“I’m intrigued, so I’ll go to this reunion. I’ll be handing things over to Calamity, so talk to her if anything comes up. Oh, you’ll need my word from the pass phrase to get into the bunker - “Friends.” Don’t forget it...”

Awe.

I had heard about the great leader of the Las Pegasus Raiders numerous times over my journey across the wastes. I had heard she was tough, powerful and intelligent and cunning enough to control an army of raiders for years at a time without insurgency or mutiny. I had come to expect that she was not the kind of pony to be messed with.

I had not, however, expected her to not be a pony at all.

I could feel my knees trembling a little as I stared up in horror at the massive sphinx that loomed over us, their golden, slitted eyes sweeping back and forth between us with lackluster amusement. I opened my mouth to try and say something, but I found myself without words to say.

The massive sphinx lowered herself down so that they were a little closer to our eye level, though they still towered over us by quite a few feet. “Well? I’m waiting? Don’t leave me waiting oh great Pyre Blaze?” Jinx’s silver voice oozed with sarcasm as she flashed us with another smile, showing off her knife like fangs. “I doubt you would come here simply for fun. You made that quite clear when you decided to turn you back on Las Pegasus… So what brings you back now? And to take control of the Pack no less. A bold move, Pyre Blaze.”

Clearing her throat, Pyre took a brave step forward. “We came hoping to make a deal. Taking control of the Pack was an unexpected, though not unwelcome turn of event we didn’t anticipate,” She admitted, gesturing with one of her armoured hooves to the large group of hellhounds that had gathered behind us. The hellhounds did not look happy. It looked like they were going to listen to Pyre’s commands for the moment, but I doubted they were very fond of the sudden change in leadership. “We have found a way into the Institute. We need an army to get through. We’re offering to let the Las Pegasus gangs take what they find inside in exchange.”

Jinx rolled onto her back lazily, looking down at Pyre with upside down eyes. “The Institute? No wonder Magazine wanted you to kill Viscera. She must be eccentric,” He eyes traveled to the large door leading back onto the Strip, inset into the far side of the dark chamber. “Though I’m afraid that you have caught me at a rather inopportune time. Shifts of power are rippling amongst the gangs on the Strip and Freeside, something I’m sure you and your friends have played quite the roll in. And, if you had not yet noticed, the Enclave is proving to be quite the large inconvenience. I cannot leave the city defenceless whilst they ravage the Strip.”

As if to prove her point, the muffled booming sound of an Enclave Raptor firing upon the shielded casino. The booming noise shook me from my awed reverie and I quickly shook my head. “Look, Jinx, this is important,” I started, abruptly stepping towards the massive sphinx. “Inside the Institute is-”

“Ah, and you must be Amber Aura,” Jinx soothed calmly, cutting me off as her intense gaze flickered over to me. I felt my whole body lock up as her piercing eyes seemed to cut straight though my soul. Assuming I even had a soul as a synth. “Also known by many as the pink menace. I admit, I expected you to come knocking on my door a long time ago.”

“Y-you did?” I stammered, thrown off guard by the huge beasts proclamation and blazing eyes.

“I did,” Jinx mussed smuggly, her whole body seemingly slithering across the floor to look down upon me. “And I know all about Pureblood and his plans for Utopia. I have seen it in visions.”

I shivered. “Your visions…? What, like seeing the future?”

Jinx shrugged casually, raising one of her humongous paws to look over her sharpened claws. “Sphinx’s have the ability to see future events, yes, though we rarely see clear glimpses of them. Only flickers and shadows of the things that have not yet been,” her eyes turned hard and she let out a loud hiss, baring her teeth. “But recently I have been actively seeing flashes of things in the days to come. Fire raining down from the sky, war rendered the city of Manehattan to smouldering ruins, a massive beast older than Equestria itself rising from the grave… And the Utopia program…” Her eyes flickered back to me, her feline pupils constricting. “You will not succeed in stopping it. It will activate...”

I took a step back at her words, inhaling a sharp breath. “I… I’m going to stop it. I will,” I insisted, snarling a little. I had to stop it. Failing wasn’t an option. I hadn't suffered what I had only to lose.

“So… is that like a prophecy, or whatever?” Brisk asked quizzically, stepping up beside me and daring to stare down the huge sphinx. “Or is that like… a changeable future or something?”

Jinx shrugged again, seeming to lose interest in the conversation all together. “Who can say. I only speak of what I have seen. But as I said, these are but small fragments of a much larger picture. The amount of ways all those events might play out is immeasurable,” Her eyes turned to once more look back at Pyre, ignoring the rest of us. “Very well. I have been convinced. If it is the desire of the three Las Pegasus gangs to storm the Institute, then we shall indeed storm it, however…” she lunged forwards, her massive claws snatching Pyre up and slamming her against the ground. I jumped back in surprise, startled by the sphinx’s sudden assault. “But first, a test. I cannot leave Las Pegasus undefended while the Enclave rips the city apart, until they have been dealt with, we aren’t going anywhere. You want the assistance of the Las Pegasus raiders? Then you’ll need to deal with the Enclave.”

Pyre writhed under her immense grip for a moment, glaring up at her. “You want us to take down an entire army and five Raptors?”

Jinx rolled her eyes, bored. “You have an entire raider gang of hellhounds now, don’t you? Get creative, oh great and mighty Pyre Blaze.”

The doors to the Somnambula burst open, making way for Magazine and a group of ten heavily armed Operator raiders as they swarmed into the building. Jinx raised her head curiously at their approach, though she didn’t seem overly surprised by Magazines appearance.

“Overboss, we have a problem,” Magazine scowled, gesturing for two of her raiders to take defensive positions at the door. “There is no getting the city's defenses back online. Somepony has sabotaged all of the generators from inside the city walls. It could take weeks to get all of them running again. I suspect a traitor.”

Jinx scowled, releasing Pyre and letting her eyes scan the crowd of assembled raiders. “Now, who I wondered would dare to betray the Las Pegasus raiders,” She mused, making sure that everypony present could clearly see her deadly fangs. Her tail swished back and forth behind her as she began stalking her way in a large arch around the raiders. “Any takers?”

“It was the Operators,” One of the hellhounds scowled, stepping forwards and pointing a deadly claw at Magazine. “That bitch probably used them as a distraction to help Pyre kill Viscera! We all know she wants into the Institute! Probably enough to betray us!”

“How dare you!” Magazine scowled, the huge gatling laser on her side beginning to charge up as she stared down the huge hellhound. “Five of my ponies have already died in the assault and you’re accusing me of treason?” Her lips curled back, baring her teeth. “Or should we all ignore how Viscera was planning to kill the changeling filly after making a deal with the other gangs to keep her alive?”

A Disciple raider in sharped, spiked metal armour snarled at Magazine, their hoof already reaching for a knife. “The Operators are in charge of keeping the cities defensive active. So either you let the Enclave in, or you failed at your job,” They raised their blade and pointed it at Magazine’s neck. “Either way, you and your gang are dead meat!”

Razor Blade stepped forwards, raising a hoof and urging his raider to stand down. “The Enclave was never part of any plan. Lower your weapon, Now! Magazine will get what’s coming to her soon, but not now.”

A loud stomping sound directed all of our attention back to Pyre, who was glaring down at the assembled raiders, her remaining flamer flickering with a small flame on the end of it. “Right now, blame is irrelevant. What we need is a plan. The Somnambula Casino is defensible, but that doesn’t help us much in the long run. If we want to push back the Enclave, we’re going to need to to think of something big.”

Jinx grinned widely at her. “Ah. I can tell I’m going to like you in charge already,” the huge sphinx circled around Pyre, her eyes sweeping the raiders below her. “Well? Anypony have any big ideas?”

“If I am not correct, the defences in Dashite City are still active, no? I saw them firing at the Enclave on my way here,” Xayah piped up, looking around. “And that is also the epicentre of the Enclave’s assault, is it not? Perhaps we would be best to direct our attention to defending the S.P.P. tower?”

Magazine gave a slow nod. “Dashinte city acts somewhat independently from the Strip. As such, they run off their own power grid. Whatever sabotage was done to the main cities defences would have had no effect on the tower,” she hesitated, her eyes darting quickly over to Jinx. “But… well… part of our deal with the pegasi there is that the majority of the city is off limits to raiders. There is a main market area on the first floor we are welcome in, but the rest of the tower…” She trailed off, letting us all dwell on that.

“I say we just let the Enclave burn down the tower and all those winged rats with it,” A disciple raider growled. “We don’t need those leeches anyway.”

Jinx’s eyes seemed to glow a little brighter as she turned to face the disciple raider. “Oh really?” she cooed, moving a little closer, her powerful paws almost gliding across the floor as she loomed over the raider. “Is that what you think? You don’t think that they are a valuable asset to us? You think you know better how to run this place?”

The raider took a step back, quivering, his eyes wide at the huge beasts accusation. “I… uh… Of c-course not Jinx… I’m just saying that it would be better to save ourselves than those-”

The raider didn’t have time to finish his sentence as Jinx’s claws lashed out, faster than my eyes could follow, and slit his throat. Her sharpened claws slid through the raiders flesh as if it were pre melted butter, sharper even than the deadly claws of a hellhound. The raider screamed, staggering back and clutching at his neck as blood spurted from the lash wound and across the floor. I felt myself jump back in fright, bits of blood flecks splashing across my face as the raider toppled over, writhing as more and more blood spilled from his body. After a long moment, he went still.

I gulped, daring myself to look back up from the limp raiders body and at Jinx. The looming Sphinx had taken to cleaning her claws, lapping up the dark blood with long licks of her tongue as if nothing had happened. Jinx spotted my horrified glare and gave me a quick smile and wink before addressing her raiders, finally satisfied with the cleanliness of her claws. “We will not be abandoning Dashite City to the Enclave. The Enclave have offended me personally, and Dashite city is mine,” She paused, her gaze flickering over the terrified raiders. “Anypony else want to question that?”

No pony dared to oppose her after that.

“Uh… what about the Strips defences? They weren’t all active, right?” Star stammered, stepping forwards a bit, her eyes still locked on the crumpled body of the raider.

Razor Blade rolled his eyes. “None of them are active. Or are you only now starting to pay attention featherbrain?”

Star Breeze scowled at him. “Yeah, no shit they aren’t active you tit sucking cuck. I’m talking about before they were shut down. I- uh… I remember Pyre saying that out of the hundred anti-dragon canons in the city, only about thirty remained online…” she glanced around at all the raiders that had turned to look at her, backing up nervously a bit. “Why weren’t the others online?”

“We didn’t have enough power,” Magazine told her, her expression curious. “It took us years to build and scavenge enough generators to get just the thirty we had up and running. The amount of power it would have taken us to get all of them working just isn’t possible.”

Star nodded, mauling that over in her head. “So, what did all those defences run on before the apocalypse?”

What Star was saying finally clicked in my head. I gave a small nod of understanding, my eyes lighting up a little. “There must be some sort of huge reactor somewhere that would completely power the Strip, or at least the defences,” I pranced on my hooves a little at the idea of getting to examine a generator of that scale. Brisk just rolled his eyes beside me at my excitement. “It probably went offline after the bombs fell. I might be able to get it up and running again if I could get access to it! We could turn on all the defences!”

I saw a bunch of the Operators grow excited at the proposed idea, most of the other raiders just looked confused though. Magazine gave a snort of annoyance. “You think we haven't already tried that?” She signed, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. “Yes, the Strip has a large reactor chamber beneath the city. If the terminals we have read across the Strip are to be believed, then it has the strength to fully supply power to both the Strip and Freeside below. But we’ve tried to get to it, it’s just not possible.”

“Why not?” Mirra asked timidly, raising an eyebrow at the raider boss from her spot atop Pyre’s back. “What’s stopping you?”

Razor Blade gave a grim laugh. “The reactor lies in a heavily guarded chamber far beneath the S.P.P. Tower, protected by the best security the Ministry of Awesome and Wartime Technology could whip up. Furthermore, it is located behind a huge stable door which we have yet to be able to get to, let alone get through.”

“And we still need to deal with the pegasi in Dashite city,” Magazine added. “They aren’t going to like us going against our deal and storming into their territory, especially with the Enclave attacking them.”

A thought slowly came to me. “Well, we aren’t raiders,” I stated, gesturing to my friends and I. “We could go in and convince them to let the raiders into the tower? Then while you all keep the Enclave at bay, I can try getting to the reactor room.”

Razor Blade and Magazine cast intrigued glances at each other. “It is possible,” Razor Blade grunted, his eyes narrowing slightly. He turned his gaze to address Pyre. “Well, you’re a part of this now? What does the leader of the Pack say about all this? You think this pink filly has what it takes to reach the reactor?”

Pyre gave me a cocky looking smirk. “If she can’t then no pony ever will,” She turned, looking over at Jinx who had retreated a little to watch us all in interest from the shadows. “Well Jinx? It seems like the raider gangs are in favor of this plan.”

Jinx gave a low purr, her maw twisting into a grin that showed far more teeth that I was comfortable with. Even in the dim lighting of the Somnambula, her teeth seemed to gint in the darkness. “Oh yes, I am quite interested on how this will all work out,” Her gaze dropped down to me, looking me over with interest. “Alright, Amber Aura. It looks like we have ourselves a deal…”

I had to scramble back as one of the huge Raptors fired down at us as we began charging out of the Somnambula.

The plan was simple. Get to the S.P.P. Tower and convince the pegasi there to let us in. Easy enough. Easy enough if not for the army of armed pegasi and looming Raptors that stood between me and it mind you…

In the distance I could see three of the Enclave Raptors hovering around the massive white spire that housed Dahsite city. Every few moments was punctuated by a loud bang as their massive energy cannons fired off devastating blast after devastating blast into the city. But the Enclave was having difficulty as well as the trapped pegai within the tower fought back with the tower's excessive defences.

Not far past that, I could see the remaining Raptor still engaged with the Las Pegasus Raiders monstrous Dragon. The huge beast was lurching back and forth in the air, its jaws snapping and massive bursts of fire spewing from its mouth and scorching the Raptors hull.

Unfortunately for us however, the dragon did not seem to be winning, and the Raptor’s massive weaponry had managed to score quite a few near lethal looking hits on the flying reptile.

Returning my gaze to the Raptor assailing me, I once more dove for cover as one of it’s huge cannons swivelled down to aim at the large crowd of raiders that had abruptly started pouring from the entrance of the Somnambula.

It did not, however, get a chance to fire, as the massive form of Jinx lurched from the casino herself and rammed into the ship's huge frame. The looming airship was quite literally sent spinning backwards through the air as the monolithic sphinx charged it in a frenzy of slashing claws and flapping wings.

“That’s our cue to go,” Pyre urged me, pushing me up to my hooves. “Get moving! Jinx can keep the Raptor at bay, but we’re about to get company in a second!”

Her words were only proven as twenty pegasus pulled war wagons swooped down towards us, roof mounted turrets spewing fire down around our charging hooves.

I tucked my tail between my legs as I darted from cover to cover, keeping small and moving fast. Around me, raiders were forming defensive circles, their guns raised skyward as they fired upon the sweeping pegasi, many of their shots dropping the Enclave soldiers to the ground.

“This way, follow me!” Magazine shouted from ahead of me, her gatling laser whirring and blasting a war wagon right from the sky. The wagon burst apart, rain and flaming shrapnel obscuring the sky above.

“Pack, to me!” Pyre shouted, bounding over a collapsed and burning garbage can. Mirra gave a frightened yelp form atop Pyre’s back as she ducked below a blast of energy aimed at her head. Several hulking hellhounds broke off from the larger group, surging towards Pyre and creating a protective formation around her. One of the hellhounds leapt into the air, their deadly claws ripping the wings off a pegasus that dared to get to close.

Beside me, Brisk’s minigun flared to life, filling my ears with the sound of gunfire. He jumped back a little as the magical energy blast of a lone Enclave trooper staffed the street in front of him.

Dashite City was getting closer. I was able to make out the tower's impressive defenses more closely. A large ring of massive turrets circled the landing docks built into the top of the structure and I could see quite a few missile turrets located higher still. Swarms of pegasi swooped and dove around the towers exterior, some of them clad in the Enclave’s dark power armour while others sported something that looked like silver painted combat armour. The inhabitants of Dashite city I assumed.

I had to scamper back a little as the huge form of Jinx crashed into the ground a few feet in front of me, sending up a massive cloud of smoke and debris. The snarling sphinx took maybe a second to shake off the pain before they once more launched themselves into the air, boring into the huge Raptor.

“Keep going!” Razor Blade shouted at us, his barbed wire wrapped hooves flashing out and slitting the throat of a pegasus that got to close. “Get us permission into the tower. We’ll try and hold the Enclave off!”

I saw Xayah give a nod from somewhere to my right, her anti-material rifle cracking off well aimed shot after well aimed shot. I spotted one Enclave soldier fall lifeless to the ground from one of her shots, their head blow apart by a scarily precise shot through their visor.

Magazine broke off from the group with her Operators, their deadly laser rifles driving back the Enclave and making a clear path for us to the looming tower. A few Operators fell to the Enclaves fire, dissolving away with a scream into piles of glittering ash.

Star managed to make it to the S.P.P. tower first, her wings flapping overtime as she barrelled across the street. An Enclave soldier dashed towards her, but dropped dead as Xayah sent a bullet slashing through their neck.

The entrance to the tower had been blockaded, five armoured pegasi guarding the door with their lives as teams of Enclave descended down around them. At Star’s approach, they swung their energy rifles to face her, snarling.

“Back off Enlcave! I’m not going to tell you twice!” One snarled, their energy rifle charging.

“Not Enlcave! Not Enclave!” Star insisted frantically, her hooves flailing and her wings beating as she dove to cower behind the wreckage of one of the crashed war wagons.

The guards hesitated, taking a moment to think as they fired on a dive bombing Enclave trooper that they were a little more certain on killing. “You sure as fuck look Enclave!”

“Not Enclave!” I answered for her, pulling to a stop beside Star and firing up at an Enclave trooper with a blast of my own. The targeted pegasus collapsed to the ground with a crunch, their head pulped form by shotguns' deadly buckshot.

“Raider?” Another guard said in surprise, their eyebrows rising. His eyes focused on the large group hellhounds we had trailing us. A look of worry crossed his face and he narrowed his eyes. “Damn it, Pack?”

Pyre skidded to a stop beside me, looming over the five pegasi guards. “Kind off. There’s been a bit of a change in management around here,” She spun around for a second, her flamers bursting with light as she torched a pegasus that dared to fire at her. “We need into the tower right now!”

One of the guards scowled at her. “You know the rules just as well as I do! We work for Jinx, but raiders are not allowed inside! We don’t need to deal with your kind while the Enclave is attacking!”

Pyre took a step forward, snarling down at the guards. “You want to survive this whole ordeal? None of us are going to make it through this if you don’t let us in,” I could see her smirk slightly from behind her visor. “Besides, I know the rules perfectly, and raiders are allowed into the main area of the tower.”

All the guards scowled at that. The scowls were wiped off their face as a war wagon raced by, dropping a load of pulse grenades down on a group of Dashite city guards that had taken the fight to the ground. The pegasi’s bodies were rented apart, limbs and gore flying everywhere as the deadly explosives detonated.

“F-fine! But your hellhounds stay outside until further notice,” the leading guard stammered, taking a few steps back. His face looked pale at the sight of the extensive violence. He had probably never seen death on this scale before.

Pyre gave a grim nod. “Fair enough,” She turned, addressing her hellhounds. “Create a perimeter around the outside of the tower. Kill any Enclave that gets too close!” She pointed to two particularly large looking hellhounds with extensive cybernetic augmentation. “You two, defend the entrance! I don’t want any Enclave entering the tower!”

The Hellhounds all nodded and darted off to do as instructed. Pyre gave me a smug grin. “I forgot how fun it is to run a raider gang.”

I gave her a warm yet worrisome smile. “I’m glad, just don’t go full raider on us again.”

Pyre’s smile faded. “Of course not, never again.”

Two of the guards moved backwards to open up the large doors into the tower as the other three crouched down into a more defensive formation. There was a loud creaking as the huge doors into Dashite City pulled open.

“Inside, now!” One of the guards shouted at us, their gun firing at a few Enclave troopers that tried to use the open door to their advantage.

I rushed forwards, my friends quick on my tail as we darted into the city. The second the last of us crossed the threshold, the guards slammed the doors shut behind us, locking us inside of the S.P.P. tower.

Both Brisk and Xayah let out a small gasp beside me, drawing my attention from the slammed door to the large room before us. And that was when I got my first good look at Dashite City.

The main atrium area that we had entered into had been turned into what appeared to be a massive market. Large wooden huts had been built up around the exterior of the circular chamber with a second level of structures suspended by precariously creaking supports built above them, each holding a different type of stall of some kind. I noticed a weapons and armour vendor to our right, while a food and general good vendor sat off to my left. At the far side of the room I could see an old room that had been converted into a hospital of sorts. The swinging sign above the hospital's door read, ‘Doctor Pestilences Clinic’. I wondered if the ghoul doctor had already made it into the tower or if he was still somewhere out on the Strip. The centre of the atrium held a large trading area where I assumed the pegasi of Dashite City traded with the Las Pegasus Raiders.

The whole setup reminded me a lot of Friendship City actually, only with wooden buildings instead of the wreckages of boats from the harbour.

“You Six! State who you are and what you want!” A pegasus mare in Enclave power armour demanded, strutting towards us with two pegasus guards on either side. I quickly noted that the Enclave insignia on the side of the power armour had been scratched out and replaced with a cloud and lightning bolt. The power armoured pegasus narrowed her eyes at Star Breeze. “And what is an Enclave Scientist doing here?”

I quickly put a hoof in front of Star protectivally. “She isn’t with the Enclave. She’s with us,” I insisted, narrowing my eyes at her in return.

The pegasus growled. “And who are you exactly? You don’t exactly look like raiders either…” Her eyes flicked over to Pyre. “Or most of you don’t… I didn’t expect to see you here Pyre Blaze. Last I heard, you were outlawed and dead.”

Pyre struck a dramatic pose. “It’s funny how things change, isn’t it. Currently I’m the acting leader of the Las Pegasus Pack,” She paused, looking over the guns that were aimed at us. “I am of course here on behalf of Jinx, but my friends here represent a third party that wishes for all of us to make it out of here alive. They are here to negotiate a truce between the pegasi of Dashite City and The Las pegasus Gangs. I think you’re going to want to listen to what they have to say.”

The mare grunted in return, her eyes darting back to Star. “Very well, what are the terms of this truce?”

I took a step forward, making the mare shift her gaze from Star to me. “We need access to the reactor Chamber beneath the tower and you need protection from the Enclave. The S.P.P. tower seems to be able to hold its own for now, but the attack is just getting started,” I began, trying my best to explain the plan. “The way I see it, there is only one way that we’re all getting out of this. You allow the Las Pegasus gangs into the tower and permit them to access the reactor chamber and we’ll help all of you defend the tower.”

The tower shook as the Raptors outside sent a beam of energy flashing though one of the walls. I stumbled a little as I tried to maintain my balance as the floor trembled below me. The power armoured pegasus flapped their wings, lifting from the ground for a second as the tower shook before dropping down to the floor. “And what makes you think that you can even get to the reactor chamber? Many have tried, but no pony has ever succeeded.”

“We are hoping to get the city's defences back on. From what I can tell, getting to that chamber is the only way to do that,” Brisk said for me, taking a step forward himself. “We’ll get to it because the only other alternative is surrender.”

The mare scowled a little at that before turning to her guards and exchanging a few words with them that I couldn’t hear. After a second, she turned back to us. “Very well. I’ll accept the help of the Las pegasus raiders, but that leaves us with a rather big issue,” She paused, gesturing over to the door we had come through. “That door is the only way into and out of the tower, save the loading docks on the top floor. There is no feasible way to get the raiders into the tower without them getting blown apart by the Enclave or expending far more resources than we are currently able to give.”

Xayah grimaced. “We will most likely need to create some form of ceasefire with the Enclave, else risk them destroying any chances we have at defending the tower.”

“The Enclave won’t agree to a ceasefire and you know it. We’ll need to temporarily push the Enclave back,” Pyre stated bluntly. “I’ve already got my hellhounds securing the perimeter of the tower, but that isn’t going to be enough,” She paused, glancing back at the door. “I doubt the Enclave was fully aware of what they were getting into when they attacked Las Pegasus. Likely they just expected a couple of raider pushovers and a few defences. With the Las Pegasus dragon and Jinx preoccupying two of their Raptors, They are already unable to apply as much force on Dashite city as they had likely planned. We might be able to force them back to a point where they deem it a tactical decision to retreat and regroup before they launch a larger assault on the tower.”

“You want us to let them leave and come back even more prepared than before! Are you insane!” The mare scowled, flapping her wings as swooping over to Pyre. “We’re already screwed enough as it is.”

“I’ve been all over the wasteland the last few days. The Enclave is spread thin and taking far more losses than they can probably keep up with. They won’t have many more troops left out in the wastes to bring back to Las pegasus. No, all they have is the army currently attacking you and those five Raptors,” Pyre grunted. “If we can drive off the three currently at the tower for long enough to get the raiders in, then it's the full might of the Las Pegasus raiders and Dashite city against their Raptors, and those are a hell of a lot better odds than us trying take them out while scattered across the whole of the Strip.”

“So a big final stand in the tower. Everything we have versus everything they have in one massive assault?” The mare scoffed. “Those bastards sent Canterlot Castle crashing to the ground in mere minutes, what makes you think they can’t do it again here? Who’s to say they don’t just ram the tower, killing all of us at once?”

“It isn’t ideal, but what other choice do we have?” Pyre turned, gesturing to me. “Besides, we don’t need to beat them, we’ll just need to hold them off until Amber and Star here can get the rest of the city's defences up and running.”

“Then it’s boom! Bye bye Enclave,” Star grunted, flaring her wings a little for dramatic effect.

“Alright, fine. I follow your logic,” The pegasus mare snorted. “But that leaves us with trying to figure out a way to force the Enclave into a temporary retreat. Something tells me they won’t just leave lightly.”

There was a long pause as we let all of that sink in. After a long moment, Star perked up. “Would blowing up one of their Raptors do the trick?”

We all exchanged a long glance.

“I want to put in on record that I think this is a bad idea,” Brisk stated flatly, glancing off the edge of the Dashite City sky dock and down at the three Raptor airships below him. “A very, very bad idea.”

I gave him a smile and a playful shove. “Oh come on, where is your sense of adventure? Isn’t that supposed to be what you’re all about?”

“Adventure and suicide are two very different things,” Brisk shot back, glancing back at me.

Star rolled her eyes from beside us. “Oh come on, you big foal. You afraid I’m going to drop you?”

Brisk cast her a nervous look. “We’re about to invade an Enclave Raptor from the top of a massive tower on an already really high cloud city. I think falling to my death is a valid fear right now.”

I gulped. I can't say that falling to my death was on my list of ways I wanted to go out. I could feel my legs trembling a little just from standing this high up. This was by far the highest I had ever been, and falling to death wasn’t exactly something that I had even considered back when I was living in Stable 25.

“Oh come on Brisk, you’ll do great,” Mirra chirped up, fluttering her wings a little.

“Easy for you to say, you have wings,” Brisk shot back.

“Don't worry, if you fall, I’ll catch you with my magic,” I told him reassuringly, tapping my horn with a hoof. Though I was pretty sure he could hear the tremor in my voice.

“If I fall? What about if you fall?” He countered. All I could do was bite my lip in response.

I heard the Loud thumping of Pyre's power armour behind me as she stomped over to us, Xayah trailing quickly behind her. “Alright, Try not to die in there,” She instructed us flatly, giving Brisk in particular a small grin.

Brisk gave an annoyed whinny. "Not helping!"

Mirra gave Pyre a small pout. “Are you sure you can’t come with us mom?”

Pyre gave Mirra a small smile at the remark. “Unless you can convince Star to carry me and my big suit of power armour down, that won’t be possible. She’ll probably end up dropping Brisk as it is. No point having her drop us both.”

“Still not helping!” Brisk yelped back, scowling at Pyre’s playful wink.

“Besides, I need to get word of the plan out to the rest of the Las Pegasus gangs. We probably won’t have a lot of time to prepare once you get the Enclave to draw back, so we need to be ready,” Pyre added, rolling her neck a little.

“And why can’t Xayah go in my place or whatever?” Brisk questioned, casting Xayah an accusatory glare. “She’s lighter than I am! And sneakier!”

“Pyre is going to need me to sneak out of the tower and inform the rest of the raiders, so unless you can turn invisible, this is simply the arrangements that will need to occur,” Xayah smiled at him. She trotted over to me quickly and planted a kiss on my cheek before backing up a step. “Though do follow Pyre’s advice and try not to die.”

I gave her a smug smirk I didn’t feel. “We’ll do our best.”

The pegasus mare in the scavenged enclave power armour flapped over to us, her eyes scanning us sceptically. “You four sure that you want to do this? This plan is risky.”

Star shrugged, tapping her saddlebags and making the things inside rattle. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” A blast from one of the Enlcave’s Raptors shook the tower, pulling us from our revere. Star quickly snapped back to attention. “Welp, time to fucking do this. Ready?” She asked, wrapping her hooves around Brisk’s midsection.

Brisk’s eyes widened. “Wh-what? No!”

“Here we go!” Was all Star said as she threw herself off the sky dock and hurtled herself towards one of the Raptors, bringing Brisk with her with a scream. A second later, Mirra jumped after her, her hooves wrapped tightly around me and her horn glowing overtime as she did her best to carry me down to the Raptor below. I could tell it was taking all her effort not to drop me, but thankfully I didn’t weigh very much.

Down below me, I saw Star’s wings flare open, catching the heavy wind as she started gliding towards the Raptor. She sagged a little with Brisk’s added weight, but she seemed to hold her own.

Instinctively, my hooves flailed a little in the air as I tried to take control of my situation. I didn’t seem to help much.

“Stop… squirming…” Mirra huffed, her whole body dropping through air a few feet as the small changeling tried to keep from dropping me. “You’re heavy enough as it is…”

“Sorry,” I stammered back, wincing as one of the Enclave Raptors fired another blast of energy into the tower, seemingly shaking my world even from outside. Thinking of an idea, I let my horn light up and wrapped my amber aura around my body. I wasn’t nearly good enough with magic to do anything crazy like self levitation, but I could at the very least lighten my load for Mirra.

A few seconds later, my hooves touched down on the roof of the Raptor. I gave a sigh of relief as Mirra’s hooves unclasped around me and I collapsed to the smooth surface, clutching it for dear life. My horn stopped glowing a second later, leaving me feeling oddly tired.

I looked up, making out the trembling form of Brisk as he clutched tightly to Star’s body. “Okay, okay! We’re on the Raptor! You can let go of me now!” Star grunted, trying to shake Brisk off of her. Brisk just continued to hug onto her tightly, afraid to let go.

“Shit! We got ponies on the roof of the Raptor!” I heard an Enclave soldier shout from somewhere above me. I grimaced, glancing up and spotting a group of five heavily armoured pegasi swooping down towards us, energy rifles firing.

I scampered back, the deadly beams searing the spot I had just lay. “We need to get inside now! We got company!” I shouted, scrambling across the roof in a direction that I hoped led inside. Seeing how Star was heading in the same direction, I assumed I was going the right way.

“Brisk! Hatch! Now!” Star ordered, directing the green buck towards a small hatch on the roof of the Raptor. Brisk quickly pulled himself over, a bobby pin already in his mouth and working away as he picked the lock on the ship's small escape exit hatch.

A heavy force rammed into me from the side, sending me skidding a little to my right. I straightened up just in time to see the assailing Enclave trooper before they slammed into me again, this time knocking me completely to my side.

I rolled across the Raptors roof, pushing myself out of the way as the Enclave soldier slammed down at me, their armoured hooves pounding against the Raptors metal surface. The pegasus went to attack again, only for Mirra to leap at them, her mouth spewing green mucus and blinding the pegasus.

Taking the opening, I leaped forwards, shoving Breaburn’s Liberators four barrels up against the side of the pegasus’ head. The pegasus gave a shout of alarm before the explosive buckshot ripped through their skull and sent their limp body tumbling off the side of the Raptor.

Mirra shivered, watching as the body fell out of sight. “Seeing that never gets any easier, does it?” I felt myself grimace a little at Mirra’s words. I found it just a little too easy.

“Door’s open! Get in!” Star shouted, shoving Brisk into the now open hatch and gesturing for us to follow before diving in herself. I hurried forwards, Mirra fluttering a few feet ahead of me and diving into the opening.

“They’re entering the Raptor!” An Enclave trooper shouted, their magical energy rifle blasting down beams of light towards me as I desperately scrambled across the weathered surface. “Contact Commander Vaporwave! She’s about to get company!”

I threw myself through the hatch and into the Raptor, a few lethal beams of energy searing my tail as the Enclave attempted to give pursuit. Star rushed past me, slamming the hatch shut and quickly locking it. “Hopefully they don’t have a key! Go, go!” She urged, spinning around and flapping down the long arching corridor we found ourselves inside.

We all sprinted after her, trying our best to keep up as Star expertly dove down different passages. "They know we’re in here. They'll likely send a welcome party pretty soon,” I informed them, panting heavily as my legs worked overtime to keep pushing myself forwards.

“Yeah, no shit!” Star grunted back, taking a sharp turn and heading down another hall. “But we should be fine as long as they done have any Tartar- ah fuck!”

Star pulled to a stop, dropping to the ground and ducking behind some cover as a massive wave of fire blasted down the hall towards us. Brisk and I both gave yelp of surprise and took cover ourselves as the inferno consumed the area we had just been. Behind us, Mirra dropped low to the ground, keeping down as the flames licked at the tops of her ears.

Two huge, power armoured pegasi charged down the hallway towards us, each one equipped with a massive looking flamer at least twice the size of Pyre’s. Like most Enclave power armour, theirs was a dark black in colour with a massive segmented, scorpion-like tail swishing back and forth behind them. Unlike most Enclave power armour however, their helmets look more akin to bulky gas masks and their scorpion tails bore large flaming blades.

“What the fuck are those!” Brisk shouted, jumping back again as a burst of fire tore apart his cover. He let his mingun whir to life, but before he could fire, he was forced to duck away from another wave of flames.

“Tartarusfire Troopers!” Star shouted back, peeking out and letting her magical energy rifle flash off a few beams of light towards the hulking Enclave troopers. The lasers did little but bounce off of their armour. “Enclave elite soldiers! Hope you packed a bigger gun!”

I jumped out from cover, Braeburn’s Liberator firing off a round into the side of one of the Tartarusfire Troopers as they started to turn their attention to Mirra who still lay quivering on the floor. The buckshot burst against their side, making the target of my attack stumble a little and spin around to face me. I gulped as the massive flamer leveled with my head. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Where’s Pyre when you need her…”

The first blast of flame missed me by meer inches as I ducked and rolled across the floor of the Raptor. I sprang back up to my hooves, my magic conjuring a flimsy shield that only barely managed to deflect the second.

Star burst out from hiding, her magical energy rifle firing off several shots. Only one seemed to do any actual damage, searing the metal on one of the Tartarusfire Troopers legs and likely burning the flesh beneath. She quickly flapped her wings, ducking back from a blast of napalm induced flames as the elite Enclave troopers retaliated.

Brisk had managed to pull himself up as well, his minigun booming and filling the hallway with a cacophony of gunfire. One of the Tartarusfire troopers dove towards him, grappling him and tossing him across the room.

I managed to dodge another blast of flame, only for the other trooper to charge into me, slamming me to the ground with their powerful armoured hooves. I bat at their hooves helplessly, trying to push them off, but my strength was next to nothing compared to theirs.

Mirra buzzed directly into the face of the Tartarusfire Trooper pinning me down, her revolver firing off a shot into their side. The Tartarusfire Trooper didn’t even flinch, their segmented tail flashing out and swiping Mirra out of the air, the searing blade slicing a deep gash into the changeling's leg, burning her flesh and making her scream.

Taking advantage of Mirra’s distraction, I slipped out of the troopers grasp, spinning around and bucking them in the head for all I was worth. I heard the Tartarusfire Trooper give a shout of pain as my hind hooves collided with their jaw, sending them stumbling onto their back.

A wave of flame scorched the air above Brisk’s head as he slid across the floor, his minigun once more whirring up to fire as he tried to get a good shot in on the assailing Enclave soldier. His large gun began to fire, only for the Tartarusfire Trooper to give a powerful flap of their wings, rocketing above Brisk’s head and sending fire raining down from above us.

Star shot into the air as well, the downpouring flames licking at her tail as she tried to avoid being cooked alive. She spun in the air, divebombing towards the flying Tartarusfire Trooper and forcing them back to the ground.

The Tartarusfire Trooper I had knocked down managed to pull themself back to their hooves, their eyes murderous as they rounded on me. Fire flickered to life at the end of their flamer as they readied themselves to burn me to a crisp.

I threw myself to the side and began rushing around the hall as the Tartarusfire Trooper began spewing flames towards me, the wave of fire quickly flashing after me as the pegasus spun about, trying to catch me in their flamers impressive area of effect.

Mirra buzzed forward again, her mouth spewing slime like mucus at the Enclave soldier. The Tartarus Trooper staggered back as their visor was slathered in a thick layer of the gunk, obscuring their view and rendering them completely blind. They thrashed about, their flamer firing off every which way as they blindly tried to catch us all in their inferno.

I ducked low to the ground, rolling beneath the jet of flame and towards the staggering Tartarusfire Trooper. My horn blazed as I swung my quad-barrel shotgun up and placed it against the underside of the blinded pegasus’ jaw. The pegasus went rigid as they felt the large barrels bore into them.

Bang!

The Tartarusfire Troopers head burst open, skull fragments and bits of broken metal flying apart as my shotgun burst through them. Their body dropped limp to the ground, blood seeping from the gaping hole that had once been their head.

“You bitch!” The remaining trooper scowled, rounding on me and glaring at me with a surprising amount of rage. “You- You killed her!”

They never got time to attack as Brisk steadied himself and let his minigun fire. The Tartarusfire Troopers body spasmed as bullet after bullet lanced through their body. A few shots ricocheted off their powerful armour, but most lashed straight through into their flesh beneath. Their body gave a final jerk as a shot blasted through their visor, then their body collapsed to the ground.

Star took a deep breath, dropping back to the ground and looking over the two dead Enclave troopers. “Shit… That was close,” She shook her head, trying to reassert herself. She quickly pointed to a door a few steps down the hall. “Now come on! The engine room is right over-”

She was cut off as a beam of magical energy flashed down the hall and slashed through her back. Star Breeze screamed as the burning beam seared her flesh and sent her toppling to the ground. A little bit of blood oozed from the gaping wound, though the laser seemed to cauterize most of the injury for her.

Brisk and I spun around, making out three pegasi as they stormed down the hall towards us. The two on the sides seemed to just be normal soldiers, clad in a thick suit of Enclave power armour. The pegasus mare in the middle however, seemed to be some sort of enclave Officer, wearing what looked like an old, pre-war officer uniform. I remembered seeing a picture of a uniform very similar in an old book back in Stable 25.

“Star Breeze,” The Enclave officer growled, lowering her magical energy rifle slightly and glaring at us. “I heard rumors you went Dashite. I had hoped you were better than that.”

“Oh fuck… hey Vaporwave… How’s it been?” Star grunted, trying to pull herself up. Pain flared across her face and she quickly dropped back down to the ground.

“What are you thinking? Betraying the Enclave? Working alongside these wasteland savages?” Vaporwave spat on the ground and gave Star a look of unheld back disgust. “And after all those chances Colonel Autumn gave you! I’ll have you officially branded for your treason!”

Star opened her mouth to say something, probably something that involved a lot of swearing knowing Star, but Brisk quickly stepped between them. “Hey! Star is better and smarter and kinder than all of you Enclave fuckers combined. Don’t you dare talk to her that way!”

Commander Vaporwave narrowed her eyes at Brisk and scowled. “And what are you, her coltfriend? Star Breeze is an insubordinate traitor lowlife! Now step aside so we may take her into custody and have her branded appropriately,” she gave some sort of hoof signal to the two Enclave troopers beside her, causing both of them to raise and aim their magical energy rifles.

Brisk let loose and low growl. “I’ve see Star working her fucking ass off for the Enclave! She’s spent her entire life doing nothing but serve and follow your orders! The only thing Star ever did to betray the Enclave was refuse to kill a group of foals. How can you call that un-loyal!”

Vaporwave straightened her back a little and looked down at Brisk with a huff. “Star Breeze has been acting under the orders of Colonel Autumn. If he ordered the execution of foals, I am sure there was a very good reason. Now step aside before things get violent. I’m not going to ask nicely again.”

“Alright, and we’re done,” Star grunted, pain flaring up in her voice as she dragged herself out of the engine room and back into the hallway. I looked down at where she had been lying on the ground, then over at her in surprise, having not even noticed she'd left.

Vaporwave’s eyes darted back and forth from Brisk, to Star and then to the door to the engine room. She blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what happened. “Wait, what’s done? What did you just do?!”

Star just shrugged. “As kind as the things Brisk was saying about me were, I wasn’t really interested in listening to you two bickering. So I decided to go deal with what we came for.”

Vaporwave just glared at her. “Which is what, might I ask?”

Star just gave her another casual shrug, though this one seemed a little more cocky. “Just hooked up a bomb to the Raptors engine. We have maybe thirty seconds before this whole ship explodes by the way.”

Commander Vaporwave’s eyes shot wide. “What! B-but you’d die too! You’re bluffing,” her head whipped back and forth between us as she tried to get a grasp on what Star had just said.

Star just smirked back. “No. Not really,” She turned her head to look at me. “Amber, that’s your cue by the way.”

I gave a small grimace, bracing myself. “This is going to hurt a fucking lot, isn’t it…”

I let my horn flare with light, wrapping Brisk, Mirra and Star in the Amber glow of my magic. For a second, pain flared across my forehead, then we all popped out of existence in a flash of light.

We materialized on the outhanging sky dock of Dahsite city just in time to watch as the Enclave Raptor we had just been inside of exploded. I could almost hear Vaporwave’s frantic scream get abruptly cut short from here as fire burst through the hallways of the Raptor, sending it careening down towards the ground far below.

I felt a strange sense of lethargy as I watched the Raptor crash into the streets of the Strip, fire and debris flying in every direction as the explosive Star had planted ripped the airship appart. We had just killed, what? Twenty ponies? Fifty? One hundred? It was hard to say. My earlier thought about how easy killing had become came back to me, though I quickly pushed it aside. I would have plenty of time to lose sleep over the mountain of bodies I had left in my wake when Pureblood was dead and the world was safe.

Then the lethargy was quickly washed away as pain flashed through my skull, forcing me to stagger to the ground, my whole world spinning. I clamped my hooves tightly around my cracked horn, trying to reduce some of the abrupt, pulsing pains. Brisk rushed up to me, propping me back up. “Amber, are you alright!”

I furrowed my brows, trying to ward off the painful throbbing in my skull. “I’ll be fine, but fuck did that hurt,” Wincing a little, I raised Braeburn’s Liberator a little in my magic. Thankfully, I had managed not to go completely into horn burnout, though the use of magic was definitely not comfortable at the moment. Nor was the booming sound of gunfire so close to my ears for that matter.

“Well, it looks like that worked,” I heard Star grunt beside me, looking down at the swooping pegasi and Enclave Raptors below. Fighting through the pain and daring myself to move closer to the edge, I looked down at what she was looking at.

Sure enough, the Raptors were quickly pulling back from the tower, pegasus pulled war wagons swarming around them to ensure that they didn’t lose another one. We had successfully forced them to temporarily retreat, now came the hard part.

“I owe you bunch an apology,” The power armoured pegasus mare that had initially met us at Dashite city said, her eyes sweeping back and forth as she watched the assortment of raiders pilling through the entrance of the tower. “That was some fine work out there, taking down that Raptor and all. Not many ponies can do that.”

I gave a small shrug, leaning against Brisk for support and trying my best not to grimace. My head was still in agonizing pain from teleporting all of us off the Raptor. “We have a tendency to come out on top despite impossible odds.”

“Let's hope that stays true. We’re going to need all the luck we can get in the battle to come,” She grunted in response. She held out her hoof for a hoof bump. “My name is Plasmafire, by the way. Acting leader and representative here at Dashite City. I don’t believe we managed to properly introduce ourselves when we first met.”

“Maybe because you were threatening to kill us at the time?” Star suggested, rolling her eyes a little.

I just waved off Star and smiled, reaching out a hoof to give hers a bump. “I'm Amber Aura. These are my friends, Brisk Spark, Mirra and Star Breeze. It’s a pleasure.”

“And you’re sure you’re alright with letting the Las Pegasus raiders entering into the city?” Brisk asked from beside me, his eyes looking over a group of Disciples as they scurried into Dashite city. “I know we came here to let them in, but I don’t trust them very much myself.”

Plasmafire scoffed. “No, but you were all right, what other choice do we have? There is no way we could drive back the Enclave while trying to defend the entire city,” She glanced over at the large door as the huge form of Jinx slinked her way in. “Besides, Jinx is usually reasonable.”

At the sound of her name, Jinx’s head turned to face us, her feline eyes seemingly inspecting our every inch as she loomed closer. “Ah, Plasmafire. A pity that I need to meet with you in such dire circumstances,” Jinx soothed, crawling over to us. The massive Sphinx literally had to duck to not scrape their head across the high roofed ceiling. “I assume these dear little ponies here have already filled you in on the plan.”

Plasmafire gave a grim nod. “They have. I can’t say I like it, but I accept the terms of your deal.”

Jinx gave a jagged smile, turning her piercing gaze down at us. “You ponies continue to impress. How I wish I could have a hundred of you. Just scatter you across the Neighvada. We could achieve so much together.”

Brisk gave a gruff shake of his head. “We aren’t raiders,” Was all he bothered to say in response.

“That explosion was quite the impressive show,” I heard Pyre exclaim. I turned to see her quickly approaching us, flanked by Xayah and five blood soaked Pack hellhounds. “Almost sad that I had to miss it.”

“Mom!” Mirra giggled happily, buzzing over to her and wrapping her hooves around Pyre’s neck. I could see Pyre smile from behind her visor at the reception. It was strange to see her genuinely happy for once.

“How are you feeling?” Xayah asked me, trotting up and giving me a quick kiss on the tip of my horn.

The pressure on my horn, however light, still made me wince. I gave a small groan before smiling back at her. “I feel like I’ve been shot in the head repeatedly, but I’ll be fine.”

“Good, because you don’t have time to rest yet,” Razor Blade stated, his voice alerting me of his presence as the gore soaked raider trotted over to us as well, the cybernetic form of Magazine close behind him. “I doubt we have long before the Enclave decides to come back and blow this tower to bits.”

Jinx shifted so that she was peering down at Magazine and Razor Blade. “How long until all of the raiders make it into the tower?”

Magazine only took a quick second before responding. “I estimate around twelve minutes. I have my operators ensuring that they all get in quickly.”

Jinx nodded. “Good. I doubt the Enclave will allow us any more than twenty at the most,” Her gaze shifted so that she could see Pyre as well, her normally sarcasting expression shifting into something much more stern and calculating. “Razor Blade, Pyre, you are to come with me. We need to have a plan of attack ready before the raiders are finished entering the tower. Plasmafire, Get any pegasus able to fight to secure a perimeter around the upper sections of the tower. The Enclave will likely use aerial strategy to their advantage. Be ready for them.”

“Brisk, Xayah, Mirra, I need you with me,” Pyre ordered, turning to us. “Not every pegasus in Dashite city is battle ready, and I don't trust the rest of the raiders to protect them properly. I need you to get them armed incase they must fight and somewhere safe in the tower so they hopefully never need to.”

Brisk gave a quick salute, before scampering off with Xayah and Mirra. “You got it boss.”

Pyre then turned to face me. “Amber, Star, you need to get the city's defences back on.”

Plasmafire gave a grim look. “It won't be easy. The generator chamber is guarded by the best security systems created before the war.”

“So we heard,” Star grumbled, scuffing her fore hoof on the ground a little. “Any idea what kind of things we’re going to face in there?”

Plasmafire shrugged. “Hard to say. No pony has made it very far in there before. Turrets, a few sentry bots. Past that, I couldn’t tell you,” She gestured over to one of the Dashite City guards in silver combat armour. “Lead them to the entrance to the lower chambers, then report back to me.”

Nodding, the guard began leading us through the marketplace of Dashite City and towards a large elevator door on the far side. We had almost made it to the elevator when I paused, my eyes once more catching on a swinging sign above the doorway to the room that had been converted into a hospital reading, ‘Doctor Pestilences Clinic’.

“Hold up, do you mind if I do something first?” I asked, drawing both Star Breeze and the Dashite City guard to a stop. I gestured towards the hospital with a hoof.

Star raised her eyebrow skeptically. “What, are you hurt?”

I shook my head. “There is somepony that I think having a conversation with is long overdue for.”

The Dashite city guard grunted. “Just be fast. We are on a bit of a tight schedule at the moment,” I gave the guard a quick nod before ducking into the hospital.

The second I entered, I had to resist the urge to vomit. The whole room was coated in a thick layer of blood and filth. A shelf against the far wall held a collection of jars, each holding a different organ, and a medical table in the middle of the room held the remains of a pony corpse, surgically sliced open with their insides scooped out and splattered across the floor.

My eyes darted around the gorey room, hoping to catch sight of the ghoul doctor. He didn’t seem to be present, but neither did a lot of things. Things had been haphazardly scattered around the room as if somepony had frantically dug through all of Pestilence’s belongings, looking for something, and quite a few places that looked to have once held stuff had been ransacked.

I furrowed my brow, glancing around. Even if I were to ignore the gratuitous amounts of blood, this didn't look good. “Pestilence? Are you in here?”

A loud, pained cough drew my attention to a medical screen on the far side of the room. Through the thin fabric I could see the silhouette of a pony lying weakly on a medical bed.

“Pestilence, is that you?” I asked, slowly creeping closer to the concealed pony. Taking a deep breath, I rounded the medical screen to behold the pony laying on the bed.

It most definitely wasn’t Pestilence.

The mare’s once cream coat had been peeled away in spots and what little hide remained was soaked in a dark crimson. Their shattered fore hooves twitched painfully at their sides and their left side bore a plethora of needle marks around a seeping bullet wound. A long plastic tube had been slid into the gaping hole in their throat and the flesh on the side of their face had burned away, making the right side of their mouth look like it was always in an impossibly wide, toothy smile.

“Viscera,” I breathed, taking in the deathly looking raider.

Viscera turned her head at my voice, her only remaining eye rolling up to look at me, its white now bloodshot and yellow. At the sight of me, her warped maw twisted into a real grin. “Aaaaberrr…” The raider soothed, her voice sounding strangely mechanical and raspy as it echoed out from the hole in her throat instead of her mouth like it should have. “Haaave you come to glooaat?”

I shook my head, stepping back a little and trying to calm my frantic breathing. “No. I was looking for Doctor Pestilence, where is he?”

Viscera snickered, her laugh sounding more akin to rocks in a blender. “The good doccctor is gooone. Finissshed experimenting on me quickly, then paaaacked his thingsssss and fled. You won't fiiind him.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why? Where did he go?”

“Withhh the Enclaaaave… w-who do you thhhhink let them iiinnn?” Viscera’s smirk turned to a grimace and another cough forced its way from her throat, this time drawing a decent amount of blood that began to dribble down her front.

I felt like I had just walked face first into a brick wall. “Wait, Pestilence was the pony who took down the defences for the Enclave? Why? He seemed to have a good thing going here?”

Viscera began to make a low sounding choking noise that took me a long second to realize was supposed to be laugher. “He gooot bored. Jinx didnnn’t let him experimeeeent on the pegaaasi. Enclave offered moooore. He couldn’t help but ramble about what great thingsss they promised him while he dissected meeee….” her twitching hoof ran down a long incision in her stomach that looked as if it had been recently welded back together.

I grit my teeth. Damn, that was bad, but at least we knew who let the Enclave in now. No wonder Magazine couldn’t get the generators back up and running, they had been tampered with by somepony smarter than even she was.

Now certain the pony I had wanted to talk to was not here, I spun around and began stalking my way back out into the market area, having no reason to stick around and talk with the tortured raider before me.

“Waait…” Viscera hissed, pulling me up short. I glanced back, making out the vile mares mutilated form. “I wanntt to tell you sssomething…”

Biting back a growl, I turned and walked back to her, keeping my eyes on her hellhound like fangs. “What do you want?" I demanded. "I don’t have much interest in what you have to say, so make it quick.”

Viscera grimaced as she tried to make her lips twist into a sinister smile. “I jussst wanted you to know…” She leaned forwards, her jagged maw slowly inching closer to me. “That I ssstill think about maaaking Pyre snap that doctor friend of yoursss neck. That I still have long ssshowers thinking about the life draining from hisss eyes,” She licked at her lips, lapping up a little of the bloody drool that had slid down from her mouth. “I pleasure myself to the memory of ripping that zebra cuntsss legs frrrom her body... Pyre is a fool for letting me live. When I get out of here, I’m going to carve that changeling filly apart and feed you all her entrails.”

I had heard enough. Braeburn’s Liberator was out in a second, its four barrels moving forwards and pressing against Viscera’s head. Viscera seemed to only grin more as the cold metal pressed against her. She leaned in, as if begging me to fire.

“Shut up,” I growled between gritted teeth. “Pyre might have spared you, but I have no interest in letting a monster like you go,” I paused as I looked down at her. The touch of the gun to her head seemed to make her look almost blissful. I jerked the gun back in shocked disgust, a terrifying realization hit me. “But Pyre didn’t spare you, did she… You want to die…”

Viscera seemed to grow frantic as I reefed the gun away. “No.. No! Kill me! Do it! Pleassse!”

I shook my head, stepping away from her. “Fuck you Viscera. I hope you rot,” I turned around and started walking away from her, doing everything in my power not to change my mind and splatter the bitches brains across the wall.

“Has ssshhhe talked about meee…” Viscera rasped, her voice was so quiet now that I almost didn’t hear it.

I paused, glancing back at her again. “What was that?”

“Pyre…” Viscera croaked, her voice parched. “Hasss she said anything about me…?”

I shook my head, my gut clenching. “No. As far as she’s concerned, you’re dead. Pyre has moved on Viscera. You lost. If you ever want to live again, you’re going to need to move on too,” and with that, I left the hospital, leaving Viscera alone as she sobbed on the medical bed, her tears and bile mixed with her own blood.

“Alright, this is it,” the guard said, stepping out of the elevator and gesturing to the long, dark hallway before us. “You two sure you want to go down there? No pony has ever come back.”

I gave a grim nod, stepping out of the elevator myself and peering into the darkness. “We’re sure. This is the only way.”

The guard shrugged, letting Star Breeze pass him before he climbed back into the elevator shaft. “It’s your funeral. Not that I hope you don’t succeed mind you. Good luck.”

“You’ll tell Jinx what I told you about Pestilence, yes?” I asked, watching as the door slowly began to slide shut.

The guard visibly winced. “I’ll probably have my head bitten off, but yeah, I’ll tell her.”

I gave him a quick, thankful wave as the door to the elevator finally creaked shut and he began his ascent back to the marketplace above. I really hoped Jinx didn’t bite his head off for this, but who could really say with Jinx. A took a second to breath before looking over at Star. “You ready.”

“Should I be?” Star took a deep breath herself. “Let's do this.”

Slowly and cautiously, we began making our way down the lightless hall, the glow of my horn our only light to see by as we delved deeper into the S.P.P. towers depth. We made it maybe ten feet in before we began stumbling over corpses. There were dozens, littering the halls like trash. Most of their bodies had been rented apart with what appeared to be a hail of bullets, though I noticed a few bodies had been burnt to a crisp.

“Looks like these ponies dealt with the first hurdle for us,” Star gulped, looking from one body to the remains of a turret that looked to have been destroyed quite a few years ago. After a second, she glanced up at the ceiling, making out the lifeless lights that had long since gone dead. “Always wondered why defence systems managed to stay active after all these years when simple things like lights all went out hundreds of years ago.”

“Most defence systems run on their own power,” I informed her, looking over one of the turrets myself. “After the creation of fusion cores, they became pretty standard use in all robot and turret systems, so even if the main generators die, all the defences still have say… twenty years of use before they run out of juice.”

Star glanced over at me curiously. “Twenty years? Why are so many still active after a two hundred then?”

I gestured to the hunk of scrap metal that had once been a turret. “Most turrets and defence robots shut down when not in use, go into a power saving mode. If they ran 24/7 then they would all be dead, but that isn’t the case. Twenty years of power is plenty if they only use power when they’re shooting at you.”

“Where did you learn all this stuff anyway?” Star asked, turning away from all the corpses and back to the hallway as we continued downward. “I mean, you grew up in a Stable right? Not many defence systems you need to worry about down there.”

I shrugged, following behind her. “We did have turrets in Stable 25. I messed around with some of those a bit for fun when I could get my hooves on one. I also didn’t have many friends down there, and Shade was usually busy, so I just spent a lot of time reading. You’d be surprised how much you can learn from reading a home defence catalog.”

Star actually laughed at that. “Self taught then. Fuck, wish there were more ponies like you in the Enlcave. We have lots of smart ponies up there sure, but they all lack self reliance. Most pegasi can only really do what the Enclave tells them to do.”

I blushed a little. “I wouldn’t say I’m very self reliant. I need my friends to help me out usually.”

Star just rolled her eyes. “Sure sure. You got great friends.”

“We have great friends,” I corrected her, quickening my step a little so I could walk beside her. “They’re your friends now too.”

Star smirked. “Yeah, I guess they kind of are,” She paused, trying to think something over. “Amber, can I ask you something?”

I nodded. “Yeah, of course you can.”

Star bit her lip, trying to think of how to ask what she wanted to ask. “Back on the Raptor, Brisk was saying some pretty nice things about me… I uh… I mean maybe I’m just not used to ponies saying that sort of stuff and all but, well… Did he mean that? Like, actually mean that, or was it just part of the distraction?”

I smirked at her, remembering Mirra’s intuition of Brisk’s romantic feelings for Star. “I’m pretty sure he meant that. And he wasn’t wrong either, from what I’ve seen, you are better than the rest of the Enclave, not to mention smarter.”

“I don’t know about that. There are some intelligent ponies working for them up there. I mean, you’ve seen there fucking Raptors. Not just anypony can keep those running, not to mention build more of them.”

I paused, the idea almost too terrifying to think about. “Wait, the Enclave is building more Raptors?”

Star gave an amused grunt. “They’re trying. Takes a lot of work, time and materials though. Materials that they don’t have above the clouds. You aren’t going to need to worry about them having more Raptors now, but if they actually managed to win this war they’re waging at the moment, you can bet your pink ass they’re going to make more Raptors,” She quivered a little. “Fuck, they might even make another Thunderhead or two.”

We came to a large room at the end of the hallway. On the far side of the room I could see the entrance to what looked like a staircase leading deeper down and off to my right I saw a collection of different offices. Like the first area in the hall, the walls were splattered with blood and massive scorch marks and the floor was once more covered in corpses, these ones both blown apart, disintegrated and trampled over. We both paused, are eyes sweeping the area for dangers. That was a staggeringly large amount of corpses.

“I don’t see any broken turrets,” Star hissed, crouching back a little. “In fact, I don’t see any signs of what killed these ponies.”

“Sentry bots then,” I hissed back, looking at a set of dark treads tracks scuffed into the ground and remembering what Plasmafire had told us. Those were some really big looking tread tracks. I gestured over to the offices to our left. “Seeing how I don’t see any in this room proper, there's a good chance that they’re in there if there are any at all.”

“Think we can just sneak past?” Star questioned, her eyes darting from the office entrance to the stairway.

I hesitated, thinking that over. “If we could, why hasn’t any pony made it past this part yet?” My eyes glanced around, trying to figure out what was off about the room. When I didn't see anything, I sighed. “Well since the only other option is to give up, I guess we should give sneaking a shot at least. Just keep your eyes open.”

Star gave a quick nod of agreement before we began slinking into the room. My ears twitched back and forth as I listened for any signs of danger, but nothing seemed to pop up. Slowly, we inched closer and closer to the far side of the room. I felt my breath hitch as we reached the centre of the chamber.

And then I heard it.

“You are in a restricted area. Vacate immediately or you will be dealt with with lethal force!” A mechanical, synthesized voice demanded. Star and I reeled back in surprise as the floor around us seemed to split with a loud hiss of steam, making way for four elevated platforms to rise out of the ground, each one holding a massive sentry bot.

I gulped, the four sentry bots rolling off their platforms and looming over us, each one aiming their gargantuan rocket launchers at us with SATS enhanced accuracy. Each of the sentry bots were scored with scorch marks and scratches, most likely damage inflicted from the earlier groups of raiders that had been here before us. None of the damage seemed to be very bad though, more akin to blemishes than anything else.

The wall off to our right slowly pulled open, revealing a massive sentry bot at least double the size of the others, this one painted a pastel blue with rainbow streaks across its front. The huge sentry bots head, different from the rest of the robots, held a single glowing red eye in the centre that bore into us with extreme prejudice, its red illumination slicing through the thick gloom. I heard Star give a sharp intake of air as her eyes landed on the monstrous machine.

“You are to vacate immediately or you will be dealt with with lethal force!” The large sentry bot boomed again, its gatling laser wielding arms spinning up and aiming down towards us.

“They have a fucking Ultra Sentry bot! I thought those were a fucking myth!” Star shuddered, taking a step away from the looming death machine.

I grimaced. I did not like the sudden amount of firepower that was aimed at us. “Any idea how to deal with them?”

Star just gave me a wide eyed stare. “Deal with- are you crazy? You don’t just deal with an Ultra sentry bots?”

“You have five seconds to vacate or you will be exterminated!” The Ultra Sentry bot rumbled, its voice quite literally shaking the walls of the large chamber. Another large gun only a little smaller than I was popped out onto its bulky shoulder, this one looking like some sort of large missile launcher.

“Okay, okay, do you know how to hack a robot?” Star gulped, backing up into me as the Sentry bots rolled closer towards us on all sides.

I gave a hurried nod, feeling a little bit of panic rise up in me. I had faced a sentry bot before, but never more than one at once, and definitely not whatever this ultra variant was. “Yeah, but it’s usually not easy when they’re attacking you…”

“Well, looks like we’re going to have to figure it out because-”

Star was interrupted as the Ultra Sentry bot gave off a loud, aggressive beeping noise. “Intruders failed to vacate the vicinity! Lethal force engaged!”

Oh fuck! Fuck fuck fuck...

I grappled onto Star and threw both of us to the side as all five hulking robots opened fire. The centre of the chamber went up in a blinding explosion that rang in my ears as I crashed into the ground, landing heavily on top of Star as fire and shrapnel burst through the air above us. I felt bits of my hide smoulder as it was licked at by the flames.

“Do not resist, your death will only be more painful!” The Ultra Sentry bot ordered, its body rotating on its tank like legs to face us. Its twin gatling lasers span, firing off beams of deadly light that slashed at the area around us.

Star grabbed me around the waist, her wings flapping as she shot up into the air and pulled both of us out of its line of fire. One of the four normal sentry bots twisted, its rocket launcher sending a flaming projectile rocketing towards us.

Star careened in the air, narrowly avoiding the missile as it flashed past us and detonated against the roof, sending shrapnel shooting downwards. The other sentry bots began spinning to aim up at us, more rockets clicking into place as their SATS targeted in on us.

“Drop me on top of one of them!” I shouted over the sound of gunfire as the Ultra Sentry bot continued its barrage of deadly projectiles towards us.

“What! Are you insane!” Star shrieked, doing a small flip in the air to avoid another rocket. Her whole body sagged in the air a little as she tried to hold up my weight.

“Probably with the amount of times ponies ask me that,” I grumbled back, flailing my hooves a little as I struggled in Star's grasp. “Now just do it already.”

Star dodged another blast before zipping over to the nearest Sentry bot. “It was nice knowing you I guess.”

“You have such faith in my abilities.”

Star released her grip on me, letting me fall a few feet until I landed atop one of the sentry bots with a solid sounding thud. The air was forcefully pushed from my lungs as my body collided with the robot's heavy metal frame.

One of the sentry bots' large arms reached up, trying to shake me off as I clung to its back tightly. I ducked my head, its metal appendage swinging over me.

Dropping down a little, I began trying to pry open the casing on its back where I knew there was a fusion core powering the thing. If I could get to that, then maybe I could hack into it, or even better, shut the damn thing off.

“Damn it, open!” I grunted, ramming my hooves across the panel. Nothing happened.

The sentry bot lurched around, swiveling the upper part of its body so that I was facing towards the other robots. The Ultra sentry bot shifted to aim at me, its shoulder mounted rocket launcher popping open and aiming at me.

“Fuck me,” I grunted, watching as rocket burst out from the huge sentry bot and shot towards me. I leapt clear of the sentry bot I was clinging to, hoping to use the Ultra Sentry bots own attack to take a sentry bot out. Instead, the rocket changed direction mid air, narrowly avoiding the other sentry bot and once more careening towards me.

I felt my jaw drop open. “You have got to be kidding me! Those missiles are heat seeking!”

I dropped to the ground, the rocket shooting over my head. I could feel my mane whip around in the wind as the projectile flashed above me before crashing into the wall and exploding.

Star did a wide loop in the air, a minigun attached to one of the sentry bots forcing her to keep moving or risk being shredded apart. She shot up to the ceiling, her body flipping upside down so she could place her hind hooves firmly on the flat surface and kick off. She shot downwards, only just avoiding the devastating explosion of another rocket as she swooped down and scooped me back up.

“I told you that wasn’t going to work,” She berated as she tried to pull her magical energy rifle out with her mouth. “Any other bright ideas?”

I watched as the four sentry bots moved into a defensive position around the Ultra Sentry bot, their powerful weapons swivelling up to face us.

“We need to get the other four sentry bots offline somehow,” I grunted, my eyes narrowing in on the huge sentry bot in the middle. “We aren’t going to be able to do much against the Ultra if those other four keep protecting it.”

Star dipped in the air, another heat seeking rocket from the Ultra Sentry bot flashing through the air and tailing her. “Yeah right, that’s one thing to say! Quite another to do!”

“Well do you have any ideas!” I shot back, instinctively ducking my head as Star whipped past a wall, causing the pursuing rocket to slam into it and detonate across its metal surface.

“I already had one! Hack them!” She shot back, finally getting her rifle out and blasting a few shots at the sentry bots. Her lasers did little but bounce harmlessly off of their thick armour.

“Yeah, well I just tried that, but I can’t get into the wiring and fusion core in the back!” I retorted, pulling out my own weapon and firing a shot. My explosive buckshot was only slightly more effective than Star’s lasers, which was to say not at all. “They have a protective panel covering it?”

Another rocket shot out from the Ultra Sentry bots shoulder mounted launcher. Star dove mid air, trying her best to avoid it, but she was too slow. The rocket blasted against the wall right beside us, the tremendous shock wave pounding into us from the side and knocking Star right out from the air. I gave a loud grunt of pain as I was slammed into the ground, my head reeling.

The four sentry bots charged towards us, steam billowing from their backs as they raised their arms to slam down at us. I rolled to my right, one of the sentry bots huge arms crashing down next to me and indenting the floor.

I tried to scramble back to my hooves, but before I could, another sentry bot rammed into me. My breath caught as I was sent sailing through the air and crashing into the wall.

Across from me, Star dipped out of the way of a barrage of attacks herself, her eyes wide as she started dashing and swerving in the air, another heat seeking missile from the Ultra Sentry Bot once more on her tail.

She flashed downwards, landing on top of one of the sentry bots. The robot jerked about, trying to shake her. The heat seeking missile flashed towards her, fire streaking out its back as it rushed in for the kill. At the last second, Star kicked off from the sentry bot with her hind legs, shooting past the missile in a blur of lavender and mint.

Boom!

The missile collided with the head of the sentry bot, fire and smoke bursting from its form as its head was rendered into scrap metal. The sentry bot shuddered, sparking, before powering down in a burst of static.

I gave a loud cheer as I ducked away from a turrent of fire directed at me. “Yeah! Go Star!”

Star gave me a smuggish smirk at the praise. “Use its missiles to take out the other bots, we should be able to-”

“Sustaining casualties, switching tactics!” The Ultra Sentry bot chirped, its shoulder mounted missile launcher retracting into its back and its large, glowing red eye beginning to glow even brighter.

“Oh, daddy fucker!” Star shouted in frustration, ducking away from one of the Ultra Sentry Bots gatling laser blasts. “This thing can fucking adapt?”

I gave a yelp of surprise as the ultra Sentry Bots glowing eye blazed even brighter and a massive beam of blazing red light flashed out from its head. I scrambled back, just narrowly avoiding the beam as it slashed across the room, searing a straight black line through the floor and walls.

A Sentry bot charged me, its massive treads whirring as it moved in to crush me. I ducked and rolled beneath it, its large bulk barreling over me and crashing into the wall. I didn’t even get a full second before it swivelled around and dove at me again, rocket launchers firing.

I was slammed back by the explosion, my ears ringing painfully and the hide on my front slightly fried. I raised Braeburn’s Liberator up in my magic, blasting off a shot at the charging Sentry bot, but as expected, my shotgun had little effect on its powerful armour.

Star gave a yell of pain as one of the sentry bots managed to peg her in the leg with a shot from their minigun. Star collapsed to the ground, blood seeping from her body and across the floor as she scrambled backwards, trying to get clear of the approaching death machines.

“Prepare to be exterminated!” The Ultra Sentry bot rumbled, its treads spinning as it dove towards me. I gulped and jumped away, the huge machine plowing past me. As I jumped aside, I spotted the hatch on the back of the Ultra Sentry bots' back pop open to release a thick burst of steam, exposing the fusion core and wiring beneath.

“Now or never,” I grumbled to myself, rushing forwards and leaping at the large machine. I grappled onto it, my hooves frantically reaching for the exposed wiring. I just had to remember what Salt Water showed me back in the Hollow Shades… Just do what I did back at the Fluttershy Medical Centre… I could do this.

The Ultra Sentry bot lurched about trying to shake me from its back. I clung on for dear life, my hooves working as fast as I could. I felt a jolt of fear pass through me as the large hatch on its back began to slide closed again.

“Shit!” I shot my head forwards and got a big mouthful of wires before jerking my head back. A shock jolted through me as I ripped the wiring free, sparks flashing before my eyes.

“Initiating self destruct!” The Ultra Sentry bot blared, its treads slowly pulling it into the centre of the room.

My eyes went wide. Welp, I guess that did it.

I leapt from its back, scrambling over to Star as the other Sentry bots spun to fire at me. “Into the Office, now!” I shouted, wrapping my hooves around her bleeding form and pushing her towards the door leading into the office area.

Star seemed to get the idea pretty quickly, flapping her wings and shooting towards the doorway as fast as she could. I dove in after her, hunkering down behind a toppled desk.

Boom!

The Ultra Sentry bot exploded, fire and ruined metal flashing out across the central chamber in every direction. I ducked my head low and covered my neck with my fore hooves, debris and shrapnel shooting over my head.

Star whimpered across from me, cowering behind a desk herself. She quickly pulled a bunch of gauss from her saddlebag, hastily tying it tight around her bleeding leg.

The other three sentry bots were blasted apart in the explosion, tossed through the air and thrown violently against the walls. The head of one popped off, rolling across the floor to land in a smouldering heap by my hooves.

A second later, everything went still, the only sound being the occasional pop as the heated metal of the ruined sentry bots sizzled.

I gave a low grunt of pain, cautiously pulling myself out from behind cover and looking around. If the room hadn’t been a mess before, it definitely was now. “You alright?” I asked Star, trotting over and helping her up to her hooves.

Star paused, applying a little pressure to her wounded leg to try and gauge its condition. “You know, before I met you, I had never been in a fucking fight before,” Star grumbled, trotting out to look at the wreckages of the Sentry bots. “I just got to do my little Enclave science experiments and not worry about being shot dead all the time. Now, I think I’ve been shot at least four times in the last forty eight hours.”

I gave her a small smile. “Welcome to my world.”

Star just gave a disgruntled mumble in response. She looked around the chamber and towards the stairway leading deeper. “You think there are more security systems down there?”

I shrugged. “I sure as fuck hope not. We’re short on time and I don’t know how much more robots I can take.”

“Why do you think this generator room had so much security?” Star wondered allowed, poking at the smoldering remains of the Ultra Sentry bot. “I mean, you don’t just put an Ultra Sentry bot on guard for no reason.”

Curiously, my eyes scanned the office area. After a second, my gaze landed on the image of a cloud and lightning bolt inset into the far wall. “Maybe all of that isn’t guarding the generator. Maybe it's guarding this office.”

I slowly crept into the office, looking over the large desk that had once sat under the lightning bolt symbol. Star hesitated a second before following me. Her eyes widened a little as she saw the symbol as well. “Oh shit, this must be one of Rainbow Dash’s offices,” She breathed, looking around. “If the Enclave knew this was here, they’d probably burn this fucking place to the ground.”

I gave her a quick glance. “The Enclave is planning to burn this place to the ground anyway. I don’t think them finding out really matters at this point.”

Star gave a sheepish grin. “Oh… right…”

The large desks terminal had been badly shattered, rendering it completely unusable. Disappointed, I combed through the desk drawers, hoping to find anything of interest. The most I found was a bunch of ruined, badly faded documents that I had next to zero interest in reading.

“Looks like all this stuff has been pretty badly damaged,” I stated flatly, giving a disappointed huff. “Not much left for the Enclave to destroy,” I gave another annoyed grunted, giving the desk a small, frustrated kick.

Click.

My ears perked up at the almost timid sounding noise. Hesitantly, I pulled the drawers open again, pushing aside the damaged documents. Sure enough, hidden inside of a now open secret compartment, was a glowing memory orb.

“Absolutely not! You aren’t watching that right now,” Star stated bluntly, scooping it up and tossing it into her own saddlebag before I could use it. “We have a generator to turn on. No distractions.”

"But I wanna," I complained, but I gave her a glum nod anyway and followed her out as she headed back into the central chamber and down the flight of steps into the lower sections of the S.P.P. Tower.

“This looks like it,” Star said, stepping up to the massive steel door labeled as ‘Reactor Chamber’. The door wasn’t a Stable door, but it might as well have been with how large and thick it was. Just by looking at it, I could tell it must have been at least a meter thick.

The rest of the trip into the bottom floors of the S.P.P. tower had been fairly easy. There had been a few turret systems and a protectron robot, but nothing a few shots from Breaburn’s Liberator couldn’t fix. The brunt of the security had been outside of what had once been Rainbow Dash’s office, only confirming my belief that the office was the real reason for the extensive security.

“You think the Enclave has started attacking the tower yet?” I asked, glancing up at the ceiling as if it held the answers to my question.

Star glanced back at me with an ‘are you a fucking idiot’ kind of look. “I think we probably would have fucking heard them if those Raptors had decided to fire at the tower. No, we have a few minutes still at least,” She turned back to the door, looking for a way to get in.

“Do you think Plasmafire was right? That the Enclave might just ram the tower when they come back?” I asked. “I mean, that would probably spell death for all of the pegasi inside of the Raptor as well, wouldn’t it?”

Star gave a nonplus shrug. “I’m a scientist, not a war tactician or anything. How would I know? The only battle I ever played a role in with the Enclave was Friendship City. You saw how that turned out,” She gave a low, disapproving grunt. “But yeah, they might. Fucking cunts. I don’t think the Enclave really has much love for all the pegasi in their army, despite what they claim.”

I felt my brow furrow. “Never before Friendship City? What about Oasis?” I asked, feeling just a little sick at the thought.

Star gave a roll of her eyes and a small growl. “What about it? I don’t want anything to do with those slaving anus suckers,” After I failed to respond, she cautiously turned back to look at me, her previous growl now replaced by sudden worry. “Why did you just say that Amber...? What do you mean? What do I have to do with that shit hole of a town?”

I hesitated, backing up a little. “You… haven't heard?”

Star’s eyes darted around, trying to get a better grasp on what was going on. “N-no… Amber, what happened to Oasis?” There was a little bit of panic in her voice now. She genuinely had no idea.

I chewed my lip, trying to figure out the best way to proceed. “I uh… when I was in Filly, I heard that… well, I heard,” I took a deep breath, stealing myself. “I heard that the Enclave wiped the whole town off the map. Fire raining down, I think were the exact words used… That there was an Enclave scientist that told her higher ups the town had temporarily imprisoned her…” I paused again, trying to gage Star’s reaction by her suddenly very stoic expression. “I’m assuming that was you. Right?”

Star just stared at me for another long minute. After a long second of staring, she made a small croaking like sound in the back of her throat. “They… Killed everypony at Oasis…” Her lips curled a little into a snarl. “Fuck… I should have known they’d do that… I just never...” Her eyes widened a little and she glanced up at me, terrified. There was a sudden fear in her eyes I had never expected to see directed towards me. She hastily began backing away from me, her rump bumping up against the locked metal door to the generator chamber. “I had no idea they were going to do that Amber, I swear. You have to believe me, I never wanted any of that to happen!”

I raised my hoof to tell her to calm down, only to be surprised by her flinching at my movement. I quickly dropped my hoof back to the ground. “Star it’s okay, I figured you didn’t want them to do that. The Enclave is a bunch of crazy murderers. I’m not blaming you for anything.”

Star took a slow breath, but the fear didn’t seem to recede from her eyes much. “A-alright… Good. Just clearing that up… I don’t want to get on your bad side again.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Again?” What was she talking about?

Star’s fear dissipated slightly and she gave me a flat glare. “When you threatened to blow me up with a balefire bomb. You and Pyre can be damn terrifying when you want to be.”

“I… oh…” I had never really thought of myself as a terrifying pony. Pyre could probably make some of the braves raiders in the wastelands soil themselves if she tried hard enough, so there was no surprise there, but I was just some short pink unicorn that blushed a little too much and read way too many books. How was I supposed to be scary?

Star shook her head and turned back to the door. “The generator terminal is locked by a cloud terminal by the way. Might take me a few minutes to hack it. I’m not much of a hacking wiz like you I’m afraid. Not much reason to hack into terminals in the Enclave.”

I gave a nod of understanding, backing up a step and sitting myself down as Star got to work on the cloud terminal. Stupid cloud terminals and my inability to access them. “I don’t suppose I can watch that memory orb while you figure out the password?” I asked innocently, my eyes darting to her bag for a second. I gave her a glassy smile at the request.

Star just sighed and rolled the orb over to me before returning her attention to the wall mounted cloud.

Smirking, I picked up the memory orb and rolled it around in my hooves. “Alright, let's see what Rainbow Dash felt needed that much security.”

I was in the body of Rainbow Dash. That was made very apparent by the streaks of rainbow coloured mane that bobbed up and down at the top of my vision and the general sense of awesomeness that I seemed to have pulsing through me with every action I took.

I was sitting behind the large desk I had seen under the large lightning bolt insignia. Actually, sitting was the wrong word. Rainbow Dash was currently in the middle of doing impossibly impressive wing pushups, her senses strangely alert as she went about her physical activity.

The office area was very similar to how I remembered it, though in significantly better shape than I had seen it and left it in. The two smaller desks Star and I had taken cover behind had been placed near the doors and there was a large potted plant in each corner. A wonder bolts poster I hadn’t noticed before hung from the wall beside us.

The sound of voices drew Rainbow Dash’s attention from her wing ups to the door.

“I’m telling you Silver Ace, it is a bad idea,” The voice of Rarity soothed, though there was a sharp edge to her voice. “I don’t know how you found out about this, but I’m afraid it isn’t something I am interested in helping you in.”

A second later, both the elegant form of Rarity and the aged form of Silver Ace trotted into the office, the white ministry mare a few paces ahead of the older silver stallion. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and shot up into a sitting position at her desk, giving them both a quick smile, through her eyes narrowed a bit when she turned to face Silver Ace.

“Rarity, what brings you to my awesome new tower?” Rainbow asked, with a smug quirk of her eyebrow. Her head tilted a little to point at Silver Ace. “And what’s with your company.”

Rarity almost looked relieved to see Rainbow. “Ah yes, your new office is quite lovely darling, though perhaps it could use a little more decor,” She hesitated for a second, her eyes darting to Silver Ace for a second. “Silver Ace and I were just having a bit of a disagreement. He was on his way out.”

Silver Ace cocked an eyebrow. “Rarity, we can’t just ignore this. This could be a massive breakthrough for…” He coughed a little, taping the talisman on his vest and letting a faux magic aura glow around something in his saddlebags. A second later, a file was drawn from his bag and placed down on the table. The file, I quickly noted, bore the Stable-Tec logo on the front, only its centre displayed the image of the mare on the moon. The Symbol for the Utopia Program, I thought to myself curiously.

“I’m not ignoring it Silver Ace, I am refusing to accept it,” Rarity stated. “I have had this discussion with Applejack and we both decided that this was not a path to go down.”

“Did ah here my name?” A southern voice announced. Every pony turned, making out Applejack at the doorway into the office.

Rarity smiled. “Indeed you did. Come on in. Silver Ace is just heading out,”

Silver Ace looked back and forth between the three mares for a second, before nodding and heading for the door. “As you wish. But we will be having this conversation later. At a time that conveniences you, of course.”

As soon as the silver buck was gone, Rainbow turned to Rarity. “What was that all about?”

Applejack nodded, trotting in to stand next to Rarity. “I’d like ta know myself. I reckon I’ve never seen Silver Ace that insistent ‘bout anything before.”

Rarity grimaced, turning to face Applejack more directly. “Do you remember that conversation we had about making… uh… Stronger power Armour.”

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. I do.”

Rarity gave a sheepish smile. “It might have been about that…”

I was surprised to see Applejack actually growl a little. “I told ya to stop with that. No Soul Jars, ya hear me.”

Rainbow Dash glanced back and forth between them in confusion. “Soul Jars? What are those?” She smirked a little. “They sound awesome.”

“Now don’t you start worrying about those Rainbow. They aint awesome, and Rarity shouldn’t even be considerin’ them,” Applejack retorted. “I can’t believe I’m needin’ to hear about these again.”

“Well, I know that Darling,” Rarity said bluntly, flipping her mane a little. “And I assure you, there will continue to be no more-”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “More?”

“There won’t be any,” Rarity amended. “Silver Ace on the other hoof has become somewhat fascinated with them. You know how he gets with magic.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh I know. That pony is worse than Twilight. I don’t think I’ve even seen him without his nose in a spell book.”

“Exactly my point,” Rarity nodded. “He wants to stick his nose in magic related things that he shouldn’t be knowing about. Apparently he already asked Luna about them and she turned him down.”

Rainbow Dash crossed her fore hooves in front of her, growling a little. “I don’t trust him. I know Twilight says he really is trying to help, but that pony gives me the creeps. Just can’t place my hoof on it.”

Applejack held up a hoof questioningly. “Hold up there partner. Now I’m not sayin’ I trust the buck, but I ain’t never seen him do somethin’ I don’t right agree with neither.”

Rainbow and Rarity exchanged a knowing look. After a long, uncomfortable second, they returned their gaze to Applejack. “Rainbow and I have had our suspicions for a while,” Rarity informed him. “We think he might have played a hoof in Zebras getting the Mega Spells.”

Applejack looked genuinely stunned. “Now what are you two goin’ on about? Y’all both know Fluttershy was behind that. Now I ain’t sayin’ I agree with what Fluttershy did, but Y’all know just as well as I that she did it for good reasons. Silver Ace got nothin’ to do with that.”

Again, Rarity and Rainbow exchanged a glance. “That’s what we thought too, but a report from Dazzling Souvenir over at Fluttershy’s medical centre gave us reason to believe that Silver Ace might have tossed the idea her way a couple times… planted the idea, you know.”

Applejack frowned. “You sayin’ Silver Ace coerced her?”

Rarity hesitated. “Well, not exactly. I feel Fluttershy would have done so anyway. We think Silver Ace might have just sped up the process,” she hesitated for another second, thinking things over. “You can’t say you don’t think it’s awfully suspicious. First he turns down a position as a teacher at Luna’s school only a day before it gets bombed, then he plays a theoretical hoof in zebra’s getting mega spells.”

“Not to mention Pinkie’s pinkie sense goes crazy around him,” Rainbow Dash added. “Since when has she ever been known to be wrong about these kinds of things?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t suspicious,” Applejack firmed. “But that don’t mean he’s guilty of nothin’. Tensions were already pretty high at Luna’s school when he rejected that position and you know just as well as me that there ain’t no real evidence about his involvement in zebra’s gettin’ mega spells.”

“But what about-” Rainbow started, but Applejack quickly cut her off.

“And much as I’d love to arrest every folk Pinkie thinks is going to blow up the world, a twitchy tail ain’t going to hold up in any court. Pinkie already had Cheese Sandwich investigate him and he didn’t find anything,” She paused, looking back and forth from Rarity to Rainbow Dash. Applejack took a second to look behind her, making sure that no pony was there, before looking back. “Besides, yer going ta need some solid evidence if you want to place claims like this on the director of the Institute.”

I could feel a devious smile worm its way across Rainbow Dash’s features. “You sound like you have some sort of plan.

Applejack gave her a small smirk in return. “Ah do. You want to prove Silver Ace is up ta somethin’ he right shouldn’t be up to? I know where you can catch him.”

Rarity leaned in, smiling, as if eager to hear the latest piece of gossip. “Oh? Do tell?”

“Every five moons, Silver Ace sneaks out of the Institute through my MWT Hub. I didn’t think nothin’ of it at first, the pony needs to go home eventually after all. But then I find out he don’t arrive home for quite a few hours later. There is a two hour gap where no pony in the whole city knows where he is.”

I felt more than saw Rainbow furrowed her brows in thought. “Maybe he trots to his apartment instead of taking a wagon.”

Applejack smirked. “I figured that at first too, but I was curious. I don’t trust that buck just as much as y’all. One day, I chose to have a sprite bot follow him at a distance-”

Rarity gave a lady like gasp and put a mock hoof to her lips. “Applejack, how scandalous!” She smirked, batting her eyes a little.

“Yeah, and I feel right awful about it too,” Applejack said. From her tone, I didn’t doubt her for a second. “But you two want ta know what I found?” She paused, letting her rhetorical question hang in the air. “Silver Ace has been meetin’ up with somepony in that old abandoned building on Puddinghead Street. You know the one, with the big billboard of Fluttershy on top. He’s been meeting with some mystery pony there once a week.”

“Maybe it’s a secret lover?” Rarity said, snickering a little.

Rainbow Dash gave a low snicker as well. “A secret lover? That egghead? I don’t think so.”

“Well, if it is a lover, Silver Ace really doesn’t want them to be found out, meeting in dark places like that and such,” Applejack retorted. “But I’d put my bits in some sort of accomplice. For what, I don’t know, but if Silver Ace is hiding something, I reckon that’s where we’ll find it.”

Rarity gave a low purr. “Then how about we set up a little Stakeout? Find out what’s really going on, once and for all.”

They all exchanged worried looks for a second, then they all grinned. It was a plan.

I came out of the memory orb feeling very curious. I had just found a possible lead on Silver Ace’s true intentions. With any luck, and time permitting, I’d have to look into finding this abandoned building they were talking about. Of course, most every building in Manehattan looked abandoned these days, but it was a start.

I lifted my head to look around. Star had successfully hacked into the cloud terminal and unlocked the massive door into the generator Chamber. Through the now open door, I could see her typing away at another cloud terminal, this one attached to a massive looking machine.

I trotted into the room, my breath being taken away by how enormous the chamber was. The large generator in the centre of the chamber was far bigger than any generator I had ever seen, towering at least ten feet above my head.

Star glanced over at me as I moved into the room. “Finally out of that orb huh? I’m trying to get the generator up and running, but I can’t seem to figure out the problem. Everything seems to be in order. The Generator doesn’t seem to be broken in any way. It just won’t start.”

I gave her a smug smirk. “Have you tried turning it on and off again?”

Star glowered at me and rolled her eyes. “You’re hilarious. A real comedian, Amber Aura. Now help me figure out what the actual fucking problem is!”

I trotted around the outside of the generator, looking for issues. Star had been right, nothing looked particularly out of place.

“You don’t suppose it just ran out of power, do you?” Star asked, her eyes still glued to the terminal. “You know, like what we were talking about earlier with power system failure and all that?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I read about this pretty extensively when I was a filly. Balefire reactors should have a five hundred year lifespan. There should be a good three hundred years left on this thing.”

Star smirked at me. “When you were a filly? What, were you reading the complete book of arcane tech when you were five just for fun?”

I blushed a little. “I was four and it was the complete books of advanced wartime technological advancements Volumes one through five… but yeah, it was pretty fun to read.”

Star just chuckled and shook her head, returning her gaze back to the cloud terminal. "And the ponies up in the Enclave called me an egghead."

I did another lap around the large reactor, my eyes scanning for issues. Again, I saw nothing. Then my eyes caught on a large cord, thicker than my hoof, trailing out across the floor. My eyes followed it for a second, finally landing on what I was pretty sure was the source of our issues.

Five seconds later, the generator crackled to life, arches of blazing blue energy leaping back and forth across the top of the massive machine as it powered up. Star jumped back a little, eyes wide and surprised. “What the- how did you-” She looked up, taking in my smug expression. “Don’t tell me you turned it on and off again and it just worked,” She groused.

I smiled and shook my head. “Nope, but I did try plugging it in.”

Star hoof planted. “You have got to be fucking joking me…”

A progress bar popped up on the cloud terminal. I huddled close to Star, looking it over as it slowly began powering up. “Thirty Minutes until Power is restored,” The flickering screen said.

“Thirty minutes,” I mused, reading it over. “Can’t it just load up nice and fast? Get it done with?”

Star rolled her eyes at me. “Brisk’s stupidity is rubbing off on you. You want to rush a balefire reactor? B A L E F I R E! You realize these can go fucking boom, right?” That hadn’t been mentioned in my readings, though I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me. Typical ministry of image and censoring all the actually important facts.

Boom!

Speaking of things going boom... Star and I stumbled as the whole tower shook. I grasped onto the wall of the chamber, trying to keep my hoofing as a small chuck of the ceiling collapsed down beside me. “What the fuck was that!” I shouted, still feeling slightly shaken.

Star growled, glancing up at the ceiling above us, her wings flaring. “What do you think? The Enclave just started attacking the tower. We're out of time.”

I grimace. Shit, that was really bad. We still had thirty minutes until the Generator was able to get the city's defences back on. That was thirty minutes where we were likely going to be in a lot of trouble.

“We need to get up there, fast!” I shouted, moving towards the large doorway.

Star didn’t follow me immediately, still quickly typing away at the cloud terminal. “Give me just a second… where is it… there!” She exclaimed, tapping a few keys. She spun around, moving towards the door. “We’re good. I just set the city's defences to fire on the Enclave’s Raptors when they do get back online. When the generator boots up, the Enclave is going to be in for one hell of a surprise.”

We burst out into the main marketplace of Dashite City. The whole market area had burst into Chaos. Pegasi sporting the silver combat armour of Dashite city rushed back and forth alongside teams of bloody looking raiders, guns blazing towards the large entryway as swarms of Enclave soldiers tried to push their way into the city. I watched a few raiders dissolve into sparkling ash as a squadron of Enclave troopers swept through the doorway, magical energy rifles flaring with deadly light.

A group of screaming pegasi rushed past us, cowering for cover as three Enclave soldiers dashed over head. I quickly jumped in front of them, Braeburn's Liberator blasting off a round of buckshot and blowing the wing off of one of the assailing armoured pegasi.

The other two pegasi turned towards me, eyes enraged as their lethal weaponry charged to blast me to bits.

Blam! Blam! Blam!

A flurry of bullets slashed through the air past me, filling the two Enclave troopers with holes and sending them crashing to the ground. I could hear one of their necks snap as they thudded against the now bloodstained floor.

I turned around, spotting Brisk as she stumbled towards us, his minigun blazing as he warded off a group of Enclave troopers and gave the fleeing residence of Dashite City some cover. “I see you’re back!” Brisk shouted to Star and I over the booming gunfire. “Did you get the power back on!?”

I nodded, ducking down to avoid my head being blown apart by a blast of searing energy. “The reactor is back on, but it's going to take some time to charge up. How long do you think we will be able to defend the tower?”

A loud booming sound once more shook the tower, I glanced up, watching in terror as a huge beam of energy lanced through the massive spire. I heard screams as the blast from the Raptors enormous cannon vaporized countless ponies.

Brisk jumped out of the way as a large section of roof collapsed down above us. He rolled back to his hooves, grimacing. “Not long. Jinx and the las Pegasus Dragon are outside stalling two of the Raptors, but that still leaves us with two Raptors to deal with, and this tower wasn’t designed for an assault of that scale!”

Star swooped around in the air, dodging a blast of magical energy fire as a few Enclave ponies spotted her and began to give pursuit. “But how long!?”

Brisk let his minigun roar, tearing apart the Enclave chasing after Star. “Maybe ten minutes. Fifteen if we're lucky.”

I winced. That wasn’t enough time, not by a long shot. I whipped around, dodging another blast. “Where is Pyre and Xayah?” I fired off a blast from my shotgun, blasting apart the head of an Enclave soldier that shot through the doorway.

“Xayah is on the second floor helping get ponies to safety,” Brisk informed me, taking a few steps back as the Enlcave’s fire forced him to retreat a little. “Pyre is with Mirra and Razor Blade on the top floor. That’s where the real fight is!”

This wasn’t the real fight? Fuck me…

“Get those fucking doors closed!” I heard Magazine’s calculating voice shouting from off to my left. I looked over, spotting the leader of the Las Pegasus Operators as she and another large group of raiders began trying to push the large doors closed. A few Dashite City guards moved into a defensive position around her, their assault carbines firing as they tried to drive back the Enclave.

An Enclave soldier shot overhead, their magical energy rifle firing off a few shots towards Magazine. I heard the raider boss give a loud, angered shout of pain as the searing beam shot through her side, dropping her to the ground.

“Keep getting those ponies to safety!” I shouted to Brisk as I darted forwards, Star on my tail as we rushed forwards to help the raiders trying to close the door. My magic swept up an assault rifle off the ground from a fallen Dashite City guard and I spun it to face skyward, sending off a stream of bullets towards the encroaching Enclave. I heard a few yells of pain as the bullets ripped through a few of the pegasi’s bodies, dropping them to the ground.

Up ahead, I saw Magazine slowly pulling herself back to her hooves, her large, saddle mounted gatling laser flaring with life and shooting down the pegasi that had shot her. Her deadly lasers flashed through the air, pushing the Enclave back a little.

Star and I pulled up beside the Raider boss, adding our own bodies to the weight against the door as we worked to slam it shut. “Are you alright!?” I asked Magazine, raising my voice to be heard over the din.

Magazine just gave me a grim grunt. “I’ve been worse, admittedly,” Her lips twisted into a snarl and she blasted another Enclave soldier from the sky with a terrifyingly accurate shot from a side mounted sniper I hadn’t noticed she even had. “Now get the fucking door closed!”

We had almost got the door shut when a burst of flame shot through the entryway, washing over two Dashite City guards and making them go up in a frenzy of flames. Three Enclave Tartarusfire Troopers smashed their way into the marketplace, their deadly incinerators flaring and sending the wooden structures lining the walls of the marketplace up in flame.

I reeled back from the door, my new assault rifle blaring as I bore down on the Tartarusfire Troopers. The shots ricocheted off their thick armour, but left them otherwise unharmed. My assault rifle clicked on empty and I quickly tossed it aside, making room for five Dashite City guards that quickly took my place in the assault.

Two disciple Raiders rushed the Tartarusfire Troopers, their unbelievably sharp knives carving away at the impressive power armour. One of the Tartarusfire Troopers reared up, stomping one of the disciple ponies head flat.

A Pack hellhound leapt out from behind me, their huge claws tearing into one the Tartarusfire Trooper and ripping their armoured head straight from their body in a burst of gore. But it was too late. The damage was done.

Five Enclave pegasi shot into the market area, dozens of plasma grenades dropping from their saddlebags and clattering to the floor around our hooves. Magazine’s eyes shot wide. “Get away from the doorway! NOW!”

I grabbed onto a Dashite City guard and threw myself as far from the door as I could. I hadn’t yet hit the ground when the grenades exploded.

I was thrown across the room, slammed into by the massive force of the deadly plasma grenades explosive shockwave. My vision flared with green as the explosives burst apart, deadly energy and shrapnel blasting out at us from every direction. Ponies screamed, some of them jumping for safety while others had their bodies rent apart in the explosion, blood and tattered limbs flying through the air.

I rammed into the ground, my vision spinning and my already painful headache amplified by a piercing ringing sound in my ears. I coughed, blood splattering from my mouth as I took heaving breaths.

The Dashite City Guard I had tried to save screamed out in pain, their body riddled with burn marks and shrapnel wounds. I rolled off of them, my mind still spinning and foggy as I started trying desperately to tend to their wounds. But there was nothing I could do, there was just too much blood. A shot to the head from an Enclave energy blast put him out of his misery before I could do much.

More and more Enclave pegasi began dashing into the marketplace. I scrambled back on trembling legs as their weaponry rained down at us from above. I saw a mare that had had half her face blown off in the blast turned to ash as a shot from one of the Enlcave’s energy weapons lashed through her throat. A filly screamed as another blast from an assailing Raptor flashed through the building, their small body violently being ripped apart, their head rolling across the floor to stare up at me with glazed over eyes.

“Amber! Amber, we need to move!” Star shouted at me, her voice jolting me into action. I shook my head, pushing myself back up and turning to face the Enclave as they poured in through the door. There was no stopping them from entering the tower now.

“Fall back!” I heard Magazine shouting, her gatling laser blazing. I turned, seeing the cybernetic raider boss stumbling towards the stairs leading to the next level of the tower, one of her mechanical hind legs rendered to slag from the plasma grenade blast and blood dripping from a deep gash on her brow.

Raiders began pulling back from the doorway at her command, their hooves backpedaling furiously as they made their retreat while returning fire to the Enclave. A few more raiders fell to the Enclave’s fire, dissipating into glowing ash as the Enclave’s beams slashed through them.

Brisk stumbled over a few corpses to stand beside me, his minigun deterring any Enclave from getting to close. “The civilians are safe!” He shouted, his own gun almost drowning out his voice. “They have been evacuated to the second level! We need to get there too if we want to live through this!”

I nodded, dodging another blast as I used Brisk’s cover fire to get out of the Enclave’s lines of fire.

The doors into the city burst open further, making way for two pegasus pulled Enclave war wagons. The large turrets mounted to the tops of the wagons strafed across the marketplace, basting apart some of the few intact shops and riddling more raiders full of holes.

Magazine stumbled past her fleeing raiders towards the open doorway, her powerful sniper cracking off a few shots. One of her shots blew out the brains of one of the pegasi pulling the war wagons, sending the whole vessel crashing into the floor. Fire flared across my vision as the whole wagon burst apart, the pegasi inside screaming as their flesh was shredded and burned away.

I pushed forwards, moving towards the large staircase. A few hellhounds had already made it to the stairs, turning to give us all some cover fire as we raced to escape the Enclave’s onslaught. One of the hellhounds flashed out with its claws, ripping an Enclave soldier out of the air and tearing off their wings. The Enclave Soldier fell to the ground, screaming as another Hellhound bore down on them, massive claws ripping into their stomach and violently disemboweling them.

“Get up the stairs! Go go go!” I heard a Dashite City guard shouting from the stairway, frantically gesturing for us to follow him up with a hoof. His orders were cut short as another blast from the Enclave Raptor ripped through the building, falling debris crashing down and burying him under an immense pile of rubble.

I glanced behind me as I finally reached and started rushing up the steps, Star and Brisk only a few steps behind me. Magazine had stopped a few steps behind us and turned to face down the Enclave’s forces as they charged after us. Her gatling laser was at full charge, a flurry of deadly beams lancing out from her gun as she shot down pegasus after pegasus. “Magazine! What are you doing!” I shouted, “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

Magazine glanced back at me for a second before returning her gaze to the Enclave, growling. Her sniper shot down the second Enclave war wagon before she finally pushed herself back, hobbling towards the stairs as fast as she could.

An Enclave Tartarus Fire Trooper rushed her, their huge flamer blazing with flickering firelight. Magazine dodged out of the way, her sniper blowing a hole in the pegasus’ leg as they stumbled past them. The Tartarusfire Troopers tail slashed past her, the burning blade on its end searing the hide from Magazine's side and ripping a large gash through her body.

Magazine screamed, spinning around and bucking at the Tartarusfire Trooper. To my surprise, her powerful cybernetic fore hooves actually crushed the pegasus’ helmet, shattering the Enclave troopers skull inside.

Braeburn’s Liberator fired off a round of Buckshot, giving Magazine some cover as she stumbled the last little bit of the way to the stairs. I went to fire again as a squadron of Enclave soldiers swooped down at us, only to find my gun empty. I gulped, jumping back as magical energy slashed at the steps I had just been standing on.

“Move it! Go!” Magazine snapped at me, her damaged limbs carrying her up the steps with shocking speed. I spun on my hooves, racing up after her. More Enclave soldiers flew towards us, deadly beams of light slicing through the air and blasting at the ground around us as we raced up the steps.

I saw a large steel door a few steps away, the entryway onto the second level of Dashite City. I grit my teeth, putting on a quick burst of speed as I charged through the doorway. Magazine stumbled after me a second later, two Dashite City guards rushing to slam to doors closed the second she was through.

“I want all hooves defending those doors!” Magazine shouted, limping into the centre of the room, blood spilling down from the deep gash in her side. “We’re about to get company in a second!”

As if to prove her point, a strong force pounded against the thick steel doors, shaking the whole room. Raiders and security ponies rushed forwards, barricading the doors and raising their weapons to fire if the dam broke.

Another loud boom shook the building, one of the Enclave Raptors blasting a deadly beam of fuchsia light through the tower. A massive whole was ripped into the wall of Dashite City, letting the diffused sunlight stream in. Through the hole, I could see the Las Pegasus Raiders dragon engaged with one of the Raptors, every few seconds, the air would fill with huge jets of fire as the massive dragon opened its maw and unleashed its furry upon the large airship. Not far past the dragon, I could also see the immense form of Jinx flying circles around another Raptor, her claws occasionally slashing out and ripping chunks from its metal hull.

The Enclave were a force to be reckoned with, no doubt about that, but at the very least we had some pretty deadly allies of our own.

Outside, a few Enclave soldiers began flying for the gaping whole in the wall, but were quickly steered off as a large group of hellhounds blocked their path, arm mounted energy weapons blazing with light. I saw one Enclave trooper dissolve into a glowing pile of goo, sloshing down to the ground below as the other pegasi dove for cover.

“Magazine, reinforcements are on their way,” A disciple raider shouted, rushing towards the badly bleeding leader of the Operators. The Shackles and the Flesh rippers should be entering the Strip in a few minutes.”

“And the Queens?” Magazine pushed, whipping a drizzle of blood from her face. “Are they as I asked?”

The disciple nodded, though he snarled a little. “Yes. They have been put in charge of Freeside. They have sent a few Securitrons to help take out Enclave ground troops.”

Magazine finally nodded, looking a little relieved. “Good. We might just make it through this,” She turned, looking over at Star and I. “I see you are both back alive. Surprising, but not unwelcome. Report on the status of the city's defences?”

“The reactor is up and running, but we’re still going to need to hold out a few minutes while the defences boot up,” Star said, swooping over to the raider boss. She looked over her wounds, only looking a little worried. “Do… do you need medical help?”

Magazine smirked, tapping a metal hoof over her chest. “Healing talismans. I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” She answered. Her voice was pained, but she seemed fairly confident she would heal. Star nodded in response, though I could tell she was uncertain.

The steel door shook again as the Enclave soldiers on the floor below rammed against the blockade. I heard a few grunts of pain as the raiders put all they had into keeping the doors shut. “This isn’t going to hold them for long!” One of the Dashite City guards shouted, his gun trembling in his mouth as he put all his weight into keeping the doors shut.

“Hold steady!” Magazine retorted, huffing a little. “We just need to hold out a little longer!”

“More Enclave incoming!” A Disciple shouted, firing off a shot from an impressive looking bayoneted revolver.

I turned, spotting a team of Enclave Pegasi making a rush for the large hole the Raptor had rented into the wall. I heard civilians screaming as the Enclaves magical energy weapons blazed, forcing the Hellhounds that had formed a defensive line at the wall to dive for cover before they could return fire.

I dove for cover myself, beams of light flashing over my head as the Enclave’s fire strafed across the room. One of the Enclave Troopers flashed into the room, their hooves crashing down to the ground in front of me and their deadly weapons aimed at my head.

Blam!

I winced as a shot ripped through the Enclave ponies visor, blood spewing out a hole ripped into the back of their helmet. Their body crumpled to the ground with a thud, blood spilling across the floor towards me.

I grinned, looking in the direction that the shot had come from. There was only one zebra I knew that could make a shot like that.

Xayah bounded over to me, moving up beside me and ducking down as more beams of light slashed through the room. She planted a quick kiss on my cheek. “I see you are alive and well you foolish pony.”

I gave her a smug looking smirk in return. “Did you suspect otherwise? I hope I didn’t disappoint.”

Xayah matched my smirk. “As if you could disappoint.”

“Do you too always need to flirt in the middle of combat?” Brisk asked, pulling up beside us, his minigun whirring to a stop and smoke wafting from its red hot barrels. “I feel like there are better times for that.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “You’re just jealous.”

Brisk flushed just a little. “I am not.”

Star dove into cover beside us as well, her magical energy rifle firing off a final shot before she ducked down and had to reload. “What’s Brisk jealous about?”

Brisk’s flush became a full on blush. “N-nothing! I'm not jealous! I'm not!”

I opened my mouth to give a snarky response when our cover was blasted away by the explosion of a plasma grenade. I stumbled forwards, trying to keep my balance as the whole area around me seemed to spin end over end. I landed with a thump on my head, groaning.

Xayah quickly rushed to me, her large anti-material rifle blasting off an Enclave Trooper that swooped in to attack me. She quickly moved to help me when another beam of light lanced out from one of the Enclave Raptors, fuchsia flames bursting across our vision and making the whole tower slant.

Brisk stumbled out from cover to stand next to a group of Dashite City guards, his large gun firing a barrage of bullets towards a few Enclave ponies that tried to take advantage of the Raptors attack. Two more guards fell as streaks of light sliced through them, turning them to glowing ash.

“Get the civilians to the next floor!” I heard Plasmafire shouting over the deafening onslaught. Until that point, I hadn’t even realized she had been fighting amongst us. “We need to get them to safety, now!”

“No!” Magazine roared back, her gatling laser spewing beams. “We defend this location. The Enclave will just trap us up there. The higher we go, the bigger the advantage they are going to have!”

“If we stay here then we’re all going to die!” Plasmafire shot back, her weapons blazing with light as she warded off a few Enclave troopers. “We can’t hold out against this kind of fire!”

Magazine gave off a loud scowl, audible even over the gunfire. “We stay here Plasmafire! Hold position! We’re dead either way, but we die faster up there! We need to stall for time!”

My gaze was ripped from the arguing mares to a booming roar that echoed across the Las Pegasus Strip. My eyes widened as I watched one of the Enclave Raptors blast a beam of energy point blank into the Las Pegasus Dragon’s chest. The Dragon roared as the beam slashed through it, blasting out organs and ripping its ribcage apart. It’s wings beat furiously as it tried futility to get in a final attack on the Raptor before it began crashing towards the ground. The dragon's large body collided into one of the casinos below, sending the structure up in a burst of fire and smoke.

“Shit,” I heard Magazine utter, her eyes transfixed on the broken form of the fallen dragon. “We’re in some serious shit now…”

The Raptor that had shot down the dragon began to turn, its massive guns shifting to lock onto the huge darting form of Jinx. Even from here, I could see the sphinx’s eyes widen as they were confronted by the massive amounts of firepower. The Raptors fired, blazing beams of fuchsia flame ripping through the air towards Jinx. Jinx began to dip and swerve in the air, doing all she could to keep from being blown to pieces.

I jumped back as an Enclave soldier rushed at me, their saddle mounted weapons flashing with light. I raised my quad-barrel shotgun in my magic, knocking aside a beam of deadly light frantically before ramming the firearm against the charging pegasus’ head. The pegasus staggered in the air, thrown off by the sudden beating. A second later, a well aimed shot from Xayah’s rifle dropped them dead to the ground.

“We aren’t going to be able to keep this door closed much longer!” I heard a raider shout from the far side of the room, their back pressed against the shuddering steel door as the Enclave soldiers on the far side continued to ram against it. “They’re going to break through any second!”

“Operators! Arm the entryway!” Magazine ordered, her gatling laser blasting a few more Enclave soldiers from the air. I noticed her wounds were now starting to patch themselves back together. A few Operator raiders began darting towards the doorway at her command, quickly beginning to plant explosives around the entryway. I wasn’t sure how much damage mines were going to do against flying assailants.

I shifted around, trying to dodge a few more blasts that were sent my way. I checked through my ammo reserves, wincing as I realized I was once again beginning to run rather low. Only five shots left, hardly enough to take out the swarms of enemies that were bursting into the tower.

My magic scooped up one of the Enclave’s fallen energy weapons and I quickly began blasting away as more Enclave soldiers descended down at me. In wasn’t used to the lack of recoil on these magical energy weapons, but I was pleasantly surprised by the damage it wrought upon those that got in front of its deadly barrel. One pegasus fizzled away to ash in the air as one of my shots lashed through them, their sparkling remains raining down around us like snow as we fought on.

“Bombs are set!” I heard an Operator raider shout. I glanced behind me, seeing the group of raiders that had boobytrapped the door quickly moving away from the armed explosives.

“Alight, form a defensive position in the middle! Around me!” Magazine shouted, quickly rushing to the centre of the room herself and shooting down another Tartarusfire Trooper that had flashed into the room before they could do much damage.

The raiders and Dashite City guards quickly obeyed, clumping into the centre of the chamber, their guns facing out in every direction as Pegasi began to swoop in from every side, though a few guards did stay behind to keep the doors shut. I moved in to join them, the rest of my friends rushing to stand on either side of me as we faced down the Enclave forces.

“Now! Away from the doors!” Magazine roared, her voice cutting over the sound of her blaring gatling laser. At her words, the last few guards maintaining the blockade leapt away from the door to join us. Not seconds after the door was clear, it burst open, making way for the huge swarm of Enclave soldiers that rushed through to meet us.

Just as the first pegasus shot through the door, the mines exploded, ripping apart the area with uncalled for firepower. I heard the Enclave pegasi scream as multiple detonations ripped them apart. Fire flared across the room, black smoke swirling through the air and filling the room with an impossibly thick haze. Even the light streaming through the massive hole in the wall went dark as the smoke blotted out all visibility. The Operators must have planted a few smoke bombs as well

“NOW!” Magazine yelled again. The air around us was suddenly filled with glowing beams of light slashing through the dark haze as Magazine and her Operators opened fire. I heard howls and roars as the Pack Hellhounds tore apart Enclave pegasus after Enclave pegasus, using their powerful sense of smell to navigate through the smoke.

I shot off a few beams of my own from my magical energy rifle. Blinded by the smoke, I couldn’t see much, but I heard a few screams as my weapons turned a few pegasi to ash. Beside me I could hear the loud cracks of Xayah firing her powerful rifle and the booming whir of Brisk’s minigun as his massive firearm barraged the shrouded air around us.

The thick fog only lasted for a minute, but when it finally cleared, most of the Enclave ponies in the tower lay dead. I looked around, watching as the last few Enclave pegasi either fled or were gunned down by the Las pegasus Raiders. A few Disciple raiders began trotting around the room, slitting the throats of any Enclave ponies that still seemed to be breathing. They seemed to be having a lot of fun all of a sudden.

An Enclave mare missing her two hind legs and half her face pulled herself towards me, tears streaking her blood soaked cheeks as she pulled herself along. “Please… I-I don’t want to die…” She sobbed at me, her voice tremouring with pain. “I d-didn’t have any other c-choice…”

I stared at the dying mare in horror, watching as she slowly broke down before me. Not all Enclave ponies were evil. I had known this… What was I doing? Helping raiders? Were the Enclave really all that much worse than the ponies I was fighting with?

A blast from Magazine’s sniper blew out the crying Enclave mares brains. I flinched as I watched the mare slump dead to the floor, blood seeping from the large bullethole in her forehead. I looked over at Magazine as she approached me, a grim look across her face.

“Fucking Enlcave,” She scowled, her hoof reaching up and whipping a drizzle of blood from her face. I couldn’t tell if the blood was hers or somepony else's. She turned her gaze to look at me, her eyes looking startlingly insane and bloodthirsty all of a sudden, not the cold calculating eyes I had come to expect from her. After a second, the calculating look returned, but now I had a sinking suspicion that it was more of a facade than anything else.

I turned my gaze to the fight in the distance between Jinx and the two Enclave Raptors. the massive sphinx was doing her best, but even she was starting to get worn down by the deadly assault. Her razor sharp claws ripped a long gash into the metal of one of the Raptors hulls before the huge cannons of the other forced her to retreat. She swerved in the air, dipping back and forth as both Raptors guns locked on her and fired off beams of fuschia light. One of the beams struck Jinx in the foreleg and blew a massive hole through her. I could hear her screams of pain and rage from here.

I watched in terror as both Enclave Raptors loomed closer to the flailing sphinx, their weapons once more shifting to finally put her down. There was nothing to be done. I couldn’t help her all the way out there. No pony could help out there.

Then there was a strange flicker of light and Jinx’s immense form seemed to go still, her whole body changing to a light beige in colour. The Raptors cannons fired, only for the huge beams of energy to blow Jinx’s form apart as if she had been nothing more than an impressive sand sculpture, grains of sand shooting out from where she had once been in every direction.

I blinked, not exactly sure what I had just witnessed. “What the fuck…” I breathed, watching as the two Enlcave Raptors turned and started heading back towards the S.P.P. Tower to join the siege. “What just… huh?”

I could practically feel Magazine smirking from beside me. “Sphinx’s. They’re masters of illusion magic,” She said simply, watching as the two Raptors drew closer.

I let my mouth fall open a little. “So… what did I just witness exactly? Is Jinx alive?”

Magazine just rolled her eyes. “You think that the greatest raider that ever lived is going to let themself get killed by a couple of Raptors? If Jinx was dead, you’d know,” she paused, her hoof going to a small intercom resting in her ear. “Shit, I just got word from Razor Blade. He wants you up on the roof.”

I hesitated a little. “Why?”

Magazine shrugged, turning away a little and firing off another shot into one of the Enclave pegasi that lay squirming on the ground. “He didn’t say. I find it probable that Pyre wants your assistance. You think the fight down here was bad. You haven’t seen anything yet,” She looked over at Brisk, Xayah and Star who were currently helping to get more civilians to safety. “Though I would like to request that your other friends remain here. We might have survived this attack, but the Enclave is going to come back. I need all hooves on deck and they have proved quite useful to me.”

I nodded, glancing over at my friends before looking to the staircase leading to the higher levels of the tower. I could hear the loud booming of the fourth Enclave Raptor far above as it lay waste to the higher levels of the tower. Goddesses I hated big battles like this...

I pulled myself up onto the roof of Dashite City. I had thought the city's sky dock was heigh, but that had been nothing compared to the breathtaking height of the top most level of the city. All around me I could see the thick white vapours of clouds and if I dared myself to look down I could see small dots that I assumed must have been Freeside and Tent City.

The Las Pegasus Raiders had created a defensive position in the centre of the rooftop, a large, purple magical energy bubble shield having been erected in the centre of the group to ward off the Enclaves attacks. Pegasi and war wagons flashed around in the air, some shooting down at the raiders in the bubble shield while others sparred and grappled with a large force of Dashite City guards that had formed a defensive circle around towers roof. Huge turrets had been set up in a perimeter around the bubble shield, blasting furiously away at any Enclave pegasus that got within range.

The huge Enclave Raptor wasn’t far from the tower either, every few moments was punctuated with a loud boom as its huge cannons fired at the raiders within the force field. Large swarms of Enclave soldiers flew around the dark airship, likely trying to make sure another Raptor didn't get blown from the sky.

To my surprise, Jinx herself was on the roof as well, bunkering under the protection of the shield as her wounds slowly patched themselves over. She was glaring up at the Enclave Raptor with malice, her lips twisted into a violent scowl. The large sphinx spotted me and gave me a smug little wink before returning her attention to the Enclave.

“Amber! Over here!” I heard Pyre shout, gesturing for me to get into the cover of the magical energy shield. I dashed forwards, pulling myself through and moving to stand next to Pyre. I felt a weird sensation pass through me as I rushed through the shield, a strange static shock shooting from the tips of my ears to the end of my tail and making my mane stand on end.

Mirra hopped off of Pyre's back as I got close, wrapping me in a big hug. I could feel her trembling a little as she held onto me. Clearly all this violence had been a little too much for the small changeling.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking up at Pyre as my power armour friend let her flamers roar, sending jets of flame streaking through the sky.

“What’s it look like!?” She snarked back, glancing down at me. “We’re trying to occupy the Enclave as long as possible until you can get your job done. Why are the city's defences not back online?”

I grimaced. “The generator is up and running, but it’s going to take a few minutes before everything fully boots back up. We’re going to need to keep stalling for time.”

Pyre glanced behind her at the two Enclave Raptors that were slowly drawing closer and closer to the tower. “When you say minutes, do you mean one, ten, twenty? As soon as those Raptors get here we’re done. We can’t hold off against that many Raptors at once, not with the dragon dead and Jinx temporarily out of commission.”

“Don’t count me out of this fight yet, Pyre Blaze,” Jinx snapped, baring her fangs. “I’m not out of this fight until that traitor Pestilence is mincemeat,” I supposed that Dashite City guard had managed to get word of what Pestilence had done to Jinx then.

I tried to count how long it had been since the reactor got turned back on, but the battle had begun to all blur together. “I’m not sure. Less than half an hour, probably more than five minutes,” I said back, realizing that wasn’t the best answer ever.

“In a fight, that is a lot of time,” Razor Blade scowled, trotting over to us. His hide had been coated in a thick layer of blood and shredded pony flesh now dangled from the barbed wire around his hooves. “We’re going to need to think of something quick or those Raptors are going to rip us to shreds.”

His statement was only amplified as the Raptor looming over us fired a blast at our protective force field. The tower shook as the blast rammed into us and I saw jagged looking cracks spider web across the force field's magical surface.

“Amber, do you think you can help maintain the force field?” Pyre send, shifting to look at me. “We need to keep it running as long as possible.”

I hesitated, glancing over at a small device in the centre of the clump of raiders that seemed to be maintaining the huge shield. “I can try… But I’ve never used tech like this before, I wouldn’t know where to start!”

“It was designed by Stable-Tec,” Pyre stated flatly. “I don’t know the details, but I think it was a prototype to make Stables more immune to Balefire radiation or something?”

My ears perked up a little and I felt myself grin. “Oh! Stable-Tec made it!? Yeah, I can probably keep it running!”

I saw Pyre smirk behind her broken visor. “That’s about what I thought,” She gestured to Mirra who was still huggin my neck. “And keep Mirra safe for me. Things are about to get real deadly.”

“We have war wagons in coming!” A Disciples raider shouted, pointing out at three pegasus pulled wagons that were quickly darting towards our position.

Jinx snarled. “Shoot those wagons down!” Don’t let them get close!”

Teams of raiders whipped around, their weapons aiming towards the encroaching sky wagons. The already booming gunfire turned to a cacophony of gunshots as the Las Pegasus raiders opened fire. I heard pained screams as their bullets ripped through the bodies of two of the pegasi carrying the wagons. The third wagons swerve in the air, the raiders bullets pinging across its side and blowing hundreds of bullet holes into the metal walls. Then the wagon shot above us, a hatch on the bottom opening up and began raining grenades down upon us.

“Grenades!” Razor Blade shouted, his grey horn glowing a crimson red as he wrapped the tumbling grenades in his magic and flung about half of them skyward. I was shocked by Razor Blade's impressive magical prowess. Then again, I suppose he was the second in command for a reason.

A few other unicorn raiders grabbed onto grenades of their own with their magic and tried to throw them back out of the bubble shield, but not all of them were fast enough. Fire flared across my vision as the shield was filled with smoke and shrapnel. I was shoved to the ground as a raiders mangled corpse was sent flying into me. Mirra gave a startled eep as she scrambled to get out from under me.

The burst of grenades bombarded the walls of the shield, another collection of cracks shooting across its glowing surface. I pushed the bleeding corpse of the raider off of me and rushed towards the shield transmitter in the middle of the group, frantically trying to keep it running as it began to whirr and spark. Mirra raced over to help me where she could, a red screwdriver clamped tight in her mouth.

“They’re coming back! Get ready!” Pyre shouted from behind me, her flamer roaring and sending another diving pegasus up in flame. I glanced up, making out the shape of the war wagon once more diving towards us, this time with the large turret mounted on top ready to open fire.

Razor Blade rushed forwards, rushing past the safety of the shield and leaping into the air, his fore hooves flashing out and grappling the diving pegasus pulling the wagon. His hooves slashed at the Enclave troopers neck, ripping apart their throat and causing blood to rain down above us. The massive sky wagon swerved in the air as the pegasus flapped their wings furiously to keep aloft before it began to crash down. Razor Blade snarled, one of his hooves goring into the pegasus’ stomach, ripping through their tough armour before reefing out a long strand of intestines.

“Shit! It’s going to hit us!” A raider howled, staggering back and looking up at the careening sky wagon with wide eyed terror as it slanted dangerously towards our location.

“Amber, get the shield to full power, now!” Pyre shouted, stepping back as an Enclave trooper shot through the magical barrier and tackled her.

I winced, fiddling with the shield transmitters controls. “There isn’t enough power! I need a bigger power source!” If only I still had my pipbuck, that would have done the trick.

Razor Blade leapt from the plummeting sky wagon, landing beside me with a loud thump. He scowled, whipping around to face the sky wagon as it picked up velocity. I wasn’t going to be able to strengthen the shield in time.

Jinx flashed forwards, her huge claws racking through the sky wagon and splitting it in two. The pegasi inside screamed as the massive claws ripped them apart.

Half of the wagon fell away below the edge of the tower, dropping beyond my line of sight. The other continued to shoot towards us, its large metal side smashing into the cracked, flickering shield.

The shield exploded, shards of glowing magic shattered and flashed out, a massive shockwave of energy smashing into us as our cover was completely obliterated. I dove over top of Mirra, protecting her with my body as the Enclaves deadly assault started bearing down on us in full. I felt a blast from an Enclave magical energy rifle graze my side searing off a layer of flesh.

Boom!

The Enclave Raptor above fired a huge beam of light towards Jinx, slashing through the large sphinx’s side and sending her toppling to the rooftop with a scream. Jinx collapsed, dark red blood spilling down her side as she collapsed.

“Damn it! Amber! Get up the fucking sheilds!” Pyre shrieked, her flamer firing at full blast as the pegasi began to close in. Two hellhound raiders fell beside her, their brains blown out by the Enclave’s weaponry. “If that Raptor gets another shot, we’re done for!”

“I need a power source!” I shouted back, rolling off of Mirra and frantically working on the device. An idea popped into my mind. “Pyre! Get over here! I need your armour!”

Pyre backpedaled, another pegasus getting burned alive as her flamer washed over them. “Pack! Cover me!” She shouted, her hooves skidding across the roof as she quickly made her way to me. “Keep the Enclave occupied while we get the shield up.”

A few hellhounds gave howls of understanding, some moving into a protective circle around Pyre while the rest began firing back with greater vigour at the Enclave soldiers.

The second Pyre was within reach of me, I quickly began hooking up her armour to the device. “You wanna explain what you’re doing?” Pyre asked, ducking as a beam of energy flashed over her head.

“Your armour runs off of a standardized fusion core, A high grade, long term balefire battery. It was used by the military and some MWT companies way back when. I encountered some robots that used them as well below the S.P.P. Tower. If I can hook it up to the shield transmitters own drained standardized fusion core, I will be able to-”

“In ponish Amber!” Pyre shot back, her hind hoof bucking out and crushing an Enclave Troopers throat.

“In short, fusion cores are standardized, I should be able to power the shield off of your armour.”

Pyre winced. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

I gave her a grim look. “Yeah, this is probably going to hurt.”

Jinx raised her head from the ground, her face a bloody mat of scars and burns as a group of Enclave ponies continued to barrage her with fire. “Just get it running!” She growled, her teeth snapping out and snaring a pegasus’ wing. Her gaze shifted to the massive Enclave Raptor above. Its huge cannon was beginning to charge up, shifting to face the assembled group of now unprotected raiders. She bared her teeth at it. “Otherwise, those defences you got online aren’t going to do us much good.”

“Good luck mommy,” Mirra grimaced, taking a step back as I hooked the final part of Pyre’s armour up.

Pyre gave her a warm smile. “Since when do I need good luck.”

“One last thing,” I said, my hoof hovering over the power button. “This might ruin your armour, so you’re going to need to get a new one after this.”

Pyre growled. “Just activate it Amber.”

I gulped, my eyes glancing up at the massive cannon on the Raptor that was now downturned to face us, it's barrel glowing a brilliant fuchsia. I hated to do this, but we were out of time. I activated the shield transmitter.

Boom!

The Enclave Raptor fired seconds after the shield burst to life. Fuchsia flame flashed across the surface of the newly powered shield, causing the tower to shake and cracks to form in its magical surface, but the shield held.

Pyre screamed as electricity raced across her armour, her body spasming as she was hit by jolt after jolt of power. I watched in horror as chunks of her armour were melted to her flesh as the energy surged through its metal frame.

“Mom!” Mirra shrieked, rushing forwards to try and comfort her. I quickly grabbed her before she could get to close, bolts of energy lashing out from Pyre’s body and striking at the ground around us.

There was a burst of light and Pyre was shot backwards, dark smoke billowing from her ruined armour. She lay on the ground, moaning and twitching as the last bits of energy flashed through her body.

“The other Raptors are here!” A raider shouted, their eyes wide as the two other Raptors moved into view, cresting the top of the tower and swinging their massive guns down to face us. The first Raptor fired, its huge cannon bursting against our shield and sending even more cracks splintering across its magical surface.

Then the second Raptor fired and the shield was once more blown away, once more leaving us completely defenceless. I felt my eyes shoot wide. There was no getting the shield up again.

There was a loud clunking sound as the Raptors cannons all locked on us, their ends glowing and readying to send the whole top of the tower up in flame.

Boom!

Crimson light burst upwards through one of the attacking Raptors, blowing it apart and sending hunks for steaming, blackened metal raining down upon us. The assailing pegasi whirled around in the air, their mouths agape as they watched yet another of their huge warships get completely decimated.

The raiders and Dashite city guards quickly took advantage of the Enclaves' panic, increasing their fire and forcing their forces back.

More beams of crimson began shooting out across the Las Pegasus strip, some blasts knocking whole squadrons of pegasi out of the air while others marred the sides of the remaining Enclave Raptors. I heard another boom and yells of victory as the Enclave Raptor attacking the floors below was blown apart as well, crashing down toward the Strip and Freeside below.

“The city's defenses are back up!” I heard a few raiders cheer.

“All of them! They’re all back up!” An Operator breathed, their eyes filled with wonder as the whole Strip began to glow with light. The reactor had turned on far more than just the city's defences, the whole of the Strip, and from this height, apparently even Freeside was suddenly bursting to life as glowing neon signs and city street lamps began to buzz.

Hundreds of massive cannons began to boot up below, only adding to the already deadly firepower that was suddenly being thrown the Enclave’s way. More beams of crimson flashed past us, forcing the two remaining Raptors to retreat a bit.

“The Shackles and Flesh Rippers are in the Strip!” Another raider cheered, their assault carbine roaring. “And the Queens Securitrons are here!”

Sure enough I could see teams of raiders and robots sweeping through the streets of the Strip, ripping apart any Enclave ground troops that the Enclave had deployed to assail the smaller casinos.

“They’re retreating!” More raiders cheered, their guns firing off shots at the fleeing Enclave ponies as they did all they could not to get eviscerated by the city's extensive weapons. But the raiders weren’t fighting for their life anymore, this had become sport.

I quickly pushed my way through the cheering crowds of raiders, rushing up to Pyre. Mirra quickly trailed beside me, her eyes fearful as she looked at the steaming pile of scrap metal that encased Pyre’s charred body.

“Oh my goddesses! Pyre? Are you alright?!” I gasped, quickly rushing to pull her out of her power armor. I managed to pull a few plates free, though a lot of her armour had welded to her flesh.

Mirra reefed her helmet off of her, giving Pyre a good, deep breath of air. Pyre gasped as the helmet was pulled off of her, her whole body still shuddering a little. She gave Mirra a somewhat pained, yet still relatively calming smile. “Hey kid. Don’t worry- I’m fine… Just a little dinged up.”

Jinx slinked over to us, a few of her wounds slowly patching back together as her strange magic began to work across her body. “That was a brave move, Pyre Blaze,” The large sphinx cooed, her slitted golden eyes leering down at her. “Consider yourself fully forgiven for your transgression against the Las Pegasus Raiders.”

Pyre growled up at Jinx for a second. “I didn’t come for your forgiveness, Jinx,” She coughed a little, blood trickling down her lips.

Jinx just rolled her eyes. “You are getting it anyway,” She snapped one of her paws, drawing over a group of raiders. “Get Pyre Blaze patched up and find her a new suit of Power Armour. Something more befitting of her rank as leader of the Las Pegasus Pack,” the raider quickly nodded and rushed off, lifting Pyre up and gently carrying her off with them. Mirra hastily fluttered behind them, careful not to let Pyre out of sight. Slowly, Jinx turned her gaze to me. “You have deeply impressed me, Amber Aura. Ready yourself, tomorrow morning we leave for the Institute.”

I gave a small sigh as I stared out across the far stretch of the Las Pegasus Strip. I sat atop the creaking sky dock of Dashite City, staring out at the far reaches of sand and ash beyond the borders of Las Pegasus as the last glints of the cloud shrouded sun set below the distant horizon.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced down at Xayah who had curled up against me. She had fallen asleep a few minutes ago, which was good. We were going to need all the rest we could get for whatever came tomorrow. I on the other hoof was unable to let sleep overtake me. There was too much on my mind.

“There is no sign of Pestilence,” Jinx’s oozing voice spoke up from behind me. I cast a quick glance behind me, making out her large form watching Xayah and I from the shadows. I planted a quick kiss on the top of Xayah’s head before standing up to face the large Sphinx. Jinx was looking a lot better already, her wounds having somehow managed to fully heal. “I've had the Pack sniffing out the dead and through the wreckages. It would seem the traitor made his escape on one of the Raptors.”

I grimaced. "How is Pyre doing?"

Jinx gave a lazy shrug. "Pyre is fine. She is with Mirra now. Asleep. You will be pleased to hear that her armour has undergone a rather extensive improvement," She paused, looking me over before letting her golden eyes shift over to look at Xayah's resting form. “You should sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Then why aren’t you asleep?” I said back, my eyes following her as she near silently stalked up to me, resting her body down on the edge of the sky dock beside us.

“I’m a creature from before Equestria was even called Equestria,” Jinx mocked back, arching an eyebrow and letting her lips twist into a mischievous smirk. “What makes you think something like me needs to sleep?”

I raised my eyebrows a little in surprise at that. “Wait… You’ve been around since before the war?”

Jinx smiled, showing off her jagged teeth. “Long before the war, yes. Not only am I the queen of raiders, I was also the first,” She sighed, seeming almost blissful and euphoric. “Those were the good old days. I used to conquer towns, demanding tribute,” She chuckled, recalling a better time. “Back in those days, if I wanted something to be done, I could just foalnap a prince or princess or something and ponies would bend over to my will.”

I felt myself actually chuckle. "What, like those dragons in old story books and stuff? Did you make ponies answer your riddles three as well?”

Jinx gave me an amused glare. “Of course. Who doesn't love a good riddle. There is always something so very satisfying about playing the villain. It's oh so much easier than playing nice.”

My face darkened. “I suppose the apocalypse made raiding a lot easier for you.”

Jinx gave a strangely sad smile. “It did. I spent the first few years of the apocalypse hiding away in a cave admittedly, but old habits die hard I suppose.”

“You know, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about you before,” I said, sinking down to my haunches to rest beside the sphinx. “I read a lot of history books back in Stable 25. You’d have thought I’d read about a big sphinx going around raiding towns and villages.”

Jinx's sad smile twisted into a reminiscent one. “My reign over Equestria ended long before the princesses rose to power. Mentions of my existence lay only in fairy tales meant to read to foals before bed.”

My brows furrowed. “Why? What happened?”

“A mare named Somnabula,” Jinx cooed. “Chased me from my village. I crossed her a few more times over the years that followed. I would take over a town, she would drive me out. We were rivals to the end, though somewhere along the way we also became…” She hesitated, looking for the right word. “Not friends I suppose, but I had a strange respect for her.”

My eyes widened a little as a memory nagged at the back of my head. “Oh! Somnabula!” I explained, trying to picture the small book of bedtime stories my mom had once read to me before she left the Stable. “I remember that story. She was one of the… uh- Pillars of Equestria, I think…” I smirked up at her. “The casino that you use as a throne room was named after her.”

Jinx gave a smug, toothy smirk. “Guilty as charged. I’m still not sure how I came to respect her like I did, but after she disappeared, I decided to stop raiding for a while. It was a more peaceful time back then.”

“What happened to her?” I asked. I couldn’t remember anything about her disappearing in the old stories.

Jinx looked out at the horizon just in time to see the last of the sunlight fade away and the desert beyond get cast into shadow. “There are hundreds of different stories about what happened to the pillars of Equestria. Some say they all died, others say they left Equestria and became Stars. No pony knows for sure.”

I gave her a nonplus stare. “But You know?” She had to know. Jinx somehow knew everything.

Jinx returned my stare with a cocky look. “Of course I know. A spell the power of which they cast simply doesn't get cast without the ancient beings like myself noticing,” she looked skyward, her piercing eyes seemingly cutting through the cloud layer to look at the stars beyond. “A shadow passed over the Pillars of Equestria and they faded from even my line of sight, but before the end, I saw flashes, glimpses of a darkness. Of a creature older than even I am. A pony of shadows.”

I felt goosebumps rising underneath my hide and my mane stood on end. “I… I think I’ve heard of the Pony of Shadows before…”

For the first time since meeting her, Jinx seemed genuinely surprised. “You… Have heard of the Pony of Shadows?”

I gave a slow and hesitant nod. “I, uh… yeah. In a memory back in the Hollow Shades. Luna had said that… that…” I wracked my brain, trying to remember what I had heard Luna say. “She said Starswirl the Bearded went missing facing the Pony of Shadows. That a Pony named- uh... Stygian... I think... became this pony of Shadows while in the Hollow Shades.”

Jinx gave me an impressed nod. “That is more than most ponies know. Indeed, Stygian became the ponies of Shadows, only to be banished into limbo with the rest of the Pillars of Equestria,” Jinx gave me a crooked smile. “There are many varying tales of the Pony of Shadows. Zebra tribes say it was a monster from beyond the Stars, the hound of the twilight. Others say it was a fragment of Nightmare Moon's soul after she was banished to the moon.”

“What do you believe?” I asked, craning my neck to look up at her. “Do you think it was a part of Nightmare Moon?”

Jinx scoffed. “If a pony tells you that, they're an idiot. The pony of Shadows was banished hundreds of years before Nightmare Moon eclipsed the sun.”

“So a zebra star god then?” I continued to push, my curiosity peaking. Xayah had told me a little about the zebra’s beliefs, but she hadn’t really seemed that zealous of them herself. I didn’t really know what to think.

JInx nickered. “Tell me Amber Aura, are we not ourselves beyond the stars? Equestria is capable of great evils and atrocities all on its own, look no farther than the wasteland to see that. Is it so hard to believe that perhaps some great beasts are not from the great reaches of space, but from deep within the rocky depths of Equus already?”

I just sat in silence for a long time, not fully sure how to respond to that. After a long while, I sighed. “I guess not. Sphinxes, Dragons, bombs capable of wiping out whole cities, why not ancient shadow monsters.”

Jinx smiled. “Precisely,” Her smile faded a little bit and her eyes seemed to tense up around the edges. “Amber, tell me about the Utopia program.”

I gave her a coy look. “I thought you knew all about it? That you saw it in one of your visions?”

Jinx only continued to give a smug looking smile. “My visions are more like strange dreams. Flickers and flashes of things that have not yet come. Sometimes I see what will happen as clear as day, sometimes my visions are more abstract. And sometimes the memories of what I have seen are only fleeting.”

I ruminated on her question for a second, rolling it around in my head. “It’s a big memory orb… er… its six memory orbs that make up one big memory orb actually. The memories of the six ministry mares, from a time before the war, when Equestria wasn’t plagued by war and all this bad. It was supposed to be a way to save Equestria if the war ended like so many ponies feared,” a small chill passed through me. “It was a lie. A program dreamed up by Pureblood and Silver Ace to take complete control over everypony.”

“Silver Ace,” Jinx rolled the word around with her tongue, as if trying to taste it. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

I shrugged. “The pony has been all over the place. He had his hoof in a whole bunch of different ministry projects. He probably has some secrets hidden here in Las Pegasus too,” I paused for a second, thinking something over. “Jinx, if you can see bits of the future… I don’t suppose you have any idea of how all of this will end?”

Jinx cocked an eyebrow at me as she turned her feline eyes to face me. “Is that something you actually want to know? Will what I tell you change anything? Or will you just continue to fight tooth and hoof until the bitter end?”

That gave me pause. “I guess… I guess I just want to know if all the pain and suffering I’ve had to put my friends and I through will even be worth it in the end,” I looked over at Xayah sleeping beside me before I looked back up at the massive sphinx, my eyes a little more pleading this time. “I just want to know if we will get a happy ending when this is all done. I don’t want her to die… For any of them to die...”

Jinx sighed, looking away. “I can’t tell you if you win… but I can tell you what I have seen from your fate… If that's what you really want?”

I bit my lip, mauling the thought over. “I, uh… Sure…”

Jinx gave me a sad look. “Are you sure? You can’t take it back once you hear it,” I just gulped and gave a slow nod. Jinx just continued to look at me sadly. “I see you lost forever in stone,” She finally soothed, her eyes becoming strangely distant. “I see you watching over the world, forever condemned to listen to everything, but never again able to interact with it. I see you suffering great tragedy, but at the very least, you will not be trapped alone.”

I felt a chill pass through me. “I get… turned to stone?” I remembered the story of when the princesses had turned Discord to Stone. Would something like that happen to me? Could that even happen again?

Jinx gave a small shrug. “As I said, my visions are often made from abstractions. Perhaps you will be turned to stone, perhaps being turned to stone means something else entirely. That only time can tell.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. That had not been the answer I had wanted to hear. “Do we win at least?”

Jinx cocked her head a little to the side. “Win what?”

I had to pause to think about that question. “Stopping the Utopia Program?”

Again, Jinx’s eyes closed and a strange melancholy seemed to wash over her. “No. The Utopia Program will launch. This I have seen in my visions repeatedly. In the coming hours, a lot of ponies are going to die.”

“So then it was all for nothing after all,” I said, a small pit of despair slowly eating away at my stomach. “After all of this, we still lose.”

Jinx let her right eye crack open a bit so she could peer down at me. “I’ll ask what I asked before again. Does knowing that change anything? Are you going to simply give up and die, let the wasteland rip itself apart and spend your final moments of freedom wallowing in failure? Or are you going to keep fighting? Even though you know that in the end, you are doomed to fail?”

A deathly silence fell over us as I thought about that. On one hoof, it was suddenly feeling so very alluring to simply give it all up, spend my last twenty four hours care free with the ponies I loved. But on the other…

“You said when we first met that the events of the coming days might play out in hundreds of different ways,” I said, letting those few words resonate into me. “Is that true?”

Jinx smiled and nodded. “Indeed it is.”

I let myself give her a shaky smile. “They I guess I’ll keep fighting. Because if I don’t, then those futures will lose any chance of being better,” I looked down at my hooves, then to Xayah as she slumped against me. “So I might be dying soon. Or turning to stone or whatever the fuck that actually means. But I might still be able to save Xayah still… and Brisk… And the wasteland and…” I paused, looking up at Jinx. I felt my eyes widen a little when I realized the enormous sphinx had simply disappeared into the night. Smug bitch. I let myself trail off and simply snuggled in closer to Xayah’s warm body as I watched the sky change to twilight.

So this was it then. The final stretch and the terrifying calm before the storm. In just a few hours, the Utopia Program was going to launch. For better or worse, tomorrow was going to be a big day for all of us.

“Yeah, I’ll fight till the end,” I told no pony in particular. “I’ll fight because if I don't, then it all really would have been for nothing…” And with those words, I finally let myself fall asleep.

Footnote: Maximum level reached

Author's Note

Fallout: Equestria Belongs to Kkat