“And she's off. Let's see if our latest prey can draw any… Inspiration.. from our previous victims…”

Fucked

We were so unbelievably fucked.

Coming to Las Pegasus and trying to recruit the help of the Las Pegasus gangs had been a risky plan to begin with, but it wasn’t until that moment that I realized just how badly we might have fucked up.

“The Gauntlet of fire!” I exclaimed, pulling myself up to my hooves and staring wide eyed and Pyre. “What the fuck is the Gauntlet of Fire?!” The name sounded oddly familiar, and I seemed to recall reading an old, pre war book about dragons back in Stable 25 that mentioned something with a very similar title. Granted, that book had been pretty loose on its description. Something about no pony really knowing much about dragon culture.

“It was an old dragon tradition,” Pyre told me, grumbling to herself and climbing back up to her wobbly hooves. “Back in the days before the war, the dragon lord would make the dragons undergo an obstacle course of sorts for the position of dragon lord.”

“So… wait, what does that have to do with us?” I asked, cocking my head a little. “If we do this gauntlet, are we going to become the new dragon lord?”

Pyre chuckled at that. “I wish. Nah, there are no big promotions waiting for us at the end of this. That would be stupid. It’s just a name Viscera stole for her death maze.”

Her what! My jaw dropped open and I started glancing around the room frantically, looking for a way out. I had seen first hoof how fucked up and cruel Viscera could be. The last thing I wanted was to be in a death maze that she had designed.

Seeing no way out except for the unlocked door that Viscera clearly wanted us to go through, I glanced back at Pyre. “Any idea what we’re going to find out those doors?”

Pyre shook her head sadly. “Viscera changes the maze up every few months, she doesn't want it to get stale. The only thing I can guarantee is that there are going to be traps, lots of fucked up traps. Probably a few things meant to scare us or get under our skin…” She took a deep breath, her gaze transfixed on the door. “And the ending… if we make it that far… the end never changes…”

I shivered. “What’s at the end of the maze?”

Pyre gestured at the room around us. “We’re currently in the tunnel systems under the New Rome casino, a pre war building designed to look like an old gladiator arena from ancient Cloudsdale. The maze should lead right up to the large colosseum at the casinos centre,” She grimaced, stealing herself. “A few years back, Jinx managed to enslave a fully grown dragon… Let's just say that Viscera chose the name Gauntlet of Fire for a reason…”

I could feel my mouth go dry. “You think there’s a dragon waiting for us at the end of this? Any chance that's going to be different this time around?”

Pyre hesitated, but shook her head. “It's possible it's something else. There was one time Viscera unleashed an army of fire ants instead, but I wouldn’t put too much hope in that. One thing’s for sure, whatever awaits us at the end of this will be fire based. I doubt Viscera would pass up on the opportunity to kill me with anything less ironic.”

“And you think our friends are deeper into the maze?” I shivered at the idea of them trying to escape whatever Viscera had concocted.

Pyre gave a firm nod. “I’d be surprised if they aren’t. Viscera wants this to be a big show. She probably won’t let them die until we can watch it with our own two eyes.”

I took a deep breath. “Alright… then let's not leave them waiting. Are you ready?”

Pyre just looked at me in surprise. “Amber, you don’t get it, do you? We aren’t making it out of here. No pony has ever escaped the Gauntlet of Fire alive, and Viscera isn’t going to hold back this time. If you thought what Viscera did to us in the MWT hub was bad, this is going to be a hundred times worse…” She paused and looked away from me, trembling slightly. “She wants to make sure my death is poetic Amber, there’s probably going to be things in there… things about me I really don’t want to see.”

Cautiously, I trotted over to her and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Pyre, we’ve had this conversation before. I know your past is fucked up, but you’ve put an effort towards becoming a better pony, and you’ve helped me work towards making a better tomorrow. Whatever we find in there, we’ll face it together.”

“Ahhh, look at you two being all nice and sweet,” Viscera’s static filled voice mocked at us over the intercom. “Now hurry up and enter the fucking Gauntlet little ponies, we’re getting bored out here.”

Pyre gave me a nod before approaching the door. “Let me go first Amber, I can take more hits than you,” She reached the door and raised her hoof to it, slowly pushing it open with a loud creak.

The second the door cracked open, ten silvery spheres dropped from above, clattering down and around Pyre’s hooves. Instinctively, my horn flared to life and wrapped the ten apple grenades that had come tumbling through the door back out into the hallway beyond. “Pyre, get down!” I shouted, jumping back as the explosives detonated, fire and shrapnel flashing down the hallway and rocking the room.

Pyre staggered back, her armour getting scratched up as the shrapnel slashed at her, but the heavy power armour seemed to take the brunt of the damage for her.

“Looks like they set off the first trap! They’re going to need to be more careful if they don’t want to become like our last victims," Viscera’s voice cooed smugly.

I cast an angry glance up at the speaker. “Ugh... are you going to be rambling like that the whole time? I know you’re trying to torture us, but your annoying voice is a little more than I can handle. It’s like listening to a foal screeching.”

For a long second, there was silence on the other side of the speaker. “Oh, fuck you Amber Aura! I’m going to make sure you die slow, you bitch! I’m going to flay the flesh from your bones and dangle your corpse from the top of the Las Pegasus Strip!” Viscera roared, the sound of her voice warping over the speakers as she screamed into them. I felt myself smirk. That was probably going to bite me in the ass later, but I had at least gotten the satisfaction of pissing her off a little.

“Try not to make her want to kill us more than she already does,” Pyre grumbled, looking down the hallway and this time making sure there weren’t any traps. “It won’t make her kill us any faster, and it definitely won’t make her let us go. If anything, our deaths will just be more painful.”

Grimacing at that fact, I followed after her as Pyre started creeping down the hallway. The hallway was uncomfortably narrow, only just wide enough to fit Pyre’s large bulk. It would have been completely pitch black as well, had Pyre not turned on the lamp on her helmet.

Pyre paused for a moment as she rounded a corner in the hallway. She looked around the new area for a second before glancing back at me. “Amber, how good are you at disarming traps?”

I frowned. “I’ve never tried, but I don’t see why I can’t. What kind of traps?”

Pyre looked back down the hall, before shifting to let me past her. “Every kind.”

I gaped at the blood soaked room beyond her. It wasn’t overly large, maybe only about twenty feet by twenty feet. A steel door lay on the far side of the room, its metal surface soaked in blood from the brutalized corpse of a pony that had dropped dead only a few inches from reaching the far side. The room was filled with hundreds of tripwires, some of them stretched across the floor, while others reached through the air above. It reminded me of a massive spider web, only this web was made from silvery wire.

Following one of the tripwires with my eyes, I spotted what looked to be a massive flamethrower protruding from the wall, clearly rigged to activate if the trap were to be tripped. It was not the only one either. It seemed every inch of the walls were covered with some trap rigged weapon. I noticed shotguns, makeshift pistols, even a few rocket launchers to my growing horror. Even the roof and floor were not free of deadly traps, the floor housing a few open iron bear traps, and at least a dozen apple grenades dangled from the roof by string.

I gulped. “Uh… I mean, we can stand back and let me activate them all with my magic,” I suggested, taking a step back from the lethal killing room.

Pyre narrowed her eyes and glanced at the room. “Yeah… we could… seems too easy…”

I shrugged and stepped back, urging Pyre to step back with me. “Just stand back, something tells me things are going to get really messy,” As soon as we were both a safe distance away, I let my horn flare to life.

Ffwhoosh!

I staggered back, fire flashing before my vision and charring my hide. I collapsed to the floor with a scream, rolling around and frantically trying to bat out the flames. Pyre lunged over top of me, her body protecting me from the sudden surge of fire that seemed to burn away at the air around us. A few seconds later, and the fire dissipated.

“Did you really think I didn’t take magic into account?” Viscera howled with laughter from some unseen speaker above us. “I let you use it in the last trap, cause I thought it’d be fun, but not any more. The gauntlet is being flooded with a magic flammable gas. Harmless to you normally, or well, kind of harmless... but the second magic touches it, boom!”

I grit my teeth as I put out the last of the flames smouldering on my flesh. Fuck, I should have known Viscera wouldn’t make it that easy.

Pyre glanced down at me worriedly. “You alright?”

I gave her a grim nod and pulled myself back up, looking over at the deadly trap filled room. to my dismay, none of them seemed to have activated. “Yeah… looks like we’re going to need to disarm all of those manually though.”

“I could try just charging through them?” Pyre suggested hopefully. “I might be able to survive the hits with my armour.”

I shook my head. “No chance. You might survive some of it, but there is no way even you can survive all those grenades and a missile launcher,” Pyre grimaced at that, but nodded in agreement.

Working up my courage to approach the room, I slowly slinked over and began looking for the nearest tripwire. Spotting it, I followed it along until I found the trap it was activated to and began trying to disarm it. It was slow, but after a few seconds, I managed to disarm it and snap the tripwire to no effect.

“Awww, looks like our little victims have something against fun,” Viscera's voice scoffed. “Why don’t we try to make things a little more interesting while our vics play around in there? I did a little bit of digging in the Manehattan Gardens and I found a few audio recordings I think we should listen to… Think of this as my first little gift to you...”

“Plaga! Stop! Please!” Pyre flinched as the pre-recorded voice crackled through the speakers. I paused as I moved onto the next trap, glancing up at the speaker. That had been Pyre’s voice. A very young sounding Pyre, but still very clearly Pyre.

“*Slap!* The fuck did you just call me! Try that again! *Slap*!” Pyre cringed back as her fathers voice boomed over the speaker, visibly flinching at each and every slap that echoed over the recording.

“Dddd-dad! Please!” filly Pyre’s voice wailed, her screams being muffled by her sobs. Her voice hiccuped, and was quickly followed by another painful sounding slap and thud as Pyre's father threw the trembling filly across the room. “Maaamaaa!”

Pyre flinched again, cowering down as she listened to the old recording. I growled at the speaker. “Viscera, stop! We don’t need to listen to this!” Viscera ignored me, simply letting the recording play out.

“Just don’t fight him Pyre,” The cracked, dry sounding voice of a mare I assumed was Pyre’s mother urged. “Just let him do what he wants… it’s easier that way.”

“*Slap* you be quiet bitch! I’ll deal with you later!” Plaga Blaze roared, his yells of rage followed by the sound of both mares whimpering. I tried to zone out the noise as the screaming audio recording grew louder, trying my best to focus on the traps as I moved onto the next one.

“Mom! D-daddy, stop please! I j-just want to go home!” Pyre begged, her voice cracking. Another slap, this one sounding a little louder than the others. Heavy pounding hoof steps seemed to echo over the speakers as Plaga Blaze violently charged towards his collapsed daughter. “N-nonO! Dad! S-stop! STOP! NO!”

The recording went dead. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room, and when I looked back at Pyre, I saw she had collapsed against the floor, sobbing. Growling up at the speaker, I disarmed another trap before hauling myself over to Pyre and sitting down next to her.

“I c-can't do this Amber,” Pyre whimpered, glaring down at her hooves. “Viscera will have more… it's going to get some much worse the farther in we go.”

I wrapped my hooves around her metal armour in an attempt to comfort her. “Yes you can. You’re stronger than Viscera is. We can get through this together. Mirra is still in trouble. We need to get through this... for her, right?”

Pyre just sat there and trembled for a few moments, before giving me a thankful nod. “Yeah… A-alright… Mirra needs us... just… You’re going to hear some bad things about me in here… Please… Still be my friend if we get out of this?” She looked up at me pleadingly, tears glinting behind her visor.

I gave her as warm of a smile as I could. “The alternative was never an option. I’ve stuck around your psychotic ass this long, Viscera isn’t going to change that.”

Helping her back up to her shaking hooves, we trotted back towards the traps and continued disarming them.

I felt a bead of sweat drip down my brow as I disarmed one of the last traps. There were a few tripwires I had left untouched, deciding not to waste my time on all of them and simply step over them instead. On the bright side, I had managed to pocket ten rounds of buckshot from a few of the rigged shotgun traps and had gingerly placed a handful of the dangling frag and shock grenades into my saddlebags.

“Well well, looks like they made it through the slaughter room!” Viscera chirped gleefully. “Good. I was looking forward to these next few things. I’ve got another present waiting for you just ahead.”

I pushed open the metal door carefully and trotted into the next room. Almost instantly, my hoof skidded a little as I stepped in the thick layer of fresh blood that coated the floor of the room beyond. The smell of rot assaulted my nostrils and I had to take a step back and cover my muzzle to prevent myself from gagging.

We had entered into a large metal room with a large, wooden door on the far side. A massive metal gate took up the wall to one side while the other side was covered in a thick layer of rusting spikes dangling with assorted body parts and organs. Pony corpses lined the walls of the room, all of their throats slit and snapped, blood spilling from their mangled forms and sloshing across the floor. I noticed that a few of the corpses seemed to have flash ripped from their bones, as if some vicious beast had been feasting on them. The bodies looked relatively fresh, they couldn’t have been more than a few hours old. Viscera had been going on a killing spree.

“Do the wounds all look familiar? They should…” Viscera’s voice cooed maliciously. “I thought I’d give you both a little reminder of your good friend Heartbeat. Oh how I loved watching the life drain from his eyes as you snapped his neck. I felt you deserved to see it all again. Deserved to remember what it was like to take his neck in your hooves and twist...”

Pyre scowled, though it sounded more like a whimper as her eyes scanned the room of death. Her scowl stopped dead in her throat as her eyes landed on a charred mangle of bones in the middle of the room. I saw her take a small step back as what she was looking at finally registered in her mind.

The bones had been arranged in a gruesome display, shattered and patched back together with a bloody twin. They were suspended from the ceiling like a marionette, posed as if they were clawing at the air and begging for help.

“N-no…” Pyre muttered, her eyes wide behind her visor as she stared in horror at the bones. “I-it can’t be.”

“Like my little present?” Viscera chided. “I dug up the bones while in the Manehattan gardens looking for those audio recordings. Say hi to your mother for me…”

I gasped, realizing we were looking at the charred remains of Pyre’s mother. I glowered up at the speakers. “Viscera. Stop this!”

“How about we listen to another audio recording instead, hmm?” Viscera countered. “I found this one with the bones…”

“Pyre! What are you doing!” I heard the voice of Pyre’s mother cry out.

Pyre’s eyes went even wider as she heard the voice. “No! Not this one! Please, not this one!”

“I-I’m sorry mom…” The young voice of Pyre echoed out over the speaker. “I’m so, so sorry…”

“Fwoosh!” The sound of a flamer roaring to life flared over the speaker, followed quickly by Pyre’s mother’s frantic, pained wails as she was rapidly burned alive.

That was enough. We weren’t listening to this one any more. I raised Braeburn’s Liberator in my mouth and fired at the speaker. The powerful buckshot burst against the speaker, showering us in sparks and scrap metal. Thankfully, the recording cut out.

“So… you want to play like that, do you?” Viscera scowled, her voice coming to life over another speaker. “Fine… let’s let the real Gauntlet begin.”

The large metal gate to our right gave a loud groan and began to pull open, revealing a long, dark tunnel beyond. From deep within, the sound of scratching began. Pyre locked up as the sound reached her ears. “Oh fuck…”

I was about to ask her what that was, when Viscera’s voice once more crackled to life. “This is where things get fun my little toys… Run…”

Then the howling began. I felt every hair on my body shoot straight up with fear as I recognized the sound... Hellhounds!

“Run! Go!” Pyre urged, pushing me forwards with her head. “Go! NOW!”

I sprang forwards, my hooves skidding as they tried to find purchase on the blood soaked floor. I grappled onto the knob of the wooden door and yanked it open, revealing the dark hallway beyond it. Pyre moved up behind me, her helmet light illuminating the decaying, gore splattered hallway.

Together, we darted forwards, rushing madly though the hall as the scratching and howling grew louder. I felt tripwires snap around my hooves and I dashed forwards, the sound of a shotgun following as a rigged up trap fired and blasted a shot of buckshot past my ear. I stumbled, trying to stay upright as I felt a part of the deadly slug slash across my side.

“Red on my EFS ahead!” Pyre shouted, ducking as another round of buckshot flashed past us. “Lots of red!” Her declaration was accompanied by more howls as the sound of hellhounds charging at us started coming from in front of us now as well as behind.

I nodded fearfully, spotting an area ahead where the hallway split into three sections. “Which way!”

“Left!” Pyre shouted, powering ahead and turning down the indicated hall. I followed after her, glancing back just in time to see the first of ten hellhounds ripping down the hallway after us. I could hear more on their way.

“We got turrets incoming!” Pyre yelled back, bursting through an already broken wooden door and into a large room that looked like it had once been some sort of maintenance room. No sooner did she enter the room, than several turrets pop down from the ceiling and start spraying us with a stray stream of fire.

I ducked back, quickly moving behind the cover of a toppled wooden table as a torrent of bullets poured down at me. The wooden surface was ripped apart in second, bullets slashing through its surface and shooting past me. I gave a yell of pain as one of the shots lashed through my shoulder, soaking my hide in my own blood.

Wincing and applying pressure to my bleeding shoulder, I peaked my head out from around cover, looking for the exit. I quickly spotted it, a small, thick metal door on the far side of the room, only to find it surrounded by at least fifty turrets. How Viscera had gotten her hooves on so many turrets, I had no idea.

I quickly ducked back down as another round of bullets flashed above my head.

“Any plan on how to get through?” I shouted over the sound of gunfire as I watched Pyre take her own cover behind a massive stone column, shots from the turrets pinging off of her powerful armour. I quickly checked my ammo, counting only fourteen slugs left. “I don’t know if I have enough shots to take all the turrets out?”

“Don’t have enough time anyway!” Pyre shouted back, her flamers roaring and blasting one of the turrets apart. “Soon as those Hellhounds catch up, we’re dead!” Her head whipped around, searching for a way out. She spotted the same thing I did before her eyes landed on a metal security gate on the far side of the room. “We need to get to the other side of that security gate! There should be a terminal in there to shut off the turrets!” She gave me a smug look. “Assuming you are up for some hacking.”

I returned her smug look. “I always am.”

“Wonderful, I’ll cover you,” She shouted, jumping out from her hiding spot and sending a wave of fire washing over the wall, blasting apart any turrets that her fires touched.

I vaulted over the broken table, dashing towards the large security gate. One of the turrets locked onto me, its large barrel spinning as it whirred up to fire.

I rolled across the ground, ducking low as the turrets sent a steam of fire over me. One of the shots found my hind leg, slashing through it and forcing me to scramble forward or risk collapsing to the ground.

Staggering up against the security gate, I looked it over for a way to open it. There was a lock, but it was far too advanced for my pathetic lock picking abilities. I gave a frustrated yell, my body sagging against the door as my hind leg gave out from under me. “Pyre! We got a problem!”

“Oh no! Looks like our victims are having a little bit of trouble,” Viscera cackled, her chilling voice making me shiver. “What? Can’t pick a lock Amber Aura? Better think of something quick. You’re about to get company.”

Just as her words echoed over the speaker, Hellhounds started pouring into the room behind us. They paused only for a second in the doorway, snarling at the two of us before charging forwards, their razor sharp claws slashing at their air as they went to rip out our throats.

“Amber! Find a way in! Hurry!” Pyre screamed, backpedaling as five hellhounds rushed her. Her flamers roared louder as she covered them in waves of fire, but the hellhounds attacks didn’t relent.

I dodged another blast from one of the turrets, scrambling as I searched for a way to open the door. There had to be a way through all this. Viscera was trying to torture us, not kill us. Not kill us yet anyway. She wanted us to make it through.

My eyes landed on a small hole in the wall a few feet away. A baleful green glow seemed to ooze from the hole. Even if I had my pipbuck still, I wouldn’t have needed my geiger counter to tell me it was irradiated. I took a deep breath. Why did I get the feeling the key was in there.

Pyre was tossed to the side by one of the hellhounds, her heavy body slamming against the wall and the front of her armour being ripped apart by the deadly claws. She gave a howl of pain as she staggered back up to her hooves, her flamers once more sending out a blazing inferno as she tried to hold the Hellhounds back. One of the massive hellhounds pushed past her flamers assault, lunging towards me with slashing claws and snapping at my neck with its gaping maw.

Giving an eep of fear, I staggered back and lunged for the irradiated hole. A few shots from the spinning turrets blasted down around me, though I managed to evade them with relative ease. I was less lucky with the hellhound as their claws ripped at my hide as I scurried away, digging deep into my flesh and rending three massive slashing across my rump.

Crying out, I dove head first into the hole, the jagged sides of the wall scratching at my shoulders and sides. I winced as rusted nails that had been hammered into the wall sliced at my exposed flesh. My one bit of solace was that if the hole was trapped, that probably meant the key actually was in here and I hadn’t just thrown myself into an irradiated area for no reason.

Wiggling the rest of the way into the hole, I scampered back as the hellhound snarled and slashed at me, their massive bulk unable to reach me through the small opening.

Now on the other side of the jagged hole, I was able to see the source of the radiation. Tones of glowing yellow barrels of balefire waste were scattered across the small room, some knocked over onto their side and spilling their irradiated contents across the floor. I even spotted a few barrels of Taint, oozing their rainbow coloured slime.

Just being so close to all the deadly material made my flesh burn. I didn’t doubt that I was taking ten or twenty rads a second just being in here. I had to get out of here fast.

I stumbled forwards, my tired eyes sweeping the area for any signs of a key. It had to be here… please let it be here.

Pain flashed up my leg as a radroach scuttled out from one of the barrels, their pincher like mouth snapping at my exposed fetlock. I twisted around, stomping down hard on the large insect's head, crushing it flat. I could feel the bite wound sting painfully as the radioactive air filtered into the exposed wound.

My eyes landed on a glinting piece of metal lying in a puddle of taint. I grimaced, staring at the small object. Damn it. That was the key alright.

Biting my lip, I inched a little closer to the hole I had come through, and readied myself. I knew the horrors of what could happen if you even so much as touched taint. There was no way I was going to just reach in and grab it.

Stealing myself, I flared up my horn and flung the key from the taint, sending it skidding towards my hoof. As expected, the air around me burst with fire as my magic mingled with the magic sensitive toxins in the air. I was flung backwards, the hairs on the front of my face charred as the fire flashed across my muzzle.

I snagged the key, shuffling back and batting out the flames that raced up my coat as I dove back for the jagged hole. I bit back a scream as the rusted nails once more slashed at my hide and forced myself the rest of the way through, back into the chaos of the larger room beyond.

At once, my fore hoof was riddled with bullet holes as one of the turrets fired at me. I screamed, collapsing to the ground as the painful shots ripped through me.

I saw Pyre staggering around on the other side of the room, darting back and forth as she tried to dodge away from the hellhounds deadly attacks. One of the Hellhounds kicked at her with a hind claw, sending her stumbling back and crashing to the ground.

Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself towards the security gate, jabbing the key into the lock and watching with mild satisfaction as the door clicked open. Wasting no time, I dragged myself into the room and pulled myself up to the flickering terminal against the far wall. It was locked, but only a five letter password by the looks of it. Small mercies I suppose.

Within seconds, I was in.

>Standardized turret control firmware v8.13

>Status: Active, target: ponies

>Admin: Turret defence system

>Units connected: 92

>Please exercise caution around turrets, users should always assume that turrets are loaded and capable of live-fire.

[Deactivate?]

[Turret Options]

My hoof hovered over the deactivate option before another idea struck me and I clicked on turret options. Instantly, more flickering text appeared before me.

>Standardized turret control firmware v8.13

>Targets: Ponies

>Change targets?

[Yes]

[No]

I smirked and clicked yes, quickly changing the target parameters to fire on all non ponies. At once, the turrets shifted their fire from us to the hellhounds, forcing the Hellhounds to stagger away from us. The Hellhounds gave a roar of rage as they were forced to shift their attack to the turrets, ripping them to shreds and blasting them apart with their energy weapons.

Flipping through the other options on the terminal, I unlocked the door out. There was a loud click as the terminal disengaged the lock.

“Pyre! Now!” I shouted, stumbling out of the security gate and rushing for the exit. Pyre quickly scrambled after me, limping from a large gash one of the Hellhounds had ripped into her leg.

We quickly pushed our way to the exit, our movement being covered by the turrets as the Hellhounds tried to chase after us. One of the turrets managed to take down a raging hellhound, filling their skull full of lead. Even after their head had been pulped, it took a few moments before the hulking beast finally fell.

Staggering on my injured hooves, I grasped onto the door and flung it open, ushering Pyre in before slamming the door shut behind us. I quickly limped over to a small terminal and locked the door behind us as well. With any luck, the hellhounds weren’t able to use the terminal on the far side to unlock it again.

It didn’t take long for the muffled turret gunfire on the far side of the door to go quiet. I had no doubts that the Hellhounds had made very short work of the defences.

“Amber, you alright?” Pyre grumbled, slumping against the wall and trying to catch her breath.

I trembled, trying to keep myself upright despite the pounding in my skull and the shooting pains in my hooves. “I’ve been better. You think Viscera was nice enough to leave any healing potions or radaway down here?” I asked, only half joking.

Pyre grimaced. “Unlikely. If there are, they’ll be heavily trapped. We probably have a better chance of survival not trying to get those healing supplies,” I nodded, following her logic. Death while trying to get medicine was the kind of irony Viscera lived for.

“So, you made it through,” Viscera’s voice crackled, drawing our attention up to the speaker hovering over us. “Good. Let’s see if you can make it through what I’ve planned for you next.”

Pyre scowled. “You want to fight me Viscera. That’s not going to be very easy if I die here in your gauntlet!”

I heard the sound of Viscera chuckling. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll make it through to the colosseum. I doubt you’d let a couple of traps take you out… You’re friends on the other hoof… I need to make sure they all die before our big finale. I’ll see you at the finish line. You’ll be there.”

Pyre hissed up at the speaker. “And if I’m not?”

“You will be,” Viscera’s voice practically purred. “Because it would be very unfortunate for your little changeling if you are not… Say hi changeling.”

“Pyre, I’m okay! Don’t worry about me!” Mirra’s voice echoed out of the speaker. She sounded like she was trying her best to hold back tears, and I could hear a very distinct tremor in her voice. “I-I’ll be fine…”

There was a loud sounding slap, followed in quick order by Mirra’s pained whimpering before Viscera once again took over the speaker. “Tick tock Blazy. The longer you’re in there, the more likely I am to feed her to my hounds. Oh how they’re hungry… I might just feed bits and pieces of her to them now, and leave her head just for you...”

Pyre’s snarl quickly became a roar. “You leave her alone!” She slammed her bleeding hooves against the wall, making the whole hallway tremor. “If you touch her, I will kill you!”

Viscera cackled happily from the speaker. I could hear the sound of her clapping her fore hooves together gleefully at Pyre’s promise. “Oh, that’s what I’m counting on. Just imagine how poetic that would be. The great Pyre Blaze, too late to save the one she cared about most, slain in a final confrontation against her past lover and the killer of her surrogate daughter. It’s like fucking a fairytale.”

I pushed myself up to my hooves, wincing at the pain that shot through my legs and glaring at the speaker. “Pyre isn’t the only one that’s going to be making it out of here. If you hurt her, you’re going to have to deal with me too!”

Viscera just chuckled coolly. “I’d love to see you try filly, but you aren’t going to make it that far. I’ve ensured it… This next part is where things start to get very… deadl-”

Viscera’s voice cut out with a burst of static and was replaced by another voice, this one more cold and calculating, lacking the unhinged madness that oozed from Viscera's tone. “Alright, listen up. You want to survive this, you’re going to listen to everything I fucking tell you.”

My ears perked up in surprise. I knew that voice. “Wha- Magazine?”

“Yeah, I hacked into the speaker and camera systems. Viscera can’t hear or see anything that happens right now, but I only have about a minute, so listen the fuck up,” Magazine shot back. “Up ahead is a trap designed to kill you. It’s rigged. It’s not a puzzle, it's not made for you to make some sort of awesome daring escape like the last one. It’s straight up fuckin’ rigged. Get me? You keep going, you die. Got it?”

Pyre scowled. “And why should we trust you? Last time I checked, we weren’t in the Las Pegasus Operators good graces.”

“Because what other choice do you have?” Magazine retorted back with a huff. “Look, Razor Blade and I have been talking. We both want into the Institute, and right now Viscera is using our only way in as a means of entertainment. As long as Viscera is in the way, no pony is going anywhere near the Institute. Furthermore, Viscera is dangerous. The longer she stays in charge of the Pack, the more likely she is to destroy everything Razor Blade and I have got going here. We need her gone... So here’s what we’re thinking… I get you through this hellhole alive, you challenge and kill Viscera, then take her place as leader of the Las Pegasus Pack. Viscera dies, all three gangs choose to attack the Institute, Jinx is forced to join our cause, everypony wins.”

“And why don’t you just kill Viscera yourself if she’s such a problem?” I pushed, narrowing my eyes skeptically at the speaker. I trusted Magazine just about as far as I could throw her, and considering my rather pathetic strength, I couldn’t throw her very far.

“You don’t think we haven’t already considered that?” Magazine’s voice seethed. “The only thing keeping that psychotic bitch in line right now is Jinx. If we were to openly oppose or declare war on the Pack, we’d have whole armies of Hellhounds ripping apart Las Pegasus. And not just the Strip, either. I calculate it would probably only take an hour max before the Pack joins up with the Flesh Rippers and starts tearing apart Freeside and Tent Town. Seeing how we would have been the ones to start the bloodshed, Jinx would be forced to side with Viscera. You don’t want a Viscera run Las Pegasus, and neither do we. To these ends, we can’t directly attack Viscera… But you can...

You may have come here hoping to get help taking on the Institute, but just you being here has started a fucking civil war amoung the raider gangs, and no pony is going anywhere until this is resolved. We’ll likely still have to deal with the Enclave before any real action can be taken, but with Viscera gone, that will put us all one step closer to getting out of this alive. Now, are you ready to fucking listen to what I have to say? Or are you going to ignore me and charge into your fucking death bed?”

I glanced over at Pyre who simply gave me a shrug. Hesitantly, I turned back to face the speaker. “Alright, we’re listening. How do we get out of here?”

“In the next hallway, there are two room. The first room is the way out, it leads into the colosseum, but if you go in there, you’ll die,” Magazine informed us. “The second you enter that room, the doors are going to lock and it's going to start filling up with a deadly gas. Pyre’s armour is going to keep her safe, but the gas is going to kill Amber. Once the door closes, you have about a minute to live before you die, if not shorter considering your already extensive wounds. Just enough time for you to die in Pyre’s hooves like Viscera wants.”

I grimace. “Is there a terminal to shut the gas off?”

“No. Once the gas starts, there is no stopping it. There is, however, a terminal to reopen the door, but you won’t be able to hack it,” Magazine chided. I opened my mouth to tell her that I probably could hack it, only for her to cut me off. “The terminal, aside from being behind a locked security gate, is a cloud terminal, which means that it doesn’t matter how good you think you are at hacking terminals, you won’t even be able to fucking touch this one. You’re going to need a pegasus.”

“Fuck,” Pyre grunted, stomping her hoof on the ground. “So what do we do?”

“Ignore the first door, keep heading down the hall until you find the second. There’s a hoof full of smaller traps and a few Radscorpions in there you’ll need to fight, but if what I’ve heard about you two is true, they won’t be an issue,” The Raider boss said. “In the far room, you’ll find two of your friends. The green buck and the pegasus. Viscera is going to make you choose between them. She's expecting you to choose the stallion, you’ve known him longer. One of them will die. Make sure to save the pegasus. Tell her the password for the cloud terminal is ‘Blazy’. Then use her to get through the gas room.”

I shook my head sternly. “I won’t let one of my friends die, especially not Brisk. I’m getting all of us out of here and that’s final.”

“You’re not going to have a choice!” Magazine scolded. “You choose the pegasus and let the stallion die, or all of you die. That’s just how things are going to fucking play out.”

“We’ll find a way,” I said again, growling a little this time. “I won’t let Viscera take the life of another of my friends… not again…”

“Gah! Fine! Try to save them both! You’ll fail! Just make sure the pegasus is the priority!” Magazine snapped. She took a second to calm down before returning to her calmer demeanour. “Once you’re passed the gas room, you have one room left before the colosseum. Your zebra is in the final room. She isn’t important, but feel free to save her if you can. Once you reach the Colosseum, try to survive as long as possible. I’ll have my Operators working on a way to get you out of there ali-”

Magazine’s voice cut out, followed by the sound of Viscera’s frustrated scowls. “It would seem somepony is trying to interfere with my little game. I’ll find out who and deal with them accordingly in short order. Don’t worry though, I’m back for good. Now, how about we continue on with the gauntlet. I’ve got another audio recording to play… I think you’re going to love this one...”

Beckoning for Pyre to follow, we quickly started limping down the hall as a new audio recording crackled to life. I tried to zone it out, but I wasn’t very successful.

“Please, I… I don’t want to die,” A stallion's voice I didn’t recognize begged over the speaker. “I… I have a wife and kids… please… I’m just trying to get to Friendship City…”

There was silence for a few seconds as the voice ended, giving me a few minutes of peace and quiet as I slinked down the hall next to Pyre. We passed the room Magazine had warned us about, and continued onward. A few trap rigged tripwires filled the hallway, but they were easy to disable compared to the slaughter room we had seen at the beginning of the maze.

“Should we… Let him go?” That was Viscera’s voice. Surprisingly young and lacking a lot of the manic tone that I had come to expect from her, but still very clearly hers. “I don’t know if I feel right about doing this, I mean... Would the Manehattan Scourge’s reputation really take a dive if we let him walk?”

“He passed through our territory without paying the toll,” I heard a younger sounding Pyre respond, her voice sounded a little uncertain as well, but she seemed a little more confident that Viscera did. “If we let him go, ponies are going to think we don’t mean business… that we’re getting soft… If there was one thing daddy taught me, it was that if you show weakness, you don’t get far in the wasteland…”

I trembled as we passed a pair of mangled corpses in the middle of the hallway. They had been surgically ripped apart and arranged in disturbing ways. From the amount of needles that cluttered the hallway, I assumed Viscera and the rest of her raiders had drugged them up extensively before finally killing them.

I was going to have nightmares about this place for weeks.

The young sounding voice of Viscera sighed over the speakers. “Yeah… Yes, yes, you’re right… I’m just… I thought being a raider would help me get even with the wasteland… but it’s getting harder to- Well, you know about my nightmares.”

I heard Pyre’s voice grunt back. “You just need to get used to it… it gets easier after a bit… I promise… Here, why don’t you finish him off…”

“W-wait! St-stop! I'll tell every pony that I payed your toll! I'll tell them to fear you! Please!” The stallion wailed. I could hear him struggling as he tried to push himself away from the two raiders. “Please! No. No! NO!”

The sound of a knife sliding through flesh filled the halls, followed by a loud thud as the stallion's body hit the floor. I was surprised to hear the sound of Viscera sobbing. “I’m sorry…”

Pyre winced beside me and cast me a worried look. I attempted to give her a reassuring smile but it looked more like a grimace. “It’s okay… I know that isn’t you anymore…”

Pyre’s shoulder’s seemed to relax a little more at those words, but she still looked tense.

We passed a small nook in the hallway that led into a tight looking space, most likely a crawl space between the hotel walls. I paused as I passed it, my eyes catching on a yellow medical case adorned with three pink butterflies.

Pyre just shook her head at me. “Remember what I said. Viscera is trying to torture us. I don’t know what traps she has set up in there, but it’s not worth it.”

I gave a grim nod and continued moving down the hall, my heart sinking as I left the healing supplies behind.

After a few more moments of carefully stepping over and disarming traps, we came to a large wooden door that led to what looked like it had once been the hotel's swimming pool. Hesitantly, I pushed it open, waiting for some trap to be sprung. Thankfully, this door seemed to be safe to open.

I glanced back nervously at Pyre. “Reading anything on EFS?”

Pyre paused for a second, her eyes rolling over the EFS on her HUD. Finally she nodded. “Yeah, EFS is picking up four life signs. Two hostile and Two friendly.”

“Probably Star and Brisk,” I assumed, feeling a little more relief go through me. The relief was short lived as I remembered what Magazine had said was in store for us in there.

“Yes, and the Radscorpions,” Pyre agreed, stepping past me and into the room.

I followed after her slowly, my eyes darting back and forth to make sure I didn’t miss any traps that might be lying in wait for us. The room seemed to be the stallions changing room, with the far door leading out into the pool area proper. A large collection of rusting pikes had been set up on the far side of the room, each one displaying a severed pony head.

Pyre paused half way through the changing room. “The red marks are moving on my EFS. Ready yourself.”

I took a step back, raising Braeburn's Liberator with my mouth. My eyes darted back and forth as I waited for what I knew to be a Radscorpion to enter my vision. My eyes dropped to the ground as I spotted a small crack forming in the chipped, tiled floor beneath me. Pyre spotted it too and quickly aimed her flamers down at the floor.

A second later, there was a loud crack as a Radscorpion lunged out at us through the surface. I rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the snapping claw that slashed at my face. Braeburn’s Liberator fired; the explosive buckshot blowing off one of the Radscorpions legs and causing them to stumble back.

Pyre’s flamers roared to life, smothering the massive scorpion in a wave of dancing flames. The arachnids screeched, its body lashing back and forth as it tried to shake off the fire. It didn't take long for the large scorpion to flop onto its back, its legs curling in on each other as it died.

Then the second Radscorpion broke the surface. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I started to make out just how big the mutated scorpion was.

The second Radscorpion was massive, at least five times larger than any of the others I had seen prior. The walls of the changing room were ripped apart as it made way for the massive creatures impressive bulk. It’s huge stinger ripped huge gouges into the ceiling above as it flipped its armoured, segmented appendage over its body and poised it down to stab into us.

I slid backwards, scrambling to stay upright as the whole room tilted violently from the massive beast bursting up through the floor. The sharp edges of the ruined floor sliced at the back of my Fetlocks, drawing a drizzle of blood down my leg that stuck to my hide.

Pyre took a staggering step back as she shifted to train her flamers on the much larger scorpion. “Fucking shit! Where did Viscera get a Radscorpion Queen!”

I was in no place to answer her question as the looming Scorpion dove towards us, its jagged pinchers snapping at Pyre while its swaying tail dove at my neck. I flung myself back, the massive stinger skewering the air where my head had been only seconds prior.

Pyre ducked under a swing of one of the pinchers, her flamers blazing at full blast as she danced back and forth to avoid getting snapped in two. One of the pinchers managed to snag one of her hind hooves, the huge claws crushing her power armour and diggin deep into her leg. Pyre screamed, ramming her free fore hoof against the beasts bulging pincher in a desperate attempt to free herself from its grip.

I fired a shot from my shotgun into the scorpion queen's face, the powerful blast doing little more than scratch at the scorpion's tough exoskeleton. The Radscorpion queen screeched, releasing its death grip on Pyre before whipping around and glaring at me with its beady eyes. Its mandibles stretched open violently, giving me a clear view of its gnashing and mutated maw.

Gulping, I jumped back as the enraged scorpion dove towards me, its full attention now dedicated to trying to rip me apart. I smacked against the wall of the changing rooms, my escape impeded by the one and only still standing wall.

Pyre’s flamers roared to life, dousing the huge scorpion in fire, but the Radscorpion Queen all but ignored the assault as it dove at me again, its needle like stinger slashing at my neck.

Again, I jumped to the side, but not fast enough. The stinger slashed through my right side, its sharpened end bursting out my other side as it impaled me. I howled with pain, my whole barrel going numb as the massive stinger pumped a large does of some sort of poison into me.

I heard Pyre scream something, but I wasn’t able to make out what it was through the ringing in my ears. I felt the scorpion pull back, dislodging the stinger from my side. As soon as the huge appendage was ripped free of me, I slumped to the floor, my head throbbing and my whole body trembling with burning pains.

I saw Pyre rush at the Scorpion, launching herself forwards and onto the huge creatures back. Her flamers poured a stream of burning flames down upon the creatures head while her fore hooves wrapped tightly around its swinging tail and pulled. There was a loud slurping sounding pop as her powerful hooves ripped the deadly appendage right from the Radscorpions body.

The Radscorpion Queen lurched about, trying to shake Pyre from her back. Her pinchers stretched and clawed at Pyre’s armour as Pyre repositioned herself above the arachnids head and started slamming her hooves down, denting its thick armour and crushing its brain. With one last, violent lurch, the massive Radscorpion slumped to the ground, dead.

The second the massive scorpion stopped moving, Pyre rushed to my side, looking over my wound. “Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck… Amber, how are you feeling!”

“Not the best,” I croaked. I could feel my throat starting to swell up and run dry. I glanced down at the massive puncture wound where the scorpion's tail had skewered me. Blood spilled from the wound and the hide around it had started to peel away to show black, puss covered flesh beneath. I felt faint just looking at it. “Oh… That doesn’t look good…”

Pyre grit her teeth from behind her helmet. “Just hold on… We’ll get Star… She’ll be able to fix this… She has to be able to fix this…”

I gave a weak nod as Pyre hoisted me up onto her back. I flinched as the seeping wound brushed against her tough armour, but I forced myself to bite back a scream. No point making Pyre worry about me more than she already did. We were already in way over our heads at the moment as it was.

Rushing forwards, Pyre pushed her way through the rubble that remained of the changing rooms and moved out into the pool area proper. Through my hazy vision, I could see what remained of the old pool. The water inside had long since been drained, the huge cement hole having now been replaced with, to my horror, a massive pit of rainbow fluid… Taint.

A long, wooden catwalk had been built over top of the taint pit, leading out to two glass chambers that hung from the centre of the room by rusting chains. The glass chambers were hooked up to some sort of pulley device, wires running from each chamber to two seperate levers that rested on one side of the catwalk. Star Breeze lay in the chamber on the right, her hooves and wings bound tightly together by rope, while Brisk lay in the one on the left, his hooves tied in a very similar manner.

“Looks like you’ve both made it to the big choice! Oooh, I’ve been so excited for this part!” Viscera’s voice chirped happily from the speakers above us. “Time for you to both choose between your two friends. The lever on the right frees the pegasus bitch, while the other frees the stallion. But be warned, who you don’t save, dies. Try and save them both, and I’ll make sure they both die.”

“Brisk pushed himself up against the glass, looking at me with both a terrified and relieved face. “Amber, thank the goddesses you’re alright,” his face fell as he realized how bad of shape I was in. “Shit… What happened to you?”

“Radscorpion,” Pyre answered for me, trotting a little farther into the room and looking around. Her eyes continued to dart back and forth between the two glass chambers and the two levers. “Look, we don’t have a lot of time. We need to figure out a way to get you both out of there.”

Brisk shook his head, staring at the sloshing taint pit below him. “Not going to happen. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get us out of her for a bit now. The only way to get these chambers open is to pull a lever, and the second one of those levers gets pulled, one of us gets dropped into the taint,” His eyes darted back over to me, then to Star in the chamber beside him. “I-it’s fine. Save Star. You need her more than you need me.”

Star’s eyes went wide at his words. “W-what!” She glanced around herself, scanning the area for anything to help her. “Y-you can’t j-just… No, s-save him instead. I’ll b-be fine…”

“W-we’re saving both of you, and that’s final,” I managed to choke out, my continuously constricting throat making speaking far more painful than it should have been.

“Sis, we don’t have time,” Brisk shot back. “Just look at yourself. You’re dying! Star can help you, I can’t. Right Star!” He glanced over at her for a second, his eyes hopeful. “You can help her, right?”

Star grimaced, glancing away. “I… I can probably... yeah. I’ve treated Radscorpion poison before, but… But we can’t just let you die! I’ve seen what taint mutation does! We… we can’t just let you… we… fuck…”

Pyre stared at Brisk for a long moment, her eyes still darting around behind her helmet. Slowly, she shifted her gaze toward Star, her head lowering a little. “We need to save you anyway. We’re going to need a pegasus to escape the Gauntlet of Fire alive…”

Brisk took a shaky breath. I could tell he was terrified “Exactly. Thats w-”

“Stop!” I screamed, forcing myself to yell despite the pain. My friends couldn't really be considering this. We were getting both of them out… we had to… “What if we pull the levers at the same time?”

“Won’t work,” Pyre growled. “You heard Viscera, we try to save both of them and she’ll make sure they both die. There’s a good chance that she's watching right now with her hoof on her own personal kill switch. It’s one of them, or not at all.”

I shook my head, desperation starting to flare up in my mind. We couldn’t do this! We couldn't just let Viscera win. There had to be some other way. There was alway some other way.

Brisk took another shaky breath, letting his eyes lock with mine. “It’s fine Amber, really… I mean, I’ve been running on borrowed time for a while now… I never expected to live a full day outside the Stable.”

“That doesn't mean I can just let you die!” I screamed back. I tried to crawl off of Pyre’s back, but I only ended up falling to the floor with a painful thud. “I… I can’t…”

Brisk gave me a calm smile, one that I could tell he was trying to use to calm himself just as much as me. “Don’t worry about me. I mean, hey, what a fucking way to go right? Sacrificing myself so everypony else can live? That's gotta be up there on the list of cool ways to go out.”

“Brisk stop!” Star yelled back at him, her whole body trembling as she glanced down at the taint below. “You can’t do this. When we first woke up here, you promised me you’d get both of us out! You need to keep good on that promise!”

Brisk rounded on her, glaring at her through the glass. “You heard them, they need a pegasus to escape the Gauntlet. If they choose me, Amber dies from that poison and we all die later in the gauntlet. It has to be you,” He glanced back at me. “Besides, I’m just a hornless unicorn. I’m not as important as the rest of you.”

“You know full well that isn’t true,” Pyre growled back at him, though her eyes were fixed on the lever that would set Star free and send Brisk into the taint below. I could tell she had already made up her mind. Then, I saw her eyes widen a little under her visor and she glanced down at herself for a second. “Star, how fast do you think you can untie yourself after I pull the lever?”

Star gave her a worried look. “If I could untie myself, I would have. I’ll need a knife or something. There’s one in my saddlebags, but I can’t reach it with my hooves tied,” she paused as she thought it over. “If you need me to fly for some reason, you’re out of fucking luck. Magazine shot my wing pretty bad. I’m not going to be flying anywhere any time soon.”

Pyre Snarled at herself a little. “Damn…”

I blinked up at her, trying to put together wherever thoughts were going on inside her head. “You have a plan, don’t you?” I said, my foggy mind not working as fast as my words. “What are you thinking Pyre?”

Pyre opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, Viscera’s voice once more crackled to life over the speakers. “Fucking hell, what is taking so long! Who’s torturing who here?! Let's make this a little more interesting. You have five seconds until I drop them both! Five! ”

My eyes shot wide. Five seconds! That wasn't fair!

“No time, just trust me on this!” Pyre shouted back at me, spinning around to face the lever on the right.

“Four!”

“Wait! Pyre! What are you doing!” I screamed as she lunged towards the lever. Mindlessly, I started crawling across the catwalks over the taint, heading towards the chambers.

“Three!”

Star slammed her hooves against the sides of the chamber, making it rock dangerously in the air. “Pyre! Stop! Don’t let him die! Please”

“Two!”

Pyre pulled to a stop before the lever, her hoof resting on top of it. “Get ready to catch me if this backfires.”

Star’s eyes bulged. “Get ready to what?!”

“One!”

Pyre pulled down on the lever hard. Instantly, Star’s chamber burst open with a hiss of steam, allowing the trembling pegasus to scramble out onto the catwalk with me. From above, there was a loud crack, followed by the chain suspending Brisk’s chamber in the air abruptly losing slack. His whole chamber dropped downwards, crashing into the pool and submerging itself within the deep pool of taint, only the very top of the chamber being exposed above the surface as it slowly sunk into the thicker liquid. Smoke began to rise from where the chamber had fallen as the deadly substance began to quickly eat away at the chambers walls.

Without waiting a second, Pyre rushed forwards, bounding past me on the catwalk before leaping off the end, diving out over the sloshing taint and landing heavily atop the sinking chamber. The force of impact pushed the chamber deeper into the taint, the rainbow fluid bubbling as the metal top of the chamber began to sink into the murk.

“Pyre! What are you doing!” I screamed, watching helplessly as the chamber sank deeper and deeper into the taint, bringing both Brisk and Pyre with it. Frantically, I pulled the knife from Star’s bag and began cutting away at the ropes binding her wings and hooves.

“No! NONONONONONON!” Viscera howled over the speakers, her voice rising into a manic sounding wail. “Pull her up! Pull her up now!”

There was a loud clicking sound as the chain that had been suspending Brisk’s chamber from the roof lifted upwards and pulled taut. A second later, the chamber began to rise back up. I felt myself exhale as I made out the shaking form of Brisk inside. The glass walls were half melted by the taint, and it looked like had we waited a few seconds longer, it would have burnt through, but Brisk was still alive. A little bit of taint had managed to seep into the chamber, but he was making sure to keep as far away from it as possible in the little room he had inside.

Pyre gave me a quick wink as the chamber rose to a safer highest before shifting her gaze up at one of the cameras built into the roof above. “Sorry Viscera. You want that grand finale to the Manehattan Scourge? You’re going to have to let Brisk walk free. Drop him again, and I go with him.”

There was silence from the other end of the speakers for a second before a low sounding growl began echoing around us. “You are going to pay for this Pyre Blaze… Don’t think you’ve saved your ‘friends’. They’re all still going to die. The Gauntlet isn’t done yet…”

Pyre gave the camera a snarky looking salute as the door to Brisk’s chamber burst open, allowing Brisk to stumble out onto the catwalk. It wasn’t until Brisk had fully removed himself from the chamber, that Pyre dared herself to jump away to safety.

I managed to give them both a weak and thankful smile before Star lunged on top of me and began looking over my oozing wound. “Shit…” She mumbled to herself, prodding at the puncture hole in my side with a hoof. “Brisk! Pyre! I have a medic bag in my saddlebag! Get it! Now!”

The two quickly nodded before rushing over and pulling out her supplies as Star began working on me. As she worked, I glanced up at Brisk. “I’m so sorry,” I started, but he just cut me off with a wave of his hoof.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m alive. More importantly, Star is alive and you’re going to make it. Just hold tight,” He gave me a playful grin that I could tell he in no way felt.

Shifting my gaze to Pyre, I narrowed my eyes at her. “What the fuck were you doing? How did you even know that was going to work?”

Pyre gave a small roll of her eyes from behind her helmet. “I didn’t. But I figured Viscera wouldn’t want me dying here. You are all in a lot of danger, but Viscera wants to make sure I get to the colosseum. Once we get there, things are going to start getting bad…”

After a while of fussing, Star leaned back and looked my sides over. “Alright. That’s about the best I can do with what I have. It’s not perfect, but you’ll live.”

I gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. We really would be lost without you.”

Star just rolled her eyes at me. “Obviously. You owe me double now by the way,” She sighed and helped pull me back up. “I’d recommend not overexerting yourself for a day or two to let your wound heal fully, but I’m guessing that’s not really an option with you, is it?”

I smirked. “You know me so well.”

“Awe, look. She patched up your booboo,” Viscera’s voice sneered down at us. “Won’t matter though. The gauntlet gets them all in the end.”

Pyre scowled and turned to face the hallway we had first come down. “Come on. I think it's time we get out of the damn place.”

Cautiously, the four of us began traveling down the hallway to the gas room that Magazine had warned us off. I stayed alert for traps, though I knew that I had disarmed all of the ones here already.

Star instinctively went to go get the hidden stash of healing supplies as we passed them, but I quickly pulled her back with my hoof. “Not safe,” was all I bothered to say. She seemed to get the message.

Finally, Pyre came to a stop in front of the slightly ajar door that led deeper into the Gauntlet of Fire. It was made of a thick metal, and its surface had been painted in a thick layer of fresh blood. The words, ‘Fuck you Pyre,’ had been violently slashed into the thick metal with what I assumed were hellhound claws. Without thinking, I reached out and trailed my hoof across the bloody surface. It was still warm. One of Viscera’s most recent kills most likely.

I felt myself shiver. How many ponies had Viscera killed just today alone. The number seemed to be staggeringly high. It made me feel sick. Viscera needed to die.

I gulped as another thought hit me. If the blood was recent, that meant this trap was also probably one of the more recent addition to the gauntlet. Recent enough that it was probably tailor designed to kill us.

“Just long enough for us to die in Pyre’s hooves,” I grumbled to myself under my breath, repeating what Magazine had told us. I turned around, beckoning for the four of us to huddle together. They got the hint and moved in close. “Alright, here’s the plan,” I said, keeping my voice low so that Viscera hopefully couldn’t hear us. “The second we go in there, the doors are going to shut and the room’s going to start filling up with gas. We’ll have maybe a minute to get out of there before it kills us.”

Brisk gave me a wide eyed stare. “Do I even want to know how you found that out?’

We’ve been contacted by Magazine,” Pyre grunted in a low tone, answering his question. “Her and Razor Blade are in. They’re going to help us take out Viscera if we can.”

Star trembled. “And you’re just going to trust that fucking bitch? She fucking shot me!”

I gave a grim nod. “What other choice do we have? Behind a security gate in there, there is apparently a cloud terminal. That Password is ‘Blazy’. Star, do you think you can hack it?”

Star shrugged, giving me a flat glare. “I don’t need to hack it if I know the password, dingus.”

I gave a sheepish blush. “Uh… Right… Sorry, I’m not used to not needing to hack things.”

“And the security gate?” Brisk asked, glancing nervously at the blood soaked door. “How do we get through that?”

I cast a worried look at the door myself. “Not sure. Depends what’s locking it I suppose. With any luck, its a terminal and I can hack it myself. If not, do you think you’re up for some lock picking?”

Brisk shook his head. “Don’t have any lock picks. I checked my saddlebags as soon as I got out of the chamber. I think Viscera took them from me when we were first captured.”

Pyre growled. “That probably gives us good reason to believe we’re going to need to pick the lock. Double insurance that we don’t get you through this room alive.”

I peeked through the door a little, trying to catch a glimpse of the security gate inside. Unfortunately, it seemed like the room beyond curved at a strange angle, making seeing much of anything impossible.

“Oh my fuck, we aren’t getting any younger out here!” Viscera’s voice scowled at us. “Hurry up the fucking pace vics!”

I gulped. “I guess we’re just going to have to figure it out inside… Are you ready?” There was a moment of silence from all of us, but slowly, we all nodded. “Alright then… let's do this.”

I spun around, bucking the door open wide and rushing into the room, my three friends trailing quickly behind me. Just as Magazine had said, the second we were through the door, it slammed shut behind us. I heard a loud round of clicks as numerous locks bolted shut, ensuring we didn’t get back out.

Seconds later, my ears were assaulted by a loud hiss as a collection of large tubes around the room began pumping in some sort of gas. I could feel my eyes start to sting and water as the gas surrounded me. Brisk coughed beside me, clutching at his throat as he scrambled forwards in search of the security gate.

“Welcome to the home stretch my little ponies. Hope you said your goodbyes,” Viscera cooed, her voice sounding incredibly smug.

“Amber, the door is locked!” Brisk shouted, his hooves ramming against the security gate we had been talking about. “We need to find a key!”

I spun around, my head beginning to feel incredibly dizzy as my eyes scanned the area. It was a rather large room. Lots of places to hide things. “Key! Everypony, look for a key!”

“There isn’t going to be one,” Pyre said, her eyes wide. I could hear a distinct tremor in her voice. “This one is meant to kill you… there isn’t going to be a key…”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Star shouted, pounding on the security gate door. “Come on! We need to get through!”

“Stand back!” Pyre shouted, scrapping one armoured hoof against the ground as she crouched down into a lunging position. Star only had just enough time to jump out of the way when Pyre rushed the door, slamming against it with her bulky power armour at full force. The whole room tremored and the metal door dented, but it refused to give.

My lungs felt like they were on fire and I suddenly found it incredibly hard to breath. I staggered back, my head feeling dizzy. I took a gasping breath of air, trying to sooth my inflamed lungs. The action only made it so much worse as more of the toxic air flooded through my system.

Beside me, Brisk collapsed to the ground, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to pull air into his own lungs to no success.

“Brisk!” I tried to scream, though my voice came out as little more than a sad sounding croak. I rushed towards him, my legs stumbling as my vision began to spin.

There was another loud bang as Pyre once more slammed against the security gate. Again, the door dented, but refused to break down. Beside her, Star fell to the ground, her hooves grasping desperately at her throat. She coughed, blood dripping from her lips.

“No! NO!” Pyre screamed frantically as she watched Star collapse. She rammed herself against the door again, trying even harder to break it down. The door remained unmoving.

I managed to pull myself up beside Brisk, my body slumping down beside him as my legs gave out. I wrapped him in a tight hug, shaking him awake. “Brisk, come on! stay with me bro!”

He sputtered, blood spewing from his own mouth. He looked up at me with hazy eyes before collapsing back to the ground.

Again, Pyre rammed herself against the doorway, her impressive bulk this time making the now damaged looking door shake. She staggered back, spinning around and bucking the door for all she was worth. There was a tremendous bang, and the door burst inwards, sparks and bits of metal debris flying outwards and littering the already junk cluttered ground.

“Star! Go!” Pyre shouted, reaching down and hoisting Star back to her hooves. “Open the doors! Now!”

“I can’t see! I can’t fucking see!” Star wailed frantically, flapping her wounded wings aimlessly as she tried to stumble towards the door. I was beginning to have trouble seeing myself, dark black specks swimming before my eyes and the edges of my vision going dark.

Pyre rounded on her, slinging the small pegasus mare over her back and hauling her into the room herself. “Terminal! Now!”

The sound of turrets whirring to life made a jolt of fear shoot through me. My head bolted up, my eyes going wide as I stared towards the three turrets that popped down from the roof behind the security gate and aimed their sights at Star.

“Star, look out!” I shouted, waving a hoof at her to frantically get out of the way.

Star dove aside as the turrets fired, one of the shots grazed her hind leg, while the others merely bounced harmlessly off Pyre's thick armour.

Brisk raised his mini gun towards the turrets beside me and fired. His aim was off due to his weakened state, but he managed to rip two of the turrets apart, sending metal fragments shooting around us in all directions.

There was a clicking noise off to my right, diverting my attention again as I spotted a small cage on the far side of the room slide open. Immediately, a swarm of vile looking radroaches began pouring out, their mandibles snapping violently as they scuttled towards Brisk and I and their hundreds of clattering legs making a strange splashing noise as they raced through some shiny looking liquid that coated the floor. I tried to raise Braeburn’s Liberator, but I could feel my whole body going weak. I only had four shots in my gun before I would have to reload anyway, not nearly enough to take out that many of the vile insects.

I pulled Brisk back, trying to get away from the disgusting bugs as they skittered across the floor towards us. “Pyre!” I shouted, feeling even more of my energy drain just at the action.

Pyre smashed the last turret before charging back through the security gate, her flamers spewing fire towards the approaching radroaches. My vision flared with fire as Pyre’s flamers ignited the liquid the radroaches had been crawling through. Gasoline!

Brisk pushed me backwards, shielding me with his body as fire burst around us. I could smell the flesh on his back sizzling as we were surrounded by the raging inferno. With a pained wheeze, Brisk collapsed down atop me.

Panic flared through me and I tried to call out his name, but my throat refused to speak. I felt my own body start to go limp, slumping down to the ground as the gas filled air began to overtake me.

“Damn it! No!” I heard Pyre shouting, though her voice sounded distant. A second later, she was propping me up, clutching me close as she vainly tried to shield Brisk and I from the gas. “Damn it! Don’t die! Come on! Come on!”

Just long enough for us to die in her hooves, My thoughts taunted me. Just like Viscera wants... Magazine was right. Viscera had won.

There was a loud click, and the large metal door at the far side of the room screeched open. Immediately, Star stumbled out of the security gate, rushing for the now open door. “Doors open! go!”

Without waiting a second, Pyre flung Brisk and I onto her back and thundered towards the exit. I felt her hips buck as she threw us from her back and sent us flying the last few feet through the air to land heavily outside of the room. A second later, Star was sent sailing over our heads as Pyre tossed her the rest of the way out as well.

I gasped as I passed through the doorway, clean… uh, cleaner air flooding through me and filling my lungs. I coughed violently, my body doing its best to dispel the deadly toxins that had been pumping through me only seconds before. Brisk was retching beside me, his fore hoof cradling his head as he tried to suck in large mouthfuls of air.

“Damn it! How! How the fuck are you all still alive!” Viscera’s voice screeched from the speakers. Though I couldn’t see her, I could practically feel her enraged eyes glaring daggers at us through the camera monitors. I rolled onto my back and gave a small smirk at the camera, striking my tongue out and trying my best to look smug. I could hear Viscera growling for a long second. Then she paused as a thought hit her. “Actually. Wait. This is good. Oohohoh! Yes, this is going to be very good! You’re in the home stretch now my ponies. Just one more room… The colosseum awaits you.”

I grumbled as Pyre helped me up to my hooves. “I’m guessing that’s bad news for us?”

Pyre gave a sullom nod. “Viscera is going to find a way to make this last little stretch hell. We’ll need to tread very carefully.”

I grimaced. “Great. Because the gauntlet so far hasn’t been hell enough.”

“Amber!?” A voice crooked up from down the hallway.

My ears perked up immediately at the voice, a small bit of solace filling me. “Xayah?”

I went to charge down the hallway, but Pyre quickly cut me off. “Amber, remember. This next room is probably designed for you to kill her. We need to be cautious right now.”

Taking a deep breath, I turned back to face the hallway and the doorway leading into the room at the far end. “Xayah, what’s in that room with you?”

There was a second of shuffling, followed by the sound of Xayah moving up closer to the door. “Viscera put me in a bomb collar. I am no expert on how they work, but I do believe that it has been designed to explode if you open the door.”

I felt a wave of panic wash through me. I had just been about to rush over and pull that door open to get to her. Had Pyre not stopped me, Xayah would most likely be dead.

I shuffled over to the door and looked it over. Brisk, Star and Pyre followed behind me, looking the door over themselves. “Any idea how to disarm it?” I asked, not finding anything of use to me.

“No. So far I have been unable to find a way to disable it, and I fear any attempts to do so will most likely result in the collar exploding,” Xayah’s slightly muffled voice answered back.

Star moved forwards and pushed me aside a little. “How do you know it’s hooked up to the door?” She asked, her voice sounding strangely curious despite our dire situation.

“There is a small metal box at the top of the door with a blinking red light,” Xayah elaborated in response. “It seems to be blinking in time with the collar.”

“Syncing system,” Pyre grunted darkly. “I remember those from my time as a slave. Every time the light blinks, the system scans for anomalies. If something is different or the system fails to repeat, it activates the collar.”

“Any way around it?” Brisk asked, furrowing his eyebrows together in worry.

Pyre gave a quick nod. “It is our way around it. The system needs to recalibrate every few minutes or risk system failure. Usually that doesn’t mean much of anything, but the farther you are away from the system, the longer it takes to recalibrate. If recalibration takes longer than ten seconds, the collar explodes. That’s why those bomb collars detonate if slaves manage to run away from their masters.”

“And how exactly is that supposed to help us?” Brisk scowled, giving the door and angry glare.

“Up close, recalibration lasts only about a second. Get far enough away and it will take too long and detonate the collar. Somewhere in between is the sweet spot. If we open, go through, and close the door while it's recalibrating, we get through without activating the collar,” Pyre elaborated. She turned back to face the door. “Xayah, go stand on the far side of the room. If your collar starts beeping, come back.”

“Alright,” I heard Xayah answer, followed by some shuffling and the sound of her hooves trotting away.

“How the fuck do you know all of this?” Star mused, raising an eyebrow at Pyre.

Pyre just shrugged back. “I told you. I figured this out while I was a slave myself. Tried to use it to escape a few times. I got pretty good at it actually, though it never stopped me from getting caught again…” She looked back at the door. “You on the other side Xayah?”

“Mmhmm,” Xayah’s muffled tone answered.

Pyre took a deep breath. “Focus on the blinking lights. There should be a short lull in the blinking every few moments. Count the beeps between each lull.”

There was dead silence for a moment as we all waited. About a minute later, Xayah spoke up. “Seventeen blinks, then three seconds of nothing.”

Pyre scowled. “Damn. I was hoping for more time. She turned and faced Star and I. “Do either of you think you can disarm a bomb collar?”

I gave her a hesitant nod. “I-I can give it a try. I can probably figure it out if I can see it,” I was good with machines, I could do this…

Pyre nodded. “Alright then. You’re going to have three seconds to open the door, get in and close it again before the collar explodes. Don’t fuck that up.”

I gave a grim nod, moving up to the door and resting my shaking hooves on the door knob. “Alright, Xayah, cue me right as the blinking lulls.”

“A-alright. Wait for it,” I heard Xayah’s voice tremble. There was a moment of tense silence as I waited for her to cue me. I could feel beads of sweat dripping down my brow as I waited for the signal to open the door. “Now!”

I pushed forwards, reefing the door open and rushing through. The second my hoof entered the room, I spun around and slammed it behind me.

Beep!

A blinking red light beeped above me, then continued beeping in rapid succession. I let myself release a long sigh. Thank the goddesses.

I turned around, only for Xayah to tackle into me and wrap me in a tight hug. I smiled ear to ear as I embraced her. “Glad to see you too. Now, let's see about getting that collar off your neck.”

“Aww, aren’t you two just the cutest little things,” Viscera purred down at us. “Too bad I need to ruin such a beautiful reunion. Say bye bye to your zebra.”

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Both Xayah and I’s eyes widened in terror as her collar began emitting a high pitched beeping noise. Each beep seemed to come just a little faster than the one before it.

“No!” I screamed, my whole mind flaring with fear. Of course Viscera had her own kill switch. She had had one for Brisk and Star, why wouldn’t she have for Xayah?

Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!

Xayah glanced up at me, terror displayed in her eyes. “A-amber… I love you…”

No. Nononononono. This couldn’t be happening. There had to be a way to stop this! My eyes darted around, looking for anything to save her. Anything at all.

Beepbeepbeepbeep!

The collar light was blinking faster and faster. I was out of time. With no time left, I shot my hoof back into my saddlebag.

Beeeeeeeeeep!

Boom!

I detonated the shock grenade while it was still inside of my saddlebags, not enough time left to pull it out. I was sent flying back as the massive pulse slammed into me, making all of my hairs stand on end. Beside me, Xayah collapsed to the ground, shivering, but still very much alive as the shock grenade short circuited the explosive collar.

I scrambled over to her frantically, ripping open the collar and pulling out as much wiring as I could and began quickly disarming the bomb, with a little more safety now that the whole device was temporarily disabled. I should never have waited so long to deactivate it.

Xayah looked up at me with her wide, emerald eyes, her whole body shaking as she realized just how close to death she had come.

“Th-thank you…”

I gave her a warm smile. “I’m getting all of us out of here. I’m definitely not letting Viscera take you away from me too.”

“A-amber! Are you all alright in there!” Brisk’s muffled voice called to me from behind the door. “Is she… Is Xayah…”

“She’s alright!” I called back, my hooves trembling as I cut through another wire. “She’s alive, thank the goddesses… It should be safe to come through the door. All the power in here is disabled for the moment.”

I heard a few sighs of relief on the other side, followed by Pyre pushing the door open and my three friends joining us in the centre of the room.

“We heard something explode and thought that… well, we’re just glad you are both alive,” Brisk exhaled with a smile, looking down at Xayah as I finally managed to remove the collar from her neck. “What exactly was that?”

I held up the ruined remains of the grenade. “Shock grenade. I picked it up off of one of the earlier traps in the Gauntlet. Disabled the collar before it could explode.”

Star gave a smug smirk. “Ha! Survived the maze with one of that bitches own traps. Fucking shows her.”

Pyre glanced up at a camera and speaker that still hung from the ceiling above us. “You think she can hear or see us right now?”

I shook my head. “This room is completely dead at the moment. She’ll probably have it up and running pretty fast, but right now, we’re alone.”

Pyre nodded, turning to face us. “Alright, then we need a plan. Any ideas?”

I frowned. “What about what Magazine said? Do you not trust her?”

Pyre gave a low chuckle. “No. Do you?” She had me there. “I don’t doubt that everything Magazine told us is true, but her and Razor Blade are in this for the long haul. Trust them too much and we’ll find a few knives in our back.”

“What other choice do we have though? We need to survive the gauntlet and kill Viscera. Magazine is offering to let you take control of the Pack. Isn’t that what we need anyway?”

Xayah raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Offering to let you control the Pack? When did all of this happen?”

“It’s a long story,” I admitted. “Right now, what’s important is surviving the gauntlet and killing Viscera.”

Pyre winced. “Amber, I don’t know if I can do that.”

I stared at her, my mouth a gape a little. “W-what is that supposed to mean? You can’t kill her? Pyre, what other choice do we have?”

Pyre took a step back. “I… It’s not that easy okay! Viscera and I go way back. We were friends, practically family... I can’t just kill her… It’s… It’s…”

I scowled at her. “Oh, so she’s your friend now? You can’t kill her because she’s your friend? You can’t kill her like you killed Heartbeat? Was he not your friend?”

Brisk quickly stepped between us and placed a hoof sternly on my chest. “Whoa, slow down there Amber. Calm down.”

Pyre scowled at my over Brisk’s shoulder. “I never said Heartbeat wasn’t my friend, Amber! I’ve been forced to kill all of my friends, and I’m fucking sick and tired of it!”

“Have you not been paying attention to all those corpses in the gauntlet? Viscera has been going on a killing spree! She’s a murderer, Pyre! She needs to die! After everything she has done! To us! To you! How can you just let her live!”

“You’re a murderer too! Or did you just forget about all those foals you keep sulking about!” Pyre snapped, pushing Brisk aside and looming over me. “Should I kill you too?! Huh?”

I felt myself inhale sharply, rage flaring though my gut. “Those foals were raiders! Raiders deserve to die! And Viscera, last time I checked, happens to be a raider! One of the worst!” I snarled.

“Both of you! Calm down! This isn’t getting us anywhere!” Star shouted, trying to move between us like Brisk had, only for me to push her aside.

Pyre glared down at me, her eyes narrowing into slits behind her visor. “I was a raider when you first met me. Should you have killed me then? If I kill her, how am I any better than she is?”

I scoffed at her. “Are you trying to take the fucking moral high ground right now? You? Really?” I stomped my hooves aggressively, pain flaring up my side as I stretched the area the scorpion had stung me. “Pyre, she’s a monster! You know that better than anypony! If we want to get into the Institute, then you need to get control of the Pack. So fucking kill her!”

Pyre paused, her eyes looking me over cautiously. When she finally spoke, her voice had a strange tremble to it. “Are you asking me to kill my friend Amber?”

“Yes. I am,” I grunted immediately.

Again, Pyre paused, her eyes locked with mine. Finally, she took a few steps back and turned away, stomping over to the wall of the room and ramming her hooves into the metal surface with a booming roar of rage. The walls dented and cracked where her hooves pounded into them.

After a long second of her facing away from me, heaving heavily, the implications of what I had just said finally hit me. I staggered back, slumping down and sitting on my rump. Xayah hesitantly limped over to me, cautiously sitting beside me, though making sure to keep her distance.

“P-pyre… I’m sorry,” I eventually muttered, my eyes downcast. “I don’t mean that… I’ll kill her. I shouldn’t have put this on you…”

Pyre’s shoulders heaved for a second before she turned back around and looked at me. “No. It’s fine. I know she’s a monster… I just… I need to do this… I just don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

“You are,” Brisk stated flatly from beside us. We both turned our heads to look at him, surprised by his sudden contribution. “Pyre, I’m kind of an idiot. I’m a slow learner and I’m definitely not as smart as Amber or Star, but my time in the wasteland has made one thing very apparent… You’re the strongest fucking pony in the wasteland. Ponies don’t mess with Pyre Blaze, and if Viscera thinks she can beat you, then she’s dead wrong.”

I saw Pyre tilt her head a little in surprise at his compliment. I remembered it wasn’t even all that long ago that Brisk had refused to work with her. How things had changed since then.

Slowly, Xayah pulled herself up and looked over at Pyre. “Viscera has Mirra right now, correct? Since when have you ever let ponies bring harm to her and get away with it?” she glanced down nervously at me before returning her attention to Pyre. “You can beat her. You faced your father. If you can do that, you can face her.”

With a sigh, I pulled myself up too and took a few steps towards Pyre. “Look. We’re your friends. You won’t face her alone. We have your back. We got this together.”

Pyre looked around at all of us for a long moment before letting out a long sigh. “I don’t know how I ended up with all of you as friends, but thank the goddesses that I did,” Slowly, she turned to face the door out. “The colosseum should be just beyond there. I don’t know what she has planned for us in there, but it’s going to be bad.”

“A dragon, right?” I gulped. I didn’t like the idea of that.

Pyre hesitated. “Maybe… I’m not sure. Whatever is waiting for us, Viscera plans to tear us apart before we die. Whatever happens, I just want to say that I’m thankful I got to know all of you… That you were all the best friends I could ask for.”

Brisk gave a nervous, but warm smile. “We’re glad to have gotten to travel with you too! You lead the way. We’ll follow your lead.”

Nodding, Pyre took a few steps towards the door. She raised her armoured hoof, pressing it against the doors cold surface. Slowly, she took a deep breath. “Alright Mirra. We’re coming…”

Cautiously, we moved out of the room and into the Colosseum.

“Death! Death! Death! Death! Death!”

The sound of booming chanting filled my ears as I marched out into the Colosseum after Pyre. Around me, the sounds of rattling cages and banging metal and drums assaulted us as the thousands of raiders and hellhounds that had accumulated in the seating area above called for bloodshed.

The Colosseum was a massive, circular chamber, the centre of which being the massive pit that we had walked into. Rows upon rows of seats lined the area above and the ceiling had long since collapsed, giving me a good view of the overcast sky above.

The floor of the arena was coated in a thick layer of dirt and dust and was littered with bloodied corpses and bones. The walls of the gladiator arena were lined with cages, each filled with starved, salivating, snapping hounds, clawing at the caged doors and howling for fresh meat. Directly across from us was a massive cage door inset into the walls of the pit and above that was a large viewing platform holding a jagged looking throne made out of what appeared to be hellhound bones.

Lazily flopped across the throne lay Viscera, leering down at us with her sharpened fangs. Mirra lay whimpering beside her, a drizzle of blood dripping from her muzzle where she had been struck by one of Viscera’s blows. One of Viscera’s fore hooves rest atop the shivering changeling's head, slowly petting her ridged scalp as if Mirra was another of her hounds.

At the sight of us, Viscera’s smile widened and she pushed herself up to her hooves, glaring down at us lavishly. “It looks like our friends have made it to the Colosseum! You all know what that means!”

“Death! Death! Death! Death! Death!” the chants of the raiders began to grow in volume, rapidly becoming faster and more sporadic. I spotted Magazine and Razor Blade amongst the crowds above, watching us with intense interest, though neither of them seemed overly interested in joining in on the chanting.

“Pyre!” Mirra shouted worriedly, trying to pull herself up from the ground and rush to us. Viscera violently lunged onto her, pinning her to the ground with her deadly claws and cutting deep into her flesh. Mirra could do little but whimper under the assault.

Viscera's jagged smile only broadened more as she saw Pyre flinch. She raised her fore hooves skyward, addressing the booming crowds. “Disciples! Are you ready for blood!”

The Disciples began to roar with anticipation, leaping from their seats and banging against the wire and bars that separated them from us.

Viscera turned, her insane eyes looking to another part of the arena. “Operators! Are you ready to see the Las Pegasus raiders notch another kill!”

More cheering, though this time it was admirably more half hearted than before.

Viscera rolled her eyes. “Always a tough crowd…” She smirked over at her hellhounds. “And the Pack! Are! You! Ready! For! Things! To! Get! Wild!”

The Colosseum was filled with blood thirsty howls as the Pack exploded with excitement. I saw one raider literally get torn apart as a group of raider hellhounds started working themselves up into a frenzy. The banging drumbeat quickened.

Viscera turned back to us, her vile sneer only growing. “And all of you… Are you ready to die?”

The massive gate on the far side of the colosseum began to rise, its rusting bars producing an ear piercing shriek as they pulled upwards. I crouched into a battle stance as I waited for the dragon to emerge. Beside me, I saw the ends of Pyre’s flamers flicker to life and Brisk’s mini gun begging to spin up.

There was a loud clang as the gate finally pulled to a stop. The chanting raiders grew louder and louder, calling for death and blood. I held my breath, every muscle in my body tense as I awaited the beast within to show itself.

Then, something began to emerge from behind the darkness of the chamber beyond. Something that glinted in the light. The crowd fell silent as they all saw what was being pushed into the arena.

A mirror.

I cocked my head to the side. The fuck was that supposed to mean? Beside me, I saw Brisk, Xayah and Star start looking around in confusion as well, unsure how to react to the sudden turn of events.

Pyre on the other hoof, took a step back, her eyes wide behind her helmet. “No… No no no no no no…”

“Oh, what’s this?” Viscera’s voice boomed in mock confusion, grinning down at us. “No dragon?” her hoof lowered, slowly petting the top of Mirra’s head once again. “I guess we’ll need something else to burn our vics alive…”

“Damn it Viscera! Stop!” Pyre growled, stomping towards her. “Let's fight this out, right now! You and me! End the legend of the Manehattan Scourge!”

Viscera rolled her eyes. “All in due time Pyre. But first, something needs to be done about your friends,” Her hoof suddenly pushed down, slamming Mirra’s face into the hard surface of the platform and making the small changeling cry out. I saw blood dripping down Mirra’s head as Viscera’s sharp claws dug deep into her flesh. “Kill you friends, or the changeling dies… What’s it going to be?”

As the raiders began to realize what Viscera was demanding of Pyre, the chanting once more began to rise, this time even louder than before. They didn’t just want to see bloodshed now. Now they wanted to see Pyre spill the blood of her friends. Our blood...

“Pyre, don’t worry about me! I’ll be-” Mirra started, but she was cut off and Viscera slapped her hoof across her face, reducing the changeling's brave proclamation to little more than whimpers. I could practically feel Pyre seething with rage beside me.

“Honestly Pyre, you must have seen this coming. The moment you managed to get your friends through the Gauntlet, you must have known things had to end this way,” Viscera cooed, baring her teeth. “Now. Make your choice. Your ‘friends’ lives, or the changelings!”

Slowly, Pyre turned to face us. Through her visor, I could see the confliction across her face. Nervously, Star took a step back. “P-pyre,” She shuttered, her wings twitching nervously at her sides. “What are you doing…?”

Pyre looked over at her for a second, before returning her gaze to me. “I think we all should have known this was going to happen…”

I took a small step back myself. “Pyre, we can figure this out. We can find a way to get all of us out of here together.”

“Tick tock Pyre!” Viscera called out, pressing down harder on Mirra’s head. “If I don’t see blood in the next few seconds, I’m going to start feeding bits to my hellhounds!”

Pyre trembled, her eyes darting around at all of us before shifting back to look at Mirra and Viscera. “We need to stall for time, Amber.”

I took a deep breath, my stomach clenching up on itself. She was right. Until Magazine and her Operators could find a way to get us out of here, we would just have to go along with whatever Viscera had planned. I just didn’t know if we had what it takes.

“Stall for time?!” Viscera’s voice called out mockingly, cutting over the booming chatter of the raiders. I felt my body go a ridged for a second at her words. “For what, might I ask? No pony is coming for you! You will all die here. All of you...” I cursed under my breath at her augmented hearing. We had to be more careful with what we said. Viscera’s hoof claws dug deeper into Mirra’s back, ripping long scars into her carapace. Mirra screamed, writhing as her back was ripped open. “Now choose Pyre Blaze! My hellhounds are getting hungry!”

Pyre Blaze trembled as she slowly looked back to me. “I’m sorry Amber… I need to protect her…”

Xayah’s eyes widened a little. “Pyre, what do you-”

Pyre lunged at us, her massive hooves slamming into my chest and sending me skidding backwards. Brisk gave a shout of alarm before swinging his own hooves at Pyre, only for her to easily step away and block his attack with a kick of her own. Brisk’s head snapped back at the hit, staggering back and collapsing to his side with a grunt of pain.

The raiders around us screamed manically as they watched us fight. The chanting grew and grew, until I could hear little more but a booming sound pounding in my brain. The drum beat quickened, faster and faster.

Xayah rolled away from a swing of Pyre’s hoof. She straightened herself up, her large anti-machine rifle quickly moving to level with Pyre. She hesitated for only a second as our massive power armoured friend barrelled towards her.

Bang!

Xayah fired off a shot, only for Pyre to dive out of the way, one of her fore hooves swiping out at Xayah’s legs and knocking her down to the ground.

It had been a long time since I had seen Xayah miss a shot. Sometimes I forgot just how strong Pyre Blaze really was.

I pulled myself back up, limping forwards and standing next to a trembling Star Breeze protectively as Pyre turned her impressive bulk to face us.

“Pyre, stop! We can work this out!” I urged her, holding out a hoof to try and calm her down.

Pyre shook her head. “We don’t have a choice Amber. This is how it has always been. I get close to my friends, and just when I fully accept them, I kill them…” She trembled again, staring me down. “It’s the only way to save her…”

She pounced forward, her flamers shooting off a burst of fire in our direction. Star and I dove apart, the ends of our tails catching flame as Pyre’s inferno seared where we had just been standing.

Star managed to spin around and fire a shot from her magical energy rifle before Pyre was upon her, its blazing red beam bouncing harmlessly off of Pyre’s power armour. Pyre’s hooves crashed into her head, pummelling her to the ground. Pyre reared up over the fallen pegasus, her massive hooves poised to crush Star’s skull.

Brisk tackled into Pyre from the side, making her stager slightly and giving Star just enough room to dart away. He glared Pyre down, his mouth clamped onto the firing bit of his mini gun. “Pyre, please! Let’s find another way!”

Pyre’s flamers pulled him up short as he was forced to jump away or risk having his face melted from his head. He spun around just in time to see Pyre’s hoof before she slammed it into him, sending him flying a half foot through the air. He landed with a heavy thud, groaning.

Xayah staggered forwards, one of her hooves swinging at Pyre’s head, only for Pyre to take the hit easily and counter with a hit of her own, knocking Xayah aggressively to the ground and knocking the wind out of her.

I rushed forwards, jumping between Pyre and Xayah as Pyre slammed down with her hooves. I took the full weight of the hit, crumpling to the ground as the powerful assault hit me like a balefire bomb.

Pyre scowled at me, reeling back a little. “Damn it Amber! I need to do this?”

I winced, trying to keep myself from collapsing fully on top of Xayah. “I can’t let you hurt her Pyre! Any of them! Just like you can’t let Viscera hurt Mirra!”

I rammed Braeburn’s Liberator into the side of Pyre’s head with my magic as hard as I could. Pyre gave a shout of surprise and pain, staggering back and reeling around to face me. I was surprised to see I had managed to dent her power armour.

Slowly, Xayah pulled herself up to stand beside me. Brisk and Star quickly joined her, staring Pyre down as she slowly began stalking in circles around us.

“Pyre, listen to us. We aren’t going to fight you!” I shouted, a sick feeling in my stomach. “We need to work this out!”

“We can’t just walk out of this!” Pyre snarled. “Not this time. We have to do this! We don’t have a choice!” She charged forward again, her flamers spewing fire towards us. We drove out of the way, a wave of heat washing over us as she powered past us. Star gave a yell of pain as Pyre slammed into her at full force, knocking her back down to the ground.

I twirled around, slamming my hooves into Pyre’s side while Brisk rounded on her and gave her a strong buck from behind. Pyre twisted about, evading Brisk’s attack and slamming into me herself. I staggered back as her weight pounded into me, my hooves skidding across the dirt floor of the Colosseum, kicking up clouds of dust.

Brisk’s mini gun began to spin up. Filling the air with a loud whirring sound even above the raiders constant cheering. Pyre spun around to face him, her eyes darting around as she made out the mini gun preparing to fire.

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Brisk’s gun fired, spewing a stream of bullets towards Pyre. A few bounced off her armour, but one lodged itself in her leg, making her give off a grunt of pain. She sprang forwards, her hooves reefing the large gun from Brisk’s side and swinging it in a wide arch before slamming the gun across his head.

Brisk gave a scream of pain as he was knocked to the floor, blood spilling from a large gash in his head.

I rushed forwards, my own shotgun firing off a shot into Pyre’s side. The explosive buckshot burst across her armour, forcing her to stumble to the side and struggle to keep her balance. She reeled around, her hooves swinging and bashing me across the side of the head.

I hit the ground hard, my head bouncing off the rough terrain as I collapsed painfully onto my back. I tried to pull myself back up, only for my spinning head to cause me to stagger and once more crumbled to the dusty floor.

Xayah rushed forwards, moving between Pyre and I as Pyre began to advance on me. Her rifle swung up, aiming and firing a shot into Pyre’s leg. Pyre gave a shout of pain, her leg buckling as the powerful rifle blasted straight through her amour and into her flesh.

Pyre snarled, flashing towards Xayah on her trembling legs and ramming into her, sending her staggering backwards. She reeled back again, her hind hooves swinging around and ramming roughly into Xayah’s chest. Xayah gave a loud wheeze of pain as Pyre’s huge hooves crashed into her and sent her collapsing to the ground.

I struggled to pull myself up and save her, my spinning vision made seeing anything straight near impossible. I staggered around, seemingly seeing double of everything as I tried to get my bearings.

Pyre loomed over Xayah, one of her fore hooves pinning Xayah down while the other was poised over her head, ready to crush her skull. As I tried to regain my senses, I saw her hesitate, her hoof trembling as she stared down at Xayah’s shaking form.

She couldn't do it. She wouldn’t...

“What are you waiting for!” Viscera howled gleefully from her viewing platform above. “Kill the Zebra or the changeling dies!” She pulled Mirra in close, pressing her blade like Hellhound claws against her throat. “Do it now Pyre Blaze!”

Trembling, Pyre lowered her head and whispered something in Xayah’s ear. I could feel my body go cold. I had seen Pyre do that once before. When she had killed Heartbeat back at the MWT hub. Xayah began thrashing helplessly as Pyre once more raised her head back up, her body shaking as she forced herself to look away from Xayah’s form, unable to look at her anymore.

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry,” Pyre moaned, just loud enough for me to hear, though I doubt many of the raiders could have heard it.

I felt myself lock up with fear. I rushed forwards, desperate to stop this. “Pyre! NO!”

Pyre’s hoof fell, slamming down upon Xayah’s head. I heard a loud crack of bones, I could see Xayah's legs spasm from behind Pyre's form. Then Xayah's whole body went limp.

My breath caught in my throat and my eyes bulged as I watched Pyre’s hoof once more rise, this time seeing her metal clad hoof soaked in blood. Panic and rage flashed through me, my senses finally returning.

Pyre had just killed Xayah… Just like that… How could she! How dare she!

I screamed, I’m not sure exactly what I screamed, but I know that I screamed. I rushed forwards, frantically pounding against Pyre’s sides with my hooves. I raised Braeburn's Liberator in my magic, ramming it against her again and again.

Pyre grunted as I smashed the grip of my gun against her head, forcing her off of Xayah. She stumbled back, flames flickering to life on the end of her flamers.

“How could you!” I screamed, rushing her again and slamming into her at full force. “I never should have trusted you! I should have just killed you when we first met!” She grabbed me with her fore hooves as I slammed into her and abruptly pulled me into a hug, holding me tight as I started to sob. I tried to push away from her, pounding against her chest with what little strength I had left, but I wasn’t as strong as she was. She just continued to hold me as I cried.

“This is the only way Amber. I’m sorry,” Pyre grunted as I slammed my hooves against her again. She suddenly pulled back, flipping me over and pinning me against the ground. I swung Braeburn's Liberator up to fire at her head, but she quickly knocked it aside, sending it skidding across the ground away from me. She leaned down, her muzzle only inches from my ear as she raised one of her hooves over my head. When she spoke, her voice came out in a hushed whisper that even I almost didn’t hear. “Play dead…”

My eyes widened. Immediately, my head snapped to my side, looking to where Xayah’s limp form lay. Her wide, lifeless eyes stared back at me. Then, one of those beautiful eyes winked at me.

I felt myself go limp with relief. Of course Pyre wouldn’t just kill her. We had to stall for time, and this was one hell of a way to do it. Pyre had been right, this is the only way. Not to save Mirra, but to save all of this.

I looked back up at where Pyre was looming over me and gave a grim nod. I thrashed my hooves, trying to push her off of me, but I wasn’t really trying to stop her any more.

Pyre’s hoof rose, its massive form casting a shadow over my head. Then it fell, slamming down towards me.

I flinched as the armoured hoof I had seen crush hundreds of skulls slammed down past my head, but it never landed on me. Pyre stomped down directly in front of my face, her hoof shattering one of the many bones that littered the ground around us, the loud sound of snapping, crunching bone filling my ears.

I let my own body spasm for a second before letting myself go still. I held my breath, trying to keep Viscera and the rest of the raiders from seeing my chest rising and falling.

Pyre pulled herself away from me, mumbling just loud enough for Viscera to hear her. “I’m sorry… I had to…”

Across from me, I could see Brisk and Star fretting over Xayah’s rigid body, though I could tell that they had quickly caught on with what was going on. Brisk glanced over at me nervously, his face softening slightly when he saw me wink back at him.

He whispered something I couldn’t hear to Star, before pulling himself up and scowling at Pyre. “You killed them!” He yelled, his faux rage, a rather impressive act. “They were your friends!”

Pyre lunged at them both, slamming both of them to the ground. I watched them fall as Pyre loomed over them, her hooves crashing down at their heads. Though this time, I noticed her blows didn’t fully land.

The raiders cheered wildly as Pyre finally ‘ended’ the last of her friends.

Panting heavily, Pyre leaned back, her shoulder shaking as she pulled herself around to face the viewing platform Viscera and Mirra were watching us from. “There! Now let her go!”

I couldn’t see Mirra from my spot on the ground, but I could hear the tremors in her voice as she sobbed. “P-pyre… How could you…”

“I don’t believe you,” Viscera sang. I could hear the clattering of her hellhound claws as she stalked to the edge of the platform. “I want to see your friends' corpses burn, Blazy! Make them burn for me!”

The raiders around us began roaring with excitement, pounding against the metal bars separating them from us. Their chanting grew even still, rising higher and higher.

“Burn them! Burn them! Burn them!”

I could see Pyre trembling as she stared up at the massive crowds calling for her to light us aflame. She slowly pulled herself over to me, dropping her head so that her muzzle was only inches away from mine. “Amber… What should I do…”

Our conversation was cut short as a Disciple raider burst into the viewing area of the Colosseum, bleeding heavily from a wound on their brow. “The city's defences have been shut down!” Raiders bolted to their hooves at his words, reaching for their weapons. I could feel waves of panic suddenly began rippling throughout the crowd of raiders. “The Enclave! They’re-”

Boom!

The whole arena shook as a massive beam of energy flashed through the Colosseum, a rainbow coloured explosion blasting apart a section of the seating the raiders had been sitting in. The raiders screamed as they were vaporized, debris and seared flesh raining down upon the rest of the Colosseum.

Jolted by surprise, I lifted my gaze to look up at the overcast sky above. Dark shapes were slowly moving into position above us, blotting out the sky. Enclave Raptors! The Enclave had made it into the strip!

Swarms of armoured pegasi began diving down towards us, the deadly energy weapons firing off beams of light into the crowds of raiders, rendering many of them to ash. A pegasus pulled war chariot flashed into the Colosseum, dropping a load of plasma grenades into the crowds of raiders before swooping back out.

“If that’s not the signal, I don’t know what is!” Brisk shouted, bolting to his hooves and rushing over to help me up.

Viscera’s eyes widened as she saw us suddenly start pulling ourselves from the ground. “What?! No! Nonononono!” She wailed manically, her eyes crazed and her hellhound hoof claws flailing around her frantically as she whipped herself up into a frenzy. Mirra scampered away from her, her eyes wide as the vile raider rounded on her. “Come here bitch! I’m going to eat your fucking heart!”

Boom!

Another blast from one of the Enclave Raptors massive guns flashed through the Colosseum, forcing Viscera to stagger away as her viewing platform abruptly slanted dangerously to the side.

Mirra’s elytra fluttered open, her wings buzzing as she dove from the platform. Viscera howled and lashed at her, her deadly claws ripping a large gash in Mirra’s hind leg as she swooped towards us.

Pyre rushed forwards, leaping into the air and catching Mirra as she fluttered down, holding her tight as yet another blast from an Enclave Raptor blasted apart a chunk of the Colosseum around us, causing flaming debris to crash down around us.

I staggered over to Xayah, helping her up to her hooves and giving her a hug of my own. “Thank the goddesses, I thought you were dead.”

Xayah gave me a warm smile. “I am glad that I’m not, though this is not the time. We need to get out of here.”

The raiders had begun fighting back against the Enclave, quickly taking stock of their surroundings and turning their extensive weaponry on the incoming pegasi forces. I saw massive beams of magical fire flashing up into the hoards of pegasi as the Operators began firing off their high tech weaponry and a few hellhounds leaping into the air, literally ripping pegasi down from the sky and tearing off their wings.

Two Enclave troopers dropped down from above us, landing heavily on the dusty ground, dust bursting in small clouds around them as their heavily armoured hooves touched down. They aimed their pulsing weaponry at us, one of them giving off an animalistic snarl while the other glared at Star, their rifle fixated on her head. “Star Breeze. You have been sentenced to death on order of Colonel Autumn Leaf.”

Star trembled, taking a nervous step back as she stared down the barrels of the rifles.

The gates to the Colosseum pit burst open, followed by the sound of bloodthirsty screams as dozens of Raider Disciples began pouring into the arena. The Enclave troopers whirled around, their weapons firing at the swarm of raiders, but it was too late. The crazed raiders were upon them in seconds, slicing through their power armour with their impossibly sharp knives and digging into their flesh with their sharpened fangs.

“That’s our cue to get out of her!” Pyre shouted to us, rushing across the arena, her flamers burning a Enclave pegasus alive as they dove towards her.

“NO! Stop them!” I heard Viscera scream as we began rushing towards the exit. I heard the loud screeching of metal on metal as all the cages around us burst open, the snarling of hounds filling my ears as hundreds of vicious dogs burst out of their cages and charged towards us. “Kill them!”

I jumped back, just barely avoiding my fore hoof being snapped off by one of the dogs deadly bites. I flipped around, kicking them in the muzzle with my hind hooves before darting after Pyre. Xayah fired off a shot from her rifle at another hound as they pounced at us, blowing the top half off its skull from its body and sending it limp to the ground.

Up ahead, I saw three raider Operators beckoning us towards the exit. The Raiders Magazine had sent to get us out no doubt. “Come on! Hurry your asses up!” A lovely reception on their part.

A massive roar rapidly drowned out all other sounds. My gaze was forced skywards, watching as yet another dark shadow flashed over the sky. I felt my legs tremble.

Ah, there was the dragon… Just my luck.

The huge dragon swooped into the Colosseum, its massive muscular legs pounding against the ground and making the whole arena shake. I heard Enclave troopers give loud shouts of fear as its claws and gnashing maw ripped them apart.

Brisk’s mini gun whirred, firing off a steady stream of bullets towards the massive lizard. The shots bounced harmlessly off its thick scales, drawing the dragons piercing gaze down to him.

“Well shit,” Brisk grunted, his mini gun whirring to a stop as he ran out of ammo and needed to reload.

With a roar, the dragon lunged, its huge claws lashing towards Brisk. I raced forwards, wrapping Brisk in my magic and throwing him out of the way as the dragon slashed through the air at him.

Hellhounds began slashing their way through the metal separating them from us, dropping down into the arena with us. Xayah scampered back as two massive hellhounds rushed her, claws slashing and arm mounted magical energy weapons blasting a plethora of lethal beams towards her.

The dragon reared up, its gaping maw widening as a burning inferno began to build in the back of its throat. The air around us began to grow hot as it charged up its fire breath.

An Enclave Raptor fired down at the dragon, its huge weaponry knocking it prone. The Dragon lurched upwards, its mouth snapping open and firing off a huge stream of flame skyward, filling the sky above with writhing fire. Pegasi screamed as the dragon's breath burned them alive.

“The exit, now!” Pyre shouted, taking advantage of the dragon's distraction and once more rushing forwards, slinging Mirra up onto her back. “Go go go!”

I dashed forwards, kicking a snarling hound aside and following after Pyre as she raced for the exit. Somewhere far behind me, I could hear Viscera howling with rage as she ripped Pegasi apart in an attempt to get after us.

The huge dragon swung its tail over us, the spiked appendage slashing pegasi from the ground. Ahead of me, Xayah ducked low to the ground, narrowly avoiding its jagged end from severing her head from her neck.

I burst through the exit of the Colosseum after Pyre and Mirra, rushing into the small hallway that led back out into the streets of Las Pegasus. Star, Brisk and Xayah quickly piling in after me, panting for breath. The three Operators waiting for us quickly pulled us inside and covered our escape with fire of their own.

I heaved as I stumbled away from the Colosseum. We were out. Now all we had to do was kill Viscera, take control of the Pack and confront Jinx… oh, and deal with the Enclave now… Fuck me.

Glancing up, I found myself face to face with a snarling Razor Blade. “Hurry the fuck up. We need to get you out of here,” The leader of the Disciples scowled, urging us to get a move on. One of his barbed wire wrapped fore hooves flashed out, ripping the neck out of an Enclave soldier that swept through the door after us, splattering his face in gore.

Pyre grunted, taking an advancing step towards him. “I was expecting Magazine.”

“Magazine is busy trying to get the city's defences back on,” Razor Blade snapped. “Now come on. We need to kill Viscera, and we need to kill her now! The second she finds out we helped you escape, we’re all going to be in a lot of shit.”

Another eardrum shattering roar shook the city. I could see fire spewing from the top of the open Colosseum as the dragon continued its assault on the assailing Raptors. A group of pegasi scattered in the air, their formation devastated by the dragons onslaught.

“What the hell happened to the city's defences?” I asked over the booming gunfire and screams, quickly following after Razor Blade. A thought suddenly struck me. “Wait! don’t tell me you let the Enclave in as a distraction?!”

Razor Blade snickered. “No. I had nothing to do with the Enclave attack. I just saw an opportunity to get you out of there and took it,” He snapped his jagged fangs at me viciously. “Not get a move on! We need to get to the Somnambula, now!”

A group of Operators and Disciples rushed ahead of us, pulling upon a large set of doors that lead out onto the Las Pegasus street proper. Without waiting for us, Razor Blade rushed forwards, moving out into the street. I quickly followed after him, the rest of my friends close behind.

The Las Pegasus Strip was in chaos. Raiders rushed to and fro across the streets, ducking for cover and firing skywards as teams of Pegasi swooped down at them. Massive canons that had been built into the tops of fortified casinos fired off consistent shots as three of the massive Raptors began making their way across the city to the looming SPP tower and Dashite City.

A ring of large turrets that had been built into the SPP tower had begun to open fire on the Enclave Raptors as they neared. Clearly the towers defences hadn’t gone down like the rest of the cities.

“If we need to kill Viscera, why are we heading for the Somnambula?” Brisk asked as we began rushing across the street towards the towering, glass pyramid a few blocks away. “Shouldn’t we be heading towards her?”

Razor Blade shook his head. “You want to take control of the Pack? You’re going to need a lot of witnesses for Viscera’s death. We had hoped that she would challenge you ponies in the Colosseum, but seeing how that isn’t an option now…”

“With the Enclave attacking, there is going to be a large raider force moving in on the Somnabula hotel to protect Jinx,” Pyre informed us, ducking low as a squadron of Enclave troopers zipped past, their deadly magical energy weapons strafing the street around us. “Unless we can get everypony back into the Colosseum to watch a rematch, we’ll need to confront her there.”

Behind us, the massive dragon broke through the top of the Colosseum, ramming itself into one of the Raptors. The Raptor shifted around in the air, its huge guns firing repeatedly at the beast.

The sound of howls began to fill the air. Razor Blade scowled at the noise. “Shit! Hellhounds are coming! We need to move!”

Pyre’s eyes narrowed behind her visor as she stared in the direction of the howls. She paused, listening to the hellhounds battlecries. “Ten hellhounds,” She deduced, quickening her step to move alongside us. “Her personal raiders… Viscera is coming…”

Razor Blade bared his vicious fangs. “Perfect. Then she will come right to us.”

Another blast from a Raptor sent one of the Hotels beside us bursting into flame. Debris rained down around us as we rushed forwards. The massive glass pyramid was getting closer and I was beginning to make out the shapes of hundreds of raiders gathering around its entrance.

We were almost there! But so were the hellhounds.

I glanced behind me, making out ten massive hellhounds charging down the street after us, their huge claws ripping apart anything that got between us and them. I couldn’t see Viscera, but I could hear her. Her claws scratching against metal and stone, her voice singing as she called after us.

A pegasus pulled war wagon swooped past us, a mounted mini gun on top spraying the ground around us. I dodged to the side, ducking behind a burning dumpster as it soared past before leaping back out and continuing my mad rush towards the Somnabula.

Ahead, I could see the large group of raiders quickly funnelling into the pyramid shaped hotel, their guns firing upwards as teams of pegasi descended upon them. I could see a blue light beginning to flicker to life around the hotel. The beginnings of a forcefield. Jinx had some serious defences.

I put on a burst of speed, rushing through the grand doors of the hotel and into the darkness of the Somnabula hotel beyond. My friends quickly rushed in after me, their guns firing at anypony that got in their way.

“Alright, what now!” I shouted back at them, pulling myself to a stop and looking around.

The Somnabula hotel had been hollowed out, having been converted into what appeared to be a massive throne room. Despite the structure itself being made of glass, it was almost completely pitch black inside, the walls having been covered in a thick layer of scrap metal and the only light to see by being a large pyre in the centre of the room. Raiders had formed a large circle around the outside of the room, all of their weapons aimed at us as we stumbled in. I could hear the forcefield around the Somnabula fully materialize, blocking out the booming noise of the Enclave's assault outside the hotel's walls.

“Now..” Razor Blade purred darkly, quickly slinking away from us to stand before a large group of assembled Disciple raiders. “Now you kill the beast…”

The doors once more burst open behind us, making way for Viscera and her hellhounds. She didn’t even wait a second before lunging, her deadly claws slamming against Pyre’s armour and knocking her to the ground.

“Pyre!” Mirra shrieked, fluttering forwards and attempting to rush Viscera.

Viscera easily batted her aside with a rear hoof, sending her skidding across the ground. “Hold her friends back! Pyre Blaze is mine!” Viscera ordered her hellhounds, her hooves flashing out and bashing Pyre across the face.

I scrambled to help her, but before I could, two hellhounds jumped towards me, their huge claws pinning me down to the ground. One of them leaned over me, snarling, saliva drooling from their jagged maw while the other pressed their deadly, arm mounted energy rifle against my head. Beside me, I saw the rest of the hellhounds do the same for Brisk, Xayah, Mirra and Star.

The raiders began to form a tighter circle around us, their weapons raised to ensure we didn’t escape. Razor Blade watched us calmly from in front of his personal guards, his cold eyes callously boring into us. I spotted the ghoul doctor, Pestilence, amongst the raiders as well, his eyes focused on the fight with disturbing interest.

“Did you really think you could fuck with me, and I would fuck you back!” Viscera screeched, lashing out and sending Pyre staggering across the room. Her voice seemed to be growing louder and louder, each word seeming to drive her into a more crazed frenzy. She had been crazy before, but she was clearly becoming even more unstable. She had gone completely unhinged. “Did you really think you could escape me! Cheat me!” she lunged again. Pyre tried to duck out of the way, but she was too slow. Viscera’s claws raked her side, forcing her back down. “You can’t get rid of me Pyre! Now we’re going to end this! You and me!”

Pyre shot a burst of flames from her side, searing Viscera’s flesh as the manic raider swung at her. Viscera reeled back, her hide scorched. Pyre bucked at her, only for Viscera to duck under her swing and wrap her claws around Pyre’s head, pulling downwards and forcing her face first into the ground.

I struggled against the Hellhounds pinning me down, but it was useless. They were just too strong. One of them pressed down harder, smushing my face against the cold floor, their claws digging into my scalp.

Viscera dodged another blast of fire from Pyre’s flamers, leaping over her and slashing at her back with her claws. Her hellhound claws cut through Pyre’s power armour like butter, ripping three more gashes into her already scarred hide.

Pyre bucked violently, finally landing a hit and forcing Viscera to stumble backwards. Viscera gave a hiss of pain, blood trickling from her muzzle before she launched herself back at Pyre, her whole body a whirlwind of slashing claws and gnashing fangs.

“It was supposed to just be you and me, Pyre! Us against the world!” Viscera howled, her hoof flashing out and kicking Pyre in the gut. Her claws slashed through her armour, digging deep into her flesh. “You betrayed me! You betrayed everything we did together! Like… like you didn’t love me anymore!” Another kick, this one sending Pyre skidding across the floor and slamming against the wall. “And now I’m going to take away everything you love! I’m going to rip apart everything you have ever tried to do!”

Pyre dove at her, her flamers roaring. Viscera twirled to the side, easily avoiding the burst of fire, one hoof slashing out and cutting deep into the fuel tank attached to Pyre’s side. Pyre’s left flamer exploded, bursting into flame and sending Pyre flying to her side, crashing once more against the ground.

“I know the Operators and the Disciples helped you! That they are plotting to kill me!” Viscera screeched, her claws scratching at the floor menacingly as she stalked towards Pyre. Her wide, bloodshot eyes darted around predatorily, daring any pony to deny her. I could see Razor Blade wince at her very accurate proclamation. “Once I’m done here with you and your friends, I’m going to show them their place! Yes, I’m going to teach all of them a lesson! Everypony!” Her blood soaked maw twisted into a gruesome smile, her jagged hellhound fangs dripping with blood. “I’m going to lead the Las Pegasus raiders to Manehattan. Rip the city apart limb for limb! Do what the Manehattan Scourge never could! What you never could!!”

Pyre pushed herself up, only for Viscera to grab onto her head with her claws and throw her across the room. Pyre slid across the floor, the rough ground scratching up her armour. Once again, Pyre tried to scramble up, but Viscera was just too fast. She was on her once again, her claws digging deep into Pyre’s side.

Viscera leered down at Pyre, trailing a clawed hoof across her armoured face. “The time for our apotheosis is here, Pyre Blaze,” She cooed, her jagged grin mere inches from Pyre’s own, blood oozing down from her lips and splattering across Pyre's visor. “Today you die. All of you. Everything you ever were. I will start with the Changeling!”

Two hellhounds rushed forwards, their claws wrapped tightly around Mirra’s struggling form. Mirra hissed, bearing her undeveloped fangs at the huge beasts. “Let me go! Let me go!”

Viscera pulled herself away from Pyre, ripping Mirra away from the hounds and holding her tight as she pressed her sharp claws up against the changeling's neck. “I’m going to kill her Pyre! I’m going to fucking kill her right now!” Viscera’s eyes had lost the strangely intelligent spark I had once seen in them. Now all that her dazzling blue eyes seemed to hold was a startling insanity.

Pyre pulled herself back to her hooves, her body stiff and her burning eyes glaring at Viscera through her cracked visor. Viscera’s grip tightened, her hellhound claws pressing tighter against Mirra’s neck and drawing a small drizzle of blood. “And last words to say to the Changeling bitch!”

“I’m sorry…” Pyre croaked out, her eyes still locked on Viscera. The apology was not directed at Mirra.

Viscera paused, taken aback. “Wh-what?”

“I’m sorry for turning you into this,” Pyre said back, her sharp tone strangely calm all of a sudden. “I should have stopped you. I should never have let you destroy yourself.”

Viscera stiffened, her claws digging just a little deeper into Mirra’s throat. Her muzzle twitched, but I couldn’t tell if she was seething or crying. “S-shut up! You can’t undo what is done!”

“I know,” Pyre soothed back, taking a daring step forward. To my surprise, Viscera took a step back as well. She looked afraid. For the first time, Viscera looked genuinely and truly afraid. “But I don’t want to kill you… Even after everything. Please Viscera… I know you don’t like killing… this is all just a giant lie... Let my daughter go...”

Mirra’s eyes widened a little at the remark, a small tear dripping down her face. She mouthed the words Pyre had said silently to herself, a half smile splayed across her face.

Tears had begun to seep from Viscera’s eyes as well. She took another step back, her whole body shaking. “You don’t get to do this to me! Not now! Not after everything you’ve done!” She screamed, more tears slipping down her face.

“After everything I’ve done?” Pyre asked, her voice sounding almost disbelieving. She took another step forward, finally coming face to face with Viscera, their faces practically pressed up against the other. Slowly, Pyre pulled off her helmet so she could look Viscera directly in the eye. They held eye contact for a moment before Viscera had to force her gaze away. “Look at yourself Viscera, you’re not even a pony anymore. How many ponies have you killed? For what? To get even with the Wasteland? To get revenge for what happened to you? When is it going to be enough?”

“I’ve gone too far Blazy…” Viscera sobbed, her hooves shaking. Then, at those words, the madness returned to her eyes and she gave a low, animalistic snarl. “There is no turning back!”

Pyre lunged forwards, her hooves slamming into Viscera’s face and sending her crashing to the ground, her grip on Mirra loosening, letting the changeling frantically scramble away. Pyre dove in front of Mirra as Viscera reared back up, her claws slashing at the changelings throat. The claws sunk deep into Pyre’s side, ripping through her armour and rending the muscles on her sides in half.

With a roar of pain, Pyre flung herself head first into Viscera, knocking the smaller raider to the floor and pinning her down with her massive fore hooves. Viscera swung up at Pyre with her claws, only for Pyre to bat her hooves aside, stomping them against the ground and shattering her bones. One of her hellhound claws shattered as Pyre rammed her armoured hooves against it.

Viscera howled like an animal as Pyre’s hooves rose and fell again, grinding the bones in her fore hooves to dust. Blood spilled down Pyre’s side as she let her lone flamer flare with fire, searing off the side of Viscera's face. One of Viscera’s eyes burst under the heat, the now empty socket oozing yellow fluids

Viscera sagged, her body trembling as Pyre loomed over her. “Kill me!” She screamed, blood and spittle flying from her mouth. “End it! Let the legacy of the Manehattan Scourge come to a close!” Pyre hesitated, her hoof poised over Visceras neck. “DO IT! KILL ME!”

There was a moment of silence as everypony in the room held their breath. We waited, expecting something to happen. Finally, after what felt like forever, Pyre pulled away, leaving Viscera to lay there gawking at her from the ground.

“W-wha- what are you doing!” Viscera screamed, her eyes wide as Pyre slowly dragged herself away.

Pyre didn’t even bother looking back at her. She just stared up into the darkness of the massive chamber, her body naturally still. Slowly, she picked her helmet back up and placed it over her head. “I’m ending the legacy of the Manehattan Scourge my way. You’re dead to me Viscera… I let you go…”

Viscera’s eyes widened even more, her expression one of terror and hatred. “No! No you can’t do this to me! It needs to end! It has to end! NO!” She lurched forwards, stumbling on her shattered fore hooves and trying to swipe at Pyre with her broken claws.

She never made it.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

Three shots fired from Mirra’s revolver, each one finding its mark. The first lashed through Viscera’s hind hoof, dropping her to the ground. The second punctured her stomach, forcing blood and bile to push its way past her lips as she screamed and thrashed in pain. The third slashed through her throat, missing her jugular by inches and causing waves of blood to pour down her front.

Viscera collapsed to her side, her once beautiful blue eyes bloodshot and wide. Her mouth aimlessly opened and closed as she tried to scream in pain, only to remain silent as more blood spurted from between her lips. her chest heaved as she rasped and coughed, her body twitching as she was racked with waves of pains after pains.

“That was for Heartbeat and Pyre,” Mirra scowled at Viscera, fluttering her wings and looming over the collapsed raider. Viscera trembled under Mirra’s incense glare, staring up at the small changeling in uncharacteristic fear, before coughing up more blood and falling unconscious.

Pyre turned to look down at Viscera for a few seconds before stepping past her and wrapping Mirra in a tight hug as the small filly trembled. “It’s alright now. Its over... We’re all going to be okay…”

“Did you mean it…” Mirra breathed, trying to wrap her arms around Pyre’s large neck. “I-I’m your daughter?”

Pyre nodded, standing back up and raising Mirra’s chin with a hoof so she could give her a warm smile. “I did. I'm a broken mare Mirra, but I'll give it everything I have, if you will have me?” Pyre didn’t need to hear Mirra’s excited ‘yes’ to know the answer as the small changeling tackled her into as big a hug as her small body could muster.

I could see all the raiders that had gathered around us looking around in confusion, not sure what to make of what had just happened. I felt the Hellhounds pinning me down loosen their grip a little in confusion, not sure what to do.

Pyre turned, staring at the raiders around us. She paused as her vision crossed the hellhounds holding me and the rest of my friends down. “My name is Pyre Blaze!” Pyre declared, boldly stepping towards the raiders. A few shrunk back at her approach. “Though I’m sure you are all well aware of that. I’m sure you’ve all heard a lot about me over the last couple of days. Some of you might even remember me, it was not all that long ago that I was one of you,” She paused, looking into the darkness of the chamber beyond. “But I am back now, and I don’t intend on going anywhere this time. Viscera is dead. I am the new leader of the Las Pegasus Pack! Any that oppose my rule will need to take it up with me and those that stand beside me…” I could see the smallest of smiles crack on her face from behind her broken visor. “Isn’t that right, Jinx?”

If the raiders hadn’t been silent before, they were now. They all turned their heads, looking into the darkness of the room themselves. I could feel everypony holding their breath, waiting. I could feel somepony staring back at us through the darkness. I couldn’t see them, but I could sure as hell feel them.

“I shall admit, you have made quite the comeback, Pyre Blaze, oh great and mighty leader of the Las Pegasus Pack,” A rhythmic voice echoed out at us sardonically from the thick veil of darkness. It was a strangely beautiful, melodious tone, if not an imposing one. A Zebra’s voice perhaps. “But Viscera isn’t exactly dead, is she?”

I could practically feel Pyre smirk. “She is as far as I’m concerned. Do you want to challenge that, Jinx, oh great and mighty Overboss?”

All the raiders around us inhaled, their muscles tensing as if waiting for the unseen Overboss to literally eat Pyre alive. I saw a few start slowly backing up, trying to make it to the exit before any bloodshed broke out. Razor Blade quickly stepped forwards, flanked by two heavily armed raiders. “The Disciples agree with the new leadership. I think you will find that Magazine and her Operators will say the same.”

“I don’t doubt she would,” Jinx’s booming voice nickered from the gloom, her voice dripping with sick amusement. “You both worked together to ensure Viscera was taken out of the picture no doubt. Do not think me blind to what goes on in this city, Razor Blade.”

Razor Blade gave a nervous sounding laugh, his eyes darting back and forth a little as he took a small step back. “Uh, yes, well, I can explain Jinx-”

“Worry not Razor Blade,” Jinx’s voice cooed back, cutting him off. “All is forgiven. Viscera… let us just say… Needed to be taken out of the picture. And I must say, I am rather curious as to what the new leader of the Pack will have to contribute to our little gang,” Jinx’s voice paused for a second, letting her words settle over us before she continued. “Pestilence, what is your prognosis on our lovely dear Viscera?”

I saw the pale ghoul doctor push his way through the crowd of raiders, a lit cigarette already smouldering away in his mouth. He leaned down, prodding roughly at Viscera’s bleeding throat. “She’ll live... probably,” He grunted, pulling himself back up to his rotting hooves. “The Changeling’s shot missed her jugular. An Ironic fate, admittedly. Perhaps by the changelings design,” He glanced over at Mirra and flashed his rotting teeth. “You have wonderful aim for a filly so small… How I would love to dissect you and see what makes you tick.”

Pyre snarled and stepped between Pestilence and Mirra. “Back off,” She hissed, letting her flamer flicker to life at the end.

Pestilence simply shrugged in response and turned back to the darkness concealing the great raider Overboss. “Viscera will likely be out of commission for the next few weeks, if not months, and most likely she will be in tremendous pain for the rest of her days, but she’ll likely live all the same. ”

A loud sounding laugh began to echo around the chamber. “Then it would appear that the new leader of the Pack is correct after all. Take her body Pestilence, experiment on it as you see fit. I do not need her any more. Consider it a gift for your contribution to my gang over these many years,” The ghoul gave a grateful nod in response, quickly ordering a few of his raiders to scoop the body up and carry it off for him before he himself scampered away.

“So, no challenge then?” Pyre urged, taking another step away from the firelight and towards the encroaching darkness.

Another laugh echoed around us, though this one sounded much more threatening than the one before. “No, I don’t believe that I will. You seem to have already gained the other gang's favours; an impressive feat in it of itself. Furthermore, you have proven to be a deadly combatant, taking out Viscera is nothing to be ignored... Welcome back to the Las Pegasus Raiders, Pyre Blaze.”

At her words, the hellhounds on top of me shifted and pulled away, letting my friends and I scrambled back to our hooves and stand behind Pyre. I gave Pyre a grateful nod as I stumbled over to stand by her.

Slowly, something began to emerge from the gloom before us, stalking its way into the flickering firelight in the centre of the chamber. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes finally landed on the creature looming over us.

She was massive, standing at least twelve feet above me. She was covered in a thick layer of rich purple fur, adorned with a mix of dazzling gemstone necklaces and jagged, metal raider armour. Where I had expected to see hooves were a set of sharp, deadly looking paws, and their head, feline in shape, looked down at us in amusement with golden, slitted eyes. Two massive wings protruded from their back, giving their already imposing figure a goddess-like appearance.

I felt my jaw drop open in shock and for a second I forgot to breath. The leader of the Las Pegasus raiders was a sphinx!

“So tell me, Pyre Blaze, mighty leader of the Pack...” Jinx grinned, showing off her rows of impressive, sharpened fangs. “What brings you back to Las Pegasus?”

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Fun Fact: When I first conceptualized this chapter back in 2019, I had initially planned for Pyre to actually kill Xayah in the Colosseum. Later drafts also included things like Viscera killing both Mirra and Pyre, Brisk killing Viscera and Star dying inside of the Gauntlet.

All in all, this chapter ended up having a lot less death in it than I had initially planned for it to have.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to Kkat