“They returned with tales of a city untouched by the warheads that had scorched the rest of the world and a Great Wall spanning the Colorado River...”

Pyre.

Pyre Blaze didn’t particularly want to get up. Her bed was comfy. Nice and warm. Not like the pouring rain outside the ramshackle hut her and her raider gang had set up. And Viscera’s warm hooves wrapped around her body like they were felt really nice too. She wanted to just stay there all day, enjoying her embrace.

Of course, she knew that wasn’t going to be an option though. Today was the day that everything was going to change.

Groaning, Pyre opened her eyes and started to pull herself out of bed. She only got half way up before Viscera moaned in protest and tried to pull her back into the bed, her cream coloured face nuzzling at Pyre’s side as she tried to keep Pyre in bed with her.

“Just a few more minutes,” Viscera whined, pulling Pyre down a little more.

Pyre frowned, looking back at the cute raider. “They’re going to be here in a few minutes. We should get up soon.”

Viscera just rolled her eyes and groaned. “Come oooon. I want to spend a little more time with you before they arrive, Blazy.”

Sighing, Pyre lay back down beside her, wrapping her own hooves back around Viscera’s slightly smaller body. Viscera practically purred with pleasure at the touch and leaned in, nuzzling at Pyre’s chest before planting a sloppy kiss on her neck.

“You know…” Viscera started, cracking open an eye and looking up at Pyre. “We could always have a little fun before they arrive,” one of her hooves reached down, stroking at a particularly sensitive spot between Pyre’s legs.

“I don’t think we exactly have a lot of time,” Pyre smirked back. “Hate to be all sweaty when they get here. Bad first impression.”

Viscera snickered, cuddling a little closer. She rolled up on top of Pyre, straddling her and resting atop her chest. She fluttered her brilliant blue eyes seductively. “I don’t know... Getting to rut my tight ass might make you look like a big shot to them. Show them who's really in charge around here. You know just as much as I do that most the raiders around here are looking for an excuse to get under my tail.”

Pyre grimaced, recalling the last time a raider had tried to flirt with Viscera. “I know Caltrops did.”

Viscera gave Pyre’s ear a little nibble. Her unnaturally sharpened fangs caused Pyre a little more pain than she would have liked and she squirmed to be free of the bite. “Exactly. Caltrops thought he could have his way with me. That’s why he's dead now. But you… why don’t you show these raiders who my body really belongs to?”

Viscera pulled herself away from Pyre, turning around and flipping up her tail to give Pyre a view of the goods she had previously been hiding beneath. Pyre had to admit, the offer was tempting.

A knock on the door drew both of their attentions away from each other. “They’re here,” Skull Crusher called out to them, his deep, rumbling voice slightly muffled by the door.

Viscera growled. “Ugh… tell them I’m busy Skully. We’ll be out in a second. I’m in heat and I need my fucking morning rut.”

There was a second of silence before Skull Crusher responded. “First of all, I told you not to call me that you bitch. Second of all, they want you out here now. They don’t seem to be asking.”

Sighing and letting her tail drop back into a neutral position, Viscera pranced over to the door, her rump wiggling at Pyre as she went. She flung open the door, glaring at the ponies on the other side.

Skull Crusher stood there, his large sledgehammer slung across his back. But he wasn’t alone. Four raider ponies stood on either side of him, each one dressed in a mix of heavy metal armour and combat barding. All four raiders held deadly looking assault carbines, the lethal gun barrels aimed at all of their heads.

“Sorry to interrupt your fuck time,” One of the raiders smirked, their eyes darting from Viscera to Pyre who was only now getting up from the bed. “But the boss will see you know.”

Slipping on her twin flamers and following them out, Pyre and Viscera made their way out into the rain. Skull Crusher gave them both nervous looks, but followed after the four raiders as well.

Pyre’s eyes widened with surprise as she looked out upon the scene outside. Her raider gang, the Manehattan Scourge, one of the most feared gangs in all of Equestria, was currently surrounded. Her raiders had been stripped of their weapons and corralled into a tight clump, surrounded by a much larger group of raiders, all clad in better armour and wielding far superior firepower.

A tall raider earth pony buck, seemingly the leader, stepped towards them as they approached. He was dressed in dark grey combat armour and to Pyre’s surprise, all four of his hooves had been replaced with cybernetic ones.

“You three are the leaders of the Manehattan Scourge, yes?” The cybernetic raider asked, his voice cold and calculating, demanding an immediate answer from them.

Viscera stepped forwards, bowing slightly to the cyborg. “We are. My name is Viscera. The two behind me are Pyre Blaze and Skull Crusher,” She winked at Pyre before looking back up at the cyber pony, a strange twinkle of excitement in her eye. “I’m guessing you are the representative sent by the Las Pegasus Raiders?”

The cyborg raider gave a nod. “I am. My name is Tripwire. Current leader of the Las Pegasus Operators,” He leaned down, looking Viscera over closely. “You are lucky that Jinx is so interested in your gang. Normally I would never consider showing up myself.”

“We are very honoured that you would bestow your presence upon us,” Viscera sucked up, giving the cyber pony a toothy smile.

Tripwire just grunted and rolled his eyes. “Don’t try to flatter me. I am less lenient than Jinx is,” He turned, looking over the group of raiders that his Operators currently had at gunpoint. “This is your gang? I am disappointed. I had expected more from the great Manehattan Scourge.”

This time it was Skull Crusher's turn to speak up. He stepped forwards, addressing the large cyber pony. “I assure you that they can be quite the force when-”

“Do not interrupt me!” Tripwire hissed, whipping around and glaring Skull Crusher down. Skull Crusher took a nervous step back under the cyborg's intense glare. After a moment, Tripwire cracked a smile. “You have quite a few mares in your gang. I’m sure the Shackles will pay me a nice price for them. And you three seem quite capable, I’m sure you’ll fit in well with the Las Pegasus gangs. The rest however…” He trailed off, letting that linger.

Pyre nervously took a step forward. Tripwire’s intense eyes flickered over to her, prompting her to hesitate. “S-so you will let us join up with the Las Pegasus Raiders then?”

Tripwire shrugged. “You three will. But I need a test of loyalty first... “ He paused, gesting for one of the raiders beside him to step forward. The raider in question quickly stepped towards them and presented Viscera with a viscous looking set of Hellhound hoof claws. “I need you to prove to me you have what it takes. Kill your old gang. Then we’ll talk.”

Viscera looked down at the Hellhound claws as she strapped them onto her hooves. Her eyes seem to sparkle with a strange intensity as she looked over the deadly bone blades. They were free of blood at the moment, unused. She was soon to rectify that.

Pyre took a step towards Viscera, a worried look across her face. “Viscera… we can’t just kill-”

Viscera cut her off by planting a quick kiss on her lips. “You know this is the only way Pyre… We need to do this… I love you… we’ll be safe with the Las Pegasus gang. Please, Pyre, for me...”

Visceras words cemented Pyre’s decision. Slowly, Pyre turned and faced the raider gang that she had been living with for the past few years. Her friends. Her family. She had done this all before, back when she was a slave. It would be no different this time.

Flames flickered to life on the ends of her flamers. Her gang began to scream, begging for mercy and trying to run away. But it was too late for them. They would burn. Just like all her other friends.

Together, Skull Crusher, Viscera and Pyre Blaze descended upon their old gang and one by one, ripped them apart.

“Pyre, are you alright?” My words seemed to snap Pyre out of whatever troubled thoughts she had been having.

“I uh… yeah. Yeah I’m okay. Are we there?” Pyre asked, looking a little confused as she tried to shake the memory from her head.

I shook my head, sitting down next to her. “We should be there in a bit, but no. We aren’t there yet.”

This morning had been a bit of a rush. Shortly after Pyre had explained her plan to recruit the Las Pegasus raiders, we had hooked Star up to our war wagon and taken off. We had opted to join up with the Las Pegasus raiders first, and then attack the Enclave weapons convoy once we had more ponies backing us up. We had a lot of ground to cover before we actually reached Las Pegasus, so we wanted to make sure we left as soon as possible.

Nova had been in no condition to travel. She had insisted on traveling with us, but I had quickly refused. I was already worried about all of us dying as it was. I didn’t want to need to worry about her safety too, especially since there was a good chance we were going to run into Viscera.

I was really, really not looking forward to seeing that psychotic raider again. Hopefully she had died of her wounds back at the MWT hub, but I doubted I was that lucky.

Tinker, to no ponies surprise, had stayed behind as well to look after the wounded alicorn. He had grown rather close to Nova since the death of the Courser that had killed his mother. I really hoped the two of them could find some sort of happiness together once all of this madness was over. Though, even if he hadn't offered to stay behind, I would have made him stay in Friendship City anyway. There was no way in hell I was dragging that colt into a massive city of raiders.

The final pony that had stayed behind was Scarlet. I had told her to look after Tinker while we were gone. Not that I didn’t trust Nova, but the large alicorn was in no shape to be protecting anypony while in her state. It took a fair amount of convincing, but Scarlet had finally agreed after I insisted that somepony also needed to stay behind and help the ponies of Friendship City. They had a lot of healing to do after the fight with the Enclave, and until the Applejack Rangers could get to the island and help them out, they were going to need as much support as they could get.

“Alright, I’ll stay,” Scarlet had finally told me, shortly before we boarded the war wagon. “But I need you to come get me before you attack the Institute. I need to be there for that… for Crank…” There was little else I could do but agree with her.

The trip out to the Neighvada had been shorter than I had expected. Had we tried to get there by hoof, it might have taken a few weeks, but the war wagon was no joke, and after only an hour or so, we were flying over the vast expanse of the Neighvada desert.

Pyre had been shockingly quiet on the trip. I didn’t doubt she was thinking about the confrontation that was awaiting her when we arrived. She had sat herself down by one of the wagon windows, staring down at the endless dunes of radioactive sand as we whipped by above.

“Soooo,” I started, trying to think of the best way to start up a conversation with Pyre. “What should we expect to run into in Las Pegasus? Are we going to need to fight our whole way through the city ooor-” I let that hang in the air while Pyre thought it over.

“Fight the city? No,” Pyre grunted, her eyes returning to the desert below. “Don’t think of Las Pegasus as a giant raider camp. It’s much more complex and nuance than that. It’s run by raiders, sure, but most of the ponies there aren’t raiders. Most are good folk in fact.”

That caught me by surprise. “Wait, it's not entirely raiders there?” Since when did raiders share territory with other ponies?

Pyre shook her head. “The city is split up into four parts, as you’ll soon see for yourself. There’s the main part, the cloud city of Las Pegasus itself, also known as the Strip. Back before the war, the strip was a collection of hotels and casinos, now they serve as bases for the three main gangs that run Las Pegasus. That area is pretty much off limits to anypony that doesn’t have direct permission from the gangs or an invitation from Overboss Jinx. Then there’s the slum city of Freeside located directly under Las Pegasus, an old pre war city that still stands, relatively speaking. It’s a lot like most settlements you’d find out in the wasteland, just a fuck of a lot bigger and run by smaller raider gangs that are always trying to suck up to the bigger ones upstairs.”

“And the other two parts?” I asked. I hadn’t realized Las Pegasus was more than just a big raider camp. To find out it was an entire pre war city turned settlement was both amazing and horrifying.

“Freeside is surrounded by a massive wall. Some of the raider gangs don’t like having just anypony walking all over them, so a lot of ponies get turned away at the gate. Doesn’t stop ponies from trying though. Over the years, a large community now known as Tent Town was built around the exterior of the city. The ponies there are generally pretty friendly, but I wouldn’t recommend staying around there unless you want to get a disease,” Pyre explained matter of factly. “The final part of Las Pegasus is Dashite city. The place I told you about back at the Raptor. That part of the city is housed in the massive S.P.P. Tower in the middle of the Las Pegasus Strip. It’s currently the largest non-Enclave Pegasus city in the wasteland.”

I furrowed my brows as I tried to connect everything. “So the raiders don’t just kill everypony on site. I guess having more ponies that work for them benefits them a lot right?”

Pyre gave a nod of agreement. “Free labor. Keeps the cogs turning and the caps coming. Keeping a whole city the size of Las Pegasus functioning takes work, and Raiders aren’t big fans of manual labour. The fact that most ponies come crawling into the city by choice makes things easier too. Willing workers are more productive than slaves and less likely to stab you in the back.”

“Right… but then, why do ponies want to get into the city?” I asked, that specific part still not registering for me. “If they know the city is controlled by raiders, why not go live elsewhere?”

Pyre chuckled at that. It was not a happy laugh. “Go elsewhere? This aint Manehattan Amber. They don’t have a Friendship City or Tenpony tower out here to turn to. There are a few settlements sure, but they usually aren’t much bigger than a small shack and some dirty mattresses. Do you remember what I told you about cloud seeding yesterday?”

I wracked my brain as I tried to remember. “Uh… Pegasi can make food in the clouds… and that's good for the raiders cause it’s hard to make crops in the desert?” I wasn’t sure if that was exactly what she had told me, but deductive reasoning made that answer seem pretty logical.

“Exactly,” Pyre nodded. “It’s hard to make food out here, and there is practically no water. Since the Las Pegasus gangs have their pegasus serfs in Dashite city and a little bit of control of the surrounding weather, they put a pretty large monopoly on food and water all across Neighvada. If you want a roof to sleep under and the guarantee of food and water then you come here. Otherwise you starve.”

“And no other settlements out here have been able to get food or water?” I wondered, my eyebrows shooting up at her statement.

Pyre gave a sad shake of her head. “Like I said, settlements out here aren’t exactly very prosperous. And those that are usually get wiped off the map pretty quickly once the Las Pegasus Gangs find out about them. There have been a few towns that have popped up over the years, trying to bring water and food to the ponies of the Neighvada, but Jinx always makes sure they stay down.”

I scowled. “We’ll need to find a way to stop them,” The idea that the Las Pegasus raiders were loitering food and water over everyponies heads was a terrible one.

“Not today we won't,” Pyre monotoned ominously. “That's not the kind of thing you can just do overnight. Unless you plan on killing every last raider, which you won’t be able to do, I assure you, fixing the shit out here would take years of work. And right now, we need the raiders help, so let's not poke the hornet's nest and piss ‘em off.”

I grumbled at that, but she was right. Even if I could fix the problems out here, stopping Pureblood from launching the Utopia Program came first. Saving the ponies of Neighvada wouldn’t do much good if Pureblood managed to enslave all of their minds.

“What can you tell me about the Las Pegasus gangs,” I decided to push. “Seeing how we are probably going to be dealing with them a lot, I figure I should know what I can about them.”

Pyre nodded thoughtfully at that. “Well, as you know, there are three main gangs that run the show and three smaller ones that hold varying amounts of control over the city of Freeside. All of them work under the Overboss Jinx. Razor Blade is Jinx’s second, leader of the Disciples gang. They’re what you’d expect a raider gang to be. They like blood, violence and have a personal affinity for knives. Then they’re the Operators, run by a mare named Magazine. They’re more like mercenaries than raiders really, like what might happen if you crossed the Talons with the Steel Rangers. Give them caps and a supply of high tech gadgets and they’re happy.”

“And the third main gang is Viscera’s Pack, right?” I asked, recalling the horrifying group of hellhounds that had tortured us in the MWT building back in Manehattan.

“That’s them,” Pyre growled with a wince. “They’re… well, they’re crazy. Bat shit insane. They aren’t all Hellhounds, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous. You get on their bad side and they’ll rip to limb for limb and feed you to a pack of wild hounds.”

I grimaced. I really didn’t want to need to deal with them. “And the other gangs?”

“The Queens, the Shackles and the Flesh Rippers,” Pyre answered with a roll of her eyes, her tone suggesting she had little care for these gangs. “Smaller gangs vying for control over Freeside. The Queens are a bunch of pre war ghouls trying to imitate the old world monarchy. They act all nice and aren’t as bad as the other gangs, but don’t let that fool you. Fall for their charms and they’ll stab you in the back. The Flesh Rippers are pretty much what you’d expect from a gang of that name. Barbaric cannibals with an affinity for ripping out ponies hearts and eating them while the pony is still alive. Grizzly shit. And finally there are the Shackles, a bunch of renegade Red Eye slavers that wanted to start up their own empire and turned raider. Don’t want a bomb collar around your neck? Don’t deal with them.”

I nodded thoughtfully, thinking all of that over. But there was still one thing I wanted to know about. “And Overboss Jinx? What can you tell me about her?” I asked. I had heard Pyre mention the mythic Overboss quite a few times over our travels. Her name seemed to carry a lot of weight.

I saw the edges of Pyre’s mouth twist up into a grin behind her visor. “She’s the single toughest raider in the wasteland. There are a few raiders out there that like to lay claim to that title, but Jinx has them all beat, I assure you,” She seemed to grin at me a little longer before turning away with a shrug. “I’ll let you meet her first before telling you the juicy stuff. I’d hate to ruin the surprise.”

I gave her an exasperated roll of my eyes and I went to move away. Pyre’s smirk faded as she watched me get up and she put a hoof out to stop me. “Oh, uh… Amber. One last thing…”

Slowly, I sat back down, curious. “Yeah?”

Pyre clearly hesitated for a second, her eyes darting back and forth behind her visor. “When we get there… If we need to kill Viscera I… I just wanted you to know that she wasn’t always like she is now… She was always a little fucked in the head, sure, but she used to be different…” Pyre looked down at her hooves, unable to look at me anymore. “I-I just though I should tell you that…”

I looked her over with concern. “What was she like before…” I couldn’t imagine Viscera as anything but the insane, bloodthirsty killer I had met.

Pyre scuffed her hoof across the floor of the war wagon hesitantly. “She was… nice, uh… nicer… Emotional, I guess is the word I'd use for her. She didn’t use to like killing… she just didn’t see another way.”

It was hard to picture Viscera as anything but psychotic, but I was curious and took the bait. “What changed?”

Pyre just shook her head sadly. “She got addicted to it. Killing, that is. It used to scare her. I remembered she used to cry herself to sleep every night, telling me the names of everypony she killed. But she was convinced that what she was doing was the only way to deal with the wasteland. Only way to beat it. I used to think that too… before I met you that is. I told her to try not to think about it; even enjoy it if she could. I just wanted her to be happy. Lying to herself and trying to enjoy what she did made it a lot easier for her, but she started to enjoy it too much…” Pyre trembled and I could tell some vivid memory was playing out in her head. “When we finally joined up with the Las Pegasus Raiders, she was already starting to lose it. I saw her changing, I knew she was fucking herself up, but I just… I didn’t do anything about it… Didn’t think about it… I figured she was just going through some shit. Life as a raider does that to you… I should have saved her…”

I was silent for a second, rolling that around in my head. “D-did you… love her?” The question came out of my mouth before I could think to hold it back. From Pyre’s flinch, I figured I probably shouldn’t have said that. Too late now though.

“I, uh… Viscera and I are complicated…” Pyre eventually admitted. “We were something once… I think she loved me, a long time ago in her own twisted way… That might be why she hates me so much now… I don’t know if I ever really loved her back. There were days I felt like we could have been more, but… we were something…” She growled at herself and turned away again, looking back out the window and at the desert landscape below. “Ugh, this is hard to talk about... Need a bit to think.”

I gave a grim nod and pulled myself back up, understanding that Pyre wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore. I looked around the war wagon, making out the rest of my friends. Mirra had curled up next to Xayah and the two had quickly fallen asleep. It was good to see that the two of them were able to get some rest before we dealt with whatever was waiting for us in Las Pegasus. I knew Xayah must have still been fairly tired from our ‘activities’ the night before, and Mirra hadn't seemed to be sleeping well the last few days.

Trotting over to the front of the war wagon, I sat down next to Brisk who was looking out the front of the wagon with a dreamy look on his face. “What are you looking at?” I asked curiously when he failed to notice I sat down beside him.

Brisk jumped in surprise, having somehow not noticed me approach. “I uh… nothing,” He quickly covered, his face turning a bright red.

Narrowing my eyes a little, I glanced back out the front of the wagon, trying to spot what had caught his attention. There wasn’t much to look at beyond sand, dust and the occasional ruined building. Most of the view was even obscured by Star’s rump as the small pegasus pulled the war wagon along.

I paused, that last fact making me suddenly realize that Brisk probably hadn’t even been looking at the landscape, but rather the pegasus mare that was pulling us. I glanced back at him with a smirk. “Her eyes are up there,” I grinned at him, gesturing to Star’s head with my hoof.

Brisk’s face went even more red. “I-I... t-that wasn’t what I was… I, uh… S-star just happened to be t-there!”

“Sorry, did somepony say something about me?” Star asked back, craning her neck to look back at us.

“N-n-no!” Brisk assured her, stammering. I was practically rolling on my back with laughter at this point. Brisk gave me a grumpy look. “I’m going to get you for this.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “No you won’t.”

Star gave a small groan. “Well, whatever you ponies are talking about, wrap it up quick. We’re almost there.”

I bolted up in surprise at that. We were almost there? But I hadn’t seen anything when I looked out the window? I looked out again, this time able to see past where Star had been to a spot on the horizon as we swerved slightly in the air.

What I saw took my breath away.

The loud thumps of metal hoofsteps accompanied Pyre as she trotted up to look out the front of the wagon with us. “Welcome to Las Pegasus. Wasteland’s raider capital of vice and debauchery.”

Las Pegasus was a lot like how Pyre had described. A glowing city of lights rested atop a massive low hanging cloud. From what I could see, the Las Pegasus Strip was a collection of neon sign covered hotels and casinos, each intermixed with bars and carnival rides. A massive ferris wheel and the twisting ruins of a rollercoaster cluttered the city's streets and I could see what appeared to be a looming pyramid made of glass towering over most of the structures on the far side of the city. A massive white spire protruded from the centre of the cloud city, reaching up into the sky and disappearing beyond the even higher clouds above.

Massive platforms had been built out from the hovering cloud city, each one supporting a massive looking gun that slowly panned the area above and below. I gulped as I realized each gun must have been roughly the size of our war wagon, if not a little bigger. They might not have been as big as the gun on top of Fort Strong, but there were lots of them, and these gargantuan weapons were functional.

Below the cloud city of Las Pegasus sat Freeside, a sprawling collection of looming skyscrapers and suburbias that had been patched back together with old slabs of wood and rusting metal. Creaking bridges connected the towering structures together and the streets below were lined with flickering fire barrels, each one causing dark black clouds of smoke to rise above the city. A spotted a few hot air balloons, these ones not all that different from the Pinkie balloons back in Fillydelphia, rising up from Freeside and slowly making their way up into Las Pegasus proper.

As Pyre had suggested, a large wall constructed from toppled buildings, brick and scrap metal had been built around the massive city of Freeside. Outside the city limits were crowds of hundreds of ponies, huddling together as they waited to enter the city. Hundreds, if not thousands of tents had been pitched around the borders of Freeside, giving me a good idea why the area had become known as Tent City. It was practically as big as the city inside was.

We were also not the only ones to have arrived at Las Pegasus.

Five hulking Enclave Raptors floated just beyond the outer cities limits, their weapons glowing dangerously and aimed at a few of the cities massive defenses that had locked in on them. Scores of pegasi swarmed around the five Raptors and I could spot at least twenty war wagons among them.

Star groaned. “Good knews, we’re here. Bad news, so is the Enclave.”

“Why aren’t they entering or attacking the city?” Brisk asked, looking out at the five massive Raptors. “They’re just sitting there.”

“Because of the city's defenses,” Pyre told him, pointing out the massive guns that surrounded Las Pegasus. “Las Pegasus is equipped with over a hundred anti-dragon canons. Most of them went offline after the war, and only about thirty remain functional, but that doesn’t matter. Even only a few hits from those things will down a Raptor.”

“Seems like way too risky of a mission then,” I noted, my own eyes still fixated on the floating city. “Why risk so much on a couple of Dashites?”

Star scoffed. “You were there for the battle of Friendship City. You know first hoof what they’d do to kill only one Dashite. Las Pegasus has a whole fucking city of them…” She paused, thinking that over. “Or at least, a whole city of their grandchildren anyway.”

Pyre pointed down to a spot on the ground below us. “Star, land there. We aren’t going to be able to fly any further than this point. Enclave would shoot us down and the city's defences would shoot us down if the Enclave didn’t.”

Nodding, Star angled down and began bridging us in for a landing. I crawled over to where Xayah and Mirra were sleeping and gently shook them awake. “We’re here,” I told them as they groggily blinked up at me. “And we have trouble…”

On the bright side, it wasn’t that long of a walk from where Star landed to the entrance of Tent City. The downside of course was that the desert was hot as fuck. We only walked for about ten minutes, and I was already soaked with sweat. My mouth was dry and I was desperately craving some water.

I suddenly had a very strong understanding of why so many ponies out in the Neighvada desert came to Las Pegasus despite the raider occupation. Water was incredibly valuable out here, and it was even more rare.

The only one of us that didn’t seem to be dead on their hooves by the time we reached Tent city was Mirra who had happily rode atop Pyre’s back the whole way there. Pyre herself seemed relatively okay, but she’d still give off the occasional exhausted grunt from within their armour.

“Welcome to Tent City, everypony is welcome!” A grimy coated buck shouted at us from atop a pile of collapsed cardboard boxes, flashing his rotting smile our way. “You must be tired! Come get some nice, fresh water!”

I turned to go to him, only for Pyre to quickly grab onto me and force me to turn away. “Not here Amber. We’ll get water once we’re in Freeside. The water here will probably cause severe radiation poisoning just by looking at it.”

“But water…” I groaned, though I decided to take her advice and keep moving towards the thick wall surrounding Freeside in the distance.

Tent City was a mess. Tents had been haphazard pitched everywhere with seemingly no sense of order or planning, making the whole city seem more like a labyrinth of ripped fabric and ramshackle huts than any sort of functioning city. Filth coated ponies staggered between the tents, many of them clearly inebriated or hopped up on chems. Empty needles, chem packages and condemns littered the ground, forcing me to trod forward with extreme caution. The last thing I wanted was for a rusting needle to stab up into my hoof.

I grimaced as we passed two ponies openly rutting in a clearing, surrounded by empty Dash inhalers. A few ponies watched them from the sidelines with blank expressions on their faces, most of them still holding half empty needles into their hooves.

“I do not like this place,” Xayah murmured, her eyes lingering on the rutting ponies for only a second before she forced her gaze away with a huff.

“At last, something we agree on,” Star nodded back, her own eyes simply staring forwards as she tried to zone out the area around her. “It’s places like this that make me think the Enclave has the right idea still.”

Pyre gave us a grimace. “The ponies here aren’t that bad. Most of them are pretty friendly actually. They’re just in a tough place…”

“Is there any way to help them?” I asked, my eyes landed on a buck that seemed to have died slumped against the side of a broken down trailer in a puddle of his own vomit. I couldn’t tell if he had died from hunger, thirst, or chem overdose. Perhaps it had been a mix of all three.

“It won’t be easy,” Pyre informed me. “There might be enough room inside of Freeside for all of them, but that would put the Las Pegasus raiders in a tight spot. This many ponies living within the city walls could threaten their hold on the city, and they aren’t going to take kindly to that. You were surprised that the raiders here didn’t just kill ponies on sight like most raider gangs? Well that is just asking for them to start acting that way.”

As we walked through the crowded ‘streets’ of Tent City, I spotted three pegasus ponies in Enclave armour staring down a crowd of particularly angry, drugged up looking earth ponies. One of the Enclave troopers scowled, stomping their hoof down violently. “We demand entrance into Freeside! You will take us to the leader of this town! Now! Obey!”

“We don’t have a leader! Go fuck yourself!” one of the earth ponies shouted, meeting the Enclave’s even stares. “We don’t want your kind around here! Go back to the clouds where you belong!” He threw a mutated looking blob that looked like it was supposed to be a tomato. The warped fruit splattered against the visor of the Enclave troopers helmet and slid down, plopping onto the ground by their hooves.

With a snarl, the Enclave’s energy weapons glowed and fired, slashing out and striking down the pony that had dared to throw something at them. With a scream of pain, the pony fell to the ground, bleeding from a terrible burning hole in his chest, the left side of his body dissolving into a pile of glittering ash. The rest of the ponies quickly scattered, screaming.

“Looks like the Enclave are trying to get into the city by hoof,” Star grumbled, hiding behind Pyre’s large bulk as we quickly trotted past the seething group of pegasi. “I give them a few hours before they find a way to get past the city's defences.”

“Might they try and do something like they did at Friendship City or whatever?” Brisk asked, his eyes glancing at the Enclave troopers for a second before letting them drift up to look at the looming Raptors above. “Get a spy on the inside to disable the defences and clear the way?”

Star though about that for a second. “Very likely. They’ll have to find somepony on the inside to do it though.”

“They’ll likely get in contact with the Operators,” Pyre nodded, looking up at the looming cloud city in the distance. “Send enough caps their way and they’ll drop the defences.”

I thought that over as we approached the massive gate into Freeside. Three ponies stood guard in front of the gate, each one dressed in very different looking raider garb. Up above on the wall, I saw at least ten more fully armed raiders patrolling the area, their deadly looking weapons sweeping the area for threats.

“Please! You need to let me in!” A scruffy, dust covered stallion pleaded, kneeling down before the three raiders at the gate. “I-I can’t take it out here anymore! I-I need water, please!”

The raider in the middle, a blood soaked buck with sharpened fangs and metal plates welded to his hide, sneered down at the stallion. “You know the deal. You give us somethin’ we want, then we’ll let you in.”

“I-I don’t have anything!” The stallion continued to beg, pressing his hooves together pleadingly “Please, just let me in!”

Blam!

The stallion dropped dead, a bullet from the raider off to the right lodging itself in his forehead. Blood sprayed out from the back of his head as he hit the ground with a thud. The raider mare that had shot him, a ghoul raider in a red sequin dress, snickered as she lowered her smoking revolver.

Both Xayah and Mirra whimpered as they watched the stallion fall dead.

“Fuck. I was hopin’ to sell him,” The raider to the left grumbled at the dolled up raider. This raider was dressed in black leather barding that was covered in dangling chains.

“He didn’t have anything for me. Now he’s dead,” The dress wearing raider smirked. “Besides, now Slit Throat can have a little snack and quit annoying us with his constant complaints about being hungry,” As if to prove her point, the first raider that had spoken got to work, crouching over the dropped body and starting to chow down on the ponies flesh.

I felt bile rise in my throat as I watched the cannibal raider rip out the ponies heart and start gnawing on it. I had half a mind to shoot all three of them dead right then and there, but something told me that wouldn’t turn out very well for any of us. Not with the collection of raiders on the wall above that had all turned their snipers to face us as we approached.

The decaying raider mare looked up at us as we drew closer, her smug expression turning to that of surprise as her violet eyes landed on Pyre’s hotrod power armour. “P-pyre…?”

There was a loud collection of clicks as all three raiders suddenly drew their weapons and pointed them at us. “You got a lot of nerve showing up here you bitch,” The chain bearing slaver scowled, taking a daring step towards us with a large assault rifle held up in his magic. “You know how many caps Jinx has on your fuckin’ head?”

The blood covered raider snickered, drawing a knife and pointing the blade at Pyre’s neck. “You must taste good if you cost that many caps.”

My friends and I quickly crouched down into a battle stance. My magic wrapped around Braeburn’s Liberator and whipped it out, the built in targeting talismans locking in on the three raider guards. Pyre however, stood her ground, unmoving.

“We are here to see the Las Pegasus Raiders up in the Strip,” Pyre rumbled, her voice leaving no room for debate. “You will let us through the gate.”

The bloody cannibal raider, Slit Throat, bared his sharpened fangs. “Oh yeah? And why should we do that? Why not just slice you open and deliver your head on pike to the Overboss?”

“Because we have a deal for Jinx that she’s going to want to hear,” Pyre soothed back. “The last thing you’re going to want is to be the one to get between her and us.”

The mare in the red dress smirked. “Nice try, but I think I’d much rather have the ten thousand caps she promised instead.”

Pyre gave a long, exasperated sigh. “Fine. The caps are yours, here,” she reached into her saddlebags, wrapping her hooves around something and tossing it to the ground before the raiders. I felt myself gasp when I saw what it was. “Give that to Jinx and collect your caps. But you will let me in first.”

Mirra gave a loud squeak of terror as she stared at the severed head Pyre had pulled from her bag. I recognized who the head belonged to at once, even though the three claw marks across the face that I had grown so accustomed to were not present. It was Pyre's own head. Damaged and caked in blood, but still very clearly Pyres.

“Pyre, what the fuck!” I gasped, my eyes still locked on the head she had thrown before the raiders. From the raiders surprised expressions, I could tell they were shocked as well. “I-Is that… Is that your head?”

Pyre gave me a small shrug.”I told you, I found what was left of my body after the Institute was through with it. I took more than just my heart. Figured it might come in handy if I had to fake my death,” She turned back to look at the three horrified raiders. “I know how this works. I give you something you want, you let us in. Take the head, go get your fucking caps. It's real, trust me. More real than my head is actually.”

The raider clad in leather and chains was the first of the three raiders to come back to his senses. “The fuck! How the fuck is that- What the fuck…” he stumbled, looking for words. “That ain’t fuckin’ real! You think we’re stupid?!”

Pyre nickered. “Can I choose not to answer? And yes, it is,” She rolled her severed head around with her hoof, making the raiders flinch in fear. Pyre quickly stopped when she realized it was having a similar effect on Mirra who was starting to hyperventilate atop her back.

“Cage, maybe we should listen to her,” The raider mare in the dress told the chain wearing raider I now knew as Cage. “It’ll save us some trouble and honestly, I don’t want to be in shit with Pyre Blaze.”

Slit Throat and Cage looked at each other for a second before sighing. “This is going to bite us in the fuckin’ ass, but fine,” All three of them stepped aside, making room for us as the large gate into Freeside swung open. Slit Throat scooped up Pyre’s head, looking it over intensely before giving an experimental nibble on the ear. He seemed to like the taste.

We quickly hurried through the gate, moving into the sprawling settlement of Freeside. The raiders watched us carefully as we trotted past them, their faces as mask of horror and rage, but also a little bit of excitement. Pyre Blaze was back in Las Pegasus. Who knew what was about to happen.

As soon as the gate slammed shut again, Brisk spun around and glared at Pyre. “You were carrying around your own severed fucking head!?” he gaped at her, his eyes wide. “I know you’re a synth and found your body, but what the fuck! Most ponies would want to bury their remains or something, not defile it!” Star just gave a shocked, trembling nod of agreement from beside him.

Pyre gave Brisk a hard glare. “I try not to think about it. Helps keep me sane. Burying my remains would only remind me of what happened to me. I figured those parts would come in handy. Clearly they did.”

I gave her a skeptical look. “So was that it? Or are you going to start pulling out other parts of your body at some point? Your heart was traumatizing enough the first time, I really could have lived without seeing you rolling your own head around in the sand.”

Pyre shrugged. “I have my liver also.”

“Gross Pyre! WHY?!”

We slowly made our way through Freeside. I couldn’t tell if it was better or worse than Tent City. It was cleaner, but that wasn’t saying much, though I was thankful to find that ponies weren’t openly fucking in the streets. But the alleys of Freeside came with many of their own issues as well...

Skyscrapers rose up around us on all sides, blocking out most of the surrounding desert landscape from view. The low hanging cloud that held up the city of Las Pegasus blocked out the sky above, making the whole city feel like one giant tunnel instead of an open metropolis. Burning barrels lined the streets, filling the air with a thick black, choking smog. I found myself constantly needing to cough and clear my throat as the thick smoke poured into my lungs.

Large, creaking bridges had been built overtop of the streets connecting all the buildings together. Some of the bridges held teams of patrolling raiders while others seemed to be intended for more public transportation. Wooden shacks protruded from gaping holes in the sides of buildings, making the whole city feel like one giant shanty town.

A large market place had been built into what had once been the city's commercial district. Glaring, neon signs boldly announced the names of the shops and ponies loudly belched out store slogans in the attempts to draw in customers. Instinctively, I looked around for a bookstore, but the only shop of interest to me was an ammo shop. Most of the stores were either sad excuses for casinos or whore houses. I was surprised to see that a lot of the store fronts had Securitron robots standing guard out front.

The cluttered streets were filled with colourful characters as well. Hired thugs and prostitutes seemed to be standing on every corner, offering their services to anypony that passed them. Most of the thugs had been at the main gateway into the city, trying to get a job with the ponies as they came in through the front gates.

“Hey you! Want some Buck! Buck at a discount here!” A sleazy looking stallion in a very bold looking leopard print suit said, waving Brisk over and holding out a few tablets of Buck. Brisk practically salivated as he looked the addictive tablets over, before seeming to growl at himself and keep walking.

“Where exactly are we heading?” I asked Pyre as we turned down another street. “I know we’re going to the Strip, but like… how are we getting there?” I pointed up to the massive cloud city above to emphasize my question.

“Hard to get into Las Pegasus if you aren’t a pegasus. That’s part of the reason it was so easy for the raiders to fortify,” Pyre told me. “But the raiders themselves still need to be able to get in and out. For that, we’re going to need to take a hot air balloon ride,” She pointed to a spot in the distance where a few hot air balloons were beginning to float down from the cloud city above. “It’s the only way up there without getting shot down too.”

I saw Xayah grimace beside me. “I find it most likely that their security has been increased as a result of the Enclave presence outside the city. Commandeering a balloon may be tricky.”

Pyre glanced down at the zebra wearily. “We aren’t going to steal it. The last thing we want is to be shot dead by the Securitrons guarding the station.”

I didn’t bother questioning that as we approached the station Pyre had talked about. Like the outside of the city, a large wall had been erected around the remains of what had once been a sky wagon airport. The front entranceway to the station was guarded by roughly ten Securitron robots, all of which seemed to have huge rocket launchers strapped to their shoulders. Four armed raiders dressed in similar dark leather and chains like the one by the gate stood with the Securitrons, their eyes sweeping the area.

“Ah, yes. That is a good reason to not try and steal a balloon,” Xayah agreed, her emerald eyes landing on the massive rocket launchers.

“So how the fuck are we planning to get a balloon then?” Star asked, scowling. “Unless you have another one of your own fucking heads to toss their way, I doubt they’ll let you pass.”

I gave a nod of agreement. “You did say that only ponies directly offered by Jinx or the gangs were allowed up to the strip.”

Pyre sighed. “I know. I still have my passport to get in, but there's a good chance that they have programmed the Securitrons to deny me entrance anyway. With luck it works and we go up. If not, we’ll need to find a place to-”

“Pyre! Look out!” Mirra shouted out a warning from atop Pyre’s back, cutting her off. Pyre had just enough time to drop to the ground before a large axe swung over where her head had been only seconds before.

I spun around, making out the group of seven blood soaked raiders that had snuck up on us. Each one had bits of metal welded to their flesh and their blood caked muzzles were filled with jagged, sharpened fangs.

Brisk and Xayah hopped back as two of the raiders swung hatchets at them, the rusting weapons flashing through the air where they had just stood. Star flapped her wings and shot into the air, her magical energy rifle blasting out beams of lethal energy at the raiders.

I blocked a blow from one of the raiders with my shotgun, swinging it out in front of me and letting the near indestructible weapon clash with a large butcher's knife that came slashing down at my face. The raider wielding the knife leered at me, showing off their rows of sharpened fangs.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Brisk’s minigun tore a hole through one of the raiders, sending their corpse into a violent spasm as they collapsed to the filthy ground. Brisk’s mini gun slowed to a stop as he was forced to dive away from a raider that lunged at him and tried to strangle him with a length of barbed wire.

Pyre pulled herself back up, one of her hooves protectively blocking Mirra while her flamers roared and sent a wave of fire washing over the assailing raiders. Two of the raiders went down in a frenzy of thrashing limbs and fire, their flesh seared from their bones.

I ducked as the bucher knife weilding raider swung at me again. The knife whipped past my head, slashing against a metal lamp post instead of me. Sparks spurted from the sudden, slashing impact of the knife against the metal surface. I countered with a buck to the chest, my pathetic strength doing little more than staggering them back.

The raider reared back up and rushed at me, only for Braeburn’s Liberator to level with their head and send a round of buckshot shooting into his skull. The raider toppled to the ground, blood seeping from the mutilated stump of their neck.

Another raider dropped as Star’s magical energy rifle pierced their side, their whole body dissolving into a glowing pile of ash. One of the raiders raised up a throwing knife and aimed for the pegasus, only for a shot from Xayah’s Anti-material rifle to nail them between the eyes, coating the building behind them in viscera.

The last raider lunged at me, their hooves making it about an inch from my face before Pyre to crash into them and stomp their head flat under her powerful hoof. She looked up at me, her expression masked by her helmet. “You alright?”

I nodded, letting out a breath. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I looked down at the pile of dead raiders around our hooves. “I guess that’s why there are hired guns offering assistance all over the place, huh…”

“Indeed. Most likely to fend off unprovoked attacks such as these,” Xayah agreed, looking down at the raiders that had attacked us.

Pyre snorted. “Yeah, that’s the reason, though this isn’t what I’d call unprovoked,” She gestured to the fresh corpses. “These are Flesh Ripper Raiders; cannibal ponies. A gang favoured by Viscera and her Pack. When they found out Viscera wanted me dead, they probably figured they could kill me and stay in her good graces.”

Mirra raised an eyebrow as she pulled herself out of her hiding spot. “Favoured gang?”

Pyre nodded. “Yeah. The smaller gangs that run Freeside are in many ways branch offs from the main gangs. They work independently, sure, but they each tend to get favors from the big gangs on the Strip. The Queens work with the Operators, The Shackles with the Disciples, and of course, the Flesh Rippers with Viscera’s Pack.”

“Well put,” A ragged voice said. We all turned, making out the shape of two of the chain and leather covered ponies that had been standing outside the station trotting over to us, a Securitron following close behind. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Pyre Blaze.”

Pyre nickered. “And I wasn’t expecting to see the Shackles in charge of the Balloon station, so today is full of surprises. What happened to it being under the Queens control?”

The Shackles Raider smirked. “The Queens and the Operators have been falling out of favour with Jinx ever since Tripwire went turncoat. The Queens status around here has been dropping since. Jinx eventually had them removed from control, put us in charge. Magazine is furious, but there ain’t much the bitch can do about it right now without starting a gang war,” Their smile widened. “Now how about we discuss me collecting the caps for your death, hmm?”

A memory nagged at the back of my mind and I gaped at them. “Wait, Tripwire?”

The raider sneered at me. “You been living under a fucking rock? He was the old leader of the Operators before Magazine took control. Real piece of work he was. One of the deadliest pony in the wastes from what I heard. Razor Blade was ecstatic when he finally left the Las Pegasus Raiders. Finally gave him the chance to be second in command.”

I turned to Pyre, my mouth still hanging open. “Are we talking about Tripwire? As in like, Tripwire, Tripwire!? The cyber pony?!”

Pyre just stared at me blankly, not sure where I was coming from. Brisk and Xayah clearly understood what I was trying to say from the surprised look on their faces as well. Eventually Pyre gave a small chuckle. “Wait, have you met Tripwire?”

Brisk snorted out a laugh. “Met him? He was one of the cyber ponies that attacked Stable 25. Amber killed him like, a month ago or whatever,” I blushed at his admission.

The raider paled at the declaration and took a step back. “You killed Tripwire?” His voice was filled with worried skepticism. He looked me up and down with disbelief. “In combat?”

I blushed again. “Well, I shot a balefire egg at him. So… kinda…”

Pyre chuckled. “Amber, how is it that no matter how long we travel together, you never fail to disappoint,” She turned back to the raiders and their looming Securitron guard, holding out a small piece of paper for them to look over. “We need a ride up to the Strip. We have urgent business with the gang leaders.”

The raider looked over the passport and laughed. “Not happening. Razor Blade and Viscera would have me skinned alive if they knew I let you onto the Strip, traitor,” Mirra scowled at the raider for the remark, but the raider just gave her a rotting tooth filled smirk back. "Now I think we've talked long enough. I say it time I kill you and collect my caps."

“Unfortunately, that isn’t going to work,” Pyre told him lazily. “Already gave somepony else the honour of collecting my bounty. You’re a little late to the punch.”

The raider gave her a ‘are you stupid’ sort of look. “You missin’ a few brain cells there, Pyre? That doesn’t even make sense!”

Pyre sighed. “Didn’t expect it to, I just find the fact to be funny. Regardless, we need to get up and you’re in the way.”

The raider growled, pulling a large knife out of its sheath on his leg. “If you want to fight your way through all of Las Pegasus, be my guest. The way I see it, I want you dead, and even if I didn’t, your gang here doesn’t exactly have passports to get in anyway. Couldn’t let you pass even if I wanted.”

“Friends,” Pyre stated back bluntly. At the raiders confused looks, she elaborated. “These are my friends. They aren’t a raider gang.”

“I don’t fuckin’ care what you call them,” The Shackles Raider snarled. “All I care about is taking your head up to the Strip, no body attached!”

The raider lunged forwards, their sharp knife angled for Pyre’s neck. Pyre stepped back, easily avoiding the slash and ramming her hoof into the back of the raiders head, knocking him flat on his face. The second raider took a step forward, but Pyre forced him to freeze by aiming her large, twin flamers his direction.

The Securitrons massive rocket launcher made a loud clanking sound as it targeted in on Pyre’s head. “Kill the bitch!” The raider screamed, thrashing his hooves against Pyre’s hoof as my power armoured friend pinned him down.

“Pyre! Watch out!” Mirra shrieked, rushing forwards and trying to get between Pyre and the readying rocket launcher.

“Mirra! No!”

“That is quite enough,” at the sound of the new voice, the securitron froze, suddenly ignoring the howling raiders commands.

We all turned, taking in the sight of the five ghoulified mares that were approaching us, each one dressed in an identical red sequin dress and aiming a fully loaded tommy gun.

“Let me guess. You’re the Queens,” Star Breeze drawled, letting the beating of her wings slow so that she slowly descended to the ground beside us.

The leading ghoul gave the former Enclave pegasus a pleasant nod before turning to the squirming Shackles Raider and his associate who was still looking unsure of what to do. “Leave these ponies alone. They are currently under the Queens protection.”

The Shackles Raider pushed Pyres hoof off of him and snarled at the ghouls. “Do you have any idea who this is? It’s Pyre fucking Blaze! Jinx would have us all executed if she found out we didn’t kill her!”

The leading ghoul mare waved his concern off. “Regardless, the Queen wants to see them. So unless you want trouble, you’ll let them go.”

The raider snarled for a second before sighing and taking a step back. “Fine. But if word of this gets to Razor Blade then you and your whole gang are fucking dead! I’ll personally see him flay your rotting skin from your bones!”

“Duly noted,” The ghoul deadpanned, rolling her eyes and gesturing for us to follow her.

I glanced over at Pyre for confirmation, but she just shrugged. I quickly trotted up so that I was walking alongside the raider ghouls. “Thanks for that,” I said. It felt weird thanking raiders. As Pyre had said, the Queens seemed nicer than the other gangs, or at least they did in this short interaction, but they were still raiders all the same. “So, why does the… uh, the Queen want to see us?”

The ghoul laughed at that. “Sweetheart, the former second in command of the Pack and public enemy of the Las Pegasus Raiders number one, Pyre Blaze and her entire entourage just trotted through the front gates of Freeside requesting a presence with the leaders of the Las Pegasus Gangs. That’s not something ponies just do, let alone you ponies. Things like that are going to turn some heads. The Queen will explain more once we arrive.”

I gave her a thoughtful nod, but I wished she could have told me more. “How exactly did you get that securitron to stop attacking us? Shouldn’t it have been under Shackles Raider control?”

The dolled up ghoul gave me a thin smile. “It should have been. But we work with the Operators, and the Operators control the robots. They’ll listen to us if we want them too.”

Letting one gang control all of the robots seemed like a pretty big way to piss off the other gangs to me, though I suppose most raiders wouldn’t be able to get much use out of the advanced robots like the Operators would.

As I trotted back to walk with my friends who had fallen a few steps behind, I heard Pyre hiss at Mirra. “What were you thinking?”

“I-I was just… they were going to shoot you and…” I heard Mirra mumbled in response, looking away from Pyre. “I couldn’t let that happen…”

“And if that thing had fired?” Pyre snarled back, her eyes burning into the small changeling filly. “I can take a few hits. You cannot. You promised me you wouldn’t die Mirra. Do not go back on that promise…” Pyre seemed to notice I was listening and gave me a low growl before trotting forwards, one eye kept on Mirra while she went to go talk with the Queen raiders.

The Queens led us through Freeside until we arrived at a large, ornate looking building. A large sign that had been carved into the stone edifice above the door read, ‘Las Pegasus Equestrian Embassy’. The Embassy had been converted into a large base for the Queens, the long since destroyed Equestrian flag on top having been replaced with a flowing red flag that seemed to be made of the same squiend fabrics as all of their dresses. Ghoul mares all in the Queens staple red dress patrolled the large, iron front doors, and I spotted one ghoul on the roof holding a Balefire Egg Launcher. I noted that not all of the Queens seemed to be mares, though they all wore red sequin dresses regardless.

“What use did Equestria have for an embassy during the war?” Brisk puzzled, looking up at the large sign as we started trotting through the doors. “I mean, it’s not like we tried for peace with the zebras.”

Xayah shook her head. “There were a few attempts at peace. Though none of them turned out well,” she thought on that for a second. “And there were more kingdoms than just the zebra empire that Equestria had to worry about. Dragons, yaks, buffalo, griffins.”

“Changelings,” I surmised, recalling the negotiations that had happened between Twilight Sparkle and Queen Chrysalis out in the Hollow Shades.

We were led up a large set of stairs to a massive office room on the top floor. From its size and the extravagance of its decor, I assumed it had once belonged to an old Equestrian Ambassador. A large ornate desk sat in the centre of the room, six chairs had already been set up in front of it, one for each of us.

Behind the desk sat a tall ghoul mare in an expensive looking silver gown. Her pale grey hide had long since rotted away and a sickening pink mist wafted from her pores. She took slow puffs from a comically long cigarette holder as she watched us trot in. She reminded me a lot of Fleur De Lis, though her eyes and mane were different colours.

The dress wearing ghoul that was leading us waved us into the room, declaring boldly. “I present to you, the Queen!”

Cautiously, I sat down in the chair across from the elegant Canterlot Ghoul, waiting for her to speak. The ghoul all but ignored me and kept her laid back gaze on Pyre. “So you really have returned to Las Pegasus,” The Canterlot ghoul surmised as Pyre came to a stop before the table. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I weren’t seeing it with my own eyes… Tell me, what business do you have in Las Pegasus?”

“We need to get to the Strip… Though I’m sure you know that already,” Pyre said. Her inflection was strange and I had trouble figuring out if she was snarling or smirking under her helmet. Mirra hopped off her back and sat down on the chair next to me.

The Canterlot ghoul smirked and leaned back in her seat. “I did, though why you want to go there is any ponies guess. Not much waiting for you ponies up in the clouds. Not unless you have a death wish sweetheart.”

I leaned towards the ghoul. “Can you help us get to the Strip?”

From the ghouls smug face, I could tell I had asked the exact question she had wanted to hear. “Right now, no. But if you do something for me, then maybe I can do something for you…”

“We do not work for raiders,” Brisk scowled, his eyes narrowing. Both Pyre and I shot him a warning glance to play nice, though I had to agree with him.

“What exactly do you want?” I asked back, trying to stay as neutral on the topic as I could.

“I’m sure you’ve heard that the Queens and Magazine’s Operators are in a bit of a rough patch right now. Both gangs are losing a lot of influence in this city. As I’m sure you can imagine, I don’t want that,” The ghoul took another puff from her Quellazaire. “Currently, Razor Blade holds the title of second in command to the Las Pegasus Raiders, and his lackeys in the Shackles gang have control over who goes in and out of the Strip. That is too much power. I want control back over the balloon Station.”

“And why should we help you do that?” Xayah asked from beside me, glaring down the raider leader.

“A few reasons. You want into the Strip. Razor Blade and his Shackles will never allow it, and unless they are removed from this equation, they are the only ponies that can get you passports into the Strip. Put me in charge, and I’m sure I could get you your passports,” She smiled and looked over to Pyre again. “Furthermore, we aren’t the only gang eyeing up control of the balloon station. If we don’t take control of it from the Shackles now, another gang will. And you ponies don’t want that.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Why?”

“Because that other gang is the Flesh Rippers,” Pyre grumbled back at me, answering for her. “Viscera’s favoured gang. The last thing the wasteland needs is Viscera getting control over who gets in and out of the Strip.”

The Queen nodded. “Exactly. There is an unspoken rule amongst the gang leaders of Las Pegasus. We can fight amongst each other all we want, but no pony wants Viscera calling the shots. That mare is dangerous,” That might have been the most truthful thing I’d heard in my entire life. Viscera was horrifying. If she had control of Las Pegasus, the wasteland would be in some pretty serious trouble.

“Oookay, so what do you want us to fucking do?” Star asked. She had refused to sit down and instead opted to hover a little of the ground behind us. “Just go and shoot up the leader of the Shackles raiders, ooor...?”

The Queen chuckled. “I wish it were that easy. No. If you just go in guns blazing and take out Darbies, then even if the Queens do get put back in charge, we would never be allowed to let you in. You cannot be caught. Furthermore, the other gangs no doubt know that I have been in contact with you by now. And honestly, I’d rather not get into any more shit with Jinx if I can help it.”

“So then what do you want us to do?” I asked, looking the Canterlot ghoul over.

“A few things. It won’t be easy,” The Queen admitted. “Your pegasus is correct, the leader of the Shackles, Darbies, needs to die, but I need you to make it look like the Flesh Rippers did it. Grizzly work I’m afraid, but doable. You’ll need to find a way to get him alone and get back out without being spotted, which… might be a bit of a trick.”

Pyre gave a small snort. “This plan of yours had better be more complex than that. I know the rules around here. Framing the Flesh Rippers might put them a little out of favour and keep them from taking control of the station instead of you, but that doesn’t mean you get put in charge, especially if the Queens are already dropping in popularity with the Las Pegasus gangs. Most likely case scenario, Darbies second will just assume control and nothing will change.”

The Queen nodded. ‘Exactly. That is why we will need to ensure that the Shackles take the fall as well as the Rippers,” She reached into her desk and pulled out a stack of paper before placing them down before me. “Once Darbies is dead, I need these to be planted in his office. Forgeries, made to look like the Shackles have been letting ponies into the Strip against Jinx’s wishes. This is something that Jinx will not be able to ignore.”

Pyre hummed thoughtfully at that. “That would do it. Jinx openly letting gangs get away with disobeying her would upset her hold on the gangs. Even if she did have suspicions they were fake, she’d be forced to give the position to another gang. And if she chose the Flesh Rippers over the Queens after you framed them, she’d lose support of both you and the Operators. You have this all thought out don’t you?”

I whistle a little at all that. Pyre had been right, Jinx’s control over the gangs was a minefield just waiting to go off. Even the smallest hint that she favoured one gang over the other would set off a chain reaction and cause the fragile peace between the raider gangs to explode and fracture.

The Queen gave her a curt smile. “This plan has been in the works of a bit, yes. With some assistance from Magazine up on the Strip, of course. You ponies just happened to give me a perfect opportunity to enact it and have an alibi. While you deal with Darbies, I, along with the rest of the Queens will make a scene on the far side of the city. I would hate for your little murder attempt on Darbies life to draw attention to me.”

I gave a grim nod. I didn’t like the idea of framing and assassinating somepony, but from what I could understand, these Shackles raiders were both raiders and slavers. I didn’t have too many moral qualms about killing them.

“Making it look like Rippers did it… how are we supposed to do that?” I asked, bringing up an earlier point of the plan.

The Queen gave me a grim look. “Tell me, what do you know about the Flesh Rippers, Sweetheart?” She gave me a curious look. Pyre seemed interested in what I had to say as well, clearly interested in how well I had been listening to what she had been telling me.

“Well, uh… They’re cannibal ponies. One of the smaller gangs working for Viscera,” I tried to remember what Pyre had told me back on the war wagon. “They like to eat ponies' hearts while they're still alive,” That last fact was a scary one.

The Queen gave an appraising smile at my knowledge. “Indeed. I can’t stand the barbaric nature of those beasts, though I must give them credit where credit is due, they keep the fear in ponies,” She gestured over to a ghoul standing next to her, who quickly approached and placed a deadly looking syringe on the table before us. “This is a personal favorite drug of theirs. Immobilizes the victim for a few hours after injection. The victim of course remains conscious and can feel everything happening to them while immobilized, but the drug effectively removes their ability to die of shock as well. Use it on Darbies, then while he’s paralyzed, cut out his heart.”

I felt myself go pale. “Y-you want me to what!?” The idea of doing that was horrifying. Killing a pony was one thing, but to drug them up and cut out there heart while they were still alive was just sick! “Y-you don’t want me to actually eat his heart or a-anything… r-right?”

“Oh Celestia no,” The Queen said, her own face filling with disgust. “I may be a raider, but I am also one of the Queens. I have standards. I just need you to dispose of the heart, sweetheart. I’m not trying to torture you.”

Star swooped down and picked up the needle, looking it over curiously. “What is this stuff? I’ve never heard of anything like it,” her eyes had a fascinated sparkle to them as she turned the needle over in her hooves. “I would love to learn the chemical compound that went into it?”

“I doubt you would have heard of it,” The Queen said, giving her a glare. “The drug was developed after the war, and it is exclusive to the Neighvada region. I find it unlikely that the Grand Pegasus Enclave would have seen anything like it before.”

“We’ll do it,” Pyre interjected, snatching the lone needle from Star's grasp and pocketing it before she could say anything else. “Any idea how to get Darbies alone?”

The Queen smiled sweetly. “Oh, I knew the second I heard you were back that you were the ponies to ask for help!” The Canterlot ghoul thought for a second. “As for how to get him by himself… I’m afraid you’re on your own for that. Queens aren’t usually allowed near the old police station that the Shackles have turned into their base of operations. You’ll have to scout around for yourselves.”

“Do you have any advice? We could use any assistance we could get?” Xayah asked curiously, her eyes staring at where the needle rested in Pyre’s bag. Clearly she was as little of a fan of the plan as I was.

I gave a nod of agreement. “Agreed. We are in a bit of a rush. Anything to get this done quickly will be helpful.”

The Queen scowled, losing her composure for a moment. “I’ve already told you what to do and given you the tools to do it. What else do you want from me,” Her rotting face darkened. “And if you’re in a hurry, then I suggest you get out there and deal with the Shackles quickly. You can meet me back here when you are done. Until then, I expect not to see you again. We don’t need more ponies to see us talking.”

She gestured with a hoof, and two Queen raiders trotted forwards, urging us to get out. I kept the Queens gaze for a second before sighing and trotting back out into the crime riddled streets of Freeside.

I did not like this plan.

The old police station was unmissable. It was a massive, towering cement structure that loomed over the other skyscrapers, its peak just scraping against the underside of the massive cloud that held up the Las Pegasus Strip. A junk wall topped with barbed wire raced along the outside of the building and multiple cages filled with whimpering slaves had been shoved together against one wall.

Like the Queens base at the Equestrian Embassy, the Police station was surrounded by guards, these ones sporting the dark black leather and chain barding of the Shackles gang. Large turrets protruded from the tops of the surrounding wall and the sound of cracking whips and screaming slaves filled the air.

I was unsettled by how much the building reminded me of Fillydelphia. Though unlike the industrial nightmare that was Fillydelphia, the old police station seemed to have focused on a very different use for their slaves. Through the large front doors, I could see what appeared to be a very rowdy looking whore house and multiple slaves that had been tied up in a line out front with a large sign hanging from their necks boldly stating how many caps it cost to ‘use them’.

I was very quickly becoming more okay with ripping out the heart of the pony responsible for all this. I hadn't even entered the building yet and they were starting to piss me off.

“Fuckin’ hell! It’s actually Pyre Blaze. The Rumours are true! Darbies said you’d be by,” One of the slavers guarding the front door laughed, his eyes following us cautiously as we approached. The rest of the raiders quickly looked towards us as well, drawing their weapons to make sure we didn’t do anything brash.

“We’re here to see Darbies, we don’t want any trouble,” Pyre replied coolly, focusing her gaze on the raider guarding the door and ignoring the ridiculous amount of firepower that was being aimed at us.

Mirra trembled a little atop Pyres back, her eyes darting back and forth to all the guns pointed at us. “Y-yeah. We need to talk to him. S-so step aside”

The raider guard sneered, glancing up at Mirra. “What’s this? You got yourself a daughter now Pyre? Didn’t take you as the motherly type.”

Mirra paused and glanced down at Pyre curiously as Pyre figured out how to respond to that. “Are you going to let us through or not?” Pyre eventually grunted, neither confirming nor denying the daughter comment. Mirra seemed to sigh to herself before settling back into her place atop Pyre’s back.

The guard looked us all over for a second before smirking. “Luckily for all of you, Darbies has been expecting you. Said to bring you and your gang up to see him if you stopped by. He wants to talk.”

“They’re my friends,” Pyre snorted back. “Not a gang.”

The raider just gave a roll of his eyes and waved us in. “Whatever. I don’t care what you call your fuck buddies. Just hurry it up. Darbies is waiting.”

The raiders quickly rushed over to strip us of our weapons. I didn’t like parting with my shotgun in the middle of a massive raider base, but the only alternative was to start shooting, and they would only end up with us and probably a lot of the slaves dead. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to notice the deadly needle that I had managed to hide inside of my tail.

Even Pyre was stripped of her massive suit of power armour, leaving her looking far more exposed than usual. Her fiery red tail quickly curled up to cover the burn marks that had once been her cutie mark. She kept her head held high, though I could tell that she was uncomfortable displaying the three jagged scars that raced down her face.

The raiders looked Xayah’s cybernetic hooves over for a bit, trying to figure out just what to do with them. Eventually, they just shrugged and let her keep her fore hooves, not seeing them as much of a threat.

The inside of the old police station was a million times worse than the outside. Large stages had been set up around the room where slavers were proudly displaying their captured slaves and selling them off to the highest bidder. Worn leather couches covered in sticky white and black stains were scattered about the room, some empty while others held drugged up slaves pleasuring their slaver captives. I coughed as the thick, cigarette smoke filled air chocked my lungs.

The longer I stayed here, the more I wanted to start shooting everypony inside. This was beyond horrible.

A slave buck trotted up to me, his eyes distant and bloodshot from all the chems that had been pumped into his system. He ran his short, cropped tail under my chin and fluttered his eyes at me. “I can pleasure you if you want master,” The drugged up slave told me, his voice slurring a little and one of his hind hooves twitching slightly.

Xayah quickly pushed him away and gave him a small scowl. The buck gave an eep of surprise and darted off, clearly not having expected that response. I just gave Xayah a small, shaky smile and continued following after the raiders that led us up a set of stairs to the floors above.

The higher levels of the building weren’t any better. If anything, they were getting worse. More slaves and more whips and seemed to be lashing through the air and down on their backs. I had thought Tent City was bad, but this place was a hundred times worse.

I could feel my scratchy throat rising with bile. I hated everything about this place.

Instead of focusing on the horrors around me, I turned my attention to trying to memorize the path we were taking to get to the top floor. Something told me I would need to remember it in the event I had to make a quick escape.

Left, right, left, straight, up the stairs, right, more stairs, right, right, left, stairs.

I was already quickly getting confused. Who the fuck designed this place? Grumbling I quickly started keeping an eye out for vents and trying to remember where they came out. I doubted Pyre or Brisk would be able to fit through those, but I might be able to escape that way if the need arose. Unfortunately, it looked like the slavers had blocked out of the vents off with slabs of metal. clearly they didn't want any slaves to escape.

After a few minutes, the raiders leading us finally came to a stop at a large door. The sign above it had once read, ‘Chief of Police’, though that had long since been crossed out and replaced with the words, ‘MASTER’.

Without waiting for permission, Pyre pushed through the doors and entered the office. I quickly followed after her, all our friends trailing behind us. Getting here had been far easier than I had expected. We had been here only a few moments and they had already taken us straight to our target. Surely, this couldn't really be that easy.

My hopeful thoughts were quickly dashed as I entered the office. Five raiders in dark combat armour, and one in power armour stood all around us, each one wielding a massive minigun covered in rusty spikes and barbed wire. Two turrets slowly scanned the room and a massive wall of what looked like bullet proof glass cut the room in two. On the far side of the thick glass, sitting at an ornate looking desk, sat a comically obease raider in a dark brown coat and the usual Shackles raider chain barding. Two shivering and whimpering mares had been chained up on the floor beside him. Clearly his own personal slaves. The fat raider gave us all a greasy smile as we were corralled towards him.

“I’m guessing you’re Darbies?” I said, trotting up to the glass and staring at the raider.

Darbies gave a sickening lick of his lips and flashed a toothy smile. “In the flesh, cutie,” He cooed, though ‘in the blubber’ was probably more accurate. I had to force myself not to gag at his 'cutie' remark. His vile gaze shifted up to Pyre Blaze. “I heard you were back. Had to see it with my own to eyes. The great Pyre Blaze, scourge of Manhattan and deserter of the Pack. I heard you were looking for a way up to the Strip. I thought to myself there was no way you're that dumb, but here you are.”

Pyre gave an affirmative nod. “You heard correct. We have some business with the Las Pegasus Gangs.”

"I don't doubt that you do," Darbies smirked. “I’m not an idiot. I heard you’ve been in contact with both the Queens and the Rippers already. They both want something that I have, and I ain't in the mood to give it. You might be a fool for coming back here Pyre, but I won’t insult your intelligence by beating around the bush. Chances are, one of the gangs, if not both, have asked you to take control of the Balloon Station from me for them. If they haven’t asked yet, they will.”

All of us instinctively flinched at his conjecture. He had found us out rather quickly. Brisk quickly stepped forwards. “We haven’t dealt with any of the gangs yet. We figured we should come to the person in charge first before making other arrangements.”

Darbies laughed. “Ha! Brave of you to admit your willingness to make other arrangements. Braver of you still to lie to me. I know you’ve already made some sort of deal with another gang,” He gave Brisk an unfriendly sneer before looking us all over with an appraising eye. His bloodshot eyes lingered a little longer on Xayah and I than I would have liked. “You want passports up to the Strip. I can supply you with them. I’d rather have a little trouble with Razor Blade than whatever the other gangs have planned for me. But I still can’t just give ‘em for free. Imagine what the other gangs would say if I was simply giving out passports to some of Las Pegasus’ most wanted criminals free of charge?”

“What do you want then,” Pyre snarled, stomping a hoof. At her burst of aggression, all the mini guns in the room around us spun up a little in warning, filling the room with a loud whirring noise.

Darbies smiled at Pyre with fake sweetness, raising a hoof to tell his guards to stand down. “As you can clearly see, whatever those raiders told you to do, kill me or otherwise, won't be possible. Not unless you kill every last raider in the building. And if what the radio has been saying about you and these scavers here has any merit, you won't risk the lives of all the slaves in the building,” He leaned back in his seat and smirked at us, his face uncomfortably smug. I had to bite my lip in frustration. He was right. I couldn’t see a way of taking him out, especially not along with all the other things the Queens had asked for, and defiantly not in the rapidly dwindling timeframe we were under. But what the Shackles raiders had been doing here had royally pissed me off, so easy way out or not, I was determined to do something about them.

"Then hurry up and get to the point,” I snapped at him, waiting for him to finish his point. “You want us to do something for you. What?”

Darbies eyes snapped over to look at me greedily again. “Alright cutie, I’ll tell ya. I’m not giving you all passports. It's that simple, but I will give you two. That’s all you’re going to need anyway.”

Xayah narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “What do you mean by that? That is all we are going to need?”

“She’s already got one, though she’ll need my permission to get up to the Strip still,” He smiled, pointing a flabby hoof at Pyre. “And my cost is one pony per passenger up to the Strip.”

My eyebrows shot up in shock as I realized what he was asking for. “W-wait! You want us to sell each other in exchange f-for p-passports?!”

Darbies rolled his eyes before returning them to me, more specifically, to my rump. “I will give the buck, the filly and Pyre a ride up to the top, yes. In exchange, I get you cutie, the stripe and the pegasus,” He leaned in closer, licking his lips with a slimy tongue. Star and I took a nervous step back under his intense gaze. “You look like you’d be a fun time, cutie, and a zebra and a pegasus are so exotic.”

Xayah stepped in front of me protectively, growling at the raider. “You will not lay a hoof on Amber!” She seethed, baring her teeth.

Darbies just chuckled, leaning in close and giving Xayah a cold grin. “And what ate you going to do, stripe? I wonder if you’ll whimper when I break you, or if I can get you to squeal,” I gave him a loud snarl off my own and resisted the urge to spit at the glass between us while I forced down the bile rising in my throat.

“We don’t sell our friends to fat fucks like you,” Brisk snarled, glaring daggers at the raider. Darbies eyes flashed with anger at the comment, but he quickly hid it under a sneer. “I don’t care if you’re the only way to get up to the Strip or not! You keep your filth away from them.”

Pyre gave a loud snort of agreement. “Thanks for your offer, but that’s a big no from us,” Mirra hissed in agreement from atop her back.

Darbies chuckled again, once more leaning back in his seat. “Your loss. Something tells me that whatever business you have in the Strip, it's serious. Serious enough for you to dare returning to Las Pegasus. Ponies that do something that dumb don’t tend to have a lot of options. It’s this, or you don’t get to the strip. Now either fuck off or hand over the mares.”

Pyre hesitated, biting her lip nervously. “W-what if I did it instead. You give passports to the rest of my friends and you get to keep me as a slave. That's a pretty big prize. Having Pyre Blaze as your personal slave would catch a lot of positive attention from all the gangs.”

Mirra’s eyes shot wide with horror at her offer. “Mo- er, Pyre! Y-you can’t!”

I nodded, stepping forwards and standing between Pyre and the thick glass. “She’s right Pyre. You won’t let them buy us, we aren’t letting them buy you. We’ll find another way.”

“As tempting as that offer sounds, I’ll have to pass,” Darbies cooed, much to my relief. “Much as I’d love to have my way with you, I’m pretty sure I’d be dead if Viscera ever found out I was keeping you all to myself. Besides, something tells me you could crush my skull even without your power armour. I’d like to not die, thank you. It’s the three mares, or you don’t get into the Strip. End of story.”

“G-guys, l-lets just g-go,” Star stammered, taking another step away from the glass. Darbies proposal was really shaking her.

I gave the raider one last scowl before nodding. “Yeah. let’s get out of here. I think we’re done negotiating.”

Darbies waved us off with his oversized hoof before gesturing for his guards to take us out. “Get them out of my sight. And I want them monitored. They aren’t allowed back into the building unless they agree to my terms,” he gave another smirk and pulled on a chain attached to his barding, forcing the two trembling mares up to his hooves as he walked out into another office further into the building. “Now if you’ll excuse me. These lovely mares and I need a little bit of alone time...”

The raider guard that had led us up here to begin with gave a salute and began forcing us back out the door, not that we needed any encouragement. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. “You got it boss. They try anything, and they get shot on sight.”

We were quickly forced back out onto the street, the guards thankfully returning our weapons just before they shoved us through the gates. The raider guard sneered at us, cocking his shotgun and levelling it at us, urging us to move.

We very quickly complied.

“Fuck. What are we going to do know,” Brisk scowled in frustration once we had gotten a safe distance away. He growled and kicked at a nearby wall with his hoof, dislodging a loose brick. “Anypony have any other bright ideas? That fuckin' shit saw through us before we even got a chance to do anything.”

I shook my head, still feeling a little sick from the way Darbies eyes had been wandering lustfully over my body. “Our plan stays the same. We need to get into the Strip, and after seeing all that, I think we can all agree its better the Queens are in charge than that sack of shit.”

Brisk threw his hooves in the air, clearly pissed off that we had even attempted to deal with the vile raider. “Then what are we going to do? We have less than we did when we went in there,” He trembled, seething in rage. After a few seconds of quiet, he took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Sorry… I’m not helping, am I…? I just don’t like seeing bastards like him talking about… about… about doing t-things to my friends… and especially not my sister.”

I gave him a warm smile and hug. “T-thanks bro. But I’m alright. Really. I’ll be okay,” At least he hadn’t actually touched me. I’d probably need to shower for a week if he had. I grimaced. “But you’re right. We still don’t have much to go off of. And now we aren’t allowed back inside.”

“T-that might not exactly be true,” Star stammered, still looking a little shaken from the encounter. “We know what that place looks like inside. I made sure to memorize the layout of the building as we walked through it. That’s something.”

I had to bite back my jealousy at her being able to memorize it all better than me.

“Still puts us in a bit of a tricky situation,” Pyre rumbled, looking at the looming cement tower of the old police station. “Can’t get inside, and can’t get him alone. That is going to be really fucking hard.”

“I… I could sneak in and try and take him out,” Xayah offered shakily. She tapped one of her forehooves, activating the built in stealth talisman Tinker had installed into her cybernetics and flickering out of view for a second. “I could easily stay undetected.”

“I am not letting you wander into that awful place by yourself,” I said stubbornly. “If you get caught they might… might...” I cut myself off, not even wanting to consider the possibility. Death would probably be a mercy compared to what those savages would do if she got caught.

Mirra frowned, looking out at the old police station. “What if we killed all the raiders? Is that a possibility?”

“Mirra!” Both Pyre and I gawked at her, our faces shocked.

The small changeling winced at our response, cowering away slightly. “I, um… sorry. I thought we kill raiders… isn’t that what we do?” she asked timidly, both worry and confusion in her voice.

I shared a glance with Pyre. She wasn't wrong, and I had been really tempted to kill them all myself, but it wasn’t like Mirra to jump to mass murder as a solution. These raiders might be a particularly nasty bunch, but that response was far too violent of an answer to get from Mirra.

“Mirra, you alright?” Brisk asked, voicing both Pyre and I’s concern before either of us could voice it.

Xayah gave the Changeling a worried look. “Indeed. It is not like you to jump to such harsh courses of action. Nor would we wish you to.”

Mirra just took another nervous step back. “I-I’m fine. Really. J-just trying to help… Please don’t be angry.”

Pyre kneeled down next to her. “None of us are angry at you kid. Just worried. If something is bothering you, you know you can tell me, right?”

Mirra nodded, but kept her head low. “S-sorry,” Was all she managed to say.

“Regardless, killing them isn’t going to be a fucking option either,” Star grumbled. “You saw all of that firepower they had. We pull something and we fucking die. I don’t care how badass you all think you are. That isn’t a fight we will live through.”

“And there is no way of taking them out without civilian casualties,” Xayah agreed. “There are a lot of slaves in there. We would not be able to keep them safe if we went in guns blazing.”

I felt a disgusting feeling rising up in my gut. There really was only one way out of this. Only one way to get what we wanted. But I didn’t like it one bit.

I took a long, deep breath. “I, uh… I think I have a plan. But you all aren’t going to like it…”

“This is a bad idea,” Brisk grumbled under his breath as he pushed me towards the old police station. “Maybe we should go back to Xayah’s plan and let her sneak in.”

I shook my head sternly, casting a quick glance at Xayah’s trembling form walking beside me. “I am not letting her go into that awful place alone. And if she were to get caught, things would get really bad, really fast.”

“If we get caught, things will still get really bad really fast,” Brisk hissed back as we drew up to the gates. "I fucking hate this plan Amber."

I gulped. He was right, but there was no going back now. “At least if things get bad, we’ll have each other's backs… er… or at least some of us will.”

“Hault!” The guards at the front gate demanded, raising their weapons and pointing them at the six of us. “Darbies has ordered you to be shot on sight unless you are here to-”

“Yeah yeah, we’re here to take Darbies up on his fucking deal,” Pyre scowled, glaring at the raiders. I could tell she was doing all she could not to rip them apart then and there. “Let's just get this over with. I have things I need to do.”

“I can’t believe you’re just going to sell us!” I whined at Pyre, putting on my best performance and trying my best to look angry at her. I considered throwing a few rude names her way, but I just didn’t have it in me to insult my friend.

Star Breeze on the other hoof, had no qualms with insulting her. “You bitch! I flew you all the way to fucking Las Pegasus, and this is how you repay me! Fuck you, you shit fucking cunt!”

Pyre actually flinched a little at that. Brisk looked a little crestfallen as well, but tried not to show it. “Sorry guys. We have no other choice,” Star just huffed at him, sticking her muzzle up in the air.

Chuckling, the raiders moved aside to let us in, stripping all of us of our weapons and armour. One of them quickly scurried off to get Darbies while the others smirked and began surrounding Xayah, Star and myself. They quickly snapped bomb collars around our necks, attaching them to long chains to drag us around like we were dogs. I winced as a magic reduction ring was clamped around my horn and Star’s wings were clamped tightly to her side. I hadn’t considered the possibility that I was going to have to get through this without my magic.

“You really just going to sell your gang like that? I expected more from the great renegade, Pyre Blaze,” One of the raiders mocked, their hoof stroking my mane roughly as they glared at Pyre.

Pyre just scowled. “I do what I need to to get what I want. We all do,” The sneering raider seemed to take that as a solid response.

After a few moments, a Securitron robot rolled up to us, its screen displaying the grinning face of Darbies. “Well well, I’m glad to see you saw reason, Pyre Blaze. There was, of course, no other way you were going to be reaching the Strip alive.”

“Fine. You were right. We didn’t have any other plans. Walking out was a bluff and we are desperate,” Pyre huffed up at him, her eyes filled with rage. “Just give us our fucking passports and let us get out of here.”

Darbies laughed. “Yeah, no. Do you think I’m stupid? I’m not just going to give you your passports and let you run out on your side of the deal. I get the three mares to myself for one full day first, then you get your passports.”

Despite how disgusting I felt right now, I had to try and hide my smirk. Good, there had been lots of witnesses for that. Darbies had just given us a motive for not killing him. That would make getting out of this mess slightly easier. And of course, I had no intention of staying around for a full day anyway.

Brisk growled at the securitron’s flickering screen. “Fine. But we’re in a hurry. One day, then we get our passports, no later.”

“Oh, you have my word,” Darbies voice oozed from the securitrons speaker like slime. The large robot swiveled on its wheel, addressing the raiders around us. “Escort Pyre and her friends out. Then get the bitches into proper attire. I want to have my way with them now.”

The raiders quickly rushed our friends back outside. Birsk and Mirra both scowled angrily at Darbies as they were forced back out the door. Pyre stood her ground for a second, glaring Darbies down, before taking a deep breath and following them out.

I don’t think I had ever felt so embarrassed. My cheeks felt like they were burning a hole straight through my face as the slavers pushed me back out of the changing rooms to join Xayah and Star after having roughly forced me into a rather skimpy looking slave outfit composed mostly of leather straps and collars. The outfit was clearly intended to accentuate some of my bodies very specific features.

My only real solace was that both Xayah and Star had been forced into very similar outfits, their own expressions filled with uncomfortable embarrassment. Not that that was really much of a comfort. I wish I hadn’t needed to drag them into this.

“You okay?” Xayah asked me, clearly seeing the discomfort on my face. I gave her a quick nod and quickly started moving forwards as the raiders gave the chain attached to my neck a rough tug and started forcing me towards the office at the end of the hall.

“I don’t know how the fuck you talked me into this,” Star grumbled, tugging at her leather collar as she was pushed forwards. “This is bad… fucking bad…”

Two guards approached us as we neared the door and quickly began patting us down, making sure all of our weapons had been confiscated before we were allowed in to see Darbies. I flinched as they started combing their hooves through my tail, searching for anything I might have hidden within.

Without thinking, I flipped up my tail, trying to make sure the raiders didn’t spot the deadly needle that I still had hidden within. The raider that had been frisking me chuckled smugly at my reaction. “Hoho! You’re a desperate little bitch aren’t you,” The raider smirked, giving me a rough slap across the flank that made me flinch. “I like that in a mare. Maybe I’ll have a turn with you once Darbies is done.”

Xayah growled at the crude raider, but she was quickly silenced as one of the other raiders smacked her across the face, drawing a small drizzle of blood from her muzzle.

“Alright, they’re clean,” The guard grunted, thankfully not bothering to search the rest of my tail. The large door swung open, allowing us to walk into Darbies personal office.

The office was large, larger even than the room we had first met him in. A large desk sat in the middle of the room, the massive, throne like chair behind it holding up the oversized raider leader himself. The wall to our right was covered in rusted shackles and Darbies two personal slaves that I had seen the last time I talked to him were still chained up by his side, shivering and coated in sweat and blood.

The noise of the hallways outside grew muffled as we trotted in. The room must have had some sort of silence spell around it. I felt myself smirk a little. He was almost making this too easy for us.

Darbies gave the three of us a vile grin as the door fully slammed shut behind us. He raised his fore hooves to us welcomingly, as if he were greeting old friends. “Ah, there you are. I knew from the second I saw you three that I wanted you. You don’t see many stripes or pegasi around here. Jinx has strict rules about those winged rats up in Dashite City, can't lay a hoof on them. I just had to have a little taste,” His sickening grin twisted to me. “And you look like you have the cutest little rump. I simply had to make you scream.”

I took a step towards him, my face growling. I worked my tail a little, trying to figure out what the best way to send the needle hidden inside flying into the raiders smug face.

Before I could act however, Darbies leaned back and held up a blinking device in his hoof. “Now before we get down to business, I have a few things we need to go over. I know Pyre Blaze. You ponies are here not just because you’re desperate, but because you somehow think you can pull a bind one on me. I’m here to tell you that whatever you have planned, it’s not going to work,” He pointed at the blinking device. “See this? You so much as try anything, I’ll activate those collars around your neck and your head goes boom. I’m not really in the mood to fuck a corpse, but I’m not against it either.”

Xayah cast me a worried look. “What’s the plan?” She seemed to ask me. I tried not to look too scared. I had a plan, just had to figure out how to pull it off. I hadn’t considered bomb collars and a lack of magic.

Darbies hoof lowered and he slowly pet one of the whimpering mares chained up beside him. He shook the bomb collar activator in the air a little. “Well. Let's get this party started. Why don’t you cuties go line up against the wall there. Give me a little show.”

Xayah and Star glanced at me nervously for confirmation. Gulping, I gave them both a nod and trotted over to the blood stained wall he had indicated, my muzzle stopping only inches away from the hanging shackled on the wall. Xayah and Star quickly followed, taking their place on either side of me.

I shivered as I felt Darbies disgusting gaze looking us over. “Well, don’t just stand there!” Darbies growled, pulling himself up from his chair and trotting over to us. He loomed over me and rammed his hoof against the back of my head, shoving me face first into the ground. My forehooves buckled. “Faces down, hind legs apart!”

I whimpered as he forced me down into the sultry position, my cheeks burning with shame as he loomed above me. Giving small, frightened squeaks, Xayah and Star quickly followed suit, pushing themselves down into matching positions.

Darbies just gave another low growl, unsatisfied. “You cunts need training. Give it a few years, you’ll get the hang off it,” He turned his head, glancing back at the two mares chained by his desk. “Cuties, show them how daddy likes it.”

Both of the mares pulled themselves to their hooves, spinning around before placing their face against the cold ground and raising their tails. They both whimpered, tears streaking down their dirty faces, but they obeyed without question.

I could practically feel Darbies smile. “See. You’ll learn how to behave like those cuties over there soon enough. Now get those tails up. I want to see what I bought.”

Biting back a snarl of rage and disgust, I slowly raised my tail up, careful not to let the needle inside slip out. I saw Xayah quickly do the same, followed shortly by a very hesitant and furiously blushing Star Breeze.

“Was that so hard?” Darbies chuckled, seemingly more to himself than to us. He started pacing back and forth behind us, practically drinking in the sights we were presenting for him. After a minute, he stopped behind Xayah, looking her over carefully and sneering. “You’ve seen a bit of action, haven't you stripe. Pretty forceful action by the looks of it. Some raiders already have their way with you?”

I failed to bite back my scowl. “Leave her alone!” The words had hardly left my mouth when Darbies’ hoof shot out and slapped my across the face, sending me skidding to the side and toppling to the ground.

“You do not get to talk back to me!” Darbies roared, once more looming over me. His hoof reached out and choked at my neck as he glared down at me in rage. “I am your master now! You will shut up when I rut you and your friends and you’ll fucking thank me when I’m done!”

“Amber! Get off of her now you brute!” Xayah screamed, staggering back up and rushing at Darbies.

Before she could reach him, Darbies swung the detonator up and waved it in her face. “Get back into position stripe or I blow the pink fillies fucking head off and fuck you with her horn!”

Xayah froze, her wide eyes staring in horror at the detonator in front of her before slowly taking a step back and returning to Darbies ordered position. She cast me a worried glance, her eyes filled with fear.

Groaning, Darbies returned his attention to me and smirked. “I think we’ve been beating around the bush for long enough, don’t you? How ‘bout we show your friends what I have planned for you?”

I felt panic flare up inside me as Darbies reached down and started spreading my hind legs. Realizing what he was about to do, I frantically swung my tail up, trying to blindly stab him with the needle hidden inside. My tail simply batted helplessly against his back, doing little more than annoy him.

Growling, he turned and grabbed my tail in his mouth and gave it a hard yank. I gave a startled yelp of surprise as he forcefully ripped me off the ground, my whole body dangling in the air as he violently held my tail. A second later, there was a small clattering sound as the needle in my tail came loose and fell to the floor, rolling across the ground and bumping against Darbies large hoof. I shut my eyes tight and held my breath, praying he wouldn’t notice it.

He noticed it.

I was slammed back into the ground, one of Darbies large hooves pinning my head down as the other picked up the needle and looked it over. “What the fuck is this! Bitch! So the Rippers sent you! Did you really think you could just walk into my fucking a house and fuck with me!” He growled at me, carelessly tossing the needle as far away from me as he could. “I think it’s time I teach you some fucking respect, cunt!”

I gave a frightened scream as he tossed me across the room, my head crashing into his desk and making the two chained up mares whimper with fear. I scrambled back up, trying to pull myself away.

Darbies was faster.

Before I could get back to my hooves, Darbies wrapped a hoof around my neck and slammed me against his desk again, mashing my face into the hard wood desktop. I choked, trying desperately to pull air into my lungs as his whole, heavy body violently leaned over me, both hooves reaching out and holding me down. My eyes shot wide with fear and my pupils turned to pinpricks as I felt something large and hard push itself against the side of my rump.

“Start begging! Scream! I want to hear you fucking scream!” Darbies roared, spittle flying from his vile mouth and splattering across my mane.

Then, Darbies froze. I could feel his whole body go rigid atop me and a low sounding groan of pain escaped his lips. There was a small clattering noise as the detonator fell from his grip, followed shortly by a heavy thud as he slipped off me and fell to the ground.

Breathing heavily and feeling the beginning of a panic attack rising up in my chest, I looked up to see the two mares Darbies had chained by his desk, both of them quickly backing away from the slumped form of the massive raider they had just shoved a needle into the back off. Xayah and Star were staring at me from across the room, looks of horror across their own faces.

I looked down at Darbies immobilized form for a second, making out his slow breaths and his eyes darting around frantically in their sockets, before I looked back up at the two mares. “Th-thanks… A-are you alright?”

One of the mares nodded, their horrified gaze still locked on Darbies. “Y-yeah… w-we… we… We are okay…” she put a hoof to her muzzle as she muffled her own scream. “O-oh my goddesses… Are we going to die…”

I took a deep breath, quickly rushing over to Star and unbinding her wings. “N-no. You’re going to be fine. Star, can you open up a window and fly them out of here?”

Star gave me a wide eyed expression. “But what about you guys?” I can’t just leave you and Xayah here?”

I shook my head, digging around in Darbies desk drawer until I found the keys to unlock our collars and my magic reduction ring. “Xayah and I will be fine. We can handle ourselves. Just get them out of here.”

Star nodded, swooping over and opening up a window before gesturing for the mares to follow her. "Alright, but I expect you to get out of this alive, okay? you, uh... You still owe me..." As soon as they were beside her, she wrapped her hooves around them and shot out into the sky outside. From the strain on her face, I could tell that they were a little heavy for her to carry all at once, but she seemed to make do.

As soon as they were out of sight, I turned back to face the room, taking in Darbies still immobilized form and Xayah’s worried look.

“Amber? Are you okay?” the zebra asked me, her eyes scanning my face for any signs of trauma.

I shuddered a little, recalling just how close I had come to being raped by that monster. “I uh… I’m okay Xayah. Really.”

Xayah looked me over a little bit longer, her expression still filled with concern. “T-thank you for saving me,” She finally said, shuddering a little herself. “And remember that if you need to talk about what just happened, I am here for you.”

I averted my gaze and gave a quick nod. I just wanted to get out of here as quickly as I could. I turned and glared down at Darbies, my magic quickly scooping his large knife up off the desk and hovering it above his chest. His eyes grew as large as saucers as he stared in terror at the floating blade.

I hesitated for a moment, trying to urge myself to cut the monster's heart out. A sick twisted part of myself really, really wanted to, but a small niggling in the back of my brain was still protesting against the idea.

I saw Darbies jaw loosen a little bit. The chems effects must already have been wearing off a little. The Queen had said that its effect should last a few hours or so, but Darbies was a big pony. We probably should have given him a larger dosage.

“W-wait… s… stop,” Darbies managed to gasp out, his body refusing to cooperate with him as he struggled to move. “I c-c-can g-give you… w-whatever... y-you want, cutie... those passports… they’re yours… Just let me… li- ive...”

I shook my head, glaring down at him as Xayah joined me by my side. “I don’t think so. Killing you will give me those passports as well, and you’ve given me a pretty damn big reason to want you dead.”

Darbies eyes widened a little as my words cut through him just as sharply as the knife was about to. “P-p-p-please… I… d-don’t… want… to… die…”

Grimacing, I nodded to Xayah. “Go plant the forgeries. I need a moment with Darbies.”

Xayah nodded, detaching one of her cybernetic hooves and pulling the folded up forgery papers out of the spot we had hidden them in one of her metal joints. She quickly reattached her leg and trotted away from me, scattering the papers across the table and hiding a few of them inside the drawers. The Queens had given us no shortage of forgeries to plant in his office.

Returning my gaze to Darbies and taking a deep breath, I let my magic lurch downwards and stab the serrated knife into the immobilized raiders chest. I winced as blood spurted from the wound, soaking my face in crimson, but I kept cutting. Darbies howled with pain as the blade sunk deep into his flesh, blood flowing from the wound and polling around his rigid form.

Once again, I was thankful that Darbies had been stupid enough to sound proof his room. He had been cautious, but not cautious enough.

Gritting my teeth, I slowly dragged the knife down his front, ripping open his hide and displaying the gore splattered rib cage beneath. One of Darbies' hooves spasmed as I sliced away at him, but he didn’t have enough control over it to try and stop me.

“N-n-n-n-no!” Darbies burbled, blood pushing its way up past his lips and oozing down his front. “Pleeeee-eease….”

I shut my eyes and yanked the knife towards me with my magic, fully slashing open the front of his stomach. More hot blood spilled across the floor, this time accompanied by a wave of spewing intestines. Darbies howls became little more than blubbering as he begged for me to stop.

Stealing myself, I raised my hoof and stomped down on his exposed ribcage. There was a loud crack as my hoof slammed into him, smashing open the gore soaked bones and revealing the pulsing muscle beneath. I slid the knife over the exposed arteries, violently slicing the arteries and freeing the pumping heart from his chest.

It took almost a minute of agonizing pain for him to finally die, even after his heart was fully removed. The Queen had been right, this chem was impressive. And terrifying.

Xayah trotted over to me, grimacing as she looked down at the bloodied corpse of Darbies. Nervously, she glanced back up at me. “Are we ready to get out of here?”

“Are all the forgeries in place?” I countered, sliding the bloody heart into my saddlebag. I felt it sloshing around at my side as it continued to seep blood into my bag. Xayah nodded in response, inciting me to take a deep breath. “Then yeah. Lets get the fuck out of here. I’ve had enough of Freeside.”

Xayah activated the stealth talisman in her foreleg and flickered out of view beside me. A second later I flared up my horn, taking a deep breath as I prepared my spell. There was a small flash, and I disappeared with her.

I finally released the invisibility spell, dropping to the dirty ground in exhaustion. Xayah appeared beside me, worriedly reaching down and helping me back to my hooves. Escaping the old police station had been fairly easy. It was well defended, but it wasn’t prepared for invisible ponies that were already on the inside.

It hadn’t taken long for knews of Darbies death to spread either. We hadn’t even left the building, when cries of alarm started ringing out across the city and raiders started pouring into Freeside from the Strip above. Apparently, killing the leader of the Shackles gang was enough to rile up the big gangs upstairs.

I felt a little bit smug when I started hearing ponies screaming in rage about the Shackles gang letting ponies into the strip against Jinx and the main gang's wishes. Clearly those forgeries were working like a charm. The Queen had been right, that was not something Jinx was simply going to let go unpunished.

By the time Xayah and I reached the alley that we had agreed to meet back up with our friends at, my magic was spent and I could feel myself going into a state of exhaustion. I took a long, heaving breath, trying to steady myself as my horn pulsed with pain and a sharp, stinging sensation slashed through the large crack Viscera had slashed into my horn.

Before I could catch my breath fully, Birsk plowed into me, wrapping his hooves around me in a tight hug. “Sis! Thank the goddesses you got out,” He pulled away, looking at me worriedly. “Star told us what happened. Are you uh… are you okay?”

I winced, glancing over at Star who was shuffling nervously beside Pyre and Mirra as they approached us. “I… yeah. I’m okay. Darbies is dead now. He can’t hurt anypony else.”

Brisk gave me a skeptical look, but did take a step back. “A-alright… but if you need to talk to anypony about what happened, I’m uh… I'm here for you. I know what that kinda shit is like…”

I gave him a grim nod, not really wanting to think about it any more than I have to. “I’ll be fine,” I looked back at Star. "The mares? Are they okay?"

Star gave me a quick nod. "I flew them to the edge of Freeside. They said that they should be able to flee the city from where I left them."

I felt myself fill with a little relief. I wish there was more I could have done for them, but at least they weren't prisoners to that slaving monster anymore. I glanced over at Pyre. "And the Queens? Is everything working according to plan?"

Pyre gave a loud grunt as she pulled up beside us. “A few minutes ago, the Disciples and Operators started coming down from the Strip. The Shackles are already being evicted from the balloon station and power is being transferred over to the Queens. The plan worked like a charm,” she gave Star, Xayah and I a nervous, worried look. “I’m sorry we had to put you three through that. I wish there had been a better way. Selling you to that bastard was… difficult for me.”

I didn’t doubt it, her having been a slave once herself and all. I suddenly felt bad for not thinking about that when I came up with the plan in the first place.

“At least that fucker got what was coming to him,” Star scowled, scrapping her hoof across the rough ground. “I can’t fucking stand slavers.”

“Speaking of which,” I grumbled, reaching into my saddlebag and pulling out Darbies’ fleshy heart. “I’m going to need you to burn this, Pyre. Get rid of the evidence and all.”

Star gagged as I tossed the blood soaked heart on the ground in front of them. “What the fuck is it with you ponies and pulling body parts out of your saddlebags today. Fuck…”

Xayah gave her a timid smile. “They are not usually so vile. You have joined up with us at a bad time.”

Mirra hopped off Pyre’s back as Pyre began disposing of the heart. She fluttered over to me, hoofing over a small slip of paper. “Shortly after the Queens took control of the station, they gave us this,” She told me in an oddly excited tone. “It's about getting up to the strip.”

I took the paper in my throbbing magic and read it over, squinting my eyes to try and read the swirly, calligraphy on the page.

I would have loved to personally thank you for aiding in our swift reclamation of the balloon Station, however, I’m afraid we will not be able to meet again face to face, to avoid any further suspicion of our collaboration of course. The Queens are in your debt. Give this paper to my guards that have just been positioned at the station. They will make sure that you get up to the Strip safely.

-The Queen.

I read it all over one more time before taking a deep breath. "Alright then. I guess it's time to go to the Strip."

I sighed as I looked down at the filthy streets of Freeside below. It looked just as vile from up here in the hot air balloon as it did down on the streets proper, if not more so. I don’t think I had ever been so happy to get away from anywhere. Granted, something told me that the Strip wasn't going to be much better.

“You’re lucky the Queen has given you permission into the Strip,” The ghoul stallion in the red sequin dress groaned from behind me, glaring daggers at Pyre as he slowly raised the hot air balloon higher and higher into the sky. “If it were up to me, I’d fill you all with holes and give your corpses over to Jinx.”

Pyre gave the ghoul a playful punch on the shoulder that made him flinch in fear. “Like you could kill me if you tried.”

I looked away from the streets below me and addressed Pyre. “Anything you want to tell us before we finally get to the Strip? Any last second surprises we should be aware of?”

Pyre thought about that for a second. “Try not to piss the gang leaders off. Even if you really, really want to. We came here for their help. Making them angry will just make them shoot us,” Pyre thought a second longer. “And let me do the talking. Things are probably going to get pretty intense once we get up there. Best you all just don't say anything.”

Star slunked over to the edge of the balloon and looked down, staring down at something that caught her eye on the street below. “It looks like the Enclave managed to get past the wall,” She stated, pointing at a few black specks marching down the street. “They’ll probably make it into the Strip sooner rather than later.”

Brisk grumbled. “I’ve had enough of these Enclave ponies. Hopefully we’re out of here by the time those dicks decide to pull something,” Star gave an annoyed snort at the comment. Brisk’s eyes widened in horror as he released who he had said that in front of. “I uh… N-no offence. Y-you’re great! Like, super cool and stuff! And cute! Wait, did I just say that out loud…?”

Both Mirra and I snickered at him for his outburst.

Star just rolled her eyes. “Don’t mention it. I’m fucking tired of the Enclave too… To think I spent my whole life working for those ass munching cucks, only for them to do all this… Fuck me…”

Pyre gave a small grunt. “We’ll probably need to deal with them before we leave anyway, Brisk. No way in fuck Jinx is just going to lend us her raiders while the Enclave is so close to the Strip.”

Brisk huffed at that. “Fuck. They just had to pick today of all days to make their move on Dashite City. They couldn’t have held off until tomorrow?”

An idea clicked in my head. “That might not be a bad thing though, right? I mean, maybe we can use it as a bargaining chip with the gang leaders somehow? We help them deal with the Enclave and they give us their help in return?”

Star frowned. “You want to try and take out five Raptors? That’s fucking insane! One would be hard enough, but five?! Not to mention they practically have a whole army out there as well, just waiting for an opportunity to storm the Strip.”

"You clearly have not been around us very long,” Xayah mussed smugly. “Overcoming impossible odds tend to be a large part of Amber's plans. They only sometimes don’t work.”

I gave her a grateful smile. “I appreciate your confidence in my plans.”

Xayah returned my smile, though hers was noticeably more playful. “I did not say I was confident in your plans. We will most likely die, as per usual.”

“Would you all quit your yapping? You’re giving me a headache,” The ghoul raider groaned as he tossed a sandbag over the side of the hot air balloon, making the whole thing rise just a little higher. He glanced up at the massive cloud above us that was rapidly getting closer. “Besides, it looks like we’re there…”

The balloon rose and leveled with a large landing pad that had somehow been built into the overhanging cloud. The ghoul tossed a rope over to a raider already awaiting us on the platform, allowing him to reel us in.

Now above the cloud, I was able to get my first good look at the Las Pegasus Strip. Cracked, beige roads made from what I could only assume were tightly packed clouds zigzaged across the massive clouds surface. Towering hotels and Casinos lined the streets, their pristine looking edifices completely covered with blinking neon signs and flashy signs. A massive roller coaster cluttered the skyline and a huge slowly spinning ferris wheel filled the air with a loud creaking noise. Far in the distance, I could see a massive pyramid of glass looming over all the other structures. I had seen the pyramid the first time I had gotten a glance at the city, but now a little closer, I was beginning to realize just how big it was. Some of the casinos here made Tenpony tower look small.

Towering over everything from the centre of the Strip was the massive white monolith of the S.P.P. Tower, rising from the ground and protruded up above the clouds even above this one. I could see a few groups of Pegasi patrolling the skies around the tower and a few platforms protruded from some of the higher levels, each one holding up collections of sky wagons and even a Raptor.

Massive, hanging signs seemed to obscure a lot of my view, each one with large flashing arrows pointing towards different buildings. I managed to quickly make out the hotel names of ‘Gladmanes’, ‘New Rome’, and ‘The Somnambula’ before my focus was averted to more pressing matters...

...More pressing matters like the two hundred some odd guns that were suddenly being leveled with my head. Clearly we were expected.

The landing platform of the Las Pegasus Strip was filled with hundreds of heavily armed raiders. I noticed there seemed to be a clear divide down the centre of the raiders, the raiders on one side wearing light metal armour over top of dirty looking suits, many of them also having been cybernetically augmented in some way, while the raiders on the other side were dressed more traditional raider fashion, bearing heavy welded plates and rusty, blood soaked spikes. The Operators and Disciples respectively, I assumed.

I gulped, my eyes roaming over all the raiders aiming their guns at us. I leaned in a little closer to Pyre. “Uh… This is part of the plan, right?”

Pyre gave a hesitant nod. “We are here to talk to them… so... Kind of? I wasn't exactly expecting the welcome committee though.”

“You got a lot of fucking balls!” A raider roared. I looked back at the mass of raiders, making out a dark grey unicorn buck dressed in a dark leather jacket. A jagged looking knife was strapped to his side and his hooves had been wrapped in criss crossing barbed wire. The grey buck came to a stop in front of the crowd of raiders, sneering at us with his deadly, sharpened fangs. “Pyre fucking Blaze. Why is it that three raiders come up here with your severed head, claiming your bounty, only for me to find out half an hour later that you’ve been spotted again in Freeside?”

Pyre gave the raider a smirk through her helmet. “What can I say, I’m hard to kill,” She waved an armoured hoof at the large group of raiders before us. “Did you really all come to welcome me home? Razor Blade, you shouldn’t have.”

So this was Razor Blade. The leader of the Las Pegasus Disciples and second in command under Jinx. He looked menacing enough to fit the title.

“You’ve caused us a lot of fucking trouble,” Razor Blade scowled, taking another advancing step towards us. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t slash your throat and throw you off the Strip.”

“Because I have a deal for you. I wouldn’t come here if I didn't have something good,” Pyre replied coolly. “And I think you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”

"Or maybe you're just desperate,” Razor Blade retorted, his horn glowing a dark red as his magic yanked his twisted knife from its sheath. “Either way, you aren’t leaving Las Pegasus alive.”

Another raider strode forward, this one a large, green mare. She was dressed in what I had begun to assume was the Operators signature grey suit covered by dark grey combat armour and her legs had been replaced with shiny white, cybernetic ones. “Perhaps we should hear her out,” The mare scolded Razor Blade, her intelligent sounding voice lacking any sort of emotional inflection. Razor Blade snarled, but took a step back. “I doubt that Pyre is stupid enough to come back here if she didn't indeed have something truly worth saying,” The mare turned her piercing gaze to us. “Now, this deal of yours?”

Pyre gave a coy nod. “Thank you Magazine, and yes, this plan will interest you. You most of all, but I think all of the Las Pegasus raiders will be rather interested,” She took a step forward, finally moving off of the hot air balloon and onto the large landing pad. After a few seconds of hesitation, we all moved off after her. “I’m sure that over the years, you’ve all heard rumours of the Institute of Arcane Technology, supposedly located out somewhere in Manehattan. I’m sure you’ve also heard rumours of just what treasures they have there. I’m here to tell you that we know a way in.”

Magazine’s eyes widened in interest. “The Institute? You know how to get there? Where it is?”

Razor Blade snarled. “She’s lying. You and your Operators have been trying to find it for years. Tripwire got close, then he disappeared off the map,” He gave Pyre another sharp toothed sneer. “Pyre is bluffing. This is some sort of trick. I say we just kill her now!”

“Not a trick. Amber and Mirra have been there and back already. Amber twice now,” Pyre countered smugly, gesturing to Mirra and I. “We know where it is, and how to get in. And that's where our deal comes into play. We need into the Institute, but there's an army inside standing between us and what we’re after. You help us fight our way through, the tech inside is all yours.”

Magazine looked practically giddy and a small smirk kept flickering across her face. Hiding her smile, she turned to show off the deadly looking gatling laser mounted to her side. “And how do we know you aren’t lying? What is this thing you're ever in the Institute?”

“Is the fact I felt it necessary to risk everything and come back to Las Pegasus not proof enough? As you said, I wouldn't come here if I didn't truly have something good,” Pyre countered swiftly. “As for what we want in Institute we want. There are a few things. First and foremost, they have a big mind control machine in there or some shit that is preparing to go live in about a day and a half, so that’s obviously one thing. I also have my own personal reasons for wanting to make that place burn.”

Razor Blaze and Magazine turned to each other and seemed to exchange a silent conversation as they mulled over what Pyre said. Eventually they turned back, looking somewhat conflicted. “Lots of nice tech, seems more of a gift for the Operators,” Razor Blade stated bluntly. “What do the other gangs get?”

Pyre grimaced. “I did mention there is an army in there. You and your Disciples want blood. You’ll get blood. Lots of it.”

"Hardly a reward, but tempting," Razor Blade scowled, narrowing his eyes. “And Viscera and her Pack? If we get something, she’s going to want something out of this too.”

I felt my stomach drop. I had been silently praying all day that Viscera had actually bleed out and died of her wounds back at the MWT hub in Manehattan. Her absence at this gathering had given me a little hope. But no such luck, apparently she was still alive and kicking somewhere.

Pyre gave Razor Blade an even stare. “Viscora is unreasonable. You know full well she wont accept anything from me, despite if it benefits the gangs or not,” I noticed she raised her voice at that, making sure that all the raiders present could clearly hear her. “The support of two raider gangs will be enough to convince Jinx though, no? So what do you say?”

The large group of raiders were fidgeting restlessly as we spoke, something clearly starting to rile them up a bit. I noticed a few of them starting to look a little trigger happy. A few new raiders were beginning to filter into the crowd, these ones dressed in brightly painted metal plates and nightmarish animal masks. I noticed to my horror, that there seemed to be a few Hellhound Raiders amongst the newcomers. Viscera's Pack was coming. We had to get these raiders on our side, and quickly.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forwards, pushing past Pyre to stand before the massive army of raiders. Brisk and Xayah quickly reached out to stop me, but I quickened my step to rush past them.

“Amber, what are you doing,” Pyre hissed at me, trying to get me to move back behind her. I just waved her hoof, planting my hooves firmly and puffing out my chest a little.

“Listen. Everypony! In the Institute is something called the Utopia Program,” I started, staring down the boring eyes of the raiders as they glared down on me. “Like Pyre said, it's getting activated in less than two days, and if it activates, it's not just going to be our problem, but your problem too. The Utopia Program is a giant memory based program, and if it activates, somepony named Pureblood is going to use it to enslave the minds of everypony in Equestria. That means all of you as well...”

A few raiders actually had the audacity to snicker at that. I winced, realizing just how ridiculous this whole thing sounded. Magazine gave me an unamused stare. “And what proof do you have that this Utopia Program exists? For that matter, do you even understand the magnitude of what you speak off, little filly? I’ve dedicated my whole life to collecting advanced tech, and I’ve never heard of something even remotely as advanced as what you describe. The amount of power that would be required to even attempt to do such a thing is-”

“This is the Institute. There are technological marvels in there far beyond anything you’ve likely seen,” I argued, bringing up what I knew was a point that would sway the raider mare over to my side. “And they have plenty of power. The Institute has a Crusader Maneframe Mark II, a one of a kind Maneframe developed by Scootaloo back during the war, running at around… uh… five hundred times the power of the other three… I think…” I didn’t really know how much power a normal Crusader Maneframe had, but I was pretty sure that’s what Scootaloo's logs had said back in the Institute.

Magazine’s eyes seemed to sparkle at that. “They have a Crusader Maneframe? Really?”

“That still changes nothing,” Razor Blade interjected. “If you hadn't noticed the Enclave is currently surrounding the city. Even if we did want to make this deal of yours, we can’t leave the Strip undefended with them so close by.”

I opened my mouth to answer him, only to get cut off as a crazed voice singsonged a single word out over the amassed raiders. “Pyyyreeee!” We all froze as the voice reached our ears. Even the squirming crowd of raiders seemed to go still.

Rapidly, the crowd began to part, making way for a blood soaked, cream coloured mare that was being flanked by five, massive raider Hellhounds. The air was filled with ear piercing screeches as she slowly dragged her sharpened hellhound claws across the ground, ripping a trail of groves into the ground as she approached us, her rump wiggled in the air as she seemingly danced along to a song that none of the rest of us could hear. her dazzling blue eyes narrowed in on Pyre as she waltzed forwards, her gaze filled with a strange intelligence and a frightening insanity.

Viscera finally slowed to a stop a few feet away from us, flashing all of us with what looked like it should have been a warm, inviting smile, had her mouth not been filled with jagged hellhound fangs. “Hello, Blazy. I missed you.”

I took a nervous step back at the sight of her, my heart hammering in my chest as my mind was flooded with the horrific memories of what she had done to us back at the MWT hub. I could practically feel Heartbeats blood spilling across the floor and pooling around my hooves. I could see Mirra trembling behind me, her large blue eyes staring in horror at the gore soaked raider.

My eyes glanced down at Viscera’s legs. Where Breaburn’s Liberator had once ripped her leg apart, a completely new leg had grown in its place. The soft hide looked a little cleaner and shorter than the rest of her, but her leg had very clearly grown back. It seemed impossible, but there it was.

A second later, my confusion was answered as my eyes landed on a rotting, pale green ghoul in a blood matted lab coat that was walking up behind Viscera. It was difficult to read from this distance, but I could still make out the faded letters on his name tag reading ‘Doctor Pestilence’.

I wanted to send a bullet through that bastard ghoul doctors head just by looking at him. That was the asshole that had done moral less experiments on ponies back before the war that drove them to suicide. The monster that had forcibly augmented Pyre despite her wishes. And the monster that had refused to help make Crank pony again.

“Viscera,” Pyre growled back, ignoring the presence of the ghoul doctor and bending her legs into a more battle ready stance. “I don’t have time to deal with you right now. We are-”

Viscera pounced at her before she could finish, her huge Hellhound claws digging deep into Pyre’s armour and slashing at the hide beneath. Pyre screamed, staggering back as Viscera lunged atop her and wrestled her down. One of Viscera’s hooves shot out, wrapping around Pyre’s neck and pulling her into a tight headlock.

“Pyre!” Mirra squeaked fearfully, rushing forwards, her blue eyes wide. One of Viscera’s hind hooves flashed out and lashed the changeling filly across the chest, sending her flying back and crashing to the ground with a thud.

“Give me a reason not to kill you now, cunt,” Viscera scowled, her claws digging deeper into Pyre’s armour. “I’ve been itching to sink my claws into your stomach and rip out your entrails!” I took a step forward to protect Pyre, only for Viscera to hiss viciously at me, making me take a nervous step back. Her gaze lingered on me for a second before her eyes widened with recognition and rage. “YOU!”

I gulped. “Oh shit…”

Viscera lunged off of Pyre, pouncing on me and pinning me to the ground. Her deadly claws sunk deep into my flesh, forcing a yell of pain out of me. “I’m going to eat you alive for what you did to me you bitch!” Oozing slavia dribbled from between her blood soaked lips and splattered across my face as she seethed. “Do you have any idea how painful it is to regrow limbs! Fucking Painful! I’m going to show you just how painful it fucking is!”

“Do try not to ruin my hard work again,” Doctor Pestilence drawled from behind her, pulling out a cigarette and taking a puff. “I’ve gotten tired of patching you up all the time Viscera.”

“Viscera, let them go!” Razor Blade ordered, his booming voice giving Viscera pause. I felt the sharp Hellhound claws sink into my hide a little deeper, and for a second, I thought Viscera might just decide to rip my head off then and there anyway. “Viscera, I said let them go!”

Viscera's expression temporarily brightened and she planted a quick kiss on my lips before pulling away and started stalking in a wide arch around us, her hellhound claws occasionally swiping at the ground as she resisted the urge to tear up apart.

I gasped for air as he weight was removed from me, bolting back up, wiping my lips with the back of my hoof and scuttling over to Xayah. I glared at Viscera for a second before shifting my gaze to Doctor Pestilence. "Why wouldn't you accept Crank's treatment," I growled at him.

Doctor Pestilence looked me over in confused interest for a second before shrugging. "I'm sorry. Who are you?" He took another puff from his cigarette, blowing out a large cloud of smoke between his peeled lips.

"A friend of his. I want to know why you didn't help him," I snarled back. I didn't know if I could truly call Crank a friend of mine, but it felt right to say anyway.

Pestilence though for a second. "Crank...? The cyborg freak? I'm afraid he simply didn't have enough caps for my services. Though I would have liked to dig around in that fascinating head of his. Truly, he was a cybernetic marvel. An example of what my... experiments... could have been had the bombs not fallen."

Viscera hissed, cutting off our conversation. "This is not the time Pestilence," She scowled, slashing one of her hoof claws a the ground. "You can return to your experiments later!" She paused as she looked us over for a second, her rump wiggled a little as her gaze passed over Pyre. Finally, Viscera smirked and turned back to Razor Blade. “Well? Do you mind telling me why you are sparing the traitor that Jinx very clearly ordered us to kill?”

Razor Blade hesitated at that remark. She had him there. If I had learned anything during my time in Las Pegasus, it was that you don’t go against Jinx’s wishes if you wanted to stay in charge of anything. Something told me Razor Blade had no interest in giving up his position as second in command in exchange for a deal with us.

“They know how to get us into the Institute,” Magazine finally said for him, taking a step towards Viscera, her cybernetic legs clanking and whirring as she moved. “We can’t pass up on that opportunity.”

Viscera rolled her eyes. “Well duh. I’m not deaf,” She tapped one of her ears with the side of her hoof. I was suddenly reminded that all of her senses had been enhanced. Of course she had heard the entire conversation. “Pyre said that the changeling filly has been inside, right. Just keep her and kill the rest. Pyre still dies, we all win.”

I felt my eyes go wide with fear at her comment. Pyre went rigid beside me, clearly she hadn’t expected that sudden turn of events. Razor Blade and Magazine glanced at each other for a second before nodding. “Fair enough. Works for me.”

I never saw the order get given, but suddenly all of the raiders lurched towards us in a mad frenzy of bashing teeth and blades. I jumped back, but it was too late. A large bat slammed down on my head, knocking me to the ground. The world seemed to spin as my head slammed against the platform, all of my senses being consumed by the overpowering ringing in my ears. Another raider slammed their hoof into my face, breaking my nose and causing blood to spurt across the ground and spill down my face.

I saw Brisk get slammed against the ground beside me as well, his forehead drizzling blood from a large wound that had stuck him across the face. A second later Xayah fell as well, her metal hooves being pinned to the ground as five raiders piled on top of her.

“No, wait! What about our deal!” Pyre screamed, fear flaring though her voice as she began backing up, her flamers roaring with fire. She was suddenly knocked back, a slash from one of Viscera’s hooves ripping through the front of her power armour. Blood spilled down Pyre’s front where the claws had rented into her armour and she gave a low moan as blood burbled up into her throat. She staggered for a moment before collapsing limp to her side.

Viscera leered at her, her sharp claws scratching at Pyre's now ruined power armour playfully. "Fuck your deal. Goodnight Blazy."

“Pyre! No!” Mirra’s wails sliced through the ringing in my ears as I tried to pull myself back up. I caught a quick, fuzzy glance of a group of raiders binding Mirra in chains and dragging her away as the small changeling thrashed and tried to get back to where Pyre had fallen. A raider clocked her over the head with the handle of his gun, knocking the thrashing filly unconscious.

I saw Star backing away as the raiders closed in on her, her eyes wide with fear. “S-star, run!” I shouted, my legs wobbling as I tried to stand. Another bash to the back of the head knocked me back down.

Star spun around, her wings flapping as she tried to take flight. She only made it about an inch off the ground when a beam of energy from Magazine’s gatling laser flashed through the air, slashing through one of her wings and dropping her back to the ground. Star screamed as the raiders surrounded her, their guns aiming down and pressing against her head.

“You know what to do with them,” I heard Viscera cooing gleefully. I heard Razor Blade give a grunt of agreement, but nothing more.

I rolled onto my back, blood spilling down my face and dripping into my eye. Through my spinning vision, I saw the cream, blood soaked visage of Viscera leering down at me. “You shouldn't have come here Amber, but I want to personally thank you anyway. Now I’m finally going to get to have my real fun.”

Viscera’s hoof rose, hovering over my face. I opened my mouth, panic flaring through me and blood dripping from my lips. “N-no… w-wait!” Viscera’s hoof fell, slamming down on my head. Then everything went dark.

I gave a loud groan as my eyes drifted open. I blinked, my vision slowly adjusting to the dim light as I tried to make sense of my surroundings. I was in some kind of room? A prison cell maybe?

Probably not a prison cell. There didn’t seem to be any bars, and the doorway out appeared to be unlocked.

Still stuck in a bit of a daze, I pulled myself up into a sitting position, grumbling as all the blood rushed to my already throbbing head. I winced, rubbing at my temple with a hoof to try and numb the pain. It didn’t work.

“Slow down, Amber. You took a nasty bump to the head. It’s going to sting a little.”

I glanced up at the voice, making out the shape of Pyre Blaze slumped against the far corner of the room. She looked terrible, with massive chunks of her armour missing and her exposed hide coated in a thick layer of drying blood. Even still, I was glad to see her. For a second I thought she had… had…

I gulped, not wanting to think about it. “Are you okay?” I finally grunted, dragging myself over and plopping myself down on the ground next to her.

Pyre nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be fine. Viscera left us with some healing potions. Not enough to heal the wounds completely, but I’ll live,” she gestured to four empty healing potions that now lay scattered across the floor. “Gave you one too. Your wounds weren’t that bad, just a broken nose by the looks of it.”

I raised my eyebrow at her in confusion. “Viscera left you… a healing potion? W-why?”

“Because she didn’t want to spoil her fun,” Pyre grimaced, her eyes drifting to the door leading out of the room. “Amber… I’m… I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I… I really thought that I might be able to get through to them… That I could help reform them… show them a better way, like you showed me a better way…” her head sagged and she stared down at her hooves. “I should never have taken all of you to Las Pegasus. Everypony was right. I was stupid. You should never have trusted me. I was fucking stupid and now you’re all going to die. Mirra is going to die... Just like all my other friends… and it’s all because of me.”

I felt my blood run cold. “P-Pyre, what do you mean by that? Why are we going to die?” I glanced around at the empty cement room around us, feeling a chill pass through me. “And where are we? Where is everypony else?”

“Gone… probably trapped deeper in.”

I could feel a sense of dread washing over me. “Deeper in? Pyre, What is going on! Deeper into what?! What is this place!”

Pyre looked back up, her gaze leveling with me. Even through her visor, I could see the clear fear displayed in her teary eyes. “Amber, the Las Pegasus gangs have sentenced us to death.”

There was a loud crackle of static, making us both look up at a small speaker and security camera at the top of the wall. The camera's lens was aimed at us, watching us. “Attention all my favourite undesirables out there in the Las Pegasus Strip, it looks like our little friends have finally all woken up,” Viscera’s voice sang from the speaker, her malicious sounding tone sending chills shooting down my spine. “In case you haven’t heard yet, we got ourselves some fresh meat! Welcome my little ponies… to the Gauntlet of Fire!”

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Sorry to anyone that read this chapter directly after it was uploaded. I just noticed the entire thing was uploaded in italics My apologies if you had to deal with that, I have no clue why that happened. Hopefully I fixed it all.

That aside, I hope you all have a great day.

Fallout: Equestrian belongs to Kkat