“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Morning.

It felt as if the night had lasted forever, but as we slowly trudged across the last little bit of the desolate expanse between Fillydelphia and Manehattan and finally moved into the suburbs of Fetlock, the glow of the morning sun slowly began to peek through the thick layer of overcast clouds.

I could feel myself relax a little at the familiar sights of the shattered, looming skyscrapers and crumbling monorail that littered the skyline. That relief was short-lived as my eyes landed on the shape of three Enclave raptors in the distance, slowly moving towards the Manehattan Harbour and the Pony of Friendship statue.

The Enclave raptors would be at Friendship City soon, and something told me that the Enclave would be sending in armoured troops early. We didn’t have long before the fighting would break out in earnest.

I saw Paladin Sardine and the four Rangers he had brought along with us stop a few paces in front of me as his hoof came inches away from the border of the Fetlock suburbs. Confused at why he stopped, I returned my gaze forwards and looked at our more direct surroundings.

Not all that far away, three ponies clad in full suits of the black and Red Outcasts armour were approaching us, their weapons already drawn. I saw one of the Steel Rangers accompanying us drop into a battle ready stance at the sight of the Outcasts.

“This area is off limits to Steel Rangers,” One of the Outcasts ordered, their voice distorted slightly by their helmet. “State your business.”

My ears perked up at the Outcast’s voice. “Crusader Blueberry?” I asked, pulling myself out from behind Paladin Sardine to address the Outcasts.

The Outcast Ranger in the middle looked over at me in surprise, their hostile demeanor suddenly shifting to a much more laid back one. “Amber?” Crusader Blueberry turned to fully take the rest of our group in. Nova and Tinker were not faces he recognized, but he seemed to brighten when he spotted Xayah with me. “What are you doing in the company of Steel Rangers?”

“They were in need of protection. I was helping to escort them across the Fillydelphia outskirts safely,” Paladin Sardine rumbled factually before I could respond, his body remaining completely still beneath his armour. “Amber and her Friends let us their assistance. I am following through on my side of the deal.”

Blueberry looked at the larger Ranger for a second before daring to lower his gun and take a step forward. “Paladin Sardine? Is that you? I haven't heard from you in a long time. I heard a rumour you had died.”

“Yes, A find myself thankful that what you heard was only a rumour. And congratulations on the promotion to Crusader, Blueberry,” Sardine responded, his deep voice seemingly lacking any form of emotion or inflection. “I was under the impression that you died in the raid on Stable 2. I am glad to see that you made it out alive.”

Blueberry just gave a thankful nod of his head. “I uh.. Thank you. Though I’m afraid I can’t let you come any further. I am under strict orders from Elder Crossroads to keep any and all Steel Rangers from entering our territory.”

I saw Sardine raise an eyebrow from behind his helmet. “Elder Crossroads? What happened to Steel Hooves?” Seeing Blueberry slump into a saddened manner seemed to answer his question. “Oh… I see. That is Unfortunate. Though I do not agree with all of Steel Hooves beliefs, he was a good stallion.”

Sardine stepped back, gesturing for my friends and I to go on without him. “Go.”

I gave the large ranger a nod of thanks as my friends and I moved past him to stand next to the three Outcasts. “Thank you for your assistance,” Xayah said curtly, though her tone suggested she still had some issues with the large paladin. I didn’t blame her. He had threatened her life to keep me in line after all.

“Perhaps we will meet again,” I added, giving the Paladin a small smile. “And thanks again for not deciding to kill us… If that's something I should need to thank you for.”

Paladin Sardine grunted. “Hope we don’t meet again. I think I’ve extended the Steel Rangers courtesy for you enough already,” With that, he turned around and began trotting back towards Fillydelphia, his four Rangers quickly moving along behind him.

Blueberry and his Outcasts watched the squad of Rangers trot off for a long moment until they were sure that they weren’t going to try anything. Eventually, Blueberry turned to me and gave me a quick salute. “Amber, it’s good to see that you are all right. With everything going on in Manehattan, I was worried you might have been killed. What were you doing out in Filly?”

“Amber saved us all from slavery in Fillydelphia!” Tinker chirped up from atop Nova’s back. “It was super cool.”

Blueberry chuckled at the colts take on his time in Filly as being ‘super cool’. I was just glad that Tinker wasn’t feeling as sulky now that he had had a few hours to come to terms with what had happened to his mother. “I’m sure it was. Amber seems to have a knack for doing stuff like that.”

“Yes. So we have noticed in our short time in her company,” Nova agreed flatly, though she did give off a small smile. Blueberry gave a worried look at the alicorn, but didn’t question her presence further. I suppose he figured if I was okay with her being there, then she was friendly.

Slowly, Blueberry turned and started leading us into the Fetlock suburbs. I trotted a little faster, trying to keep pace with him. “How has everything been for the Outcasts out here? I’ve been hearing some pretty bad reports about the happenings in Manehattan.”

Blueberry sighed. “Things aren’t looking good. Enclave has us worked to the bone, and the True Steels seem to be getting stronger by the day. And now that Elder Steel hooves is gone… We’re in a pretty tight spot.”

I nodded, following along. “Steel Hooves, what happened to him?” I didn’t remember the large Outcast elder well. My only experience with him being the few short interactions we had had prior to our siege on the Fluttershy Medical Centre.

“Hellhounds,” Blueberry responded, his voice filled with a mix of heartache and frustration. “But he’ll live on… through the Applejack Rangers… We won’t let what he started be for nothing,” Sighing, he looked back at me. “I suppose that, knowing you, you’ve got some sort of plan to help out with all the stuff going on in Manehattan right now.”

Xayah gave a small nicker from beside me. “I do not know where ponies get the idea that you are good with plans. I find your plans usually involve a lot of improv.”

I rolled my eyes a little at the comment. “I’m going to do something about it, yeah… Just don’t know what yet.”

“Well, if you come up with something, the Outcasts have your back,” Blueberry said earnestly. “You’ve more than proved yourself as an ally to us in the past. And right now, we need allies more than ever.”

An idea popped into my head. “Well, since you say that… We’re heading to Friendship City. We’re expecting the Enclave to attack there soon. A few Outcasts could probably go a long way to help with that fight.”

Blueberry’s face fell. “We saw the Enclave Raptors on the horizon. We were hoping it didn’t mean what it looked like… damn…” Blueberry sighed, looking toward the looming Pony of Friendship protruding from the harbour. “I wish we could help you… but right now we’re stuck in Fetlock. If we start sending forces outwards, we're going to be in a lot of trouble with the True Steels and the Steel Rangers, and that’s not a confrontation we can take right now.”

My ears drooped at that. “Damn… that’s fine… we’ll figure something out. Thanks anyway.”

“I’ll take it up with Crossroads though,” Blueberry added, sounding a little disappointed with himself. “Helping ponies is what the Outcasts are here for. We might not be able to send troops right away, but we’ll try to send help as soon as possible… I’m sorry, that’s all I can really do at the moment.”

“We understand. These are troubled times,” Nova nodded, looking down at Blueberry thoughtfully. “Though we do appreciate your assistance.”

Blueberry nodded, still very clearly uncomfortable with the presence of an alicorn. “I can lead you to the edge of Fetlock, but I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you there.”

I just gave him a small smile. “Thanks. Again.”

Xayah looked over at me, her face worried. “Do you think that our friends made it back to Friendship City already?”

I felt my shoulders tense up at the idea they hadn’t made it. The idea that they were still stuck in the Fillydelphia outskirts was a terrifying one. “I hope so. I trust Brisk to keep them safe though. And Mirra and Scarlet are stronger than they look.”

“I do not wish to be the voice of doubt,” Nova started, bending her neck to look us in the eyes. “But what if the Courser decided to go after them when they failed to kill you. It has been quite a few hours since that thing has shown itself.”

I felt my gut clench. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility that the Courser had decided to go after my friends. Eventually, I just shook my head. “They’re fine. They’ll be in Friendship City when we arrive. Trust me.

If they were at Friendship City already, they weren’t waiting for us at the entrance. Not that I had expected them to. They had had a rather large head start on us, and we had been sidetracked multiple times.

As Blueberry had said, him and his rangers had escorted us to the boarder of Fetlock before needing to turn back, leaving us to walk the rest of the distance between the suburbs and the large bridge that stretched across the harbour from Manhattan to the island that held the Pony of Friendship Statute and the city within.

The guards at the entrance to Friendship City removed us of our weapons and ushered us in quickly before piling in behind us slamming the large entryway shut. They all cast worried looks at Nova, but I quickly assured them that the large alicorn was safe. As the guards started locking down the gate, a pony I recognized as Chief Lantern quickly approached me.

“You’re lucky you arrived when you did,” Lantern explained, leading me away from the door. “We just received word that the Enclave is on their way to the city. We were just preparing to lock everything down.”

That was somewhat of a relief. At least the city wouldn’t be caught completely unaware by the attack.

Xayah stepped forwards, addressing Chief Lantern. “We are looking for some ponies that hopefully stopped by here within the last few hours. A green Unico-er… A green stallion, a filly and an auburn unicorn mare. Do you know if they have arrived?”

Lantern thought about that for a second. “I don’t think… oh wait. Yes, I remember a group like that arriving a few hours ago. They were hurt, looked like they just clawed their way out of Fillydelphia. They most likely headed up to the hospital. Third shop on the second level. They’re probably still there, considering their wounds.”

Another wave of relief washed through me. “Oh thank Celestia. Thank you.”

I turned to leave, only for Lantern to quickly cut me off. “Once you check on them, I’d recommend getting you and your friends to safety. Last I heard, the Enclave is only eight or nine minutes out.”

I nodded, quickly moving away from him and up the steps that led to the second level of Friendship City, my friends close on my heels. I was surprised by how many ponies were still out and about. The guards knew about the incoming attack, so why was no pony panicking?

We reached the second level and started heading in the direction that Lantern had directed us. Sure enough, a hospital area had been built into the remains of an old cruise ship that had been taken from the surrounding harbour.

We hadn’t even made it all the way to the hospital when a ball of green and yellow fur plowed into me, knocking me to the ground. I struggled, trying to dislodge the small, smiling filly that had wrapped their hooves tightly around my neck. “Amber!”

I coughed, the tight hug feeling like it was choking the air out of me. “Uh… hello… you...?” Xayah just chuckled from beside me as she watched the filly tackle me.

The yellow and green filly leaned back, looking me over carefully. “Uh, Amber? It’s me,” The fillies eyes flashed, and for a second I saw Mirra’s pupil less blue eyes in their stead.

I felt just a little more relief wash through me. “Oh, hey kid. Didn’t recognize you… you know… on account of you shapeshifting.”

Hesitantly, Mirra slowly crawled off of me to go hug Xayah, giving me room to stand back up. I had only just gotten back to my hooves when another pony, this time much large and an auburn and orange in colour, launched themselves at me. I was slammed back into the ground, this time being crushed in an even tiger hug from the much larger mare.

“Okay, yup... More hugs… Good to see you too, Scarlet,” I wheezed, slowly hugging her back and struggling back to my hooves. “It’s good to see all of you again.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Scarlet breathed, finally letting go of me and letting me stand back up fully. I braced myself, expecting another pony to ram into me, but thankfully it seemed like that was the end of the hugs for the moment. “When you didn’t make it out of Filly with us, well… we weren’t sure if you would.”

I gave her a sheepish look. “Hey, I said I’d make it out, didn’t I? I keep my promises.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright. I’m just glad you’re safe,” Her eyes drifted over to Nova as she spotted the Alicorn for the first time. Instantly, Scarlet’s whole body locked up and her horn sparked dangerously with magic. At least her horn seemed to be working again. “Amber, who is this,” She snarled, her voice suddenly threatening.

Nova took a step back, taken off guard by Scarlet’s sudden hostility. I quickly pushed myself between them. “Scarlet, this is Nova. She helped us escape Filly. She’s nice.”

Scarlet snorted. “I do not trust alcorns. And neither should you,” She jabbed a hoof at Nova, her eyes narrowing. “I’ve seen what those monsters can do. I saw these things rip ponies apart limb for limb during my time in Filly. They’re evil, Amber.”

I opened my mouth to object, but Nova silenced me with a gentle wing on my shoulder. Cautiously, the alicorn stepped forwards, approaching Scarlet. “We- I understand your hatred, but we do not wish to be like the creatures that you speak off,” Nova told her softly. “I do not ask for you to forgive my kind for whatever you have seen or endured at the hooves of my sisters, but we- I asked that you understand that I am not like the ones you have seen before…”

Scarlet was clearly taken off guard by that. She looked the alicorn over for a long time, her expression filled with confliction. Seeing Tinker riding on nova's back calmly seemed to ease her anger a little. “I... um… I am sorry for my hostility,” She finally said, her voice sounding somewhat pained. “My time in Filly wasn’t a pleasant one…I saw alicorns do, uh… I saw them do really bad things... I will try to be more accepting of you… Sorry.”

“And I am sorry you have needed to suffer because of our sisters,” Nova soothed.

Turning back to me, Scarlet looked me over. “You guys look good for having just escaped Filly. I’m guessing you got medical attention somewhere?”

Xayah nodded. “We’ve had a long night, but yes, we have healed for the most part.”

Scarlet’s eyebrows furrowed. “Wait… Where’s Chestnut?”

We all exchanged sad looks, memories of Chestnut turning to ash in Tinkers embrace flashed across my mind. Finally, Tinker hopped down from Nova’s back, his face downcast. “She… she didn’t make it… she…” a tear rolled down his cheek. Mirra quickly fluttered over and wrapped the colt in a tight hug. “A bad Courser pony killed her…”

Scarlet’s eyes widened. “A Courser?!” She looked over at me for confirmation. I gave a grim nod. “Damn… that’s- that's not good.”

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the thoughts of the deadly synth hunter out of my mind. I’d have to deal with him later. “Where’s Brisk? Is he alright?”

Scarlet nodded, casting a glance at Mirra. “Yeah, he’s fine. A couple of slavers caught up with us before we managed to reach Manehattan. We escaped, but Brisk took a pretty bad shot to the chest. He’s been with the doctor for a bit now. He’ll be out soon,” She gestured for us to follow her. “Come on, I’ll take you to him.”

I turned and started following Scarlet. I had only taken two steps when a ball of green fur pounced on me, knocking me to the ground and wrapping me in a huge hug. “Sis!”

“Or, maybe he’s already out,” Scarlet chuckled as Brisk slowly crushed the air out of me. “How’s your chest feeling?”

Brisk let me go and gave Scarlet a smile. “Better. Sore, but I’ll be fine,” He turned back and helped me up. “Hehe, sorry about that. I’m glad you’re back with us sis.”

“Yeah, I am too,” I agreed, my head looking left and right, expecting something else to come plowing into me. “Now, am I going to get tackle-hugged by anypony else, or is that about it?”

Brisk shrugged. “We’ll find somepony else to tackle you when you least expect it,” He looked me over, then glanced at Xayah. “You're looking a lot better than when I saw you in Filly. You doing alright?”

Xayah nodded, giving him a smile. “Yes. Thank you. I’m glad you are alright also.”

Brisk nodded, his expression strangely distant. “And you and Amber here are okay again?”

Both Xayah and I exchanged heavy looks. I gave her a warm smile. “Yeah. We’re good. Hurting a little, but back together.”

A huge weight seemed to be lifted off of Brisk’s shoulders at those words. “Oh good. That's great, really. We already lost Pyre from our group, I didn't want us to get split up any more. I’m really glad you guys worked it out or whatever,” He glanced down, taking in Xayah’s new cybernetic legs. “Hey, nice legs. Did Amber make them?”

Xayah shook her head. “No. That was Tinker’s work,” She gestured to the small colt. Then she blushed a little, chuckling. “But that you… I am… glad that you like my legs.”

I chuckled at that as well, watching Brisk’s green face turn a bright red. “Oh, uh… Don’t take that out of context,” He gave me a small glance and smug smirk. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way of everything,” I swatted him in the back of the head with a hoof, but we were all laughing anyway. He glanced over at Nova, his grin growing just a little. “You have an alicorn friend now too? Cool!”

Scarlet seemed to want to argue that, but bit back whatever remark she had been going to say.

I felt myself smile. I missed these ponies.

Mirra trotted over and tried to wrap all of us in a hug at the same time. Her small hooves were not nearly long enough to wrap around all of us, so I helped her out, bringing both Brisk and Xayah in close.

Scarlet, Nova and Tinker stood a few steps away from us, watching awkwardly as we all embraced. After a few seconds, I reached a hoof out to them as well. With a smile, they all trotted over and joined us. Things finally seemed right in the world. But I knew it wouldn’t last. Time to get to business.

Pulling away, I looked them all over. “I wish we could just hang out and all, but we have a problem. The Enclave is on its way. They’re planning to attack the city.”

Brisk and Scarlet looked at each other in worry at that. “Wait wait wait. There’s actually an attack on the city coming?”

I frowned. “Yeah. The guards seemed to know about it.”

“Mayor Black Seas had an announcement a few minutes ago urging everypony to get to their homes. Said it was an exercise in case of an attack,” Scarlet explained, looking at all the ponies that still lingered in the market area. “Exercises didn’t really motivate us much. Most ponies are still in the open.”

Xayah raised an eyebrow. “They probably don’t want to cause a panic,” She glanced about, taking in all the ponies. “Hopefully, the Enclave won’t be able to breach the city itself. I mean, it does have a fair amount of defences, right.”

This time Mirra joined in on Brisk and Scarlet's worried looks. “That's bad,” Brisk grumbled, more to himself than to us, understanding crossing his face. He turned back, facing me. “Apparently there was a malfunction with the harbour guns. Sabotage or something like that. Some pegasus named Calamity or something is currently trying to fix them, but more than half are still down.”

“That Enclave trooper did say they had a spy in Friendship City,” Nova reminded me, bringing up my brief interrogation with the Enclave pegasus back at the Stable-Tec HQ. “Perhaps they were trying to clear the way.”

A bad feeling was quickly rising in my gut. The guns were down!? The city was almost completely defenseless! If the Steel Rangers could hardly hold off one Raptor, what was a city full of civilians going to do about three!?

“Alright, we need to come up with some sort of plan,” I said, realizing that things were about to get bad really fast. “I heard we still have eight or so minutes before they arrive. That gives us a little bit of time to try and think of some-”

“Attention, citizens of Friendship City!” A distorted voice suddenly boomed over the city’s public-address loudspeakers. “We are here to take into custody a pegasus wanted for crimes against the Grand Pegasus Enclave. His name is Radar. You can recognize him by the following brand on his flank…”

Oh shit, right… The Enclave was coming early…

The Raptors might not be here yet, but the armoured troopers sure as fuck were.

“…Failure to produce this pegasus and turn him over to the Enclave will be considered an act of collusion. Prompt compliance will be rewarded. Refusal will be met with force.”

Panic began breaking out across the city. Ponies began rushing for the stairs, searching for anything to take cover behind. I heard a loud scream as a buck was knocked over the railing, falling three stories to hit the ground below with a heavy thud, knocking two more ponies on the ground level over.

Tinker whimpered, cowering behind Nova’s leg. I spun, looking at Tinker and Nova. “Nova! Can you get Tinker out of here? Hide him in one of the rooms upstairs. Keep him safe.”

“What? No! I can help!” Tinker said bravely, stepping around Nova.

Nova just nodded and wrapped a hoof around the trembling colt. The alicorn gritted her teeth as her horn flared with magic. Power surged through the cracks along her horns surface, and a bead of sweat dripped from her brow. Then there was a flash of light around them, and both Nova and Tinker disappeared.

“Tinker isn’t going to be happy about that,” Brisk grunted, staring at the spot they had just stood.

I shrugged. “I was rather he was mad at me than dead,” Please don’t let that kid die. He was a good kid.

A loud bang sounded from down below. Moving to the edge of the balcony overlooking the floor below, I saw the large doors into the central chimney burst open and the nightmarishly-armored forms of four Enclave pegasi march in, their scorpion-like tails curling slowly and their antenna-like integrated weapons on their Enclave armour pulsing with coloured light.

“Everypony stay where you are!” one of the Enclave Troopers ordered. “We are the Enclave. We are here to bring one pony to justice.”

All the ponies in Friendship City froze, their eyes staring in horror at the armoured Pegasi as they closed in on the crowd. The sound of fearful whispering echoed around the city and somewhere I heard a foal crying out.

“We will be searching the premises,” One of the pegasi informed the crowd. They’re voice leaving no room for debate. “Do not attempt to hide. Do not attempt to flee. Do not attempt to interfere. Obey, and we will be out of your manes in short order.”

I crouched down low, watching one of the pegasi in the back stepped forwards as the other two began fanning out. I tried to think of something to do, but something told me if I started attacking, a lot of innocent ponies would start dying.

Not to mention that I got the impression I wasn’t much of a match for these fully armed, well trained pegasi without my weapons.

“Any pony with information leading to the swift arrest of the pegasus Radar will be rewarded with a finder’s fee of five thousand bits!” One of the Enclave Troopers shouted. I couldn’t tell which one it was because of their helmets.

Also, bits? Clearly they didn’t understand how the wasteland worked. It was no surprise that not a single pony decided to take them up on their offer.

“Fuck you!” I heard a pony shout from the spiral stairwell.

Fzzzzzat!

Just like that, one of the magical energy weapons at one of the Enclave’s sides fired, turning the buck into glittering ash. The ponies around him scattered, their faces masked with terror. Two ponies broke away and began to run. They didn’t make it far.

Fzzzzzat! Fzzzzzat!

Both ponies that had run dropped dead, one of them scattering into a pile of ash as they fell.

“I repeat: do not attempt to hide, do not attempt to flee, do not attempt to interfere. Obey.” This was getting bad. I looked around, trying to find anything I could do to help all the ponies down below. I didn’t see anything.

As my gaze swept the area, I spotted a mare on the floor below me. She was small, just a little smaller than I was. Her scar riddled coat was a light grey and her mane a messy brown. What drew my attention the most though, was her Stable barding sporting the number 2 on it.

I felt myself inhale deeply. Littlepip? She was alive? But… I had seen her die in the centre of a balefire explosion!? How could she possibly be alive?

Then again, I had walked out of a balefire explosion completely unharmed myself. Who was I to say this little pony couldn't.

She seemed to be inching herself closer and closer to a terrified looking filly across from her. Slowly, Littlepip reached out a hoof in a gesture that looked like she was trying to comfort her. Clearly the filly didn’t see it that way. She screamed something I couldn’t hear and began to run.

I felt my breath catch as I watched the scene below us. No! No, don’t run!

Fzzzzzat!

“NO!!” I could hear Littlepip's scream even from up here. Littlepip fell to the ground, her hooves raised to her muzzle in an attempt to contain her screams as she starred in horror as the filly dissolved into a pile of glowing pink dust on the floor, dead. “Noooo!”

“Brightwind, you shot a filly!”

“Fly steady, soldier.”

“Fly steady?” I watched as the pegasus rounded on the other. “You just shot a filly!”

The first pegasus, Brightwind, turned to her accuser. “We had our orders, and you will obey them. Now fly steady!”

I wanted to kill all of them right then and there. They’re orders be damned, I hoped they all payed for what they had just done.

I saw Xayah trembling beside me, staring at the spot where the foal had just been turned to ash. Damn it. Yet another foal I had failed to save. Brisk looked over at me, wide eyed and clearly shaken by how coolly the pegasus had taken the life of the filly. “Amber, we need a plan.”

A plan? That was the last thing that I had right now. We didn’t even have our weapons.

“She wasn’t running to warn Radar or to hide him! She was just scared!”

“W-we can’t know that, soldier,” Brightwind insisted defensively, her own voice finally showing a little bit of uncertainty over what she had done. “Now either shut up and fly steady or get your tail back to the Raptor and I’ll deal with you later!”

“I didn’t sign up for this,” the pegasus stated, turning away and flying back out the door. At least not all Enclave were evil it seemed.

It didn’t take long for all hell to break loose.

Friendship City had refused to give up the pony the Enclave was looking for, and for it the Enclave sent fire raining down on them. The loud booms of the harbour guns firing alerted us at the arrival of the three Enclave raptors as they descended upon the city. The massive holes being ripped through the city's defences only confirmed their arrival more.

I scampered to my right as a beam of crimson energy speared through the building. The deadly beam slashed at one of the upper levels of the city, blasting apart entire homes and raining debris down on to panicking ponies below.

One of the large catwalks crumbled, splitting in half and sending the hundreds of ponies rushing across it flailing to their death.

“Amber, catch!” Brisk shouted, tossing me Breaburn’s Liberator. I caught it in my magic, giving him a thankful look. I had been able to do little but help steer ponies away to safety without my weapons.

Beside me, Xayah was standing on her hind hooves, her mechanical hooves raised and occasionally firing off a shot from her large rifle as Enclave pegasi swooped into the city through the blasted apart holes that the Enclave Raptors had ripped into the massive statues walls.

“We need to get everypony out of the city!” I heard Scarlet shout, her Institute rifle blasting apart an Enclave Troopers wing as she spoke and sending them crashing to the ground. “Everypony is going to die if they stay here!”

I nodded, feeling my heartbeat quicken. “Okay. We’ll try to lead them to the docks. We should be able to get everyone out on escape boats!” Not far away, I saw a security guard drop dead, a beam from one of the Enclave’s saddle mounted weapons slashing through their throat.

Another blast from a Raptor sent a beam of energy bursting through the side of the statue, leaving a hole roughly the size of a chariot in the wall. The beam engulfed the Warm Smiles Inn, fuchsia-coloured flames bursting from within the exploding structure and incinerating anypony that was inside.

Goddesses no! I prayed that Nova hadn’t taken Tinker to hide in one of those rooms. Please tell me they hadn’t gone there!

I glanced down, trying to make out the best way to protect these ponies through all the smoke. The thick smoke from all the fires was quickly obscuring my vision, making it hard to breath. Down below I could still see the slumped form of Littlepip as she and a rust coloured pegasus swept the remains of the disintegrated filly into a Sparkle~Cola bottle.

Brisk hopped up onto a broken table, his large mini gun firing a stream of bullets at the dive bombing pegasi. They pegasi swerved out of the way, Brisk’s mini gun trailing behind them as he tried to keep the Enclave at bay. One of the armoured troopers were torn asunder by his gun, screaming as they were riddled with holes and sent spiralling to the ground below.

“Everypony! We need to get you all out of here!” I shouted, trying to get some of them to follow behind me. A few ponies paused and rallied around me, desperate for some way out of this nightmare. Most of them were already battered and bleeding, large gashes and burn marks scoring their hides where the Enclaves weapons had struck them.

Most ponies just ignored me though. They continued running wildly, seeking any bit of cover they could. A few had managed to get their hooves on some guns and were firing up at the Enclave in desperation as the armoured pegasi swooped down at them. But their frantic shooting was nothing compared to the well trained Enclave fire. As I watched, another foal was shot down by one of the invading pegasi, their head bursting open as the Enclave’s vile energy weapons tore through their skull.

Through one of the massive holes in the side of the statue, I saw one of the city's massive harbour guns rip an Enclave Raptor appart. There was a loud boom and flash of blazing light as the huge gun caused the large airship to explode, sending massive chunks of flaming metal slashing through the air in all directions and filling the sky with raining shrapnel.

I felt my spirits lift a little. One Raptor was down already. We could do this!

My hopes were dashed as the massive gun on one of the Raptors swivelled and fired, the huge, lethal beam blasting apart the last and final harbour gun. I heard screams of panic from somewhere up above as the last of the city’s defences fell.

Firing every few seconds, we began leading the cowering ponies around us towards the spiral stairs that led to the large entrance. One round of my buckshot burst against the side of an Enclave trooper that dared to swoop down at us. Fire burst across their side from the fire talisman in my gun and cooked them alive from within their suit.

Mirra rushed past me, her disguised horn glowing as she weaved around incoming beams of enemy fire. I saw her wince as her revolver fired a shot, taking the leg off of an Enclave soldier that had opened fire on a cowering family.

We managed to make it halfway down the stairs to the main Chimney area. One of the ponies following behind me screamed out as an Enclave laser lashed at their side. Their screams died as they dissolved into ash. Scarlet quickly avenged them with a shot from her own rifle.

“Come on! Go go go!” I heard Brisk shouting, his mini gun clearing a path for us as we all rushed our way towards the exit. His mini gun slashed through a group of pegasi that were charging towards us through the entrance themselves, forcing them to scatter and search for cover.

A mare struggling to follow me cowered as a piece of the catwalk above us exploded, large chunks of metal raining down around us. “We’re all going to die!” I heard her screaming.

I grit my teeth. Fuck, I wasn’t going to let all of them just die like this.

Blam!

I fired another shot, the head of a charging Enclave pegasi bursting open in a shower of shattered skull fragments and brain matter. Even after death though, their final actions carried through as their battle saddle fired off a single shot, lashing through the screaming mare's chest and sending her collapsing to the ground. A crying foal rushed to her side, begging her to get back up. She never did.

“We’re almost at the exit!” I shouted, jumping back as the spot in front of me was blasted upon by enemy fire. “We can make it!”

Xayah rushed past me, using her own body to shield two trembling foals as the Enclave shot down at her. I saw one of the Enclave’s shot blast at one of her metal forelimbs, searing the white metal black.

Braeburn’s Liberator swivelled in my magic, firing a shot of buckshot directly into a pegasus’ chest. The Enclave soldier collapsed, their dented armour puncturing their lungs and killing them slowly.

I looked up as I began to near the exit, making out the looming forms of the two remaining Raptors. One of them fired another deadly beam of energy at the city, the beam flashing through the city and ripping through a section of the marketplace above me. The other Raptor simply floated impassively, not firing, but not retreating either.

What the hell was happening up there?

I rose to my hind hooves and rammed an Enclave trooper out of the way as I charged my way to the door. They crashed to the ground, their wings beating frantically as they tried to righten themselves, only for Xayah to finish them off to a shot through the eye.

“Come on! Get to the boats!” I shouted, urging the group of ponies that were still following me to keep going. “Hurry!”

The ponies I was trying to lead to safety had only just begun to spill out the front door and out into the harbour beyond when an Enclave pegasus pulling a large war wagon dove towards us, their hind hoof kicking out and snapping open a door beneath the wagon.

I stared up in horror as bombs poured from the back hatch in the wagon, dropping to the ground and clattering around our hooves as we tried to escape.

‘Everypony! Move!” I shouted, my voice filled with terror as I grabbed onto Mirra and dove away from the exit as fast as I could.

Boom!

The helpless ponies we had been trying to help escape were rent apart, their bodies flun in tatters by the massive savage energy explosion. The body of a stallion that had been trying to help an elderly mare out the door was sent flying back, their lifeless eyes staring up at the exploding statue around them.

I hit the ground hard, the explosion knocked the air out of my lungs. I screamed, pain flaring across my body as the detonation seared my side and ripped off a wad of flesh and hide. Mirra trembled under me, her body covered in cuts from the explosive shrapnel.

Blood drizzled from my mouth as I rolled off the small changeling, trying to climb back to my hooves. My head spun and I was seeing triple of everything. The sound of battle was drowned out by the loud ringing that filled my ears. I dropped back to the ground, my battered legs giving out from under me. Mirra scrambled up beside me, blood spilling from a large gash on her forehead.

I wiped the blood from my muzzle and managed to look up just in time to see the Enclave war wagon that had bombed us exploding from a well aimed shot from a rust coloured pegasus.

Xayah dragged herself over to me, her tear streaked face matted with blood. She said something to me, but I couldn’t hear it over all the noise.

More pegasi were swooping into the building, their magical energy weapons firing down and putting the few ponies that had survived the sudden bombardment out of their misery. A mare that had lost both of her fore hooves in the explosion was dropped dead from a sudden shot to the back of her head.

I felt a set of hooves wrap around me and managed to look up to see both Xayah and Scarlet helping me back up. I opened my mouth to thank them, but I couldn’t even hear my own voice over the rigging in my ears.

Brisk limped over to us, his eyes trained upwards as he fired up at the pegasi above.

More war wagons were beginning to swarm around the large statue of Friendship. Those wagons too began dropping bombs, some of them blasting appart ponies that had managed to reach the outer limits of the city, while others let loose their explosive load on the docks. I stared in terror as the ships and bridge to Friendship City were blown apart, their burning wreckages slowly sinking into the murky water.

There would be no escaping this island by boat or bridge.

I spotted the smouldering remains of a delivery wagon for something called Absolutely Everything, its burning fragments slowly floating away from the city forever.

We had failed. And the battle had only just begun.

“Come on Amber, we need to get moving!” Brisk’s frantic voice finally managed to pierce through the drumming in my ears. I looked back at him, my eyes wide. Even in the Hollow Shades Massacre, I had never seen this much death. At least there we had had a fighting chance, but this… this was just wrong… evil.

“B-but… the ponies, we need to…” I started, my voice stammering. I tried to take a step, but my spinning vision caused me to wobble and fall flat on my face.

“Amber!” I heard Brisk shout in worry, how hooves reaching down to help me back up. “We can’t help them… those ponies are dead… We need to protect anypony that’s still alive inside the city.”

I nodded, feeling another wave of dizziness wash over me from the motion. I must have gotten a concussion from the blast. Looking at the scattered pony limbs around me, I decided I was lucky that was all I got.

The still attacking Raptor fired another blast, this time at the crown of the Pony of Friendship, one of the sniper platforms bursting apart by the beam of deadly magic. We all ducked back as chunks of flesh rained down on us. I bit back a scream as the charred corpse of chief Lantern hit the ground beside us with a heady thud.

“We need to find cover!” Scarlet shouted, darting to the side as two Enclave troopers sent beams of energy lancing towards us.

I dogged out of the way, following after her and Scarlet as they raced for a mostly intact general shop that had been built into a rusting hull of a small cargo ship. Xayah and Brisk hunkered down beside me as Scarlet and I dove for cover behind where the till had once been.

I glanced around looking for Mirra, only to see the shivering changeling curled up against Brisk’s chest, tears racing down her horrified face.

The hull of the cargo ship rocked violently as the weapons on the attacking Raptor flashed through the building. I heard the sounds of screams as the massive gun vaporized entire families in seconds.

“B-Brisk…” I heard Xayah mutter from beside me. Brisk and I looked up at her, both our throats seeming to lock up. Xayah bit back tears, pointing at Brisk’s pipbuck. “Y-your pipbuck.”

Brisk glanced down, noticing a small light that had started beeping on his pipbuck. Flipping through the tabs, he pulled up a new radio signal that seemed to have been broadcasted directly to his pipbuck. Curious, he activated it.

“-Brisk? Amber?” Nova’s panicked voice shouted through the pipbuck.

I felt a wave of relief flood through me. She was still alive! That ment Tinker probably was too. “Oh thank Celestia. Nova, are you alright! Is Tinker there? When I saw the Inn get destroyed I thought you two might have-”

“Amber! You need to run!” Nova shouted, cutting me off. “He’s here! In the ci-”

“Fzzzzzat!”

Her voice cut out, suddenly silenced by her scream and the sound of a magical energy rifle firing. I felt my heart freeze.

“Amber Aura,” A new voice oozed through Brisk’s pipbuck. I felt my whole body go rigid and a chill flash through my body as the voice reached my ears. I saw Xayah lock up beside me as well. That wasn’t a voice you forget. Cold, low, and strangely monotone. Lacking in the type of inflection you’d expect from such an organic sounding voice.

The voice of the Courser.

I felt rage bubble up inside me. “What did you do with Tinker and Nova!” I screamed, my voice only slightly obscured by the booming of the Raptors guns above me.

“The colt is alive... for now,” The Courser groused. I was thankful to hear his claim backed up by the sound of Tinker whimpering over the speaker. “If you want him to stay that way, you will meet me at the top of Friendship City. You have ten minutes.”

The line went dead.

No. No, damn it, no! I could feel my anger getting smothered by gripping fear. The Enclave was enough to deal with, I couldn’t deal with the Courser now too! Not here!

“A-Amber, what are you going to do…” Scarlet breathed, staring at Brisk’s pipbuck with fear. “Th-that w-was the Courser… w-wasn’t it…”

I nodded, my panic making coming up with any sort of cohesive plan almost impossible. “I… I don’t know what to do… I can’t just… I can’t just run off to fight the Courser and leave all the ponies here to be killed by the Enclave?”

Brisk grunted. “You go save Tinker. Nova too if she is still alive. We’ll try to hold off the Enclave.”

Scarlet stood up, looking strangely determined. “I’ll go with you. I have a score to settle with the Institute anyway.”

“Bad idea,” Xayah retorted, looking over the top of the counter and out at the horrific bloodshed outside. “That Courser can deactivate synths just by speaking. Somepony that isn’t a synth needs to go to keep you covered.”

I glanced back and forth between all my friends, trying to come up with a plan of action that didn’t involve all of us and the entire city dying horribly. I didn’t like any of the likely outcomes of any of the plans I could think of. I looked down at Mirra who was still shivering in Brisk’s embrace. The changeling looked up at me, terrified. “Amber, I’m scared.”

Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself up. “Alright. Scarlet, Xayah, try to keep as many ponies as you can safe from the Enclave. Mirra, try to find somewhere safe. If you can find a way to evacuate everypony, report to Xayah or Scarlet,” I turned, looking at Brisk. “You’re with me. We need to save Tinker and Nova.

Brisk gave me a grin that he clearly in no way felt. “Alright. Let's go kill a synth death machine.”

I gulped, remembering that Pureblood had told me he had modeled the Courser after the deadly changeling general, Azar. “Yeah… we can try.”

Giving each other all a quick hug, we split up, Xayah and Scarlet rushing back into the frey while Brisk and I rushed further into Friendship City. Mirra slinked off, sticking to the edges of the city as the Enclave pushed past the remaining security and swarmed the living areas.

My hooves pounded heavily against the ground as I tried to keep pace with Brisk. He was a lot bigger and faster than me, making staying in line with him a fair amount of effort.

“The Enclave destroyed the staircase up to the next level!” I shouted, jumping over a collapsed piece of coppery debris that had fallen from the wall of the massive statue. “How are we getting to the top!”

“There’s an elevator at the back of the city that leads up to the top floor!” Brisk shouted back, his mini gun firing off a few rounds and dropping two Enclave troops to the ground. “With any luck, the Enclave hasn’t managed to damage that far into the city yet and we can ride it up!”

I felt my eyes shoot up in alarm. “You want to get onto an elevator with me while the city is being attacked by Enclave Raptors?!” That might have been the worst idea I had heard in my entire life.

Brisk grimaced. “You’re right. Bad idea,” He grimaced again. “Really, really bad idea. Come on, there’s a second staircase. We’ll take that!”

He led me further back into the city, taking the fastest route he knew to get up to the next level. We rushed past a group of ponies cowering together in a dark corner of the city, holding each other tightly and crying. I sent a prayer up to Celestia that they made it out of this alive.

We’d get them out of this somehow. Littlepip was in the city somewhere too. She’d do something. The Lightbringer always saved the day, right?

We reached the staircase Brisk had mentioned, not bothering to slow as we started racing up the steps. The whole city shook as the Raptor fired again, though this time I was far enough into the city that I didn’t see the powerful magic blast rip through the city's walls.

We reached the second floor, only to start rushing up the next set of stairs onto the third. As we ran, the steps in front of me were blasted to slag as an Enclave soldier flew up at us from the level below. Brisk wrapped his hooves around me and threw me aside as the pegasus fired up at us again, all four of the pegasus’ shots slashing through Brisk’s armour and piercing his stomach.

Brisk screamed, blood spraying from his mouth and oozing down from his body as he collapsed to the side of the stairwell in pain. He shivered, pain racing through him as he slumped against the railing and went unconscious.

“NO!” I screamed, rushing over and firmly placing my hooves on the bleeding holes that had been ripped into his side. He was losing a lot of blood, and fast! I glanced up, my eyes narrowing in rage at the Enclave pegasus as they landed on the stairs a few steps above us. The pegasus narrowed their eyes in return, their antenna-like weapons pulsing with coloured light and their scorpion-like tail swishing back and forth behind them menacingly.

I pulled myself up, Braeburn’s Liberator lifting up in the amber glow of my magic to aim at the pegasus. I hesitated as five more armoured Enclave Troopers swooped in from above, landing behind the pegasus that had shot down Brisk.

I looked down at Brisk, weighing my options. Things weren’t looking good. Brisk was in no condition to fight right now, and there was now way I could fight my way through all of them while carrying him on my back.

That train of thought was only amplified as three more fully armoured Pegasi started swooping towards us from behind, landing on the steps behind us and levelling their deadly weapons at my head.

I took a shaky breath, my eyes darting back and forth as I searched for a way out of this. I saw nothing.

Fwoosh!

A stream of fire roared down from the floor above us. The Enclave troopers that had landed at the top of the stairs only had just enough time to give a shout of alarm before the blazing inferno overtook them and cooked them alive inside of their armour.

The pegasus that had shot Brisk spun around, their eyes wide as a massive, power armoured figure burst from the writhing flames and slammed into them. The large ponies steel clad hooves stomped down on the pegasus’ head, crushing their skull flat under the tremendous force.

The Enclave pegasi that had been rushing up the stairs at me paused, their faces filled with horror as the dancing firelight silhouetted the imposing power armoured pony.

Despite everything that had happened, I felt myself smile. It had been a bit since I’d seen her, but I could never forget that intimidating suit of black hotrod armour. “Pyre…”

Pyre looked down at me, her eyebrows raised a little from behind her visor. “Hey Amber. Been a while, hasn’t it,” She looked past me, glaring at the three Enlcave soldiers staring up at her in horror. “These winged rats cousin’ you trouble?”

My smile simply wouldn’t leave me. She was back! She was finally, finally back! I allowed myself to shift my wide, beaming smile into a slightly less beaming smirk. “They very definitely are.”

Only one of the Enclave ponies managed to dodge out of the way as Pyre’s flames sent a wave of napalm spewing towards them. The pegasus fired off a shot from their rifle, only for the beam of energy to bounce almost harmlessly off of Pyre’s armour.

Pyre spun around, her hind hooves rocketing backwards and bucking the Enclave trooper in the face. Her powerful hooves quite literally ripped the poor ponies head from his body. I almost felt sorry for him. Then I looked at all the death around me and decided it was a just reward.

I quickly poured a healing potion down Brisk’s throat before standing up and facing her. The potion patched his wounds a little, but they still oozed blood and he didn’t leave his unconscious state.

Pyre took a second, breathing deeply as she tried to catch her breath. She hadn’t even turned back to face me before I rushed forwards and wrapped the big mare in a tight hug. I doubt she could feel it through her armour, but I wanted to hug her anyway.

“Heh... Hey… I’m back… I guess,” Pyre said, slowly dislodging herself from me. “What I miss?”

“Nothing good, trust me,” I grimaced, pulling away and looking her over wearily. “What’s happened to you? Where have you been?”

Pyre glanced down at herself, taking a moment to think things over. “I didn’t know what to do when I left at first,” Pyre stated honestly. She looked back up at me and I could see her trying to sort something out in her head even as she spoke. “Eventually I decided I’d try to sort some of this synth stuff out…”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Did you?” Nodding, Pyre reached back with one of her hooves and pulled something out from her saddle bag before tossing it to the floor in front of me. I looked down at it, then gagged. She had just taken out a decaying pony heart. “Ew ew ew ew… Pyre, why?”

“I started trying to figure out when the Institute had replaced me,” Pyre answered grimly. “I guess I just wanted to know what I’ve actually done and what this… this robot that I am now has done… I don’t know why… thought it might help or some shit. I followed any rumours I could find about my whereabouts over the last few months. Took me half the way back to Las Pegasus…”

I still kept staring at the rotting heart, still waiting for that to make sense. “Oookay… So what’s with the gross myocardium?”

Pyre glanced down at the rotten organ for a second before stepping past me and gingerly picking Brisk up from the stairwell and placing him on her back. “Wasn’t easy, but I tracked down the location I had been replaced… I found that… Well, I found more than that... “ I heard her voice shiver as some painful memory flooded her mind. “I found my body, torn apart and dissected, left to rot away in some back alley in the middle of nowhere…”

I glanced down at the gross organ with a new horror. “Wait! That heart is yours!”

“That heart is Pyre Blaze’s,” Pyre corrected, carrying Brisk’s limp body up the stairs. “I’m just a robot. Some stupid synth that likes to think she’s Pyre…”

“You’re wrong,” I said flatly, following her up the steps. She didn’t seem to have any intention on picking the heart back up, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to touch it. “You’re still Pyre.”

Pyre glanced back at me. “No, I’m not Amber. But thank you for the thought. You wouldn’t understand.”

I felt just a little bit smug when I replied. “I might understand more than you know…”

Pyre paused, her eyes darting down to look me over. After a very long moment of silence, she spoke again, her voice coming out in a low, threatening rumble. “What the fuck did the Institute do.”

I actually winced at the sudden rage that seemed to flow from her. I had to force the smirk back onto my face, though I didn’t feel it anymore. “I’m a synth now too Pyre… My body's still out there somewhere, alive… But right now I’m like you.”

Pyre glared at me from the top of the steps, seething, though I could tell that her rage was not directed at me. “Amber,” She finally said, her tone sounding just a little softer, though still very clearly having a sharp edge to it. “I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to get your real body back. No pony deserves this…” She looked back up the steps, her hostile posture fading a little. “Now come on, this is no place to talk. Not with the Enclave. We need to get Brisk healed up before he loses too much blood.”

I nodded, following after her as she carried Brisk up the last few flights of stairs. “Not to try and complicate things more than they already are, but we have issues bigger than the Enclave,” I informed her, trotting up beside her. “There's a Courser on the top floor of the city. He has Tinker and Nova hostage,” Assuming Nova is even still alive, I added to myself.

Pyre Blaze gave me a confused look. “Tinker and Nova?”

I tried to figure out how to give her a quick rundown of everything without taking to long, realizing she wouldn’t recognize either of those names. “Err, yes. Friends of ours. You’ve missed a lot. I’ll make sure to fill you in if we survive all of this.”

Pyre simply nodded, moving to start heading up the next flight of stairs. “Alright. We’ll find some healing potions for Brisk, then head up and confront this Courser.”

I glanced down below me at where the Enclave were still ripping apart the floor below. There were a few Pegasi that were flying up to the higher floors to attack some of the hiding ponies above, but most of them were staying on the main level where there seemed to be the highest concentration of civilians.

Looking back at Pyre. “I really missed you, but… what are you doing here?”

Pyre glanced back at me slightly, looking me over through her tinted visor. “Yeah, I missed you too,” She gestured to the destruction the Enclave had wrought upon the city around us. “I saw the Raptors moving towards the city. I figured I’d try and help out. I didn’t expect to run into you here though…”

I brushed my side against her large frame as we walked. “Are you going to travel with us again? I know we would all love to have you back,” I gave her my biggest puppy eyes. “I know Mirra really misses you.”

Pyre scowled at me. “Oh don’t give me those big eyes Amber. I’ve seen you do enough bloody shit that your adorableness doesn’t really work anymore,” She looked away from me. “And no. I can’t join you guys again… not with the Institute using my eyes to spy on you.”

I felt a little bit of smugness return. “Actually, I already dealt with that. I got back into the Institute, managed to delete both of us from their database. They don’t have any control over us anymore.”

Pyre paused, looking back at me with awe for a second. Finally she just grunted. “Damn, you’ve been busy I see.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” I smirked back.

We came to a long hallway that seemed to have so far remained untouched by the Raptors weaponry. It hadn’t however, remained free of the Enclave entirely.

Pyre crouched down into a battle stance, her eyes clearly catching hostile movement on her EFS. A second later I heard muffled voices shouted from a room beside us, the magically enhanced voices of the Enclave troopers beyond still audible through the door.

“Step aside!” We heard the voice of an Enclave soldier boom. “Step aside or I’ll have you branded as a dashite!”

Pyre and I crept forwards, slowly moving our way towards the door the voices were coming from.

“No!” A mare's voice shouted out. I recognized the voice at once and picked up my pace. “They’re just foals. I-I can't let you fucking do this!”

Pyre and I peeked around the corner of the doorframe, making out the scene in the room beyond. As I had suspected, the Enclave scientist Star Breeze was facing off against five fully armoured Enclave soldiers, a group of eleven or so foals cowered behind her as the imposing pegasi closed in on them.

“We have our orders Star! Now I’m not going to ask you again...” The leading Enclave trooper demanded, stomping a hoof down in frustration. “Step aside and report back to the Pyroculus, or I’m going to fire whether you’re still standing in the way or not.”

Star Breeze visibly trembled at the threat, but she held her ground. “I-I-I’m not g-going to let you kill foals!”

The Enclave soldier growled. “Fucking shit Star, get out of the goddess damned way!” Their magical energy rifle began glowing dangerously, crackling with energy.

Pyre had clearly had enough of just hiding and watching. She leapt out from our cover, her flamers roaring as she sent a wave of fire flashing over the Enclave troopers. The pegasi darted back in surprise, taking to the air as Pyre lunged towards them.

I pulled myself out, Braeburn’s Liberator firing off a round of Buckshot point black into an Enclave Soldiers head. The pegasus was flung back, their now headless corpse hitting the ground with a loud crack in front of the cowering foal.

Star Breeze dove in front of the foals protectively with a loud “eep” of surprise, her body taking the hit of one of the deadly beams of energy that started lancing out across the room. She felt to the ground whimpering, her chest rising and falling as the wound was quickly cauterized by the searing laser.

Pyre rose onto her hind hooves, her fore hooves crashing down on an Enclave Troopers neck and crushing their windpipe. The pegasus struggled, their eyes wide as they choked out, blood spilled from their mouths.

Fzzzzzat!

One of the foals was hit with a beam of energy, their body instantly dissolving into a pile of glittering ash. The foals around them screamed, huddling together in fear. I returned the favour by tackling the murderous pegasus to the ground, my shotgun hovering over their head for only a second before I unloaded two rounds of buckshot into their face. Their body spasmed as the explosive slugs ripped through them, then they went limp.

Another Enclave trooper blasted at me with their rifle, the beam of energy missing by mere inches as I ducked and rolled towards them. Before I had time to attack back, Pyre’s flamers flashed out and lit them ablaze. The pegasus writhed in the air, desperately trying to put out the searing flames. Their attempts were in vain as the flames rushed across their body and slowly burned them alive.

A blast from Star’s own magical energy rifle dropped the last pegasus to the ground, turning them to a pile of ash.

Groaning, Star pulled a healing potion out of her saddle bags and downed the contents, the wound on her chest quickly patching itself back together. She looked up at us and gave us something that was a mix between a grateful smile and a scowl. “Well well, look who it fucking is.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, helping her up to her hooves. She gratefully took my hoof and pulled herself back up before brushing at her lab coat and trying to get out the wrinkles.

“Uh, I’m Enclave, remember?” She spat back. Then she hesitated, looking at the pegasus corpses around us. “Or… well I was until just about right now I guess… Fuck… I knew about Operation Cauterize, but… but t-this… This is madness… Thundersee just fired on the Raptor Altostus… and and… of fuck… Fuck, I’m a scientist, not a soldier! I shouldn’t even be here right now!” she seemed to curl in on herself as she started going into some sort of panic attack. “F-fuck… I… I can’t do t-this… I’m not made for this kind of fucking shit… oh goddesses…”

“Star, I need you to focus,” I said, trying my best to comfort her. “We have some serious problems right now and Brisk is hurt. Can you help him?”

Star gave me a timid nod and sauntered her way over to Pyre, looking Brisk’s wounds over. Having something to work on seemed to calm her down a little bit. “O-oh fuck… fuck fuck fuck,” The pegasus muttered to herself as she got to work patching together Brisk’s wounds.

I turned and addressed the cowering foals. Save for the colt that had been turned to ash, they all seemed to be unharmed. “Are you all alright?” One of the foals nodded solemnly at me while the rest of them just stared back with tear streaked faces. “I need you to stick close with Star, alright. She’ll keep you safe,” I told them, slowly moving back to Pyre.

Star looked up at me with surprise at that. “W-what? I’m not a fucking foalsitter Amber!”

Pyre seemed to smirk through her helmet. “I mean, you’re already looking after Brisk right now. That’s pretty much like foalsitting.”

Star Breeze scowled, her lips quivering. “N-not f-funny.”

I knelt down and gave the trembling Enclave scientist a small pat on the shoulder. “We have to go deal with a synth death machine right now… Can you please look after the foals for us… They need somepony they can trust to look out for them.”

Star let out a long, shaky breath. “Fuck… A synth death ma- Goddesses fuck me in the ass… Why do things always go wrong for me when I run into you…” She took another deep breath, this time sounding a little less panicky. “Alright. Fine. I’ll be a foalsitter for a bit. Just don't die. I um… You owe me for all this.”

For once, I agreed with her. “Yeah. I’ll get you whatever you want when we’re done. Thank’s Star,” I turned, heading back out the door with Pyre.

“Y-you better….” Star Breeze whimpered back, her gaze turning back to Brisk’s seeping wounds.

“Alright, that takes care of Brisk, hopefully,” Pyre said, turning to the end of the hallway that led to the final set of stairs leading to the crown of the Pony of Friendship statue. “Let's deal with this Courser.”

I nodded, following after her. “It’s not going to be easy. This Courser is modeled after Azar. And now that Brisk is out of commission, it’s going to be a lot easier for it to take us down.”

Pyre glanced at me in confusion. “You have me now. I think I can deal with a synth,” She hesitated for a second. “That Azar thing is concerning though… That zebr- changeling was a bitch and a half to kill.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not just that. Coursers can deactivate synths by saying their deactivation code. If we let it speak, it’ll just turn us off,” I grimaced at Pyres worried reaction to that. “That was why I brough Brisk along. Keep the fight going if I get deactivated.”

Pyre growled. “Well fuck. That complicates things… is there any workaround for that?”

I gave a tentative nod. “Kind of. I think if you repeat the code again, we’ll go back online. But if that happens, you need to be fast. I doubt the Courser is going to give us time to just reactivate each other over and over again.”

“Do you know the codes?”

Again, I hesitated. “Mine is… uh… X237- uh… seven something… I don’t remember it well. Your memory gets all funky after you get deactivated... And I have no idea what yours is,” I grimace, realizing that that put us at one hell of a disadvantage. “The Courser will have to say it to detective us though, so just repeat what they say and we should be fine… probably… maybe… probably not…”

Pyre rolled her eyes. “Wonderful prep talk. Really giving me that boost of confidence I need before taking on a synth death machine.”

We started moving up the final, steep set of stairs. Up above I could see the diffused sunlight shining down on us. We were almost at the top of the city.

Pyre paused at the top step, clearly checking her EFS. “I got three dashes up there. Two friendly, one hostile.”

I felt my knees go limp with relife. “Oh thank Celestia. That means Tinker and Nova are still alive,” The Courser hadn’t decided to just kill them then. Small blessing I supposed. “We need to be careful. The Courser is probably waiting for us.”

Pyre nodded, her legs bending down into a ready position. She glanced over at me. “You ready?”

I nodded. “Alright, let's do this,” With that, we sprung up the last steps and burst out onto the top of the roof.

“X23762Z!” I heard the Courser’s voice shout out the second my hoof touched the top step. I immediately felt flat on my face, my whole body suddenly locking up as my deactivation code rang out across the rooftop. I had been right, the Courser had been waiting for us.

“X237- uh- 62Z” Pyre’s voice roared back, the collection of letters and numbers suddenly bringing me out of my immobilized state. I rushed back to my hooves, my magic levelling my shotgun with the Courser.

The Courser scowled as I pulled myself back up, their icy blue eyes narrowing as they flickered over to where Pyre was standing. “TR348X2!”

Pyre’s body sagged, her form going limp within her power armour. “TR348X2!” I quickly shouted back, repeating the code that had just left the Courser mouth. Instantly, Pyre straightened, taking a frightened step back as she was given control over her hooves again.

Again, the Courser scowled, his gaze seeming murderous. His dark lips pulled back, bearing his teeth. “Very clever,” The Courser sneered, taking a step towards us. His horn sparked dangerously as he started closing the distance between us. “Fine… let's talk…”

I took a deep breath. At least the Courser wasn’t going to be able to take us out as quickly as I had been afraid he would.

Now that the initial panic was over, I was able to take in our surroundings. The top of the Pony of Friendship statue had been obliterated by the Enclave Raptors fire, leaving the area as a massive, open platform overlooking harbor below. Charred corpses were strewn across the large opening and I could see the massive Raptor still firing at the city floating far below us, though I noticed the second Raptor had been destroyed, its wreckage having crashed down and taken out a large chunk of the Bridge to Friendship City. Swarms of pegasi darted around the city, their deadly energy weapons blasting apart anything that moved.

The dark Courser stood in the centre of the large platform, his black trench coat billowed around him and his Institute laser rifle was floating beside him, its aim shifting back and forth between Pyre and myself. Both Nova and Tinker were on the ground behind him. Tinker had crawled his way over to Nova and was currently trying to stop her from bleeding out from a blast of magical energy that had severed one of her wings.

A strong wind blew across the rooftop as we faced down the Courser, whipping our manes around us.

“So, you're a Courser,” Pyre stated simply, trotting forwards and looking the synth over curiously. “You’re shorter than I expected,” The Courser was tall enough to tower over me by almost a foot, but I did notice that the top of his head still only reached up to Pyre’s neck while she was in her large suit of power armour.

The Courser grinned back at her. “I had not expected to run into you as well, Pyre Blaze. My Institute files showed me that you had left Ambers employ a few days ago. Clearly they need to be updated,” His grin became a rictus smirk. “But I am most pleased at this meeting. I had orders to hunt you down and exterminate you once I had dealt with Amber Aura. You have both simplified my job tremendously.”

I took a step towards him, careful not to get too close. I knew how dangerous this Courser could be in hoof to hoof combat. No doubt, that was a trait he had picked up from Azar. “You’re going to let Tinker and Nova go, right now!” I demanded. “I’m not going to ask you twice.”

The Courser raised an eyebrow at me. “Hmmm. No,” The Courser cooed. He responded to my advancements by taking a step of his own towards me. I promptly stepped back, not daring to let it get within melee range. “As of right now, I have your friends hostage. This is not an advantage I will simply toss aside because of baseless threats.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt anypony else,” I scowled, making sure to keep my gun level with his head.

The Courser just gave me an amused look. “You two may have found a way to keep me from immediately shut you down, but you will both still die here,” his emotionless smile was unbearable. “You could not defeat me back in Fillydelphia or at Skyfires. What makes you think things will be different here?”

Pyre cast another glance my way. “You were in Fillydelphia? I really need to get caught up on everything that has been going on.”

I scowled at the Courser. “I’m ready for you this time.”

That actually made the Courser laugh. “Are you now, Amber Aura? Then I implore you to take me out. Things here will not go your way,” The Courser’s eyes darted to Pyre for a second, then quickly returned to me. “Now, I think we’ve talked long enough. We both know how this needs to end.”

I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the beam of deadly blue energy that slashed past my face. I rolled across the ground, the hide on my side being ripped open as I rolled across the sharp debris that was scattered across the roof's surface.

Pyre lunged forwards, her powerful hooves swinging at the Courser’s head. The Courser easily stepped aside, his hind hoof lashing out and sticking Pyre across the face. Pyre was thrown back, crashing to the floor with a loud thud. Had she not been in her armour, the hit probably would have shattered her skull.

“TR348X2!” The Courser shouted, spinning around and lunging for me. Immediately, Pyre went limp, her body sagging as the deactivation code flashed through her ears.

“TR3-” I started, but I was cut off as the Courser slammed into me, their powerful hooves bashing at my throat and forcing me to take a gasping breath of air. I stumbled back, my hooves clutching at my neck as I tried to get air into my crushed windpipe.

The Courser rounded on me again, swinging their hooves at my head. I ducked low, still gagging as I tried to get air into my lungs. Before I could righten myself again, the Courser’s hoof flashed out and smacked me across the back of the head, toppling me to the ground.

I coughed, blood splattering against the rooftop. “T… R… 3...” I started to sputter, pain flaring up my constricting throat as I tried to reactivate Pyre. The Courser was faster.

“X23762Z!” The Courser sneered. I dropped to the ground, my whole body stilling. I felt panic grip me as my deactivation code forced me out of control of my body. I stared up at the sky with my unblinking eyes, my understanding of the world around me rapidly dwindling away.

What was I doing up here again? Who was that large black pony standing over me? Why was he smiling? Why was his gun aimed at my head?

“X23762Z! TR348X2!” I heard Tinker shout out.

I bolted back up, my hooves knocking the Courser’s gun aside as I was jolted back to life. The Courser stumbled back, surprised. I looked over, seeing Tinker smiling weakly at me from Nova’s side. Across from them, Pyre was pulling herself back up in her heavy suit of armour, growing at the Courser.

“You little brat!” The Courser roared, his Institute rifle swivelling in his magic to aim at the small colt.

Fzzzzzat!

A blue beam of energy fired from the rifle, slashing through Tinker’s leg and sending the colt collapsing to the ground with a loud scream. The Courser aimed again, this time the shot lined up for Tinker’s head.

Pyre rammed into him, her flamers blazing with burning light and forcing the Courser’s shot to go wide. Her hooves flashed forwards, smashing into the Courser and sending him staggering back. He wheezed painfully, his chest dented inward.

I fired a shot from Baeburn’s Liberator. The Courser dodged out of the way, the buckshot missing their head but taking off their ear. Blood spewed across the roof as the synthetic ear flopped limp to the ground.

“Why won't you ponies just die!” The Courser snarled, dark blood dripping down his face and staining his coat. His rifle swiveled, blasting five beams into Pyre’s side. Pyre staggered, but her strong power armour took most of the hits for her.

I lunged forwards, wrapping my hooves around his neck and trying to drag the Courser down to the ground. They whipped around, flinging me off of them and sending me crashing back to the ground with a thud.

With a roar, Pyre lunged forwards again, her twin flamers spewing waves of fire. The Courser ducked back, the front of his face singed as the flames licked at his hide. The air filled with the smell of burning hair and flesh.

The Courser’s hoof slammed into my face, knocking me to the ground. I felt blood drip down my face as the Courser’s hoof broke my nose. I rolled onto my back, only for the Courser’s hoof to crash down on my chest, pinning me in place. Their rifle swung around, aiming down between my eyes.

Fzzzzzat!

I flinched, the blue beam of energy flashing from the barrel of the Courser’s gun only inches from my face. But the bolt never made it to me. It was stopped as a shimmering shield of violet magic materialized between us.

I looked up, seeing Nova’s horn glowing faintly as she poured what little strength she had left into keeping me alive.

The Courser growled. For the first time since I had seen him, I saw true rage flash across his face. Not that strange, faux emotion that he sometimes emoted. He whirled around, his rifle flaring and blasting a beam of light at the alicorn.

Nova screamed in agony, the beam of energy slashing through her horn and incinerating it. Blood spilled across the rooftop from where her long horn had once been.

Pyre pushed herself between the Courser and Nova before he could finish her off, letting her power armour take the brunt of the shot. She smirked at him, flashing forwards and trying to crush his head between her hooves.

The Courser danced back, avoiding her attack, but giving me enough room to haul myself back up. I cast a glance at Nova, seeing her slumped against the floor. Her whole body was trembling in pain, but she was thankfully still alive.

Once again, the Courser dodged away from Pyre’s attack, scowling as he watched me pull myself fully back to my hooves. Ducking under a blast of fire, he darted forwards and slammed his hooves hard into Pyre’s head, forcing her backwards.

Now with a little space, the Courser put a hoof to his still attached ear, activating some sort of intercom. “Amber Aura is on the roof of Friendship City. Send reinforcements.”

Shit, that was bad.

Blue light flashed around me, signalling the arrival of a squadron of synths as they teleported up onto the roof. I hopped backwards, their Institute rifles flaring and sending beams of blue light slashing at the spot I had been standing in.

I tried to aim at one of the approaching synths, only for the Courser to lunge at me and send me toppling to the ground. As I felt, I saw two of the synths fire on Pyre, their lasers slashing at her armour and searing her flesh beneath.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Two of the synths fell as a stream of bullets tore through them, ripping out their electronic innards and sending them falling limp to the ground.

The Courser looked up with a snarl, spotting Brisk and he pulled himself up onto the roof, his mini gun whirring loudly as he ripped through the synths. He gave me a wink as his gun fired off a flurry of bullets. “Hey sis. Thought you could just go fighting killer robots without me?” he looked over to Pyre, smirking. “Good to see that you’re back.”

Pyre nickered at him. “Good to be back.”

Star Breeze swooped out of the stairwell and onto the roof, her magical energy rifle firing shots off behind her as two Enclave soldiers raced up after her. “Amber, I’m sorry! I told Brisk he was in no condition to fight but he insisted and the Enclave showed up and- oh fuck!” she did a flip in the air as one of the synths fired up at her.

The two Enclave troopers soared out onto the roof, their weapons firing off bolts of coloured light. I saw their eyes widen as they took in the Synths firing up at them. “What the fuck are those thin-” The Enclave soldier was cut off as a synth fired a beam of blue energy through their visor, the lethal beam melting the flesh from their face.

I jumped to my right as the Courser lashed at me with their hoof. Their hoof sailed past my ear, nearly taking my head clean off. I returned the favor with a kick to the chest. I doubted it did much damage itself, but Pyre had already managed to damage that spot, making my attack seem far worse than it was.

The Courser stumbled backwards, growling. Brisk fired more shots at him, forcing him to dip away. His ice blue eyes darted around, finally landing on Tinker as the bleeding colt slowly dragged his way over to where Nova was bleeding out.

Another synth was blown apart as Pyre slammed into it, crushing it flat with a heavy stomp of her hoof. The synth spasmed underneath her before finally going still.

A shot from Star Breeze dropped the last Enclave Trooper to the ground, her energy rifle lancing through his neck and sending viscera spilling across the rooftop. They landed with a thud next to Tinker, a loud crack filling the air as their bleeding neck snapped.

The Courser rushed across the rooftop and snatched Tinker up, his dark hoof raising him into the air a moment before slamming the colt's head into the ground. The Coursers Institute rifle pressing roughly against Tinkers head, its end glowing a vibrant blue as he prepared to fire. Tinker screamed out, thrashing as he was pinned down by the monster that had killed his mother.

“Take another step and the colt dies,” The Courser hissed, his eyes flashing dangerously. I froze, taking in Tinker’s situation. I couldn’t let him die! Not now. Not after I had promised his mother I would keep him safe.

The Courser sneered, seeing all of us pause. His hoof pressed down harder on Tinker’s chest, making the colt give a loud whimper of pain.

I kept my weapon aimed at the Courser, though I didn’t dare take another step. “Don’t you dare hurt him!” Brisk backed me up by giving the Courser an angry snarl form beside me.

The Courser smiled coldly at him and I saw his magical grip on the trigger of his rifle tighten. “This is not the first time that I have threatened your friends' lives in exchange for your surrender, Amber Aura. I have decided that this tactic has less effect on you than I had initially anticipated,” His grin grew. “Perhaps I will just kill the colt now. Perhaps that will finally get through to you!”

I saw Nova reer up from the ground beside the Courser, blood spilling down her face. The alicorn dove forwards, using what little strength she could to push the Courser away. Her jagged horn slashing at the Courser’s throat. “Nooo!”

Fzzzzzat! Fzzzzzat! Fzzzzzat!

Three blasts of the Courser’s Institute rifle blasted through Nova’s neck as she dove between the deadly rifle and Tinker. Nova shuddered, falling limp to the floor, blood spilling down her body as three massive holes were ripped open in her.

Tinker darted away, his hooves snatching up the magical energy rifle from the dead Enclave Trooper that had collapsed next to him. He spun around, the rifle in his hooves firing five beams straight into the Courser’s chest as the Courser staggered from the sudden slash to his neck.

The Courser’s eyes went wide as the blast ripped through their body, blood spilling down his front. He sagged, staggering back as another blast from Tinker’s gun lashed through him.

Pyre pounced forwards, smashing her hooves down heavily across the Courser’s back. The Courser bucked at her, sending Pyre skidding away, but collapsing to the ground himself as her strong hooves shattered his spine.

I saw Tinker rushing forwards, his eyes blazing with furry as he pressed the magical energy rifle against the Courser’s head. I screamed, racing towards the enraged colt. “No, wait! Tinker! Don’t get too close!”

Fzzzzzat!

Fzzzzzat!

Two shots were fired, one from the Courser’s rifle, and one from Tinkers. Tinker screamed as a bolt of burning energy slashed through his chest, blood surging from the wound as the young colt dropping limp to the ground.

The Courser howled in pain as Tinker’s bolt of energy lashed through him, the blazing beam blasting apart the right side of his head. The Courser’s remaining eye flashed with pain as his body spasmed and began to glow. Slowly, his body disintegrated into a glowing pile of ash, the strong wind blowing his remains away where it spiralled into the air, scattered and lost forever.

I rushed to Tinker’s side at once, dropping down and propping the colt up. “Star! Healing potion! Now!” I ordered, grabbing hold of the healing potion Star tossed me as she rushed over to Nova. I quickly began pouring the potion down his throat, watching in horror as the wound very slowly began too close.

It wasn’t going fast enough. I quickly poured the rest of the potion on the seeping wound itself. That seemed to work a little better.

Tinker coughed and sputtered, hacking up blood as the potion worked its magic and the wound stitched itself back together. He blinked up at me, his drowsy expression mixed with pain. “A-Amber!” I felt my breath hitch as I embraced him, careful not to hug him to tighty. He was alive. Thank the goddesses. “W-where’s N-Nova?”

My relief was crushed by terror. I looked up to where Star was frantically working over the collapsed alicorn. Star glanced up at me, sensing my worried look. “She’s alive. Barely,” My refeif returned, though it was only minimal. Alive didn’t mean she was going to survive. Star looked over at Pyre, her expression stern. “Power armour chick!! Get over here! I need you to carry the alicorn.”

“My name’s Pyre,” Pyre drawled, but she quickly did as instructed and lifted Nova up onto her back. “Where are we taking her?”

Boom!

Before Star could answer, the large Raptor firing at the city exploded, bits of metal and shrapnel bursting in all directions as it was ripped apart. I looked down at it, watching as the Enclave soldiers began frantically pulling back.

Littlepip’s work no doubt. That or Xayah had gotten more aggressive than normal.

Star didn’t even bother to look up as the Raptor was torn apart. “Amber, Grab the alicorn’s wing. I think I can attach it again if we get her somewhere safe.”

I nodded, dragging myself across the rooftop and picking up the limp, bloodsoaked appendage. Tinker trailed behind me, limping painfully on his wounded hoof.

“Amber, is Nova going to be alright?” Tinker asked, staggering as he tried to hold himself upright on his injured leg.

I gave him a grim look. “We’re going to do our best… I swear we’re going to do our best.”

Most of the Enclave abandoned the fight after the Raptor, which Star had informed us was called the Pyrocumulus, had been destroyed. A few had stayed behind to “Mop up”, but Pyre and the remainder of the Friendship City security had done a decent job of taking care of them.

I had been getting mixed reports from everypony I asked, but it seemed like around a quarter of the ponies in the city had survived. A victory on a technicality, but it sure didn’t feel like a victory to me. You couldn’t say you won after so many ponies had died.

I had been thankful to hear that the foals I had left in the care of Star had all survived, though most of their parents had not. A group of survivors had quickly started up an orphanage of sorts in the wreckage of the living area. We had managed to give the foals over to them who took them in without complaint.

Pyre and Brisk stood next to me as I watched Star and Tinker work over Nova. Tinker wasn’t much of a medic, but he had insisted on helping Star keep Nova stable. After about ten minutes of begging, Star finally agreed to let him hand her things as she needed them, a job the colt seemed to actually be quite good at.

We had moved Nova to the remains of the Friendship City hospital, though the Enclave Raptor had damaged the structure pretty badly. A few other ponies had dragged themselves to the hospital looking for medical attention as well. Thankfully the city's doctor had survived and was currently swamped up to her hooves in patients as she tried her best to keep everypony alive.

A lot of ponies were giving Star nasty glares, but they didn’t seem to try and do anything about her since she was one of the few ponies around that seemed to have any form of medical training.

“H-hey, Star?” Brisk said, blushing as he trotted up to her while the pegasus frantically worked over Nova. Star cast him a grump look, but didn’t answer. “I just wanted to thank you for fixing me up. I never got the opportunity with the Enclave and the Courser and all.”

Star shrugged. “Whatever. Don’t mention it. It was nothing really. Just let me focus.”

Brisk gave her a nervous nod in response and quickly shuffled out of the way, his face downcast and flushed with embarrassment.

I almost jumped out of my skin as a hoof wrapped around my neck and pulled me into a tight hug. I twisted around in the grip to find myself face to face with Scarlet. She didn’t seem to be badly wounded at all, though her body was covered in a fair amount of cuts and bruises.

I smiled at her. “Hey. Glad to see that you’re alright.”

The auburn mare smiled warmly. “I am glad you are alright too. I wasn’t sure you would be, with you going after a Courser and all.”

“What? No hug for me?” Brisk joked, opening his hooves up a little. Scarlet rolled her eyes and gave Brisk a tight hug as well.

When she pulled back, Scarlet gave me a grim look. “And did you… did you get the Courser? Is it dead?”

“Y-yeah. I did...or rather, Tinker did,” I said, gesturing towards the colt who was currently in the process of digging for something in Star’s medical bag. “He won’t be an issue anymore.”

Scarlet gave me a sad look at that. “I doubt that. Pureblood will send more. We have only delayed them a little bit,” She looked up, taking in the large form of Pyre beside me. Her face brightened immediately. “Oh, hello… You must be Pyre!”

Pyre glanced around suspiciously. “I um… yeah. Who are you again?”

Scarlet outstretched her hoof for Pyre to shake. “Scarlet. I helped Amber free you from the Institute.”

Pyre looked at her for a second before bumping her armoured hoof against hers. “Scarlet… that makes you… uh… you’re the marefriend of the cybernetic alicorn, right?” Her voice was hesitant. I had explained who Scarlet was to everypony after I had returned from the Institute the first time, though I’m sure Pyre’s memory of that must have been relatively foggy.

Scarlet blushed a little. “Uh… yeah. Crank. I understand that you and him didn’t exactly have the best experiences together. Sorry about that.”

Pyre shook her apology off with a hoof. “He beat me up, I called him a metal bitch once. I think we had a staring contest on a train. Honestly, I had a nicer experience with him than I’ve had with most of my old friends.”

“I remember he always beat me in staring contests,” Scarlet answered dreamily, her face flushing a little.

Pyre chuckled. “Ah geez, you’re more hopeless over that cyborg than Amber is over the zebra…” She let out another small laugh. “And if you thought he was good at staring contests back then, you should have seen him back on the train. I swear, those glass eyes of his did not need to blink.”

I smiled at their goofy conversation. It felt like we never got enough time to simply joke around with one another. I turned back to Star and Tinker to find Nova awake, her hazy eyes blinking up at me sleepily.

“Amber? W-what happened?” The wounded alicorn grumbled, one of her hooves rubbing at her forehead tiredly. She froze when she felt the cracked, ruined stump where her horn had once been. Her eyes went wide with fear. “M-my horn!”

“I tried to fix it, but there's not much I can do after it’s been turned to fucking ash,” Star grumbled, still working on the wounds on Nova’s neck. “I did manage to get your wing back on, but I’d recommend not flying on it for a few days.”

Nova glanced worriedly at her wing and seemed to relax a little bit to see it once more attached to her body. Her expression softened even more when Tinker rushed forwards and wrapped his hooves around her.

“Thank you Nova!” The colt cried into her coat. “I… I couldn’t have killed the Courser without you. Y-you saved me,” Nova gave him a thin smile and wrapped her uninjured wing over his body in a small hug.

Scarlet glanced at me for confirmation on what Tinker said. I simply nodded at her. Taking a deep breath, Scarlet stepped forwards. “Nova. I um… I am sorry about what I said about you earlier,” She looked down at her hooves, slightly ashamed. “You do not seem as bad as the other alicorns I met.”

Nova raised an eyebrow at her. “You have already apologized. We do not blame you for your previous perception of me.”

Scarlets brow furrowed a little. “I know, I just… Felt I should say it again… with a little more sincerity this time.”

Nova gave her a small nod in response, but didn’t answer further.

Suddenly, a blur of colour launched into the room. Pyre staggered back as a small filly slammed into her, wrapping her tiny hooves around her armoured neck. “Pyre!” I heard Mirra shout gleefully, as she squirmed around to get a tighter grip on Pyre.

I could practically see Pyre beaming with joy underneath her armour as she embraced the disguised changeling. “Hey kiddo. Miss me?” The answer was obvious even before Mirra answered.

“Oh, you have no idea!” Mirra was practically bouncing in the air with excitement. “So much has happened! We fought through a Stable full of True Steels and skin monsters! Then we got trapped in Filly and they made me turn into Rainbow Dash, but I couldn’t do it right, cause I was always too small! Then Amber showed up and she was super awesome like always and showed those slavers whose boss and broke out! Then we got separated and fought some slavers that were chasing us and Brisk was all, You don’t want to mess with me buddy! But then he got shot and Ms Scarlet had to save him and and and-”

Pyre cut off her excited rambling by putting a hoof to the small changeling's mouth and chuckling. “Yeah, that sounds like a lot. Sorry I had to miss it.”

Mirra paused for a second, moving away and looking Pyre over with her large eyes. “And um… Are you going to be coming back? As in like… traveling with us again?” she kicked at the grown nervously with her hoof a little.

Pyre cast her gaze up at me, as if looking to me for the answer to that question for her. I just shrugged, the choice was hers, but I really hoped she’d stay. I had really missed her too. “The Institute doesn’t control you anymore,” I reminded her, hoping that would sway her opinion.

Finally, Pyre took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m back. For good this tim-” Mirra tackled into her again before she could even finish speaking.

“EEEEEEEE!” Mirra squeed happily, all four of her hooves prancing joyfully on the spot as she hugged Pyre tightly. “ohThankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”

“I am glad that you are back as well,” I heard Xayah agree. I turned to see her trotting into the ruins of the hospital with us, smiling widely at Pyre. “It has been too long.”

Pyre grinned back at her through her helmet. “Xayah. Nice to see you too. I like the new legs. Very nice.”

I rushed up to her and wrapped Xayah in a big hug, nuzzling her neck a little. “I’m glad you're okay.”

Pyre gagged. “I missed you guys, but I did not miss the constant public displays of affection you two always so generously gift us with,” She wiggled her eyebrows at us from behind her visor. “Do we need to get some ponies a room?”

Xayah gave Pyre a glare, but she smiled anyway. “And I did not miss the constant snark from you.”

Pyre clapped her hooves together as if trying to call us all to attention. “Alright. I’m back now. I think it’s about time you all catch me up on what I missed.”

Pyre leaned back, looking me over suspiciously. “Okay… so… let me try and get all of this straight…” She paused for a second, thinking over everything I had told her. “Two brains in jars, one of which being some noble pony or some shit, are in control of the Institute, replaced you with a synth and in just over two days, they're going to launch this Utopia Program and mind rape everypony with it?”

We had retreated to our old room in Friendship City to explain everything to Pyre. Tinker decided to stay with Nova in the hospital to keep an eye on her, though Star said that she had done all she could at the time being. Only time would tell for sure if Nova’s wounds would heal.

The destruction that the Enclave had wrought to Friendship City had left our old room in ruin, leaving it as a broken, crumbling room of scrap and slag. Practically every bit of furniture in the room save for the large bed had been destroyed, leaving us to sit in a small circle on the floor.

Brisk had opted to sit next to the window, looking down at the Harbour far below. Some things never change I suppose.

I had done my best to explain everything that had happened since Pyre had parted ways with us, though Mirra was anxious to speak with Pyre about anything she could it seemed and ended up doing most of the talking. Pyre had remained dead silent until the story was done, and was now just looking at me blankly as she tried to process everything.

“Uh, yeah. That about sums it up,” I nodded, crossing my hooves in front of me. “Right now we need to figure out a way to get into the Institute and shut everything down, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to do any of that.”

“But we do know how to get into the Institute using that secret entrance under the MWT building,” Brisk pointed out from the window. “Why don’t we just sneak back in that way and take the fight to them now?”

“Because it isn't that simple,” Scarlet rebuked. “Chances are that Pureblood has reinforced the security on that entrance now that we managed to escape out of it. Furthermore, once we do make it inside the Institute, we’re going to have to fight our way through an army of synths, Coursers, Canterlot Ghouls and Slavers. Not to mention the Institutes pre existing security systems such as turrets and sprites.”

“That and Pureblood has already proven that he is able to flood the Institute with radiation as a last resort if he needs to,” I pointed out. “If we just charge in there without a plan we’re as good as dead. Pureblood won't hesitate to kill a few of his slavers in the process if it means winning. Nothing matters to him as long as it means he gets Utopia active.”

Xayah looked back and forth between us as we listed off all the things in our way. “And I don’t suppose there are any factions that would be willing to lend us a hoof either?” She looked to me hopefully at that.

“No. There isn’t,” Pyre answered for me, shaking her head. She seemed to become lost in thought for a second as an idea hit her, but she quickly shook that thought away as well. “The Steel Rangers and the Outcasts are too busy dealing with each other, not to mention the Enclave and the True Steels. Red Eye is working with Pureblood, so good luck getting his help even if you you wanted it. The Goddess is dead, so using alicorns isn’t an option. We could probably get the Friendship Express on board, but they’re hardly a faction of fighters and we’d have to find them first. So unless you want to go ask the Enclave for help, we’re on our own.”

“This whole thing is crazy! If I had half a mind I would just fly off and leave all of you here!” Star spat, shivering a little. She hadn’t spoken much while we explained the events of the last few days, but the expression on her face had been growing with horror the whole time. “B-but I think I might have a solution to at least one of those problems.”

Xayah raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh? And what is that?”

Star Breeze shuffled nervously a little under the zebras' gaze. “When the Enclave decided to come down from the sky, they did so with extreme paranoia. They act all tough, but the simple idea of radiation freaks them out. They’re currently planning a big attack on Fillydlephia in the coming days, and that place is like the fucking radiation capital of the wasteland.”

“They have power armour,” Brisk grunted. “Won’t that protect them from the rads?”

Star shook her head. “A little, but not to the same extent as Steel Ranger armour. Certain variants of Enclave power armour don't even cover the mouth area and almost every variant has a few exposed spots to allow maneuverability. So to combat this issue, the Enclave has a huge stockpile of radaway, power armour and radiation ventilators. Probably enough to supply a small army actually.”

“And you know where this stockpile is?” I asked, feeling hopeful.

Star nodded, but she looked hesitant. “I do, yeah. It’s here in Manehattan, waiting for our Thunderhead to pick it up on its way to Fillydelphia. Buts it’s going to be really fucking hard to get. Firstly, it’ll be well defended. Secondly, it's located on the top of a skyscraper, and the Enclave made sure to destroy every entrance up. You need to fly to get there.”

“And I don’t suppose you're just going to be able to fly up and get those for us?” Pyre snickered.

Star’s eyes shot wide in fear at the idea. “W-what! N-n-no! I’m a fucking scientist! I can’t take on an entire squadron of Enclave troopers!”

“Then we’ll need to find a way to get up there ourselves,” I nodded, wracking my brain for ideas. “We’ll still need to come up with a plan of attack, but this is at least a start.”

Scarlet suddenly perked up. “Wait, what about the Enclave war wagons?” At our confused looks, she elaborated. “The Enclave just attacked Friendship City. There are crashed pegasus war wagons littered all over the harbour right now. Not to mention the wreckages of three Raptors. We could try fixing one up and having Star fly us up to the rooftop.”

Star gave her a scowl, though she looked nervous. “Oh great. Now I’m a fucking taxi,” she sighed, rubbing her temple with a hoof. “Fuck it. I’ve already been fucked in the ass enough today as it is. I guess I don’t have much fucking dignity left anyway.”

I gave a small nod. “Alright, we’ll try and get one of those war wagons up and running. Hopefully we can come up with a small plan to deal with the Institute in the meantime.”

With the beginnings of a plan in place, we picked ourselves up off the floor and started heading back out. Before I could leave though, Pyre grabbed onto me and held me back, taking me aside to talk to me alone while the rest all filed out. “Amber, I think I have an idea that might get us through this whole thing with the Institute alive,” She hissed, keeping her voice low.

I raised an eyebrow up at her expectantly. “Really!? I’d love to hear it.”

Pyre glanced around, making sure all of our friends were already outside. She hesitated, looking back at me. “I uh... I’m still working out the details, and I promise I’ll give you a full rundown as soon as I figure out how we’re going to try and make it work, but right now I’m just going to need you to trust me on this. It’s risky. Riskier than normal for us. And you’re not going to like it.”

Her tone of voice was making me feel very uncomfortable. “Pyre, I trust you, but I need a little bit more to go off of than just that. What are you thinking? I can help.”

Pyre just shook her head. “I think I might know where we can find some help… just… focus on getting a war wagon up and running. We’re going to need it for my plan as well as Stars.”

Sighing, I gave her a small nod. “Alright Pyre, I’ll trust you on this. But I want you to explain everything when you can, okay?”

Pyre nodded, letting me go and following me as we headed out for the harbour. “I will. Promise. Just don’t expect to like the plan when you hear it.”

Star was more than thrilled to find a crashed war wagon that was in fairly decent condition. It was a wreck still, but fixable.

We had grabbed Tinker from the hospital to help us get it back into working condition. I wasn’t sure how much help the colt would be, but we needed all the hooves we could get, and he had proven to be fairly good at fixing things so far.

I had been surprised when Scarlet had offered to look after Nova while Tinker was busy. She was clearly feeling bad about her previous treatment of the purple alicorn and was wanting to make it up to her. Despite probably needing her help to start up the wagon, I was in no position to get between her and making amends.

Pyre and Mirra had gone inside the crashed wagon to clear it out while Brisk, Xayah and I worked around the outside, patching up any holes we could find in the wagon's outer shell.

Brisk grunted as he hammered a slab of metal into place over a spot at the rear of the wagon, covering up a section of wiring that Star had just fixed up. “How exactly does this thing work? I mean, it’s not like Star is strong enough to carry all of us,” He quickly backpedaled as Star snarled at him. “I’m not calling you weak. I uh… you’re probably really strong… like, uh… like really strong and stuff... It's just that this thing is really heavy, and now that Pyre’s back with us that’ll be even more weight.”

“Are you calling me fat,” Pyre’s voice called back at him mockingly, though she didn’t sound overly offended.

Brisk bristled. “W-what? No! You just are larger and have power armour and stuff,” he slumped in defeat, making me chuckle a little. I gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

Star’s snarl turned into a small smirk. “All Enclave flying machines have weight talismans in them. Makes it super easy to carry around. We lucked out. The talisman on this wagon still seems to be operational.”

Tinker pulled himself out from under the wagon, his face coated in a thick layer of grease. “Yeah Brisk. Don’t you know anything about machines?” That only made Brisk bristle more.

Star chuckled, giving the colt a wide grin. “Hehe, I like you kid. You tell this green buck who’s boss.”

“M-my name’s Brisk,” Brisk said back, his voice sounding more timid than normal.

“Yeah, okay, whatever,” Star turned back to the wagon and gave it a little kick with her hoof. “Unfortunately, it also requires a levitation talisman to fly as well, otherwise it would be dead weight and dangle from me like a limp dick. We’ll need to replace those.”

“That was not a metaphor that I wanted to have in my head,” Brisk grumbled, wrinkling his muzzle a little.

“Its only weird if you make it fucking weird,” Star retorted sticking her tongue out at Brisk and making his blush furiously.

“Alright, so where are we going to find these Talismans?” I asked, flipping open a small hatch on the side of the wagon and looking it over. I was a whizz with machines, but this Enclave tech was still alien to me.

Star Breeze rolled her eyes and waved at the area around her with a hoof. “Uh, duh! We have three freshly crashed, unlooted, Enclave Raptors literally just sitting in the harbour waiting to be picked clean for parts,” She gestured for me to go with a hoof. “Well don’t just stand there. Go grab that power armour chick and the creepy bug girl or something and go get those talismans. You know what they look like, yes?”

I gave a hesitant nod. I didn’t really know what they looked like, but I had seen talismans before, so I was sure I could probably figure it out.

Moving away, I went to trot into the back of the war wagon and get Pyre and Mirra. I froze as the hushed voices inside caught my attention. I slowly pulled myself up beside the wagon entrance, peeking my head inside.

Pyre and Mirra were inside, looking over the interior. Pyre was half way through shoving the charred remains of an Enclave pegasus that had died during the crash out a window.

“-and you’re really going to stay this time? For real?” Mirra questioned, watching Pyre nervously. “You’re okay now?”

Pyre nodded. “Yes. I’m not lying. I’m here to stay,” The corpse clattered out the window, causing Xayah to give a frightened eep from outside as it collapsed down next to her. Pyre paused, looking Mirra over for a second. “And no. I’m not okay. I don’t think I’m ever going to be okay, but I’m better. My heads a little clearer anyway.”

Mirra fluttered over a little and gave Pyre’s leg a nuzzle. Pyre obviously couldn’t feel it with her power armor in the way, but the thought was there. “We could work through it together.”

Pyre looked away, the words clearly making her a little uncomfortable. “You asked me that before Mirra… I know what you want from me and I don’t think I can give it to you…”

I could see Mirra’s features sag a little, but she kept up a determined look. “I… I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to do Pyre…” She shifted a little, scuffing at the floor with her hoof nervously. “I just want to make sure we are going to be okay. Xayah and Amber almost lost each other and I don’t want something like that to happen to us too.”

I felt a little stab of pain at the comment, but kept my mouth shut.

Pyre gave a little chuckle. “What you want from me isn’t what Amber and Xayah have. It’s not even what Amber and Brisk have. You’re… Look, Mirra. I’m a bad pony. I did bad things. You know about some of them. Not all of them. I’m trying to be better, I really am, but I still have a long way to go,” She looked down, looking into Mirra’s large eyes. “I’m not mother material. I’m… I’m just not…”

Mirra just gave her another hug, not saying anything. “And I’m not going to ask that of you… I just want you to be happy.”

Pyre shuddered at that. “Happy…” She breathed, as if the words didn’t fully make sense to her. After a long moment, she let out a deep, shaky sigh. “Mirra, I have a plan to help deal with Amber’s problem… This plan is going to be really dangerous and… well it's crazy and… a-and it scares me… A lot. I need you to promise me something…”

This plan scared Pyre? She was right, I wasn’t going to like whatever this plan was at all, was I? Anything that scared Pyre Blaze was something to worry about.

Mirra looked up at her with wide eyes. “Y-yes? Anything?”

Pyre gulped, looking away. “Don’t die… I’m tired of having the ponies I care about die…” taking a deep breath, Pyre looked back at her. “A-and I really care about you Mirra… more than I’ve cared about for a pony in a long time… Not since Viscer-” She cut herself off, not daring to finish the sentence. She just stood there and shook, staring at the walls of the war wagon around her.

Mirra cautiously crawled up onto her back and wrapped her hooves around the big mares neck. “I won’t be like Viscera,” Mirra assured her, her own voice sounding a little shaky. The horrors of what Viscera had done to us were still very prevalent in her mind.

“I-I know,” Pyre nodded, her body still shaking a little. “You’re better than she is…” I sat back and watched them for a long while, not daring to interrupt their tender moment. After a while, Pyre looked up and cast a small glance at me. “Well, are we going to get those flight talismans Amber?”

I flushed with embarrassment, pulling myself out from behind my hiding spot. Of course Pyre had known I was listening in. No doubt she saw me on my EFS. And by her question, she probably heard me coming too. “I uh… Yeah. We need to go loot one of the crashed Raptors.”

“Mmhmm,” Pyre grunted, trotting out with Mirra still hugging her atop her back.

The first two Raptors we tried to loot were less successful than I would have liked. The Pyrocumulus had been blown to bits, leaving it as little more than a smoking pile of debris. We searched around for a bit, but nothing showed up.

The other Raptor, the first one to go down in the fight for Friendship City, had already sunk to the bottom of the Harbour, making it inaccessible to both Pyre and myself. Mirra could get down there easily by turning into a fish, but without hooves she wouldn’t be able to do much once she got there. That and Pyre had immediately refused to let her go alone after she had offered.

That only left the third Raptor, the one Star Breeze had referred to as the Altostus. The Raptor had crashed into a section of the Friendship City bridge, making exiting the city without wings nearly impossible. Half of the Raptor had been submerged in the radioactive water, but a large chunk of it still protruded from the murky waves.

“Alright, I’ll go first,” Pyre grunted, shifting her position so that she could fit into the hole that led deeper into the wreckage. “I’ll be able to take a few hits if there are any Enclave still alive in there, and if the Raptor decides to sink from my added weight, I want to make sure you two are behind me.”

I nodded, understanding her logic. Slowly, Pyre lowered herself down into the Raptor, dropping into the darkness below us and out of sight. I heard a loud clang as her metal hooves hit the bottom of the floor below. The whole ship creaked as her weight was added to it, but it remained as it was.

“Alright, it’s safe. Mirra, you’re next,” Pyre shouted up. I saw her hooves raise up in the darkness to catch the filly as she dropped in. Mirra instead fluttered her glassy wings and floated down into the hole, not needing either of our help.

I followed after her, feeling the Raptor tilt a little as I squirmed into it. A tight fit, but much easier for me and my small frame than it had been for Pyre and her bulky armour. I landed on the floor of the Raptor, looking around me. It was nearly pitch black down here, with our only light to see by being the strong beam that glowed from the top of Pyre’s helmet. Muffled, but still clearly audible, I could hear the sound of waves crashing against the groaning hull of the Raptor and a loud dripping noise seemed to punctuate every few seconds.

“Alright, down this way,” Pyre said, slowly leading us further into the wreckage. “The talismans should be down by the engine.”

“How do you know so much about the layout of Enclave war ships?” I asked, following after her without complaint.

Pyre glanced back at me. Something about that question bothered her for some reason. “The raiders out in Las Pegasus have a Raptor,” She finally stated, looking around for a second before spotting a hallway and trotting down it.

I gaped at her. “They have a- how the fuck did they get a Raptor?” Mirra nodded eagerly, wanting an answer herself.

Pyre rolled the question around in her head for a second. “That’s a bit of a long story… let me think… Quite a few years back now, nearing on a hundred years ago, so well before my time, there was a big schism up in the clouds between the Enclave and a bunch of pegasi that wanted to go and help the surface world. Over two hundred pegasi self proclaimed themselves as dashites and fled the clouds, looking to come help us poor folk out down here,” she turned, taking another tunnel. “Well, the Wasteland is a shitty and dangerous place, and it was even worse back then. No real settlements, lots more raiders and far more radiation than there is today. Didn’t take long for those self proclaimed dashites to get eaten up and spit back out.”

“They all died?” Mirra asked, her tone sounding both terrified and sad.

Pyre shrugged. “Most of them died, but a lot of them tried to get back up into the clouds, pleading for the Enclave to take them back.”

I grimace. I had seen how the Enclave treated traitors. “I’m guessing that didn’t go over very well with the Enclave.”

“Nope,” Pyre chuckled, though her chuckle lacked mirth. “ The Enclave kicked them back out into the Wasteland. With nowhere else to go, the dashites turned to the one remaining cloud city that wasn’t controlled by pegasi.”

“Las Pegasus?” Mirra asked, though that much had already been obvious to me.

Pyre nodded. “Yup. But the Las Pegasus raiders ain’t like other raiders. Most raiders would just shoot them on site. The Las pegasus raiders had very different plans.”

“They recruit ponies, right?” I asked, trying to remember what little Pyre had told me about the Las Pegasus raiders. “They don’t waste resources.”

Pyre gave me a nod. “The Overboss knew that having a bunch of pegasi working for them would be one hell of an advantage. Las Pegasus is out in the middle of the Neighvada desert. Making crops is hard enough in the wasteland, but in the desert? It’s damn near impossible.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “How does having pegasi help with making crops?”

“Cloud seeding,” Pyre replied simply. “How else do you think the Enclave stays alive above the clouds like they do. Las Pegasus raiders used that to their advantage, monopolized practically all the food sources out in the Neighvada area, but that’s besides the point,” she shook her head, returning herself to the story. “Anyway, in exchange for food and servitude, the raiders gave the dashites a safe place to stay, protection, all that good shit. They turned the M.A.S.E.B.S. Tower out in Las Pegasus into a living space for the pegasi. The tower has become known as dashite city now, though it's only inhabited by the original dashites grandfoals now, no actual dashites. Those pegasi were able to hack through a bunch of cloud terminals the raiders hadn’t been able to get through before, finding a large stockpile of Ministry of Awesome tech.”

“And the Raptor was one of those things?” Mirra questioned. A bit of the floor beneath her crumbled away a little bit, dropping down and clattering into the darkness. Mirra squeaked, jumping into the air and latching onto Pyre’s leg.

Pyre chuckled at her antics, nodded back at her. “Among a lot of other stuff, yeah.”

I gulped. That explained why the Enclave had been heading out to Las pegasus. If they had started the attack on Friendship City just to kill one dashite, I could only imagine what they would do to try and kill a whole city of them. And I doubted they were very happy about a city of deadly raiders having pegasus airships.

My hoof snagged an a broken chunk of the floor, making me stumble. My sudden movement caused the Raptor abruptly lurch to the side. I spread my hooves, trying to keep my balance as the large airship sagged down into the depths of the harbour a little more. Pyre tightened her grip on Mirra, keeping the changeling filly close to her chest. After a second, the teetering wreckage stilled again.

“We should probably find that talisman quickly and get out of here,” I decided, peeking into the ominous darkness around me as the large hull of the Raptor groaned ominously. I didn’t like being stuck down in this Raptor like this.

Pyre gave me a nod of agreement. “Yeah. Come on, it should just be this way.”

She led us down another tunnel, this one now sloping steeply downwards. Bits of water dripped down from the roof and slid from the walls, making the already ruined Raptor have a rather eerie fell. Our hoof steps echoed around us as we crawled forwards, drawing out the continuous sounding drips.

Up ahead, the roof had collapsed down atop the hallway, leaving only a narrow crawl space under all the rubble. Pyre scowled at the hallway. “Fuck. We’ll need to find another way around. The talisman should just be on the other side...”

Mirra shook her head, looking over the small crawl space that was all that remained of the hallway. “I can probably fit through there,” She looked back up, her large blue eyes rolling over me. “Amber too if she squeezed hard enough.”

“I’m not letting you go off into a Raptor without me right now,” Pyre responded gruffly. "It’s not unlikely that there is a survivor or two down there, and if you get stuck and the Raptor starts sinking more then-”

“Too late,” Mirra squealed, darting into the hole.

“Mirra, wait! Damn it…” Pyre grumbled, taking a frantic step towards the small hole Mirra had darted through. She whipped around glaring at me and pointed a hoof at the hole. “Get in there and keep her safe.”

“You seem more protective of Mirra than normal,” I commented, looking her over. “Are you alright?”

Pyre sighed. “She keeps asking for me to be her mom and…”

“...And you don’t want to, I know,” I finished for her, frowning a little. “I could try talking to her about it? I agreed with what she said back at the wagon though, I just want you both to be happy.”

Pyre shook her head, glaring at me. “N-no, it’s not that it's… It’s not that I don’t want to be her mom... It’s that I shouldn’t be her mom. Why doesn’t she see that?” She took a long, deep breath. “Every time she comes to me looking for the answer to that question, it gets harder and harder for me to say no…”

I didn’t fully know how to answer that. I hadn’t expected that from Pyre. I bit my lip, trying to think of what to say. “I can’t make any decisions for either of you,” I finally started. “But maybe… if it's what you both want… maybe it might be the right thing to do?”

Pyre looked away from me, her helmet obscuring any chance I had at seeing what expression she held on her face. “B-but what if I hurt her Amber?” She looked back up at me, and this time, to my surprise, I was able to see tears glinting in her eyes from behind her visor. “What if I kill her!?”

“You won't,” I assured her, placing a hoof across her armoured withers. “I don’t think you’re capable of hurting Mirra.”

“Like I wasn’t capable of killing Heartbeat?” Pyre shot back, pushing my hoof away. Her words punched into me like a blow from a hammer. “Like I wasn’t capable of killing my own mom and dad? Like I wasn’t capable of leading Viscera to us and having her rip Xayahs legs off because of me? Like I wasn’t capable of leading you into a den of raiders to find my dad and having Brisk’s horn get blown the fuck off!”

I took a step back, nodding. “Yeah… uh… like that.”

Pyre just scowled. “What's going to stop this time from being any different? And don’t give me any feel good friendship bullshit. I had your friendship and that didn’t save Heartbeat.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know Pyre. But you’re a good pony, or at least you're trying to be. I guess it’s up to you to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again,” I looked back at the hole Mirra had crawled through. “I’ll go check on Mirra. Keep her safe. You just stay here, think about things. I don’t know what the right answer to your problem is, but I trust you enough to believe that you’ll figure out what is the right thing to do.”

With that, I turned and crawled my way into the tight space after Mirra.

Thankfully, the tight tunnel opened back up into the main hallway fairly quickly. I found Mirra standing in the middle of the hall, poking at some hunk of metal with one of her gnarled hooves. She looked up and smiled as she saw me pulling myself out of the tunnel. “What took you so long, slow poke!”

“Just chatting with Pyre,” I said simply, finally pulling myself free and standing up proper. “You find anything interesting?”

Mirra’s face fell. “You were chatting with Pyre about me, weren’t you?” She asked flatly, ignoring my question entirely. Her question was more of a statement. I winced. Damn, this filly was more perceptive than I gave her credit for.

I nodded slowly, not sure what I should actually tell her. “Just be patient with Pyre. She’ll come around eventually… maybe.”

Mirra shook her head. “She won’t. I already know she won't… I just want to make her happy, and hugs seem to make her happy sometimes. I don’t think ponies hug her enough.”

That just made me feel sad.

I fell in step beside Mirra as we moved further into the wreckage. The hallway was still sloping downward at a dangerous angle, but now the floor was slick with water, making each step a chore. Mirra quickly opted to take to the air and flutter along beside me instead of struggle to keep her balance on the slippery surface.

I unfortunately was not lucky enough to have wings. Wings were so unfair.

A rasping cough echoed up at us from the depth below, bouncing around the seeping, damaged walls of the Raptor. I wish Pyre had managed to come down here with us, I could really have used her power armours headlamp right now.

I lit up my horn, illuminating the area around me. Mirra let out a loud gasp when the Amber light fell on the struggling form of an Enclave pegasus mare that had been crushed below a chunk of collapsed roof. The pegasus was worse for wear, their armour having been badly banged up and a large pool of blood having formed around their broken hooves. A jagged chunk of metal had skewered the pegasus to the floor, the dark metal having stabbed through her chest and seeming to have punctured a few of their organs when it had lanced through them. Their lower half was hidden from us by a large body of murky water that filled up the lower half of the ship.

The pegasus looked up at us as the light of my horn hit them, but was forced to look away as the sudden light blinded them. She tried to look up at us again, squinting. “P-please, help me…” They rasped, their pleading voice trembling. Their lips had turned a pale blue and they were shivering. “P-please…”

Mirra looked up at me, terrified. “A-Amber… C-can we help them?”

Unsure what to do, I quickly trotted over and knelt down next to the dying pegasus, looking over their wounds. I could feel myself grimace. Even if Star was with us, or even Heartbeat for that matter were he still alive, I doubted we would have been able to save the Pegasus. Her wounds were just to sever.

“What’s your name?” I asked the pegasus, trying to sooth them a little.

“C-c-cloud Walk-ker,” They mumbled, their voice coming out in a shaky rasp. “I-I-I tried t-t-to get them to stop attack-k-k-king the city… t-th-they fir-red on us… Celestia w-why would they fire on us…”

I felt a small stab of sorrow go through me. This wasn’t even one of the bad pegasi. They had tried to save the city after they realized what the Enclave was doing. I took a deep breath. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to save you Cloud Walker. But thank you. You saved a lot of ponies by not attacking the city.”

The pegasus smiled up at me, though blood dribbled from her mouth. Her smile turned into a fearful whimper. “I-I-I-I d-don’t want to d-die alone down here…”

I nodded, shifting a little closer and running my hoof through their matted mane. “Just rest your eyes. I’m here for you,” I whispered softly.

The pegasus looked up at me for a long second before nodding and closing her eyes. “O-o-okay… I feel really t-t-tired…” I could feel her body slump a little as she finally let herself drift away.

I looked up at Mirra, my eyes feeling a little wet. I hated death. I didn’t know how I had managed to become so desensitized to it since leaving the Stable. It was horrific.

“I-I want to get out of here Amber…” Mirra whimpered, her eyes locked on the slumped form of the pegasus.

I nodded and gave her a tight hug. “Yeah. Let’s find the talisman and get out of here.”

It took us another twenty minutes or so before we found what we were looking for. The Flight talisman had indeed been by the engine like Pyre suggested, though Mirra had ended up needing to swim to the bottom of a large section of the Raptor that had been flooded with water to reach it.

As soon as she broke the surface, gasping and sputtering, I pulled her back from the water, making sure she drank down a full thing of Radaway. The water in the harbour surrounding Friendship City wasn’t the most irradiated water in the Wasteland, but enough exposure to it could still be rather deadly.

Pyre was relieved to see us finally squirming our way back towards her through the crawl space, and after a few minutes of Pyre lecturing Mirra on not running off, we were making our way back to the surface. I was not in the least bit sad to leave the cursed Raptor wreckage behind me.

“Yup that’s the thing,” Star beamed, plucking the talisman from my magical grasp and beginning to set it into place. “Now you ponies go get some sleep, or party, or whatever it is you do. I’ll need a few more hours to get this damn thing off the ground again. We should be airborne by morning.”

I didn’t like the idea of just waiting around till morning to leave, but with the dock and bridge to Friendship City destroyed and Pyre still seeming to be working out the details of her plan, there wasn’t much else that I could do.

“Are you sure you can fix all this up by yourself?” I asked, looking over the war wagon. It was coming together nicely, but it still had a ways to go. “I could help. I might not be expert with this Enclave tech, but I know my way around machines.”

Star just shook her head. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Tinker already volunteered to help me out and he’s been doing a pretty good job so far,” She waved up at the grease splotch covered colt who was currently sitting on top of the wagon, bolting something down. Tinker waved back, smiling a little. The colt seemed to be a lot happier now that Nova was on the path to recovery.

Finally giving in, I gave Star a small smile and quickly hugged her. She squirmed in my embrace, trying to get free. “Thank you Star. For sticking with us and helping even when you could have just flown away,” I told her, finally pulling away.

Star just blushed and looked away. “Yeah well… I figure I can’t really go back to the Enclave. Chances are I’d just be branded as a dashite for having talked with you ponies again. Assuming they don’t just shoot me dead on the spot,” she sighed, looking over the spot on the broken war wagon she was currently fixing up. “Besides, if all this stuff about Utopia and the Institute and shit is real, then it's in my best interest to help you all out. I’m just kinda fucked no matter what I do.”

I shook my head at her. “Well, even if you feel like you're stuck with us and don’t have a choice in the matter, I’m glad you’re with us. Though I’d like it if you could travel with us as our friend,” I gave her a wide-eyed hopeful look that made her laugh just a little. “I know we didn’t meet on the right hoof, and that every time we show up in your life, bad stuff happens, but I really do hope we can be friends.”

Blushing a little, Star just gave me a sheepish smile. “I uh… yeah, sure. Friends. That’s cool. Yeah… never really had friends before.”

I blinked in surprise at that. “Never?”

Star just scowled. “Yeah. doesn’t matter,” She turned away, suddenly seeming uninterested in the conversation, though I could tell her sudden passiveness was little more than an act. “Go spend time with your old friends. Tinker and I will be here. We’re fine, really.”

Nodding and giving her one more quick hug, I trotted off to join the rest of my friends as they piled back into the ruins of Friendship City. I seemed to be extra huggy today. Maybe I was just happy to see everypony, though I think I was just worried that this was going to be my last time to simply hang out with all of them normally.

“Did you ponies know that the Friendship City bar is still open?” Pyre smirked as I stumbled my way back over to them.

“Right now?” Brisk questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Even after the Enclave blew it up?”

Pyre nickered. “Especially after the Enclave blew it up. It’s times like these that are best for business. Lots of ponies need a place to escape.”

“Shouldn't we be preparing to leave?” Xayah pointed out, her eyes darting to me for a second before returning her gaze to Pyre. “We only have two and a half days until the end of the world after all.”

“We won’t be able to leave the city until tomorrow morning,” I said, finally coming to a stop beside them. “So we have a few hours to spend around the city… or whatever is left of it…” I glanced down at my shotgun, counting out my last six shots. “I know I need to get more ammo.”

Pyre curled an armoured hoof around me. “Oh no! You’re coming with me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drunk, and I need a good drinking buddy!”

I pulled away, my eyes wide. “W-what! I don’t drink. Can’t stand the liquor. It burns going down every time! I don't know why any pony force themselves to endure that!”

Pyre just chuckled coolly. “You just haven’t had the right alcohol. We can find one you like, I’m sure. Come on! I wanna see drunk Amber.”

Xayah watched us in amusement as Pyre begged. “I would not be unopposed to seeing drunk Amber either. I feel like that would be very amusing,” My eyes grew wider at Xayah’s remark. Betrayal!

“Seeeeeee,” Pyre practically purred, prancing on her hooves a little. “Your marefriend says we should go drinking. Brisk, you wanna come?”

Brisk shrugged. “I could use a drink myself, hell yeah.”

I felt my eyes widen even more. “Waitwaitwaitwait! Nononononono!”

But it was too late. I was swept across the ruins of Friendship City, my friends dragging me along and plucking me down in a creaky bar stool in front of a cracked and slanted bar counter. Pyre had been right, the bar was still open, and by the looks of it, it was in full swing. Though the ponies drinking there didn’t seem all that joyous. Most of them clutched at their bottles solemnly, tears streaking their faces as they chugged the burning liquid inside.

I wondered just how many good friends and family all these ponies had lost in the fight against the Enclave. Probably a lot.

“Alright, one whiskey for myself, and something that doesn’t ‘burn going down’ for my pal here,” Pyre instructed the somber bartender, patting me on the back with one of her large hooves. The bartender nodded, taking Brisk and Xayah’s orders as well before trotting away. Pyre quickly shot down Mirra’s curious request when she asked for a drink herself.

“I’m telling you, I don’t drink!” I insisted, my face flushing.

Brisk shook his head, grinning at me. “Come on Amber. It’ll be fun.”

I scowled, but finally relented. “Fine. One drink. But that is all.”

The bartender eventually returned, dropping off our drinks before rushing off to help another pony that had staggered in. I eyed my glass suspiciously, looking at the dark red liquid inside. I raised the glass up a little in my magic, inspecting it from all sides.

“Just drink it Amber. It’s wine, not poison,” Pyre chuckled, pulling off her helmet so that she could start drinking from her own glass. It was nice to see her face for the first time in a while, though she looked really tired and the three bloody gashes Viscera had slashed into her face were still surprisingly puffy, even after all these weeks.

Hesitantly, I raised the glass up and took a sip. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected. Better than Wild Pegasus Whiskey was anyway. I felt it hardly compared to a good ol’ Sparkle~Cola, but I could at the very least tolerate it. Tilting my head back, I downed the drink in one big gulp.

“You haave a prrrretty face,” I slurred at Xayah as she slowly hauled me up the battered and warped staircase. “I wanna kiss it!”

Xayah blushed, but didn’t answer directly. “You are drunk Amber. I think it’s time that you got to bed.”

I groaned, wiggling around on her back a little and trying to get my hooves onto solid ground. Funny, the ground seemed to be swaying live waves. “I don’t wanna gotta beeed,” I complained, planting another kiss on Xayah’s pretty striped neck. Deciding that wasn't enough, I kissed her neck three more times just for good measure. Was she always that pretty? I wanted to kiss her more. “I’ll goooooo to bed if you go to bed with me,” I hiccuped and giggled, nibbling at her ear.

Xayah froze, her face turning beat red. “A-Amber, you are drunk. You need to sleep it off,” She insisted, finally moving again. “I will kiss you once you are not drunk.”

“But I wanna kiss you noooow!” I argued. That just had to convince her. My logic was airtight.

Xayah struggled to haul me into our room and gently place me down on the large bed. She went to move away, but I quickly tried to scramble after her, my hooves reaching to wrap her in a hug. I missed completely and was sent crashing to the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Amber!” Xayah declared worriedly, rushing back and pulling me back into bed.

I nuzzled at her neck, trying to get her to crawl into bed with me. “I wanna cuddle my zebra,” I informed her sternly, giving her my best puppy eyes. “I want to give my beautiful zebra lots and lots of cuddles.”

“You are adorable, but no,” Xayah said flatly, tucking me in under the covers and moving away again. Once more I tried to follow, but she had wrapped me up in the blankets too tightly.

Realizing she had trapped me, I gave her a playful whimper and held out my fore hooves for a hug. “Just a smaaall cuddle!” I insisted.

Xayah rolled her eyes. “I will see you when you wake up Amber. You can kiss and cuddle me as much as you want then.”

I pouted, but that was an exciting idea at least. I finally grinned back at her, at least a little happy with that outcome. “Imma gonna to cuddle you and hug you and love you so much and kiss you everywhere,” I declared proudly, wiggling a little to try and get free, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to get the blankets off of me.

Xayah’s already red face turned even redder. “I um… I look forward to it then. Now go to bed,” She quickly closed the door before I could say anything else.

I giggled to myself as the pretty zebra trotted out of sight and I turned my head to look out the window. “Go to bed? IIIIIII’m not tired,” I agreed to myself, looking out at the sun that was still peeking through the thick cloud layer above. “It’s not even bedtime yet.”

My eyes drifted open and I let out a loud groan. “Why do I feel like I just got hit in the head with a Balefire bomb,” I grumbled, trying to climb out of bed. I found my hooves all tied up in the blankets and promptly fell to the floor, slamming my chin on the ground beneath me. “Ow.”

I felt Xayahs hooves reach down and pull me back up. I glanced up at her, my eyes squinting to try and to adjust to the lights. I quickly realized that the room was actually quite dark, my head just hurt like fuck. The sun had long since set outside the window and the room had been cast into shadow. Celestia damn it, why did my head hurt so much.

“As amusing as all of that was, I believe we need to agree not to let you go drinking with Pyre again,” Xayah said with a chuckle, helping me back up onto the bed.

I gave her a confused look. “I… Drinking with Pyre? I thought I only had a glass?”

Xayah looked both worried and amused. “Perhaps one bottle is more accurate, but I think even that is being generous.”

I tried to blink away the headache, but it didn’t seem to recede at all. “I thought ponies said the fun part was being drunk,” I grumbled, rubbing the side of my head with a hoof. That kind of made me feel better, but not nearly by enough.

Xayah laughed at that a little. “That is the fun part.”

“So alcohol burns going down, you don’t get to remember the fun part and it hurts like fuck when you wake up? Remind me again why ponies drink that stuff.”

“Most ponies try to use a little bit more moderation than you did yesterday,” Xayah giggled, laying me back down onto the bed. “Drink a little less next time and maybe you will get to remember the fun part and the hangover will not be as unbearable,” She bit the bottom of her lip as she looked down on me. “You do not remember anything that happened?”

I furrowed my brow at the question. “I remember gulping back a glass of wine. A lot of fuzzy lights… maybe… Was Brisk wearing an elephant costume at one point?” There was no way that part happened, my mind was probably playing tricks on me. I glanced up at Xayah. “I’m pretty sure you were doing something pretty at some point, but that’s normal.”

Xayah laughed, though I didn’t know if it was at my pretty comment or about Brisk being dressed as an elephant. “You are most adorable when you are drunk Amber,” She cooed. “It is a shame you do not remember everything. You said some very sweet things.”

Damn it, was drunk me smoother and sober me? That probably shouldn’t be a surprise. Sober me is about as smooth as sandpaper.

“I can always say nice things when I’m not drunk,” I huffed defensively. “I remember reading a book back in the Stable that said being drunk doesn’t make you lie, it just makes you more honest. So like, if I said something super smooth or awesome, that was just me normally.”

Xayah raised an eyebrow at my remark. “I am intrigued to hear that you think Brisk should dress up as an elephant more often.”

What the fuck! That wasn’t part of a weird fever dream!? Where would he have even gotten something like that!? I was definitely going to have to ask him about that. “I uh… Maybe I lied about that part… Please tell me I lied about that part. Just forget about the whole being drunk makes you honest thing. It doesn’t apply to elephant suits,” I backtraced quickly, only making Xayah chuckle more. It was good to see her laugh. “How long was I asleep?”

“Seven hours or so. I know you wanted to go buy some ammo for your gun before Pyre roped you into drinking, so I went out and bought some for you. It should be around midnight now,” Xayah replied, glancing out the window and trying to gage the time as best she could. I smiled and gave her a little hug for the comment about my ammo. “Star and Tinker just checked in for the night an hour ago. They’re staying down in the hospital with Nova and Scarlet. She said the wagon is working and ready for us in the morning. Brisk, Mirra and Pyre are sleeping in the other room. Brisk was… just about as drunk as you were.”

“So we got the room to ourselves, huh,” I said, my eyes looking around the wreckage of the room. It had been a fairly nice room when Emissary had first given it to us all those days ago. Not anymore though. The Enclave Raptors had ripped it apart, leaving it as a mess of broken metal and melted walls.

Xayah blushed a little, shuffling slightly closer to me. “Mmhmm, yes. We do indeed have the whole room to ourselves.”

I nodded, unsure why exactly she had decided to repeat that specific fact. I looked back at her. “Why are you still awake by the way? Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep? We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

Xayah gave me a weird smirk that told me I had missed something, but she answered my question anyway. “I was having trouble sleeping. I am worried about the coming days. I think we all are.”

I nodded, understanding that. “Yeah. I think Pyre has some kind of plan though. I don’t know what it is, but I trust her.”

Xayah nodded. “Yes. I have grown to trust her as well. I look forward to hearing what Pyre is going to say in the morning. Until then though, it is just the two of us in here.”

“Mmhmm, until morning,” I agreed sleepily, letting my eyes drift closed. I didn’t know what Pyre’s plans were, but I knew that whatever they were, tomorrow was going to be a long day. I heard Xayah chuckle softly to herself and start to move away from the bed as I began to drift into sleep. Too bad, I would have liked to have cuddled her a bit before going to bed.

My eyes shot open. “Wait, we have the room to ourselves!” I jumped up immediately, wrapping my hooves around her neck in a tight hug as a sudden memory of something I said early returned to my mind. “I, uh… I t-think there’s enough room for us both in my bed,” I stated nervously. “I could um… use a few zebra cuddles?”

Xayah gave me a small kiss on the tip of my muzzle and smirked at me. “For such a smart pony, you are also quite an oblivious little pony sometimes,” She kissed me again, this time on the lips. “Yes. I think your bed will do quite nicely. Mine happens to have been destroyed during the attack anyway.”

I pulled her back into bed with me, wrapping my hooves around her and nuzzling at her cheek. We kissed each other, tracing the outline of the others' faces with our mouths. One of Xayahs rear hooves rose up a little, pressing upwards and finding its way between my hind legs and making an excited “eep” escape from my mouth before I could hold it back.

Instinctively, my eyes darted for the crooked door leading out of the room, my racing mind vividly recalling Brisk and Pyre bursting in during the middle of the last and only other time we had tried to do this. Thinking quickly, I pulled away and darted for the door, seeing Xayah watch me in confused bewilderment as I tugged on the door handle with my magic, making sure it was indeed locked.

Grinning, I spun back around and pranced back over to her, my tail swishing back and forth behind me more than usual. I wiggled back into bed, planting a quick kiss on her still very confused face. “There. No way anypony will barge in on us this time,” I smiled excitedly. I noticed a very specific part of my body was feeling a little wetter than usual.

Xayah just rolled her eyes and smiled. Something told me that I wasn’t going to be betting very much sleep tonight.

“Good morning Amber, have a good sleep?” Brisk nickered as I strode into the ruined remains of the room that Brisk, Mirra and Pyre had slept in. I was surprised to see that Star, Tinker and Scarlet had also gathered in the room. They must have gotten up before me at some point.

I was feeling strangely confident this morning. Like I could take on the entire fucking world. Brisk looked me up and down a few times, his grin never leaving. “Dear Celestia, you’re practically glowing. It was that good?”

My confidence suddenly froze dead in its tracks. “Uhh…. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answer, feeling my cheeks heat up. I glanced around nervously as Xayah slowly trotted into the room behind me, a tray of freshly made cookies atop her head.

Pyre gave a loud, playful sounding snort of amusement. “I hate to break it to you Amber, but the walls here are not soundproof.”

There was a crash as the tray of cookies Xayah had been balancing on her head fell to the floor as her hooves clamped over her mouth in embarrassment. “W-wait… you ponies did not hear…”

Brisk wiggled his eyebrows at us. “We did. You two are very loud.”

Both Xayah and I’s faces were red enough that our original coat colour was no longer recognizable. “Y-you should have knocked a-and t-told us to be quiet!” Xayah whined in protest. “W-we would have quieted down!”

Pyre shook her head. “We were going to, but we figured you two deserved some quality time together… You know, after everything that’s happened recently and all, not to mention everything that's going to be coming at us in the next few days,” Her voice dropped to a very sinister sounding tone. “Course we still get to tease you both mercilessly about it. That’s the trade off.”

“Thats- Wha- I didn’t agree to these terms!” I declared, sitting down next to Scarlet with a huff. Scarlet just laughed.

“Yes you did, they were written in the fine print of the contract you signed with you let me join your group,” Pyre said in a tone that almost sounded serious.

I narrowed my eyes, wrapping my hooves around Xayah as she moved to sit down on the other side of me, the tray of fallen cookies back in her grip. “T-there was no contract.”

Pyre’s faux stoic face cracked with a smirk. “Yes there was. It’s called the, ‘Amber and Xayah have sex we get to mock’ contract,” Mirra just snickered at Pyre’s remark.

Scarlet rolled her eyes and put a hoof over my withers. “Alright, alright. I think that’s enough picking on the two love birds.”

“I agree,” Star snorted, lazily looking over at me. “As much as I’d love to tease Amber and Xayah for that, we have things to deal with. The War Wagon is working, so whenever we’re ready to leave, we can do so.”

I nodded, still trying to hide my blush. I glanced over at Pyre. “Alright, and what about your part of the plan? You ready to let us all in on what we're getting ourselves into?” All eyes turned to Pyre.

Pyre stared at me for a moment, her previous smirk now completely gone. “Uhhh… My plan. Right… yes... “ She took a deep breath and pulled herself up to her hooves. “So uh, as you all know, we need to find a way to fight our way through the Institute... I think that I can get us an army.”

Xayah gave Pyre a wide eyed expression as she started to pass around the tray of cookies. "An army? How?”

Pyre winced at the question, one of her armoured hooves pawing at the ground nervously. “Well, um… Okay, this plan is going to be really hard and it's going to sound crazy, but it’s the only chance we have.”

“Just get on with it,” Star interjected, growling a little. “We only have two days till the end of the world, remember. We’re not getting any younger here.”

Pyre took another deep breath, clearly trying to put on a strong front. “I think I can get the Las Pegasus Raiders to help us.”

There was a round of gasps from around the group. “What!” Scarlet jumped to her hooves and narrowed her eyes at Pyre. “Are you insane!? Do you have any idea who those beasts are!?”

“Yes, better than anypony. I used to be one,” Pyre quipped back, meeting her even gaze. “Look, I know that plan isn’t ideal but-”

“I’m with Scarlet on this one,” Star snapped, jumping up to her hooves herself. “I haven’t been on the surface long, and even I know you don’t fuck with the fucking Las Pegasus gangs!”

“Please, listen. I know that-”

“The Las Pegasus Raiders are the ponies that first took Crank away from me!” Scarlet growled, stomping her hoof aggressively. "I will not work with them. Even if you could make them fight for us, which you can't. It simply isn't possible."

Brisk gave Pyre a perturbed look. “This is a bad idea Pyre. You know how much they hate you. Going anywhere near them is suicide.”

“Wait. If you’d just hear me out-”

“Those monsters deserve to be shot!”

“It’ll never work out!

“We don’t work with raiders!”

“Enough!”

We all turned, making out the large shape of the purple alicorn that had appeared in the doorway. Their horn had been destroyed and they had to grip tightly to the wall for support, but most of their wounds had healed.

“Nova!” Tinker cried happily, rushing over and giving the big alicorn a tight hug. Nova winced, but wrapped a wing around the colt all the same.

I gave the alicorn a smile. “It’s good to see you up.”

She gave me a polite nod before returning her gaze to everypony else. “Perhaps let Pyre explain her plan?”

After a second of silence, Mirra stood up as well and looked to Pyre. "I-I want to hear what Pyre has to say too... If that's okay?"

No pony moved for a long moment, but eventually everypony sat back down and looked to Pyre for her to continue speaking.

Pyre sighed. “Look. I know what this sounds like. This idea is crazy. I know it's crazy. But it’s the only way. We aren’t going to be able to stand up to the Institute by ourselves, and we’ve already ruled out every other faction as either being too weak or not available. Red Eye and the Enclave have everypony up to their neck in problems. We can’t rely on anypony else for help. But the Las Pegasus Raiders have no business with all that shit, and trust me, they are plenty strong enough to take on an army of synths.”

I cocked my head at her a little. “Okay, but how are we supposed to exactly get them to work for us? Last time I checked, they want you dead pretty badly.”

Pyre nodded. “That’s where things get a little bit tricky."

Scarlet gave her a wide eyed glare, her face filled with discomfort. "Oh, that's where things get tricky?" her voice was filled with disbelief at what she was hearing.

Pyre ignored her remark and kept talking. "The Las Pegasus Raiders aren’t just your normal wasteland faction. You can’t just go right to the top and ask the big boss to help you out. You need to make them help you..." She paused, trying to think of the best way to explain everything. "There are three main gangs that run Las Pegasus. Razor Blade’s Disciples, Magazine’s Operators and… well... you all already met Viscera’s Pack. There are other gangs too, like the Shackles, the Flesh Rippers and the Queens, but we only need to focus on the main gangs hopefully. And yes, if the names didn’t give it away, these ain’t your average raider gangs, and they all want control over Las Pegasus. Las Pegasus is only a few small pushes away from an all out bloodbath. If Overboss Jinx wants to keep her raider kingdom, she needs to keep the gangs both in line and from tearing each other apart.”

“How exactly does that help us?” Scarlet scowled, still very clearly not liking the idea. “Aside from meaning there is more than one blood thirsty gang of raiders there that want to wipe us out.”

“If we can convince the gang leaders to help us out, that’ll most likely force Jinx to help us,” Pyre insisted honestly, though she sounded noticeably uncertain. “Some of them will be easier than others. Magazine and her Operators are a little more reasonable than most raiders. Promise them caps and advanced tech and they’ll be onboard. Seeing how we’re storming the Institute, they’re going to want in. Razor Blade is a bit more of a glass cannon. Him and his Disciples just want blood. Convince them it’ll be the fight of their lives and they’ll probably join up… maybe… I’m not sure about them…”

“And what about Viscera?” Mirra asked, trembling just a little at the memory of the psychotic raider.

Pyre hesitated. “I uh… Viscera and her Pack won’t join us. She’ll most likely try and kill us actually. We’re just going to have to hope that the rest of the gangs agreeing to our terms will be enough to sway Overboss Jinx over to our side.”

“This is crazy,” Scarlet said flatly, still glaring at Pyre. “This plan is going to get us all killed,” she took a deep breath. "Look, Pyre... Amber trusts you, so I trust you, but you can't just go knocking on the Las Pegasus Raiders door and expect them not to kill you on the spot. That's just not how it works."

Pyre ignored her and glanced over at me. “Amber, I know this seems impossible. Fuck, it might be impossible. And it scares the shit out of me. But I’ve thought everything through. There is no other way we are winning this.”

I could feel myself hesitate to respond. I understood what she was trying to say. I had seen first hoof just how deadly the Las Pegasus Raiders could be. The massive army they had used to storm the Hollow Shades had been a force to be reckoned with, and that had only been a small taster. Who knew how powerful the gang could really be in full force.

But to work with raiders? To try and get a raider gang that had done nothing but try and kill us for almost a month to join us in battle? It really did seem impossible.

"We aren't raiders, Pyre," I told her sceptically. Brisk's ears perked up a little as I repeated what I had told him so long ago.

"And I'm not asking you to be raiders," Pyre retorted, taking a step away from us. "But right now we need to fight through an entire army to get to the Utopia program. We need an army, and they're the only ones we're going to be able to get. Please Amber, you need to trust me on this."

“I… Pyre, this plan… I don’t know if…” stammered, trying to figure out the right thing to do. Why did my friends always seem to put these kinds of choices on me? “Your plan is risky and asking a lot… and with only two days to do it…”

“A-Amber… I… I think this is something that I need to do,” Pyre said slowly, taking a small step forward. “Please… I don’t want to do this without my friends…”

I took a long, deep breath. “You have to know how insane this whole thing is, right?” I looked her over, weighing my options. “But I trust you Pyre. If you say this is the only way, then it’s what we’ll do,” I paused, thinking her words over carefully. “But there’s more to this plan than just beating the Institute, isn’t there?”

Pyre looked down at her hooves, her whole body seeming to tremble. “Amber, I’m trying to be a better pony. You’ve helped me do that a lot. All of you have. But being a better pony means more than just not doing bad. It means doing good too. This is how I want to do good. The Las Pegasus raiders have been a scourge on the wasteland for far to long… They need to be stopped, just as much as the Institute...” She looked back up, her pleading eyes locking with mine. “I want to try and reform the Las Pegasus Raiders, Amber. I want to try and reform all of them…”

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

This was quite the unique chapter to write. It was very strange writing a pre written scene from another ponies perspective. Also, yay! Pyre's back. I missed her.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat