Scarlet furrowed her brow and sucked on the end of her hoof for a second. “I don’t know… I can’t remember if…” She paused and thought for a second longer. Suddenly her eyes lit up like a hearth's warming tree. “No, wait a second, I remember there being one of those over here,” She explained, drawing a circle in the dust a little bit off to the side. “I don’t know where the entrance is, but there is an observing platform that slavers used to watch the workflow. It connects to a catwalk of sorts that surrounds the entire perimeter of the Crater. I remember seeing it back in my short time in there.”

“I doubt the slavers would hide the entrance into that,” I remarked, continuing to study the map. “I could probably get into there no problem, so long as I covered up my pink coat,” I looked down at the slaver barding that I had thrown over myself earlier to get past the Griffin guards at Red Eyes school. The barding was too large for me, but with a little finagling, it wasn’t hard to pass it off.

“We can coat your face in some dirt,” Scarlet agreed. “You’re kind of small for a slaver, but we can make it work.”

I nodded, my face contorting as I tried to work out a plan. “Once I have Xayah, I’ll make for the vents if they’re there. I doubt the slavers are going to let me get out the way I got in.”

I saw Mirra stiffen beside me. I glanced down to see her sniffing at the air, her eyes narrowing at the doorway. Instinctively, I pulled out Braeburn’s Liberator. “Mirra? What’s wrong? What do you smell?”

“Somepony is following us,” Mirra hissed, taking another sniff of the air. “I caught their scent a few times, but I didn’t think anything of it then. Now though…” She paused and sniffed the air again. “They’re definitely following us.”

Scarlet pulled out her magical energy rifle and pushed herself up against the wall below a shattered window. “Any idea who it is?”

Mirra hesitated for a second. “It… It doesn’t smell like a normal pony… I think it might be…” Her eyes widened and she crouched behind cover. “It’s an alicorn.”

“Shit. Stern must have sent one out after us,” Scarlet hissed, daring to peek out the window at the landscape beyond.

I moved up beside her and glanced out, my eyes scanning the area. Aside from a lone slaver that seemed to have passed out drunk against a wall a few feet away, I couldn’t see anything alive.

I memory nagged at the back of my mind. A memory of Pureblood telling me Red Eye had been involved in Littlepip taking out the goddess. The thought gave me pause as my gaze swept the area.

“That… that doesn’t make much sense…” I grunted, my magic raising up my shotgun a little more. “I thought Red Eye cut his ties with the alicorns? I mean, the goddess is dead now, right?”

Both Mirra and Scarlet cast me intrigued looks. Clearly that had been knews to both of them. Scarlet shrugged. “Maybe some still work for him… I mean they must be looking for a new leader now if the goddess is really gone.”

“Maybe,” I mumbled, but something about that didn’t sound right. Didn’t Alicorns hunt in groups? Why had Mirra only smelt one? Or were there more that had somehow gone unnoticed.

I switched to my newly acquired anti-machine rifle I had stolen from Red Eye’s office and looked down the large scope, panning the rooftops. My eye caught on something glinting atop a rooftop of the building across from us. I narrowed my eyes, trying to make out what it was.

“Wait… there, on the roof,” I grunted, lowering the rifle and pointing up at the thing that had caught my attention. It was a lone purple alicorn, staring down at us through the lens of what appeared to be a large sniper rifle of her own. We all looked up at her, and for a brief second, I could have sworn I locked eyes with it. Then, as if realizing we were looking at it, the alicorn’s horn flared and she disappeared in a burst of purple light.

“Definitely being followed,” Scarlet agreed, taking a step back from the window. “We’ll need to keep our eyes open for alicorns in case it comes back.”

“Why do you think it didn’t attack us?” Mirra asked, poking her head out to look around. “Do you think it went to alert the rest of the slavers?”

I felt my stomach knot with confusion and worry. “I’m not sure. Something about that flet off. In any case, we should probably get out of here before it comes back.”

Scarlet nodded. “As soon as you head for the crater, Mirra and I will search for a way out of Filly. We’ll meet up with you back with Brisk, Chestnut and Tinker.”

I gave a nod, my stomach seemingly doing jumping jacks inside of me. “You both be careful out there. Got it?”

Mirra gave me a small smirk. “Since when has anything we’ve ever done been careful?” Her smirk flickered for a second. “You get Xayah out safe too… I’m worried about her...”

I felt my chest clench up at the mention of Xayah. “I… I will… I’m worried about her too,” I turned and looked out the door into the ghastly Fillydelphia streets. “Alright Xayah… I’m coming for you…”

I had to resist the urge to scratch all the mud and dirt off of my coat as I quickly trotted towards the large wall surrounding the crater. Before parting with Mirra and Scarlet, they had gathered as much muck as they could and thoroughly covered my exposed coat with it until I just looked like an exceptionally dirty brown mare. It itched like hell, grains of dirt getting caught between my hide and clothes and rubbing my flesh dry.

The mud hadn’t worked quite as well in my mane, but I had been able to cover up most of that with my helmet. It wasn’t a perfect disguise, but hopefully it would be enough.

The looming walls surrounding the Fillydelphia crater were rapidly approaching. They towered almost as high as the wall around the city, and it was topped with bramble like barbed wire, deadly looking spikes and a few turrets that slowly scanned the area below. Beyond it, the baleful green glow of radiation spilled into the thick fog, making it look like an evil green beacon of light in the centre of the red hued city.

I wandered back and forth for a bit until I found what I was looking for. A large vent, just big enough for a small pony to fit through was inset into one side of the massive wall surrounding the crater. Giving an eager nod and making a mental note of where it was, I started heading back around the wall, making sure to take a wide berth around the guards by the door and made for the far side of the wall where I hoped the entrance to the slaver overview area was. To my luck, I found a large set of stairs leading into the wall.

Unfortunately, there were guards there as well.

“State your business,” One of the guards asked with a bored expression, his eyes following me as I slowly made my way over to them, doing my best to look like I belonged there.

“Just checking into work,” I said, trying to make my voice sound as gravelly as possible. I took a step forward to move past them.

The second guard stuck out a hoof and stopped me. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. You new 'round here?”

I hesitated. “Uh… No. I just work over on the other side of Filly. Just got moved to this position now,” I tried to think of a way to make myself sound more believable. “Don’t get me wrong. I ain’t happy to be here either. I’d rather work the slaves somewhere less dangerous than the fucking crater if I had my pick of workspaces.”

The first guard that spoke chuckled at that. “You got that damn right. What the fuck did you even do to get positioned here?”

I cocked my head slightly. “I, um… what do you mean?”

The guard gave me a flat glare. “No pony just gets sent to overlook the crater ‘cause Stern felt like it. So unless you wanted this position, which you just said ya didn’t, you must have messed up pretty fuckin’ bad for her to send you here,” he leaned in, showing off a sickening grin that was missing far to many teeth for my liking. “So? What did ya do?”

“Oh… I uh… Mouthed off Stern. She didn’t like that much…” I stumbled, trying to think of something that would have pissed Stern off enough to send somepony to the crater.

Both of the guards blinked at me in silence, for a second I thought that somehow I had blown my cover. Then, they both reared their heads back and howled with laughter. The larger of the two guards looked back down at me, wiping a tear away from his eye as he tried to hold back his chuckles. “Fuckin’ shit, you mouthed off Stern and didn’t get your throat slashed out right then and there. You got fuckin’ balls of steel lady!” chuckling to himself more, he stepped to the side and ushered me in. “Go on in. Don’t let me stop you, you adorable fuckin’ badass.”

“I’m not adorable…” I grumbled under my breath as I trotted past them. I quickly made my way up the stairs to a large viewing platform that looked down upon the glowing crater below.

From this height, I was able to make out the entire crater. It was huge, maybe the size of two city blocks. The floor of the crater was composed of sloping debris that led down to a massive glowing pool of radioactive sludge at the bottom. Burning fires smouldered through the nooks and crannies of the crater, as if the balefire bomb had lit the landscape ablaze and the fires had never fully stopped burning. The crumbling remains of skyscrapers lined the outside of the crater, many of them tilted inwards at impossible angles while others seemed to slowly slide down the side of the crater as I watched. The air was filled with a vile looking green, and though I was still a somewhat safe distance away, I knew that had I still had my pipbuck, it would be clicking rapidly.

Dozens of slaves stumbled about in the radioactive pit, some hacking at the rubble with pickaxes or buzz saws while others hauled large carts full of radioactive waste up and out of the steep sloping crater. A long, metal catwalk raced around the outer edge of the crater, holding up teams of gas mask wearing slavers that patrolled the outskirts of the labor area. Most of the slavers were armed with what looked like assault rifles, while the whip wielding slavers had descended into the pit themselves to keep the slaves working.

Every few moments, I would see a slavers whip slash down across a slaves back, the loud crack followed shortly by a howl of pain and spurt of blood as the slave got jostled back to work.

“You! What are you doing here?” An overweight looking slaver pony scowled at me, stomping forwards. Their slashed a whip in the air above me with their magic, making me jump and causing the air around us to fill with a loud, ear ringing crack.

I puffed out my chest a little and tried to look casual. “Mouthed off Stern. Got sent to this shit hole.”

The slaver scrunched up their muzzle and gave me a growl. “Fuckin’ hell. Stern needs to warn me before she decides to dump some green recruit filly bitch under my employ,” Scowling again she pulled out a whip and tossed it to me. I caught it quickly in my magic. “Just get out there and make sure those damn slaves do their fuckin’ job. Gas masks are in the back room. You’re going to need one.”

I nodded quickly, moving past her and heading for the back room that she indicated. I had to try my hardest to hide my growing smirk as I went to grab my gas mask. It couldn’t really be this easy. Could it?

I pulled the straps of the gas mask over my head and fastened it tightly to my face. It was stuffy and the rubber against my hide was far from comfortable, but the sudden clean air that filtered into my lungs was one of the most refreshing feelings I’d had in a long while.

“Now hurry up and get them working,” The slaver grunted to me as I re-emerged onto the viewing platform with my new gas mask. They roughly grabbed me by the tail and shoved me towards the staircase leading down to the catwalks below. “And don’t waste my fucking time again, got it?”

I gave a quick, “Mmhmm,” of agreement before stumbling the rest of the way down the stairs to the catwalk on the outer edge of the crater. Almost immediately I could feel my flesh churning as the radioactive air licked at my hide.

Picking myself up, I briskly trotted across the catwalks, my eyes sweeping the rubble and debris for Xayah. Unfortunately, all the slaves were coated in far too much grime to tell one of them apart from the other. I noticed that the slavers in the sewers had been right, all the slaves were covered in massive blisters. Some of the newer slaves only had a few small blisters across their body, while some of the ones that had been there for a few days had begun to lose their coats, large patches of hair falling away and making room for the boiling bubbles of pus that had begun to spring from their shrivelled flesh.

“You knew around here?” A voice spoke up, this one sounding a lot kinder than the overweight slaver on the viewing platform. I looked up to see a relatively short, scrawny looking buck approaching me, a gas mask covering his face and eyes. I gave him a quick nod in response. “Well, it’s always good to see new faces. My name’s Slipknot. What’s yours?” he extended his hoof kindly for a hoof bump.

I hesitated for a second. Shit, I should have come up with a fake name before hoof. Thinking fast, I thought back to the slaver filly I had briefly encountered in Fetlock. “Uh… Names Whip Slash,” I said quickly, returning the hoof bump.

The name gave Slipknot pause, and for the second time since arriving at the crater I thought that I had blown my cover. “Shit, really? I heard that you died out in that skirmish with the Outcasts a few days back.”

I forced a laugh. “You kidding. I’m fine. Been back in Filly for a while.”

Slipknot returned my chuckle. “I guess so. Stern told us that whole caravan of Slavers got wiped out,” He gave a shrug. On the bright side, I supposed that meant that the real Whip Slash had taken my advice and broken her ties with Fillydelphia. that or she was dead. I grimaced beneath my mask. She was probably dead. “Anyhow, I got sent here cause I was caught pickpocketing Slit. How’d you find yourself in this damn crater?”

I opened my mouth to respond with the lie I had told the last two slavers, only for an idea to cross my mind. “Actually, I’m here looking for a specific slave on orders from Stern. She told me to come collect some zebra that’s working here. I don’t know why she wants them.”

I saw Slipknot’s eyebrows raise from behind his gas mask. “Really? Yeah, a zebra just got dumped in here a few days ago. Come on, I’ll take you to her.”

Giving a solemn nod, I followed after the slaver as he turned around and started leading me into the crater. I stumbled slightly as we moved off the catwalk and onto the unsteady ground of the debris covered crater floor. The loose rock seemed to constantly shift and slide under my hooves as I trudged after Slipknot.

My eyes trailed back to the large wall surrounding the crater. After a moment, I spotted the other side of the vent leading out. I smirked underneath my gas mask as I looked at it. Perfect, now I had a way out of here as well.

“So what was it like getting attacked by the Outcasts?” Slipknot asked, glancing back at me as he led me forwards and interrupting my train of thought. “I hear they're a force to be fuckin’ reckoned with.”

I gave an uncertain shrug. “They aren’t that bad…”

“Ha! Says the pony that apparently had her whole slaver caravan slaughtered by ‘em,” He gave me a playful shove. “Don’t worry, I’m messin’ with ya. We all know none of you stood a chance. Not even Big Mino. Not with that Pink lunatic helping them out.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Pink Lunatic?”

Slipknot scoffed. “Yeah, that Amber Aura bitch. I heard she and her murderous gang of raiders were helpin’ the Outcasts out.”

“O-oh! Yeah, she’s a psycho alright. Total manic,” I grumbled, trying not to sound overly offended. “I heard she’s not as evil as we all think though...”

“You’re spending too much time in the wasteland if that’s what you heard. That menace has been causing mayhem all over the wasteland. You hear that that town Oasis got attacked because of her?”

I froze. “W-what are you talking about…?” I could feel my stomach clench up at the idea. “What happened?”

Slipknot nodded thoughtfully. “I heard the Enclave deployed a raptor to kill the ponies that lived there. If the rumours are true, Amber Aura rescued an Enclave scientist they had imprisoned there. That scientist then let slip to her higher ups that the town kidnapped her and the Enclave decided to return the favour with fucking fire from the sky.”

“Star Breeze,” I scowled under my breath, quite enough that Slipknot couldn’t hear me. I had known Star Breeze wasn’t perfect, but I had though she was above causing something like that. I’d have to have stern words with the pegasus if I ever crossed paths with her again.

“Of course, none of that matters anymore. I heard Amber Aura was spotted inside of Filly a few hours ago. There’s no way she’s going to escape,” Slipknot continued, pushing aside a large piece of rubble so that he could keep moving into the crater.

“And why not? She seems to have a good record of escaping things in the past,” I questioned, feeling slightly smug.

Slipknot just gave me a lazy look. “Because no pony simply escapes Fillydelphia. It’s one thing to sneak inside the wall, it’s quite another to get back out,” He sighed and looked back forwards, continuing to lead me deeper and deeper into the crater. “Also, Amber Aura doesn’t stand a chance against Red Eye. If the fuckin’ Light bringer couldn’t do it, what hope does she have.”

“You really think Littlepip is dead?” I asked. My hoof snagged on a jagged rock and I clumsily topped to the ground.

Slipknot chuckled and helped me back to my hooves. “Try not to fall around here. You don’t want any of your exposed hide to touch this stuff. The gas mask might keep you from getting the boils and hair loss like the slaves, but I wouldn’t want to lie in it,” He let a small nicker escape his lips. “And I’m pretty damn sure the Stable Dweller bit the fuckin’ dust. I heard she was in Maripony when the balefire bomb went off. If the goddess or the radiation didn’t somehow kill her, the Enclave did.”

“What do you think the Enclave is even up to?” I asked, carefully stepping around a piece of collapsed rubble that looked like it had once been a foals bed. "Why come down from the sky now after all these years?"

Slipknot shrugged. “Fuck if I know. They seem to be spread pretty thin at the moment, but that don’t mean nothin’ when you have an army as big as they do. Last I heard, they were primarily in Manehattan, but a large fleet is also supposedly heading out to Red Eyes cathedral and another is on its way to Las Pegasus.”

That caught my attention. “Las Pegasus? What are they doing all the way over there?”

“Couldn’t tell ya. That city’s mostly just raiders, not the kind of thing that I’d expect the Enclave to go after. That said, I heard it's got some pretty hefty defences... and it is a sky city, so maybe that has to do with it,” He paused and glanced a little farther down the slope to where a grime covered slave was slowly hauling some radioactive waste out from behind the rubble.

The slave’s stomachs was drawn, showing off their ribcage through the grime and their hind hooves were trembling, threatening to give out from under them. Their fore hooves however remained unmoving. Even through the muck, I could see bits of metal glinting in the light as the slave’s cybernetic fore limbs hauled the deadly material into the open.

“Xayah…” I felt my mouth utter before I had time to hold it in. Thankfully, Slipknot didn’t seem to hear me as he took a few more steps forwards.

“There she is,” Slipknot said, trotting up to and sneering down at Xayah. “Weird that Stern wants this one. All she’s been is a hassle so far. You’d think with those metal legs she might actually be useful.”

He raised his fore hoof and gave Xayah a rough kick. Xayah was pushed backwards, stumbling over the rough terrain and collapsing to the ground with a loud whimper. Slipknot scowled. “Useless bitch! Get back to your hooves,” His hoof wrapped around the whip hanging from his side and quickly pulled it out with a loud crack. He took a step forward, looming over Xayah. I took a step to stop him, only for him to glance back at me. Through his mask, I could see the edges of his mouth break into a smile. “My apologies. Don’t let me take the fun away from you…”

I baulked. “Wh… what do you mean?”

He just stared at me as if I had said the dumbest question in the world. “Well? Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to whip this fuckin’ stripe. She deserves it after all.”

I took a step back, my eyes darting around. “B-but you knocked her over… she was working fine before you showed up…”

“Ha, you think I fuckin’ care?” Slipknot chuckled, his hoof cracking forwards and knocking Xayah upside the head. Xayah cried out, blood bursting from her broken nose. “Now hurry up and whip the cunt before I do it for ya.”

“I, uh… um… I think I’ll just take her back to Stern. Stern said she wants her as, um… as uninjured as possible.”

Slipknot scoffed. “Stern won’t know. It could have been any slaver that did it, look,” He kicked Xayah again, this time rolling her over onto her front, showing off the throbbing criss-crossing lashes that married her back. “The bitch has already been lashed up. Stern won't notice or care about a few more. Come on, work off some steam,” He leaned in close, seeming almost giddy with excitement. “I’m guessing your name ain’t Whip Slash for nothin’ after all.”

I took a shaky breath, my hoof slowly reaching down for the whip at my side. I looked around, trying to find a way out of this. I could attack him, but that would break my cover. The last thing I wanted was to have every slaver in the crater trying to kill me.

I glanced back down at Xayah, my whip uncoiling by my side. Just a few lashes and I’d be free to just waltz on out of here with Xayah. Just a few lashes…

“You’re the kinda pony that likes to savour these moments, huh,” Slipknot chuckled, watching as I slowly raised the whip higher and higher with my magic. “I usually just go at ‘em, but I found savouring it can be fun now and again…”

A loud crack filled the air not all the far away from us. My eyes glanced up, making out the shapes of a slaver a few feet away bringing his whip down hard upon another slave. The slave screamed out, thrashing in agony as the bullwhip ripped open their hide.

I glanced back down at Xayah. Blood was spilling down her face from her broken nose and it looked like one of Slipknot’s kicks had given her a black eye. She slowly looked up at me, a look of resignation crossing over her somber features. Then she looked past me, not recognizing me through my gas mask and the grime.

“Do your worst,” She taunted me, her voice dry and cracked. She sounded so frail and broken, like a strong wind might knock her over. “The wasteland has already taken its penance. There is nothing left you can do to me.”

“Fuckin’ hell, cut the dramatics and shut up you striped cunt,” Slipknot scowled, raising a hoof and stomping down hard on Xayah’s chest. There was a loud crack as one of Xayah’s ribs snapped under the pressure. He turned back to face me, his body language giddy-like. “Well? Hurry up and whip the bitch.”

I glanced back one more time at the catwalks surrounding the crater. A few slavers were watching us, seeming to be waiting in excited anticipation. I wanted to scream at all of them. How dare they stand by and watch such awful things happen without stepping in!

My eyes shifted back down to Xayah, my whip rising a little bit higher into the air. She was trembling on the ground, her cracked lips now drizzling blood. Her breath was coming out in painful wheezes, no doubt a result of her broken rib. She was looking back up at me again, her eyes wide and full of fear.

I took a deep breath. “Oh, fuck this…”

My whip slashed down, coiling around Slipknots throat. He gasped out, his hooves racing to his neck at the thick rope tightened around it. “Wha- what the fuck are you…”

I yanked on the whip, sending him toppling to the ground with a muffled cry of pain. He landed face first, a jagged rock smashing in the glass eyepiece of his gas mask.

Before he had the chance to get back up, Braeburn’s Liberator bobbed up into the air and pressed against the back of his head. His eyes only had just long enough to widen before the powerful shotgun blasted into the back of his skull, sending viscera and brain matter spewing out of the shattered lens of his mask.

Xayah flinched back, her front getting coated in the slavers blood. Her eyes locked on my shotgun still floating above the dead slaver in my amber field of magic, her eyes wide and pupils dilated. “A… Amber?” she looked up at me, her eyes unfocused. “Amber… how are you… I thought…”

“I’m here to get you out of this place. It’ll all be okay. I promise,” I wrapped my hooves around her, pulling her up and slinging her over my back. Her metal fore hooves made her far heavier than I was comfortable carrying, but I managed to steady myself regardless.

Damn it, where was Pyre Blaze when you needed her?

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing!? You got a fuckin' death wish!?” A slaver called down to me, their assault rifle raising and aiming at my head. All the other slavers quickly did the same, their attention abruptly ripped away from the slaves they were whipping and to me.

I took a step back, my legs wobbling under Xayah’s weight. Getting in had been easy enough, now getting out was going to be the trick.

One of the slaves that had been held at gunpoint only a second prior suddenly jumped forwards, their hooves wrapping around the neck of the slaver that had just been berating them. They were suddenly joined as the rest of the slaves in the crater began screaming and charging at their captors, buzz saws flailing as their blades sliced into flesh.

The slavers panicked, their guns whipping around and opening fire as the slaves poured across the crater.

I ducked down, barely avoiding a plethora of shots that slashed through the air above my head. A few feet away, I watched as a slave collapsed to the ground, blood oozing from their neck where a slavers bullets had punched into them.

I gulped, rushing forwards and bunkering down behind some cover, grunting as I did my best to keep Xayah atop my back. My ears pounded as they were consumed by the cacophony of gunfire and screams as the slaves' desperate and sudden revolt echoed across the radioactive hole.

It had not been my intention to start an uprising, but I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth… why the fuck is that even a saying...

I heard the clinking of metal on metal as the slavers on the catwalk tossed a few apple grenades down into the crater. One of them bounded to a stop a foot away from me.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up and over my cover, the ground beneath me shifting and crumbling as I darted for the edge of the crater.

I was too slow.

The apple grenade exploded, sending a massive cloud of ash and dirt into the air. I was slammed forwards, toppling head over hoof across the radioactive landscape. Xayah was thrown from my back, landing in a crumpled pile a few feet away. A jagged chunk of rubble flashed across my fore hoof as I skidded across the ground, ripping open the slaver barding and slashing a large gash across my leg. Hot blood poured from the wound and I could feel the edges of the cut burn as it touched the heavily radioactive air.

I pulled myself up, my eyes darting around to find Xayah. I saw her a little bit away, trembling legs trying to pull herself back up. She stumbled and fell again, this time going completely limp on the ground.

Cursing, I rushed towards her, ducking down as the slavers assault rifles blasted a second round of bullets towards me. A few shots grazed my flank, but none of them managed to do any more than nick the top layer of my hide.

A slave jumped at me, their hooves wrapping around my neck and pulling me to the ground. I gagged as the grip crushed my throat, kicking as I tried to push the larger pony off of me.

“Get off! I’m trying to help you!” I choked, kicking him in the face with my bleeding fore hoof.

The slave scowled and stomped down hard on my chest, making me yell out in pain. “Likely story you slaving peice of shi-” He was cut off as one of the slavers sent a bullet lashing through his throat. Blood spilled down atop me, coating me in crimson.

With a grunt, I rolled the heavy body off of me, scampering back to my hooves and continuing to haul myself over to Xayah.

In the distance, a loud siren began to blare out, the loud noise assaulting my ears and making me wince.

“Lock down the Crater. Do not let anypony out!” A crackly voice shouted over a speaker. I saw slavers rushing through the exit and starting gathering on the catwalks, their guns aiming and raining lead down on the revolting slaves. Metal doors slammed shut over all the escape roots, locking us all inside the radioactive hellhole.

One by one, the slaves bagan backing up, hooves raised as they surrendered. My distraction was about to run out.

I scooped up Xayah and threw her back over my back and began rushing for the far side of the crater, doing my best not to stumble over the rough terrain. Xayah let a wet sounding rasp escape her lips as she was roughly bounced up and down across my back.

“There’s the bitch that started it!” I heard a slaver shout out, their hoof raising to point at me. “Kill her! Don’t let her escape!”

“Shit,” The words had barely escaped my mouth when bullets began whipping past me, a few bursting against the debris or ricohetting wildly in in every direction. My ears were once more filled with the blaring sound of gunfire as the slavers assault rifles blasted towards me.

I leapt for cover, only for a bullet to slash through my hind leg. I stumbled to the ground, my stomach scraping against the ragged rubble beneath me. I scrambled to pull myself behind cover, the bullet hole in my hind leg practically screaming in protest and sharp pains shot up my body. A few bullets bounced off a large rock as I managed to pull myself behind it.

Several slavers began rushing towards me, their assault rifles firing off streams of gunfire in my direction while the rest of the slavers forced the slaves back to work. I heard one of the slavers actually laughing, as if this whole ordeal was the most fun he'd had in months.

“Xayah, can you fight?” I asked, shaking Xayah’s shoulder gently. A bolt of panic flashed through me as she failed to respond, or even acknowledge that she had heard me. “Xayah!?” I placed my hoof to her throat, praying to find a pulse. I let a deep breath of relief escape my lips when the unsteady beating of her heart assured me she was still alive.

Another round of gunfire caused my cover to explode in a shower of rocks and dust, forcing me to spin around and fire off a shot at the approaching slavers. Braeburn’s Liberator fired, the buckshot slashing through the chest of one of the slavers and sending them tumbling to the ground in a scream of pain.

“You’re going to pay for that!” Another slaver shouted, lunging towards me and drawing their whip.

I scrambled back, pulling Xayah with me as I barely avoided the first crack of the whip as the slaver lashed at me. The slaver reared back, preparing for a second lash. I swung my anti-machine rifle forwards with my magic, knocking the slavers legs out from under him and sending him crashing downwards.

I spun around, rushing for the set of stairs leading back up to the catwalk. With Xayah’s added weight to my back, my hooves sunk deeper and deeper into the radioactive gunk that coated the ground and the rubble seemed to shift and give way beneath me with every step. I could feel the old shrapnel wounds in my side getting ripped open as I overexerted my body and hot blood was begging to pour down my barrel.

“Get back here you bitch!” A slaver shouted as they rushed forwards, their assault rifle firing. I skidded to the side, the shots missing me by inches.

I was almost there, only a few steps away from reaching the steps up the catwalk. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the slavers pursuing me give some sort of hoof signal to the slavers above. The slavers on the catwalk sprung into action immediately, rushing across the elevated walkway to cut me off.

I grunted, putting on a burst of speed. My hoof touched the first step of the stairs and I began sprinting up them, each stride taking me up two steps at a time.

The slavers above were moving quickly, far faster than I was while trying to hold up Xayah's weight. In a few seconds I knew that they would block me off from my only means of escape. And I simply wasn’t going fast enough. I constantly had to zigzag to keep from being filled with holes from the slavers fire and my wounded hind leg made each and every step harder and harder.

I wasn’t going to make it!

Thinking fast, I reached out with my magic and wrapped my amber aura around the leading slavers leg, giving it a hard yank. The slaver fell, falling flat on his face with a shout of surprise. The slavers behind him stumbled, two of them falling as well as they tripped over their comrades body. The others managed to move around him and keep running, but it didn’t matter, it had slowed them down just enough.

I reached the top of the stairs and rushed onto the catwalk. Instantly, I began sprinting towards the vent in the wall, my magic flashing out and ripping the grate from its place as I ran. One of the slavers jumped at me, hoping to grapple me before I could escape.

I whirled out of their reach, my magic picking Xayah’s limp body off of my back and tossing her unceremoniously into the now open vent. I heard a grunt of pain as Xayah landed inside. Hopefully the action had pulled her from unconsciousness and she would be able to help pull herself through the vents.

I jumped back as the slaver lunged at me again, this time with his whip cracking through the air at me. I yelled in pain as the bullwhip coiled around my bleeding foreleg, pulling me down towards the ground.

I spun, my hind hooves flashing back and bucking the slaver in the face. His head snapped back, shattered teeth flying from his mouth and blood bursting from his now broken nose. He staggered back, his hoof clutching at his face.

I didn’t bother waiting for the rest of the slavers to arrive as I dove into vents after Xayah. I grabbed the grate with my magic and slammed it back into place. That wouldn’t hold the slavers back for more than a second, but it would give me enough time to move before they began firing at me down the vent.

I spun around, seeing a trail of blood and grime where Xayah had pulled herself forwards. Xayah herself was nowhere to be found.

Breathing heavily, I began crawling through the vents as fast as I could. I could hear the slavers screaming and fumbling with the vent grate behind me. There was a loud bang, and the grate was bashed aside.

“Damn, she’s getting away! Activate the bots!” I heard a slaver shout as I turned a corner in the vent and moved out of their line of sight.

Fuck, that ment there were probably some security systems in here. Hopefully we could get out of this damned place before we ran into any of those.

I pulled myself a few more feet through the vent and crawled around a second corner to find Xayah lying on her back, her hoof clutching weakly at the bleeding gashes in her side. I cautiously pulled myself up to her, lying down across from my zebra companion and resting against the side of the cold vent wall. A gust of wind seemed to carry through the metal tunnel, blowing our ratty manes from our faces and making me shiver.

Xayah tilted her head to look at me, her hazy eyes trying to recognize me through my gas mask. “Amber…” She said, her lips trembling. “Is that you…?”

I slowly pulled the gas mask off and gave her as comforting of a smile as I could. “Yeah… I’m here…”

Xayah stared at me for a second before slowly shaking her head and looking up at the ceiling, her eyes sad and empty. “It cannot be you… I must be dreaming…”

I felt my eyes narrow in confusion. “What do you mean? It's really me Xayah.”

Xayah just shook her head again. “You’re dead. Stern told me you’re dead,” I had to grit my teeth to keep from unleashing a growl at that. If I ever saw that fucking griffin again, I was going to flay her alive. Xayah looked back down and her eyes locked on the bullet wound in my chest. She reached forwards as if to touch it before thinking better of it and lowering her metal hoof. “And you would not come to save me if you were still alive… You would not come for me after I…” her voice choked and a small tear formed in the corner of her eye.

I felt a tremor pass through me. Did Xayah really think that I would just leave her in Fillydelphia, even after what had happened between us?

Biting back a small yelp of pain as I applied pressure to my injured hoof, I moved over to rest at her side, my shrapnel wounds pressing up against her blistered and grimy, striped hide. My hoof reached down and intertwined around hers. Her face didn’t react to the touch, but I could feel her hoof tighten around mine.

“I’m really here, Xayah,” I breathed, not sure what else to say. “It doesn’t matter what becomes of us after this… I’m getting us out of here. Together.”

Xayah was silent for a moment before turning to look at me, another tear creeping down her face. Then, slowly, a smile formed on her lips. It was a small smile, barely a smirk, but my heart felt like it leaped with fucking joy just to see it.

The moment passed and Xayah’s face suddenly went slack. Her body slumped and she collapsed further to the floor of the vent.

My heart thudded and a bolt of fear passed through me. “Xayah? Xayah!” I placed my hoof to her forehead, panic flaring through me. She was burning up, clearly coming down with some sort of intense fever. Severe radiation sickness most likely. I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out a Radaway, quickly pouring its contents down Xayah’s throat.

Xayah gagged slightly as the fluid trickled past her lips, but I managed to get it into her system without her coughing it back out. I could feel the fever diminish slightly, but not enough. Not nearly enough.

Fuck, Fillydelphia was killing her. I had to get her out of this place fast!

Scooping her back up onto my back, I began hauling her down the tunnel. “Come on Xayah. Just hold in there a little longer…”

Up ahead, I saw what looked to be the end of the ventilation shaft. I wrapped the grate up in my magic and ripped it off of the wall, making room for us as I pulled us out of the vent.

We weren’t outside the crater wall like I had hoped we would be, but rather in a long hallway that had been built into the inside of the wall, most likely for housing and office areas for the slavers. Not ideal, but it was at least a step up from being back in the crater itself.

Limping forwards, I trotted down the hallway, my head sweeping from side to side as I searched for a way out. I had seen a vent on the outside of the wall, so chances were that there’d be another grate in the wall somewhere I could sneak through.

Not all that far away, I could hear the muffled shouting of slavers as they scoured the area for me. Clearly they were still looking for me, not that I had expected otherwise. By now I was sure they had put two and two together and figured out I was the one who had snuck into the crater to rescue Xayah. I’d probably have a lot more slavers coming to take me out very shortly.

The hallway came to an abrupt end at a large metal door locked with a security terminal. Sliding Xayah off my back and propping her up against the wall, I turned to the terminal and started searching around for the password.

“Come on, come on…” I grunted, my eyes rolling over the lines of code embedded into the computer. I had hacked terminals five times as hard in a matter of seconds. I could get this. But my trembling, weary hooves and my gripping fear for Xayah’s health seemed to be making it hard to concentrate.

There was a bang from somewhere down the hallway, making me pause and glance behind me. I could hear slavers in the distance and they seemed to be getting closer, but I estimated I still had a few minutes before they arrived.

Pros to the Fillydelphia crater being so large I suppose.

Returning my attention back to the terminal, I clicked through a few more keys and tested out a password at random. The terminal beeped, informing me that I had chosen the wrong one.

I grunted again, running my eyes down the next two possibilities. “Okay, the second letter probably isn’t an A then,” I mumbled, looking at where that left me. My gaze landed on the word ‘Shackles’ that had been coded into the terminal. “That one seems promising…”

The terminal gave a chirp as the password activated. The terminal unlocked, giving me access to the options on it.

>Override Security Door

>Turret Control

>Security options

I glanced over the options available to me. Figuring that the turrets were probably the ‘bots’ that the slaver had mentioned, I quickly opened up their file and deactivated them. The last thing I needed was to have the walls and ceilings open up and start firing at me while I was carrying Xayah.

Returning to the other options, I opened up the Security door override.

>Override Security Door

[Open]

[Close]

I activated the open option and stepped back as the large metal door began to slide open with a loud hiss and the sound of metal grinding against metal.

I smirked, pumping my hoof in the air triumphantly. “Still got it.”

The door slid to a stop, but the sound of metal on metal continued, ringing out through the hallway. Confused, I spun around, making out another metal door at the far side of the hall that had begun to side open as well.

My eyes bulged with fear as I spotted the monstrosity that began rolling through the doorway towards me.

The robot was massive, at least four large ponies tall. It was covered in large metal plates and rolled on three massive tank-like treads that made a loud whirring noise as it moved. It was topped with a small, armoured head equipped with what appeared to be some sort of glowing red eye sensor. Two bulky arm-like appendages protruded from either side of the monstrosity, one wielding a deadly looking gatling laser, while the other had what I could only assume was a large missile launcher.

The Ministry of Wartime Technology logo had been engraved on the robots large breastplate and the almost scratched out words below it read, ‘Sentry bot - SB - 8754 issue’.

I gulped and took a step backwards. “Bots… right…” Clearly the turrets were not the bots the slaver had been talking about.

because fuck me… Apparently…

I only had just enough time to hit the deck before a powerful gust of wind ripped across the room and a missile the size of my torso flashed above my head, slamming into the far wall and blasting it apart. Bits of scrap metal and shrapnel rained across the hallway, fire and smoke flared across the walls, charring the already rusting metal black.

“What the fuck was that!” I heard the muffled sound of a slaver barking in the distance. The slavers shout was quickly followed by the pounding of hooves as slavers began rushing towards the noise.

Shit. That probably only gave me a minute before they arrived.

I pulled myself back to my hooves, stumbling backwards and rearing Braebrun’s Liberator up to bear. My shotgun barked, buckshot flashing from its muzzle and smashing into the massive Sentry bots torso. The slugs sparked against the robot, buckshot scratching up the surface, but were otherwise ineffective as the towering robot’s treads spun and began hauling the machine towards me at an ungodly speed.

I grumbled. “Oh fuck me, this is going to hurt.”

I rolled to the side, the Sentry bot charging past me, its metal arms swinging as if to sucker punch me. There was barely enough room to roll aside as the huge robot’s bulk took up most of the hall. I tucked my head between my forehooves and I dove to the ground, quickly rolling back up to my hooves as fast as I could, my side brushing against the metal wall. My whole body screamed in protest, having been pushed to its limits long ago.

I spun around to face the sentry bot, only to find that it’s body had already rotated around to face me, its gatling laser spinning rapidly as it charged up to fire at me.

“Shit.”

I backpedaled, spinning around and rushing down the hallway as the Sentry bot unleashed a flurry of magical energy blasts in my direction. Burning red lasers lashed at the walls, sparks flaring across my vision as the gatling laser continued its assault.

One of the shots grazed my rump, sending a burning pain searing through my body. I screamed, collapsing to the ground. I could feel the burning laser cauterizing the wound, my flesh around the burn mark blistering.

I rolled over onto my back, staring down the hallway towards the Sentry bot. It was rolling closer to me, its massive treads leaving dark black track marks scuffed into the hallway floor. There was a loud thunk as a missile clicked into place on its missile launcher.

I fired another shot from my quad barrel shotgun, but once again, the explosive rounds did little but scratch up the massive robot's heavy plating.

The missile launcher fired, the projectile flashing through the air towards me with unparalleled speed. I reached out with my magic, a thin shield of amber light appearing between me and the missile.

The explosive detonated against my magical shield, imploding my magic and sending a shockwave smashing into me that sent me stumbling head over hoof down the hallway. I managed to look up just in time to see the Sentry bot once more charging towards me, its metal arms swinging to pound me into the ground.

I scampered back and ducked, the huge machine's arm flying over my head and smashing into the wall, ripping chunks of metal from the wall and sending it crashing to the floor. As it sailed passed, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a metal hatch open up on its back, pouring dark black steam. I felt the smallest of smirks touch my lips as I noticed the exposed dual fusion cores resting just within.

Those were explosive.

I pulled myself back to my hooves, my magic quickly loading more slugs into my empty shotgun. I grimaced as I realized I was down to my final three shots. I switched to my dark black and red Anti-machine rifle and raised it up to face the sentry bot, only to find that it had once more spun around with alarming speed.

I tried to jump out of the way too late as its huge arms crashed towards me and rammed into my chest, sending me soaring backwards and slamming head first into the wall. I felt the wall dent as I was rammed into it.

I groaned, staggering away from the wall and raising the anti-machine rifle to bear. My chest was filled with pain and my breath was coming out in pained wheezes. That last hit had clearly broken something.

The sound of metal on metal told me the Sentry bot was charging me even before I saw it. I looked up, only just managing to jump aside as the massive robot once more slammed towards me. Both of its metal arms crashing into the walls, ripping a chunk of metal free from its surface entirely. Before I could react again, the Sentry bot swung around, the large chunk of metal slamming into my chest and sending me toppling to the floor.

I hit the ground with a gasp, all the air being pushed from my lungs in a violent huff of air. I crawled backwards, once more aiming the anti-machine rifle at the Sentry bot. The large gun fired, the .50 BMG round slashing through the glowing red eye on its head. The glass eye shattered, shards flying everywhere across the hallway.

The Sentry bot began making angry sounding beeps, its large metal torso swinging back and forth as if trying to detect where I was. It’s gatling laser whirred to life, its body spinning as it sent blasts of lethal energy flying in every direction.

I dove over top of Xayah’s limp form, blocking her from the blast as the sentry bot fired randomly. I Screamed as two burning lasers found their home in my back, ripping through the weak slaver barding and marring my hide.

The Sentry bot whipped back around to face me, alerted of my presence by my scream of pain. I heard another missile clunking into place. I bit back another yell of pain and wrapped my hooves around Xayah, pulling her aside seconds before the Sentry bot fired.

The missile slammed into the floor beside us, the explosion knocking us both onto our backs. I scrambled back up, trying to aim the anti-machine rifle at the exposed fusion cores on the robot's back. My vision was spinning and I was seeing double of everything.

The large rifle barked out a shot, fire flaring from the muzzle. The shot flashed forwards, the large round piercing the Sentry bots plating with a shower of sparks. But I had missed my mark, the bullet lodging itself into the robot only inches away from the exposed hole in its back.

The instant the rifle fired, the Sentry bot was on me again, it’s treads spinning and its whole body stampeding down the hallway towards me. I quickly threw Xayah’s body out of its path, taking the hit for her as it’s metal torso slammed into my body.

I lost my grip on both of my weapons as I was sent careening to the ground, both my shotgun and rifle spinning through the air before skidding across the floor and coming to a stop on the far side of the hall.

The sound of pounding hooves drew my attention to the hallway I had first come from. The first of the slavers had arrived, charging towards me with their assault rifles drawn.

I needed to get out of here, and fast.

I rolled beneath the lumbering Sentry bot as it slammed down at me with its large arms. I felt the whole hallway tremble as its massive arms ripped holes into the floor. I rolled back up, already sprinting for my dropped weapons.

I heard the sound of the Sentry bots gatling laser whirring as it fired after me, its aim thrown off by its broken sensor and inability to see me.

On the far side of the Sentry bot, I saw five more slavers turn into the hallway, their weapons blaring as they fired down the hallway towards me. I ducked to the side, the rapid fire attacks of the assault rifles peppering the wall beside me with holes.

My magic scooped up both of my weapons and I spun back around to face the Sentry bot, only for one of its lasers to peg me in the chest. I dropped my weapons as burning pains shot up my body, my legs trembling as I collapsed back to the ground.

I looked up, my blurry vision making out the Sentry bot charging towards me. A missile locked into place, the massive launcher readying to fire at the same time as the gatling laser. Behind it, I could see the slavers getting closer, their weapons aimed at my head.

I tried to pull myself back up, but that last shot had sapped my strength. I collapsed back to the ground, my head throbbing and my chest aching.

Everypony had been right. There was no escaping Fillydelphia. I couldn’t fight my way through all of this. No pony could…

A loud bang echoed down the hallway. The Sentry bot sagged, fire and sparks leaping from the exposed hatch in its back where a precise shot from a rifle had struck home and pierced the fusion cores inside.

I managed to look up enough to see Xayah lying against the wall, the large anti-machine rifle held tightly in her metal forehooves. She took a trembling breath, her whole body shaking from the exertion of firing, then her eyes slid closed and she collapsed back to the ground.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The slavers pulled up shot as they saw the sparks and fire spewing from the back of the Sentry bot, a large red light began flashing from somewhere beneath its metal plating.

“Fuckin’ Shit! Get back, it’s going to blow!”

I felt my eyes widen at the slavers remark. It was going to fucking what!

I scampered forwards and wrapped my hooves around Xayah, dragging her as far away from the beeping Sentry bot as I could. Each and every beep that came from the Sentry bot seemed to make the tight hallway grow hotter and hotter.

The slavers were backing up, their eyes wide with fear as they tried to get away from the self destructing robot.

Boom!

The whole area was suddenly filled with a blinding light as the Sentry bot exploded. Fire flared across my vision, flames surged down the metal walls, flashing towards me and licking at my exposed hide. A blistering heat washed over me, sweat dripping from my pores and eliciting a howl like scream from my muzzle as I fought back against the pain of being consumed by fire. I was sent stumbling backwards, landing on my rump as the massive explosion equalled only by that of a balefire egg slammed into me.

The sudden memory of Inferno torturing me within my own mind flashed through me, sending a wave of panic jolting through my mind. I could feel my breath quicken, a panic attack slowly rising within me.

The walls of the hallway were ripped apart from the blast, metal and debris were sent flying in every direction. I felt hot, smouldering metal slashing at my flesh and not all that far away, I saw a slaver writhing as their body was consumed by burning flames.

A dark smoke filled the air, clogging up my throat and making me cough.

My eyes darted to the massive hole the explosion had ripped open, the hole leading right out from the wall and out into the red tinted streets of Fillydelphia.

“That’ll do it,” I choked, forcing myself back up and slinging Xayah’s body over my back. I took a step forward, stumbling as pain flared through me.

“Still not dead?” I heard a slaver shout, pushing their way through the rubble at the end of the hall and charging towards me. “I’m going to fuckin’ flay you bitch!”

I bit my tongue and fought down the urge to simply lay down and accept my fate. I pushed off with my hooves, rushing as fast as I could towards the gaping hole in the wall. The slaver tried to cut me off, only to be knocked aside as I scooped both Braeburn’s Liberator and The anti-machine rifle up with my magic and slammed them both into his head.

I leapt through the hole, my legs flailing as I seeked purchase on the rough ground below. I was higher up than I expected, a large jolt passing through me as my hooves slammed into the ground.

Immediately, I took off running, rushing for cover as the rest of the slavers managed to pull themselves through the rubble and began pouring through the large hole after me. I scrambled through an intersection in the smoggy Fillydelphia streets and quickly darted into a small side alley behind the ruins of a broken skyscraper, pressing myself up against the side of a rusting dumpster and using my body to shield Xayah as I heard the pounding hooves of the slavers approaching.

I spotted the large group of slavers rushing into the intersection. They paused, glancing around. A large slaver in dark green combat barding that looked to be in charge started pointing slavers in different directions. “Spread out and find them! Stern wants this bitch dead and with her fucking ass served to her on a silver platter, move it!”

The slavers broke apart, scattering and searching down the different streets and alleys. I tucked myself closer to the side of the dumpster as a group of five slavers trotted past me, scouring the area for any traces of us.

I waited a few minutes, letting the slavers pass before slowly crawling out from my hiding spot and limping for the end of the alley. I glanced behind me, making sure that I hadn't been spotted.

Working up some more of my strength, I sprinted a little faster, Xayah’s unconscious form bouncing up and down on my back as I tried to get out of the area as quickly as possible.

I turned into another side alley, running face first into two more slavers. They both looked up at me, their eyes narrowing and their weapons raising. One of them raised a shotgun. The twin barrels pointed directly at my head.

“Well well, looks like it's our lucky day,” The shotgun wielding slaver smirked, taking a step towards me.

I scowled and raised my shotgun, only for the second slaver to quickly knock it aside and ram themself into me. I gasped out, collapsing to the floor, Xayah rolling from my back and landed in a heap on the ground.

I moved to get back up, only for the shotgun wielding slaver to clock me over the head and send me slamming back to the ground. The slavers hoof flashed out, stomping on my chest and pinning me to the ground. I wheezed, blood drizzling from the edges of my muzzle.

Across from me, I saw the second slaver place the barrel of his assault rifle to Xayah’s head. I growled up at the slaver, but he only laughed at me in response. “How does it feel, coming so far only for your friend to get thrown back into the crater,” I tried to think of a witty retort, but nothing came to mind. The slaver smirked again. “Actually, fuck that. I think we’ll just kill the fuckin’ stripe.”

He nodded to the other slaver, signalling for him to send a round of bullets through Xayah’s skull. I screamed, thrashing at the slavers hoof pinning me down, only for him to knock me upside the head again.

The slaver pointing their gun at Xayah snickered, their mouth tightening on the trigger of their assault rifle.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

A round of bullets tore through the slavers throat before they could bite down fully on the trigger. Blood burst from their neck painting the alley walls in crimson.

The slaver pinning me down looked up in surprise, their eyes wide with shock as they spotted Brisk rushing down the alley towards us, a machete strapped to his side and his new mini gun spinning and sending a wall of bullets in his direction.

The slaver pulled back, their shotgun raising in their mouth to return fire, only for my magic to rip it from their mouth and spin it back around to face them. A shout of surprise escaped their mouth seconds before their own gun fired and pulped their head with a deadly shot of buckshot. Both shots fired point blank into his face, instantly dropping him to the ground.

Brisk rushed to my side, reaching down a hoof to help me up. “You alright sis?”

I nodded, accepting his hoof with a confused frown. “Yeah… but what are you doing here? I thought I told you to protect Chestnut and Tinker?”

Brisk gave me a playful smirk and tossed me a healing potion. “I did. Mirra and Scarlet got back a bit ago with a plan to get out of here. They’re moving into position now. They sent me to come get you. Figured you’d need a hoof anyway.”

I gave him a weak smile and thankfully drank the potion as Brisk moved over and poured a potion down Xayah’s throat. “How’s Chestnut doing?”

Brisk gave me a stern look. “Better. She’s awake at least. But it doesn’t look good.”

I gave a grim nod and moved to help Xayah back up onto my back. Brisk scooted up beside me to help carry the weight. “And the plan for getting out? You think we have a chance?”

Brisk grimace. “It’s a long shot, but it’s the best we can do,” He perked up a little and tried to give me a reassuring face. “We’re all back together now, right? Since when have we ever not gotten through?”

I had to bite back a remark that we were still missing Pyre and that we often failed. Instead I just forced a smile that he could see right through and gave him a nod. “Yeah… right.”

Brisk glanced around, his head picking up at the sound of slaver voices in the distance. “We should move. We’ll explain the plan once we regroup and get somewhere safe.”

Nodded and deciding not to comment on how there was nowhere safe in Fillydelphia, we began limping forwards, descending deeper into Fillydelphia.

I let a wave of relief wash over me as we finally set Xayah down inside the remains of an old office building. I collapsed down onto the ground next to her, all my strength leaving me as I finally let my body rest.

Scarlet and Mirra were at our sides in seconds. Scarlet quickly moved to look over Xayah’s wounds while Mirra scampered over to me.

The changeling filly looked up at me with a big smile on her face. Her large blue eyes looked over the plethora of wounds I had accumulated while inside the crater and the mud that caked my coat. “You look like shit.”

“Watch your language,” I scolded, wincing as I put too much pressure on one of my injured hooves.

Mirra stuck her tongue out at me. “You say worse things all the time.

“I’m an adult.”

“Barely.”

“Still an adult,” I stuck my tongue back out at her, prompting her to roll her eyes and give me another fanged smirk.

Mirra floated over another healing potion which I thankfully took and drank. Clearly Brisk had managed to find more healing supplies while I was gone. The potion Brisk had given me had managed to stop most of the bleeding, but the second potion managed to fully close up most of the wounds. Though I noticed the burn marks from the Sentry bots gatling laser refused to leave completely. Clearly those were going to stick around for a long while still.

Feeling a little bit stronger than before, I stood up and looked over Scarlet's shoulder as she worked on Xayah’s wounds. “Is she going to be alright?” I asked, my voice filling with worry.

Scarlet gave me a nervous glance and nodded. “She’ll be fine as long as we get her out of Filly. Her wounds are somewhat minimal, but the radiation poisoning is slowly killing her,” She took a deep breath and administered our second to last dose of Radaway to Xayah before handing me the last one. “It was the right choice, going out for her alone. I don’t think I would have been able to save her if we had to spread out our rations.”

Nodding, I looked past her and down at Xayah’s limp form. I could see her chest slowly rising and falling as she breathed and her ears occasionally twitched in her fevered sleep. Brisk stepped up beside me and placed a hoof over my withers.

“She’s going to be fine. We’re going to make it out of this,” he said, his calm tone only soothing my racing mind somewhat.

I took a deep breath and turned to face everypony. I cast a glance towards Scarlet and Mirra. “Alight, so you said you found a way out of this place.”

Scarlet nodded, her expression grim. “We did. It’s not going to be easy, but with some luck, I think we can pull it off.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chestnut slowly limping into the room to join us, leaning on Tinker as the small colt tried his best to help his mother move around. “It’s not going to be easy is the understatement of the year,” Chestnut grunted. She looked tired and all of her limbs seemed to be trembling. “But I know from experience that we can do it.”

I gave Chestnut a concerned look. “How are you holding up?” I asked, taking a small step towards her.

“I’ll be okay. Soon as my baby is safe and out of here,” Chestnut said, ruffling the top of Tinkers mane. Tinker giggled a little, but I could tell that he was nervous, and I could see why. Chestnut might be walking and talking again, but she clearly wasn’t fit to fight or run, and she defiantly wasn't in any shape to be trying to break out of Fillydelphia.

“You’ve probably noticed that Red Eye has slavers patrolling the skies of Filly in Pinkie hot air balloons,” Mirra said, elaborating on the plan. “And we know where to get one.”

I raised an eyebrow. It seemed almost too good to be true. “Oh? Where would that be?”

“Well, there are a few different places to be exact,” Scarlet noted. “The only guaranteed place is a balloon that’s tied to the top of the Ministry Moral Hub in the centre of the city for Red Eye if he ever needs to make an escape. But seeing how we just broke out of there, there's a good chance security there has been doubled if not tripled. We’d probably have better luck making a direct dash for the mane entrance.”

“And the other places?” I asked, my hopes sinking just a little at that. “Where are they?”

“There is a loading dock area not all that far from here where some of the slavers park the balloons to switch over shifts,” Mirra explained. “It’s heavily guarded, but if we can get inside and snag a balloon for ourselves, we’ll be home free.”

“Not quite,” Chestnut interrupted, shaking her head slightly. “The loading dock is still a few miles away from the Fillydelphia wall. We’d still have to fight our way out against griffins, other hot ait balloons and any other big city defences that Red Eye and Stern have been keeping under the radar. The probability of us managing to simply fly out is still slim, and we’re going to be in for one hell of a fight.”

Brisk grimaced. “Those balloons don’t move very fast either. I reckon we’ll need to fend slavers off for a solid few minutes even after we’re in the air. If not longer.”

I gave a determined nod. “Well, what other options do we have.”

Everypony exchanged worried looks. Scarlet turned her head back to look at me, her expression sad. “Mirra and I went and checked the sewage tunnel we got in with. The slavers have completely blocked it off and surrounded it with guards. There’s no leaving the way we came in.”

I gulped. “So what you’re saying is…”

“No. There is no other way out of Fillydelphia. This is the only way…”

We all sat there in silence for a long time, letting that sink in. We all knew that one way or another, whether we escaped or not, not all of us would be making it out of here alive...

Brisk pulled himself up beside me as we crouched behind a large pile of rubble overlooking the loading dock, Xayah’s unconscious body slung over his back. I glanced up at him briefly before returning my gaze to the scope of the anti-machine rifle.

“What do you see?” Brisk whispered, trying to look down at the slavers in the distance.

I shushed him, my eyes focusing on the five guards that stood sentinel at the front door. “A lot of guards, not all that many ways in,” I finally responded, shifting my gaze to check for any possible ways in past the security.

“We could go guns blazing, try to take them by surprise and fight our way through,” Brisk suggested.

I shook my head. “It would probably be best if we tried to go as undetected as we can. With all our activity, the whole city is on high alert and backup couldn’t be all that far away,” I frowned and watched as one of the balloons touched down behind the large wall surrounding the loading dock. “Besides, if we can get into a balloon without getting noticed, we might still be able to fly out of here without anypony realizing somethings up. At least not until it's too late anyway.”

Mirra and Scarlet crawled up next to us as well, peeking over the pile of debris and down at the loading dock. “What about that wall over there?” Scarlet asked, pointing a little off to my right. “Could we climb that and get inside?”

I shifted the scope to look at where she was pointing. One side of the large wall had been built into a large building that looked like it had been an airport, before it had been ravaged by the balefire bombs. The jagged brickwork looked like it might be sturdy enough to be used as a makeshift ladder. I didn’t spot any guards nearby, but one guard that was circling the premises seemed to pass by the spot every few minutes or so.

I nodded. “It’s a start, good eye,” I turned and glanced back at Chestnut who had stopped a few feet behind us to take a short rest. Tinker was at her side, trying to make sure she was cared for. “Chestnut, you think you’re capable of doing some climbing?”

She grimaced but gave a firm nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

Nodded, I glanced down at Tinker beside her. “Are you holding in there kid?”

Tinker gave me a timid nod. “I… I’m going to get my mom out of here,” He looked so afraid, but he was clearly doing his best to put on a brave front. I could feel my heart warm just a little bit more at his words. Chestnut had been right, I did like this kid. The wasteland would probably be a better place if more ponies were like him.

I gave him a small nod. “Alright then. Let's do this. Everypony try to stick to the plan. Once we climb over the wall, we're going to make a dash for one of the hot air balloons. Try not to get spotted. We pull this off and we might just get out of here.”

We began making our way towards the loading dock and conjoining airport. We ducked back a few times as groups of patrolling slavers scoured the area for intruders, but we remained mostly unimpeded.

Bunkering down behind a large cart full of scrap metal, I poked my head over the top and watched as the patrolling guard passed by the brick wall and continued on around the perimeter. I quickly turned and gestured for Mirra and Scarlet to go on ahead.

“You two go. We won’t be fast enough if we all go at once. Brisk will follow after you with Xayah, then I’ll help Chestnut and Tinker over last.”

Scarlet and Mirra gave quick nods, before darting around the wagon of scrap and scampering over to the wall face. Scarlet quickly began scaling it, her hooves moving as one unit as she scrambled from outstretched brick to outstretched brick. Mirra swiftly fluttered up beside her, not bothering to climb the walls as she buzzed her translucent blue elytra. They managed to climb up and over the wall in under a minute, moving over the top and ducking down out of sight.

I turned back to face Brisk. “Soon as the guard passes again, take Xayah and get her over the wall. Think you can do that?”

Brisk gave me a salute and toothy grin that showed off his collection of missing teeth. The wasteland had clearly not been kind to his mouth.

A few seconds later and the guard patrolled past again, assault rifle sweeping the area as he looked for anything out of the ordinary. Brisk bent his legs and hoped out of hiding as soon as the cost was clear, bounding towards the wall and beginning to climb. It took him a fair amount longer to climb that Scarlet did, Xayah’s weight dramatically limiting his movability, but before long he had managed to pull himself up and over, both him and Xayah quickly dropping out of sigh.

I gave Chestnut and Tinker a nod. “You two ready?”

Chestnut gave me a pained smirk. “Born ready,” Tinker just gave a timid smile.

As soon as we were sure it was safe to cross, we crawled out and made our way to the wall. Chestnut stumbled a little as we rushed across the rough terrain, but she managed to keep up with us as we pulled up against the wall.

“You go up first, I’ll be right behind you,” Chestnut urged Tinker, hoisting him up onto her back and helping him up as he began to scale the wall.

He got about half way up before glancing back down. “Mom, you coming?”

Chestnut cast me a worried look. I gave her as reassuring of a smile as I could muster. “Go on. I’ll be right up behind you,” I assured her. “I’ll try and catch you with my magic if you fall.”

Giving me a grateful nod, Chestnut put her shaking fore hooves onto the brick face and began to climb up after her son. Her shaking hooves slipped a few times, but I quickly made sure to catch them with my magic and redirect them back to a spot on the wall.

Tinker reached the top first. He pulled himself up, sitting on the top and glancing down at the two of us. “Come on mom, you can make it!”

“What the fuck was that?” we all froze as the sound of the slavers voice echoed towards us. The quick pattering of hooves on asphalt quickly accompanied the voice as the slaver began approaching us.

Shit, no time. “Sorry Chestnut,” I whispered, wrapping her whole body in my amber magic and tossing her up and over the last bit of wall. She gave a small gasp of surprise, but didn’t protest otherwise. Tinker quickly ducked behind the wall as well, moving out of my line of sight.

I glanced back and forth, looking for a spot to hide. There was nowhere to go but up and there was no way in hell I was going to be able to climb up the wall in time.

I glanced down at my stolen slaver barding. A lot of the muck had run off my hide, leaving my face and mane as a glaring and recognisable pastel pink. I gulped, I’d just have to make do with what I had.

A bright light landed on me and I could tell even without turning around that the approaching slaver guard had shone his flashlight towards me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing off shift?” The slaver barked, slowly advancing towards me, gun drawn. “Stern will have you sent to the fucking crater if she finds you off duty.”

I gave a low grunt and kept my face facing forwards, knowing that even letting the slaver get a small glance at my face would give me away. “I’m uh… just taking a piss. Think I could get some fuckin’ privacy?” I growled back, doing my best stallion impression. I doubt it was very convincing.

“You can fucking piss when its this shit is over. Haven’t you heard? The whole city is in lockdown. Stern wants this Amber Aura cunt dead or in fucking chains by the end of the night or she’ll have all of our fuckin’ heads,” I could hear the sound of his hoof steps getting closer as he continued to advance.

“I’ll get back to my post in a second, just let me finish up…” I snapped back, trying to sound as believable as possible.

The slaver came to a stop a foot away from me. I heard his assault rifle click as he aimed it at the back of my head. “You know, you don’t look like a fucking stallion…”

Damn it.

I bucked backwards, my hind hooves flashing out and knocking the assault rifle from his grip, sending his skidding across the ground. I spun around, both my weapons swinging out in my magic and aiming towards the guard. He gasped as his gaze landed on my face.

“Oh shit,” He breathed, taking a step back. He lunged for his fallen weapon, only for me to jump in his path and knock it aside once again. He reeled back, spinning on his hind hooves and darting away as fast as he could.

I fired off a shot from my anti-machine rifle, but the buck jumped to the side, the shot only grazing his side and making a shout of pain burst from his mouth.

I groaned. “Shit…” I spun around, rushing for the wall and grabbing onto the jagged brickwork as fast as I could. I hauled myself up, doing as best I could to not collapse back down as I rushed up the vertical front. I reached the top and glanced down at my friends gathered below. “We gotta hurry. We’re about to get a lot of trouble headed our way.”

Dropping down beside them, we began making our way through the loading dock. There weren’t very many slavers within the walls, but there was still more than enough to make things hairy if we got spotted

“Over there,” Chestnut whispered, pointing towards a large Pinkie Pie balloon that had been docked atop a catwalk a few feet away. The balloon looked just like all the others, the large balloon on top looking like a giant smiling Pinkie Pie head and a big basket suspended below it holding a massive mini gun-like turret. Only one guard watched over it, his back currently turned to us.

Crouching lower, I advanced on the guard, both of my weapons out and loaded in case we got attacked. A floorboard on the catwalk creaked under Brisk’s hoof as his and Xayah’s combined weight pushed down on the catwalk, causing the guard to perk up and begging to turn around.

Thinking fast, I swung Braeburn's Liberter forwards and clocked him heavily over the side of the head. He gave a stifled yelp and slumped to the ground, knocked out cold by the abrupt thumping to his head.

Beckoning my friends forwards, I scampered up into the balloon, stepping over the limp body of the slaver guard. My friends climbed in after me, Brisk taking up the reer as he began picking away at the large lock that had been used to secure the tied rope holding the balloon down. There was a click and the lock slid away.

“Next stop, the wasteland,” Brisk grunted, drawing his machete and aiming it towards the ropes holding us down.

“There they are! In the balloon!” A voice rang out. I looked up to see the slaver that had spotted me rushing into the loading dock with a group of twenty or so other slavers, each one wielding a large automatic firearm of some form. “Get them!”

“Shit, time to go,” Brisk grunted around the handle of the machete. The large blade swung down, slicing through the thick ropes with ease. Instantly, the large balloon began to rise, higher and higher up into the red tinted air of Fillydelphia.

Gunfire blared around us as the slavers fired up at the balloon. Some shots went wide while others pierced through the basket, blasting holes into the ground beneath us. I braced my anti-machine rifle against the edge of the balloon’s basket, firing off a shot. The deadly accuracy of the rifle nailed one of the slavers through the eye, viscera spewing out the back of his head as the massive round sliced through him.

“Contact Stern! I want every fucking pony and griffin with the abilty to get their ass off the ground after that hot air balloon!” The leading slaver ordered, their booming voice overpowering even the din of gunfire.

“Can this balloon go any faster?!” Brisk shouted, his mini gun spinning up and sending a volley of bullets down on the slavers below.

Scarlet scowled, her hooves working as she threw sand filled weights over the side of the basket to give us more speed. “I’m trying! I’m trying!”

“Guys, we’re about to get some more company!” Mirra shouted, her wings fluttering as she pointed towards a cloud of something rapidly approaching us through the red Fillydelphia haze.

I squinted my eyes, trying my best to make out the shapes through the fog. I felt my heart drop when I realized that it wasn’t a cloud of anything, but a swarm of Griffins, each one clad in a full suit of combat armour and a large arsenal of weaponry.

“Shit, go go go!” I ordered, raising my rifle towards the flock of approaching talons. They were getting closer, moving far faster than we had the ability to go. I sent a few shots blasting towards them, only for the well trained mercs to dive out of the way, expertly twisting in the air and continuing their advance towards us.

I ducked as a few bullets whizzed past my face, the nearing griffins opening fire as they quickly closed in. Brisk lurched away behind me, a bullet grazing his face and drawing blood.

“Hot air balloons incoming!” Tinker yelled out, his voice filled with terror. I forced myself to look away from the griffins, my gaze locking on a large collection of hot air balloons rapidly moving towards us from all directions.

“Quick, make for the wall!” I shouted, my hooves grabbing around the edge of the basket as I tried to keep myself from falling out as another round of fire from the griffins lashed towards us.

“I… I don’t know how to fly this thing!” Scarlet screamed, her hooves frantically tugging at ropes and at the propane tanks in the hopes to figure out how everything worked.

I racked my brain for anything I knew about hot air balloons. I remembered reading a book about different modes of transportation in the wasteland back in Stable 25, but that had been years ago, and not nearly detailed enough to tell me how to fly one myself.

A griffin swooped in close, a bullwhip held in their talon lashing out and wrapping around Chestnut’s leg. Chestnut scowled, stumbling forwards as the griffin tried to yank her right from the balloon. She snatched her shotgun up in her mouth and fired, the shots buckshot ripping through the griffin's wing and sending them spiralling towards the ground.

The whip however, remained firmly coiled around Chestnuts hoof. With a scream, Chestnut was sent flying overboard. Mirra fluttered forward, her fore hooves wrapping around Chestnuts hoof as she tried to pull her back inside.

Mirra sagged, Chestnut’s weight clearly too much or the small filly to carry. Tinker raced forwards, reaching his hooves out and grabbing tightly to Mirra before the changeling could fall out of the sky entirely.

Brisk rushed up beside them, dodging a shot as another daring griffin swooped in close to take us out. He wrapped his hooves around Tinkers barrel, pulling and helping to haul Mirra and Chestnut back into the balloon.

The loud, repeating crack of a mini gun firing alerted us of the approach of the first Pinkie balloon. The side of the basket was riddled with holes as the hot air balloon approached, the slavers inside firing wildly in the hopes to shoot us out of the sky.

Brisk and Tinker stumbled backwards, hauling Mirra and Chestnut the rest of the way into the balloon. The mini gun fire flashing through the air where they had just been only seconds later.

“Everypony alright?” Brisk asked, his voice coming out heavy and breathless.

“We aren’t going to be if we don’t figure out how to fly this damn thing!” Scarlet yelled back, ducking as another round of mini gun fire slammed into the basket.

“I’m working on it!” I yelled back, looking over the different ropes. “Fuckfuckfuckfuck… what was it the book said again… there is no direct way to steer you just need to… uh…”

Three more griffins swooped in, their assault rifles booming as they sent their flurry of bullets towards us. Mirra screamed, one of the griffins shots slashing through her wing and forcing her to land on the floor of the basket.

“Amber! What do we do!” Scarlet shouted, panic rising in her voice. Another Pinkie balloon joined the one assaulting us, the slavers inside aiming their mini gun towards us as well.

I shut my eyes tight, trying to block out the booming sound of gunfire and focus on that book I had read so long ago. “..no direct way to steer you just need to… to… Use different wind currents at different altitudes!” My eyes snapped up to the swarm of griffins swooping around us. My gaze caught on their wing feathers, pinpointing where the different currents were coming from. “Scarlet! Thow two more weights overboard!” I screamed, rushing to the side of the basket and tossing a large sandbag over the edge.

Scarlet obayed, throwing two sandbags off of her side as well. Instantly the Pinkie balloon began rising a little higher, and with its height came a smaller gust of wind that began pushing us towards our destination.

Scarlet gave a wild whoop as the balloon started moving faster towards the looming steel wall surrounding Fillydelphia.

A Talon merc whipped past us, their talon pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it into the basket with us. Chestnut snatched it up and tossed it back out seconds before it detonated. The blast knocked into the hot air balloon, sending it spinning through the air. I winced as a burning piece of shrapnel pinged against the propane tank, expecting it to explode. Thankfully the tank seemed to be more resilient than I gave it credit for.

The whole hot air balloon rocked as another round of gunfire from the enclosing Pinkie balloons fired into us. I stumbled, trying to maintain my hoofing as the basket swung wildly. I turned, gripping Mirra by the shoulders to help steady myself.

“Mirra, do you think you can get that mini gun working!? We needed to get some of those hot air balloons off of us!” I yelled, gesturing to the large gun that was mounted to the side of our hot air balloon.

Mirra stared up at me with wide, fearful eyes. She bit down on her lip nervously, her sharp fangs drawing small droplets of blood. “Amber, I-I don’t like killing ponies…”

“Well you’re going to have to or we’re all going to die,” I shot back, spinning back around and firing a shot from Braeburn’s Liberator at a griffin that had dared to get too close. The griffin screamed as the buckshot tore through their chest, dropping from the sky and spiralling down towards the ground below.

Mirra gave a shaky nod and scooted over to the mini gun perched on the baskets rail, her hooves trembling as she began trying to aim it. Tinker pulled up next to her, looking over the massive gun and helping to aim at the incoming balloons.

“More griffins on their way!” Brisk shouted over at me, his mini gun whirring and trailing after a group of griffins that began flying in a wide arch to avoid his fire.

I pulled myself to the edge of the basket and looked out, my eyes catching on another flock of griffins speeding towards us, this one seemingly larger than the last.

“How many fucking griffins do they have!” I shouted, flinching back as a bullet ricocheted off of the baskets rail in front of my face. I raised my rifle and stared down the scope at the new squadron of griffins. I gulped when I spotted the large black griffin leading the charge.

Stern flew at the front of the flock, her large anti-machine rifle aimed in one talon and her thick bullwhip clenched tightly in the other. Her eyes narrowed, as if glaring me down even from this distance.

“Shit! Stern’s on her way!” I shouted, ducking back as a third hot air balloon drifted towards us, its mini gun opening fire and sending a stream of bullets in my direction.

“What!” Chestnut gasped, pulling herself up and staring in horror at the approaching swarm. I heard her curse under her breath as she spun around to face Scarlet. “How fast do you think you can get us to the wall!?”

Scarlet blasted at a griffin with her laser rifle before spitting it into her hooves and turning back to Chestnut. “Not fast enough. I can hardly fly this thing as it is!”

Mirra and Tinker finally got the minigun properly aimed and ready. It unleashed a volley of bullets slashing forward and tearing through the large Pinkie Pie face of the closest balloon. There was a loud explosion as one of the bullets lanced through the propane tank, sending the balloon ablaze. The slavers screamed as they fell from the sky, fire racing up their flailing bodies. They most likely died before they hit the ground.

Mirra flinched away, whimpering, before forcing out a deep breath and returning her focus to the large gun.

A few bullets ripped through the massive Pinkie Pie shaped envelope of our balloon, sending bolts of fire spewing out the top. The hot air balloon began sagging, slowly tilting downwards toward the ground. I had to grip tightly to the side of the basket to keep from sliding out as we began dropping.

“We’re not going to make it!” Brisk screamed, his mini gun running dry and forcing him to seek cover to reload as the griffins took advantage of the lull in fire to attack back. Fire more holes slashed through our balloon, our altitude dropping even more.

I looked over the side. We were nearing the Fillydelphia wall, but Brisk was right, at the speed we were decelerating, we would crash into the ground long before we reached it.

“I’m about to do something really stupid!” I shouted over the gunfire as Mirra and Tinker once again opened fire with the mini gun.

Brisk gave me a flat look. “Isn’t that what we’re already doing!?”

I grimaced. “Stupider!”

I wrapped our whole balloon in my magic and began to lift. I screamed as pain raced through the crack in my horn and I pushed my body beyond what I was normally capable of doing. There was a sudden slight weightlessness and we slowly began to rise.

Another griffin flashed by, this one diving into the basket with us, bullwhip cracking in the air as they tried to lash out our necks. Chestnut kicked at them, her fore hooves pounding into the griffins face and cracking their beak. With a loud squawk of pain, the griffin staggered back, blood dripping from their beak and their assault rifle spewing a few shots as they tried to fire upon us.

I heard Tinker give a scream of pain as one of the shots lashed through his body, blood spewing across the hot air balloons basket floor as the small colt dropped to the ground.

“Tinker!” Chestnut cried, pushing past the griffin and dropping to her son's side, her hooves frantically applying pressure to the wound.

The griffin gathered its bearing and turned to fire at the mother and her child, only to find Brisk slamming into them. The Griffin staggered back, wings flapping as they swooped out of the balloon and rejoined with the rest of the griffins.

I grimaced as another bolt of agony flashed across my forehead, the power surging from my horn almost making me pass out from the mental effort. But it was working. We were slowly rising higher again, once more catching onto the stronger currents and being pushed towards the outer walls of Fillydelphia.

We were going to make it! We were almost there!

“Shit! It’s Stern!” I heard Scarlet yell as she dove to the floor of the basket, the loud cracking of gunfire accompanied the multitude of bullets that lanced over her head.

There was the distinct sound of a anti-machine rifle firing off a shot, followed by a .50 BMG round slashing through one of the ropes connecting our basket to the large Pinkie shaped envelope. The whole basket sloped, dangling precariously from three ropes as the shot snapped the rope in half completely.

I braced myself against the side of the basket as it tilted at a near ninety degree angle. Brisk slammed into me as he slid down the sloping basket nearly knocking both of us out and falling to our deaths.

I glanced up, my eyes locking with Stern's as the large black griffin swooped in for a second attack.

I raised Braebrun’s Liberator, firing off a shot at the large griffin. Stern flipped out of the way, the buckshot missing by miles as the agile griffin continued her assault. Her rifle aimed and for a split second she was practically frozen in the air, not even her wings flapped as she let centrifugal force take control of her movement. Then the muzzle on the end of her rifle flared to life, a single round lashing forwards from the gun and spearing through the propane tank on our hot air balloon.

My vision flared with fire as the massive balloon above my head exploded. Bits of flaming fabric was sent flying everywhere as the basket was sent freefalling towards the ground. I grasped onto the side of the basket for dear life as the entire hot air balloon began plummeting towards the ground.

I heard my friends screaming as I tried to channel all of my power into my horn and keep us airborne. My efforts were next to useless as we spiraled towards the ground. I grit my teeth as my magic imploded, my head jerking backwards and pain searing down my cracked horn.

The basket spun around in the air giving me a quick glance out at the rapidly approaching shape of the Fillydelphia wall looming closer and closer towards. We were so close! I could do this!

Grasping tightly to Xayah’s limp form, I let my horn flare up again. Pain shot through my whole body and a loud scream forced its way past my lips. My amber glow wrapped around one side of the basket, giving it as rough of a shove to the side as I could. I felt the basket jerk beneath me, sending us tumbling towards the wall.

“We’re going to crash!” I heard Brisk shout from beside me, his voice almost being completely drowned out by the rushing sound of wind racing past our ears.

“Yeah, no shit!” Scarlet snapped back, her hooves wrapping tightly around the edge of the basket.

“No! Into the wall!” Brisk retorted, his voice warped by the scream that pushed past his lips a second later.

I wrapped my hooves tighter around Xayah as we plumbited closer and closer towards the wall. Beside me, I saw Chestnut do the same with Tinker. Mirra’s wings fluttered at her side, the large bullet hole in one of them making it impossible for her to pick herself up into the air.

“Everypony, brace yourself!” I shouted, wrapping all of them in my magic and trying to lighten the fall for all of them as much as I could. I felt a magical field surround me and looked over to see Mirra doing the same.

The basket plunged downwards, smashing against the massive steel wall of Fillydelphia. I was lurched forwards, my whole body being tossed into the air with the rest of the flaming debris around me. Then gravity once more took effect and I was spiralling downwards.

the second propane tank on the balloon collided with the steel wall, the canister cracking and bursting apart with fire. Chunks of flaming metal flashed over my head, my vision filling with flames and crimson.

Something else exploded above me, but I was unable to make out what it was as my body summersaulted through the air, my hooves grasping tightly around Xayah's chest. A massive shockwave of force and fire rammed into me, my free fall speeding up as the wind was knocked from my lungs. My head slammed against the metal wall of FIllydelphia and my vision was thrown into darkness.

I jolted back to reality with a scream. Pain rippled across my body and down my forelegs. I looked up, my vision spinning as I tried to make out what was going on. Xayah was lying unconscious atop me, I having clearly cushioned her fall as we crashed back towards the floor of Fillydelphia. My hooves were broken, I could tell that much, if not from the agonizing pain, then from the fact they were both twisted at an odd angle and slowly turning a dark purple in colour.

The area around me was in ruins.

To my left lay the great wall of Fillydelphia. The crash had caused parts of the wall to collapse, creating a large barricade of rubble between me and the outside world. The explosion had sent chunks of slag and flaming pieces of our hot air balloon up into the air where it now rained down around me, making it look like the sky itself was raining fire. Bits of rubble had caught fire as well, the sizzling embers illuminating the area and making the already red haze of Fillydelphia seem to glow an evil crimson.

The sound of smouldering flames filled my ears, every few seconds being punctuation by a loud crack as the flames popped.

“I-is everypony-” I had to stop to cough as blood surged through my throat. I rolled over hacking as my lungs tried to expel the blood, flem and ash that had accumulated inside of them. Xayah rolled from my back, slumping over in the ash coated ground around us. “Is everypony alright?”

I looked up with alarm when I didn’t get an answer. Xayah and I seemed to be alone.

On shaking limbs, I pulled myself up and looked around, my eyes sweeping the wreckage for any of my friends. I spotted a pony curled up in the ash, their coat so covered in dust and ash that they were unrecognizable.

Hoisting Xayah up onto my back, I limped over to them, each step causing a new wave of pain to wash over me. I slumped down next to the pony and shook them, dusting the layer of ash of their coat. Chestnut groaned and looked up at me, blood dripping from a large wound on her head that looked to have been ripped open on a large piece of rebar that she had gotten snagged on in the fall.

With a moan, she rolled over, her hooves shifting to show Tinker curled up in her embrace. The small colt was trembling, bleeding from multiple gashes across his body as well as the large bullet wound in his side, but he was alive.

Grunting, I help them both up to their hooves. Tinker pulled himself up first, only to wobble and collapse back to his side, more blood spilling across his body. Chestnut reached down and lifted him up, placing him gently on her back. She winced as his weight was placed atop her.

“Are you two alright?” I asked, my throat feeling dry and cracked.

Chestnut gave me a grim look. “No. But We’ll keep going. We’ll keep going until we’re out of this place.”

I felt Xayah stir slightly on my back and let out a soft moan of pain. I dared to glance back at her, my expression softening. “Right, yeah… Lets find the others…”

“Amber! Amber!” I heard Brisk’s frantic voice call out. “Sis! Are you out there!?”

Following his voice, I hauled myself over to the large pile of rubble that separated me from the outside world. It was packed down tightly, the heat of the explosion melting some of the debris to slag. Fires burned along its surface, but I managed to find a small hole that looked out into the Fillydelphia outskirts beyond.

I pushed my eye up to it, careful not to burn myself on the red hot metal. “Yes Brisk, I’m here!

A few seconds later, I saw Brisk near the rubble, limping on what looked like a broken fore hoof. He spotted me looking through the hole and stumbled over to me. “Shit, Amber, are you alright?”

I grimaced. “Not even remotely, but I’ll be fine. Is Mirra and Scarlet with you?”

Birsk gave me a quick nod. “Yeah, there out here. We’re outside the wall,” He glanced around, trying to find a way through the wall of rubble. “You just hold tight, I’m going to find a way in to get you out.”

I shook my head. “No! Take Mirra and Scarlet and get out of here. Don't you dare come back in. We’ll find our own way out.”

I saw Brisk’s eyes darting around, his breath coming out in panicked pants as he tried to think up something. “I can’t just leave you here. I’ll find a way in. there’s gotta be a-” He scrapped at the rubble with his hooves, trying to push it aside, he yelped, reeling back as the hot metal burned him.

“Brisk, listen to me. You need to go! Get Mirra and Scarlet out of here and go. We’ll be fine!”

“I can confront Stern. Work out some kind of deal for your release,” Brisk insisted, stepping back from the wall and looking it over for any sort of weakness.

“Damn it Brisk, no!” I shouted, stomping my hoof. Pain shot up my body at the motion and I had to bite back a scream. I glanced up into the still flaming sky above us. The massive swarm of griffins were begging to break out into groups, swooping down and searching for any survivors. “If you give yourself to Stern she’ll never let you escape again! You know that! Just get out of here. I’ll meet back up with you in Friendship City!”

“And if you don't?

His words made my heart pound harder in my chest. If I didn’t get out? That was scarily possible.

I took a deep breath. “If I’m not back in one day, you need to stop Pureblood and the Utopia program without me, got it? Scarlet knows what's going on. Listen to her. Find ponies that can help. Find Pyre if you can. If I don’t come back, I need you to stop all of this, do you understand!”

Brisk blinked back a tear and nodded. “Yeah… yeah I understand…” He took a shaky step back and took a deep breath. “I love you sis…”

I tried to force a smile, but it wouldn’t come. “I love you too, bro.”

Taking another second to steal himself, Brisk turned around and moved away. “Mirra! Scarlet! Come on, we need to get out of here!”

“But where’s Amber!?” I heard Mirra’s weak voice squeak. “We can’t just leave her here!”

There was a quick exchange of muffled words that I couldn’t hear, then a second later both Mirra and Scarlet pulled themselves up to the small hole and looked back at me.

“Amber, hold still, we can get you out of there,” Mirra ordered, her large blue eyes darting around like Brisk’s had only moments before.

I shook my head. “I just went through this with Brisk. You both need to follow him. I’ll meet back up with you at Friendship city, I promise.”

Mirra’s eyes widened with fear. “What! N-no! I refuse to leave you in that awful place! Hold on, I think I might be able to fit into the-” She stuck her hoof forwards to try and shimmy her way into the hole, only for me to block her with my own hoof.

“No you don’t kid. I’ll be fine. I promise,” I assured her, feeling her trembling at my touch. A second later and she pulled away, looking at me with tear filled eyes.

“You better make good on that promise Amber. I really really don’t want to lose you…”

I gave her a smile. “I will…”

With the scampering sound of hooves, Mirra stumbled away after Brisk, glancing back at me quickly before darting away.

Scarlet stared at me through the hole in the rubble for a second before letting a long sigh escape her lips. “I hope you’re right about this Amber,” she said, her voice filled with painful melancholy. “The last pony I cared about promised me they would get out of Filly and come find me too. I never got to see him again.”

I felt a stab of pain shoot through my chest, this time not from my overabundance of physical wounds. “I… I’m going to try my best to get out of here. I swear…” I said, my heart sinking deeper into my gut.

Scarlet just gave me a sad look. “I’m sure Crank tried his hardest too…” Then see too darted away.

I stepped back, Xayah’s weight on my back suddenly feeling a hell of a lot heavier. I turned back to face Chestnut who was crouched behind a burning wagon, Tinker slung across her bleeding back. “Come on. We need to get out of here.”

We began crawling through the debris along the border of the Fillydelphia wall. The wreckage of the crash had caused more damage than I had realized. Large chunks off the wall had sagged inwards, leaving the area around the border of the slaver city a massive maze of crumbling ruins and burning piles of debris.

Even the sky seemed to still be raining fire, not letting up even as we moved farther and farther away. I wondered if the toxic, chemical and radiation filled air of Fillydelphia itself might be flammable, and the propane explosion had quite literally caught the sky ablaze.

And here I had thought Fillydelphia couldn’t look more hellish. Did I ever prove myself wrong or what.

“Amber, over there!” I heard Chestnut exclaim excitedly, gesturing over a mound of rubble. Following her hoof, I spotted what she was looking at. A spot in the Fillydelphia wall had crumbled away, leaving a smouldering hole about two ponies wide that lead out into the wasteland.

I cast Chestnut a thankful glance and began scrambling over the burning rubble. The loose scraps of metal and slag shifted under my weight as I hauled myself over the mound and towards the opening. I paused at the top turning to help pull Chestnut up with me.

Turning back, I looked over the steaming hole in the wall. We were so close, only a few more feet and we would be beyond the wall.

“Come on, we’re almost there,” I said, limping forwards and trying to ignore the screaming pains all over my body. I could see Chestnuts resolve returning as we grew closer to the flaming exit, her strength seemingly returning as hope flooded back into her body.

I slid down the steep slope into a crater like gouge in the ground and began moving towards the exit. Fires raced along the outside of the small crater, making me sweat as I tried to keep from toppling over from the physical and mental hell Fillydelphia had put me through. I took another step closer, my weary legs beginning to tremble not just with exhaustion, but anticipation as well.

Then a figure began to emerge from the smoke and fire of the hole, their silhouetted form waving in the refracted light of the fires boiling heat. Smoke billowed around them, a sturdy breeze whipping their dark black trench coat around them as if it were a cape.

I felt myself take an involuntary step back as the flickering light of the fire illuminated the cruel spectre's face.

He was a tall, broad black stallion with a dark grey mane the colour of ash. He was clad in an equally dark coat and a pair of dark, tinted sunglasses concealed what I knew to be cold, calculating and piercing eyes. A deadly looking Institute variant of a magical energy rifle floated beside him in his icy blue magical aura.

“No… no no no no…” I felt myself utter, the hope suddenly draining from my body. My eyes locked on the dark stallion, my heart beginning to pound faster and faster inside my chest. This couldn't be happening! Not now. Please not now...

Chestnut skidded to a stop beside me as her eyes landed on the looming, flame wreathed figure. She glanced over at me, her expression filled with worry and concern.

“Hello Amber Aura,” The Institute Courser monotoned, smiling a smile that did not reach his eyes. The laser rifle at his side raised and leveled with my head. “Pureblood has instructed me to collect you and return you to your place by his side. You will come willingly, or I will need to take you by force.”

I remembered Scarlet telling me that every Courser had the ability to shut down rouge synths simply by speaking a few letters and numbers. I gulped as a tremor of fear passed through me.

I heard a loud squawk and looked up to see a squadron of Griffins circling far above us. They had spotted us, and with them would be coming a whole lot of trouble. Stern would be coming after me soon no doubt. Her and every other available slaver in Filly. We only had a few minutes before the whole of Fillydelphia closed in around us.

Returning my attention to the Courser, I raised my shotgun and levelled it at its head. If I didn't get past this freak now, we were never getting out of here. I grimaced as I felt the light weight of my gun. Only two shots left before I had to rely solely on my rifle.

The Courser simply looked my gun over lazily for a second before smirking. “Fine. We will take you by force… X23-”

The Courser was cut off as I blasted both rounds of buckshot towards his face. He twirled out of the way, evading both blasts and moving towards us at speeds far too fast for any real living pony.

I spun around, holstering my shotgun and bringing my anti-machine rifle out to bear. “Run! Run!” I yelled out, rushing away from the Courser as fast as I could. Chestnut bolted after me, her face a mask of fear and confusion.

A blast of blue energy lanced past me, striking the ground an inch away from my hoof. I reeled back, just barely avoiding a second blast that lashed past me and nearly took off my ear. Xayah moaned on my back, stirring in her sleep as I jostled about, trying to keep from being turned to glowing ash.

“Amber! To your right!” I heard Chestnut yell. I glanced over, making out Chestnut making a quick dash for a tight hole on the far side of the crater leading out into another opening in Fillydelphia. This hole was only big enough for a single pony to squeeze through, hopefully the Courser wouldn't be able to follow after us due to its large size if we could make it through.

Readjusting my course, I began sprinting towards the hole, each pounding of my broken hooves against the jagged ground feeling like a spike was being shoved up into my hooves. I could see the Courser rapidly approaching from behind me. He was too fast, I couldn’t outrun him!

“Run and your friends will die,” The Courser threatened, his voice as cold and monotone as ever. “There is no escaping Fillydelphia. No escaping it rather, except through me.”

I scampered up to the hole and shoved Xayah’s limp body through. I heard a thud and a restless moan as she landed on the far side.

Knowing I was dead the second the Courser managed to speak my deactivation code, I shoved my head through the hole, sliding through and pulling myself out the other side. It was a tight fit, even for me, but I managed to claw my way through relatively quickly.

The second I was on the other side, Chestnut was passing me Tinker, the colt now wide awake and screaming with fear as the horrific Courser raced towards us.

“Quick! Take Tinker! Keep him safe!” Chestnut pleaded to me as I wrapped my hooves around the colt and helped pull him through. “Get him out of here! Please get my baby to safety!”

I pulled Tinker the rest of the way through, gasping as the aching pains in my ribs flared across my whole body.

Tinker screamed, pushing himself from my hooves and grasping on tightly to Chestnuts fore hoof. “Mom! Come on! You can make it!” He wailed, tugging on his mothers outstretched hoof, tears racing down his face. “Hurry!”

There was a loud zap, followed by a blast of blue light as the Courser fired a beam of energy directly into Chestnuts back. Chestnut went rigid, her eyes wide with pain and her hoof constricting tighter around her son's hoof. Blood drizzled from the side of her mouth as she let out a loud gasp of pain.

“I love you Tinker,” She gasped, her whole body shuddering and suddenly beginning to glow with a brilliant blue light.

“I love you too mom!” Tinker cried out, pressing his face up against his mothers cheek as the glowing light continued to grow. Then, as they embraced, Chestnut began to fade away, her body dissolving into ash and dissipating in her son's grasp. Tinker reared back, eyes wide and streaming with tears. “Mom…? Mom!” his voice cracked, his uncontrollable sobs warping his pleading cries.

Chestnut, the mare who had always fought for freedom from the shackles of her slave masters, was dead, her remains forever confined within the looming, monolithic walls of Fillydelphia.

I rushed forwards, wrapping the colt in a tight hug and pulling him away from the hole as he thrashed and screamed, his hooves reaching and clawing at the smoking pile of ash that had once been his mother.

“The mare is dead,” The Courser mocked, his cold voice cutting through me like a knife. Though I couldn’t see them, their voice seemed to echo all around me. “Who’s next? The zebra or the colt?” A bit of mirth had seemed to creep into the icy monotone of its usual voice. “Or will you surrender yourself to me?”

I scowled, pulling Tinker further away from his mothers remains, stumbling as Xayah’s weight wayed me down. “You fucking monster!” I shouted, rage following through my already exhausted body. We had been so close. Chestnut had been only steps away from freedom. And this monster had ripped it away from her. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”

“Oh, I doubt that,” The Courser purred.

There was a flash of blue light and the Course materialized right next to me. I hardly had time to figure out what had happened before its powerful hoof lashed out and struck me across the neck.

I gagged, dropping Xayah and Tinker to the ground and staggering back. My hooves clutched at my throat and I felt blood trickling over my hooves.

I growled through the pain and lunged at the courser, swinging my hoof at their head with what little strength I had left. The Courser responded with a kick to the gut, my swing faltering mid air as I was slammed backwards.

I twisted, trying to get a punch in, only for the Course to flash past me again and slam me across the side with the back of his hoof. I was thrown to the ground, my lungs burning as if they were on fire as I gasped for breath, only for the air around me to be filled with the burning smoke from the fires.

The Courser loomed over me, their hoof slamming down on my heaving chest and pinning me to the ground. He leered down at me, his form illuminated by the red, flickering firelight behind him. His magical energy rifle pushing up against my forehead. “X237-”

I swung my anti-machine rifle up and rammed it into the side of his head, cutting him off and sending him skidding off of me. I pulled myself up and jumped back, a swing from the Courser’s fore hoof strong enough to take my head clean off whipping past my face.

Scowling, the Course rounded on me again. “X2376-”

Tinker charged him, slamming his hooves against the Courser’s side and forcing him to take a step back to keep his balance. “You killed my mom!” Tinker raged, his eyes red and puffy with tears.

“No! Tinker, get back!” I screamed, raising my hoof to try and move between myself and the colt before the Courser could harm him.

I was too slow.

“Agh!” With a shout of frustration, the Courser whipped around and Bucked at Tinker. The Courser’s hooves collided with the colt's chest, sending him flying back a few feet through the air until he slammed against the wall of a skyscraper with a painful sounding thud.

I darted forwards to help him, only for the Courser to jump at me and shove me back to the ground with a powerful kick. I felt even more bones break as the deadly synth slammed into me.

“That’s enough!” The Courser shouted, his monotone finally cracking slightly and begin to sound more like mild amusement. “Next the Zebra dies.”

His hoof reached down and wrapped around Xayah’s throat, lifting the unconscious zebra from the ground. The Courser stood on its hind legs, one hoof slowly choking the air out of Xayah’s lungs while the other readied its deadly laser rifle.

“NO!” I screamed, panic racing through my mind. I pushed off from the ground, rushing at the Courser as fast as I could. I hadn’t even made it halfway to him when a searing pain shot through my foreleg and I dropped to the ground, a large hole ripped open in my leg from where the Courser’s energy rifle had blasted into me.

The Courser had the audacity to smile at me with his callus smile as he re-aimed his rifle at Xayah’s head. “Now stay down, or the zebra dies.”

I saw Tinker slowly trying to pull himself from the ground, only to collapse back down, blood pooling around his crippled body. Xayah was unconscious and had a gun pressed against her head and I could feel my last bits of strength fading away. Far in the distance I heard the flapping of hundreds of wings as hordes of griffins moved in on our location and the stomping of hooves as an army of slavers began pouring across the burning Fillydelphia landscape towards us.

I dared to look up, my spinning vision still managing to spot the large, black shape of Stern as she lead her group of Talons down towards my location.

I had failed. There was no way out. There was nothing left for me to do. I had played my final card, and it simply hadn't been enough...

At least I managed to save Brisk and Mirra, I thought to myself, my mind growing foggy as my body finally went limp below me.

The Courser’s smirk widened, though none of his glee was reflected in his eyes. “Good… Now, X2376-”

A flash of purple light announced the appearance of a tall purple alicorn as they teleported between me and the Courser. The mighty alicorn’s horn flared with light, their majestic mane blowing wildly in the whipping winds. It reared up, its hooves slamming down on the stunned Courser and knocking them away from Xayah.

Xayah dropped back to the ground, gasping in her fevered sleep and clawing at her throat.

The Course scowled and stumbled away as the alicorn advanced on them. They lashed out with a hoof, only for the alicorn to dart to the side and counter it with a blast of their powerful magic. The Courser twisted out of the way, the deadly blast grazing its side and causing a small trick of blood to spill down the side of its coat.

Forcing myself up, I scampered over to Xayah and clutched her tightly, slowly dragging the both of us to where Tinker lay. I did my best to shield them as the Courser and Alicorn sparred, each one trying to one up the other.

The slavers were getting closer. I could see them charging over the mounds of rubble, drawing their weapons as they readied themselves for combat. There was the sound of booming gunfire from above as the griffins began to open fire, bullets raining down around me and forcing me to pull away.

The alicorn was knocked down as the Course leapt into the air and slammed their rear hoof down hard atop the alicorn’s head. The alicorn’s horn flared as she tried to teleport away, only for the Courser to stomp down on it hard, sending a large crack shooting up the alicorn's horn.

The alicorn screamed, blood spilling down their face and sticking to their beautiful purple hide, colouring it black in the dancing firelight. I winced as I watched the Courser slam down on the horn a second time, causing a small piece of the tip to chip away. I knew all too well how painful that was. If the alicorn managed to survive, magic would forever come at the cost of agonizing pain.

The alicorn tilted their head to look at me, a tear rolling down their blood soaked face. Their eyes locked with mine and a look of sadness crossed over their face. she mouthed something to me, but I was unable to tell what it was. Their cracked horn once more began to flare with light, an expression of pure agony replacing the sadness on their face.

I felt myself get wrapped in a field of the alicorn’s purple aura and for a single second, my aching body felt light as a feather. Then there was a flash of purple light and the world swirled away.

I found myself lying face first on the rocky ground.

I looked up, my head dizzy. I had experienced the feeling of teleportation quite a few times before, but it always left me feeling off kilter.

I looked around, taking in my new surroundings. We were outside the Fillydelphia wall, the massive, looming steel structure now a part of the skyline instead of a constant cage that seemed to be bearing down on us.

We were still in the Fillydelphia outskirts, but we were far enough away from Filly proper that I estimated we could probably get a good head start on the slavers before they even realized what had happened so long as we didn't stick around.

I looked down beside me, making out the unconscious forms of both Xayah and Tinker, both of them battered and marred from their time within Filly’s industrial nightmare.

I felt my whole body go slack with relief. We were out! We were free!

My gaze dropped down to a small pile of glowing blue dust clenched tightly in Tinkers hoof. even as I watched, a few specs drifted away in the wind, swirling up into the air and off into the wasteland. I felt another round of shakes take hold of me as I remembered those that had not managed to make it out with us.

I stared out at the red glow illuminating Fillydelphia for a moment, my thoughts turning to the strange alicorn that had stepped in at the last second. I wondered who she was, and if she had even survived. Chances were the Courser had killed her by now.

Stealing myself, I knelt down and slid both Xayah and Tinkers bodies over my withers and turned to face the Manehattan skyline far off in the distance. My face contorted with pain as their weights beard down on my broken body, but I tried my best to shrug it off with a huff.

My friends were free, but the worst was still yet to come. I still had a wasteland to save...

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Geez, this chapter took forever to write. I tried to hard to get this out by the end of December, but my schedule simply wouldn't allow for it. I guess new years morning will just have to do. Hope you all enjoyed it.

It's crazy to think that I had only planned on this story being around 30k words long, (roughly 35 chapter total). Clearly that didn't happen. Never once did I think I'd actually come close to surpassing the original story's length, but here we are... with quite a few chapters still left to go... gosh darn it.